When you're offstage, that's the footprint. That's the man God's gonna judge.

I don't care about how I look; I'm dedicated to the laughs. You know, I used to be a clown, so - my name was Smoothie the Clown. All the training I had, all my training is geared toward making people laugh, and I didn't care about being cool.

I was born October 5, 1957, on the South Side of Chicago, in the Woodlawn area, a neighborhood that hasn't changed much in forty-five years. Our house was on 66th and Blackstone, but the city tore it down when the rats took over.

If I can tell someone a story that makes them bend over and laugh, that's bigger than anything else.

I came up in the community center. I used to be physical director of the South Central Community Center in Chicago on 83rd. It's still there. It used to be around there when I was a kid.

I'm so black, I leave fingerprints on coal.

I know doing movies is where I need to be. That's where my audience wants to see me.