All right everybody, welcome to another exciting episode of
Black Geek Energy. I'm here once again with our
good friend. He's from Squid Gays, he's from
Other things and he's. From and he's.
Influencing, influencing your purchases, your taste and
everything else left and right on Instagram and Tiktok and
everywhere else. Mr. Fantastic TJ Stokes Yeah, I
haven't felt. That one, I felt that.
OK, I have been out. I I was actually watching the
last minutes of the Howard game 'cause they're in the.
Oh yeah. Cal.
NCAA. Yes the tournament and I was
watching the last minutes of that where they won so really
basketball E so TJ, tell me who are you rooting for in the NCAA?
They. Have a very short story to tell
about who I'm rooting for. So when I was in college my
sophomore year at Independence Community College, one of the
top junior colleges in the nation for basketball, I was
getting heavily recruited by St. John's.
Heavily, heavily. Like they, they flew out like 5
times to see me and, and so you know, I'm like, I'm going to go
to St. John's, right?
And then this Samoan lady just flips her hair and everything
glitters behind her and everything glitters behind her
and I'm like, holy shit, what is that?
Like? Not even who like what like that
does. That's not real.
And then and then we fell in
love very quickly. And I had to make a choice to
stay in Kansas and stay with the love of my life or go to New
York, go where I'm comfortable and go to a high level
basketball, but have a, you know, a hard life because
comfortable, like being in comfort creates habits and and I
chose to stay in Kansas. I mean, but you still had a very
successful basketball career. Yes, yes, yes, yes, you're
right. But I could have been great, not
just really good, you know? Some will say that you were very
great and you still are very great.
Still doing big days for basketball.
Don't you coach A-Team now? Yeah, my wife's assistant now.
Oh. OK.
Wow. She's she's a head coach and
like, like, you know, playing is one thing, but teaching the game
and having relatability through all ages is not easy.
It is not. OK, so TJ, let's start off
every. Let's start off this week's
episode like it's out of every week's episode.
How's your previous week been? My previous week been, it's,
it's been a lot going on, a lot of maneuvering and planning
because number one, my career is moving a little bit forward,
like step by step. So I, I got to plan some things.
I can't talk about that yet. OK, OK.
But my daughter, she's an anomaly in basketball and and
she's playing in all these crazy tournaments and crazy places,
and we got to plan for that. So it's been a lot of planning.
It's been a lot of planning. OK.
I saw that you were in a short recently.
Is that out now or is? It it's it's actually a full TV
series that got picked up by Amazon.
Yeah, I didn't know I. Didn't see that.
Yeah, yeah, it's called Bird dog and what they did they condense
like 4 episodes into like a movie ish type of feel.
And it was it premiered in El Paso and the people actually
liked it, you know, be I was in those numbers because I've never
played them. It's not before and and I felt
like I did a good job and people thought I did a good job.
And you know, like when you receive praise from your peers,
it matters more than praise from random people.
Yeah. OK.
And can you tell us a little bit about Bird Dog?
Well, I play Mr. Adder. The, you know, there's, there's
always layered villains in these type of shows where you're the.
Villain. I'm the main villain.
Shut the front door. You look like a spider.
I've. Always said wow.
Granddaddy Long Blakes and. But you know, like there's
always layered villains in these type of shows, like, oh, I, I
just found out who I was. No, you haven't because I'm
here. And so and so I'm that guy who
and the gun where I'm the guy who runs the FBI and runs the
replicant program basically unwillingly forcing people to be
clones. OK, OK.
So it's like a sci-fi series. I'm very excited.
I did not know that y'all got picked up by by granddaddy
Amazon so I'm extremely excited. Much congratulations to all your
success. Thank you.
Yeah.
It was just right time, right place.
I was just, I literally was moving into my house and a guy
asked me, hey, you want to be part of a show?
It might get picked up. Well, I don't know.
It might not like, like literally that was his pitch to
me. Yeah, OK.
It might get picked up. And he's like, OK.
CJ, tell me you didn't tell me who you wants to win in the NC
double. A oh St.
John's, Sorry. St.
John's, so there. Is yes, Sir.
Yeah, they're in it, yes. This is not a sports podcast, so
we're just gonna leave it. Right here.
Wait a minute, sports. Sports people are just geeks
about sports. That's a fact.
True, true. Not my religion.
OK, DeMarcus, how has the beginning of your week been
since we last talked? Shoot.
Which was what? Sunday it's been good been
working from home so that's been instead of having to like drive
into drive like that hour commute but yeah yeah rough
right the. Hour.
Yeah, like if, if I can get to work in like an hour, I'm doing
pretty good 'cause sometimes it's like I've been to work
before and it's an hour and a half to get there.
But that's like some shit happens.
But probably it's, I'm enjoying it.
And also it's 'cause like while I was out of town, my tag
expired. So I'm like going through the
process to get my tags, you know, back, right?
I don't know. I'll be getting pulled over.
I'll be getting pulled over a lot in California for some
reason. 'Cause you drive like you in
Atlanta, you can't do that. When they're bumper to bumper,
you can't do that. I don't.
You can't. I do care.
That's about I do care less about traffic laws in California
because I feel like this is not a good place.
So are you trying to move? So I'll be, you know, I'll be am
I trying to move to California? Wherever you said that you don't
think California is a great place.
Oh, I said. I don't think it's like a real
place. Oh.
Yes, yes. So yeah, but yeah, but yeah, so
just stay in the house while I get that straight.
But it's been pretty cool. It's been hot as fuck though,
like. Really.
Yeah, got this new apartment in Hayworth, so I'm like right
South of Oakland. And we were like, we bought it
in like the winter times. We were like, man, it ain't got
no AC. We'll worry about that when the
time come. The time has fucking come.
It was like 92 today. It was like 90.
Damn. And we ain't got no AC.
I'm like, I got all the windows open.
I got like a fan blowing and stuff.
And I'm like, this is not, it's not, it's not doing anything.
Crazy. Yeah, that.
And I don't Yeah, your. Last place didn't have AC right?
No, my life, every every apartment I've stayed in since I
lived moved to California has had AC.
I'm from the South. I don't do that.
No AC OK like I have for. Now.
I have an apartment in Seattle that didn't have AC and I bought
like a portable AC unit. So that's the plan here, 'cause
this, I'm not going to have swamp ass every day sitting at
the house. Alright, my week has been the
same. I started working out, got to
get rid of this belt somehow. What kind of?
Workout walking two miles. I have updates and we're
probably at 2.5 miles now. OK And my friend who's a
personal trainer sent me this workout I'm supposed to do at
home. So I was supposed to do this
whole rounds about 8 times. I only do it like the four
'cause I'm a beginner and I I would be.
That workout to it makes sense. Yes, yes.
I was, I was going to ask if you were doing any like
weightlifting calisthenic type deal cause well that's what it
sounds like. A home workout is like some like
push ups and pull ups. Oh yeah, there are push ups.
It's self weight. OK, you're right, right, push
ups. So, yeah, so 'cause I'm saying
like just walking, it's not going.
It's going to take a long time to get there, man.
I know and I. You're going, you're going to be
good when you're 60 if you keep walking right?
That's a fact. I need this weight drop by this
weekend 'cause. This weekend.
I don't know why y'all are laughing.
I'm not laughing I need this weight drop by this weekend
because I'm going to see my family.
It is my mother's and my aunt's birthday party, so.
Oh wow. I'm going to see them and I
haven't seen them in a while and I'm not ready for their mouths
about my wife and what. I'm looking like moms and
aunties. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. 'Cause growing up it was a whole
gaggle of girls, my mom, my aunts, my cousins, it was just
me and my uncle were the only boys and you see me.
So it was really just him. It was.
Really just. Him.
That's hilarious. Yeah, that's what it.
Great. OK, TJ, now is the time where we
are going to put you on or our listeners on to something that
we have watched playing, seen our experience in recent
history. It is called our Put you On
segment. You remember this, our Put you
on segment is of course sponsored by our good friends
that MoviePass. DeMarcus, can you please tell
them a little bit about MoviePass?
Absolutely. So Movie Pass is a subscription
based service that's all about making movies more accessible
and affordable for the average person.
You start out by ordering, you know, download the Movie Pass
app, making your account, you get your MoviePass card in the
mail. It is a MasterCard used just
like a debit card. And you go from paying $20.25
dollars a movie to paying at, at the, at the very lowest, $10 a
month for at least 2 to 3 movies a month.
And the way that works is they going to give you a certain
number of points depending on like what tier you buy.
And you can use those points to see movies at any theater, not
just AMC, where you got your membership, not just Regal,
where you got your other membership, not just Cineopolis
or wherever you go see your movies.
You can see it at anything. Yeah.
Any and all Dr. Throughs, IMAX, whatever.
Oh yeah, go ahead, take a girl over there to the Starlight,
drive in. That's not like driving that's.
Funny, That's MoviePass, man. DeMarcus, what are you going to
put them on to this week? Have I talked about the shy?
No, no. No.
I started watching the Shy. Yeah, I know I'm like 10 years
late, but it's good as hell. Yeah, yeah.
It's really good. Oh, every episode I'm like,
what? I'm like on the edge of my seat.
It's hard for me to explain what this show is about.
It's about it's it's about black people in Chicago.
One dude has a food truck. His girlfriend is like a
realtor. One dude is like a war vet with
PTSD and drinking problems. And it's like all of their
stories just like their lives. And they start like episode 1 is
like murder. It's like, it's like, I saw
somebody, somebody killed my kid.
I'm going to come, I'm going to kill them.
Dude kills the wrong person. And I'm like, Oh my.
God. I'm like, man, you don't sit
your old ass down. That's crazy.
Yeah, but then you know the the kid that the kid that died
actually had two dads. Second dad comes in and kills
both of the right people because one was a couple.
Oh my God, what? Was it called what was like some
drug dealer person so so. How many?
So how many episodes have you gotten?
I'm on season 2, I just finished episode 8.
Well, you got past me. I do know that.
It's candy on there. Candy Burris.
No, not yet. Candy Harris.
I don't think so. I don't.
I haven't seen that. Person I have been trying to get
Luke James. Who has he on there yet?
Luke James. He was singer 1st and he he
toured with Beyoncé. I've been trying to get him on
this show forever. But now TJ Snooks is here, he
works at Amazon. Luke James has a show that was
on Amazon. Maybe y'all can sync up and TJ
could just drop in this amazing show.
Drop a little bug and crazy. Yeah, you crazy though.
I have been trying to get him on here after them.
Them was so good, but I did make it I think the first season.
I've been telling myself I need to go back and watch it and try
to go back up. It's a good black show.
Black people are on it. Candy's on it.
So yeah. And and I, Lynn, Lynn Whitfield,
I think it's on. It with Phil.
Yeah, I know, I know, I know the side gets like more star-studded
like the longer it goes on, but I've these like first episodes.
I don't really recognize nobody. OK, well, these first two
seasons is is all new actors, but they they good.
Yeah, they doing it. I did remember that they were
all good and I was interested. I don't know why I stopped
watching it. Well, I would like to put y'all
onto this show on Netflix called Culinary Class Wars.
This is the. I've been watching that too.
OK, this is the second season on Netflix.
It is so good, The best cooking show.
And you know, I love cooking shows, but it's better than Top
Chef, next level chef, all the Gordon Ramsay stuff because it
is these Korean high level chefs and versus these Korean mom and
pop chefs, like people who who work at like Michelin star
restaurants and and trade in in Paris versus these these mom and
pop stores who have never left the stall on the street for 75
years. Are you watching season 2?
Yeah, I watched some season 2. OK OK, I started with season 1
when I found the show. And I mean it's the same.
Thing is it OK? But but yeah.
And I love this show because of their.
How many episodes are you? I don't want to spoil now.
Maybe like 3 You can spoil it. I'm still watching.
I'm. Still watching too.
Exactly. I am I love this one because
they don't rush these chefs. They give them hours to complete
this thing. Oh wow, like like like they're
they're culinary because like these chefs always so rush and I
think how they could disqualify because they couldn't finish a
they couldn't finish A4 course meal in an hour.
No, no more time to. I couldn't sue be a steak in 20
minutes to amount. Exactly.
But yeah, I love that the stuff is so like, they give them time
and the judges are hard. They might because there's one
person on Season 2. He made this.
It was you had to use an object and his whole thing was apples.
And he made an apple from apples, like, like he distilled
the apple sugar and made that apple sugar into a coating.
And he put the Kodi rounded apple and did the inside the
apple juice. It was it was intricate.
He did this in an hour. Yeah.
It sounds like it. He made one apple, colored it
with apple stuff including the green and brown stem, and it
just like, oh, this tastes good, but not for my competition.
Oh, it's too simple. Shut up.
They said it was one note. 'Cause it was an apple, it's a
whole meal. They say you're supposed to eat
meals with whole ingredients. It's like it doesn't get much
more whole. Exactly.
They said it's one note like like they were going they say
they share his back story how he tell you about who who he cooked
for these Olympians and they said that's too simple.
You have. To show no be good, right?
Appreciate it. The judges are cutthroat and I
do like, yeah, like 1 episode I watched like this dude who's
like, Oh yeah, I'm, you know, I got my own like Chicken Shack
and we made, it's like the House of chicken and stuff.
We made this like chicken sandwich.
It's like a best seller and they the judges can't and it's like
it's just a chicken sandwich. Hey.
It's like, no, you're out. That sounds like raising canes.
Yeah. OK.
TJ, do you have EJ that you want to put our listeners on to?
Yes, actually last night I went to I was invited to an event
with Crunchyroll and and it was a sneak peek of the next seasons
like the actual season like spring anime and and there was a
few good ones. I made a video about it.
There's the one from the Full Metal Alchemist creator, brand
new one. There's Aunt Re 0 something
something. But there was one that really
caught me off guard. It really surprised me.
It's called Go for It Nakamura. And I'm like, OK.
This is this is like retro, this is like a Sailor Moonish or a a
Inuyasha anime. And it is like, no, it's about a
kid, a gay kid who has a crush on another kid and his, his
creature has no idea who he is. And, and, and I will be 100%
honest, I haven't smiled that hard in a for an enemy in a long
time. Like the, like, the, the way
they capture the innocence of youth, like, you know, like just
overthinking, like not not being yourself to accommodate for
somebody else as a youth and then overthinking.
Not all like I'll be too stupid to to for him to think I'm cool,
but when being you is the one thing that'll land you the
person you want and he realizes it through by by chance,
perchance is like, yeah, I like this.
I'm going to be following this. I'm going to be following this.
And the reason why it like resonated with me so much
because my son is openly gay and you know, and you basically
ain't going to support him and publicly, you know, not just you
know, that's my son. No way.
So he told me about his crush and his crush has no idea who he
is. That's why I was like, yo sin,
we're going to watch this together.
We're. Going to pick up some punters,
learn what to do, what not to do.
I'm a fan. I'm a fan of Go for it,
Nakamura. Like how it sounds is how it's
spelled, Yeah. I just wrote it down.
So, yeah, it's it's a it, it caught me off guard how good it
is. And I it's like funny and and
you know, like when we when we like that person and you know,
it's just you try to get their attention in the unnatural way,
the opposite way that you would do you.
Yeah, like, but then you realize you works the best.
Yeah, like you thinking too hard and like you, it's like I was
like, I'm trying to walk normal and it's like you look weird.
Like in the most literal sense? In the most literal sense.
OK. OK.
Is it like real cringy? Yeah, but but you know, like the
it's the second hand embarrassment was like I did
that too. Yes, and that's I struggle with,
I struggle with slice of life because I'm I'm like, that's me.
I was this person. OK OK, so actors crunchy roll
thing, is it like showing little scenes or?
No, we're showing full episodes. Oh yeah, full like there was
another show is which hat? Which hat else here?
Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it showed the 1st 2 episodes like an hour and 10 minutes
worth. And I'm like, yo, I like this
too. And then it showed another anime
and showed a full episode. I'm like, yo, this is fire.
And I and I went to the last one, but I had to ride the
coattails of somebody else to be invited.
But this one I was invited. OK.
Nice, nice. That sounds interesting.
I want to ask you another question.
Was something else that you just saw?
You saw a movie? I didn't watch the whole thing.
I 'cause I was like, I'm gonna watch this.
I don't like to watch reviews before, but you saw the movie
where a Asian girl wants to be a white girl for prom or
something. How was it?
No was. It as cringy as it sounds.
It is very cringy. But The thing is it, it puts the
humanity in the cringiness, you know, like because it's
understandable as a, a person who's trying to like adapt and
adjust that doesn't know how to adapt and adjust.
You know, us as black, black, us as black men, we have to adapt
and adjust. Her as a Chinese immigrant has
to adapt and adjust. So when when you know like the
parents are always wrong until you hear from an outside source
as a child and that movie The outsides.
I like if if if that technology existed today like I I you do
you mind me spoiling It says I can't.
I can't not tell about it. Called the spoiler because I
opened the box. Got to got to deal with Pandora
when it comes out. So the technology is actually
turning people into white people like ethnic people like
literally like not like not like oh, like the sizes.
No, they are white now. Like they change their eye
color, like organically, they, they put, they take out their
hair like they scalp and put like like white people here.
And it's only ethnic people going from the the ethnic side
to the white side. Only.
It isn't like, oh, we'll switch you to black from white or, you
know, no, you got to go black from white or Spanish from to
white or, you know, like, and, and these people be like, I
literally had to think about y'all.
It was like the dude said. I remember when I was Spanish,
man, I had such a hard time. Now that I'm white, you get
whatever I want. I'm like, and I was probably the
only black person at the end. I was like, you suck of a bitch.
Yeah, yeah. It was like that.
My jaw was like oh shit. But I think that no, you can go
ahead. Go ahead, TJ.
But but like when she turned white, now it's how do I get
accepted? Do I leave?
Do I leave behind the people that bit that rock with me
forever? Or do I do I go with the new,
the white people and, you know, blend in with them?
But there's a big twist I'm not going that I'm not going to
spoil. OK, what is this called?
Twist Slanted. Slanted.
Now that just remind me of this TikTok I saw a couple of months
ago where this guy, this black guy was on this college campus
and he was asking white people and black people specifically if
they could be any other race, what would they choose?
All of the Asian, no black people and Asian people and all
the Asian people said, oh, I'll be white, I'm going to be white.
All the black people said, why would I leave this lit behind
race? I'm not, I'm not changing.
Why would I change? I was born into greatness.
I'm the I'm the best export that America has right now.
You God damn right. I think that's something that
black people talk like, even that's my bad, Jared.
No, you can go ahead. That's not, I feel like that's
something that black people are taught like as kids.
It's just like, Nah, Like I feel like I knew some kids who had
that phase. It's like, oh, I want to be
white phase. And it's like, Nah, you won't be
black, stay black. Yeah, yeah, there was there was
one line in that movie that really, like stood out with me.
Like, it really like hit me in my chest.
And it's the only one line, the father, when the girl turned
white, right. And she's like a legit white
girl speaking from the Chinese, like Mandarin.
And he's like you every time I look at your face.
I seen your grandmother now I don't know who you are and I
don't know our legacy anymore. Wow, that's like oofs, but
those, I feel like that's the kind of effects that you got to
expect when you go through that sort of thing, yeah.
It's like, I'm like, that's shit.
That's shit. Wow.
It's like. Yeah, that's hard.
OK, well, yeah, that's what we're going to put you on to
this week. Now let's get to the crux of the
conversation. The conversation I know that me
and TJ are going to like we are going to talk about.
Yeah, yeah, I. Guess that we could talk about
iPhones too, because that is a Boo Boo.
That is a the marks is found. I just want to ask you, TJ, have
you upgraded to the 26th? Mine is on the way, yeah.
So being a Samsung ambassador, I have to wait until the like the
tail end of the promos and they just give it to us for free.
That's great. To make to make sure people who
actually purchased it get it first, You know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I did go into Verizon. I got mine.
Yeah. I I was bad I couldn't get the
pink gold version, the pink dust or whatever they called it, but
I did get mine. I am loving it so far.
You're going to see it and you're going to open it and the
display is guys going to hit you.
It is so great, but what I want to talk about first, it's what
don't we like about Samsung? What are some of the flaws that
Samsung? Has OK and again, I have, I hold
no bias towards Samsung, just that I hold no bias towards
iPhone, you know, like I'm, I'm gonna let it, I'm gonna let it
fly. And so the, the flaws with
Samsung, they try to add too many things at once.
And so with, with the steady roll out of phones, they try to
outdo the previous year with sacrificing something that was
loved the the year before. And and for example, perfect
example, like the S Pen, right? It had it had Bluetooth,
Bluetooth capabilities and for the last two generations it has
it. And so, you know, like people
love. I love taking pictures of my
pen. Yeah, you you're going to have
to display what the S Pen could do to DeMarcus.
He doesn't. Yeah, I was like, I was, I was
going to ask, what's an S? Pen, the S Pen is this right
here. It comes with the phone is
installed. You can write on the screen
freely. Say, say you have a note like
something real fast you got to capture and you don't have time
to write it. I mean like type it.
You just write it down like real fast and then save it and then
like nothing happened. And then you can control like
say like you have a tablet or a Google like the Google
Chromebook. You can control the pen like
from your phone directly to the laptop or tablet and it it goes
back vice versa seamlessly. OK, yeah, it's pretty cool.
So the pen can go between the tablet and the phone.
Yeah, and tablet, phone and laptop, yeah.
Now, what it used to do with the Samsung Galaxy S24IS, you could
take the pin and you could go far away and you could just do
your pose. And you know how I usually say a
word like, I usually say shoot when I press, when I do my like,
You've seen that, DeMarcus. I've seen you do that, yes.
You can click the pin and it takes the picture or it starts
the video or it does something else.
Also, you could swipe the pit a certain way and it would go back
or or like you could be listening to a song and it could
go to the next song or go to the previous song by the way you
swiped it. And it had a whole bunch of
other functions that I just never used because I, I mean, I
the phone was right there. My phone's not going to be that
far from me. But it had all these functions
that you could use that they took it out with the S 25.
So yeah, that was that was a big one that.
Was yeah, the the, the, the trying to outdo themselves,
sometimes shoot themselves in the foot?
Got you. Got you.
OK, OK. That that's one glaring negative
like, and I'd say the inconsistencies with the
batteries is, is like is 8020 inconsistency, you know, like is
80% not going to happen, But that's 20% still lingers.
You know what I mean? Because the phone is, is huge.
So the phone being large, you may get a defective thing.
You know, like there was that TikTok that guy asked what do
you do? When, who where do you go when
you service your phone like Samsung and you just send it to
Samsung? They they send you a new one
real quick. Yeah.
And like real quick, real quick. Like, like literally, I
remember, I remember I sent my phone at six PMI got my phone at
7:00 AM the next day. Yeah.
Shut up. OK.
So like if there's any issue with your phone, they all
basically like lifetime warranty type deal, Yeah.
There's a three-year warranty with the phone and then however
long you go with the service providers insurance.
Got you, got you. OK.
And you and they'll send out a replacement real quick as
opposed to like fixing something to just give you.
You know, uh oh. Camera What happened here?
I don't know what happened, but let's continue the conversation.
DeMarcus, is there anything that you don't like about your
iPhone? There are things I don't, there
are like things I don't like about the iPhone all the time.
There's like, I think like the big instant thing for me is that
it is, it is so locked down as it can only like interface with
like other Apple devices. And I can now see my, my friends
got Samsung phones. They'll be like, Oh yeah, I can
use this with like my compute, my PC and I can like hook it up
to my game and I can like do this.
And I'm like, God damn, I was like, if I don't have another
Apple device, I only have this iPhone.
Yeah. Yeah, the the IT being locked,
yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And Oh yeah. The other thing I was going to
say is like not similar to, I guess the opposite of the
spectrum for Samsung does iPhone I feel like does not try to
outdo themselves every year. I feel like they've they've
locked their fan base in like their users end so much because
you can't. If I switch to Samsung now, I
can't transfer my data to A to a Samsung phone.
I got to start from scratch. Yes you can.
I can now. Yeah, you could.
You could. With the 8 with Samsung smart
switch you could always do that. And, and, and they, they
improved on that tremendously. You have actually.
OK, fair enough. Fair enough.
I didn't know that including the settings.
I remember I remember being super excited about the iPhone
X, the iPhone 10. I was like, oh, I think I had
like a iPhone 6 Plus at the time.
So I was like, this is going to be a big upgrade.
I'm moving up like 4 phone generations.
Like everything's going to be so different.
It's going to be so great. And I was like, and once I got I
was like, this is the same fucking phone.
I was like, they were like, maybe they've changed.
They definitely changed stuff under the hood to make it like
faster, smoother, better battery life or whatever.
But essentially this is the exact same phone that I just
had. Yeah.
And it and I was just like, and after that I was like, you know
what, I'm never buying the newest phone again.
So now I have the 13 and I bought this one.
I want to say when the 15 came out.
Yeah, wow, you did that two years ago.
I would have to say along with TJ, my big is failure on the
Samsung that I do not like is how they, you know, discontinue
their own products. Like Samsung used to have cases
that were like wallet cases and they when they close, they would
like light up. They had an LED screen and they
would light up and you could customize that LED screen.
If your mom called and the screen was closed, you could
say, oh, this is my mom. Let me pick up.
But then if your phone vibrated into Elliot screen did another
little OK, the LED screen did another little Jingle.
You could be like oh, Dash is Instagram, I'm not going to be
bothered with it. I loved those cases every time
like like I got tons of compliments on on just my case
before I even open my phone. I got tons of compliments on
just the case alone. It was a Samsung case.
They don't even make those cases anymore.
Why did they stop this to you those cases and now they don't
even have wallet phones for the S 26.
So I'm just I'm, I'm that I have to go outside the Samsung
ecosphere to to get me a case. Why?
So yeah, that was my biggest complaint with the phone.
That's a good agreed actually. I like those cases cases.
Yes. Alright, TJ, we're going to flip
it. What is the number one thing
that you will say to a person like DeMarcus who is in his own
ecosphere? What would you say to him to
influence him to come over to your dark side?
What is the number one thing that you love about Samsung?
Phones definitely the accessibility of what you can do
all around so it it it it varies right.
So fun like this, say if you get the full 7 right now, you can
make your full 7 into a Nintendo DX, right?
Without slowing down the phone, without doing anything, without
hurting the phone. You can play Pokémon, Pokémon
Fire Red on your phone, right? Folding right.
Or you can say there's a movie on your phone, right, But you
have to buy it on the TV, right, Because you man, this ain't
this, this ain't my account. This ain't my Netflix account.
I don't know. I feel like having Netflix say
you can stream it from from your phone in the same quality that's
showing in your phone to the to the TV screen.
But it doesn't have to be a specific TV.
You know, like iPhone, it has to be like a Roku or, you know,
like a. Like an Apple TV something type
deal. Yeah, something, something.
Connected with the iPhone? No, it can be any TV, any TV and
then say the Samsung products, the accessories, right?
I have the buds. I have the buds and it could
hook up to iPhone but you try the opposite way.
Yeah, you are locked out. Yeah.
Like DeMarcus, what would you say to us to make us kind of see
what you're talking about and try to convert over to I?
Thought that's a good question man.
And had you like talk to me when I had that 6 plus, I would have
had answers for you. So and I'm, I'm one of those
iPhone users who's like, you know, I've like I've like woken
up, but I haven't left the matrix.
But I know it's a machine. I know it's a simulation.
I'm just like, you know what I'm I'm already here.
I've already built the life here.
I got a wife, two kids. Wow.
But I, what I, what I will say about my iPhone is, is that it
works like I, like, there's a lot of stick and, you know, I'm,
I'm gonna explain what I mean. I'm gonna explain what I mean.
Like there's a lot of things that I've heard from like
Samsung users that I've never had to deal with like I've heard
folks will be like, oh, like my Samsung like crashed like it's I
was doing some shit with it and now I can't use it at all no
more. You know, like oh, like you know
the battery stuff that y'all was talking about.
I've heard that before like like sometimes the phone die real
fast and yes, you Samsung will see your replacement
immediately. But with iPhone it's like I
don't have to worry about none of that.
Until they decided to release a new phone.
Once they decided to release a new phone, you fucked.
But if your phone is 5 generations old, you fucked.
But before that, like cream cheese on a bagel.
You know, but when people say that right when a phone crash
Samsung, they allow you to do almost whatever you want as APC
it is not locked. So you know, it's up to the the
responsibility of the user not to go on a on a sites download
stuff. Yeah, And I and I and I agree
with you. I agree with you.
Like that's the user error and I think iPhone has like made it so
that that user error cannot happen.
I can go to whatever site I want to and like my phone will still
will still work. Agree.
Well, one of the things that I
like about it is the customization.
Like I just about new settings today where you can have your
volume keys when you press it, it like lights up and it's like
a shimmery. Yes, it's like a shimmery
exactly yes, it's like a shimmery and then you click it
and it is all of my sound. So I in any app that I have
open, I can control the style for that specific app.
Like if, if Instagram is too loud, I can turn Instagram down
to keep my system notifications up.
So I love that. And then on top of that Samsung
hit release. Good luck.
Which is I could even explain the wonders of.
Good luck. Good.
Luck. Let's you customize it.
Good luck makes you customize it to the 100th power.
Does you customize the theme? I cause sounds how your
notification bar works. All of good stuff.
But besides the customization that you get are in the system
settings. Good luck makes you do like
magic on your phone and. It's not third party.
It's it's from Samsung.
Like it's crazy what you could do with good luck.
Like I have my my icons and every day then I can swipe over
and up and turn my flashlight on and then I could do it on the
other side and do a screenshot. Like it's crazy the type of
stuff I could do with good. Like it's like another form of
accessibility if I need it. And look, look, I I made my my
keyboard into Saint Patrick's Day.
Oh, OK, OK, OK. And I and I did it on.
I did it within like 30 seconds. Yeah, on the fly just now.
Like, yeah. Yeah, OK, OK, alright.
But yeah, good luck's amazing it it levels up your phones that
you can customize it today. It really does.
Twenty 20th degree. Let me ask you this, TJ.
Do you have ads on your phone? Not the ones that are the only
ones that I opted into the you can.
Do the the privacy customization.
No, no. So I, I opted, I opted into one
the Samsung store just to know that the the deals, that's it.
Let let me show you what you do right now.
Go on there. Go to security and privacy.
No, no, no, no, no. Go to connections, then go to
privacy. I think Oh no, do I know how to
mobile networks? Privacy.
OK, I got it. I don't know where to go.
The search connection settings. OK, all right, go to, go to
connections, then more connection settings.
OK. Oh wow.
Yeah. All right, then go to private
DNS. Yep, it's going to say private
DNS provider host name and I want you to enter this in.
You ready? Ready.
DNSDNS dot adguard ADGUARD dot com yeah.
I just want to do a tutorial right now doing the show press.
Save. Press save.
I press save. Yeah, now you have no ads.
Like, go to Reddit, go to the Reddit web page, no ads.
Will you play games on your phones?
No ads at all when you are scrolling on the Internet?
No ads. If there's even a pop up on some
site to say you have an ad blocker on, Yeah.
Continue with the site. No ads.
Now it may. Right, that's crazy.
Now it may not work the the games.
If your game requires ads it may not work.
And I if you know it may not work all the time.
Like you may see a pop up somewhere, but for all intents
and purposes no ads. No, you're right, it had the the
little pixelated thing. Exactly.
See, that's the power of Samsung that I love, that I love.
Like you could do things like that on top of the fucks read
that the Samsung browser gives you where all of this ad blocker
technology but no ads period for your whole phone is crazy.
Even on websites is wild. Is wild, yeah.
No, even in apps is wild. Yeah, even in apps is wild too.
And I I would say one thing. Another thing is that the
accessories like I have the watch 8 classic with the Galaxy
ring and so I did a video on that a few weeks ago.
What it does, it tracks your body heat, basically your, your,
your blood circulation, your heart rhythm.
And it gives you it, it has you track it like in the most
literal sense. And it it puts it in ways that
you understand it. And so when you wear the ring
and the watch while you sleep, it like gives you like a deep
dive like your, your, your stats.
And it's like you should, you should put a fan on on low in
the room to mend stuff, to like to lower your temperature at
night like you. Yeah, you should you.
It seems like you sleep at this angle.
Maybe if you turn your angle a little bit more to the right,
you'll stop snoring. You know, like it does all that.
I've heard about those rings like how are they Like what else
do they do and are they uncomfortable to wear?
No, no, me and have extraordinarily big hands.
So they, they have my size. I wear a ring size 14 and it,
the battery life is like 5 days. And so when, when you wear it,
it like it gives you like when you, when it says like you're
high stressed or your heart rate is higher than you know the
target is, it'll like, it'll send a subtle vibration like
just to remind you, hey, hey, take a breath, calm down or stop
whatever you're doing for a second.
And if you say you have to watch with it, it'll tell you your
ring is trying to give you a notification.
And it'll, it'll be like, but you have to set the parameters,
you know, like, if you don't want your heart rate going over
120, you know, it'll like set it to 120 Max.
And then it'll vibrate with your watch like, Hey, are you
stressed? Try these exercises then, it's
pretty cool. That's another reason like
Samsung accessories too, because Samsung gives me free
accessories every time I buy a new phone.
If I get it from the Samsung website, they say, oh, here's a
$300 credit, buy, buy, buy, whatever.
It doesn't have to be Samsung accessory.
The phone. That's what I always use.
But it has to be like anything from Samsung.
So I could purchase ATV if I wanted to.
But I do have this watch. I have Galaxy Buds thanks to the
Samsung credits and I got all those cases, those $60.00 LED
cases for free because of the Samsung credit.
The only time I didn't get that self some credit when I got
something was this time it was only because Verizon was paying
off my old phone. It was like $500 still on there,
but Samsung gave me accessories for free child.
I'm not gonna, I'm definitely not going to.
I'm I'm not going to pass that up.
DeMarcus, you can sign it. Because I don't have a Samsung.
So like these things, like this ad protection thing, like I
found every has like the privacy features where you just like,
oh, don't track me around the Internet and stuff.
And that was like, that was like a new thing.
And I was like, oh, that's cool, you know, don't track me, I
guess, bro, don't sell my information.
And then where we like there's an Apple Watch.
I don't have it. Like this is hard because I'm
not the hardest Apple user. I do have two MacBook computers
and so AirDrop is sweet. But I feel like all phones can
AirDrop now, right? Yeah.
So I'm always, but what I will say is I'm always impressed with
like the iPhone camera. I feel like the iPhone and, and
maybe this goes back and forth between the phone companies, but
I feel like the newest iPhone like camera wise is always
better than like whatever Samsung has out on the market at
the moment. Could be a personal opinion,
could be a personal. I don't I don't know the specs.
I'll, I'll, I'll raise you OK. And you're comparing the iPhone
17 with the last generation because, well, but the last
generation of the Samsung, you know, S 25, that's the only
thing you had compared to for almost a year.
And so with with iPhone, iPhone, I think what they did good with
the cameras is that they compacted all that into, you
know, the smaller phone, not the not a small phone, but a smaller
phone. And one thing that I say with
Samsung, when you have it on pro mode, it changes the game.
It really promo is basically like if you have a actual camera
on settings, the same settings on the Samsung and you can make
stuff you can make a drive look like a cinematic movie if you
toggle the right settings off and on or or how much or you
know, like it's a lot of the like.
For example, the unpacked, the announcing the S 26.
It was shot entirely on an S26. Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't like
it wasn't cameras. People thought people thought it
was cameras like actual like like shoulder cameras, not it
was just a rig and an S 26. Yeah, and I'll and I'll match
you on that because iPhone has been doing that for a minute.
Like they've been making like shorts and movies and stuff like
that, like all shot on iPhone like so you know.
I think that's that's an editing we were talking about.
They did their Samsung of it live shot on the Samsung.
Is that is it? Is that what you're saying?
Yes. OK, OK.
And it was like live streamed from a Samsung phone.
OK, OK. Yeah, I mean, that's that's the
and it lets me. I don't know, you know, I don't
know. I don't know if iPhone is doing
that. I don't know if iPhone is doing
that. But I'm I'm fuck with the camera
and then and I guess this is like the other side of the I'll
say it. Go ahead.
No. Oh.
Go ahead. CJ So the the one thing I think
that a lot of people looks over talking about again
accessibility. So say, you know, you have you
want to to your phone just for storage or something, right,
Right. And you know, like them 8K
videos and 4K videos is big. The cinematic videos are big.
Like they they're not, they're not little in size.
They're they're a lot of gigabytes.
Yeah. So with Samsung S26 is the first
phone that you can save directly to a hard drive with the wire
with the correct wire like directly, not like put it on a
computer and then put it in the cloud.
Right, right, right. It saves directly on the hard
drive and it you can move your phone entirely to a hard drive
if you want to clear out your phone now.
I know that iPhones can do that now, but we've been doing that
since. What, like like the hard drive?
Yeah. Like a like literally like a
second hard drive, like a external.
Oh, I guess the iPhone wasn't doing that 'cause you, you could
just like back up everything to your Mac and like that's been
like, we've had automatic backups for like a long time and
so and that's you have to. Use the cloud and then you have
to start paying for the cloud. No, Well, no, I've never had to
pay for the cloud. I mean, I'm sure if like you
have like, you know, all the gigabytes, like 256 gigs worth
of data, then like, yeah, they don't want to look like what, a
dollar a month or some shit. But yeah, like I've I've always
had an iPhone cloud backups and that's always been like what
saved me until we can like phone to phone transfers.
Gotcha, Gotcha. Like I have, I paid $20.00 a
month on my Google Drive. Yeah.
And that's for two terabyte And there's just because it's shared
within the family though, Right, Right, right.
Yeah. And I have used my Google Drive
and I just started paying for it this year, the 299 version
because I have been backing up my photos for free since the S3
I have been backing up it does everything, photos, screenshots,
movies, every image and document on my file plus all the images
and documents on my computer including Word stuff.
So I have finally started paying for for my cloud backup because
I have so much stuff in my cloud.
It's crazy. But you.
Can also you can also like clean out your files every now.
And I know I need to do. That you know, spring cleaning,
when you clean your house, clean your computer.
I have so many duplicates, but another thing, I don't use
expert RAW and that's what TJ was talking about because I
don't know nothing about those saturation, contrast, whatever.
Just give me the basic, do the AI stuff with my photos and I
don't care. But expert RAW, when you
understand how to do all the toggling, it really does look
like professional quality, quality grade.
Olson Mills portraits and and pictures and videos.
So yeah, I like, I, I don't think that there's a thing like
that for the iPhone as of yet. No, I don't think so.
Like you can drop stuff direct. Like I said, if you, if you're
working with a Mac, you can do it all because I drop shit
directly onto my Mac all the time.
And like what I have learned to appreciate on iPhones is like if
you're using an app or something on the iPhone, it'll
automatically just opened up on your computer.
Like you like, the icon will pop up and then be like, oh, you can
just like you can very easily switch it to your computer.
So like, I'll be like, on like one of my things, Like, I don't
like to buy shit on my phone. Like if I'm going to buy
something, I want to like, get on my computer and buy it.
Absolutely. Because I'm an old man.
So. But if I'm like on Amazon on my
phone or like, on like a shopping website on my phone,
the that same icon will come up on my computer and I can just
like, all right, cool, I'm done browsing.
Click, click this thing on my computer.
Wow. There it is, Like a seamless
transition. Yeah.
I will say that Sam's that Apple did do that first and Samsung
did have their link to Windows where we can copy and paste from
our phone, where we can open apps on our phone.
But we can open our phone on our computer where we can do a whole
bunch of stuff with our phone and computer, including send
files. And you know, Google just showed
Apple that they can get into the iCloud and send phones to iCloud
as well last year. So who knows where they're going
with that. OK, TJ.
Look at this shot in the iPhone. I mean my phone.
Oh, that is pretty. That is pretty good.
Even even through a camera, that's that's pretty high.
Fucking wow. Yeah, even through a camera.
Alright, TJ, we're going to ask for final words, but we are
pretty much completed the that very interesting SEC that I'm
now going to ask you 17 more questions.
It's your second time. Really specific.
That is 17 more questions because this is your second time
on the podcast. We still want to know some more
about you. These may be a little bit more
personal, so I hope that. You.
I'm with it. I'm with it.
All right, TJ, let's go. 70 questions.
Here we go. TJ out of all the roles you
played, including the Squid Games, what's your favorite 1 so
far? Uncle Glenn from Valentine's Day
is a movie on Peacock that I did and just unhinged because this
is like like the like the director let me.
We did 5 takes of me just going off and she kept the one, she
kept the one that stood out the most and I, I, I had a lot of
fun with that. OK, OK.
TJ, who is the gayest movie villain?
No, the gayest Disney. Disney villain?
OK, Disney movie villain? That's a little broad.
Who's the game, Disney Villain? You know what I was going to
say? If you said just movie villain,
I was going to say Joker. Oh OK, well he is a Disney
villain now so. Oh shit, he is.
No, he's not. He's, he's still.
No, no, no, no, no, he's not. He's not still the brothers,
right? Oh, no.
Yeah. He still won her.
Brothers. OK, OK, OK, OK, But the the
Disney villain probably Prince Charming.
He's a villain. Prince Charming from.
From. Shrek.
I'm thinking Prince Charming from like Snow White.
OK. That guy from technically they
were Disney first, but then they went, you know, they went on
their own, but I'm going to tell them as Disney.
But yeah, so definitely Prince Charming.
But like traditional Disney, I would probably say what's the
the mom from Tangled? The I know you're talking.
About you know what I'm talking about?
The mom from the mom from Tangled.
Yes, jealous, vindictive and hardcore lesbian.
OK. OK, what is your preference?
Horror movies or thrillers? Thrillers.
OK, what's harder? Making people laugh or making
people uncomfortable. Making people laugh.
Definitely. Definitely you could do you do
the smoothest thing and make people and make people
uncomfortable. What would you choose, a
werewolf or a vampire? Werewolf.
OK, and and can I ask why? Because you can walk around in a
day, it's just the full moon you got to worry about.
OK. OK.
What is the best acting performance that you saw last
year? Oh, last shit.
Damn, that's a good one. Probably.
What, the last year? OK, when I showed my kids
Malcolm X with Denzel Washington for the first time.
Oh. How they like it.
My, my son was in shambles. My daughter was like, there's no
way that like he went through all that, right?
And yeah. Yeah, Mom was good boy.
The dog. That's horror movie of the.
Year hey I still didn't see that you got.
To see it alright if you could drop it to any show as a
character. What show are you picking?
Like a show show like ATV show. Yeah, it could be ATV show, a
cartoon, whatever. I would say I would want to be a
character. I don't know what character, but
I would want to be in the world in Full Metal Alchemist.
Oh yeah, that's I would want to be.
Dangerous. Where to live in?
I know, but I I think I'll, I'll thrive.
OK, OK. What retro TV shows are you
letting your kids watch now? Silver Hawks.
Oh. Yeah, Alf.
OK. OK.
And family matters. OK, alright, yeah, OK.
I love not Laura a Myrtle Urkel. I love her all right.
What's a stereotype in acting that you are tired of seeing?
That you have to, you have to go to every school and every class
to be a great actor. Like you don't have to do that.
I feel, I feel that. I feel that you Speaking of
greatness, come here, Sir. Say hi, say.
Hi, hi, hi, son. You're on Black Geek Energy.
But what was it? I'm sorry, what was the
question? What is a stereotype that you're
tired of seeing? That, yeah, that you have to go
to every class and everything to be a good actor.
Because if you're if you're put in situations where you have to
act every day and you have to do things to move forward and not
be you, that's acting. Yeah, that's acting.
So like when I was playing with the Harm and Wizards, I was
tomahawk. I act, I acted every night and
that was my class. OK, so piggybacking off of that,
what do you prefer, improv or scripted?
Improv, I feel improv, you get the piece of the person you
know. You get genuine with scripted
that they have to learn and then adapt and then make it their
own. This is like extra steps to be
you. Yeah.
So I feel like improv, like you give them a guideline and they
just have at it. Nice nice.
What movie do you think is overrated?
But people aren't ready for that convo.
Dune thank you. Do you hear how fast I said
that? Right.
Yeah, have you have you seen all the Dune movies?
I've I've seen them, they as good as they are, they're not as
good as it is advertised, Yeah. Yes, I.
Haven't I haven't made it through the 1st.
One it. No, go ahead.
They are. They are slow movies.
That's all I was gonna say. They are slow movies like and
you, I am a slow movie person. You have to like slow stuff.
Yeah, if Alias come to Earth, what's 1 movie that proves
humans can survive? Sheesh, I was.
I'll just stick with Mars Attacks.
Mars attacks prove how idiotic humans are and how smart we are
at the same time. OK, OK, OK.
Because. The aliens winning that right?
But they get along with a certain few and then be like
wait, cool. I love Mars attacks.
I would walk around my house like the aliens, like that one
lady alien did all day long when I was little.
I would just practice walking like her.
What character that you didn't play do you feel like you could
have done better? Luke Cage.
OK, now. Wait a minute now I'll.
Say that with my full chest. I love what's his name from
evil. I love him.
Yeah, Mike Fulton. Yes.
But The thing is, you know, like you couldn't when you OK, what a
man is it from where his his character is, but he only again
scripted. And you have to learn, you know,
like instead of a person being from New York and, and, and
understanding the importance of what it means to have a black
superhero from New York represent a section of the
superhero world. That's that's not that's
underrepresented. Yeah, so it was the he did have
the New Yorkness. He wasn't New York enough.
Literally. Literally when he did that dab I
was like yo get. It off my TV.
So get it off my TV. Do you think he's going to come
back in Daredevil? You already know Jessica's in
it. I think and it comes out in 2
days. I I think he is and I hope that
they give him more of a dynamic script.
Yeah, I I saw him as loose cage and I was in at first I was a
little cringy. I had to get into it.
I would look, I was like. I I honestly think the villains
carry that show but. They.
Carry heavy. Yeah, everything.
In Disney, the villains. Without a villain, Disney would
be nothing. Let's see.
Speaking of villains, what's your favorite villain
performance of all time? I think, hold on.
Let me 'cause I want to say his name correctly.
Hold on. Yeah, You gonna be like, Oh
yeah. I can't wait to hear this.
OK, I got it, pulled it up, pulled it up.
Hold on. OK.
No, I need, I need pictures. I need pictures.
Pictures. Hold on.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
No, it's OK. OK, he he was, he was funds
Landa and Inglourious Basterds. OK.
Oh, Christopher Waltz. Christopher Waltz.
I'm sorry. All right.
And you know, like when when a villain is truly scary is when
they make you smile. And he did that right before he
murked anybody. He made them comfortable.
He made them feel at ease. And then you know what though?
I know this and I know this and I know this and I know this.
Yeah, he usually plays a good Dylan and all this stuff, and
then what's he in Django and stuff?
Yep. OK, what's it?
Yeah, the main blue slee master. Yeah, sorry, sorry.
Oh, it's OK. I'll say it's it's OK.
What's an upcoming movie or TV show that is on your must watch
list? Paradise for ATV show on Hulu.
Yeah, I'm OK now. Yes, I haven't watched the
second season yet. That's I've been wanting to
watch that for a while and movie besides the obvious like
Doomsday and all that stuff. I'm, I'm really like, I'm really
looking forward to the Mario movie.
The Mario Movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because because I want to see if they do like a Smash Brothers.
Now I would go see his Smash Brothers in theaters.
I'm not watching no Mario in the.
Movie. Yeah, it's a.
Whole bunch of children. Child No.
Like you. OK, So you know, when you have
kids, you know, you make an excuse, you know, see it, but I
want to see it. Yeah, I I was, I was excited for
the first Mario movie too, so I get yeah.
Childish Gambino as Yoshi raises my eyebrow a little bit.
Why come he couldn't have a real Rd. as a human being?
Yo-yo, who do you like excellence back?
Yeah. Yeah.
You. You see him?
Yoshi Yoshi's tan skin is green when he's tan.
You. You.
All green characters are black. What's done?
OK, what is a line from a movie that lives rent free in your
head? OK, I'm going to say it.
OK, tell me. OK, so a girl in Liar.
Liar, the girl says like you would.
Oh man, you were so good, he says.
I've had better. One of the classics by Jim
Carrey I love. You but, but for the people who
don't know that don't know the context of it, he can't lie.
Yeah. So he said I've had better.
And then he woke up like every day, the whole day he was just
laughing at himself saying I've had better.
Like what? I said Jim.
Carrey is a legend. He is a legend.
I hope he lives forever. And you know, I still need to
see Sonic. Sonic.
Movies are good. They're.
Actually really good, that's what.
Everybody tells me OK but I have been binging one piece and
that's my. Life.
OK, I get it. I understand that.
I actually understand. What's something fans think
about acting that is completely wrong?
That is easy. That is that that because you
have talent, you can get any role.
And I tell I literally tell everybody who wants to get into
acting like, oh, people ask how do I get into acting?
How do I get into this? Like, you know, not going to
told no 137 times We got before I got my first yes.
Yeah. That is a number that will be
etched in my brain. 137 knows before I got my first yes.
Yeah. And when, when people when
people make it seem like it's easy.
Come here, daughter. Another great one.
Hi. Hi.
Congratulations on basketball. Congratulations.
On basketball. Oh, thank you.
You're welcome, Aw. It's a family show, guy.
But when you when you put yourself out there, the things
you OK, the things you have to do is is going to suck you leave
it too. All right, Love you.
Kid bye, son, bye. You said bye.
The things you have to do to put yourself out there, you know is
is going to be hard. You have to.
I did background work, me doing background work as as it's my
height and it sucked and I got paid nothing.
You know, $80.00 for 10 hours, like 110.
Dollars for 10 hours. Yeah, but but The thing is you
get to if you're good at beating people, you can put yourself out
there. Yeah, yeah, and and and, you
know, possibly get another background check background role
or, or another background role or but an agent or something,
you know, like you never know. But I.
But that's the popular misconception about acting in
general that is easy, is easy to land roles.
I. Don't see Atlanta do background
work. I did it just to eat because the
Tyler Perry food was exquisite. It wasn't like no other
background work food. Wow, Tyler.
Perry food on his sets. They are like Michelin star
black-owned restaurants nice and they treat everybody great.
Tyler Perry food for his background.
I I I did it just to eat. Final question.
Oh, no, I have so many questions.
What what am I going to do? OK, I'll do this one.
I probably did this one. OK, just do 33.
Screw it, do 20. Final question, Kendrick versus
Drake, who is winning in your opinion?
I'd say Kendrick by a city mile. OK.
Yeah, yeah, I feel like and and this is like this is no hate on
Drake because I like Drake when the mixtape Drake the first two
albums Drake, you know like when.
He was talking about. Drake, there we go.
When he's like DRAKKE, right? We had the part in his head.
Yeah, man. Like I think Drake didn't evolve
with the times. Like he stayed him.
He stayed that one version of him the whole career, his whole
career. You know, like Kendrick made you
visualize and and I'm a New York guy saying this, You get what
I'm saying? Like that's Ala guy I'm talking
about. Kendrick makes you, makes you
see words. Yeah.
You know, like, like while Drake makes good music, I think that
Kendrick makes timeless music. I agree.
He does have a Nobel Peace Prize
and even I waiting and I listened to Kendrick's album
when it was out he. DNX.
Yeah, I even listened to it and I'm not that big of a rap guy.
When people don't make songs, I can shake my booty too, So and
it. Was so you like Drake more
'cause he makes songs to shake your booty too?
I don't actually cause like like TJ said, Kendrick's music is
timeless. Drake, he has good hits, but I
mean, you could throw a rocket, you could hit somebody with a
good hit, so. Not as many good hits as Drake,
I mean. He got it.
Definitely not, Definitely not. That's one thing you want.
That's definitely not. But I feel that when you reach,
when you reach a community, it doesn't have to be commercial.
My mother has never liked rap music and that's why I don't
like it because I didn't grow up with it.
My mother listened to the Drake songs at the Super Bowl where
Kendrick performed. Then I found her listening to
the Drake album Like Mama, What is This?
The Drake stuff or like the Kendrick.
The Kendrick. The Kendrick stuff.
Oh, OK, OK, OK. OK, you won't let me list this
stuff on the radio. I was kissed one O 4.1.
This is V1O3. So this is how one O 7.9
exactly. So I need you to turn it off
right now, she said. No, he's, he's mine, said dead.
That's funny as hell. Oh my God.
Cesar, I have another question for you.
How did you like Wonder Man? You know what?
I'm sorry about the really good. I really, really cried hard.
The reason why? OK, right.
I make emotional with this because it changed my life.
So with that first, yes, right, I got, I'm going to get really
deep, OK? I was, you know, like in a
really bad space mentally, like horrible space.
And the only thing keeping me afloat was keeping busy.
So the the, you know, like my wife and my kids, I was still
playing basketball then. So I was away and alone a lot.
So when I got that first CS, which I report I still have on
my phone, right, They say, hey, we will fly you in LA into LA,
we want you out here and we'll accommodate everything.
And then after it was like that Will Smith moment when he was
clapping after he got the job, you know, and it's just like,
but how many emails, how many headshots, how many scripts I
read and I got No, right, right. But then in Wonder Man, when he
got the role that he worked for, that he wanted so bad, and then
he was in the car just like silent, right?
There's no words that hit me to my chest because it feels like
everything you did, every fail you had and every person behind
you just lifted you up for that reason to fail, but to, to, to
really appreciate what it could be 1 success or 100 successes.
You celebrate it the same way they, you know, like him being
him, him in that far silent him looking around him thinking that
the 100 thoughts like who am I tell first?
Like why and like should I tell them or or like no, no, no, calm
down. Don't tell nobody.
Just just it's not real until it happens.
You know, like the disbelief of that first.
Yes, Yeah, we want you. And you know, like deep down
all, not even a man or woman, a human wants, wants to be wanting
somehow some way. And hearing that, yes, man, I
had literally paused it in a cry.
Because I remember that feeling. I remember that feeling, that
yes feeling when I was it when I was down and it when I was down
and my depression was on my shoulders, but I had to act like
I was happy. And, and the moment that I'm
like, This is why and keep going.
This is why I didn't stop. This is why, you know, even
getting deeper, like the thoughts didn't take over, you
know, like the really dark thoughts that This is why I
didn't allow them to take over. To hear that I'm wanted and to
hear that people want to see who I am.
People want to see my talent and people willing to pay me for it.
You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, it was crazy.
I am going to do a lot of no's right now, but hopefully I get
my yes soon. And I do want to say that it did
not resonate me with me to the way it resonated with you when I
first saw it. I have been hearing more stories
like yours months after it's been over and I'm like, OK, it's
good. I of course wanted something
more. I didn't want somebody using
their powers. Like I said, digitally, I wanted
a super feeling, but it wasn't like that.
It was just like. Quiet.
It was Grounded. Grounded.
It was very grounded until the last five minutes.
It was very grounded. But yeah, it, it was good.
I it's going to win some awards. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Probably some Emmys and Tony's definitely something.
But with with that, you know, I I actually liked the the Okie
doke, you know, like because I'm expecting, oh, there's going to
be hope the CGI is good. So people don't say shit, you
know, like, and but there was minimal, minimal of that.
Yeah, yeah, and and it was a it was a real story.
It was like, like, how do you make a human story about a
superhero? Wonder Man That's.
How they did it, that's how they did it, was very humane.
Even the part in the middle about the doorman.
Oh hell yeah, like him, you him in this generation using what's
hot instead of building consistency.
Yeah. Yeah, I wish that Mom would do a
lot of little shorts like that. Possibly When?
When the mutants come. Who?
Knows that. Would be a dope anthology
series. It's called it Mutants and it's
like a a different mutant like powers activating or something
like that. Yeah.
That'd be real dope. I.
Want to see a bunch of kids? I don't want to see a bunch of
kids getting their powers, though.
I mean, a bunch of Pew proof, Pew proof best of kids.
But I mean, we'll see. I think we might and stretch it.
I think so too. Well, that would be a good show,
TMTM. I'll talk to Marvel about that
and I'll contact us later, But this has been another exciting
episode where our good friend TJ Stokes, you don't know him now
you do. Or you will know him when he is
on Amazon later on in this year or next year or whenever.
Oh, that's you. I recognize that ball hand
anywhere. All right, TJ, since I usually
ask the Marcus this, but do you have any final words about the
Samsung or anything else about from our conversation today?
Yeah, both brands are great. Don't shame one because you
don't have the other one. Both brands are great, whatever
preference is your preference. OK.
And then watch some movies, get out there, watch something that
that you're on that you don't normally watch that somebody,
you know, TikTok, Instagram suggests you go out there, watch
the new anime, watch a new show you wouldn't normally watch
because you never know if you'll like it until you.
And then take care of yourself mentally with with your health
and and take care of yourself. Yeah.
Good words of advice is always from TJ Stukes.
TJ, thank you so much for coming back on our show.
We love, we love you, love you, love.
You always have such amazing words and you always leave us
with something to ponder about. And we can't wait till the next
time I contact you at 3:00 in the morning to come back on this
show. But thank you, thank you, thank
you for accepting this invite. We had a fantastic time and we
need to get a check from Sam's stuff for this episode.
God damn right. Right.
Should've got to take a fucking dig.
We'll work it out. Something free shit pissed me.
Off All right, guys, that was the end of this episode.
We'll see you next time on Black Geek Energy.