Deon Cole on His Comedy Central Special, ‘Black-ish,’ and his Canine ‘Angie Tribeca’ Co-Star
Photo: Comedy Central
The last couple months have been good for Deon Cole: he joined the Barbershop franchise with his scene-stealing Dante in Barbershop: The Next Cut, he made a surprise return as the endearingly goofy Charlie on Black-ish, he’s back as Detective DJ Tanner (with doggie partner David Hoffman) on the second season of Angie Tribeca, and, this weekend, he premieres his first one-hour Comedy Central stand-up special, Deon Cole: Cole-Blooded Seminar.
What, you didn’t know the former Conan writer was a stand-up? A lot of viewers who’ve gotten to know him for his sitcom work aren’t aware of his long career as a stand-up comedian, which is why he’s excited to reach new fans with his riffs on everything from his hashtag-worthy appreciation for curvy women to his advice on “managing blackness”… along with the funniest joke you’ll ever hear about batteries.
A lot of your fans probably know you from Black-ish and Angie Tribeca more than stand up. It must be exciting for people to get to see you in your first hour-long Comedy Central special.
It’s very exciting. I was doing stand-up for 23 years, so it’s just funny that a lot of people do not know that I do stand-up. That’s all that I do, stand-up and write. It blew my mind to know how many people didn’t know that. It’s great to now be able to show my talents to a whole other audience, for them to get to see what I’m about, how I create, how I think, how I write.
There’s a part of the special where you talk about losing weight, and it’s such a great concept: That no one needs to continue eating unhealthy food, because we all already know it tastes good. It’s one of those ideas that makes you stop and think. You may have the beginnings of a bestselling weight-loss program there.
It’s so simple. I mean, that’s how I look at it. It’s just a simple reality: You know how it tastes already. You don’t have to eat any of it. You know the calories, you know it’s delicious. Now stop. Sometimes you just need those simple explanations, and that’ll resonate with somebody way more than a self-help book. When I did it on stage, when I was performing, a lot of people were hitting me afterwards going, “Man, just because you said that, it made me change my whole outlook on food and stuff.” If I can help people, that’s great. I wanted to make people laugh, but I also wanted to throw in a couple of things, a couple of little gems that might make people think about something.
You lost a significant amount of weight yourself in the last few years?
Yeah, absolutely, I lost 65 pounds, almost 70. I had gotten down to the point where I was like, okay, I think I overdid it a little bit. When I started hitting the road and then started doing all my shows, that’s when I think I gained some back. When I started doing Black-ish, Angie Tribeca and Conan, and I was doing a movie, there was no time for me to work out. Any extra time I had, I would sleep.
Is it true that you initially lost it by eating popsicles?
Yeah, like late at night, that was my big thing. Late at night, after shows, you go to a restaurant and eat. Then you go home and sleep, and that’s how most comedians gain their weight, but what started happening with me is that instead of eating late at night in restaurants, I would go home and eat sugar-free popsicles. I’d eat them and eat them, and man, that kept me from snacking on big meals and stuff. On top of me exercising and stuff, yeah, that was a big component.
You mentioned Angie Tribeca, is it true that Steve Carell created the character of DJ Tanner just for you?
Well, I auditioned for the lieutenant, the role that Jere Burns has. After that, yeah, we were going back and forth, to the point where Steve just went off script and ad-libbed with me. It was incredible, the chemistry that we had. Steve thought to himself, “We don’t want him being another screaming black lieutenant, so let’s just create something for him.” That was in Season 1. You don’t see a whole lot of me in Season 1, because they didn’t know what to do with me. They had no idea what the character should be. By the end of Season 1, they started going, “Okay, this is what we’re going to do with him,” and then by Season 2, we were rocking and rolling.
Photo: TBS
Is there going to be a Season 3?
We’re waiting to see. I haven’t gotten an official word yet or anything. It’s a great show to do, and you know, the hardest part of my job is not laughing. When you’re doing that kind of comedy, you’ve got to play it straight, straight, straight, and who else to teach us how to do that than the best straight man in the game, Steve Carell.
Does that affect you when you’re working on other projects, on Black-ish, or when you’re writing and performing stand-up, or when you’re on Conan?
When I come out on stage in the bits that I do on Conan, that’s a one-time deal. There’s no retakes, there is no, “Let’s shoot it over.” It has to work there. You have to know your lines, you have to deliver. So you have to be on point. That also led to me being able to go do TV shows and knock my scenes out — within about five, six takes, we’re almost done, because my background is, we have to do this in one take, you know? So when I’m doing Angie Tribeca, it’s cool to take those teachings I have from Conan, and apply it there. Then when it comes to Black-ish, I take my teachings from Angie Tribeca, which is being a straight guy. I take that to Black-ish in order to play Charlie as straight as possible. So I take a little from everything that I do and apply it to the other jobs.
Your partner on Angie Tribeca is Officer David Hoffman, played by Jagger the dog. I interviewed Jagger’s trainer earlier this year and she told me that you are his favorite person on the set, that he always runs right to you.
That’s my man! Jagger is amazing. He’s one of the best dogs that I’ve ever been around. And a lot of people don’t know, but Jagger’s a movie star. He had a movie out last year called Max, about this dog that was in the military, sniffed out bombs, and came home a hero. I felt like, “God***n, I need a new agent. Dog’s got a movie… I don’t have a movie.’”
Well, now you do, though, with Barbershop.
Yeah, now I do. We’re good now.
Are there challenges to working with a dog?
I mean, yeah. Especially with this kind of show. This isn’t a type of [show] where, you know, the pet has to come and sit next to you and lay down. No, he’s on the phone, sending faxes, driving cars. He’s doing way more than a basic animal’s doing. Yeah, you have your trials and tribulations with him, but he knocks it out in a few takes. He’s fantastic.
I’m sure you know how happy everyone was to have Charlie return on Black-ish at the end of the season. Did you know all along he would be back?
I had no idea what was going to happen. A lot of people don’t know, I had the Angie Tribeca show before I had Black-ish. I went over to Black-ish just to write. Everybody knew that I wrote for Conan, and they were looking for writers over there. I was waiting on Angie Tribeca to start filming, so I was like, I can go over to Black-ish and write until they’re ready to shoot Angie Tribeca. Then the guy who was supposed to play Charlie didn’t show up, and Kenya Barris, the creator, asked me if I would play that role. Charlie is based on Kenya Barris. That’s how I ended up on Black-ish, and I kept doing episodes. Then Angie started to shoot, and I was doing both shows, half days at Black-ish, half days at Angie Tribeca. I was going back and forth, and it was great.
Is Charlie back for Season 3?
Charlie will be back for next season, yes he will be!
Deon Cole: Cole Blooded Seminar premieres June 25 at midnight on Comedy Central
Angie Tribeca airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on TBS
Black-ish Season 2 is streaming on Amazon Video, iTunes, and Hulu
