Anthony Mackie
The “Pain & Gain” Interview
with Kam Williams

Born in New Orleans on September 23, 1979, Anthony Mackie attended the Julliard School of Drama. He was discovered after receiving rave reviews for playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway play “Up Against the Wind.”

Immediately following, Anthony made an auspicious film debut as Eminem’s nemesis, Papa Doc, in Curtis Hanson’s “8 Mile.” His performance caught the attention of Spike Lee, who subsequently cast him in “Sucker Free City” and “She Hate Me.” He also appeared in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” as well as in Jonathan Demme’s “The Manchurian Candidate.”

Anthony had five features on movie screens in 2006. In addition to “We Are Marshall,” he starred in “Half Nelson,” with Ryan Gosling, adapted from director Ryan Fleck’s Sundance-winning short “Gowanus Brooklyn;” in Preston Whitmore’s “Crossover;” in Frank E. Flowers ensemble crime drama “Haven,” opposite Orlando Bloom and Bill Paxton; and in the film adaptation of Richard Price’s “Freedomland,” starring Samuel L. Jackson.

Besides an impressive film career, the gap-toothed thespian has performed both on and off Broadway, making his Broadway debut as the stuttering nephew, Sylvester, alongside Whoopi Goldberg in August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Next he was seen as the lead in Regina King’s modern retelling of Chekov’s “The Seagull,” in Stephen Belber’s “McReele,” and in the Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Soldier’s Play.”

More recently, Anthony participated in the Kennedy Center’s presentation of “August Wilson’s 20th Century.” As one of more than 30 renowned stars of stage and screen, he performed in three readings of Wilson’s cycle of ten plays chronicling the African-American experience, each set in a different decade of the 20th century. A true aficionado of live theatre, he hopes to return to the stage soon.

In 2009, he played Sgt. JT Sanborn on the big screen in Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” a film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. That same year, he reprised his role as Tupac Shakur in “Notorious,” the biopic of Notorious B.I.G.

In 2010, he took a break from film to return to Broadway where he starred in “A Behanding in Spokane.” He subsequently returned to Hollywood to appear opposite Kerry Washington in “Night Catches Us.” Then he appeared in “The Adjustment Bureau” and “Real Steel.” Last year, he made several movies, including “Man on a Ledge,” “10 Years” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”

2013 is proving very productive for Anthony, with the horror thriller “Vipaka,” the coming of age drama “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete,” the crime thriller “Runner, Runner” and “Bolden” being among his offerings. Here, he talks about his new movie, “Pain & Gain,” a fact-based crime comedy co-starring Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg.

 

Kam Williams: Hi Anthony, thanks for another interview.

Anthony Mackie: What’s going on, my man?

 

KW: Nothing much, brother. What an impressive resume you’ve compiled for someone so young: The Hurt Locker, The Manchurian Candidate, Notorious, We Are Marshall, Half Nelson, 8 Mile, American Violet, The Adjustment Bureau, Gangster Squad, Night Catches Us, etcetera, etcetera...  

AM: Thanks a lot, Kam. I’ve been very fortunate to land all the projects that I’ve done. I have a great team of people working with me.

 

KW: So, what interested you in Pain & Gain?

AM: It was the script. I was really psyched about Michael [director Michael Bay] doing a story with three-dimensional characters like these who you could real delve into to see what makes them tick.

 

KW: A Michael Bay flick with both that trademark action as well as some complex character development. It felt almost like I was watching a new genre of film.

AM: That’s what made me so happy about it. When he explained to me what he was trying to do with this movie, it was something that I felt was right up my alley and that I wanted to be a part of.

 

KW: I have a lot of questions sent in to you by readers. Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: How would you describe your character, Adrian? Are you anything like him in real life?

AM: [Chuckles] That’s funny! No, I’m not anything like him at all. The thing that I enjoyed about doing Adrian was that he never backed down. He admired Daniel [played by Mark Wahlberg] so much and just wanted his friend to succeed. And he also wanted to achieve The American Dream.

 

KW: I saw you on several talk shows over the last couple of weeks, and between being pumped up from the weightlifting and the way you trash-talked like you were shot out of a cannon, you seemed almost like a different person, or as if you were still in character.

AM: [LOL] I really enjoyed this character and talking about him. I’m lucky because I get to do projects I like and believe in. And it’s exciting to see people react positively to your work, to something you’ve invested so much time and so much of yourself into. 

 

KW: How much time did you devote to the exercise regimen to get yourself in such great shape?

AM: About four months. I worked out for six weeks before we started shooting, and then every day on location. To get in shape like that involves a whole lifestyle change. It’s not just going to the gym. It’s also eating and sleeping differently, and spending your time differently.    

 

KW: I heard that you and Mark Wahlberg even trained together.

AM: Yeah, we worked out together every day, once we arrived on set. I think that’s why we subsequently became such good friends. He appreciated the fact that I wasn’t taking this opportunity lightly, since he’s not the type of person who takes the stature he’s achieved for granted. He’s a leader and a hard worker. He liked my dedication to the project which was reflected in how I accompanied him daily to the gym to push it as hard as we could.

 

KW: Harriet Pakula-Teweles says: Thanks for the wonderful performance in A Behanding in Spokane. You’re obviously comfortable on stage and also doing great work on screen. How do you approach each as an actor?

AM: First, let me say thank you, Harriet. It’s great that you saw and enjoyed that play. Stage and screen are completely different. Stage is like a marathon. It’s more of a physical muscle because you have to do eight shows a week. With a movie, you do it once, it’s in the can, and you move on. On the stage, you have to recreate that moment every night. You have to figure out a way, mentally, to find yourself in the same place every performance. You have to believe that whatever’s happening in that world is actually happening every night, whereas with film you just have to believe it once before you move on. So, stage is really difficult but, at the same time, it’s much more gratifying than film. So many people have a hand in your screen performance whereas, when you step on the stage, no one tells you what you can and can’t do.   

 

KW: Harriet also asks: Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?

AM: [LOL] That’s a great song!

 

KW: Larry Greenberg says: It seems to me like the film actually has a message about the growing distance between classes in America. Or am I asking too much from a spring blockbuster?

AM: I think the movie deals more with The American Dream, and the skewed perception of it in our generation. The idea used to be that you worked hard to achieve more. Now, it’s “Do as little as you can to achieve as much as you can.” 

 

KW: Richie the intern says: You have played Tupac Shakur twice, once, Off-Off Broadway, and also in the film Notorious. Did you listen to a lot of his music growing up?

AM: Definitely! The very first CD I ever owned, was a Tupac CD. He’s one of my all-time favorites. I have every CD and bootleg CD of his. He was a huge inspiration of mine. Since my parents didn’t allow me to hang out on the streets as a child, my way of experiencing the streets was by listening to Tupac.

 

KW: Patricia says: I loved your performance in Desert Flower, which brings to mind this saying: “There are no small parts, only small actors.”

AM: Thank you, Patricia. I agree. That’s one of the reasons I did Desert Flower. I feel very strongly about that picture’s subject-matter [female circumcision]. So, I did the film even though I knew I wouldn’t get any fanfare or recognition from it, because its message was important to me.    

 

KW: Did you meet naysayers before your first big break as an actor. There are people who do not give themselves permission to pursue their dreams. What advice do you have for them? 

AM: [Chuckles] I still meet naysayers every day. This business is funny. It’s all about your journey and the road that you’re on. There are so many people who like to comment on my career and on what I am or am not doing. But I know that it’s my path, and I’m going to decide for myself which direction I want to go. When I meet naysayers, I just thank them politely for acknowledging my career and I wish them many blessings on the success of their own careers.      

 

KW: Marcia Evans says: I have been following your career and I appreciate the choices you have made as an artist. Do you have any interest in bringing any historical or cultural stories about Louisiana to the screen? 

AM: Of course! One of the biggest projects I’ve been working on, for about six years now, has been a movie about the jazz musician Buddy Bolden. Louisiana is near and dear to my heart. I moved back to New Orleans five years ago, because I realize that New Orleans is what made me into something that I cherish. 

 

KW: Are you attached to any post-Katrina rehabilitation project in New Orleans?

AM: No, I’ve been staying away from the revitalization of New Orleans, because it’s not New Orleanians who are behind it. And that’s the problem. Every time a New Orleanian tries to get behind a project, it gets shot down. But you have all these folks from outside the state trying to change the culture. That’s what the backlash is all about right now. We want to keep the city the way it was. New Orleans is not New York, L.A. or Las Vegas, and we want to push all the outsiders out in order to get back to where we were before Hurricane Katrina.   

 

KW: Marcia also says that she’s a closet chef who plans to study the wonderful New Orleans cuisine. She was wondering whether the local fiddles helped you pack on the pounds for this film.

AM: [Laughs heartily] No, it was staying away from that stuff that enabled me to bulk up.  

 

KW: Marcia then asks: Do you know how to make noise in the kitchen?

AM: I’ll say this: I’ve never met a woman who wasn’t somebody’s momma who could cook better than me.

 

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

AM: My #1 killer dish is stuffed prawns with crabmeat dressing over teriyaki rice with pan-fried asparagus. That’s my game-over, you know you’re in for the night, you’re in trouble situation dish.

 

KW: Marcia also asks: Do you like Crawfish Etouffee? [Badly mispronounced]

AM: [Laughs, and corrects me] It’s Etouffee. I like it if the roux is made right. A lot of people burn their roux, and I can’t eat their etouffee.

 

KW: Lastly, Marcia asks: Does your bar down there serve some finger-lickin’, smack yo’ momma cuisine?

AM: [LOL] We serve our food with a band aid, because you’re definitely going to bite your finger.

 

KW: What is your guiltiest pleasure?

AM: Butter pecan ice cream.

 

KW: Mike Pittman asks: What was your wisest career move?

AM: Not doing a TV show.

 

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

AM: Success

 

KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

AM: To do a movie co-starring opposite Denzel Washington.

 

KW: The Kerry Washington question: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

AM: A panther.

 

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

AM: It’s from when I was 3. My dad was building the house that I would grow-up in and spend my entire childhood in. I took a laundry basket and tried to bobsled down the stairs but went though the wall about halfway down and landed in the next room. [Laughs]

 

KW: The Jamie Foxx question: If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do? Would you do the bad stuff, you never got a chance to do, or would you do good stuff to make sure you make it into heaven?

AM: I’d get my family together and spend those 24 hours at home with them.

 

KW: The Viola Davis question: Who do you really believe you are when you go home as opposed to the person you pretend to be on the red carpet?

AM: At home, I’m a very, deliberate, opinionated and outspoken person. You have to soften yourself on the red carpet, because no one wants to think you have an opinion anymore.

 

KW: The Anthony Anderson question: If you could have a superpower, which one would you choose?

AM: I would want to be a genie who could grant wishes.

 

KW: The Judyth Piazza question: What key quality do you believe all successful people share? 

AM: Determination. A lot of people say they have drive and determination, but most people aren’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve great success.  

 

KW: Lastly, can you give me an Anthony Mackie question I can ask other celebrities?

AM: Yeah, is there something that you promised to do if you became famous, that you still haven’t done yet?

 

KW: Thanks again for the time, Anthony, and best of luck with the film.

AM: Thanks a lot, Kam, I really appreciate it.

To see a trailer for Pain & Gain, visit:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQ8jyvmYtw  

The Big Wedding
Film Review by Kam Williams

This picture is such a wholesale disaster that it’s hard to decide where to start in critiquing it. I could talk about how it is just the latest case of Hollywood remaking a French farce (Mon Frère se Marie) which somehow lost all of its charm in the translation into English. Or I could point out how it’s a slight variation of Meet the Parents and even has Robert De Niro reprising his role as a macho father-in-law less inclined to reason than to threaten to bust a kneecap or tweeze a guy’s gonads off.

Or I could focus on how the production squandered the services of a talented cast including a quartet of Oscar-winners in De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams and Diane Keaton, as well as that of such seasoned comedians as Topher Grace, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried and SNL alum Christine Ebersole. Or I might mention the telling fact that the movie sat on the shelf for over a year before the studio made the ill-advised decision to pump up the marketing and dump it on the gullible public.

Then there’s the homophobia and racism, reflected in disparaging offhand, remarks about lesbian and Colombian characters. Equally-objectionable is the picture’s frequent resort to sophomoric sight gags ranging from projectile vomiting to sucker punches to the face.

Perhaps most offensive of all is the film’s coarse, off-color humor featuring a life-size sculpture of a nude woman masturbating, a seductive wedding guest pleasuring her seatmate under the table during the reception, and a relentlessly-lurid script laced with salacious lines like “I can’t believe I’m being cock-blocked by my own mom,” “Go [expletive] a yak!” and “My father had his penis in your mom.”

All of the above amounts to a bitter disappointment, especially given the pedigree of the elite ensemble. Blame for this fiasco rests squarely on the shoulders of writer/director/producer Justin Zackham, who ostensibly was trying to replicate the lowbrow nature of his only other feature-length offering, Going Greek, a raunchy teensploitation flick released back in 2001. 

As for the storyline, Mr. Zackham lazy relies on “The Big Lie” cliché, a hackneyed plot device popular on TV sitcoms since the Golden Age of Television. It basically revolves around characters going to increasingly great lengths to hide an embarrassing fact from someone until the ruse blows up in their faces and the truth comes out anyway.

Here, we have Missy (Amanda Seyfried) and Alejandro (Ben Barnes) on the verge of tying the knot in Connecticut, when they learn that his birth mother, Madonna (Patricia Rae), is unexpectedly flying in from Colombia to attend the wedding. Because she’s a devout Catholic, they don’t want her to know that the adoptive parents (De Niro and Keaton) have been divorced for a decade.     

So, instead of simply explaining the changed state of affairs to Madonna, everybody agrees to participate in an elaborate cover-up to make it appear that Don and Ellie are still together, even though he’s currently in a committed, long-term relationship with Bebe (Sarandon). What a patently-preposterous premise!  

The escalating concatenation of calamities adds-up less to a sidesplitting, screwball comedy than to an incoherent string of crude skits, the crudest being a scene where an undignified De Niro sheepishly sports a substance-eating grin after getting caught in the act of performing cunnilingus between a widespread pair of naked legs.

Look! A falling star! Make a wish!

Poor (0 stars)

Rated R for profanity, sexuality and brief nudity

In English and Spanish with subtitles

Running time: 90 minutes

Distributor: Lionsgate Films

To see a trailer for The Big Wedding, visit

King's Faith
Film Review by Kam Williams

Brendan King (Crawford Wilson), a kid raised in the foster care system, was sent away at the age of 15 after being caught dealing drugs and running guns as a member of a notorious gang known as Avenue D. Upon parole a few years later, the juvenile offender was released to the custody of Vanessa (Lynn Whitfield) and Mike Stubbs (James McDaniel), a couple still struggling with the loss of their police officer son in a senseless act of violence while he was on duty.

The emotionally-wounded foster parents see taking Brendan in as an opportunity to not only help rehabilitate an at-risk youth but to perhaps restore their faith in humanity, too. Because the boy became Born Again behind bars, the prospects for his future are very bright indeed, despite a checkered past marked by 18 different foster home placements, 9 felony and 11 misdemeanor arrests, and 4 convictions.

After all, he’s now settling into a new school, Northside High, and living in a relatively-upscale suburban enclave located a safe distance from the bad influences rampant around the ‘hood. Furthermore, to keep Brendan on the straight and narrow, the Stubbs give him a curfew, find him a part-time job, and even encourage him to join The Seekers, a Christian community service group for teenagers.

Everything goes well until the fateful day he rescues a classmate from a car wreck. Natalie (Kayla Compton), a girl most likely-type, happens to be president of the school’s student council. However, she ends up in trouble when the police find drugs in the car at the scene of the accident.

But Brendan’s role as the hero lands him in the limelight, which has the unfortunate side effect of notifying his former partners in crime of his present whereabouts. Soon, they show up looking for the fruit of the valuable contraband he’d hidden before being sent up the river, and they threaten to put a hurtin’ on him if he doesn’t deliver or rejoin their ranks.

Will Brendan revert to his old outlaw ways? Or will the convert put his trust in the Lord and avoid temptation this time around? Thus unfolds King’s Faith, a very relevant morality play written and directed by Nicholas DiBella.

Carefully crafted with Evangelicals in mind, this modern parable will certainly resonate with the faith-based demographic as well as secular individuals interested in an entertaining, wholesome family flick with a sobering message. The cinematic equivalent of a thought-provoking Bible study likely to ignite further discussion about a variety of real-life challenges folks face today.

Very Good (3 stars)

Rated PG-13 for violence, drug use and mature themes

Running time: 107 minutes

Distributor: Faith Street Film Partners

To see a trailer for King's Faith, visit

Paradise: Love
(Paradies: Liebe)
Film Review by Kam Williams

Paradise: Love is the initial offering in a trilogy of incendiary dramas from the Austria-born director Ulrich Seidl. Each of the three installments focuses on a different female from the same family.

This episode revolves around Teresa (Magarete Tiesel), an unremarkable single-mom whom we find tired of her Vienna existence at the point of departure. The jaded 50 year-old divides her time between raising an adolescent (Melanie Lenz) and working with the mentally-handicapped.

Needing a break from that humdrum routine, Teresa leaves her daughter in the care of a sister (Maria Hofstaetter) before flying alone to Kenya for a much-needed vacation. However, she’s planning for a little more than fun in the sun, since her destination is a resort that caters to the carnal desires of European sex tourists.

Specifically, it’s older white women looking to get their groove back, so to speak, with help of African men, the younger and better endowed the better. The goal, obviously, is less to find romance than to mate with any hunks who find them attractive.

Upon arriving, Teresa checks into the hotel where she makes the acquaintance of several fellow Austrians with the same goal in mind. What soon unfolds is a series of lusty liaisons approached by the consenting parties with a compatible set of competing expectations.

The women want to be wined and dined a bit prior to seduction, while the local lads are more than happy to oblige with the unspoken understanding that they will be tipped generously for providing stud service. Given the language, age and cultural differences, it is no surprise that complications still ensue for first-timer Teresa as she awkwardly attempts to negotiate her way with fellows with hidden agendas.

Will her cravings be satiated? Will she be respected in the morning? Will she be fleeced out of every last pfennig by the local Romeos? Those are the basic questions raised over the course of this intriguing character study, a female empowerment flick which harks back to Heading South (2005), a similarly-themed film set in Haiti starring Charlotte Rambling.

Fair warning: the film does feature graphic nudity and indiscriminate coupling, as the ladies sensuously sample a veritable smorgasbord of native cuisine. When all is said and done, Teresa returns home revitalized enough to resume her unfulfilling life, but ostensibly having to keep her assorted sexual conquests a secret.

After all, as the saying goes: What happens in Nairobi, stays in Nairobi!

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated R for violence, profanity, graphic sexuality and frontal nudity

In German, Swahili and English with subtitles

Running time: 120 minutes

Distributor: Strand Releasing

To see a trailer for Paradise: Love, visit

Mike Tyson
The “Scary Movie 5” Interview
with Kam Williams

Born in Brooklyn on June 30, 1966, Michael Gerard Tyson is an all-time boxing great who, in his prime, struck fear in the heart of any opponent he squared off against. He compiled an impressive record of 50 wins, 5 losses and 1 disqualification for biting off an opponent’s ear over the course of an incomparable career in which he became the first undisputed heavyweight champ to hold the WBA, WBC and IBF title belts simultaneously.

Iron Mike has weathered a host of woes and controversies outside the ring ranging from allegations of spousal abuse to a rape conviction to the death of his 4 year-old daughter, Exodus, to declaring bankruptcy after frittering away over $300 million in prizefight purses. Today, he is a very happily-married man, with a couple of children, Milan and Morocco, by his third wife, Kiki.

Mike is currently on a 36-city tour of the country in “Undisputed Truth,” a one-man Broadway show which is part comedy/part confessional and covers all of the above and more. Here, the pugilist-turned-actor talks about his latest movie, Scary Movie 5, co-starring a rogues gallery of controversial celebrities including Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Katt Williams and Snoop Dogg.

 

 

Kam Williams: Hi Mike, thanks for the interview.

Mike Tyson: What’s up, Kam?

 

KW: I really appreciate your taking the time to speak with me.

MT: It’s all good in the ‘hood, my friend.

 

KW: Ray Hirschman asks: What interested you in Scary Movie 5?

MT: Whew! It’s a franchise that’s going to last ‘til the end of time. I wanted to be involved with that. I don’t care how silly it comes across. It’s more so for us than for kids. It’s adults acting stupid and silly.   

 

KW: What was it like working with this cast?

MT: Everybody was great. Ashley [Tisdale] was awesome. I got an autographed picture of her for my niece.

 

KW: Children’s book author Irene Smalls asks: How did you get into acting?

MT: Just from messing around with a friend, Jim Toback, the director of The Pickup Artist. I always used to see him in New York and talk to him when I was younger, like a teenager. Anthony Michael Hall brought me onto the set of one day in about ’86, and Jim and I became acquainted and then good friends, and he started putting me into his movies, first Black and White, and then we did Tyson. He thought I was an interesting character. After that, I did The Hangover and got bitten by the acting bug. I have a lot of friends who’ve won Oscars, and they started telling me I could do it, too.  

 

KW: I remember your doing a great job in Black and White opposite some famous daughter. Who was it, Jennifer Jason Leigh?

MT: That was Bijou Phillips. She was awesome in that film.

 

KW: And Jim’s documentary, Tyson, was riveting from start to finish. 

MT: I’m just very grateful for his friendship. He’s a remarkable dude.

 

KW: Larry Greenberg says: When we talk about comedy, you hear words that could refer to boxing like “timing” and “punch line.” Do you see any similarities between the two?

MT: I don’t know. People tell me I’m a comedian, but I don’t approach acting from that perspective. I do know that everything in life has to do with your timing and perception. You have to be comfortable with the rhythm that you’re in. You can’t just jump into a fast rhythm if yours is slow. You might have to pick up the pace but in your own particular way. It has to do with personality, too.

 

KW: Richie the intern was wondering how the play‘s coming along?

MT: We’ve been doing just great, selling out every night. And I couldn’t believe the reviews. I couldn’t believe it was me they were talking about. They’re saying “Remarkably funny!” and “Moving!” I was like “They’re talking about me?” The biggest honor I had so far was when the comedian Jeff Ross told me he liked it and said, “You’re one of us, now” That was just amazing.

 

KW: Fight fan Mike Ehrenberg asks: Who was stronger, Razor Ruddick or Bonecrusher Smith?

MT: Bonecrusher was stronger, but Razor Ruddick hit harder.

 

KW: Mike also asks: What was the hardest punch you ever took in the ring?

MT: Wow! A bunch of guys really rang my clock. Gee! Razor Ruddick… Lennox Lewis… Evander Holyfield… They all did a number on me.

 

KW: Finally, Mike is curious about how you think you would’ve matched up against some of the other heavyweight greats in the ring?

MT: I have no idea. I just did what I did in my era, basically because of my admiration for the guys who came before me. That’s how I’ve always looked at it. I never thought of boxing like, I’m going to be the greatest fighter ever and make a lot of money. Instead, I thought I was going to win because I learned from the best. I carefully studied the videotapes of all the fighters from the past, dissected their styles, and entered the ring with their spirit.

 

KW: Harriet Pakula-Teweles says: Champ—you’ve had a long and varied career that involved lots of press coverage. What’s the thing you’d most have us remember about you?

MT: Overcoming my adversities.

 

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

MT: Me? I see an old, broke-ass black guy taking care of a bunch of kids, living life, taking them to school, and all that stuff, who’s asking himself: What the hell is this? But I wouldn’t give it up for the world because I love my wife. I never expected to have a life like this. No chaos… no confusion… no lawsuits… no violence… no going to jail…

 

KW: I’m originally from Bed-Stuy, too, from around Nostrand Avenue and Eastern Parkway.

MT: I know where that’s at. That’s an awesome neighborhood! Bed-Stuy, do or die! I’m from Franklin between DeKalb and Willoughby. Do you remember the Welfare place at 500 DeKalb?

 

KW: Sure, I’m older than you. I was born in the early Fifties.

MT: Oh, so you know what’s really going down. My mother used to have us waiting with her in that long-ass line when we were kids. But we moved to Brownsville when I was 10.

 

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

MT: Being in the hospital at about 5 years of age, after I drank some Drano. I remember it like it was yesterday. My mother had a bunch of people over the house, and I drank it because no one was paying me any attention.

 

KW: Yeah, children would prefer to be praised than punished, but they’d rather be punished than ignored.

MT: No doubt about it. That’s life. That’s our nature as human beings. 

 

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

MT: Artichokes.

 

KW: Lastly, if you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

MT: That my daughter could still be with us.

 

KW: My condolences, Mike. Thanks again, and best of luck with all your endeavors.

MT: Thank you, Kam. Okay, brother.

To see the schedule for Mike Tyson’s one-man play Undisputed Truth, visit

To see a trailer for Scary Movie 5, visit