The Comical staff met up and had a talk with the legendary Sinbad up in Montreal. Here's what he said.
Danny: How many years were you doing comedy before you got your break?
Sinbad: My life before comedy was so crazy, that when I became a comic I felt I needed to "accelerate" everything. So I was headlining after about three months.
Danny: So you didn't really struggle at all to make it as a comic?
Sinbad: I struggled. I would go to Greyhound bus stations with no money and beg for a ride to get to some comedy club. I would come to the comedy club unannounced and beg to get onstage. I'd sleep in the bus station or whatever just to get on stage.
Danny: Nowadays I don't think you could really do that though.
Sinbad: I feel sorry for new comics. Nowadays people go to comedy clubs because they want to see the comics they see on TV. Back then people went to comedy clubs because they wanted to see comics before they became famous. They loved discovering new comics.
Danny: What's the craziest story?
Sinbad: A comic friend in Kansas City was dating a bunch of women. I guess one of them got pissed about it. One day I get a shady call saying I need to come to my friend's place quick and not to bring anybody. When I get there he's hog-tied and buck naked on the floor. I'm like "Man, I don't even want to know."
Danny: How do you feel now about comedy back in the days you were host at the Apollo and how do you think things have changed since then?
Sinbad: Back then the big thing was Def Comedy Jam. Def Comedy Jam was the first time the world got to see black comics, but it also changed black comedy because its style became all America wanted to see. If a black comic was clean, they wouldn't let him do Def Comedy Jam, which I thought was insulting. So on the one hand it allowed black comics to be seen, but it shut the door on other types of black comedy.
Danny: What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you while you were doing comedy for all these years?
Sinbad: I once worked at a club that the DEA took interest in. It was kind of a bad spot. Drugs were everywhere, waitresses were getting paid in cocaine, etc... They placed a girl undercover at the bar to try to bust the place. Originally the girl thought I was at the center of the whole thing, but then she realized I didn't even drink, I was just crazy. One day she motions for me to follow her into the alley behind the comedy club where DEA agents are waiting to arrest everybody except me. I tell the agents that if I'm the only one not arrested the rest of the people will think I narc'd on them. So I walk back in through the front, get arrested five minutes later, and spend the night in jail.
Danny: What are you up to now?
Sinbad: I've got a lot of things I'm working on right now. I've got a reality show I'm working on which is kind of crazy, a sitcom, and about three movie scripts I'm polishing off.
Danny: Anything call for an overweight white comic?
Sinbad: Everything calls for an overweight white comic.
