I Ascend: When did you discover your passion for Comedy?

“GRIFF”: I wanted to be a comedian since I was about three years old. My mother worked in convalescent homes. She would place the seniors in a half a circle and she would tell me go in there and go be funny. I was on a geriatric tour for like four years when I was a little kid literally.

I Ascend: Where do you draw inspiration from for your comedy bits?

“GRIFF”: Well, Milton Berle, the famous comedian during one of his last interviews on CNN’s Larry King, said “Comics are people that say funny things and comedians are people that make things funny.”  I am a comedian. I can observe some things and make them funny. I am a storyteller or you could say an orator more than anything.

I Ascend: What has the process of becoming on this journey been like for you?

“GRIFF”: It has been a beautiful journey. If you look at a “Drama Mask,” there is a happy one and a sad one. It consists of both comedy and tragedy. My tragedy just happens to be everybody else’s comedy. I am blessed to have learned some lessons, blessed to be able to forgive, blessed to be able to listen and have the ability to be living my dream. I do not think everybody gets to say that. I am really living my dream. I have been doing comedy for twenty seven years, ten months, a week and a couple of days. I am on the radio and I am about to be on the cover of another magazine. I am beyond blessed.

I Ascend: What was your first experience performing a comedy routine?

“GRIFF”: In convalescent homes with the old folks, I was this little, kid and my mom would put them in their little playroom. I would walk in and say, “Hey, how y’all doing?” “Wake up, Mr. Johnson, hey, Mr. Rodriguez,” “Oh, Mr. Peters, you wet yourself, I wet myself too, we the same.” I would say stuff like that. (Chuckles) I was also very animated with gestures and facial expressions.

I Ascend: How did you become a part of the “Get Up! Mornings” show with Erica Campbell?

“GRIFF”: The pre-story to that occurred in November of 2013. I heard the lord as clear as you and I are talking right now and He said, “2016, is going to be a year for wishing.  Everything you worked on is going to manifest. Everything that you’ve been hiding in the dark, I am going to bring it to the light.” I’m so human. I actually said, “What about 2014? It is in a month and a half.” “What we really going to do God in 2016?”

Just as God had promised I was approached by Colby Tyner from radio one around April 15th. He said, we have a syndicated show I think you would be good on it. I will call you back on Monday.” Then it was Thursday, he did not call me back till Thursday. However when he did hit me, he sent me a non-disclosure agreement too. After another week and a half, I was with Erica Campbell in Dallas practicing for the morning show. We started the show on May 10, 2016.  I have known Erica and Tina from doing radio for the last twenty years. So every time I saw Erica, you know, they from Cali, (California) I would say, “What’s Crackin? I want to do an interlude on y’all’s album. Let me do a funny interlude.” Erica was always say, “That sounds cool. Let’s talk about it” and then I see her again in five years. Then we got this radio show and she picked me. What a ride we have had it will be seven years on May 10^th of this year.

I Ascend: How do you feel about accomplishing longevity and having such a great program that people love?

“GRIFF”: I thank God because this is my third radio job. I was on the R&B morning show with Frank Ski in Atlanta. I was on a Hip-Hop morning show with The A Team, and now I am on a Syndicated Inspirational Show. I thank God each morning on my way to work.  I have to say again, I am really living my dream. I am interviewing Michael B. Jordan next week for the movie “Creed” I am truly living my dream, man. Many times we think we are supposed to do everything between the age of twenty-five and forty. God promises you will also see some of those blessings in your latter years. If you hold on to that, everything will happen in His timing. I have been blessed to be a human being that’s blessed with seeing God’s timing and it has been amazing.

I Ascend: Tell me one of your biggest Career Highlights so far.

“GRIFF”: In 2013, I became the first American to tape Comedy Central Africa.

I have been on BET’s Comic View about five times. I have been a part of a lot of stuff, but the Africa one was a big deal. I went to Africa for Christmas with my wife and that was my 29^th time going in the last 14 years.

In 2013, it was the comedy club owner Joe Parker, who brought me there, and I became his first headliner at the casino. Comedy Central Africa had said, no Americans, can be on this taping and Joe Parker vouched for me. He said “GRIFF” can do it, GRIFF” is one of us” I even got my hands imprinted in the Walk of Fame at a big casino there. My kids and grandkids will be able to go see that as a part of my legacy.

I Ascend: How do you deal with the politics in this industry?

“GRIFF”: I hate them and I do not like to deal with them. I do not even bother. I want away from them. I just want to be funny and leave. I do not want to deal with who knows who and all the gatekeepers in this genre. This Inspirational Genre is funny and I am sure they will take this and splice it wrong. But you would think most of the people in this genre would be nice, but there is a lot of mean people who we worship with. Like mean, you know what I mean? (chuckles) Meanwhile there should be one common cause, right? Like, aren’t you the one I was crying with at church? I think God set me up for being in R&B and Hip-Hop to come over here and get meaned on by people who don’t smoke and don’t drink. (Chuckles)

I Ascend: What hardships have you faced in Ascending to where you are currently?

“GRIFF”: You know, I have been divorced twice. I got married when I was eighteen. I was in the military and we had only known each other three months. We had a couple of kids. Then I got married again several years later and in 2016, I was going through a horrible divorce. If it was not for those words that I remembered God saying to me, that 2016 is going to be my year. I would have done something to jeopardize where I am now. I was going through it and my ex-wife was being a typical divorcee, I guess. It was a tough time for me but I stood on the rock, Jesus.

God told me it was going down in 2016. So, I figured I had from January 1^st of 2016 to December 31^st at 11:59 pm to get my scalp meat, no hair blown back. (Chuckles)  Because if God said it, then it’s going to happen. Then I was able to see the fruition of his promise happen in the second quarter of what was the worst year of my life. It only goes to show that, God is not like man.

I Ascend: You are also an accomplished Author can you tell us about your book.

“GRIFF”: I wrote a book for moms that are raising sons. This is from the perspective of a son raised by his sixteen year old mother. The book is titled “Cats and Puppies.” This is not a book about animals. It really started out as a love letter to my mom.

Here was this teenager who had a child in 1971 where there were no classes for pregnant teens. Yet she raised me to have never been arrested, never gone to jail, never joined a gang, and never sold drugs. Although, we had hardships I am where I am right now because of her. My mom is a quadruple OG (Original Gangster) I got nothing but respect for her.

I Ascend: Congratulations on Ascending and Standing in your Truth and Pursuing Destiny. What do you want people to remember most about you?

“GRIFF”: I am a bit of an anomaly because I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I did not need college. I wanted to be a comedian since I was three. I did not even meet one until I became one. How would I be able to know that as a child?  I just thank God for the gift.  Proverbs 17:22, says “Laughter is good for your soul, like a medicine.” Nowhere else in the Bible, does it say anything is good for your soul? Except Jesus. So I feel like we were picked. You know, the comics and the comedians. I had to have a tough life so I could tell people how it was to survive a tough life.  

I really want people remember me as the guy that did it all. You know, I did it my way. I trusted the God source inside of me. I never let human beings, family members included discourage me or take me off the course.

If I died tomorrow, and I by no means want this to be my last article for everybody to read. But if I if I die tomorrow, I had an amazing life. My kids love me, my relatives love me, my fans love me, and my wife loves me. More important than any of that I love myself, and I love what I do.

God showed me the prayer of Jabez and told me to walk that out. He said “Everywhere I went, would become my territory and He would enlarged those areas for me.” God is a promise keeper! To be able to go to Africa 29 times! Now, how can I not remember what He said? I thank God for putting a seed in me that turned into a redwood tree. I do not know where you’re from originally, but where I am from, we have redwood trees. A redwood tree would take about sixteen to nineteen dudes my size, to be able the touch, hand to hand, and hug around that tree. But it all started as a little nut. For God, to plant that kind of seed in me and trust me with it is phenomenal. The part I could cry about, is though I am not worthy and some days I am not the best version of me He still trust me. For that all I can do is say “Thank You God.”

I Ascend: Share with us what you’re working on currently and how our readers can continue to follow and stay abreast of all that you’re doing.

“GRIFF”: I am working on a lot of scripts and have some production going on. I shot a lot of movies last year that should be coming out soon.  The series “I Got A Story To Tell” is currently on BET Plus right now. I have several features coming out and I am doing a Gong show around the country. It is basically a talent show. We will be going to different markets and making people laugh and then gonging the people that are not good. (Chuckles)  It is really going to bless folks.

Don’t forget to tune into the radio show. You can hear me every morning, Monday through Friday on “Get Up! Mornings” with Erica Campbell, 5:00 am to 9:00 am Central, 6:00 am to 10:00 am, Eastern, check your local listings. I always wanted to say that since I was a little kid. Now check your local listings, which means find it! That is what it means. (Chuckles)  Find us @GetUpErica on everything and visit: www.GetUpErica.com   

Follow me @2trillion on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Be sure to visit my website at www.2Trillion.com.

I Ascend: Would you like to share anything else “Griff” as we come to a close?

“GRIFF”: I want to thank my beautiful wife Leunika. Although we have only been married a short time, she is really my peace. I am a hard dude to handle, I got my own thoughts and I have been doing things my way for a long time.

I am a lot, and I thank God to have blessed me with someone who could be equally yoked with me and not in competition? When I go high she just stay low. She does not try to match that energy, she just prays for me when I am asleep. I could not be more grateful after being married prior to still have someone who loves me as much as she does.

Let me send a shout out to Erica Campbell. Erica is one of the most “JESUS” person’s in my life. She is the most consistent, the most hardworking and the most fun. I do not look at Erica as my work wife.