London Brown talks acting, stand-up comedy and Seattle Black College Expo

Well, he is best known for playing Uncle Marvin on Power Book 3, Raising Kanan or Reggie on HBO's Ballers. But actor and comedian London Brown is going beyond the screen to mentor our next generation. And this weekend, he's in town for the National College Resource Foundation's Seattle Black College Expo. London Brown is here this morning. Good morning to you. Hey, good morning. It's great to have you. And so you created kind of an iconic character. Uh, with uncle Marvin, he'd been, uh, you've won awards for it, you know, funniest performance and so forth. Now, now one thing that fans have pointed out is that Marvin's always eating. Yes. On the show. And, and part of that goes back to your, your training as an actor, because you're creating business for your character. So Marvin, Marvin's just a hungry guy. I just wanted to find an interesting way to keep the character, you know, keep some eyes on him and just want to layer him down. And that's just one of those small. hooks that I use to get the audience attention so that they can really follow along with Uncle Marvin on the show. So, yes, it ain't bad. People love it. And they love your stand-up, too. You've been doing stand-up for a long, long time. Yes. How does your acting work inform your on-stage comedy and vice versa? I think, well, you know, with... At the end of the day, I think that Art Across the Board is about transparency and truth and holding a mirror to society and all those things. So they're not really that far from each other. It's just stand-up is just a one-man show. But it's all theater. It's still performing. It's still being honest and all those artistic things. But fortunately, I can do both, so they both pay bills. Okay. Well, congratulations to you on that and doing very well. You can't be a stand-up comedy without going out there at some point and just bombing, right? Yeah. And so what is that like when you go out and none of your stuff is landing? Well, you know what? I think the difference between— It's probably been a while for you. Well, no, you know what? Honestly, with bombing, I think once you've been doing stand-up for a while, you don't necessarily— I don't think you bomb after you have the formula for creating jokes. But I think that there are some sets where you're not going to get a laugh all the time because we're working out. And working through material, rather. So it's not about bombing because, you know, after a while, you got a bunch of material in your pocket. You can always go for a laugh. But, you know, it's like, do you want to go for the quick laugh for tonight or you want to grow for tomorrow? So most times we try to grow for tomorrow. So bombing is like, all right. You know, not trying new material is really when you, you know, that's really bombing because you're not growing because you're not trying anything. Right, right. I get that. So how did growing up in South Central Los Angeles shape you as a person, the work you're doing with the National College Resources Foundation? Yes, being from South Central LA, I realized that a lot of young people sometimes just don't have the opportunity to go and explore to figure out what it is they want to be. So being that I was working Working with after school programs and a teacher and so forth, it was always important for me to hopefully use my influence to inspire young people to say, yo, don't wait. With some focus and some discipline, you can go out there and get it and get yourself, you know, in school. And, you know, because I come from the same area as most of these young people that I'm helping come from. So I understand. I just try to be hopefully inspiring to them. Absolutely. So tell us about this weekend's event and why education and representation and mentorship is so, so important. Oh, man, this weekend is great because we're putting up the Black College Expo National College Resources Foundation is the name of the organization. What we do, me. Rapper Queen, Rapper Yo-Yo, and a few of us, Kel Mitchell from Kenan & Kel, there are a few of us who are ambassadors, and we don't want to just talk about it, but we try to financially help the students get into college and find a focus, and hopefully, you know, as someone who's living their dreams, we try to get young people to... Catch this fire early and like, don't wait, get into your passion, be inspired, get some education behind it. Don't waste time because life is short. That's it. See, that's the thing. I mean, find your thing and then go after it. Go after it. Because like people will look at you and they say, man, look at you. You're on top of the mountain or you're really close, but you're still climbing. And you're still learning. And I think that's the important thing is that it doesn't just come. I mean, you really, really got to work. I mean, think about all the hours that you spent on stage working around. Absolutely. You know, there's lots of free gigs and stuff like that. But I did have teachers and people around me who planted a seed. And, you know, other people came around, they watered it. I was able to invest that sort of energy in me. So it's only right that I go back and I do the same thing. I'm like, it's possible. It's possible. That's great. That is great. London Brown, a pleasure, man. It was so good to have you stop by. I appreciate you. And by the way, the Seattle Black College Expo tomorrow at Highline College, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tickets are free and you can hang out with these guys. You can find more about all of this on our page at Fox13Seattle.com.