More than Meets the Eye part 3 my interview with MVP by John M Ellison IV

I noticed over the years a lot of wrestlers tend to be stand-up comedy fans and the feeling tends to be mutual with other comedians such as Jay Mohr, Steve Harvey mentioning that they’re wrestling fans as well. Since you mentioned that you’re a stand-up comedy fan, I was wondering you noticed any similarities?

Dude…every chance I get I check out stand-up! I recently got to see Ralphie May and he’s a huge—uh…

*laughs*

Uh, huge wrestling fan. There’s the place I frequent called the Laff Spot in Houston, TX. Whenever I talk to a comic I always tell them the similarities between an upstart wrestler and an upstart comic are frightening. It’s so uncanny. The only difference between it is the physical training that you would have to go through with pro wrestling. The similarities include you would drive virtually anywhere to practice your craft in front of people for next to nothing. I used to drive Miami to Jacksonville for free. That’s a five hour drive for no pay but for experience. At this point, you do this to develop your craft and your name. So after awhile you start to get $20 or maybe $50. But still not making any money, it’s more of an expensive hobby. You would hope somebody who’s a bit more established takes you under their wing and starts teaching you some things. In stand up it’s all about psychology and in professional wrestling it’s about psychology as well. In pro wrestling if you’re a “worker” you go out there and you work the crowd. When I worked with Benoit, he had a terrible memory so we couldn’t sit there and talk about 20 minutes worth of spots. We had a general idea about what we wanted to do but we worked “on the fly.” If you’re a stand-up comic and you’re doing 10 minutes of material and you find the audience isn’t responding to your material…you got to change it up and “call it on the fly”, too. If a guy and I are having a match and the crowd isn’t responding, we got to change some shit to get them to respond. So, knowing your audience, working on your timing and be able to call it on the fly are a few things we both had to learn.

You’re right; I mean amongst other things, comedy was always an interest of mine. I noticed there was a similar tweet regarding wrestlers and comedians. On my timeline, there were some comedians and wrestlers tweeting about how they felt they were both snubbed by the “booker” at a gig.
It’s the same thing! A booker will say to you “all right if you drive up I’ll give you $50 or five minutes” and when you get there and perform. They’ll say “well the house was kind of light tonight so I can only get you $30.” Promoters will try to weasel out of what you were promised. It happens all of the time and that’s something comedians and upcoming wrestlers have to face.

Apparently Chili formerly of TLC is a fan of WWE. Billy Corgan is really into pro wrestling as well. Who’s the most unexpected fan of yours or of wrestling that you’ve come across?

It doesn’t surprise me when I meet someone that’s a fan of wrestling but it does sometimes surprise me when I meet someone that’s a fan of mine. Years ago, when Smackdown was moving to “MyTV” they sent me to a Phoenix Suns vs L.A. Lakers game to do a half time giveaway.  Michael Clarke Duncan who’s a Lakers fan had floor seats not too far away from me. I’m not a fan of Kobe Bryant. Relating to a similar point earlier, I can’t tell you that Kobe Bryant sucks because he’s one of the greatest guys ever to touch a basketball. On the other hand, Shaq was still playing for the Phoenix Suns. I love Shaq so I’m rooting for Phoenix. Inevitably, there’s Michael Clarke Duncan. We never met but we found each other. I’m taunting him, he’s taunting me and we almost had our own sideshow on the floor. So I did the giveaway during the half time and as I was walking back he said something and I said “Don’t make me come over there, man!” He’s like “come over here!” Y’know, just trading words. Towards the end, the Lakers won. He’s like “what?” and I just wave a white flag. After the game, I went over to shake hands with him I said “Hey, I’m a big fan of your work” and he replied “No man, I’m a big fan of yours!” I’m thinking “okay, this is customary…” As I was waiting with one of our representatives, Michael Clarke Duncan had just turned around the corner with his girlfriend at the time. He said “Baby, remember the one wrestler I like the one with the attitude who’s real cool? That’s him right there!” He came over, he introduced his girl. We exchanged numbers and we’ve been friends ever since. So yeah, I can’t tell you anybody that I was surprised to find out that they like wrestling but on occasion it surprises me to find out that somebody’s a fan of mine.

It’s not that surprising I remember reading that Jack Nicholson was a huge Ric Flair fan.

I could see that, that makes sense.

Even the guys on Eastbound and Down—

Danny McBride?

Yes! Remember the Ric Flair based character?

I know that episode *laughs*

I “tweeted” Jim Ross about it and he replied “it wasn’t a coincidence” and this interview with Will Ferrell confirmed that it was based off of Ric Flair. Meanwhile before I found that confirmation there were fans trying to downplay it with this smugness.

Y’know, getting into it, I think that’s Vince McMahon’s issue is. Because wrestling is still received with that derision, they’re a lot of people that still talk about wrestling almost contemptuously. Vince wants to be accepted as mainstream entertainment. Wrestling will always be a part of Americana but he wants to get Emmys and to be accepted into the establishment and shake the…what’s the word?

Stigma?

Yeah, I guess stigma would be the word.

How do you feel about rappers andcelebs in general trying to get into wrestling? Do you feel they should just stay in their lane or the occasional crossover can help both in the long run?

If you’re a fan, do it. But I would balk a bit when WWE would bring in celebrities who didn’t care for the product or weren’t wrestling fans. I remember at Wrestlemania 24…the kid from the Cosby Show.

Raven Symone?

Yeah, during an afternoon rehearsal she said “I want to thank you all to coming to the “Smackdown show…”

*Cringes*

They had to correct her and I’m like this is our Superbowl, you wouldn’t come out and say “we want to thank you for coming to the Monday Night…Show. So I said “that’s okay we don’t watch that panther girl shit you make either!” or something and the guys laughed. I was brought up in the old school way and I was a bit of a purist or didn’t allow enough room for what the WWE was becoming. But, when they brought in people that were fans then I thought “run it…have fun.” But when they brought in people who had a movie they wanted to hock and wanted a mainstream guy…that kinda irked me.

Thanks to social networking sites like Twitter, I got in contact with you and a few of my other favorite artists. I noticed that you’re also on Facebook , Youtube and working on a website. Do you think social media helps fans see another side of you?

Absolutely! I admit, I fought “social networking” for so long. I mean, if you were on Myspace and you had something to promote or sell I understand. If you had a Facebook, that was a way for old friends and family to connect with me. I guess I got that too. I resisted it, I thought it was stupid. But until I wanted to do something with my music, my friend “JJ” said you need to get on Twitter. Then I thought, “Wow, Twitter’s like a video game to me.” It’s like no matter what time it is or where I am in the world it’s always like a few people hanging out with me. Most of those people genuinely care about what I have to say. It helped most people realize that the guy on Monday Night RAW or Friday Night Smackdown is much deeper and has so many more dimensions. I mean, I love comedy; I love thrash, punk, hardcore, metal, jazz etc. so it definitely helps people see a different side.

Well folks, this wraps up the interview with MVP. Keep an eye out for the next segment of “More than Meets the Eye.” Once again, I want to thank MVP for making time in his schedule for the inaugural edition of the interview feature “More than Meets the Eye.” You can check him out on…

Official website
http://mvp305.com/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/OfficiallyMVP

Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/The305MVP

Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/user/MVP305BRAND

photo courtesy of

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