- You're doing a movie. You're playing Mike Tyson.
- Is that right? - I'm playing Mike Tyson.
- Wow, that's gonna be amazing. - Yeah.
And--and what's interesting about Mike Ty--
I met Mike Tyson when I was 21.
You know, we're all doing stand-up comedy at that time,
and I was burning it, ooh, I was burning L.A. down.
I was, like, the hottest comic coming through,
and I get to my Mike Tyson joke,
and we in the hood at this hood club,
I get to my Mike Tyson joke, I'm about to kill it.
And it's complete silence
because Mike Tyson is in the audience.
And this is back in the time when Mike is knocking people out
for having on the wrong shirt, you know?
And so, I'm--no one's laughing, and then a dude,
who I still know to this day, yelled out from the back,
"Uh, Mike Tyson's in here."
And everybody--and then some black girls in the front
talking about, "What you gonna do, Jamie?
"You gonna tell the joke?
You gonna tell your little joke now, Jamie?"
I'm, like, "Don't get him upset," you know?
"He's obviously just trying to do his--"
So then the dude said, "Mike said, 'Do the joke'
And it better be funny." I'm, like, "Oh, snap."
So I do the jo--I do the joke. The joke was funny.
I get a standing ovation.
All of a sudden, Mike Tyson runs up to me.
"How you--you're so funny. you're crazy.
"Come here. I want to hang out with you.
"You're crazy. I want to hang out--
"I want to hang out with you. You're funny.
Come on, come on."
And I started hanging out with Mike Tyson
at a time where he was bigger than life,
so I didn't know that I was preparing at that time
by watching him, and I watched him all the way up--
I watched the demise
when he went through all of the bad things.
And then I watched him when he got out of jail
and came to Vegas.
I was actually living in Vegas 'cause I had ran out of money.
And, uh, uh-- [laughter]
And, uh, when he--when he fought in Vegas,
it was 350,000 people in the city with no tickets
and no place to stay.
When I went--and women came to stay at my house
because they wanted to see Mike Tyson.
he had this pull, like, it was corporate women.
You know, like, beautiful cor--
I said, "What is it about Mike Tyson that you like so much?"
And she's getting ready, she's, like, "Jamie,
"there's just something about a man
"who ain't got no shirt on and no socks,
and he could beat up everybody in the world."
And I was, like, "Ra--"
And when we went to the after-party,
it was at his house, and everybody was there.
Stevie Wonder was there playing the piano,
and he didn't like, um,
what's "The Thong Song" guy?
- Sisqo. - For some reason,
he didn't like, "Get away from me, 'Thong Song.'"
I was, like, "Oh."
"I don't like that 'Thong Song.'"
I was, like, "Hey, man. you better stand over here,
he don't like that."
And, uh, I watched the girl ask him to take a picture.
"Would you take a picture?" And he said,
"Get away from me! You don't want me to take a picture.
You want to put me back in jail."
And it really got serious. And everybody was, like, "Whoa."
"Get away from me! You want to put me in jail!"
And the security guards were, like, "Yo, Mike.
Mike, Mike. Hold on, Mike. Mike?"
And even Stevie Wonder was, like, "What--what is--"
[laughter]
Stevie's, like--Stevie--
I was, like, "Stevie, sit down.
You don't want to catch a right or something."
"What's going on?" "Don't worry about it, Stevie.
"Just--just-- just calm down.
Calm down, Stevie."
'Cause, you know, he wanted to flee.
He just heard something. He's, you know, his ears--
his ears are very sensitive.
I'm sorry.
So--so anyway, his-- his play sister comes
from out of the kitchen and calms him down.
And I watched that as a moment.
Leading all the way up to now, today when we--
when we talked about doing the movie,
and Terry Winter, who wrote "Boardwalk Empire,"
Martin Scorsese, who hasn't directed a movie
about boxing since "Raging Bull," will direct it.
And when I went to meet with Mike,
it's a different Mike, which is a Mike
I think we'll really, really focus on.
I went to his house, different, modest,
no lions, no tigers in cages.
And I said, "Mike, how are you?"
And he--he--this is the-- this is the--
this is Mike, not the impersonation,
"I'll pray to Allah, my brother. I'm happy."
"So, why are you happy?" "'Cause I don't--
"I don't have any money any more,
"so nobody can take anything from me anymore.
"I'm happy. I'm more-- I'm at peace with myself.
There's no vultures, no crazy people around me."
I said, "That's the movie."
And then when you say him in a wreck with his daughter,
every time she was outside playing, he said,
"Be somewhere I can see you. I don't want to be able
"to have to look out there and not see you.
"Don't make me mad now 'cause I want to be able to see you.
I don't want anything to happen to you."
Because he lost his daughter.
So all of those things is going to make this movie,
I think, one of the most exciting things that I've--
- Yeah, what a life. I'm sure it'll be amazing.
- You'll be amazing. - Thank you.