I was not influenced by Jack Benny, and people have remarked on my timing and Jack's timing, but I don't think you can teach timing. It's something you hear in your head.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I have often been told that I have many of the same mannerisms as Jack Benny and certainly Bob Cummings.
I just want to sound different than everyone else. I don't care if it sounds bad. I just want people to be like, 'Yo, that dude Benny was different.' Even if it sounds awful, at least they can't say, 'Oh well, I've heard that before.'
I never got lessons. I took influence from Chet Baker, Ian Dury, and Joe Strummer. I don't hear my voice and think, 'Yeah, that's a banging voice!' It's more about putting the right emotions into the right words and the lyrics than anything else to me.
Jack Benny was, without a doubt, the bravest comedian I have ever seen work. He wasn't afraid of silence. He would take as long as it took to tell the story.
The question for me was, could TV actually teach? I knew it could, because I knew 3-year-olds who sang beer commercials!
You can't teach someone to be funny, but you can teach comic timing. If you listen to a good comic, you can learn how to put it on a page.
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.
Coming into the music industry, even when I was a kid, one thing I learned is timing is everything. You being prepared is everything.
I don't have a classical-music mentality. I haven't been taught that way, and it doesn't fit my character, either.
Working with Benny was important for me and for black musicians in general.