(Intro music) - Hello everyone, and welcome to this episode of HBCU.
As you know, HBCU's have filled the gap for education for communities of color for more than a century and a half.
My guest today is an actor, producer, comedian, and dancer.
He is known for shows and movies such as "Flex & Shanice," "Snakes on a Plane," "One on One," and "The Hills Have Eyes II."
Please help me welcome Flex Alexander to HBCU.
- Hey, Hey.
What's going on, man?
- Glad to have you on the show, man.
- My disclaimer, I don't dance anymore.
So we gonna have to take that off the bio.
- But that was gonna be the first thing I was gonna ask you to do was dance, man.
- Them dancing days are gone, bro.
(laughing) - But Flex, this show we feel like is doing some really important work around the country.
And the goal is to shine a spotlight on HBCU's and individuals that have been impacted by HBCU's.
Now me myself, I attended Alcorn State University, but I transferred to the University of Memphis, where I graduated.
- Ah.
- And I often tell everyone that I think that's one of my biggest regrets is that I did not complete my higher education at an HBCU.
- Yeah.
- Now I know you went to St. Augustine.
- Yeah.
- [Dee] Attended there.
- [Flex] Didn't finish.
- [Dee] But you were- - Same thing.
- But you pledged Phi Beta Sigma there, right?
- Yeah, Phi Beta Sigma.
Yes, sir.
- And so HBCUs still have an impact.
I mean, I have memories from Alcorn as if it was yesterday.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- But just talk to me about the time you were there.
- I mean it's brief, but it was fun.
One thing coming from New York and going down to North Carolina, back then that's when people down South would be like, "Oh, you from up north?"
And it was a big deal.
So I was the guy that you know, the dancer, I played basketball, and I'll say pretty popular with everybody.
It was just fun.
It's like when you look at a different world, you think about school and, you know, the impact that, that show had on us as black teens going into our adulthood, - Right.
- Black men and women, it was a huge impact.
And I'm like, I wanted a piece of that.
- Yeah.
- So it still holds today.
You know, you hold those friendships, and those brotherhoods, and friendships for a lifetime.
- Yeah, it's a comradery, it's a close-knit community.
- Yeah.
- When I transferred to the University of Memphis, I was more isolated.
I had a group of friends that were there with me but it was a totally different feel from being on a HBCU campus.
- Yeah.
- And I remember some of the things that we did while we were in school - Yeah.
(laughing) - like making cheese toast - with an iron.
- Oh man, - You ever did that?
(laughing) - Listen, grilled cheese with the iron, the Ramen noodles.
If you was fancy you had tuna fish you put in your Ramen noodles.
- [Dee] Yeah, that was gourmet.
- That was gourmet.
(laughing) The Bisquick biscuits, we'd make those.
And we'd get grandma's molasses and we'd sop... We needed something there to fill you up.
- [Dee] Right, right.
(both laughing) - [Dee] You want it to hold you (both laughing) - [Dee] Right.
(both laughing) - Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Man, those things last, and I think, I think those, I think that's what this generation is missing.
- Right.
- Those hard times.
- Yeah.
- You know, they, these kids are gonna school now.
It's like, mom, dad, can you cash app me?
You know?
And, and back then you had to figure it out - from their cell phone.
- You, yeah - Right.
Everybody have a cell phone.
- Everybody got cell phone, you, you back then you either made a collect call and hope your mama accepted it.
- Right.
Right.
- [Dee] Now I'm gonna talk about a big aspect of the HBCU life.
And that's the Greek life component.
- Um hm - I'm a life member, Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, - Um hm - proud life member.
I I know you remember of a Phi Beta Sigma.
- Sigma (laughing) - I won't hold that against you.
I know you wore your blue suit and everything.
- You know, I had to wear my blue.
(laughing) - My wife is, is your Soror.
- Yes, (indistinct) - Yeah.
She's a Zeta Phi Beta.
- Yes sir.
But it's all love - [Dee] it's all love, but, but talk to me about Greek life and how that impacted you both professionally and socially.
- I think socially, it again, even from different fraternities, it's still one big fraternity.
- Right.
- You know, it, I think it grooms you and professionally as well, because so many people from, from all fraternities have gone on to do great things, - Right.
- In the community, business.
I have friends that are, you know, dentists, friends that are lawyers.
I have Kappa friends that are heading major corporations.
And, and I think that's the beautiful thing.
And I, a lot of people focus on what is and what isn't like, oh, you know, we not really Greek and all that.
And I get that.
But I think the idea was the sense of community, - Right.
- That our founders thought of.
- Right.
- And, and overall, I think that is the most important message.
Is this the togetherness, the bros and the sisters to hold each other down to, to, again, you can be 20, 25 years later, 30 years later.
And you may have a friend that you crossed with, - [Dee] Right.
- Or you, you knew from, from another fraternity, but still there's that sense of, of togetherness.
And I think that is the thing that has affected me the most.
And I mean, I'm not super, super active.
Like I got friends now still going to get people crossed.
I'm like, come on, man.
(laughing) - Like you 54, like cut it out.
But I still show my love and, - [Dee] Yeah.
- and appreciate what it, what it did.
- No, absolutely.
For me, it was, it has presented just unprecedented networking opportunities.
- Um hm, definitely.
- I mean obviously the social aspect of it is, - Yeah.
- you know, unmatched.
- Yeah.
Definitely.
- You went in and gained brothers.
- Oh yeah.
- For life - For life.
- But from a professional perspective, it's just been unreal in terms of how I've been able to open doors, - Um hm - and meet people and advance my, my business through those fraternal relationships.
- Yeah.
- [Dee] And that's a major part of the HBCU experience.
I mean, it's part of the college experience as well, - Right.
- but it's something unique.
- Yeah it's different, - [Dee] Yeah its unique.
- It's different.
It's like you in school and you're getting that, that experience, but the other side is another experience - Right.
- it's like, we get a double dose - Oh, no, absolutely.
Absolutely.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- Now talk to me about your, your professional career.
- Yeah.
- When did you, cause I know you didn't come from the best circumstances.
- [Flex] Right.
Right.
- You had your challenges in life.
- [Flex] Yeah.
Yeah.
- When did you get your big break?
- I got, came up in the Bronx and you know, like you said, went through a lot coming up that, that in 85, that crack era hit and it was, it decimated the community and, and just our community, especially.
And I just always had aspirations of, of getting out.
I had aspirations of wanting to do more.
I remember, I remember my mom was getting dressed to go out and TV was on and that's back when HBO first came out and it was a big deal to have HBO.
- [Dee] Yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
- And I looked, and I see this guy in a red suit, making people laugh and it was Eddie Murphy's Delirious.
I said, mom, I wanna do that.
I'm gonna do that.
And she said, oh, okay, baby.
Yeah, mama proud of you.
(laughing) And just it kept going, not that she didn't believe, but you know, you're a kid, you, you are always talking about what you wanna do, - Right.
- and different things.
- Right.
- But that stuck with me, my initial plan was to play basketball and that didn't work out.
So I come back home, fast forward and I just started hanging out in the clubs, meet a good friend of mine named stretch.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- And he's like, yo, you wanna, you wanna hit the clubs?
We go dancing, whatever.
I'm like, all right, cool.
He introduced me to a whole nother crew and we just, we just danced man in New York, we would just dance.
We would go all the popular clubs and we would dance a lot when, well, it was now Diddy, but Puffy would have his parties back in the day.
Even before that we'd go to Howard.
He would have his big parties up there.
And he's like, yeah, I want y'all to come up there and set it off.
And we we'd go up there and dance.
So from that, I was, it was a dare friend of mine named Kalif said to me, he said, oh man, you know you funny you always impersonating people 'cause I could meet somebody and just, and - [Dee] Right.
Impersonate.
- you know, impersonate them on spot.
And then he kept challenging me.
He said, you need to go on stage.
You need to go on stage.
And I was like, all right, whatever.
So I did one day went to a place called The Uptown Comedy Club on 125th in Harlem.
And they had an amateur segment where you had to do two to three minutes of comedy, which I thought was a lifetime back then I finally got a chance to go on after going couple of weeks and not getting the opportunity I go on, I do my little set and it was amazing.
Like the, the feeling I got from the people laughing, 'cause they're listening to me.
- Yeah.
- Because prior to that I had been a background dancer, you know, for salt and pepper and all these other groups.
And I was like, this is it.
This is it right here.
And that really, that catapulted me, that, that I took off, did a movie called Juice, which is a, definitely a, a classic.
- Right, right.
- I was up for the main role, but the, that role went to Omar Epps, and then they said, man, we like this kid.
Let's give him something.
So they give the little role with, with Latifah.
And that became such a memorable role in the movie.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- And we was trending on TikTok and I'm like, well, (laughing) - I'm like, what the heck?
So, so yeah.
I went from there.
Then my friend Dougie, Doug had a show on ABC called Where I Live.
I played his best friend on there.
I had to go and win the role.
Got that.
And it just kept going.
It just kept going.
I went from there, we were doing, kept doing standup.
Then I did a show called Homeboys in Outer Space.
Then a show after that called Total Security with, with Jim Belushi, it just kept going, man.
- Yeah.
- And then ultimately when I, I created my show One on One.
The story about that, I was in LA and it was at a time where things were slow and I was gonna give up.
I was like, I'm done.
And I had met my wife, Shanice, we were just friends at the time.
And I would just talk to her.
I would just vent.
And I said, man, I can't take this anymore, man.
I'm going back to New York and she was like, you can't do that.
You're too talented.
She said, you gotta create your own stuff.
Do you have anything that?
And I was like, well, yeah, I gotta show about this guy and again about, you know, and it came from a friend of mine in Harlem who was a single dad and that's how it came about.
- Really?
- you know.
Yeah.
So I kind of fast tracked everything.
But that, that is that's how everything went.
- Well, I'm gonna jump back and insert - Yeah.
- A question that happened in the middle of this.
- Yeah.
Okay.
- So, you were on Deaf Comedy Jam right?
- Yeah, I did that too.
If forgot that.
- Now you used, but no, but you to tell these, this joke about your granddad.
- [Flex] Oh the grandad.
Yeah, yeah.
(laughing) - Yeah.
So first of all, was any of that true?
(laughing) - Yeah, it was an uncle.
It wasn't a grandfather, it was an uncle.
It was uncle, but I just made it a grandfather, but it was uncle.
I did.
He, every, he always had a story.
He always, it was always something, man.
- Now I know, I know some of the stories aren't PBS friendly, but give me one of the stories - Gosh.
- that we can not the elephant story.
- Oh.
I can't think (laughing) - I can't.
I'm trying to remember.
I'm trying to think if I can remember something right now.
I can't remember off the top of my head.
Uh, Let me get back with you.
- Okay.
- Let go something else.
I give, let me think of something.
I'll think of something, - But as it, as it relate to One on One, - Uh huh - Do your kids watch it?
- No, our kids, they they've watched a couple of episodes.
They haven't even watched the whole season.
I'm like how, how you gonna do that?
Our daughter pretty much grew up on the set by the time our son was born and the show was ending.
So he wasn't there that much.
But they, they, I mean their friends watch it.
I, I think it's a bigger deal for their friends that I'm just dad.
- Yeah.
- So it's not, it is not a big deal.
- It's hard to impress your kids.
(laughing) - It's so hard.
But the, the cool thing is it gave me another generation.
It gave us the whole show.
- Yeah.
- Another generation of supporters and, and kids who didn't know about us.
So now we have my age group down to 12 year olds that, that watch it.
I get people coming up to me and you know, people reaching out on social media.
Oh, my daughter loves the show.
My son loves the show and yeah, it's, I'm, I'm happy about that.
I'm so happy about that.
A strong black lead.
They were the ones who really were on the forefront for pushing for those shows.
Like my show, like Moesha, The Parkers.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- Girlfriends, all of them to get back, to get back on there and we're work.
I can't say a whole lot, but we're working on something special for, with One on One.
- [Dee] Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll be looking out for it.
Now, you've had quite a career.
- Um hm - If you hung your boots up today, what do you think your, your biggest impact would be on the industry?
- I can't hang my boots up today, man.
(Dee laughing) I'm not finished.
I'm not finished.
- [Dee] A Lot of work left to do - I haven't made the, I haven't made the impact that I truly wanna make.
I haven't, I haven't gotten there yet.
I feel like I've had moments - [Dee] Um hm - and I'm thankful for those moments, but I don't feel like I've, I've reached that point where I could go, you know what?
Okay.
If it all stop now I'm cool.
You know, I'm just gonna ride off in the sunset.
Yeah.
I'm not there yet.
(laughing) - [Dee] I understand.
Understand.
I look, I feel the same way, man.
- [Flex] I got a lot more to do.
- I have a lot more to do a lot more I want to write in my, in my final chapter.
- Yes, sir.
Man.
It's about, it's about legacy, man.
- Absolutely.
Now you wrote a graphic novel called Joshua Run.
- Yeah.
- [Dee] Tell me about that and your motivation behind it.
- [Flex] Uh, Joshua run came from, I'm a, I'm a comic book head.
So I love all things comic you know, Marvel, all that stuff.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- And I love graphic novels.
And this just was an idea that I just thought about, I thought would be cool about this guy.
Who's a tech and you know, he's tech savvy.
He he does a little helps people get things erased off their driving record and stuff like that.
And you know, he is working and he comes across this encrypted file that, you know, leads straight up to The White House and he leaves for lunch.
And when he comes back, the office has been destroyed just because he clicked on opened it.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- You know, they raided it people were killed and then now he's running for his life and there's an agent that's in on the FBI side, that's actually helping him stay ahead of the game because she believes him and she knows what it is.
It's it's the, the vice president is trying to have the president taken out because he's not following the agenda and actually really wants to do good.
And yeah, so that, and I was like, that would be cool for just a young, young kid to to do.
And, and we just haven't seen anything like that.
It's, it's basically like the Jason Bourne, but for us, - [Dee] Yeah.
- We hadn't seen that.
So I did the graphic novel and it, it was cool.
We didn't, I don't think we got enough out of it that we could have because in that space you really have, have gotta put a lot into it.
And my partner, Dave Stewart III, he, he was buying a lot of properties from before, like Punky Brewster, Night Rider.
He own those, but something like this, you gotta pump, you gotta pump marketing into it.
And just, just do a little more, we needed to do some more because my dream or my hope was to turn that into, to a series.
- [Dee] Okay.
- Um hm - [Dee] Well, it's not too late.
- Okay.
All right all right, all right.
Yeah.
- Yep.
I want to just kind of pivot back a little bit to your - Um hm - earlier years.
I grew up in a rural Mississippi community - Um hm - with where there was more opportunity to do wrong than, right.
- (laughing) Yeah.
- [Dee] And um, - Yeah.
- you know, I think for, for us who made it out and became successful, we in a lot of ways beat the odds.
- Yeah.
- And I know I've looked at your, your history and your background, and I know that you came from similar situations.
- Yeah.
- Larger city, - Yeah.
- which means it was more opportunities - Yeah, yeah.
- [Dee] Talk to me a little bit about growing up in New York and the Bronx.
- Ah, man, growing up in New York man, New York was, it was the center of everything, man.
It was so much fun and you know, I'm a 70's baby.
And so I got to enjoy that 70's era.
And then coming up into the early 80's when hip hop hit the scene, - [Dee] Right.
- Sugar Hill Gang.
I remember the, the summers where the girls went in front of the building, jumping Double Dutch and - [Dee] Right.
- The fellas was playing The Tops, Scalcies, Scallies.
And.
- [Dee] Remember the Big Boom Box?
- Oh yeah.
(Dee laughing) - The Boom Boxes.
And we break dancing.
- Right.
- And we got linoleum out like that.
When I think of New York, I closed my eyes and that's the, the vision I still get.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- Then crack era hit.
I ended up and it affected my family.
I had my mom dealt with addiction and two of my brothers did.
And then I just started floating around and I moved out to Brooklyn and cousin of mine and one of my neighbors across the street my neighbor, I'm seeing him every week, just looking like back how we sit back in the day, looking fresh.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- And we just, with everything, the chain, I'm like, I'm like, yo, what are you doing?
He's like, yo man you know, we pushing that weight.
I'm like, what'd you mean?
I was like, I wanna do that.
And, and he hooked it up and I started working in Brooklyn and then we moved up to Rochester, New York.
And I basically was selling crack cocaine and, and, and some of the purest of the pure, yeah, man, I just, I went hard and it was almost like I was so angry at what it did to my family.
I was like, I'm gonna pay society back.
And this is what I'm gonna do.
And, and I got to a point where, it weighed on my conscious - [Dee] Yeah.
- Even all the money I was making.
And I lied to my mom told her I was working for the phone company.
She was like, you ain't working for no damn phone company.
(both laughing) She knew - They don't pay you in cash.
(laughing) - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
AT&T ain't reaching out and touching you like that.
(laughing) So, but I got to a point where one of the cats was working.
With got pistol whipped and by the, the guys we were working for and it just, it just started getting bad.
And I just saw it breaking down and I, and I said, listen, I,I'm gonna get outta here.
I wanna, I said anything.
I said, I wanna go back to school.
I was making up whatever.
- [Dee] Right.
- And surprisingly, the guy I was working for was he was like, all right, cool.
He said, but you know, just remember, I know where you live.
And I was like, you ain't gotta worry about me saying nothing, (laughing) you know, And I got out.
- Yeah.
- And then that following week, about a week and a half later, my partner who I would partner up with another friend of ours, cousin took my place, went up there and they were hanging outside.
And these cats rolled up to rob the the drug house.
And he ran upstairs and he looked out the window, they shot up and shot him in our heart.
And I mean, that could have easily been me.
- [Dee] Right.
- You know?
And after that, I came back to Brooklyn and I thought I learned my lesson.
And I said, I'm gonna do a couple more little things.
I'm walking to the train station and now mind you, I'm actually packing at the time I'm walking.
These brothers run up on me and they're shouting and I'm not understanding what they're shouting.
Throw me up on the gate.
They're pushing me.
Dude pulls out the gun.
And literally he's, he's pulling the trigger.
He's pulling it, that it was, he just was pulling, it was jammed.
And I punched him and then I ran.
I didn't even think, let me reach, reach to my, my gun.
And I, and I, and I leave, I run, run to the train station and it happens to be a police officer there.
And he comes down, the police officer comes down and he's figuring out what's going on.
I said, Hey, pull the gun on me.
And he got him and he's starting to pat me down.
And he literally, he pats and he does not feel the gun that I have on me.
He got this guy and he said, okay, we're going We're gonna go down to the thing.
And I said, listen.
I said, my mom is at the house and I have a sick mother.
I have to go tell her.
And he literally drove me in the car to my house.
I got out, went into the house, put the gun up, get back in, to go back and go through the process.
- [Dee] Right.
- And I'll never forget that.
I'm like, yo, I, I have angels watching over me because I should have been caught.
They should have caught me with that gun.
They should have caught me.
You know, they should have not let me stop to go home.
- [Dee] Right.
- You know?
And I never forgot that.
And that same gun, my brother, who, who had a crack addiction at that time, took that gun and he sold it and I came back and I was pissed.
But in the end that saved my life.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- I kicked him out.
He goes and lives with his sponsor and he got clean.
- Wow.
- So, yeah - Wow.
Wow, It's amazing.
- Yeah.
- I want to pivot back to HBCU's for just a minute.
I know you attended, but didn't complete your degree there, - Um hm - but still, I think that you have had an impact on the lives that you touched while you were on that campus, because people that went to school with you, even though for a limited time, they still now look at you - Now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because at that time I wasn't doing what I'm doing now.
- [Dee] Right.
- I was the funny guy and all that, - [Dee] Right.
- but it hadn't taken off yet.
- Absolutely.
But if you had to tell young people of color, why they should consider going to an HBCU, what would you tell them?
- Man, it's the best experience in the world.
Even if I hadn't gone, I would, I would tell them like, that's, that's why seeing what Deion Sanders is doing.
- [Dee] Right.
- Brothers like him, like, and, and he getting that media hate.
- [Dee] Right.
- But it is.
It's a great, it's a great thing.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- I would tell kids, get that experience if you have a chance to go to Harvard and all those other places, that's great, but it won't be the same experience.
- [Dee] Right.
right.
- You know, it won't be.
For the, for the culture, for, for the history.
And that's my thing, the history, the culture, alumni, you know?
- [Dee] Right.
- You look at Chadwick Boseman, you look at Anthony Anderson.
Who's gonna be getting his degree and graduating from Howard with his son.
- [Dee] Right.
- I mean, where else could you do that?
- [Dee] It's unreal.
- You know what I mean?
- [Dee] Yeah.
- That's, they're graduating Bisons.
- Yeah.
- You know, so that's dope.
- And, and just to add to what you're saying, just that whole support system.
- Yeah.
- That that's there, - Yeah.
- that you can't get when you're in a classroom with 150 other students.
- Man.
Listen, if you hungry and you go to Howard or Harvard, you can't go across the street to Bojangles and get a three piece.
- [Dee] Right.
- You can't do it, but in North Carolina, you can in DC, you can, you can find somewhere to go and you can make friends with somebody.
- Right.
- I make friends with everybody, all the girls that worked in like Friendly's and, and Bojangles and all these other Hardees, I made friends cause that friendship that turned into free meals.
(laughing) - [Dee] Right.
Right.
And I'm gonna say this Flex, I believe that your, your life that you live, the accomplishments that you have achieved have been impactful.
And I think that although you may not have graduated from your HBCU, you have left a legacy that many people will, would like to follow.
And so, because of that, we want to present you with, - Oh man, - the HBCU Lifetime Achievement Award.
- Wow.
- For your unwavering support.
- Oh wow.
- For historically black colleges and universities.
- [Flex] Oh, wow man.
Thank you.
- [Dee] And so we want to present this to you.
- Oh thank you.
- [Dee] And we appreciate all that you've done to our people, - Oh, man.
- And to be a shining star.
- Look at that, mama.
(Dee laughing) I made it.
- And I've never been acknowledged for anything, man.
This, this is, I mean, other than you know, your family.
- [Dee] Yeah.
- Award wise, man.
So this, I don't take this lightly at all.
I, I'm appreciative.
I try to do it the right way.
I've always tried to make the culture proud.
- [Dee] Right.
- [Flex] You know, - [Dee] you have done a good job.
- [Flex] I'ma keep doing that.
(laughing) - You know, you've, you've beat all the odds, - Yes, sir.
- You know, all of us have had challenges we've had to overcome to get - Yeah.
- to where we are.
And it's those challenges that make us who we are.
- Yes, sir.
- And so for all, you've done, we, we want to honor you for that.
- Thank you.
My uncle would always say, he'd tell me something and I'd be like, oh well, but you ain't doing, he said, boy, don't do as I do.
Do as I say do.
(both laughing) - Well Flex, it's been great.
- Thank you, man - having you on the show.
I really appreciate you.
- Thank you - to my viewers.
I appreciate you watching, Flex Alexander.
Thank you for watching.
HBCU with Dee Brown CEO.
And remember without you there's no me.
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