we are now at 5:30 am so people get 30 minutes more to sleep in, we welcome you this day and we are blessed to have donald lacey junior who is an actor, writer, and producer and talkshow host, great to have you . >> god bless you, thank you for having me. do you know if troy was waking up are going to bed when he saw the program? >> [laughter] that is a good one, he did not tell me. >> as i said to you earlier, you have an encyclopedia of experience, but let us talk with love life and how you

produce this and how it was based. >> thank you for the question, it was the idea of my 16-year- old daughter and her name means love life in english. she was a special young lady, i delivered her in the car while driving on the freeway at 3:30 am with one hand on the wheel and one hand between her mother's legs, to god be the glory, she survived the traumatic experience, she was a loving individual, the summer of 1997 a classmate of hers was murdered and she came to me and said she wanted me to help her write a play to honor her friend . unfortunately, a couple of months later she was killed, an innocent victim to a shooting.

at the time i was going back and forth to los angeles working on shows with jamie foxx, laura hayes, etc., i stopped all of that and decided to pick up her baton and carry forward her mission. here we are, 20 hours later having made an impact on thousands of lives and "love life" is the official motto of the city of oakland. and we have had some signs put up to remind people that the greatest gift that god gives us is this breath of life, to also honor not just her but anyone's life who has been senseless -- senselessly taken. >> that is fantastic, we appreciate you coming, as i see it, you have done so many things, acting, your comedian, and you produce. how did you end up in this

profession? >> it started in san francisco stayed where i was a student in trying to get to the broadcast department. a friend of mine said, let us go to this acting class, i had never acted and i remember i read a cold monologue from raisin in the sun, i was crying and everyone was applauding when i looked up and i just had this feeling to be able to say words and move people and i realized, that is what i wanted to do and i had my first professional acting gig in 1984 and made $10 per show. my father said this is not going to be great. a real job >> remind him about sidney porter. >> and he said this is a job. stay with me.

this has been something that has been a passion of mine. >> i know that comedy also has that serious side as well so you have done a lot of serious drama about noticing your resume and how do you combine that? >> that is a great question, it is interesting, they say drama is hard but comedy is harder, i have always been naturally funny, when we were little kids i used to produce shows in the garage and i would always mc and tell jokes and then i would hear my sisters dancing on chairs like in the old show, bandstand, my sister is still better to this day that i made her audition, she says i cannot believe you made me audition, you have to prove it like everyone else is what i said. >> we are going to take a quick break and we look forward to

hearing more. thank you for being with us donald.>> please stay with us as we continue with donald lacey junior.

welcome back to mosaic, i am run swisher, if you were with us in the first second -- first

part of the broad cast you have heard about how he came to act and name some of these plays that you just did? >> i just did a wonderful play by michael ramirez called royal, he wrote sons of our nikkei -- sons of anarchy and oranges the new black. it was an incredible cast and peace and we extended and ran about six weeks and that was an amazing experience, i played the manager, a character by the name of whitten, and i always felt he was a giant, i did not realize until i researched and read the book unapologetically black, the rise and fall of jack johnson, just how far ahead of his time he was to be in the early 20th century and to transcend not only the sport of boxing but culture and to be

this worldwide black icon respected around the world and to be the undisputed heavyweight champion. >> this is black history month and jack johnson, what a legend and icon, and he is great at boxing, i loved watching him. >> i look boxing as well and some of his fights went 32 rounds, can you imagine? some of these guys only do 12 without rematches. >> to do what he did is incredible and he was an incredible fighter and he beat didn't -- jim jeffries. this is like millions for a black man. at that time, to be paid this

kind of money for what you do is incredible. >> i have seen where you have done some fences. >> i did california shakespeare in 2016 and that was another surreal experience of gabriel, based on the angel gabriel. he has half his brain blown out as a world were to veteran and this was an end to -- unbelievable experience to dive into that and become that human being and he felt like he was at the gates with saint peter and he wanted to make sure that his brother, despite having child out of marriage, made it to happen and what an incredible life. >> his veil is viola davis. >> is in viola won the oscar for this. >> she did.

august wilson, people always say how do you do august wilson? and you do not do august wilson, he does you, you have to humble yourself and be open because his writing is so deep and spiritual and i had the great pleasures there are -- pleasures to sit with him and have dinner and he was so gracious to me and as a writer, to hear his process, i am always interested in the process, how do you get from the idea to getting it on paper and he used to say that he would go to coffee shops and restaurants where there was a lot of people and just listen and the characters would speak to him and say something and then another character would say something and he wrote from the characters first and then out of that the story would naturally develop which is fascinating. >> i have been told that is how

you should read the bible, let the bible reach you and you just mentioned about wilson i like what you said. >> i've also read the you wrote a romeo and juliet? >> this is something that i am in preproduction for now and hopefully we will shoot, god willing, this summer, but it is a spoof, a hip-hop musical comedy based on shakespeare and i studied classical theater and shakespeare and to me i always tell these actors, this is a lifetime commitment, do not worry about being rich or famous, just focus on your craft, when you do that, the doors will open for you. having done shakespeare years ago, i thought, this is a universal love story and the beauty of our story is it's about racial polarization in

america, and it is funny that romeo's character happens to be black and poor and juliet's character is rich and white so in this trumpet area that we live in now, the laughter is fast and furious and this is something that people enjoy and they really look at why do we look at each other and judge based on skin color, race, or whatever preference we might have as human beings? there is no race but one, the human race. >> that is right, most people that have come to this realization have gone through some things to come to that and it sounds like you have gone through that with the death of your daughter and how you've tried to make this a leaky -- living legacy of going against violence and negating people and demeaning people and instead celebrating people's lives. >> love is not lost upon me, as it says in the bible, the name of the person describes the attributes.

and her name means love life. it is nigerian. i figured that she was so eager for life that she jumped out of her mother's home. -- womb. she was always effervescent with love, it is not lost on me that the meaning of her life, to god be the glory, is to remind us all to love life and treat one another with respect. >> i love that. >> that was her idea, i have been following in her prodigious footsteps and whatever i do i will always love life. >> we are glad that you are doing, please join us again for another segment with donald lacey junior.

if you have been with us, you have to be inspired, donald has talked to us about shakespeare and in fact, one of our camera people, one of these guys who hooks us up, said do some shakespeare and he did, why don't you do some? >> how about some august wilson . >> u.s. put me on the spot, i'm trying to remember, i remember something from shakespeare, love is a smoke being purged of fire sparkling in lover's eyes, being vexed, the sea nourished with lavish tears, what does it help? and then this most discrete, a choking god and of preserving sweet. >> that is wonderful. you can preach!/--! >> i would

always have prayer after church with my mother and sister and i would do the 97th psalm and she would always say, you are a preacher. and i would say no, no grandma, no thank you. >> you hit on my favorite song, the lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall i fear, of whom shall i be afraid, i say that almost every day before i go to bed at night. every service i do, i begin with the 27 psalms and it is one of my favorites. psalms are songs and poems and prayers. >> tell us a little more about your life? >> i always tell these youngsters that i mentor

through love life and i wish i could show you the oakland that i grew up in, it was a thriving black community and there was a thriving community that was so cohesive, i was talking to someone and doing an interview and we have lived in our neighborhood now for 16 years and i only know one neighbor, back in the 60s and 70s, you knew everyone, you shared a meal, someone was frying fish on fridays and selling dinners, other people's parents have the right to put hands on you and i had some but weeping coupons handed out, send him home. it was a community. we don't even communicate with one another to have a committee.

i was just fortunate to have two loving parents and several black men, my uncles and father's friends who were like uncles and they would take me two games or they would just sit down and talk to me and this is part of the role that i try to fill with the young black men that i mentor. a lot of them when i go talk in classes or churches or community groups, my first question to the young black men is how many of you have your father in your life? unequivocally, at least 75% do not, there is the absence of the black male father figure to give these youngsters the same instructions and lessons that i was taught to keep me on the right path and stay away from the potholes that are out there for you if you are not prayed up and cared for. >> you spoke about community and unfortunately, sometimes tragedy brings us together. it is great that people turn out and help and support, it is wonderful, but hopefully we are a community before then. >> absolutely, i was just at

the service for a dear friend of mine, rachel townsend, reston paradise, her father, reverend townsend said something, he said when someone passes, we get together, it is the same in our family, someone passes and we get together in the rest of the time in between we do not really see one another or communicate and this is part by design, it is amazing to me the technology that is supposedly designed to bring people together but it actually separates us more. you know this reverend, when is the last time, i cannot call anyone and get them to pick up the phone. back in the old days when there was no answering machine or twitter, you would call someone and they would pick up and say hello. now, i am so used to getting answering machines, when someone picks up i am thrown. i have to talk to you?! we are conditioned not to communicate. >> before we came on you were trying to communicate through

the cell phone to a minister who is ill. so there is ways of making contact that we can benefit from . >> yes, i think we have been so conditioned not to communicate, this is why it's hard, people prefer to text, i like to talk to people so i can look in your face and have you feel how words affect me. that has become more an apparition than the norm with the robots taking over everything. they have robot wives now. [laughter] heaven help us. i do not want a robot pastor, they better keep us around. >> yes sir, we need you! we need the real word delivered from a real human being. >> you are right, it could be the next step, unfortunately. >> we have one last segment and

as we come to this i want the audience to know what you are doing so that they can be in touch with you. >> please join us for our last segment with donald lacy jr..

if you have been with us this time, you probably want to know how to get a hold of donald

lacy jr., either his cds or dvds or something that he is producing. tell us where you are now and where we can find you? >> you can always reach me at email if you would like a cd or dvd, but i will also be at the show this spring at the gardens theater with roger dewitt and barry smith who is known from malcolm x and do the right thing . a phenomenal talent. he has a wonderful one-man show that he did and it was just surreal and incredible, i feel blessed to have the opportunity to work with him, this will be in april at the urban buena garden theater, it will be an amazing show.

>> it is amazing that you are committed to the art and not just the income, but whether or not you are getting paid, you will be there because it is your gift. >> these days, if i'm not getting paid, i will not be there. [laughter] i always tell the young people, i mentor young people and i used to act and coach people like laura hayes when she was on martin, but the young people that i work with now, i do not charge, i just say, all that i want is for you to be successful. there is still stuff that i do to give back and for love life, a lot of this is volunteer work if you will, but when it comes to the business itself, one of my first mentors told me, the word business is bigger than the word show so you better have your business together.

>> that is understandable. >> in fact, i just saw the grammys not long ago and the other award programs, i know you have received a lot of them. there is so much talent and competition, it is unfortunate that people cannot get the support that they need. >> absolutely, i was fortunate, i am in the screen actors guild so i get to vote for a lot of the awards and a lot of my people, and actually, then sells movie, it is one of his greatest performances. he played something so different than himself. >> it sure was. what a wonderful character he created. >> his character was something. >> the movie had its problems, but his performance was sheer brilliance and i put it on there with his performance as malcolm. >> it is extraordinary. >> thank you for being here. >> might -- my pleasure reverend. >> come back. >> i would love to. >> thank you for being with us this morning, you have been listening to donald lacy jr.,

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