Exclusive Interview Shed “Can I Vent” G

Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Shedrick “Can I Vent” Garrett, also known as Shed G has made a name for himself as the “People’s Comedian.”  Shed  G, initially displayed his unique brand of clean comedy as a college student while attending Norfolk State University.  After college, Shedrick returned to his hometown of Denver, Colorado.  He began hosting several events throughout the city where he was blessed with the opportunity to open up for several popular acts including: The Temptations, The Isley Brothers, and Brian McKnight just to name a few.  These performances led to the birth of Shed “Can I Vent” G. and coined his now famous audience chant “Vent Brotha Vent!” Check out our interview with Shed “Can I Vent” G.

WHATDADIZZLE: Shed G, What Da Dizzle?

Shed G: Haha, Chillin, Chillin, Chilln, just doing my thang.

WHATDADIZZLE: How did you get the name “Can I Vent?”

Shed G: It’s actually a funny story. At at Emerson Junior HIgh School I was acting funny in class, so the teacher said if I could be quite until the end of the day, she would give me the last ten minutes to vent. I would always go up there and say “Can I Vent?” and that’s how it started.

WHATDADIZZLE:  You took your talents to Atlanta where you hooked up with Tyler Perry in hit movies such as, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” “Madea’s Family Reunion,” “Daddy’s Little Girl,” “Meet the Browns,” and TPS Studios (famously funny sitcoms) “House of Payne.”  How were those experiences and which film stands out the most for you?

Shed G: The experience is like no other, a lot of people are not blessed to be around people those type of events… I mean, it was just outstanding to be around that stuff to see him and know where he started in the movie industry to where he (Tyler Perry) is now and to be apart of that and to watch him progress. I mean that’s one of the best things that you could be apart of and see. It shows you how to keep going, that it can happen. It’s different to hear about it, read about it and see it on television, but its waaaaay different to be apart of it and to see it with your own eyes.

The movie that always sticks out to me is the first one, well not the first one, but “Madea’s Family Reunion.”  It sticks out is because I was sitting on the bench between Maya Angelou and Cicily Tyson. I was dressed as Madea of course, but I didn’t want to breathe wrong or anything. (Hahaha) I was sitting in between two women of greatness. So it was just one of those type things, I was like wow, it threw me for a loop.

WHATDADIZZLE: Is it a tough transition from Shed G to Madea?

Shed G: It is. It’s even a transition from Shed “Can I Vent” G to Shedrick because when you have on costumes and all this stuff you transform yourself into a character. So when I go on stage that’s a character, that’s not how I am all the time you know and same thing goes for TV when you on stage, I cocky, I’m arrogant, you know what I’m sayin’, I have fun and I’m very confident. Off stage I’m totally different, I’m quite, I like sticking to myself, I don’t like crowds, (haha) I like chilling at the house. Girls are like “Oh he boring.” People would see me on stage and say “Oh he’d be fun to hang out with.” Soon as “Thank you and good night.” Close the curtains; I’m at the crib with Mentholatum on my chest, you know, watching Golden Girls. (Hahaha)

WHATDADIZZLE: I watched you do an impression of Michael McDonald and Trey Songz singing Gospel—brother, you had me rollin’. Who’s your favorite person to impersonate and why?

Shed G: Man, you know what…my favorite person actually to impersonate is my Grandmother because that’s my grandmother. I can do a lot of celebrities and stuff like that and have fun wit’em, but the one person I love to impersonate is my grandmother. So if you ever seen comedy where I talk about my grandmother and her actions, you have this woman who’s like 4’9”- 4’10”, the things that she does is so funny. That’s a dog on shame when she make Prince seem tall with no heels on. (Haha) For her to be that size and yet be so powerful, I mean when she walks into a room, everybody knows you know what I mean? Every time she say something, everybody listen, I’ve seen it. My grandfather is a dude, but its like its like your grandmother runs the family, it’s pretty much tradition, and for me to impersonate her, especially when it comes to church and a lot of that stuff, that’s great, that’s what I love.

WHATDADIZZLE: You recently launched your own TV show, “Vent TV,” can you tell us why you decided to do that and what’s the show about?

Shed G: I wanted something for our age, thirty and up cause you look at all this other stuff, and its cool but they cater to the young-ins. I want something we can watch and listen too, like Anthony Hamilton, Jill Scott you know, those are the neo-souls, the old school that have some type of purpose in songs. But then I came up with the concept of “Venting” I thought to myself, “why do I have to be the only one that Vents?” Everybody has a lot to say, ya’ll wanna Vent about any and everything all the time. Why should I be selfish on being in front of the camera? (haha) It gives everybody else the opportunity to be in front of the camera and say what’s on they mind and to “vent” about some situations and “vent” about some things, you know it’s one of those fun things. When the last time you sat down and watched a fun television show with your everyday people? I’m also working on a talk show called the “Shed G Show.” We’re gonna start filming soon. That’s gonna be pretty cool to where we just have a lot of guest and talk about some issues, etc. Some of the artist and guest that’s already confirmed are Cleo Parker Robinson, Gloria Neal, Tamar Davis out of Houston, I mean it’s gonna be fun, its gonna be one of those things where you gonna have a good time and it’s gonna be FREE. I wanna do it here and I want it to be free for everybody so they can experience the talk show thing at a fun level.

WHATDADIZZLE: That’s great! I noticed that a lot of your events and stuff is free, that’s…”

Shed G: Yeah, a lot of my LOCAL! (Haha) A lot of my LOCAL, events are free. That’s something that’s unfortunate because of the fact that I’m from here a lot of people don’t respect what I do to a certain extent. People are like well “He aint nobody, he’s here, he’s just from Denver. He here.” And I’m like okay, well…I travel, you know, I sell out. But because I’m from here, sometimes that’s a hindrance.

WHATDADIZZLE:  Obviously you’re a very talented brother being a comedian, but you also teach step classes? You can dance?

Shed G: Yeah man, its something that, being from Colorado I used to be in a dance group and we was called the Future Stars and man we was nice, while you playin’. (Haha) We was winning little competitions and stuff… boy I was getting’ it in. (haha) We was all the same height, next thing you know, I get a little taller as we got older. What they did was they took me from the front, and then put me in the back. I was like, man I dunno. But then I got taller, then they took and put me in the middle, then I got taller, and they kicked me out the group. (Haha) They was upset, said I looked like a grown man dancing with the group. (Haha) So I was like okay then, I’ll stop doing that. When I moved to Atlanta, as you know, Atlanta is more culturally diverse and have a lot more things going on than what we (Denver) do. So, I got into line dancing and stepping with this dance group called “One Step Above,” they one of the hottest choreography and dance groups. They do stuff for movies and videos and stuff like that, you know on MTV, they COLD! So I started learning how to do it and it was so much fun. Then I moved back to Denver, and we didn’t have that here. I was like we need to bring something like that out here to Denver and I decided to do it. I flew them out here once a month and would get people in the class and people was like “We need to do this every week. Shed why don’t you teach?” That’s what happened, I started teaching it every week and it started picking up because everybody was excited about it and now we have some of that magic here. But you know how it is, once you start something and it becomes successful, you got your “Kinkos Promoters,” that’s what I call them, “Kinkos Promoters,” your copycats. (Haha) You know what I’m saying, now people starting line dancing and step classes, which is cool because that’s the reason why I started it, to make Colorado more diverse.

WHATDADIZZLE: Who are the performers that have influenced you the most?

Shed G: When I was growing up, I used to love watching Sin Bad doing comedy, I used to love watching him. Then when I was in college, I went to Norfolk State University and actually Cedric the Entertainer was the one who actually put being a comedian in my head, in my ear, because I was hosting an event and the comedian didn’t show up. So they was like well Shed why don’t you host? I was like man I dunno know. They said “Man they already know you.” Because I was one of the star basketball players out there.  So I went out there and I was just talking and this girl come walking in– late of coarse “I’m like, look at her. You can tell somebody got they refund check, she done spent her book money on cloths. Look at her wearing her chemistry book.” (Haha) It was just funny like that, you know I was just talking, so then they brought up the first comedian and I went in the back and Cedric the Entertainer was like “Man that was funny. How long you been doing comedy?” I was like man I aint no comedian. He said “Man that was comedy you was doing. If you put it together, that’s a set.” So he was a big influence on actually getting me in the game. He’s a cool, down to Earth cat, there’s no Hollywood about him. You have to change a little bit with your surroundings, but for the most part he’s real cool.

WHATDADIZZLE:  There are plenty of aspiring comedians out there, what’s your advice to them?

Shed G: Be humble, write, and travel. Because a lot of times what these comedians will do is perform at one spot and have they whole family in there. So your whole family gone laugh at anything you say because that’s your family and they know you. The hardest thing is to make somebody laugh that don’t know you, so then therefore you always got your family at all your gigs and they in there laughing boosting up your head like yeah I’m large. Now the first time you go somewhere and your family aint there, that joke may not go over as well as you thought it did and that can discourage you. So from the start, travel, do a lot of stuff, you can have your family there to an extent, but tell them to be honest with you and always continue to write.

WHATDADIZZLE: According to you, who is the funniest comedian?

Shed G: You can’t really say who’s the funniest comedian, because you have people that’s different. There’s some cats out there… like my favorite, I can say my favorite and because there might be people funnier, you can’t say that their funnier because styles may be different. Some people like cussing comedians, I don’t like cussin’ comedians, I can’t do that. There’s one comedian, I mean this dude is so funny and I think he’s one of the greats, his name is Tyler Craig. Tyler Craig is the dude with dreads, and he always says “And the moral of the story is.” Man, that dude is so funny and he’s clever with it. When I was in Atlanta, me, him (Tyler Craig) and Zoo man, we used to have writing sessions and its like, he is so funny and when you with him he makes you push yourself. You always tell yourself, man I gotta take this joke to another level. Then there’s another comedian named K-Dubb, that’s my dude, he’s off the chain because he’s a young Tyler. My other homeboy, he’s pretty funny, his name is Lavar Walker, he’s a beast. I’m pretty sure there’s more out there, but those the ones that I have seen… oh and you can’t forget lil’ Duvall he’s just crazy all together.

WHATDADIZZLE: You and your Pastor must have a great relationship, because you be killin’ him during your stand up.

Shed G: Yea, (haha) yea, Pastor Phil is off the chain. That’s one thing that I like about him is that he’s entertaining, but he preaches the word. I feel like we kinda the same you know what I mean, to whereas, we do have a message and if you ever listen to some of my comedy, a lot of it does have a message… it’s on a funny atmosphere. He preaches on the word, he doesn’t preach on opinion cause you know a lot of times preachers and bishops will preach on opinion, but he preaches on facts, so whatever he says, he has the Bible right there to back it up.

WHATDADIZZLE: Anything you want to say to your fans?

Shed G: Yes, I didn’t know I had fans. (Haha) I got fans, I didn’t know I had fans. Well praise God, I got fans  that’s cool. I’m a have to update my Facebook page, send that out on Twitter Jesus is moving. I’m a have to make me an album now guide dawg.

If I do have fans, thanks for all of your support and keep supporting true entertainers that do it from their heart and there soul.