E-mail a friendDuane Martin
airdate September 14, 2006
Duane Martin has made his mark as an actor, filmmaker and entrepreneur. His credits include lead roles on TV in All of Us and Getting Personal, which he produced, and such films as The Groomsmen and The Seat Filler, which he also wrote and produced. A Brooklyn native, Martin was drafted into the NBA but decided to pursue an acting career. He also owns Impact Sports, handling the careers of many top major league athletes, and is an investor in The Momentum Experience, a new theatrical distribution entity.
Duane Martin
Tavis: Duane Martin stars in the comedy series "All of Us" which this fall moves from UPN to the new CW network. This show is produced by Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith, along with Duane. Blair Underwood and others are behind a new theatrical production company called 'The Momentum Experience.' The goal is to bring non-traditional projects directly to African American audiences. Beginning with their first film, 'The Seat Filler.' More on that in a moment. First, though, a scene from "All of Us."
Tavis: (Laugh) Duane, nice to have you on the program.
Duane Martin: (Laugh) Thanks, Tavis.
Tavis: So this move from - say what, now?
Martin: That was adlibbed, actually. Did that take air? I wasn't sure.
Tavis: (Laugh) And on whose part, hers or yours?
Martin: On mine. (Laugh)
Tavis: That was a nice adlib. That was a nice adlib. It's true.
Martin: Yeah, it is.
Tavis: It's very true. So this move from WB to CW means what for all of us?
Martin: You know what, it just means that we have more households. And...
Tavis: That's a good thing.
Martin: That's a beautiful thing.
Tavis: You didn't seem very happy about that. You said well, it just means we have more households.
Martin: Yeah, because...
Tavis: I'd be like (clapping). That's (unintelligible) right there.
Martin: (Laugh) Well, the thing is we still have to do the work. Like, there's a lot of expectations of us now. Like, we have to step up the show, quality of the show, and things of that nature. So we're in the lab just thinking of episodes that we can do that can compete against reality shows and cable.
Tavis: How do you do that these days? I've had more than one guest on this program in the comedic field who has resented and I think regretted the fact, in fact, that television is changing in such a way now where the seminal comedy series is struggling these days.
Martin: Yeah. Well, reality shows, it's great. It's like it's real moments in real time, and real emotions. Like, you can't compete against that. But the thing about reality TV and what it's showing everybody is that people want real stuff. You know what I mean? The sitcom format I somewhat formulaic, and we've been seeing it for many, many years, and it has to evolve along with our audience. Our audience is, like, they see it all. From the internet to cable, and they're just not going for the pie in the face joke.
Tavis: Yeah. The irony of this is that when you see White folk losing out on having starring roles in comedy shoes, you know Black folk ain't too far behind.
Martin: Right. (Laugh)
Tavis: It's just funny, 'cause there was a time, as you well know, when we were, some of us, yours truly, were complaining about the fact that Black folk only got to do comedies, and they weren't taking us seriously in the realm of drama.
Martin: Right.
Tavis: And now that this comedic formulation, to your point, is not working the way it once did up against these reality shows, I got White folk coming on the show complaining that comedy isn't where it used to be. So that must really mean that brothers and sisters are gonna be going by the wayside even on the comedy side.
Martin: Yeah. That's why even with the pick up, like, it's a bittersweet thing for me. We had eight Black male leads on television in the last year and a half.
Tavis: In comedies, yeah.
Martin: In comedies. We only have one now, and that's me. And for me, yeah, I'm on base. You know what I mean? I have a gig. But for me, it's like as a movement and as our people, I just feel like we're not being represented the way that we are in America. And I think that our kids need people to emulate and to see themselves as much as possible, because it's not that everyone wants to be on television, but there are a lot of jobs behind the scenes that are there for the taking, when there are African American shows.
And we're very conscious of that, and we're employing people. We're not leaving it up to people to have a good heart, and make sure that the behind-the-scenes is diverse. And now that there's no pressure to keep it diverse in front of the camera, a lot of people are gonna suffer behind the camera.
Tavis: All right, so because you're an enterprising brother and you got an answer for everything, you and Will and Blair have apparently been talking about this, and ya'll done cooked something up.
Martin: Yeah. 'The Momentum Experience,' it was just really about who was gonna do it first. And for me, it's not a job that I wanted. You know what I mean, there's a lot of people before me that have made movies, that have deals on studio lots and stuff like that. And to me, the piece of real estate that we've never owned is distribution. So, Bob Johnson owns distribution. I guess Viacom bought it, or what have you. But he held a piece of real estate, of distribution. But in the film world, we've never even tried to attack that.
And for me, it was like we don't have any other option. And when I talked to Will about it and I talked to Blair about it, I was like it's exciting to bring money together and make movies, and everyone's doing it, 'cause we have a lot of people that's making money and bringing projects together. But once you make the project, now how do you distribute it? How do you get it to the people? And that's the wall that we'd been running into. And I was like, well, let's go after that.
Tavis: So this project deals with the distribution problem in what way?
Martin: We find another way to get our material to our audience, and to make it relevant, and to increase the visibility so that when it does come out on DVD, you can get the big numbers. Or you can attract the studios. Like what happened with us is we took the movie to (unintelligible). And we took it out, and we had premiers in five different cities. And it was exclusive to that city. All of the talent came to that city.
It was interactive. We would lease historical theaters, like the Fox Theater in Atlanta, the Fox in Detroit. So we wanted to bring the movie experience back to the community, like back in the day, like Oscar Micheaux, guys like that. It was called bicycling. Where they would take the movie from city to city just for us to see. And we broke records. We were, like, we broke a box office record.
We averaged, like, $50,000 per screen for this movie that's not out in the theaters. Hollywood got wind of that and was, like, we wanna be a part of it. And they bought the movie for an exuberant amount of money. (Laugh)
Tavis: I like that word, exuberant. (Laugh) So, if this model works, then, it could mean what for Black folk, long term, in the business?
Martin: Young filmmakers can continue to dream, and continue to come together and make movies and have a venue for it. And have a way to get it out there to the public. Right now, if you don't go to the noted few people that distribute movies, then your movie's never gonna be seen.
Tavis: Before I let you get out of here, did I read, right quick, that you and Tisha either are about to be or just were married for, like, 10 years?
Martin: Yeah, we're coming up on 10, yeah.
Tavis: Coming up on 10 years.
Martin: Yeah, we're coming up on 10. We've been together 15. (Laugh)
Tavis: (Laugh) I remember when that happened, and it does not seem like 10 - well, I'm not in it, though. I was gonna say, it doesn't seem like 10 years ago, but.
Martin: It doesn't to me either.
Tavis: Well, that's good to hear, then.
Martin: Yeah.
Tavis: Now since Tisha's watching, that was the right thing to say.
Martin: Yeah, it feels like a week.
Tavis: There, see that? (Laugh) You a little slow on the uptake, but anyway, that was good. Nice to have you here, Duane.
Martin: Thanks for having me.
Tavis: Good to see you. (Laugh) That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.
Back to September 14, 2006