As TotallyBiased with W,Kamau Bellreturns to a new channel withan expanded schedule, its prolific executive producer talks about theshow, what motivates him and what we can expect to hear on his

stand-up tour - when he's good and ready,PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK MANN/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES

By any' measure, Chris Rock has been busy. Saturday Night Live. Mov-ies, His late-night talk show. HBOspecials. Four Primetime Emmys. Abook. Three Grammy-winning albums. Madagascar. Everybody HatesChr's. Broadway, Directing. Producing. And of course, the stand-uptours. Awliole lot has happened for Rock since his late-night years,

Now he's returned to post-primetime as ex-ecutive producer of Totally Biased with W. KamauBell. Rock began grooming the edgy socia-polit-ical comic for TV talk after seeing his stand-upact, "The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism inAmerica in About an Hour," at Manhattan's Up-right Citizens Brigade in 2010.

"He's in the Or. Ore phase of his career," saysseries host-writer-€xecutive producer Bell, lik-ening Rock to the hip-hop mogul-turned-musicmentor. "He's looking around to see who he canopen the door for, in the same way Eddie Murphyopened the door for him - and, thank God, I'mone of those people."

FXpresident John Landgraf was eager to putBellon the air - especially with Rock's promise tobe on board for the day-to-day. "There's nothingabout the comedy business," Landgraf says, "oreven about the emotional. professional and per-sonal transition Kamau's going through - frombeing a local stand-up to someone with a nation-al voice and a national reputation and writing andexecutive-producing his own show - that Chrishasn't done. That's incredibly valuable."

Totally Biased began as a weekly series onFX last year, then went to five nights a week onnewcomer FXX in May. When it returns to FXXin September - following Bell's ten-city sum-mer stand-up tour - it will air original episodesMondays through Thursdays at 11 p.m., withbest-of-the-week episodes on Sundays. JaniceRhoshatle Littlejohn caught some rare one-on-one time with the man who helped make ithappen.

Besides Totally Biased, you have a sketch com-edy project at Comedy Central with comic De-Shawn Raw. Are you actively looking for newtalent for TV projects?I've been fortunate enough - I've produced a fewthings. r had this idea, Everybody Hates Chris,andthought maybe we can do this. DLHughley's prettyfunny, so I thought, maybe I can help out on The

Hughleys or get something for Kamau. I just wantto be around talented people. Iwant that energy.

So,this isn't about building a production empire?I'm not Tyler Perry. I'm not Oprah. My life is mychildren and my family, and all these little things Ido are ways in which Idon't have to leave my kids.That's all it is. Oh - I've made some more mon-ey? Okaaay!That means Ican be at the basketballgame. That's all it means.

What were some of the challenges of gettingTotally Biased started?When you're working on a show, especially witha new guy, you're learning on the go. But a lotof it was: who's going to do a show with a guyno one's seen before? [MSNBC anchor] RachelMaddow blessed us [by appearing on the sec-ond episode]. I did the first show. But then otherpeople helped out. [Activist-writer] Kevin Powellwas nice enough to do it. But as more people getto know Kamau, people are wanting to do theshow now.

How did you sell FX on an unknown talent?Hey, it's like I tell everybody: the age of the pitchis over. You have to shoot it. His stand-up showis pretty much what we're doing weekly, so itseemed like an easy transfer. We shot a miniversion of the show - twelve minutes - and wewent to a bunch of networks and FX. I'm goodfriends with Louis CK., and he told me about allthe freedom he had [with his FX series, Louie]. Itseemed like the right place.

Where would you like to see the show go fromhere?A lot of it is up to Kamau. I mean, when you pro-duce a talk show, when you make a decision to doa show like this, you have to hire your boss. That'sthe secret to being a good producer, by the way.The further along we go, the less I'll be involved.My job is to get him to be a butterfly and flyaway.

Speaking of taking off, Everybody Hates Chrishas found a whole new audience in syndication.It plays all over the world! Brazil. IsraeL ..

Why did it struggle to find an audience here, es-pecially after moving from UPNto the CW?I mean no disrespect, because they gave us themoney and produced the show, but it didn't fitwith the other shows on the network. EverybodyHates Chris has nothing to do with Girlfriends orThe Game. That network was targeted for certainpeople, and [this show] wasn't for them. Every-body Hates Chris should have been on an ABC,NBCor CBS,on Sundays or something, when kidswatched. But, hey, kids watch it every day now.It's gratifying - and weird. Kids are looking at mewith a certain reverence, and I'm like, "What dothey know me from? Oh, yeah, Everybody HatesChris. They hear my voice all day."

And in three Madagascar movies. Will there bea fourth?I hope so! The (ast one did 5700 million - one ofthe biggest movies of the year. Plus, it was good.

Word has it that you're preparing for anotherstand-up tour ....Yeah, I'm getting material together to go on tour- probably in the fall. My agents, my manager,everybody's knocking on the door: "When canwestart this tour?" But I'm not tooking at anythinguntil I've got the material, because that's themost important thing - that I have the materialand can deliver to the audience.

What kind of topics can we expect?I'll probably be talking about gun control again. I'llhave my takes on relationships. I try to wait threeor four years between tours, just so I'm kind of a.different person and the world's kind of a differentplace. I've never toured while there's a black presi-dent. In a weird way, it's a great thing that he's nota black president, you know what Imean? like, it'srun its course. It's not differentanymore.

When you first started out, you said you wantedto be "the best guy on the court" in comedy. Isthat still the game plan?When you're younger, you're so competitive. Thenyou're competitive with yourself. Now Ijust want tobe the best me - and get the most out of me.@

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