Eric Rhone - “From Playground Hustle to Entertainment Mogul”

In this episode of The Rundown, Rene Knott sits down with Eric Rhone — producer, manager, entrepreneur, and co-founder of A Bird and A Bear Entertainment.

From selling candy as a kid to building an entertainment company alongside Cedric the Entertainer, Eric reflects on a journey fueled by faith, friendship, and taking chances.

What started as a college roommate connection turned into a decades-long partnership rooted in trust, creativity, and vision.

Eric opens up about the risks of entrepreneurship, the milestones along the way, and why the journey has always mattered more than the destination.

Through it all, one thing remains constant: belief in the process, the people around you, and the power of staying committed to the vision. 🎬

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of The Rundown with Rennie Knott. Man, do we have a story to tell? We're talking about a young man that went from being an entrepreneur on the playground to becoming one of the biggest names in all of entertainment. It's a story about two friends who became friends over a proposed fight that never happened, and then a joint that supposedly was to be shared. It then ventured into a cross-country trip and a risk to make it in Hollywood. But you know what? They did. Together, they are two of the most powerful black men in entertainment. I'm talking about Cedric the Entertainer and his best friend, his manager, Eric Roan. They don't even have a contract between each other yet. They have a bond that will go on for years and years and years. In this episode, we sit down with Eric to talk about how it all got started and where it's headed next.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

As I told you, Eric Rowan is in the house. I want to say thank you for being here. Thank you. You looking good, looking good. Um, I gotta start first of all with the hat. Yeah. You played Augustine?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Yeah, I played Augustine National twice last year. Okay. Was invited down by a dear friend, been a member there for 25 years, and uh had me down, and we had a good time.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

It was everything a golfer dreams it to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Absolutely. It's the Mecca golf for sure. Magnolia Lane driving up, but half the time you you're taking pictures and videos. You're trying to, you know, you're thinking about the great moments in golf. Tiger did this or Phil did that. So you try to recreate those shots. And so the first day it was all about picture taking, right sort of thing. And then the second day that you had to play a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

You play golf. You play golf. The the reason why I wanted to open up by asking you about your time at Augusta is the fact that there's so much history to Augusta. And there was a time when you couldn't play at Augusta. When you were there, did that ever enter into your mind that I've come a long way in life because now I'm able to play at Augusta? And really, in many ways, as a people, we've come a long way.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Yeah, so you definitely feel the presence of our ancestors throughout the South. You know, if you travel throughout the South, whether it's Georgia, Alabama, various places, you feel the ancestors and the things they had to go through to pave the way for you to be able to enjoy access and play at these various golf clubs or visit these various, you know, hotels or whatever. So at Augusta, you definitely feel, you know, who really built those hollow grounds and who really served the people and really made that place what it was. And um, so yeah, you feel that. And then, you know, so you you you're carrying that kind of uh energy around with you as well. When you look at the staff, you know, you just know that, you know, our ancestors have paved the way throughout this whole country. For this country to be what it is today, you know the people that really built this up. So yeah, you feel that big time.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

When you look back at how you got to where you are, who do you think paved the way for you? Who do you think built Eric Rome?

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Yeah, well again, my ancestors, you know, others. My I knew my grandfather, my father's father is a native St. Louis, and actually, so we're like three, four generations St. Louis. Wow. And his dad was up from Arkansas in the South and all that. But uh, yeah, man, just family, you know, mom and dad, my brothers, you know, uncles, the community, yeah, you know, you know, we're we're still a part of that building process for me. You know, I'm still on my journey. But yeah, but just, you know, values of pride and artwork. Yeah, you know, try and treat people as you would have them, you know, treat others as you want to be treated. And so those are just those normal, what I call kind of basic human characteristics that my family had. And being born and raised in St. Louis, most of the people that we knew, whether it's through the church or work or through school or just running around the neighborhood, people have those same type of values. So I'm definitely St. Louis built and a part of the culture of St. Louis, and uh I try to rip that wherever I go in the world.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

So yeah. I love it. Well, I love it. Um, you talk about your journey. It's not a straight line, is it? No. It's got some curves and all this. Well, I want to take you back to the kid that that purchased blow pops. Okay. Um, tell me the story about how the entrepreneurial spirit kind of ignited in you.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Yeah, so you know, the entrepreneurial spirit was, you know, many, many years ago. I remember going to Normandy Junior High School, and I remember going to Snooks prior to school, you get a donut, and I would buy a bag of blow pops. And back then you can get like 20 blow pops in a bag. The bag was like a dollar fifty, two bucks at the most. But I would go to school, have 20 blow pops, and sell them at 50 cents a piece. So that's 10 bucks. So I'm making a profit. And I was doing that like from day one. Wow. So I knew from an economic standpoint that I had the entrepreneurial spirit in me, right? And so that's just kind of carried me along the way. So being able to, you know, look at a situation, dissect a deal, an opportunity, and really see how we can make that opportunity right for me and my family and my team.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

So the people that you sold the blow pops to back in the day, do they know that you you elevated the price? Well, well, it was the plan to get it's always the plan. There you go. There you go. Exactly. Exactly. It was the quarter.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

End of day school, a quarter. You know, I'm just trying to dump them at that point. So it's it's just basic economics, supply and demand. But a lot of my friends that I'm still friends with from junior high, they tell me I always knew you were gonna be a business person.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

And then when we would talk about stories and be trying to sell this or sell that. So yeah, so I was I was always, you know, okay. In it in it for the book. All right.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

So you start off as a young businessman, but then we turn again. You end up at Monsanto.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, so after school, ended up in Monsanto, started like in the mail room and worked my way up. I was a rising star in Monsanto when I decided to leave in 1994. So, but uh worked my way up in the World Headquarters Site Administration, doing the uh at various jobs uh in Monsanto. But, you know, I always knew I couldn't be a corporate guy at that type of structure because I had more of an entrepreneur spirit. So, you know, that was just about, you know, getting a good job, you know, having a car, buying a home, and that sort of thing of the American dream. But I always knew that uh, you know, Cedric and I would definitely venture off and have our own firm. We had our own firm back then, as a matter of fact. We would, I was at Monsanto Central State Forum, but you know, we would do shows around St. Louis, around the Midwest, but we would use State Forum and Monsanto facilities as our office. I got you. So fax machines, you know, did somebody call this for me. A lot of production machines, I mean, we're you know, it's Sam would be at State Forum. So we got a lot of dual use out of our job. They got a lot of out of us, and we got a lot out of them.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Well, you gotta make sure you answer the phone the right way, too. You you're gonna go, hello, Monsanto. Oops, I mean that's right. But the bank machines, we had a lot of fun, though.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

We did shows for a lot of people that worked there, family unions and weddings and backyard barbecues. We were all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Again, trying to try to grow our company. You gotta start somewhere. You gotta start somewhere. By the way, the Cedric that he is alluding to is Cedric the Entertainer. When did you know he had this special talent? When did you know that the two of you could be this special team?

SPEAKER_02 8:27

So, you know, I don't I don't know really the moment, but probably the time is when we both were working corporate jobs and we were growing our business luckily. So it was through that transition that we started to really grow a little bit on the entrepreneurial side. And we started spending a lot more time focusing on that. And our jobs probably were suffering. So that was probably around '93, '94. So uh we sat down one night and said, had a show, I think, in Atlanta. And uh coming back, we talked about, you know, when are we gonna complete these jobs? What are we really gonna go for? It's probably during that conversation that the realization of what we were doing really hit. Wow. Because you could talk about it, you know, you're planning to have a good time, we're gonna do this. But when time comes to make the real decision to walk away from your corporate jobs, and you know, you gotta go tell your parents, you know, we're quitting our jobs, we're gonna go to LA and try to do this entertainment thing. So obviously, I you know, our parents were skeptical, especially my parents. I was like, wait a minute, you telling jokes?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Understand the business. So, but it was at that moment during that time that we we really knew that this is it. So we both quit our jobs on the same day. We put our our clothes in UPS boxes, we shipped them to LA and we drove from St. Louis to LA, and that was in 1994.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

How scary is that though? To make that jump going, we're all in. Was it, you know, scary?

SPEAKER_02 10:03

I don't know if the right word is scary, but there was definitely uh put it this way, we had a very high tolerance for risk at that point.

unknown 10:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

So scary because we had done a lot, we had planned, we had talked about it, prayed about it, you know, put everything we had into it. And so when the time came to make the the move, at that point, we were confident that we we were confident that we're gonna make the move. Okay. And that's the first thing. You gotta make the move. Most people talk about it, plan it, but do you really make the leap?

SPEAKER_01 10:41

And that's where people, most people, they never really make the leap. You gotta be about it. You gotta be about it. You never can talk about it, but you gotta be about it. You gotta make the leap. Yeah, you gotta go. Like, are we really going to do this? That's the moment. Did it come close to the leap not paying off? Or or was there always faith all the way?

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Yeah, no, we had to, yeah. We used to, man, we used to share uh Burger King value meals. We used to go to Sizzler Statehouse in Los Angeles and Hollywood. One person gets the salad bar, the other person can eliminate, and we raid the salad bar as much as we can before they cooked us out. So we did all the tricks of the chat, but no, that was in rain times. Yeah, yeah. You know, you know, things didn't seem to be what we thought they were going to be. Okay. But, you know, we figured out a way to survive. And so those are, and even right now, you know, with AI, artificial intelligence coming into the business, so many things are changing so rapidly in our business. There's always that sense of growth, and you know, how do we incorporate younger people, uh, people that are efficient in technology because it impacts our business. So there's always a little apprehension or a little uh uncertainty in your journey. You know, that's just a part of you know, being on the journey. Right. There's always going to be some uncertainty and some uh some uh you know, if you have to kind of go back to your roots and you know, large and brothers fit for you're not gonna leave us now, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Right thing. So yeah, that that's just like that. Yeah, you've had that grid, and obviously you guys fought through, but the fact that you fought through together. Does that say something about this friendship, this this brotherhood between the two of you?

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yeah, so you know, one thing that we realized early on in our business, and this is kind of our motto. Our motto is do what you say you're going to do. And uh that's kind of what has sustained us through these 40 years of business. We've never had a contract with each other. We never, you know, I'm you know, I never signed as the manager, signed as my client. We were just building the business, and again, our motto was just as long as you do what you say you're going to do, then here we are.

unknown 13:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

So my job was to do the business, and his job was to be funny. Who who had the easier end? Uh well what's what's kind of interesting is that we both can jump into each other's roles. Okay. Yeah, I can't go on stage, but I can be a little bit. You'd be funny enough. Yeah, yeah. And Sandric's a very intelligent person, so he can be insightful on my side as well. So, you know, when we collab, it's a lot of that. You know, we're discovering a new joke. Like, oh man, you gotta take that on stage. That's hilarious, you know. That's what I'm saying. Take that moment and recreate it on stage. Or if it's in a business deal, you know, there may be I'm I'm reading a contract and send it and see me an article, like, yeah, you know, this is what we're dealing with. So that type of collaboration that we've had over 40 years is just garganic. And and uh that's the magic, right? So it's not about uh, you know, official paperwork. And we we actually took that model to Los Angeles. So we were with uh Creative Artists Agency, one of the biggest agencies in Hollywood for 25 years of business, but we never signed with them. Yeah, they represented us for 25 years, but we never actually signed.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

We had that freedom.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Yeah, but we had a lawyer to do what you say you're gonna do. And some of our closest friends and people that help us build our business out there are are you know, we you know, big business would be it was because everybody did what they said they were talking about.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Well, they say word is bond, word is bond. Word is bond. I'm looking at the career, and everyone's gonna say Cedric, but in many ways, the two of you, as as we had this conversation going through this journey. At what point, what movie, what stand-up routine, what series where you said, Man, look what we've done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

I would probably say one of the defining moments in our career was the Kings of Comedy.

unknown 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

And the reason why I say that is because when the movie came out, I think it was in 2000, maybe 2001, we had already been on tour for two years before we shot the movie in Charlotte, North Carolina. And so the community knew, and we were selling out, you know, arenas, you know, five and six times over all throughout Chicago, just all the big markets, just killing it. And so when it came time to shoot the actual movie, we went to Spike Lee, got Spike Lee to direct it. Uh there was only myself and Steve Harvey's manager, were the only two managers that were on tour with the tour. Okay. So we knew how big it was. We knew what it was. Uh Steve Harvey's manager at the time, uh, a gentleman by the name of Juan Hall passed away at LAX. And so when we got to shoot the movie, I was the only manager that really understood how big this thing was. Yeah. And so I wind up negotiating the movie deal for all the guys. Because uh DL and Bernie's manager, they weren't on tour with us. I we were literally on tour every date, right? And so uh I did the deal, we call it a favored nation deal for all the guys. And uh it was a very profitable, highly profitable deal that I short for them. Uh and back then you had the movie, you had DVD sales. So that that that was a mega deal that uh I did, and uh, they were very great. So it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

A long way from blow pops.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

That same tenacity, that same insight and intuition, yeah. But uh that that was a that was a big deal, and and at that point, it was like, okay, we're we're ready to really launch.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

And uh wow, yeah. You know, we talked so much about coincidence, faith, and all this. Did God bring the two of you together, knowing where this journey was gonna go? Because the fact there's a lot of friends you could have been friends with, but somehow that became the clue.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Yeah, I think God is at the base and at the foundation of all of this. So, you know, however you define your relationship with God is everyone's own business, but definitely it's my life. Yeah. You know, uh, I think God always has a hand in everything. Um so uh, but ironically, when Cedric and I met, we went to Southeast Missouri State. So when we met, Santa's a year older than me, we met, we were on a fight at first. So, you know, we first met. So I only what was the fight about? Yeah, so as a freshman, graduated from Norway, Cedric was roommate with one of my friends.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

And the freshman got to the campus a week before everyone else. So we could, you know, be on campus, get familiar with the yard, that sort of thing. So the plan was whoever this Cedric guy is, we're gonna kick him out the dorm, and I'm gonna move in to the door with my friend. And so by the time said and the everybody else got to campus the following week, the word was out. You know, they in the room waiting on you, dog, they're gonna kick you out. And so uh my friend Reggie and I, we were in the room, in the dorm room, waiting on Sid, and Sid kicks the door in and had a joint in his mouth and said, Welcome to college children. And we fell out of the door. That was it.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

That was it. That's how we missed it. So it started off with comedy, and it's to this day, it lives on comedy. That is crazy. And that was it.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

They said, Welcome to college children.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

And when did when did the two of you become tight then? That moment, that moment, yeah, that moment. We were inseparable. We light up and we had a good time. We didn't smoke that joint, but uh, we did have a good time, and uh uh yeah, that moment, man, we were inseparable. Wow, yeah, we in school, so we had a lot of fun, a lot of fun, just just silly and so much fun in the cafeteria, and everybody knew when they said Sam. We're saying they knew they go. Were you guys almost like a party waiting to have? We were a party waiting to have. Yeah, yeah. That's why. Yeah, that's why. But yeah, so but I think, you know, back to the rich, I think God plays a role in all things that are created. So, you know, sometimes those are tough things, and that's just all you know, milk and honey, right? There's some lessons to be learned along the way.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

So yeah. When you say along the way, and we talk about the journeys and and how far people go, but when we rewind back to those days in Normandy, you didn't know that being in Normandy was the way people look at Normandy high school now.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

You know, then that was that was your school, that was your life, that was who you were. When you look back now at where you were to where you are, how do you get there? What do you what do you say to somebody about, you know, here's a kid over there now. What do you say to him about how to get there?

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah, so you know, like, you know, all parables, even in the Bible, the stories that you tell that you try and learn from them, right? And so, you know, the story of my life, if I when I meet young people, I share certain parts of my life with them. And uh it's not about getting there, it's about going there. So it's not about the the destination, it's literally about the journey. And I think that most of us when we talk to someone that quote unquote is supposed to be, you know, successful or celebrity, most people put themselves where that celebrity is and they forget the journey. I guess so. So it's not about getting there, it's really about going there. And it's the going that people I try and get to that door. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

You know, you and Sad had quite a quite a journey. Yeah, yeah. And I went there. Yeah, but I wanted to ask you then where where are we on this journey now?

SPEAKER_02 21:34

It's not over yes. Well, Sad is on Broadway. We're we're we have a play on Broadway. Ris Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Go, Santa DeRaj Henson, and Debbie Allen's directing. And so that opens uh later this spring. And we're doing some previews right now. That's gonna run to the end of July. So yeah, just wrapped up eight seasons of The Neighborhood on CBS. Over 150 shows are done. So many more shows and movies. We produced Tracy Morton's show, Crutch on Paramount Plus. We have a show Johnson, it's on Hulu. We produce out of uh Atlanta. More movies, so more to come. Yeah. And especially as we move into this more into this digital age for AI and seeing all the possibilities there. So yeah, we've we've only just begun.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

I'll finish our conversation. I'll finish our conversation by taking us back to the beginning of our conversation. And we talked about ancestors and being a part of that history when you're in Augustine. Do you feel now that you're paving the way for history for others while at the same time honoring your history of the past? Because you're able to do things and go places. 50 years ago, that would have never happened. Maybe even 10 years ago, you would have had trouble getting there. Do you ever stop and think I owe a debt of gratitude to the people behind me at the same time I'm paving the way for the future?

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Yeah, always. Yeah. Any room I walk into, whether it's, you know, uh pleasure or golf or business, uh we definitely bring with us our ancestral history and that culture and that uh tenacity, those prayers, those blessings. And that when you walk in the room, you know, um I I feel I so thanked. Yeah. And so it's that spirit and energy that most people they can't put their hands on. Like it's something about you. I got to. That's what it is. It's like, no, I'm bringing all of this into the situation. And so it's a it's a um it's a privilege to be able to do that. It's an art to be able to do that, and it's a blessing to be able to do that. But walking into any role, you bring in that that confidence and that kind of uh, as I say, spiritual fora energy to the room, and people can feel it for real. And it's an awesome responsibility because uh it's just uh it's it's a lot to um manage, and we're just human beings. Uh it it you know, you can it can be um intoxicating when you have that type of presence. Uh, but it's a lot of responsibility, so yeah, you you you know, it's an art, it's a gift.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

It's a lot of fun, too. It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun our conversation. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm I feel blessed every day. Thank you.