Desi Banks has been dominating the comedic sphere online with his compelling stories and hard-hitting punchlines. And now he’s proving his live gravitas by making an almighty splash on the international stand-up circuit.

Ahead of his show at The Clapham Grand tonight (August 25), That Grape Juice‘s Samuel Eni caught up with the funnyman, who opened up about his ascend, inspirations, his plans for the future, and a whole lot more.

Check out the exclusive interview below…

That Grape Juice (Samuel Eni): Desi! You’re on quite the trajectory. Tell me, how was it for you when you started out in this game for you like? Could you picture yourself at this place?

Desi Banks: Never in London. I never had it inside (as a thought). ‘Oh, yeah, I’m gonna be in London.’ No, it was not, you know, but I see that I’m doing it right now. Like, I started on social media back in 2012. I’ve been in the social media world for a long time. And on to stand-up comedy now and I am going into my sixth year. But to be doing it international man is mind-blowing. I’m very thankful for the opportunities and they love to see that guy here from you guys. And it is dope. As I said, I’m in the moment. I’m taking it all in. So, I am exploring it just looking around and just seeing how dope you guys, you know, home is, man, and the industry.

That Grape Juice: One thing I’ll say about you is that you’re very open with your faith, and how God has got you here and you don’t shy away from that. You praise God all the time. How important is God to your life, to your message, to your journey once you’re doing this right now?

Desi Banks: It’s everything. It gave me discernment to be able to move, to understand who I’m around and where I’m at, things like that. And he’s my strength to keep me going for all these years. At one time, I feel like, opportunities that I may not get. It makes me upset, but God always comes in and be like, ‘Yo, I got you. Don’t worry about it. You just keep doing what you’re doing. And just know your story may be different from a lot of people, but just know you’re on the right track of yourself.’ And as I continue to grow and live my purpose, I understand.

That Grape Juice: Amazing. Looking back, what got you into comedy?

Desi Banks: Really, my friends. But I was always this kid growing up, being funny and things like that. Playing sports, being a funny guy on the team. Went to High School and had a friend of mine, in 2012, named Rashad. He actually introduced me to this thing called social media. I think you should do this. And I got on there. And the first video that I ever did, it went viral. And that’s what made me like, kind of like, tap into it. But I wasn’t like fully tapped into it. Because I was playing sports at the time. So, I said, I will take sports seriously. I didn’t really start taking it seriously until like, 2015. That’s when I graduated from college. And I was like, you know what, maybe this is something that I should do, because I didn’t make it to the NFL. But with the gifts and talents that I’m doing right now. It’s like God’s still kind of kept the NFL in my life because I work with them now. So, my gifts and talents like made room for me to be able to go into that space. Even though I wanted to make it to NFL, I still made to the NFL doing something else. Like I’m still there. So yeah, my journey has been good. It’s been a process and it’s still – and it’s just growing and growing and growing. A lot of things are on the way.

That Grape Juice: How has this year been like for you so far? I feel like it’s going super-fast this year.

Desi Banks: Wow. Four more months left. And we’ve been torn. We took a break, I think at the beginning of February – Looks like, ready to shoot some films and just get a lot of different things in order. But it’s been cool. Just moving in the right direction, just building things up. It’s been the year. A lot of great things, I would say. I got my team with me. We all grow and we all plan. So, we just are enjoying this process of getting to the next level.

That Grape Juice: Where does your inspiration come from?

Desi Banks: Inspiration for me, I can think is just to be a student. I know I’m not where I want to be. I know I want to be in big movies. I know I want to have big TV shows. I know I want to shoot specials. I know I want to do these things. So, if I have not done it yet, I gotta stay inspired. I gotta watch people that are doing it right now. I got to continue to watch the people like Kevin Hart and Mike Epps, the Jamie Foxx’s. They are creating stuff. I gotta be able to keep watching them. Eddie Murphy still killing it right now from ‘Dolemite’ to ‘Coming to America 2’ that just came out. Like, those guys are still doing it in a way and I was like, I look at those guys. And like, I want to be there. I want to get to that. So that’s what keeps me going. And being around people that’s also doing it, doing what I’m doing. So when I see them do good, it’s like I want to do good too.

That Grape Juice: Is there a movie you’ve seen that you wish you were in? That you would have aced the role?

Desi Banks: If I had a movie, it’d be ’Friday.’ I could see myself playing ‘Friday’ but also ‘The Nutty Professor,’ Eddie Murphy, man! I do want to play in those characters. It’s genius to me. If I can do that now, I’ll do that. So yeah, those are like two movies that I felt like.

There are others, though. ‘Money Talks,’ Rush Hour,’ ‘All About the Benjamins.’ There are a lot of different films that are classic, that I can see myself playing in.

That Grape Juice: My condolences to your grandmother. She made us all laugh as well.

Desi Banks: Oh, that was my baby. Thank you.

That Grape Juice: Rounding off, you have a major show in London this week. What can folks expect?

Desi Banks: Desi Banks! Outside of social media, you can expect the real me, you’re just learning more about my family. You’re gonna hear from my grandma. You’re gonna hear stories about our relationship, you’re gonna hear stuff about my son, my lady, and things like that. Just the real. That’s what people want to hear anyway. They want to hear. I’m just gonna be telling them this is what I’m going through, current events, things like that. People think they can relate to that but, I’m just gonna have fun and just give them Desi Banks.

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Be sure to catch Desi Banks at The Clapham Grand. Click here for tickets.

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