When Will Smith decided he wanted to try his hand at stand-up comedy last fall, he turned to a living comedy legend for some pointers.
On the most recent episode of "Will Smith's Bucket List," the actor showed video of him getting tips from Dave Chappelle.
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"The first thing I'll tell you is confidence is key," Dave told Will. "The reason you should be confident is primarily because you're Will Smith. I've been watching you for years — you're actually a funny dude. I've spoken to you before, you're a great conversationalist. What else do you really need to do?"
Will felt it was scarier to do stand-up than it was to bungee jump over the Grand Canyon, something else he's done on the Facebook Watch series.
Dave stressed that Will needed to have the right topics to talk about on stage.
"The best advice I ever got doing comedy was from a comedian that was not particularly good, but the advice was very important to me," Dave said. "He said, 'You are one of those comedians who think you have to be funny all the time. You don't. But, you do have to be interesting all the time.' You gotta look at it like you're directing a conversation with no rebuttal."
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Considering Will had a slew of stories from being an actor and singer, Dave felt that Will would have a leg up on other aspiring comedians.
"You can talk about anything, the more embarrassing, the more relatable you are. Because everyone thinks you're perfect," the comedian said. "Nobody's perfect. But it's fun to be self-aware in front of people. And a lot of times, they forgive themselves for something, just hearing somebody work through something."
Will ended up opening for Dave at the Peppermint Club in Los Angeles last September.
"I did Stand Up last night… FIRST TIME EVER!," Will wrote on Instagram on Sept. 20, 2018. "I opened for Dave Chappelle. I AM HOOKED."
