An interview between comedian Katt Williams and Shannon Sharpe became one of the top stories in entertainment last week, with the episode of the Club Shay Shay podcast generating more than 32 million views on YouTube since it premiered on Wednesday.
Over on The Blaze last week, host Jason Whitlock commented that Sharpe’s ability to conduct such an honest and free-flowing interview was impressive and something never seen before in terms of former athlete turned broadcaster.
“I haven’t seen any other professional athlete, including Charles Barkley, transition into this high level of a professional broadcaster as what I’m seeing from Shannon Sharpe,” Whitlock said on his show Fearless.
“This guy’s prepared. Again, most of these jocks show up and they just, ‘I’m just here to be a personality,'” he added. “No, this dude – either his staff or himself – he’s prepared. He knows all the scenes from the movies they were in. He’s read up on their background. They’ve put all this information in front of him. He asks good questions, they like him. He puts them at a comfort level, and he’ll go wherever they want to go.”
Whitlock continued that he wasn’t a fan of his work with Skip Bayless on FS1, and tipped his cap at what Shannon Sharpe has been able to accomplish with Club Shay Shay since he left the network last summer. He felt like Sharpe has even surpassed Stephen A. Smith in terms of the media empire he’s been able to build.
“He’s more talented, more authentic, and better than Stephen A. Smith,” Jason said. “Stephen A. Smith wants to move into this entertainment lane, and what he does not realize is Shannon’s already beat him there. That’s not a knock on Stephen A. Smith, because Stephen A. can do a little bit of what Shannon’s doing. But he is not as good as Shannon in the lane Shannon has built here.”
Whitlock told guest Steve Kim that the difference between the two media stars was gravitas, and that goes back to Sharpe’s playing career in the NFL.
“Because of that Hall of Fame football career there is a deference,” Whitlock said. “Katt Williams showed it multiple times. He basically was arguing like, ‘Shannon in the football world, you’re like me in the comedy world. We’re both Hall of Famers.”
“People like Stephen A. because of the position he’s been put in by ESPN, and they have to deal with him. But they don’t really like him,” he added. “People are looking at Shannon and are feeling like, ‘Man he earned this. He was a great Hall of Fame football player.'”
Whitlock praised Sharpe further saying he has become an excellent interviewer. Kim concurred.
“He’s an interviewer who lets the guy being interviewed have their viewpoints,” he said. “He’ll push back here and there. But it is absolutely something that gets on my nerves when I hear interviewers start to try to argue with people’s others opinions. If Katt Williams says something that I don’t like, I might interject, but I will always think ‘Katt, have your opinion, expound upon it.’ This is not meant to be an argument. It’s not a debate show.
“When you have a setting or a format where you can be a 5-minute interview, or a 5-hour interview like it was with Charleston White and Cam Newton, you can get into a lot of things. And you can allow your subject to expound. I believe that’s a much more effective way to get to somebody.”
Please just send him a love letter already. You seem to have a hard on for him. Jealous is a dangerous drug