When it comes to small talk, Charlamagne tha God isn’t a fan. That’s the premise of his new book “Get Honest or Die Lying: Why Small Talk Sucks.”
“Say what’s on your mind! You know what you’re here for,” he advised “You ever had a dinner meeting and you know what the dinner meeting is about, but then you sit down and start talking about the weather, you’re talking about coyotes in Rancho Cucamonga, we don’t care about none of that! You know what you’re here for.”
Even if he’s at an event, he’ll make it clear to his tablemates that they don’t have to make any small talk at all.
“That’s the best icebreaker because everybody feels it, we all have a sense of anxiety when we meet somebody new when we’re in a new situation,” he said.
Talking is how the co-host of the popular radio program “The Breakfast Club” makes a living. This is the third book he’s published and he revealed to KTLA 5’s Megan Telles that he loves reading.
He said he owed that passion to his mother, an English teacher in his home state of South Carolina, and Pizza Hut’s Book It! program.
“I used to read a lot and I used to write a lot because I loved storytelling. So whether it was about hip-hop or going to the library and reading Judy Blume books, I just liked great stories. So I just started writing my own, even way, way, way back then,” the radio personality explained.
That love of reading has been passed on to his four daughters, who range from 15 to two years old.
“Even though I encourage them to read, they naturally read because they see my wife and myself with a book in our hand. If you sit on your phone all day but tell your kids they can’t be on their phone do you think they’re going to listen? No, they’re going to see what you’re doing not what you’re telling them to do.”
When it comes to telling it like it is, Charlamagne doesn’t hold back.
However, it wasn’t until he took part in a spiritual retreat in California earlier this year that he started to look inward. This inspired him to pen his new book focusing on big conversations instead of “small talk from small minds.”
“The thing that came up for me was to stop to yourself and stop volunteering those lies to other people because every day folks wake up lying because they wake up performing because of social media,” he said. “Regular everyday followers if you have 100 followers (or) 200 followers you feel like you have an audience, you find yourself just performing. So I’m just trying to get people to be their most authentic selves at all times, including me.”
Being straight up and real is something Charlamagne encourages from his radio guests, most recently R&B singer and reality star Ray J.
The “Hell of A Week with Charlamagne that God” host also feels “everything is open to a discussion.”
“Let’s put it all on the table, let’s put our honest opinions all on the table, and let’s have a conversation about it,” he said.
He did acknowledge that many don’t want to do it anymore because of fear of backlash on social media.
“They’re scared of the wrath of Twitter.”
“Get Honest or Die Lying: Why Small Talk Sucks” is available wherever you get your books.
Charlamagne is hosting a book signing event at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove on June 14 at 7:00 p.m. For tickets head here.