Willie Macc

May 27, 2025 promis­es to be an incred­i­bly mem­o­rable day for our guest. Whether it rates as high­ly as the day his son was born, only time will tell. Truth is, Willie Macc has had a lot of mem­o­rable moments.

Whether this son of a preach­er, BET Col­lege Hill star, and home improve­ment pro real­izes it or not, he is an inspi­ra­tion no mat­ter what Howie, Simon, Sofia, and Mel B have to say about it. Oh, did I not men­tion that Macc is on the 20^th Sea­son of Amer­i­ca’s Got Tal­ent (AGT)? It’s a big deal to be on AGT, espe­cial­ly on their 20^th sea­son which promis­es lots of fan­fare and atten­tion. But Macc plays it cool, not only because that’s his per­son­al­i­ty, but also since these big pro­duc­tion shows tend to have air­tight claus­es on reveal­ing any­thing about the show until it airs.

Talk­ing with Macc, it’s easy to for­get that this young man (to me, many guests are young) (Ed: she’s the spryest per­son on the staff, folks) who has done so much in so lit­tle time, became a father at the young age of 18. (Watch most of his sets online and you’ll get the now hilar­i­ous sto­ry of becom­ing a sin­gle dad). 

A reli­gious upbring­ing like­ly influ­enced Mac­c’s deci­sion to play an active role in his son’s life. Their bond is evi­dent from the fact that Macc makes his son a part of his com­e­dy, and they’ve pod­cast­ed togeth­er. Of the rela­tion­ship with his son and how it com­pares to his own upbring­ing, Macc admits ​“Every­thing I could­n’t do or say with my dad, I do with my son.” That’s an immense­ly relat­able sen­ti­ment to any­one who’s been a parent.

After leav­ing St. Louis, Mis­souri to chase love in Los Ange­les, Macc became a pro­lif­ic back­ground and com­mer­cial actor. He’s got 50 com­mer­cials to his cred­it — big brand names like the Pro­gres­sive par­ent series, Geico, Ver­i­zon, Snap­ple, Native, Apple­bee’s, Taco Bell, and so many more. He’s been seen on CSI, Hulu’s Casu­al, and ABC’s The Gold­bergs, too. Trust us, the list goes on and I can assure you, you have seen Macc on your small screens.

For all his charm – and per­sona as a com­mer­cial and TV actor – the tran­si­tion from viral star of the BET real­i­ty show Col­lege Hill to standup com­ic, was decid­ed­ly more challenging. 

Any­one who knows com­e­dy knows that viral sen­sa­tions aren’t always cut out for standup com­e­dy. But for Macc, there was no stop­ping his dream. An encounter with Bernie Mac on the film set of the leg­endary comic’s epony­mous show, gave Macc the fuel to com­mit. ​“How can you be so cool to some­one that’s just back­ground, and you’re Bernie Mac? So I went down a rab­bit hole of his life.” Real­iz­ing that his entire life, he’d been called out for act­ing up and being sil­ly, he got his start in standup soon after that encounter. If you did­n’t know it by now, Macc chose his stage name in a nod to Bernie Mac. ​“I added an extra ​‘C’ on there, just to stand out.” A name change and an inspi­ra­tional con­ver­sa­tion with Bernie Mac was all it took to focus his ener­gies into standup comedy.

We shared an unex­pect­ed Six Degrees of Eri­ca Rhodes moment dur­ing our con­ver­sa­tion. Rhodes and Macc are long-time friends. She rec­om­mend­ed Macc to Omnipop, his cur­rent agency, and for the AGT audi­tions. Macc and I record­ed from the Stephen F. Austin lob­by due to a remod­el that closed down my usu­al Driskill Lounge loca­tion. As it turns out, Macc and I record­ed right next to where Rhodes and I last record­ed a pod­cast. She is every­where, seemingly.

There’s a lot of intro­spec­tion Macc shares with us in what I hope is the first of many con­ver­sa­tions dur­ing his career. He admits he’s an empath, which explains why it’s easy to talk with him and share your own life chal­lenges, and even get­ting into par­ent­ing philoso­phies. His kind­ness shone through, but so did his belief in being put in the right places at the right time. There’s a spe­cial moment cap­tured dur­ing the episode about the Com­e­dy Wham note­book that we give all of our pod­cast guests. I won’t soon for­get Mac­c’s reac­tion and the reminder that when you think you’ve lost some­thing, a small ges­ture at the right time can turn that loss into a moment of grat­i­tude. There’s even a hap­py end­ing to the tale of the lost notebook.

For all the philo­soph­i­cal points of view, Macc is very into being sil­ly and fun­ny. That’s most evi­dent on his pod­cast with friend and fel­low com­ic Dan­ny Plom (aka Afronoo­dles). These two long-time friends have con­ver­sa­tions about every­thing from cramps, dehy­dra­tion, Bat­man, and the down­side of dat­ing Vir­gos. Sad­ly, it’s been a few months since they dropped an episode (don’t wor­ry the friend­ship is intact), but I and the com­ments sec­tion of their past episodes make it clear that we need more episodes of their delight­ful friend­ship on display.

We know Macc is busy, so we can for­give the delay in releas­ing more pod­cast episodes. No doubt, he’s going to have an incred­i­ble and busy year in com­e­dy. He’s got two spe­cials com­ing out in late 2025 — one for Dry Bar Com­e­dy titled Dad, Grand­mas and Bears, Oh My, and a more unfil­tered spe­cial Good Dad, Bad Father.

Between AGT, his two spe­cials, going on tour, and being a gen­uine­ly nice human, we think it’s going to be the most amaz­ing year ever, as Willie Mac­c’s career moves into full bloom. Thorns and all.

Fol­low Willie

• Web­site — williemacc​.com
• Insta­gram — @williemacc
• Tik­Tok — @williemacc
• Face­book — Face​book​.com/​i​m​w​i​l​l​i​emacc
• Youtube — Youtube​.com/​@​w​i​l​l​i​emacc
• Link­tree — link​tr​.ee/​w​i​l​l​i​emacc

Willie can be seen and heard:

• Amer­i­ca’s Got Tal­ent Sea­son 20 (debut May 27, 2025)
• Spe­cials
  • Don’t Tell Comedy 
  • Com­ing Soon — Dry Bar Com­e­dy ​“Dad, Grand­mas and Bears, Oh My”
  • Com­ing Soon — Good Dad, Bad Father 
• Pod­casts (avail­able on Youtube and your favorite pod­cast player)
  • Afro Noo­dles Pod­cast (over 100 episodes)
• Act­ing
  • Col­lege Hill: Vir­gin Island
  • My Flip­ping Family
  • CSI
  • The Gold­bergs
  • Casu­al
• Writ­ing
  • Adven­tures of Dylan and Per­ry: Oper­a­tion Treehouse