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Katt Williams on leaving home at 13 so his brothers could stay together

In a near two-hour conversation with Steven Bartlett, the comedian traces a path from a basement in Ohio to a park bench in Miami and, years later, the stage.

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The Diary Of A CEO Story of November 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

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Katt Williams: They Tied Me To A Pole And Beat Me Bloody Every Week!

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2:16Williams says he taught himself to read around age three and used adventure books as a blueprint.
11:15He describes being tied to a basement pole and beaten, and questioning the religion he was raised in.
16:09White Fang and The Swiss Family Robinson, he says, gave him hope and models of resilience.
30:43At 13 he leaves home after police are called, so his brothers would not be separated.
47:46At 16 he enters a comedy contest to get past a bouncer and wins with one joke.
56:30Bartlett shows the handwritten list of 300 comedians Williams studied to improve.

Katt Williams was 13 when school officials noticed his injuries and called the police. He tells Steven Bartlett on The Diary Of A CEO that he chose to leave home so that his younger brothers would not be separated.

The episode's title is not saved for a late reveal. Within the first quarter of an hour, Williams describes being tied to a pole in the basement and beaten, from the age of five to twelve, in a strict, Bible-focused house with no birthdays or holidays. "Not because I knew too much, more because I said too much," he says of openly questioning the doctrine he was raised in.

What carried him, he explains, was reading. He taught himself around the age of three, and adventure books such as White Fang and The Swiss Family Robinson, which Bartlett places on the table, gave him a pattern: before the happy ending, things go badly wrong. "That it was just bad, and then it got greater later. I just held on to that." Comedy came next, as a way to change his mood, through the Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin and Don Knotts.

After leaving, he hitched rides south to escape the Ohio winters and slept in Peacock Park in Miami. "I didn't feel homeless, I felt, I felt free." He also recalls the day his family, who had moved to Florida, drove past him on a highway.

The second half turns to the career. At 16 he entered a comedy contest only to get past a club's bouncer, and won with a single joke, then stayed away from stand-up for five years. Bartlett produces Williams' handwritten list of 300 comedians to study, from Richard Pryor to Dave Chappelle; his reason was simple: "they were funnier than me, and that's what I had to fix." Later chapters cover treating rejection as a numbers game, paying for his own early specials and a lesson he learned from Prince.

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