Preloading

Tyler Perry Once Risked Everything to Make It Big—and Lost

Season 6 Episode 602
Aired on 08/22/2017 | CC tv-pg
Shortly after moving to Atlanta to launch his playwriting career in the early '90s, Tyler Perry funneled every last dime he had into his first stage project, I Know I've Been Changed. Broke but confident, Tyler says he was certain that 1,200 people would fill the local playhouse to see his debut. The reality, however, was a different story.

"Only 30 [people] showed up," Tyler says. "Lost everything I had—rent, car payment, everything. So, I thought, 'Is this it?'"

Watch as Tyler describes his confusion in that moment and why, despite his fears and concerns, he chose not to return home to New Orleans in the face of this early defeat.

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