Key Takeaways
- In a new VladTV sit-down, Gary Owen and DJ Vlad jokingly turn their dating histories into a “who loves Black women more” contest, tallying Black ex-wives, kids, and stepkids until Owen “wins” by claiming six Black children and dealing with Black fathers of children.
- The bit lands as Owen publicly reconciles with ex-wife Kenya Duke for the first time in six years after a messy 2021 divorce and estrangement from older kids, while he’s now remarried with twin sons with Brianna Johnson.
- Owen also notes that his audience is shifting from mostly Black to more mixed, with increasing numbers of white and Latino viewers, crediting Facebook and viral military-themed clips for expanding his reach beyond the Black fanbase that built his career.
Gary Owen and DJ Vlad have apparently found the ultimate tiebreaker for two white guys in their 50s with long histories of dating Black women: compare the résumés.
During a new sit-down on VladTV, Owen and Vlad jokingly turned their relationships, marriages and blended families into a full-on "who loves Black women more" contest. The conversation started with Corey Holcomb's viral comments about dating younger women before Owen abruptly proposed a different matchup. "If we have a white guy that primarily dates Black women contest, who would win between me and you?" he asked.
First category: Black mothers of their children. Two apiece. Next: Black ex-wives. "One," Owen said. "I got two," Vlad fired back. Owen immediately had an explanation for why his single divorce should count for more: "That one was a tough divorce. That was four divorces in one, bro."
Then came the category that changed the scoreboard. Asked how many Black children he has, Owen answered, "Six." Vlad had three.
There was some fine print. Owen explained that four of his six children are biological, while two are stepchildren—one from his nearly 18-year marriage to Kenya Duke and another through his current wife, Brianna Johnson.
Still, Owen wasn't surrendering those points. "I'm raising other people's kids," he said. "And my stepkids are full Black." Vlad finally admitted, "I think you might win, man."
Owen then produced another credential: "I got to deal with Black baby daddies." That nearly sealed it. "Maybe you win," Vlad conceded.
The bit lands at an interesting moment in Owen's very public family history. Just weeks earlier, he and Duke reunited for the first time in six years after their son, Austin, brought them together. "Got my parents back together for the first time in 6 years. God is good," Austin wrote alongside photos of the three.
Owen kept his own reaction simple: "It was nice hanging out and catching up."
The peaceful reunion followed years of fallout from Owen and Duke's 2021 split, including Owen's estrangement from his older children. He has since gotten remarried to Johnson, with whom he shares twin sons.
But Owen and Vlad's conversation also touched on another relationship that's changing: Owen's with his audience. For years, the comedian was a white comic whose fanbase skewed heavily toward Black audiences. That's no longer entirely the case.
"That was the case for a majority of my career, but the last year, probably two years, it ain't like that no more," Owen said.
He pointed to sold-out dates in Irvine and strong sales in Latino-heavy cities including Phoenix, El Paso and Midland, Texas, as evidence of the shift.
Owen credits social media—particularly Facebook—and clips about his military background with pushing his comedy beyond the audience that built his career. "When I start posting the military clips about my time in the military and military jokes, those go everywhere," he explained, comparing his Facebook success to Matt Rife and Nate Jackson breaking through on TikTok.
Even Owen's new white fans apparently haven't figured out how to approach him yet. Black fans, he joked, still make their presence known immediately. White fans? "They just walk by like, 'I know who you are. I'm not gonna say nothing.'"
