In Conversation: 'All I've Got & Then Some' Co-directors Rasheed Stephens and Tehben Dean

by Ara Ly

All I’ve Got & Then Some (2024) is an autobiographical feature inspired by the life and events of star and co-director Rasheed Stephens. The film follows Stephens intimately as an aspiring comedian living out of his car, braving a day of bizarre tasks, odd ride-share passengers, and outlandish misfortunes to make it to his first paid stand-up gig. I had the opportunity to speak to Stephens and Tehben Dean—his talented co-director, co-writer, and cinematographer—about the filmmaking process, dreams, and what it means to tell a story so uncut and personal.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

There's a very personalized, sincere spirit about this film that comes with it being based on your own experiences in Los Angeles. Could you talk about how immersing yourself in the city's culture and entertainment scene over the years lent itself to this film's artistic process?

STEPHENS: I think the city is filled with so many people who are dreamers. The energy is real here. We talk about the golden era, the silent movie era . . . There’s so much energy of people who have wanted to immerse themselves inside the industry. And a lot of those descendants are still out there, too. A lot of those people are still dreamers. 

So I thrived in this energy, and the sun. I call the sun Marty. Sometimes I call it sunshine, but I love the sunshine out here. I love the people that are aspiring to pursue their own dream. So I think that on top of my own insatiable appetite to make it, those things working almost cohesively together is what keeps me going, keeps me on my toes . . . So, yeah. This thing that I do, I love it. I love it to death. I love it. I fell in love with the craft. 

You've worked with a lot of underground comedy legends in this film. For those unfamiliar, could you name them and tell us how it was to work with other like minds beyond a stand-up stage?

STEPHENS: Boo Kapone, who used to open for Tupac—he was famous in the early eighties . . . We got Jeremy Scippio. Another legend, we got [Glen “Big Baby” Davis] Big Baby. There’s so many comics in our movie that are unsung heroes, some of the underground legends of LA. It was a great experience just to learn from these guys and see how they work.

But it's like four or five other comics that been in the industry for like, 20-plus years. They have been putting in a lot of work. They're very known around the underground world of comedy. I'm sorry if I missed their names, but I'd be remiss. 

Boo Kapone especially is so dear to me because I remember watching him as a kid on MTV raps . . . So I think it was such a phenomenal experience to be with these comics, and then to even resonate with our movie? I’m like, “Damn! They’ve been doing it for a long time!” 

DEAN: So when we finished the film, the first screening we had was cast and crew and friends. And that really was a moment, I think, for both of us, where we realized we should try to take the film places, because the response was really good. There was so much energy in the room, and we got laughs. There's one point in the film when there was a cheer, and I always remember at the end of the film, Boo came up to us, and he had tears in his eyes. And he said—I’m paraphrasing—“This is so real. The grind you have to go through with stand-up that most people don't recognize.” He’s like, “This tells that story so beautifully.” Yeah, that was a really amazing moment.

Like many up-and-coming entertainers, you found yourself from humble beginnings such as living out of your car for a while. I thought this experience was really highlighted emotionally by the scene where you're FaceTiming your dad in the car. How important was it to you to showcase the reality of that, and what piece of advice would you give to other creatives who can currently relate to that?  

STEPHENS: I think it was very important because I’ve been going through my own constant therapy in the last two years. So like, you know what? It’s time for me to be honest. I’m making a movie. Let me just be more vulnerable. I'm like, let me just show people what it feels like, or give them the experience to be engulfed inside from my world and understand: Look! I don't care how old you are, race or color, whatever. Everybody goes through something, everybody. 

I always lean with love. I have an insatiable appetite for whatever I do. It was important for me just to give people the most vulnerable story I could possibly tell them—along with Tehben— and say, “Look, it's okay, whatever you're going through. It's okay. But embrace yourself. Acknowledge what you're going through and keep moving on. Keep moving forward. Keep pushing. Keep trudging. Surround yourself around good people. Watch what you say to yourself. Watch what you say to other people, watch what you listen to, and watch what you do.” 

DEAN: I think we really just wanted to show behind the scenes of Hollywood, in a way, and just behind the scenes of what it's like to be a creative that's struggling. I feel like we're always waiting for somebody else's permission to take the next step or to find our break. This film was really born out of the frustration of coming to the conclusion of, “I can't keep waiting.” 

We had another film that was starting to be put together. And then the strikes happened, and that thing just ground to a halt. So this film was us deciding we were just gonna do it ourselves. We're gonna see what happens. We're not gonna follow any rules. We're going to just go out there and try to show passion. And so the story was very personal in that sense.

And it ended up feeling very meta as well, because—I remember when we got the call that we got into Slamdance—it was just a surreal moment. The thing we were trying to say in the film felt like it was actually happening, in a sense. It just made the film feel that much more real because we went through that process to make it. We didn't have any financial backing or anything. We just sat down and said, “We're going to do this.” And we just went for it . . . If you truly believe in yourself, and you truly have a passion that you want to follow, you just don't wait for anybody else to give you permission. Just keep keep making. Keep doing and don't give up.

The raw, unfiltered truth was really important to see in this film. Despite a limited, self-funded budget, the film's ambition and charm are not only well-embraced but enhanced by it. Could you both tell us the value of working with these limitations and some ways you've overcome technical problems along the road?

DEAN: Making a film is a huge, huge undertaking. It's something that is very difficult to do just by yourself. I'm not going to say it's impossible. So it's very easy to be like, “Okay, well, I have limited resources. So I have a story I want to tell, but I'm gonna compromise it down to fit within the parameters that I have available to me.” I've always hated that because I don't want to compromise on what I'm doing, I want what I'm doing to be the best that it can be. But with that in mind, you also can't—without any resources—go out and make a film about jumping cars across the English Channel. So I think with this film we really just embraced the resources we had. 

Someone asked us at one of our Q&As: “Well, if you had 10 million dollars, what would you have done differently for this film?” And my response was: “I would not have done this film.” This film is exactly what we wanted it to be, and I do not feel like there was anything that we were missing that we compromised on to make it. So you don't have to have huge resources to do things . . . Part of this film is us making it. We wanted to kind of incorporate ourselves making it into it as well. You can kind of see behind the scenes a little bit. There's a couple of places where I show up in a reflection, but I think that showcases the rawness and reality of it . . . I wouldn't change anything in the film.

STEPHENS: Limitations build creation. Literally, in real life, though. I grew up unfortunately, fortunately. So I always take my misfortunes to fortunes, because all my lack of resources—I was able to cultivate different resources because I liked them. Even growing up poor, we found good games. We didn't have a baseball bat, so we used a stick ball . . . I was built off the limitations of resources, and I had to create my own.

When I first moved to LA, I never had any formal training on how to make movies—how to write, direct, or produce them. I would always sneak inside this school called LA Film School on Sunset Boulevard. I kind of befriended some of the students, but they [weren’t] utilizing resources. I'm like, “Oh, you got all this access to all these things, but you’re not using them.” I’m like, “Watch this! I’m gonna be your best friend.” I would sneak into the school, go inside the library . . . I would read those scripts, use those as a template to teach me how to write.

I use my resources to talk about lack of resources! Man, fuck them! We can use whatever’s in front of my face. 

That’s very savvy. Without that past Rasheed, you wouldn’t get this current one making your personal project now. My last question, to wrap this up: What scene was your favorite to write and film and why? Could you tell us any inspirations you drew from?

STEPHENS: My first favorite scene is when the phenomenal actress—who I think is gonna be an Oscar winner one day—her name is Avise Parsons. She plays the role of Rose. She's so phenomenal. But it's the scene when she and I are sitting in the car wash and I'm talking about going back home. And she's trying to convince me how I inspire people, because in real life, the real Rose had the same conversation with me, and I had no idea I was an inspiration. People like them [Rose] seeing me sneak inside film schools, seeing me work out, seeing me going to open mics, even though I don't have the money to afford it. I didn't realize I was inspiring people. 

I didn't realize people were watching my stuff because she was like, “I don't think you should leave. You inspire a lot of us.” I'm like, “What? I don't inspire nobody.” I do. . . We gotta be kind to ourselves sometimes as human beings. We don't realize what we're doing. Sometimes it's good to pat ourselves on the back. I had no idea, I was totally oblivious. That was inspiring. So that was one of my favorite scenes, because it resonated with my heart so well. Because that conversation that she and I had on screen and in real life—I can't even put that into words. It felt so good, and it made my heart just elevate more in a great way.

DEAN: I would reiterate the scene with Avise in the car, that was definitely one of those scenes where afterwards you're just kind of like, “Wow!” Like, she is absolutely phenomenal.

My favorite scene, I think, is where Rasheed goes to visit his agent in the thrift store. And what I love about that scene is it’s a very aesthetic location, and it's one of the scenes with the most choreography with the camera and multiple people and movement. And I'm just very happy with how that turned out. I also think that it's a hilarious scene—it's very understated comedy. Charles Constant, who plays the agent, he's hilarious. 

I think we did that scene maybe like four or five times, you know, kind of slowly tweaking in and adjusting it down. But everything we did in this film was, for the most part, improvisational. So we would set up what's happening and points to hit. But really, [we] let the interactions between Rasheed and the other characters be fluid and real. 

At the end of this take, I remember—I decided, cause I think I kept following Rasheed out the door at the end. And I was just like, “I love that frame.” That wide frame with two of the minutes. So this time I just panned back, and I just sat there and Charles just kept on going. And I was like, “All right, I'm just gonna see what happens.” And that ended up making it to the movie!