Shark Tank star Daymond John was revealed as the Fortune Teller during TV Theme Night on The Masked Singer. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Daymond about why he decided to make The Masked Singer his latest endeavor.
“I think that after two years of being cooped up and a lot of things going on in the world, I think this is just fun in general,” Daymond said. “Also, being an entrepreneur, it’s always about stepping outside your comfort zone, really testing yourself, and just putting yourself out there and being vulnerable. A lot of people think that the mentality of entrepreneurs is to be this hard person that, just like a bull running around when it’s the exact opposite. It’s about being vulnerable, failing, trying, and putting yourself out there.”
Daymond fully admitted that he doesn’t “particularly” like his voice. “I do not even watch my own show because I hate my voice. With the performance, I have generally been somewhat of a public speaker so I know how to work stages, but I literally talked to Melissa here, and I’d probably quit about six times without the producers knowing because I’d sit there and sing a note and be like all good, and they’d say, ‘Alright, everything’s great.’ And then I’d get on the phone with Melissa and say, ‘Alright, I’m not doing this anymore. I suck.’ I don’t particularly like my voice.”
Daymond performed The Jeffersons theme song when he made his Masked Singer debut. “It’s very, very personal to me. As an African American, I never saw any entrepreneurs who were so successful on TV,” Daymond noted. “George was the first time seeing a really successful entrepreneur that had all the attributes that I have. Really short, spunky, comes from New York, moved to the Upper East Side… I mean, he’s my life. After singing the song, maybe I tried to model myself after George Jefferson. He was both honest about what he thought about and very passionate about what he did.”
The businessman had to face off with the Harp in a Battle Royale and perform the Full House theme song. Daymond was “shocked” that he made it to that round. “I had low expectations on where I would place,” he admitted.
While he was “happy” to do the Battle Royale, Daymond knew it was over when he heard Harp’s version of the theme song. He raved that Harp sounded like “an angel down came down from the skies. If I would have won, I would have still taken the mask off. I am not worthy.”
After Daymond became the first Shark Tank contestant to do The Masked Singer, the FUBU founder weighed in on which of his castmates should do the show next. “In the breaks of Shark Tank we sing,” Daymond revealed. “Kevin [O’Leary] is great at playing the guitar, and he sings. Robert [Herjavec] is so animated. You can’t shut him up. Mark [Cuban] is great. Barbara [Corcoran] is okay. I don’t know. That’s a tough one. I think knowing how brilliant The Masked Singer people are, you’ll never know. Maybe they have all six of us competing against each other. I have no idea.”
In addition to Shark Tank and his ongoing entrepreneurship, Daymond has a new children’s book called Little Daymond Learns To Earn coming out in 2023. “We are at a point where our families need to have a little bit more understanding of how finance works, so why not learn together so that our kids are better off and better equipped to become successful, whether they are working in a company or owning their own company? In this new chapter in my life where I have a six-year-old little baby girl, and I want to equip her with some of the things that helped me become who I am in a very fun, playful way,” Daymond told HollywoodLife. “It’s a way for me to read to my little girl and hopefully, everybody will read to their little boy and girl and they’re having a good time. I’m excited about this. I love teaching entrepreneurship to adults and things like that, but there’s nothing more fulfilling than seeing the eyes of little beautiful children light up when you read them a great story, and they don’t even realize they’re learning simultaneously.”