WEBVTT - A Simple Ask with Patton Oswalt and Alice's Kids 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.600 Hey, six degrees listeners, Kevin becon here, I got a 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:08.320 treat for you this episode. This is the one and 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:14.560 only hilarious Patton oswaldt joins me for a conversation that 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:20.279 is funny, funny, funny, funny, but also extremely insightful. As 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.400 you probably know, this guy knows how to make you laugh. 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.840 What here is a little teaser. Patton may have ended 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.200 up on a different career path if not for his 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.680 very blunt dad. I think we got to thank them though, 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.839 because you know, the world needs this dude doing his 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.120 comedy thing and it's stick around. Also because we shine 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:48.880 a spotlight on a grassroots organization doing amazing work supporting 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.400 students throughout the entire year, not just in the back 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.760 to school sessions. Yeah, I haven't really been looking forward 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.960 to this one. I'm a big fan, so lean in. 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:09.840 I'm glad you're here. Patton Oswald, thank you so much 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:10.800 for being here with me. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:13.280 Ken, thank you fix having me on. 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.520 Man. Hey, you know it's one of those weird like 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.360 I don't know I've are well. Of course, you know, 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.000 I play this dumb game where I try to figure 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.119 out connections between people. But I don't think that our 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.400 paths have crossed as far as I know, I don't 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.759 think we've been in the same thing, which is kind 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:29.480 of shocking. 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.880 Yeah, it is weird. We've never crossed directly. I'm sure 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.959 there is no more than a two or three person 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:41.360 gap between you and I. Apparently my wife was telling me. 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.080 My wife, Meredith Salinger, said that she this is back 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:47.200 in eighty six, so if you don't remember this, don't 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.520 even worry about it. She had just done a movie 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.920 called A Night in the Life at Jimmy Reared, and 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:54.680 she met you somewhere, either at a dinner or something, 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.080 and you were joking and like, oh, you just did 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.240 that movie with River Phoenix. I'm probably gonna play his 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:00.360 big brothers day. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:05.040 That's probably I mean, I'm sure she's not lying. I mean, 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.680 I'm sure she's not making it up, and that would 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:09.800 be something that I would have thought of. In fact, 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:11.800 you know, it's you know, that was such a you know, 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.280 sad thing I was. I loved her. I thought he 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:19.200 was great and yeah, and definitely you know, when he 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.880 was younger, he definitely, you know, we look like we 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.600 could have been brothers for sure. Absolutely, yes, But the 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.520 fact that you have been I mean, I think you've 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.040 been in like two hundred movies or something like that. 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.480 It's great, it's it just blows my mind, and it 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:36.720 makes it even even weirder that we haven't been in 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.360 the same thing together. Well, but you know, life is long, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:42.440 so we'll we'll get to do that. 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.480 Life is long, and show business is weirdly small, so 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.680 eventually everybody coides with each other. 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.040 Absolutely, absolutely, thank you, thank you so much for being 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.640 here with me. You know, I want to I want 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.880 to first off say, I don't know why I have 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.240 this obsession with this. The people that listening to this podcast. 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:03.200 I've heard me mention this many times. But how do 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.720 you feel about your name? And can we talk a 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.920 little bit about it? About the genesis of that name. 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:16.480 Well, Daddy was a marine and he my mom wanted 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:18.239 to call me either Andy or Chris, and he thought 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.320 those names were kind of bland and forgettable, so he 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.919 proposed Patton as a first name. I haven't met a 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.640 lot of first name patents out there, but weirdly, you know, 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.040 he had been he had done three tours in Vietnam. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.160 So even though he named me after a World War 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.880 Two general, he was always very vocal about I don't 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:37.680 want you ever. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.920 Going to war or joining the military. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.160 I know because I've seen the worst of it, and 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.480 I do not want that for you. So what I 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.120 went into being a comedian, he could not have been happier. 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:50.760 Wow, Okay, yeah, that is a very I think that's 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.920 a very unusual, unusual story. I would think. I mean 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.840 because because you know, listen, I often have said, I 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.720 think I've played four Marines in my life. I get 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:02.760 I get them, I get the marine gigs, and the 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.520 one thing, oh yeah, absolutely sure that I could never 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.600 do is become a marine. I mean, I wouldn't last 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.280 five minutes through any of those you know of boot 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.080 camp or those procedures. But I do know that a 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.000 lot of the Marines that I've I've been with have 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.200 had sort of the opposite reaction, you know, they kind 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.520 of they they want to pass that on to their sons. 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.520 So I'm I'm I'm wow, I'm not surprised, but I 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:29.280 think it's but I think it's interesting, and I think 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.200 it says a lot about your dad that he's like, no, 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:32.600 I've seen it and it's not for you. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.960 I I don't think he was down on the Marines. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.279 He was down on the idea of us being sent 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.920 to war. You know, he had been doing. He came 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.560 from a I come from a long line of war 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:49.000 veterans and warriors. So but my dad saw I think 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.039 he saw some really bad stuff during those three years 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:54.040 and he got shot in the leg. He's still alive, 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.680 but you know, he just saw a lot of really 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.600 dark stuff and he was like, yeah, war is not 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:00.960 what I I thought it was going to be. 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:03.120 And did he talk to you about that stuff? 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.760 He talks about it, but he does it in that 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:10.960 oblique way where it actually the stuff he doesn't talk 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.840 about weirdly speaks louder than the stuff he can talk 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.279 about directly. That the stuff that he that he clearly 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.040 is deflecting from and can't face head on, you can 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.120 infer what it is he's talking about. 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:24.480 And it's pretty dark. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.040 So and I've learned to like, what is the point 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.320 in me dredging it up? I think he's so much 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.919 more happy to be with his sons now alive, rather 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.440 than let's go revisit this as he called it one time, 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:45.520 he just said war is brutal and completely pointless. And again, 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:47.440 that's a guy that was did three years of it, 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.080 So you know, I kind of that was my way 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.359 of going, Yeah, let's not push too we don't need 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:54.320 to push too deep here. 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.040 Sure sure, yeah, sure. So you said you have brothers 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:59.600 and sisters, got. 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:00.479 A younger other. 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:08.600 Also very funny, comedy writer, great on threads and online, 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.200 great writer. And also just like he was actually flirting 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.919 with joining the Air Force. My dad was like, listen, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.000 I love you. You are not. 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.720 Going to do well in the Army. Go do something else. 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.480 And he wasn't saying it like oh you little whip. 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.120 He was just like, I know how your mind works, 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:27.039 and this ain't for you. 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.160 Uh huh uh huh Yeah. What were what were you were? 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.360 An army brought it? Did you move around a bunch 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:32.960 of a bunch? 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:34.320 And yeah, a little. 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.320 We moved on it when we were really really young. 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.920 But then when we got to just before high school. 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.560 And I remember this very clearly because my dad grew 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.360 up his dad was an Air Force pilot and they 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.880 moved constantly. He went to four different high schools. He 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.160 just was and moved all over the world, Morocco and 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.760 Germany and Spain and then all over the United States. 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.839 And he said, as adventurous as that was. I never 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.560 had like a home base. I never was had like 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.120 a place I could build rep or build my roots, 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:06.760 and I want that for you guys. You know, because 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:08.640 my dad also really loved sports, and a lot of 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.160 times he would suddenly move to a new town and 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.520 the coach was like, you're doing really good work, but 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.560 this kid's been here since freshman year, and he's like, 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:18.920 he's you know, it's his time, and I don't know 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:20.920 what to tell you, you know, So he's like, I 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:21.560 don't want that. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.640 So he took a desk. 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:25.480 He was like a test pilot for a while, and 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.280 then he took a desk job in the Marines in 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.160 DC testing just so that he could. He was like, 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:33.960 I don't want that experience for you guys. 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:35.800 So when you say sports, you and your brother were 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:37.560 playing sports, or your dad was coaching, or. 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.480 My dad my dad played sports in high school. He 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.120 saw very very early that, oh, I have not given 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:49.320 birth to jocks, given birth to movie nerds and D 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.880 and D players and possible filmmakers. These guys are not 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.520 going to be I mean, I tried every sport. I 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.800 tried football, I tried soccer, I tried baseball. I was 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.320 just absolutely awful in all of them. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:04.360 Well we share that, we share that. 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:06.520 Really did you try them all and they'd just nothing? 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:08.600 Really well, well I didn't, you know. It's like when 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.880 I say I tried them, we didn't. I didn't really 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.240 go to a high school that had We didn't have 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:15.840 a foot There was no football. I mean it was 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.520 a kind of an inner city Philadelphia high school, so 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.240 that we didn't have any room to play football. We 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:23.800 played football on the street, but it was just touch football. 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.680 Or we would play like, you know, half ball, stickball, 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.520 you know, oh yeah, stuff like that, street hockey. But 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.640 I was never really good, never good at any sports. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.600 I actually feel, you know, kind of lucky that for 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.520 the most part, I haven't been asked to do anything 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.600 that is specifically ball athletic. I mean I've been asked 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.280 to do things and involved you know, movement and dance 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.839 and fighting, yes, you know, all those kinds of things. 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:54.960 But the one, the one time that I did a 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.520 sports based movie was this pretty forgettable movie called The 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:03.120 Air up there where I patted it. Yeah, I played 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:06.760 a trust me when I say it doesn't really hold up. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.040 I play a guy who goes I'm a recruiter. I 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:16.319 go to Africa and the great NBA great Bob McAdoo, 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:22.160 who was was our technical advisor on on that on 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.160 that movie, and you know, was tasked with, you know, 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.760 trying to uh, you know, get everybody to kind of 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.880 choreograph the games and you know, cast the players that 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:33.920 could play and stuff like that. And he he once 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.160 did an interview and said that one of the hardest 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:37.760 things he ever had to do in his career was 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:39.920 make Kevin Bacon look like a basketball player. 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.640 So and make make you look like someone who knew 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:46.920 how to tell people how to play basketball. 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.959 Like that was the easy part. But there was a 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.320 scene where I come in and actually, you know, save 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.760 the day, you know with my outside shooting, you know. 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.679 So, but that's fantastic. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.480 Yeah, it was. It was, But you know, listen, I 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.640 think it's really again. I think that I like your 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:09.520 dad without having met him, for those two reasons, one 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.720 saying you know, I don't want you to go to war, 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.280 and to saying, hey, I see something else in both 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:19.480 of you. That edit eight you know, football and go 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:21.440 and do your thing. I mean I think that's I 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:22.480 think that's fantastic. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.000 Yeah, And I've actually carried that on because I'm not 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.960 going to be the jock version of a nerd dad 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.040 to my daughter. Like I remember, I showed her Star 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.640 Wars and she was like meh, And I wasn't, like 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.559 you are going to sit down and you're a good wall, 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:37.679 you know, I said, Oh, I didn't land with her. 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:38.480 That's fine. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.880 Like, I'm not gonna force her into something that she's not. 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.440 That's a I think that's a crucial thing that parents 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.280 need to learn and from my dad, and I'm doing 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:47.640 it now. 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.560 I agree. I totally agree. I don't. I don't try 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:53.600 to force them into something that they don't that they 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.800 don't want to do, you know, other than you know, 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.880 trying to lead by example, to be a good person 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.160 and you know, try to whatever, have some empathy, but 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.640 try other than that. I mean, I totally agree. Well, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.880 so you mentioned that you had a great love and 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.200 you mentioned Star Wars with your brother. You and your 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.439 brother were kind of movie nerds. You like to watch. 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.320 I was way more of a movie nerd than my brother. 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.480 He got into movies a little older. He did like 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.240 watching sports, he wasn't big on playing them, even though 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:33.079 he's very kind of fit and he takes good care 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.280 of himself, but he wasn't into like the team sports up. 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.800 I was just from a very early age, just hooked 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:39.520 on the whole. 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:39.800 You know. 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.160 I don't know if you it sounds like you grew 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.680 up in Philly in the seventies, sixties and seventies. Yeah, 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.640 so you probably had your version of the Saturday morning 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:51.160 horror movie. 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:51.760 Host that there. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:53.800 I said, there was a monster movie and then an 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.719 Abbot Costello movie, totally, and I just devoured all of them. 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.160 And then me too, eight years old, Star Wars came 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.040 out and that was it. It just kicked the side 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.520 of my head in and I was completely, Oh, that's 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.439 what I want to be doing. I want I want 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:08.719 to get on the other side of that and be 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.280 in that world somehow. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.280 Right, right, But how does that how does that walk 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:17.560 its way to comedy? I was or was that not? 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.360 Even the impetus at the jump? 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:21.120 At the jump? 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:25.040 It was, well, I wish I had a deeper, more 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.600 artistic story to tell you, but it really did get 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.440 to the point where it was that summer between freshman 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.640 and sophomore year of high school, Well that's the no, no, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.559 I'm sorry. The summer between freshman and sophomore year of college. 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:39.600 That was the summer of nineteen eighty eight. I was okay, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:41.800 I just completed my first year of college, and that's 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:43.760 the first time in your life when you really start 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.280 to feel like, I better start figuring out what I'm 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.880 going to do because in three years this is over 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.360 and I'm out in the real world. And I did 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.280 a bunch of different jobs that summer. I did everything. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.600 I was working at a law firm, and I was 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:00.520 DJing weddings on weekends and it was just and I 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.960 started doing open mics in DC and that's what stuck. 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.920 It just and I was getting no positive reinforcement. Nobody 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.280 was like what I was doing. But I loved the 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.320 hang and I loved the life, and that's what I 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.000 wanted to be doing. And it just clicked, and I'm like, oh, 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.079 that's what I should be doing. I just I knew it. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.640 I knew it without being able to really articulate it. 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:20.920 I knew that's what I should be doing. 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.800 Well, it's so interesting that you say that you love 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:25.520 the life, and I'll have to tell you why, because 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:30.839 I I it. When I think about comics, first off, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:37.040 I think that dollar for dollar, going to a comedy 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:43.080 show might be my favorite kind of form of entertainment. 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.280 I absolutely loved movies. I love it. I love to 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.560 go to the theater, Yeah, But when I look at 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:55.079 what I get from a from a comedy show, a special, 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.600 you know, a single comic special. Oh yes, I'm talking 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:00.480 about it. You know when people get up do you 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:02.640 know ten minutes or seven minutes or whatever it is, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:07.720 you know you're going to see people do really well 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.960 and do really badly. So there's this kind of like 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:16.600 electric sort of edge that happens that and and when 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.760 it's when it's really great, as a collective group, you 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:25.360 all feel this tremendous sense of just you get so 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.440 thrilled to be laughing that hard, and you get so 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:30.760 thrilled for somebody when they're when they're doing well, and 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.720 you feel so bad when they're not. And whenever you 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:35.400 go to a comedy show, you're going to see that 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.480 you know, and you're gonna be jokes that are gonna 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:39.360 land and aren' gonna land, And there's a kind of 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.720 danger to it that I really love. But the thing 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:46.480 that blows my mind is that you went one day 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.760 having never done this and you just walk up to 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.320 a microphone. Yeah, I mean did you had you had 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.840 you written it down, or had you stood in the 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:00.000 mirror like what like like like like doing it, or 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:01.800 I've done it for your friends, or. 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.360 I wrote stuff down on a piece of paper at 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.360 the law firm I was working at and I lost 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:09.880 that piece of paper. I had that for the longest 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:11.960 tumm and I don't have it anymore, which is just 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.360 as good, because the material was terrible. I wrote what 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.680 I thought where it sounded like jokes based on what 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:19.960 I've been watching on TV, on the cable shows and 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:24.960 stuff like that, and so I just kind of went up, yes, exactly. 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.680 But it was also that classic like I'm so not 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.040 speaking in my own voice. 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.920 Yet I'm not comfortable enough on stage to just go, hey, 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:33.880 here's what's going on. I was trying to do the 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.240 rhythms of stuff I'd seen on TV. I mean, what's 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:36.720 you know? 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:41.440 And so it was almost like stand up karaoke in 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.840 a weird way. And what you realize is, and I'm 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.320 sure you experienced this as an actor too. Starting out, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.240 one of the first jobs you have to do is 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.600 to get over the fact that going on stage is 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:55.400 a big deal. You have to get to the point 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.360 where you don't think about that anymore, and that's when 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.280 you can really start to cook. I'm sure the first 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.400 time that you had an acting gig, you're like, Okay, 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:06.840 where do I put my feet? Where? What do I 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.240 I'm gonna walk in here? Like that has got to 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.200 become second nature and then you can really be present 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.000 in what it makes you're doing, you know. Yeah, So, 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:16.960 I mean so I had to I had to get 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:18.040 over that first. 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:19.400 That took some time. 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:21.600 And so is it the type of thing where like 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.600 you go and you do one open mic and like 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.040 a couple of things work, and then you try it 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.800 again and a couple more work or or or or 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:32.560 am I romanticizing it? 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:36.880 You're romanticizing because I went up and nothing worked, okay, 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:41.400 But what I loved was the two hours before I 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.720 was able to go on stage, sitting watching the other comedians, 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.120 watching people riffing off of each other, and just that 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.760 whole energy of it. And then you just keep going 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.480 up over and over and it gets a little bit 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:59.760 better each time, and again you get over the oh 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:01.520 I got to think about going on stage, and then 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:03.240 you're more and you can be more real. I mean, 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.520 if you go to comedy shows, I'm sure you've seen 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.280 those nights where someone does a joke and it doesn't 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.280 land and then they make a joke about it not 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:13.640 landing because they're so present in the moment and that 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.280 gets a laugh. So when you can get to that 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.920 point where you're like, here's this you're so present on stage, 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.960 But that just comes from repetition. And yeah, there's a 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.400 lot of there were a lot of open mics where 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:26.160 oh boy. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:28.240 It was. But you know what, here's what's great. 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.359 When you completely fail, I mean completely turf out. 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.080 There's nothing better than waking up the next day and going, oh, 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.399 the world didn't end. It didn't matter. I could just 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.280 keep doing this over and over and you get over 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:46.160 that fear. And that's the best. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.880 I have a buddy who's a comic and you talk 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:56.560 about the you liked the world and seeing the energy, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:01.320 and I really like I would go sometimes with him 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.879 and you know, just kind of hang not not go 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:06.919 to not necessarily go to the show, but kind of 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.480 what the process was of the hang it and it 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.639 it is really amazing. Well, for one thing, there is 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.280 probably not always and I might be romanticizing this as well, 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.600 but that there's kind of a sense of community. Oh yeah, 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:26.840 people that are you know at one point, you know, 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.960 everyone is obviously competitive with each other, but also I 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.080 get the sense that that people are also happy when 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.879 somebody else, you know, kind of does well because it 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.679 means that you have a chance of getting far ahead. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.600 And if somebody nobody's getting paid, that's the other thing 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.200 that's like amazing, No, it's getting paid. 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.840 I did a show two nights ago here in the valley, 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.560 right like five minutes from my house on Ventura, and 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.720 for some reason, I guess they didn't promote it very well. 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.399 A lot of just kind of old people sitting in 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.040 this room that were not really tuned in. And it 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.200 was other friends of mine on the show, and we 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.240 were all the backstage was that weird camaraderie of like 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.520 we are at an AARP conventions and I don't know 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:12.960 what is happening out there, And that actually made it 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.120 kind of fun that each of us was gonna go 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.719 out and just support the and then you would come 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:18.760 off stage to nothing. 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.320 This audience was so awful, But then. 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.000 That kind of became the event is watching the comedians 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:26.800 kind of talk to each other even when they're on stage, 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.600 like hey, Alonso, you were right, this is oh my god, 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:30.400 what is happening? 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.480 Like that stuff? Then that kind of made it an 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:34.960 event and I love stuff like that. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:41.320 Yeah. Yeah, well now you have done the multiple multiple specials. Yeah, 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:46.119 and they're they're amazing. And when you do those, how 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.000 does that work? Is that? Is that a Is that 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.359 a routine that you have toured around for a while 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.479