Speaker 1: Forever. Hey, there forever dog listeners. I'm Michael Wolfe and
Speaker 1: I'm Colin O'Brien, and we're the hosts of America's loudest podcast, Literary. Sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: we are recording in the library. Literary is a podcast
Speaker 1: about books and the idiots who write them, featuring real
Speaker 1: readings from some of your favorite authors and some of
Speaker 1: your favorite comedians pretending to be authors. Mostly that one,
Speaker 1: plus we dole out tons of amazing unsolicited writing advice
Speaker 1: because we believe everyone has at least one great novel
Speaker 1: in them. Hey, just last week I had to get
Speaker 1: a novel surgically removed from my small intestine I accidentally
Speaker 1: sat on my bookshelf, and now I have three good
Speaker 1: novels inside me. Very impressive. New episodes of Literary are
Speaker 1: premiering on Monday, February four, and every Monday after that
Speaker 1: until we die, and that is contractual. Stick around until
Speaker 1: after the show to hear a special sneak preview of
Speaker 1: our interview with comedian Josh Sharp, reading under his pseudonym
Speaker 1: Clint Dimple's, and be sure to subscribe to Literaty on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And
Speaker 1: that's the end of that chapter. Hi, everybody, before we
Speaker 1: get into this episode, we have a little bit of
Speaker 1: a question for you, and that is what's standing between
Speaker 1: you and happiness, is that you are your own feelings
Speaker 1: or a block preventing you from achieving your goals. Have
Speaker 1: you thought about talking to someone but are uncertain or
Speaker 1: unsure of where to start, Well, better help dot com
Speaker 1: online counseling isn't there for you. Better Help makes it
Speaker 1: easy to connect with licensed professional counselors caring professionals specializing
Speaker 1: in the issues that you want to talk about depression,
Speaker 1: stress and anxiety, trauma, grief, self esteem, and other issues
Speaker 1: that are kind of you know what stuff we're all
Speaker 1: dealing with. So connect with your counselor in a safe
Speaker 1: and private environment and get help on your own time
Speaker 1: and at your own pace. You can schedule secure video
Speaker 1: and phone sessions or texture therapists. It's all included worldwide,
Speaker 1: and you can start communicating in under twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: Best of all, it's a truly affordable option and for
Speaker 1: Lost Culture Rastis listeners get ten percent off your first
Speaker 1: month with discount code ding Dong. Yeah, that's discount code
Speaker 1: ding Dong. Better Help dot Com forward slash ding dong.
Speaker 1: The promo code again is ding dong because if you've
Speaker 1: been wanted to talk, you gotta get started today. So
Speaker 1: go to better help dot Com slash ding dong and
Speaker 1: simply fill out the questionnaire to help them assess your
Speaker 1: needs and get matched with the counselor you'll love and
Speaker 1: one that you can always change. Look, man, oh, I
Speaker 1: see you? Why and look over there? How is that culture? Yes, goodness,
Speaker 1: ding dong los culture. There was a little bit of
Speaker 1: a cackity cap. I gotta surprise my listeners. You have
Speaker 1: to really dig into those continents. Can we discuss what
Speaker 1: we did last night? Yes, we saw a big for
Speaker 1: you to at the Brooklyn Ball Queen Diva Queen Best
Speaker 1: believe be. She was incredible. I had a very nice time.
Speaker 1: She you know what, blew my mind. But she did
Speaker 1: a fucking bounce remix to Hello by Adele. I fully
Speaker 1: gagged for that, and then all all her backup dancers
Speaker 1: are like shaking their asses to Hello and singing along,
Speaker 1: and like they're like they're just clapping to Hello and
Speaker 1: shaking their asses and singing out to us, like sing
Speaker 1: it like they had to look in their face. That
Speaker 1: was like, you know the words, you know the words
Speaker 1: sing it also loved that the like the end bow
Speaker 1: was too I Will Always Love You by Whitney, like
Speaker 1: just blowing it all out. Oh my god, she's saying
Speaker 1: all her head, she's saying karaoke, she's saying Wrent Explode.
Speaker 1: I had never been to the Brooklyn Ball Lovely ven
Speaker 1: you here. I was thinking it was just a bowling alley. No,
Speaker 1: they quest love us to do all of his DJ
Speaker 1: sets on Thursdays. They placed like soul Train clips on
Speaker 1: the fucking monitors, and I would just go just to
Speaker 1: watch the soul Train stuff and be like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I can't believe they did that back then. Obsessed. But actually,
Speaker 1: as a result of my experience there last night, I
Speaker 1: just realized is what my I don't think so honey
Speaker 1: it is gonna be because I ran into and I
Speaker 1: don't think so honey worthy moment at the at the bar,
Speaker 1: at the establishment. It was a person who did something.
Speaker 1: It was it was a a rule the establishment apparently has,
Speaker 1: which I have to I don't think so oh a rule.
Speaker 1: It's rules are for schools and hello, it's culture number
Speaker 1: forty sex rules are for schools. I don't like. I
Speaker 1: graduated long ago. You know what, Oh my god, you
Speaker 1: know what. I have one of my most embarrassing moments.
Speaker 1: Oh I love this. This was like when I was
Speaker 1: twenty got into a bar out of just it was
Speaker 1: just kind of on a it was a fluke illegally, um,
Speaker 1: but I was like I thought, I was like I
Speaker 1: pretend I was like gonna just quote something that I was.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna like perform something that I saw
Speaker 1: someone doing a movie once. And this is what I did. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's so vulnerable. I go to the bar, I go, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm I'll do one. I'll do one bud Light, and
Speaker 1: then I'll do um, I'll do one for the road.
Speaker 1: The bartender goes, this is the cringest thing I've ever done.
Speaker 1: And the bartender goes, that's extremely illegal. We're in New York.
Speaker 1: It's not like I could like store my beer in
Speaker 1: my car. I'm also, you idiot to do that for
Speaker 1: bud Light, just in advanced. I'm gonna want one when
Speaker 1: I leave. I love this stuff. I can't believe I'm
Speaker 1: a stupid bitch. And you have to balance this that
Speaker 1: what's an embarrassing thing you've done at a bar of things, Well, okay,
Speaker 1: embarrassing thing I've done at a I don't want to
Speaker 1: put you on the spot. You don't have to, I
Speaker 1: mean fully on the spot right now. But the thing is, like,
Speaker 1: I guess, okay, I'll share a bar story. When I
Speaker 1: was very young, we used to go to in Bay Shore.
Speaker 1: There was the station establishment called Hogan's Goat. That was
Speaker 1: the bar that we went to. It was the only
Speaker 1: bar in town that didn't give a funk about um
Speaker 1: about like letting go young young guns in and so
Speaker 1: I would go there all the time after work. This
Speaker 1: is when I was working at the Clam Bar in
Speaker 1: Bay Shore, and we'd all go and we would do karaoke.
Speaker 1: And this is when I was trying to like prove
Speaker 1: to everyone like that I had just come out and
Speaker 1: I was like singing, So I sang, I sang who
Speaker 1: will Save Your Soul by Joel by Jewel by Jewel.
Speaker 1: Imagine if Joel Kim Booster had a recording artist career.
Speaker 1: I sang who will Save Your Soul by Jewel at
Speaker 1: this bar as a nineteen year old drunk person, and
Speaker 1: everyone was like, uh huh, that person who picks the
Speaker 1: fucking deep cut at karaoke, get the funk. I'm the
Speaker 1: person at karaoke who's like, we're going to slow it
Speaker 1: down with a ballad. You know, it's like what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do Sinwagon by Dixie Checks, Like that would be
Speaker 1: a guy. But so then so then so you sang
Speaker 1: this song. It wasn't good and that was it was
Speaker 1: just like great, cool, now we can get back to
Speaker 1: having a good time. But you didn't like fully embarrass yourself.
Speaker 1: I know. I mean I've never done anything like like
Speaker 1: you did. Isn't that I'm so ashamed of myself? You
Speaker 1: should be deeply ashamed. Um Oh, that's like one of
Speaker 1: those moments that where you look back to something you
Speaker 1: did or said at a young age and you're like, what,
Speaker 1: I know, like one like like it's like when I
Speaker 1: when I I can't believe I got into college at
Speaker 1: that point. You know what I'm saying. You were someone
Speaker 1: who was like given given the opportunity to pursue higher education,
Speaker 1: and you were that dumb wasted Um I one time
Speaker 1: said that. My my sixth grade Spanish teacher said, who's
Speaker 1: your celebrity crush? And I said, um terror read you
Speaker 1: know why she was like she was, And she literally
Speaker 1: looked the most disgusted that anyone's ever looked. And I
Speaker 1: was like inside, I was like, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no no no no no no, no, no
Speaker 1: no no. But that's that's a masculinity, y'all. That is wow.
Speaker 1: And and we're all victims to that. And can I
Speaker 1: say this atmosphere is not toxic. It is pleasant. It
Speaker 1: is an antidote. It's an antidote. It is an antidote
Speaker 1: to the toxicin And here's the thing. We just were
Speaker 1: very vulnerable with each other. And I feel comfortable doing
Speaker 1: that because I know that our guests I feel I
Speaker 1: feel that we were in the presence of greatness. And
Speaker 1: I'm feeling very comfortable because we actually got to know
Speaker 1: our guests very well over the summer, because we had
Speaker 1: an amazing experience with them because we were on very frequently,
Speaker 1: and we were on it to be on after after
Speaker 1: Party on Facebook, and this was a show hosted by
Speaker 1: one of our guests, and the other guest was I
Speaker 1: was always almost always on the panel with this I
Speaker 1: was almost always on the panel with this guest, and
Speaker 1: I was always like, thank God, And they never put
Speaker 1: us together because you know what together. They put us
Speaker 1: together once because we demanded it and Regina and Regina
Speaker 1: came King and remember how cool and nice she was.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to talk about and I call you called it.
Speaker 1: You're gonna win something for a Field Street could talk.
Speaker 1: I know, I said for seven seconds, and weeks later,
Speaker 1: what did she win for seven seconds? But you also
Speaker 1: you also did say you have a lot of buzz
Speaker 1: going for you for a Field Street could Talk. And
Speaker 1: this is back in what July August. Genuinely, I did
Speaker 1: not know how good this movie was going to be.
Speaker 1: And also like because it's like when you talk about
Speaker 1: Oscar buzz in like Augress, it's like who then? But Regina,
Speaker 1: it's Regina's She's a known quae. Regina King has been
Speaker 1: one of my favorites for a long time, long time,
Speaker 1: since Miss Congeniality Too, since before since Ray I'm kidding,
Speaker 1: since Jerry mcguires. Yes, Okay, so here's the deal. I
Speaker 1: love our guests. I love our guests, and you can
Speaker 1: see them upcoming, upcoming. Okay, one of our guests, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna say, we're just gonna separate them by name
Speaker 1: for now and we're getting them in in a glow moment, right,
Speaker 1: a glow moment. The day after, John Mullaney tweeted both
Speaker 1: of them, and that's John Mullaney, John mullaney, mullaney with
Speaker 1: a now culture number one. That's John Mullaney tweeting at
Speaker 1: our guests saying, what an amazing night of comedy at Caroline.
Speaker 1: Perfect comedy, perfect comedy, he said, um and it was
Speaker 1: truly the pageantry around this tweet beautiful. This was at
Speaker 1: your Bookie Young White show at Caroline. And talk about
Speaker 1: breakout artists, breakout arts. Speaking of breakout artists, one of
Speaker 1: our guests is performing on February nineteen at Caroline as
Speaker 1: a breakout a break as a breakout artist. It's Rebecca O'Neill,
Speaker 1: and and then and then you and then you go
Speaker 1: for the other one. You're not even gonna believe. Where
Speaker 1: are other guests is going to be performing from February
Speaker 1: New Orleans. It is New Orleans. Sony will be in
Speaker 1: New Orleans performing her ass off, her ass and our
Speaker 1: and our guests February February. Yes, and and if you've
Speaker 1: been able to accumulate all these hints so far you'll
Speaker 1: be able to deduce that our guests right now are
Speaker 1: Rebecca and we do we do apply. I miss being
Speaker 1: on after together on a moment. So nice. She was
Speaker 1: literally also more beautiful in person, tailored suit, a check pattern, yes, shew,
Speaker 1: her was. Yeah. And there were many guests on after
Speaker 1: after party. We met many guys and and I will
Speaker 1: say this, I will say this, you had a ton
Speaker 1: of incredible guests. Probably Regina King, I would say, probably
Speaker 1: the most famous guest and so kind, so beyond I
Speaker 1: think one of the nicest, like famous people I've met. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: she called us by name, Matt. It was like, yes,
Speaker 1: I just like black dat. I was like, okay, it
Speaker 1: was every and look everybody in the eye was joking
Speaker 1: and she was funny, like, oh my goodness. And she
Speaker 1: tried with the game. Remember how decided she got. I
Speaker 1: was like, she stid ad Regina if she actually wants
Speaker 1: to do this dumb ship. And then she was like
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, I loved that. I watched the
Speaker 1: globes and when she want I was like, yeah, she's
Speaker 1: been racking up hardware. I feel like every or show
Speaker 1: you see now, Regina King is winning something and she's
Speaker 1: trying to shake the table. She's like announcing she's challenging
Speaker 1: people women, same energy. Yeah, well, I mean here's the thing,
Speaker 1: like she and what I read. I watched an interview
Speaker 1: with her later where she was like she kind of
Speaker 1: decided to do that in the moment, like and she
Speaker 1: was like, well, I'm up here because I think Regina
Speaker 1: is legit so humble that I don't think she's assuming
Speaker 1: she'll win all this stuff. I think because she legit
Speaker 1: worked in the industry for so long and it's just
Speaker 1: like one of those working actresses who was reliable and
Speaker 1: so now that she's up there with the opportunity to
Speaker 1: win these awards, I think all her peers are like
Speaker 1: goddamn right over. Yeah, And so I think she was
Speaker 1: up there and she was like, clearly this industry has
Speaker 1: my back. Let me have the back of ever one.
Speaker 1: You know. What I was talking about is in the summer,
Speaker 1: like when she came on the show, she was talking
Speaker 1: about like women, we need to be behind the camera.
Speaker 1: And she's kept the same energy. She is not playing
Speaker 1: like she wants women all over the place. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that was the last time we were all
Speaker 1: that kind of together. Yeah, it's just a nice little
Speaker 1: circular moment. After Party got Cancer. Yeah it's oh, but
Speaker 1: there's gonna be like a future for it, like in
Speaker 1: another form under another title, like other magical. That was
Speaker 1: I had so much fun doing that. I had so
Speaker 1: much fun doing it. And also other networks, like other
Speaker 1: people at other networks were like, we love that, by
Speaker 1: the way, and you had meetings afterwards based on I like, oh,
Speaker 1: I liked what you're doing after after Party it was nice.
Speaker 1: Like it may be no longer, but I think all
Speaker 1: the comics who worked on it had a great time
Speaker 1: to perfect like that one season we got to bring
Speaker 1: on like when you are friends, like everything. I was
Speaker 1: so proud of everything. We made a vibe. Everything was
Speaker 1: so good. Warbe was like Warbe, He's incredible, a fun thing.
Speaker 1: Abouts happened to me. All the clothes they were gonna
Speaker 1: dolnate now, you said, and if someone on dating right now,
Speaker 1: was like, I got it. Okay, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I found out this person now and I'm obsessed. Wait
Speaker 1: we will talk after. Let's talk after. And I know
Speaker 1: you're clambering. And I saw this. I saw this individual
Speaker 1: on another shoot that I did and he was like
Speaker 1: and then I said, and he took a picture of
Speaker 1: us together and said, I'm sending this to Sonya because
Speaker 1: I guess what I said, Jean mulin Can I just
Speaker 1: really quickly go back to Regina. Regina, I need to
Speaker 1: share this moment from the Globes. This is because I
Speaker 1: was in the room, like, yes, he was at the Globes.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, yeah, writer for the Golden Glove. Because
Speaker 1: I had like I saw you and I literally screamed,
Speaker 1: oh my god, no idea you were hosting. I was
Speaker 1: just I'd just sit between. I just sit like at
Speaker 1: the steps um just before the show started, and I
Speaker 1: was like in this I was in like the line
Speaker 1: of this is what happened. Tanny Newton's at one table,
Speaker 1: Tarage is at another table down in the in the
Speaker 1: second tier, and then after that it's Regina and three
Speaker 1: of them, the three of the Tandy because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: like in between Tandy and Taragi, and Tandy goes Regina
Speaker 1: Taraji and then Taragi goes Regina Tandy and then Regina
Speaker 1: is like, oh my Goddy, and it was like they
Speaker 1: just there was just so much love. Triumphant of excellences
Speaker 1: just so much love between these women, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is beautiful, Like this is like I was like,
Speaker 1: this is like what you fantasize about, Like I hope
Speaker 1: these people are in real life, and it's like it
Speaker 1: was there and it was like, oh, like these people
Speaker 1: have Like I was like thinking about the places these
Speaker 1: people have seen each other in all the different settings
Speaker 1: and all the glam or and all it's all dressed
Speaker 1: down like and they are all decorated there, but they've
Speaker 1: seen each other in the fucking trenches and that you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Yeah, And it's like they're all
Speaker 1: together and there's so much love, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is the way for her, this is the future
Speaker 1: for all of us. That was I think the most
Speaker 1: beautiful Well. I loved really, I thought you guys did
Speaker 1: an amazing job, but Sandra was great. And then that
Speaker 1: really I actually thought I thought that that it might
Speaker 1: have been a bit, but then when it was just
Speaker 1: a pointed moment at the end of her speech where
Speaker 1: she was like the reason I wanted to I really
Speaker 1: thought that I thought she was doing like a bit
Speaker 1: where she was going to get emotional like on Grayson
Speaker 1: Anatomy when she would always do her but then when
Speaker 1: she legit just landed like I wanted to do this
Speaker 1: because I wanted to be a part of this moment
Speaker 1: of change. And I see all your faces of change,
Speaker 1: and they panned around the room and it was just like,
Speaker 1: you know what, like a moment of levity right now
Speaker 1: in this fucking crazy world to just say that this
Speaker 1: is especially from last year when they were all in
Speaker 1: black because of me too or whatever like times because
Speaker 1: of Times up. And I was just like, that was
Speaker 1: a really nice sheet. Both the two of them were
Speaker 1: both like, we don't want to make it like we
Speaker 1: really don't even care to even make a political joke
Speaker 1: about Trump. We don't want to really acknowledge that. We
Speaker 1: let's just focus. Sandra was the one who's like, let's
Speaker 1: just focus on the good stuff that happened because and
Speaker 1: like and let's not even roast people. Like I thought.
Speaker 1: It was like a different way. It was a different models,
Speaker 1: something that you're not used to work, and it's like
Speaker 1: it's different than like what Ellen would even do. It's
Speaker 1: like at the Oscars, it's like, oh, this is like
Speaker 1: such like sincerity is in right now, like just genuine
Speaker 1: like we're gonna let's try actively to be nice. That's
Speaker 1: very like, and I feel like that's like a sort
Speaker 1: of a protest because everything's real nasty, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, let's choose to be like we're comedians, we're
Speaker 1: basically clowns, like a nice cloud. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that something I've personally learned in ten like that
Speaker 1: I left the year with was just finding that there
Speaker 1: is a lot of strength and a lot of power
Speaker 1: in vulnerability, you know what I mean, Like people actually
Speaker 1: want that more than you think. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And also it's so funny because like what
Speaker 1: we are moved by, Like for example, let's like use
Speaker 1: if field Street could talk as an example. Like even
Speaker 1: just watching the trailer, I had full body chills and
Speaker 1: was like really almost crying, like like Regina Kings delivery
Speaker 1: of her line like if love got you this far,
Speaker 1: don't stop now, Trusted all the way, I was just
Speaker 1: like I be scared of being vulnerable in my work,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I respond to this
Speaker 1: above all else. Um, I don't know this about you, guys.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys ever told me at least,
Speaker 1: how did you guys meet it was it in Chicago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were at open mic. Yeah, we started coming within
Speaker 1: like a month of each other. And a guy I
Speaker 1: was dating then knew her, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's another a black girl. Because yes, oh that's that's
Speaker 1: what they do. That's what they did with us and
Speaker 1: with Joel. Yeah, you guys be friends. There's one who's
Speaker 1: not a white, black, white or blook. Honestly, there's more
Speaker 1: black like the people who started with us in Chicago
Speaker 1: around the same time we were the two black girls.
Speaker 1: So we eventually we're going to meet and uh, the guys,
Speaker 1: our mutual friend she was staying at the time, introduced us,
Speaker 1: thinking that we were hit it off. So hated me
Speaker 1: so much. Isn't a different place where she was very
Speaker 1: like type And I tell me what your story is,
Speaker 1: How are you doing, What are you doing, how you doing?
Speaker 1: How did you get into comedy? Why do you like it?
Speaker 1: Who's your favorite? Let me just say clarified this, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is seven hard years ago. But also
Speaker 1: I wasn't like eighty MILLI prosaconed my physical hand right
Speaker 1: she walk around. I used to a little tiny pieces
Speaker 1: of paper to I didn't know any of this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that was only for like two months and then
Speaker 1: you were chilled. But it was like the first the
Speaker 1: first time I ever saw Rebecca on stage was at
Speaker 1: the stand up Shot Union Hall and I fucking did
Speaker 1: some bullshit that and she goes up on stage and
Speaker 1: does this like holistic like a mother or Adisha, but like, no,
Speaker 1: I haven't. It was but it was like I don't
Speaker 1: remember what it was, but it was like fully academic
Speaker 1: and like I was like, this is like this smart.
Speaker 1: You were very attractive. Yeah, I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: and you probably talked about like queer theory or remember
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, who is this? And
Speaker 1: like you like you came up as someone who was
Speaker 1: like powerful and maybe was was that something that like
Speaker 1: you're like, is this something that you're still like of
Speaker 1: course you still work with it, but was this back
Speaker 1: then this thing where you were like I need to
Speaker 1: like show my power or something or not. I think
Speaker 1: you were just I think I just it was I
Speaker 1: don't like my partner didn't assert it that way. I
Speaker 1: think I was just a very like uncomfortable person in
Speaker 1: this new space and I was like expecting her to
Speaker 1: be like, hey, I'm back she said. She was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, and I don't like this eating
Speaker 1: and getting to know SA. Also, did you know you
Speaker 1: don't know how you perceived out here in the I'm there.
Speaker 1: You're out here doing what you feel is best. You're
Speaker 1: not knowing that you're freaking people out here going to
Speaker 1: become lifelong friends. I'm recalibrating her energy and stuff, and
Speaker 1: I do think like we're very as much as we have,
Speaker 1: we don't like the same. Dude. She'll be like, he
Speaker 1: look at him, he's that's beautiful eyelashes. I'm like vice
Speaker 1: versa to like, we're like crazy different in so many ways,
Speaker 1: but to hear this because our relationship also started with
Speaker 1: a degree of animosity. Yeah, very long only other person.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, but it's the same. It's the something that
Speaker 1: you said. World was like, it's kind of funny because
Speaker 1: it's like we've talked about this on the pod, so
Speaker 1: the listeners know. But I was the gay on the
Speaker 1: sketch group at M y U. Bone was the gay
Speaker 1: on the improv group and M y U and so
Speaker 1: they literally said like, go play do things together, and
Speaker 1: we were like, you think just because of this reason
Speaker 1: that we're gonna and then literally pretty much just because
Speaker 1: of that. This is literally like the black guy on
Speaker 1: the sketch team and they're like, now you're my number. Ness.
Speaker 1: I always want to I always want to write a
Speaker 1: sketch for us, which is like when you're the two
Speaker 1: gays at the wedding and like that, all the straight
Speaker 1: people are like, oh, you know, be friends talk to
Speaker 1: each other, like like you have to, you're gay. So
Speaker 1: I have this idea where they put us together and
Speaker 1: it's like we're like hi, and then like we literally
Speaker 1: bond over the stupidest, most basic gay show. But I
Speaker 1: remember literally literally what made us friends was we were
Speaker 1: at the same college party and I had become obsessed
Speaker 1: pink Pink Friday, Yeah, and so so in your dorm
Speaker 1: or whatever, so had you And we were at this
Speaker 1: party and we both were off book on the whole album,
Speaker 1: like romans. At the party, we were wanting each other
Speaker 1: like exactly, and I was like, you know, well, you
Speaker 1: know what it was everywhere the super Base and super
Speaker 1: Base was a deep cut. It was it was before
Speaker 1: it was a single, it was on the Luxe album.
Speaker 1: It was it was a bonus track, and people didn't
Speaker 1: know about it. People don't know that super Base was
Speaker 1: a bonus track. Yeah, and so he and I both
Speaker 1: but we knew and yeah, and so that's when I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, maybe we should just be friends for
Speaker 1: this gay reason for the chee. Was there a moment
Speaker 1: where did the ice just melt at that point? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we kind of just we we also because the things
Speaker 1: that we have deep in common is like our work
Speaker 1: ethic and like how we comedy were always like people
Speaker 1: would be like saying to us, like Becca and I
Speaker 1: would like have the same mentality about like going as
Speaker 1: many mikes as possible. People, that's about it, Like what
Speaker 1: do you I think you're doing. It's like, okay, we're
Speaker 1: just trying not to die in Chicago. Yeah yeah, and
Speaker 1: also trying to do what we love to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we want to whatever some men of it. But like
Speaker 1: how we got to know each other is literally like
Speaker 1: we were both starting at the same time, like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's so much comedy here, let's do some of it.
Speaker 1: And we had car pools where it was like us
Speaker 1: and a group of three other friends and people fall up.
Speaker 1: But yeah, for the years, but like the core of
Speaker 1: us are still friends now, like four of us I
Speaker 1: moved here, like we started to say back in Chicago.
Speaker 1: But yeah, just basically I tell them when I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is yeah, yeah, go ahead. One time we used
Speaker 1: to host this you know exactly about to say the
Speaker 1: racist guy. Yeah, hosting hosting this Mike was like exhausting.
Speaker 1: It's five hours started. It started like years ago by
Speaker 1: Cameron Esposito and we inherited it. Yeah, and then, um,
Speaker 1: so it's the comedians always, unless it was like a
Speaker 1: snowstorm or something crazy, there was always that would yeah,
Speaker 1: well for for for the cost of living in Chicago.
Speaker 1: That compensated us well enough for us to show up
Speaker 1: week after week after and we got every and in
Speaker 1: Chicago is well it's a comedy destination. It was also
Speaker 1: the thing where, like it was sixties, spots of every
Speaker 1: comedy in town will show up to show that and
Speaker 1: any celebrity what should only be two or three and
Speaker 1: it was it's like literally and we're like that's the
Speaker 1: energy and the energy everyone's like on board positive, like
Speaker 1: it's literally like transplant some people from brookn Nuts Wools there.
Speaker 1: Um and then also comedy people so uh there's this
Speaker 1: so everyone, there's a list as we mentioned right, and
Speaker 1: sometimes we bumped funnier people, people who have been doing
Speaker 1: it longer, just to like, you can't have sixty people
Speaker 1: that are new to comedy just working, yes, working the
Speaker 1: line up at that scale, because we do it for
Speaker 1: fifty people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so you're you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's this guy, so you sign up. Some people signed
Speaker 1: show up at five thirty. Like the lottery system here
Speaker 1: like stops that from happening or like is it called
Speaker 1: lottery is very brutal and efficient, but it's so much
Speaker 1: it makes so much more sense. Yeah, we have a
Speaker 1: host who does like you can do time if you're
Speaker 1: an asshole between people and like, so yeah, I would
Speaker 1: do ten minutes the top that I would host fifteen
Speaker 1: and she would do ten and she would host fifteen.
Speaker 1: And we don't make ten tinten until we got it
Speaker 1: to two am. So this guy he got there late
Speaker 1: or on time. Really, if you sign at nine, you're
Speaker 1: already fucked, right, So he was like he's already wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah he comes. And then this happened to me multiple times.
Speaker 1: Men did not like the women were charge of this.
Speaker 1: It was always like they would try to like bully
Speaker 1: us into bumping them and we'd be like like kill me,
Speaker 1: I don't care. It was mostly a wonderful and pleasant experience.
Speaker 1: Ent at a time was incredible and we both I
Speaker 1: feel like I became a better comedian. Definitely definitely riffing
Speaker 1: like it taught me I can riff like it. Just
Speaker 1: that was it. Anyway. So he's late thirties and um,
Speaker 1: Miami type. No, that's the other one. It was two
Speaker 1: dudes to never be friends in real life. One of them,
Speaker 1: like she said, Miami vice. Yeah, no, no, the guy
Speaker 1: who records. So there's one guy. He's younger, like late twenties,
Speaker 1: maybe the thirties. He has like a silver briefcase and
Speaker 1: I had a fitted cap all white in Chicago and winter.
Speaker 1: Then the other guy like fifties sixties, full on dad
Speaker 1: jeans to his waist polo. I'm like, how are you
Speaker 1: guys together? Someone else was telling me they went to
Speaker 1: another open mic where they were spending so much money
Speaker 1: and being assholes. So anyway, that's the sext of who
Speaker 1: these people are. The guy he keeps coming over, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people are coming over like hey, when
Speaker 1: am I up? And I'm like thirty four. We're currently
Speaker 1: on twelve. Really, I'm like, I'm sorry, like the restaurants, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm like I can't. This is what you have
Speaker 1: to do. Like people will be like I have work,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, so do I. And you know, anyway,
Speaker 1: he's getting entitled pissed. So at some point he starts
Speaker 1: falling asleep in the front And this is after he's
Speaker 1: asked me four times when he's up. So I make
Speaker 1: a joke at his like say something and everyone looks
Speaker 1: and laughs, and he someone so fast forward to when
Speaker 1: it's his turn. This is legit like his dad or
Speaker 1: this is younger, brief kid, briefcase. Guy hasn't gone up yet.
Speaker 1: He's just like the woman who's like, uh and not
Speaker 1: never shame another too hot for him. But also I
Speaker 1: would never shame another woman or anything. But like just
Speaker 1: the people at the other bar was like, she showed
Speaker 1: up here, he gave her some money. They've been together
Speaker 1: the whole time. Is it just friendship? I don't care. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like she had to endure this because these people are
Speaker 1: so he got up. This is actually like one of
Speaker 1: the worst things I would be on stage. But she
Speaker 1: goes up, she goes up, He goes up. I introduced
Speaker 1: him right as I get off stage. I don't even
Speaker 1: hear what he says, because I'm just in my head,
Speaker 1: like who's next, that are looking at the list like
Speaker 1: we're in the slock. So I just hear people in
Speaker 1: the audience go and I heard everything that happened, like
Speaker 1: stage watching all the machinery turn, and he says, he starts,
Speaker 1: you know, comment in on her body, which is the
Speaker 1: first thing man attacked. Well, girl, I'm trying to I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be euphemism zero. I'm trying to talk around
Speaker 1: it because you know, the first thing, like entitled people
Speaker 1: who started bombing. First of all, the entitled people always bombed.
Speaker 1: I don't know why that is. But the people that
Speaker 1: leave you alone or maybe ask once because they're ages,
Speaker 1: usually like you'll have a good step, but like people
Speaker 1: who are in your ask like hey, what's next, what's next,
Speaker 1: and like annoying suggests bombs. Yeah, So he starts going
Speaker 1: in on science body. I'm my first instinct is hit
Speaker 1: the sound. I don't know how to use technological buttons
Speaker 1: or whatever. So I'm like, well, what I have to
Speaker 1: do is job to the stage then, and so he's
Speaker 1: going in he starts being racist, talking about what's your name?
Speaker 1: Doing all of them just like that was like so wow,
Speaker 1: and I just I'll tell you because it's like I was,
Speaker 1: you can google me and look at my body like
Speaker 1: so it's a spirit behind the comment more than the
Speaker 1: perfect Like I like, I don't have to wear a
Speaker 1: braw it's great. But he goes with black women, Uh
Speaker 1: you know, fine body on that one, but with black
Speaker 1: women if you don't have titties and asked, what's the point.
Speaker 1: So that's the energy? Yeah, because and then it's already
Speaker 1: like you're sucking up because me and her here all
Speaker 1: the time, they like us, we give these people free
Speaker 1: drinks all night. You're really gonna attack. This is your
Speaker 1: open and that's going. And then he's proceeds the bomb.
Speaker 1: So that's when he starts calling us Salanda and Shalanda.
Speaker 1: And then at first I was like people started to
Speaker 1: boot him when he talked about my body. But I
Speaker 1: was like no, no, no no, no, leave it because I
Speaker 1: was so excited to go on stage and ross. But
Speaker 1: then when he started saying racist ship, it was like
Speaker 1: I because you want when someone does that, you want
Speaker 1: to be in a place where you can be calm
Speaker 1: enough to destroy them and not get emotional. But oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's not even over yet. So he gets off.
Speaker 1: I grabbed Mike. We go get the funk off. Get that.
Speaker 1: We're both screaming at him. Well I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: like yeah with the silver briefcase. And the coke pulls
Speaker 1: out his phone and starts recording the ship like world star,
Speaker 1: and he was like the world Star because we were
Speaker 1: not even like it was like yeah. But then one
Speaker 1: of these lights, I have to shut out John Marcha
Speaker 1: loose Ki. I don't know if he's still doing And
Speaker 1: in Chicago's down now Brooklyn resident Charlie Verka, he came
Speaker 1: to our rest his phone, tumbo. This man's lies from
Speaker 1: the back. The comedians started throwing, like moving it because
Speaker 1: they don't want to. He's like my phone, and so
Speaker 1: then every finding security comes, I guess people, and security
Speaker 1: is like this huge dude, Larry. He was like the
Speaker 1: nicest person, but I can tell you how to kill
Speaker 1: someone with physically at the kindest. But if you saw
Speaker 1: him and he's like angry, you're gonna do ye. Like
Speaker 1: his hand is like all of our hands. So then
Speaker 1: he gets off because securities like you have to go,
Speaker 1: you have to go. Then miamis either dude, he's still
Speaker 1: trying to go up, and I was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: literally wanted four minutes. Yeah, after that point, I was
Speaker 1: like fucking dare you? And Cole is like hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: like he fuses it, but like I was, so you
Speaker 1: ever be so angry, like like I just felt that
Speaker 1: in that moment, and it was like, yeah, he never did.
Speaker 1: Literally people like that, the fact that he still wanted
Speaker 1: to go up on stage, so the entitlement, it's well,
Speaker 1: it's what it is. Is like people like that never
Speaker 1: know to leave a space when when they're not welcome.
Speaker 1: It's like they are like, I'm going to stay here
Speaker 1: and literally take up space even though it's been made
Speaker 1: explicitly clear that I don't belong here, that I'm not welcome.
Speaker 1: Like crazy to me, But that is like out of
Speaker 1: a TV. It was mostly not like that. Most of
Speaker 1: chicagoant like everybody in the room, everybody that love love Chicago.
Speaker 1: I love that story and that like that's a that's
Speaker 1: like a big seminal moment for you guys, and for me,
Speaker 1: I just was like it was I would just felt
Speaker 1: so excited it felt like in that moment like she
Speaker 1: had my back fully like she was like a lot
Speaker 1: of people one other ones day, would you say that
Speaker 1: so it don't make me kill you? Done that always
Speaker 1: on my body. But a woman once told me I
Speaker 1: don't wear enough dresses or something, this older female comedian
Speaker 1: to Beckos, like, oh thought you out of the window
Speaker 1: right now? Yeah, I mean I don't have that like
Speaker 1: lots of people like we're adults, who does that haird energy?
Speaker 1: And I don't have time for it, like to throw
Speaker 1: it down for each other. I want to say we have,
Speaker 1: but I don't know, we're We're probably people just aren't
Speaker 1: like come and age all all the time. Either. Anyone
Speaker 1: ever said anything fully fucked up? Well I talked about
Speaker 1: this on another episode, but um this We did this
Speaker 1: photo shoot where the stylist kept coming up to me
Speaker 1: and saying like they did like an eye makeup thing
Speaker 1: with me where that was just like a Spider Man.
Speaker 1: I over my eye like this, and then like you
Speaker 1: would someone would look at that and say, oh, that's
Speaker 1: like Spider Man. This this stylist comes up to me
Speaker 1: and goes, wow, I love this very Pokemon Pikachoo Pikachoo
Speaker 1: pikacho p I was when the two make up artists
Speaker 1: were also Asian. I just I heard it out of
Speaker 1: the corner from across the room because I was getting
Speaker 1: fitted and everyone just the three of them. I'll just go, no,
Speaker 1: what you didn't have to throw it, But that was
Speaker 1: a moment where you looked at me and I looked
Speaker 1: over across the thing, and I was kind of like,
Speaker 1: you would have stepped in if it had gotten really
Speaker 1: I've been right there. I think I would have turned
Speaker 1: to him and been like by this, because he kept
Speaker 1: coming back and saying that, and by that time I
Speaker 1: was by the second time, I was like, no, that's
Speaker 1: not it at all. Moments are like you if you
Speaker 1: feel attacked and you look over you make attack, which
Speaker 1: your friend in the room, and then they're if they're
Speaker 1: not lady like, that's emotionally at least, that's a writer
Speaker 1: that moment for you too. You guys were each other's writers,
Speaker 1: and then you but then like, but then you guys,
Speaker 1: you guys have already been spending five hours a week
Speaker 1: with each other and yeah, and we also ran it
Speaker 1: so it was like twice a week or once a
Speaker 1: week and then We also had a monthly show that
Speaker 1: we ran once a month. Yeah, that's it's still happening now,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, yeah. Can I say something about Chicago. It depends, well,
Speaker 1: I must say this. It is like the scene there
Speaker 1: is like so charming, which it sounds like this sounds
Speaker 1: so whatever grows. I don't mean to like sound patronizing.
Speaker 1: It just seems like the city itself is a great
Speaker 1: city to like go out and then get drunken and
Speaker 1: like and it's cozy, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 1: it's like every every space I go to, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the spaces in New York.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, this is a space, but it's like
Speaker 1: sort of uncomfortable, right. But in Chicago, it was the
Speaker 1: show that you did in Janelle was also on it,
Speaker 1: Janelle James that you were on the bill. It was
Speaker 1: it was at the Green Mill. It was a paper
Speaker 1: that was such a fun vibe, Like everywhere you go
Speaker 1: it's a fun vibe and it's not hard to find
Speaker 1: that like that is rare in a city. I was
Speaker 1: glad to have started there. I'm glad to have started
Speaker 1: there around the time that you it because there is
Speaker 1: so much comedy to do, like we were brand new comics,
Speaker 1: and like on a Monday night you could easily hit
Speaker 1: five open mics in the night and get like a
Speaker 1: month's worth the stage time in two weeks, just because
Speaker 1: there's so much to do, and also there's no industry
Speaker 1: people they're like making decisions. You can toil an obscurity
Speaker 1: there for years and just show up on the good
Speaker 1: at comedy and nobody knows who you are. And I
Speaker 1: love that about Chicago because here I feel like the
Speaker 1: second you show it, if you were damn, it's like,
Speaker 1: so what I want you to do is come in here,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, none of this ship was in Chicago
Speaker 1: Comedy Central, and the audience at the bar show like
Speaker 1: that's not But it feels like I said, it's like literally,
Speaker 1: I can't stop saying it. But like we I felt
Speaker 1: like in Chicago we're playing assimilation of what this is
Speaker 1: because in Chicago we care just as much. Stakes were
Speaker 1: way lower. But it felt like if I don't get
Speaker 1: booked on blah blah blah show, I'm not comedient And
Speaker 1: and yeah, and then you get here, you're like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: like people get paid, I don't. You can make money.
Speaker 1: I don't. I was like fighting over shows for a
Speaker 1: drink tickets. Yeah, but like she said, like you can
Speaker 1: just get so much better try things sail. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I feel this way about New York too, though, I mean,
Speaker 1: like it's so interesting to hear you say that, because
Speaker 1: like I always think I never spend time in Chicago.
Speaker 1: I've I've spent all my time in New York. Like
Speaker 1: we were just saying, I've been here for a decade
Speaker 1: like doing this, and I think the next place I'll go,
Speaker 1: like the progression would be l A. Because I think,
Speaker 1: like what I've always thought is like like for me anyway,
Speaker 1: starting in New York. It's like they've always talked about
Speaker 1: New York is the place you cultivate and get good
Speaker 1: and like your people, and then you go out to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles to like work, because that's when you're ready
Speaker 1: to be sold for the people. I know, I'm not
Speaker 1: in a rush to get to this l A face,
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest with you, I'm having a good time.
Speaker 1: Here's chilling out because you can also have you can
Speaker 1: also be a career stand up here, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. If you can be a career comedian here
Speaker 1: but in l A, it's like, you know, that's where
Speaker 1: you actually truly and then that's where the ind expands
Speaker 1: a little bit. We were talking about doing more than
Speaker 1: stand up before. But see, Chicago is a place where
Speaker 1: you like I didn't even I sometimes forget all of
Speaker 1: our friends that started in Chicago, like good, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: like so many people, you guys, but you guys didn't
Speaker 1: really spend that much time to like I'm just using
Speaker 1: like toiling it obscure. Well, so I don't feel like
Speaker 1: I served my tamure like I was. That's where I lived.
Speaker 1: That's so that's where I started. It was like a destiny.
Speaker 1: You moved to Chicago to come from d C. I
Speaker 1: had a friend who it was so random. I had
Speaker 1: a friend who was like, hey, I'm in the Second
Speaker 1: City directors programming, Like I took a class. I was
Speaker 1: just in a place where I didn't know what I
Speaker 1: was gonna do. And then uh, he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you should come to Chicago, and I like visited, and
Speaker 1: then I was like fuck it. I just moved. But
Speaker 1: I didn't know, like I was fully going to do
Speaker 1: stand up. I was taking but I have not been there.
Speaker 1: She's a liar, because you were an ambassador for two minutes. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was a second city ambassador because it was a
Speaker 1: scam to get that needed to lure black people in,
Speaker 1: and I was like yeah. I was like, are you
Speaker 1: gonna give me money? Absolutely, I'll lure my friends and
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars. One I've heard about this weird little
Speaker 1: thing it say, I don't think it exists anymore. And
Speaker 1: I was not a good fit for the program because
Speaker 1: I don't I didn't understand improv. I didn't know the
Speaker 1: structure of there, you know school. I was just like, yell,
Speaker 1: need black faces because people are mad at you. Got it,
Speaker 1: I'll take And here's the thing. It was just an
Speaker 1: exchange for discount of prices, and they were offering discount
Speaker 1: of prices to people who were interested in their classes,
Speaker 1: who were from diverse backgrounds. It was on the up
Speaker 1: and up. I just didn't last because I didn't care
Speaker 1: about that at all. Excuse me, high, are you a
Speaker 1: smile hider? What I mean by that is do you
Speaker 1: hide your teeth and grew pics? Are just not smile
Speaker 1: when meeting someone because you don't like how your teeth look.
Speaker 1: Let's get something straight. Your teeth that is clever. You
Speaker 1: know the ones you cover when you laugh or hide
Speaker 1: when someone breaks out a camera. I'm actually one of
Speaker 1: you people. Um will listen your fears. Put those dressed.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get your teeth looking very good with Smile
Speaker 1: Direct Club. With Smile Direct Club, you can straighten your
Speaker 1: teeth with invisible aligners said directly to you. For only
Speaker 1: eighty dollars a month. You can have a smile you'll
Speaker 1: love and a lifetime of confidence. No braces, no monthly
Speaker 1: office visits, no paying a fortune. Smile Direct Club Invisible
Speaker 1: aligners work gently, indiscreetly to gradually guide your teeth into alignment,
Speaker 1: and one of their two hundred plus duly licensed doctors
Speaker 1: oversee your plan every step of the way. So go
Speaker 1: to Smile direct club dot com to see the real
Speaker 1: before and after photos of more than three hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand satisfied grins. Okay, so here's how you're gonna
Speaker 1: go about doing this. Order a free impression kit with rebate,
Speaker 1: or schedule a free three D scan at one of
Speaker 1: their smile shops. Plus, Small Direct Club has an exclusive
Speaker 1: offer for our listeners. Get one fifty dollars off your
Speaker 1: invisible aligners at small direct Club dot com slash podcast
Speaker 1: and use offer code ding dong that smile Direct Club
Speaker 1: dot com slash podcast offer code ding dong. Okay, So
Speaker 1: at some point in every last culture is this episode,
Speaker 1: I brandished the fact that I am in therapy and
Speaker 1: that man is not. But don't worry, We'll get him there.
Speaker 1: But if you are also thinking about getting a therapist
Speaker 1: but aren't sure where to start, better help dot com
Speaker 1: online counseling is there for you. Better Help makes it
Speaker 1: easy to connect with licensed professional counselors, caring professionals specializing
Speaker 1: in the issues that you want to talk about, whether
Speaker 1: it's depression, stress or anxiety, or trauma or grief or
Speaker 1: self esteem issues or any combination of those things that
Speaker 1: are help can help connect you with your counselor in
Speaker 1: a safe and private environment so you can get help
Speaker 1: at your own time and at your own pace. You
Speaker 1: can schedule secure video and phone sessions or text your therapist,
Speaker 1: all included worldwide, and you can start communicating in under
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. That is huge. That is the biggest
Speaker 1: roadblock for a lot of people. Um in my experience,
Speaker 1: and I was just anty to get it going, but
Speaker 1: with better Help there's almost no lead time in in
Speaker 1: that way where you're not latently sitting around waiting to
Speaker 1: talk to someone and get to whatever thoughts or emotions
Speaker 1: you have uh out and in the open, and you
Speaker 1: know you're able to start making sense of things in
Speaker 1: a very quick way. And best of all, it's a
Speaker 1: truly affordable option. And for lost culture e stas listeners,
Speaker 1: you can get ten percent off your first month with
Speaker 1: discount code ding dong. All one word, if you've been
Speaker 1: wanting to talk to someone, get started today and go
Speaker 1: to better Help dot com Forward slash ding dong and
Speaker 1: simply fill out the questionnaire to help them assess your
Speaker 1: needs and get matched with the counselor you'll love and
Speaker 1: one that you can always change if necessary. So that's
Speaker 1: Better Help dot Com Forward slash ding dong with promo
Speaker 1: code ding dong. Did you guys take well Bowen like
Speaker 1: really started doing comedy and improv? It was like my
Speaker 1: gateway because I did it in high school and I
Speaker 1: would go I would do college tours and I'd be like, yeah, cool, um,
Speaker 1: So do you guys have to have an improv group here? Like?
Speaker 1: That was my leading question whenever wherever I went, I
Speaker 1: was like that gross. Well, I was just like that
Speaker 1: was like the interest that I lead with, and I
Speaker 1: was like lying to myself thinking I was going to
Speaker 1: be like I was gonna go to med school. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, but actually, like what my selection has
Speaker 1: to do with geometrists, which is which was my interest,
Speaker 1: and like I like relegated it to like a side hustle.
Speaker 1: When I was in college, which was weird. I was
Speaker 1: a sketchboy. I did sketch comedy and like did take
Speaker 1: improv classes but never got over the nervousness of doing
Speaker 1: like the UCB form of improv. And I always I
Speaker 1: also like, I don't know, I think it's definitely like
Speaker 1: being gay. Like I was very not comfortable with myself,
Speaker 1: and I don't think you can do good improv being
Speaker 1: two in your head because you're just blocked. So I was, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just for me, I was just so preoccupied that
Speaker 1: I needed that preparation at the time, I would never
Speaker 1: have been able to just get on a stage like
Speaker 1: I do now and kind of like riff with an
Speaker 1: audience like that takes time, like you were saying, like
Speaker 1: hosting is like a real skill to you know, going
Speaker 1: up and doing a seven to ten minutes set like whatever,
Speaker 1: Like we all we we know what we're doing, so
Speaker 1: we go up there and do it. You don't know
Speaker 1: what's going to be going down when you go up
Speaker 1: there to host, you know, like some when even when
Speaker 1: we host our live show, which we do frequently, like
Speaker 1: it's it's it's an energy that you have to get
Speaker 1: on board for and you are really performing with the audience,
Speaker 1: and that's different. So I only think, and only now
Speaker 1: could I do that successfully? I think because I'm not
Speaker 1: in my head and I feel the same way with improv.
Speaker 1: You're going up there and you don't know what's about
Speaker 1: to happen, and I wasn't comfortable with that. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a type of mentality because I would be
Speaker 1: an imp would be an improv like say this and
Speaker 1: say that. You can't be that person who was like orchestrating.
Speaker 1: I would be fully like, I'll go out and say this,
Speaker 1: and then this person will probably say this, and this
Speaker 1: would be a funny thing to happen to. Third, because
Speaker 1: I really started My whole education and background is in writing,
Speaker 1: so I couldn't stop. Do you guys feel this way.
Speaker 1: We're like especially maybe ever since you guys moved to
Speaker 1: New York, you like the little tiny skills that we've
Speaker 1: had that that you are required to pick up, like working,
Speaker 1: like like I'm sarring this video game. Analogy works with
Speaker 1: so much stuff because it feels like what's your video game?
Speaker 1: Like everything in Chicago was just like a similation to
Speaker 1: just take that to it like a new Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: everything in Chicago is like we're picking up these skills
Speaker 1: like in the first level of a video game, and
Speaker 1: then when you get to New York, you gotta like
Speaker 1: beat all the bosson. It's like all these skills I
Speaker 1: accumulated over the years, like remember to do this, learning
Speaker 1: how to perform because when I learned how when I
Speaker 1: when we first started, I think like I knew how
Speaker 1: to write a joke and say came from bad. I
Speaker 1: thought she was like a magician because I was writing
Speaker 1: my jokes. I would put the comma in and that's
Speaker 1: where I would be and I would recite my jokes
Speaker 1: at the audience the way I had written them, like yeah,
Speaker 1: and she came in like emoting and like no one
Speaker 1: where they like I would tell too much detail and
Speaker 1: like we had difference. I feel like a but that's
Speaker 1: like on a broad that's that's like you can like
Speaker 1: hone not like in any place, and that's great. But
Speaker 1: I feel like once you start to like do stuff
Speaker 1: like you have your own TV show, basically like you
Speaker 1: basically have to, like like Sonia, like I'm sure you
Speaker 1: had to like learn how to like deliver something to
Speaker 1: camera or like know where to look or like know
Speaker 1: your angle and like know how to like no no
Speaker 1: about continuity or you know, it's like leaves a little
Speaker 1: people talking last night in or a lift. Sorry because
Speaker 1: Songa doesn't believe in Uber's corporate policy, I don't think
Speaker 1: because I don't you know, I'm broke. I'm a. I'm
Speaker 1: a we were talking about back in two thousand twelve,
Speaker 1: Like I think I was trying to be grateful because
Speaker 1: I was drunk, Like I'm matching in two thousand til if.
Speaker 1: We want to save ourselves now and it's nice, right.
Speaker 1: Also the other side of that, the negative side of it, was,
Speaker 1: did you think that when we decided to like go
Speaker 1: on stage and like tell our little jokes that we
Speaker 1: have to be thinking about all the rest of the
Speaker 1: ship career stuff. You get here in your life. Oh ship,
Speaker 1: there's so much more outside of performing, Yeah, like managers, ages,
Speaker 1: people and industry things and would you do this? And
Speaker 1: like it's full time and also now I do too,
Speaker 1: I actually and try to embrace every part of it,
Speaker 1: like even the social media aspect of like branding yourself
Speaker 1: and appearing to be like and so it almost like
Speaker 1: makes you cut yourself some slack for like doing that
Speaker 1: the whole thing of like, yes, social media is a projection,
Speaker 1: but also I we need to do it because shame
Speaker 1: to Yeah, and so but something that I mean, I
Speaker 1: actually think the biggest part of it, and especially now
Speaker 1: that I'm we're all at a certain point. It's like
Speaker 1: when you meet with people, you have to be personable
Speaker 1: and like to me, it's like actually a lot of
Speaker 1: this career is being able to have conversations and like
Speaker 1: audition in a room, ask yourself, I mean as a
Speaker 1: general right, like they tell you like, oh, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna sit and talk. But it's like you're trying to
Speaker 1: make sure I'm not the most important and that I
Speaker 1: could be Yeah, a person who could be around you.
Speaker 1: I hated him so much, but now I can. I
Speaker 1: can now I think you got to talk to like
Speaker 1: in an interview situation or whatever, like just to be
Speaker 1: like bank burk hit and there new to me and
Speaker 1: I'm having a great time. Like I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: was like, who was to talk to me? Oh? How
Speaker 1: do they know? I exist? Tell me more? What do
Speaker 1: you like about my This is great? Have you been
Speaker 1: in one way? They didn't really know who you were
Speaker 1: not yet, Like I'm like five, and I'm like, are
Speaker 1: you guys quoting my jokes? Like tell me more and
Speaker 1: then back? So I have to like work on that part,
Speaker 1: like you gotta pitched up. I was. I was going
Speaker 1: and I'm prepared. Before I had like management or any
Speaker 1: like or any representation whatsoever. I was just like fielding
Speaker 1: random emails like show up at this building, this network,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, so excited. Now you know these
Speaker 1: are important meetings that she needed to the opportunity a
Speaker 1: compliment session. We you know, wench together. Like when we
Speaker 1: were out and we had a script, it was ste
Speaker 1: it was like we went ready. We would be telling that,
Speaker 1: how did you guys meet? And that was like you
Speaker 1: to start the routine. You have to do it like
Speaker 1: that in order to get it in the lining curve,
Speaker 1: the learning, and I always to have like I had
Speaker 1: bullet points for my story, and then I had I
Speaker 1: had jokes. I was slipped in gotta tell if you're
Speaker 1: an immigrant, got to tell a joke about your mama's
Speaker 1: not in soo it, and then I would do the
Speaker 1: second part where featuring things I like. But yeah, before that,
Speaker 1: I would just be like, shit, I didn't tell them this.
Speaker 1: I didn't tell them there are shows, so I have
Speaker 1: like a bunch of meetings in the day. I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's three or four shows and then you know that
Speaker 1: night you have to Yeah. So it's like it's don't
Speaker 1: make me enjoy it, like I enjoying what I thought
Speaker 1: that because I was like, can I greezy about this? Though?
Speaker 1: As much as I'm thinking about my career here, and
Speaker 1: I think we were just talking about this too, like
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we've been so like if you feel
Speaker 1: disconnected with your friends here, but I feel like we've
Speaker 1: had shows together recently and we're doing this, which is
Speaker 1: great because we're talking about a lot of the same ship.
Speaker 1: Even though I feel like my career is more focused here,
Speaker 1: I also feel, for some reason like this is the
Speaker 1: first time we've actually like chilled out and thought about
Speaker 1: our personal lives, like a career life, like we're just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would tell like me and my ex would be
Speaker 1: like comedy first and you know that, like like yeah,
Speaker 1: it just there was nothing in the world. We were
Speaker 1: very young and that we're tired. Imagine like we would
Speaker 1: be in Chicago like here, my god, like Mike's are harder,
Speaker 1: and the fact that like it's onny comedians or people
Speaker 1: a comedians people, but it's so much longer. So we
Speaker 1: would sit for like five hours, six hours to do
Speaker 1: four fucking man. And now that's crazy, but think about
Speaker 1: like we were just you did the thing with Taraji
Speaker 1: and all the things they must have seen, but they
Speaker 1: must have come up together like complain about just now
Speaker 1: you think about who we were at those tables with them,
Speaker 1: what they're doing now, Like that's not like that ship sucked,
Speaker 1: but like Jabuki is a real life celebrity right now.
Speaker 1: All of his shows five shows, and I knew he
Speaker 1: was doing yeah, and he was sitting there doing his
Speaker 1: five hours too, So I'm like, wow, that ship sucks.
Speaker 1: Like everybody at many people who like we're at those
Speaker 1: little awful tables with us and that a little weird
Speaker 1: bar and and they're winning right now, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: hell yeah, like we served our a little time. Here's
Speaker 1: one thing I think was literally just thinking about this
Speaker 1: the other day. It's like sometimes people ask me what
Speaker 1: my interests are and I'll be like, well, I do comedy,
Speaker 1: and then it's like, because in order to good comedy,
Speaker 1: you must be speaking about interesting and talking about your life.
Speaker 1: So it's like it is that thing of like when
Speaker 1: you wake up every day and it's about this, but
Speaker 1: you have nothing else to compare that. It is important
Speaker 1: to be out there and like, you know, experiencing, you know,
Speaker 1: dating and like that. There's a reason why these things
Speaker 1: get discussed comedy because we only make room for the
Speaker 1: things that are essential. And so that's why when someone
Speaker 1: comes in and they have a real take on something
Speaker 1: that's a new experience, that's why we all snap our
Speaker 1: next in our direction. It's like, wow, how did you
Speaker 1: have time to have that? Interesting? Yeah. I also think
Speaker 1: it's like when you make this the most important to
Speaker 1: your life and there is nothing else, it's like if
Speaker 1: you get rejected from like a festival or a show
Speaker 1: or whatever, it feels like so much bigger when you
Speaker 1: have nothing else that makes you happen. Yeah, that's why
Speaker 1: I go. When I got here, I realized, like, I
Speaker 1: can't just have comedy be the only like the only
Speaker 1: thing makes me happy, because when I wasn't doing well,
Speaker 1: it was like what else am I doing? And those
Speaker 1: real steaks, yes, legit. When you get those things, you
Speaker 1: get them and then they're over. Oh yeah. So for example,
Speaker 1: like with like JFL, I went two years ago and
Speaker 1: now it's it's over. It's this thing that I crossed
Speaker 1: off my off my list, and it's like for years,
Speaker 1: for years, and so now it's like, wait, what are
Speaker 1: my goals now? Keep moving if you have a certain
Speaker 1: mentality that I think we used to have more and
Speaker 1: we still do, like we're still ambitious people, but I'm
Speaker 1: happy for the balance because it used to be like
Speaker 1: never being happy, You're never being satisfied because you're always
Speaker 1: moving your own goal post back as soon as you
Speaker 1: get that thing that we would complain about not doing shows, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we do the show, the show because and then be
Speaker 1: like okay, so what's next, Like what am I upset
Speaker 1: about not having? Now your phone and your friend is like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm opening for you, like, bitch, I'm not doing anything
Speaker 1: in mine and he's I don't feel like that anymore
Speaker 1: like we were twenty five or some ship. Like it's
Speaker 1: just different person, I got time for it anymore. You
Speaker 1: just sort of like get to a place where you
Speaker 1: can like like yeah, like comedy you also, I think
Speaker 1: one thing too is like we all kind of believe
Speaker 1: like I have to If I don't do this, I
Speaker 1: will never get out of this thing. And then you
Speaker 1: get to the point where you're like, I can have
Speaker 1: a balanced life, like I can be happy, I can
Speaker 1: benefits we're not, yeah, and have happy much better the
Speaker 1: times now when I when I'm at peace. I had
Speaker 1: a really good first week and I was really like
Speaker 1: my brain was clicking while I'm off now. But what
Speaker 1: I felt like it was like the first time I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, like I don't have to really be
Speaker 1: obsessively with this. I took something like I just didn't
Speaker 1: do sets for a while because I was home. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think like it's either if you're not living in
Speaker 1: active life, then you better hope to God that there's
Speaker 1: some good ship happening, not in quote unquote good ship
Speaker 1: like mindable ship that's going on in the politics or
Speaker 1: something like that, and so it's so funny because like,
Speaker 1: but I also don't apply that to out because people
Speaker 1: talk about the fucking nightmare we're living in right now,
Speaker 1: and then they say the ship, like, well, it's good
Speaker 1: for comedy, and it's like this. So it's like, so
Speaker 1: that's why lately I've been trying to live my life
Speaker 1: because I actually use my own life for basis something
Speaker 1: because I'm not talking about the hellscape that is, yeah,
Speaker 1: topical people who have to do topical comedy right now,
Speaker 1: like wow, Like I mean, you know, the for the show,
Speaker 1: like it was a drain, like that's trump. It was
Speaker 1: so exhausted, Like what can we talk about today and
Speaker 1: make it fun? Oh well, sometimes there was no fun
Speaker 1: stuff to talk about. We'll talk about law and order,
Speaker 1: hate crime. I was opinions at some point. I was like,
Speaker 1: do what I care about Cynthia Nixon's Bengel or I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna have to come from my knees with this opinion.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, that's what's all about the talk show format
Speaker 1: is you're often like I primarily do jokes about like
Speaker 1: myself and things like that. But like so it's like
Speaker 1: it was hard to like shift and care. It was.
Speaker 1: It's a second different. I think if you wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to always do that, Like I wouldn't want to be
Speaker 1: full time talk show host, even though some of my
Speaker 1: favorites like cone In and like that's my incredible I
Speaker 1: just think it takes the type of person that's fine
Speaker 1: being in that like constantly reading up on the horrible
Speaker 1: ship he's doing to figure out how to make it funny.
Speaker 1: And that's what my question was earlier, where it was like,
Speaker 1: did you ever think that you would have to pick
Speaker 1: up all these crazy random skills where it's like I
Speaker 1: have to learn how to transition into the next piece
Speaker 1: in my hair where she's telling me things and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to like listen to the same time. It was
Speaker 1: it was such a learning experience, and I felt like
Speaker 1: I honestly didn't know the scale of that. Julie Miller,
Speaker 1: who plated the show, shout out to her from UH
Speaker 1: and she was when we shot the pilot, it was me, her,
Speaker 1: three people for the panel, and you were to other people,
Speaker 1: UH and it was what was that ten people who
Speaker 1: were there for a production? It was it was so yeah,
Speaker 1: so when we sell a Facebook bias it, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll still Facebook, so probably a little bigger. But then
Speaker 1: I got there and it would be like forty people
Speaker 1: on three from it was a production. Then it was
Speaker 1: like so it was like in reuse to that, like
Speaker 1: it was very yeah, and then you are the host
Speaker 1: of that and it is and you know that moment
Speaker 1: of I remember looking at you and we'd be on
Speaker 1: the panel and like I was like, God, I wonder
Speaker 1: if it ever gets like comfortable to do that, because
Speaker 1: you were amazing, But it's this thing of like you
Speaker 1: they were literally in your ear and I'm like a
Speaker 1: robot because I'm trying to listen. I remember that, I
Speaker 1: remember it happening. I was like, not only does she
Speaker 1: have to negotiate a relationship with us on the panel,
Speaker 1: gonna be on this like copy which is on the screen,
Speaker 1: and also be taking suggestions and notes from and her ear,
Speaker 1: and also with the added thing of potentially there was
Speaker 1: a celebrity like Regina when she came, I was so
Speaker 1: ancient the ones actually most of the time when they
Speaker 1: have celebrity guests. I really was like I was not
Speaker 1: comfortable with it neither because I just was like, what
Speaker 1: if I asked her? Because there was one weird moment
Speaker 1: with me and Regina King. I remember it. No one
Speaker 1: thought about it for a oh wait a second, say
Speaker 1: what you're thinking when I said, so, you've been in
Speaker 1: a lot of black classics and I was going on
Speaker 1: to list something else and talk about how she's also
Speaker 1: branched out. But she thought I think she thought I
Speaker 1: was trying to pigeonhole her for a second. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it was nothing like it was to her. It was nothing.
Speaker 1: But me, I was like, oh no, And as Santy
Speaker 1: Gold was on an episode All Black Women, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I didn't so nice and right now I'm so happy.
Speaker 1: The first day I was there, it was not my episode,
Speaker 1: but she had been on the episode before me was
Speaker 1: my queen. She was so nice and that was for
Speaker 1: support the girls. Nice yeah, which she then ended up
Speaker 1: racking up awards for two At the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Everyone's like everyone's favorite movie. Yeah, you guys like good, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean nothing for nothing, But you don't get better
Speaker 1: than Regina Hall. I mean like like she shot a
Speaker 1: poor insight, like she is stunning, has she has an age.
Speaker 1: It's so nice, so genuinely everybody. Honestly, every guest that
Speaker 1: came on, even like La La, who had like a
Speaker 1: tired day like episode La, by the end of it
Speaker 1: was like, remember she was like so good. She was like,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. She was like I thought she
Speaker 1: was like I was dreading this day, but like, you
Speaker 1: guys really made it fun. Everybody was like everybody. I
Speaker 1: feel like the level of production you guys put on
Speaker 1: also outside of tone, for like the amount of effort
Speaker 1: to guess, yeah, like you showed up. It's nice, Let's
Speaker 1: let's try everybody. It was good. That was like my
Speaker 1: first like real big thing like that, And it was
Speaker 1: like so nice that everybody who worked on their own,
Speaker 1: like everyone from like Bethany towns with a makeup and
Speaker 1: like everybody cared about doing a good job and brought
Speaker 1: such positive energy. I was very I felt close to
Speaker 1: everyone Hillary and her and also want and make up.
Speaker 1: I was like I live for everyone here and the
Speaker 1: whole thing was great. And also what I was thinking
Speaker 1: before it was like you have to do all that
Speaker 1: stuff and then also know that there's forty people watching
Speaker 1: the screen, so it's like when you stumble over a word,
Speaker 1: you're like you have to just like focus on the
Speaker 1: fact that when it again. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: But that is hard and yeah, but you turned it
Speaker 1: on so fast. And Bone was talking about the skills
Speaker 1: that you pick up over the way. No one's on
Speaker 1: you this whole time, from the time back two thousand four,
Speaker 1: third two. The skills did you pick up, Like doing
Speaker 1: stuff like hosting coals on night worship is bad, having
Speaker 1: to be on like you want to drink. Plus, here's
Speaker 1: my joke, here's the next comic. Let's think about this,
Speaker 1: Like all those cylinders are fire. And when once you
Speaker 1: secured a bag, you know what you're like, it's like
Speaker 1: how you secure the bag. It's literally like they was
Speaker 1: a cool show. I remember when we auditioned for you
Speaker 1: for it. I was like, I think that would be good.
Speaker 1: I think that would be good on it and I was, yeah,
Speaker 1: we were like we are. I was already like that
Speaker 1: was a journey too behind the scenes because so much,
Speaker 1: like honestly I loved it, but towards the end, I
Speaker 1: was like, I have to like I was, it was
Speaker 1: just so much. The thing too, is like I had
Speaker 1: to get used to with people writing for me and
Speaker 1: I can't be in everything and look at every line.
Speaker 1: But it was like it really helped me like understand
Speaker 1: how I would like work in my future projects, like
Speaker 1: things I create, but also like how to be truly
Speaker 1: collaborative because I feel like it's stand ups, like we
Speaker 1: decide what we're gonna tell, how we're gonna tell it,
Speaker 1: like you tell us how much time and where? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then working with someone else and like not being
Speaker 1: like that's the type of joke I would make and
Speaker 1: just being like you know what, like how can we
Speaker 1: come together? And actually and that was like the biggest challenge,
Speaker 1: but it was I'm so grateful for that total experience.
Speaker 1: It was so great. We need to talk about you, Rebecca.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about this? I don't know you opening
Speaker 1: for Chet Queens every whole night. By the time this
Speaker 1: comes out, it'll be like out like you were there
Speaker 1: all five nights. Yeah. Yeah, well, thank you so hard.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm saying. We were in the trenches together
Speaker 1: learning how to do this. Three thousand people in the
Speaker 1: King Theater was incredible, insane space. Becca was holding it
Speaker 1: down as the warm up comic warm it backed like
Speaker 1: was like just set up that room so so fucking well.
Speaker 1: I will say. We were just talking about productions and
Speaker 1: what good energy they have and how that sets the
Speaker 1: tone for everything. Honestly, being at King's Theater watching two
Speaker 1: beautiful black women run that ship, be in charge of
Speaker 1: that ship, book that ship. Because I can't say who
Speaker 1: the guests are, but the people they pulled out who
Speaker 1: were honored to be there to see Phoebe and Jessica,
Speaker 1: like two black girls in our age group. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: what could go wrong? Like literally all people think tickets
Speaker 1: to see I felt so great doing it. Like I
Speaker 1: met Phoebe at a festival that no longer exists called
Speaker 1: Bridgetown in two thousand thirteen, and like remember Portland, Portland,
Speaker 1: Portland anymore? Yeah, well we're going to be so I
Speaker 1: hope it's there. I'll come back for you. Never Portland
Speaker 1: would never cancel itself. Is I don't know Jessica. I
Speaker 1: don't know her that well either, but mab is Phoebe
Speaker 1: came onbe. Phoebe came on last culture rest test when
Speaker 1: it was still pretty early, and you know, she's always
Speaker 1: been so supportive and she will she Phobe is one
Speaker 1: that will sign a text, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like like she checks in. I like, she said, be
Speaker 1: a text the other day that was just like thinking
Speaker 1: of you. I was like, why are you thinking of me?
Speaker 1: She's like you Michelle Obama also remembering her friends like
Speaker 1: what a queen, what a Yeah. I really was happy
Speaker 1: to be a part of that and like the lineups
Speaker 1: they have, like the comics that are books amazing. Everybody's
Speaker 1: looks were great, Like I had different things every night.
Speaker 1: I was just also just happy to be hosting again
Speaker 1: because like since I moved here, I've been doing like
Speaker 1: sets in every bar and Brooklyn like every bar, every bar,
Speaker 1: so many bars, and I'm like, I'm just happy to
Speaker 1: be different. Now there's like a whole new level. Like
Speaker 1: in Chicago it was like club bar shows, like that
Speaker 1: is it? And like now you realize, well, here there's
Speaker 1: like you could do a Comedy Central showcase actually open
Speaker 1: for someone on a weekend. It's not like, well zany
Speaker 1: the only opening gig. Yeah maybe is great. That's where
Speaker 1: I did my TV show back home. So love you guys.
Speaker 1: Things are changing a ton here though. I was just
Speaker 1: talking about that, like you know what, it's so crazy,
Speaker 1: but like I came up through you CB and so
Speaker 1: now just to look from five years ago to now
Speaker 1: like crazy now close and by the time this episode
Speaker 1: comes out, it will be closed. That's happened very quickly.
Speaker 1: You see, be House kitchen is now the space um
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know it's an adjustment and it's
Speaker 1: just it just goes to show you like if you're
Speaker 1: out there doing it, like you know, take it in
Speaker 1: because like that you Ceb Chelsea space that was that
Speaker 1: was a very special space with a lot of with
Speaker 1: a lot of memories and a lot of moments. So
Speaker 1: and you know, you're living in major cities where there's
Speaker 1: a lot of turnover and it's hard to keep business
Speaker 1: is open. So you know what when if you go
Speaker 1: out there and like I don't know, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, just like support, tell friends about the shows
Speaker 1: that you're doing, because these spaces are not going to
Speaker 1: be there forever. But I think what we're the four
Speaker 1: of us are doing now is like really taking a
Speaker 1: second to like check in and like do a thing
Speaker 1: about like our own careers, which like for anyone, for
Speaker 1: anyone listening and thinking that this is like so like masturbatory,
Speaker 1: it's not because it's like we're really just we don't
Speaker 1: take We don't take the time in our own lives
Speaker 1: to do this, to really actually think about where we are,
Speaker 1: where we want to go, Why what led us to
Speaker 1: the places that we are. I don't even know we
Speaker 1: were going to have a career chat today, but you
Speaker 1: know it's been very healthy. Well well that's why I
Speaker 1: was literally I was like, we got you guys in
Speaker 1: the moment of the glow and here's last night. It's like,
Speaker 1: well last night, like literally they were on Jabooky's Caroline
Speaker 1: Show and John John mulaney tweeted afterwards about Rebecca and
Speaker 1: Sonia and Pat and Jabooky and everyone that was on
Speaker 1: the show, and it's just like, first of all, it
Speaker 1: was a gay to see that, and that's the biggest
Speaker 1: stand up that's working right now. And to know all
Speaker 1: the names, that's very cool. And TWND, yeah, that was
Speaker 1: very nice. And so that's why I was. I was
Speaker 1: like that we were having you guys here today because
Speaker 1: like that is like pretty cool. Yeah, and we were
Speaker 1: just talking about what a nice, nice guy here. It's
Speaker 1: not always like that when you meet people that are
Speaker 1: super successful, but in that situation, is it is it
Speaker 1: is great. We should ask the question we should ask
Speaker 1: the question because we always has asked the question of
Speaker 1: all of our guests, and we've kind of danced around
Speaker 1: it because we did talk origins but on Lost Culture
Speaker 1: Restas and I do know how to say the name
Speaker 1: of my own podcast, um, despite many people not my
Speaker 1: own father goes is Las Costa Rica's this week. I
Speaker 1: was like, my god, recalling this week? Are they recording
Speaker 1: Carl Oh? I God, it's so interesting. Um. And I
Speaker 1: was like, you know, Dad, it's not hard to say.
Speaker 1: It's the word culture. And then East He's like, I'll
Speaker 1: get it. But we on this show, we asked every
Speaker 1: guest what was the culture that made you say? Culture
Speaker 1: was for me the defining pop culture in your life
Speaker 1: as you were growing up that you can look back
Speaker 1: now as the adult you are and say that was
Speaker 1: really kind of like important, whether it be a movie,
Speaker 1: musical artist, a television show, place you grew up like,
Speaker 1: what was what was it? Let's go to Rebecca first. Well,
Speaker 1: we've talked about comedy this whole time, so I hate
Speaker 1: the minus comedy on top of it. Well, this is
Speaker 1: I do feel like it's it's it's a defining thing.
Speaker 1: Like I grew up religious, like we were in church
Speaker 1: all the time. I was not allowed to watch comic
Speaker 1: view on b ET like every ever, but I snatched
Speaker 1: everything every night. And I never thought I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a comedian until I was in my mid twenties.
Speaker 1: But thinking back, well, I wasn't like I wrote about comedy.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, for like different places, So I
Speaker 1: knew I loved comedy, but I never thought I was
Speaker 1: going to perform. But thinking back, I'm like the whole time,
Speaker 1: yeah literally, so probably like sneaking and watch that and
Speaker 1: just uh quoting jokes all the time. And looking back,
Speaker 1: my mom reminded me of this recently and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, you clocked me like literally aged him. So
Speaker 1: who were the comics that were being featured there that
Speaker 1: you remember? Um, definitely Dian Cole. He's like a Chicago legend.
Speaker 1: I guess he's on Blackish now. Um. I do remember
Speaker 1: seeing uh Leslie what's her from SNL? Actually Leslie Jones
Speaker 1: uh do bits about like being a black woman and
Speaker 1: like one to fun and aggressive and I'm like ten
Speaker 1: years old, like yeah, not even knowing what exactly she meant.
Speaker 1: By any people that resonate with you, even if you
Speaker 1: haven't experienced that, like ten years old. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: really thought like this was like some of the jokes,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is what it must be like to
Speaker 1: be an adult, like that type of stuff. Also very
Speaker 1: like warped ideas about what was going on in Comic View.
Speaker 1: Like they had a set up where there was a
Speaker 1: bar on stage. They were girls on stage. There was
Speaker 1: like back and forth bolly on griffing with the hosts
Speaker 1: and the people behind the bar, and they were like
Speaker 1: really beautiful women on stage every night. And in my head,
Speaker 1: who I wanted to grow up to be. Where the
Speaker 1: women who were like beautiful enough to sit on the
Speaker 1: stage on Comic View. And here's the thing, it was
Speaker 1: always the same women. And having a show in Chicago,
Speaker 1: I had like a TV show for a few weeks,
Speaker 1: I'm realizing, like they shot all those episodes in the
Speaker 1: same day and just changed the girl's shirts and moved them.
Speaker 1: They were Yeah, and those comics got like seven hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for doing that. Like nobody was famous after Comic View.
Speaker 1: But like looking back on that, I'm like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: was a defining thing. So comic you speaking, Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a great answer because and That's also another thing where
Speaker 1: it's like it's just a container for just different people
Speaker 1: to come flying through because you would only ever rarely
Speaker 1: see the same person multiple times. They had like regulars,
Speaker 1: like as far as I remember the format, like they
Speaker 1: had a few different incarnations, different theme songs to different seasons.
Speaker 1: But and it would evolve with like whoever was the
Speaker 1: poppingist urban I guess black comic at the time, but yeah,
Speaker 1: they seemed like they were keeping relevant. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I wasn't really in the comedy scene at age ten,
Speaker 1: but I imagine that the bookers had pretty decent taste, uh,
Speaker 1: and they definitely like had regulars. But I was getting
Speaker 1: to see from the South Side of Chicago, not knowing
Speaker 1: anything about comedy, like the best that the black scene
Speaker 1: has to offer at the time, which turned out to
Speaker 1: be real influential. I guess, yeah, talk about your your
Speaker 1: your path from journalism comedy into comedy, like what I
Speaker 1: was like, so split Sider's website that just got bought
Speaker 1: by Vulture so and exists anymore. Yeah, I was like
Speaker 1: I found it the as I found in an editor
Speaker 1: of like the humor section, which is like the shouts
Speaker 1: and murmurs type thing, so I'd be like reading and
Speaker 1: fielding humor pieces and then publishing them. So that was
Speaker 1: my job. Then then then I write about like albums and stuff,
Speaker 1: so I was doing that for Hawker Randy Fair to
Speaker 1: play a bunch of places. And I started tweeting jokes
Speaker 1: because I always, yeah, you can't help it, you can't.
Speaker 1: And then I'm like, people that I've been interviewing are
Speaker 1: like liking my tweets. Maybe I'm funny. One day I
Speaker 1: went on stage and not quit my job at Splits
Speaker 1: out Of like three months later, and they were pretty
Speaker 1: mad because I didn't explain why. I was like, I
Speaker 1: do stand up now, I need to come behind this curtain.
Speaker 1: I don't work anymore bodies. So yeah, that's how that
Speaker 1: happened pretty much. I'm similar actually because I started before
Speaker 1: I knew anything. I was eighteen years old and I
Speaker 1: like started writing for the ny U newspaper and two
Speaker 1: film reviews, and I would like interview this like celebrities
Speaker 1: or whatever, and I realized, like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be the person that interview identified with what you're saying,
Speaker 1: because before you find, in my opinion, what you want
Speaker 1: to do. I was in a lot of different creative stuff,
Speaker 1: like right, and I thought I was gonna sing for
Speaker 1: a while. I can't sing, Like it's not something I'm
Speaker 1: good at or should have been pursuing seriously. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to do something I was also doing like event
Speaker 1: promotion for recording artists in Chicago for a while and
Speaker 1: like sneaker company, and I'm like around entertained me trying
Speaker 1: to catch a piece. Yeah, I have like a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot a lot of sneakers, but that's because
Speaker 1: when I was doing that type of promotion, I was
Speaker 1: under age and I allowed people to pay me and
Speaker 1: choose a set of money because I was nineteen, Like
Speaker 1: and all I have to show for those you was
Speaker 1: in my life is like hell of dead stock sneakers?
Speaker 1: Could I don't care about anymore? Like I should have
Speaker 1: gotten money, you know, Yeah, I should have gotten They
Speaker 1: were like I thought I was cool and I was
Speaker 1: like I was hanging around like people like Chicago hip
Speaker 1: hop people like good music and hustle period like Kanye's
Speaker 1: old management company. But I was getting taking I was
Speaker 1: doing like was like doing party promotion for all these
Speaker 1: people and they're like, here's some shoes, little girl go Away.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's like I feel like I was on
Speaker 1: the peripheries of performing all this time, and I finally
Speaker 1: figured out what I wanted to do very much. But
Speaker 1: it's interesting that you as soon as you were like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do that stand up thing that you like,
Speaker 1: had like you you have that precluded you from from
Speaker 1: writing about not. Really there was a conflict of interest
Speaker 1: that I kept running into. I was fielding pieces that
Speaker 1: Not didn't always accept from people who were my stand
Speaker 1: up superiors, and it became an issue sometimes like that's
Speaker 1: I mean, but that's actually a really it was just
Speaker 1: a weird dynamic for a while for me to be
Speaker 1: an open micro telling people who I think are funnier
Speaker 1: than me in person that we can't publish this piece.
Speaker 1: Like it was just weird for me. And I knew
Speaker 1: instantly from my two weeks in the stand up that
Speaker 1: I cared about that way more than anything I've ever
Speaker 1: done on split side or like, there was no comparison
Speaker 1: at all, so easy choice. It takes a lot of
Speaker 1: self forest or thought though to be like instant drug laughs,
Speaker 1: Like I would write here in pieces and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do the people think about this? We'll not ever
Speaker 1: know because I didn't leave any comments or nobody retweeted it.
Speaker 1: I told a joke on stage and I'm like, these
Speaker 1: bitches love me, but first laughs. Yeah, never looked back.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting. Instant instant drug. That's that. Um. Okay, Sonia,
Speaker 1: what was the culture that made you say culturists for me?
Speaker 1: So you mean it like something that made me feel
Speaker 1: like I want to do comedy or just something that
Speaker 1: made me love like it helped my life. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: this is really weird. It's not weird, but I grew up.
Speaker 1: I grew up like Evangela. Well I didn't. Okay. So
Speaker 1: my parents are Rwandan, Yes, my mom is Rwanda. My
Speaker 1: dad's Haitian, and like moving this country I was like
Speaker 1: four or five, and it was like I just never
Speaker 1: felt like I fit in at all. These will call
Speaker 1: us like I'll talk to the names African booty scratchers,
Speaker 1: ask as we spoke African like, and this is like
Speaker 1: an all African American neighborhood. But I think it's like fluid,
Speaker 1: like it like it seemed okay for them to like
Speaker 1: tack all these things. Yeah, and I think what it
Speaker 1: is like in the nineties, Like it's not like, uh
Speaker 1: what you call it, like black panther. There's no real
Speaker 1: representation of Africa that's like positive in any way. It's
Speaker 1: all negative. So it's like kind of like how poor
Speaker 1: white people some will be like racist because at least
Speaker 1: they're under us. And then I think was the some
Speaker 1: of the black people kids I grew up with, they
Speaker 1: were seeing all these horrible things, the huts and this that,
Speaker 1: and and it was like, well, at least we're not them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it just was like that was the only exposure
Speaker 1: they had to Africa. And I had an accent. I
Speaker 1: still like listen to mp are obsessively to try to
Speaker 1: lose my accent, Like I was just doing all these
Speaker 1: things and trying to be because that was tiny. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But and my parents never likes okay, So then I
Speaker 1: was in elementary school, I went to middle school. I
Speaker 1: went to like this private school Evangelical. My parents are Catholic,
Speaker 1: but they kind of were like, it's a good private
Speaker 1: school because like the neighborhood we lived in, like wasn't
Speaker 1: it great at the time, So uh, then there's no
Speaker 1: culture in any of those schools, Like we didn't have
Speaker 1: theater we didn't have, Like the literature we read was
Speaker 1: like left behind, Like yes, I was so scared of
Speaker 1: what was it called the ratch for so yeah, and
Speaker 1: even like they tell you about the anti Christ, like
Speaker 1: I went to a hardcore one. We would sometimes have
Speaker 1: chapel for four hours instead of school, like she wa
Speaker 1: when I'm going to the school, I'm not really like
Speaker 1: learning about anything. Like I hear the radio sometimes, but
Speaker 1: I remember, like my cousin or someone I left the
Speaker 1: TUPAC C D and I remember which one it was.
Speaker 1: Because after that, I just listened to every single one.
Speaker 1: And I could never go anywhere either because it's like
Speaker 1: I'm fifteen whatever and my friends are having parties and
Speaker 1: my parents are like, well we have to come or
Speaker 1: we have to not just come. Sorry that com but
Speaker 1: we have to know who's going to be there, what
Speaker 1: adult is there, and you know at that age, like
Speaker 1: kids aren't there's no chaperone. Parties were like so I
Speaker 1: just would not go with immigrant parents. Forget it, forget it.
Speaker 1: Who is this person is? Keisha? It's just like so
Speaker 1: I couldn't go anywhere. I didn't have any friends. I
Speaker 1: was too weird. So yeah, I found that D and
Speaker 1: it just felt like it was when I like, I
Speaker 1: think I have that now to where I like we
Speaker 1: were talking about like people being vulnerable, Like it just
Speaker 1: felt like minus the times when you saw about killing people.
Speaker 1: He went through a face, but it was like personal lyrics.
Speaker 1: And then I was kind of my gateway into other music.
Speaker 1: Like it was just like and then I would just
Speaker 1: sit in my own weekends, never go anywhere. I would
Speaker 1: just sit in my room listening to music, and like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was just the first time when
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, art can help, like exists because
Speaker 1: my parents were like you're gonna be a lawyer, a
Speaker 1: doctor or like my dad's a computer scientists or something
Speaker 1: like that, which I did. But then I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I gotta get up. You did study that. Yeah it
Speaker 1: was she was super rich, you guys. I wasn't super rich.
Speaker 1: I was like when I I don't when I graduated
Speaker 1: from college, Uh, I worked as a like a programmer
Speaker 1: in d C. And you can make so much money
Speaker 1: there and there because it's like such a specialized thing
Speaker 1: and there's like an I age and all these government agencies.
Speaker 1: But it's a question like I just was like, this
Speaker 1: isn't I'm living my life for my word only like
Speaker 1: a few years, and then I started doing comedy and
Speaker 1: then I took off. I took off a month at
Speaker 1: a hiatus because I had a panic attack in my
Speaker 1: Austin's office because my UH team lead or whatever she
Speaker 1: was pregnant and I was being tapped to pick her.
Speaker 1: And I can see like the fork in the road
Speaker 1: of like because once you do that, you once she
Speaker 1: in management position, you have no life hours and hours
Speaker 1: and hours, yeah exactly. And I was like, I didn't
Speaker 1: know what I wanted to do, but I knew it
Speaker 1: wasn't this, and I went in and I was going
Speaker 1: to just be normal and then I just my body
Speaker 1: was just like I was. And he was so nice.
Speaker 1: Everyone was so even the people that I worked with
Speaker 1: after I like quit, they would like come to my shows,
Speaker 1: like my own shows and like take me out to
Speaker 1: eat after and I didn't have any money anymore and
Speaker 1: it was humiliating, but they would like pay for everything
Speaker 1: I had to go. That was more ago, that was
Speaker 1: like five years ago. I just keep telling it. Just
Speaker 1: still like we talked about like selling his rich friends
Speaker 1: and then from her years, so it was like people
Speaker 1: like it's so cool that you're doing this. It's insane,
Speaker 1: like you're making so much money. You could easily do
Speaker 1: this forever and make your mom happy. And then then
Speaker 1: everyone came through and was like people were so nice,
Speaker 1: like taking me the whole I didn't pay for ship.
Speaker 1: I felt like an idiot and ashole the whole time
Speaker 1: when I'd be like my Chase account, but they were
Speaker 1: so they never were weird about it, and it was
Speaker 1: always like, Yo, we're so proud of you, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So Tupac Tupac. He was a complicated man. I didn't
Speaker 1: think he was dead for like a year. He's alive.
Speaker 1: And then I saw a cracked article or not cracks,
Speaker 1: one of the rotten and it showed his fucking autopsy. Yes,
Speaker 1: I don't know how I saw that. I think someone
Speaker 1: sent it to me, like he is dead. The pictures,
Speaker 1: the picture that you can see if you if you
Speaker 1: really look for it, are fucking crazy thing, like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I think no, I'm taking a picture of that,
Speaker 1: Like wow. The only picture I saw is after got shot.
Speaker 1: He was flipping off the camera like anything that shot
Speaker 1: you and yeah, yeah, like that and that is your
Speaker 1: energy you're very much like, yeah, let's do that. I
Speaker 1: can see you flip. I can't think if somebody shot you,
Speaker 1: you're flipping off the camera. Yeah, like if somebody really
Speaker 1: trying to kids be I can't tell you how she
Speaker 1: could kill anyone in a giving room. She's very no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, I just mean she looks at security. This
Speaker 1: is like positive, I'm not trying. She knows. She's very prepared.
Speaker 1: So like if you're like, it's a possible, just because
Speaker 1: it was just up to me, I would lay down
Speaker 1: and die. But back gun will be like we can't.
Speaker 1: We need, we need, we need, like the survival and stinks.
Speaker 1: You know, I think I really do have something to
Speaker 1: go down about how to just no one is expecting
Speaker 1: the food because of the shutdown. I always always grape
Speaker 1: from the earth, like what I always joked, like if
Speaker 1: there's ever like a zombie apocalypse, I'm going to be
Speaker 1: the person that's like in the in the group, it's
Speaker 1: like we have to go, now, come on, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be like, okay, wait, let me charge my phone, let
Speaker 1: me just get going outlet we can't go. Can we
Speaker 1: wait fifteen minutes? Stoll be outside five minutes into the
Speaker 1: second pigeons like I'm ready because where's my weed? Honestly, truly, truly,
Speaker 1: if anything, if any bird Box happens, I see we're
Speaker 1: seeing just some standing. That movie it's the best. It's
Speaker 1: the one of the best Netflix movies I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: That's not saying it's a qualification. Probably, Yeah, I seen
Speaker 1: some good was I got some key rom coms out
Speaker 1: right now? Anyone watch my film The After Party? No
Speaker 1: is it the one about the rapper? Yeah, it's called
Speaker 1: The After Parting. It was so funny because I did
Speaker 1: after Party and after after Party at the same time.
Speaker 1: My resume looked like a crazy party after after part.
Speaker 1: It was funny because I saw my update resume and
Speaker 1: I'm like, that looks sad to see that. That looks
Speaker 1: like a copying thing. The guy who was trying at
Speaker 1: a record deal, right, Yeah, that's funny. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: in it for the trailer. In the trailer and love
Speaker 1: were probably watching stuff and then I, oh, my god,
Speaker 1: that's a comedian. Like yeah that I annoy my family
Speaker 1: so much because I'll be at home like, hey, I
Speaker 1: know him, like watching like a Chase commercial. Like Evan Williams.
Speaker 1: He is out there booking. He was on the Americans, like,
Speaker 1: like I feel like he books TV stuffn't busy, like
Speaker 1: on a movie doesn't have a movie start um. It
Speaker 1: always helps. I think it's im I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: I'm fucking obsessed with these these career change stories, like
Speaker 1: they're my favorite thing in the whole world. I didn't
Speaker 1: quite experience that when you guys started, well we started
Speaker 1: in college, but I like, I was like, I was
Speaker 1: like applying to med school until how did your parents
Speaker 1: it was you were gonna be a fucking doctor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it was actually it was a slow it was
Speaker 1: this weird they didn't like it wasn't like they had
Speaker 1: the wrath of God and them like within like like
Speaker 1: in the moment that I told him I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to do it, I was like I was telling them
Speaker 1: I was thinking about not going to med school and
Speaker 1: they were like, okay, And it was just this like
Speaker 1: slow creep of guilt, like poisoned everything. Slow. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a big cataclysmic thing. So that was like that was
Speaker 1: their reaction. And now it's like over the years, it's
Speaker 1: it's been about like going about the process of detoxifying
Speaker 1: that I gotta be happy now, right, like the like
Speaker 1: they can understand like because well for them, it's like
Speaker 1: they understand that their colleagues and co workers are coming
Speaker 1: up to them being like, aren't you so you talk
Speaker 1: about this? No, because okay, So I did a show
Speaker 1: with city uh and um d C huh uh and
Speaker 1: it was at this theater. Yeah, you're so considered a
Speaker 1: skill that you have to learn any stil. But my
Speaker 1: parents same thing as you, where it was did you
Speaker 1: feel like I felt like I was like letting down
Speaker 1: generations of people? Yes? I was, like my my dad
Speaker 1: was constantly like you come from such a generation of
Speaker 1: nomads and farmers and all these people who suffered and
Speaker 1: like blah blah like whatever, like the sacrifices we've made.
Speaker 1: My mom is always like, you're my second child. If
Speaker 1: I had stayed in China, you wouldn't have been born.
Speaker 1: All this stuff like essentially it's like so fucked up.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I need to honor all the sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And our American friends are like, I want to be
Speaker 1: a juggler narers like do what you want to do?
Speaker 1: So yeah, my parents same thing where it was like
Speaker 1: they never I don't have the type relationships like my
Speaker 1: Rwanda is in my dad is like a much mellow
Speaker 1: Haitian but like he wouldn't they would never be like
Speaker 1: You're a failure? How dare you? But it was like
Speaker 1: that feeling, like it was that guilt of like my
Speaker 1: mom's like, so, how's this little comedy thing? And it
Speaker 1: was like the or like she they thought I had
Speaker 1: a core life crisis. I got her like Carjack the
Speaker 1: whole thing, but she thought that that had precipitated, like
Speaker 1: I was type thing. But it was like I was
Speaker 1: already taking acting classes like it, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like on the side during my job. But it was
Speaker 1: like I think for her the first time when I
Speaker 1: my mom specific because my mom moved to this country
Speaker 1: when she was like in her late twenties, so like
Speaker 1: most of her a lot of Western culture. She gets
Speaker 1: it because she's very savvy, but she doesn't like anything
Speaker 1: young at that time where it was like she there
Speaker 1: was a divide between her upbringing versus what she was
Speaker 1: a similar exactly. So I did that show and a
Speaker 1: lot of the people that come to the Wooly Mammath
Speaker 1: Theater in DCRE life, you know, like a flu NPR
Speaker 1: type crowd and then I'm like yeah, and then there's
Speaker 1: like young people. So I did a show. They came.
Speaker 1: I did like I mentioned that they were in the crowd.
Speaker 1: I made some joke that fast forward. After the show,
Speaker 1: my parents are like, oh, good, good, Like my dad
Speaker 1: is new understood more references. He's like, that was my
Speaker 1: mom is being supported by default. She still doesn't get
Speaker 1: this ship. So it's like very and then these this
Speaker 1: group of white people and they all look like they
Speaker 1: have mortgages and the like. They were all like if
Speaker 1: it was people are age, she would have been like please,
Speaker 1: But it was people that were in ther like forties fifties,
Speaker 1: late forties fifties, who were like, hey, is this your daughter?
Speaker 1: She's so funny? Is this she did? You know? She
Speaker 1: was this funny and my mom is really like what
Speaker 1: the like her face was like yeah, okay, yeah. And
Speaker 1: I think that was the first time where they saw it,
Speaker 1: like wait a minute, there's a theater, here's a pamphlet,
Speaker 1: and then the more stuff you do. I think for
Speaker 1: them it's a big thing. Is I can afford I
Speaker 1: pay my own bills, you know, for the very least,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna die on the street full what these
Speaker 1: like my mom does not understand what stand up is. Period.
Speaker 1: She tries to explain it, She's like I told my
Speaker 1: friend you want to live facebook posting. I don't. She
Speaker 1: doesn't forget it, Like like a streaming show, like have
Speaker 1: you ever tried to explain Like they're like, so, what's
Speaker 1: going on? And you try to explain a job you got.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'll be like I'm shooting sponsored countries in
Speaker 1: Montreal and they'll be like, what the fuck are you saying? Yeah,
Speaker 1: part of the kind of like wishes my parents didn't
Speaker 1: understand it so well. Yeahs like you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like this thing like my dad loves stand up okay,
Speaker 1: very particular ideas about how nothing. Yeah, And the thing
Speaker 1: is like also like when you come from it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a strange thing to come from Long Island,
Speaker 1: where everyone has this idea of like, oh, he moved
Speaker 1: to the city and of course this is going to
Speaker 1: happen when he goes to comedy and then like all
Speaker 1: your close friends book SNL but you they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: so you're struggling. It's like they don't get that, Like
Speaker 1: you know what I mean it's like that thing of
Speaker 1: like they have such an understanding and it's like and
Speaker 1: it would be so meaningful, you know what. It's an understanding,
Speaker 1: but it's also a limited, limited understanding of like they
Speaker 1: know the big things. So it's like I I used
Speaker 1: to get all the time, like you know what you
Speaker 1: should audition for Saturday night? Yeah sure, yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: So part of me is like, of course, I like
Speaker 1: and I'm very lucky because my parents, I will say this,
Speaker 1: they have never once suggested I do something else, and
Speaker 1: they've never even asked me what my backup plan would be,
Speaker 1: not one time, And I think I mean the beast
Speaker 1: minority of that happening. But like there are times when
Speaker 1: I'm like, of course, I'm like any human being that
Speaker 1: wants to make them proud. So it's like in the struggle,
Speaker 1: like in my mid twe is when it was like
Speaker 1: I was still doing shows for only free and like
Speaker 1: still still quote unquote making an investment in my career,
Speaker 1: which meant only paying to do the show I was doing,
Speaker 1: like I'll share them. When I was performing at the pit,
Speaker 1: like and you were paying for the tech, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Yes, um, you know they're being taken
Speaker 1: advantage of their oh the performers. But um, I feel
Speaker 1: fine saying that. Um. But you know, it's like it's
Speaker 1: they when they were sticking with me through even that
Speaker 1: it's kind of just like, okay, that's really it's good.
Speaker 1: But also there's that thing of like you don't want
Speaker 1: to disappoint them when they've been riding with you through
Speaker 1: the whole. It just means it'll feel so good when
Speaker 1: it's it fine, Like first of all, I feel like
Speaker 1: you you've you've acquired so much, but also like they
Speaker 1: see that they see how much like they saw you
Speaker 1: on the Tonight show. They came to the fucking taping
Speaker 1: and like they come to ship like they've seen it,
Speaker 1: they've seen it in action. They see you in that
Speaker 1: moment in your element, and they they are when so proud.
Speaker 1: It just means that once like a great thing happens,
Speaker 1: it'll just feel so good. It feels nice to like
Speaker 1: because all throughout my twenties I couldn't get the nice
Speaker 1: gifts like now I have any money at all, So
Speaker 1: like I got like I got tickets from my dad
Speaker 1: and my mom to see Hamilton's and I was like
Speaker 1: this pack it up get all yeah, you know, but
Speaker 1: your dad loves stand up like like what, like what's
Speaker 1: that thing? Like like that play out? Well, I think
Speaker 1: everybody was shocked when I started doing stand up just
Speaker 1: because that was never a thing that I wanted to do. Um.
Speaker 1: They never were not supportive though, they were just confused,
Speaker 1: very confusedly like oh, okay, well go do that. But
Speaker 1: my parents are very supportive, like if anything ever happens,
Speaker 1: like they posted on their facebooks like they're really supportive.
Speaker 1: But I know, like if I ever were to make it,
Speaker 1: like my dad would put out like an AUM instantly,
Speaker 1: like you'd have like an R and B career or
Speaker 1: something like that. Also wanted to be famous, so like
Speaker 1: that's the type of energy. I'm like, they're very supportive,
Speaker 1: but like I have a feeling like my dad would
Speaker 1: try to like become a part of the show like somehow.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's good ship though, it's funny. My family
Speaker 1: is funny. So I just yeah, my mom's really supportive
Speaker 1: to like she's great. Yeah, she's they they just were
Speaker 1: really confused like okay, you're doing this because I like
Speaker 1: Hobby jumped a lot before, I think, so I think
Speaker 1: they're mostly happy that I stuck with anything for any
Speaker 1: amount of time. And they're like, god, bless, Like, if
Speaker 1: that's what you're gonna do, focus on that and we'll
Speaker 1: see how it goes. And to them, that's the most
Speaker 1: meaningful thing, like she's sticking with it. Fine, Yeah, not
Speaker 1: not fine, but like great, you know, it's like that's
Speaker 1: all they want. Well, guess what Melani tweeted, Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's go and there's a breakout series show on. We're
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. Um, but it's time for I don't
Speaker 1: think so, honey. So I don't think so honey. Is
Speaker 1: that segment we have when we take one minute to
Speaker 1: rail against something in pop culture that we are hating
Speaker 1: right now? Um are live shows. We are going to
Speaker 1: be on tour. You can get tickets online. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Philly, Boston, d C, Houston, Austin,
Speaker 1: and Alice Hunt and Portland is coming back just for us.
Speaker 1: Portland's gonna be right right, just for us. Okay, the
Speaker 1: girls are looking girls, So I have yeah, I have one.
Speaker 1: I alluded to it in the beginning of the episode,
Speaker 1: and I am ready Okay, this is Matt Rodgers is
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey. His time starts now. I
Speaker 1: don't think so, honey. When I'm at a bar and
Speaker 1: I go to order a drink and they say, they
Speaker 1: say they need to see my I D with my
Speaker 1: debit card, when I've already had my I D checked
Speaker 1: at Okay, why do we need to keep checking? I
Speaker 1: don't think so, honey. So if you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: coach check and I have this big, gass wallet, I
Speaker 1: put my wallet in my coat and I checked the coat.
Speaker 1: There needs to be signed up if you're gonna need
Speaker 1: your I D at the bar, that can't be a
Speaker 1: surprise at the bar. And you know that I have
Speaker 1: lots of little issues with bars, specifically always I have
Speaker 1: a problem with the patriots. Whenever the patrons get their
Speaker 1: drink and they stay parked at the bar, that's usually
Speaker 1: a problem I have with them. But no, I'm flipping
Speaker 1: it around on the bartenders now and the managerial staff,
Speaker 1: because guess what, honey, you already checked my I D.
Speaker 1: You can see on my wrist right now, this stamp.
Speaker 1: That means why do you need more information? So then
Speaker 1: they told she said to me, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: go to the coacheck and get your I D, which
Speaker 1: I've already waited at the coach check for thirty minutes. No, honey,
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey. Clearly eighteen year old couldn't
Speaker 1: grow this fine mustache, So give me my drink. It's
Speaker 1: security theater, it's bullshit, and they just they just want
Speaker 1: to make it seem more official by checking or who cares?
Speaker 1: And I was like, I literally said to the girl.
Speaker 1: I was like, she goes I to see your idea
Speaker 1: with a debit cart and I said to her, I
Speaker 1: was like, I mean I checked my ideas in my coat.
Speaker 1: Do I really have to go get it? And she
Speaker 1: was like yes. And it was the most frustrating example
Speaker 1: of someone doing their job at all costs. I'm like,
Speaker 1: and you know what, we also stuck. She already poured
Speaker 1: the Jamison. Ginger was like, I was like right, and
Speaker 1: I was like, you should have been like, well, now
Speaker 1: you look like a fucking iddie because you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to pour that. I was like, are you really gonna
Speaker 1: waste that drink? She goes, you need to get your
Speaker 1: I D. And I was like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: respect that you're doing your job, but really, this is dumb.
Speaker 1: I was like, this is so aggressively dumb that, like
Speaker 1: my idea was checked honestly on the way in. Fully,
Speaker 1: I have this as proof I didn't speak in there.
Speaker 1: There was a huge line. He was so annoying. So
Speaker 1: then I had I had to have a dear friend
Speaker 1: buy me a drink. And because I was going to
Speaker 1: be a big for you to and not be for
Speaker 1: dear friends, right friends, pest culture number eighty nine, Thank god,
Speaker 1: for dear friends. That's that's when you know you have
Speaker 1: a writer die. All right, So this is okay, you're
Speaker 1: being pressure. No, but my my, my head is going
Speaker 1: blank for some reason. Okay, um, yeah, okay, okay, this
Speaker 1: is I don't think sometimes you need to just take
Speaker 1: a second. This is I don't think so honey, And
Speaker 1: it's time starts now. I don't think so honey. The
Speaker 1: fact that I couldn't find corn starch and I had
Speaker 1: to go to three different store, no, this is okay,
Speaker 1: this is this is culture. Corn starch. Corn Starch is
Speaker 1: not fucking It's not a fucking delicacy in this town.
Speaker 1: And if I want to thicken a stew with the
Speaker 1: corn starch slurry. Why is it so fucking hard for
Speaker 1: me to go and to go to every Boo within
Speaker 1: a half mile radius and to go to two different
Speaker 1: Trader Joe's and then to find corn starch at thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to have to give Target
Speaker 1: any more money than they already have. That they already
Speaker 1: own all half to Pete the huts of the world,
Speaker 1: and so I don't need Target to get any more
Speaker 1: if my money everyone's is freaking out about Amazon. Target
Speaker 1: is the next big monster. All you have to be
Speaker 1: careful for Target. I don't know to see you his name,
Speaker 1: but we we do have elon musk on our hands,
Speaker 1: and they're going to kill us and eat us with
Speaker 1: their teeth. And that's the one minute. I believe her
Speaker 1: name is Miss Target, Miss Target. Target love that. I
Speaker 1: will say this, It was worth it to get whatever
Speaker 1: you needed for that stew, because I actually tasted that
Speaker 1: stew that you and they made a very I had
Speaker 1: stew this whole thirty beef stew at Studias and it
Speaker 1: was the stew it need salt, and I proceeded to
Speaker 1: put salt and I added some crisp kosher crystals and honey,
Speaker 1: if you think that just being on Whole theater it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you can enjoy food. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: beef stew get to know it. Thank you, But I'm
Speaker 1: happy you have eventually found corn Star. That was a
Speaker 1: very interesting I don't think so corn chart is technically
Speaker 1: not Whole thirty compliant. But where am I going to
Speaker 1: find fucking arrow root powder? Yeah? I'm only gonna use
Speaker 1: once in Yeah, I was almost gonna do. I don't think,
Speaker 1: so honey that food goes bad because it's literally it's
Speaker 1: like I can't eat all these eggs in three days. Yes,
Speaker 1: you're right, even six, okay even. I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: go with Rebecca first and Insania. This is Rebecca. I
Speaker 1: don't think so honey. Okay, it's gonna be popular, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna don't do it. Okay, this is Rebecca. iOS.
Speaker 1: I don't think so honey. Her time starts now. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't think so honey. Marijuana decriminalization, whoa, because what
Speaker 1: a tease? Do you know what I mean? It sounds
Speaker 1: like it's bad, but I have my reasoning. It's it's
Speaker 1: fun boy talk. What Clomo is doing right now? The
Speaker 1: headline was like he's teasing, taking the first steps of
Speaker 1: possible eventually maybe making a criminalization a priority. I know,
Speaker 1: fun boy talk when I hear giving us crimes to
Speaker 1: keep hope, like just make it legal and explains people's records,
Speaker 1: like what are we doing? You know what I mean? Yeah? Also,
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey sidebar Andrew Cuomo because I
Speaker 1: thought Chris Cuomo the hot woke one on cee any
Speaker 1: with his son, that's his brother. Like how embarrassing? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like I'm embarrassing. Yeah, Like that's
Speaker 1: sad to me, So side, I don't think so, honeytons.
Speaker 1: And also like it's just like an open relationship with law.
Speaker 1: Tell me if I'm going to jail or not, you know, jail,
Speaker 1: make the rules clear. Everybody should get what they want
Speaker 1: five seconds. Hey, hey, hey, smoking it every day and
Speaker 1: there you go, and that's one minute. It's open relationship
Speaker 1: with laws. Also, here's the thing. If we decriminalize it,
Speaker 1: which obviously it should be, I think it should come on.
Speaker 1: But is it gonna get extremely expensive? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Is it important? It's like a birthday situation where you
Speaker 1: just gowing with seventeen dollars store man, and you don't
Speaker 1: have to deal with those weird weed people, like every
Speaker 1: comedian says it. But my guys extremely flaky and I'd
Speaker 1: like to have sort of like sucks. And I haven't
Speaker 1: called him in almost a year because I just go
Speaker 1: and pick up stuff in l A. Honestly, what the
Speaker 1: way to do what I just did was I bought
Speaker 1: I spent dollars one time instead of like having to
Speaker 1: call the person like every three weeks. I've stockpiled and
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm on a new level financially do
Speaker 1: I do smoke every day? So why not just get
Speaker 1: it all now? I walked to a friend's house sometimes
Speaker 1: and I just buy weed of that person because I
Speaker 1: don't know any friends. I will say, I don't think so,
Speaker 1: honey me because the last time I bought weed was
Speaker 1: during our snowstorm and I realized Dave Zoni was over.
Speaker 1: We were at my apartment and I was like, I
Speaker 1: think I don't have any weed. He was like, are
Speaker 1: you fucking crazy? And it was this situation of like,
Speaker 1: am I legit going to call my last year? This
Speaker 1: was this was like you months ago, your guy when
Speaker 1: there's a storm, girl, excuse me. She did come and
Speaker 1: um she was like, I'll be there in an hour
Speaker 1: and a half and I was like, yeah, sure, And
Speaker 1: she finally showed up, and I felt so bad because
Speaker 1: she goes, I was really hoping you guys would be girls.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I promised that we're nice. We're
Speaker 1: also gay, and she goes, yeah, but get you guys
Speaker 1: don't have tampons. And I was like, oh, she riding
Speaker 1: around those streets, but I felt so bad. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a store right down the street. She goes, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: give me the money so I can go. I was like, okay, here,
Speaker 1: hundreds of dollars to put it in. We don't think
Speaker 1: about the struggles of our drug dealers, and I think
Speaker 1: we need tom It's not criminal, it's not. It's not
Speaker 1: it's decriminalized, but it's not illegal, and they are out
Speaker 1: here serving us. Yeah, for us, honestly, it would be
Speaker 1: a drift. And I was like, very thankful that she
Speaker 1: came through because let me tell you that the snow
Speaker 1: was coming down. You were being irresponsied, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I hate that I'm doing this, but I just need
Speaker 1: weeds so bad. It's not like they're not getting the job.
Speaker 1: Yeah she was. Yeah, it was like somebody's got to
Speaker 1: be next on the list, and me, come, I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of calls. But you but you were sucking
Speaker 1: bike career for Yeah. But if I'm saying that, I'm
Speaker 1: saying you were talking about how it's it's a hard job,
Speaker 1: and yeah, like I was risking my life a Grubhub
Speaker 1: and I was delivering sandwiches. So it wasn't like illicit substantism,
Speaker 1: Class one drugs or anything. It was just like lunch.
Speaker 1: But it was like high risk, low return, Like I'm
Speaker 1: biking from my life in the streets of downtown Chicago
Speaker 1: for tips, and it just was not a good look.
Speaker 1: And it was a year of the Year of the the
Speaker 1: Polar Vortex, which I quit, and we just talked about this,
Speaker 1: but I vanished to l A to go to a
Speaker 1: festival and just didn't come back four months. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: once you get a little taste of l A, at
Speaker 1: least the weather, it's like, Okay, why do I live
Speaker 1: anywhere else? And then you meet the people and you
Speaker 1: realize why, whatever, I'm kidding, that's an easy I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be there for two months Okay, so this is similar
Speaker 1: to today, so please, this is it's going to be incredible.
Speaker 1: This is sons. I don't think so, honey. Her time
Speaker 1: starts now. I don't think so, honey. People who like
Speaker 1: room Termini, porta bella taki all dirt dust. The ship
Speaker 1: comes from dirt. It's literally fungy guy. However, you say that,
Speaker 1: and as the saying goes, you are what you eat
Speaker 1: and side notes. Side note, I would never slander magic mushrooms.
Speaker 1: If you are going through something personal right now and
Speaker 1: you need to sit in a room for six hours,
Speaker 1: there at the lines in your hands to do it.
Speaker 1: But everything else, you might say this undercuts my argument,
Speaker 1: But I say, nay, Oyster, Penny bun, hand of the wood.
Speaker 1: What kind of names are these? Some of these are poisonous,
Speaker 1: mind you. And I would not have a problem with
Speaker 1: mushrooms if people didn't sneak it into food, but a
Speaker 1: pizza and people will say to me, pick it off,
Speaker 1: just pick it off. Anything that has been sullied awes
Speaker 1: by the taste of mushrooms. You can taste it. I
Speaker 1: don't think so, honey. Waiters who asked me, are you
Speaker 1: really allergic to mushrooms? And I say it, and it's
Speaker 1: like I have to say it. Uh, and eggs are
Speaker 1: gross to compline me. Oh my god, you can just
Speaker 1: an element of that whole dirty mushrooms and mushrooms are great,
Speaker 1: and then mushroom, great mushroom. Right now, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: thank you. Now we know that the lines are drawn. Well,
Speaker 1: I know this about you because here's the thing. Are
Speaker 1: you vegetarian pasctarian? Right now? So here's the thing. There's
Speaker 1: only so many things you can eat, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, And you don't need eat People in your
Speaker 1: asshole about not eating mushrooms. Yeah, mushroomburger, No I am.
Speaker 1: I'm so on the fence about mushrooms. But Portobello Bert
Speaker 1: mushroomburger disgusting, thank you, almost nightmare. There's nothing you can
Speaker 1: put on it to get rid of that taste in
Speaker 1: the middle of the texture. It's like I'm biting into
Speaker 1: an organ a raw from the inside out. Yes, oh boy,
Speaker 1: But can I tell you some of the best experience
Speaker 1: of my laf on mushrooms. We did it together and
Speaker 1: we were in a room for and we talked. You
Speaker 1: went to the park and went into like, oh yeah, child,
Speaker 1: pink energy and her father blue and it didn't she
Speaker 1: their coats and she was on mushrooms. There was no good.
Speaker 1: Thing is it wasn't your first time doing it, but
Speaker 1: it was we've done it before, but like a week
Speaker 1: t version is not a strong and we hate them.
Speaker 1: But she had already done them, done them, so it's
Speaker 1: my When I got him, I was hitting me. Walked outside.
Speaker 1: I literally screamed. My neighbors looked because our outside look
Speaker 1: like a postcard everything. I was gone, like if she
Speaker 1: hadn't been there to like drag me home from that kid.
Speaker 1: I was really like it was but it was so good.
Speaker 1: We worked out so much you just cry, you laugh.
Speaker 1: We couldn't figure out how to work netflix like and
Speaker 1: that's beautiful, that's beautiful. We've done asked everything looks like
Speaker 1: a pain. I recommend I would like to do mushrooms.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, I'm just nervous. I'm more nervous
Speaker 1: about mushrooms. They feel more chaotic to me and unpredictable.
Speaker 1: What it is is, honestly, the first time you do it,
Speaker 1: do it with like sandwich right or something. Because for
Speaker 1: the first hour, my stomach hurt like ship and I
Speaker 1: was like no, no, no no, second time when you eat them.
Speaker 1: I was with her and I'm on the couch in
Speaker 1: a ball, like, but that's because I do. But then
Speaker 1: the next time I did it, I eate it with
Speaker 1: food and it's fine. But like other than that, it's lovely,
Speaker 1: like it's very I only did one sixteenth. Also, I've
Speaker 1: never done a full Eighth's well me all I needed
Speaker 1: si yeah, do a sixteen knock out six hours a year, um,
Speaker 1: And then I also would not like when I did it.
Speaker 1: I did with my boyfriend. He wanted to go to
Speaker 1: Like I'm like, you want to stay in there, but
Speaker 1: like you want to make sure it was cold outside,
Speaker 1: and it was like you know what I mean, you
Speaker 1: want to make sure you're uncomfortable and freaking out that
Speaker 1: you can calm down, you can't be around other people.
Speaker 1: That The way I describe it is it's got to
Speaker 1: be like a video game level. It's like we're in
Speaker 1: a place that we can explore, but it's finite. Like
Speaker 1: we went upstate. We had like an upstate house, so
Speaker 1: it was like there was the yard, there was the
Speaker 1: trees in the backyard, there was a little hammock, there
Speaker 1: was the house, and that was it. It was big
Speaker 1: enough that we can explore, but it was still like control.
Speaker 1: Feel like that there it Upstate House. Honey, that's a
Speaker 1: little Yeah, Okay, we're gonna do it. We can do it.
Speaker 1: I am obsessed with this. It's an obsession worthy episode.
Speaker 1: Talked deeply about career stuff and just a personal history
Speaker 1: and got into college personal friendship histories, talked about experience
Speaker 1: with parents, parental We discussed the immigrant narrative. This is
Speaker 1: a great episode. Everyone listening, Um, I mean, check out
Speaker 1: more of Rebecca and Sanya stuff. They're they're two of
Speaker 1: our favorite people in the whole city. You guys do
Speaker 1: every time. Honestly, I was, and I did. I was
Speaker 1: like I slipped into Julia. I was like, you know, um,
Speaker 1: Bone and I should be on an episode together at
Speaker 1: least put all over Because I did that made every
Speaker 1: panelist was great. But I did think this was the
Speaker 1: three This was honestly the two episodes I did. It
Speaker 1: was like Regina King episode it was and shout out
Speaker 1: Katherine Cohen and shout out James. Yeah, the true share
Speaker 1: we comedian has ever been to Chicago Woods there you
Speaker 1: go nationwide, you have a lot of options of things
Speaker 1: to Do on February nine. You can come see us
Speaker 1: in Portland or if you're in New York, can go
Speaker 1: see Rebecca at Caroline son Is in There you go.
Speaker 1: We love it and um where you finished every episode
Speaker 1: with the song shake quicker work, Now kill yourselt Shake
Speaker 1: quicker work, now kill yourse out, Shake quick work, now
Speaker 1: kill use out. We're not saying do this, it's big
Speaker 1: free to This has been a Forever Dog production executive
Speaker 1: produced by Brett Boham, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsay. For
Speaker 1: more original podcasts, please visit Forever Dog Podcasts dot com
Speaker 1: and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest
Speaker 1: Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram
Speaker 1: at Forever Dog Team and liking our page on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Hey there, congratulations, you made it all the way through
Speaker 1: that episode. We did not think you were going to
Speaker 1: be able to do it. Yeah, anyway, now that you did,
Speaker 1: Michael and I have a pretty cool surprise for you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get high. Come on that joint, baby. It
Speaker 1: is not what we do. Little Randie is a podcast
Speaker 1: about books. What it's not about getting stoned. I thought
Speaker 1: were I thought we had a special treat. You don't
Speaker 1: even smoke weed, you freak out. But we had a
Speaker 1: special treat or surprise for the listeners who made it
Speaker 1: to the end of We're going to play him a
Speaker 1: clip from our show. Not how would we get everybody high?
Speaker 1: That doesn't even say I didn't, I'm I don't really
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. I didn't. I didn't know. If that
Speaker 1: they I'm guessing they had the technology to do they don't.
Speaker 1: That's such a weird now, Colin, We're not gonna get
Speaker 1: anybody high. We're not getting high. I actually think that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be promoting that on this podcast. But if
Speaker 1: you want to get high at home, sure do it.
Speaker 1: But we're not promoting it. But that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play a clip from our podcast with Josh Sharp,
Speaker 1: so just listen and enjoy that and get high. What
Speaker 1: And with that in mind, we'd like to take the
Speaker 1: pressure off of us for a second and introduce you
Speaker 1: to the reader of today. He's a recent n Why
Speaker 1: you drop out and we know that means a recipe
Speaker 1: for success. Oh yes, indeed, dropping out of school and
Speaker 1: into our hearts. We have young novelist and self proclaimed genius,
Speaker 1: Clint Temples, for you enjoy. Hello. My name is I'm
Speaker 1: Clint Temples, and um this is a piece of short
Speaker 1: literature that I call the story. There was once a
Speaker 1: girl with deep brown hair who lived with her grandfather
Speaker 1: in a small cabin up state. Though her parents, who
Speaker 1: had been professors, died eight months before in an automobile
Speaker 1: accident while returning from an academic conference on the viability
Speaker 1: of the universal basic income, the girl was of a
Speaker 1: happy sort, her optimism only fading to melancholia on nights
Speaker 1: such as these, when the rain shuttering at the windows
Speaker 1: made her wish for her mother's arms. Her grandfather, a
Speaker 1: wiry man with a great beak of a nose, had
Speaker 1: just climbed the old stairs to her attic bedroom when
Speaker 1: he heard her quiet sniffles. Is everything all right, he
Speaker 1: asked the girl. I'm just having trouble sleeping. She said
Speaker 1: it's hard sometimes. Yes, I know, said the grandfather. Maybe
Speaker 1: a story would help. The little girl nodded, and so
Speaker 1: the old man began. There once was a girl with
Speaker 1: deep brown hair who lived with her grandfather in a
Speaker 1: small cabin up State, though her parents, who had been professors,
Speaker 1: died eight months before in an automobile accident while returning
Speaker 1: from an academic conference on the ability of the universal
Speaker 1: basic income. The girl was of a mostly happy sort,
Speaker 1: her optimism only fading to melancholia on nights such as these,
Speaker 1: when the rain shuddering at the windows made her wish
Speaker 1: for her mother's arms. Her grandfather, a wiry man with
Speaker 1: a great beak of a nose, had just climbed the
Speaker 1: old stairs to her attic bedroom when he heard her
Speaker 1: quiet sniffles. Is everything all right, he asked the girl.
Speaker 1: I'm just having trouble sleeping. She said, it's hard sometimes, Yes,
Speaker 1: I know, said the grandfather. Maybe a story would help.
Speaker 1: The little girl nodded, and so the old man began.
Speaker 1: There once was a girl with deep brown hair who
Speaker 1: lived with her grandfather in a small cabin up State,
Speaker 1: Though her parents, who had invented the soda stream, were
Speaker 1: murdered eight months before while leaving up Papa John's pizza
Speaker 1: in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The girl was of a mostly happy sort,
Speaker 1: her optimism only fading to melancholia on nights such as these,
Speaker 1: when the rain shutting at the windows made her wish
Speaker 1: for her mother's arms. Her grandfather, a wiry man with
Speaker 1: a great beak of a nose, had just climbed the
Speaker 1: old stairs to her attic bedroom when he heard her
Speaker 1: quiet sniffles. Is everything all right, he asked the girl.
Speaker 1: I'm just having trouble sleeping. She said, it it's hard sometimes. Yes,
Speaker 1: I know, said the grandfather. Maybe a story would help.
Speaker 1: The little girl nodded, and so the old man began.
Speaker 1: There was once a girl with deep brown hair who
Speaker 1: lived with her grandfather in a small cabin up state.
Speaker 1: Though her parents, who had been Professor's, died eight months
Speaker 1: before in an automobile accident while returning from an academic
Speaker 1: conference on the viability of the universal basic income, the
Speaker 1: girl was of a mostly a happy sort, her optimism
Speaker 1: only fading to melancholia on nights such as these, when
Speaker 1: the rain shuttering at the window made her wish for
Speaker 1: her mother's arms. Her grandfather, a wiry man with a
Speaker 1: great beak of a nose, had just climbed the old
Speaker 1: stairs to her attic bedroom when he heard her quiet sniffles.
Speaker 1: Is everything all right, he asked the girl. I'm just
Speaker 1: having trouble sleeping, She said, it's hard sometimes. I know
Speaker 1: how that is, said the grandfather with the trouble sleeping.
Speaker 1: Is that why you sleep on the roof? The little
Speaker 1: girl asked, yes, that's why. That's why I sleep on
Speaker 1: the roof. I see, she said, and no other reason.
Speaker 1: He yelled. Okay, cool, fine, said the girl. Will you
Speaker 1: tell me a story, said the old man. A story?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, sure, right, story. Yeah, oh, I can do that,
Speaker 1: And so the old man began. There once was a
Speaker 1: girl with deep brown hair who lived with her grandfather
Speaker 1: in a small cabin up state. Though her parents, who
Speaker 1: had been Professor's, died eight months before in an anim
Speaker 1: will be accident. While returning from an academic conference on
Speaker 1: the viability of the universal baking a seam. Come the girls,
Speaker 1: of a mostly happy sort of optimism, only failing to
Speaker 1: melancholy on nights such as these, when the rain shuttering
Speaker 1: at the windows made her wish for her mother's arms.
Speaker 1: Her grandfather, a wiry man with a great beak of
Speaker 1: a nose, long pointed and yellow like a beak. This
Speaker 1: nose like a big fucking beak. Her grandfather, the man
Speaker 1: he just climbed that had just climbed the old stairs
Speaker 1: to her attic bedroom when he heard her quiet sniffles.
Speaker 1: Is everything all right, he asked the girl. I'm just
Speaker 1: having trouble sleeping. She said, it's hard sometimes. Yes, I know,
Speaker 1: he said, scratching at his big fucking beak nose. Maybe
Speaker 1: a story would help, sure, Grandpapa, But what's happening to you?
Speaker 1: Whatever do you mean? He asked, your nose it's turned
Speaker 1: into a beak like that of a bird, And sure
Speaker 1: enough it had, the nose ossified into a large yellow beak. Squawk,
Speaker 1: said the grand The squawk, squawk has feathers, deep blue
Speaker 1: and red feathers began to shoot out of his back. Squawk,
Speaker 1: he said, squawk, why grandfather, the little girl cried, You're
Speaker 1: turning into a bird, a real fucking bird with a
Speaker 1: giant fucking beak. It's amazing. His feet now claws. He
Speaker 1: reached over and stood atop the girl's wrists. Then he
Speaker 1: flapped and flapped until he started to rise over the bed,
Speaker 1: clutching the small girl beneath him, his great wings swatting
Speaker 1: at the walls. He tilted his feathered crown forward and
Speaker 1: burst beak first out of the large attic window. The
Speaker 1: girl hung below him. As they made their way up
Speaker 1: higher and higher, until the house was but a speck
Speaker 1: below them. She looked up, thank you, Grandpapa, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for transforming into a big fucking bird and
Speaker 1: taking flight. And then the old man let forth a
Speaker 1: mighty squawk, spread his wings wide, and the two sword
Speaker 1: off into the warm night air, floating and finally free
Speaker 1: the end. What a lovely story, said the little girl.
Speaker 1: But I must ask was the grandpa in that story,
Speaker 1: the one who turned into a bird? Was he supposed
Speaker 1: to be you? Me? The old man replied, whatever do
Speaker 1: you mean? I mean, said the little girl, Then maybe
Speaker 1: it is you who wants to be a bird. I'm
Speaker 1: asking a part because I know you like to sleep
Speaker 1: on the roof. I told you about that already. I
Speaker 1: just do that because I like it, no other reason,
Speaker 1: he shouted. Well, sure, said the girl. But the way
Speaker 1: in which you, you know, chew my food up for me,
Speaker 1: and our winter foods, our winter trips down south, it
Speaker 1: just all makes me think that maybe you want to
Speaker 1: be a bird for some reason, which, to be honest,
Speaker 1: is sort of a ridiculous notion given the your grown man.
Speaker 1: And so if you actually want to be a bird, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe you're just crazy. Okay, storytime is over,
Speaker 1: said the old man. I'm turning off the lights. Now
Speaker 1: it's time for bad. He pulled the chain on the
Speaker 1: lamp and all was still. I know you have to
Speaker 1: use the ladder in my room to clime on to
Speaker 1: climb onto the roof, Grandpa, said the little girl. So
Speaker 1: you can turn the lights back on and get it
Speaker 1: if you want. Okay, I'll turn them on just because
Speaker 1: I want to turn them on. How about that, said
Speaker 1: the old man, fumbling for the chain. There we go
Speaker 1: there on the lights are on. Oh and look it's
Speaker 1: the ladder. I need to get on the roof. You know.
Speaker 1: I better go up there to check on some of
Speaker 1: the tie and the roofing and other things. Not to sleep,
Speaker 1: just to you know, check it out. I just you
Speaker 1: won't mind turning the lights off once I'm up there,
Speaker 1: you know, just in case I take a while. No, Grandpapa,
Speaker 1: of course, not all right, he said. Here I go
Speaker 1: up the ladder to check on the tiles. Night night.
Speaker 1: I'm almost to the top, Shutting the hatch behind him.
Speaker 1: The old man sat down on the roof, pulled his
Speaker 1: knees to his chest, then looked up to the sky
Speaker 1: and quietly sobbed. A pigeon landed on his shoulder, and
Speaker 1: the man gently scooped the bird in his palms and
Speaker 1: pulled it close. Not today, he whispered, It's not running
Speaker 1: down his face. Maybe someday, but not today the end.
Speaker 1: What a sad story, said the little girl. I feel
Speaker 1: sad for the man in that story who told that
Speaker 1: other story, the man who wanted to be a bird. Yes,
Speaker 1: the old man replied, but sometimes it is the sad
Speaker 1: stories that give us comfort, that remind us of how
Speaker 1: lucky we are to have what we have. Your parents
Speaker 1: left you with a great fortune, and you should take
Speaker 1: solace in that. She nodded, Yes, but I still miss
Speaker 1: mom and pop. She paused, Grandpa, do you think they'll
Speaker 1: ever find who murdered my parents? And front of that
Speaker 1: Papa John's Pizza and Bridgeport, Connecticut. The grandfather thought for
Speaker 1: a moment, no, I'm almost certain they will not. He
Speaker 1: drew in a labored breath. I was very careful. The
Speaker 1: girl looked up at him. You were what I said,
Speaker 1: I was careful. He stood up over her bed. And
Speaker 1: what's more, I'm not like the old man in that story,
Speaker 1: pretending to be something he's not. It's time you know
Speaker 1: who I really am, little girl. I murdered your parents
Speaker 1: outside of that Papa John's Pizza and Bridgeport, Connecticut. The
Speaker 1: girl pulled back towards the wall. You what, why would
Speaker 1: you do that? Because I wanted that soda stream money,
Speaker 1: and with them gone now only you stand in my way.
Speaker 1: In one quick motion, he removed the knife from his
Speaker 1: sleeve and plunged it into the little girl's chest. He
Speaker 1: pulled her close to his face and whispered, let me
Speaker 1: hear you squawk before you fly away, a little bird.
Speaker 1: Let me hear you squawk. Stop, stop, stop, The little
Speaker 1: girl shouted. I don't like it when the stories turned scary.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I gave you a fright, said the
Speaker 1: old man, catching himself. I just thought a little adventure
Speaker 1: story might take your mind off things. Yes, but a
Speaker 1: story about a man who tells a story of some
Speaker 1: other man who lies, and yet another story is a
Speaker 1: way of revealing that he's murdered a little girl's parents
Speaker 1: when I'm here sad about my parents. What are you thinking,
Speaker 1: you old kuk? And what was all that bird stuff?
Speaker 1: You're right you're right, the old man replied, standing up
Speaker 1: from bed, I guess I just got away from myself.
Speaker 1: He backed out of the room. Good night, It won't
Speaker 1: happen again. He opened the bedroom door and tumbled into
Speaker 1: the dark, empty vacuum of space. The house fell away
Speaker 1: from him, and he slowly drifted, naked now to his
Speaker 1: boxer shorts earth. Far off in the distance, a chorus
Speaker 1: of male voices, hundreds of them, came at him from
Speaker 1: every direction. You've done well, my good and favorite son. Squawk.
Speaker 1: Know that you are good and strong, and that your
Speaker 1: cock is mighty and powerful. Squawk. And as he crossed
Speaker 1: into the black hole, his every atom splitting into more
Speaker 1: energy than powers our sun, his frozen form on the
Speaker 1: event horizon, trapped for eternity, was that of a man,
Speaker 1: arms spread wide and reaching for something greater. The end.
Speaker 1: I don't get it, said the little girl. Come to
Speaker 1: think of it, said the old man, me either. He
Speaker 1: gave her a kiss on the head. A nightingale landed
Speaker 1: on the window sill. He pulled out an old luger
Speaker 1: he'd stolen from a Nazi during the war, and then
Speaker 1: he shot the bird dead. The end, Hey a little
Speaker 1: reminder better help dot com forward slash ding dong. That's
Speaker 1: where you can go and put in a little promo
Speaker 1: code to get therapy online fast. Now. Better help makes
Speaker 1: it easy to connect with licensed professional counselors who are
Speaker 1: caring professionals who specialize in the issues that you want
Speaker 1: to talk about. We're talking about depression, stress and anxiety, trauma, grief,
Speaker 1: self esteem and other issues that we're all kind of
Speaker 1: dealing with that you know, we want to reach out
Speaker 1: and get some help for. And you can connect with
Speaker 1: your counselor in a safe and private environment using better
Speaker 1: help dot com slash ding dong of course, yes, slash
Speaker 1: ding dog. If you want to use you know, our
Speaker 1: promo code and get temper sent off, you would use
Speaker 1: the promo code ding dong. We just wanted to stop
Speaker 1: in here in the middle of the episode inside and
Speaker 1: just say that. So schedule secure video and phone sessions
Speaker 1: or texture therapist, all included worldwide, and you can start
Speaker 1: communicating and under twenty four hours. Yeah, and maybe you
Speaker 1: can even marry. We've been through this. You can't do that.
Speaker 1: It's not appropriate, it's not a therapist unethical. What if
Speaker 1: they're hot? Should I get another one? Yeah, okay, better
Speaker 1: help dot com forward. Last thing though,