WEBVTT - Episode 48: "How We Got Started" 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:16.480 Everyone, and welcome to another episode of I Am Iffy 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.960 wid the Way, And sitting across from me is Danny Fernandez. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:26.520 Very hurt. I missed my first episode. Oh yeah you did. Yeah. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:28.800 I I was, Oh my gosh, you don't know how 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.080 hard I tried to fight to be there, but like 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.480 literally I sat down and he was like, we're staying late. 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:40.240 I was like, I'm gonna do my thing. Missed it, Yeah, 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:46.080 but you know, yeah, it'd be like that sometimes it's true. Um, 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.040 but I mean kind of why I missed it funny 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:54.240 enough is kind of what we'll be talking about. And 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:56.160 although I told people you missed it because it was 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.320 your birthday, oh man, I was. I'm in a writer's room. 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.360 I was in a writer's room. This is my first 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.360 week off and I don't even know what to do 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:05.959 with myself. But I was in a writer's room for 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.240 six weeks for a interactive platform called Echo. You may know. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.400 You may remember it from a web series that came 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:15.480 out last year called That Moment when that won a 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.080 Webby with Milana vine Troupe. And so we're working cooking 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.120 up a new series, uh you know, and I think 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.160 that's about all I can say, um, but it's it 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.120 was super fun. It was it was very interesting. It 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:30.679 was a whole new way to write. You know, I've 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.919 written for Late night, written for narrative at this point, 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.040 and now this is like, you know, because before this 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.520 I did a lot of Late night semi edutainment kind 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.160 of like unscripted stuff, and this was the year of 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.360 lots of new venture ventures. Uh. I wrote for an 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.320 animated narrative show and then this was an interactive one. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.560 So it was like back to back new experiences. Uh. 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.040 But the reason I say that's it's it kind of 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.960 has to do with today's episode is because you know 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.440 that today's episode is how we kind of got to 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.160 where we are today, and and you know that I 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.760 think we'll touch on everything from like being nerdy host 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.840 to being you know, comedians for some people who may 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.919 be interested in to TV writing and development and all 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.000 that stuff, you know. Uh. And before we even dive 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.200 into it, one thing I want to say, which is 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.880 something I think a lot of times, uh never gets 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.320 to get said because of the conversational nature of a 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.200 lot of podcasts when talking about this subject matter, is 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.400 there is no one path. There is no wrong path. 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.720 There is no right path. You know, the everyone's path 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.200 is different, and you can't expect yourself to beat for 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.760 beat do the same thing and expect the same things 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.640 to happen, because really trying to go down this industry 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:58.840 is pepper preparation, preparation, what's that? Preparation and tim percent 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:04.000 uh seizing the opportunity a k A luck. Oh my gosh, yeah, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:08.200 I would say, I mean luck, luck and knowing. I mean, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.080 I was just no, I was gonna say, I'm feeling 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.440 very lovely today. I think thirty one is like my, my, 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:20.680 my love. Really, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Um, 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:22.440 I don't Yeah, not everyone is going to have the 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.000 same trajectory. I think to like, y'all have gotten to 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.760 know us pretty well, but we know if you and 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.160 I really haven't had a chance to really talk about 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.200 how we came to be in our lives and like 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.840 the people behind these voices that you listen to, And 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.920 I think it's really easy to look at our lives 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.880 and say and think that we have it super easy 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:45.280 and that we just fell into this. That's what it 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.000 looks like. We just offered a show and offered this 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.640 and you see us at premieres and stuff, And I 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.240 think we touched on it briefly in the Women in 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.240 Gaming one where I talked about how Janelle and I 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.920 were in the trenches. I mean we talked about how 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.560 I lived in like a windowless droom. Before that, I 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.840 was living with two girls in a one bedroom apartment 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.680 with their daughter. I mean, when you move to Hollywood, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.240 you are you are in the trenches unless you have 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.360 your parents or something pain for your stuff, which we 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.359 didn't have that luxury. We worked our way up, and 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:20.480 so I think it's really hard for people to remember 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.320 that when they only see our highlights. But something that 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.840 we get off we get asked often is like, how 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.480 can I start a podcast? How can I start do this? 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.839 How can I do that? Um, we started from the bottom, 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.520 Like we started with zero followers both on our social 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.880 media with like we started at zero as well. So yeah, 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.239 today's episode is just going to be us talking about 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.920 how we got here. Um, if you're not interested at all, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.520 hopefully it's just a fascinating thing to listen to our story. 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.080 It's an origin story. Yeah, you can listen to our 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.040 superhero origin story for once. For the people who are 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.240 interested in going down this path. This is will be 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.840 hopefully a great instructional and informative episode and for the 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.640 who are just interested in us, this will be a 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.200 great Yes. So let's let's you know, let's start. If 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.480 you can I start? Um? Can I start my segment? So? 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.080 I wanted to start a segment on this podcast. We 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.000 get tweeted at at nerdificent, you know, and when people 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.719 are polite about it, I love. We want to make 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:22.479 sure that you know that your voice is heard. So 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.400 I want to start a new segment every week called 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.560 could you please include so ce y p I is 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.000 what I'm calling it. Could you so tweet at us um. 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:36.560 So we covered Captain Marvel last week and at Dead 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:41.080 Recca actually wrote us and said Phi Lavel's partner Moon 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.800 Dragon is Drax's daughter, So they were one of the 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.720 few lesbian couples in marvel. Um. They also said in 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.800 Avengers two hundred, which was in ninety it was a 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.200 huge turning point for Carol and women in comics, and 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.640 it was a huge problematic thing that the next twenty 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.159 plus years of Carol's calm mix would be built around. 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.919 So um we didn't mention those two things in the 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.240 in our episode, so we're going to include it. So 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.719 if we miss something that's super huge again, like what 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.640 I like. What I like to give an example of 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.000 is when we did twilight Zone, which is like my, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:23.800 y'all know, it's my personal favorite like show, and we 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.159 can't cover all the episodes. So if you're like, you 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.440 miss this, yeah, I know I love it too. We 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.280 there's entire podcasts on twilight Zone. There's no way we 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.120 could have touched on it. But if we miss something 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:42.000 that is extremely integral, it's extremely important to that lore, 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.560 that franchise, Like maybe I don't know, they had to 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.599 go to Congress to get the rights for such and such, 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.760 and that's how it spinned into this and that. Like, 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.760 those are the things that I'm okay with people being like, hey, 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:55.279 could you please include this? So that was could you 0:06:55.320 --> 0:07:00.080 please include? If he back to you? So let's go 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.760 back way back. Where did you grow up? Danny? Oh? 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.240 I grew up kind of all over my families from 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.320 San Diego. I spent some time in Orange County, and 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:12.680 then I moved to Texas when I was like thirteen. 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.240 I lived in Dallas for high school and college. I 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.560 went to Austin. I went to UT in Austin, So 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.160 off rip you right next to Funimation. Off rip your 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:27.600 body right to Funimation Corps. But you was interesting for 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.040 you that was different from me. Is you kind of 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.120 like got your feet on the ground and nerdy stuff. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.600 Early you were going to conventions beating your favorite voice 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.520 actors at a young age. I remember you were telling 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.480 me that, and you were going to like Comic Con, right, yeah, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.080 I was going to Comic Con was like ten or 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.160 eleven um. And the thing about me and what I 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.360 do now is I always wanted to be a writer. 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.200 When I was little, I used to write poems and 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.440 short stories and perform them for my family. I was 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.480 published in like one of those teen magazines when I 0:07:58.520 --> 0:07:59.960 was in high school. I would think I was like 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.040 two different ones for writing poems. And then when I 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.600 got accepted to UT it was in the journalism program. 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.200 I ended up switching that. But I always wanted to 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:12.480 be a writer. So that was kind of how I 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:16.680 got my start at least, and what really kind of 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:21.560 shaped my, uh helped my career, I would say, is 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.320 in well, actually in two thousand and eight, I started 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.480 my I started a Twitter account, and I would make 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.640 fun of my professors, like I wouldn't actually say who 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:33.320 it was, but I would kind of just make fun 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.199 of the different types of professors I had. And I 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.160 gained a small following from that from from like other 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.120 college kids retweeting me. And my boyfriend at the time 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.800 was so jealous. He hated the fact that I was 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.800 on Twitter, and I completely deleted my Twitter, which is 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.200 something I wouldn't do now. Completely deleted it and did 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.560 not sign up for a new account until and in 0:08:57.760 --> 0:08:59.959 this is gonna come full circle in twelve, I signed 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.760 up for my Twitter account, the new one that I 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.360 have now that you all follow now, because I wanted 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:11.440 to follow dB Z updates from Funimation. That's how I 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.800 went back, and that was all I really used it for. 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.200 And then I fell again into comedy and I was 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.560 tweeting jokes and I was I was going through I 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.920 have I deal with chronic depression, which I'm really open about, 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.960 and I was I was dealing with that. I was 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.160 going through a separation with my husband. I'm marry I 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.080 end up marrying the guy that hated me, But yeah, 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:37.880 it all makes sense, and I I would use Twitter 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.880 as an outlet to write really dark jokes about my 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.320 life because I needed to. And so I had a 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.760 lot of comedians that started following me and they would 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:48.560 be like, have you tried doing some of these jokes 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.400 on stage? Um? And at the time, I was not 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:58.080 considering comedy at all, but just from tweeting about the 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:03.199 trauma of my life in a funny manner. I was 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.160 living in Denver at the time we got married. I 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.320 moved there. UM. I was working a couple of different jobs. 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.040 We moved for his his job. So UM, I gave 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:17.319 up my career in life essentially and UM and used 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.800 Twitter as an outlet and ended up getting a lot 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.400 of people following me. So before I ever moved to 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.320 l A, I had about sixteen thousand followers that I 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:31.280 got in like a year just from tweeting about my depression. 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.440 UM and other people that related that would retweet it. 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:41.920 So that was a part of my my story. UM. 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.520 I met a couple of comics at Denver Comedy Works 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:47.520 when I was in when I was in a Denver 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.240 and one of them was Roywood Jr. Who followed me 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.800 and I was so honored and I remember him saying, 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.800 funny is funny, and it's so funny because He's one 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.480 of my biggest men towards now. He's just such a 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.560 great guy. Roy with JR is at, He's on the 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.880 Daily Show, he has like two shows on Comedy Central. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.040 Very respected comedian. But um, that was kind of what 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:16.160 kick started my career. And so I want to say 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:20.640 I did have a writing background. I didn't just have Twitter. Um. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.360 You still have to have scripts and you know, you 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:24.920 still have to be able to perform, like, you have 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.080 to have all of that. There are a lot of 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:28.840 people that got big on Twitter and then they try 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.079 to do those other things and kind of fall flat. Um. 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:33.880 So I did always have a writing background, but I 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.000 used Twitter as an outlet to build a following. So 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.240 I do want people to know before I think people 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.360 think that I got my following from being on camera 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.679 or from podcasting, and Nope, it was just from tweeting 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.520 jokes every single day. Um. Which is funny because I 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:55.199 ended up writing a pilot about um life after my 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:00.120 suicide attempt. So I this is a trigger warning. UM. 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.839 I'm been pretty open on other podcasts. I don't know 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:04.600 if I've ever talked about on this podcast, but I 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.480 had a suicide attempt in my twenties. I wrote a 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.000 half hour dark comedy about that that got me all 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:16.200 my reps. Um. I was able to put my trauma, 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.679 I guess, into my writing, and comedy was an outlet. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:24.679 I don't like saying comedy is therapy, because therapy is therapy. 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:30.800 I've done both. Therapy is therapy. Um. But I was 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.000 able to develop a following just from other people who 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.360 could who needed to laugh about the things that were 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.960 happening in their life. So that is part of my 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:41.760 story of how I got here if he is part 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:43.600 of my story on so many ways. But one of 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:48.440 the ways is that he gave my pilot to his 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.640 agents and they signed me, and another comedian who read 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.559 my pilot gave it to his manager and she signed me. 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.760 So um. That's also why it's super important to me 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.240 when people say like, oh, you're not allowed to joke 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.120 about this. You're not allowed to joke about that. I 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:09.200 literally got some of my jobs from joking about the 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:14.560 trauma of my life. Yeah, no, it's it is funny. 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.560 I'll save this rant for the tail end of this. 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.760 But there is just this new trend of like people 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.600 being mad that you don't cope or you're not woke 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:25.800 in the same way that there are woke, in that 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.319 you do different things than them. They're like, no, this 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.240 is the one way and there's no one way to 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:34.760 cope or be an activist. Uh. Yeah, it's it's so 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:39.680 interesting listening to your story because it seems so They're like, 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.160 there's such a through line to you. It's like you're 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:48.520 so like it doesn't feel I know, like, yeah, really 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.720 follows through because you knew what you wanted to do 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:57.120 and you plan for it. I'm just just so scattered 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.880 brain like everyone. Someone repeated this to me. This is 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.680 something that since I started comedy has been said, and 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.840 someone repeated this to me last week. That was like, 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.160 as soon as you can afford can afford an assistant, 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.000 you need to get one because I am I really 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:16.760 am the most scatter brained aloof wanderlustie, Like I am 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:21.680 the most pissen pisces ever work. But you said the 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.520 clouds you said on our when we talked about all that, 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.120 that when you saw Keenan and Kelly, you knew you 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.840 wanted to be a performer, so you knew early on 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.600 that you wanted to perform. That is true. So we'll 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.880 we'll we'll you'll see how it kind of went and 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:41.080 you'll see I kind of had nudges into my wildness. 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.080 So yeah, I as a child, I've always wanted to 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.080 be an actor. As soon as I saw all that 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.200 and shows like that, I I knew I might. The 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.640 earliest thing I remember trying to do a quote unquote 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:58.520 performance I can think of is when, uh, I think 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.240 if if we want to go super crazy. The earliest 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.560 memory I have is when I was like I had 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.120 to be a toddler. This is a very early memory, 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:09.560 so I do not remember what how do you remember 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.320 when you were toddler? Because it was it stuck out 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.760 to me. It was the first time I like tried 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.440 hot sauce and I accidentally had a hot sauce and 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.480 my mouth was burning and I took like a town 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.040 I'm wiping my tongue with it, and my dad had 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:26.640 guessed over and everybody was laughing. And I got something 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:31.360 from that where I was like, oh, this is everyone's 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.840 like enjoying themselves, even though like I was kind of hurt. 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:36.760 And I feel like that that could have went two ways, 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:38.880 Like I could have been a Stevo, you know, since 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:40.680 it was like a pain, but it was like, you know, 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.680 just spiciness. And so that was like my earliest memory 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:45.800 where I was like, oh, I liked you make people laugh. 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.440 And then from then I would watch you know, uh 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:52.120 it was so funny. It took me so long to 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.760 even consider stand up because I always thought that it 0:15:54.880 --> 0:16:00.640 was they just totally just memorized that whole thing and 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.680 would and and just did it once. Like I didn't 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.160 realize that it was you know, you just go and 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.080 do multiple sets, so like, and my memory has always 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:10.200 been bad, so I was like, there's no way I 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.320 could remember an hour of stuff. Smash cut to two 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.800 years ago when I came out with an hour album. 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.960 But so I always wanted to do it. But my dad, 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.560 you know, he's a he's an immigrant from Nigeria. And 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.400 I was talking about this earlier today on stream about 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.400 the because you know, Kylie Jenner just got as of today, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.040 Kylie Jenner just got this self made billionaire, and then 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:34.360 there was this whole and then we had a discussion 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:36.720 about like, one, she isn't self made. But then I 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.400 was like, but no billionaire was self made, because I 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:41.280 was gonna say, like the only self made one I 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.600 could think of is like and Elon Musk or Bezos, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:46.960 but there was a lot of collaboration that happened in 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.000 their life to happen that. And then someone who on 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:52.480 the stream was pointing out that even then Elon Musk 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:54.280 parents were well off, and I was like, well, yes, 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.640 when you come from a wealthy background, lots of times 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.120 your parents are more willing for you to try I 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.640 like future forward stuff, to try experimental things that you 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.160 don't know paying out. When you come from a poor background, 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.200 your family wants you to pick a trade or something 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.520 that has like a guaranteed way to make money. Uh So, 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:18.080 so take that into my father who comes from Nigeria 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.560 and my mother who comes from you know, Louisiana, the South, 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.200 and she grew up you know poor as well. They 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.639 you know, the idea of chasing the art. They weren't 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:27.800 against it. My mom was more forward, being you know 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.119 American and understanding of the arts. But my dad, he 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:33.119 had no concept of that. But because of that also 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.200 they didn't know what to do with it. This artistic 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.520 daydream of child. They didn't know like, oh, throw him 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.280 in drama and then he can figure it out. So 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:43.919 all my life I wanted to be an actor, but 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.960 I never truly pursued it. And then I also really liked, uh, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.919 drawing comics. I love drawing comics, and that's kind of 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.560 where and I remember, I'll never forget this because this 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.359 was the most blunt truth I've ever heard in my life. 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.160 I drew this comic and it was like probably four 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:01.840 or five pages, and I handed it to my friend 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.160 Gabriel I still remember his name, and he like reads 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.840 and he was like, he was like, yeah, it's like 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:09.560 I don't think you're a great artist, but you'd be 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.639 an amazing writer. Like this is another like this was 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:14.919 ninth grade, and I was like, wow, way to be 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.640 a duche. But he kind of was right like that 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:19.840 that what I was able to kind of formulate these 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:24.399 dope stories, and so I've nerdy stuff just kind of 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:26.639 was was rough because my dad wanted me to focus 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.439 on schooling so much, so like cons and stuff like 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.440 I never got to touch it. I went to Catholic school, 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.080 so Dungeons and Dragon was especially out of the picture 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:38.439 because that was on that weird list, like my school 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.040 had that list of like these are the devil stuff 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.880 we were in kay Rock was on that list. For something. Yeah, well, 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.080 Harry Potter, we were able to do, but it wasn't 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.000 like Dungeons and Dragons and still had that weird connotation 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.680 because it really the demonization of it really came from 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.000 the nineties. And before you all ask, we are planning 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.800 the Dungeons and Dragons episode, I already talked to Matt Mercer. 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.359 He's in, yeah, yeah, when they're they're doing you know, 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:11.200 they got that whole animal kidding. Everyone was like, So 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.080 I really didn't take strides in my nerd um and 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:20.240 necessarily in my chasing my dreams of you know, performing 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:25.119 and all that until like senior year of high school. 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.399 Like in high school, I started to get instride with 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:29.520 that because with the Internet, I was on this site 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.320 called Polly Carbon bbs and that I would do art, 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.600 uh and they had these things, this thing called fight 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.639 clubs where everyone would design a character and then it 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:41.879 would be a collaborative comic that you would make and 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.919 everyone writes draws one page of the comic. And I 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:46.639 did a few of those. I wish I can like 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:48.400 go back and find them, but I did a few 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.080 of those, and that kind of you know, while I 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:53.400 was trying to pursue art, but I was just so 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:55.879 bad at it. It was actually helping my writer brain 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.600 kind of formulate stuff. But then, um, I really hit 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.879 my stride in senior year when I joined Comedy Sports 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.080 High School League, which Comedy Sports, if you don't know, 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.840 it's it's essentially whose line is it? Anyway? It's a 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:12.879 family friendly, competitive quote unquote improv show. And they had 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.680 a high school league where you would do these shows 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:17.840 at other high schools and you would know that the 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.320 homeschool always won because you know, you win based on cheers. 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.439 So that's when I started doing improv. Senior year of 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:27.960 high school. I felt so behind, and that's when I 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:29.879 did my first play. I was in As You Like It. 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.160 I played Deuced Duke Senior and that's when I was like, oh, yes, 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.200 this is what I want to do, and I'm actually 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.960 doing it graduate and I go to community college and 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.520 I just totally just you know, fart off for at 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:46.400 least a good to three years. You know, when when 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.040 you have this kind of like strict upbringing, the first 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.720 taste of freedom, you just go wild. And that that's 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.240 and that's the moral of that story. And but I 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.320 eventually found myself on Cherry Spits, which was a Orange 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.560 County based improv team that performed in UH Fullerton and 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.640 sometimes we perform in Long Beach. And then it wasn't 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.320 until my buddy Matt Matt Off the docta who I 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:12.239 met in high school, who he was a freshman when 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:15.959 I was a senior, and now we do Candy Dinner together. Uh, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:23.000 he'sast o other podcast. He showed me the Donald Glover 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.200 episode of w TF, and Donald Glover was saying he 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:28.240 was like, oh, there's no not that many black people 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.720 doing improv at UCB, and he's naming UCB people but 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:33.560 me not hearing my name. I was like, oh, that's 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.200 where I need to be. So then after that, that's 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.440 when everything changed because also like being with Cherry Spits, 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.840 they were the ones who kind of lars who who 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.800 lars who? I was his teacher's assistant in UH in 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.520 senior year, I was his teacher's assistant. When I graduated, 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.479 he invited me to do Cherry Spitz. He also was 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.000