WEBVTT - Laughter as Therapy: Skyler Higley on Comedy’s Healing Power and Personal Triumphs 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:03.680 Comedy Saved Me. 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:07.520 I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to another episode of Comedy 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:11.240 Saved Me. My guest today is a comedian, a writer, 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.120 and podcaster who's been on a serious role as of late. 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.279 He's written for The Onion, Conan and After Midnight with 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.720 Taylor Tomlinson, and most recently, he was in the room 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.960 for the Oscars. He was named a Just for Laughs 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.000 new Face in twenty twenty two, which is no small feat. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.520 His stand up has appeared on Comedy Central and Don't 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:36.120 Tell Comedy, and Vulture just named him you one of 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:40.159 the comedians you should know, which you should know? I agree, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:42.000 Oh it's pretty cool. 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:42.479 Oh. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.040 By the way, he's also the host of a brand 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.440 new podcast called Help Me Be Black, a podcast about 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.159 growing up with white parents and the cultural catch up 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.040 that ensues. And he also has one of the most 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.080 infectious laughs, by the way, that I've ever heard, you know, 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.560 the kind of laugh when someone laughs you just hear 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.320 them laugh and you start laughing. So I'm very excited 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.840 to welcome our next guest coming up next, Skyler Higgley. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.760 He's right here on Comedy Save Me, Don't Go Anywhere, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.800 Comedy Saved Me Skyler Higley. Welcome to Comedy Save Me. 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:19.760 It's great to meet you. 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.560 Hi, nice to meet you. Thank you so much for 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:24.959 having me. The intro is so nice, and I do 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:30.040 my laugh. It did get me, I wouldn't say into trouble, 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:35.080 but on after midnight I got a little bit of shit. 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.480 For when I'm laughing in the other room, if we 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.240 split up the writers, you can hear me laughing at 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.640 stuff from the other room, and I think I have, like, yeah, 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.240 a good, big laugh. And so people would be mad 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.840 because they'd be like, yeah, they're having so much fun 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.240 in that other room, and you know, they'd be upset 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.720 about whatever is happening because they'd be trying to focus 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:58.000 on whatever their work is. And then here I am 0:01:58.080 --> 0:01:59.840 laughing down the hall and I'm like, what do they 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:00.440 do in there? 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.680 It's a boisterous laugh. Well, you know what, they're just 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.880 jealous because they're not having as much fun as you are. 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.080 Well, and they said that, they said, we're jealous, and 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.960 I don't know if yeah, but it's not. It's just 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:13.880 how I laugh. I'm not doing it on purpose. I'm 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.320 not pulling it out. That's just how my voice goes. 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.680 Well, I'm kind of a geek for voices because I've 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.960 been doing voice work for a few decades and my 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.519 best friend growing up, Scott, had one of those laughs 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:27.919 that you have, and I used to always try to 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.720 figure out how I could bottle it and sell it 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.320 because it just makes people so happy. You could just 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.359 go on stage, Skylar and laugh and then you could 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:37.720 be done. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:39.520 And oh man, you have. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:39.840 To write it. 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.560 All I needed in my life was my own laughs. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:46.679 Then I think that I would. I would, I'd never 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.400 have started doing any of the things that I'm doing. Unfortunately, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.320 I need everybody else's and I want everybody else to 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.799 be laughing like me. But yeah, I would. I would 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.440 be such a better person if I didn't desperately need 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:00.440 everybody else to laugh. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.639 Also, Oh come on, now, you got to give yourself 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:04.520 some credit. Well, can you take us back to the 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:08.280 beginning of that laugh and when comedy first showed up 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.280 in your life and did it feel like a calling 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.240 or more like a coping mechanism for you? 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:19.160 Whoa big question out the gate bolts bolts for sure, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.799 because I was so interested in you know, you would 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.760 see things on Comedy Central and these people going up 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:32.320 and being an actor is somewhat made sense. You know, 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.640 that's like they're doing roles or whatever. But when you 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.960 first see comedy, you're like, so that that person is 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.840 just going up there and saying stuff and people are 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.840 making them laugh and that is and that's their job 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.440 and people did people pay them for that? And it 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.880 was really interesting because I was like, I don't want 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.920 to have a normal job. I don't if I can 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:57.600 grow up and do that and that can be a job, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:03:59.640 I don't want to. I don't want to do a job. 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.600 But of course it felt like a big coping mechanism 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.560 in terms of you know, where is that socializing? Wanting 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.720 people to like me, feeling like I needed people to 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.880 like me. So as with everything, it's kind of both 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.880 because it's like, well, the reason why you might aspire 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:21.440 to that is because you might feel like if that's 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.560 if people are a group of people are loving one 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.200 person and that really seems like something you want, maybe 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.520 it could possibly be because you were feeling like you 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:33.599 are not being as loved as you would like to 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.520 be by the people around you. So to answer your 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.720 question both that was deep. Actually would you have to 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:42.480 be no? 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.000 But I mean, but it makes a lot of sense 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.479 and I and I often wonder thankfully people turn to 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.119 comedy when they feel that way as opposed to something 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:55.680 else that would be plainful to you or people around you. 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.200 Right, So, yeah, I mean I could have. Also, I've 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.679 been a cult leader. I think I could have gotten 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:03.839 that way you could have. 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.479 It almost seems like anyone can be these days. 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:08.960 Well, I know, it's like the bearer to entry is 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:10.839 way too low for me. And oh leader, now it sucks. 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.440 You should have to be like charismatic at this point. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.159 I have to have a little bit of that. What 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:17.960 was the moment though, that you thought you I could 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.880 actually do this for a living and make a living 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.520 at it? Was there a moment. 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:24.720 I don't know if there was one moment. I think 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.200 there was a series of moments that it was a 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.120 natural thing that I was always doing when I was 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.039 in school. I was making little comic books for my 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.320 friends to try to make them laugh and passing them out. 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.280 I was always doing that thing where you sit your 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.920 family down and kind of perform for them. I was 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:43.840 we would have a thing in my I remember my 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.599 fourth grade class. My teacher had all the kids sort 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.320 of do this like journal kind of thing in the 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.640 morning and write down, write based on a prompt, and 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:56.840 I would always try to make mine as funny as 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.120 possible because we were all going to present them. So 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.000 I was always just trying to make the other kids 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:07.360 around laugh. So it is in any situation where I 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:12.120 was able to do that, I think because laughing, just 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:16.480 making other people laugh felt so affirming. I was really 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.080 always trying to, you. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:20.000 Know, get that feeling. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.480 I have a distinct memory of as watching Friends with 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:30.200 my family, somebody said something and everybody laughed, and then 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:35.600 I literally on the show, you know, and then I 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.320 literally just repeated what was on the show, and then 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:40.359 my whole family, who was gathered around the TV, they 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.719 all laughed at me, and I was like, whoa, so 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.640 that's something that feels good. Yeah, And then I think 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.839 later in the show somebody said screw you, and my 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.520 family laughed at that, and then I tried to repeat that, 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.880 and then my family was like, no, hey, don't say that. 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:57.440 You're grounded. 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.680 But it was like funny, Like that moment of like 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.000 one of my earliest moments of being like, oh, say 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.160 a funny thing, people laugh, that's fun and and then 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.400 immediately finding there was a line to it where it's 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.320 like we just laughed at them, saying, now you don't 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.080 want me to say it. I didn't know what anybody was. 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.640 I didn't know what that meant. So I thought, look, 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:21.400 it's another thing that people laughed at, and I could 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.920 make you laugh. I repeat that again, And then I 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.840 learned a lot of lessons in terms of context and 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.680 who can say what and boundaries, yeah, and boundaries, and 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:36.360 also and then also just like repeating a bit too much. 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.120 You know, things are less funny the more you repeat them, 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.120 so that the first time it felt like a surprise, 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:43.880 which is why it was funny, And the second time 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:45.520 they're like, oh, no, he's picking up things and he 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:47.320 shouldn't pick up We shouldn't have laughed at that the 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.880 first time, and you know, and being so being like, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:51.560 don't repeat your bas too much. 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.040 Now, did you. Wow, that's an early lesson that to 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.040 incorporate into a young comedian's mind who doesn't even know 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.160 he's a comedian yet, which I think is right. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.400 That's I internalize it at the time, but I think 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.760 it was like early on where it's like, oh, that's 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:06.200 a lesson to do. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.080 Yeah, And also did you find that you got away 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.760 with more when you could make your parents laugh totally. 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.080 I think I think you generally, well, that's what I 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:21.320 found in school more than anything else, is you can 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:25.920 get away with way more if you're making them laugh 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:31.880 and your teachers and stuff laugh, because I think it's 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:37.400 also like, yes, you can be distracting or whatever. There's 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.319 a real balance to being a class clown. And sometimes 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.120 I went too far in one direction. But if the 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.520 teachers are laughing at it, they're not really going to 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.040 be mad at you, because teaching is really hard and 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.320 they're doing a lot a lot of work, and so 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:53.920 if you're kind of making them enjoy their time a 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.000 little bit, they're not really going to be mad at you. 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.440 They are like, okay, theerious legal like come on, like 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:00.520 we do have to do this work or whatever. But 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.880 if you're getting your work done and your the key 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.480 to being a class clown is also being a pretty 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.960 good student, yeah, because then they're not going to be like, hey, 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.600 you you're doing all this instead of getting your work done. 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.520 If your work is done and right, and then you're 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.840 also kind of being a class clown, then they don't 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:21.120 really don't really care. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.760 No, they don't and it's and it's really cool, like 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.280 you know, making friends like that as well. I used 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:30.040 to be so jealous of all the kids that did 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.680 that because, yeah, number one, usually they were always smarter 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.280 than me, and they didn't even have to show up 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:40.000 for tests because they did everything in advance and they 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.400 made the teachers laugh, and I was like, there's something 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.800 to that. There's definitely something to that. And performing for 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:52.320 your parents too, Like I remember stuffing like toilet paper 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.280 in my clothes to look like the Michel entire Man 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:57.720 or something, and you know, and then making my brother 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.400 do it, and he was like, come on, I just 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.600 just to make them laugh and then to stay up late. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.560 We would you know, do whatever we could to keep 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.480 them laughing so they would forget it was time to 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.240 go to bed. So right, all happening. Yeah, but you 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:13.600 had an interesting scenario. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.079 I did. I had a really interesting scenario. I was adopted, 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.160 and you know, I was adopted by white Mormon parents, 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.400 so the whole you know, there were a lot of 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.000 a lot of rules. And that's also something that was 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.560 interesting with comedy is where the boundaries were, because it 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.360 would be like, sometimes it's not okay to watch the 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.240 Simpsons and it's really inappropriate. I remember that being like 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.480 the thing, like the Simpsons is really inappropriate, you can't 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:46.440 watch the Simpsons. And then also I remember in my 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.319 childhood watching a good amount of the Simpsons. 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.560 So to say, how do you avoid that? 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.080 It was kind of It's interesting because the rules were 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:00.880 one way and they were totally real, following the rules 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.360 good Mormons. But also my parents at the time when 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:05.800 I was young. I think they adopted me at like 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:07.880 twenty three or twenty four or twenty two and twenty 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.240 three or something, so they were pretty young when they 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:14.280 did that. So it's not like people at that age, 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.200 you know, I think of I just turned thirty now, 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:21.800 I think of people being that young trying to raise 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.400 children and is insane to me. So it's like, of course, 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:29.200 they weren't always sticking to the rules as you seek 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.360 it as much as they could have wanted to, I guess. 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.680 But that's not a bad thing. I mean that definitely 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.240 shaped How did that shape your comedic voice and things 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.959 that you felt compelled to talk about on stage. 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.320 In terms of consuming media or just in terms of 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.280 like what my parents were just. 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.880 You know, growing up with parents that were so different 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:53.760 than probably your friend's parents. 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.640 I didn't know. Well, I grew up in Salt Lake City, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.480 so my friend my parents were not different from my 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.360 friend's parents. They were all the same. I was the 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:09.800 different one, and I knew, you know, you start to 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.320 get a sense that you're different pretty early on, and 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.280 that it being a big topic of conversation in our house. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:21.360 I didn't necessarily know it's weird because because I was 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.319 sort of fish out of water, isolated, I was made 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.440 to feel different than everybody else and we had a 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.720 different situation going on. I didn't really because it was 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.480 my family. I didn't really think about it that much 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:37.960 growing up of like how different in adopted or blended 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:42.840 family is racially. And then as I start to get older, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:47.000 you start to realize, you know, maybe middle school to 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.720 teenage years, like, oh yeah, most people aren't adopted. It's 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.720 actually not something that's happening in families. You know that 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.880 much of course it happens. And then getting even older 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.079 than that, realizing that the whole girl of just being 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:07.880 within the Salt Lake City Mormon world is that is 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:12.120 actually the exception to the rule of how, you know, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.280 the standard most people are living by that everybody is 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:18.720 all kinds of religions, and there's all kinds of people 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.280 throughout these United States, where when you're growing up in 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.280 such an insulated community, you go, this is the norm 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.720 these we've established. But the only reason why is because 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.920 they famously were pioneers and went across the plains and 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.720 like established their new norm because nobody wanted them anywhere else. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.720 So that was interesting growing up and getting to the 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.440 point of finding out how truly weird you are in 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.520 context where it's like, okay, so this sum announce that 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.800 are here, and this is oh wait, no, this is 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.400 actually oh this is so I wasn't that abnormal. It 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:02.120 was just a complete shift in the contextual overton window 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.960 of what norms are. It was just interesting to find out. 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.199 And so then yeah, there was a lot of unpacking 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:11.199 to do after that. 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.880 There is I mean, I don't want to say I 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.520 have anything close to a story like yours, but when 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.680 you're young and you're different, like I grew up and 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.000 I was like the only Jewish kid in the neighborhood, 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.240 so I was relentlessly made fun of, but I thought 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.280 everyone was just like me, and I also sort of 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.240 looked like everyone else so it wasn't as difficult. But 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:32.720 I feel like you and I grew up in a 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.640 time that you know, you really didn't pay attention to 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.240 that until you had to pay attention to that, like school, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.880 enter children, and then all hell breaks loose because you 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:43.960 know that's where you get your thick skin from. But 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:49.400 it's it's amazing how you can be so different but 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.000 yet not realize it at all, and you almost want 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:54.440 to go back to those days sometimes, like where you 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.800 just everybody doesn't think like me or talk like me 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.720 or look like me, and and that you turned it 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:02.640 into comedy is the best part of all. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.800 Yeah, I think that it became pretty necessary. I think because, 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:13.400 like you know, the I feel like I knew I 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.720 was pretty different pretty young, like my first day of preschool, 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.040 which is the first time you go out anywhere you 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.360 remember that far back well because of the story I'm 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.720 gonna tell you, Okay, my first day of preschool, I 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:32.040 was there and like some random kid, I had no 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.480 there was like we were all just there's like super new. 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.760 This is basically my only memory from this time. But 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.120 then this random kid just runs up to me and goes, 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:45.040 I hate you and everybody else seemed like fine, and 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:46.800 this kid like sort of went out of his way 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.640 to be like I hate you. Now. Do I know 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.480 for a fact that was Rachel. I don't know, maybe 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:55.640 I was getting attention in a different way, but it 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.880 was a moment of like, this is sort of right away, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:06.000 and this is kind of how everything it's sort of 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:08.400 how everything kind of unfolded in life in terms of 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.640 like being at school. There's the differences, I guess, but 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:13.360 I think when you're young and you just don't know 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:16.520 what I mean, any of it means you have no 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:21.160 context and there is just the basics of all you 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:26.000 know is that there might be some difference that like 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.160 you can't quite put your finger on, and I think 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:34.200 people react to that. So I definitely knew that, but 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:38.400 I just you know, you don't know how far it goes, 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.360 and you don't know the reasons. You don't know any 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.200 of the reasons why anybody's acting any kind of way. 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.440 You go, Okay, I think this is this must be 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.840 I guess normal, and then you find out it's not. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:58.520 And then you just turn lemons into lemonade, and yeah, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.320 you start writing for some very different rooms. You've got 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:07.600 the onion Conan After Midnight the oscars recently, which is 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.240 that little show there. I mean, how does your brain 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.720 shift from when you're writing for different formats or different voices, 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:19.520 Because that's a lot, and congratulations for all of that work. 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.960 Hey, thanks, It is a lot, but it's also not 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.160 what am I trying to say. I think that's sort 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:33.200 of the core of comedy and its functionality is relatively 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:40.400 the same, and it's really just the It's like saying, 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:45.600 maybe to a musician where it's like you playing rock 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.720 or a classical worry playing jazz or something like that, 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.760 where it's like you know what you're doing. You have 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:55.879 all the same notes and keys, but you're just playing 0:17:55.880 --> 0:18:01.879 in different scales and different in different genre. So it 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:07.119 just doing certain things at certain times and having a 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.600 different kind of voice just lends itself to different things. 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:17.240 And if you are a writer, you figure out how 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.280 to take your own voice and kind of go, well, 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.760 this is what I can contribute over here, this is 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.800 how I help you. Know. What I'm able to do 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.200 for Conan, let's say, is very different than to what 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.600 I'm able to do for After Midnight, which is a 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.239 much younger show that was about the Internet. And all 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.800 this stuff, and the OSCARS is about like movies and 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:44.560 sort of much more broad mainstream kind of situation. So 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.440 there's a different like window of what the norms are 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:53.120 and what people like and what tonally people are going 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:58.679 to accept and why, But it is all in a 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:04.040 sense the same like there is I think just being 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.480 also the generation that I am growing up on a 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.320 lot of this stuff that was TV, but being around 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.359 before the start of the Internet and internet comedy and 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:20.400 sort of a younger sensibility gives you a great way 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:25.720 to kind of see the arc of when certain jokes 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:30.439 are totally appropriate, the way you want to say certain jokes, 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:32.880 what points everybody wants to make, the way people think 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:37.480 about things, and that's all just kind of being sort 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.640 of socially aware too at the end of the day. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.080 But Yeah, to me, it's like walking through a minefield, 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.840 because I would be I'd break out in a sweat, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:47.960 like the guy from Airplane when he's trying to land 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.359 the plane. It's just water spurt out everywhere. What's your 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.000 writing process, Like, are you a notebook guide? You do 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.400 you do voice memos or I like that you kind 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:59.720 of compared it to music, which was kind of a 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.000 really cool comparison. Do you do workshop everything on stage? 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.439 Like Joan Rivers, she'd come out on stage on a 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.040 random night somewhere in New York City and throw, you know, 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:11.440 notes down jokes on the floor so she could look 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.320 down and pick a joke and then see the response 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:17.479 from people, and you know, I'd see her crumple one 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:19.359 up and throw it off the stage if no one laughed. 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.040 What is your process? 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:29.600 Interesting? It's different for different things. My process is very 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.639 what a lot of it is centered around what do 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:36.320 I need to do in the short term, Like it's 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:41.359 kind of thing depending like coming up, I'm going to 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:47.000 record another stand up set soon, so then I'm focusing 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.200 kaya more on Okay, so let's work out the stand 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.080 up so that will be very notebookie or premises sometimes 0:20:54.080 --> 0:21:01.240 will be voice memos. But also I think of your brain. 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:04.159 I've been saying your brain is just a muscle that 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:06.920 generates ideas, and it does a lot of other stuff 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:09.240 regularly to nervous system and whatever, well all that bullshit, 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:11.880 but it's constantly going to be coming up with ideas. 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.400 An idea is simply just an idea, and you there 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:20.800 is so many avenues in comedy, especially now, for an 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:26.760 idea to be manifested into a sketch or a something 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:31.000 or whatever, and sometimes it's nothing. So a lot of 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.840 the process is just like letting all that stuff come out, 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.760 writing it down and getting that in that place. And 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:43.560 then if you are looking for an idea, like I do, 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:45.840 I spend a lot of time sometimes just going back 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.440 through my notes and going, Okay, what could this be? 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:55.240 And then there's also saying things in person to people. 0:21:55.480 --> 0:22:00.240 Sometimes you go that's something I should write down. Have 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.439 been on some podcasts recently. There are a couple jokes 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:08.240 that I've just stead in conversation based on the kind 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:11.040 of setup to what's going on that felt specific enough 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:13.680 that I was like, you know what, I think I'm 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:18.040 gonna maybe try that out on stage. How do you remember, in. 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.119 The middle of a podcast you hold that thought, I 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:21.440 gotta write something down here. 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:26.119