Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Wow, plea's welcome Gerard cal Michael.
Speaker 1: I want to do like the real thing you work,
Speaker 1: you want to make it. Thank you. Wow wow wow,
Speaker 1: Gerard cal Michael. What a nice, warm hug. I've missed you, man.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on on not just man. You know you've always
Speaker 1: been funny. I think you know this, and you've always
Speaker 1: been one of my favorite comedians, and I think you
Speaker 1: know this. I don't say this just because you're here now,
Speaker 1: but like your special is one of the it's it's
Speaker 1: a tight rope walk. That's the best way I put it.
Speaker 1: You know, where you're watching comedy and you're watching somebody
Speaker 1: balancing and it's a title but there's no net. And
Speaker 1: the moment where I was going like, oh, Gerald, maybe
Speaker 1: you should just stop, man, don't don't, don't say that,
Speaker 1: and you're saying you feel the crowd going with you
Speaker 1: because they shot. They don't know ahead of time, and
Speaker 1: the crowd is shot. They've come to see Gerard comic.
Speaker 1: And then you go, I'm gay and my name is
Speaker 1: not even Gerard. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot. It's it's
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. It's just imagine how
Speaker 1: my therapist feels. You know, it was, um, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Uh, like I felt, I felt like, who
Speaker 1: am I to talk about all these other things you
Speaker 1: know in the world, Like, you know, actually, who am I?
Speaker 1: Let's start there right, like like who like that? That
Speaker 1: that type of self exploration. I think comedy, Uh, stand
Speaker 1: up has room for yes, you know, um, and it's
Speaker 1: so much I'm like so inundated with other forms of
Speaker 1: comedy that I just felt like a long form interior
Speaker 1: story would be. You know, you're talking the special, you
Speaker 1: know that part where you talk about like your mom
Speaker 1: and I related to that in that like your mom
Speaker 1: is very religious. You and your mom were best friends.
Speaker 1: You come out as gay, and and then your mom goes,
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't know how to decipher because I'm
Speaker 1: Jesus on the one hand, and how I've been taught
Speaker 1: religion and then you on the other hand. But you're
Speaker 1: processing that in real time. Why did you choose to
Speaker 1: do that instead of going, you know what, I'll figure
Speaker 1: this out and then five years down the line, I'll
Speaker 1: do a special about it. Well, well, it's something I one.
Speaker 1: You know, for all of life's problems, you don't know
Speaker 1: if or when you'll ever have the answer. Um using
Speaker 1: the profession that we chose, like I talked about my life,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I have an opportunity to go and
Speaker 1: make it into a show. So I did it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like it in real time? I mean to me, that's
Speaker 1: what makes it. I mean, it's interesting in a in
Speaker 1: a way. I mean, you know, it's kind of like music.
Speaker 1: I think in that like a captured a moment, like
Speaker 1: just like, uh, it's the the emotion is more specific
Speaker 1: because it's happening in real time, because it's actual things
Speaker 1: that I'm feeling and going through. Like yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I kind of thought of it like an album in
Speaker 1: a way. I loved how it felt not just like
Speaker 1: you were processing it. It felt like you made us
Speaker 1: the audience processing with you at the same time. That's
Speaker 1: what I loved about it, because because you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: you watch a show and it's neatly tied up in
Speaker 1: a bowl, and then when I was watching this, I
Speaker 1: was sitting at home going like, Gerard, how do I
Speaker 1: help you fix this? Because it's happening not really but
Speaker 1: by the way, hold on, I think it's funny too,
Speaker 1: And I should say that because I could feel if
Speaker 1: you haven't seen it, like people are just like Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: He just tells us all of his problems and then
Speaker 1: it's my problem. You know. It's like I think it's
Speaker 1: kind of funny. It's amazing though, because you were in
Speaker 1: the thing. You could feel it in the in the
Speaker 1: room for instance, you could feel the audience with you.
Speaker 1: You know, even even even how you in honestly the
Speaker 1: most natural, seamless way, you even delve into homophobia, just
Speaker 1: like in the black community for instance. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean, you coming out to a room full of
Speaker 1: black people that I was like, there's a lot of yeah, no, no,
Speaker 1: you're just going into it because you can. You can
Speaker 1: feel like the reaction is kind of shocking. You know,
Speaker 1: people who were fans of mine, or people who knew me,
Speaker 1: some people in my my personal life, I didn't know. Uh,
Speaker 1: And do those people feel like you betrayed them in
Speaker 1: some way? Did they feel like you tricked them? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well here's the thing. How much time we got like
Speaker 1: like like it's yeah, and in a way I did
Speaker 1: right like I was, I was in the closet and
Speaker 1: a bit duplicitus by nature of like I was lying
Speaker 1: about certain aspects of my being just out of I mean,
Speaker 1: I could justify it and say it's self protection. It's
Speaker 1: definitely because I was scared, but you know they're there.
Speaker 1: I think my friendships are able to be actually actual friendships,
Speaker 1: and like my relationships are actually real now because I'm
Speaker 1: not hiding anything because I don't have like a hand
Speaker 1: behind my back. You can't give someone a full hug,
Speaker 1: you know if you love concealing something. So that's beautiful that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the I feel like the special showed us a different
Speaker 1: side of you. I've seen that side of you as
Speaker 1: a person before, but it was almost like that was
Speaker 1: the side that you just chose to fully expose. What
Speaker 1: I was really intrigued by was the fact that you
Speaker 1: kept in the moments where you spoke to the audience
Speaker 1: in the special, because there was a point where, I
Speaker 1: mean we saw that in the clip, but there's literally
Speaker 1: points where the audience just goes hey, man, like like
Speaker 1: one of the most poignant things and I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about that was the audience member said to you,
Speaker 1: you say, it took you time to accept yourself and
Speaker 1: to come out, and they said, have you have you
Speaker 1: thought about maybe you should be able to give your
Speaker 1: mom time to accept what is happening. And you you
Speaker 1: gave a very beautiful answer. People should just watch it
Speaker 1: to get it. What I wanted to ask you off
Speaker 1: of that was has your mom watched the special? Has
Speaker 1: your family? Has anyone watched the special and then it
Speaker 1: had like a different perspective or have they said? Man,
Speaker 1: I didn't think of it that way until I watched
Speaker 1: you say it like this. Um. My niece reached out,
Speaker 1: So I guess I made the special. Um. A lot
Speaker 1: of what's in the special is that I'm gay, and
Speaker 1: it's a thing that's that goes largely unacknowledged in my
Speaker 1: family right for whatever reasons, religious reasons. Um. And my
Speaker 1: niece texted me. Probably I guess it came out at midnight,
Speaker 1: by one to two a m. She sent me a
Speaker 1: text just saying, Uh, I'm very happy for you, thanks
Speaker 1: for saying how you feel. I'm glad you did it
Speaker 1: so I don't have to wonder. Um. And it's very
Speaker 1: It was really beautiful. It was it was the kind
Speaker 1: of sense of acknowledgement that I think I was seeking
Speaker 1: in many ways. Um. And that was really beautiful. And
Speaker 1: and I'm focusing on that because you know, the ref
Speaker 1: with my family is real and it happens, and it's
Speaker 1: something that you learn to kind of deal with. Life
Speaker 1: kind of sometimes can be a bit bitter sweet. Um,
Speaker 1: because at the time in my life when I'm receiving
Speaker 1: a lot of love, there's a certain amount of isolation
Speaker 1: that I'm enduring. I guess, um, I'm saying all that.
Speaker 1: Let's say that my niece's love in response was very
Speaker 1: beautiful and it gave me a lot of hope and um,
Speaker 1: and I'm very thankful for her. I'm very very littleful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sapling in my mouth. I'm clean well, and I mean,
Speaker 1: that's life. I'm really happy for you. It's it's been
Speaker 1: so long. I'm glad to see you again. Congratulations on everything.
Speaker 1: SNL was amazing. Congratulations on the special people. If you
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, Comedy Special Julius Spector Ruthaniel is streaming
Speaker 1: now on HBO Max. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at
Speaker 1: eleven tent Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes
Speaker 1: anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central
Speaker 1: podcast