WEBVTT - 2: Right Here, Right Now 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.680 So I was in college, but it was the summer 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.639 of my sophomore year or freshman year, and I had 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.960 gone to a BBD concert and met Jeff Dyson, who 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:17.680 was one of the new editions. He had long time 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:19.560 been a new addition bodyguard. He was on the road 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:20.760 with BBD. 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.639 Last time on waiting for Impact. My friend Scott and 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:26.680 I found out we were one degree of separation closer 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.040 to sudden impact than we ever knew we were. We 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.640 have a friend who was a recording artist in Michael Bivens' 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.960 East Coast family and you know her too. It's twenty 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.280 twenty one Emmy nominee if that's Nicole Brown. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:41.199 And I told him, I say, I want to sing 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.640 for Michael bibbns. Can you please let me backstage? 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.400 Like me in nineteen ninety one, if that had big dreams, 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.400 but unlike me, she knew how to manifest them. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:52.640 And he was like, I cannot let you backstage, but 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.000 I can tell you that they're staying at the Sheridan 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.320 in Cauiahaga Falls. So if you happen to show up, 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:00.880 you know at the Sheridan. You didn't hear it from me. 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.640 To this day, I know Jeff. Now you know Jeff 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:06.440 and our friends now. And to this day he says 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.280 he doesn't know why he did it. He was just like, 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:10.760 I don't know something about you. Just felt like I was 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:11.560 supposed to help you. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.000 Evett loved Michael Biffins, She loved New Addition, she loved 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.440 Belle Bivdevaux, and she loved to sing. So she found 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:20.280 Michael Bivens and she sang. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.160 And so I went to that hotel, stayed in the 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.399 lobby until four o'clock in the morning when BBD came 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.440 to the hotel and I followed Michael Bibbins around and 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.120 I was like, mister Bifman's massing for you, mister Biman's 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.160 massing for you, mister Bimin's messing for you. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.280 And then finally he was like, oh gosh, like just sing. 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:39.640 He was mad. 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.000 I was mad, like it had been at an opus 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:42.919 to get to this moment. 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.560 That's the thing about taking big swings. Sometimes they're mortifying, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:48.720 but sometimes they actually work. 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.160 He finally let me sing for him and asked for 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.320 my number, and then called me the next day and 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.160 invited me to be a part of the East Closet family. 0:01:57.280 --> 0:01:59.240 We're going to talk to a vete, Nicole Brown, about 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.880 her time in the Coast Family, about what it was 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.080 like to wait for your moment in the spotlight as 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.040 a singer, and about what you do when it never comes, 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:09.720 And we're going to find out what she knows about 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:10.480 sudden Impact. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.799 Also, we'll talk to Karen Kilgareth. She and I were 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:14.880 leading more or less the. 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.160 Same life back in nineteen ninety one, So we're going 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.240 to talk about what she learned that got her to 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.679 where she is now. And we're going to talk about 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.560 another big thing we have in common, a pivotal career 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.320 moment that involves losing a big contest on national TV. 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:45.919 This is Waiting for Impact, a Dave Holmes passion project. 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:49.520 So here's where we left off. As I began my 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.760 search for Sudden Impact, my friend and fellow pop culture 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.919 obsessive Scott Gimple, found a nineteen ninety two music video 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.799 from the East Coast Family, a group of pop, R 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.240 and B and hip hop artists signed by Michael Bivens 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.440 to his record label biv ten, a subsidiary of Motown. 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.280 The song and video are called one four All four 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.600 to one. By the way, the title of that song 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.600 never gets any easier to say. You always have to 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.320 kind of prepare your mouth, but it is what we 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:23.120 would now call a posse track. There are rap moments 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.040 from Mark Finesse, from two young kids called ten ten 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.000 who have their suspenders on backwards a little like the 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.560 other young rap duo of the time, Chris Cross, probably 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.880 a coincidence, and from mc brains who would go on 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:36.880 to have a top forty hit later in nineteen ninety 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.240 two called Uchi Couci. There are moments that are sung 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.200 by a big frat boy looking guy named Hayden with 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.760 a sport coat slung over his shoulder, and by a 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:51.120 group called White Guys whytgi Ze who look a little 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.360 like Sudden Impact. And then there's a young woman with 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.240 a clear and beautiful voice and a warm and familiar smile. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:05.640 She goes by the single name Yvette Vete Nicole Brown Sunday. 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.720 I can't stress you just how my job just dropped. 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:12.760 My friend Scott, who we met in the last episode, 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.960 is the chief content officer for the Walking Dead universe, 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.080 and a Vett is a Walking Dead super fan. Vette 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.440 and Scott, as we learned, are real friends in real life. 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:24.760 But this is a part of her story that he 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.000 didn't know anything about. And we now have the connection 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.000 to the East Coast family and maybe sudden impact that 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.000 we've been looking for a backstage pass, if you will. 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.360 So I asked Scott to reach out to a vet 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.440 to see if she'd be interested in opening up about 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.560 her life in the East Coast family. And while we 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:42.760 waited for an answer, I wanted to go a little 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.200 bit deeper into the early nineties and what life was 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:47.599 like for a young dreamer back then. And I know 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.320 someone who I bet has some very good insights. What 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.400 was Karen's nineteen ninety one esthetic talk? 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:54.480 What's you wearing. 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.400 At Jesus H, I'll tell you, I'll tell you it's 0:04:58.480 --> 0:04:59.320 not good news. 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.880 That is Karen Kilgareff. She's a comedian, a writer, the 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.360 co host of My Favorite Murder, and the co founder 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.080 of Exactly Right, the network i'm doing this podcast on. 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.480 In nineteen ninety one, Karen was working a look. 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:13.560 Because I was out of the house and I could so. 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:15.320 First of all, I died my hair black, like the 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:20.799 second I got a chance to. That was incredibly like invigorating, 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:23.080 and like, you know, I know what I want. 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.760 I dyed my hair black. I was pale as a ghost. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.239 Karen's a friend of mine now, but in nineteen ninety 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.560 one we were strangers leading very similar lives. 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.840 I started working at the Gap, and that really, that 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.560 felt bad, That felt real goad. 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:42.200 Again, we're on parallel tracks. 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:43.240 Did you work at that? 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.440 I did? I ever the winner of Navy and White Cap? 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.560 I was there. What is white cap? I asked, I 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.120 said white. It's just a different word for white. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.000 It's a way to say white and really set yourself apart. 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.479 In nineteen ninety one, in separate malls, in separate cities, 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.919 two thousand miles away from each other, Karen and I 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.239 were doing the same thing, suffering through eight hour shifts, 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.640 pushing pocket t shirts and high waisted jeans, listening to 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.560 four or five spins per day of that corporate mixtape, 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.440 dreaming about the lives and careers we would have someday, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.400 lives and careers we couldn't even picture because they didn't 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.880 even really exist yet. Back then, we were on the outside, 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.000 with our noses pressed up against the glass. Right now, 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:27.720 Karen is a big deal, like few other people I know. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.520 She went out and got her life. But in nineteen 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.280 ninety one. We were both very busy daydreaming about what 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.760 our lives in the future could look like, and we 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.200 were both hard at work fucking up our lives in 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:38.680 the present. 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:43.920 Who was Karen Kilgareth in the summer of nineteen ninety. 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.920 One, Oh god, well, I just turned twenty one. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:48.800 Oh boy. 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.839 I was living in Sacramento at the time. I had 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.640 flunked out of Sacramento State University. 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.440 Congratulations, thank you so much. Not easy to do. 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:05.600 Took medication, and it took a real know how and perseverance. 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.000 To be asked to leave a state school. 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.960 That was basically took all comers and didn't give a shit. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.040 Now, once again Karen and I were leading parallel lives there. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:18.400 We'll get into that shortly. 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:20.720 But in order to give her life some direction and 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.720 stop feeling bad about failing out of school, Karen tried 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:24.360 something new. 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:30.440 The good part about this era was just before it, 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.520 when I was twenty, I started doing stand up comedy 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.160 as a desperate move to stop being such a loser 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.400 who had flugged out of school and just had and 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.640 basically was kind of going nowhere in the Central Valley. 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.000 So I think by the time my twenty first birthday 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:51.160 rolled around, I had felt that I had actually begun 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.680 on my path toward my dream, which was always kind 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.920 of a secret, Like I really knew I wanted to 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.760 be a stand up comedian for a long time, but 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:02.520 I I just didn't believe I would ever do it. 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.120 And then this kind of amazing combination of good and 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.360 bad things happened, and then I. 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:09.440 Got to start. 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.240 Karen transferred to Sacramento City College, where she met some 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.400 cool artsy kids from the theater department. Can't you just 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.360 see them? Her new friends were more edgy and mature. 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.320 It was a new, better support system and like any 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:24.880 good nineties arty kids, we have to imagine them smoking 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:26.440 clothes at night. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.280 She's beginning to do stand up, but in the daytime 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:30.320 it's the gap. 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:32.720 There is an oppressive feeling. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:34.800 I used to get in the middle of like an 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.480 eight hour shift, you know, the mixtape that would play 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:40.720 and it would be on like the fourth cycle, where 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.400 I You'd just be going a little bit crazy and 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:46.400 I would be standing there kind of staring at like 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.080 the fluorescent lights, going how much longer are you going 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:50.719 to do this? 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:51.160 Like? 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.160 Is this going to be the rest of your. 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.960 Life, because because there's part of you that was at 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.679 least brave enough to get on that stage until of 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:04.160 what are now some of the worst jokes of all time. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.640 But you know, like I did have that leg up 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.240 that that I had done. So there was a little 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.240 bit in me that was like, but I think I 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.360 can do something. I don't think I should have to 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.200 work at the gap for the rest of my life. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.320 But then there was parts of some of the time 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:23.360 when I was there where I was just like, I 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:25.520 can't breathe, and I'm going to be here forever. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.560 I know that, feeling extremely well, and I remember that 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.200 what I wanted from life back then was vague. I 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.640 wanted to express myself, make a mark on the world somehow. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.120 I wonder what did she want back then? 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.720 I think fame the idea, the made up childhood idea 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.520 of what fame is and what and what all that 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:46.040 kind of glory would be. 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.280 What is that child version of fame. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:54.680 I think it's like it's like entering anywhere through double 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.360 doors and like putting your hands out in front of 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.559 me is literally like the It's kind of that kind 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:03.960 of like as if you'd go into restaurants that only 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.439 had double doors and do like hello everyone. 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:07.880 There was just here. 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.120 Oh h yes, it's me, I'm here waving as you 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.320 eat dinner kind of idea. I think that was that 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.200 was part of it, but I do think it was 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.040 holding my own with men who do comedy. 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.000 Karen was learning stand up, finding her place in the 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.800 Bay Area comedy scene, looking for clues. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:29.959 The improv was my first one where I got on stage, 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:31.840 so it was kind of like the closest one to 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.840 my heart, and it felt so because it was one 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.679 of those clubs that was downstairs, so it was really 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.640 like cellar feeling, which the you know, all the walls 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:41.439 were painted black. 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:43.600 You could only I could see one top. 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:45.840 Matt, the bartender, was really tall and he had like 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.040 bleach blonde hair, so I would focus on watching his 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.719 head move during my sets to know whether or not 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.960 I was doing good. So if he was like doing 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.400 head bobbing, like laughing, I was like, all right, so 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.640 I'm fine. Like you know, there's there's all these kind 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.960 of images in my brain that are seared there forever 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.160 of how I'm going to do this thing that's really 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.120 hard and incredibly frightening and make it work. So those 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.720 magical things are happening to me at night, and then 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.040 at eleven am, I'd have to show up and fold 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.400 down a sweater wall or whatever and go back to 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.040 just being the person that's trying to sell you socks 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.800 along with your three T shirts. And it was just 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.760 I was very indignant about the fact that I had 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:31.480 to work there, but that also it was such a 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.280 corporate It was so easy to do things wrong at 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.000 the Gap. I was wrong all the time. I was 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:39.079 always doing it wrong. 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.319 You know there is one way to fold a pocket too. 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.120 For real. Yeah, they'll check it. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:49.679 And then a big moment happened on TV. America's Funniest 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:50.400 People comes caught. 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:53.400 How dare you. 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:56.840 Talk about it if you don't want to? 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:58.080 Did you do research? 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:00.600 I saw it? 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.400 Let me set the scene. Karen had been getting better 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.680 at stand up. She had been coming up with a 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.760 group of friends, Andy Kindler, Vernon Chapman, Brian Possain maybe 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.360 you've heard of him. She entered a comedy contest at 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.120 a club in Sacramento, and she made it to the finals. 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.640 And then and at some point they're the manager of 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.760 that comedy club was like, hey, America's Funnies people's in 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.480 town come to Old Sac and they just you're basically 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:28.960 just do some jokes on camera. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:30.520 And so one of my. 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.800 Bits was I was at it was it was my 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.520 impression of a cheerleader auditioning for a Shakespeare play. So 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.320 essentially it's a classic fucking hacky stand up thing where 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:46.679 you recite something impressive in a different voice. So I 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:48.640 was just doing a valley girl voice. 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:49.880 Of Richard, I I. 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:51.160 I exactly. 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:57.240 So yeah, so that's what ended up on America's Funnies People. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.800 So I mean the answer is, yes, we are going 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:03.000 to listen to some of Karen Kilgarriff on America's Funniest People. 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.959 I'm presenting my version of a cheerleader auditioning for Shakespeare play. Okay, 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:09.640 So like I'm auditioning for this or whatever, and I'm 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.959 gonna be doing a monologue from like Richard I I I, 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.200 And like what it is is, I'm lady Annette and 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.680 like this guy totally killed my husband, Richard, and so 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:19.640 he comes to the funeral just to make problems, just 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:21.080 like Rick bar did that time of that party when 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:22.480 he's gonna throw the keg through the window. Do you 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.040 remember that? Well, anyway, so like, he totally shows up 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:26.520 and I totally get mad and I totally say this 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.520 to him. I go like, I go like, foul devil 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.040 for God's sake, Hence in trouble us, not for that's 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.120 made the happy Earth. Eigeh Hell filled it with cursing 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.480 cries and deep exclaims. It's not the like to view 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.959 thy heinous deeds. Behold the pattern. 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:38.559 Of your butcheries. 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.280 Not what she would do now, probably, but it's funny. 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.440 Her perspective is very clear. If you want to see more, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.240 it is on YouTube and it's worth watching. It's like 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.440 a muppet baby's version of the Karen Kilgarriff We know now. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:57.959 And then I got called by the producers saying do 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.320 you want to come down to Burbank because you made 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.920 it to the final three? So all of a sudden, 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.880 you know, and that I recorded it well in Sacramento 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.680 and then got into a car accident. My mom's like, 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.760 that's it, You're moving home. You're just up there fucking around. 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.760 I moved home and got the call like from my parents' house. 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.920 So again, basically, after having flunked out, I floated for 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.640 a little while in this comedy thing that was happening. 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.040 And then I was like back, moved back in with 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.280 my parents, so almost like a new low. Then the 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.920 America's funniest people called, So now I'm back up and 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.960 like show biz time, and I flew down to that show, 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.880 sat in the audience was, you know, like the drum 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.680 roll with the Dave Coolier was one of the hosts. 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.160 It was like the whole. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.160 Thing TV's Calliope. 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.560 Calliope from Days of Our Lives. It was a dream 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:54.080 come true. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.440 In the video, Karen is right there in that studio audience, 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.200 in that very chic Jet Black nineteen ninety one one 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.960 hair and Karen does not win. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.400 I won third prize. A four year old girl beat 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.680 me and a man. She said a joke. She was 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.760 what did the farmer say when he lost his tractor? 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:17.600 Where's my tractor? 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:18.960 Fun? 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:19.320 That was? 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.080 I know. No, she's talented, she was good. She was 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:28.920 she deserved it as ten and the man probably. I 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.840 bet we could track her down to who it is. No, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.520 and that girl is Ariana Grande. 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:38.600 The guy who won the big prize was a seventy 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.800 year old guy dressed like a miner from old cowboy movies. 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.720 He did a strip tease to mc hammers, you can't 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:48.280 touch this, and he won ten thousand dollars, but Karen 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:49.600 didn't walk away empty handed. 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.560 I think I got four thousand dollars before taxes. 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.240 But I mean that's early nineties money. That's not bad. 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:56.880 It was, you know what it is. 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.080 It got me out of my parents' house and into 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.320 my apartment to moved to San Francisco to work at 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.920 the Gap and start stand up again with a It 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:10.560 basically relaunched my barely having begun stand up career. 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.840 Where did you see yourself as an adult in that situation? 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:14.800 Like? 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:16.440 What did I think I was going to do? 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.160 Yeah? Where would you have imagined you'd be? 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.240 Now? Honestly, I kind of like this is the dream. 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.880 I'm doing it and I'm thrilled and thrilled every day 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:26.400 about it. 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.480 And has a career in comedy looked the way that 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.160 you imagined it would in nineteen ninety one. 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:37.680 The thing that I didn't understand is that everybody that 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.800 moves to Los Angeles is baseline talented at least one thing. 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.680 But there is a ton of people here who are 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:50.920 insanely talented at like four things. And that I think 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.680 I had that was the part that I was the 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.640 most wrong about was Oh, like, I'm super funny, and 0:16:57.680 --> 0:16:59.480 I know a bunch of really super funny comics, and 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:01.480 we're like the funniest people, and it's like, no, no, no, 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:02.880 there's actors. 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.520 Who also are from Broadway who are ten times funnier 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:05.880 than you. 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:10.040 Like those those lessons as I lived in Los Angeles 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.800 and became intensely bewildered at the level of true talent 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.640 that comes to this town and tries to make it. 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:19.720 I just wanted it to be like, no, I'm a 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.119 natural and you know I'm the best or whatever. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.720 But it was like quickly learning that, like you. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.280 Want to tell yourself that, like those pretty hot girls 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.320 that are going in just for the ingreen new roles 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.920 aren't funny, they fucking are. They're funny. They can tap 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:41.600 dance and their models, So go fuck yourself, Karen from Petaluma, 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.560 because your shit ain't flying. You know. There was that 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:50.240 lots of adjustments like that that were really bewildering. But 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.720 then I think, thank God, somewhere along the line that 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:55.600 idea came to me is like, if I want to 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.480 be in this business, I should learn the business so 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.760 that I know what I'm doing and not just be 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.560 standing out here trying to be like an actor or 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.199 a comic, because those people have the least amount of 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.399 power or control. And that's what led me into writing, 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.119 and that's what led me into being behind the scenes 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.880 and learning how it actually works and what the real 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:16.480 business is. 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.200 Yeah, and you've been I mean you've had many, many 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.720 ups and downs, Like there were things that you know, 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:28.959 they're America's funniest people. I mean, it launched a career, 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.520 but it was you know, you weren't flucked immediately from 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:36.719 that to super stardom. So how did you keep What 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:38.399 did you tell yourself to keep going? 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.000 I told myself I was funnier than that four year 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.040 old girl every goddamn day. 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:47.800 I want to get back to something Karen said at 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.240 the beginning of our conversation. Karen flunked out of college. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.520 So did I. I left for college in nineteen eighty 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.679 nine a place called Holy Cross in Massachusetts. I'd been 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.720 on the waiting list, and I think that is why 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:01.160 I was so determined to go there. 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.719 You don't like me perfect, let me chase you. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:06.640 I got there, I was surrounded by people who looked 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.879 like they had it together, which I very much did not. 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:11.359 People who were good at being normal, which I very 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:12.000 much was not. 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.000 A lot of kids from New England, where making fun 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.040 of you is how they show affection, but it's also 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.080 how they make fun of you. Holy Cross is a 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.159 great place. I did not fit in there. This is 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.159 the thing I would find out later. Early in the 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.119 first semester of my freshman year, a bunch of the 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.840 guys on my hall apparently had a big conversation in 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.840 the common area about whether I was gay, which I 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.400 very much was and still am, and at the time 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:37.840 I was very much not ready to deal with it. 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.840 In this conversation, a classmate from my hometown apparently confirmed 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:43.440