Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. I guess the night.
Speaker 2: Is an Emmy nominator writer, actor, comedian who is in
Speaker 2: the new Netflix documentary Outstanding a Comedy Revolution.
Speaker 1: Please welcome Joe Kim Booster.
Speaker 3: A little bit.
Speaker 2: First Da Mandatory Asians on TV and moment. Yes, all right, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: thanks for coming on show man, Thanks for having me. Man, dude,
Speaker 2: I had known you, you know, because you were in
Speaker 2: New York before I got here, and we were both
Speaker 2: comics run around New York. But we were never like
Speaker 2: I feel like, we never really we were orbiting, but
Speaker 2: we never like smashed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and technically still haven't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I knew York before me comedy. Remember you
Speaker 2: always super cool on me. I first moved to America
Speaker 2: and you had me on your show in San Francisco.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I thought we were cool too. And
Speaker 4: then I came to this show and realized you hired
Speaker 4: a different gay Asian person to be a correspondent.
Speaker 1: Who the fuck is Troy a Lota? Okay? Someone young.
Speaker 2: That believe it or not, I have no say on
Speaker 2: the hiring.
Speaker 4: Interesting, I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm learning. No, it was
Speaker 4: I remember meeting you in San Francisco too. When you
Speaker 4: did my show you, I was so intimidated because you
Speaker 4: have this like rotted personality, and you ended up being
Speaker 4: the nicest person on this and you were always so
Speaker 4: welcoming and like the stuff I was talking about in
Speaker 4: that clip, you gave me like actual good advice, which
Speaker 4: you were like, be funny.
Speaker 5: So yeah, on the setting for you said it.
Speaker 4: You said you said it pre the set, and then
Speaker 4: you were If you said it after the set, it
Speaker 4: would have been insulting.
Speaker 2: But what was the context of that.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: We were just shooting the ship and right, well, well,
Speaker 2: I mean this documentary, well that's the thing. You know, comics.
Speaker 2: We love talking about comedy. We talked about all day
Speaker 2: and in this documentary Outstanding on Netflix's kind of like
Speaker 2: a who's who of American not even only American gay comic.
Speaker 4: Global queer comics. And I will say I am like
Speaker 4: such a small part of that tapestry that the documentary
Speaker 4: is so cool because it really shows you, like people
Speaker 4: whose name who should be household names, who were actually
Speaker 4: trailblazing and breaking down barriers and stuff like that. So
Speaker 4: I could go out on stage and talk about Dixon
Speaker 4: and stuff like that without losing my career.
Speaker 1: You know. In fact, I've made a pretty lucrative Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's.
Speaker 2: It's it's meeting meaning your heroes. I guess when you all, yeah,
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 4: We part of the documentary is we did a huge
Speaker 4: show at the Hollywood Bowl. There were like thirty comics
Speaker 4: of like truly every generation there and it's great because
Speaker 4: I think, like, especially when I was coming up, there
Speaker 4: would always be like maybe one queer comic on the
Speaker 4: lineup and that was it. That would be like, that's
Speaker 4: that's too much as it all, and so we rarely
Speaker 4: got to like hang out on the same show, and
Speaker 4: so it was really nice. It was like a nice
Speaker 4: little like homecoming to just all be together on the
Speaker 4: same show backstage on stage.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was something.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was cool. It was cool.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That's that's that's kind of how I feel. And if
Speaker 2: I see you on the lineup, and if I'm on
Speaker 2: the show as well, I'm always like, oh yeah it's Joel.
Speaker 2: You know, it's always like we don't need to explain.
Speaker 2: There's a shorthand and you know, and just for a record,
Speaker 2: I mean that you know, the comics were in that
Speaker 2: documentary while on that show. So the documentary is about
Speaker 2: this big show they did at the Greek Theatre in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, And some of those comics are my heroes too,
Speaker 2: you know. I'm Wanda Sykes was always super cool to me.
Speaker 2: Lily Tomlin, I have her vinyl that bought. I've been
Speaker 2: trying to get her to sign.
Speaker 1: It for good luck. I think you'll get there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one day, maybe I'll be lucky to meet her
Speaker 2: in person. And that was also the Hannah Gasby was
Speaker 2: in that Australia zone and I think that was who.
Speaker 2: I mean, we could go on all that Margaret show,
Speaker 2: who like talk about Trail Lazer like she is the
Speaker 2: reason I do what I do now today, like bar Nune,
Speaker 2: Like she was the I said in the clip, like
Speaker 2: I wanted to talk about the stuff that people wanted
Speaker 2: to keep behind the curtain, and she was doing that
Speaker 2: at a time when it was actually risky to do that,
Speaker 2: you know. And so yeah, she she really is the
Speaker 2: person who opened the door for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like like comics we always like like to
Speaker 2: tip of the cap to the I don't know, we
Speaker 2: just always like heritage, you know, like our comedy heroes,
Speaker 2: like we almost I don't know about you, but I
Speaker 2: almost feel more beholden to them than than the audience
Speaker 2: in some ways, like I just want to you.
Speaker 4: Know, right, No, it's so funny, like I could be
Speaker 4: crushing in a room, but like I'm paying attention to
Speaker 4: the people standing at the back of the room, who
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh my god, Ronnie seeing this joke five
Speaker 4: thousand times like.
Speaker 1: Always hates it, you.
Speaker 4: Know, But no, I honestly, Runnie, and this is not
Speaker 4: just me sucking you're national TV, but you you are
Speaker 4: that person for me, like you are you are for.
Speaker 1: A lot of them are No, I mean it sincerely.
Speaker 2: You made me sound like a piece of ship when
Speaker 2: you said I gave you advice.
Speaker 1: That doesn't SOSSND Like, guys, I'm.
Speaker 2: Not going on to people showing going like hey, here's
Speaker 2: my advice from.
Speaker 1: It wasn't Sun. It wasn't so much advice.
Speaker 4: I think I was probably complaining and being like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm I'm I'm always getting told like what to say
Speaker 4: and what not to say. And I think for you,
Speaker 4: your reaction to that as a as a comic was
Speaker 4: just like it doesn't matter, like the subject matter. It
Speaker 4: doesn't matter, you know, if you're gay, straight, by whatever
Speaker 4: it is. At the end of the day, if you're funny,
Speaker 4: you're funny. That's why, like, I still do stand up
Speaker 4: because it's the it's the closest thing to a meritocracy
Speaker 4: in our industry because like with all the politics and
Speaker 4: everything of people saying like, oh I only got here
Speaker 4: because I'm a diversity high or whatever.
Speaker 1: When I'm not on stage, that's my whole career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's my whole career.
Speaker 4: But when we're out on stage and people are either
Speaker 4: laughing or they're not laughing, you can't.
Speaker 1: Take the funk. Yeah, you don't laugh because of woke guys. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's not how it works.
Speaker 4: Like It's just like, no matter how progressive you want
Speaker 4: to seem, if the joke isn't funny, then you're not laughing.
Speaker 4: And that's why like stand up feels so good because
Speaker 4: I like, nobody can tell me shit because these people
Speaker 4: are laughing, you.
Speaker 2: Know, yes, And so for yeah, I agree, totally agree,
Speaker 2: and for all its flaws, stand up is the meritocracy.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think sometimes it's hot to explain
Speaker 2: comedy to people. I mean, I quote you in a
Speaker 2: recent Esquot audicle. Oh no, sorry, Hollywood reported audicle. I
Speaker 2: read all your press repressed. You said, like, the mission
Speaker 2: can't come first. It has to be comedy first. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: and sometimes it's hot to explain that to people. And
Speaker 2: so that's why what did you find it difficult in
Speaker 2: this documentary to talk about comedy versus you know, just
Speaker 2: doing it?
Speaker 4: Well, No, because like when you're in a doc and
Speaker 4: you're sitting behind the camera and you're being interviewed like that,
Speaker 4: it's not comedy. But like I think the biggest pep
Speaker 4: beeve and the thing is is like people of all
Speaker 4: political stripes, across the political spectrum do this when a
Speaker 4: stand up show turns into a ted talk I'm out,
Speaker 4: you know, like I do, Like where are the jokes?
Speaker 4: You know, Like you can't just come out and say
Speaker 4: an opinion and expect applause and sometimes you get it,
Speaker 4: but it's it's applause is not laughter, you know, So
Speaker 4: you can't be mission for you always have to be
Speaker 4: thinking at the end of the day, is it funny?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: I think yeah, No, I no, I agree completely, and
Speaker 2: you know, and that's I think that's also how I
Speaker 2: feel so much kinship with you, not just the not
Speaker 2: just the Asians on whatever, but like as comedians, you know,
Speaker 2: because sometimes it's we're both out there and we're both
Speaker 2: trying to make it happen in weird bas and like
Speaker 2: in New York City, and oftentimes, you know, I never
Speaker 2: really play this cod a lot, but oftentimes on the lineup,
Speaker 2: and there's no other Asians on that lineup, you know,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't you just gotta because I.
Speaker 4: Think there's this weird assumption that because we take some
Speaker 4: of the same demographic checkboxes that all of material will
Speaker 4: be the same. But it's like you and I will never.
Speaker 2: Ye two more different as Asian.
Speaker 1: As men, as like any of it.
Speaker 4: We just we're not We're not.
Speaker 1: In the top bottom.
Speaker 2: And it's just different, just totally different. But anyway, Joe, hey,
Speaker 2: you're you're my brother in many ways and one you've
Speaker 2: been thank you for being so cool. You plus him
Speaker 2: to America. You're killing it right now. I love everything
Speaker 2: you do, everything you do. Always watch it and you're
Speaker 2: the best. Uh. Joe King booths out standing.
Speaker 1: A commonly revolution, or at least on Netflix.
Speaker 2: June eighteenth, Joe King Boost everybody.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to.
Speaker 1: The Damny Show.
Speaker 2: My guest tonight is an actor and comedian. We said
Speaker 2: our special is called good Grief. Please welcome Marlon Wayans.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: The people love.
Speaker 1: You, they do. You know, I'm a little jealous of
Speaker 1: you right now. I want to rob you up that
Speaker 1: seat right with me. You are in this scene, I know,
Speaker 1: and I know how it feels. And I miss me
Speaker 1: being over there and asking some idiots some questions over here.
Speaker 1: This is not There's so much power in yourself.
Speaker 2: The power of the namy here is completely Yeah, there's
Speaker 2: a big celebrity over here, and I'm just the humble
Speaker 2: daily show host who has been watching your family since
Speaker 2: I was a kid in Malaysia. In Malaysia.
Speaker 1: Yeah he was in Malaysia. Yeah, somebody wants some money.
Speaker 1: That's what we is.
Speaker 2: Only local. Yeah, you know, I always uh have to
Speaker 2: considutly really hot to say Wayan's because in Malay Whyan
Speaker 2: older brother, no, it means neple bit No, it means
Speaker 2: uh means no, No, it means performance, it means performance.
Speaker 2: I go Wayne's, Wayne's is not not because it's just
Speaker 2: a language. That's why you need to have, you know, friends,
Speaker 2: of every culture because you never know what your name means.
Speaker 1: No, it's true.
Speaker 5: I went to Bali and I found out that and Wayne,
Speaker 5: it was all over the place Wayne, and I was
Speaker 5: just like, I don't know how my name came about,
Speaker 5: but Wayne means older brother and Indonesia. So and then
Speaker 5: my grandma I think she got high and our last
Speaker 5: name was Wayne w A.
Speaker 4: And Ean.
Speaker 1: I think she smoked some weed and was like, I like, Waye,
Speaker 1: it's better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but speaking staking out family. But this new special
Speaker 2: I watched. It's super funny, very touching, very very emotional.
Speaker 2: Know some would say, I don't know if you I
Speaker 2: don't spoil anything, but the opening to it already kind
Speaker 2: of gets you in because I don't know how much
Speaker 2: I can. I don't want to.
Speaker 1: You can talk. It's on Amazon, Bro, so to watch
Speaker 1: it right now. It's great.
Speaker 2: No, it's on today, okay, and it's called Good.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna bootleg it. It's on.
Speaker 2: It's it's about it's called Good Grief, and it's about
Speaker 2: grief and in it you you it's I should clarify,
Speaker 2: it's super funny, but you talk about you dealing with
Speaker 2: the death of a lot of people, and uh what
Speaker 2: What really kind of drew me in right from the
Speaker 2: first second was the opening sequence. You kind of play
Speaker 2: these voicemails.
Speaker 5: Ye parents and me walking down the street and I'm
Speaker 5: walking through all the places that I grew up around
Speaker 5: New York and where they grew up in Harlem, and
Speaker 5: you know, all because I it was I want the
Speaker 5: audience to kind of know, get an introduction and an
Speaker 5: investment into the people, into the voices of my mom
Speaker 5: and my dad and what kind of what I experience
Speaker 5: with them. So it's not just like I wonder how
Speaker 5: they were. You get a little slice of.
Speaker 2: It, right and did you were you worried that'd be
Speaker 2: too much of a bummer.
Speaker 5: No, then I knew I had to follow myself. Then
Speaker 5: then you know, you got to be really funny so
Speaker 5: that I like the added pressure, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: it'd be sad if I couldn't overcome it.
Speaker 1: Comedy wasn't hot enough.
Speaker 2: You got to stock the deck against yourself.
Speaker 1: With the should have stopped at the beginning.
Speaker 2: No, it's very touching because I'm not sure if it's clear,
Speaker 2: but you know your parents passed away. Now you play
Speaker 2: the voicemail and I think people who have had parents
Speaker 2: pass away, they as soon as you play it, you
Speaker 2: know it's already oh man, like it really just but
Speaker 2: that's really get you in the mood for laughing.
Speaker 1: And common.
Speaker 2: Dead parents void last words to your son, and they're
Speaker 2: all touching. I'm like, I'm already there, like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: I was just like, but it's true. That's when you
Speaker 1: know it's funny.
Speaker 5: When you could take something that's not supposed to be
Speaker 5: something funny, something that is painful, something that look at
Speaker 5: our news, look with the daily shows every day, you
Speaker 5: take something that is tragic with politics, and you go
Speaker 5: clean it's funny about it.
Speaker 2: That's very ye, that's a very noble pursuit. And yeah,
Speaker 2: because I'm I'm a I'm an aspiring comic myself, and
Speaker 2: I just wonder, I just wonder, like when you do
Speaker 2: comedy specials, you know, you've you've been in this industry
Speaker 2: for so long now, you know you've seen so many.
Speaker 2: You know, you've got decades, if not centuries on me
Speaker 2: in life, and and you know, and you're just so
Speaker 2: old you don't look at but you've seen so many.
Speaker 2: You know, you've seen streaming services, you've seen cable TV,
Speaker 2: you've seen.
Speaker 6: Specials, seen cell phones, you've.
Speaker 1: Seen when they had to do the shadow. I'm so
Speaker 1: tad of you young bitches. All you got his years
Speaker 1: on me.
Speaker 2: But like you've see some specials, and I guess, like
Speaker 2: my question is, like, when you feel a young comic
Speaker 2: was coming to you asking you about comedy specials, is
Speaker 2: that something you would tell them what not to do
Speaker 2: with a comedy special? You know how long A.
Speaker 1: Don't rush b.
Speaker 5: Wait until you have like enough time under your belt
Speaker 5: that you understand your point of view.
Speaker 1: It's only special.
Speaker 5: I think when you start digging into pain and it's
Speaker 5: okay to drop one or two, but then three, four, five,
Speaker 5: and six and you as you go down the road,
Speaker 5: I think it's more important. Not because comedians want to
Speaker 5: talk about the world. They want to talk about sports,
Speaker 5: they want to talk.
Speaker 1: About pop culture, they want to talk about politics.
Speaker 5: I think the best comedians talk about themselves and talk
Speaker 5: about their pain, and they go, what's funny about this?
Speaker 5: And they're vulnerable, and I think that's more healing and
Speaker 5: funnier and lasts long longer than anything that is in
Speaker 5: pop culture and yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's that's that's why it once it's almost
Speaker 3: like you you get to a place of comedy that
Speaker 3: you get so good at comedy you can talk about
Speaker 3: pain now instead of just trying to.
Speaker 5: Because it's more therapy, right, It's deeper than just a
Speaker 5: bunch of jokes.
Speaker 1: It's easy to tell jokes for.
Speaker 5: Like sixty minutes, but it's hard to have a sixty
Speaker 5: minute therapy session that hasn't alixa for the audience to
Speaker 5: come away and go, wow, that really helped my life.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to change their mood. That's what we
Speaker 1: do in comedy.
Speaker 5: But if you give them a little nugget that helps
Speaker 5: change their life and you know, help them stay out
Speaker 5: of two hundred fifty dollars therapy sessions like I.
Speaker 1: Did, then then you did something all right.
Speaker 2: And I mean in your special you kind of joke
Speaker 2: about celebrities, and we you know, I also joke about celebrities.
Speaker 2: But I think the difference between you and me is
Speaker 2: that you're a famous enough to actually know these people.
Speaker 2: So when you kind of basically I don't want to
Speaker 2: butcher the joke, but when you when you talk about
Speaker 2: Shack and you're shitting on shack. You got to go
Speaker 2: to this guy's birthday party afterwards.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I may skip that, but here I only talk
Speaker 6: about people that either I know I could be like
Speaker 6: Kevin Hart, Oh that's a next.
Speaker 1: Special gow.
Speaker 6: Him, or people that I know can't catch me checked
Speaker 6: because his knees is bad.
Speaker 1: He can barely catch Charles Barkley. He don't want none
Speaker 1: of this. Okay, I'm staying out of this clip.
Speaker 3: This is.
Speaker 2: And and you know, like I was saying earlier that
Speaker 2: I've been watching your family kind of on TV in
Speaker 2: Malaysia for so long now, he's only such an entertainment family.
Speaker 2: And one of my good friends, Rodwood Junior, he speaks
Speaker 2: very highly of you, and he always said, yeah, and
Speaker 2: your family is so sprawling and there's a lot of
Speaker 2: people in entertainment. And Roy would tell me, like, you
Speaker 2: don't understand how the Wayiam's role. They don't. They don't
Speaker 2: go Nepple baby, they go. You gotta prove it yourself.
Speaker 1: You got a lot of work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I mean.
Speaker 5: The amount of work that Keenan and put me and
Speaker 5: sew and Damon put me and Sean through was crazy
Speaker 5: because you.
Speaker 1: Can't just show up be like I'm a wayns.
Speaker 5: No, you show up and you're gonna be away in
Speaker 5: people gonna have these high expectations of you. So now
Speaker 5: we had to go through this rigorous training before we
Speaker 5: did Don't Be a Minute, our Forest movie.
Speaker 1: My brother Keingdan made us write twenty.
Speaker 5: Six drafts of the movie before we even started filming,
Speaker 5: and we didn't understand why. And then we did the
Speaker 5: movie and the director messed the movie up, so they
Speaker 5: gave us money to film for seven days a whole
Speaker 5: new movie. So my brother looks at us and go, Okay,
Speaker 5: what movie you're gonna right now?
Speaker 1: We was like, what, we have no more to do?
Speaker 1: And he was like, he made us go through it.
Speaker 5: And because we went through those twenty six drafts, we
Speaker 5: were prepared to write that whole next draft that became
Speaker 5: Don't Be a Minute. So everything is training because you
Speaker 5: don't want to fail. And when you get these opportunities,
Speaker 5: because if you fail, it's gonna take so long to
Speaker 5: get back here, so we may sure before we send
Speaker 5: you out there that you're preparing.
Speaker 2: So how do I join this family? Because it sounds
Speaker 2: this sounds like Korean boy band training dudes, where you
Speaker 2: got people in wherever trained to be wig ins that
Speaker 2: like all loaded up already, like you should be do
Speaker 2: a Mathima class something to be a way.
Speaker 1: I like the Korean boy band.
Speaker 2: The Korean boy bands, they trained super hard. Well okay,
Speaker 2: well I'm.
Speaker 1: You want to do comic. You just just joined the
Speaker 1: Korean boy man ship right now. That's that's it, dude.
Speaker 2: Those guys are literally like they trained like the military.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Korean boy bands they trained like you can't. You know.
Speaker 2: They got to keep the body shape. They got to
Speaker 2: every day they're practicing.
Speaker 1: And then maybe maybe there are wings.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, you know, I'm very happy to be the
Speaker 2: first Asian person you ever spoken to.
Speaker 1: So it's uh uh it's a real for me.
Speaker 3: Thank you for giving me your time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really appreciate it. But your legend man, thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm a tour. I'm dropping.
Speaker 5: I'm going on tour in September. New tour, Newman sets
Speaker 5: called Skittles. Uh tickets June fourteenth on my website, Uh
Speaker 5: Molin Wayne's official and uh good Grief on Amazon right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, everybody, everybody explore more shows from the Daily
Speaker 2: Show Podcast Universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you
Speaker 2: get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven ten Central
Speaker 3: on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.
Speaker 1: This has been a Comedy Central podcast