Yedoye Travis is Stretching

Summary

Podcast Summary: So True with Caleb Hearon

Episode: "Yedoye Travis is Stretching"
Date: December 11, 2025
Host: Caleb Hearon
Guest: Yedoye Travis
Producer: Michelle

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Overview

In this rich, lively episode, Caleb Hearon sits down with comedian, writer, and multi-hyphenate performer Yedoye Travis. Across a wide-ranging and dynamic conversation, they explore comedy’s business and ethos, creative authenticity, stretching (in both the physical and metaphorical sense), the cycles of “yes men” and “no men” in one’s life, and what it means to stay relevant and principled as an artist under capitalism. The two friends blend insightful critique with deep personal honesty, touching on everything from stretching routines to Richard Pryor, Dragon Ball Z, favorite books, and why most comedians are chasing, or resisting, the allure of playing it safe.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Year of Slipping Out & Becoming the “Stretching Guy”

(06:48–09:32)

• Yedoye describes his past year as intentionally withdrawn: work, stand-up, soccer, and stretching.

• He’s unexpectedly become known for stretching, even inspiring Caleb (“When I think of you now, stretching is a huge pillar of you to me.” — Caleb, 08:17).

• Yedoye admits people overemphasize stretching; it’s more beneficial after physical activity.

  Quote (Yedoye, 08:31):
  “I think people are overemphasizing the stretch ... you’re unlocking positions you’re not comfortable in ... and then you’re putting yourself at risk.”

  Insight:
  Stretching, like much self-improvement, can be misunderstood or misapplied. Yedoye sees it as an analogy for how people chase trends or routines without context.

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2. The Value of “No Men” and Recalibrating Reality

(10:11–13:40)

• The two discuss the importance of having honest people—“no men”—in your life.

• Yedoye prefers having friends who ground him, rather than “yes men” who echo-flatter.

• Living alone made Yedoye feel he could be “anybody.” Social feedback is crucial for self-knowledge.

  Quote (Yedoye, 11:47):
  “I think you’re supposed to have people in your life that are like, ‘don’t do that.’ ... You need to be reminded of who you are every now and then.”

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3. Comedy Career & the Pressure to Articulate a Voice

(15:33–17:47)

• Yedoye taped a comedy hour (“Fatherless Behavior”) at Union Hall and plans to release it on YouTube soon.

• He’s been unable to move forward creatively until finishing the special, viewing it as a foundational stake in the ground for his comedic voice.

  Quote (Yedoye, 16:28):
  “After this point, don’t ask me no fucking questions about what my jokes are about, because I’m not ... talking about how you can’t say nothing no more – because you can. Yeah, you can say something some more.”

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4. Reflections on Comedy Venues & Community

(17:52–20:11)

• Union Hall is a recurring touchstone for both comics; a venue that never loses its appeal despite career progress.
• Yedoye notes the venue’s versatility and its ability to draw a performer's “real” crowd.

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5. Stand-Up Influences & the Comedy Tradition

(22:21–28:07)

• Yedoye cites Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy as major early influences, sharing the ritual of downloading and repeatedly watching “Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip.”

• He loves puns and wordplay, despite trying to resist their pull in his material.

• Caleb recently read Hilton Als’ essay on Pryor in White Girls and recommends it.

  Quote (Yedoye, 26:47):
  “I’ve done stand up for 13 years ... it has taken me so much energy to resist the fact that I’m ultimately a pun guy.”

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6. Artistic Growth & Breaking from Safe Comedy

(34:28–39:33)

• They discuss how Pryor and Carlin evolved from “boring suit-and-tie” acts to revolutionary comics who couldn’t suppress their true perspectives as the world changed.

• Yedoye ties this need for artistic risk-taking to his own life, and expresses boredom and disappointment with comics who milk the status quo for safety and profit.

  Quote (Caleb, 36:33):
  “Their work would have died with them. And now they’re going to live on as legends forever because they actually decided to pay attention and give a shit.”

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7. Capitalism, Comedy, and the Cycle of Success

(45:24–47:31)

• Yedoye proposes that stand-up—and art in general—won’t fundamentally change until it is disentangled from the demands of capital.

• He’s trying to move towards sustainable patronage (e.g., ongoing support vs. per-project sales), to decouple creative output from boom-bust cycles.

  Quote (Yedoye, 45:18):
  “Stand up comedy is not really going to change until we remove the yoke of capital from it … not have it be a situation of: here’s this piece of art, you pay for this.”

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8. On Ethical Choices and Taking Money

(48:01–51:59)

• Caleb and Yedoye agree that “ethical under capitalism” is a contradiction, but try to make what little ethical choices they can.

• The choices that matter most are for people with the privilege and means to say “no” to tainted sources.

  Quote (Caleb, 49:26):
  “If you’re making the kind of money I suspect that you’re making, I think you easily could have [said no].”

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9. “So True” Segment – Over-Intellectualizing vs. Instinct

(52:08–53:47)

• Asked what’s “so true,” Yedoye asserts that humanity’s intelligence is “getting in the way” of our progress; we suppress instincts and feelings in favor of overthinking.

  Quote (Yedoye, 52:12):
  “I think we are too smart for our own good. I think our intelligence is getting in the way of so much of what we could achieve just by feeling shit out.”

  • References System of a Down lyrics making more sense now than ever.

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10. Books, Dragon Ball Z, Art and Anarchist Readings

(55:02–66:37)

• Yedoye talks about his love for Dragon Ball Z, Toonami, and its unexpected universality among Black men; gives practical watch order for Caleb.
• On books: recommends Ursula K. Le Guin (The Dispossessed), The Dawn of Everything, and Ecology of Freedom.
• Shares niche knowledge on Kurdish history and Abdullah Öcalan, connecting anarchism, early matriarchal societies, and the social function of storytelling.

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11. True/False Lighting Round

(66:39–68:31)

• Yedoye aces a playful true/false quiz (11 out of 15)—winning $50.
• Questions range from science trivia to Atlanta-related facts and Dragon Ball Z minutiae.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the comfort of "no men":
  “I think you're supposed to have people in your life that are like, ‘don't do that’. … You need to be reminded of who you are every now and then.” — Yedoye, 11:47

• On art and the marketplace:
  "I'd much rather put myself in a situation where … if you got a couple dollars a month, just like throw it my way so that I can not have to stress about rent till the next one" — Yedoye, 45:48

• On the boredom of tame comedy:
  "The easy way to do comedy is just play to what everybody fucking knows already … It’s just not interesting to me. It’s so fucking boring.” — Yedoye, 39:34/43

• Dealing with recurring political/ethical debates:
  "None of us get to [exist ethically under capitalism]. I still take money from bad places … But I just wish that more people who had the opportunity to think about these things wouldn’t just … well, it’s $500,000. I couldn’t say no. … I think you could have." — Caleb, 48:59/49:26

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Stretching, Flakiness, and Personal Routines: 06:48–09:32
• The "Yes Men / No Men" Philosophy: 10:11–13:40
• New Comedy Hour & Identity: 15:33–17:47
• Union Hall Venue Chat: 17:52–20:11
• Starting & Influences in Comedy: 22:21–28:07
• Pryor, Carlin, and Breaking Out: 34:28–39:33
• Comedy Under Capitalism: 45:24–47:31
• Ethics and "No Strings" Money: 48:01–51:59
• "So True" Segment: 52:08–53:47
• Dragon Ball Z & Book Recommendations: 55:02–66:37
• True/False Lightning Round: 66:39–68:31

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Tone & Language

The conversation is warm and irreverent, marked by mutual respect, playful teasing, and deep dives into artistic integrity and life philosophy. Both Caleb and Yedoye mix comedic timing with genuine vulnerability, modeling the kind of honest, critical friendship they celebrate throughout the episode.

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For New Listeners

This episode offers a deep, unvarnished glimpse into the minds of working comics wrestling with art, community, risk, and meaning. Even those outside the world of comedy will find resonance in the show’s meditations on social accountability, principled creative work, and the fight to stay awake and alive to what's "really real.”

Transcript

[Chris D'Elia]

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[Yado Yakub]

Not to alter MCD delivery.

[Chris D'Elia]

This is a headgun podcast.

Are there like three books that you're like you would recommend them to anyone or to me specifically that you're like, you must read these.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay, what are your goals in reading?

[Chris D'Elia]

Fantastic question. There is a girl who works at the bookstore Fight Club.

Dude, what's up?

[Yado Yakub]

Oh, you know, we're just having a podcast.

[Chris D'Elia]

You know what they call it? Having a podcast.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, you know, we should do. We should have a podcast.

[Chris D'Elia]

You know, it's. Having a podcast reminds me of, like, I got in trouble with a bunch of my friends when I. After I went to Europe for the first time because I stole some of their turns of phrase. Everyone started making fun of me. I couldn't help it. I like the way they say some things.

[Yado Yakub]

Oh, you stole the European turns. They talk bad, though.

[Chris D'Elia]

But you know what they say some fun stuff. Like, they say, like. Like someone I picked up from them. Someone say, like, oh, are you going to be in town on the 17th? You say, I'm meant to be.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay, okay.

[Chris D'Elia]

I'm meant to be. I like that.

[Yado Yakub]

That's very. That's very British, though.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I. I thought you were saying, like, like, Europe, Europe. They're there, you guys.

[Chris D'Elia]

No fake British Europe.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay. I like. I like the British.

[Chris D'Elia]

What's another thing. What's another thing I did that you got mad at me for?

[Yado Yakub]

The biggest one by. By a mile is you don't say.

[Chris D'Elia]

Come to my house.

[Yado Yakub]

You say, come to mine.

[Chris D'Elia]

Come to mine.

[Yado Yakub]

That's evil.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You think that's a little evil?

[Chris D'Elia]

I cut you off. What were you saying?

[Yado Yakub]

I. I think I like, like, black British phrases. Like my ute. Yeah, My ute.

[Chris D'Elia]

Am I allowed to use that?

[Yado Yakub]

I don't know.

[Chris D'Elia]

Because.

[Yado Yakub]

I don't know. I'm not as well versed in, like, the. The. The. The gatekeeping of black Britain.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

So I don't know. I'm not going to give it to you on their behalf.

[Chris D'Elia]

No, I'm not gonna try it either.

[Yado Yakub]

You can't take that off me.

[Chris D'Elia]

Just so you know.

[Michelle (Producer)]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I'm not gonna try it at the.

Well, fuck. What does that mean?

[Yado Yakub]

You're a. You. You're my. You. You know, you're like my. You're like my friend.

[Chris D'Elia]

Oh, like buddy. Pal.

[Yado Yakub]

Like buddy.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay.

[Yado Yakub]

Like you lot.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, yeah, you lot. I can definitely do.

[Yado Yakub]

I'm allowed that one. I like you lot. You can't say it like that, though. No, you lot.

[Chris D'Elia]

Well, it's just tricky because you. It's. It's. The accents get tricky because sometimes it's not just British, there's another element.

[Yado Yakub]

Right.

[Chris D'Elia]

Going on. And then it's like, what am I doing?

[Yado Yakub]

Right, right, right. And I also don't know.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I cannot tell.

[Chris D'Elia]

No, you have to tell me. You know what? I'm begging you to tell me.

[Yado Yakub]

I'm reaching. I'm reaching into other people's confidence. I truly don't know.

[Chris D'Elia]

Being a white guy. Yeah. It's hard.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'd love to. Example.

[Chris D'Elia]

I mean, this, for example, like, this was crazy. Can I say that? Can I not say that right?

[Yado Yakub]

You mean this moment right now? Yeah, yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Can I say the thing? Can I say that's hard? Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Well, you. You can.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. I'm not gonna try it. Could you imagine I say it and we find out it's some horrible thing in Britain.

[Yado Yakub]

I would love that so much.

[Chris D'Elia]

You would love my whole cancel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you really?

[Yado Yakub]

I. Well, see, here's the thing is it's always fun to watch. Yeah. It doesn't matter who it is.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I think you're a very kind man. You know, you're.

[Chris D'Elia]

You, you.

[Yado Yakub]

You've been great to me. You're a kind guy. But, like, from a. From a distance, I'd watch.

[Chris D'Elia]

Whose cancellation have you enjoyed the most?

[Yado Yakub]

You know what? I didn't expect you to ask me for an example. Now that I'm real. Now I'm thinking about it. I got a kind heart, man. I don't like it.

[Chris D'Elia]

You feel like a sweetie to me.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't like watching people get canceled. It's a. It's a very bad experience. I'm also notorious flip flopper.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

It's my thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Taking big stances and then taking it back.

[Yado Yakub]

Yep. Yeah. I walk it right back.

[Chris D'Elia]

What's your big. What do you think should have been your biggest flip flop?

[Yado Yakub]

Do you remember that one just now?

[Chris D'Elia]

Just now was your biggest.

[Yado Yakub]

That was it. Just now. That's the one that established me as a flip flopper.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before that, you were not a flip flop.

[Yado Yakub]

Before that, I was absolutely not a flip flopper. Genesis, me becoming a flip flopper is the biggest flip flop for me.

[Chris D'Elia]

Oh, man, I'm so excited to have you here. I haven't seen you in a minute. Last time I saw you, I think, was it the basement of union hall.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah. This was like. And I was on my way out, too. That was barely even a sighting.

[Chris D'Elia]

No, it was horrible. I went upstairs to try and find you because I felt. But I actually felt bad. I.

We had a quick hug and a hello, and then I lost you.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And then I came up to be like. I was like. I put in my head. I said, I'm gonna talk to you. Doy. When I get upstairs and then I went up there and you were gone.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, that's. That's been my. My way of being the past year.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I'm very. I've been very in and out, slipping out.

[Chris D'Elia]

What do you think that's about?

[Yado Yakub]

You know, it's been quite a year of. I just don't want to be outside.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, that's. I don't even know if there is more to it than that. I just. You know, sometimes you have. That. You have those times in your life where you're like, I've had enough.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Not in like a. Like a.

[Chris D'Elia]

No one be worried. You know what I mean?

[Yado Yakub]

Not in that kind of way.

[Chris D'Elia]

No one be worried.

[Yado Yakub]

Nobody stress out. Yeah. But, you know, sometimes you're just like. I've seen it.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. I've been at Union Hallway before. I know what goes on over there.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. And it's been very much that kind of year for me. I've been doing the same thing, the same three things all year.

[Chris D'Elia]

What are they?

[Yado Yakub]

I've been going to work. I am a carpenter in the theater. I've been doing standup, and I've been playing soccer.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay. I knew all these things about you. And I'll say a fourth thing that I think you're doing that you didn't mention. Yes, you're stretching.

[Yado Yakub]

I'm stretching. I'm stretching. That in many ways, is an auxiliary thing to playing soccer, but, yes, I am stretching.

[Chris D'Elia]

You're really stretching. I see you stretch online and I go, I gotta stretch. You gotta stretch because you're doing really good at it.

[Yado Yakub]

Thank you.

[Chris D'Elia]

And it's inspiring to me.

[Yado Yakub]

Thank you.

I have definitely added that to my personality. That's become a big part of me in the past year or so.

[Chris D'Elia]

It's a huge pillar of you to me now.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Stretching.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

When I think of. I'm not even kidding you. I was at the gym the other day, and I was. I was kind of phoning in my stretching. I'm dead serious. In my head, I was like, DOI would hate this.

[Yado Yakub]

You know what?

[Chris D'Elia]

He would hate to see you like this.

[Yado Yakub]

You know what? Here's the thing, though. Yes. But also, I think people. I think people. This is going to sound crazy after I've been established as the stretching guy, but I think people are overemphasizing the stretch.

[Chris D'Elia]

Really.

[Yado Yakub]

When they. Or they're doing it. They're doing the stretch at the wrong times. Because sometimes, you know, when you stretch, you're unlocking positions that you're not comfortable in. Yeah. You're unlocking positions that you're not. You don't have the strength.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And then you're going out and you're playing sports or you're going and lifting weights. You're putting yourself in a. In a risky position.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You got to go. Go lift the stuff, get your strength. And then you stretch after you. You know, once you're. You're tired and you're relaxed and you're. You're not planning on exerting a bunch of energy, you know, I'm.

[Chris D'Elia]

Team stretch after the.

[Yado Yakub]

Team stretch after the event.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes. Yeah. Get you a nice warmup, lubricate the joints, if you will.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And then stretch after the fact. You don't need. You don't need to be able to do the splits.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You don't need that.

[Chris D'Elia]

Oh, I will never.

[Yado Yakub]

You could.

[Chris D'Elia]

I won't you?

[Yado Yakub]

Well, you could.

[Chris D'Elia]

I could, but I think we both know I would look hilarious doing the sports. I not going to look hilarious like that. Well, tell me I wouldn't look hilarious if. Imagine me doing the splits right now. And tell me you're not kind of giggling.

[Yado Yakub]

I'm. I'm giggling a little bit, but.

But I'll also. I'll tell you whatever you want to hear. You know what I mean?

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. Would you really?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, I guess.

[Chris D'Elia]

I guess I do like that. I love hearing what I want to hear. It is tough to hear what you don't want to hear.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, because the things you don't want to hear, you got to hear them.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. You know, I tell. I've told. I've told a lot of people in my life that I don't want to be surrounded by yes men.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

But every time I say it, there's a little part of my head that's like, unless you really want to.

If you really want to say yes to me all the time.

[Yado Yakub]

I guess here's the thing. I think you either got to. You got to be around all yes men are all no men. You know what I mean? I don't think you can ever, you.

[Chris D'Elia]

Know, you don't think there could be harmony between the yes and no men.

[Yado Yakub]

I don't think. No. No. Because I think, like, if you're around. If you're around, like, yes men all the time and you hear no, it feels like, oh, so I'm just Jeffrey Epstein, huh? Yeah, so I'm Jeffrey Epstein.

[Chris D'Elia]

Oh, I'm Jeff Epstein to y'.

[Yado Yakub]

All. I'm just Jeffrey Epstein, huh? Oh, I'm evil. No, I guess I'm just. I'm just Hitler.

[Chris D'Elia]

I'm hearing no for the first time. Feels like being Hitler.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. If you're surrounded by yes men. Yeah. Yeah, it does.

[Yado Yakub]

It does, it does. And then if you're surrounded by no men forever and you hear. You hear your first yes, it changes you. Yeah. You know, it changes you in a much less funny way.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, I don't have a bit prepared for that, but, you know, it's a different experience, you know, like, you.

[Chris D'Elia]

Have a lot of yes men or no men in your life.

[Yado Yakub]

I. I think I have almost exclusively no men.

[Chris D'Elia]

Really?

[Yado Yakub]

And it's in and it's great. It's a great thing. Yeah. I think. I think you're supposed to have people in your life that are like, you don't do that.

[Chris D'Elia]

Don't do that.

[Yado Yakub]

You're not that guy.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know what I mean? And it's not to say that, like, they're discouraging. It's just to remind. I feel like you need to be reminded of, like, who you are every now and then.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I lived alone for, like, two years, and, like, I think you live. You leave that experience feeling like I could be anybody. I could.

[Chris D'Elia]

I have.

[Yado Yakub]

Nobody's seen me for two years. I could be any guy. Yeah. You know, I don't know what's happened.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

They have no clue. They don't know what's going on in here.

[Chris D'Elia]

You know, in my lair.

[Yado Yakub]

In my lair. They don't know what links I got. They don't know what I'm talking about. Clicking. Yeah. You know what I'm clicking. You know what I mean?

[Chris D'Elia]

They don't know what I'm clicking.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. I feel like if you're living in the real world and you got. You got your, like, reasonable. No people around you.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Then you got. You got somebody to be like, hey, you. You were not on that yesterday.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Don't suddenly be on that today, you know?

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. Yeah, I guess maybe that would be. Not anybody who's ever said no to me. I fired them or cut them off.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. And that's going to change you in a crazy way.

[Chris D'Elia]

It already has you. Well, I've become a bad guy.

[Yado Yakub]

And you know what? Maybe I met you as a bad guy and I don't know what a bad guy looks like.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

So you're in on the illusion.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. So I'm like, I met you at this point.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And so my, My, my character judgment is just.

[Chris D'Elia]

Do you think You're a good judge of character.

[Yado Yakub]

I think, generally. Yes, I think you are. But if I. If I. If I meet you at the wrong time, who knows?

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay.

I'm a great judge of character. That.

Who knows?

[Yado Yakub]

I think. I think everybody could. I think everybody has a window in their life where they can kind of reset. Yeah. You know what I mean? Where you can, like, gather new people around you and they can't tell for a little bit.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know what I mean?

[Chris D'Elia]

I think that's true.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

So exception is real.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. So I think. I think I'm a good judge of character, but I think there's a lot of. There's a lot of good judges of. Good judges of character.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You can, like. You can spot who is a good judge of character, and you can know not. Not to be around that person, if that makes sense.

[Chris D'Elia]

You can spot who's a good judge of character, and you can know not to. You're saying if.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay, if you're a bad guy.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yes. Yeah.

[Michelle (Producer)]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You can spot who can tell?

[Chris D'Elia]

And you stay away from.

[Yado Yakub]

Stay away from those because you don't.

[Chris D'Elia]

Want to be found out.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yes. I'm with you 100%.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, that makes sense to me.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, that makes sense to me. Yeah. I think I'm a good judge of character. I have been snowed very rarely, but when I got snowed, it hurt.

[Yado Yakub]

What does that mean to be.

[Chris D'Elia]

To get snowed? Like, to get the wool pulled over my eyes.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay.

[Chris D'Elia]

I've been tricked.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay.

[Chris D'Elia]

Or bamboozled.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Very rarely.

[Yado Yakub]

By hoodwinked.

[Chris D'Elia]

Hoodwinked.

[Yado Yakub]

Very rarely Led astray.

[Chris D'Elia]

Let us try.

[Yado Yakub]

Run them up.

[Chris D'Elia]

Run amok. Fooled. What else is there?

[Yado Yakub]

You just pull up Malcolm X's autobiography.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. Would you mind? Yeah, yeah. But the couple times it's happened to me, it's hurt deeply because I don't view myself as someone who that happens to.

[Yado Yakub]

Right.

[Chris D'Elia]

You know?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

And I don't want it to happen again. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Won't get fooled again I won't get.

[Chris D'Elia]

Well, fool me once. What's that George Bush quote?

[Yado Yakub]

Fool me once. It's fool me once.

[Chris D'Elia]

Shame on you.

[Yado Yakub]

Fool me twice. Well, you can't get fooled again Was.

[Chris D'Elia]

It Jake Cole Sample? That.

Really one of his most iconic quotes? Bush? Yeah. Malcolm X. What a guy. So what?

[Michelle (Producer)]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

You didn't.

[Yado Yakub]

You didn't. You didn't need to really do that. You didn't really need to.

[Chris D'Elia]

We take guest requests seriously on the show. All right, well, whatever you need.

Have you Been doing stand up lately.

[Yado Yakub]

I have been doing a little bit of standup recently.

Maybe this is why. This has been an inside year for me. I taped an hour in February.

[Chris D'Elia]

Congratulations.

[Yado Yakub]

Thank you. And just have not been able to do anything until it's done. You know, sometimes you're just like, I gotta finish the project or else I can never move on.

[Chris D'Elia]

I wish I had that quality. That sounds like an amazing quality to have.

[Yado Yakub]

Well, I think it's ADHD is what it is.

[Chris D'Elia]

Is it okay?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. And so I've just been like, this thing has to be out in the world. Because I feel like it also informs everything that I'm gonna write from this point. If that makes. You know, it does. It feels like the.

The way I went into it was like, this is the special that is going to establish.

What my voice is or what I. What I believe my voice to be.

And after this point, don't ask me no fucking questions about what my jokes are about, because I'm not. I'm not doing your little. I'm not talking about how you can't say nothing no more because you can. Yeah, you can say something some more.

[Chris D'Elia]

And you can reference the work.

[Yado Yakub]

You can.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, I have a piece that you can reference that. This is how I feel about stuff.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

And it's the foundation of the things I'll do moving forward.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

What is. What's. Where you are with in the process?

[Yado Yakub]

I have accepted that. I'm not a good editor myself. I did most of the rough cut and I pass it off to a friend who actually knows what. What they're doing. So hopefully it'll be done by the end of the month.

[Chris D'Elia]

Nice.

[Yado Yakub]

If not early next year.

[Chris D'Elia]

Where. Do you know where it's going to live yet?

[Yado Yakub]

It's going to live on YouTube.

[Chris D'Elia]

Hell yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I love that. Yeah. So you're. The plan is to put it out 20, 26.

[Yado Yakub]

The very rough plan is just within the next month.

[Chris D'Elia]

Oh, put it out in the next month?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Oh, hell yeah. I mean, I knew it would be done, but I didn't know if we were going to like, put it out. Fuck yeah. Let's go. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. I can't sit on it any anymore.

[Chris D'Elia]

That's exciting.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I'm excited for that.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Chris D'Elia]

I can't wait. Everybody have to go watch. Everybody mark your calendars. Some point this thing will come out and you have to go watch it.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, I. I don't know if I. I think maybe I said the name publicly somewhere. I don't. But I don't know where, but it's called Fatherless Behavior. That's behavior. Yeah.

[Michelle (Producer)]

Cool.

[Chris D'Elia]

I can't wait to see it. I'm excited. Where'd you film it?

[Yado Yakub]

Union Hall.

[Chris D'Elia]

Hell, yeah. Union hall is.

Of this, like, interesting. I didn't. I started out in Chicago doing comedy. And so, like, there was this big thing that you would hope for for a couple years when you were, like, starting out in Chicago, which is like, man, someday when I can, like, get venues in New York to book me, which is. At first you're nowhere near that, but then you start to get a little bit of traction. You think, like, man, if I got the right lineup, I could maybe get, like, half the room full at Union Hall. And it's just really. Union hall is this place that's, like, so exciting to, like, go. And then you get here and it. I kind of wondered, like, oh, now that I don't really play, like, venues that small as often anymore, is it something that'll, like, fall out for me mentally, and it actually is such, like, a touch point of the community?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Yeah, it is. I think it. And I think it kind of always will be if that makes, like. I don't think anybody grows out of it.

[Chris D'Elia]

No.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, David Cross still runs his hour there.

However, frequently he runs a new hour.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, like, I don't think anybody ever gets too big to go back there.

[Chris D'Elia]

It's my favorite place to perform.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. It's so fun.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. I love running into buddies. I love seeing shows there.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I'd love to film something there someday. Like, I just think it's the best. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I mean, it's just. It's just like there are. There are rare, like, perfect venues, and I'm not. You know, the clientele upstairs pisses me off. I don't. I don't like the people that hang out there, if I'm being honest.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

But like, just in terms of shape. Yeah. In terms of, like, room shape.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

It's such a perfect room. Just like the perfect, like, low ceilings. And I feel like, you know, every time I go, every time I do a show there that's like my own show, just. Cause I look at Park Slope, the neighborhood itself, and I feel like these are not my people.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

But then I feel like when I put on my own show at Union hall, like, somehow. Somehow my people show up.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, it's just like. I don't know, it feels like a room that you can really mold to whatever experience you want to have, which.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. You're not subject to the neighborhood as much. It feels like your people will come and fill that basement for you.

[Yado Yakub]

Right? Yeah, right. It's. It's like. It's just. It's great.

[Chris D'Elia]

Did you. You're from Atlanta and you went to school. You went to Emory.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

And you studied psychology. When you were in school in Atlanta, had you started comedy yet? Like, when did you. I don't think I know when you started.

[Yado Yakub]

I started comedy when I was.

Junior in college or it was this. It was the summer before my junior year. So, yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I was like, 20.

And I think I only started that late because.

I went to the other campus at Emory, which is in Covington, and so that there just wasn't a lot of places to do stand up. Yeah, I did. I did it the first time when I was 18 at Laughing Skull. Not true. I did it the first time when I was 12.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And then as an adult, Laughing Skull at 18. And then I didn't do it again for two years.

So I was doing standup the last two years. I was in college and moved to LA immediately after I graduated, which was, I won't say a bad decision because I gained a bunch of life experience from it. Did a lot of things that I wouldn't have done otherwise, but it's not a city that I ever want to live in again in my life. Yeah. So. Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And then you came out here.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

That's interesting. Why did you. What do you think it. Okay, so why did you do stand up when you were 18 and then. And then not do it for two years? Like, were you just busy with school or what was the.

[Yado Yakub]

I was. I was. It was partly that I was busy with school, and part of me thought that I just wanted to try it.

Because I was the. I was the guy that. It was always like. Like, in school, just everybody was like, oh, you're so funny. You should try. You should do stand up one. Yeah. And so it felt like the. It felt like a thing that, like, I should do it just to say I did it, you know, And I didn't really think I was gonna do it again. And then once I was, like, close enough to it, it felt like, oh, I've wanted to do this since I was a child. I wrote book reports about Eddie Murphy. Like, what are you talking about? Why would you ever think you didn't want to do this?

[Chris D'Elia]

Book reports on Eddie Murphy is iconic.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, those, like, little. Those little, like, biographies this thin you would get at the school library. Yeah, Like, I just got. What. I just checked one of those out and did a book report on the. On that.

[Chris D'Elia]

Hell, yeah. That rocks. Have you met him?

[Yado Yakub]

I have never met Eddie Murphy. Damn. You know.

I don't know why I said that. Like I expected to ever meet him.

[Chris D'Elia]

But I feel like you would have met Eddie Murphy by now. Yeah, he's around. He's.

[Yado Yakub]

He's not.

[Chris D'Elia]

He's making movies again.

[Yado Yakub]

He's one of the most unaround people.

[Chris D'Elia]

You're really right.

[Yado Yakub]

In black comedy.

[Chris D'Elia]

You're really right. He's not really coming around.

[Yado Yakub]

I met George Wallace. You like George Wallace?

[Chris D'Elia]

I do like George Wallace.

[Yado Yakub]

He's a great guy.

[Chris D'Elia]

One of the greatest Twitters in the history of Twitter.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Chris D'Elia]

He really made that whole platform his own.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Genuinely one of the funniest people I've ever seen.

[Chris D'Elia]

Where'd you meet him?

[Yado Yakub]

I've met him a couple times in Atlanta. Last time I saw him was at Gotham.

The one time I've performed there.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Weirdly enough, Gotham got a new backdrop on the stage in, like, 2017 that I helped install. Cause I was working. Cause I do, like, set carpentry stuff. Didn't perform there for, like, five years after that.

And on the night that I was there, George Wallace, Jim Gaffigan, and Jerry Seinfeld all walked in while I was on stage, all told me I had a good set, which was cool. And then I think Seinfeld was supposed to follow me. And I took great pleasure in being able to say, hey, man, I would love to stick around and watch you, but I got another show. Bye.

[Chris D'Elia]

Hey, dude, best of luck. Keep at it. I got another set.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, I'm sure it would be a very regular set.

But.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, who were your, like, when you were. I mean, obviously Eddie Murphy. Who. Who else were your. Your, like, people when you were, like, growing up and coming into comedy?

[Yado Yakub]

Richard Pryor was like my. My absolute favorite, I think, which is very easy to say, obviously. But, like, I remember when I was in college, I had. I had no WI fi at my. At my apartment and my. And my dad's place where I would go to visit. So I would just like, whenever I would go to my mom's house, I would download whatever movies I could and then take them back to or just like, save them onto my little. My PlayStation and watch them whenever I. And so the movies I had were the Prestige, and then I had Richard Pryor live on Sunset Strip.

I've seen both of those, like, 30 times. Yeah.

And actually the Funniest line of the two is in the Prestige.

There's the scene where he's, you know, David Bowie is Nikola Tesla, and he's like, they're testing this cloning device that can clone not just organic matter, but also inorganic matter. And they make a bunch of copies of.

Hugh Jackman's hat to test this cloning machine that he's using to fake, like, a teleportation device. And he goes out into this field with, like, dozens of the same hat, just, like, have been transported, have been cloned and transported out to this field. And Hugh Jackman goes, well, which one is mine? And then David Bowie goes, they're all your hat, Mr. Angier.

[Chris D'Elia]

That's the big one.

[Yado Yakub]

It's so funny to me, and I don't know why, to this day. I don't know why it's so funny to me. Yeah. But I think it's just the word hat.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, hat.

[Yado Yakub]

But also the fact that he had to say the word hat in the first place. Like, you see all these hats?

It's like, in case you thought you forgot, we were talking about a hat. They're all your hat.

[Chris D'Elia]

That is very funny.

[Yado Yakub]

I just, I don't know. I, I, I've done stand up for 13 years, and in all that time, it has taken me.

So much energy to resist the fact that I'm ultimately a pun guy. I love puns so much. I love, I love stupid wordplay. And that I feel like, falls into that category.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Cup, I think, is the funniest word of all time.

[Chris D'Elia]

Cup is a good one.

[Yado Yakub]

Cup is a great one.

[Chris D'Elia]

It's the hard sounds.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

It's the C and the P of it all. Yeah. And. Yeah. And. Yeah. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yep.

[Chris D'Elia]

I love Richard Pryor was a favorite of mine growing up as well, and I actually, just for the first time, read. Have you ever read the Hilton All's essay on Richard Pryor that's in White Girls?

[Yado Yakub]

No, I have not.

[Chris D'Elia]

It's really good. I just read it for the first time and I, Yeah, I had never read something so, like, I've seen a lot of Richard Pryor growing up. My dad showed me a lot of Richard Pryor, and I've always loved his work, but I hadn't ever read something so.

Like, thorough and kind of. I don't know about beautiful, but thorough and, like, care. Care. Full about him. It was really, really well done. That whole book is great, but the essay on Richard Pryor I think you might like.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay.

[Chris D'Elia]

It was great.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, I would love that if you if you send that to me, I'll.

[Chris D'Elia]

Send it to you. Yeah, I'll make it happen. I'll. I'll just give you the book. I'll. I'll. I'll bring it over to you.

[Yado Yakub]

Oh, thank you.

Yeah. He has one of my. One of my favorite bits ever in that special is. I just love the way he is really great at, like, personifying inanimate objects and, like, animals and things like that. Like, he has this bit where his wife is leaving him and she's like. She's, like, getting in the car to drive away, and he's like, you not leaving me in this motherfucker.

[Michelle (Producer)]

You ain't.

[Yado Yakub]

And he shoots the tire and the tire goes, Ah.

But he has this great bit about how his. He had. He had these two pet monkeys. He got one originally. And the monkey would just, like, try to fuck everybody and everything, you know, because the monkey was too horny. So he got it a girl monkey so they could go out and fuck in the trees or whatever when the monkey was lonely. And. And then the monkeys died.

I forget what happened. I think it was like a carbon monoxide, like poisoning thing, and they both died, and he was really sad about it. And there was this dog that lived next door that saw him. The dog saw him sulking in his yard, and he just jumps over the fence and he goes, hey, what's wrong, Richard? He goes, my monkeys died, man. He goes, oh, man. You mean them little monkeys that used to be fucking up in the trees, man, I was going to eat them too.

And he's just like, man, I'm sad, man. I miss my monkeys. And you.

Well, Richard, it's gonna be okay, man. You know, you just gotta keep your chin up, Richard, you know, and he hops back over the fence and then he turns back around as he's walking away and goes, now, you know I'm gonna be chasing you again tomorrow, Richard.

[Chris D'Elia]

A brief mea culpa, a moment of allyship. But tomorrow it's back on.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

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[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And then they both like basically had like they hit breaking points and we're like I can't fucking do this anymore.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And both then evolved into like their actual act.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And I'm so fascinated by both of them having that path.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. I, I think it must have been just the era. You know. They both came up in the, in the 60s prior kind of wanting to be Bill Cosby in a way. Carlin just kind of coming up like got successful really early, you know. And I, I think about that a lot because.

In some ways I had a similar trajectory. Not that I was like that successful but like I was on tv, I was in writers rooms and stuff like that. And I, I do think about like the guy I could have been had. I just like kept my head down and never thought about, about anything and just like I get it, I get it. Especially being, especially being like that guy.

As Vietnam is starting and just the world feels like it's getting shaken at Its core people are questioning very fundamental things about America as an institution.

I think I would question more the people that, like, just kind of stuck to what they were doing, you know, and just, like, kept their head down. Never, never said anything, you know, that.

[Chris D'Elia]

Was all the advice, too. Like, that was the. The advice that they both got that the big advice for. I was in this essay was talking about. The big advice for Richard was like, if you want to be black and make it be. Be Cosby.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Like, just keep. Keep it cool. Do. Do the sweaters. Do the, like, tame thing for the white audiences.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And for both of them, way more radically, obviously for Prior, but, like, for both of them to choose to talk about actual shit and to break out of that thing that, like, they probably could have made a pretty decent living for the rest of their lives just doing that, but they would have, like, it would have meant nothing. It would have mattered not at all.

[Yado Yakub]

Right.

[Chris D'Elia]

Their work would have died with them.

[Yado Yakub]

Right.

[Chris D'Elia]

And now they're going to live on as legends forever because they actually decided to pay attention and give a shit. And I think that's so interesting and applicable. Applicable to right now because I'm so bored and disappointed by so many people that are just kind of like, cashing in and keeping it tame right now.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

When I'm like, the. Everything is so bad and could be. So you could be making such better jokes.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And you're just, like, putting it right down the middle so that you don't lose any brand deals or whatever.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And I'm bored.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. And you know what? I, you know, I've struggled to.

To, like, escape the feeling that it's in the nature of comedy as it is to do that. Just because comedy did.

Like, it didn't have to be this way, but it was born out of capitalism. It was. It exists. Because vaudeville was too expensive.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, and people were just like, well, what if one guy stood on a stage with a microphone by himself?

[Chris D'Elia]

What if there was no overhead?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. It's literally that. And everybody's like, yeah, nobody wants to fucking see that.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

At first. And then, you know, people got better at it and it started to look like a thing that could be marketable. But even now, like, the. The comedy booms as they've happened, have sort of, like, happened as the economy booms also. It's sort of, I don't know, just ebbs and flows with capitalism as it is. And so it does make sense in a way that people do that. But, like, it. It is really Disappointing to watch that like.

That people are content to sort of live unexamined and.

Not really. And I don't know, I think part of it is like, you know, I. I got a lot of perspective because like I did get a little bit fed up at one point and I just started playing music again. I started playing bass and I was going to jams a lot, pretty much all last year and just gaining perspective about what.

Like preparation looks like as an artist. Realizing like so much of the preparation happens offstage, all the serious stuff happens off stage. And you. I forget who said. I think maybe it was Frank Zappa that said, like, you know, the, like he put out a lot of silly ass music.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And it's like, yeah, the, the. There's a silly element to it, but like the music itself is deadly serious.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, and I think because the nature of performing comedy, it just feels like it's a fucking joke all the time. It feels like you just know how to do it. And nobody really wants to do the, the difficult prep work required to like say something new, you know, Nobody wants to actually. Nobody wants to question their worldview. Nobody wants to read a fucking book that challenges anything they believe in already.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And the easy way to do comedy is just play to what everybody fucking knows already. You know, and it's.

It'S just not interesting to me. It's so fucking boring.

And you know, it just, it. I don't know. I think comics also sit in this, in this space of like not knowing, not knowing if we're important or not.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know.

Because in many ways, like you look at Chappelle for example, and like putting. Putting out four specials back to back, just like railing on trans people for no reason as you get this rise in transphobic sentiment in policy and on the ground, just like person to person and like you wonder how much of an influence he has on it. And I'm. And when that was happening.

I was sort of of the mind that like maybe he's influencing that like his work is pushing this narrative forward. And now I'm just like. It feels like it's a lot more pathetic to me that like y' all are really, y' all are really just riding the wave of what's already happening. Yeah, you're not even like pushing, you're not even pushing the negative part forward. You're just riding, you're just coasting on, on bullshit that's already happening.

[Chris D'Elia]

You're truly just trying that hard to have a good set. It is more pathetic. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Cause we all know every comic knows when you're preparing a set and when you're thinking, you're like, yeah, I'd like to kill tonight. I'd like to do great on my buddy's show. If I'm dropping in, or I'd like to. I'm doing a headlining set, the pressure's even harder or bigger, more intense that you're like, I know. I'll write a joke sometimes that I'm like, this is not very good, but it'll kill.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

You know, and I. Sometimes I say it and sometimes I don't. But, like, that is the more pathetic thing actually, is that when Chappelle's doing shit like that, he actually does know better, and he actually is just that desperate to kill.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And the sad part about it is he's smarter and better than that. Like, he could kill without it.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

But he's just writing the moment.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Which sucks. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And it's really sad to, like. To look at somebody that, like, I idolize as a kid. That was one of my. One of my heroes, you know, Especially in terms of, like, this legacy of. Of, like Cosby to Pryor to Murphy to.

Paul Mooney to him.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, it's like.

He'S like one of the six guys that's really significant in terms of, like, in terms of black comedy. And I don't know, it's just such a sad thing to watch go down.

Fully. Lost my train of thought.

[Chris D'Elia]

You were about to fix comedy.

[Yado Yakub]

Oh, right, right, right, right.

[Chris D'Elia]

I was, like, ready to. I'm, like, ready to support and join in.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right, right, right, right. The daunting weight of intelligence.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What was heartbreaking work of staggering genius is what we were about to do together.

[Yado Yakub]

What's the Nicholas Cage movie? Oh, yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Oh, the. What is that? Nicholas. He just did it. It was a really funny one, actually. It was like the pressure, the immense pressure of the unbearable weight of massive talent.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yes. That's what we were in the middle of.

[Yado Yakub]

That's what we were in the middle of. The unbearable weight of massive. Of talent.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Michelle (Producer)]

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[Yado Yakub]

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[Michelle (Producer)]

Thank you Aura Frames.

[Aura Frames Representative]

And thank you listener.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I feel like I can't help but feel that stand up comedy is not really going to change until we sort of stand up in art in general is not really going to change until we figure out how to remove the.

The like yoke of capital from it.

That makes sense. Like I don't know. The, the. What I've been trying to do with my special is like.

And what I would like to be able to do going forward is like not, not, not have, not have it be a situation of like, here's this piece of art. You pay for this.

I'd much rather put myself in a situation where like, hey, I gotta exist the whole time between these things. So like if you got a couple dollars a month, just like throw it my way so that I can not have to stress about rent till the next one.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know, and just not be in a position where I'm like, where I have to take whatever the fuck comes my way between now and then and I can really like focus on the thing.

I just, I don't know, I Just feel like there has to be.

There has to be some type of way to organize this thing economically where, you know, we're not blowing up on Twitter every six months because our heroes went to Saudi Arabia for, for a week. Yeah. You know, and like.

Or where, like, everybody's funny until they get rich and then they're not.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know.

It just feels like it's. It's sort of set up in this, like, pretty predictable boom and bust cycle, just like capitalism, where, like.

Everybody gets a bag and then they stop being relatable and then they whine about how nobody thinks they're funny anymore and. And then they get canceled and then we. And, like, can't eat anymore because we've attached them being a shitty person to their ability to generate revenue. You know.

It just, it just, it feels like it's so. It feels like such an obvious, like.

An obviously flawed model that we refuse to do anything about.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, there's been this interesting, interesting thing happening lately that's been causing me to think a lot about that is like, I. There's been this.

Like, sometimes the lefty, like, political accounts will clip this show and put it out and be like, look, the, the podcasters are talking about this or whatever.

[Michelle (Producer)]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I might go nuts, whatever. If it helps the cause. But they, they reclaimed something recently about me talking about we turned down AI deals on this show.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And rock on, said it and left it in the episode for a reason. But then there's this interesting thing where people are, like, using it to attack anyone who's ever done an AI deal. And I'm like, I'm actually not so interested in that. I don't want to be. I don't know everyone's finances. I don't know everyone's situation. I don't know. There's so many things I don't know. And when I say something like that on this show that I'm like, you know, we don't do deals with AI or we don't do deals with gambling or whatever the situation is. It's not because I think I'm existing ethically under capitalism. I'm certainly not. I don't. None of us get to. I still take money from bad places and I'm still involved in the process, but I just wish that more people who had the opportunity to think about these things wouldn't just like, it's almost like you talk to people in this business and they're like, well, it's $500,000. I couldn't say no. And it's like, well, you could. I think you could have. Because if you're making the kind of money I suspect that you're making, I think you easily could have.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, Like, I think actually I couldn't say no.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, yeah. A lot of people couldn't say no. You could have.

[Yado Yakub]

You say no.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, yeah. That's the thing. And then. Yeah, and then it's. I. Yeah, I got like. There was a group of people online who were mad at me about that same thing that they were like, that it's the. It's the privilege person take to tell people to turn that down. And I'm like, well, no, I'm not telling you random Twitter user to turn it down. I'm saying, why shouldn't I if I know that my bills are paid without it?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I just, I don't. There's this thing that happens, I think, where when we're having these conversations about, like, the, the nexus of, like being an artist and trying to be like a somewhat moral, like, principled person who exists in the world doing that stuff and also.

Existing under capitalism, the way that we all are trying to figure out how that all melds together, I feel like this thing happens where it's like anything you say is supposed to be a prescription for everybody.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

And I'm like, no, I'm just. I just wish we would all ask a little bit more questions is really the only takeaway I have. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. I mean, the fact is we all have to contend with capitalism in some way. You know, it's like I, I have. I have the show Jaded Forum that I've been doing for a couple years that is like, pretty explicitly. I don't like using the term leftist because people, you know, you say that and people think, you Democrat.

[Chris D'Elia]

You love the Democrats.

[Yado Yakub]

That's low key. Like, my shit.

[Chris D'Elia]

Those are your family.

[Yado Yakub]

Those are my guys. Those are my guys. Fucking Barry and Joe and them.

[Chris D'Elia]

Chuck, Nancy.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, Shout out.

[Chris D'Elia]

They're back there.

[Yado Yakub]

That kente cloth on.

But yeah, for lack of a better phrase, like, it's pretty explicit, explicitly leftist show. But like.

I don't know, like, we all have our different jobs and different, like.

Different ways of like, existing within capitalism. Like, you know, like sometimes a guy with a lot of money will show up and like, I don't know, the term class trader exists for a reason. Like, you gotta just, you know, if they're gonna give you money, no strings attached, and you can like get that in writing, take that money, you know, like.

I don't know, it's just. It's like you have to.

You know, you have to. You have to be ethical. You also have to have the wherewithal to know, like, when it is and isn't gonna affect you.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

You know?

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Like, I don't know if.

If you're not asking me to, like, go and, like, advertise some bullshit or, like, put this money towards. Yeah, I'm taking. Give me the money.

[Chris D'Elia]

No strings attached money. I'm interested.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

If anybody out there has no strings attached money for me, give me a call.

[Yado Yakub]

Well, me. Me first. Yeah. But.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, give us both a call.

[Yado Yakub]

Give us both a call.

[Chris D'Elia]

What. What is so true to you? Oh.

[Yado Yakub]

I think in this era.

A lot of people may look at everything that's going on in the world and say humans are looking pretty stupid right now. I think we are too smart for our own good. I think our intelligence is getting in the way of so much of what we could achieve just by feeling shit out. You know what I mean?

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

I think.

I don't know. I think we have existed for thousands of years and sort of, like the last few hundred years of it, we just decided, hey, all those, like, instincts and feelings that you have, those are bullshit.

[Chris D'Elia]

Ignore all that.

[Yado Yakub]

Ignore all that science. Yeah, science. You know, maybe a better way to say this is system of a Down. Lyrics have started to make a lot more sense to me in my adult life.

I was a big fan in middle school, and I was just like. When I was just that guy. And as I've gotten older, I realized, oh, they might have actually been onto something. Yeah, they might have actually been saying, except the drummer, he's a weirdo. But, like, you know, as a collective.

[Chris D'Elia]

In those types of bands, there's always gonna be one guy that you have to go, except for him and his crimes. Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

One guy that just doesn't understand the lyrics of his own.

Of his own group.

[Chris D'Elia]

He was sort of just vibing. He didn't really check in on the meanings or the themes.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, I'm on percussion, man. I don't know what you want from me. I'm not writing this shit.

[Chris D'Elia]

I've got the beat. Does anything else for me or are we good?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

[Chris D'Elia]

I love that. That's a great. So true. Yeah, it's so funny, the so True. The so True segment. You're one of. You're one of a handful of people who actually had a thought prepared, which is lovely. No one comes with one.

[Yado Yakub]

Well, to be fair, I did forget it of course. And then it came back to me briefly and did I stick the landing in my mind? Yeah, sure didn't.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, I think you did.

[Yado Yakub]

Hey, thank you.

[Chris D'Elia]

What's, what's making you excited right now? What are you looking forward to? What's making you happy?

[Yado Yakub]

You know what? It's really, it's really this, this special and just, like, hope hopefully getting it out very soon. I feel like.

Just as far as, like.

And I want to stress that I don't want to make it sound like I think these ideas are so important to the world or whatever, but I feel like as far as just, like, what I want to express as a comic, I feel like it's so.

Just so crucial to what I want to do going forward and just like.

I don't know, it kind of feels like the, the first step in the rest of my artistic life in a, in a very meaningful way for me. So I'm really excited about that.

[Chris D'Elia]

I love that.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

There's something I know about you that I wanted to ask you about.

[Yado Yakub]

Oh, no.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. Yeah. It's bad. No. You're a big, if I'm not mistaken, you're a big Dragon Ball Z fan.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Now, I don't know anything about this, and it came up somewhat recently. Was it Ananias episode? Anania.

What, how did you get into Dragon Ball Z? And what do I need to know and where can I start if I'm interested?

[Yado Yakub]

Okay. I.

I got into Dragon Ball Z because every black man on the planet.

[Chris D'Elia]

Is into Dragon Ball Z, so, so.

[Yado Yakub]

That'S kind of how, that's kind of how that happens. So maybe the next life.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

Yeah, no worries.

[Yado Yakub]

Genuinely. One of the, one of very few stereotypes that I will fully embrace every, every black man. I, I, I don't think I've met a black man that doesn't have some relationship with Dragon Mosey. But the, the access point is, is Toonami, which is like the anime block on Cartoon network from like 97 to mid 2000s, mid to late 2000s.

This is like what brought anime to the US in the first place.

Or like, what brought it to the US In a way that wasn't like, creepy and orientalist in the way that a lot of things were. A lot of networks sort of presented it as like, what is this mysterious media from the East?

Genuinely, they build it like that. It was like, it's cartoons.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah, yeah, we have those.

[Yado Yakub]

They just fuck with Disney. Like, I don't know what you want. Yeah.

But yeah, that's a, that Is a, that is a good access point. There is a. There are. There have been a lot of like, adaptations to like sort of slim it down over the years. Because the original Dragon Ball Z was.

Like notoriously kind of beefed. Padded out. Yeah. In a sense. So if you watch Dragon Ball Z Kai, that's like the sort of re animated one with or not reanimated, but they cut out all the filler and all this stuff and like kind of fixed up the dubs and all that.

[Chris D'Elia]

Do you. How do you feel about that? Do you like the, the cut down ones or.

[Yado Yakub]

I think there's a very. Something very important to the experience of like really sitting through five episodes of somebody charging up. Yeah, I think that's a really important part of it.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

But I think if you just want to know what people are talking about, watch Dragon Ball Z Kai. Yeah, there's also.

There'S also Dragon Ball Daima is like the new, the newest iteration that's like. It's kind of just trying to get kids into it because it's been around for 40 years and you know, they just need an entry point to these characters. I don't know if I would recommend that for an adult. I also don't know if I would recommend Dragon Ball in general for an adult.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

But. But again, if you, if you want, if you want to be involved in the discourse.

[Chris D'Elia]

Well, it's just come up now in a number of ways that I'm like, maybe I need to tap in. I'm feeling like there's a big blind spot.

[Yado Yakub]

Well, in what, in what ways does it come up?

[Chris D'Elia]

Well, people keep telling me they fucking love it and I'm like, I gotta fucking get involved. I can't have this thing that a bunch of people I know love and I don't know anything about it.

[Yado Yakub]

Right. Do you have plans of going to Peru anytime soon?

[Chris D'Elia]

I could.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay. It's not.

[Chris D'Elia]

Hey look, it's on. There's nothing on the calendar right now, but I could go to Peru.

[Yado Yakub]

Should I. I mean, I'm just. I would just check because if you're feeling that in the US it's gonna feel way worse in Latin America.

Just Latin American anime love is just on a different level.

[Chris D'Elia]

So I need to. Before I go to Peru.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

I need to get involved in Dragon Ball Z.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. I think, I think I would recommend Dragon Ball Z Kai if you really. If you, if you're really dedicated. The original Dragon Ball is a little bit shorter.

[Michelle (Producer)]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

And it's, it's Based on.

Journey to the west, which is like a Chinese.

Novel, a really old Chinese novel.

So there's like a. There's. There's like, another entry point that way just to get. Just to understand, like, the characters and such. And such. And Dragon Ball Z itself is. It's just like they kind of just stole Superman.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

The story of Superman.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Hell, yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I feel like you read. Are you a reader?

[Yado Yakub]

I am. I am a reader. What.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay. What are. Okay, this might be too big of a question, and feel free if you hate this, to tell me to shut up, but I am. I'm on a big journey right now to get people to tell me, like, the best books they've ever read. Are there, like, three books that you're. Like. You would recommend them to anyone, or to me specifically, that you're like, you must read these.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay. What are your goals in reading?

[Chris D'Elia]

Fantastic question. There is a girl who works at the bookstore Fight Club.

There's a girl who works at the bookstore that I go to a lot that's trying to get me more into fiction because I'm historically very, like, nonfiction essay. That's where I live and love. I'm trying to get a little more into fiction. I do love nonfiction. If you've got some good nonfiction recs, I want them. But if you have a fiction that you think a nonfiction guy like me would love, I'm interested.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay. I also have that problem of reading way too much nonfiction. And I'm also trying to. I've been trying to just, like, start with.

Classics, in a sense, but. Or just, like, stuff that just kind of has a hold on, like, some pretty broad group of people, I guess.

So I'm. I started Lord of the Rings recently.

I really like Ursula Le Guin.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay.

[Yado Yakub]

Who is. Who's a science fiction writer. The. The first book I read of hers was. Was the Dispossessed, which is a really great book about a.

There's two. There's two planets that are sort of in each other's orbit. I don't remember which. If one of. If one is like a moon of the other or nothing, but as far as the story, it doesn't matter. Yeah, but one is sort of like a capitalist, like, planet like ours, and then the other one is, like.

Is basically anarchist. And.

There is a scientist from this anarchist planet who invents this thing called the ansible, which is a device that basically.

Cuts the time for interplanetary communication to milliseconds. And she has this whole universe of books that are Sort of dealing with the implications of that.

[Chris D'Elia]

I'm interested in that.

[Yado Yakub]

It's.

[Chris D'Elia]

Her name's come up a bunch in my journey.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. By the way, she's. She's great. She's sort of like. If you have any, like, anarchist friends or if you're familiar with the term social ecology, a lot of people that sit in those worlds bring her up a lot.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Because she is. She's like. She's an artist, like what we're talking about. Somebody who's just sort of like, very principled and like.

Just like really great and expressive and knowledgeable speculative fiction writer.

[Chris D'Elia]

Nice.

[Yado Yakub]

And then as far as nonfiction, the dawn of Everything.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah. I'm like three fourths of the way through it right now.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, it's a great book.

[Chris D'Elia]

Fuck, it's dense. Yeah, it's. It's hefty.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

I'm at school when I'm reading it.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, it's one of the. It's one of those and I like it.

[Chris D'Elia]

But.

[Yado Yakub]

Well, since you've heard, it is also the spiritual successor to a arguably denser and.

Arguably definitely denser book called Ecology of Freedom.

[Chris D'Elia]

Ecology of Freedom, yes. This one I have not heard of.

[Yado Yakub]

This one is by Murray Bookchin, who's like an old New York anarchist who actually inspired.

The leader of the Kurdish. Of a Kurdish militia in like, the border of Iraq, Syria and Iran to basically drop his whole nationalist, like, ethnic nationalist program and.

Develop a whole theory of like, called democratic Confederalism in the Middle East. And they just like changed up their whole. After being at war with the Turkish government for like 30 years. Changed up their whole program.

[Chris D'Elia]

Is it, you know, thing?

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah, yeah, basically.

Basically.

[Chris D'Elia]

No, fuck it. New thing.

[Yado Yakub]

New thing, yeah. Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay. So, Ursula, dawn of Everything, slash, Ecology of Freedom.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay. Is there anything else I have to tap in on? Hmm. Because I'm open.

[Yado Yakub]

There, there. There absolutely is.

[Chris D'Elia]

You're like, no, there's. There's no other books.

[Yado Yakub]

Those, those are, those are the ones. You got them. I guess.

I'm in the middle of reading a book by that guy who was inspired by Murray Bookchin, who is Abdullah Erdalan. This book is called Beyond State, Power and Violence.

Also really good. Really good book. It's just like.

It sort of details.

This juncture of sort of the start of written history, starting with.

Epic of Gilgamesh and all this stuff, like these just mythological epics that talk about the histories in terms of these heroic men. It basically frames those as the beginning of a break from early, like, women centered societies that Were sort of centered around. That's some. Mmm. Look at that timing.

[Chris D'Elia]

That's good.

[Yado Yakub]

What a piece of shit.

[Chris D'Elia]

Women's centric societies. Turn it off.

[Yado Yakub]

What a piece of shit.

[Chris D'Elia]

Turn it off. Michelle, will you grab them for me and give us a second? Thank you.

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

It basically frames, like, the beginning, all these epics and like, the beginning of monotheistic religion as a break from.

Early, like, women centered societies that were centered around, like, communal living. And like. And this is what I mean when I say, like, when I say we've gotten too smart for our own good and we're like destroying our own instincts with our intelligence.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

He talks about sort of the replacing of.

Like our communal instincts with like, the need for concrete science and things like that, and how it sort of basically locked us in this eternal dialectical conflict with the state being like a cumulative power based, hierarchical society and this communal based society that we broke from like 5,000 years ago.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

Also basically, what dawdam of everything is about and what ecology of freedom is about.

[Chris D'Elia]

That's what it was reminding me of.

[Yado Yakub]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris D'Elia]

But I have one more segment for you.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay.

[Chris D'Elia]

And I am going to tap in on these books.

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Okay. True False segment. I'm going to read you 15 statements. You're going to tell me as quickly as you can if you think what I just said was true or false.

[Yado Yakub]

Okay.

[Chris D'Elia]

If you get 10 or more correct, we're going to give you 50 US dollars. This is a big high money game.

[Yado Yakub]

Oh, my God.

[Chris D'Elia]

You ready?

[Yado Yakub]

Yes.

[Chris D'Elia]

Water boils at 117 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Yado Yakub]

False.

[Chris D'Elia]

False. 212. There are no AMC movie theaters in Brooklyn.

[Yado Yakub]

True.

[Chris D'Elia]

True. Sudan has most pyramids of any country.

[Yado Yakub]

Most pyramids.

[Chris D'Elia]

Yeah.

[Yado Yakub]

That's true.

[Chris D'Elia]

That is true. The John Thomas Carnes family log house is in Winston, Georgia.

[Yado Yakub]

Say that one more time.

[Chris D'Elia]

The John Thomas Carnes family log house is in Winston, Georgia.

[Yado Yakub]

I don't know shit about Winston aside from my mom lives there. So I'm gonna say true.

[Chris D'Elia]

True. Ringo Starr is not the original drummer for the Beatles.

[Yado Yakub]

True.

[Chris D'Elia]

True. Uranus is the sixth planet from the sun.

[Yado Yakub]

False.

[Chris D'Elia]

False. It's the seventh. The cricket that lives on King Kai's planet is named Gregory.

[Yado Yakub]

True.

[Chris D'Elia]

True. Walmart is older than Duane Reade.

[Yado Yakub]

True.

[Chris D'Elia]

False.

[Yado Yakub]

Damn.

[Chris D'Elia]

Damn. You were on a generational run, dude. Damn. One of Emory University's mascots is Dooley the Skeleton.

[Yado Yakub]

True.

[Chris D'Elia]

True. Komodo dragon females can give birth without having mated with a male.

[Yado Yakub]

Ooh. I feel like, because the question is in there, it's True.

[Chris D'Elia]

True. Matches Malone is an alias Clark Kent sometimes uses.

[Yado Yakub]

I don't even know. And I wrote comic books. False.

[Chris D'Elia]

False. Bruce Wayne. A rainbow can only be seen in the morning or late afternoon.

[Yado Yakub]

False.

[Chris D'Elia]

True. Lego is still releasing new Bionicle figures.

[Yado Yakub]

Ooh. Oh. That's a question for my friend Mamadou. False.

[Chris D'Elia]

False. They're discontinued. A group of rhinos is called a smash.

[Yado Yakub]

True.

[Chris D'Elia]

False. A crash. There's only one Shake Shack in Alaska.

[Yado Yakub]

True.

[Chris D'Elia]

False. There are none. How do you do? 11. Damn. That was a good showing, dude. That was a good showing.

Thank you so much for doing it. We love you. We'd love to have you back anytime. Will you tell people where they can find you?

[Yado Yakub]

I am on Instagram, at Yadoye, Underscore. Pretty much everywhere at Yadoye, Underscore, Twitter, the threads, all this stuff. Special is going to be on YouTube. My Social Security number is.

[Chris D'Elia]

Thanks so much for doing it, dude.

[Yado Yakub]

Thank you for having me.

[Chris D'Elia]

It was a delight. Yeah. That was a Headgum podcast.

[Nicole Byer or Sasheer Zamata]

Hi, I'm Nicole Byer. Hi, I'm Sasheer Zamada. And this is the podcast Best Friends.

And we're here at Headgum. So this is just a podcast where we just talk? Yeah, we're best friends. Yeah, we talk and then we have a segment where we answer questions and queries so audience members can ask questions about friendships and we can answer them to the best of our abilities. Yes, we are professional friends. We are professional friends. Subscribe to Best Friends on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Cast, or wherever you get your podcast. And watch videos on YouTube. New episodes. Episodes drop every Wednesday. That's the middle of a work week.

I was deeply unhelpful to you during that whole thing.

[Yado Yakub]

You are.

[Nicole Byer or Sasheer Zamata]

I'm really sorry. I felt the support. I was so okay. I was trying to be supportive.

[Michelle (Producer)]

Yeah.

[Nicole Byer or Sasheer Zamata]

But I was like, I don't know.

[Chris D'Elia]

Reading seems pretty hard right now.

[Nicole Byer or Sasheer Zamata]

It's a lot.

[Chris D'Elia]

I think.

[Yado Yakub]

You did good.

[Nicole Byer or Sasheer Zamata]

Thank you so much.

[Chris D'Elia]

You're welcome.