Funny You Should Mention...Again - Rachel Feinstein

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Funny You Should Mention...Again - Rachel Feinstein"

Episode Information:

• Title: Funny You Should Mention...Again - Rachel Feinstein
• Podcast: The Gist
• Host: Mike Pesca
• Release Date: December 26, 2024
• Producer: Peach Fish Productions

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1. Introduction to Rachel Feinstein and Her Comedy Journey

Mike Pesca welcomes Rachel Feinstein, an eclectic and talented comedian renowned for her diverse range of characters and sharp observational humor. Pesca praises Feinstein's ability to embody various personas seamlessly, noting, “she's unbelievable talented” (03:08).

Notable Quote:

"Rachel Feinstein is a great and eclectic comedian. I don't know if she gets enough credit for the range of character she embodies." — Mike Pesca [03:08]

2. Early Life and Family Background

Feinstein delves into her challenging childhood, marked by academic struggles and frequent brain scans due to fainting spells. Her parents, particularly her mother, were deeply concerned about her cognitive abilities, often discussing medical terms like "figure ground" to explain her behavior.

Notable Quotes:

"They were trying to figure out why the teacher gave an instruction and everybody did it. And I would just be sitting on the carpet in the same place." — Rachel Feinstein [07:40]

"My mom was like, she's not normal, Howard." — Rachel Feinstein [06:07]

3. Turning to Comedy as a Coping Mechanism

Facing academic and social difficulties, Feinstein began performing characters and doing impressions to distract herself and others. Comedy became a natural outlet for her, allowing her to express her frustrations and observations humorously.

Notable Quote:

"So in the middle of my brains being scanned and rescanned, I did some fun loving characters to distract everyone." — Rachel Feinstein [05:34]

4. The Influence of Her Mother and Upbringing

Feinstein's mother is portrayed as an aggressively liberal social worker with a passion for African history and black studies. This dynamic created a complex relationship, where Feinstein often found herself at odds with her mother's intense focus on social issues.

Notable Quotes:

"My mom loves talking about just systematic racism. That's her opener. It's real light." — Rachel Feinstein [11:06]

"She thinks what she's probably got is figure ground. Because she can't tell if one person is speaking." — Rachel Feinstein [07:29]

5. Comedy Style and Content: Observational and Character-Driven

Feinstein's comedy is rooted in keen observations of everyday life and her unique ability to create and portray distinct characters. She often draws from her personal experiences, including family interactions and her relationship with her husband.

Notable Quotes:

"I like people with accents. I like being friends with people with accents." — Rachel Feinstein [08:14]

"You're a great writer. Some of the phrases." — Mike Pesca [32:07]

6. Marriage to a Firefighter: Balancing Opposite Personalities

Feinstein discusses her marriage to a firefighter, highlighting the balance between their contrasting personalities. While her husband excels in structured environments and practical tasks, Feinstein's chaotic nature complements his steadiness, creating a harmonious relationship despite occasional frustrations.

Notable Quotes:

"One of the things that reasons I married him was that because he can fill out forms and like mail them back right away, like somebody has to be able to fill out forms." — Rachel Feinstein [19:35]

"He has notes later. He's not like, when you said this, I thought this. Because he's not thinking about it what I'm saying or what I'm doing now." — Rachel Feinstein [20:03]

7. Raising a Daughter: Navigating Parenting with Diverse Influences

Feinstein reflects on raising her daughter with the combined influences of her own upbringing and her husband's practical approach to life. She shares the anxieties and challenges of new motherhood, striving to provide a balanced environment for her child.

Notable Quotes:

"I'm trying to just, like, you know, I'm getting through the day, barely." — Rachel Feinstein [42:09]

"There's something in you that, like the first six months of having a baby, and I'm not, I am not, like, you know, very nervous person." — Rachel Feinstein [43:22]

8. Dealing with Public Perception and Misrepresentation

Feinstein humorously addresses inaccuracies on her Wikipedia page, including false claims about her being a professional juggler and her involvement with the "Dudley and Bob with Matt" morning show. She expresses frustration over mistaken identity with Senator Dianne Feinstein and the challenges of public mischaracterization.

Notable Quotes:

"My Wikipedia page is a completely confusing disaster, and I don't even know how to edit it." — Rachel Feinstein [46:22]

"They think I'm the senior senator from California." — Rachel Feinstein [51:43]

9. Crafting Her Comedy Special: Focus on the First 10 Minutes

Feinstein emphasizes the importance of the initial minutes of her comedy specials in capturing the audience's attention. She discusses her meticulous process of refining jokes and seeking feedback from fellow comedians like Jimmy Carr to perfect her set.

Notable Quotes:

"The first 15 minutes are so important, you know, and you work on this hour of material and like I just completely personally just obsess about it and try to refine it." — Rachel Feinstein [37:26]

"Jimmy Carr offered to give me advice on the set. And I don't know if you know Jimmy, but he's really funny." — Rachel Feinstein [38:55]

10. Conclusion: Embracing Her Unique Voice in Comedy

The episode concludes with Feinstein affirming her commitment to her comedic voice and the unique perspectives she brings to her performances. Despite personal challenges and public misconceptions, she remains dedicated to her craft, aiming to entertain and connect with diverse audiences.

Notable Quote:

"I think list of the things you're saying, you do a great job of, like, defining yourself." — Mike Pesca [38:32]

"You're the only Jew, as usual." — Rachel Feinstein [29:56]

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Final Thoughts:

Mike Pesca and Rachel Feinstein engage in a candid and humorous conversation that navigates Feinstein's tumultuous upbringing, her path to comedy, familial relationships, and the intricacies of her personal life. Through relatable anecdotes and sharp wit, Feinstein offers listeners an insightful look into the life of a comedian who turns personal struggles into laughter, embodying resilience and creativity.

Recommendations: For those interested in observational comedy, character-driven humor, or understanding the intersection of personal experiences and comedic expression, this episode provides valuable insights and entertaining narratives.

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Note: Timestamps correspond to the transcript provided and are included to reference notable moments and quotes within the episode.

Transcript

[Rachel Feinstein]

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[Mike Pesca]

It's Thursday, December 26, 2024. From Petrish Productions, it's the I'm Mike Pesca. Our comedian on today's episode of Funny you should mention is Rachel Feinstein. And she's great, she's lovely. She was one of those comedians who I liked beforehand and then I saw a bunch of times live and then I saw her latest special and I said to myself she's unbelievably talented and as you'll hear on the show, gracious, nice, receptive, much smarter than than I think her self perception allows her to be Funny you should mention is our ongoing show in which we talk to comedians and try to figure out what it is they're saying, why they're saying that, maybe challenge them on a premise or two. All of these episodes are on YouTube, which is just click. Just click the note. Don't go to don't go to YouTube.com askajist or do if you're one of those types of people. And we still are running our 20% off promotion. If you want to subscribe to Pesca plus, it's subscribe.mikepeska.com I know it's like the post holiday period. You should be returning things, not acquiring new things. But maybe you return some items that you don't love and now you have a little extra spending cash and you want to give a subscription. But I would certainly if not subscribe then attend to my funny you should mention discussion with Rachel Feinstein.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, hey, find a keto.

[Mike Pesca]

Friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve. And it does without me lifting a.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Finger so I can get in more squats anywhere I can. 1, 2, 3.

[Mike Pesca]

Will that be cash or credit? Credit. 4 Galaxy S25 Ultra the AI companion that does the heavy lifting. So you can do you get [e-mail] compatible with select apps.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Requires Google Gemini account.

[Mike Pesca]

Results may vary based on input.

[Rachel Feinstein]

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[Mike Pesca]

Rachel Feinstein is a great and eclectic comedian. I don't know if she gets enough credit for the range of character she embodies. She kind of slips them in, right? She's not doing people who she has invented. It's her mom, it's her husband. It's maybe in the past some guys she went on dates with. But they're all subtly different. The voices bring them to life. And also her use of adjectival description is without parallel. And another great thing about Rachel. Yes, that's tight everything. Another great thing about Rachel is that I don't know how this matters or how this factors in, but it must. Everyone at the Comedy Cellar just says, and from my interaction with her, I would agree, just is an extremely lovely person, which is, I think, important in life. Rachel, welcome to the gist Talking, talking within our comedy series. Now, what I do.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Last time I saw you, my daughter had just puked all over me. At the Cellar. Yeah, yeah. And you rolled with it, bumped into each other, and then my daughter just projectile vomited all over me. I was like, peace. All over my. Paula Poundstone Bl.

[Mike Pesca]

So what I like to do in this show is to sort of talk about a comedian's act and talk about it as if it's a thesis or a premise. Now, with your act, you're not going out there making broad proclamations about the world. You're observing life from what I could tell. But within that, there are still.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I know that I'm not an authority.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, that's good. Yeah. That probably differs you from people who've been doing this for 10 years and like to tell themselves, all right, now I have some standing.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I'm a faux reporter with like blow on her nose. I don't have any actual information, but I've got. I've got some things to say, but I do.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, I also think that, I mean, you tell me. It's this pretty basic level analysis of comedians and why they do it. They do it because everyone likes laughter and everyone likes approval. But what is it specifically? I think maybe different comedians are looking for a different type of approval. Maybe this is true, maybe it's not, but maybe there's a taxonomy of comedians that some like approval of Their ideas and some like, approval of them as a person?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Definitely as a person.

[Mike Pesca]

Yes.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes.

[Mike Pesca]

And that's okay.

[Rachel Feinstein]

People like me. I don't, I don't have. A lot of people are afraid of death. I never think about death. I'm just more afraid if somebody's mad at me.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I think way more of somebody's mad at me than death.

[Mike Pesca]

And have you always relied on comedy as a way to turn that around?

[Rachel Feinstein]

You definitely like growing up. Yeah. I mean, because I was a terrible student and just was wildly failing and always being. Having weird brain scans done. There's a lot of scanning of me. So in the middle of my brains being scanned and rescanned, I did some fun loving characters to distract everyone.

[Mike Pesca]

So was this just a shot in the dark? Like she got a C in chemistry? Maybe there's something going on in the.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Brain D's apps, like barely.

[Mike Pesca]

But they really. They went the neurological route.

[Rachel Feinstein]

They need to match the brain therapist. So I was always being like analyzed and scanned and I mean, you literally.

[Mike Pesca]

Mean in an MRI machine scanned?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes, scanned. Because I was fainting a lot. I had a fainting spells as a kid.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And then I think they thought maybe like the fainting was connected to my stupidity somehow.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

One time I just remember waking up and hearing my parents arguing about me. And my mom was like, she's not normal, Howard. Shit. So there was a lot of concern because they couldn't stuff information in my brain. I was trying, I was really trying, but I was just all over the map and I wasn't. I couldn't listen. I just, I just, I tried, but I.

[Mike Pesca]

And it's tough because your dad was so smart and had so many skipped.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Grades in school and. Yeah. And she went to graduate school and everybody else in the family was pretty smart too. I was definitely like the hole in the team. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

And. And did they. I guess they tried some talk therapy first. They tried.

[Rachel Feinstein]

They did talk therapy. I don't know what order it was. The scans I think might have come earlier, but there was some scanning. Some. They thought I had various different disabilities. There was one thing they thought that I might have called figure ground. I just remember my mom always discussing. There was like a psychiatrist friend of the family. And she would be like, well, I think what she's probably got is figure ground. Because she can't tell if one person is speaking. Instead of a sea of voices, she can't tell the difference. I'm like, of course I can't. Who's. I mean, I don't Know many people that are that dumb but. Or that brand of dumb, even figure ground style of dumb. But I, I.

[Mike Pesca]

What do they expect you to. What are you supposed to have like echolocation by bad. If a sea of voices are speaking, I'm supposed to figure out who the what is the right way to navigate what they're.

[Rachel Feinstein]

They were trying to figure out and how they got to the words figure ground, disability or whatever it was was they were trying to figure out why the teacher gave an instruction and everybody did it. And I would just. Was just sitting on the carpet in the same place. And that started very young and like kindergarten. And yeah, I just wasn't doing the thing. I was looking at the carpet or. Yeah. Or probably, you know, doing funny voices. I remember doing something called the bagel face. I don't know what that was. I just remember there were some requests for the bagel face coming in kindergarten, first grade.

[Mike Pesca]

So. So you had to do that. This was your first crowd work. You're getting the approval.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Definitely early on.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And I liked people with accents. I like being friends with people with accents. And it's a good way to choose a friend by the accent. It's very noble. And I would go to play dates and just come back enthralled with people's accents and affects, you know, just what they did with their hand when they spoke or how they said something and do impressions for my mom. And I think I did it to the people sometimes. And I remember her saying, like, no, you can do it when you come home, but you can't just do it back to the person. But it's still so hard for me if I'm talking to a British person. Not just be that dick face that speaks back in a British accent. Just because it's so Even the littlest things. Like I was watching this show the other day and somebody. Happy Valley, this amazing show on Netflix. It's like a British crime show. And there's this character in it. And she was like, he's cool. Told me. And I'm just like, even that, like, I would think about that all day, even as a kid. Like, not. You don't say his name is Tommy. Yeah, he's called Tommy. It's like such a fascinating, like, lovely little way to say it. It's so hard not to say it right after you hear it.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I'm like, how do people just hear things like that? And I want to say them Right.

[Mike Pesca]

Right. So I'm trying to figure out. I don't exactly understand the Figure ground. Is that it?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah. That was one of the many things that were discussed about what, what, what? My particular brand of manglement. That's a medical term. How I was mangled.

[Mike Pesca]

And did they think you. Did they say, well, she won't go to college, we'll put her in a trade school.

[Rachel Feinstein]

There wasn't any discussion of me going. My grades were just like, I was. It was just, is she going to graduate?

[Mike Pesca]

Like, okay.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And I barely did. And I was switched to another small school that called Thornton Friends. But it was like where people sent like the bad kids and everyone called it snorting fiends.

[Mike Pesca]

Okay.

[Rachel Feinstein]

We did like whippets at lunch and stuff.

[Mike Pesca]

And I mean like, did the teachers tell. When you came back? Really deep voiced?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes. And also like they. We did Quaker meetings and even in meeting, I was a dickhead. I would just say dumb in meeting to get a reaction and stuff. And. And my teachers, you know, I called them all like Walter and Doug, so.

[Mike Pesca]

Those weren't even their names.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Too worried about Walter. Yeah. Roxanne. I just didn't. I. I was a bad student. I must have been exhausting to deal with.

[Mike Pesca]

So you're painting this picture where you didn't choose comedy, did you? Comedy chose you.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes, 100%.

[Mike Pesca]

And when did you first start?

[Rachel Feinstein]

No other options. It would have been some sort of Gray Gardens situation for me.

[Mike Pesca]

But with your mom, how would that have sounded?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Me alone with. In like in my own filth? Probably.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, I see.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Just like poking at trash.

[Mike Pesca]

More of the decrepitude than the familial setup. Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes. And also because I lose everything. Like lose everything. Now I'm getting a little better. I'm still really bad. But when I came to New York, it was like I was losing a debit card every week. You know, I used to. My hair was always dripping down my back. Cause I didn't dry it properly. Yeah, Everybody at school would call me wet back.

[Mike Pesca]

Uh huh. Which.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And my mom was like, they're using racial slurs. I'm like, I think they just want to tell me that my back sweat.

[Mike Pesca]

They're being literal, Mom. There's no real grand implication. Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Mom loves talking about just systematic racism. That's her opener. It's real light. She keeps it light. Karen.

[Mike Pesca]

And her name is Karen.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Her name is Karen. And I actually caught her talking to my, My, My husband's. My father in law about racism during COVID 19. She's the only person that still says 19.

[Mike Pesca]

My mom, she doesn't say unique coronavirus she's like, we.

[Rachel Feinstein]

She says, novel coronavirus. She's like, me and Joe have a marvelous discussion about systematic racism. And COVID 19. I'm like, Joe was half asleep. He was just like catatonic. And my mom was just jazzing in and getting real jazz.

[Mike Pesca]

Jazzes. Right. There's a lot of jazz going on.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And everything is about racism. She loves racism. Him so much.

[Mike Pesca]

So she's a big Robin D'Angelo fan.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, she's.

[Mike Pesca]

She just like, she done the race to dinner thing, you know that. No, you invite people and they have a dinner at your house, and the white people get confronted.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Karen would be. But she'd wear the wrong outfit. She'd wear like a dashiki.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, yeah. Already there'd be a lot of cultural. Maybe she seeks it out, though. Maybe that's like, she really wants that attention.

[Rachel Feinstein]

She. I think she's just. She has a good heart, but she's just like, my mother in law is Colombian. And when my mom talks to her, her inner monologue is probably like, I'm talking to a Columb. Like, she's so excited. She just so much doesn't want to be white.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

It's just. It's so honest and so complete, and she just. She just doesn't want to be what she want anything to do with us.

[Mike Pesca]

Can she help herself from, like, not dropping a lot of Chavez references? Like, we know how hard it was during that time.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I don't know. Karen's on. You know, it's anyone's guess what she's gonna say next.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, so. So when you first started doing comedy, not even for pay, but just for approval, did the family see something in you they hadn't before?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Like, started doing standup, you mean?

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, yeah. Like, instead of. I'm not talking about the bagel face, period. I'm talking about, like, you have your own routines. You go up, you speak into a microphone, the audience reacts. I'm wondering if your family, who had been doing brain scans all this time and was so worried, said to themselves, oh, my God, it's not. It's not a bug.

[Rachel Feinstein]

It's a feature, not a man.

[Mike Pesca]

She could use this. Yeah, she. She's demangled herself for their entertainment.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I think that they were. They were always very, like, supportive, you know, like, when I wanted to move to New York, they didn't want me to do anything that I wasn't supposed to be doing, except for maybe doing what they wanted me to do well at school. But in terms of my life or my career, they just didn't know what I was going to do. But they were very supportive. I mean, I moved to New York when I was like 17, you know, and they. My mom loves the arts. She's always in the back, just very excited about it. So they do love it.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I don't. I think that they were probably pleasantly surprised that I. And I think everybody, although I don't know if anybody said it out loud, but they thought it'd be probably homelish at best. My dad told me that once actually at lunch here he came to visit me and he's like, I'm just so glad you're getting paid because your mom's always worried that you're just going to be cold and alone and you're not going to be able to pay rent. And I don't think he knew that he wasn't supposed to say those things to me. She's like, she can't sleep at night. She's up playing solitaire because she thinks to be single forever and alone. Like, thanks, dad.

[Mike Pesca]

So when you do, when you bring out the family on the stage, it's obviously with some exaggeration or where you're giving me a look like not much.

[Rachel Feinstein]

My mom says things that should be said in the voice that I use. Okay, so she is all of that. My mom is aggressively liberal. She would have preferred if I married like a genderless Kenyan composter, I think, than an Irish Catholic Brooklyn fireman. Like she. She was praying one of us was gay. She was just sitting in the kitchen waiting, like, there's Coco if anyone feels gay and wants to talk about it. She hates that joke. She's like, take that one out of your talent show, please. That's what she calls my standup, my talent show. I could show you emails, texts. Like every. Every other email from my parents is about some sort. She's always like outside with a poster about like race or something. And I could show you actually pictures of my phone. Just my mom outside with like, like diversity now, you know, like she is that person is this like outside the Mexican restaurant, her voice. Yeah, she says things that a lot of her friends. It's like sort of a smear of all of her friends voices. Cause there's a lot of Bethesda liberals that kind of have that sort of voice and like to just jazz out. And there's a lot of versions of my mom. There's like a Karen in the area that's kind of like Karen, you know, so it's a smear of all the voices. But in terms of the facts.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

It's all true.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

My mom majored in African history with a minor in, like, in black studies. Like, my mom wants to be black.

[Mike Pesca]

So much, and she wants you to be gay.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And she would love it if I was just. Yeah, that's all. She wants for me to be the deepest of lesbians. I know that doesn't make any sense. Deep lesbian. Deep, deep, deep, deep, mountainous lesbian.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. A ravine. A crevasse of lesbianism.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes. She just wants me in a JanSport backpack.

[Mike Pesca]

Uhhuh.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Day and night. Just 69 tool belt. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. By the way, how bad does the African studies major have to be if you have to supplement it with a black studies minor? You'd think that that would be included.

[Rachel Feinstein]

That you mentioned that.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Originally. Okay. I can't remember what order I said it. Just said it was. But I know that originally she was supposed to be. I believe it was a black studies major with the African. An African American, as she likes to say, African American studies minor. But then this marvelous African American man took me aside. Jabari. It's one of her favorite stories. And she said, karen, that's frankly not your place to major in black studies.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, really?

[Rachel Feinstein]

And I said. And he said, I would be better honoring the movement of civil rights by majoring. It's one of her favorite tales, majoring in. And African history. And I said, thank you, Jabari. Thank you. And I changed my major the next day. And so I'm like just one random guy. Like, who knows if everybody else felt very differently? But she was just like. I said, thank you. I will honor you in whatever way I can. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

She didn't want to reverse Rosa Parks. That one. Be the one white person studying and.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Jabari. Who even knows if he said that or if he was like, wouldn't it be funny if I just. That's to this white chick.

[Mike Pesca]

Or just everyone's like, we gotta get her out of the department. What are we doing?

[Rachel Feinstein]

She's probably exhausting every.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, yeah. You know what would be good for you? Yeah. It's the equivalent of. I think maybe the hot springs instead of the pool would be good for you.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes. Right. That's probably exactly what happened. She was doing that over listening. There was a lot of lunging, hashing. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

So good. How. Look, we all fall in love with who we fall in love with. And I'm glad you fell in love with your fireman husband, because, man, it's great comedy, but how do you. Who he is? Or what he represents plays into, you know, your upbringing, the brain scans, your need for maybe your need for some sort of order. How does it appeal to you?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Complete opposite. I'm always attracted to men that are complete opposite. Like, I mean, I talk about it on stage that I like a thick necked, ignorant looking man. I like the kind of guy. Yeah. That would just sort of like a working class alcoholic that does his own research. I think is what I usually say. It's true. Because your type is just your typ. Change your type. I like a thick necked, ignorant looking man. That's what I like. Thank you two. Thank you. I like a guy who looks like he'd say follow the money when he's talking about how the earth is flat. I do. I like a flat earther. I like a dusty, working class alcoholic that does his own research. Yeah. I always end up with that. Yeah. Before my husband and I was dating an FBI agent. It's. I just. It's just everything opposite of what I come from. Like I said, like my dad's like a Jew named Howie.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Never ending sign.

[Mike Pesca]

But also you keep like you're losing things. I'm hearing some executive function implications.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Absolutely. It's funny you say that.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Very insightful of you. In my vows to my husband, I said that one of the things that reasons I married him was that because he can fill out forms and like mail them back right away, like somebody has to be able to fill out forms.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, also, he's pretty high ranking in the department. Right.

[Rachel Feinstein]

To be achieved soon.

[Mike Pesca]

That's big. That means he has to do really well on standardized tests. It means he has to. You know, I know that he has in the firehouse his equipment in perfect order. I'm not sure if he lives his life like that, but it's probably a good compliment.

[Rachel Feinstein]

That's how he wants me to be. He is like, he studies in a way that I've never related to anybody less. Like he just sits down and studies to me. I mean, thank God the. But to me, they have to study just buildings, like the interiors of different types of buildings. Like, I would rather die. Like, that just is so violently boring.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, if he didn't and you were in a fire, you would die.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Of course. I would absolutely die. Yeah. Like, that's why people always joke when I joke about my husband being. When I talk about how they're like a certain kind of dumb when you go to the firehouse, like because your husband comes home so much dumber. But the thing is like they're also. They're the right kind of dumb and the right kind of smart. You know what I'm saying? So it's like they. You kind of want that guy that's emotionally pretty much pretty worthless to be the guy that's zooming into a fire.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And the guy that could memorize that because his brain isn't cluttered with like emotional intelligence. He's able to remember like building plans and other things that I could never stuff in my brain.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, you used to do this joke about this guy you dated or whatever saw. And he had a canister brain. That was the word, the canister. And in the canister was what, like a dollar.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And I remember what I said, but it was like, I think maybe like a potato.

[Mike Pesca]

Like maybe his. Maybe a Braves rally towel.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Braves rally tower. Cuz he had a Braves rally towel on the wall. I remember that.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And. And with four thumbtacks. And it looked, it was the dumbest looking thing on like a big blank wall. Just some finance douche. And he was like. And just four thumbtacks, brave rally towel. And I was thinking like he had a. Imagine how at peace he is. Like he just put that up. Never thought about it again. It looked so dumb. I mean, I knew there was no woman in his life because they would never have allowed this like towel, a washcloth to be like, put up on a. Like a centerpiece of them. Like, at least he's not cheating on anyone. But I mean, I did, but I was like. And I'm envious of those people too. Like, I want a quieter brain.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I'm envious of those types of people.

[Mike Pesca]

But it sounds like your husband does have that very directed.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Very much part of why we were probably together is like, he's kind of calming, but at the same time, like, you know, you. I never walk away. And he's got notes later. He's not like, when you said this, I thought this. Because he's not thinking about it what I'm saying or what I'm doing now. He's thinking about like fires that he's missing out. Like good 1075s. Yeah. There's never any other process. Of course, there's all kinds. There's. It's so much of that is a huge problem that there's never any processing later. But he's just like. But at the same time, he's almost like an accidental feminist because he doesn't care what I do if I change my name. They love their jobs. So for the job thing Works out well, because, like, he doesn't give a shit if I have to be in Des Moines on Christmas because maybe he's doing a 24 at the firehouse. You know, he's not, like, sitting there. He's the least jealous guy. Yeah, I would have to go missing for weeks before he would look for me, I think. But, yeah, he's. It's just I get a lot of independence, and so that's, I think, part of why it works. And they love being firemen. Like, they did a study about it, Bloomberg or something, and you were talking about, like, the most satisfied workers in America. And we. We love being comics as much as we like to.

[Mike Pesca]

That's what I was gonna say. This is kind of the perfect job for you, I think.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Absolutely.

[Mike Pesca]

And that's the perfect job for him. So there you are, living your perfect lives in parallel. Maybe not always intersecting, but it's kind of brilliant.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. It seems like it works.

[Rachel Feinstein]

The ways it works. It works. And then he infuriates me a lot, but that's also good for my ex. But he absolutely, like. Yeah. I mean, he just does things that I'm like, what? You know, because people always think when you marry a first responder that, like, they're always like, oh, you must feel so safe. You must feel so. I'm like, no, it's the opposite. They don't register anything else as a problem because they're. Zoom. They have to ignore safety on a certain level to do their jobs. They run into a fire.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Rachel Feinstein]

So, like, you know, when we had my daughter, like, I walked in, he was like, trying to give her a carrot. She's not ready for carrots. She's like, three. When you just stick a carrot, he's like, yeah, no. Infant cpr. I'm like, you're supposed to test it on your daughter. But very oblivious to a lot of, like, obvious physical risks at times, you know, and not. Doesn't know really how to calm. Like, I've always. I have to, like, take his hand and place it on my back when it's supposed to go there. At certain moments in my life, he has no idea. Like, I had to pull the car over. Was throwing up one time on the side of the road when I was pregnant, and he's like, you good? That's what you say to a stranger moving a couch that you don't want to help. So he just doesn't really know how to soothe.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah. And his mom's always like, Peter was always like that. He was Always like that. He would give somebody a drink and he wouldn't remember to fill the cup. Somebody would be bleeding. And Peter would be thinking about fires. Always thinking about fires. He said his whole life, she goes, he says, mommy, I want to be a fireman. Mommy, I want to be a fireman. When he was 6 years old. When he was 10 years old, I says, mom, I says, you're not going to do that to me. You will not be a fireman. No, you will not. You will be a finance person. So I guess he might just go for business, you know, because his mom was like, I.

[Mike Pesca]

But his dad wasn't a fireman.

[Rachel Feinstein]

His uncle and his grandfather.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. Because it's usually generational.

[Rachel Feinstein]

A generational.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, yeah. And within the Irish Italian of his.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Grandfather was Frank, our daughter's Frankie, named after him. He. He passed in a fire, but he was a New York firefighter. So, yeah, he had a family. And the mom had seen all that. And she was like, I told him, don't you dare do it to your mother. And so she's like, she made him go to school. And then she said, and he went to school for two years. And then he says, mommy, I want to be a fireman. I don't want to do the business anymore. And I cried for two months. She always says that. And I cried for 60 days. Yeah, 60 days of weeping sounds so exhausting. But, yeah, she wept for 60 days. I have to say that I wouldn't weep for like a solid 90 days of my daughter wanted to be a firefighter.

[Mike Pesca]

She's like two.

[Rachel Feinstein]

She's two.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Obviously she's not.

[Mike Pesca]

She doesn't eat carrots yet, so it's. She's not ready.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

But when you do a character like your mother in law, does she know about it? Does she approve?

[Rachel Feinstein]

A little nervous about that one.

[Mike Pesca]

That was good. I don't know what she sounds like, but I loved it.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I have a couple. She's never seen my stand up ever. And she's always like, I always think to myself, I never think to look at that. I don't want to look. Why would I look at that? I don't ever think about that. People always say, do you watch? I said, no, that's. That's kind of silly that she does that. So she's like sort of so uninterested, which I'm so deeply grateful for. But then when I told her I was going to do an hour on Netflix, she was like, oh, I'll.

[Mike Pesca]

I'll watch.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I'm like, oh, shit. Because I do have a couple jokes about her in it. So I'm not really sure how I'm going to approach that.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, at least your husband will, will be a great sounding board for how his mom will emotionally react. He'll give you great insight and be able to run interference.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah. Never notice in a million years. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

One thing about firemen, that is true. So they're oblivious. They do run into the fire. They are very aware of fire risks. Everyone I know who's a fireman will always tell you what to stack where. And don't put this here. And yeah, they're really into.

[Rachel Feinstein]

They know all of that. Yes, they know all of it. And they could look at a building, size it up, know where the exits, the entrance. Like, you know, he knows where all the points of egregious. I can't remember how you grass. Egress. Points of egress are, are. But I, but also egregious. Egregious. I'm such a deep egregious. That was real bad. But he, he will take a piece of toilet paper, I mean, a paper towel.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Put it in a flame on the stove and then use that flamed paper towel to light a candle. Well, he controls because he knows he can. Yeah, he's like, they're like fire cocky.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Not worry about. That'd be a good job. I hit it with the can. I hit it with the can.

[Mike Pesca]

Just gotta hit it with the can, honey.

[Rachel Feinstein]

But yeah, they know. I mean, they definitely.

[Mike Pesca]

I'm gonna bet that. Well, maybe it hasn't come up, but if it has, has he looked to you and like just shaken his head and gone E bikes? Because these E bikes are catching on fire left and right. Have you talked to him about the, the E bike fire problem?

[Rachel Feinstein]

About that. But you know what? He, they like the fire, so the more fire, you know, they get to do their job more.

[Mike Pesca]

That is true.

[Rachel Feinstein]

So yeah, he's more going to be mad that, I mean, I, I, he told me once, he's like, I don't want to work in Manhattan. Too many sprinklers.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

No good jobs.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. A lot of code. A lot of buildings built to code.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah. Yeah. They want those old buildings, you know, I mean, even we got our house. He was like Queen Anne, Tinder box. Like, you don't tell your wife that they're moving into. He's like, oh, this place burnt open. Open interior stairwell like this. Ah, yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Go up like that. So what parameters does he give you about what you shouldn't joke about. As relates to. Never.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Never. Why not to joke about anything.

[Mike Pesca]

Has he ever been offended by anything?

[Rachel Feinstein]

That's the cool thing, because it's funny. I just did a clip with the seller with. About firemen and I was talking about how he comes back from the firehouse so much dumber or whatever and how these, you know, these man sleepovers that these guys have are like such a problem. So many comments I should never have read, but underneath about just like how horrific it was that I would talk about a first responder, whatever. And it's all firemen that like and are now my shows. So they are kind of like comics. Like, they say unspeakable things to each other at the fire. You know, they'd sit around a table and just say crazy ass shit.

[Mike Pesca]

There's camaraderie. Right. And they under. They really do understand each other at a level beyond the surface. They know each other well. They put their lives in each other's hands.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I don't know.

[Mike Pesca]

Comedians do that. But most workers who are just, you know, pretending to get offended by things in the workplace don't have that kind of level of interaction or understanding.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Of their.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, they don't give a. About anything like that. They don't care. And it's all. Now it's a lot. It's almost sometimes half firefighters and their wives or husbands. It's all firefighter. A lot of firefighter families on my shows now.

[Mike Pesca]

So that means you're the only Jew.

[Rachel Feinstein]

My shows. Yeah, I'm an only Jew, as usual. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

So I see what you do as a kind of anthropology. You love people now. You're in this new subculture that you never really probably thought of before. Maybe with the FBI guy, you thought about that subculture and now you think about the fire subculture and tell me you're not fascinated with it. You're picking up fascinating.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Fascinating.

[Mike Pesca]

You're picking up these little tidbits. It's striking you anew. You're making comedy out of it. I mean, essentially you're entertaining us, but you're anthro. You're engaging in anthropology. You're studying a subculture.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, everybody get off my dick. I'm an anthropologist.

[Mike Pesca]

But you also did it in the.

[Rachel Feinstein]

So you're. So you have. You're really smart. So I'm trying to remember. I'm like catching up with a lot of the things you're saying.

[Mike Pesca]

We're taping this, so it's okay. Yeah, you can play it later.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I'll read it later. Yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna start using that.

[Mike Pesca]

But you know what, Rachel, you're very smart, obviously. Now, did you have a self conception that you weren't because of all the brain scanning?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, I think that, I think that that's part of why I, you know, I think I would have done stand up no matter what. I don't want to like pathologize it too much, but I think that I definitely feeling misunderstood or it's a way you can literally hold. I'm holding people hostage and having them listen to me and hear my insights, if you can even call it that. But it's like, it's like your little final arguments to the world. I think that's why a lot of comedians used to be attorneys. You know, it's an argument. It's your final argument. And you, it's yours. It's all yours. And nobody's gonna control it or fuck with it. And you're like, I. I had things to say all along. See. So I do think that there's some of that. And I remember this teacher in Snortin Fiends that I was in the bathroom washing my hands and like, I was like a junior in high school. And I remember her being like, you're smart. And I was just like, the world stopped. And I'm like, wait, she wasn't. She means I'm smart. And she's like, you are smart. You say and write smart things. And that was like a turning point in my life that she said that to me. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna keep saying and trying to write smart things. So I think it's definitely.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, you do. You're a great writer. Some of the phrases. So I just saw your act a little while ago. Maybe right after this I'll go down to see it again. You told us about the thick necked, ignorant looking guy. You talk about your mom being some sort of genderless composter, an inclusive, a ludicrous Iroquois cloak, an angular terrorist, terrifying haircut.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Like, my mom is aggressively liberal. Like, she's still complaining about Trump. She'll be like, not my president. I'm like, he's not Mom. He's not your president. She would have preferred if I married a Nigerian lesbian than an Irish Catholic firefighter. Like, my mother was praying one of us was gay. She was just sitting in the kitchen waiting, like, there's Coco. If anyone feels gay and wants to talk about it, she's always wearing some sort of long, like menopausal cape. Just Some kind of inclusive looking Iroquois cloak.

[Mike Pesca]

There's a rhythm to these and there's a poeticism, I think a poetry. Let's not be too highfalutin. Does it come to you, or do you really work on these kind of phrases?

[Rachel Feinstein]

I, I, sometimes you fiddle around with a word choice and like, listen to yourself and play. Play a clip and then listen to a clip. And yeah, there's definitely refining. And then sometimes something you just, just comes out in the right way, you know, like sometimes I do, I will listen to a lot of sets, especially as I'm prepping for this special. Like, listen, that word's funnier than this word. And your friends tell you. Because I don't really sit down to work ever because I'm just too add. And so I, I get my ideas a lot of times just from conversations, venting. And a friend will say, you gotta say that. Say it what you said there.

[Mike Pesca]

So, yeah, the ludicrous Iroquois cloak.

[Rachel Feinstein]

That was the thing I just said.

[Mike Pesca]

Cloak. Cloak is funny even, like, not even. I'm talking about phrases. You talked about a story about a funny dirty picture you mistakenly sent someone. There was the word you used. Debris. There was debris. That's so much funnier than garbage or trash.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I was talking about sending a dirty picture to the wrong person. Then I have to go on stage in like, in two minutes. But I was talking about sending a dirty picture to the wrong person by accident, which I did because he had the same first name as the guy I was dating at the time. It was one of the most, like, horrifying moments of my life. And, and it wasn't even a good one because the guy that I was dating was, like, a little jealous. So I just sent him pictures on the road. But I would just really phone it in. And there was like some debris by my foot, like, and like a USB cord or something.

[Mike Pesca]

Yes.

[Rachel Feinstein]

So, yeah, it felt like the best way to describe it because there was some trash near my dumb foot. It was aggressively heinous photo. And then actually I called Schumer after that and I was like, you're not going to believe who. I just accidentally sent like, a slovenly shot in my underwear with, like, some trash and coins by my foot too. And I told her because we're both friends with the guy, and she was like, if it makes you feel any better, I'll send him one too. And then she sent him just a picture of like, I think her crotch and some like, beige sweatpants. I don't remember exactly what she was wearing.

[Mike Pesca]

You also said a thin line of mustard.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Did I say that?

[Mike Pesca]

Yes.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I don't this. These aren't told in years, but I forgot it was mustard. Yeah, but that tracks.

[Mike Pesca]

It does. All right, let's get you out of here.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Okay.

[Mike Pesca]

All right.

[Rachel Feinstein]

But I can come back later.

[Mike Pesca]

All right. Yeah, maybe we'll do a couple more minutes afterwards.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Okay, Cool. Perfect.

[Mike Pesca]

Is that cool? Thanks a lot.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Thank you. All right.

[Mike Pesca]

And we'll be back in just a minute with more of Rachel Feinstein Foreign. Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report, are your ulcerative.

[Rachel Feinstein]

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[Mike Pesca]

We'Re back with comic Rachel Feinstein from the comedy seller studios. Yeah, so basically these spots at the Cellar are, you know, can go from what, like 12 to 20 minutes?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, more like. Yeah, more like 10 to 15 probably.

[Mike Pesca]

Okay. And so you're, you keep doing that. First you want to grab people because that's what they'll watch on Netflix and they'll determine if they're gonna stick with it.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, the first 15 minutes are so important, you know, and you work on this hour of material and like I just completely personally just obsess about it and try to refine it. But that first 10 minutes is so important. If I could, like, know the perfect cocktail of jokes that would get people to watch the whole thing, I would do whatever. Like, I'm not like obsessed with some sort of Order that it must be in like some kind of an integrity based order. Myself, like, no, tell me what the fuck I have to say first.

[Mike Pesca]

Tell me the funniest stuff that will strike them immediately as the funniest stuff.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, the quickest thing, you know. So, so I'm, I'm going to like try to make myself sit and watch a bunch of these 10 minute sets at the Cellar just to see all the different combinations of what I should do up front.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, well, it's good because you definitely clearly define yourself. You define your relationship. We get your worldview. We know you're a wife, we know you're a mom. We know you're sarcastic, we know you do voices. My mom's sarcastic and my dad's a hero. We, we get all that. And so it's some order of them. I don't know. There's probably not. Not. It's not a code. It's not like when it clicks, you know, it's right. There are a number of possible right choices. Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And I'll probably ask advice and then there'll be no, there is no one right choice. And I'll probably ask advice to different comedians and some of it I'll be able to change around in the edit, you know, to some degree. But the first few minutes, like what I walk out on, I'll at least want to kind of practice it. Jimmy Carr offered to give me advice on the set. And I don't know if you know Jimmy, but he's really funny. And he's also mathematical.

[Mike Pesca]

Mathematical.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And I feel like he just has a lot of us, you know, he just has an insight that I don't have and looks at things in a way that's very mathematical and yet precise. And I, and I would love his insight on the set. So I keep trying to get a good enough tape to give him. But like, I'll definitely take any notes he has for me. So I'm excited to see what he says. I bet, I bet he'll know what I show up with. Do you know?

[Mike Pesca]

Well, you know what? If nothing else, he'll have a good intuition and he'll say it and then because he says it, you'll believe it and that will calm you down. And like I said, There are probably 20 different versions that would work and you'll pick a fine one.

[Rachel Feinstein]

You're such a good dad. You're really.

[Mike Pesca]

I'm trying.

[Rachel Feinstein]

No, but you're very calming. Like, that's like your kids are in good hands. Like, that's such a Good way to put it. Cause I could think about it forever.

[Mike Pesca]

But to be honest, there's no two. There's no bad joke there, and there's no minute that's really any weaker than any other minute. It's just how it cascades and relates to each other. When you introduce your husband, when you introduce your mom, and, you know, you're building this world that you inhabit, but it's the order that you do that so that we understand who you are.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yes. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And. And I. I did push the toddler stuff up front because it's like, oh, if you're a mom, you maybe you'll watch this. If you're, you know, married to a first or first responder or know any firemen or something. Yeah, you'll. You'll watch this or. Or think it's. It'll appeal to you in some way. So I try to have like a little something in that first 10 minutes that could makes anybody watch more, but who the fuck knows? I don't know.

[Mike Pesca]

So what about the rest of the 45? Where are you performing that?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Anywhere I can. I was in Atlanta last week. I'm gonna be in. Where am I hurling my body to next? Connecticut.

[Mike Pesca]

Where are they launching you out of a cannon? Where you land up?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Alaska. Yeah, that's how it feels. I have no sense of geography, so I really don't know what's near what. I just know that I wake up and I find. I read my email more closely and I find out where my body has been hurled to.

[Mike Pesca]

What about time zones? Do they. Luckily, the phone updates. So.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, my brother says, like, one of his favorite phone calls he ever got from me because he's always had, like a good job and had his together was. He said he. I called him once at his job at like, Pfizer, and I was like, where's Wisconsin?

[Mike Pesca]

Ever asked how do you really answer that? I guess in relation to some other state you don't know?

[Rachel Feinstein]

I know. It's like, I. The question is so dumb. You don't know where we're going to begin or end with it? Like. Yeah, but he's like, why? I'm like, I have to go there tomorrow. I just want to know where it is.

[Mike Pesca]

So the two last things I want to ask you about are, since we talk, you talk about your daughter and you mentioned. You said I'm a good dad. I don't know if I am just trying to navigate these things that's really.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Calming and helpful the way you summed that up.

[Mike Pesca]

Thank you. How when you think about raising your daughter and she has these two parents to draw from, but also, and here's the big thing, like, how much can you really affect a kid? I know you could screw her up, but think about everything your parents tried to do with all those brain scans and did they really, quote, unquote, work? It was a teacher who gave you a little bit of life advice when you were washing your hands that really changed things.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, it's hard to know. I have no idea.

[Mike Pesca]

Like, how are you going to steer her? What are you going to steer her towards her dad's witch traits and then towards your witch traits. How are you?

[Rachel Feinstein]

I'm trying to just, like, you know, I'm getting through the day, barely. I mean, I overthink everything and worry about how this will affect her. That'll affect her. I mean, we went to the pediatrician today and I had, like, so many questions, like, should I do this if she's having a tantrum? Or is this more helpful? Or is that my husband just like, all right, sounds good. Like, he's got nothing, but he's probably right.

[Mike Pesca]

Mom's obsession. At what age do I turn them around? So in the stroller they face me, but at some age, I turn them around to see the world and I just. Yeah. And I just know that there is no person who ever missed out on the Nobel Prize in physics by this much because the stroller was turned around two weeks late.

[Rachel Feinstein]

It gets ridiculous.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah. But there's something in you that, like the first six months of having a baby, and I'm not. I am not, like, you know, very nervous person. I'm not a hypochondriac at all. But that first six months, you're just like, waking up constantly, is she alive? Is she alive? Is she alive? Is she dead? Is she dead? Is she dead? Is she alive? So once you. You get past that six months of like, is she dead? That's all you're. You're thinking when you wake up. I don't think dads do it the way moms do.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Oh, my God. Fuck. Is she dead? But it's still a little bit that of that stays with you. But. Yeah, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm trying.

[Mike Pesca]

So here I was, you know, doing the research on you, and the best research is just to see your act. But you have a weird Wikipedia page. It says all. All the information, but the sourcing is bizarre. Personal life. First sentence on the Dudley and Bob with Matt show. On klbj, Austin Feinstein's. And Feinstein announced that her boyfriend at the time was a comedy writer. Writes one of her tell who gives a shit? And why is the Dudley and Bob show getting.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I need to edit this because it's been such a problem and my Wikipedia is all over the fucking map. Also, it said I was a professional juggler for a long time and I don't juggle. Juggle. It took me years to get the juggling thing off. And it keeps coming back again. It says I got my start at the, like, gritty New York juggling scene.

[Mike Pesca]

And how you're at least.

[Rachel Feinstein]

If you're gonna say that I do something, make it like something sexy, you know, like a trapeze artist. But no, that I moved to New York to juggle. And then when I go on, there's.

[Mike Pesca]

No truth to that. None at all.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I was never juggled. See, nobody believes me. And then when I go on these morning shows, somebody's always like, there's some forces after. It's some intern sent out to get oranges, and they hand me me some sad, like, bag of oranges. And I'm like, I don't juggle. And everybody's like, bitch fudgeing juggle. We know you do and that you're ashamed of your juggling pass. I'm like, no, I never juggled.

[Mike Pesca]

But, you know, when they book you, it's like, okay, here's one of America's top comics. Fuck that. She knows how to juggle.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Oh, my God.

[Mike Pesca]

That's the important thing.

[Rachel Feinstein]

There's. It probably says some crazy shit on there now. It always says something ridiculous. That's not true.

[Mike Pesca]

It says her. Well, it has two references to the Dudley and Bob with Matt morning show, because the Dudley in February of 2020 on the Dudley and Bob with Matt. What's up with Matt? He's not a full partner in the.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Morning show now Matt is. Dudley isn't there anymore. So now Matt steps in Dudley's. But it's a fun morning show in Austin. Okay, but it was Dudley. And now I think it's like Matt and somebody. Yeah. So now Matt has found his space there. Like, now he's really. He's spreading his wings.

[Mike Pesca]

The first sentence is, you grew up in Bethesda. The second sentence is, your dad was a civil rights lawyer and blues musician. Mother was a social worker. True, true and true. Her father is from a Jewish family, whereas her mother converted to Jewish sixth grade book.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Whereas that's what I would.

[Mike Pesca]

In the course of maternal events yes. Okay. Where a mother converted Judaism. Oh, is that true? You click the source. This is the least inviting source. This is the least inviting headline I have ever said. Comic Rachel Feinstein draws on her Jewish roots. CBC Manitoba reports.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Oh, my God. The Canadian Broadcasting Company of Manitoba said that. Somebody led me that question. They said, that's like. I would never say that. I draw on my Jewish roots. I don't speak like that. Fuck out of here. Somebody was probably like, how do you draw on your Jewish roots?

[Mike Pesca]

The firemen in the audience like, rachel, please draw on your Jewish roots some more.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, I mean, I. I have to fix that. My Wikipedia page is a completely confusing disaster, and I don't even know how to edit it. See, that's when I'm bad at stuff like this. How do you edit a Wikipedia page?

[Mike Pesca]

You just have to.

[Rachel Feinstein]

You could do it for me.

[Mike Pesca]

You just have to concentrate on the special and the comedy, and then I think everything else will come. All this other stuff.

[Rachel Feinstein]

What did you go to college for?

[Mike Pesca]

I studied political science.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And then what did you do right after college?

[Mike Pesca]

I was a jerk. Well, I taught for the journalist. I taught Prep classes for SATs and GMATs and GREs. And then I worked for the Princeton Review. And then I was a journalist.

[Rachel Feinstein]

If I worked for the Princeton Review, I would put that in my intro. Speaking of. Get off my dick. I'd be like, I worked for the Princeton Review once. Get off my dick. I don't even know what a review is. I. I mean, is there different Princeton? Is there like a Princeton Bubbler? A Princeton Tadler?

[Mike Pesca]

The Princeton Review is a bubbler.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Is no paper anywhere.

[Mike Pesca]

It's a test prep course.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Oh, my.

[Mike Pesca]

That's what I meant.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Okay, yeah, I wouldn't even know that. See, everybody else is like, bitch, that means preparing. But I never prepared because they were so. There was not even a chance.

[Mike Pesca]

So you thought it was like the Princeton Crier?

[Rachel Feinstein]

I thought it was different.

[Mike Pesca]

Princeton Newspapers.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Princeton.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, I see.

[Rachel Feinstein]

It's called.

[Mike Pesca]

It kept getting four and a half stars.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I thought that. Speaking of anthropology, I thought that that was like your anthropologetic. That's even better. I'm going to call anthropologetic. I thought it was an anthropolog. Can you. Can you make this work? Can you fix this?

[Mike Pesca]

Go ahead.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah, I need you to say it.

[Mike Pesca]

Let's work. Anthropologetic.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Is that what you know, that was a joke.

[Mike Pesca]

Anthropologist. You're anthro.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Is there. Can you use anthropology? Is there a descriptor that you could use?

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, I. I say an adjective. Form of anthropologist. I don't know.

[Rachel Feinstein]

No. Okay. So I thought it was, like, a study of Princeton culture.

[Mike Pesca]

I understand.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Which is what I. That's what I thought a review was. And I did go to one class of college, actually, strangely enough, because I. I came here and I had this acting coach, Florence Winston. She was, like, old school, and she was very. She said, it's vulgar to not have an education.

[Mike Pesca]

Vulgar.

[Rachel Feinstein]

There's a terrible vulgarity to it. You have to go to school. You must. You must learn and discipline yourself and go to school, and then you can truly act, and you will not make vulgar choices in your acting. So I was like, all right. So I applied to Columbia, but late, of course. Not Columbia. Sorry. Not at all. They would not. There's a picture of me in the front door, right?

[Mike Pesca]

That's bad. Ch.

[Rachel Feinstein]

No. What's the. What's the. I don't even remember where I went. It's like a community college here. Can you tell me some of them? I feel like, you know, all things.

[Mike Pesca]

There's Manhattan Community College. There's, like, borough Manhattan, Upper east side. Oh, Maryville, Manhattan. Hunter College.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Hunter.

[Mike Pesca]

You went to Hunter?

[Rachel Feinstein]

No, I applied to Hunter. I went to one class one day, but I applied really late, and you had to do it on the phone. And I think I. I kept pressing different buttons, and everyone was like, this class is full. This class is full. And then finally, like, I just started pressing anything. I'm like, anything not fun. Then they were like, it's like, what.

[Mike Pesca]

Did you major in? 6, 8? I don't know what that is.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I had no idea. And then they're like, congratulations. Congratulations. You've been admitted to a cultural study of the community campus. So I actually took that course.

[Mike Pesca]

Okay.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Real review.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

And it was basically just a class about, like, how people communicate on the college campus. It was like, for just somebody that didn't speak, like, one word of English, that just came there, not even knowing how to, like, walk around a campus and, like, speak to people just from. And it was like, 10 ESOL students, one guy that was trying to get laid a lot named Anthony. I'll never forget it. Because all his questions were about how to get laid. Really? He's like, what if you say one thing and a girl's not interested in what you just said, and then you try again, you're striking out some more. And the teacher was like, well, Anthony, I'm not really sure. That's the question for this class. But I think the long answer is, you need to leave her alone. But it was a lot of just like, what do people do on a university campus? It was at 7am and it was just about, like, making friends and waving hello. And I went like, one. One time, and I was like this.

[Mike Pesca]

It seems like the weirdest class to teach at college is like, what are.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Classes of College life, Communicating at a university. Like, it was. Yeah, it was for people that something's wrong. I think if you're in that class. Something was wrong with Anthony that was for sure.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, he's not really great communicator.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Like, what if you kind of, like, smile at a girl? You think for a second you get it close, but then you're like, nah, I'm not getting laid. No way. Then what do you do, Anthony?

[Mike Pesca]

Shouldn't you be taking a class with a guy who's teaching you mad magic tricks? Who is a pickup artist named Mysterio? Shouldn't that be your class? So you don't know what you're gonna name the new special? The last yet. An album called Only Whores Wear Purple. I think a good. I don't know if this is a name for an album. It was named from one of your tracks. A good character would be the sexual attorney. If I was your sexual attorney.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

But I don't know if you do any bits about the sexual attorney anyway anymore.

[Rachel Feinstein]

I haven't done that for a long time. But that is. That would be a fun name for a special. Maybe not this one. I'm just impressed that you've actually listened to stuff. I feel like most people, I sit down and they're just. They think I'm just like Diane.

[Mike Pesca]

Are Dudley, Bob and Matt like that? Is that why they bounced Dudley?

[Rachel Feinstein]

Because he thought they were pretty nice to me? Dudley. Dudley's gone. Let's not talk about that. But I want to get into the weeds with the Dudley and Matt controversy. But most people, I think, don't know who I am. Yeah, they just think I'm the sculptor, Rachel Feinstein or Dianne Feinstein, the senator. I still get tweets at me about, like, laws she's passed.

[Mike Pesca]

Do they?

[Rachel Feinstein]

It's criminal.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, they don't like the laws.

[Rachel Feinstein]

They think I'm her.

[Mike Pesca]

Do they? Are they from the left or the right? Do they hate. Oh, they hate gun control. The left doesn't think she's environmental enough.

[Rachel Feinstein]

So I don't know because I don't really track her career enough. But I just know that people need to stop harassing me.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. At this point, I think you might know more about Dianne Feinstein than Diane, probably.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Rachel Feinstein]

They're like, hey, like, this is what liberty, justice for all really means. And you're trying to, you know, bog down on my rights as an American citizen. I'm like, I'm trying to do an 840 at the fucking Chuckle Hut tonight, please. Can I have some space?

[Mike Pesca]

Trying to figure out where Wisconsin is.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Trying to figure out where Wisconsin, Wisconsin is. And I have a 110 at the village Underground and the fat Black bar afterwards. So I really am not trying to get into the weeds of environmental law with you.

[Mike Pesca]

Rachel Feinstein is a standup comic appearing at Chuckle Hutts everywhere and the senior senator from California. Thank you so much, Rachel.

[Rachel Feinstein]

Thank you.

[Mike Pesca]

And that's it for today's show. Cory War is the producer of the Gist. He produces all of the Funny youy Should mention content. Joel Patterson's Our senior producer, Leo Baum is instrumental in all the funny you should mention content as is C. BSO of Peach Fish Productions. Michelle Pesca. Nicole Lyons engineered our session at the Comedy Seller studios. We also would like to thank Noam Dwarman of the Comedy Seller and Liz Furiation. To advertise on the gist, go to advertisecast.com the gist. And of course, let us remember and rest in peace. Dianne Feinstein. Thanks for listening. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsynads, go to libsynads. Com, that's L I B S Y N Ads. Com. Today.