The JTrain Podcast

Episode: Are You Rich?! ft. Lukas Zelnick — CHIT CHAT WEDNESDAY
Host: Jared Freid
Guest: Lukas Zelnick
Date: December 24, 2025

Overview

This "Chit Chat Wednesday" episode features comedian and crowd work specialist Lukas Zelnick in a lively, self-aware discussion about class, privilege, and comedy. Jared and Lukas riff on Lukas’s “rich kid” persona, examine the challenges of honest self-presentation on stage, and debate the unique risks and advantages of coming from privilege in stand-up. Things get especially playful during a lightning round game, “How Rich Are You?” that humorously tests Lukas’s elite bona fides.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Podcast Dynamic and Guest Introduction

• Jared jokes about the guest-friend-expert Venn diagram and their limited personal history:
  “Today I have two of the three. Comedian expert in the art of crowd work, and we've only met in passing, so to call him a friend would be absolutely insane at this point.” (00:24)
• The pair immediately click, showing the chemistry of two self-aware New Yorkers from slightly different comedic life stages.

2. New Living Spaces and Relationships

• Lukas discusses moving into a Soho loft with his girlfriend.
  Notable Quotes:
  • Lukas: “This was once a... factory machine room… It’s industrial in nature.” (03:30)
  • Jared: “Is that part of the pitch? ‘All the people that worked here loved it, haunted souls in the building.’” (04:08)
• The “living together in NYC” trope vs. the rest of the country:
  • Jared: “Moving in, in the Midwest is like, we are totally engaged, it is OVER... New York City move in is: leases up, we were living together anyways.” (05:15)
• Differences in relationship seriousness between NYC and the rest of the U.S.

3. Upbringing & Class in Comedy

• Lukas owns his identity as a “fancy Jew” who grew up in NYC, contrasting themselves with the suburban Jewish stereotype.
• Private school anecdotes:
  • Lukas: “If you got a good enough part in the play, you would get a girlfriend… I was [in] ‘Into the Woods’... tangential but sexual, and that was good.” (06:35–07:09)

4. The “Rich Kid” Persona: Benefits & Pitfalls

• Jared shares how he first heard of Lukas—noting a date described Lukas as “a rich kid from the Upper West Side who doesn't seem to care that he’s rich and kind of owns it.” (08:38–09:05)

• Lukas agrees, acknowledging it has become part of his brand and that he just leans into it.

• The challenge of broaching privilege on stage:

  • Jared: “Being rich is a hard thing to admit to... there’s always someone richer. So to go on stage and say, ‘I have money’–that’s a little embarrassing.” (09:12)
  • (Transition to Rocket Money ad, then back to content.)

• Dealing with Judgment in Comedy:

  • Lukas: “People hate that someone has money… especially not in comedy or at a place like the Cellar.” (12:29)

• Both discuss how their backgrounds made comedy a countercultural move, even with a safety net.

  • Lukas attended Williams College and Stanford for grad school. (13:23)

5. Privilege, Insecurity, and Owning the Narrative

• Lukas’s insecurity about being perceived as untalented and bankrolled:
  • “My biggest fear was that I was going to look like some kid whose dad was paying his bills... So my approach is, if there’s a thing I’m insecure about, I might as well just name it and get ahead of it…” (15:12)
• Jared ties this into a broader trend in comedy toward specificity and honesty:
  • “There’s a hole in the market for it... If everyone talks about trauma, it’s not that interesting.” (16:27)

6. Specificity, Comedy Trends, and Social Class in Art

• Discussion of authenticity in modern comedy:
  • Lukas: “I think I feel very lucky... art has gotten a little more honest and specific in the last, like, 20 years... Instead of, like, trying to be 50% relatable to everybody.” (17:49)
• Jared’s observations of the shift from “relatable to all” to “specifically relatable” comedy.

7. Crowd Work & Social Media

• Jared asks if crowd work clips are a way of publicly working through material while avoiding oversharing before ready.
• Lukas confirms:
  • “When I started, kind of, the crowd work stuff started happening, I was really bad at stand up... I just felt very comfortable doing [crowd work] immediately.” (20:13)
  • He uses crowd work as “juice” for social media while privately refining his long-form act.

8. Comedy Career Strategies & Goals

• Both discuss the timing, strategy, and pressure behind releasing a comedy special:
  • Lukas: “I am sort of, like, waiting for [my act] to plateau a little bit so that I don’t go out, try and sell a thing… and by the time it comes out, I’m like, this isn’t that good.” (24:11)
  • Jared: “When an act feels you, that’s when you love doing it…” (24:35)
• Importance of career milestones for both professional pride and familial recognition:
  • Jared: “The Netflix thing was, like, my friends thinking I was a real thing…” (26:27)
  • Lukas: “It’s gotta feel amazing telling some parent at a cocktail party… ‘Yeah, I have a Netflix special. What’d your son do? Fentanyl.’” (27:17)

9. Game: “How Rich Are You?” (28:14–32:34)

• Rapid-fire questions determine just how “rich” Lukas is:
  • Have you eaten at Arby’s? “No.”
  • Do you own a tux? “Yes.”
  • Ever carried chairs to the beach? “No, dude.”
  • Allowance in college? “Yeah… it just went to booze at Stanford.”
  • Family employees: Had both a live-in nanny and a cleaning woman.
  • Brother’s occupation? “He’s the CEO of a late-stage startup. He’s also a custom watchmaker.”
  • Jared, laughing: “You might be a billionaire, dude. This is crazy.” (29:58)
• Memorable moment:
  Jared: “Your reputation precedes you. It’s absolutely true. You’re rich.” (33:20)

Notable Quotes

• Jared (on NYC moving in together):
  “New York City move in is like, leases up, we were living together anyways, and it’s like we’re together. I’m not trying to, like, lessen the relationship, but it isn’t as big a deal.” (05:17)

• Lukas (on honesty in comedy):
  “If there’s a thing I’m insecure about, I might as well just name it and get ahead of it, right? So that I can feel like I’m being honest up there.” (15:20)

• Jared (on privilege in comedy):
  “There’s a hole in the market for it... If everyone talks about trauma, it’s not that interesting.” (16:27)

• Lukas (on modern comedy/audience segmentation):
  “Art has gotten a little more honest and specific in the last 20 years... I’ll find a little audience of people that really understand that experience and relate to it extra. Instead of trying to be 50% relatable to everybody.” (17:49)

• Game highlight:
  Jared: “Have you ever carried chairs to the beach?”
  Lukas: “No, dude.”
  Jared: “You might be fucking a billionaire, dude. This is crazy.” (29:56)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00–01:18] — Chit Chat Wednesday intro & rapport building
• [03:30–04:36] — Living in a Soho loft & NYC luxury apartment tropes
• [05:15–05:51] — NYC relationship milestones vs. the Midwest
• [08:38–09:05] — The “rich kid” reputation and how Lukas owns it
• [15:12–16:27] — Embracing and naming insecurity as an onstage asset
• [17:49–18:37] — Trends: specific, honest, niche comedy
• [20:09–21:52] — Why crowd work & digital content strategy
• [24:11–26:27] — Timing the release of your special; the prestige of Netflix; milestones
• [28:14–32:34] — GAME: “How Rich Are You?”
• [32:23–32:37] — Older brother’s career: CEO and watchmaker
• [33:20] — Affirmation of Lukas’s “rich kid” legacy

Episode Tone

Warm, candid, and loaded with dry wit. Both comedians are self-deprecating, quick to play off Jewish, NYC, and privileged-kid tropes without defensiveness. The episode balances sincerity about class and achievement with a mutual appreciation for the absurdities and anxieties of privilege—never letting things get too heavy.

Useful for Listeners Who…

• Are curious about comedy’s insider culture and career paths.
• Wonder how comics with privilege “own it” onstage.
• Like honest conversations about social class, without self-seriousness.
• Enjoy fast, funny banter about NYC, dating, and family dynamics.
• Want to know why “rich kid” comics might be the next unexplored frontier in stand-up.

Follow Lukas Zelnick: lucaszelnick.com, @lucaszelnick
Host: @jaredfreid