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- [00:01]
A
This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's cybersecurity awareness month and LifeLock has tips to protect your identity. Use strong passwords, set up multi factor authentication, report phishing and update the software on your devices. And for comprehensive identity protection, let Lifelock alert you to suspicious uses of your personal information. Lifelock also fixes identity theft, guaranteed or your money back. Stay smart, safe and protected with a 30 day free trial@lifelock.com Podcast terms apply. There are some new things in the merch shop I want to let you know about. We got the tour merch. If you were unable to come to one of the cities, if you were unable to grab a piece of tour merch then. And you want to get something, we've put whatever we have remaining there online. We also have some new bubby te's that have been restocked and we've got hoodies coming on those, some camo gang hitter Hunt club. A lot of, uh, new items in there. And, and thank you so much. Some people are getting gifts for their friends or family for Christmas. So thank you for letting us be a part of your holidays and thanks for supporting the show. Theovonstore.com thank you guys. Today's guest is a stand up comedian. He's an actor and a filmmaker. He just directed his first film called Good Fortune, which we're going to talk about and I'm looking forward to getting to meet him. Really? We never even known each other, so we're going to do that now. Today's guest is Mr. Aziz Ansari. Sweet, man. Might get a hit of this. What do you drink, man? What's your. Do you have a beverage of choice? Kind of just espresso and water, really?
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B
I mean, not, not together, but I drink espresso a lot and then water. And then if I'm drinking like wine or whatever, a martini or whatever, but.
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A
Ooh, a martini, huh?
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B
Check, check. You good? Okay.
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A
Yeah. Do Indian people react well to martinis? Is your family Indian?
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B
By n. Yeah, by nature they are Indian. Yeah. My family's from India. I was born in South Carolina.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Wait, are we going now or. No?
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A
Yeah, we can be.
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B
Yeah, whatever we want. Okay. Wait, so where are you from? You're from Louisiana?
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A
I'm from Louisiana, yeah.
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B
Okay. Cause, you know, whenever I hear someone else with a southern accent, it's almost like when I see someone that's Indian, I'm a little like, oh, I need to. But we've never really met. I don't think properly. I was around. You were At Chris Rock's birthday party. I saw you there. But, you know, that was a crazy thing. I didn't really get to say hi. But do you have that when you hear someone with a Southern accent? Cause to me, there's so few people. I don't have one. But I'm from South Carolina. I lost my accent. It comes out when I start talking to other people that have. Even the guy that picked me up at the airport, he was from Atlanta. And I started. And it started seeping in. Yeah, but yours has stayed strong. Mine is gone. But I remember when I met Danny McBride. Cause there's so few people that have Southern accents that are in our kind of acting, Hollywood comedian role.
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A
That's true. Huh.
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B
Strange.
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A
I think right before our generation, it was more prevalent before, well, there was.
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B
The whole, like, blue collar.
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A
Right. Those guys.
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B
Those guys, they had their run. That was. That was. They all had Southern accents.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Larry the cable guy, definitely Southern accent.
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A
Yeah. He's going back on tour. I just saw.
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B
Yeah. I remember when I was a kid, you know, I grew up in a small town in South Carolina called Bennettsville. There's like 8,000 people there. No one ever toured there or anything. And I remember some kids went and saw Jeff Foxworthy, and he came to Florence, South Carolina, which is like 45 minutes, and like, we saw Jeff Foxworthy. That was the first time I'd ever heard of someone going to a live comedy show.
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A
Oh, wow.
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B
By the way, I'm shivering a little bit because so I, you know, I came from. I was in Chicago, and I had to get up at like, five in the morning, and you had a cold plunge. And your producer was like, if you want to jump in the cold plunge. And I was like, are you. Are you kidding? Are you serious? Because I'm a little tired and I didn't really sleep yesterday. And I did it, but, like, I'm a little cold. I'm shivered a little bit.
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A
It'll rattle you. Yeah. No, I'm glad you got in, dude. Yeah, I got in. I was in there earlier this morning. I get in now because I don't want to. So I'm like, let me go do something that I don't want to do to start my day. And I think it adjusts my attitude, which I need a lot. And, dude, I just went to. I just went to University of South Carolina. We had. We met a chauffeur over there. His girlfriend had thrown fettuccine, like a hot thing of boiling fettuccine on him. Yeah. And he had to be, like, in, like. Dude, it's crazy, bro.
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B
That story took a dark turn really fast. That's the last thing I expected to happen to this guy in the story is. Is boiling fettuccine thrown on him, bro?
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A
100%. And. But he was our.
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B
With the water, not. Yeah, okay. Cuz. Cuz if it was just a fetichini, that. That's not too bad.
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A
Yeah, water.
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B
Even the mix, too, though. That's. That's. That's a crime.
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A
Yeah. Oh, it was a crime. And his. Yeah, his neck was, like, dripping off of him and stuff. It was. He went through a lot. But anyway, met him. He's a chauffeur over there.
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B
Stan.
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A
He's out of the. He's out of the Bronx originally, but we just had him come in. He was just, like, kind of a unique character, so. But. Hey, Trev, will you cut the AC off just in case? I don't want to lose Aziz.
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B
Am I looking crazy?
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A
No, you seem fine.
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B
Okay. I didn't know if I was just sitting there, but.
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A
No, I know what you mean. Sometimes if you get that in and that AC is on, it's kind of a lot. Dude, is it. Is this true? And thanks so much for coming in today, man.
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B
Oh, man, I really appreciate it. And, you know, I'm not really super familiar with a lot of podcasts, and I haven't done a big press tour in, like, a long time. Cause, you know, the last time I had something come out was during COVID so that was weird. You didn't really do the normal stuff. And then I've been working on these films for a bit. And so before, I was like, they were like, oh, do all these podcasts. I was like, well, I'm gonna listen to episodes. And I listened to a couple of years, I listened to the Bernie Sanders one.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
Which I really liked, and to me, really connected with my film. Cause the stuff you guys were talking about, um. You're talking about something that I hadn't heard, where the number one cause of bankruptcy is medical bills.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And in my character in the film, you're never really given a clear explanation of what happened to this guy. The guy's, you know, he's lost his job, he's sleeping in his car, but.
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A
Oh, in good fortune, you mean?
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
But.
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B
But it made me think of that. What? Your conversation with Bernie Sanders. And I was like, oh, man, this is really on the. In the same kind of realm. And then. And I loved your episode with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm always fascinated by Arnold.
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A
Really?
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B
Yeah. Because I think he's so. I think he's so smart and. Yeah. I don't know why. I think you realize, like, the more you're in this business, especially the. In the kind of movie acting world, to, like, be an actor that's kind of had a few hits, like, a lot of things have to come together, and it's not an accident. You know what I mean? When these guys have this run of hits, like, they've got to be really sharp.
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A
Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty fascinating, I guess. We went to his office, and there's, like, the. His, like, Conan thing is in there. And, like, the sword.
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B
He's like, wait, did you meet that little donkey he has?
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A
I don't know if the donkey was there. There was some hair that's in his house.
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B
This was at his office.
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A
Oh, no. This was his office. Yeah. There was some hair on the floor, but I don't know what it was from. I don't think. Oh, my God.
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B
Yeah, there's a donkey.
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A
Oh. Because I think he's very Dutch. Like that or something. Oh, he's very.
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B
Oh, my God. Yeah, those are mini donkeys.
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A
They look mixed, too.
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B
I met a small donkey in Nashville once.
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A
Oh.
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B
First off, I love Nashville. I go to Zany's a lot when I'm, like, working on sets.
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A
Yeah. Oh, I think I remember. That's when the last thing I remember. I remember hearing you came to Zany's and did, like, six or seven nights or something over there.
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B
Yeah. And one time, one of my favorite shows, the Power, went out, and I had to do the show. Like, the power went out, and we were like, what do we do? And the staff there was amazing. They, like, immediately brought candles out, and I was, like, yelling my set. And then some guy, like, brought, like, a speaker and a microphone. It was incredible.
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A
Oh, dude. I think. Didn't they. I think it was an article or something about that. I even remember. I remember seeing a picture about that, or at least just hearing about it, like, in local lore. You know, one thing about Nashville is, dude, it's a very small city. Like, it's small. It's like people. It's. You hear something happens. You hear about it. It's not like. It just feels like a huge town.
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B
Like, how long you lived here?
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A
A really big town. I lived here for, I think, almost four years. Because. Were you before the pandemic? I was in L. A.
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B
Okay. Yeah.
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A
And I moved directly from there. Because during the pandemic, I Remember seeing, like, Kid Rocks Bar, you know, and people are having a blast there, and meanwhile, like, my landlord is, like, making us wear hazmat suits to get our fucking mail. And chickens. Everybody's all paranoid and shit out there. And I was like, fudge this shit. I got to fucking go.
- [09:25]
B
You know, I've always loved Nashville. I did a series for Netflix, and we filmed an episode here. And I always come here for stand up. I did the rhyme, and I'd never done the ryman. I'd always done some other theater. And I did the ryman on this tour that I. A few months ago, and that's one of the best, best places I've ever performed. Yeah, there's that thing. Yes. Isn't that so crazy? Yeah.
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A
A power outage force. Comedian. Aziza's already finished his set in the dark Monday night.
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B
Dude, that was cool. That was like, one of those cool, cool moments. That was fun. But when I was here for that trip to get back to the donkeys, my wife, she's Danish, and she loves. She loves donkeys. And there was some fair here, and they had miniature donkeys.
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A
Oh, beautiful.
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B
And we sought them out, and we said, what's up to him? One of them. His name was Roger, and He was born October 4th, so Roger 10, 4. So we met Roger, and there was another little donkey named Lily, but I. She was. She was a little big. I don't know if she was a micro donkey. Roger was straight up micro. Lily was a little big. I don't know if she was micro at that size.
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A
I don't judge their weight, to be honest with them. You know what I'm saying? Because the bodies. There's already a lot going on, you know, it's like. Yeah, I think. I think that. I mean, look. I think they're beautiful. I remember I met the world's smallest horse one time.
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B
When was that? And where.
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A
And this is. His name was Tom Thumb, and I met him in Alameda, I believe.
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B
And how did that. How did that intro come about?
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A
Well, people. People like, you got to go meet him and shit. And I remember I'd been in a bar.
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B
Alameda is where? California.
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A
California? Yeah.
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B
Okay. So you were doing a show in Alameda, and then, like, you got. You got to meet the smallest horse.
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A
No, we'd been out there for a. I was just. I think I had heard about it. I think I'd been in conversations about, like, smaller animals. Animalia, generally the world's.
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B
Whoa.
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A
The one I met was Tom Thumb. And if you can also look up separately on Perplexity here. If you can just look up the Ovon Tom Thumb. I did a post on it. It was pretty fascinating.
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B
What's Perplexity?
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A
Perplexity is like a different AI. It does for me. I like it because it's. It can help me like edit and pull clips out of things. Like you can put something in it and be like. Like what clips do you like in this? What do you suggest? That sort of thing? Oh, well, so it's kind of like. It's like a. It's like an AI, you know, it's far beyond my. What?
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B
I don't know any of this stuff, dude.
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A
What are you talking about? Do people. How do your parents feel about that?
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B
That I don't know. Perplexity.
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A
That you don't know about the AIs.
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B
I mean, I know what it is. I don't really use that stuff much. I don't really use Internet or phone or anything very much. I try to stay off.
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A
Yes. Oh, here we go. Right here. Let's take a video.
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B
I am into this.
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A
How long he gonna be here today for? He'll be here all day.
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B
How small is he?
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A
And he's alive too.
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B
That would be dark.
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A
You don't know what people are doing, dude. But yeah, so just to let you know, I guess we have a lot of symbiosis there in our love for the small horses.
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B
Small. What are horses and donkeys? What's that? Ask the AI. What is that called? What are that? That kind of animal? Horses. Donkeys, the four legged kind of. They're similar. There must be some group.
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A
Yeah. What is that called?
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B
The Equus.
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A
Yeah, the Equus. The equine.
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B
The equines.
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A
But dude, when you think that God took all the beauty of a huge horse and put it into like a baby snicker of a horse. A little horse.
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B
Yeah. There's not. Is there any other animals that have minis? Like, because there's mini horses. There's many donkeys. What is it? There's mini cows.
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A
There are. Oh, wow.
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B
Oh God. That'd be a dark moment. You go to a steakhouse, they're like. Just so you know, these are all mini cows.
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A
Yeah, it's still.
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B
That's too dark.
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A
I'd have a little. You know what I'm saying?
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B
You probably could only have a little.
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A
That's true, dude.
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B
There's not like a 40 ounce mini cow stick. That's not. That's not happening. It's like. It's like he's One ounce. It's like when you go to a sushi restaurant, they have that one little piece of wagyu. This is from a mini cow. Oh, my God. They're all furry. Maybe I'm gonna finish this show and get addicted to the Internet. Cause this is pretty fun. I never knew about mini cows. I didn't know. I would have just been wondering about equines equus.
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A
Well, look, dude, I think you could get your wife one of these. Let me see this. Miniature horses rarely exceed 34 inches in height. Miniature donkeys also max out at around 34 inches.
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B
But there's mini M. Micro pigs. Oh, wait. This is a whole list of everything. There's many of. There's many horses, donkeys, pygmy goats. They don't call them micro goats. They prefer to be referred to as pygmy goats. Mini sheeps. Micro pigs. Micro pigs. I've heard of.
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A
Imagine a mini sheep, though.
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B
You could make a very small sweater.
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A
Yeah, you're just sitting there. Oh, dude, we gotta get some of these animals. But, dude, when I was a kid, they only had big dogs. And then the dogs started getting littler. A lot of this, I think, is cross breeding and inbreeding. You know, I grew up in a kind of an. Not an inbreeding district, but I grew up in, like, certainly like the stray animal belt and the inbreeding belt. Kind of like they. You can. They run across some of the same planes in America.
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B
Okay.
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A
And we would see a lot of, you know, people start getting smaller over time in the area because you. And that's when you knew, like, okay, people need to start walking farther or driving farther for sex. You know, you just knew the in reading was heating up. You know, you knew the kettle. The kettle was getting a little warm when somebody'd have a baby and they could just put it on, like a key ring or whatever. It was. Like, that thing's too small, you know. Good to see you, man. Cause we've never really gotten to talk, and it's good to laugh with somebody.
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B
No. You know, I love meeting comedians that I haven't met before. I was thinking this the other day, like, when I was on tour, I was, you know, I bring some of the same guys out with me.
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A
Who do you take with you? Sorry to interject.
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B
Will Silvance.
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A
He's in the movie, isn't he?
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B
Will's in the movie. And Ricky Velez. They came out with me a lot early this year. And then our tour manager, Beth, who I love, will especially have you ever met Will? Do you know Will at all?
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A
I don't know him, but I've recognized him immediately. This dude, I know him, but I don't know him well.
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B
The hardest I laugh in my life is after shows, going to dinner with Will. Cause he's just the most ridiculous guy. And he just. He's so funny. Like, just this stuff. Like this one of my favorite Will anecdotes. One time I told him, I said I wanted to send him a playlist of some music. And he's like, I don't use Spotify. And I was like, what do you use? He goes, I use Amazon music.
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A
Oh. Type shit.
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B
And I was like, why do you use Amazon music? He's like, because I like to download the MP3s and burn them on the CDs. I was like, this, this is. This is such a unique dude.
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A
Yeah. I mean, it sounds illegal, but it also sounds like I respect it, you know?
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B
But I. But I'll say I love comedians. Comedians are my favorite people.
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A
Well, I think in the end it's like you have to realize how rare it is that people do it and that. That we do all have something in common.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And it used to feel like a.
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B
Lot more again, it's like the Southern accent. It's like when I see another Indian person, there's something that pulls me towards them.
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A
Yeah.
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B
It makes me comfortable. Yeah.
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A
I think, well, some of that's just tribes, you know, There's a little bit of like, whatever's built into us.
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B
What a specific tribe to, you know. Because most people's, you know, most people's worst fear is public speaking. And it's what we do for a living. So there's something deep inside that's a bond with all of us.
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A
Has to be, oh, we're like Satan's mini donkeys.
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B
Mini donkeys of self esteem. Yeah, mini self esteem. That's why we need so much approval with laughter.
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A
It's like, if you pet me.
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B
Micro self esteem, people.
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A
Yeah, if you pet me enough, I'll grow into a regular sized horse, you know?
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B
Yeah, yeah. We get enough laughs, we play enough theaters, or if you graduate to arenas, then we become full sized people.
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A
This is enough. That's hilarious. It's almost like our Pinocchio story.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Yeah. Dude, I stayed up watching the movie last night. Good fortune. That's your. It's a new movie. Yeah, dude. The amount of turns that were. That started to happen, I'm about like, I guess maybe 45 minutes in the amount of turns that started to happen in the plot really were making it heat up.
- [18:13]
B
Oh, well, thank you.
- [18:15]
A
It's cool, dude. And Keanu Reeves, he's like this, like. He almost reminds me of, like, a surfer dude that won best in show at Westminster type of vibe. You know what I'm saying?
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B
Yeah, there's a little bit of California kind of, but he's very sweet, like a. Like a little pup.
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A
And his posture's so good, it seems like he would win best in Show. Like, he seems like he has very good posture.
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B
I never noticed his posture, but.
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A
You didn't.
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B
No. But, you know, I remember when we first started screening the movie, as soon as he came up on screen, I could tell there was something like, whoa, this dude's a movie star. And it's not just that he's handsome. There's something this other. You know, there's this other thing that he has, and he's so funny in the movie. I mean, he just kills. And by the end of the movie, when I've watched it with crowds, like, he's just doing the smallest thing and just getting huge laughs and.
- [19:09]
A
Yeah, but you directed and wrote, and you're in it, right? You wrote it too.
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B
I wrote it.
- [19:15]
A
Dude, that's awesome, bro.
- [19:16]
B
Produced, acted, everything too much.
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A
So you have control issues, you think?
- [19:21]
B
Yeah, a little bit, but. But in a positive way as well. You know, Seth Rogen's in the movie, and he does his show, the studio, and we've talked about that, about, you know, kind of doing everything, because he does everything on that. And there's something that's kind of streamlined about it, you know, to, like, oh, I had this idea. This is how I'm gonna write it. And you kind of have. For me, whenever I'm writing something, I kind of have a, you know, an idea in my head of how I want it to sound and look and everything. And directing is pretty much just conveying that to a group of people to execute it.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So if it's all coming from one person and if you're one of the people acting, it does make things easier in a sense.
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A
Yeah, man, that does make a lot of sense, dude.
- [20:02]
B
Yeah. And, you know, you have other people, like Seth and Keanu, who, you know, they have iconic voices. So when I'm writing, I have their voice in the head, and then when they're there, they do it, like, even funnier than you think they were gonna do it when you had in your head. They add something or improvise. And, you know, the goal is really, you have, like, the version in your head, and then you have this whole crew and cast and you kind of convey your vision and then they take that and then they give you something else that's something from them and it becomes better than you thought.
- [20:35]
A
How long was you guys to shoot for?
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B
Well, it was a little weird because we shot like one or two days and then the writer strike happened. We have to stop for a few months. Yeah, and then we came back and this sounds crazy when I'm saying it out loud. So we came back after the writer strike, which was like, I don't know, seven months or something. It was a while.
- [20:56]
A
And were people pregnant and stuff? Like, was it different?
- [20:59]
B
No one got pregnant, but no, everyone was still the same. But, oh, thank God. We shot for like a couple of days. And then Keanu broke his knee. He broke his kneecap, like on our, like, second or third day back.
- [21:10]
A
What was he doing?
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B
I mean, it sounds insane as I'm saying it out loud, because this guy has done all the Matrix movies, all the John Wick movies. Never got hurt. Yeah, we filmed a scene in a Cold Plunge, and he was going back to his dressing room. He was all wrapped up in a robe and everything. And he like tripped on a rug and fell on his knee and broke his kneecap. Yeah, they got pictures of him in the crutches here on. On Perplexity.
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A
No, he broke his frickin kneecap. And were you guys right there? Could you hear it?
- [21:42]
B
No, no, it was in his. In his dressing room. So I just heard like, someone on the. On the walk, he's like, keanu's down.
- [21:49]
A
So he went through it alone?
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B
Yeah, he fell down. And then they were like, he's hurt. And then he came down. He was ready to film right away. His knee was like bleeding like crazy. And we're like, hey, man, maybe you should go to a doc. And he was like, no, no, no, let's shoot. He loves. He loves shooting. He just wants to shoot. But anyway, we could film most of his stuff. He had like a knee brace that we, like, edited out with vfx.
- [22:13]
A
He didn't get that stupid one with the wheels on it.
- [22:15]
B
No, he didn't have the wheel. That was kind of mean to call it stupid, man, people are. This is something people gotta use.
- [22:20]
A
But, dude, I saw some drunk lady and her husband, they were going down Broadway in Nashville.
- [22:27]
B
And I know the thing you're talking about, it's like kind of like a. This thing.
- [22:31]
A
Yeah, it's like a mini scooter.
- [22:33]
B
And then my Friend broke his Achilles, Torey's Achilles heel, and he had to use that for a while.
- [22:37]
A
Yeah, it's like the X Games of being crippled or whatever.
- [22:40]
B
Yeah, it's a little weird. Yeah, it seems a little silly. Yeah, but he didn't have one of those. Had a big knee brace. But we had these scenes where he had like most of the stuff. We could kind of figure it out. But there was a couple of scenes where we needed him to dance. There's a whole thing where he starts dancing cumbia. And we were like, kiana, we can't shoot the cumbia stuff. So we came back after his leg healed and shot a few more days, but it was like a 30 day shoot, you know.
- [23:04]
A
Oh, wow. It's fast. That's a lot of work.
- [23:06]
B
Yeah, that's not too much, but it's not too little.
- [23:09]
A
Yeah, yeah, we just. I just. David Spade and I made a movie and I can't talk about it anymore on here because we've talked about it a lot, but.
- [23:15]
B
How many days?
- [23:16]
A
23 days.
- [23:18]
B
That's pretty tight. I mean, I don't know the script or anything, but 23 is, you know, that's a lot of work.
- [23:22]
A
But over 30. Yeah, we probably had a few days off in between, you know, but it was a lot. It was like the fires. That happens. We had to move one scene that just happens to be fire in it. You're like, okay, well, this has to be part of it because you've already set up for the day and whatever this space is going to be. So like one day. It's crazy winds. The winds were like 45 miles an hour.
- [23:41]
B
I remember that. I was in LA right? During the fires. Yeah, there was a crazy winds. I was like, what's happening?
- [23:47]
A
Okay, so we're like talking about kites. We wrote that into the script. Like, yeah, we should get some kites.
- [23:51]
B
You wrote it in afterwards?
- [23:52]
A
Yeah, just to add, like, yeah, maybe we'll get some kites after. You know, we like threw in a line. It's like just trying to make things make sense, you know, because you just have. You're already set up. Everybody's already driven there. The people are there. There's a lady standing there with makeup, you know what I'm saying? Like, people have washed their bodies and got in their vehicles and gotten over there. People have put on deodorant. People have put on clean panties and men's panties or whatever they're called under.
- [24:16]
B
Men'S underwear, put on their undergarments and.
- [24:18]
A
They showed up and it's a lot of people.
- [24:20]
B
And it's crazy because, you know, you write these random things, and then all these people get to work to do it. And it's like some silly joke about a pillowcase or whatever. Like, oh, which pillowcase do you want to use?
- [24:34]
A
Yeah, sometimes something as dumb as that, like, all these people drive to one place just so somebody can be like, ricky's a. You're like, okay, that's lunch. You're like, that took four hours. God. And Ricky's not even a anymore. He's had a surgery by the end of the day. You know what I'm saying? So everything's changed.
- [24:51]
B
It blows my mind that, you know, because it's like, stand up. You. You do these things and you're just on a mic and there's people there listening. But when you write a joke for a movie, there's all these trucks. Everybody's showed up. It's. It's. It really makes you pause for a second. I don't know if you had this thing where you're like, oh, man, this is a lot of hope. This is worth it for these people.
- [25:12]
A
Oh, yeah. I remember the first day we got to do to set. I was like, holy. I thought this had just been a bunch of emails, you know, and it was like all the emails that come together in real life, like, there was trailers, there was some guy got electrocuted. Like, yeah, but it was like everything, you know, you were like, people are acting. There's some guy practicing his things. They're like firing an extra. Like, all the. Was going on, you know, like, some guys just like, you know, I had bought the wrong peanut. Just all the shit's happening, you know, there's no coffee. There was always no coffee when I got over there. It's fine. But it was just like, it's fascinating to see it happen. And it's one of those things that has to, like. It's so expensive to do that you have to get it done on that day. It's like, whatever elements come. If somebody breaks their leg, if somebody goes missing, you have to. For an hour, you have to, like, shoot around it. Just all these little things that kind of go on, you know, I. I.
- [26:08]
B
Was telling someone, people always ask me, like, what's the difference between doing stand up and doing a film? To me, doing stand up, it's like you're. You're running around a track and you go, hey, I'm ready to go. And then you. You go to all these cities and you. You run around the track and you're done. And a movie is like, you have to go to these people and go, hey, I want to climb this mountain. Can you give me money to climb this mountain? And they're like, let me see your plan, which is like your script. And they're like, hmm, well, we can give you this much. Oh, that's not really enough supplies. And then they're like, well, can Brad Pitt climb the mountain with you? Can you get, you know, these other famous. Can, you know, and. Yeah, and then if you're lucky enough to even get to start climbing the mountain, then people just start throwing boulders at you. Hey, here's the writer's strike. Hey, there's the fire in la. Oh, wait. Keanu's broke his kneecap. And it is a.
- [26:58]
A
It's a positive blood test. And you're like, oh, that's rough.
- [27:02]
B
It's all just. You're just trying to avoid all these different disasters. And if you're lucky, you make it to the top. But it's so much harder. There's so much more that's out of your control.
- [27:16]
A
Stand up is so in your control.
- [27:19]
B
Yeah. There's something so pure and beautiful about Stand Up. I like doing both, but there is something so pure and beautiful about Stand up, where it's just literally a person talking in a microphone. It's kind of such a pure and direct art form and filmmaking. There's so many other things that are out of your control and is a lot more complex, but it's rewarding in its own way. I mean, I think about how, you know, I'll. I'm working on other scripts now, and I'll have some joke, and it'll. It'll be like, whoa, this will be maybe years from now before I'll see this joke play in a theater and hear a crowd of people laugh. And then a standup joke. You know, you or I could think of something tonight and go to a comedy club and try it and hear it, get a laugh. And that's so satisfying. But there's also something crazy about. Like, I remember I started writing Good Fortune, like, probably in the Pandemic. I started writing it on and off, and there's jokes I wrote in. And then years later, it's like I'm in a theater in Burbank and Keanu Reeves is saying the joke. And, you know, a crowd full of people goes crazy. And they're both amazing, but in different ways.
- [28:24]
A
Yeah, that's so wild, dude. It's pretty much a fact that prize picks is the best place to win cash while watching sports. And with football season fully underway, there's no better time to join prize picks. One thing I love is that the app is really easy to use to create a lineup. You just pick more or less on a few players stats, that's it. So you're not involved with a whole team. You just got your dogs in there. Prize picks is in more than 40 states, including California, Texas, and Georgia. And right now, prize picks will give you $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup. That's what I'm saying. Bang bang, baby. So win or lose, you get 50 bucks in lineups. Okay? Use promo code Theo when you download the app and sign up today. And plus, for NBA tip off, Prize picks is also hooking up all customers with a max discount on Steph Curry. Steph needs just one point against the Lakers on opening night for you to cash in. I'm gonna hit you with my picks for the week right there. I got Puka, Nakua, Garrett Wilson, and my boy led McConkey with at least one rushing or receiving touchdown for each one of those guys. Those are my prize picks. You can tail them in the app and now you can even follow me on prize picks at the o von Prize picks. It's good to be right. Let's be honest, okay? Traditional phone systems aren't really set up for how businesses work today. That's a fact. And when you miss a call, you're not just missing a conversation. You're missing business. That's why I want to mention quo. Formerly open phone is the modern alternative designed to help you work smarter, build stronger relationships, and never miss an opportunity. Quo is the number one business phone system that streamlines customer communications. No more juggling two phones or being tied to a landline. Quo works through an app on your phone or computer so you can run your business from anywhere. It's if you're tying your own business to your cell phone. It's just. It's a lot. It doesn't have to be. And today you can join over 90,000 businesses that are using quo. Get started free. Plus get 20% off your first six months@quo.com Theo that's quo.com Theo. And if you have existing numbers with another service, quo will port them over at no extra charge. Quo. No missed calls, no missed customers. Is there a movie that, like, you'll never get to make but you think it would be cool? Like, it's so ridiculous. Have there ever been something like that?
- [31:23]
B
Well, I mean, Right now, it's so hard to get any movie made. They all feel like, oh, man, I hope I can make this. You know, I've got two movies that. Two other scripts that I've written. I had this movie with Bill Murray that I was doing that got shut down. I want to finish that.
- [31:37]
A
Why? What happened?
- [31:39]
B
Oh, well, Bill Murray was part of this movie we did called Being Mortal. Being Mortal is a book by this gentleman named Atul Gawande. It's all about, like, end of life issues. It's about stuff, you know, that people my age are dealing with, with their parents. You know, maybe not all the people my age and people older, but, you know, they're getting sick. You got to put them in retirement homes, and you got to figure all this stuff out. Very, you know, very interesting book. And it's about. Very highly recommend this.
- [32:11]
A
Have you met Atul Gwande?
- [32:13]
B
Yeah, Yeah. I had to talk to Atul to get rights to the book. And when I decided to turn into script, he helped me. Is he cool there? He is. Very cool. Very smart guy. And, uh, so I thought, okay, this is like, the book is not a fiction book. It's nonfiction. But I was like, oh, man, if you turn this into a story, there's things that are funny even though it's dark. You know, like, there's things that are funny about, like, you know, you have to go, like, take your parents to, like, all. Or your mom or dad. You have to take them to all these different retirement homes. And like, they, you know, all these people in his book, they'd always be like, I don't want to be in here. Everybody in here is old. It's like, that's people's perspectives. It's kind of. And just like, how out of depth you are talking to these doctors. Doctors talk to you like, you know, these super complicated things. They're like, anyway, so what do you want to do? If you do this, you know, he might be paralyzed, but if you do this, you know, you're like, wait, what?
- [33:12]
A
Yeah, but if you do this, he might be able to do a back flip. And you're like, well, that's a mixed bag.
- [33:18]
B
It's so you're just immediately out of your depth. But anyway, I read the story and read the book, and you notice these patterns. Like, the parents are like, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. And then they drive their car through. Through the house or something. And then you're like, we got to take you to home, man. Yeah, you know, that kind of Thing.
- [33:33]
A
But that's really how it happens, though, for people.
- [33:35]
B
It's really how it happens. And I was like, well, if you did a story about this and the guy was Bill Murray, that could be really funny and really poignant because he, you know, I think about him in, like, Lost in Translation or Broken Flowers, and he's one of these. He's got this rare ability to be so funny, but so grounded and touching and sincere. So I wrote the whole thing with him in mind, and there was no like, oh, I'll get another guy. It was like, this movie only works in my head if it's Bill Murray. I can't think of anybody else. I wrote it. And he's, like, famously the hardest guy to get ahold of, to be a student.
- [34:12]
A
Yeah. You can't even get him.
- [34:13]
B
Yeah, I knew him a little bit socially. I had his number. I call him. He answers the phone. I said, hey, I have a script that I wrote. You know, I said, hello, whatever. And we talked for a minute, and I said, I was calling you because I wrote the script, and I think he'd be great. And he's like, oh, that's wonderful. You know, mail it to my house. Very old school. He's like, print it out. Send it to my house. So I sent it to him. He calls me, like, a couple of weeks later. He's like, yeah, I like this. Can you send me the book? I sent him the book. He was really into the book as well. And we eventually set it up. Seth Rogen plays his son. Keke Palmer is playing Seth's wife. And we shot for, like, three weeks. And then something happened on set where Bill was inappropriate with someone that was working on the film.
- [34:58]
A
Oh, I remember something about.
- [35:00]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [35:03]
A
And was it real or was it fabricated? Who knows?
- [35:05]
B
I mean, something really happened.
- [35:07]
A
Okay. So something occurred, and people felt their ways about it, right?
- [35:09]
B
Yeah. I don't want to get into it because it's not my story to tell.
- [35:12]
A
So something happened on set.
- [35:14]
B
Something.
- [35:14]
A
And you had to shut the movie down.
- [35:15]
B
Yeah, he. He had a mask on. A Covid mask. And this is, from what I understand, he had a Covid mask on, and he was trying to be funny, and he was kissing this woman that he was friends with. With. With the mask on, trying to be funny, but this woman didn't like this and was. Was upset, and. And eventually it turned into this whole thing, and they shut the whole movie down. No. Yeah, there's the Wikipedia page. But, yes, this is what Bill said at the time. I did Something I thought was funny. It wasn't taken that way. Blah, blah, blah.
- [35:47]
A
The company movie studio wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check it all out, investigate it. So they stopped the production.
- [35:52]
B
Yeah, the whole movie shut down. Sorry I shared that. 75. It wasn't 75%. We shot, like, half of it, but anyway, I can't remember how we started on this, but that. Yeah, I'd love to finish that at some point, you know, if we can. Because, you know, it was very special.
- [36:11]
A
But, gosh, that must have been. I mean, it's been heartbreaking for everybody.
- [36:16]
B
It was. But it was one of those things that was so crazy, I don't think I ever fully processed it. I mean, you want to know something crazy? I remember the week it happened. I was getting married that summer, and my friends had. They wanted to plan some sort of bachelor party for you. Not like, I'm not like, hey, let's go to the strip club kind of guy. They were, like, gonna. We were gonna go to a restaurant and go to the spa or something like that. Like a very silly kind of thing.
- [36:42]
A
Go to, like, a math a thon or something calm.
- [36:45]
B
What's a math a thon?
- [36:46]
A
Would you say that people are doing Mathias aggressive?
- [36:48]
B
Is that a real thing, or did you just make up that word?
- [36:50]
A
I don't know, but I could see for some reason. I just think.
- [36:54]
B
You think I'm. That's what I'm into. No, I'm not in the math A. Thoughts? Wait, it's a real thing. It's a fundraising event where you do math. Wow.
- [37:02]
A
It is. Zuckerberg was a mathlete. Andrew Wang was a mathlete. No, Alexander Wang was a mathlete. A lot of those tech bros were mathletes, dude.
- [37:12]
B
Alexander Wayne, the fashion guy.
- [37:13]
A
No, there's a new one.
- [37:16]
B
Alexander Way.
- [37:17]
A
That guy died or something, I think.
- [37:19]
B
Wait, I don't think he did. This is a different guy. Oh, this Gen Z billionaire. This Alexander without the E. A. Wang.
- [37:27]
A
They call him in the streets. Boy.
- [37:28]
B
Whoa. He's 28 years old, in the tech trenches.
- [37:30]
A
Deep in the modem is this screen.
- [37:32]
B
With the guy looking stuff up. With you around all the time or just when you do the podcast? That would be so great, because I'm the opposite of this. I never look anything up. You know, I don't. You know what my wife said to me yesterday? I. You know, I don't have. I don't keep a smartphone on me. I don't. I blocked all shit on the Internet. I don't really use the Internet. So sometimes I'll just ask my wife stuff the same way you're asking this guy. And she's like, you know, I'm not the Internet. I'm your wife. Cause what I'm secretly asking without asking is like, can you look that up for me? Cause I can't look it up. And she was like, I'm not the Internet.
- [38:12]
A
Dude.
- [38:12]
B
It was a dark moment.
- [38:13]
A
You married? You married just to have the Internet? That's not great.
- [38:17]
B
I just needed to have a smartphone without having one, so that's why I got married, dude. She said that to me. I'm not the Internet. She loves me very much. We're just texting about how much we love each other.
- [38:28]
A
But it sounds like, look, we believe all that.
- [38:30]
B
It's tough, man. It's tough. I mean, I. I've, you know, I've gotten lost and had to call her and. And been like, hey, where.
- [38:41]
A
Where are we?
- [38:41]
B
Yeah, I can't find him because I. I live in London, and, you know, there's.
- [38:45]
A
You live in London?
- [38:47]
B
Yeah, most of the time I'm there because we met in London. We lived there and. Oh, your wife is gonna pull up the ex girlfriend. She's in. Some of these are wrong. But anyway, we live in. We live in. In London. We met there and, you know.
- [39:03]
A
Does she speak Danish as well?
- [39:04]
B
Yeah, she speaks Danish, and I love languages, but Danish is pretty tough.
- [39:07]
A
Is it?
- [39:08]
B
It's tough. Yeah.
- [39:09]
A
Is it romantic? Is it considered a romantic language?
- [39:12]
B
Oh, this gets. This gets us back to the donkey thing.
- [39:14]
A
Okay.
- [39:14]
B
So she said that. I was like, well, what's like, a Danish term of affection? Like, maybe we can use that. And she said it was like, skit. And I was like, that. That sounds harsh. That doesn't sound very sweet. And we were somewhere where we saw a donkey, and she. And I said, what's the word for donkey? And she said, essel. And she said, and. And she said it was her first word and that she loved donkeys. And I was like, why don't we call each other that? And so we started calling each other that. Yeah. And now I have. You see that ae, that. That's here on this. This chain? The ae. And that's what led to us being the little mini donkey in Nashville where we are now. Boom.
- [39:54]
A
God, did.
- [39:56]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [39:57]
A
Oh, you're my little.
- [39:59]
B
Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, it's pretty close. Yeah, that's. That's it.
- [40:04]
A
Pretty close.
- [40:05]
B
No, you said it right. You're actually saying it better than I do. You're doing the ae. The combined ae. Yeah, that Danish is. You know, it's like, wait a second now. Now we're coming up with new letters. You're combining the A and E. You know, I can speak Italian. Okay. My family speaks Tamil. It's an Indian language. I can speak that a little bit. Well, yeah, but Danish is. It's a tricky one.
- [40:24]
A
Well, a lot of our mixed are CIS and bigender. Now some. Some vowels are like. There'll be a vowel that has. Is trans now, you know, you're.
- [40:33]
B
It's changing identity.
- [40:34]
A
Yeah.
- [40:34]
B
It's like, what's the other one? They ae.
- [40:36]
A
How do we even pronounce you? Brother? That's all we want.
- [40:38]
B
We just want to show you respect and do it right.
- [40:40]
A
Do whatever you want, but just tell. We just need to know how to use you in a word. And some vowels now are like, I don't want to be in your fucking words or whatever. And we're like, bitch or sir. Just be in the fucking word, dude. You're a letter. But that's where it's at now, man.
- [40:55]
B
It's Dan. It's tough because we'll be there.
- [40:57]
A
That's not a real thing.
- [40:59]
B
Which thing? The.
- [41:00]
A
Isn't that.
- [41:00]
B
Oh, with the circle?
- [41:01]
A
Elon's kid's name.
- [41:03]
B
I don't know. You're saying it right. That's pretty good pronunciation. No? And whenever we're in Denmark and I try to read a word, I'll try to pronounce it right. And it's just. I just don't know the pronunciation rules. I get everything wrong. But wait, how do we start talking? Oh, because I use her as a phone sometimes. I'm walking around in London. In London, there's a lot of, like, maps on the street. So if I get lost, I can find the map and kind of make my way. But sometimes I keep walking around hoping to run into one of these maps, and I won't run into one, and I have to call her and I'll have to be like, hey, I'm over here. You gotta tell me how to get to the tube station. And I remember that even when I first came to la. I don't know, whenever you first came to la, how long ago it was. But, you know, there wasn't GPS and stuff. GPS was like a fancy thing, if they had it at all. So I would, like, print out directions on MapQuest. And I remember, you know, I would call my little brother. My little brother is a few years younger than me. He was still in South Carolina. And I'd call him, be like, hey, man, I'm on Cesar Chavez. How do I get back? Because we did have the stuff. When you came to la, was it like that?
- [42:15]
A
Yeah, dude. People had maps, drawings. You'd have a guy who had directions tattooed on his arm of how to get home if he was an alcoholic or whatever. God. Like, shit was definitely more primitive back then. People would, like, just write on their dashboard how to get home. Like. Yeah, people had to remember. Remember when you just knew everybody's phone number? Yeah. But also when somebody would give you directions. Dude. And if you missed one of them or something and you were going to a party, you just drove around the neighborhood for an hour and then went home. Like, you would drive and roll your windows down and see if you heard a party from the backyard. Yeah, we're basically like a bunch of, like, Magellans, you know?
- [42:55]
B
And it's strange to think there's. There's people that grew up without knowing that at all. And it really does seem nuts that we were able to be okay without it.
- [43:05]
A
Yeah.
- [43:06]
B
You know.
- [43:06]
A
Well, it's like, you imagine now it's like when you go to the airport and nobody's gonna go through tsa, right? Because that's how it was.
- [43:12]
B
I barely remember that. Like, that you could go up to the gate and all that stuff, you know, all of my travel, you know, I started doing comedy by the time I was touring and stuff and traveling all the time. Like, we do that.
- [43:25]
A
So you were already big touring when you started doing comedy, or. No, no, no, no.
- [43:29]
B
I'm saying, like, I didn't start traveling a bunch, you know, touring and doing all this stuff until after TSA and all these kind of things, you know, I barely remember traveling. I wasn't on that many, you know, I wasn't flying all the time. Like, you know, I do now. So I barely remembered that time where, like, you could walk up to the.
- [43:45]
A
Gate, you know, I might not even remember it, actually.
- [43:48]
B
Yeah, I mean, that all happened after 9, 11. So it was after 2001, you know.
- [43:53]
A
Yeah, maybe a couple flights I'd taken, probably, but yeah, dude. Dude, imagine if we went back to that now. Would you think, say, right now you go to the airport, there's no tsa. Would you trust everyone enough to be like, okay, we're all going to fly home together, guys. Does everybody promise they're not going to cause any problems?
- [44:13]
B
I mean, I don't know. It'd be. It's. It's. It's wild times, right? Now, I don't know.
- [44:19]
A
And they would ask you twice.
- [44:21]
B
I was in the airport these past couple days, and, you know, the government's been shut down. Those people there, they're working for free. Like, I was like, hey, just so you know, guys, we're working for free.
- [44:29]
A
And I was like, oh, my God, that's unbelievable.
- [44:33]
B
It's wild.
- [44:34]
A
Yeah. The government's just turned into, like, a shitty vehicle. It's like every now and then it just fucking shuts down or whatever, dude.
- [44:39]
B
I mean, you gotta understand, for me to, like, be in London and read about all the stuff happening here and then come here. Like, I was in Chicago yesterday and the. And so my friend's like, wow, time to be in Chicago. I was like, what do you mean? They're like, oh, the National Guards, they're just grabbing Mexican people. I was like, what? What. When did that happen? I'm just over here trying to tell people about good fortune. And they're like, yeah, they're grabbing. They're grabbing Mexican people and the National Guards there and Ba, Ba. Ba. Tsa. Oh, yeah, they're. Oh, yeah. What are you. You getting on a plane later to fly to Nashville? Oh, yeah, the government shut down. Like, most of the air traffic people went home. Oh, great, thanks. Yeah, it's okay. I'm gonna. I'm gonna fly to Nashville and then get on another plane back to New York, same day. Cool weekend to be on all these planes.
- [45:26]
A
Yeah. Like, it's just the bad news bears of TSA right now.
- [45:30]
B
You got all the people that are, like, down to come and work in for free.
- [45:32]
A
Yeah, dude, you have just like, the militant guy. You have the guy who's been waiting to get in the game. Like, wait. Like, no training, but just fucking waiting.
- [45:42]
B
To get in back today. This is gonna be a really dark last interview. Snippet it, and here's the clip. Or AIZ predicts.
- [45:51]
A
Oh, my God, bro, that's so hilarious that there's like, backup of everybody's backup right now. Like, the park wardens are like, bro, welcome to the park, bro. It's like. It's just like the second string, dude. He's like, dude, the Owls are monumental right now, bro.
- [46:11]
B
We take all these people for granted.
- [46:13]
A
That's so true. Huh? Well, the. The raids and stuff like that are crazy because we. They let so many people into the country, right? Like, without having a pattern of, like, this is an organized way to do something, right? Because I think they need to organize it. It needs to be organized, right? Because it's it's odd if people are here that they live in fear that they're always going to be like they, you know, found out or something. And then it's odd that people are. That there's nefarious people here that don't want to be found out, you know, So I think like, they need some organization of it. But yeah, the fact that it gets like where people are being ripped out of places and then you don't know. Also some of these days I, I really believe you don't know what's real and what's not when you see it sometimes. Like, it could literally be a scene that was put together. Like some of like the antifa stuff you would see in the park during the pandemic.
- [47:04]
B
I watched that movie. You see one battle after another. It's good, it's amazing. But it's, it's, it's crazy because, you know, he wrote that movie a long time ago and it's like I was in Chicago and I was like, damn, this is one battle after another. Because, you know, in the movie, it's, it's very much like a military state. And like the military is just, you know, around going and doing this kind of stuff and it's kind of wild. The dude, you know, he's supposedly been working on a movie for like 15 years or something.
- [47:34]
A
Wow.
- [47:34]
B
And. And it's, it's out now when this stuff is, you know, so top of mind. It's so, so in there, you know.
- [47:42]
A
Yeah, Eddington was really great. You see Eddington?
- [47:44]
B
I didn't see Eddington, but I've heard it. It's. It's kind of. They're, they're dealing with similar stuff. I need to see that.
- [47:49]
A
Yeah. Just a lot of things happening at once. But I believe we're headed to a surveillance state, you know, I believe that we're. That's why they're trying.
- [47:59]
B
That happened like a long time ago.
- [48:01]
A
No drones, bro. I'm talking about drones in the sky, surveillance. Like that vibe.
- [48:05]
B
Oh my God.
- [48:06]
A
Like, that's where we're heading. Like, dude, the movie I want to see, this is how I think it ends. Blacks versus Drones, dude.
- [48:11]
B
Black what?
- [48:14]
A
That's how it ends, bro. That is. People are wondering, how does time. How does this all.
- [48:18]
B
Where do Indian people fit in this? Are we running? We're just running the door. Okay, the right. Where do the Indians fit in this movie?
- [48:25]
A
Okay, we need Kyrie Irving to move over to the Kyrie Irving. You're just like, was he okay?
- [48:30]
B
Cuz he plays Basketball?
- [48:32]
A
No, I mean, I'm just thinking of a cool black guy, but yeah, you're like, okay, but, dude, that's how it ends. Like, I think you're. Everybody's like, what's going on in society? And, like, these different groups and people B. And like, you know, genocide, all these stuff going on. And you're like, how does it all. And I think it's blacks versus drones.
- [48:50]
B
I don't know for me, any. As someone that used to live here and now comes here occasionally for work, every time I come back, it just feels wild. And it feels. I think it feels wilder to me because I think for people that are here, it's like, oh, they're slowly seeing it get crazy so they're not going from like one to a hundred. Like, I do, like, you know, my time in la, I remember, you know, just seeing the amount of tents and all that stuff. You know, coming, you know, going to la. And in New York after Covid. Cause during COVID I was in London the whole time with my wife. So coming back to both those cities after Covet, I was like, whoa.
- [49:30]
A
Yeah, it's like a Slipknot tailgate out there now, you know, it's crazy.
- [49:34]
B
You know, my wife loves Slipknot.
- [49:36]
A
You're lying.
- [49:37]
B
My wife has a PhD in physics. Or how she's a genius, and she loves. It's like she had this emo phase. And I. I. Every now and then, I'll just. I'll. I'll just bring up that she loves my two favorite facts about my wife. She's gonna hate that I'm bringing this stuff up.
- [49:54]
A
No, it's important.
- [49:55]
B
One is that she loves Slipknot. And the other thing is that she was Little Miss Denmark. That was a little competition for little kids when she was, like, five, six year olds. And she won two years in a row. And then they stopped the contest.
- [50:12]
A
No.
- [50:12]
B
Because she kept winning.
- [50:15]
A
God, they shut it down.
- [50:19]
B
They shut it down.
- [50:20]
A
What, they don't like somebody really stepping out of the norm.
- [50:23]
B
I think they were just like, we. This is. We shouldn't be doing these little pageants for these kids. And. And my wife, she said, like, they would have a. You know, like, oh, you'd have the talent portion or whatever. And. And she would be like, you know, doing her dance, whatever. And they're like, all right, that's good. And she's like, no, no, I'm not finished with my routine.
- [50:42]
A
I don't mean to be an. Yeah, but I'm about to win this bitch for a Third time, dude. Holy shit.
- [50:49]
B
Stop.
- [50:49]
A
She's like the Boston Celtics of those fucking Danish competitions.
- [50:53]
B
And then, and then she had her emo phase and got really, really into Slipknot. Rebelled against the pageant life.
- [50:59]
A
You shut down a pageant queen like that, where they can't even perform anymore. That is a direct avenue to Slipknot.
- [51:05]
B
Corey understands.
- [51:07]
A
How else do you even manage that sort of stress and strain? Where are you gonna put those pirouettes, bro? You're gonna package those and put them into a Slipknot mosh pit. In the past, I've struggled with wanting to invest. You know, I just. I don't know enough. You hear about this and this, this ETF or this stock or this, this choice or this fund or this bond. It just. I just didn't know enough. I didn't have the time to do it and I got kind of fearful, I guess you'd say. Well, thankfully, Acorns makes it easy to start investing like an expert. Even if you're an expert at something else other than investing. That's right. You don't need to be a finance whiz. Acorns puts your money into an expert built portfolio to make sure you're investing wisely, not wildly. I even got my niece and nephew set up with this so they can learn how to grow their money with Acorns. If I needed this, this is what I would use right now. You can sign up and join the over 14 million all time customers who have already saved and invested over $25 billion with Acorns. Plus, Acorns will boost your new account with a $20 bonus investment offer available@acorns.com the C O R N S.com Theo to get your 20 bonus investment today, a non client endorsement compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns Tier 2 compensation provided investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures acorns.com Theo I. I.
- [52:46]
B
Didn'T think we'd get into little, Little Miss Denmark. My wife's gonna be thrilled.
- [52:49]
A
Oh, that's awesome. I'm glad that you found love out there, man. Did you. Were you good with the ladies growing up? What was your energy like?
- [52:57]
B
You know, I grew up in. It's weird because I grew up in South Carolina.
- [53:02]
A
I remember every school, like in the south kind of had a. Had an Indian guy. Was it like that at your school or was there a big Indian group?
- [53:09]
B
There's two versions of this.
- [53:10]
A
Okay.
- [53:10]
B
There's like, oh, if you're in like Atlanta or Something. There's, like, the Indian crew, and they hang out. And then there's what I grew up with, which is like, just me. And when I was little, I kind of forget this sometimes. In, like, first and second grade, there was this Thai girl, and her name was Tisha, which doesn't make sense. That doesn't really sound like a Thai name. But her name was Tisha, but they left.
- [53:35]
A
Kind of a black tie affair.
- [53:37]
B
It sounds like a black tie.
- [53:39]
A
It sounds like a black tie affair.
- [53:41]
B
She was Thai, but they left. And then it was just me as Indian. And it's in the 80s. And, you know, it's so interesting to look back. I was thinking about this, and I had a conversation with my mom a while ago that really blew me away. So, first off, you know, as soon as I tell people I grew up in South Carolina, they're always like, oh, must have been so racist, all this stuff. And of course, there's moments where it wasn't nice, like people calling you almost.
- [54:08]
A
N word or something like that.
- [54:10]
B
N word, not almost.
- [54:11]
A
Oh, really?
- [54:11]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [54:12]
A
Most people are nearsighted or whatever up there.
- [54:14]
B
I don't know.
- [54:15]
A
That's crazy.
- [54:16]
B
But there was also, I feel like, you know, there was a time I was writing something and I asked my parents to just tell me. Like, I didn't want to write stuff about people being racist to people. I wanted to write something positive. So I was like, tell me things you remember that were positive, like experiences you had being someone. Because my parents were there in the 80s.
- [54:37]
A
Yeah, it was different, for sure.
- [54:39]
B
People there didn't even know what Indian people were. They didn't see them in the culture. They didn't see nothing. They didn't understand.
- [54:46]
A
It looks like a black person that they didn't finish the job on or whatever ever. Kind of, you know, no judgment that.
- [54:54]
B
Let's just make sure that quote is attributed to you.
- [54:59]
A
But I think it's like. Because sometimes you do see that Indian dude. You're like, is this a black dude or Indian dude?
- [55:06]
B
This is. But we're joking. But it is what people were saying. They had never seen Indian people before, and they were not in the media or anything. And so my experience, you know, I'm talking about the positive stuff. First off, I skipped first and second grade. I did first and second grade in one year. So people were like. People were like, oh, my God, this genius little brown boy. And so I was like. I had. And I was in a small school. There was like 30 kids in my class. There's 8,000 people that live in my town. Yeah, but, you know, I was raised by my parents, but.
- [55:40]
A
And first grade's fucking easy, dude.
- [55:41]
B
First grade is easy. My dad would, like, show me.
- [55:43]
A
Well, the fact that it takes a whole year, you're like, what. What the fuck are we doing?
- [55:47]
B
My dad would, like, write little math problems and stuff for me. So I was really advanced in, like, math and stuff.
- [55:51]
A
So we go back and look at it.
- [55:53]
B
Yeah. No, yeah, you should be able to teach your kid all that stuff before.
- [55:56]
A
They get to the eavesdrop. You can tap into, like, classrooms. You can watch. It's like, this is so fucking easy, dude. I wish you had a ring camera in there and just be giving the kids the answers and shit.
- [56:04]
B
What?
- [56:04]
A
It's yellow. If they had, like, one of those ring cameras, you could talk in, like, a children's class or whatever.
- [56:10]
B
I mean, back then, no ring camera just had my dad teach me stuff. So by the time I was, like, halfway through first grade, they called my parents like, this is. You gotta get him outta here. He's gotta go up to second grade. And so I went to second grade, and that was like this big story in the school that some kid had skipped a grade.
- [56:27]
A
Yeah, it's like when LeBron left Miami.
- [56:29]
B
It was exactly like LeBron. I was like, LeBron. With, like, very elementary math problems.
- [56:35]
A
Yeah, LeBron.
- [56:36]
B
Yes, exactly. But, you know, when I was thinking back about my childhood and talking to my parents and. And there was these two ladies that took care of us. First off, I was talking to my mom, and she was talking about how when she came to South Carolina, my dad had been in America. He was in New Jersey doing his residency. Then he went back to India, married my mom. And then they came to South Carolina, where my dad moved. Cause he applied for these jobs all over the country. And in South Carolina, they didn't have a lot of the doctor. He was. He was a gastroenterologist. So then they moved to South Carolina. My mom comes to South Carolina. Woman's never left India like this. That's crazy. She's in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Not like, oh, you're in New York City. No, Bennettsville, South Carolina. And my dad brings her home, and then he has to go to work. And I asked my mom, I was like, you know, what was that day like? And she was like. And I put this in my show. She said, oh, I just sat on the couch and I cried. And I was like, oh, my God, it's so dark. It was like, so much braver than I. I could be, you know, I mean, this is. There's no FaceTime, nothing. None of that. You're really alone. It was hard.
- [57:44]
A
Cable television.
- [57:45]
B
Yeah. But I'm talking about, like to have a connection with your family or anything. There's no way to communicate.
- [57:49]
A
You're just praying and like lighting candles and putting those oranges in that little thing.
- [57:53]
B
There's no even. Like, making a long distance call was a different thing back then.
- [57:57]
A
Yeah, it was like $11.
- [57:58]
B
Yeah. It was not the way it is now where you could, you know, so she was really alone, but she used to go and do laundry all the time to just be around other people. And there was some lady there, an older white lady that recognized that, you know, became. Saw her with me and, and. And became friendly with her. And they called her Grandma. I don't know the woman's real name actually, when. And. And I called her Grandma. And she would take care of me and like. And I kind of looked out for our family. And she eventually, I think she moved or something or whatever, but she couldn't take care of us anymore. And this woman who we called Nana is what her grandkids called her, she started taking care of us. And then there was this woman named Ms. Beulah who would take care of us after school.
- [58:51]
A
She had some tits on her. I bet.
- [58:55]
B
Ms. Beulah Rest in peace. I'm not.
- [58:57]
A
She passed away. My bad. I didn't know that. And I hope.
- [58:59]
B
Let's not. But Ms. Beulah, as you might guess from the name Beulah, black woman from the south and would cook the meanest Southern food for us. So I would eat Indian food and Southern food. And so Nana and Ms. Buella are part of my life. And, you know, I had a sister that passed away and she was a few years younger than me. And she had a very rare. She had a. Something called Hurler syndrome. It's a super rare liver disease. Sorry, it's obviously a little heavy for me, but. So she. She passed away.
- [59:45]
A
What's her name?
- [59:45]
B
Her name is Nafis.
- [59:47]
A
Nafis. That's a pretty name, huh?
- [59:49]
B
Yeah. And she passed away. And Nana. Nana passed away a few years ago when I was in college. It was a while ago now and, you know, I didn't get a chance to. Ms. Buell, I got to say a proper goodbye to. I went and saw her when she was staying in a retirement home. Nana. I didn't have that same moment. I was in college and it wasn't the same kind of Thing where I had that opportunity to say bye. But my mom had told me that she went to go see. Visit my sister at cemetery. And, you know, my sister's buried in South Carolina, in Bennettsville. And, you know, that is a tricky thing because my family's from a Muslim background, and they wanted to do. They were asking the cemetery, can we do the things we do for our culture? And the cemetery was like, yeah, of course. Whatever you need to do. Which is. Which is just so cool to me that they, they. They were open to that. And the whole community, you know, were visiting our family and everything. And I remember even like, a priest came by to just, you know, even though we were a different religion, he came and, like, wanted to talk to us and stuff. And everyone was just so kind about it. And my mom told me that she went to go see my sister at the cemetery, and she said, oh, and we saw Nana, too. I was like, what do you mean? She's like, well, Nana's buried right next to her.
- [61:25]
A
No.
- [61:27]
B
And I just. I, like, melted as a human because I did not know that. And to me, like, I heard that, and I was like, wow. Like, you know, I was saying all this stuff about crazy this country is and how crazy it feels right now, but that story, that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world, man. Like, those two people, my sister and this woman that befriended you guys. Yeah. Have that close a bond where she's like, I want to be buried next to her. I mean, it was. I did not know that. And, And. And, you know, I. I heard that, and I was like, I. I. I don't know why it popped in my head, but I'm so glad it did. And then I got to share that with you because I. I heard that story, and I was like, man, people need to hear that story, because it's.
- [62:18]
A
Not the story people want to tell. Oh. It's not the story that the media wants to tell. It's not a story that.
- [62:23]
B
It's a story that doesn't really get.
- [62:26]
A
The clicks, but it's the story that's probably. It's the truth that most people. That the human part of us is what makes us special, and that's the part that we should all try and lean into the most, is that we're this special thing that can care about each other, you know?
- [62:45]
B
Yeah. I mean, the fact that these people saw my parents and tried to forge this bond with them, and, I mean. And I hope we're still a place where that kind of stuff can happen.
- [63:00]
A
I think it happens a lot. I think you're just right. I think it's not the, like, it's not the news, you know, but I think it is more common probably than we think. Thanks for sharing that, dude. It is an important story. That's a great story.
- [63:15]
B
Sorry.
- [63:17]
A
Did your sister have it the whole time when she was growing up? When she was born from birth?
- [63:21]
B
Yeah, it was one of these things where, you know, the life expectancy with that hurler's is not. It's not very long. She passed when she was like 6, 8 years old.
- [63:32]
A
Oh yeah. And was she.
- [63:35]
B
And it's one of these days I don't really talk about it very much. And a lot of people even that know me don't know I had a sister because people would ask me like, oh, do you have any siblings? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I got a little brother and I had a sister that passed away. And I would say it like that and people are like, ah, like, it's a very like heavy thing to hear all of a sudden. And so I was like, oh, I don't want to make people uncomfortable. So I'll just say, oh, I have a little brother. And then they'll be like, what's your guys gap? Oh, he's seven years old. Wow, it's a big gap. Yeah. I'm going to not go down this thing because I don't want to bum everybody out because we're all just hanging out at Chick Fil a right now.
- [64:14]
A
She's just sitting there tapping her foot like, what are we doing here? No, dude, that's. My sister was born with a rare liver disease and she had to get a liver transplant when we were kids. So we spent most of our childhood like, you know, she was always this thing that we couldn't touch because she always had to have these surgeries and stuff. So I think it just reminds me like a lot of that. I think some of that. Oh man, that stuff, you know, I think it's just interesting when you grow up with a sibling that's sick because I think it. I never even thought about it till you were saying some of this. It just like, I don't know, you have to adjust yourself, I think, to try and maybe like my sister got most of the care right, but she needed most of it, so it was weird. So there were times where I'd be like, I don't, you know, later on in life I'd be like, oh, I didn't get this care. But it was like I didn't need it the most, you know.
- [65:02]
B
What was you guys's age difference?
- [65:04]
A
Two years. And she's still alive. She ended up getting a liver transfer. She got one of the first liver transplants in. We moved to Arizona. She got it out there and.
- [65:13]
B
But that's incredible.
- [65:14]
A
But it was just this whole time when she was a kid, she was always being flown off to these places and they sounded magical. Like Rochester, Minnesota. Just different places where there's these big hospitals. And she'd come back like this, like, almost like this build a bear that somebody done a shitty job with. You know what I'm saying? Like, just all these scars and stuff. But it was just. She was always this. It was weird because you, like, couldn't hold it. She was just like. It was interesting. Did you have any experience like that with your sister or what was it like?
- [65:40]
B
There wasn't that kind of. There wasn't like, all these things to try because the hurlers is pretty. They don't really have a thing. You know, there's like, you know, oh, you can maybe do a bone marrow transplant and. But it's. It's not really a thing they've made much progress on, so there was never anything like that. And I don't know, it's interesting talking about this because you think about. It's like when you're a kid, it's so hard to understand what's happening. You have no frame of reference. And, you know, when I look back on that stuff as an adult, I can't imagine how hard it was for my parents, like, you know, to have a child that has something like that and then to lose a child, you know, I can't. It's strange to, like, step outside of yourself. And honestly, this is like some of the most I've talked about it with anybody.
- [66:41]
A
And I don't mean to pry about it. It's just.
- [66:43]
B
And it's also digging the. No, not at all. I don't think prying at all. And I think it's really interesting that, you know, you had something. Your sister had something as well, and. But, you know, there's a thing with, like, Indian families and, you know, maybe it's a lot of families in that time. It's like you don't talk about stuff. Stuff.
- [67:02]
A
Oh, really? Is that like an Indian thing kind of.
- [67:05]
B
I think there's something of like, oh, you're not as open about your feelings and stuff, and you're just a little bit more closed off? I think so, yeah. With Asian families, Indian Families, I think with, with emotional stuff like that, you know.
- [67:17]
A
But you guys do reincarnation, so you can. You're probably just like, oh, we can have the feelings later. We can have this.
- [67:22]
B
That's. That's in Hinduism. That's a different thing, but.
- [67:24]
A
Oh, really?
- [67:25]
B
Yeah.
- [67:25]
A
So you guys are one time only Islam.
- [67:28]
B
It's. It's the same as Christianity. It's, you know, in terms of that. That stuff, as far as I know, I'm not a super religious guy. But yes, that's. There's. The reincarnation is. Is. Is just in. In Hindu culture.
- [67:39]
A
So you guys are one and done, huh?
- [67:41]
B
I mean, so is a lot of people.
- [67:44]
A
Okay. I'm just saying. Yeah.
- [67:46]
B
But yeah, man, this got really. We really went for a heavy turn after Micro Donkeys. This is, this is. You're teared up over here. I'm teared up, but it, It's. It's good to talk about this stuff and, and. And, you know, it, It. It's so strange to think back about, you know, those times and, and yeah. To think about everything my family went through, especially my parents.
- [68:12]
A
You know, I never think about that. I always think about things. This is one place that I kind of, like, struggle with. I think a lot of times I'll think about certain periods and things that happen, and I'll only think about it, like, as to how it affected me. And it's like, man, to get into that place of where you're even thinking, like, like, well, how did this affect my parents? Like, I was eating dinner with some friends yesterday, and in the background, she has like these four kids, and they're beautiful kids. They have the cutest kids and they're all going haywire. And I. There was the first time I thought, holy, my mom had four kids and nobody to help. Like, there was. And it was. Can you imagine what that would be like these days?
- [68:51]
B
That sounds impossible.
- [68:52]
A
Impossible. And our parents were able to do that kind of stuff. But it was the first time that I had like, even had a perspective moment like that. That was that, you know.
- [69:02]
B
Oh. Yeah.
- [69:04]
A
So for you to have that, I think is pretty cool that you think like, oh, how what my parents must have went through, you know, because it's like, yeah, it's like for us it's a sibling, but for them it's like, you know, it's probably something that feels far greater, you know?
- [69:17]
B
Yeah.
- [69:18]
A
Anyway, I didn't mean to delve into that, man.
- [69:21]
B
No, no, I'm glad we did. And I think it's a really interesting thing to talk about. And for me, you know, I bet.
- [69:28]
A
You'D be so proud of you.
- [69:32]
B
You know who I think about sometimes is there was. Do you know the Comic Strip? Comic Strip Live in New York.
- [69:38]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [69:40]
B
You know that club?
- [69:41]
A
Yep.
- [69:41]
B
That was the first club I ever got passed at. And there was a guy, his name was Lucian hold, and he was the guy that would pass you. You know, you've heard of, like, Esty at the Cellar. He was, like, Esty at the Cellar. He was the guy.
- [69:52]
A
Yeah, there's always that person.
- [69:54]
B
There's always a person that was a gatekeeper. And I went in there when I was, like, 18. And what was cool about the Comic Strip was they had a thing where anybody could audition. Like, you just lined up and then you could audition, which is like. Cause, you know, I don't know if this was your experience when you're starting out, but it's like you just wanted a shot, right?
- [70:14]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [70:14]
B
You just wanted a shot. And the idea that you could be a regular at the Comedy. I remember I used to go to the Comedy Cellar, and I'd just be like, oh, my God. Could you imagine just getting spots here? Could you imagine just how amazing it would be to get spots? That was my dream.
- [70:29]
A
I know. You're so right.
- [70:31]
B
And so I went to the Comic Strip. They had this, you know, open call. Like, you just had to wait in line, and then you'd pick from a. I believe what we'd do is you'd pick from a lottery, and it would give you a date.
- [70:42]
A
A date?
- [70:43]
B
Yeah. Like they would do on Mondays. They'd have a certain number of people that were from this audition.
- [70:49]
A
That's cool.
- [70:50]
B
So I picked a date. And then I showed up, and you went through this one woman, and if she said, okay, you can see Lucien, you'd audition for Lucien. And so I got through it, and then I auditioned for Lucien. And, you know, you wait around, you wait around. All these kind of things. Even, like, snl, you hear these stories that people are like, yeah, you just wait around. They just make you wait around. And then he spoke to me at the end, and he was like. Like, he was like, you could start working at the club. And I was like. And I was terrible. I was not good. But I was, like, very young, and I was very comfortable on stage. And he told me, he was like, you know, when people your age come in here, he was like, you're still at nyu, right? And I was like, yeah, yeah. He said, you know, Adam Sandler was in NYU when I passed him, and so was Sarah Silverman. And I was like, oh, wow. I mean, I remember I said, oh, wow. It'd be amazing if I had a career like that. He was like, I don't know if that's in the cards for you, but you could. He was. He was like the most straight shooting guy. I mean, there's very few people that are honest like that that I've met in my 20 something years. He was the guy that was like that. And he's like, I don't know if that's not an impression of him, but he's like, I don't know if that's something that's in the cards for you, but you could start working in the club and I would do. You would do like late night, which is like, they'd have the show and then you could sign up to go on at the end of the show. So there'd be like, nobody there. I do that all the time for sure.
- [72:20]
A
But getting up on stage, even just that, walking up when you're coming up, you.
- [72:25]
B
If.
- [72:25]
A
If there's six people there, it feels like a million people. It.
- [72:29]
B
You're so excited.
- [72:30]
A
The feeling that is the energy that the, the. The. The fear and that energy and that nervous. It feels like a million.
- [72:37]
B
And. And sometimes the. I mean, and I'll say this, and you're gonna light up because you'll know this feeling. Sometimes someone on the bill, like, that was supposed to be on at like 9 o' clock, wouldn't show up and they'd pull someone from late night. And so you'd get to go on.
- [72:52]
A
When people were still there.
- [72:53]
B
Still there, yes. And I remember one time, like, I'm.
- [72:56]
A
Gonna show these bitches. That's what I would say. I had kind of an aggressive nature, but.
- [73:00]
B
Go on. But it was like this kind of like, oh, I'm gonna get to prove myself a little bit. But one time, I remember Chris Rock dropped in and I went on after him. And everyone's like, oh, Chris Rock just went on. They just all started leaving. And I told Chris the story the other day. I was like, I forgot this. I forgot. I mean. And now he's my fucking friend. It's the craziest thing in the world to me. But Lucien, he had a disease called scleroderma. I don't know why I'm saying the disease he had. But anyway, it's like a skin problem. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what it is exactly.
- [73:35]
A
But scleroderma and this dude stopped looking.
- [73:37]
B
Up stuff because it's gotten too dark. The stuff we're talking. He's like, I'm not gonna pull up this stuff on Wikipedia. It's too dark. He's like, oh, I. I don't think it's appropriate. I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna let this be. I'll wait till they start talking about mini cows again. I can pull up those cute pictures.
- [73:54]
A
He has, like, a whole. He has a whole barrel full of.
- [73:57]
B
You know, maybe I do bring it up, because if someone wants to donate to his fund or whatever. So Lucian had this disease and we knew he was passing away, and I went and visited him and. And it was like that movie Being Mortal, you know, it was like. I knew he was passing away. I knew this was probably our last conversation. And he. And dude, this dude passed away. You know, Chris spoke at his funeral. I think Seinfeld may have said something. I can't remember. I remember I went to the funeral and I was like a little kid. I remember I, like, went and, like, was crying in the bathroom and stuff, because this dude was the first dude ever to genuinely believe that I could do something in our world. The first person to say, hey, I'm gonna give. You know, it was like, fucking 10 bucks. Or whatever. But he was like, I believe in the idea of paying you to tell jokes. And. And he. We had that conversation, and I remember he said something to me, and he talked about some comic that he used to know that went to la, and not like a super successful guy, but a guy that did okay. And he was like. You know, he said this guy told him that he was in la, and he said that. That's Lucian. Yes, that's Lucian Holt. Yeah. But all. I mean, he's like, you know, if you talk to guys, like, they love him. Yeah. And they remember him from back in the day, like, he was a character. He's the guy that passed, you know, Eddie Murphy. And, like, the famous story of Chris Rock is like, Eddie Murphy was at the club and he asked Lucian, do you have any. Do you have any black comics? And he said, yeah, I got one. I'll put them up if you'll watch him. And it was Chris Rock.
- [75:37]
A
Wow.
- [75:38]
B
And then Eddie Murphy watched him and then put him in Beverly Hills. Coptic.
- [75:42]
A
But anyway, dude, that's so great, though.
- [75:44]
B
It was. It's a huge deal. It's a huge amount of validation because it's. It's. I can't really explain. It's still, like, when I think of all the things I've done in my career, it's still. I was excited as about that. I mean, dude, I. It was like. I think it was like 10 years ago I did Madison Square Garden. I. It was a similar feeling to get past.
- [76:07]
A
Yeah.
- [76:07]
B
You know, and. But anyway, he told me this story about some guy in la and he said that guy told him, like, you know, there's all these idiots in LA and if they're able to do it, I can do it too. Something to that extent, like. And it was a more. Said it more eloquent than that. I'm not doing it justice. But he basically said to me, you're gonna be okay. And he left me with that. And it was really cool.
- [76:32]
A
Lucian did?
- [76:32]
B
Yeah. He said, you're gonna be okay. Like, you're a smart guy and you're going to be okay. And I mean, I've been fortunate enough and I think I'm. I mean, that was when I was a little kid, you know, I hadn't done anything really. And, you know, I feel like I've been fortunate enough in my career to be more than okay and done a lot of great things. I never would have thought possible when I was, you know, interacting with Lucien and, you know, one of my. Not regrets or, I don't know, not just. Just one of my oh, man. Kind of feelings is that like, oh, this guy. That was the first guy to believe.
- [77:15]
A
In me, to see me. Yeah.
- [77:16]
B
Didn't get to see that. How far I really went, you know, and. And weird. Sorry. I feel like I'm like, taking up too much of your time because this is good. Okay.
- [77:24]
A
Well, you're a great storyteller. I'm realizing that's honestly one thing I've realized sitting here and. And I can see why you're able to do what you do even more, like writing your movies and knowing, like. Yeah. Saying how streamlined it is. I'm enjoying it, so. Go on. Sorry.
- [77:38]
B
You know, I was in a cab one time in London and I was like, it's weird because once you become successful, it's weird when you drop into a comedy club, everyone goes nuts and everything's a little sweeter because they're excited because you're famous. And I was in a cab with my wife in London and someone was like, tell us about this thing or whatever. And I talked about this whole story of something that happened to us. And when I left, the cab driver said, hey, you're a really good storyteller. And I was like, holy shit. That was like winning An Emmy for me because I was like, that guy has no clue who I am. And he, he went out of his way to tell me that. That, that made me feel really good.
- [78:25]
A
Was he an Indian guy?
- [78:26]
B
No. Why would he be Indian, Theo?
- [78:29]
A
Racism.
- [78:29]
B
He was like a black guy that was fully finished.
- [78:32]
A
Okay, okay, okay.
- [78:34]
B
He was a fully finished black guy. He was a black guy.
- [78:39]
A
I love, I mean, I love race stuff. It's fun to joke about and think about because it's so different and it's fun, you know.
- [78:45]
B
Well, that, that's like.
- [78:46]
A
But that's. You're right, man. Sorry. But yes, somebody telling you a great storyteller. It's so funny. It's. Sometimes it's that one word or one thing. It's like.
- [78:53]
B
And you get it from someone that doesn't know anything. Cause sometimes you feel like, ah, man. Like, not like, oh, people. You feel like, I don't know how much of this is sweetened up because of whatever, right. And it's very frustrating. Cause I don't think anyone that's successful like that wants any of that. But you know, you get a little bit of that when you drop in and you're working on material. And you know, when you're on stage for a while, eventually, you know, if.
- [79:16]
A
It'S that good, that's a work worst part, you're like, is this even good? And you're like, are you just getting unfair reactions? But then hopefully, if you're self aware enough and that judge inside of you, that little party that's always hated you is still like in lurking.
- [79:28]
B
You gotta have that guy in there.
- [79:29]
A
That guy needs to be there.
- [79:30]
B
That guy needs to be there. And if he's there, you know, because you know, all your people, oh man, it's. It's your best hour. It's like it's getting there, right? You gotta have that little guy and you gotta have that little guy and look, that's, that's, you know, whether it's a movie or stand up show, like, you know, screening a movie, it's like, yeah, people don't lie. Eventually, like they'll, they'll be sweet for a little bit, but eventually they are like, all right, come on. You know that drops after a few minutes. Yeah.
- [79:55]
A
And if you start smoking your own bullshit too, that's when it can get really spooky.
- [79:59]
B
Oh, that's, that's when you gotta make sure you. You know, I, I've been around people enough to be like, oh, that. When you start having a bunch of people around you that tell you you're awesome. That's when the. Everything starts falling apart.
- [80:11]
A
But have you ever had ego problems? You ever had anything like that? Like, are you able to check your own ego kind of type of things? Because ego is so dangerous because it can kind of grow in the distance. It's almost like something that you don't see growing. It's almost like you're standing there with your shadow, and then your shadow gets bigger without you noticing it, you know?
- [80:27]
B
You know, I think. I think the way I. I hopefully have been able to avoid that kind of problem is, is I'm not around all the time. You know what I mean? I kind of go away in a hole and work on stuff. This is like the most shit I've done. I haven't. I haven't been on your podcast. I haven't been on anybody's podcast. I haven't done anything. I've just been working and, you know, being back out in. In. In kind of in the wild. Yeah. In the kind of press world, it's been kind of a little overwhelming for me. I get very overwhelmed whenever I finish, like season one and two of my show. Like, whenever it came on Netflix, like. Like I left the country. Cause I was just a little bit. It was just too much for me. Like, I went to Japan for a couple of months. Cause like I said, really, for months.
- [81:14]
A
Did you see Kanye or not?
- [81:16]
B
He wasn't there at the time. But, you know, I wanted to be somewhere where people didn't really know who I was. It felt a bit. It can be a little overwhelming. Like that part of our jobs of red carpets and interviews. It's a lot.
- [81:29]
A
Yeah. I never done a lot of that stuff, so that part I don't know about, but I can imagine.
- [81:33]
B
But. But, you know, I'm here and I've been doing all this stuff. I love doing this. Cause we're just having a great conversation. Not everything is this fun. But, you know, I do it because I feel like it's a part of the job and I gotta support the work and the studio that paid for the movie and everything. So I do it. But it's not my. I like the work. I mean, all I'm looking forward to is getting back on to work. Getting back to work. Like being on set with some people and being like, hey, do this. Or, you know, I'm going back on the road for a little bit. Like, being on the road like that. That is a billion times more fun than some of the stuff you have to do. Excluding like this. And I actually like that podcasts are a thing now because I did Amy Poehler's podcast and that was so fun.
- [82:19]
A
So great.
- [82:19]
B
She's great. I hadn't seen her in a while and I was like, oh, man, I'm just excited to like be with you for an hour and change because I hadn't seen you in so long.
- [82:25]
A
But yeah, dude, thanks for making me think about. We had a guy named Tommy at the Comedy Store and I. And he was like, the guy. And he's like this character.
- [82:34]
B
I've heard his name. Yeah, yeah.
- [82:35]
A
And people impersonated him all the time. And he really was. He had this long hair and he looked like a rock and roll guy. And I believe he was. I think he also played in a band and. And he made jellies and jams and he would bring those. He was this very like, eccentric type of guy.
- [82:51]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [82:52]
A
But he took care of Mitzi Shore. But he would be the guy. And he'd sit there and he'd open little curtains of the little will call booth. Had little, little curtains on it. And he'd be like, you're doing good. But I happened. I went to the Comedy Store one time, I was trying to find out how do they do sign ups.
- [83:06]
B
I remember.
- [83:07]
A
And I was buying a beer on the porch and he thought I was somebody else. He's like, haven't seen you around here in a while. You know, we miss you coming around. And I was like, yeah, I. And he goes, why don't you come in, Come back in on Sunday, man. I'm gonna, I wanna, I wanna see you back up there. And he had me confused.
- [83:27]
B
Whoa. Did you do the other spot?
- [83:29]
A
Yeah.
- [83:30]
B
Did you put your name down or.
- [83:32]
A
No, I just, I, I didn't think about that. And I just kept doing this and.
- [83:37]
B
How'D your set go?
- [83:38]
A
And it went good enough where I got to keep going. But it was. But before that, for sure, I went and signed up and waited outside. And there's like a guy that's practicing juggling who can't even talk, and he's like telling his jokes through like, like bowling pins. And it's like, there's all types of stuff. There's somebody training or whatever and he's like barely trained it and he's like trying to train it really fast in the parking lot. It's like, you cannot train a bird really fast.
- [84:00]
B
But this is the same thing I was talking about earlier. It's so interesting to me that, you know, comedy comedians were all having you know, this is a crazy moment to be a comedian, and people are having such overwhelming amounts of success, but at the end of the day, like, all of us started just wanting a room full of people, just a crowd, and to be able to perform.
- [84:21]
A
Yeah. Well, you know, one. One thing that was great about Good Fortune, dude, and I haven't finished it, but I really. I like it and I'm excited to see the end of it.
- [84:30]
B
It's not that long a movie, by.
- [84:32]
A
The way, but I didn't get home last night until probably 11:30.
- [84:35]
B
No, I'm just saying for people that are worried that.
- [84:37]
A
Oh, yeah, no, no, it's an hour. It's an hour and a half movie, but it's good, dude. There were so many, like, start. There started to be some really good plot changes for me that I really dug. Like, right around the spot where I'm at where the. You think it's going to go one way, and now it starts to change up and then I don't want to give too much of it away. But one thing that was really amazing about it and my friend was watching it with me, was that you felt of how tough it is that first year to. In L. A. You felt of like. Like when your character is sleeping in his car, right? Or like when there's doordash delivery and just like the jobs you get when you first get to a big city to try to survive the parking tickets and how you lose your car. You just come out of a place, you barely had enough money to go get some avocados. It was the one thing you were treating yourself to this week. It was like, two avocados. I'm gonna cut those up and I'm gonna eat those, right? And then I'm gonna go to sleep, right? You were so excited, and you come out and your car has been towed because you didn't pay tickets, all that. Dude, my friend and I slept in the McDonald's ball pit. We would jump the fence and sleep in that fucking ball pit because it was like kind of some more space to lay out, right? Like, if you could. Got under the balls. There's hair in there. There's coins under there. But it is. There's a little bit more room for your body than like. Because we tried to sleep in his car one night and it was just a nightmare. But going through all of that. Yeah. And there is. The hair goes to the bottom, which I don't understand how that works. That's science. But. And yeah, they should do a. They should see what's in the bottom of a lot of these? It's not good. But yeah, we, we would jump over the fence and, and sleep in one that, you know that, that close at 10, we get in. Just get five, five hours of sleep or something, you know.
- [86:19]
B
Oh my God, I'm so sorry.
- [86:20]
A
I could relate. No, it was awesome. It was great stories. One night, we're in there, dude, we're talking to each other, laughing and stuff, and a Asian guy's on the slide. He's asleep.
- [86:31]
B
He saw the slide. Seems like he's very, very exposed.
- [86:36]
A
No, like in one of those high slides where there was room where you could kind of get, you know, it was encompassed. He was in the best spot.
- [86:43]
B
Oh, my God.
- [86:43]
A
Yes. He was in one of the tubes.
- [86:45]
B
Oh, damn. That's better than the ball pit. That's a pro move.
- [86:48]
A
Yeah. And even came up to the window. It was like a little hamster showing up. Pretty fucking dope. But dude, that was like. But I forget. You forget about all the pieces of the things and the moments that, like, were so big.
- [87:02]
B
And that was in LA, and that was in LA. And I think we all McDonald's in LA.
- [87:06]
A
Uh, it's on Wilshire Boulevard. Like Wilshire.
- [87:08]
B
And does that Asian guy have a podcast now too? I hope he does.
- [87:12]
A
I think it's Ronny Chang.
- [87:15]
B
You know, I was doing a. I was doing one of those shows at the Comedy Cellar where people don't know who's gonna show up.
- [87:21]
A
Uh huh.
- [87:22]
B
It was like, surprise headliner. And it's just me working on stuff and I walk by the line and some lady goes, I hope it's not Ronny Chang.
- [87:31]
A
Oh, really?
- [87:32]
B
Yeah. But then I found out that it's because she'd been to another one of these and it was Ronny Chieng. And we talked about it in the show, but it wasn't because she doesn't like all love to Ronny Chieng. I love Ronny Chang.
- [87:45]
A
I just got to see him last week. I bumped into him. I went into the Comedy Cellar.
- [87:49]
B
Okay, yeah, yeah.
- [87:50]
A
Just stopped there and he was in there. It was awesome, dude.
- [87:52]
B
Just to get to see him.
- [87:53]
A
He is great. He got some great specials too. If you haven't seen him. If you haven't seen him, I gotta get him to come in and talk sometime.
- [87:58]
B
Yeah, no, he's great. But I just thought it was funny to walk by and through that.
- [88:02]
A
That's so funny, dude.
- [88:03]
B
Yeah.
- [88:05]
A
But yeah, that's one thing I loved about Good Fortune. You and Seth Rogen are Just you guys are buddies. I guess it is.
- [88:11]
B
Yeah. We spoke about this movie and you know, if anyone listening is going to see the movie, please, you know, see it in a theater with the crowd. Because we were talking about these movies.
- [88:21]
A
Like I think it's worth it for sure. It definitely felt like a real movie to me. It didn't feel like some forced, you know, I know like there like, you know, sometimes you get these movies and it's like, you know, they're get felt feels force or too fake or like it's not real. I didn't feel any of that. I didn't feel like any pandering for some like social causes or any.
- [88:39]
B
No, just trying to be very real and, and very funny and, and you know, good dude.
- [88:44]
A
I'm excited about finishing it. Cuz your character starts to get like what the. I thought he was great and then he's like. But you see the different parts of us that can come out and come to the surface when different things like are attached to us.
- [88:56]
B
Yeah. But when we were making the movie, Seth and I would talk about like, you know, how we'd go to movie theaters and see movies like Anchorman or Super Bat or you know, Pineapple Express and you'd have like a room, it'd be like a stand up show, you know, like a room full of people erupting and you know, it's like what we feel when you do stand up. Like if we did stand up and there was only like one person in the crowd, that's not the same thing. Like the people make a difference. So like seeing a movie, a comedy in theaters, it's something that's kind of gone away after the pandemic and everything. And I hope we can bring it back. I mean we were just in Chicago last night and we screened the movie. We've been doing these little secret screenings and I've been sitting in a little bit and watching it and I'm like, I don't even remember the last time I've been in a packed theater watching a comedy. So I hope the movie works and that people get to make more comedies and they get to see them in theaters because it's something that I miss. And yeah, I mean especially because our movie is like an original movie, a comedy theatrical. It. It's tough to get it done.
- [89:55]
A
I mean I really, I'm not even lying or joking or pandering to you or to our. No, I appreciate fans. I wouldn't say that I think it's worth going to see. I think if you took a date or a friend or your buddy, you guys would have a good time. It would be worth your money. It'd be worth driving over there and sitting in there so far. And I'm not even done with it unless it gets really bad.
- [90:10]
B
The back, guys. Oh, man, the back is great. We'd have to talk about it afterwards, because it really relates to a lot of the things. Some of the stuff we were talking about earlier, some of the emotional things we were talking about in terms of just. Just kind of seeing other people and seeing what they're going through and just kind of giving them a look, you know, I. I was thinking about that when my mom was telling me that story, but.
- [90:29]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was a great story, man. Do you feel like. Why do you feel like you have to do so much? Because this is something I. I've struggled with in my own life. Like, I. I think I need to.
- [90:42]
B
Have a kid or something. Because I. I feel like as I've gotten older, you know, I do things like, oh, yeah, I. You know, I was prolific.
- [90:51]
A
You've done so many TV shows, You've written, you've directed. You've won. Haven't you won an Emmy before?
- [90:56]
B
Yeah, one, two Emmys.
- [90:57]
A
Damn, brother gang. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like. And sorry. I don't know. I don't know a lot about that. No, it's fine. But. But.
- [91:06]
B
But doing too much.
- [91:08]
A
Why do you have. Do you. Do you ever know why you feel like you. Because some people, they could do half of that and feel extremely accomplished, and they would be. But do you feel like, is it. Is it financial? Which is fine. It's definitely nice to have money and have security. Is it like, is there something that you find because.
- [91:26]
B
Not financial. Because doing movies I, you know, I take would make way more money touring, like, losing money, doing these movies, like, trying to make a movie for theaters. It's kind of like trying to be like, hey, I want to build a tower records. Good luck. Aziz. It's not. What's the lucrative thing? You know what I mean? It's interesting. Cause my heyday of touring and everything was probably 10 years ago when I did the Garden and all that stuff. I was touring like crazy. And back in that time, not many people were doing theaters and arenas. Like, there was only a few people. And now it's like fucking. Everybody does. And when I go on tour, I'm like, who the f. Who's Alton Brown? The chef? He's playing the Deepak center in Durham. He's just chopping food up. And people are coming. Everybody's on tour, dude.
- [92:16]
A
There'll be a dude juliening a carrot for 11,000 people.
- [92:19]
B
Yes. And you're like, what? Dude, Is it Cake?
- [92:21]
A
That TV show? Is it cake? Is going on tour? My like, yes. Who gives a fuck?
- [92:25]
B
Yes, is it Cake Tour? And you're like, wait, that's what I'm competing with.
- [92:29]
A
This is people in the stands with binoculars trying to figure out if it came.
- [92:32]
B
It was not like this.
- [92:33]
A
At 70 yards. It's ridiculous.
- [92:36]
B
Who cares? It was not like this.
- [92:37]
A
Can't remember if it's fondant.
- [92:40]
B
It was not like this. And in that time, there was a whole podcast boom. Everybody found an audience. You didn't. You cut out the middlemen of Netflix or whatever. People are putting stuff on YouTube, and now all these people are touring, and there's been this massive boom. And I, during that time, made my TV series, worked on these movies, and have kind of stepped away.
- [93:00]
A
But when are you coming back? You're touring again?
- [93:02]
B
Yeah, I'm touring again now, and it's been so fun, and I've had a great time, but I'm also like, damn, dude. The travel, it hits me in a different way. And, yeah, you see October 23rd, I'm getting stressed. I'm like, I can't go to Temecula. I gotta cancel Temecula, San Diego. Oh, God. Modesta, Monterey. Oh, God. At least I can hub out of la. Oh, no. Then I gotta fly to Cincinnati on the 13th. Oh, God. Then we gotta fly to Louisville. TSA is gonna be closed. There's gonna be, like, one air traffic controller. Then I'm probably gonna go down on my way to St. Louis. That's gonna be delayed.
- [93:40]
A
Ooh, Indianapolis will be fun, dude.
- [93:43]
B
Then I go see my family in Charlotte. That's nice. I love Asheville. Asheville is a great, great town. And Savannah's a great town.
- [93:49]
A
Savannah's beautiful, too.
- [93:50]
B
Yeah. No, I love the show, and I love being in the different cities. Cause, you know, when you tour, you form a relationship with these cities, and.
- [93:57]
A
You have to go, oh, you're excited to go back. You're excited to see, like, oh, look at this crowd. This one's different. This energy. This place is different.
- [94:04]
B
And what's so cool is. And I think this is why people like to go to live standup is, like, even if you watch in special, it's not the same as that show in that town. And it's really fun. And, you know, for me, like, this tour, it's been fun because. Because I haven't toured in a while, so it's. A lot of stuff has happened, you know, I've been married. Me and my wife are trying to have a kid and to go back to the thing we were talking about of, like, doing too much like, the movies, I feel like that comes from, like, I have an idea and I have this vision of. It sounds cheesy to say vision, but I have a vision of something I want to execute, and it's something I'm really excited about. And I'm, like, racing to be on set to do, like, it could just be like, I'm writing something now, and I have this one scene. I'm like, oh, man, I just want to shoot that scene. I, like, think this would be. So I gotta get there, and it's a long time to get there. Movies are so slow. You gotta work with so many other people. It's a nightmare. But I do it because I really love films and I want to make more films. But I do think I've realized recently, like, I've gotta calm down. Like, I think I've overestimated my ability to work. And as I get older, you know, you burn out.
- [95:06]
A
You get stress. The stress builds.
- [95:08]
B
I've seen friends that are burned out.
- [95:09]
A
Oh, dude, you're looking at one of them. We're not even friends, but you're looking at somebody that's been burnt out. But we could maybe be friends.
- [95:15]
B
I mean, I hope so. Dude, we went. We went deep here. This is deeper than I went on any other podcast. We talked about some heavy stuff. Yeah. In a great way. I love it. I mean, I think this is. So.
- [95:25]
A
We talked about a lot of this stuff on here. It's important, you know, it's nice to, like.
- [95:28]
B
I really. I really like it. But no, that burnout feeling, it's like, oh, it's real.
- [95:33]
A
I started shedding hair recently, dude. We had a freaking retired Boston detective who has some of the craziest stories, found a wiener on the sidewalk. And it was like a real who done it? Or whatever. Obviously, the person missing the wiener did it, but. So it was pretty kind of easy. It wasn't like knives out, actually. It was like knives out. It's a long story, but anyway. Oh, shit, I forgot. I was talking about.
- [95:55]
B
We were talking about, like, just the burnout.
- [95:57]
A
Oh, yeah, the burnout is real. That happens, dude. Yeah, it started shedding hair. All that kind of stuff.
- [96:00]
B
It's tough to say no, too, because, you know, you're having a moment right now. And I've had a moment. And, you know, people start telling you to do all this stuff, and no one on your side of the. The business is gonna be like, dude, you gotta chill, you gotta take some rest. No one ever says that, well, that's a great opportunity. You should do it. And you're like, well, that's a great opportunity. I should do it. And when I was younger, I could do all that stuff. And I look back at schedules and stuff I did, I'm like, how did I do all this? I can't do it anymore. At this age, it's a different thing. And I'm married now. It's like, I've been away from my wife a lot and I don't feel nice about it sometimes.
- [96:34]
A
Well, look, I have a suggestion that help you relax. Go watch Good fortune. Go to your. Go with your wife. I'm not even joking. Go sit and watch it. You'll like it. You guys will laugh. You'll get to spend some time together. It's good. I do know it's out October 17th. I do want to remind everybody about that.
- [96:53]
B
Yeah. Thank you.
- [96:54]
A
I feel lucky you get to be in London. One of my favorite musicians, James Blake, lives over there. Dermot Kennedy is a. Is a. He's in the United Kingdom. Kingdom. He's a guy that I really love who. Who actually is coming in town soon. Yeah, I would love to get to live over there. Sometimes people feel very nice.
- [97:13]
B
You're a little bit. I mean, you probably feel this here, too. Like you're a little bit away from the circus.
- [97:17]
A
Oh, yeah. I feel totally good. And the circus is dissolved. The circuses, it's a different thing.
- [97:22]
B
You don't really need to be there anymore.
- [97:23]
A
They're finding new places. There's new mini circuses popping up.
- [97:25]
B
Yeah, yeah, but then. But, yeah, but is Nashville becoming a Circle Americas?
- [97:28]
A
No, I don't think so. Not too much. It still feels kind of small. There's a lot of people moving here and a lot of stuff going on, but it still feels pretty small.
- [97:34]
B
No, I mean, I feel like that in London that I'm away from things. Whenever I go back to la, I start feeling like, oh, my God, I'm falling behind. I need to do this because you hear about it, oh, I've just made this I'm working on. I'm like, oh, what am I doing? I'm not doing anything.
- [97:45]
A
You've done so much, dude. I mean, from all. From television to. I know you had that series I watched while I was on Netflix.
- [97:52]
B
It was just you.
- [97:53]
A
Yeah, yeah, that was Messer None.
- [97:54]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [97:55]
A
The book that you wrote. I know about dating and like struggling of love. You've done, you've done. Let me tell you this. If nobody ever tells you you've done enough.
- [98:04]
B
No, but finishing the movie is a big deal and I'm glad I did it because it, it took a minute to get it done and, and I'm really proud of it and proud of the work that I did. My, my, my whole team did, all the actors did, and I'd love to make more, but. Yeah, I definitely. I hear you. And it, it's.
- [98:22]
A
You've done a lot. That's what I mean.
- [98:23]
B
I didn't mean enough.
- [98:24]
A
I didn't mean enough.
- [98:24]
B
No, no, no, I know you mean it. I, I appreciate it. Yeah.
- [98:26]
A
And I think. Yeah. And your sister would be so proud of you. What was her name again? I want to say it one time. Nafis. It's such a pretty name. How do you spell it?
- [98:34]
B
N, A, F, E, E, Z, OO.
- [98:36]
A
Nafis.
- [98:38]
B
I'm so glad we, we talked about that. Cuz I, I, I, I, I feel like I'm here with some people that work with me and they're like, wait, what?
- [98:45]
A
Because I think when we say people's names out loud, people that have been a part of our lives, like, even when we're talking about, like if you wanted to say, when we say people's names, they feel that wherever they are, that is a felt thing. Because otherwise why would we feel it? You know what I'm saying?
- [98:59]
B
No, it's bringing their, it's putting them in the.
- [99:03]
A
Yeah. And I believe it's like, I believe they feel it. Wherever they are, they feel it. You know, I think you definitely, if you're here for this long, you definitely keep an anchor locked in.
- [99:11]
B
I mean, the other person I was gonna mention and tell me we can if you. I don't want you to run late for whatever, but the other person I was thinking of when I was talking about Lucius was. Have you ever heard of Manny that ran the Comedy Cellar?
- [99:22]
A
Mm mm.
- [99:23]
B
Manny Dorman was the owner of the Comedy Cellar. His son Gnome's there now.
- [99:27]
A
Oh, yeah, I know. Gnome.
- [99:28]
B
Yeah. Yeah. So Gnome's dad is Manny.
- [99:31]
A
Okay.
- [99:32]
B
First time I ever did comedy was at the Comedy Cellar. They had a new talent night, which doesn't even exist anymore. Now they just have like fucking 10 comedy sellers and 10 shows. But this was like back in the day, they had a new talent night at Like. Like six o'. Clock. And you'd bring, like, a couple of friends and they'd give you stage time. And I did that. And I was 18 years old, Summer of my freshman year in college. Didn't do good at all. I did well. My material was terrible, but I did well because I was very comfortable on stage and public speaking, and I was just kind of funny. And it worked. And I came back and did it again, and I did a couple of open mics and had a reality check. Like, oh, fuck, this is really hard. And then the third time I did stand up, third time I ever did standup was again at the Comedy Cellar. And it was one of these new talent nights. And I. For some reason, this crowd and me, it just. I was.
- [100:33]
A
Didn't go well.
- [100:34]
B
No, no. Went super well.
- [100:35]
A
Oh, fuck. All your stories in a way that go good.
- [100:40]
B
And they went nuts. And I said something at the end. I was like, oh, by the way, whatever. We perform wherever. We have to bring a certain number of friends. I'm running out of friends, so if you want to come, like, come see, say hi backstage or whatever. And I was just being serious, and they were all just losing it. And Manny saw this, and he said, like, there's Manny. And he goes. He basically came up, and it was like some old Hollywood thing. He was like, you're ready for the big room. I'd done stand up, like, three times. There's no way I was ready to perform at the hardest comedy, like, Comedy Cellar, where it's like, Attell, Geraldo, Jim Norton. He's like, you're ready for the big broom. And so I would show up there, and they would put me on late at night, almost like a late night. They would. It was, like, really odd. Cause I probably. I shouldn't have been doing it. I was just so green, and I was doing it. And eventually, you know, esti. Esti, who's the. You know, famously runs a comedy seller, passes comedy. She was like, okay, let's you go on. And I went on. And she was like, yeah, you can't be performing here because I've been doing it less. Yeah. She's like, you can't be doing this. She's fucking tough. I was like a little kid. She was like, you can't be doing this. You're not ready. And I was like, okay. And then, you know, now again, one of the, you know, Emmy, Masquerade Garden, whatever. Like, this, to me is the coolest thing, is that I can perform at the Comedy Cellar and just drop in, and they'll just let me do material and perform, and then the crowd goes nuts and knows who I am. That's the craziest thing to me.
- [102:29]
A
That's crazy.
- [102:29]
B
That's, like, kind of above everything else. And my biggest dream, I've told people, is, like, that I'm just, like, 90 years old, and I drop into the Comedy Cellar, and maybe a couple of people know who I am, but that I'm able to fucking hold my own. But anyway, I was there at the Comedy Cellar one night, and me and Esti were talking about this, and she was like, you know, Manny saw you whenever you were really young, and he must be up there smiling now, seeing all you've done. And, yeah, that made me smile. And I wasn't super, super close with Manny, but he was another guy before Lucian, oddly, even saw me in this. Just said something.
- [103:10]
A
What's a reminder, I think, for anybody that has a. Has been in a field for a while of when you take a moment to connect with somebody that's just coming into it, you know, that it could have an effect, you know, that's a nice reminder.
- [103:21]
B
It means the world to them. And you don't realize, because I think we're all, like, we're all in our own head and don't realize.
- [103:26]
A
I mean, yeah, especially when you're young, there's one person having to believe, like, oh, good job. Just little things like that. And I'm still grateful. It reminded me that Neil Brennan and Amy Schumer are the ones that helped me get past at the Comedy Cellar.
- [103:38]
B
Oh, wow.
- [103:39]
A
And I've only performed there, like, probably six, seven times, maybe 10. But I walked in the other night, and I was so nervous, like, you want to go? But I was like, no way. I'm not freaking going up, dude. But I think some of that's just places you used to be in, you know, so. Aziz, I gotta go, man. Thank you so much.
- [103:55]
B
Oh, man, this was such a great conversation.
- [103:57]
A
This has been.
- [103:58]
B
I. I really enjoyed it, and we talked about so many interesting things and. And. And really some. Some heavy stuff. But I. I thought it was great, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do it.
- [104:09]
A
I appreciate it, man. I think it's exciting that you get to live in London, have a new experience. It sounds like you've had a lot of unique experiences, and that's, like. That's such a gift, you know, God's had a lot of grace, it seems like, in your whole just, like, ability to be creative and, like, man, thank you for sharing that with us.
- [104:26]
B
Oh, thanks, man. Thank you for having me.
- [104:28]
A
You bet. And best of luck with the film, dude. Out out October 17th. So this week, I think, and. All right, everybody, be good.
- [104:35]
B
Thanks so much. Now I'm just floating on the breeze? And I feel I'm falling Like these leaves? I must be cornerstone?
- [104:47]
A
Oh?
- [104:48]
B
But when I reach that ground? I'll share this peace of mind I found? I can feel it in my bones? But it's gonna take.