Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - "I Survived Coronavirus" w/ Paul Virzi

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

What up people. It's time we spoke to someone that has had Coronavirus so they can tell us what it's really like. I sat down with comedian Paul Virzi who just overcame the virus. He breaks it down for me in the most hilarious way possible. INDULGE! New York native and internationally touring stand-up, Andrew Schulz is known for his hilarious and unsafe comedy. He has starred in the sitcom BENDERS (now available on Netflix), can be seen in Amazon’s SNEAKY PETE, HBO’s CRASHING, and on MTV including GUY CODE and GIRL CODE. In the podcast realm, Schulz can be heard on the wildly popular THE BRILLIANT IDIOTS — co-hosted by nationally syndicated radio and television personality Charlamagne tha God — the hilarious sports commentary podcast FLAGRANT 2, and the film and TV analysis podcast WESTERBROS. He has made major appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience, Bert Kreischer’s BERTCAST, Joey “coco” Diaz The Chuch of What’s Happening Now, and Theo Von’s This Past Weekend. He has even done solo interviews with the likes of Lil Duval and many others. Andrew’s online presence has touched hundreds of millions of people across the globe and his unconventionally funny approach to the comedy world has launched him into stardome. His shows Dropping In and Inside Jokes will rack of hundreds of thousands of views weekly. Nothing is off limits for Schulz, from sex to race, and even the occasional audience heckler roast, Andrew is hungry to be the best. He can be seen in New York City performing regularly at New York Comedy Club and the Comedy Cellar.

What's up everybody? I am here with an amazing father, a remarkable husband, a hilarious comedian, and a champion of the Chinese flu, a conqueror of the coronavirus. We have Paul Verzi in the building. What's up jelty what's up baby now listen this is i'm very excited to talk to you because you might be the first comedian uh real comedian um that has contacted the coronavirus and destroyed it demolished it beat it to smithereens first of all how you still look the same bro what's what's that how you still look the same you got the fresh baldy in quarantine beard looking right you know what i'm about i'm about 18 19 days since my first symptom and uh i'm everything is pretty much subsided very little bit of a cough but uh so i had to get my

i had to get my act together with grooming after that. You look amazing. Bro, you look like Drake with Down syndrome. Down syndrome. No, you can let it rip, baby. The world's ending. You might as well say it all right now. I want a career when this is over.

I do want to say that my wife and I, we couldn't officially test for it, although we were pretty much told we had it, and I could break down exactly what happened. So, yeah. I want to just go over a first thing, just a few things with you. So how do you think you got it? Number one, it's between two places. It's between doing levity live. The Saturday at levity live was really packed. It was the first week of, it was the first week of March, but then on March 14th,

we went out, this was right before everybody was told to be locked down. We did go to a Mexican restaurant for my wife's birthday around March 14th, which is the last time we were out in public. And I remember the restaurant being packed. And so it's one of those two places. But my guess would be I got it at a packed restaurant March 14th. You think it was the Mexicans? I think it was, yeah.

Yes, it was the Mexicans' fault. Not that packed out show of yours at levity not that packed out I mean you were selling tickets bro make no mistake Saturday was packed out I mean I got I had a sell out you know so what

happened was and I gotta tell you something Rudy Gobert the center of the Utah Jazz he was at your show actually really helped. He actually helped with what he tweeted about after a major symptom happened to him. So what happened to him was, so my symptoms started.

I told my wife, I started to feel achy and I started to feel the flu. This is about two or three days after we went to, two days after we went to her birthday dinner, I started to feel like I had the flu. Achy, was convinced I had a fever her birthday dinner what her birthday they needed to go out to dinner right global pandemic listen needed to go out to dinner right had to go out to dinner i get she's a smoke right i get you the smoke show i get it you know you saw it firsthand at the wedding she's a smoke show what do you think I'm doing over here?

If the smoke show wants to go to dinner, she's going to go to dinner. If the smoke show wants Mexican, we're gone. Andole. Andole. We got margaritas coming. Patron, though? Patron, the good stuff? Yes, patron and salt around all the rims.

Okay? All the rims. Here's what happened. Not just around all the rims. Listen, I want salt on every glass in this joint. Okay? So two days later, I start feeling fluish. I start feeling achy. I'm laying down.

I knew something was clearly wrong. And I'm saying to my wife, like, I wonder if this is it. And she's like, you know, I don't know. And then for two days after, and this is part of it. So your listeners should know you can feel like shit. And then two days later, you feel better. You bounce back. Yeah.

So that's what I want you to walk us through. I want you to walk us through the journey of the virus. Right. want you to walk through us through the journey of the virus, right? So, so, so mine was very different and I was considered a lucky one as far as how mild it was. Yeah. But I'll tell you the telltale of which made us know we had it. Okay, go. So a lot of people were saying you feel like shit for two days and you feel bad, like you have the flu. And then the next day or so you feel good. You could be like, oh, things are getting better. And then all of a sudden you get like this other, this other wave of it. It starts to, you start to get it again. Also digestive and stomach aches and pains, definitely a part of it.

And that happened after the initial symptoms. So I started to feel that, um, sick to your stomach or like, you want to just like, no, not like, not like nause nauseous sick, like achy pains. Okay. Like achy pains in your stomach, achy at night. Weird thing. No fever for days. I kept checking my fever. No fever. But all these other things started to happen.

Then this is where the weird thing happened. Day five or six, I'm eating and I i'm going what the fuck is with this and i said to my wife i go can you taste this wine and can you taste the food or the sauce and she goes yeah i think it's fine and then rudy gobert yeah i'm italian i'm italian you know this guy's been sick for a week the only way you realize that you have Corona is like, I can't taste the meatballs, babe. What's going on? How about this is a Barolo. This shouldn't taste like that.

Yeah, this is a Barolo. This shouldn't taste like this. This is a 16 from Napa Valley. So, bro, I completely all of a sudden lost my taste and smell. And Rudy Gobert tweeted something. Right. Because he was one of the early Rudy Gobert tweeted. He said, just want to give all the fans and everybody an update.

He goes, I haven't been able to smell or taste anything for four days. Is anybody experiencing this? And then he got like 2000 comments on it. And I, I couldn't smell. And this is, by the way, when I say no smell, I don't want to get people confused. I don't mean no smell because you're congested or you have a cold. I'm talking no stuffy nose, no congestion. You're fine. You're breathing fine. And you can't smell. So you can't smell. You can't taste. Bro, I'm talking you're fine. and you open a potent bottle of whiskey,

nothing. You open something that's potent or a candle, nothing, bro. That's what really freaked me out. That's when I was like, something's wrong because that's never happened to me in any time that I've ever been sick where I lost my sense of smell and taste and it was just gone. Now, what was it like eating food and you just couldn't taste it at all? Like what was it like being a regular white person? It was, it was, every good meal was ruined. Every taste was ruined. Every drink was water. So it was like any drink was water. You'll take a Coke and it just, you'll drink a Coke. It tastes like water. I took a sip of Diet Coke and it tasted like carbonated water.

It was just water. And that's when I was like, something's wrong. And then that's when, you know, it's funny though, bro. When I first couldn't smell, I woke my wife up at three o'clock in the morning. Both of my kids are in bed with her because I had to get through because I knew I was going through this. And I wake my wife up. I go, babe, babe, I think it's definite now. It's definite. She goes, why? Why? She's like waking up. I go, I can't smell a thing. She goes, you fucking woke me up

because this is before any symptoms came out. You fucking woke me up. I'm with the two kids. You woke me up because you can't smell or taste. You go the fuck to sleep. And then the next day it started to really come out. Also, I don't want to give out names or anything, but Giannis had a family member, a distant family member who also tested positive. And the smell thing was a thing. My wife also knew a woman who, as a friend of hers, she lost taste and smell. But the kicker that let us really know was five days later, my wife, Stacey, lost her smell and taste as well.

So now you know that you would pass it on to her. So it looks like I passed it on to my wife. She was very low, mild symptoms except that. Here's a positive thing I am hearing if you lose smell and taste, that those cases seem to be 40 years and younger. And, um, from what they've seen on the more mild side, thank God. Right. Right. Now you're a gambling man. Um, I mean, not for a while, but yeah, I love a little juice.

You like a little juice. You like a little action. Now, were you, were you putting a little, a little action on whether or not you would make it out, whether or not your wife would make it out? little a little action on whether or not you would make it out whether or not your wife would make it out you know what i mean like was there any part of you is like what's the over and under of me beating this fucking kung flu when i was laying in bed at night and i would cough at night because at night the cough would come a little bit yeah um my main fear was am i gonna wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to breathe or need to go to the hospital and the fear was, am I going to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to breathe or need to go to the hospital? And the fear was there might not be a hospital bed. Luckily I'm up in the country. Westchester is not as densely populated as obviously New York city. So I thought, you know, but it definitely crosses your mind house up there. Right. Nice house. Nice. Oh yeah. I mean,

I got land land. Like there's some, I got fucking... Yeah. I'll fuck... I could introduce you to fucking deer. I know on a first-name basis. I'm feeding these motherfuckers. I'm feeding these deer fucking tomatoes like they're apples. I'm out of my hand, by the way. I fed a fucking deer Tostitos, and I heard the crackle in its mouth. I'm not even fucking with you. Keep going.

I'm so glad it was you that got it there'd be so much less funny people that got it that i have to talk to i'm so glad it was you so um so now the other question so so then once i got to a certain amount of days yeah and i had realized i mean knock on wood I had realized that the breathing thing wasn't an issue and it doesn't look like I'm going to go to the hospital. Thank God. That's when I started to realize that it started to pass. My wife was about four or five days behind me. And it looks like both of us now, my wife is about 14 days. She feels fine, back to work, everything great. Me, I'm about 18, 19 days. And like I said, a little bit of a cough, but there's allergies. So I feel good.

But here's, here's what I did learn from the doctor. I did speak to my doctor. There's 30% of viruses out there, which take away your smell and taste, but it's never happened to me or my wife before in our lives. And the fact that that would be a coincidence with this pandemic just doesn't make sense. Yeah. He also did tell me, and this and this is what he said. He said that 80% of people from all the studies they're doing might not be comfortable. There are people with 102, 103 fever for a week straight, but they don't need a hospital bed. 20% need a hospital. Out of the 20%, they said 10% need ventilators. And then he said, out of the 10% of the people that need ventilators, 5% have a 50% chance to make it, which is pretty fucking brutal.

So we feel very fortunate that if, in fact, the symptoms that we had, the smell, the taste, the way we felt like shit, if that was the mild case, we feel fortunate. But what we need to do is go do a blood test to see if we have antibodies, to see the immunity and stuff. And they're not convinced that if we did have it, we'll be immune forever. They do say that if you had it, you can be immune temporarily, but there could be another strain of this that comes in the fall, and they're not certain that you're 100% not going to get reinfected so um just to clarify

what people are saying so you build up antibodies for a virus right and those antibodies stay inside you in case you get the virus again and then the antibodies they go beat up the virus essentially make it so you can't get sick and right with this certain virus the coronavirus they're saying that just because you got it doesn't mean you built up the antibodies that can fight it or the virus could change which one is it well yeah that's no the the the second one so so this mild strain that i have yeah if this comes back my body knows it and my body can fight it and and i had what if some stronger shit comes then the people that have some shit that are just where they're laid out and in a matter of a day and a half it escalates to not only 104 fever but they can't breathe on their own yeah

that that could be a whole other thing so i needed so we were told since we since once we lost the smell of uh the smell and taste they say you just got to isolate for seven days if you don't need a hospital bed we're not going to see you you You got to isolate. But we were basically told, act as if you have it because we think you do because of what the unique things that happened to you. But now that we're past the time,

now they're saying, still be cautious, which kind of sucks. Yeah. All right, guys, we're going to take a break just for a second. Get back to that combo.

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You got to mix some things up. You got to shake some things up. And you can do that if you're chewing these things up. Simple as that. BlueChew.com. Use the promo code Andrew. You're going to get it free. All you got to do is pay five dollars shipping. They're going to deliver hard dick to your apartment. Ladies, if you're watching, make sure your man gets it for you. It's a fun night. It's a party. You're stuck inside. You're quarantined. You might as well mix it up a little bit. Bluetooth dot com promo code is Andrew. Now let's get back to this conversation. Are you close to your wife's parents at all? My wife's father has passed. My wife's mother is staying in Florida.

Okay. So there was no concern about bumping into them. Your parents, no concern about bumping into them? My mother was diagnosed with a stage four cancer in 1997. My mother was diagnosed with the stage four cancer in 1997. And when she was on her way out, there was a test drug at the Dana-Farber Institute in Boston. And it was a trial on 100 people. It worked on 26.

Then it started to come back on the 26. And it stayed helping 10. And 20 years later, my mother is one of the 10. But the Dana-Farber Institute called, that was bro. That was in 1997. My mom would have been gone for years. The Dana-Farber Institute keeps calling my mother saying, you need to stay inside. My mother's immune system is beat up from the drugs that basically killed the cancer inside of her. Right. Of course. Of course. So my mother is a number. My mother is a candidate to just, she, this thing could hurt her bad. So she's just staying in. Got to stay in, got to lock it in the whole time. What goes through your mind? Now I know, I understand you're younger, you're

in good shape. I mean, you smoke cigars a little bit, but you're not really the candidate that dies from this, right? That being said, what goes through your mind when you know you have a virus that is killing people? Yeah. You know you have it and you can't go to the hospital. The hospital has told you not to go. Is it terrifying to just sit at home and wait to the point where you're almost going to die and then knock on the door of the hospital and ask them? That's a fantastic question. And the short answer is my children, my children and my wife and my family was obviously the first thing I'm thinking about. And yeah, man, I'm not going to lie. Like I said, I stayed in our guest room alone for like the

first, you know, almost two weeks where I was just by myself at night. I would distance myself from my kids, couldn't hug them or touch them really. and The fear of am I gonna wake up in the middle of the night not able to breathe and are the hospitals gonna be ready For you that is like a literally like four day five day process of thinking every night. That is really fucking scary man Yeah It was scary for sure and then once I got to about day eight or nine and I started to feel better for sure. And then once I got to about day eight or nine and I started to feel better, um, bro, I was drinking like 11 bottles of water a day. I was like, they were like, you got to drink until your piss is clear because when your piss is clear, like water clear, that means you're hydrated. So like, that was a big thing. Vitamin D I took a lot of, uh, to build up the immune

system and stuff. But, uh, I think if I have to be honest, the cigar smoking hurt me a little bit because my wife really didn't have the cough. We only had a low grade fever, I think one or two days. But the cough with me, especially in the throat. And, you know, now I quit cigars, man. I mean, I don't think I'm ever going back. Really? Yeah, man. I mean, I don't think I'm ever going back. Really? Yeah, man. Because this, yeah.

I mean, listen, if I, if in months the doctors are like good, but I'm worried, I'm concerned. I wanted to look at my lungs, find out what happened. That's it. That's an interesting thing, man. How, how things could possibly change post Corona because so many people vape, so many people, you know, smoke hookah. They do all these things because the only thing they're concerned about is potentially lung cancer in the future right they're like oh maybe i'll get lung cancer when i'm fucking 80 or something like that you never think about that yeah but when you start hearing that there's a virus that could come around every single year and if you got somewhat shitty lungs

you could be the one on the ventilator you start changing your life a little bit man and you said something important there i think people that vape I think vaping is a really Fucking bad thing for this because They were starting to see All the young people not all I don't want to put You know misinformation but they say a lot of the younger People that are out there that are dying for this

Or they're on the ventilators in the hospital Have also been vaping Yes Yeah and they were like oh they're, but it's like, no, it's beating up their lungs. I think anybody with a compromised, you know, lung or respiratory system, this is, they're also saying that even people 20, 30 pounds overweight, it's, it's hurting them too. You know? So, um, yeah, man, I'm just, listen, if I was 55 or 65, it could be, it could definitely be different.

So, and me and my wife feel fortunate. So now we just got to check the blood and see if we, if, if we'll find out 100% if we did have it, which all indications that we did. Right. And then we're going to find out if we have antibodies, antibodies for it. But I can tell you this, losing your sense of smell and taste for, for fucking nine, 10, 11, 12 days is wild shit, man. Now, have you thought of any jokes? No, because every day I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to die. Yeah.

So I was just like, I'm not even kidding, Andrew. I was just thinking, be able to breathe, be able to breathe. But now, now that I'm 19 days past it and pretty much done. Yeah. Um, now I'm going like, all right,

what am I, where am I going to bring this to the stage? How am I, what am I going to do with this? And so now you're break. Cause like we've been talking to like, and we're like, why the fuck are we not thinking of bits?

Like just maybe in the last week I I've started to think about bits. But the first couple of weeks of quarantine, there was nothing there. Like nothing was happening in my head. There was like, obviously you do funny stuff on the podcast, but I wasn't thinking, oh, this is a bit. And I wonder if it's because we can't see ourselves on stage soon. Yeah. You know, like when you know you're going up that night, you're like,

oh, I'm gonna try that. But when you know that you're not going up for months yeah there's no impetus to try it right you're like i'll get back to it maybe yeah that's why you gotta yeah that's a good point you gotta write it down because bro we might not hit the stage it's it's a reality that we might not hit the stage till mid-fall son because even if they say go back out, a lot of people are going to be reticent about going into a room packed like sardines full of people, you know?

Yeah. Unless we have the vaccine. If you have a vaccine, we're back to business. But without the vaccine, I think it's, I don't know, man.

I think it could be a while. I think I'm going gonna tell you something too i think this shit was i think i honestly don't think that this is an accident this is not a bat in a fucking soup what is it talk to me i think that this was a plan man i think by who first of all this came out in january of 20 they dropped this shit like an album. This came out in January of 2020. This fucking came out January, 2020. Yeah. And you know, this doctor made a good point. It's not attacking young people. It's attacking weaker people. It's attacking older people, people that, you know, so if you want to talk, I mean, listen, I'm not trying to get into a

conspiracy thing, but there's a lot of- Get into the conspiracy, bro. Let's do it. Third eye. Open that third eye, dog. I heard a doctor say something really interesting and I'll send you the link. He said, it's almost as if looking at this virus, it was modified to not hit young people. Think about that. He said, young people have weaker lungs and a weaker immune system that's immature and not developed yet.

Yet they're walking through it like it doesn't happen. But you're 75 and older with any conditions wiped out. He's like, there could be something to that. Plus the first handful of cases that came out were next to their biotech labs, miles away from the biotech lab in China, miles away from their virus bacteria chemical lab right there. Those are the first cases, which were right near that fish market. So, you know, I mean, who knows? Mark just called it the Wu Hanik plague. Real quick, before we get back to the conversation, actually,

I got to shout out Radix, man. You know, the CBD supplier of the Flager 2 Asshole Army Radix is doing something super dope man So it turns out the machines That it takes to make CBD Are like the same exact machines It takes to make hand sanitizer So yeah so Radix Remedies Noticed that obviously there was this hand sanitizer

Shortage so what they decided to do is Turn off the CBD machines Or some of them and make hand sanitizer it's 80 percent um alcohol or whatever that is it has to be 80 in order to work i mean it's you know uh look it's not the same brand as purell but it's the same thing okay and they've just decided to make those put those out and they're donating for every bottle that purchased, they are donating a bottle to healthcare workers and all the facilities that need it, which I thought was super cool. They're not making any money off this. They're essentially breaking even so that they can supply the people that need bottles of this hand sanitizer and the people at home that also want to have it. So I thought it was so fucking cool.

Radixremedies.com, R-A-D so fucking cool radix remedies.com r-a-d-i-x remedies.com uh and of course they have tons of cbd products uh that you guys can indulge in you know pills of cd gummies of cbd sleeping things you can actually have the the leaf itself to roll up into joints um bath bombs bath bombs let's go out treat yourself with uh treat yourself nice out here a little luxury never hurt nobody so um radix remedies.com and you can use a promo code flagrant to get a 20 off of that but uh yo go buy some of that hand sanitizer man and support it's a great way to support and you get something out of it so uh let's get back to the show who hates old people the most maybe those

that's the group that put it out there who hates old people who needs to get rid of old people the most? Maybe that's the group that put it out there. Who hates old people? Who needs to get rid of old people? Do you think it's a population thing? I mean, if you want to get like conspiratorial about it, old people, some might say, for me and you know, but some might say old people are the biggest drain on an economy because they're not working. They're not producing anything and they're being supported by that economy. So the

longer they live, the more of a drain they become. Like if you retire at 60, but we live to a hundred, man, that's 40% of your life. People are just paying for you to be around. That's right. Matter of fact, from zero to 18, you're not doing anything. So you really only are giving to society from 18 to 60 or whatever the fuck age people retire. So I don't know, maybe like the,

you know, evil powers that be whoever they are, maybe like, maybe we need something to kind of clip the end of the hedges. You know, sometimes the hedges get a little, a little little crazy up there you need a little shape up that's exactly what this one doctor was saying and he even said he goes listen i like facts i'm not into the conspiracy thing but he goes this thing is not attacking people like zero to twenty something the numbers

are so unbelievably low for a virus that attacks your lungs that is just going like, and he mentioned what you said. He goes, who's a, who's a burden on society? People that are sickly people that are older. And I believe, and listen, I'm not, I don't know what they do in China, but isn't there a thing where it's like you can have one female, one girl. And then there's another thing where it's like, there's a whole lot of old people and not enough young people to take care of them because they had that one child child policy so that was a big issue maybe it's something like this maybe it's a a flu that came out naturally right yeah and when the government's realized what it was they're like hey we could act right now and get all the masks out to everybody and get all the ventilators out

to everybody or we could wait a beat let it fuck some shit up knock out the old folks and then step in and save the day right and that's good yeah so you know sometimes it's like i think there's a saying i forget what it is but like you never let a tragedy go to waste i think that's what politicians say right right so you know maybe that was there maybe that's the way they looked at it's like okay here's this tragedy it's only going to take out old people wow the economy is going to be humming afterwards you know like let's be honest i mean we're talking about this on the podcast but if you know if in avengers if thanos was like yo i'm gonna snap my fingers and everybody over 80 dies you think there'd be a lot of pushback

right you think you think all the avengers are coming together maybe one or two but i don't know if all the avengers yeah you know tony stark will be like listen i'm gonna sit this one out you know listen i got some robots to work on why don't you send the ladies hey what are those fucking hulks lazy ass over there oh you know what and listen i don't know like i'm not i don't know i'm not saying what i said that doctor said is true with the population thing and they could only have one woman but the one thing that he did say that made me scratch my head and go it was the age thing was the was the younger people not being touched by this and it's not, oh, if you look at

the percentages, it's really, really, really low. I mean, my son and daughter seem fine. My son during me and my wife going through it, he just, there were a couple of days where he didn't feel great and then bounced back up playing video games and stuff. So we're fortunate, man. We're fortunate to be that everybody in our house is pretty much in the clear, knocked on wood. Kids are more resilient, though. Kids are more resilient. And I would also say that old people probably die from the flu, the regular flu, more often as well.

Now, here's a question. I don't want to take too much of your time, but here's a question. I know you've got a busy day at home in quarantine. I know you're fucking rammed. Yeah, man. I've got to go organize my sweatpants. I got to see which sweatpants I'm wearing tomorrow. I will tell you, this quarantine's got

me comfortable. I bet it does. I bet you walk in that yard. I bet you like all them acres. You enjoying them acres? Oh, man. I'm going acres and flip-flops and sweatpants. and yana's taking a lot of long walks getting your mind right right oh yeah pour a glass of something take a stroll oh it's so hilarious yeah that's where you need a backyard we're fucked up in the city i'm just

staring out my window like a dog oh yeah but yeah so here's a question everybody keeps calling it like a flu right they're like oh it's just like the flu i presume you've had the flu before is this anything like the flu mine was much much less oh the flu was worse mine was much much less than the flu and some people that we've talked to that had it our neighbor's sister has it and she's fine. Okay. That's the thing. Like when you found out, like, what's his name? Donovan Mitchell. He's like that kid, like it's fine. Mark is smart. Like some, I mean, obviously those guys are in their mid twenties or early thirties and they're athletes, but a lot of people that get it are like, yeah, one night of aches, a little bit, this, a little bit that I've had the flu where I was laid up with a fever

for a long time and felt like shit. This was just more of feeling shitty. And the one, like I said, I would not be on here saying that me and my wife believe we had it and doctors we talked to if we didn't lose the smell and taste. That was our biggest indicator. Yeah, I know. I love you, bro. When I can't taste wine, I'm like, something's wrong. Yo, do you think that's why so many people in Italy realize they had it? Like, nobody in England realized they had it, right? Like, everybody in England was like, we'll just take it on the chin, right?

But Italy was like, no, there's a problem. My linguine never tastes like this. What is this? Everybody stay inside. Stay inside. We're going to holly. Oh, shit. I know my wife's meatball.

Not like this. No other country locks down immediately. Italy's like, all right, everybody inside for at least a month. Let's just get this thing out of here. I miss risotto. Yeah. They said 30% of Europe cases lost smell and taste. Wow.

30%. And they were mild, and they were usually younger people. Dude. Yeah. This is a little crazy shit over here. Well, brother, I love you so much, man. Get better. I love you too, man.

I can't wait to see you again. We got to hang. We got to have you back in the studio when you're ready to here. Well, brother, I love you so much, man. Get better. I love you too, man. I can't wait to see you again. We got to hang. We got to have you back in the studio when you're ready to go. Yeah, for sure. But get better. Keep me posted on your health and everything, man. If you need anything, I'm right here, all right? You got to do my favorites, man.

I love you. Talk to you. Love you, brother. Peace. Bye-bye. Later. Okay, that was Paul Verzi, man. Make sure you go tweet or DM Paul.

Shout him out. Let him know you're thinking about him. And, you know, it's good in these times where you go go tweet or dm paul shout him out let him know you're thinking about him and um you know it's good in these times where you go through something like that which is absolutely it can be terrifying especially when you have kids and you're on the brink i mean 40 isn't old but it's not young and if you ever have it like smoking cigars you don't know what could you know possibly happen to you and when you have something you're thinking about worst case scenario but guys i have very good news you might have you might have heard earlier you might have heard a voice early in the beginning of the podcast that you haven't

heard for about a week alex media is back in the building everybody year okay the year is back there you go al how are you doing everybody thought you might have the corona are you feeling better no i'm feeling great man now you didn't had the corona. Are you feeling better? No, I'm feeling great, man. Now, you didn't have corona. Did not. But you came in here in full gear. Yes. You're not trying to get this rona.

Absolutely. I still think you, Mark, and Akash have it. Akash probably has it. Yep. Mark and I, I don't think we have it. Yeah, we're close. We've been close. Mark has the closest proximity to the hospital, so he might get it next.

Okay. Mark? We should put a little bet out here. Who gets it first? Do you think people did this with other pandemics? Like during the Spanish flu? Who do you think is going to die first? What?

Dude, so do Asians. Oh, they're going all in on this. All right. Well, look do Asians. Oh, they're going all in on this. All right. Well, look, man, I think that if anybody gets it, this is my suspicion. I don't think we get it. I think the only person that potentially could get it is you because of your building size. Okay. You live on the 37th floor.

Yes. Guys at home, Al lives on the 37th floor. So that means you have 37 floors of people with you. Yeah, technically. Now check out this. This is how you know nobody lives in Manhattan.

Nobody lives in Manhattan. My girl and I, our building has 20 something floors. Okay? There are 12 apartments total in the whole building that are being occupied now. In 20 something floors.

That means everybody in the building left. 12 units total that have people in. So that's how you know everybody's leaving Manhattan. Nobody's staying in the fucking city. So we have less of a chance of getting it. I think because you're so close to people, you could get it. But you're going to to people, you could get it. Yeah, but I don't. But you're going to be careful.

Yeah. I'm in my apartment. He's in Queens. Yeah. I think the boroughs don't leave. Yeah, we don't leave. This weekend, it looked like every other weekend around my building. Yeah.

That's the thing. I know, like when I'm growing up in Manhattan, I see people all the time. I never meet anybody who's from Manhattan. So everybody moved here. So if you know that there's a global pandemic and you're not going to be able to go, you're going home. My girl would have went back to Cali if it wasn't for me. I can't cook. I'll die.

I might be the only person that dies during Corona, not from Corona. He just starved. He was eating granola bars at the studio. And he went home and he starved. Son, you got to cook, man. Get your cook on, bro. Son, Alex thinks he's Chef Boyardee, bro. Son, I'm chefing out here.

Watch. Man, come on, Al. Son. It's easy to cook vegan. You don't cook it. Next Thanksgiving. Next Thanksgiving. Rabbits cook vegan.

Motherfuckers are making salad every day. Like, I'm a chef. Nature is the chef Chickpeas are used for everything Al came in here It's like the most versatile fucking thing Al two weeks in he realized he's just having different types of hummus Yeah

That's all you've been eating It's like solid hummus, liquid hummus, lumpy hummus Yeah He's the bubblegum with hummus Son Chickba Gump He's the Bubba Gump With hummus Son Chickpeas Amazing thing bro

But you feel good Everything all good It's great to have you back brother We missed you I missed you guys too It's good to be back Guys that's been another episode You know we're back in the game

You know the schedule The schedule goes We're here Next Sunday by the way We're not gonna be doing Obviously it's Easter Take some time off Spend time with the family But yeah we're here You know Mondayay by the way we're not gonna be doing obviously it's easter take some time off spend time with the family um but uh yeah we're here you know monday tuesdays we do flagrant wednesdays we're back in here with this and um thursdays back here with this and

then friday that flagrant patreon episode glad you like in these interviews man we're gonna do more of them we got some interesting people we want to talk to and um if there's any interesting ideas out there that you're curious about make sure you hit us up you know we want to talk to and um if there's any interesting ideas out there that you're curious about make sure you hit us up you know we want to have these conversations with folks and now folks have downtime so we're able to speak to an el chapo's lawyer doc antle from tiger king or all these other folks so we got some interesting stuff getting cooked up man and one more time shout out to paul verzi man go check him out and welcome back alex media there's been another episode of this unnamed show.

We're going to get to a name eventually. Couldn't name it while Al's gone. Son. You know? Come on, son. All right, y'all.

We got to sign out. You know what I'm saying? Peace, love, and yurr!