Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 336 - Jo Koy

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Jo Koy and Tom Papa trade stories about arena comedy, Eddie Murphy's Raw, crowd work and the lifelong pull of stand-up. Jo Koy also discusses the family inspiration behind his Netflix special Blue in the Face and how real conversations become stage material. Jo's special Blue in the Face is out now. His book Mixed Plate is also out now. Our thanks to: Factor! Head to FACTORMEALS.com/papa50off and use code papa50off to get 50 percent off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last until 10/31/2026. Jack Archer! Go to JackArcher.com, and use promo code GETJACK for 15% off your first order, and see why thousands of people have given the Jetsetter Tech pant five stars Monarch! Start a free trial, and get 50% off your first year of Monarch Core Tier with code PAPA at monarch.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I started at a coffee shop in Las Vegas. So I just have like this love for, you know, the coffee shop, the smell of the espresso beans and this weird microphone in the corner. And I don't care if someone's playing acoustic guitar. Yeah. All of a sudden, I'm buying their CD. Right. You know what I mean?

I never play it. Yeah. This guy's great. Yeah, he's a lawyer by day. But he always wanted to play guitar. But for the reason, I bought it because it's just. It's just the environment. It's just that whole, like, I have nowhere else to go, but, man, there's an audience here,

and I love it. And I want to do that. And I would love for you to see it because the seats, I never told anybody this. This is the first time I've ever told anybody this. So this is kind of cool. The seats that people sit in are the arena seats that I sold out. From arena seats. So all the arenas that I played, I took a seat.

You take a seat. I took a seat. You take a seat and now you're putting them in there. And it's in there. That's bonkers. So I got the forum. I got masses for garden. Do you label them? Sofi Stadium. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. They're all labeled. I got Wells Fargo. I got every single arena that I sold out. All right. So when you sit down, you see like Boston Garden. You'll see Wells Fargo. Credential Center. It's breaking bread. Let's talk about this for a minute. Yeah. Because you and I are pals. I haven't seen. a beat. In that time, you were doing, you were kind of starting arenas. I mean, you had done them, but not at this,

with this frequency. When I met you? Last time we saw each other. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you came into the Netflix studio and whatever. And even when I came up to your house to deliver bread,

you were just, I think you had just done like your first one or whatever. But now you were doing these giganto, there's no bigger places with frequency. Like the way that guys go to the comedy store and go to the improv, you're going and doing these giant places. It's nuts.

Explain that to me. Explain the feeling of because you come from these small spots. You pay your dues, you're always going with rocket speed. But what is it like now to be like holy, I'm going to do the garden, and we're going to go to Minneapolis and play their arena.

Like, what is that? I don't know. The SoFi Stadium was crazy. The Sofi was bonkers. That was crazy. That was the first comedian to sell out Sofi. Yeah. Which is how many seats?

Man, I think we got almost 70. I think we got close to. To 70. Yeah. And why? It was crazy. Why do you, when you sell out 70,000 seats? Yeah.

Why aren't you retiring the next day? You know, that's so crazy that you said that. You know, we sold out, like, even before we had three months to spare. God. We were doing, like, press run. Like, we built out this press run to help sell tickets. And we had nothing to talk about. We were not selling tickets.

We didn't need to. It was done. God. It was so crazy. I remember when we first went on sale, Tom, and the whole upper bowl sold out that day. And then, like, the first week we, we did. We sold 30,000 tickets. So we were already at 50% within the first.

30,000 seats. And we allocated 90, we allocated nine months. Yeah. Because we were so nervous. Of course. When we looked at that map, we were so scared. Yeah. I was more scared.

Ploppy wasn't. I was like, this is a crazy map because it was the size of six forums. It was the size of six arenas. Six arenas. Yeah. It's like, it's like, look it at this picture wall. And each section was like a thousand chairs. You're right.

You know, and there was like 70 of those, and you're just like highlighting them. All right, well, this will be our premiere seating. I'm like, can we all sell it for a dollar and just say we're sold out? Yeah, right. What do you mean premium right now? I don't even want to talk like that. Yeah. How are we going to sell this out?

I mean, is that why the 30,000 sold out quickly because that was like the rabbit fans who just want to be in there? Yeah, those were your fan fans who aren't interested in premiums. Yeah, they want to be in the building with you. They want to be with you. Yeah. And you know what I said, too, in the meeting? And I said, it's got to be the most speakers we could ever put in anywhere. Like, we're not using towers.

We're not using, we are putting speakers. That was my, I swear, I wish we recorded the meeting. The meeting was like, I go, I'll do this. But that section better hear me. Right. Because without echo. Without echo. Like, we better have speakers.

speakers in their ears, man. Yeah, yeah. And I'm willing to sacrifice all the money for the speakers. And we did, man. We were the heaviest. You're going to love this, Tom. We were the heaviest concert ever in that stadium. And we're talking like the heaviest amount of speakers.

Wow. We had so many, like thousands and thousands of trucks. We did. It was like Rolling Stones rolled in. Oh, my God. And they even told us we had more than like, like, I'll make up a name. But it was like YouTube. Yeah.

We have more speakers, and I'm not exaggerating. Geez. Because we knew, man, because it's stand up, bro. Like rock, you can get away with it. You stick some towers, like, okay, it echoes, but you know what? We're here. It's a vibe. It's an energy.

Stand up, you need to hear the little word in between the big word. Yeah. And if they don't hear it, we're not, why are we doing this? Yeah, yeah. No, exactly. I know there's, they're having complaints out there of, like, people that go in and it's like echoy. Yeah.

And it's, they don't get the good experience. it's a different. Not ours. People are, like, still talking about it. And you know what's crazy is that halo. You know, the halo in the middle of SoFi. Yeah, yeah. It's two, two, there's an inner halo and an exterior hello.

Each one is 40 grand to turn on. Oh, really? Yeah. So if you want to save 80 grand, you can turn them off. Right. And just count on the big eye mags that I have on stage. Yeah. I was like, well, Fluff also was like,

they're not going to be able to see it, bro. They're a mile away from the stage. Like, even the iMacs are going to look like a small person. Yeah. So we turned both iMacs on. It was the craziest thing. It's great, though. But, I mean, that's the way you want to do it.

I mean, it's, I mean, and you guys were the first ones to even think about doing it in there. Yeah. And you know what's cool about that, Tom, is, uh, L.A. is the hardest market. It's, it's so hard. It's harder than New York. The improv is hard. Yeah, man. It's the hardest to even try and sell a, of, a hard ticket.

You know what I mean? Without 9,000 people asking for comps. You know what I mean? Right. Because I have an agent that knows an agent that represents SoFi Stadium. Yeah. And the thing is, when you do something like at that level, it's like that no one knows, like the fans don't know this, but we rented the building. Right.

SoFi didn't hire us. Right. People don't, people really honestly think, oh, SoFi, how much did they pay you? Motherfucker, they paid us nothing. Yeah. We paid soapy to turn the lights on. Yeah. Yeah.

So I don't think people really understand that, but that's why, like, when you say first, it's not about, like, being first. It's also the first to, like, take on that risk. Yeah. Because that's, when you see how much that price tag was, just to open the lights and and staff it, you would say no, so fast. Yeah. So fast.

That's so many. And to know that you had to sell 70%, just to break even almost. Right. Like you had to sell more than 50% just to break even. I was happy when we sold 30,000 tickets. I'm like, we made it. Yeah, done. They were like, but we need to get paid.

What's cool about it is, just from seeing the clips, I wasn't there, your act doesn't change. Yeah. Your act is your act. Yeah. You're still the same guy. Yeah. Which is so great. I mean, it has to be in some regard, but I could see it getting away from you.

I could see it being, like, what do you feel? Like, a lot of times you'll play a place. And I remember just being in a place with 5,000 people. And it was like, this is starting to get big where I'm not feeling it as much and having as much fun. What do you feel with 70,000? I'm telling you tell him it was electric. Because I think it was more of a moment.

Right. And it was a celebration. It was a celebration for all of us. Right. And, like, won our fans, but two. just like for our culture and just like, we're in here. Yeah. It was crazy.

Yeah. Yeah. So you feel it is like off a joke, say? It was, it was so electric that they were on every word. It was almost like I was at, you know, Jamie Fox came and he went up and did a get, you know, he just sang real quick. Oh, wow. But the first thing he said to me was like, hey, man, that felt like the laugh factory.

Oh, really? Yeah, he watched the whole show. And he was like, that was. that was so intimate. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, one, I think it was just the love for the, from the fans, but two, it was those damn

speakers. Yeah. It was those speakers. Yeah, huge difference. And, oh, and another thing, I didn't tell you this, but I, uh, I was like training, man. I was going to the improv on Mondays, you know what I mean? I was like going to the Irvine Improvine Improv, the Brahe Improv, the Ontario Improv.

I'm just doing one show, one night only. and literally I was telling them, you know, I'm preparing for SOFI. Right. So I'm, you know, yeah, I'm coming quick. So I was cutting out fat. You know, I was just getting to the punches because I knew I had to get to the punches fast. Yeah, yeah. You know, I don't have time for the buildup.

You know, by that time, they're like, I'm going to pee. Yeah. I'm going to go down five stories. No noodling around. Don't give them a minute. Yeah. Don't give them any room. Yeah.

Yeah. None, no wiggle room. I know. Don't give on an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thirsty. Bye.

They're going home. Yeah. Oh, man. So it was nuts, Tom. I wish you would have seen it. It was crazy. I know. I didn't even know.

When was it? March 26th. In March. Yeah. It was crazy. It's so crazy. Yeah, man. So you know, I even knew Netflix special.

Yeah. September 15th. Is it the similar material? Blue in the face. Blue in the face? Today, actually, when this drops. Oh, so let's do it again. It's today.

Do we have to reenact this? No, they got it. New Netflix special. Yeah, man. Today. Today. Yeah. As you don't cut this out.

Is there any way? He doesn't cut any of that out. I love this one because I talk about my stepdad. Oh, yeah. And it meant a lot for me to do that. You know, he came into my life when I needed him the most. Uh-huh. And he was a war veteran.

He had two Purple Hearts. He had two Bronze Stars and a CIB badge. Jeez. He was my hero because I came from a really dysfunctional home with a, you know, a brother that was dealing with mental illness. And he had a history of like, you know, disrupting the house bad to the point where the cops were always there. Some troubles.

A lot of trouble. How old were you? You know, that happened my whole life. So that started when I was eight. And it went all the way until, and then Fred came along. And he was the first guy ever seen, like, beat the shit out of my brother. Like, it was crazy to see it. Wow.

And I was like, how much older is he? My brother's eight years older than me. So. But to see that was just like, whoa. Order. He was my guy. You know what I mean? Right.

Because my mom and dad divorced, rightfully so. I get it. It was so dysfunctional. Uh-huh. And, you know, and it just see. Fred come in and just like become the man of the house. This isn't going to happen. Yeah. It went from me being a snotty nose teenager to seeing him do that. And I was like, yes, sir, doing my bed, sir. Yes, sir. And I'm not

even lying. He was such a like, fix your bed before you go to school. Messy bed is a messy head. He always said that to me. Right. You know what I mean? And messy bed is a messy head. Yeah. It's a great line. Straighten your room up. Straighten your life. You know what I mean? Like, he was about it, man. He was so military.

Yeah, he knew football in and out. He knew sports. You know what I mean? He was a Dodger fan. That's why I'm a Dodger fan. And so it was just fun to, like, when he passed, I was like, man, I got to talk about this guy. Right.

Yeah. It's a good story, too. It's just beautiful. Oh, that's great. So is it thematic? Is it a special pretty much that? Yeah. Well, no, no.

He was the closing bit. And I've been holding the story. on to this story for like, I don't know, five years. I tried it once before and it just didn't fit right. But this one, you know, from start to finish, you know, I always like my stories to have like this book, bookend. Yeah. That's stupid for me to even say that. Like, oh, I don't know how you write your books. You probably put your bookends in the middle. I don't. Right. But I just, What I'm trying to say is like, even if I go off and just talk about something topical, I wanted to merge into a story and flow in and be there for a reason. I don't want to just go left and be like, yeah.

Beer bongs are cool, right? Like, I don't. We can just talk about your son? So, like, yeah, that. And, like, I wanted him to end the, I wanted him to end my special, but. not me just go, by the way, I want to talk about my dad real quick. I didn't want it to, like, flow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a reason why I'm talking about my guy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. It's got to be, like, where do you work that out? That one, that one was kind of easy to work out. I'm not going to lie. Yeah.

That was his, it's so fun to tell that story. Uh-huh. You know what I mean? Because he's from West Virginia. You know what I mean? He's from the mountains. Like, you know what I mean? All I did was just.

tell the stories that he told me. Right. You know what I mean? Stop being such a titty baby. Like he used to always say that. You know, I don't go run to your mama. I know you go, I know you titty baby. You still breastfeeding.

He used to say that shit. I didn't understand it, but that's like mountain talk. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And it was just like, oh, he's calling me a bitch. And he would always say stuff like that. Like, you know, I didn't have, like, I asked him, why did you join the military at 17?

You know what I mean? That doesn't make sense to me. Like a vicious war. that's being televised and you you opted to join at 17 like you weren't drafted you lied and he's like yeah

and his excuse this is a true story he goes we didn't have we didn't have Central plumbing we shit in the snow before like real talk like that you have a shit in the snow before even though how hard my life is

I got uncles dying in the coal mine you think I want to fuck around the coal mine right war war was a better option I'd rather war was a better option motherfucker. Jeez. I'm like, all right.

Yes, sir. Can you go clean my bed? Before we keep talking. I'm having a messy head right now. I'm going to make it again. I'm going to make it again. It's my mom home. I'm hungry.

How long is he in your life? You know, he came in when I was like 15, which was when I really needed him. 14, 15. I needed him, man. I didn't have any like a male figure in my life. You know what I mean? And when he came in,

It was sports. It was basketball. It was throwing the football. It was driving a car. It was, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. He bought me my first sports hat. He bought me a Lakers hat, you know?

Like, I've never been taking shopping like that before with a man. You know what I mean? Look, I love my dad, but, you know, they divorced. Yeah. And he moved to Phoenix. So, like, that was cool. Like, here I am in high school and I got this man, like, get some good shoes, boy. Was it an adjustment?

Was it like... No, man. I was like... You were all in. It was like my mom brought home a new dog from the shelter. I'm like, hey, I think it's hungry. Let's feed him.

What's his name, Fred? I love you, friend. You shoot guns? Wow! Purple Heart! You're a hero? Bro. Just all in.

Yeah. Then my brother kicked the door in one day. He fucking kicked the door in. And we had to call the cops, but before they got there, man. He charged. He charged the hole. towards Fred. Fred fucking picked him up.

Baha! threw him on the ground. He goes, I'm going to let you up, Bubba. But I swear to God, you do that again. We're going to right back here on the motherfucking flow. And I'm just like, in my boxers, just skinny. 10th grade, like, yo, this guy used to beat the shit on me. Hit him again. Hit him again, Fred.

And then Fred let him back up. And then my brother started walking towards the front door. Look, I'm not making fun of my brother. You know what I'm just trying to shine light. Yeah, yeah. Something that was so dark. And Robert, you know, because I love Robert. You know what I mean?

He's got bad mental illness. But anyway, he's walking towards the front door, and he fucking turns around. And bah, he throws one at Fred. Kind of side. He hits him on the side like that. And then Fred just wraps him up and then falls to the ground. Like, he didn't pick him up. He fell.

He grabbed him, and he fell on the ground. He goes, Bubba, I weigh 275 pounds. I will lay on you till the cops come here. So you tell me what the fuck you want to do. Because I can lay all day. You're not going to get me. And Robert's like, motherfucker, come on, man. Fight, man.

My brother's like, he looks like Bruce Lee when he was poor. You know what I mean? Like, he was just so skinny. But he could fight. My brother could fight. He's a street kid. Yeah, he's a street kid. And he was not scared.

Right. I've seen my brother fight five cops. You know what I mean? like that kind of shit. Really? Yeah. And he turned on you at times. You know how they're always trying to handcuff you. They're trying to do it. And, you know, my brother's got his arm spread like this and they're trying to handcuff them. And I just remember the cop hitting him in the back of the head just trying to get him to his arms back. And my brother looked at me. He was like, it's like, they scared. They're scared like that. And I looked at my brother. I was like,

I'm scared. I'm scared, Robert. Just go to jail. Go to jail, Robert. I'm scared. scared. I'm scared, Robert. You're scary. You're scary. You're scary. You're scary all of us. And Fred laid on him. And when he laid on him, I was like, whoa, this is crazy. And then he let him up again. This is the craziest shit. So he let him up again because Robert said, I think Fred didn't want him to get arrested. Like, honestly. Like, just fucking go, man.

Yeah. Like, why are you going to go through this system again? Like, what are you doing? Yeah. So he let him up again, got out the door, and he threw it again. And that's when Fred grabbed his head and he went, Bob, he hit him in the face. It was crazy, bro. And then he wrapped him up again. And now he's just bare hugging him like this. He goes, we can do this all night, Bubba, or you can just get the fuck out of here,

or just wait for the cops. And that's when Robert walked down the steps. And it was just, I remember watching that like, whoa, that's crazy. There's a new sheriff in town. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like 48 hours. Yeah. And his name is friend. You know, that's my guy, man.

Yeah. Oh, your little shoulders must have just relaxed. Oh, man. The tension, man. Yeah. Because I mean, he's in fear of Robert. And he's so intense and strong and whatever. And that must have come at you at times.

Yeah. And you remember, he's a, he's got a purple heart because he got his arm blown off. So Fred would sleep with no shirt on, right? And with no shirt. And his whole shoulder, he had no collarbone or nothing. You know how the military, they just stitched shit up with shoestrings, you know what I mean? And so you could see all like this stretched skin here.

And then his shoulder would just droop like that. So that's how he would just use his muscles to operate his arms. But to see him fight was crazy. Yeah, he could still fight. Yeah. He has bullet holes up here. Like, he was like, it was crazy, man. Yeah.

If you ever saw a picture of Fred, you'd be like, oh, yeah, that's a bad motherfucker. Right. There, you could just in his picture alone. Oh, and knowing that he's on your side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for real. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And when did he pass? He just recently passed. Oh, just recently. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah.

It's all good. Yeah. I get emotional. Of course. Of course. I mean, that's a long run. from 15 to now? Yeah.

So that's great that he got to see your success. Oh, yeah, he got to see it. Yeah. You got to see all that. Oh, that's great. But the Dodger game was so important. What was his view of comedy? When you get someone that serious and from that kind of, right?

Like, what was his view of view in comedy? There's a joke from live from Seattle. That's my first special on Netflix. And there's a joke where I said, my dad is the most indirect racist person I ever met. I wasn't talking about my real dad. I was talking about Fred. Uh-huh. And I go, and I go, he would say shit like, you know why I married your mama, right?

And I go, why, Fred? And he's like, because I love Chinese food. And I'm like, she's Filipino, Fred. And he'd be like, whatever. Rice is rice. And he literally would, he loved saying that. He thought that was the funniest fucking, the most racist, shit you can say to your Asian wife, Rice is Rice.

And her Asian son. I love Chinese food. I love it, man. Like, this is not Chinese food, Brent. Whatever, man. So he had a sense of humor. Oh, yeah, yeah. He loved that.

Could you make him laugh? Oh, yeah. He loved to laugh. Yeah. Yeah, he loved to laugh. And he loved to, like, be serious. Uh-huh. So that there was, it was like, there was no in between.

Right, right. Yeah. Could you make him laugh in the house? Oh, yeah. That was his guy, man. Yeah. He hated when my mom had parties. Uh-huh.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And he would talk shit. He was deaf too because he fucking lost his hearing as well. Right. And so, but not completely. Yeah. Enough to where I'm talking loud.

I don't know I'm talking loud. Yeah. Which we all thought he was doing on purpose. Uh-huh. But he would just say shit like, I don't know why they hear so long. This shit been over an hour ago. Yeah. People there with the dip.

I swear to the guy. And they're like, and they would pretend like they didn't hear him. And my mom's like, he was in the war. He was in the war. Yeah. I mean, the football game ended at nine. It's 10 now. Supposed to be a football party.

Oh, fuck. He was in the war. Just that. He's always grumpy. I wish I was making any of this up. It's great. I love this guy. It was literally, oh, you would have loved him.

Yeah. Those guys were built differently. You built way different, man. And what they went through. When he told me about taking a canary and if the canary dies, you need to hurry to get to the start. I'm like, what are you talking about? Yeah.

He's like, do you even know what black lung is? Yeah. Do you even know what that shit is? I ain't going down that motherfucker. Did he ever go in? All my uncles died. I ain't going down there. He never had to go in.

He was either you go into the coalmire. fight the war. Right. That's how they got it. And the military didn't give a shit. Yeah. They just saw a big giant man. You're right. Go fight these. Yeah. Go fight these Asian people. Of course he's going to say yes. Yeah. You're on our side. Yeah. Another one happy to have him on inside. Yeah. Crazy, man. Jeez. Did, uh, would he come out and see you perform? Yeah. He came out a couple times. But, you know, you started getting sick, you know. And, uh, and that's, That's where I wanted to talk about that. Yeah.

It was so, that's a very special moment that I, I hold dearly, is being able to take him to a Dodger game for the first time. Yeah. He'd never even been inside Dodger Stadium. Whoa. And we went to one of the greatest playoff games ever. Oh, geez. That's so great.

It was great to just be able to, you know, I'm at the point in my career now where I can pay him. I mean, I can buy him the best seats. Yeah. You know what I mean? We're four rows from the dugout. You know what I mean? Like I spared no expense. I can give a shit how much it was.

Yeah, of course. And just to see him, you know, with his little oxygen and his Dodger hat, you know, on the military. This is beautiful. What the fuck do you see? It's just your brim, Fred. Yeah, it's exactly what I thought it looked like. Your hat? And, yeah.

Oh, that's beautiful. That's a woman ever, bro. That's great. Yeah. Well, it's obvious that, uh... You know, he bet me $100 that, uh, Kurt Gibson. This is a fucking crazy... Am I cursing too much?

No, you're gonna... This is a crazy story tongue, because I know Tom doesn't curse. And I come in here and throw six fucks in two minutes. You do in a very adorable way. Yeah. But he, he, uh, this is a crazy story, Tom. Uh, because, you know, he's a Dodger fan. And remember the Kurt Gibson, Homer when he came in injured?

Injured, yeah. He bet me $100 that he was going to hit that. Really? It was insane. When he hobbled up to the plate? Yeah. He goes, put your money where your mouth is. Dodge is going to win.

Kurt Gissing going to knock that ball out. Put your money in. Really? I go 10 bucks. 10? You want me to bet you 10? Make it 100. Put that money in your mouth.

Nobody thought that guy. He was just talking shit. Yeah. That was Fred. He was hoping. And when he hit. And I swear, and that's funny who said that because when he hit it, even pro was like, he hit that shit. He really hit that shit.

And one of my favorite moments was, I think it was his, I don't know, like his, I'll make up a number. Like his 60th birthday, whatever it was, whatever birthday it was. It was a big birthday, a big celebration. And we rented out this hall, my mom did. And he used to always tell me, you know that $100 compounded. interest. It's like damn near $2,000 now. It's damn near $2,000 now, brother.

So I just want you to know. You can keep pretending that I didn't bet you $100, but I'm keeping count, God damn. It's damn near $2,000. And on his birthday, I gave him a check for like $4,000. Oh, really? Yeah. I go, this is for that Dodger, man. He fucking cashed it.

I remember he grabbed that shit. You goddamn right. You damn right. Inflation's a motherfucker. Beautiful. Yeah. You come home. You've worked really hard.

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just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with the code Papa, P-A-P-A. Well, you could tell it's rubbed off with you and your son. Oh, yeah, yeah. You could tell just that you could tell just from looking at your son, like when you post your son, yeah, that this is a healthy, happy kid. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. And you take him on tour and you get to do all the stuff with him. And you could tell that that relationship that you're describing is paying off dividends with this. Yo, totally, Tom. Thanks for saying that. Yeah, you can tell. so much because I was so depressed. You know I wrote a book? I see a book

behind you. I want to give you mine because I wrote about... This is all your friends. Yeah, I know. I see that. This is all your friends up here. Phil Rosenthal and Judd. I would love to put that up there. Yeah. And there was a... What was the book?

Well, the book is called Mix Plate. You know, and I talk about being a mixed kid during such a rough time. You know, I was born in 71, so... Yeah. You know, I'm being raised by people that were allowed to say the end word back in the day. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And only five years ago. And nobody blinked. Yeah. And, you know, I got this dad, a white dad that's marrying an Asian woman. Like, that's kind of crazy. You know what I mean? Like, which is dope because my mom had kids.

Yeah. You know, he married a woman with two kids and he adopted him. He adopted Robert and he adopted Rowena. And then he adopted another sister, Gemma, you know. So like my hat, like, I love my dad. Yeah. So much. It's just there.

were some things that were going on within his family and mine. And, you know, there was things with my brother that, you know, that was rough for my dad to deal with. And I always tell my dad this, I get it, man. I probably would have done the same thing. I probably would have divorced and walked off and went somewhere else. Can I ask you a gossipy question? Yeah. What was with you and Chelsea? Nothing. We, you know. And when I say what was with it, I literally don't, like, I know Chelsea, I know you, and I know you worked on the show and all that kind of stuff. But I never, but I never saw it as a romantic thing, like when it became like that you guys were together. Yeah, I was kind of cool.

I was like, is this a bit or are they really in love? No, we were in love, man. You were? Yeah, I mean, come on, man. Like, she's, by the way, she's so funny. Oh, my God. She's so funny, man. And, um, you're both too much for any relationship.

Yeah. Really. And what's crazy is I knew her before, I knew her before the show. Uh-huh. People don't know that. I didn't know that. And, uh, we met through John Lovitz. Oh, really?

Mm-hmm. And you know what's crazy to, to John's credit? I, honestly, I love saying John discovered Chelsea. Don't get me wrong. She was already, you know, people were already talking about her. Her book was hot. Everyone, you know, everyone in industry loved Chelsea. You know what I mean?

And, but man, I just remember I was opening for John and he's like, have you ever heard of Chelsea Handler? I go, no. Oh, she's hysterical. I saw her the other night. I asked her to do our show. She'll be here tonight. I go, who?

Chelsea? Yes. She's going to go up right after you. And literally Chelsea walks in and I emcee the show. And then I brought up Chelsea. Yeah. And Chelsea, you know, I think we did it a couple of times with John. Like, by the way, Chelsea was on like, her explosion was massive.

Yeah. You know what I mean? It went from I'm doing a show with Chelsea on with John to like, hey, everybody, watch me on eat. Like, it was so big. In her own show. Yeah. And it was amazing. It was fast.

Yeah, it was so fast and dope. It was so cool. But, uh, I remember. when we got off stage and we were watching John perform, and I kept doing the John impersonation. And she was just crying, laughing. And she was making fun of John, and we were just crying laughing.

And then that's when she was like, I got this show idea that we're getting ready to do. Yeah. And then that's when, that was pretty much the inception of her. Yeah. Were you always flirty? No. No.

No, I was just, she's just funny. I know. Like, anyone will tell you, like, you know, like, you know, I know what's going on right now with all the other, but like, man, Chelsea is, she's, she's, she's quick, she's fun, she's great, she's, yeah, she's strong, you know what I mean. She thinks about shit. She doesn't, she doesn't just throw stuff to throw it. All those books you have behind you, she'll read that and that, those books, she'll read those in like one day. Yeah. And I'm not joking. Like, her books have to be the size of Bible. Right. And I'm not joking. We'll go to Barnes and Noble. I remember

going to like Barnes and Noble. She'll just like get the bat. I've never seen anyone grab a basket at Barnes & Old. Like we're not at Air One. You know what I mean? Like this is a bookstore. You grab one and he get the fuck out of here. Like that's going to take you nine years to read.

Right. And then you're going to opt for the movie and not remember that you read it. Yeah. She literally will grab a thing and stack. She'll walk out with six books. And not like how to make a basket. Like the art of. of World War I.

And why it happened. Documents and afford by. No, she's brilliant. Yeah. And like literally, she just, she, she's a walking the source. She's, why was she with you? Exactly. You know, it was cool.

It was just a, it was a cool reunion. Because when I wrote my book, I reached out to her and asked her to, you know, just write a little blip for it. Yeah. And then from that, it went to like, let's, let's grab lunch and like it was like old times. Yeah, yeah. Like I was making her laugh and it was just cool.

Like, you know what I mean? It was just a fun time, man. It was just, you know, unfortunately we just, you know, any relationship, like, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. There's no, there's nothing bad. Yeah. Nothing bad to say.

She's just, we just couldn't be a couple. Yeah. That's all that is. And she's amazing. Yeah. It was just, I don't know why it always struck me as funny because you just so your own thing. Yeah.

And it was like, yeah, I can see you being friends more than lovers. Yeah, we were definitely the opposite's attract type thing. Well, don't sell yourself short. You're very smart also. Aw. You are. I mean, you don't get to what you're doing. Yeah.

Just kind of dope-de-doping. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So fly, how'd this happen? Yeah, no, yeah, exactly. Like, I... No, you're always been very smart and very... Yeah. No, what I'm saying is that, you know, we're, like you said, it's two different, it's like a prize fight, you know what I mean?

Right. There's two different styles in the ring. Right, right, right, right. That's what it is. Yeah. All it was was two different styles. Yeah, yeah. But we both loved on humor.

Right. And we both loved to laugh. Yeah. If you can make Chelsea laugh, it's fun to watch. Right. It really is fun to watch. Yeah. Because she does not hold back.

And when you don't make her laugh, it's hard to watch. Because she will not laugh. And make you feel a certain way. Yeah, that would be the, that would be the, uh, the most disconcerting, disconcerting thing is when things are starting, they're like, well, maybe this isn't going to work out. Yeah. You don't want, you don't want to be on the end of Chelsea being mean. Mean.

She's mean when she's nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's exactly. You walk away going, thank you. Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh, man.

So now you're going to, you're going to, uh, continue touring in this big way? Tom, like, I don't, I don't, uh, I had a dream when I saw Eddie Murphy doing delirious, right? I had a dream when I saw when I listened to Richard Pryor's tapes. But when Eddie Murphy came out with that red leather suit. Yeah. And I knew exactly what, what stand it was at that point. Because all I knew was, oh, okay, there's a guy in a bar on this tape right now talking,

And it's making me laugh. And I love these stories that he's telling to seeing this really cool dude in a red leather outfit. And he's only 22 years old. And he's rocking the shit out of this stage right now. The impact of that was so gigantic. It was life-changing. And anyone would be lying if they didn't say that that special wasn't life-changing.

Every kid was doing those jokes that whole summer. Everybody was doing those jokes. Everyone was just doing bits. It was unreal. It was insane. Insane. I knew the whole thing. I remember I would wake up.

Because, you know, I bootlegged it. I put a piece of tape over my, the hole in the VHS. You know what I mean? And I put in the recording. And I recorded it. So I was literally watching it before school, after school, before I went to bed. I couldn't get enough to like, what do you want for Christmas? Can I get a red leather outfit?

Like, all of that. I'm not joking. And then he went on tour with Raw. all. And this is back in the day when Ticketmaster was a kiosk. So it wasn't a big conglomerate or whatever it is now. It was just a kiosk at a department store. And you had to go upstairs and human resources.

And oh, there's Ticketmaster. It's in the corner. They have a weird idea about selling tickets. Aren't they dumb? Oh, well, they're in the corner by the bathrooms. And it would be a book of maps. Yep. And each map had a title, right?

like Bruce Springsteing, Prince, blah, blah, blah. And you had to flip through that. And then it would say, Eddie Murphy, raw. And then, but anyway, that's where you pick up your tickets. Yeah. I bought my tickets on the phone because I was 16. And I used my mom's credit card. And back then, the security system for credit cards is, sounds like you.

Yeah, right. You said all the numbers. Yeah. What's your name again? Josephine. Yep. That's you. I can tell about that accent.

that's a Filipino woman. It's a 15-year-old boy. And I bought those tickets. It was like 15 Rose Dead Center. Uh-huh. And it's such a funny story because my mom had to drive into Seattle. And the whole joke that I always talk about is, I thought we're going through a movie.

Like, why didn't you get a theater near the house? Why are we going to Seattle? And then when she dropped me up, this is a concert. And so she had to drive around for two and a half hours. for you. Yeah, and she was going to meet me at this telephone pole. There's no cell phone.

No. When you get out, stand by this telephone pole and just drove up, I cannot believe you. I kept driving around for two and a half hours. But if you can imagine, Tom, because I know you're a comedy head too,

imagine this time, 1988, 87, I think it was, and I'm 16, right? Sitting in the Seattle Coliseum, And this black guy comes out opening for Eddie and he's got a pink fedora and like matching pink shoes and he's sitting on the stool and just ripping white people to shreds.

Young motherfucker is a shit. And it was Paul Mooney. Paul Mooney, yeah. And I was just like, imagine. There's no internet. Yeah. And black comics did not get any love on TV. They're not on the, Paul Mooney is not on the tonight.

night show. Right. Exactly. You know what I mean? And I'm witnessing Paul in his prime. And I'm just like, geez, Louise. And I'm looking at white people laugh at it. Like, but it's about you. You're the devil. I'm literally in my mind just exploded. Yeah. And then, uh, and you know the, do you ever watch Raw? Yeah. Remember the part where he's standing behind the red? Sure. Right? That's how he walks out. Yeah. Well, there was three of those on stage. And they were playing all his hits. Oh, really? Yeah, and it would be like, you know, it would be Gumby.

And then it'll be James Brown. Then it's trading places. And then it's better. I don't think, oh, yeah, baby Beverly Hills Cop. And it's just, and it's just this montage. And they kept going faster and faster and faster and faster. And then boom, it was red. Whoa.

And he's standing behind it. Bro, I think I shit myself. I never seen anything like that. I was like, whoa! Just shit. I looked at my friend like, yo. What is going on? This is crazy.

He did all that hamburger. Yeah. Mama's hamburger. He did all those jokes about his wife going to Jamaica and the black dick hanging over. I was like, this guy's amazing. It was the greatest day in my life, man. Greatest day. And knowing that I'm in trouble because my mom's driving around waiting for me at the telephone pole.

And I'm in there not giving. two shit it's about my mom. So you got just completely imprinted that this is what comedy is. It's a rock show. It's not sitting in a small club in Manhattan or whatever. This is. This is it. This is what it is.

I remember looking up before they turned the lights down and just like seeing everyone in their seats. And I'm like, it was the same amount of people that were at the Sonics game. Right. Because that's where the Sonics play. And I was just like, what though? This is not. Yeah.

This man's what? Yeah. It was that. Jeez. And you know what's crazy is 30 years later, I sold that arena. Really? And I sat in the seats because we built the same way. And I sat my son next to me.

This is where I sat when I was watching anywhere. He was right there. He was right there. That's so cool. And you're up on stage in that spot. Yeah. I should have gone to those shows. I always thought it was enough just to be in a place with 200 people.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Really? It is like what you see is what happens. Yeah, it was nuts, Tom. Yeah. I remember seeing George Connell for the first time at Bally's Hotel. You saw him?

I was 18. Wow. I was 18 years. I think I was 17. And I remember my dad, my dad, oh, I was younger. I was younger because my dad, yeah, my real dad took me to it. Oh, wow. So maybe 16, 17.

I don't know, maybe 17. Yeah, yeah. Long a story short, my dad had. had like, he thought he was so cool because he had five tens. He had five tens. Uh-huh. Right? Because this is a showroom. It's, it's a Vegas showroom. Right. Old Vegas. Like 89. Uh-huh. So 17-18. So my dad took me and he had four tens on him. And, you know, the tickets that we got were last row in the back. It was a back booth, right? At the, I think it was called, it's like a showroom. I think it was called MGM at the time. Yeah, yeah. I think it was MGM,

not Bally's. Uh-huh. So this is, that's how old. That's how old. old this is. Yeah. Not the new MGM that's green. No, I know what you mean. Yeah. I just watched Nick Cage in a honeymoon in Vegas. Yes. Man, just to see how much Vegas has changed the dunes. Yep. And I was there. Showboat. I was there. I was there living there in 89. Yeah. Yeah. And my dad, he had four tens on him. And the Mater D, he goes, oh, see, all right. And here's your seats here. And we're way in the back, right? And my dad goes, he pulled out one 10. He goes, Is there anything? he was a mobbaw?

You know, oh yeah, yeah. He moved us like three rows, four. How about this? It's a table, but it's closer. My dad's like, you know. And the funny thing is, I know the Mator D saw the rest of the tens. So we're going to inch you forward. Yeah.

But we really did get damn here like halfway to see George. Wow. And it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Really? I would love to have seen him. And there was a heckler? Oh. And he went on a rant on this heckler.

Yeah. That was my first time I've ever seen a heckler. Yeah. I didn't know what that, I didn't know what a heckler was. Right. The fuck was a heckler. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And he ripped him. It's so great. Just fucking ripped him. And he was all, you know, in his all black. Yeah. You know what I mean? And the guy just said, you know, because, you know, it was probably like something political. Right.

And some guy had a. opinion and then and then boom george just went went off so great but it was just like this beautiful it was almost like if heckler shows up right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah completely packed you do a good job of that even though you're in these giant places yeah you'll still talk to the audience yeah in these giganto I love it do they put a camera on them I have my camera set up so they'll see them on the on the on the screens or whatever? Or do you not need them to be seen? No, I don't need them to be seen.

Yeah, yeah. You don't need any shine. Yeah. But I do it in a tasteful way. I just, you know, I... No, it's always fun. It keeps my, my knives sharp. Yeah.

That's all. Yeah. Yeah. And my whole thing is like, I'm starting to hit these cities for the fifth time. Right. And I'm starting to get, like, massive regulars to where it's like, I'm starting to recognize them. Yeah.

And it's starting to go, like, rose deep. Oh, wow. It's not just like three people here, two people. It's like, now it's like sections. Yeah. You know what I mean? I was in one city and it was like in Virginia. And it was literally like the first four or five rows were just regulars.

And they're all talking to each other. Right. They're all in the meet and greet. They're all wearing old merch. So it's like, I have to. Yeah. I have to. I got to give us something.

Where are you working out new stuff? On stage. Where on these big shows? Always. Just always. Yeah. You don't go. the clubs and mess around with that. I did it with Sofi. I'll do it. Don't get me wrong. Like,

you'll see me do a pop-up. Yeah. Like, I'll just call the improv and like Brea. And I'm like, hey, let's turn the lights on. Yeah. And then we'll all do it on that day. Right, right. So that I'll work out that way. And they know I'm working out. Yeah, yeah. But for the most part, it's like on stage. Just go with the, yeah. You just, are you, uh, just confident that they'll go with you and work it out? Do they know you're working it out? Well, like, you know, I think you do it too, Tom. Don't you sneak it? You sneak them in. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll just sneak them in. Yeah. If I know it's not happening, I'm like, all right. Right. Another day. And they have no idea what you just did. Yeah. But I love, like, telling stories. Like, that's always been my thing.

So it's like, even just like me telling you a couple of these stories, like, already my head is like, get on stage with it. Like, I'm already thinking about it. Yeah, yeah. And that always happens. Like, I'll be at dinner and I'll tell a story and see how they react. I'm like, oh, all right, oh. Right.

We don't need dinner to tell it. We just need more people in the audience. And I'll just, I'll try that. Yeah. But there's a couple that I did right here today. I'm like, ooh. Right. Yeah.

I'm going to go try it. I know. You do speak in fleshed out bits. Yeah. It's weird, ah. I was talking to my son about that. My son's like, dad, you talk with tags and callbacks. How do you have a callback already?

It's crazy. Yeah, because we have crazy brains. But, I mean, I didn't have the internet. All I had was stand-up. I was addicted, Tom. Yeah. I was addicted. It's kind of like when you watched Weird Al's movie where he just watched music videos all day.

Yeah. And, you know, he's just doing, you know what I mean? That's how it was with Stan. I was in love with anyone that got on stage. I would go to comedy clubs and just watch them and just absorb it. Yeah. Like, I love storytellers. You know what I mean?

I love Louis Anderson when he talked about his brother. Yeah. And his mom, like, I could just watch it all day. Like, ah, I loved Dennis Wolfberg. Yeah. When he talked about the students, I loved Richard Jenny when he talked about dating. Like, I could consume it all. I know.

I couldn't stop. I loved Whoopie. I love Whoopie and her characters. her one-man show. I'm like, oh, my God. She just put a fucking shirt on her head. Now she's blonde.

What the fuck is going on? She put a Rastafarian knitted cap on. And now she's Fonte. Like, that was brilliance to me, bro. Yeah, yeah. That world was like, like,

like. It's amazing the impact that it still has, right? Hell yeah. It's people really, really, like you're doing that for those rows of people that are coming with frequency. Yeah.

because you're doing the same thing to them. They just can't believe you're going into this stuff. It's a powerful medium. The storytelling thing is never going to die. No. It's my favorite. It's wild. And don't get me wrong, I'll do the jokes.

But man, I love to tell a story, bro. No, but you have the combo. Yeah. You have a lot of jokes packed in stories. And I love it. I just love it. I love being able to tell my truth, too. Like, you know, like talking about my brother.

Because it's like, it's also therapy for me. You know what I mean? Because for years, I would never tell anybody. Like you got siblings? Yeah, I got two sisters. Right. Never say Robert. Oh, really?

Yeah, because I knew it was a, it was a conversation. Right. Well, where is he? Where's he live now? Like, yeah. In a group home. You know what I mean? In Vancouver, Washington.

Like, I don't want to. Right. I don't want to go there. Yeah. Now I want to go there. Yeah. I want to. Like, it makes me feel good.

And my brother was great. Is that just time? Is that just time in growing up? Yeah. I needed to mature. I also have to, like, I also don't want to, just like when I told that story about my brother, like I also want to make sure everyone knows that I love him, you know what I mean? And he's, he struggles from mental illness.

And he's, he's completely aware. Like, when he watches stuff, he absorbs it too. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? It's just he'll go off into another direction. But there's these windows where he's absorbing it. And I want to be careful with that. No, I mean, just the way you were talking about it today.

Yeah. There's obviously a love there. There's like, yeah. But a very, you know, there was a, it's a, those are situations that, you know, an eight year old can't definitely deal with and even the grownups can't. You know, it's a, it's a different level that thing. Yeah. And, but anyway, the way that you deliver it is it's, you're not, you're not getting laughs off that part of it. Yeah, exactly. And that's always been my, my, my thing. Like, I don't, I'm not making fun of my mom. Right. I mean, like, if you listen to the story of my mom, that's a bad ass bitch. And she was a badass bitch. You know what I mean?

Like, listen to it. Right. Of course there's an accent because she's Filipino. Right. You know what I mean? Do you get pushback for that? Do you ever say, does anyone say that to Jeff Fox or are they, hey, when you talk about your wife, can you lead?

Hold up on that accent. Do they ask you to? Do you feel? Oh my God. There's a network that did it. What? Yeah, man. I don't want to say anything.

What? Told you not to do your own? accent. Yeah, drop it. What? Yeah. If you don't mind, can you not do the accent? That's white people not knowing. You can still talk about your mom, but just can you not do that? I'm like, but that's my mom. You want me to do an impersonation of what? My mom, my joke, my, my, my mom being played by yeah, Judith Light from who's the boss? Is that so funny that you end up, you end up being, those people end up being more racist than what they think they're cleaning up. But what is that? You know what I think it's so inherently...

It's... It's like... It's like we grow up in a time, like, especially me. Like, imagine being raised by an Asian mom that's divorced. And I'm watching cartoons with my friends. And there's an Asian cartoon that's buck teeth holding a bucket of water on its back.

And they're laughing. And now I'm being programmed to laugh at myself. Because it's just a cartoon. Right. And my mom's got to sit there and be like, take it. And I say anything. because you're not allowed to say anything. You know what I mean?

And everything on TV is just a horrible representation of her. And then the one moment that I give the best representation of my mom because it's a perfect accent. And you understand everything she's saying. There's nothing different from a cabal accent or my mom talking like this. Yeah. What's the difference? Or Jeff Foxer, you're going, well, this is the difference?

Yeah. What's the difference? No, just accuracy. What is the difference? Yeah. So why is this a thing when I have to say? to talk about my mom. Why? Why? I don't understand it. It's so like, it's they're confused. It's so like, oh, like indirectly racist and it's like this colonized thinking. It's like

it's like, it's just weird. It's just this weird thing that I have to, because if you listen to this story, I do this one story about I'm messing up the shoes. Like I did it on live from Seattle. I'm messing up the shoes at Kenny Shoe Store, which I was. I was fucking around at Kenny's shoe store and the guy yelled at me, right? And then my mom saw him yell at me and she goes, don't talk to my son like that. Who are you to talk to my son like that? Right? Just tell him to leave.

Don't talk to him like that. And he goes, oh, don't talk to your son like that. And my mom goes, wow, you're making fun in my accent. I live in your country. I speak two languages. Tagalog and English. You live here. How many do you speak?

One? You're stupid. Bro. And that, as a kid, seeing your mom talk like that to somebody in a, in a, in our world where it's like racism is heavy and allowed. Like, yo, she's a badass. Yeah. So if you watch that joke, it's not making fun of.

It's showing what she had to go through. It's funny because, yeah, boom, there's a dig. But understand the layers that she's going through right now. Oh, absolutely. It's when people that aren't that group try and speak for that group to think, because they think they're protecting that group. And that's actually the ickyest version there is. It is icky.

I love that word. And I love it when you say it. Right. Because I always hear you say it. And I love it when you say it. It's such a... You should make a shirt that says, that's icky. That's icky.

You're being icky. And it's gross. Yes, there is a talk show that did that. That saw the set and said, if you don't mind, you can do the joke about your mom, but can you lose the accent? And there's another comic that they did that too. But I'm not going to say names. I'm not going to say which talk show.

But you can pick one out of the three. And only one does stand-up. And the other two don't have stand-ups on. Oh, man. Yeah, that's weird. So it goes from Chinese, every Asian, not just Chinese, every Asian being depicted in a cartoon. Yeah.

And us having to. grow up and being programmed by that indirectly to laugh at ourselves, right? To finally being able to represent my mom the way she deserves to be represented. It took that long. Right. So, yeah, I'm always going to have at least one story about my mom and my special. Oh, it's so fantastic. And you know what I love the most, Tom, is if you look at my DMs, right? Yeah. And you see people go, a black woman going, my mom used to do that. I did this one joke about my mom putting Vicks on me. We didn't have health insurance. She just cured everything with Vicks. And did it like the worst way. I have pneumonia. And she would be like, I can't sleep, mom. She's like,

oh, okay. And then put Vicks on top of my eyelids. Right? And they would burn so bad that I couldn't open my eyes. I'm like, I can't open my eyes. It burns. She's like, well, then you can sleep. Like, that's abuse. You're not even healing me right this way. But I did that joke and then I'm getting DMs from black women, Latino dudes, white kids. Every ethnicity is talking about the same abuse that their mom put them through with Vicks. It's so great. So it has nothing to do with ethnicity. I know.

It's just a mom being a mom. It's like we're putting ourselves in boxes for some stupid reason. I don't know what it is. I don't get it, bro. Complaints and responses to advertisers or something. I remember Tosh talking about. that with his show. You know, because Daniel just, you know, he goes after everybody. And he said, the only complaints he would get would be from someone going, some, some ethnicity saying,

why are you making fun of us? You're making fun of the Mexicans and you're making fun of the black people. What about Puerto Ricans? What did we do? What did we do wrong? Through us under the bus. Yeah. Because it's fun. It's an expression of love and it's, you know, Yeah. But it gets thrown into different interpretations. Yeah. You know, but if yeah. It needs to stop, Tom.

I mean, when you think of us when we were kids and that, uh, uh, uh, when 16 candles came out. Bro. Long duck dong, remember that guy's name was. Imagine the director. Holy cow. Just imagine how racist the director was off camera.

Hey man, you need to be more Chinese. Like dingong, gong, gong, gong ching chung. In 1986. Bro. How about Chevy Chase in a vacation? When the car, when he needs to pull over a gas. Right. And he pulls into the black neighborhood. Oh, right. And he's asked for directions. Oh, yeah, man. See, you need to go this way. And they're taking all his tires. Right. Wow. All right, man. Have a good day, brother. And then he drives all his cars on stilts.

That was almost 1990. Yeah. That was yesterday. That was yesterday. That was yesterday. Yesterday. Brough. Come on. And those are the things that I had to like, as a kid that's trying to figure out his identity, those are what I'm looking at. But, you know, and the other side of it is that correction needed to be made. It needed to be made.

And they made it to such a degree that they're telling you not to do the accent. And what's crazy is when I started stand-up, I was doing exactly what they wanted because I'm like, oh, okay, so I have to make fun of myself. Like the cartoon. Oh, I got to do that. All right, so let me do that. And so my earlier shit was that. Right.

You know what I mean? And then it was like, wait a minute. I don't like doing that anymore. Yeah. I don't want people to look at me like that anymore. So I want to talk about being Filipino something I'm proud of, but I don't want to say I'm Filipino. Let me talk about my mom. So I was doing these stories.

And it was at that point, that's when they were like, oh, you're being too specific. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're not going to get it in Ohio. And meanwhile... I sold out an arena in Ohio. Meanwhile, exactly. I don't know what you're talking about because there are no Filipinos in Ohio. It was sold out with white people. Because as their complaining is increasing, your audience is increasing, right? And that all just comes from being truthful. Yeah. Just being truthful and honest. Yeah, man. And people respond. Yeah. It's powerful. It is. I love comedy, Tom. And it ultimately wins. It does. I love comedy, man. It is the best. It is the best. It is the best. We're, you know, it's, thank God for the internet. It's a, it's a good and it's a bad. But one thing I do love about the good is we don't longer have to trust some old dude or old person saying, the algorithm says that we do. We do. did a poll of 100 white people and they said, Filipina?

So we're going to pass. Which was their algorithm to me was just an excuse for, I'm racist. You can't pass. There's no passing. There's no passing because you're not in charge is ultimately where we're at now. And now with the internet, it's like, oh, we get it. And not only do we get it, can you sell out this arena in Australia real quick before you go to Singapore and then to London? Jeez, Louise.

So great. Whereas 20 years ago, they were not having that. I still want you to be in charge of my social media. I always give you dimes. Tell them. I want you to say. It's true. I tell you, I give you dimes all the time.

Like, Tom, you got to do this and you got to do this. And Tom's like, oh, that's icky. I'm like, I got to get a guy. I got to get a guy. And then they're going to get another guy. I just want to bake bread. I just want to tell my jokes. Yeah, yeah.

No, you haven't, you've always given me good advice on that stuff. Yeah. And I'm more open to it now. Yeah. Are you going to start this bread company? Are you going to like get like a like a brick and mortar? Yeah, I don't know. I was thinking of doing a pop-up here.

You should get a brick and mortar. Mm-hmm. And the reason why I say this. is because I honestly believe people want to go back outside. Oh, yeah. And if you go down Ventura, you're seeing it. I know. You're seeing people walk.

You're right. They're done. The Uber eats. I never understood Uber eats. I know. The convenience of what? I know. Cold food being delivered from cheese cake factory.

Shitty food in a box. With a $15 fee from a dude that clearly picks his nose. I'm not, clearly digs. Yeah, I know. And that's what you traded in the luxury of going out and having someone to serve you and make you feel special just for a night. I talk about this all the time. Do you really? They said when after COVID, they said it's going to take 10 years for us to come back.

Wow. 10 years. And I was like, there's no way. We're going to be back in the malls. We're going to be back in the movies. Here we are at 7. Seven. And it's just starting to feel like we're almost.

And we're still not there. Yeah. But they were right, 10 years. They tried to stop it at 7 too with this diarrhea virus. They're trying to. Oh, they're like eating again. Put diarrhea on the lettuce. That'll get them back inside.

Yeah. I'm feeling icky. No. The cookies are going to be the first thing we're going to send to the people. I want this. And the brick and mortar would be the bread. You can't really ship bread. But you should do a whole thing with like, you know, your pod and the bread.

That's what I'm doing. That's what you're doing right now. No, no, like your own standalone. Oh, like a, we could do the pod from the space. Yeah. See, you are smart. With live audience. Chelsea was right.

With a live audience. Yeah. I'm not joking, bro. We're going to pod between four and five. Yeah. They will show up. They will show up. And they'll all by a low.

You can't watch this pot. How's the real estate? bottle unless you buy a goddamn loaf. We got 46 loess. We're not starting this fucking pot. Yeah, you're right. That would be a good thing to mush them together. I love this red booth.

I know, it's great. There was this restaurant in Vegas. It was an Italian restaurant. And we knew the owner. And they always talked about the booth in the kitchen. Oh, yeah? And I finally got to sit in that booth in the kitchen. Oh, really?

It's so dope. Oh, you mean they had like their own? That was just off the floor. It was a booth like this. And it was in the kitchen. And you got to see him cook and then he brought it to your table. And only the special people. It was cool.

Oh, that's really cool. It's hot as fuck in there. But we didn't care. And it was so fun to watch him like cook and talk to us and handle all the other orders. That's great. Cool. That's really great. That's how I feel about this.

All right. All right. We'll do it. Fine. We'll do it. And then in two years it's going to be like, I told you you should have done it. now Sebastian has a place when he's doing

Well congratulations on the special It's out today Which is fantastic Thank you Another great little love letter For your fans Thank you For all of us

And I include myself as one of them I love you too I love you too You're a beast You should walk out on my stage one day That would be fun I've been asking you for years But you always want me to go to

Like Tucson or someplace Sorry, I didn't offer Hawaii. No, like places that are hard to get to. Like, I would, I could have done, I could have done, do another sofa. Is this mine? Yes, that's yours. We have a bag for you. I think I spit on it like 15 times.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's going home. Can I cut a piece right now? If you want to, yeah. How about this? This is my new, these are mine. You're selling that too? I've designed all these. these,

this. Tom! Yeah, see I do things. Tom, this is crazy. Right? I know. Tom, can you put all five fingers on my bread? I'm going to be Martha Stewart. This is amazing.

Yeah, you got to hold it down. No, it's, um, yo, all of this stuff. It's me and this company called Nambay. Tom. There you go. This is a fresh loaf. It is a fresh loaf.

I can tell. I didn't bake it. Did you buy this? I bought that. I was busy. This is Lodge Bread, though. I know you're one of my fans of my bread, but I just didn't have, I couldn't do it.

Yeah, time. So when I, when I, I get from Lodge Bread when I, Who makes this? What is it called? Lodge Bread. Lodge bread. This is good. Yeah, no, it's, it's legit.

This is prime. It's, it's a little better than mine. These guys are no joke. Absolutely. Yeah. No, but that's yours. You'll take that home. I love you.

Thank you for doing this. I love you too. That was amazing. And we'll do it again. Thanks, news.