Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 68 - Atsuko Okatsuka

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

Tom welcomes Atsuko Okatsuka and gives her a glorious bread. Rachel Feinstein surprises Tom with a Quick Bite.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey, it's how we go. Hey, it's time for Breaking Bread with Papa. Hey, don't you know? Hey, it's also a show. Hey. Welcome back, everybody, to Breaking Bread with Tom Papa. I'm Tom Papa. Thank you so much for joining us at the table once again.

We have a great show for you today. We have Atsuko Okatsuka. She is an amazing comedian. She's super funny. Make sure you check her out on Instagram. She does this hilarious thing with her grandmother, which is, I think, one of the funniest things on Instagram. She's really, really great. And we have a great conversation with her today.

And we also have a quick bite with my good friend, Rachel Feinstein, who is a hilarious comedian out of New York City. She's been on the show before. We're going to check in with her and see what's happening in New York City and how life is with her new baby and living with a fireman. So a quick bite with Rachel. We'd like to thank the good people at TalkSpace for showing up today and sponsoring our good program. If you're feeling overwhelmed lately, you're not alone. Start feeling better with a single message. TalkSpace online therapy matches you with a licensed therapist from the comfort of your device.

It's a great thing. To be able to just connect with somebody who will actually listen to you and give you some assistance and just help you make sense of your feelings. I mean, welcome to the new world. Get $100 off your first month with the code Papa, P-A-P-A-P-A at talkspace.com. That's talkspace.com and get $100 off your first month with the code Papa, P-A-P-A. I also like to thank our good friends at Wild Alaskan Company. We love Wild Alaskan, and you're going to love them too.

They send big box of frozen seafood right to your house. keep it in the freezer, you pull it out at meal time, you make a quick, healthy meal that comes from wild caught seafood from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Love this company. You're going to love them too. You have a lot of choices when it comes to what you eat, but it matters where your food comes from. Right now, you can get $15 off your first box of premium seafood when you visit wildalaskan company.com slash papa. That's wild alaskan company.com slash poppa. That's wild alaskan company.com slash papa p a pa for $15 off your first box. Very exciting. Okay, so we've got a great show for you today. We've got Atsuko coming up first. And I have to say, I'm very excited. She's

she's got some Japanese background. She's got some Chinese background. And like I've said on this program before. I've been trying to improve my skills and Atzuka's really no help. She has, it seems, her grandmother is, one grandmother was a really good cook, but she doesn't really give me any confidence that I'm going to be able to do it. I just made a huge thing of meatballs. We had one guest come over our house who was a meat eater and everybody else was a veggie. and I broke in and made meatballs. I got so excited that there was just one meat eater coming that I made, I think about 50 pounds of meatballs.

There's still in my refrigerator now four days later. But I got so excited. And you know what? Maybe that's just in the DNA. You know, I grew up Italian. There's Italian people. I can try and make good Asian dishes. If I really, really try it, I could probably do it well.

but, you know, it's not going to be that thing. It's not going to have that heritage that just baked into the jeans. These hands are supposed to make meatballs. These are meatball making hands. I know it sounds kind of ignorant. But you find when I talk with Atzuka that I'm not really that off. She is really great. She's super funny.

she is going to get this beautiful bread for me. Her response to the bread, I think, is the best of any guests that we've had. And I just love her to death, and I want more people to know her and her comedy. So right now, enjoy Atzuko Okatsuka. She's a very funny comedian. We have a great conversation here at the table. Enjoy. Well, thank you so much for being here.

I baked you this bread. Yeah. Wait, did we start? Yeah, we're starting right now. Oh, oh, I didn't hear that. This is in it. There'll be a whole intro about how fancy you are and stuff later. Right, right, right, of course.

I don't want to do it in front of you because it'll be too embarrassing. When I say how much I love you and admire you, like to your face is weird. No, I get it. Yeah. That transition was so smooth. I'm sorry for breaking it up. Okay. It's okay.

I mean, it's weird that you're still breaking it up, but it was still. No, keep going. The floor is yours, Tom. Thanks. Go ahead. Intro me. No, the intro comes. Oh, right, right, right.

Fuck, I fucked it up. I'm not listening. Right, you're sorry. I can't say how much I admire you yet. I'll let, I'll drop it in as the interview goes along. Sure. You get an idea what the intro is going to be, but I'm not going to drop the intro right now. Of course.

But I get it. I did bake you this bread. Yes, that's what you were saying. Thank you so much. It's gorgeous. It is gorgeous. And it's, uh, it's, I baked it last night. It is a country blend.

It's a sour. dough bread. It's called a country blend, which has wheat and rye and all-purpose flour. It's a mix of that with sourdough starter. And the flavor of this, this is a little smaller. And I could have given you something that I baked this morning, but I did this last night. It's still good. It's going to be good for days. But the flavor of this is going to be so deep and so good. that I picked this one out of the three that I could have given you. Because this is a, and I don't want to bore you, but this is a 24-hour fermentation, which means overnight it was fermenting.

So the flavors get really, really deep. Right. And it came out so perfect. And I figured this is the one for you. It looks so good. I don't care about the size. Size does not matter to me. It's the depth.

Right. And you said the word deep. Yes. And so thank you so much. You're welcome. This is so not like up my alley knowing anything about baking. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so.

Well, I was a little disturbed because last night, I'm like, oh, this one's perfect. This is going to be good. I think it just feels right. And then I saw a post that you posted. Uh-huh. I think I read it correctly. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Did I read it correctly? You read it correctly. Yes, while you were telling me, presenting me this piece of beautiful bread, I was thinking, Yeah, about my grandmother. Because what happened? She just got diagnosed with celiac or something like that where she can no longer eat gluten. Isn't that so crazy? And you said in the post was very funny.

Just she's like she's 85. Just let her. Don't, why even tell her that? Yeah, I know. Yes, she's 86. Why did you even have to let her know? Right. What's the point?

Yeah. What's going to change? Right. Can't we just let her think she just poops her pant? sometimes now. You know what I mean? Yeah. Let her think that's a norm because that's what happens when you're older. It's like, should I tell her she can't eat dairy anymore either?

She knows that. She knows she can only, you know, there's a certain point right? In your life you hit, Tom, where you can only eat like three things. It's very true. I watched it with my grandparents. Yeah, right? What are there three things that they can eat still? Well, they've passed now. Okay. But at the end it was, they were, were just, they just eliminated everything. And even my one grandmother who was like this amazing, like Italian cook, right. She was down to just like eating escarole, which is like a leafy green. Oh, nice. And she would just like eat this tiniest, tiniest piece of that. Yeah. Oh my God. My heart.

This is kind of gross. Uh-huh. But she would, if she had meat, okay. She would eat chew the meat, yeah, but not swallow it. Interesting. Wow. She didn't eat. need it in her system. She would just kind of like get rid of it. Just give it a little taste. Just for the taste. Oh my God. But I feel like that kind of happens naturally to us, right?

Yeah, yeah. Well, we become babies and babies can only eat. Babies can only eat three things. Right. Like one, two, three things. I'm pretty sure, right? Right. And it's got to be mushed up.

They have to eat small. Yeah. Right. Right. Are they going to throw it up at the table while they're looking at you? Exactly. Sometimes they eat just for the taste too. Like I've seen babies just like literally spit out the food.

They're just like, I hate this taste or I don't need it. And that's truly what like senior citizens are going through too. Yeah. Yeah. If we could just normalize it and not tell them devastating news, you know. I'm like she might have only a few years left. Right. Now she's walking around, you know, her immigrant neighborhood being like, does this have gluten?

Does this have gluten? And let me tell you, the neighbors are talking. I know. And well, here's the thing to bring it back to me. Yeah, of course. Yes. I have friends that have gluten intolerance and gluten whatever's, different degrees. This bread they were able to eat.

Oh. Because, and again, it depends on if she's really celiac and there's nothing really you can get around. But I had friends that were kind of eating bread. Like I always thought in my head once I started getting into this like six years ago. Yeah. Why are we, why do we show up? and this food that we've been eating for centuries is all of a sudden bad for us. And it was because the bread that we were eating wasn't really bread.

It had tons of ingredients, all this extra additive sugar, the combinations of all these other things that was making us feel sick. Flour, water, salt, and yeast with a long fermentation, and it's breaking down its own sugars and all the rest of it. I've had friends, I don't know if your grandmother makes it, who've been able to eat my bread when they're, they couldn't eat other bread. That's so interesting.

Isn't it? I think I had known that. Well, you know what? I thought human beings were evolving. I thought it was like humans that were literally starting to just deteriorate. So that's good to know that it was actually the food. Oh, you thought we were getting weaker. We were getting weaker.

Right. And the Earth was being kind to us. Like we only have 15 more years. You might as well. You know what I mean? So it's not such a bummer. We're not a bunch of healthy people on the last day of Earth. Yeah.

You know? Right. No. Yeah. We're actually, we're okay. We're just being poisoned at times. Got it. Yeah.

I had seen. By other human beings. For sure. You know, I had seen the ingredients on like Wonderbread. It was long. It was a long list. So stuff like that. Yeah.

That we can't give to Grandma. No, no, no. What have you eaten today? Today I ate just two hard boiled eggs. Oh, that's perfect. Yeah. And you've got your little egg. I have an egg necklace on.

Egg necklace. It's like my power. our breakfast. You know? It's a great breakfast. Yeah. That's all you really need to eat. And bread, good bread.

Okay, so yeah. Tomorrow, or maybe when you get home today, you slice this and just toast it with a little butter. I will. And then you're going to be like, why did I just eat an egg this morning? You're right. You're right. I will, like, I will shame myself.

I will say, wow, I've been eating Wonderbread. I did not know. Vandercombe or I think that's a bread factory. There's a huge one near my place. Right. It looks like a castle. Right. Oh, really?

You're near that thing? Yeah, I'm near that thing. And I just wonder, like, all the ingredients going into that. Yeah. I'll eat this. I'll sneak a piece into Grandma's mouth too, just to see what happens. Yeah. Is that murder?

No. Attempted. She's, no. Okay. I mean, it depends what kind of, if it's a big piece and it's going to choke her, yes. If it's a small piece, she can easily eat and it's just going to have a digestive problem. No, you're okay. Yeah, yeah.

She's like, oh, my stomach feels funny. I'm like, yeah, it's a Tuesday, 86-year-old grandma, right? Now, your grandma, you've made your grandma a little bit of a star. Oh, my gosh, she's, yes. It's so funny. Because I showed my wife, I was like, you have to, she wasn't aware of your, of your Instagram account. And so I just spent, you know, 20 minutes going on, no, look at this one.

Now look at this one. Wait, this one when they're in the hot tub. And I'm like going through because. It's so delightful. And my wife's comment was, grandma gets it. Oh. Right? Wow.

Yes, she does. And she does get it. But she's in this little frail package like where. Yeah, this gluten-free package. Yeah. This little shriveling getting smaller package. Yeah. Yeah.

What made you start putting grandma into them? Was she funny always or you just felt like she's a fun prop? How did you? do it. Just a prop comic. I'm a prop comic via like, this is senior citizen abuse, elder abuse. It's so funny. No, she, she, she never, I didn't know she had like a performer in her. She had hidden it all her life. Right. You know, because she was always a caretaker. She, she raised me and then she takes care of my mom still. My mom has a, my mom has schizophrenia. Wow. And so my grandma just has been a caretaker all her life.

life never got to like really shine as you know because she likes to laugh um you know she's not necessarily like a funny person i was surprised too but then you know the pandemic hits and our true selves come out right we're just hanging out with ourselves yeah and uh and you know i was like grandma uh do you feel like being in this video where i'm just dancing you don't have to do anything Just kind of like have fun with me. And it's fun to make these videos. They only take like two minutes to make. And she had so much fun.

And then I read her the positive comments. And that's really what kind of like I think hooked her. Oh, really? Yeah. She got a taste of adulation. Yes. Right, right. Yeah, people need that.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Do you read through your comments? Yeah, I do. Like, I'll scan it. Mm-hmm. And it depends what I've done and what I'm looking at. Right.

You know what I mean? Like if I've been on someone's, show that has a divided audience or something like that. Oh. A trolly audience. Oh, then. Then I kind of like, then I become the guy. I become the artist that doesn't look at comments.

Of course. Yeah. Please don't. I don't. I never, I don't look at comments. It's not really why I do it. But then if I do something positive, like after we do our thing, I'll look at those because I know that it's going to be very few things that are shitty.

Right, right, right. It's hard to tell, though. because there's always like one person that hurts you. Yes. Just like one rando, you know? Right, exactly. It drops something totally unrelated. Yeah.

That's just about like how lame you are or whatever. For real. Yeah. And sometimes it's so specific. And I kind of always believe it. Well written. That's so shitty. Yeah.

I'm like, oh gosh, you have big words in here. Okay. S.A. High score person. You know what I'm saying? Yes, I do. Those are, Those are the more hurtful ones.

But I don't really care as much as I did in the beginning of all of this. Do you? That's good. I'm a very, you know, not sensitive, but I do care about what other people think. Sure. And so I still have to learn how to deal with that, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a constant, yeah. I love my fans. So that's why I'm going on tour. I want to meet them. Yeah. You know, after shows I take time to talk. to all the people. Yeah.

It's, I have to probably stop it soon because it is affecting like my family. You know, in that like, my husband will be like, okay, like we've been here like four hours now. Oh, at a show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, I aspire to be like Selena Kintanilla in the way she treated her fans. Right. But then one of her own fans killed her.

So. Yeah. There's a fine line. Yeah. No, for sure. But you said, so you, you know, longer care and you just know you have that self-confidence. I kind of yeah I I'm trying to live that way more actually like you know you should actually be aware of like those those I'm not living and

dying on people's comments you know what I mean there's enough positivity what if my mind just got blown right now I was like really yeah why do you do it why do what you do no no for For the positivity. Of course. Of course. Right. And that's why I do dip in and we'll check things out. Right.

But if somebody pops off, like I think we're starting to learn that the people that they're not really critiquing you or giving you any like valuable feedback on the things you create. Yeah. They're just being shitty. Right. It's like going through a city street. Yeah. There's a couple that's kissing on the bench and there's an old lady buying flowers and there's someone with their pants off screaming at the

telephone pole and then there's a kid on a bicycle and it's like okay so if i run through and see the guy with his pants off i know he's not well no for sure for sure for sure or he's or he's angry at himself right that's what my grandma always says yeah they don't hate you they hate themselves she's very right she's right does she get negative comments and does she have to deal with it now you've dragged her into the fame game i know that's what i'm so worried about i'm so worried i feel like uh dance mom, you know, I do, because my grandma has a Twitter account now. She does. She has 17,000 followers.

Oh, my God. Just a regular 86-year-old woman wants nothing to do with the industry. Yeah. She just opened one up one day and then she just said like, hello, everyone, I love you or something. Boom, 17,000 followers. Just like that. I think it's because she's unassuming and, you know, just wants to spread like positivity. Yeah.

But I worry because people are so shitty and she does. does read the comments. Uh-huh. You know? Yeah. I mean, she's already taken care of a mentally ill daughter. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

But does that make her a little impervious to comments like that? Or do you think that she's got bigger problems than that? Well, no, strangely. It's this weird thing where she's learning kind of social media for the first time. So every comment feels real. It does feel real. She might think, you know, these people mean something more, you know, just because, right? Like when your parents probably got on the internet, everything seems so real.

Oh, 100%. And true. And they don't have the, it's a short training, but the training that we have of dealing going through this minefield. Right. Like my wife will, I don't look at comments really, you know, if it's something positive, I'll just go like, oh, look at all those funny little, like laughing emojis and, oh, Okay, people like that one.

Right. And then if I see like, you know, then some I don't look at it. And as I just know, like, oh, this one, who knows, this joke is about whatever. Yeah. But it doesn't matter that I don't look at the comments because then my wife walks into my office. Did you see the comments? It's like, you're not supposed to do that. You're not supposed to stay off them.

Yeah. It probably feels more real to her. Yes. Yes. Right. Like your grandmother. Yeah. And so, you know, because things are so.

magical to her nowadays. You know what I'm saying? Oh my God. It feels like you can't see the people above and then suddenly we have a vaccine. It's like that. Right. Right. It's like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, is she like, does she, uh,

want to make more with you? Like, is she like looking at you like, so, um, when are we filming this week? She has asked that before. Just to like have fun. Yeah. Because it's also an escape for her. And it's That's nice. But she doesn't have plans to try to be famous. Right. Or really, truly, like, be at my tour.

Yeah. For example. Right, right. You know. Yeah, that's interesting. Her making an appearance would be pretty big. I think she might for the L.A. one. Yeah.

Yeah. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Folks are like, are you taking her with you to Columbus? And I'm like, she's 86. She just found out she can't eat gluten. Like, we need to give, like, she's going to stay in L.A. Yeah.

I'll be a part of this show somehow, but it won't be physically there, being physically there. It's funny. I don't know why I'm thinking of it, but one of my friends couldn't do meet and greets, didn't want to do meet and greets because of the pandemic. It just wasn't feeling comfortable enough to touch the people. Of course, yeah. But they bring a cut out of themselves and leaving it in the lobby so people can take pictures of it. I love that. Tom, do you have a cut out?

Oh, yeah, cut out of grandma. Cut out of grandma. Oh, my God. It's pretty great. Exactly. Her height. She's a tiny woman, so it wouldn't take up much paper. It could fit in the carry on.

Oh, my God, it could. Oh, my God. And she could be smaller. We could even make her smaller than she, people won't know. Yeah, you can make a little, like a little desk size one, actual size. Yes. That's amazing. That's a brilliant idea.

It's a good idea. Wow. And you just leave it in the lobby while people are coming in. Yes. They could take pictures with her. Oh, my God. And at the end, it's like, she's made it home. And then I can present her little grandma.

That's pretty great. Oh, my God. Yeah, that could be really good. Tom. A PR? This is good PR. I mean, it's smart. I mean, there's summer beer.

There's water. We are at an Italian restaurant. There's one flaw to this. What? Maybe you can help me solve it. Because you seem very thoughtful. The problem is that But today I just brought you bread.

Well, there's no waiters, but a lot of times you want to eat and drink and sometimes guests will bring donuts or whatever. And chewing on a podcast into the microphone is what I've learned when you talk about comments. It's one of the things that makes people more angry than anything else in the world. So we can't really eat and drink, but the setting is kind of perfect. I mean, it asks for it. It does. It asks for it. You know, yeah, that's why.

I didn't go there, you know? I wasn't go, you're the one that brought it up, you know? I was like, wow, this is great. What's the solve, though? What's the soft? Hang around and if the guest has more time, you can eat after, or do you start eating before? And go and talk about the experience.

Like, that was great. Only if you could hear the way we were enjoying the food. Yeah, maybe before. Maybe before, yeah. Yeah. And then you're like, you're a little satisfying. Or can the guest eat away from the microphone while you describe what you're seeing? Mm-hmm. You know?

Yeah. And if it wasn't for the video part, we could just make it up. Like, oh, this is amazing. Right, right, right, right. What is the food in your house? The food in my house is trash. It is. It is. It's trash.

Really? Why? You are. Who's in control? Ah, me. You know, so I don't live with my grandmother. She's like 20 minutes away. The food in her house is great.

Is it? Heaven. She cooks, she's self-taught, you know, she raised three kids on her own. She's a great cook. Right. What does she cook? She cooks a lot of Taiwanese meals and Chinese dishes. Yeah, a lot of Asian dishes, which happened to be gluten-free, a lot of it anyway.

Right. So that wasn't so bad. Oh, that's good. For her. Right. Right. Soy sauce does have gluten in it, though. Oh, it does.

Which, yeah, when I told her she literally looked like she just wanted to die. Oh, no. And that's so hard. It's really hard. She, I mean. She's like, soy sauce. Yeah. I was like, you could still eat rice.

She's like, but what's the point? Right. What's the point? What do I put on the rice? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That was hard. Where did she grow up?

She grew up in Taiwan. And, yeah, in the small village, Taiwan. And then she lived. in Japan for a little bit when my mom met my dad who is Japanese. Got it. And then straight to L.A., baby. Oh, really? Yeah.

And you were born here? I was born in Taiwan, too. Oh, you were born in there? And I grew up in Japan, then came here, yeah. Oh, okay. We're just, like, so international. You really are. Oh, we're like three countries.

Can you speak all the languages? I can. You can? Yeah, but I can't cook. Life has a way of balancing itself out. I think it did. Yeah. Yeah, you can cook.

I can cook. And I'm trying to learn Italian in my car. In your car. So is it like a CD? Sorry, I don't. I only have a CD player in my car. I'm sure you, you know. I don't want to be fancy, but I have Bluetooth.

Oh, Tom, you're doing great. Of course, I'm so sorry to assume you would even... I'm kind of a big deal. You would even mess with a CD player. Of course. Yeah, so it's like a file. It's a Pinsler's thing and you, and the problem. with it is that you have to say it back.

Uh-huh. So they say, uh, Verebe manjade quakosa, and you have to say it out loud. Okay. Which is very annoying, weird, and upsetting for my family when I'm in the house. Oh, I'm so sorry.

I wasn't aware there were other people around while you were doing this. Well, I'm not. That's why I'm in my car doing it. Yeah, you have to. Relegated to just you doing it while driving, yeah. And it's such a, I'm enjoying it. I'm learning a couple things.

Uh-huh. But it's such a struggle. And I wish that I knew Italian already. I wish I knew any other language already. What was it that you just said to me? Do you know? I said, do you want something to eat? Oh, okay.

Fidebe manjade quakosa. Oh, yes. I don't know how to say yes, even. Is it C? C. Oh, okay. I didn't want to assume. See.

I think I saw it in some kind of, Italian New Wave movie. I learned Spanish in high school, so my default is just throwing Spanish words in as responses. I did that when I was in Germany. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. And it was sick.

They hated it. Went to Spanish in Germany? Yeah, so I was in Germany, and when I was trying to talk to the people and they didn't speak English, I just naturally went to Spanish by accident. And they were like, yeah, bitch, that doesn't work. either here. That's worse. Yeah, yeah.

I was like, I don't, I truly, you know. Yeah. So I think I would, do you use the languages a lot? Do you talk with your family and? I speak Mandarin the most because my Taiwanese side lives in L.A. Okay. Japanese, Tom, they're like, there are no Japanese people in L.A. There's not.

Do you have any Japanese friends? Think about it. How many Japanese, like, speaking. Japanese folks do you know? None. Comedian-wise, even, I have like two comedian friends. Aiko, Tanaka,

and then Kazuku Sano. But that's also assuming, you know, we want to speak Japanese to each other all the time. But... It's interesting because when I was getting ready to come see you, I was thinking about that.

I was thinking there's not that many Japanese comics. There's always like these Asian nights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. it's like a mix of everybody. And I was wondering, and I am curious, when you are the only one of a handful of things, when you're only like the, if I were to go to Australia and I was the only American, when you're in L.A. and you're in comedy and you're one of the only Japanese, do you get tired of having to be like, I'm representing the Japanese,

all of the Japanese people at this moment? Or is it kind of fun to be different? Yeah. Yeah. You know, like I, people rarely bring it up really anymore. I think people else, I think people just got tired of it. Like, so it's actually nice. Like, I don't actually have to think about it that much. Right.

The only time I'm thinking about it is like, oh, I wish I had someone to like practice Japanese with. Right. And then, yeah, but that's about it. You know, I've, like, hosted a. Japanese American event before. Right. Just because they needed a,

they wanted a Japanese American comedian and I, there I was. Right. So I've done like events like that. But yeah. Are the Japanese of funny people? They, oh gosh, you know, they're very physical comedy.

So I grew up watching slapstick. A lot of slapstick. We're big fans of like Lucille Ball and, you know, the main guy, I forget his name now. Charlie Chafflin. Charlie Javlin? That guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was like slapstick. I know Italian Americans are funny. Italians are funny. Italian Americans are funny. But Italians, when I was in Italy, looking for comedy. Yeah. It's slapsticky too.

Oh, it is. I mean, I couldn't even find comedy clubs. I could find a place that was doing a comedy night. Oh. You know what I mean? But as far as like the spoken word comedy, yeah, it seemed a little more slapsticky. Interesting. Yeah, isn't that interesting?

Because Italian Americans, they are very different. I'm sure the Italians are like, nah. We're the way just like talking, I mean, not just talking fast, but also like having stories to tell. And it's like, I feel like there's roasts happening in between family members. Right, exactly. I think it's so great. I've always, like, oh, like, I've always envied big families.

I have like, I can, it's just five people in mine. Right, right. Yeah. God, just like a big ass, like where you have cousins. A big. A big. A big. It's big.

I'm one of 21 cousins. Oh, my God. See, yeah. What a dream. Yeah, growing up was a dream. Like that, that big mess of a thing was great. Because you can also be like, if you wanted to, you could also check out at the dinner table. You don't have to be seen if you don't want to.

You know what I'm seeing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird, though, because now everyone's kind of moved. and I run this dinner each Christmas I try and get everybody back

to New Jersey for like this one dinner and like other generations are coming like all the my cousin's kids and that kind of thing and it is good like we're kind of we're holding on to it somewhat but it's got

but on the day to day it's not like every weekend you get to see your family like we did when we were growing up because we're in L.A. and there's others in Northern California and there's others in Florida and you know what I mean?

There's a pandemic. Yeah, it's like almost all these choices have kind of ruined that. Yeah, for sure. That aspect of it. Yeah. Then there's cardboard cutouts. But there's some. Yeah.

But I see, when I get envious of my small knowledge of Japanese culture. Yeah. It seems after growing up in New Jersey with a crazy Italian family, it seems like, oh, like peaceful. Like there's a thoughtfulness and there is. a there's a um a calm yeah that yeah that i really i'm envious of well tom i'm here to tell you it's it's a sad calm it's it's sad you know how like you know like uh how like okay let's go back in time like highlanders right like Scottish Highlanders they die screaming yelling they're so proud even if they're going to beheaded like Mel Gibson in that movie yeah in brave heart

samurai they die In silence, alone. And I think it's kind of like been passed down, that kind of sadness, that kind of like, I do it for honor, but what's the point of honor if all my friends are not around me? Right. You know, and no one sees me going. It's, I think there's a, there's a true sadness in Japanese culture, Tom. Really? You just look around, you know, it's a, it's very underpopulated.

Right. is underpopulated. So folks aren't dating, folks aren't, getting together, folks aren't having kids. Yeah, I read that. I read that that was one of the, there was something that, about the global population going down and they cited Japan as like one of the, not red alerts, but like this country is dropping faster than others. Yeah.

And then there's more robots and more anime and anime porn because, like, they just were such a workaholic society and like just kind of traditional like you know don't just be be quiet, be polite, like don't try to stick out. But that's like so suppressing and then you're just like you become a company man. Yeah. And so folks are like, I don't want that anymore. And the women are like, I don't want to just be a wife anymore. That's good. So young people and women maybe will change the tide. Right. Yeah. Hopefully. But then they're also like because it's still so traditional, the society, if you do get married, you do have to, like, drop your job and you do have to, like, be a good wife. So, um, and having a kid out of wedlock is super

looked down upon. So people are just not going to have kids. Oh, weird. And, uh, the robots are going to keep taking over and anime. Do you have better robots? I mean, there's like sex robots and there are, right? Yeah. Really? And sex, um, what is it? Just like, just like, well there's sex blobs we know about them sex dolls. Sure, the classic. Right, but I think they're trying to create you know robots that will satisfy your lonely

needs as well. Right. That's a weird thing after the story you just told of people that are lonely because they're avoiding each other. It's like, why make a robot just go knock on the door? Because humans are so scary, Tom. Because being vulnerable is so scary.

That's what I'm saying. It's like, they're just like, I'd rather just be like, quiet. Dinner dinner. Dinner's with family is peaceful, but it's because everyone's like so scared to like be themselves. Right. And that's messed up too. Yeah.

Italian America's, I'm like, I know like everything about you. Right. Way too much immediately. But then we can figure out like what to do with that information. Right. You know, literally my family, like dinners when we do have like a bigger gathering. Yeah. Nobody talks at the table.

It's literally just like quiet. You hear the silverware. Really? That's where I learned to be funny. If I could even just get somebody to crack up, you know, because we would just always sit in silence. One day, you know, as a kid, I just was like, well, this is really fun. We should do it again. And I saw my uncle crack up.

And that's when I was like, ah, like, I want to do, I want to do that for people, you know. Break that tension. It's like, who died? Right. It's just dinner. We have nothing to say no news, no nothing. Nobody has an update. Yeah.

Nobody wants to. Nothing? Because they're afraid to be judged or something. Yeah. You're wild? It's really wild. But it is wild. But it is also beautiful at the same time.

I can see, you know. Yeah. I know, especially during the Olympics, you know, all these sweeping shots. It's just like, I mean, whenever they talk about wherever the Olympics are, and they're always like, oh, this country is. down on their ass because it's cost so much and it was chaos and it was a horrible thing. That's always the narrative. But then you also, for the rest of your life, walk around thinking, I need to go to Sochi.

I know. And I really, I mean, there's, I've never been to Japan. And after watching all of this, it's like, we have to go. This is my, my ignorant thing I carry around in my brain is, I have to go to Japan, but then I have to go into the mountains. Yeah, do it. That's the way you're supposed to do it. Don't stay in the cities.

For some reason, nobody wants you to hang out there. Who are you, my dad? By yourself, you're like, in loneliness, alone in the wilderness. To do what? Think? Find yourself? I don't know, like, walk down when all the flower petals are falling around you. You're going to just come out like a trained geisha.

You're just going to be like, I spent time alone, and now I'm here to just serve. You're going to be in a full long kimono. Tom, I think it's a good rebrand. This would be very good. Wow. Yeah. But it's supposed to be beautiful. Yeah.

I think that, you know, when you can go, you should go. Do you go back? I haven't in a while. Yeah. I haven't in a while. I haven't in a while. I just have like siblings there now. Right.

The rest of my family's in Taiwan. Okay. And yeah, yeah. Japan is chaotic. I actually feel not as home. That's what I was just going to ask. Like, do you feel more at home in Taiwan than? I do.

Yeah. Because Japanese folks are hard to get to know. Yeah. So even if you're like, hey, I'm from here. Hey, old friends. They're just like, oh, you've changed. They're just like that. Right, right.

Okay, well, let's go eat. And then we'll just talk about small things. Right. Um, Taiwan is very, they're more islander vibes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Come sit down to strangers. Tommy, oh my God, I made this. There's extra food, you know, and it's some woman you just met. Oh, that's great. And her family, yeah. So maybe I should skip, maybe I'll just do a couple days in Japan and then go to Taiwan. Do the wilderness thing in Japan? You know, maybe go karaoke.

People will love you, though, because they just, they love different people. Right. People that don't look like everybody else. You can say it. I don't want to say it. But you're like, you look different. Okay. What?

There. I'm not going to blend in? They'll probably like, who knows? Maybe they'll even know who you are. No, they won't know. But I do like that I'll look different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So people will like talk to you and maybe even be like really stoked to like maybe touch you and stuff.

So. But you have a very, you kind of have this very unique vibe about you where it's obviously there's other cultures at play. play, but you do have an L.A. American wise-ass part to you. It's kind of this very cool combination. Yeah, I think it's like hard to place, you know, like people are, I think most people think I'm kind of like, I'm a stoner. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I don't smoke weed, but because I don't, I still, I still don't use big words. Right. I'm very like simple words and like kind of try to get to the point that way.

I'm not an academic. So maybe I think people think I'm like a stoner. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Maybe that should be your brand. Maybe you should start smoking weed.

I'm so scared, Tom. I feel like I'm pretty chill. Right. That like if I smoke weed, I would like go to sleep and like never wake up again. I'm like, can that can happen, right? No. Were you so chill? Were you so chill?

Do you smoke? No, I used to. I used to a lot, but I don't anymore. It doesn't really fit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It didn't fit for me to you. And, but like there are folks who end up, I think, in the hospital from smoking too much. Yes.

Yeah. So what is that? Is that slowing down too much or what? It's people are having, no, they're not slowing down. They're freaking out. Oh, it's from the brain. Yeah, they're freaking. paranoia, freaking out.

Okay. Yeah, you can get, you can with this. But they won't die. They won't die. No, unless they throw themselves out of a window. Of course, that's true. Something like that. Okay.

So it's more like psychological. It's not your body can actually be that harmed. No. In one city. But the way you're talking about it, I think maybe don't smoke pot. Yeah, no, yeah. I think you're okay. Truly, I have no idea, I guess, what pot really is.

So, yeah. Probably a good idea. Oh my God. Yeah, no, I'm just going to stick to water, you know. And yeah. Yeah. Was your mom's issues obvious when you were growing up? Or was it later on that it kind of came out?

Yeah. So my mom's like episode started like right after she gave birth to me. I feel like that's so common. Yeah. With, yeah, like mother's going blind. or something after the birth. Right. Right. Postpartum. Right. Exactly. I think that's around when it happened, like postpartum depression and it just,

oh, it's schizophrenia. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, but growing up, I kind of, so I was kind of scared of her because like she was, she would like hear voices in her head and so temper tantrums and like throw things. She couldn't communicate her thoughts. There's people bothering her all the time, talking to her, hallucinating all the time. So, you know, but then I didn't have that many friends because of it. And also I was really into Disney movies. And in Disney movies, none of the freaking, none of the princesses have a mom.

Right, they're all dead. They are. They're very quick to kill the mom. So it was an evil step mom. Yeah. Right. In place. Right.

And so I just kind of thought that's how moms were, the way my mom was. Like the step moms. Yeah. Right. So weird. Yeah. I just thought like women, older women. My grandma was kind. Right. But I just thought maybe moms were like that. And that grandma was her mother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's it. Well, I mean, if it's from day one, you're trying to make sense of this from day one. Like this is, right? I mean, it's not like it just walks in the door when you're six and you're like, I have to evaluate it. This is just reality. This is just. Right? What you're... Yeah. Yeah. I mean, up until now, like, maybe the last four years, I had a hard time making girlfriends

because I didn't know really how to approach women. Wow. You know? Right. Sure. Yeah. It kind of, like, you know, scared me because it was like I saw my mom also goes to, like, menopause, which also heightened the episodes.

And then when she would get, like, her period, it would get intense too. Right. So I was, like, scared of women. Oh my God. Were you scared of yourself? Um, were you scared of like what you were going to become? Well, yeah, 100%. Were you more scared of yourself? Than a normal person.

No, because like if you have like a father that's, you know, that's a big drinker or, you know, or misogynist or whatever, and you think like I can go down that path, yeah. I never thought of that. I think I always was kind of a daydreamer and kind of like lives in the present or daydreamed. Right. So I never really thought too deep about how I felt. I was always worried about how other people felt.

My mom or my grandma, how to make friends and stuff. So, yeah, I wasn't really scared that something would happen to me. Turns out, yeah, my family was. Turns out, I guess schizophrenia usually skips a generation. Oh, that's good. Yeah, so that's good for my kids. I'm just kidding. We're not going to have kids.

Yeah. Well, no, that's good for you. Is that why? Kind of, but also we're very childlike, my husband and I. He seems like a cool guy just from your, you can just get a good vibe from him from your account and stuff. He seems, again, like he gets it. He gets it. Yeah. You know, he does talk. This is the wild part. Do you know this? What? My husband's mom also has schizophrenia. No, really?

Yeah. No way. So both moms. We don't go to church. Huh? Or what are the holidays? What are the holidays like? Just everyone knowing exactly what to do. That's the cool thing is both of our families know how to handle schizophrenia.

Right. And my husband does too. So he handles my mom very, very well. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. That's really remarkable. It's a while. When did you find that out?

You just started dating, I guess, pretty early. Yeah. Like our third day in? Yeah. Yeah. Folks have thought that's why we. like met or how we met, which is so wild. I don't know where you would do that.

Yeah, where would you do that? Like a meeting? Yeah, like a schizophrenic dog park. I don't know. Yeah, like I guess I hope I wish there was a website, like schizophrenia moms only, like farmers only. Right. And then I guess just the rest is like finding a look that you like.

But yeah, it was like our third date. He was, yeah, we were like on our day. And then he, we were about to have sex. And then he got a call from his mom. He was like, I have to take this. And I was like, what? I'm in my underwear, like, on your bed. Right.

I've never been like dismissed so fast. Yeah. You know, wore my good underwear. He walked off, talked to his mom for like an hour. Uh-huh. Left me on his bed. But then I heard him kind of starting to like comfort her a lot. Uh-huh.

And he came back in his underwear still. And he was like, I'm so sorry. Like my mom has this thing. I don't know if you've heard of it. schizophrenia and I was like oh my god my mom too and yeah and uh that's how we found out yeah that's amazing so then you just put your clothes on and like no we had the wildest sex talk we were like oh my god we deserve this we were like whipping each of his clothes off we went oh my god like that kind of connection i don't even know

i don't know what the percentage of humans society have schizophrenia yeah but to have that shared experience it's like i saw his childhood right away Right. I just saw his upbringing. Absolutely. Oh, I'm sure. Like, you connected. Yeah.

In a much deeper way immediately. Different cultures doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Texan. You know how you... Yeah, you know how making friends, going to... Yeah. graduating high school.

Checking the vents for microphones that the government implanted. Oh, man. I did this movie called Paper Spiders. Uh-huh. That just came out when Lily Taylor is the lead. And she is schizophrenia. and her daughter. Oh.

And I play like this boyfriend who, who comes in. But it's all that. Yeah. She's convinced that something's happening on the roof. Right. She's convinced the neighbor's doing something. Oh, my God. I want to watch this.

Oh, it's really good. It's really nice movie. Yeah, it's out. Okay. You can stream it. Amazing. Yeah. Paper spiders.

Okay. And yeah, I'm sure you would identify with it. But then that was a part of it, like the, yeah, checking for things. She started thinking that, we were like on a date and she was thinking that they were messing with something like through the speakers. Oh, uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah. And she was blaming it all on the neighbor and thought that this neighbor was doing all this stuff to her. Right. Yeah. My mom has issues with the neighbors all the time. Oh, yeah. And I have to tell her what my grandma tells me, which is, no, the neighbors don't hate your mom.

They hate themselves. I still use that to this day. Yeah. My mom doesn't believe it. she's like, no, they're out to get me. No, there's a wire in the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, why do they, yeah, why are they in the pool? But because it's a shared pool, you live in a complex, they're in the pool. And why is there a speaker in my cereal bowl? Because I put it there.

Obviously, it's an interview for my podcast. Yeah. Well, I have to say it's not, I mean, there's, you know, we have stuff in our family, too, but is there a strength or is there a kind of a calm growing up with it like that you it's just all you knew so it's not like you had this kind of different reality that that switched it like when you were a teenager or something that's so true yeah yeah there is kind of a but maybe like I live with like a general sadness do you kind of yeah I'm a very joyous person I love sharing joy with people and I love making people laugh and laughing with others.

Yeah. I feel like I'm pretty empathetic too because of, you know, growing up watching my mom suffer. And she still is suffering. So, you know, there is a general sadness in that like when I, you know, and my grandma's still taking care of her. It's like, let the bitch retire. She's 86. Right.

She can't eat bread anymore. Right. And there I am. just getting to like be on stage performing. Oh my gosh. Like, yeah. There's not a moment where I forget them though because of that.

Like I get to just tell jokes. Are you kidding me? Yeah. I don't even have to do a nine and five. Yeah. Pretty great. Like, yeah. Yeah.

Well, it is fair. But you. Yeah. Yeah. But you have that as the backdrop. So there's, I don't know, maybe guilt,

you know, a little bit of that kind of like, yeah. Yeah. Do I deserve this when other people are suffering? Right, right, right. With the answer is obviously yes, but it's not something you just kind of shelve and you just say, you say yes one day and never have to think about it again. Right, of course, yeah, yeah.

So, yeah. But I think it is kind of a, yeah, it's like a general piece too with it. Yeah. Yeah. No, you can tell because, I mean, you know, there's not an anxiety when you talk about it. Oh, sure. There's not a sense of this is territory that we can't go in. Like really, there's like, um, you should have seen me yesterday.

And when I was hanging out with my mom. No, but it's fine. Yeah. It's, it keeps it. I do wonder what happens if I had like a still married mom and dad that with no mental illness and they were super supportive. I do wonder that sometimes. I think maybe I wouldn't be funny.

I wonder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I really. I wonder. I wonder if it's, it's kind of interesting. I mean.

you probably would. I mean, you are what you are, but... Sure, you're right. It'd probably just be... But I'd be such a bitch. I think I'd be a bitch. You would? Yeah, I'd be like...

Like to the other comedians or to... Maybe. Like, my parents are still together. I don't know, do people say that? Yeah. Do bullies do that? Yeah. Well, my family's perfect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah. I'm sure some kids somewhere once said, my parents are still together. Yours aren't, you know? On the playground.

I have to say you're good at it, actually. You might want to do it. Thank you. Thank you, yeah. But flip it. Be like, ew, your parents are together. It's so gross. My parents listen to their gut instincts and are happily separated.

I don't know. That's a mean thing to say. We don't live in a prison like your parents. Oh, gosh. I mean, you know, I need this, though. Yeah. So thank you, Tom. Oh, you're welcome.

Yeah. Your parents are. Together. Together. Yeah. So hot. It's so hot. Yeah.

Nothing like watching. You can be funny with married parents. Yeah, you can. I'm just kidding. You can. It happens all the time. There's probably a little less sadness. Oh, who knows?

Like, who's to say, like, you know, there's a lot of stress too about parents. With parents being, there's two of them, you know. Well, yeah. At every gathering. That's a lot, too. That's a lot, too. 100%. I'm really trying to

lessen the impact of what parents of the parents have on us you know what I mean yeah my wife carries a heavy load with her from her folks and you know we were talking with another friend the other night and they were she was just downloading about her mom and yeah you know these are people that are you know 40s 50s you know still talking about their moms yeah it's like you know

I think Mark Twain Mark Twain left when he was 14 Look I knew you were gonna get serious When you were gonna quote Mark Twain And he sailed back And saw his mom

Two more times in his life You know what I mean? Yeah Why do we carry these Mythological figures Our whole lives Because it's in stories It's in like books

And stuff That you're supposed to But this is the thing I really recently, I was telling my friends, I said, if you're worried about getting the, like, if you're constantly worried about getting the approval of your parents, just remember, they're too busy. Don't even try. They're too busy. Still trying to get the approval of theirs. Right. You know? Mm-hmm. That's why. Yeah. That's right. That's why you skip the parents. Right.

And just hang out with the grandparents. Yes. Because the grandparents are proud of you. Oh, 100%. They are not disappointed in you. No. They're at a disappointed in your parents still. You know what I'm saying? I do. That's totally right. Like we're constantly trying to get that approval of our parents. They're still busy trying to still do that too from their parents.

None of us know what we're doing. I literally was like that same exact thing that you're saying. And as a parent, I was thinking, why don't I skip that and just treat my children as if I was their grandparent? Yes. And just love them and just let them do it. And every parent, I tell them about this life hack. They all say you can't do that.

You have to raise them and be critical and be mean. No, just give them an allowance and a cookie every Christmas. Like grandparents do. As a person raised by her grandma, I 100% agree. Right? Why not? They learn on their own a lot of stuff. Totally.

My grandma didn't like, yeah. And your parents, like wisdom, like when you, when I throw stuff at my, Kids like, let me tell you what this part of life is about. Yeah. I know that's not sticking. When you throw a frisbee and they catch it, like are they really, what, learning something huge? Right. It's like they just learn from being around.

Yeah. You're kind of your own thing. There's school. There's friends. There's whatever. There's computer. All they need is somebody there that's just, like you said, giving them a cookie and like, you're the best. Yeah.

Who said you have to be teacher? That's not your job. Are you a teacher? No. I didn't go to school to be a teacher. I hate teachers. I didn't go to school to be a PE teacher either. Why am I getting, why am I on the field during baseball just because I saw it in a movie?

Right. That's not what dads have to do. Who said that? Who said that? Yeah. You're exactly right. You know, it's truly like, you just, your literal job is like, just make sure they don't die. Yeah, protect them.

Be there. Let them know that they've got someone that loves them. and there to be in their videos when they're twerking around you. Yes, there's an arts and crafts teacher at school. That's what they're for. Right, exactly. You don't need to teach them how to bake bread if you want to, if you want to. Yeah, this is good.

You really help me. It's so smart. We're like, oh, we're really. We are. They're so smart. Yeah. And see, that's why we shouldn't smoke weed because we're kind of tuned in without it. If we did smoke weed, we'd both just be staring at each other like,

Yeah, we'd be like, I'd be like, I checked out when I parked and I, okay, what time is it? Oh, God, oh my God. I know. What a blast. This was so great. I don't want to keep you because I know you have big things today, big things, and this bread is going to bring you luck.

I'm so excited. Tom, you're a philosopher. You are. We're philosophers. No, I knew we were going to be friends. I need you to stop trying so hard with your kids and be, well, I guess you're already doing the grandparent thing. Kind of, not really. Okay.

A little bit. I don't know. I'm, you know, I'm one of two parents. Uh-huh. So I'd have to get her on board, too. With doing that, yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's going to go down. She wants them to be successful.

Of course. That makes sense. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. But the grandparent one doesn't care about that. The grandparent ones, you're already successful.

Wow, yeah, exactly. That's all they need. How old are your kids? 19 and 16. I think they know. Yeah, okay. Right, they're good. They're good.

Okay. They're good. All right. Will you tell me how you like the bread and will you... I will. Let grandma... Okay, if grandma just found out that she's got this gluten thing, maybe this is her last hurrah.

Yeah, I'm going to say that most people, that you fed this to who do have a gluten allergy were okay. Yeah, they were okay. Yeah. She'll still eat it. She's not, she's like in denial, so she'll eat it. All right, good. Yeah.

And good luck on your tour. This looks good. Thank you so much. Yeah, I saw you listed all your spots. You're going to a lot of nice places. You too. Yeah. You too.

Well, you're the best. We'll do this again. Sounds good. Bye. Bye. We got it, Aaron. I told you she was a delight. At Succo, thank you so much for being here.

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I love Rachel so much. I was the officiant at her wedding. She is a good friend of mine. She's always so damn funny. She's just so refreshing. And that's the one good thing about this podcast. One of the many good things about this podcast is that I can actually connect with some friends who I haven't spoken to a while in a while and get a little bit more of a concentrated, meaningful conversation. So let's grab a quick bite with Rachel Feinstein.

Rachel? Laying around right now, I'm having a particularly worthless. morning doing some feeding and uh so what's what's called is it still raining there no it's it's fine i can't i can't use as an excuse for not having i know it was like it rained for like two days straight and i was like well i'm really i can't get up i know i love a storm i love the idea of me to take shelter as an excuse from birthlessness but i really it's perfectly fine outside and i haven't used many of my limbs yet what have a you eat and say um i've been sort of eating hummus and different cracker type things i have a lot of

i eat a hot i eat a hostile amount of quest chips what are quest chips there are like some chips that are supposed to be healthier than most chips but they're not really if you eat eight or nine bags of them sort of like healthy chip uh i'll believe in a special that says any nonsense i'm also I guess to say it's plant protein and I've hurled it down my throat. I know. I know. I keep telling people I'm plant-based and it has no merit. Nothing at all.

Yes, I've had some of that. What else have I eaten today? I made eggs this morning. I tried to make pancakes, but there was kind of a sadness to them and my daughter rejected them. What do you mean? Well, I made, I didn't realize, but I had them left over from when I was pregnant. I had diabetes and I was pregnant.

So it's like a gluten-free pancake. And it just, it didn't work. You know, there was like a badness to that texture of the pancake. It just comes out really flat, I'd imagine. Yeah, she's usually a pretty, she usually eats anything. But she looked at me with a great sorrow when I tried to eat that. How are you going to win her heart? How are you going to turn it around?

I don't know. I don't have to make something better for her. She really likes, she really likes pizza. So I'll give her some pizza later. Right. And then you don't have to make it. I make a good red lentil pasta that I like to make this red lentil pasta with meat sauce and spinach. And she likes that.

So maybe I'll do that tonight. Wow. You make a meat sauce? I make a meat sauce. Sometimes I use turkey, ground turkey, you know. Wow. Look at you. I take, I do some things.

Yeah. You're very domestic. I like to make a couple dishes. and then, but it's not, I don't cook like you do. It's not like a daily thing. I just, every once in a while I get up out of my cave and I take a swing. And is your husband, is your husband a cook? Your husband, he makes kombucha and a bunch of stuff that he cook also.

Yeah, a lot because they have to learn how to cook for the whole firehouse because they have to in the beginning. Right. Learn how to cook a great deal of food for a lot of people. So they can make a lot of food. They're good with not. That sounded more disturbing than I meant to be down. That's why you always see, I don't know if people notice this, but you might see firemen in groups in grocery stores.

They're always grocery shopping together. He is a good cook. He cooks a lot. And does it make him more judgy about what you make? He kind of will slam anything in his face. That's one thing I will say. Yeah, I have like four dishes. that are, I know how to fake it.

Right, right. It's just the same thing with piano. Like, I know how to play chords and pretend like I can play the piano. Uh-huh. I make this, I make a salmon with honey and ginger and soy sauce that's pretty good. Right. I have a couple of things, but like three or four things. But if you didn't know any better, you would think I knew my way around a kitchen.

But that's a bit. This is impressive. This is much more than I thought you were going to say. I thought for sure you were going to be. be like, uh, the baby, the baby gets some stuff from a jar and other than that, it's takeout. I could do a couple of things. And then, you know, uh, I, but I messed up a lot too, like this morning. This was a real major sale.

The batter is still out. Like it's going to be used later. It's over. I've just got to throw it out. Was she nice about it or was she just kind of quiet? She looked sad. She was like, why would you do this? Pre-product isn't like a really good brand.

Like, there's really a sadness to, consistency doesn't work on some of them. Right. I know. Whenever people ask if I'll make gluten-free bread for them, I'm like, no one's going to win in this scenario. Yeah, no. It's not. You're going to judge me and think I can't make bread, and then you're going to be unhappy because you realize that you're trying to eat bread with no gluten.

This is just, just eat tortillas. Yes, yes, exactly Something without Yeah, skip the whole subject That's the thing with pancakes If you want pancakes Then I'm realizing if I'm scooping this into the trash I took a picture of it first

So you can see how it's how to have something else But my recommendation is not to try to do what I do All right, well are you going on tour Are you going to be in New York for a while? I think I'm going to roll through next month I'm going to be in, let me see, where am I next week? Next month, I'm in Missouri, and I think I'm in Missouri and I'm in Buffalo, but I'll be home in New York a lot too. So most of the time I'll be here and we can hang.

I'm excited to see you. Are you going to come to the cellar and do your show? Yeah, I think so. I think like mid-September, which is really prime salmon time. Oh, perfect. I guess. By the way, wait, Tom, I should know this.

Now, I know you make bread a lot, but do you cook in general, like nightly? Yeah, yeah, pretty much nightly. Pretty much. What are two or a few of your favorite meals? I'm mostly Italian-based stuff. So a lot of different kind of sauces, a lot of different kind of sauces.

I'm really good with all that stuff. And then in California, also on the grill, like there's a lot of stuff that, because my family is mostly vegetarians, I'll go out, I'll make meat, but I usually do it outside of the house out of respect for their love of animals. So I'll go out back and grill things. But yeah, but mostly Italian. Anything Italian, I can cook. Oh, good. I love Italian. I love everything Italian.

That's just the best food just makes them to be happy. Yeah, it does. Exactly. And I make this great rigatoni. I can make it all. But I think when you come to California, that's what you have to do is come over. I've had Ryan Hamilton come over, even Keith. I said Keith and Bill Burr and a lot of different people, Aaron Foley.

Now, I'm coming out with Jessica Carson next month because we're going to do some press for our like prank album. So maybe we can come hang with you. Oh, that'd be perfect. All right. I will host you. Okay, I can't wait, Tommy. Talk to you. You're best.

You too. Bye. Bye. All right, a big thank you to Atsuko Okatsuka. She is hilarious. Go to her Instagram. Make sure you look it up. It is damn funny.

And she's also touring. She was a great conversation. I love her so much. Also, Rachel, a big thank you to Rachel Feinstein. Go to all of her social media and check out her tour. Like and subscribe to our podcast. Please tell your friends. Please circulate it around.

Give us lots of stars. Go to our YouTube channel. You can actually see Atzuko, she was here live in person, and you can give us lots of love, lots of stars, maybe some nice comments. You could also check out the other videos or stand-up videos on there, and also the Getting Baked series, where we just posted olive bread and scones, and there's a lot of secrets for sourdough. It's a great little place, so go there and subscribe as well.

You guys are the best. We'll see you next time. Bye.