Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Kumail Nanjiani

Episode Date: November 20, 2018

Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley, The Big Sick, Portlandia) discusses getting bullied in high school and the toll it took on him, the way movies and video games became an escape for him, and how different America was from his expectations. Kumail discusses his comedy career in New York and Chicago, meeting and falling in love with his wife Emily, and how shockingly close the Big Sick was to what happened between him and his wife. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Sometimes I like to do this lower register voice. Have you noticed that? Yeah, you kind of change it up every once in a while. Yeah, sometimes I go, you're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. It's like, hey, I'm having a good day. How are you guys? And then I'm like, you're listening to Inside of You.

Like, which one do you like, dude? I think I like the first one, because the last one you seem sad. How about, you're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum? It's something in your throat. Rob, I just got back from Paris and Ireland. I'm a little tired. It was a 24-hour flight.

I mean, it was 24 hours like, you know, flying all that stuff. Anyway, we got a great guest today. You want to talk about? Camille Nanjiani. Well, we could talk about my flight, but they harassed me a little bit. They gave me a cavity, not a cavity search,

but a full body search. You know, I... You asked for the cavity. Well, I, like, exchanged money, and they're like, where'd you get this money? I'm like, I literally looked at them. I go, for me, Why don't I have to tell you where I got my money?

Camille Nanjiani is a gifted actor, gifted comedian, funny guy, great writer, has a great story. Oscar-nominated movie for Best Screenplay, I believe, Big Sick, the Big Sick, which was one of my favorite movies of the year. If you haven't seen it, I'm not kidding. The Big Sick was one of my favorite movies. He's also in Silicon Valley. Which is one of my favorite shows. One of your favorite shows. And Natalie.

You even seen like two episodes. That's pretty rude. No, it's not. I don't have a lot of time. Actually, I don't have too much time. I do. Anyway, Camille Nanjiani, let's get inside of this guy. You're going to like this.

It's my point of view. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. So you're a horror movie fan. Big fan, yeah. And you're saying Mandy's good. Yeah. I loved Mandy.

I thought it was great. Don't give anything away, though. It's just intense. Let me ask you this. Is it scary at all, or is it just violent and fun? I don't really get scared. I do. If it's the right movie, it's rare.

Yeah, I like hereditary I was really scared in. It's not like that. Like, to me, those movies, it does a great job of ratcheting up tension, but then the release is very, like, intense and over the top. So it's creepy. It's not really scary. I don't think it's really trying to be scary, but it's surprising and pretty, pretty over the top. Did you see the loved ones?

No, I did not. I know of it. I know of it. Is that the one about those people like, they're like cheerleaders or something? Is it that one? No, it's the movie about the, the girl who kidnaps the guy to go to prom with her. Right. I know it was a prom thing.

I haven't seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a great little indie that was overlooked by a lot, but people in the horror. Yeah, I saw it. It always pops up in my recommendation. Yeah. Hereditary, I felt, was too long. It was scary. It had its moments. The ending, I wish they would stop doing these movies where, you know, it's a cult sort of like seance at the end of all these horror movies. We get it. We've done that before. They do do it a lot, but I did like that they really committed to it. Like, that movie goes. I gave it a B minus. Okay. And that's good for me because I don't like, I'm very, very strict on the grading system. Okay. I really, really loved it just because that, sequence in the car. Do you know what I'm talking about when he's driving?

With a sister? That made me feel... That was unbelievable. I haven't had a movie make me feel like that in a long time. So just for me, that scene, for me, makes it great. Like, for me, if I see a movie and there's, like, one scene in it that, like, really gets inside me, then that's, you know... Well, guess what? I'm going to be inside you.

On Gianni, thank you for allowing me to be inside of you today. Thank you for being inside of me. well not quite yet maybe just a little okay this is exciting how did we meet was it not at yarvo yeah i'm sure it was at yarvo and automs and you know we we sort of have friends in common we do but we don't we haven't talked a ton no we haven't really talked a ton but i see you around at those things you're like that guy that guy yeah we said hi that guy yeah we said hi to each other did you think that when you saw me that guy i was that guy no i never want to be that guy i think i there was times when i was that guy just trying to be but i don't what do you mean that guy what do you mean

You know, when you go to a place and you're like, some guy walks out and he's talking to people and then, you're like, no, that guy. No, you seem always very nice and normal. You're not that guy. Normal, I take offense. I mean it as a compliment. Are you normal? In the grand scheme of things, I am normal, yeah. Really?

Yeah. In the sense that I don't think, that I feel pretty together. You know, I'm a pretty together person. I'm normal in the sense that you can put me in most social situations. and I'll be, I won't weird people out in a long way. Is that because of your family? Do you think you get that a lot from your family? Or is it the opposite?

Are your family very warm? Are they very, you know, your upbringing, your developmental stages. As a child, were you always outgoing? Were they outgoing? You think it reflects who you are now? My dad was very outgoing. My mom is still very shy.

I was very, very, very shy until college. Like, extremely, extremely shy. Like, my family's shocked that I do what I do. my friends from high school are shocked the few friends I had who I'm still in touch with are shocked that I do what I do I was very very shy and now I'm very outgoing I mean how could the shyest guy in school growing up now be a huge stand-up comedian actor on one of the biggest shows wrote and starred in your own movie

yeah I mean that's going from the sublime to the ridiculous my friend I think it's sort of like where you get energy from do you get energy from being alone or do you get energy from other people other people Yeah, and I think I still probably get energy from, it depends. Sometimes I need energy from being alone and from my wife. And then sometimes I do need energy from being around other people. So it's kind of both. Yeah.

I mean, what was childhood? Because you were born in Pakistan? Yeah. Right? I mean, was that, do you remember it? How old were you when you moved? I was 18 when I moved. So you remember it.

I do remember it. Yeah. That would be horrible. I don't know what happened, but I don't remember a fucking thing. I don't want to go to a psychiatrist. I don't want to open this door. Come on, we just want to know what happened the last 18 years. I remember working up in Des Moines at the age of 19 and being like, whoa.

That's a horror movie. Yeah, that's a horror movie. Waking up in Des Moines, that should be the title of your next movie. Waking up in Des Moines. Yeah, yeah. What do you think of that title? Have you ever been to Des Moines? I haven't.

Do you like Des Moines? I don't really know Des Moines. I was in a small town in Iowa called Grinnell, but Des Moines was the airport you fly into. Now, Pakistan, explain like what it was sort of like growing up there and then moving to the states. Well, so I grew up in Karachi, which is like the biggest city in Pakistan. It's like, it's sort of like New York, but bigger. It's like 20 million, 20 million people. Jesus.

It's huge. So it was like, you know, I grew up in a very, very urban city environment. And that's still the environment I love, like I kind of want to move back to New York. You like the city life. Yeah, I want to move back to New York. I go to New York, I'm like, oh, this is the best. Why? Why do you like big city? I just like being surrounded by people like that, and I just feel a lot more engaged.

Like here, I'm okay now, but when I first moved here, it can be very easy to sort of disengage from life and just hang out in your house, and then you get in a car and you're in your own bubble, you know, you're sort of like, it's very easy to retreat from society in L.A., whereas in New York, you're forced to be around other people. You've got to take the subway. You see all kinds of people. When I was in New York, I just felt very engaged. and I was writing more than I ever wrote in my life. I was just, like, always, like, really going. Whereas in L.A., I have to force myself to do that.

You get lazy. It's easy to get lazy. It took me a little while to figure out how to always be productive. I think I figured it out, but I had to put rules on. But, you know, for me is, you know, I live, my whole family is from New York. My dad lives in New York. In Manhattan? In Manhattan.

I lived in New York after college. And I loved it. I said I'd never moved from New York, and then I moved and I hated L.A. for the first year or two. Then I found the friends. Then I found the places to be, to go to the hikes, all these. To me, when I'm in New York, I feel

I'm claustrophobic. It's like you walk outside. People, people, people, buses, cars, trash, hot, it's too fucking hot. It's too fucking cold. I call my dad and he's complaining about too hot, too cold, and I feel like winter is nine months long in New York.

I think things never end. It just drives me crazy. Everybody's like, well, your parks. Well, we go to Central Park. There's a couple of Central Park. To me, it's too much. Like, I like being in L.A. so I could just go to a park that's five minutes away. I could go to the beach. I could go for a high. I could do. Does that make sense? Yeah. I mean, I love L.A. too. It's definitely my second favorite place I've ever lived. And I, and my wife definitely prefers L.A. because she's from like a small town in the south. This is more her speed. But I just, I understand that. I mean, I didn't. realize how stressful life was in New York until I moved to L.A. and I had been a few months

and I was like, oh, that's what that feeling was on my shoulders all the time. But I do also like it. And the winter, you know, I lived in Chicago for many years. So that is brutal. New York winters are, I know it gets bad, but much easier than Chicago. Chicago winters. It's also, you know, Chicago, the public transportation system is not that good. In the L, the trains are like elevated. so you're waiting like a half hour three stories up in the air with just like winds from lake michigan going right to your bones you know so new york winters i can handle we don't have hurricanes though in chicago does i mean but but how often is that in nature in new york it's just it's been a couple of times recently yeah one hurricane hits and he's just freaking out

over well maybe two three pop maybe yeah three three hurricanes when was that big one where everybody lost power like two three years ago in new york uh i think it was before that it was like four years ago yeah my family lost uh what all the there was like a big hurricane lost the why just power oh okay that sounded like it was going in a bad yeah i was going to be very nonchalant my brother died but um i'm fine with it haven't dealt with it yeah that was a bad hurricane 2011 that was a bad year yeah yeah uh but i do i do like it here i love i i do love living in l a i have all my friends live here you know but but i when we lived in new york we had no money like zero money so i want to know what it's like to live in new york and be able to sort of afford living when you you you and who

when you and emily lived there yeah we moved there in 2007 and you had no money it was so so stressed how much was rent rent was like almost two thousand dollars and what were you doing to make money so emily had a job emily was a therapist then And so she had a job that was, you know, paid very, very little. And I was kind of just doing open mics and stuff, not making money. So just like the movie. Just like the movie. The Big Sick, which I'm not, you're here because first of all, I like you and you're extremely talented.

But I tell James Gunn and a couple of us were having dinner. I'm name dropping. But we're having dinner. And we were talking about the Big Sick is probably one of our favorite movies from last year. Oh, thank you. if not the best movie and and you know so you're you're when you watch that you're like okay this is an amazing love story it's an amazing you know it's like that's that movie once you know it's just amazing love that movie amazing love story that you don't see that it when it's real it's something

special it's something that everybody can relate like they go oh my gosh this is real this is tangible this is not Hollywood but how much was Hollywood how much that movie yeah I mean it's probably hard to keep it exactly how it happened. It's not exactly how it happened, but I will say that all the parts, in the important ways, it is very, very shocking. Emotionally. But even in emotionally, yes, but also in the stuff that happens, it is pretty shockingly close to what happened. If anything, we, like in real life, you know, Ray Romano's Emily's father. I mean, we change the characterizations of some of the people, but the events are pretty close. Close. A lot of the scenes between Emily and I are pretty much from our life, from us, like, hanging out together. The way we met in the movie, she heckles me. That is how we met. So it's pretty shocking how close is it. But then, you know, you got to, like, structure it as a movie and you take out things that don't make sense and you add in things.

Well, what about your parents? I mean, were your parents sort of like, did they like how they were portrayed? It's a complicated question. My dad loves the movie. My mom loves it, but I think probably has a little bit more of a. complicated relationship with it because in watching the movie, I think she saw herself the way I saw her during all of that. Which was a little bit too strict. Well, you know, and I understand, honestly, in writing the movie and writing my mom's lines, I understood her perspective for the first time. Like having to write her as a character and get inside her head made me see her perspective a lot more intimately. I completely understand her point of view. Did you ever call her up and go,

hey, I wrote this line tonight. I just want to see if you'd say it. Like, would you actually say this line? Well, a lot of her lines were actually taken from stuff she said. She actually visited set and there's a little, there's like a little funny scene. And while we were shooting it, I heard my mom laughing really hard in the other room.

She ruined the take. And I was like, mom, what's going on? She's like, we had that conversation. I'm like, oh, yeah, that is right. Like, you know, because it took us so many years to write it. sort of forgot. I was like, oh, yeah, this scene is a conversation that my mom and I had. Jeez. All right, so take me back, man. Take me back to Pakistan. You're a shy kid. You're, uh, I mean, what are you doing in grade school and high school? Were you, uh,

miss it or still? Were you just shy? Were you smart? I was smart. I always got good grades. I studied a lot and I watched a lot of movies and played a lot of video games. There were like years of my life where I watched a movie every day. I go to the rental store, get seven movies, watch a movie every day. Why do you think you did that? Was it escape? Was it something in the back of your head that was like, I want to do this?

Was it even... I don't think doing it was part of... That did not seem like a possibility. You know, you watch these movies. I mean, that's kind of the cool thing. It's like, you watch these movies and you think these people are like gods. And then you start doing it and you're like,

oh, they're just people who like worked really hard or whatever, you know? It's exciting. I just love movies and I love video games. And I think part of it was escape. I think I was pretty, I was pretty well adjusted. I just didn't like school at all. And I just was kind of a loner.

And I just loved, I loved watching movies. Alone. Like you had no friends or you just have one guy that you remember that you used to hang out with. I always only had like two or three friends that I was pretty close with. Do you ever talk to them now? I haven't seen them in many, many, many years. but they got back in touch with me sort of, you know, in high school, the three or four friends I had, they got back in touch with me.

And now I text with them all the time, but I haven't seen those guys in many, many, many years. How would you feel seeing them again? I'm excited to see them again. You would? I want to. Yeah, because, you know, high school was pretty rough for me. But those guys were great. Why was it rough?

I just got bullied a lot. You did. Yeah. And I was the kid. I was pretty shy, but up until, like, um, 11th grade. So we have like 13 grades over there basically. So up until the 11th grade, I was like, the nerdy kid that wasn't on anybody's radar. And when they, when I was on their radar, like generally people liked me, even the bad kids like liked me. But I was mostly

invisible, which was fucking perfect. And then I went to a different school in my last two years and I was not invisible. And it was pretty, pretty awful. And, uh, and, uh, and, I mean, And did they physically assault you? No, just emotional violence. It was really pretty bad. Give me an example. What would you go through? Like the worst one was probably there was a kid.

I've told this story before, but there was a kid who sort of was a friend. We'd sort of become friends. Like he'd been at that school longer. And I would help him with his homework and stuff. So he knew where I lived. And then one day, like, I was home alone and my doorbell rang. and I opened it and it was that guy and then a car pulled up

and all the bullies from high school were there and they threw eggs at me and my house so this guy who was my friend kind of sold me out to like the cool kids and they're like and then I had to like clean the eggs off my clothes and out of the driveway before my parents got home

so I wouldn't have to explain to them what was going on. Because we're embarrassed? Yeah and I was like 17 years old you know I'm like I'm not a little kid like it's fucking embarrassing to have eggs on your clothes when you're 17. How do you deal with that?

I mean, did you cry? I didn't cry. I just was destroyed. Did you think of killing them? Did you honestly think I'm going to find a way to kill them? Not kill them, but I do still dislike them very intensely. I'll run into people who are like, hey, I know this guy. And I'm like, what was it?

I think you thought of killing them. I don't think I thought. I wanted to. I could say that now. I wanted to beat them up real bad. Did you want them to die? I wanted them to be humiliated, death. was too easy i wanted them i wanted everything to be taken from them right yeah it was for no

reason i mean it sucks that they'd never paid for it they're like they did let me tell you something they're probably living karma is a bitch my friend i think that was in the movie uh the last boy scout is that right did he say yeah karma's a bitch or life's a bitch look it up um that's rob's here have you seen have you talked to robb yet hey rob how's it going doing good are rob from chicago rob from Chicago. See, I'm a good listener. Rob's a, he's a, he's together. Can you just tell this guy's together? Yeah, do you feel together? No, you don't. What do you mean? Um, oh man, you just stump me here. I, I think it's, I'm striving to be together. I think that you're not, no one's ever perfectly together. Right, but when you, I'm missing things in my life. Okay,

I'd like to find someone I can enjoy life with all the time. Sure. Not just Rob or friends or you know i know what you mean my assistant jess who i pay to be my friend i have a good life i do fun things i do great things i think i'm a good person yeah but am i together no there's certain things i do that i'm like why don't you do that or why don't you enjoy that more why can't you be more present here why are you distracted why are you why can't you just let things go yeah why can't you just be and that's all part of zen and shit and i and i i don't know are you together? Am I together? I feel fairly together. I certainly have times where I feel unmoored and floaty. Like last year there was a lot. You know, it was great. Our movie came out and it

did really well. And it's 40 million dollars last year, right? Yeah. Like this independent movie of the year. It made, you know, we made it for five and it made like 42 million or whatever. Did you have a piece of that? We didn't really make a lot of money on it, but that's okay. The people who took the risk. Well, you're not living in a, you know, worrying about rent in New York now. No, no, no. I'm doing okay. But you have another show. But from that movie, yeah, we didn't really do much money. But that's okay. The producers and the money people are the ones who took a risk and we got to, you know, have our dreams come true. Absolutely. Pretty great. Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money. I'm going to speak to you about something that's

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That's Q-U-I-N-C-E. dot com slash inside of you free shipping and 365 day returns quince dot com slash inside of you i feel pretty together but i do know that it's something that takes intention being together isn't something that i just am i just i know that i have to work at it and be aware of my pitfalls and the things that make me feel not together. So I have to have the things in place that allow me to feel together. Structure.

Yeah, I'm big on structure. So my days are, unless I'm working, which obviously imposes its own structure, but if I'm not currently working, I do have to have structure. Yeah, I have a schedule. What kind of schedule would that be? So I wake up in the morning.

What time? Generally, I like to be up right around eight. How many hours do you need? seven. Seven hours of sleep. I do need seven. But if I'm like right now, I'm probably waking up a little bit later like 839 and I'm not too hard on myself over that. But dude, I have to. You know, I mean, when I first moved to New York, I didn't have a job and Emily had a job and my life was a mess. I'd be up till 4 or 5 a.m. playing video games. It was. Did she, I mean, yeah, she probably. She was like, what are you doing? I'm like, we actually

sort of had to readjust our relationship and I had to readjust my life because of our time in New York pretty directly. I had to impose strict rules on my life. We came up with rules for our life, which are pretty surprising for people. What are those rules? So the one rule that we have that is pretty surprising is still. Yeah, still is Emily and I go to bed at the same wow yeah every day what if you have to learn lines for silicon valley so if i have to be up at 4 a.m i'm going to bed at 7 30 and she'll go with you yeah and you know it used to be good for her because she had a day job and i didn't so i'd be going to bed at you know 11 p.m and now she pays for it but it's it's a rule that we've had for we've been married 11 years and we've had this

rule for probably about, what was it, 2009, like eight or nine years. That's incredible. Could you imagine, Rob, when you go to bed, Natalie goes to bed, you join her? You go to bed around the same time. Obviously, there are, you know, if I'm out or we usually go out together, but if I'm out and she's home, but I would say 90%, 95%, 98%. If you said to me, when was the last time you didn't go to bed at the same time? I don't think I could come up with it.

This is remarkable. To imagine that where you're like, oh, my gosh, I want to see this new movie tonight. It's on Netflix. I'm going to watch. And she's like, oh, I'm really tired. Yeah. Oh, I guess I'm not watching that movie. Yeah.

Or you watch it while she sleeps. No. In bed. No, you have to sleep, right? No watching. The rule you're going to bed at the same time. No, if I was like, I'm going to watch something on my app, I'd be okay. But I've never done that.

I don't like to watch movies on computers or, iPads. I want to watch it on my TV. This doesn't mean you'll make love every night. No, this doesn't mean that we make love every night. Could you imagine? Because it's like... Yeah, sometimes we just fuck. Yeah. Well, this is what it is, right? So our relationship is

very important to us and it's the most important thing in my life. It's the single... It's the thing that's most important to me and that allows me to do everything else that I'm able to do that I feel very lucky to be able to do. It is the thing that allows me to do that. And so we were like, you know, relationship isn't something that just happens. The relationship requires work and it requires constant intentionality. And so we talk about a

relationship a lot and we've had to adjust it. Do you go to therapy at all? No. No therapy. Have you ever gone to therapy? I've never gone to therapy. Really? Yeah. I mean, listen, I know I should go, but I know there are certain things I need to work on. But Emily was a therapist. So, So it's not like she's my therapist. Does she let you know it, though? Like, I know this. This is the behavior of... Oh, yeah.

Like in the beginning, you know, when we were dating, I would get angry and not know why, and she'd be like, you're angry at me because of this. You're angry at this other thing. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess that's right. Living with her, being in a relationship with her, has really made me understand myself in ways that I never understood myself.

And obviously, this work to be done, but she really... And then, of course, you know, if we're in fights and she's like, you're doing this. And I'm like, don't fucking psychoanalyze me. And I hate it because I know she's right. Really? But yeah, so we had to sort of put in rules to just make sure that our relationship was strong.

What's another rule? Nothing as big as that. Nothing can top that rule of going to see. I mean, that's a big one. That's a big one, man. I don't know anyone who has that rule. And I don't know anyone who isn't surprised or shocked when they hear that rule. But it's not other rules like, hey, I'm going to snort a line of Coke tonight.

So you have to. No, but we generally, that would be a good rule. I mean, another rule that is a work rule, because we do work together, is that because it can become very easy to just have your work life and your love life sort of flow into each other, and you don't want to do that. So what rule we have is that if we're working on something together, you know, so we're like writing something together, you know, if we're hanging out and watching a movie and I get an idea for it, I have to ask her permission to bring it up.

I have to be like, hey, can we talk about work stuff? And if she says no, then that... You have to hold on to that thought? It's non-negotiable. I'll write it down, yeah. So you get mad or no, there's no, we're getting mad. You just don't do it. You just don't do it.

We've had that rule for not as long as the sleeping room. Has it ever been implemented in a way? Like, you was like, I got this idea, and you're like, sorry. Or did it come because you did it too much? It came because that is it too much. And it was you? It was me. Because you were always coming up with things.

Well, because Emily's very good at boundaries and I'm not. I get obsessed. So if I'm writing or something, I think about it all day, every day. My life is that. Whereas Emily is very good, first of all, at multitask. And she can, like, switch gears. She can work on multiple things at the same time. And she's very good at like, all right, at 6 p.m.

I'm not going to check my email anymore. And I am going to, this is me time. Really? 6 p.m. no more emails. I'm not good like that. I'm like at 10 p.m. texting. If I'm like working on a movie coming up, I'm texting the director at 10 p.m. I'm not good at those boundaries

She's very good at that I get very obsessed with the things I'm working on And I can't stop Whereas she's just got a more She's got a more healthy relationship to work than I do You know, maybe that's an important thing to do Maybe after 6 o'clock I turn my phone off Well, you know, you still want to talk to your friends and stuff

Maybe you still need to use Tinder Or they're not on Tinder Or what are you on? Well, I have one dating app Raya Yeah, that's Raya Fuck both you I mean look, I don't even

even know why I'm on it because it doesn't even work but if you want to if you want to date michael go on raya no uh look if you want to date michael and we connect on raya i would say you know if i say hey how's it going respond why the fuck are you on raya you know these people you respond you know and you connect and nobody ever responds everybody's too cool you have to play a game we're on an app you connected connect the whole point of the app is that you don't play the game be direct these fucking jokers you want to talk let's talk if you want to hang out let's hang out let's see what it is yeah you just hit a nerve can you see that i am so sorry well you didn't do it on purpose but it when i think about that it's just like it's garbage people are garbage it's like you know

if you don't connect with someone right or immediately delete me right just delete me or just be like you know what i change my mind yeah yeah you know i changed my mind i looked at your instagram you're an idiot i change yeah well you're in your underwear i don't like your physique it's got be so strange now to date you're lucky you can like google and find out everything about the This is why I'm not together. Now, this is why I'm not together. I'm sorry. You're married.

Rob here's 29 and married and a kid. You have a kid. Almost two-year-old. And you love this kid. Yeah, he's pretty great. You love this kid. And how does he feel about you? You're growing on him?

I mean, he's still kind of a little blob, but he likes me. Yeah. Oh, you're getting inside Rob. Cool. You guys having a kids in? No, we don't have kids. Do you want a kid? I don't know.

How old are you? I'm 40. That's not old. I don't know if I want a kid I just feel like we really like our lives and I don't know if we're like really looking to change that right now

because we just have a good time I don't know I like that I've never really like you know when I was a kid the things I loved or when I thought of my life I always assumed I'd have a kid

but then when I really thought about it It wasn't really something that was important to me. That doesn't mean I won't have a kid. And obviously, hopefully then it will be important to me. But, yeah, you don't want to have a kid and be like, oh, God, a huge mistake. Your dad talking about not wanting me five years ago. Well, let me ask you this. I want to go back for a second.

Yeah. You got eggs thrown at you. You were bullied. You feel horrible. You're cleaning up the mess. You don't want your parents to come in the finest to see how weak you are. Yes. Or how embarrassed you are.

Sure. So how, if you can, how do you go from a 17-year-old kid who's smart, sort of a loner, has a couple of friends, is bullied, how do you get? I mean, moving to the States changed your life, right? If you were there, if you stayed, you're not here right now, right? No, no, no, no, not at all. I would probably be a doctor or something like that. I would probably be a doctor. Yeah, coming to the States.

When did you find out? Do you remember the day your dad's... said hey that what well why'd you move to the states oh i moved alone for college i didn't oh you just moved i just moved i thought maybe your family moved my family came here much later much later yeah like 10 years later so you decided to move the states when you were going to go to college where'd you go to college uh it's a small school called grinnell college and grinnell iowa what made you go there first of all i didn't know how big america was and how many different kinds of cities there are. You watch movies. It's all New York or L.A. And you're like, oh, America is like

a big city. Yeah, but you pick Rommel. Well, I show up and I was like, this is not the America that I was advertised. Right. Not that it's bad. Not that it's bad, but it's very different. I thought truly all of America was the same. It's absurd how big this country is. It's absurd that all of this is one country. No wonder we have problems. How many people are in Pakistan? It's like a, it's 20 million And there, it's like, I think it's like 50 million. What is it? What's the number? 193.2 million.

Yeah, we have 350 million. Three hundred and six. Huge. We're bigger. Yeah, but you're also much bigger geographically. Yes, true. And politically, obviously. Yeah, I moved to America and I went to college and it was just the first time.

I don't think I was a person until then. Like I, I wasn't a person until I was 20. And that's when I realized that I was funny. and that people were interested in things I had to say. I never had that feeling. When did you find out you were funny or when did you discover? Where in college, what happened that made you go, wait a minute, something's a different here? I was just like making fun of something.

And I remember my friends were laughing so hard. They couldn't like, they were just like couldn't, they couldn't talk, their tears down. Are they stoned? No. And I remember being like, hey, this is pretty great. It's like a superpower. And that's when I realized, I was like, oh, I am funny. And people would be like, you know, Camel's.

he's the funny one. And I was like, I didn't, I didn't know that. And it was really, really exciting to finally, if you had told me before the age of 19, describe yourself, I wouldn't be able to describe myself in any way other than, I don't even know if I would say shy, because I didn't even know what I was. You just were. I just was a blob, you know. I never felt like a person until I'd been in America a couple of years. And honestly, the people I was surrounded by were like so nice. and kind and interested. I just had not had the feeling of someone being interested in anything I had to say until I was probably 20 years old. That is beautiful and sad. And I understand that because I went through it. I'm sure. You grew up in New York.

No, I was born in New York. I grew up in Indiana. But I understand the sense that I wasn't like, I mean, no one threw eggs. Well, I mean, not eggs. But, you know, I just remember going, what do I have to all? offer what i'm lost in the crowd here i don't fit in anywhere and it wasn't until i went to college till i was about 20 that i started to realize also that um wow my friends like they're like you're funny listen to him do this impression listen to this guy he's funny so i had to find

kind of channel that what am i doing with this kind of and then you had success pretty early on how old were you no i i graduated college in 95 i went to new york and i got like this independent it moving in like 97 and then I started to get some success in 98 so it was like 26 that's three years though that's pretty quick pretty yeah after college yeah three years after college but I stayed an extra year in college because I wasn't that bright but what I'm saying is up till college like you I didn't know yeah I was done I mean 26 is early of course but it's not that early I mean some people have their life changed at like Justin Bieber 20 yeah well I mean that's a special case but I see you know you sort of around people and you see someone who's like

20 or 21 and suddenly become a huge star and that's going to be weird. So what do you say to people who are like lost? There's a lot of people in high school that are just meandering through life just saying going to go, what's going to happen to me? I always try to say, hey, hang on. You know, like, do I go to college? I'm like, yes, not because of you to figure, it's to figure, to grow up a little more. Figure out who you are, you know, and it's very, it's, I know, I, I'm sure there are people

who are struggling through high school. And when I had that, it doesn't feel like it's ever going to be over. Like, I wasn't looking forward to graduation as like, thank God, I'm out of here. I wasn't thinking of it like that. I was like this feeling that could you understand that you're not going to be around these people your whole life? But I don't think I understood that this feeling would go away at some point. I thought that life was feeling like this. I did not think, I did not connect the way I felt directly with the way these things.

people were making me feel. I felt like I deserve to feel like this. And if it's not these people making me feel like this, doesn't mean I won't be feeling like this. Like, this is what it's going to be. It's going to be, you're going to be alone. You're not going to know who you are. Nobody's going to give a shit about you. And that every moment is going to be pretty useless and painful. And I wouldn't say I was depressed. I never felt like that. I feel, I feel lucky that that that's not something that I've had to deal with. But that feeling of being unwanted and useless and not being good at anything

and not knowing what you want to do, I never felt like that would go away, you know? And the great thing is it will. And it will go away. It will go away. Like, listen, if you have bullies in high school, I don't know how to fight back through that. I don't, I have no advice for you there.

Fight back by succeeding. By just figuring out who you are and figuring out what you want to do, you may not be able to defeat them in high school. I certainly wasn't. Figure out what you like and what you want to do and try and stick with it. It's hard. I mean, you know, I was, I started doing comedy in 2001 and the 2001, and I didn't get my first job that paid me money in comedy until 2008. So it was seven years. But so college you started doing.

doing stand-up around that time? My freshman, my senior year was the first time I did it. Do you remember the first time you went up? Did people were, they're encouraging? You're like, you got to go do it. You got to go do it. Oh, my God. The first time I went up is to this day, maybe the best set I've ever had. Are you serious? Yeah, I was, uh, um, I just sort of got obsessed with stand-up, you know?

So I, I realized I was funny. My friends realized, were like, you're funny. I got upset. I'd never really seen stand-up and I got obsessed with stand-up. I watched so much. Who are you watching? Who are your idols? So I loved, I loved Jerry Seinfeld. Loved him.

I really, really loved Zach Alfenakis. Oh, Jesus. Really loved this guy, Mitch Headberg, who has since passed away. Mitch Heardberg has one of the best lines. He goes, Rice is a great snack if you're ever in the mood for 2000 of something. Yeah, he's the best, man. He was funny, yeah. Loved him, love Stephen Wright.

There's a guy named Jake Johansson, who's really, really, really funny, who was a big reason why I start. And Conan. I mean, dude, I watched that late night the Conan show and him and Andy and being obsessed with it. And so those are the people. And Beavis and Butthead. Good. I love Beavis and Butthead. I just was like I'd never seen comedy like that.

And same with Conan watching like the weird. I realized. I used to do sketch comedy on Conan when I first went to New York within like a year. How really? I did like this character called the Amsterdam Kids. They were misinformed about Amsterdam's liberal soul. social policies and I did like six, we were characters that didn't make the show, but then they liked us enough and they kept bringing us back. And so we'd make like 600 bucks and go, I was like,

oh my God, I'm making like money to be on late night this Conan show before it was. And how great is that? Who were you, who were the other people in the sketch? Nobody really, but my manager represented a bunch of nobody's like, uh, I think maybe it was Chappelle. Oh, nobody's like David Chappelle. I'm kidding. But he was like, I think Louis C. Kay and Mitch Hedberg and those were his clients and me i was like an actor and i you know he didn't but he was like i want to represent you how great but i remember going to see those stand-up comedians in new york uh back when those guys shappelle and louis and all those yeah yeah so i got really really obsessed with stand-up and i watched so much of it like good stuff what was your first set how long that's another

crazy thing i did like fucking 25 minutes the first time i got on stage were you just improvising no no no i wrote it all down i still write down all my stand-up um so it's never improvised you always have a set like you don't i'll go off the script now all the time all the time all the time but i always go on with something that i have written down word for word and then try and forget it on stage i write a lot on stage but i don't go up on stage like oh i'll just talk about this i won't choose to do that sometimes i'll go on and think of something and just go off um but but i always i write up my whole joke so i wrote out so so what happened was junior year i'm i'm i sort of of have this, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I'm freaking out. You know, it's a year

left. Your parents are asking you what was going on there. Yeah, yeah. And I sort of studied, you know, I studied philosophy and I studied computer science. And the assumption was I would go into computer science programming. And I was no good at it. And it gave me nothing. And I kind of was really going through an existential crisis in college, being like, I don't know what I'm going to do and then there was an open mic this friend of mine who was a year older than me started doing these comedy open mics at this coffee shop on campus and i went and watched it and it was just like he was really funny and everybody was really funny it was like four or five people you just sign up and do it and the crowd was packed and i was like my friends were like you should try it

and i was like i have to try it it was that thing where it just hurt to not try it i i just how scared were you? Terrified. But my fear was only slightly less than my need to try it. It just, I just could not not try. I had no choice. I like what you just said. What? Your fear was only slightly less than your need to do it. I really, it's, I had no option. I truly had no option. And you remember going up? I remember, so I wrote down all these jokes, you know, I had like, I wrote a bunch of jokes. I would sort of, again, I was obsessed with it. So I was just like all the time just writing, writing, writing. What was your first joke?

The first thing you said. I remember one of my first jokes was I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to have a unit of measurement named after myself. Because all the cool scientists have them, you know, like Jules, Newton, Mr. Kilometer. But I wanted something cool, you know. Like I wanted like, turn the torpedoes up to five Nangiani. Like five Nangianis. way too much

most people can't handle one non-giani that was like my first that was like my first joke that's funny um and uh I did like 25 minutes I worked on it and how did you feel I felt like a fucking god did you feel right I felt like

I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it I was terrified I went on stage and I did my whole thing and I fucking crushed it's all listen it's all my friends it's very supportive this is like like the best environment. The coffee shop is packed.

I sort of became, I was still like pretty shy, so I wasn't like a celebrity on campus, but people every now and then be like, hey, you did that thing. Like, I remember this guy who was in the,

he was a baseball player. He was a very nice guy, but he was like this jacked huge baseball player. And I was like, I'd done it once. And I was sitting in and doing homework. And he was like, hey, you did that.

He's like, you're so funny. I was like, thank you. He's like, how many times have you done it? And I was like, once.

He was like, that was your first time? And I was like, yeah, he's like, holy shit, man. You got to keep doing it. And I remember getting off stage and feeling really cocky and feeling like, oh, I found something. I know I can be good at. I like, I knew immediately at that point. I was like, I know there's a lot of work to do.

I don't know if I'll ever be successful. I don't know where this goes. But I found something. thing that I know I can be good at, that I want to, that is exciting to me. Do you know the first time, do you remember the first time you bombed? I do remember the first time. Was it the next time? Nope.

So I did it that, you know, so this, this thing would happen once a semester, right? So I did that. I did the, my first semester senior year, I did this 25 minutes set, killed top to bottom. It was, and I'm not being cocky. It was a very supportive environment, but it really, really, you know, it could not have gone better. I remember there was this like really cute girl who worked at the coffee shop who was like way out of my league and I saw her laughing and I was like, okay, this is new. This feeling is great. So then the next semester, right before I graduate, I do it again. I write another 20 minutes completely different. It goes really well again. Not as good as the first time, but but good. But really, really good. You know, so in one year, I'd done it twice. And at that point, I was like, I got to move to a place where.

I got to try this. I don't know if I'm going to be successful with this, but I got to keep going. So I moved to Chicago because I knew, you know, the people that I really looked up to, like Bill Murray and Wilfarrell. Yeah, every, I mean, you know, now it's like Corell and Colbert and Tina Faye and everybody's from Chicago. So I moved there and I remember I opened the Chicago Reader, which is like sort of the local hip, you know, newspaper and looked at open mics and just sort of went out. went out and just signed up for open mics and started doing open mics and that was like a really good I mean when I started dude these are the people who were started comedy around me in Chicago it was um do you know like Hannibal Burris do you know him him and I started around the same time

T.J. Miller started around the same time Pete Holmes started around the same time this guy Kyle Kinane who's like super fucking funny he was like one of the funniest guys in the world where you started around the same time so we had this like cool crazy crew of people and we would perform to empty crowds and there was a comedy club in town and so I've been doing it for like two, three, four months and I hadn't had a bad set yet and it sort of gotten in with these comedians and things were going really well. I was sort of like the new funny guy, you know, and I was writing all the time and I was doing really well and then I got to do a guest set at the comedy club. It's called Zanis. So that was like,

Zanis. You know Zanis? I know Zanis. Yeah. It's a great. club um did you ever go to zanis rob yeah do you know where it is i used to shoot a lot of comedy yeah like up and yeah i've shot hannibal and kyle there where at up comedy club at second city oh up yeah that was that was that started after i left i've done it since then it's a great space so zanis you go there and you think you're got confidence you've been killing it yeah yeah and i was it packed was it was packed i got a 10-minute guest set in front of someone i don't remember who it is But there's a headliner and I get a 10-minute guest that's like an audition spot. And I'm not, I'm not cocky at this point.

Are you nervous? Each time going up for me is very nerve-wracking still. Still. It's still nerve-wracking. But I'm doing well on stage, but it's, I don't mean today it's not nerve-wracking, but at that point, it was nerve-wracking. And it was nerve-wracking for years and years. I didn't stop being nervous to go on stage until just a few years ago.

So I'd be nervous every time. So I'm nervous. I go on stage and I do my, at this point, I just have like 10 minutes. That's everything I have. So all the college stuff, I've tried it. Very little of it works outside. I have 10 minutes that work.

So I've got like, I know where I'm starting. Two minutes is killer. Then I got other stuff. Then I know the last two minutes is killer. You know, that's how it's structured. And the middle stuff is good. It works. But I know where to start.

Kill them in the beginning. Kill them in the end. Yeah. So I go on and I do my killer stuff in the beginning. And it's just not working. I'm not like bombing at this moment. but I am not doing as well as I'm used to doing. Is your heart beating?

My heart's beating. I start sweating. My ears get hot. I could see all their faces looking at me. And I see that feel. And I don't know if I'm putting this on them or if in my head. You're nervous. In my head, I could see that they're thinking, why is this guy on stage?

I could see in my head that they're thinking, why does this guy deserve to be on stage? He's not good at this. He doesn't deserve to be on that stage. What is he doing on that stage? Oh, boy. And I could see that on their faces. How debilitating is that? So I do the first two minutes, and every moment is a gut punch.

I do the first two minutes, and I don't have them. And so immediately I go, all right, I got to go to my strongest. So then I go to my last two minutes. And I do that, and I don't have them. And at this point, I've done all the best shit I have. And now you have your middle shit. I have my middle shit for six minutes. and I know I got to do it

I know I got to be on stage because if you go short No laughs, very few laughs Very few laughs I bet if I look back on it now It was better than you thought I bet it was better than I thought But I remember

And I'm just on stage And I've got six minutes left And I'm just going through my material And I could just see their faces They're eating They're drinking They're just looking at me like They're looking at me like

Why did he think he could do this? Why does he think he can he can do this and that either gets you incredibly motivated or it makes you just say fuck i'll never do this again oh my god dude well this is what happens so i finish it i get off stage i leave the place it might have been honestly it might have been opening for like richard lewis or someone i don't know he wasn't there he didn't watch richard lewis would always wait in the car outside until the mc introduced him did you like richard lewis i don't really know his stuff that well so i can't really i got yeah who's to say everybody likes people for you know

for different reason yeah let's just say that i don't really uh i don't really not too familiar with his work i knew who he was right famous so you walk off i walk off i go home and i'm like i have to get on stage immediately to get rid of that like i i i was like i cannot wait to get back on stage and have that not be the last night when'd you go back on stage probably if it wasn't the next day was the day after that. It was pretty soon. It was not that day. That day I went home and I like cried. Dude, I...

Numb. You're numb. I was... No, I wasn't numb. I was feeling it. I didn't cry, but I was devastated. I was awful. But the good thing was, by that point, I've probably been on stage 35 to 40 times.

So I knew, just intellectually. I wasn't like, I'm a fraud. I was like, okay, so that's 40 good ones and one bad one, got to get rid of the bad one. So then I got up back on stage, did well. And then obviously since then I've bombed many times.

But after that first one and then doing well the next time, I understood like, oh, this is part of it. There are going to be sets you do that aren't going to be good. And that doesn't mean you're not a good stand-up, but your job is to make sure that minimize those. And you can still bomb, But the floor goes up, the worst set you can have goes up, and hopefully you have them less often. And I remember there was this message board in Chicago.

This was early 2000s that like all the comedians would go to and post like just shit about Chicago. Like I got a new show coming and watch this or there's a good open mic here or mostly just people fucking fighting with each other. But I wrote this long post about how it felt to like bomb. And I remember a lot of comedians sort of were supportive, and that was really, really helpful. Wow. Yeah. It was a very supportive crew. Because we didn't really play to big audiences generally, and we didn't really do that comedy club that much, we were sort of trying to make each other laugh.

And it was a real emphasis on being original and having a point of view. That's what was important. like if you were hacked you would get it was pretty merciless so we so so i so i think that's kind of why so many great comedians came from that little point in time because um because i think we really you know pushed each other to to try and find our our voice we didn't do it for a long time but we knew from the beginning that that's what and then you moved to new york and then i moved and then uh basically so i did i was doing standing up in Chicago and, you know, you sort of get to do the best shows pretty quickly. And I was

spitting my wheels. The plan was be in Chicago for two years and go to New York. Get a set, get an hour-long set. Is that what you were aiming at? Yeah, but I wasn't even thinking of it like that, because even in New York, even if you're doing really well, you don't get an hour-long set for a while. I hadn't really, didn't really have a plan beyond just move to New York and do stand-up. So the plan was two years. I stayed for six years in Chicago. And those were probably when I look back on like my career, that was probably the most static time. That was probably the worst time for me was the last three years in Chicago where I was doing the same show, just going out with my buddies. It was fun, but I just was kind of stuck in spinning my wheels. And I didn't

realize until much later that I was just scared of trying to take you to the next level, you know? But you know what broke me out of my malaise was the stuff that happens in the big sick. I met this girl. I fell in love with her without knowing it. She got really, really, really, really sick. And that was where? That was in Chicago. That was in Chicago, right, right, right. Yeah. I forgot. It was, I remember city. I just remember where. Dude, and you don't think of it like, you know, when something like that happens, you don't think of it like, oh, uh, life is fleeting. And, we all are mortal and we have to live our lives and figure out what we want to do and you've got to do it right now and seize the moment you don't think of it like that but within her after her waking up within three months we we had changed completely everything about our lives within three months of that we had gotten married secretly I had quit my job she had quit her job and we had both moved to New York for me to like try and make it in comedy within three months I mean this and it's such an aft up story so is it true that she's She heckles you one night and you sleep with her the same night?

No. That didn't happen. Then that happened in the movie? Yes, that happens in the movie. But in real life, she heckled me. And I was like, oh, my God, that girl's really cute. And I looked for her at the show afterwards and she was gone. She was so embarrassed.

She left. Then a couple days later, I run into her at another place. And then you had sucks. At a bar. No. Okay. I was like, you heckled me. And it's the same conversation that's in the movie pretty much.

And I write my, you know, I write her name in her do, which was my move at the time. Okay, so you got her number. You started talking. We start talking. How many dates? What do you mean? How many times did you go out before she got sick? Oh, we were together for a few months.

For a few months. Yeah. You were in love? Yeah, but I didn't know it. And we didn't say that to each other. Right. And then you find out she gets sick, right? So she gets sick.

Most people would run. Most people would be like, you know, I wasn't. I don't know what that was. Again, it did not feel like I had a choice. So you dated a couple of months. Probably about eight months we'd been dating. So we've been dating for a while. And she just was sick.

And, but I didn't even think she was that sick. It was just like a flu that wouldn't go away, you know? And she also likes to hide it. So she didn't let on how sick she was. And then I remember there was a day where she was just going to the doctor. her in the afternoon and I was at work and I just kept calling her to be like how did the doctor's appointment go how did the appointment go and I couldn't get in touch with her and I did the show and I remember freaking out what's going on then she finally texted me and she was like I'm in the

emergency room and I went there that night and she said that she'd gone to the doctor and the doctor called an ambulance and sent her to the hospital she was that sick and I hung out with her that night and she was like awake and the next morning the doctor came and put her in a coma and I remember I watched them put her in the coma it's like not good if I hope you're never in a position

where someone you know is being put in a medically induced coma but if you are in a position where that's going to happen do not be there for it do not watch it because they won't remember it because the medication that they used

to put you in a medically induced coma gives you amnesia you know it is just you don't want to watch it because it's very violent the body really fights it she they really fight it she really fought it was it terrifying yeah they like tied her down and and they you know it's just don't do it don't be there for that you can still remember exactly what it was like and they don't give a shit because they do so many of these so they weren't like hey turn away i just watched them do it anyway and i remember had you said you loved her at this point? No, but I remember seeing her laying there when the thing was over and she was in her

coma and the doctors had left. I remember specifically seeing her in that coma, laying there and being like, if she comes out of this, we're going to get married. I remember that was one of the first thoughts I had. I know it sounds a little creepy because it's... No, no, no, no. It almost made me cry. Yeah, But it really, I remember seeing her like that and being like, if she comes out of this, we're going to get married. Why? Why? I don't know. I think, you know, I was probably because my parents wanted me to marry someone else. There was all this fear. And there was just a lot of things I was afraid of in my life that I was afraid to confront just because they were too big. And so my feelings for her weren't clear to myself. But in that moment, they became very clear to me. In that moment, as I saw her laying there like that. I was like, oh, I love this girl. And if she comes out of this, we're going to spend the rest of our lives together.

I had that like very clear. It just became very clear. Was it just overwhelming? Yeah. You know, and then that whole time, so people who haven't seen the movie, she in real life, she was in a coma for eight days. And the whole time, they have no idea what's going on.

And she's getting worse and worse and worse. and people sort of think of it as being brave that I was there the whole time or brave that I don't know just to be there I never felt brave I just felt very scared it was fear and you just do it because that's all there is to do you sort of do it because you you what else are you going to do you know you're either going to be there or not you wanted to be there I didn't even want to be there I had to be there I needed to be there I just didn't there there was no other option. There was no decision. There was no choice. It was

this is where I am until. When she woke up. Yeah. Do you remember that moment? So basically you know, I would sort of hang out with her parents and we were they flew in from North Carolina. And they didn't like you at first? No, they

you know, we changed a little bit in the movie but it was just very awkward. Of course, yeah. But it was also that feeling of we're the only people in the world that really know what we're going through. Nobody else. understands. I remember I would go to like Walgreens and get really angry at people buying gum being like, how do you get to have a normal life? Why, why? Fuck you. That feeling of, yeah, why is the world going on? Why are these people laughing? Basically, we would go there,

and I had a day job, an office job, and I just stopped going. I would go, I had her car, I kept her car. They were staying at her apartment. I would go, pick them up at like nine in the morning, would be there and we'd sort of hang out all day. because she had like eight different specialists. And, you know, someone comes at 9.30 and someone comes at 10.30. So you know when their rounds are and you're sort of there until 6 or 7 p.m. Well, you're not allowed to visit anymore. So you sort of, it was like your job.

You just go hang out in the waiting room. You meet with all the doctors each day and they tell you what they're working on. And at the end, you go home and you return the next day. And I remember in the elevator up to her floor was always when I had, the hope because I was like all the other time you know she's not getting better because you know if she got better you'd get a fucking text they would call her parents her parents would call me and I had my phone on me the whole time and I had her phone on me the whole time but on the elevator when you wouldn't get a signal you'd be like oh I could get out of the elevator and I could have

that text I could have that missed call you know so the elevator is when you really felt the hope you know and I remember in the beginning you're like the hospital you're lost don't know where to go and then by the end you're like you got to walk from here to there this is the best elevator you take this up you know the most efficient way to get to a room and I remember there was the three of us we got off the elevator and one of her it was her doctor and the doctor's like assistant who's also a doctor we got off and the doctor was very stern but she was like congratulations we're like what And they're like, she's up.

And I remember, I was like, gunning down the hall, getting down the hall. And oh, my God, I'm getting all emotional. You walk and you look in there. And it was pretty similar to how it's in the movie, except I was with her parents. And you look in and she was sitting up and awake. There's a machine that she's hooked up to with all these numbers. And the nurse had taught me, like, okay, these are the two numbers you're looking for. This number is bad because it's this.

It should be this. and this number is bad because it's this, it should be this. And I remember seeing her and first looking and the numbers being under the numbers, you know, the numbers are good for the first time. And she's up and just being like, oh, my, it's just like subtly everything just sort of lifts and goes away. And the nurse is like, you know, she's out of it. Like it's going to take her a long time to recover.

She's going to need physical therapy because if you don't move your muscles for eight days, days, everything stops working. They're like, she's going to be on a respirator still for a long time. But the three of you, the parents, too, all just emotional. So, was everybody emotional? Yeah, it was just emotional. And it wasn't even complicated emotions. It was just pure joy.

It was just like happy. And was she just, she's miserable. She's miserable. She's miserable because she has no idea. She remembers what's happening? She goes, she remembers going to the doctor. And suddenly she, like, can't talk. She can't move anything.

She's got this thing down her throat that's very painful. And so that's the other weird thing is that for her, for us, when we're at our most, you know, feeling despair, she doesn't, she's out. She doesn't remember. And then when we're feeling joy, she feels despair and pain. And so the next two weeks for her, I mean, the next few months for her are very, very tough. It takes her a while to get back to. When did she tell her, I mean, she, she'd been under for eight days. Well, I'm sure you told her right away, right?

No, because they said, you know, for a few days, she's not going to remember these next few days because they have to wean her off the medication that puts her in the coma. Yeah. So you could tell her, but you died would tell her again. And I remember the other weird thing is as we, because we were then packing up and moving, and I used to get Entertainment Weekly's, you know, we both used to read Entertainment Weeklys. And she was like, when we were moving and packing to go to New York, she was like, wait, I haven't seen this one. And I was like, oh, that's the fucking week that you were under.

That's why you don't, you don't, you don't remember that. Yeah. And then, you know, we sort of knew she was okay. And it just took her up. It just takes a while. She had to learn to walk again and all that stuff. Did you tell her when you were in that coma, when I watched you, I had this feeling. I knew what I wanted to marry you.

I told her later. her yeah how long did that take before you told her probably not too long i mean i think we actually talked about you know we didn't have a traditional proposal what she say i mean did she say right away like you're crazy no she was she felt the same way about me as i felt about her um oh were you scared that she might not no i knew she did really yeah i we we sort of talked about it and we went and you know once she was healthy enough we went and stood in line at the courthouse and just went and got married and went to brunch afterwards. How close are your parents with her now?

Very close. We're all pretty close. Everybody's tight. Her family, your family, everybody's tight. Yeah. How nice is that? It's great. It's great.

I mean, that's the thing that I had was even though my mom didn't approve of her, she knew, she saw how I was when she was sick. So she knew that this was real, you know? So she just at that point... If he's here for this, he's going to be here for anything. Yeah, she just knew that it wasn't going to... I wasn't going to... This was going to happen, and she just had to do the best she could to get on board.

Have you thought of writing a sequel, The Big Sick 2, where you get sick? Say if she sticks around. Yeah. It's Big Sick 2 is just this. It does this podcast, and then there's a guy. He's cutting, you know, he's mowing the lawn outside, and he's running the awkward. Yeah, we had a gardener. We had to cut some stuff out if you heard some stuff.

The gardener was pretty loud. But he was just doing his job, right? Yeah, he was doing his job. Yeah. I remember you were telling the story, and you looked at me like, what is happening here? Yeah, I just, I thought it was in the headphones. We had sound effects for your story. Yeah, it was sound effects.

We put gardening sound effects over your story. Yeah, it really, really put you, even though there was no garden in the story. So you're the fourth season in Silicon Valley? Five. We've done five. You've done five. How many are you going to do? Do you enjoy it still?

I do. I mean, I love the show. It changed my life. and I love everyone I work with. I don't know how many more they're going to do. It's sort of up to them, you know. But you'll do whatever. You'd like to be a part of it as long as it lasts?

Yeah. Martin's Star, I worked with Martin. What'd you guys do? We did a short film years ago called Eyeball Eddie. Oh, I know of it. You do? I haven't seen it, but I know what it is. He's a wrestler, right?

Yeah, we did a little short film, and I really loved working with it. Do you, are you still in touch with him? Yeah, he played football with us a couple years ago. He came out and played football. weekend i i organize like co-ed football and softball oh really stuff like that yeah i was texting with him this morning you got to give him my love he's such a sweetie i will i will tell him right after this uh this is this is been great i mean so you're do look dave batista and i we're friends he texts me and he says camille wants to be on the show i'm like really he'll do it

i was so excited i was like oh that's great he's i texted with dave today about something else and he was like i heard you doing rosy's podcast is that what he calls you Yeah. I just saw him in Houston. And he actually tweeted. I have people, you know, send tweets, questions. Wait, what are you all doing in Houston? Are you following me? I think you should be following me. I do follow you. Do you follow me? Yeah. Okay, good. Because Dave Batista says, ask Camel how he got the glute so tight for Mike and Dave need wedding dates. Dad asks and why he loves sad songs. That's what Dave Batista at Dave. Wow, those are two very personal questions. I did a lot of squats for my nude scene in my... Did you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a lot of squats. You know, I didn't quite get to where I wanted to get to. But would you show Emily your ass intermittently, like throughout the weeks and say, hey, it looked better? No, I knew how it looked. I didn't get where I knew, wanted to get to. Every day.

How does my app look? Just like it did a minute ago. Well, she loves me, so she doesn't tell me the truth. But I really tried to get in shape for that, and I didn't quite get what I wanted to. to get to because I'm like super naked for like solid five minutes of that movie. Dong? No dong.

Alder the director did say that he had to CGI my, CGID. My balls and my taint out. C-G-I-B-T. Yeah, I did you take it. C-G-I balls and taint. Right, all right. So, and you and I both love sad songs. I love, I love, do you love 70 sad songs?

Which ones? Like, I'm not talking about moving. and I don't want to change your life. No, I don't know that. Or how about, I like, I like 70s ballads and foreigner. Yeah, I love that stuff, too. What's your favorite foreigner song? What is the big one?

What are their big one? They say, I want to know what love it. Yeah, I love that one. I've been waiting for a girl like. I love, you know what? What do you like? I like a lot of like, like my favorite is Bruce Springsteen. He's got a lot of great set songs.

Hey little girls. I like that one. Yeah, that one's great. That one's a, that's a sexy song. Thank you. Hey, little girl, is your daddy home? Did he go and leave you all alone? Ooh, that is creepy. I want to take it high. Yeah. That video is good, too. But what's sad songs? I like, you know, I love the river, Bruce Springsteen. That's a very sad song. I love, I love a lot of, like, really sad folk singers. There's a guy named Bill Moore. Morrissey, who's passed away. He has two great breakup albums. I love Dylan, Bob Dylan, of course, you know.

He has an album called Standing 8 that is one of the saddest breakup albums. Love that. Then he has another one. Listen to this. So he has, Standing 8 is his album that's like the angry breakup, you know, where like fuck you. And the songs are like that. They're like sad, but with anger.

And then he got remarried and broke up with that one. And that breakup is more like about, like, we're still friends, just the love went away. It's like a little more wistful. It's like sort of love fading away rather than exploding. I like Tom Waits too, but you know, Tom Waits, right? But that album is called Something I Saw or Thought I Saw, which is a great title for a breakup album. Something I Saw or Thought I Saw. Ken Marino says favorite things about Ken Marino.

Do everything about Ken Marino? Be Detailed. How, uh, I love how. how not narcissistic he is. I like that he's not focused on himself and that he really, really. I do love Ken, man. I did this series called Burning Love with Ken

that he was the star of and he directed and we had the best time and it was really early on. It was before Silicon Valley. We'd done this monster movie together called Bad Milo and that's where we met and I've been a fan of his for a long time and we had the best time.

I love Ken. Robert Lee Gardner at Bob is Going Ham. Will you ask Camel if he's ever going to bring the X-Files podcast back. I really miss that show. I think there may be a special here and there, but it's tough to go back. It's tough for me to go back and do that show again.

I love that show. And there was a little time where I was just taking stuff I loved and making work out of it. And now I enjoy just having it be something fun. I like it. Pop culture mama? Pop culture mama. Yeah, read.

I'd love to know if working at Silicon Valley has changed how Camel think. about technology in his life. Yes. I always thought of technology as just being a positive, and now I understand how technology can really, really ruin our lives as well, that it's not a force for good or a force for bad. It's a force, and it can be used for good or bad.

And in some ways, it's many, many, many times bigger and more powerful than us, and it's scary. Did you say that line on the show? I should say it on the show. It sounds like it was written for you. It's very, very scale. And the scary thing is that the people who are the heads of these tech companies have free reign. They seem to have no focus on the ethical or moral implications of what they're doing or what they make and be used for bad.

I think this is something that people are talking about now, but for years and years, these people have just been stomping around doing nothing. There aren't laws about the Internet or anything because the people who make laws are completely out of touch. with how fast technology is moving. I mean, we've seen, you know, the negative, like all the fake news shit on Facebook and how that affected us and changed our world. And it's very scary. Nothing's being done about it. I mean, you've got a lot of stuff you're always working.

What's this Men in Black spin-off film? Yeah, just finished shooting that. I just got back Friday from London. It's Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Chris Hemsworth. How sexy is he? Too much. Too much.

He walks into a room and changes. just the gravity of it i fucking hate it he's so handsome and so funny and so nice that's such a good dad right good family guy oh god so buff oh god can't hand i'm not gay but i give that dude a handy oh yeah you know you're not gay but if you see a unicorn you got to write it you know fucking write it hard dude absolutely that's a unicorn he doesn't count that doesn't count him and tessa thompson are both fantastic and what's the batista movie you did oh dude i did this movie with Batista we had the best time i hope the movie's going to be good i haven't seen it yet let me tell you what he said to me and he honestly this was unsolicited he said camille

is an awesome serious actor like his moments when he i'm like taking a back like i'm like oh my god how good you are well that's what he said well batista's so good i don't want to tell you he is such a good dude i mean listen in hollywood you always hear about everybody's great and this guy's great But Dave Batista, he was on the show And his podcast was coming out He is one of my favorite But wasn't he your favorite, Rob? Not my favorite, but he's not favorite.

I mean one of your favorite. Well, you're my favorite. Yeah, there we go. One of the nicest guys. I will tell you, Batista is probably the most good person. He's a big person. Genuine. I'm very lucky that I have a number of good people in my life

and I feel very, very lucky that Batista's a new, good, genuinely good person I have in my life who is also he's a fucking great actor and he's so funny and I learned so much working with him and we had the best

time doing this movie it's a movie called Stuber it comes out next May it got a really big release date Oh good Yeah it's like Memorial Day or whatever

So they must like it I hope it's good man We had the best time It's a big funny action comedy Enjoy it And see what happens We shot in Atlanta

Fell in Love with Atlanta I fell in love with Dave Batista. I mean, it really was. I could not ask for a better professional and personal experience. What's your Twitter handle? Kamel N-K-U-M-A-I-L-N. And what's your Instagram handle? Same thing.

Same thing. Camille, thank you for allowing me to be inside of you today. Oh, thanks for being inside of me. I mean, this was so easy and fun. Yeah, I had a blast, man. Thanks for opening up, almost getting emotional. No, I like that. I like it.

conversation. I just wanted to know more about you. Oh, well, thanks for having me. Had a great time. And please invite me to your horror movie nights. Emily and I are massive horror fans. Me too. I love movies. I see martyrs sitting over there. Oh, yeah. Wasn't that disturbing? That movie is, that is a hard-ass movie. Did you see Dead Girl? Yes.

That was fucked up. Yeah. That's kind of fucked up. What's your top three right now, horror movies of all time? It changes, you know? It's hard to get away from, like, you know. How about scariest? The ones that really, I'll tell you something. And Blair Witch, the first time I saw it before the hype, scared the shit of me. Paranormal activity the first time scared the shit out of me. The Shining, the Exorcist, the Omen, those movies. I would put Silence of the Lambs up there for me.

All those movies are definitely movies that scared the shit out of me. I mean, you know, in paranormal activity, when that person is just standing there and times going and they're just like not moving, so fucking good. All those movies are really, really good. I think we should write a horror movie together. I would love to do a horror movie. I feel a little scared to do a horror movie. movie because I don't know how to do it. To me, the real...

You could do it better than most of the people. It feels magical to me. Like, you know, most movies I watch and I learn and I'm like, all right, you know, because the big sick was our version of like rom-coms, but also those James L. Brooks movies like broadcast news or terms of endearment, like, that's what we wanted to make our version of that. And with horror, Emily and I have talked. And we want to do horror, but to both of us.

just feels like magic like I don't know how they do well I think that what happens is they just throw every all these studios throw out horror movies all the time and get sucked into seeing them because they have a good teaser they have and they're mostly just not very good I see them over and over and they break my heart and I just think they don't you don't need big stars you don't need you don't need big stars you don't need a lot of money you need a good story and you need the right story or in the right in the right scares you don't need to always have a sound effect to scare people no and I think I think the great thing about horror movies is that it's got to be primal, right? That fear is got to be primal.

Real, real, guttural freaking, oh my God, I'm in that guy. The strangers, you're like, oh, my God, this could happen. This could happen. Have you seen a movie called Them? Yeah. Yeah, Them's real good. Them's real good, man. It's real good.

And I think horror and comedy are both similar in that they're both based on surprise. right like you're not going to laugh at something if you see it coming you're not going to get scared at something if you if you see it coming so both of those i think are are very similar and i think both of those are also why i think they're also most misunderstood by critics there are comedy and horror the most that like will get bad reviews and then years later they're classics because i think they require full attention and if you're a critic you're writing down notes you're looking up and down you can't get into them so that that's my that's my theory by the way not a knock on critics I love critics. I read a lot of movie criticism.

I don't know how I feel about it. I mean, The Rotten Tomatoes thing, I just, Scorsese wrote a good article about that. It's like people used to, people used to hear about a movie and they go see it. And now they're just being told not to see all these movies. And, you know, if they get reviewed during Oscars and they're like a lowbrow comedy, they don't take seriously. So you're getting some misinformation. So it's kind of, you know, it's what it is. It's, there's so much information out there that, you know, you want to have critics.

But I like the old days when there was just Cisco. in Ebert. He just had two guys. Oh, yeah. And it's like, oh, these guys kind of liked it. Well, one of them liked it. I like the bald guy better. Yeah. The fat guy. I try to not even watch trailers of movies. Me neither. Me neither. I won't do it. I will read reviews

of movies after I've watched it. The certain people who's writing I like just to see how they thought about it and how that goes with how I feel about it. And I just think, you know, that yeah, the rotten tomatoes thing is interesting. But that's why I like

watching movies and movie festivals if we have a you know if i get to go to a movie i'll just go in and watch no idea what you're going to know because a lot of times now when you go into see a movie you already know whether you're going to like it or not because you've seen the rotten tomato score you've heard so much about it you know so much about it you already go in with so much i like i like just going in there's this festival called fantastic fest have you been to it in austin emily and i went for like a bunch of years in a row last and we just pick five movies every day. They're all genre. They're all genre. So you go in

and you just like, I saw the Babadook like that. I had no idea. It was good. It was really well directed. It just wasn't scary enough. It was a good movie. I went in knowing nothing about it and I was like, this fucking rock. Oh, okay. I heard it was really scared. It was so scary. I like it. I knew nothing about it. I feel like, I'm terrible.

I'm just such a hard critic. But there's a lot of horror movies that don't scare me that I really, really love. I don't think horror really, like I thought that the remake, even though it didn't scare me, I really liked it this has been an incredible interview well thank you for having me um no i really i really enjoy this you're you're a great guy i hope to see again i'm gonna invite you out rob did you like this he did he's such a talented guy and a nice guy you're one of the good guys oh well thank you

man you too male nangiani Hi, I'm Joe Sal C. Hi, host of the Stacking Benjamin's podcast. Today, we're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax-advantaged retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this edition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. Stacking Benjamins, follow and listen on your favorite platform.