Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Comedian Brad Williams on How To Build Confidence, Find Your Voice and Chase After Your Dreams!

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

Comedian Brad Williams joins Chris Van Vliet for an in-person conversation at his home in Los Angeles. He talks about his dwarfism and how he learned at an early age to embrace who he is, how attending a Carlos Mencia comedy show as a fan accidentally started his stand-up career, where he gets his inspiration from, the chances he took on himself early in his career, his friendship with Chris Jericho and how he was invited to perform on Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager at Sea, how he met his wife, becoming a father and much more! For more info on Brad visit: http://bradwilliamscomedy.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, here we go. Welcome, my friends, to another audio adventure on Insight. Good to have you with us for, dare I say it, another in-person interview. Oh, I'm so excited, though, to get to a point where that's just a norm again, you know, instead of a novelty. Because before COVID, I had actually never done a virtual interview for the podcast. Every single one of them was done in person. I didn't even know what Zoom was. Well, I knew what it was.

but I didn't have a Zoom account before mid-March of last year. And, well, I'm hugely thankful and incredibly grateful for it because that's what's kept the show alive. That's what's kept entertainment alive, really. So when I reached out to Brad Williams about doing this one and we realized that we live like 10 minutes away from each other, it was a no-brainer to do it in person. And it was such a pleasure to have him over at my place for this conversation.

He has this incredibly infectious personality. that I'm sure it'd be fine over a Zoom interview, but, oh man, you just feed off of it when it's right there in front of you. I mean, who needs coffee when you've got Brad Williams? Give him a follow on social media. If you don't follow him already, he's at Brad Williams Comedy on Instagram.

Over on Twitter, you can find him at funny Brad. It's funny. You know, it's fitting because, you know, he's not just funny. He's hilarious. And you'll find that out from this conversation. He's also one heck of an inspiration with everything that he's built in his career. And before we get to the meat of this interview, take a second to subscribe or to follow

insight on whatever podcast platform that you're listening on right now. Big thank you to Terry King 1822 for this review on Apple Podcasts. He says, must listen. I have this podcast in my rotation while I'm out doing Uber Eats. It helps pay for my expensive golf habits. I hear you on that. I find myself going back and listening to previous episodes before I became a fan. The way Chris conducts with his guests makes for the perfect conversations,

keep up the great work, CVV, Terry in Wadsworth, Ohio. Thank you, Terry. Love Wadsworth, by the way. It wasn't far from where I lived when I was in Cleveland. Go Browns as well. My guest today is hilarious and awesome. He is hilariously awesome. Please welcome.

Brad Williams. Thanks for coming by my house. Yeah, normally when you're going to somewhere in the valley to shoot with an iPhone and some lights, usually there's a lot of nudity involved. And so, yeah, this is where we film porn, folks. But now, now it's nice to come in and you have a lot of awards promptly displayed in your apartment, obviously trying to get laid. That's what you do.

You go, oh, I have daytime Emmys. The second you walk in the door, I want people to go, oh, my gosh, look at this. See, I have a wife, so my Emmys are non-existent. No, I can't blame that on her. Your award is your child, right? Yes. But, like, I've had people make, like, fans have made, like, insane pictures of me, like, like hand painted like pictures of me and I can't display that right like right as you walk in like

hello like I just feel like it'd be very Alex Rodriguez of me he's kind of known for doing that yeah there's there's there's a there's a there's a painting of himself as a centaur uh in his house I want to see this painting uh but yeah so it's it's nice come in we're just a couple of boys in the valley you put your name on your microphone that's it no ego there. No. No, I get it. It's branding. It's branding. How do you pronounce your last name? Van Vleet. Van Vleet. Yes. So when the ancestors came over many, many

generations ago, they It's a Dutch name, right? Yes, it is. They should have spelled it V-L-E-E-T. Or F-L-E-E-E-T, like Fred Van Vleet, the plays for the Raptors. Oh, not the video thing that's going away from Twitter. Oh, fleeting! Yes. Or Greta Van Fleet? Yeah. I feel like... So you're Van Vleet.

Sounds like either a wrestler or a comic book villain. Only once you can pronounce it correctly. Yeah. Because this gets pronounced incorrectly all the time. That's why I ask. Yeah. No problem there. Brad Williams, you never have a problem getting your name pronounced.

Yeah, pretty much. It's very white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Nothing crazy. I don't have a weird celebrity name. It's nothing. I've not named after a fruit. nothing like that. Just Brad Williams.

People go like, so Brad, what's your heritage? I'm like, just white as fuck. That is my heritage. White as fuck. When they talk about white privilege, they just go through my genealogy. I go, yeah, that,

that too, and that. Yeah. So this is what privilege looks like, everybody. This is it right here. 4 foot four adult male privilege. Four foot four? Yeah, you damn right. Or do you like exaggerate that a little bit?

No. Like how 5 foot 10. guys say they're six feet tall? Yeah, but see, dwarves can tell. And I don't want to get a lot of dwarf hate. And I don't want you to get that on your YouTube channel. Because like, if I said, oh, I'm 4 foot

5, 53 inches, all the little people would be like, no. We can tell. We know exactly. Like, yeah, I've had dwarfs come up to me after shows and I go, what are you about? Three foot nine? They go, come on. We know. Like, we just

know. What is the cutoff? What does official cutoff. Four foot 11. Or like, there's an argument like four foot 10, four foot 11. That's when you're

legally handicapped if you're below that. But like in terms of cut off for being a dwarf, I have dwarfism. That's a genetic condition. I have acondroplastic dwarfism. So I could be

if I got above five feet, I would still be a dwarf because that's my genetics. Not to get to Mendel Square on you. Mendel Square? Grendel Square. Someone made a square. I don't know. He was a friar. Mendel Square. Grendel Square sounds like something from Harry Potter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a chant before. That's how I grow. Yeah, you say that. You just didn't chant it enough when you were young. Not at all. That's it. No, no chanting, no veggies. This is what happens. Shit. When did you start to lean into the fact that you were a dwarf?

Oh, very young. Because of my parents. Okay. My dad specifically. Now my dad, not a dwarf. We don't all come from the same tribe. And so when I was born, he knew that I would be made fun of as a kid when I got to school. Like, he's like, oh, man, kids are going to look at that and kids are going to make fun of you. So his philosophy was he would make fun of me first.

And like, but do it in a supportive way. Like, hey, I just insulted you. Hit me back with something. Wow, like toughing you up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, even like three, four years old, he would like make fun of me. and then we would write jokes together. We would write comebacks.

So, like, when I went to school, my very first day of school, a kid came up and went like, ha, ha, you're little. And I looked at him and went, ha, your mom doesn't live with your dad anymore. And we wrote good ones. Little did you know you were preparing for your career. Literally, he prepared me to be a stand-up comic. So when I dropped out of college to be a stand-of-comedian,

he shouldn't have been surprised. But he, because it's like, dude, you made me. I'm you, dad. But yeah, that's when I became aware of it. And really just once you go to school, because once you go to school, kids just look at you and they go, all right, and they size you up. And they go, what's the thing you're going to,

what's the thing we can make fun of you for? What's the thing we can know? Like, if you have a mole, if you got, like, I'm sure you came out with that hair exactly. I did. Yeah. So, yeah, you never had the bowl cut. So, yeah, so they probably came out and said like,

all right, Stone Phillips. Oh, that would be great. Right. Nice reference. Thank you so much. Yeah. So, yeah, they always latch on to that. And my dad knew they were going to latch on to my dwarfism. And they did.

And then I just had comebacks. And once someone hits you and then you counterpunch, now you're the cool guy. So, like, I, like, people talk about, like, growing up with rough childhoods. I didn't. I was, I was the cool guy in school. I was everybody's friend. And no one really, like, every now and then a new kid would come in and they would try to like stake their claim

and impress people, but like, okay, who's the weakest guy? Oh, Brad, okay, I can make fun of him. And then they would start making fun of me, but I would fire back and then that wouldn't go well for them. You have an immense amount of confidence. It's an insane amount of confidence. But you kind of have to to be a stand-up comic.

Everyone's like, oh, stand-up comics, they're very egotistical. It's like, yeah, you have to. Because we have to go up in a room full of strangers and go, my thoughts deserve to be heard, not yours. The concept of stand-up comedy is ridiculous. It's insane. It's a room full of people that are paying for you to make us laugh.

Yes, and my thoughts and my words and my writings, these are important. Now, if you yell out or start having thoughts or talk during my show, you will be escorted away. But my thoughts are why we're here. This is not a discourse. Yes, it's very egotistical. I'm insanely aware of that. Did your parents have to sit you down at a young age and go, all right, Brad, you're a little bit different from the other kids. Yeah.

That's really. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they kind of prepared me for the whole thing. And your mom and dad are not dwarves. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Mom and dad, both tall.

It's not like you drive down the street and be like, which house do the dwarves live in? Oh, it's the, it's the mushroom with the door in it. Like, that's not, that's not how it goes. Oh, man. I'll never find your house now. Thank God. Yeah. So they prepared me for life.

They didn't, because my dad has a real basic philosophy, and that's, there's the world that is and the world that should be. And many parents make the mistake of preparing their children for the world that should be, you know, like, oh, yeah, no one's ever going to make fun of you. It's like, yeah, yeah, people are going to make fun of you. That's the world it is. So they prepare me for the world it is. And so now when I like it, because when Chris Titus has this great old bit where he says, like, you want to be with a dysfunctional person because a dysfunctional person knows how to react when things go wrong because they're used to it. They've experienced it before. Someone who's never had anything go wrong in their lives, when something goes wrong, they have no idea how the hell to react.

They don't know what to do. So that's kind of how I was prepared for. I was prepared for the world that is. And so when that world came up, I was like, okay, I've trained for this. So when you have a kid, is there a high likelihood that your kid will be a dwarf? For me personally, being that my wife is tall, that's right. That's how you know I'm really good at this job. Brad, you're a comedian. Are you funny? That's who I fuck.

Sorry, can I curse on this? Of course. It's the internet. I don't know. So yes, my wife is tall. So the odds of us having a, a dwarf child was of 50%. But also the odds of having a tall child are 50%. Yes. And I was supposed to stay neutral and not have any hopes and just be like, whatever kid.

But selfishly, I wanted my child to be a dwarf. And I got that wish. So yeah, my daughter is also a little person. Yeah, I wanted a dwarf child because I didn't want a tall kid. that like it's like I'm kids nine go to your room fuck you dad

like I don't want that so uh for very selfish reasons I want her to be a little person but she is and she's doing great and yeah life is good I had a similar conversation with Hornswoggle about this oh because

I'm seeing him later this week because we all know each other and that's not even a joke we literally do all know each other I'm doing a show this week I don't know when this is going to come out probably beyond this But this weekend, as we're recording this, I'm heading to Appleton, Wisconsin to do shows.

That's where he lives. So, yeah. His son is a normal-sized person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His son is tall. So you see them walking around. Yeah, it's great. His son is taller than him.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and obviously way younger, hence son. But yeah, so it's nice, though. I've seen that. I've seen what's happening with his life. And I know other friends that have tall kids. And I go, ah, I want a dwarf kid. He told me his son got taller than him at night. Just like your story.

That's terrifying to me. That's terrifying. I don't know if I'd be able to. I mean, obviously, you cope with whatever gets thrown your way. But yeah, just that would, that'd be scary to me. You know, just like, I told you not to. Like that, that's horrifying. When we set up this camera angle, I said, you know, you look pretty tall here.

And you're like, oh, I have a normal sized everything. Yeah. Not everything. But some things are very small. And some things are proportionate. Yes. I have an average size torso. I have,

so my type of dwarfism, there's tons of different types of dwarfism. It's not just dwarfism. My type is called achondroplasia. It is characterized by shorter limbs. So my arms and legs are smaller. My torso is average size. My head is fucking huge.

And I have an ass that Cardi B wishes. That's how that works. That's the breakdown of the acondroplastic dwarf. Okay, with all that said, how do you find clothes that fits you? Well, it's very tricky. Tops are fine. Shirts, this is great. By the way, I didn't even know I was coming to meet a Canadian and I'm wearing a shirt that has a...

Where is it? It's on this. Yeah, it's got the Maple Leaf on there. Is this from root? It's guess. It looks like a Root shirt. Yes, but I bought it in Montreal. So they had some very pro-can.

of stuff up there. And, yeah. Sle bien. Yeah, I don't know what that means. Very good. Don't est on mis pantalones. Anyway, something about pants?

Yeah. So, yeah, shirts, it's just adult small. Pants are a little more difficult. I have a tailor. I've put his kids through college. Where do the pants start? Do they start as? Because I have the Cardi B ass.

So you can't, you're like, oh, you just get kids pants. It's like, nah. Big ass. The kids, the kids, if a kid has a waistline like mine, they've got a lot of issues.

They probably have a TLC reality show at that point. So yes. It's a big ass waist and then we chop them down on the legs. Shoes are weird because everyone's like, oh man, I'm into, like sneakers are huge right now. They're huge.

But it, like, I go into the foot locker and I say, all right, bring me out some size fours. And they're like, all right, we got two options for size four. We have this, which has wheels

in the heel, and we have this, and these light up when you talk, or when you walk. So I'm rocking Skechers. So, God bless you, Skechers. I did a corporate gig one time for Skechers, and they liked me, so now they send me free Skechers. Hey, well, then pump

sketches as much as you want. Damn right, Skechers. These relaxed fit shoes are great. They got no laces on them, and I just slip them on and I go, and they're comfortable as all hell their dad shoes, get yourself some sketchers. Both you and Hornswoggle openly use the term little person. Yeah.

Which sounds very derogatory to me. I know. You're a person, but you're a little person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We miss the meeting. I feel like we should have had a meeting where we just go like, okay, this is the thing. Because you're supposed to say little person and you're supposed to say dwarf. And those are fine.

And you're not supposed to say midget. You're not supposed to say that. that. I throw that word around, but you know. But you're a funny guy. Yeah. It's like, I don't find it. And like, if someone calls me a midget, I look more at intent, um, in terms of, like, because if, if you call me midget and you don't know it's a bad word, okay, I'm not going to get mad at you. I might correct you, maybe, um, but like,

because I've been called like, okay, so one time I did a show in Odessa, Texas and I got done with the show and, uh, during the show I had some guys thrown out because they were heckling. They were drunk as hell and we went back and forth and I had them thrown out. When the show ended, I was walking out to the car

to take me back to the hotel and I saw the pickup truck lights turn on and the guy started racing towards me and they yelled out, kill the dwarf! And I wasn't going to stop in that moment and go,

thank you for using the proper terminology. It's like, no, the intent was not friendly. The intent was bad. Have you learned to kill you? That's what they said. Thankfully, they never

got to me. We got in the car and we drove off and they had a big truck and they're also very dumb. So they couldn't follow. So, but yeah, so I don't really worry too much about the terms. I know everyone freaks out now about like terminology and things like that. For me, it's all about intent. Are you my friend? Are you trying to be my friend? What are we doing here? And yes, kind of like, kind of like you were where they say like, oh, little person. It's like, yeah, you're a person, but you're a little. And

And it's like, I've seen Puerto Ricans. They're little people. Like, they're very tiny people. Like Kevin Hart is a little person. He's a little person. He's a person, not quite. But he's not a little person. Exactly.

And then Dwarf, of course, Disney comes in and kind of messes that up. Yeah. So we were all doing good. And then that happened. So, yeah. So it's like, yeah, Dwarf doesn't seem right. Little person doesn't seem right. Midget doesn't seem right.

Yeah. I like to throw out new terms. So like these, I think most little people can agree on this term. I like to refer to myself as a big dick Magoo. There it is. Yeah. So when you see a male little person, of course, you refer to them as a big dick magoo. And they are never offended.

And a female? I haven't gotten that far yet. I'll think of something. And then you, my people call you a reacher. A reacher. A reacher. Yeah. What am I reaching for?

Whatever we ask you. So I went around. We're like, why am I reach or go to the store with me? You'll find out. So do you use your wife grab all of the glassware that's up really high? Yes, yes. Which also means it's very easy for her to force me to be on a diet. Because she puts the cookies up there and I'm like, my people made these and I can't.

Okay. So yeah. But yes, so you tall folk are reachers. I love that term. The number one thing. that people Google about you as your wife. Yeah, that's weird. I think it's because people are like, how did he?

Yeah. Her. Yeah. And the answer, money. I'd say that. And you're a big Dick Magoo. And I'm big Dick Magoo. Yeah.

That combined. No, no, thankfully, my wife met me when I didn't have, I was doing okay, but not great. And now I'm doing much better. Now you own a house in Los Angeles. So that explains everything. Yeah, so she invested well. She picked the right stock. But yeah, it is weird.

I've done that thing where I'm looking up something like I do an interview and I go, oh, I want to find that interview. So let me see where it is. And I Google Brad Williams and then it does the auto fill. And yeah, it's always Brad Williams wife. And then the next one is Brad Williams baby. And I'm like, who. It's weird knowing that people are caring that.

much to look that up. Well, I think you've done the two things that people didn't expect you to do. Yeah, yeah. Have a hot wife and reproduce. Yeah, so my hat is off. I'm not even wearing a hat, but my hat's off to. Yeah, you can't wear a hat. I would mess up the hair.

Yeah, it's strange, and it's something that I have to be aware of, because so about three months ago, my wife was at a grocery store, and I was not there, but she was there doing the shop. and the baby was with her. And someone saw them and went,

Brad Williams' baby and just ran up and was about to grab my baby to be like, oh, cute baby. And then my wife was like shoved her back, like, get the fuck away from me. It's not normal. Yeah, like, who are you? And they kind of forget like,

oh, that's a weird thing that a human shouldn't do. Just grab a stranger's baby. We don't know you. But yeah, she literally yelled out Brad Williams' baby and then started. So I stopped posting photos of her on Instagram. Oh, man. Or if I do, I do it like from the back or put a little emoji over her face or something like that.

Which emoji do you like to pick over her face? I mean, she's half Chinese, so I can't do the panda bear. That's racist. So I do something completely off the rails and do like a kangaroo or something. No, she's for Australian. But the problem is now I put an emoji over her face and then go, wow, dwarf babies look weird. It's like it's an emoji. Calm down.

Yeah. That's not how we grow. So yeah, that was kind of an eye-op call to me not like, okay, I have to be careful with her identity because she hasn't chosen to put herself out there yet. Yeah, right. If one day she wants to, okay.

But yeah, I've chosen this life. And like my wife, she's not on social media, which is probably a good thing. Because, like, she has a private Facebook thing and she gets messages all the time from people. trying to be friends because they look her up, they find her, and then they, it's weird. And the weird, the weird one is

when other male dwarves look her up and they send her a message. And it's like, really, dude? You think like, well, what, well, I should fuck that one? She has a type. She probably, and it's like, well, first of all, when it comes to the little people, it's like me and dinklage. It's like me, Dinklage, we're the top, we're on

the current Mount Rushmore, okay? And I'm probably forgetting someone, and I, and I'm sorry. But, uh, Hornswoggle could be the fourth person. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's four on there.

Yeah. So it's like, I'm on the Mount Rushmore of current working dwarves. So I, I don't know what you think you're going to accomplish, but good fucking luck to you, buddy. Um, but that, but that's one of the things that I,

I'll tell people is, uh, and, um, because I'm in a, my wife is Chinese. I'm, I'm, I'm a, so it's a mixed race relationship.

Um, whoever you end up with. if you're in a mixed race relationship, that's what everyone's just going to assume your thing is. Sure. So everyone thinks that my wife isn't a dwarf, everyone thinks I love Asian women, and if you look at my internet history,

you're not wrong. But everyone just thinks like, oh, that's your thing. So that's, I like mixed race relationships. I think they're really fun and progressive, but just if you're getting into one, just realize that's what everyone thinks your thing is going to be.

Had she dated a dwarf before you? No, thankfully. I didn't go through and find, a bunch of ex-boyfriends and they were all like, well, represent. Like, I never saw that, thankfully. So, yeah, I was her first one. It's not like, it's not like the first time we had sex.

She pulled out a stamp of a smurf, put it on the side of her bed, like a fighter pilot. Just boom, got another one. Like, it wasn't like that. Not at all. When you went down this career bath, realizing, I'm going to go on stage with the microphone and try to make people laugh with my thoughts.

Yes. Did you go, I immediately have to lead with what people see? Yeah. Well, at first I didn't. I didn't want to. Because then the bar is raised because you're like, I want to be a great comedian who's a great comedian. I don't want to be a great war for me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's this weird balance that I have to do because if I go on stage and I don't talk about it, rather than paying attention, the entire audience is like, does he know? What does he? Should we tell him? Like, it's strange.

So, and I, like, as a comic, I try to write jokes about my life. My life is that of a little person. I can't write jokes from the perspective of a six foot two man. Like, I don't know how to do that. I don't know what that life is. I know what my life is. So my life will always have a dwarf perspective on it, but they're not going to be, if you watch my act now, it's not an hour of, I can take a bath and a thimble.

That's weird. Like, it's not that. Yeah. So I go into a bunch of topics. Yeah, you lead with that. You go in some other things. Maybe while you're into another topic, you have a tag or a punchline that kind of leads back to it.

Like, there's a whole way to do it. But yeah, I don't like to, because sometimes I'll do a dwarf joke on Instagram. Like, I did one recently where I walked by a sign of a restaurant and the sign said short staff. And I'm like, oh, that's funny. So I just stood next. to it like

like oh all my friends are all my friends work here or whatever and then someone of course commented like oh so you can only make dwarf jokes it's like no I do other stuff but when the opportunity you know like shows itself yeah yeah I can go for it

like that's a joke like there was a guy who came to my show I did a show a few weeks ago in Rhode Island and a guy came to the show literally he's old he's fat he has a white beard and he's wearing a Santa Claus T-shirt. Come on.

I had to take a picture with him. I had to make a joke. I think the joke was when your old boss visits you at your new job. So good. And it's just like because that opportunity, when it shows itself, you can't just be like, no,

I'm too good for that. No, my job is to entertain people. My job is to make you laugh, make you smile, make you on social media, look down your phone and go, like that's literally,

that's all I'm going for is you to go, It's fine. A literal L-O-L-L. Yeah, yeah, that's it. So that's all I'm trying to do. In my stand-up act, I do the whole thing. I'll start with dwarf jokes, going to non-dwarf jokes, family stuff, commenting on modern days, society, things like that.

And then I'll, but like, if I'm just going for quick hitters, I'm not going to deny myself an entire thing. And also, that's what people want to see. They don't, like, a lot of people, like, if a fat person goes on stage or is on social, media and just talks about being fat the whole time. We all know overweight people. We know fat people. Same thing with a black comic.

Like, if it's just like, oh, like, we know black people. It's like it's fine. Like, not a lot of people know little people. Not a lot of, like, and like, Swagel and me. Do you have any other dwarves in your life? Maybe an ex. You were drunk one night. I don't know.

Now, that's it. You and Swagel. Exactly. So we, and, and you came through those relationships in the, in the professional sense. Yeah. So, yeah, so there's not a lot of people have little people in their lives, so they're genuinely curious. Yeah. And in terms of getting a message out there about little people, I trust me to do it more than another source.

Like, and that's one of the reasons why I love stand-up comedy so much. Well, you are an expert on the topic. Yeah, I've lived my whole life as one. So I like to do things towards like, oh, I'm controlling the message because if you go and, wait for someone else to tell your story, they're never going to get it right. And the media has never exactly gotten it right with little people, hence the reason why we have so many stereotypes that are actually weird.

I had a joke way back in the day about like dwarves are the only group who's all, like all our stereotypes are fantasy driven. Like none are true. None are based on any kind of fact. Like, oh, we make chocolate. We make cookies. And we follow yellow brick roads.

Like that's, and we protect Snow White. Like, that's our stereotypes. They're all fantastical. We don't have, like, oh, we can't drive. We have a big dick or we're cheap. Now, those were stereotypes. I never said which group were the stereotypes. If you did the math and yourself, that's on you.

You're the racist, not me. Anyway. So, like, we don't have any of those, like, stereotypes that are based any kind of, like, fact, which is kind of strange. Yeah. When you started to realize that you wanted to be a con. I mean, you talked about how your dad kind of prepared you for this. When did you realize, all right, I've actually got the courage to go on stage and try this for the first time.

Oh, I was, it was Father's Day weekend. That's all tying into your dad here. Yeah, yeah, it is. It really is. Father's Day weekend, I took my dad. And you're how old? I'm 19 at the time. So 18 years ago.

So I took my dad to the Brea Improv to see a comedian perform. and the comedians, it's just for a Father's Day thing. And the comic is on stage and at some point during his act, he starts making midget jokes. And half the audience is laughing. The audience that's sitting by me is like, and not laughing. And the comedian notices and goes, whoa, whoa, what's happening here? He goes, what?

Is one of them here? And I just went. It's one of them here. Yeah. And I raised my hand. And he called me up on stage. Is this Carlos Mensier? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. This is that story. Yeah, yeah. I run up on stage. He starts asking me questions. Just want to know about my life. I answer the questions honestly. And then the question, my answers got laughs.

So, like, I wasn't trying to be funny, but my answers got laughs just like, he's like, hey, what do you do for a living? And at the time, I was working at Disneyland. Because I, exactly. I see where the jokes going on. So I said I work at Disneyland and I heard people laugh and I turned the audience and when, fuck you, I'm not one of the same. seven and that got a laugh

and I'm like oh shit okay that was fun and that felt really good so it was at that moment that I'm like okay I need to try this I need to do this because it felt really good and it felt like oh I just did something

that made an entire audience laugh I was always interested in comedy but I never thought it could actually be a thing it's like if someone told me hey how do you become a pro football coach I go I don't know Like, like, if I, if you today wanted to, today, I'm going to be a pro football coach.

Yeah. How do you start down that path? I don't know. And that's the same thing I thought about being a comedian where it's like, I don't know how people become comedians. They just kind of become comedians. Yeah, I guess you go to an open mic question mark. Yeah. And so that's what I did.

I just started doing that. And you could just kind of slowly rise through the ranks. But I'm such a firm believer in the idea of like right place, right time. Oh, sure. Butterfly Effect. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Imagine you had gone to a comedy show the day before. Yeah, and there were no midget jokes.

There were no midget jokes. And we just walked out and went, well, that was a fun night. And then I went back on my path to trying to... You'd still be working at Disneyland and we wouldn't be sitting here right now. I would be a manager. No. And that's the thing is, like, I dropped out of school, college to do stand-up. I had one year left.

I was going to USC, make all the universities. Fight on? Yes, fight on. Okay, that's what people say. Yeah, so University of Spoil of Children, that's right. A lot of very famous people go to USC. Yeah, Will Ferrell's a Trojan. There's a bunch of them.

Were you there at the same time as Dave Franco? Oh. Maybe he's a little younger than you. No, he's a little younger than me. Yes, he's a little younger than me. But I was there during a magical time where Matt Leinert and Reggie Bush and all those guys were training and all that stuff. It was great. So that's what I was talking.

doing and then started doing stand-up. When you dropped out of USC, your parents were like, oh, thank God. We'd have to spend $50,000 a year anymore. I have to pay for that last year of school. They were not exactly happy. But like, here's what I tell people. It's like I was majoring in communications. Hey.

Yeah, there you go. Like, I was trying to do your job. So it's like, when I dropped out of school, we didn't lose a cancer cure. Like, my goal before stand-up, once again, it will all tie back to my father. I have a lot of daddy issues. My dad always told me I loved sports growing up, and I wanted to be a sports announcer.

And my dad said, yes, you could be a locker room reporter. You could interview Shaq's dick. And I just thought that was really funny. And I thought, that'll work. I'll go into the NBA. I'll be like, so it'd be great. So that's what I was trying to do. It's what I was going to school to do.

And then I started doing comedy. I'm like, oh, this is fun. This is great. And full circle, I did some work with the radio station out here, KROC, and they actually sent me to a red carpet where it was in Los Angeles, there's essentially a Lakers channel. It's Time Warner Sports. It's this whole thing. But I won't get into it. But this was the launch of the channel.

So they sent me to the red carpet to launch the channel. And all the Lakers were there. So I got to interview at the time, Dwight Howard was on the team, Kobe, Steve Nash. Oh, and the juxtaposition. Powell Gasol. Of you next to them. Yeah. I have a photo of Powell Gasol, and he's just, like, bending over, like, son of a bitch guy.

Like, really? And then I have an interview, I have a photo with me and Dwight Howard. Dwight's holding the microphone near his, um, nether regions. And, uh, he's just, he's kind of interviewing me. He's holding a mic. doing that. And so yeah, that kind of thing came true. So it actually happened.

And if I ever do that again one day, that'd be great. I would love it. But yeah, so it's kind of crazy how life came full circle. Well, you've got the access now because you now have a certain level of celebrity. Yeah. Where they bring you in, they go, this comic's going to do these. Yeah, I can talk to people. That can be funny.

And if you're a comedian and you're a comedian and you're, my size and you can't make a joke when Dwight Howard is talking to you. You do it, yeah. Like, oh, I almost, I got in trouble that day, kind of. Because I was on the red carpet and

Magic Johnson walked by. And I was like, hey, Matt, you know, everyone's trying to get him. And he, he walked over, saw me. And now I have to interview him. And have you done red carpet stuff before? Of course. Yeah. They're often terrible. Yes. Because, yeah.

So as a red carpet person, you know, you can prepare for a few people. But overall, it's like some publicist throws someone in front of you. And you just have to interview someone, I don't know who you are or I know who you are, but I haven't prepared anything. I just have to ask. So when they say like, why they always ask people what they're wearing and who are they wearing?

It's like, because they didn't know they were going to talk to that person. Oftentimes the publics will go, this is so-and-so from this CW show and they're already in front of you. you're like, you send your name's Brad? Yeah, okay. And you just go to the vampire diaries. Talk to me about it. So I was not prepared to meet Magic, but he comes over and I just, and you have to go

into your bank in terms of like what, and I go, okay. So you opened up a bunch of Starbucks. You are now, you're part owner with the Dodgers. Obviously, all the, all the, all the Lakers championships at the time he had just written like a huge check to some charity. And I go, you've raised, you know, millions dollars for, And I go, how does it feel to be the world's greatest human? And I just do that.

And he starts talking and he's kind of winded about his answer. And then he ends his answer with, and if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. And my response was to go, not one thing? Not one thing, Magic Johnson. Not one. Not one. Okay. And they kind of pulled me as out like, fuck it.

Oh, wow. And Magic's like my hero. So, like, it was weird, but that's just the, the comedian part of me. Yeah, yeah. Like, this is funny. Like, you can't have Magic Johnson HIV positive be like, no, it was pretty perfect life. Pretty great. Nothing.

Like, I had to. The joke was right there. So I met Magic a few years later when I played in the NBA Celebrity All-Star game. Sure, everybody wanted you on their team. Yeah. Do you want to lose? Have breath. And I met him there and I asked him about that.

He goes, no, I don't remember that. I go, good. It never happened. So we're cool, everyone. Don't be like. Did you have a time early on in your career where you went on stage and just felt like it was not going well? Kind of like this Magic Johnson story. But, you know, in the professional sense on stage.

Oh, totally. If any comic says, no. I've never had that. No, then you're lying or you're just, you're insanely not self-aware. Does it make you go, ooh, I won't try those jokes again, or does it make you go, maybe this isn't the right career path? Early on, second one. Yeah.

Early on you go, oh, and do, did I make the right call? Should I go back to school? Should I try to do this? But then now, I'm in October, I'll be 18 years in comedy. And now it's like I go, no, no, no, I know I'm good at this. I know I'm decent at comedy. So now if a joke doesn't work, I go, okay, I messed up. I can make that funny.

I'll try it two more times. And if I'll switch it up. Like, now I internalize it and go like, okay. Like, now it's more like a math problem to me. Like, like, if you're a mathematician and you didn't solve a problem, you wouldn't be like, well, fuck it. I'm never doing math again. You'd be like, well, no, I just messed up.

There's, there's a way to solve this problem and I just don't know that way yet. And that's how I look at jokes now. If I tell a joke now and it doesn't work, I just go, okay, there's a way that I can solve this. I just haven't figured it out. So I have to figure out how to solve this. So now I don't, I, of course, mind bombing. I don't want to bomb.

I don't want a joke to ever do poorly. But I also know that nobody in this business bats a thousand. You're going to have jokes that don't work. So I just have a different mindset. But yeah, back in the day, oh, yeah, oh, too, jokes all the time. when I would say jokes, that wouldn't work, I would come back and cry and, like, call my mom and dad be like, you were right. I should go back to school. Yeah, there was definitely nights like that.

If you're going to celebrate 18 years in comedy in October, yeah, Father's Day is in June. Yeah. So if you didn't step on stage until October, walk me through what happened between the Carlos Mencia show on Father's Day in June. Yeah. To finally building up the courage to step on stage in October. Yeah, writing jokes. And what does that look like? writing jokes just sitting there writing jokes watching stand up being like okay trying to get the rhythm correctly

and then also doing research because we had the internet but it was still young like trying to be like oh how do you do this like how do you actually do this because now we have all these podcasts that explain like jokes and stuff so uh or they explain uh comedians careers everyone's done that interview where every comic's explain their process, their origin story, all that. But back then we didn't have that. So it was just doing a lot of research in terms of like, how does one actually do this?

And then I ended up like you hear about open mics. Oh, people do open mic nights. Okay. And then it was like, okay, well, which open mic am I going to do? Like, am I just going to? Because also I'm young and dumb in the business. I think, okay, so you do like two or three open mics, then you start getting paid for this, right?

Like, that's what you think. And you kind of have to have that dumb optimism to do this job, your job. Like, we're both big wrestling fans. Like, you have to have dumb optimism to be a pro wrestler because you go like, oh, the odds are not in your favor. Like, the odds of everyone who said, you know, I want to host shows and I want to talk to celebrities. And people go, I want to be a pro athlete. I want to be a famous actor, comedian.

the vast majority don't make it. Right. And you have to celebrate those really little wins along the way. Absolutely. So I didn't know how hard the job was. But it was just doing that research. And I remember finally finding an open mic. I grew up in Los Angeles or Orange County.

And then hearing, oh, the laugh factory, that's a big comedy club. Oh, they do open mic. Okay. That's where I should go. But I'll go to the first. open mic as a, I'll just go watch it and see if I'm, you know, if I'm good enough to be at this open mic. It became very clear, very early. I was good enough to be at that open mic. The laugh factory open mic, man, there were a couple that you're like, okay, but then there was a lot of like, there was, I'll, I'll never forget this guy.

I found out later, he's like an LA open mic legend. His name is Fancy Ray. He's, he's, been doing it for like 30, 40 years. But still, he went on stage. He was slightly overweight. He had a bright purple shirt, like just popping purple shirt. He buttoned maybe the bottom two buttons. So the shirt was like open. He had glitter all over his face, glitter on his body, hair spiked up and jelled back

and styled and everything like that. And he would just go on stage. she would say a one-liner. They were all horrible. And then after the joke bombed, he would just pause and go, I am the best-looking man in comedy. And that, I saw that and like, oh, yeah, I can sign up. I can do this open mic. Joe Rogan talks about how those types of people, terrible performers at open mics,

are crucial to the comedy business. Yes. Because it makes people who are coming up going, oh, if that guy can do it. Yeah. I can surely do this. Because, yes, if you look at a Joe Rogan, a Brian Regan, John Malaney, Dave Chappelle, if you look at them Chris Rock and just go, oh, that's what it takes to be a comedian. No one would ever sign up because, but what they don't know is how long it took each one of those guys to get there and how much work they had to put in.

but if you go to an open mic and see, you know, I am the best looking man in comedy and that's your and that's your punchline, then, yeah, you go, oh, I can do this. And it's like you say, it's those little victories along the way that you go, okay, I did my, like, I did my first open mic. Awesome. Check that off. Yeah, check that off.

Hey, I drove somewhere and did it like more than an hour and I did show. Cool. Okay, I got paid. I got paid to do stand up. whether it being cash, whether it be in free drinks and fries. Okay, cool. Like, yeah.

So, yeah, like, I remember my first gig where I got paid was I was, there used to be a, not, it wasn't a comic club, it was a blues club out here in Hollywood called BB Kings. It was at the, right over here at Universal Studios Citywalk. And they had bands and they needed a comedian to essentially go between bands and talk. And while they were switching the gear right. and shit. And I saw that ad somewhere and I would like, I'm a comedian and they tried me out and I got the job. And it was just crowd work. You're just doing crowd work. You tell a couple jokes. And then

you got paid in a free hamburger, which for me, I was like, sweet, that's all I need for hamburger. But you're also getting paid in stage time. Yeah. And so I did, I did two weeks. And then they switched managers and then the manager was like, no, no, no, we don't need comedians. And then so yeah, so I lasted two weeks. But hey, good enough for me. But yeah, so it's like those little milestones that you just hit and you go, okay, I'm on my way. Like you don't sign up to, you don't sign up for your first open mic. And then the next day you're selling out the massive square garden.

Like that's not how it works. I think that far too often in our society, we see the likes and the comments on Instagram. We see the finished product. Yeah. We see the LeBron James, the walk. We see Tom Brady. Yeah. And we don't realize what it took for them to get there.

Right. Yeah. And you see like, hell, let's take the Rock, for instance. Like, you see his character in, you know, when he's doing the third person, when he's telling you what the Rock's going to do. And he's got the raised eyebrow. He's got the catchphrases. And everything's killing. Everything's crushing.

You're like, oh, he's just naturally that. What you don't see or what you don't remember is Rocky Maya Villa coming out at Survivor series as the good guy with some of the worst hair you've ever seen. seen in your life, some weird, like, blue, green and white streamers coming from his neck and just being, hey, I'm a great guy. I'm Rocky Miami. And then just crowd just going, fuck you. And what you don't see before that. And a lot of people don't talk about this with The Rock.

Yeah. Is him wrestling for 40 people at a flea market. Yep. And that's, that's what it takes. Yeah. Whether it be doing, you know, coming up in your business, maybe like doing. doing shows at your college news station maybe. I'm guessing you did something like that.

Of course. In fact, I auditioned to be on my campus radio station and didn't get past the first round of auditions. Ah! Yeah. There you go. And kind of as an FU. Yeah. I went, I'm going to go do this for real.

I don't need a campus radio station. And then two years later worked at the radio station, like the FAM station, in my college town. There you go. See. And sometimes, sometimes a no can be what you need to motivate you, whether it be Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school basketball team to be like, oh, really?

Asshole. Okay. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Sometimes you need a know to make you go, all right, I'm going to show you. And then you go do it. So yeah, just a lot of open mics and driving.

God knows all over the state. my favorite story in terms of like this is what you know you talk to young comics about is there was an open mic at a bar called Marvin Marys I don't think Marvin Marys is still there

but it's down here in L.A. And I was turning into the parking lot thought I could make it couldn't end up getting into a car accident right as the show was about to start so we're talking the cop show up I had signed up already so I knew where I was in the last

lineup. I go, hold on. I run in, do my three minutes, my two minutes, and then run back out and continue to talk about the car accident. Was any of your bit, the fact that you were just in a car accident? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Funny thing happened to me on the way to the show. It's that kind of thing. So, yeah, it's those kind of stories. It's the driving six hours up to San Jose, doing a 10-minute spot, getting no money, and then driving six hours back. You know, it, it, it, it, like that night. There's so many parallels in that world to the world of indie wrestling. Yeah.

Oh, I can only imagine. And like indie wrestling, like it's starting now with social media, indie wrestling, thankfully for these guys is starting to be a little more profitable to the point where some guys are like, no, I don't want to go to WWE because I'm making enough money in the indies. So that's great. But yeah, when you start and you're the low guy in the card, yeah, there's, you got to drive

God knows how long with God knows who you got to set up the ring you got to close down the ring and you got to do your match and you got to take tickets you got to do all that just to get a few bumps in

or to get squashed by the main guy I just won any wrestler that I follow and like he just fought Lance Archer on dark and got destroyed but for him it's like yes

He worked an AEW show. I worked an AEW show. Like that's the, that, like, you see those little victories on, on the way. That's his, that's that wrestler's biggest moment right now is that Lance Archer chokes land him and beat him in a minute and a half. The first time an indie wrestler gets flown in for a booking, that's like, oh my gosh. That's huge. I'm Stone Cold Steve Austin now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

First time someone buys your t-shirt. Yeah, that's a huge one too. What for you was your first break and your big break? Man. So there's a lot of, yeah, so there's a lot of breaks along the way. There's a few. Getting on the Mind of Mancia show way back in the day, that was probably a break because then comedy club owner saw me and that was my first credit to where, you know, you can say,

you know him from. Like, and because, oh, and here's a little tip for all you guys watching. And I've, it's like known but not known. If you ever at a comedy club and you hear the MC or the DJ go, you've seen them in clubs and colleges all over the country. That means they haven't done shit. That means. And I only say that because at some point, we were all there.

We all had not done shit. So you have, everyone's gotten the clubs and colleges intro. He's played, he's played clubs and colleges all over the, Nope, this is his second time on stage. He knows the headliner or he owed us. We owe him a favor. Boom. It may not go well.

That's, yeah, the old clubs and colleges. But so, yeah, getting on that. And then, so, this is a long-winded story. And it's very indicative of Los Angeles. So I'll try to make it more broad. But basically, there was a very popular morning radio show out here called the Kevin and Bean show. Yeah, I know it, yeah.

No longer on air, fortunately. But yes, one of the members of that show was a guy named Ralph Garman. Ralph Garman is a very popular podcast called Hollywood Babylon with Kevin Smith. Ralph Garman on Twitter retweeted one of my tweets. I don't know how he saw it. I don't know what, but he saw it. He retweeted it. And it did at that point really good for me.

like in terms of tweets and stuff. So the next time Ralph did his live podcast, Hollywood Babylon with Kevin Smith, I go to Ralph and I know he likes whiskey and I brought him a really nice bottle of whiskey. And I went, hey, thanks for retweeting me. Like that I really, I really appreciate it.

You know, I'm a nobody. You did that. Thank you. And he kind of looks at me and goes, oh, do you want to come on the show sometime? I go, yes. Yes, I want to go on the Kevin. being show. It's one of the top

radio shows in Los Angeles. Which then makes it one of the top radio shows in the country. Yeah. Just in general. So I go on the show and like the day before my chalkboard looked like that meme of Charlie from always sunny

in Philadelphia like like the conspiracy chalkboard. Okay, if they ask this, I go this. This, like these jokes are lined up. This is my radio routine. Like, I'm going to go in firing because as someone who has interviewed a ton of people, you know how hard it is for you when you show up

and you go like, hey, so, blah, blah. And the person just gives you nothing. Just another. Yeah, it's a movie. Especially on a morning show. Oh. Because often they're too tired to be funny. Yeah, they're tired. To be entertaining. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I'm like, no. And I got plenty of sleep. I drank coffee. So I'd be hyper. And I never drank coffee. So it was really, So, like, I've got that whole thing, and I plan it out. And I do my interview on the show.

It goes well. At the end of the interview, they, like, they go, all right, that was Brad William. I was going to check my out, but, but I see my Twitter at the time, like, just start blowing up. And they look at me and go, what are you doing in April? April is their big comedy show at the time. It was called April Foolishness. And I go, I'm not doing anything in April. They're like, all right, you want to be on April Foolish.

And I go, fuck yeah. So at the time, it was at the Gibson Amphitheater, which held, doesn't exist anymore, but it held, I think held 9,000? Yeah, I think like, not like 9,000 people. Someone could Google it. It might be four. I don't know. But way more than what you were performing for us.

Yeah, way more for the lackluster ticket sales at comedy clubs. Yeah. Do that. And on the show, just to give you an idea what the show is, it's a lot of people, it's thousands of people. on that lineup was Bob Sagitt, Jim Jeffries,

Tim Mincham, Eddie Isard, Jay Moore. Oh, jeez. Yeah, nobody's. Yeah, just an insane lineup. Yeah. So I go on.

I do my set. I'm near the beginning. I do my set. I end my set by bringing one of the girls from the show. Her name is Lisa May. She was the traffic reporter on the show.

I bring her on stage. Give her a lap dance on the stage. The place goes eight shit. Get a standing ovation. Jay Moore is on after me. He walks on and goes, okay, let's just be honest. Right now, before I start,

after Brad Williams, we're all playing for second place. Wow. And this is on that show with that lineup, and that was a quote that made the newspaper the next day of, like, there's a bunch of, like, writers there from the entertainment section and they, it was all about, this was the Brad

Williams coming out party like, holy shit. So that was a big break. And then people in LA saw that and people started, that started circulating. And yeah, and then you do that. And then the first showtime special, that's a big break. The Netflix, the degenerates, that's a big break. But then even going on like,

I've been on the road. podcast, I've been on your mom's house podcast, which is Tom Cigrero's podcast. They have insane fan bases. And those were big breaks. She started selling tickets after that. This is not happening. That show for Comedy Central, the YouTube story that I told has over like two and a half million views. Like that was a break.

Like it's all these little breaks that add up. Like very few times do you have that moment in show business where it's like, today, no one knows about you tomorrow everyone knows about you like I can't even like I can like the ones that I can think of that are actually that didn't actually pan out like remember Ken Bone

he was during I know it sounds like a porn star but he he asked a question during a presidential debate and his name's Ken Bone he had a great sweater yeah he had a great sweater and the next day everyone knew about him like you could have that and then the next week they forgot about him yes exactly so I mean the close thing I have and it sounds insane

But like, I remember there was a time where no one in the United States of America knew who Ricky Martin was. No one. Then he went on the Grammys. He performed the Grammys. And everyone went, holy shit. Who the fuck is this guy? Yeah. But then it's, that's unfair.

That's unfair to say that he blew up after that because he was a Minuto and he was a big Latin star before that. So that's completely denying all those years. But it takes you to that new threshold. Yeah. It's that idea that like you're the 12 year overnight success. Like, like Sebastian right now. Oh my God. Or like Kevin Hart.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it's like, dude, Kevin Hart, people have told legendary stories about Kevin Hart getting email addresses together and mailing lists and packing clubs and going to malls and passing out flyers and like doing all this stuff just so we can sell tickets there and having that work ethic. Sebastian, legendary stories of him being a waiter running back to the comedy store doing his set while wearing his waiter outfit, running back and. didn't miss tables. Like didn't tell... Oh my God. Didn't tell his tables. Like, hey, I'm going to go do.

So this guy's going to take over? No, didn't miss. Just went back, did it set, ran back. And there are stories about that. And now he's selling out arenas all over the world. So it's great. I think you might be at the level now where maybe they don't know your name is Brad Williams.

Maybe they're not familiar with your brand of comedy. Sure. But they are aware that there is a dwarf comedian. If you Google Midget Comic, I believe my photo pops up. I believe it's my website. So, yeah. And that's all, like, all I want is for people to go, oh, yeah, that guy.

Like, you're there. You're there. You're there. That's all I want. That's all I want. Like, when people see me to go, like, oh, yeah, that's a comedian. Or when they see my name up on the marquee, like, if they're going to see somebody else, like, you know, maybe they're going to go see Whitney Cummings.

And then they look up and go, oh, Brad Williams is going to be here in a few weeks. Okay, yeah. Yeah, let's come back and see him. Like, that's, that's all you want. I just want my name to be associated with comedian, and that's it. Do you think you need a big role in a movie or in a TV show? You know what? To really get to that next level?

I don't want that. Oh, okay. I don't want that. Here's what I want. I want to be Brian Regan. I want to be Sebastian Manuscalco. Because, yes, he was, Sebastian was in the Irishman, you know, huge movie. Right.

But he wasn't a huge role in that way. He's not that part where you go, who's this guy? So all I want is for people that know me as a stand-up, come see my shows, have a special every few years, cool. You don't want to be like Andrew Dice Clay

where you're peppered into a film every once in a while? Maybe, but I really like stand-up. I really like stand-up. I love it. Yeah, you definitely more than like it. It's so, like, I get an audition now And I don't get mad

But I go Like I like I have to do this thing And I have to prepare It's a lot of work It is It's more work than you think And I don't And I don't like doing it

Where I go stand up I'm the writer I'm the producer I'm everything And whatever happens in stand up Is almost a direct result Of me Whereas like

So in acting You have to You have to audition And the person has to, the casting director has to go, yeah, I like that person. Like, you, you need that person to be like, no, I like you. I give you permission to be in our show or a movie or whatever.

Yeah. If you're trying to sell a TV show, you need networks and a bunch of executives to be like, yes, I believe this is our brand and they have to make the decision. For stand-up, you have to be funny. But here's the thing with stand-up. Just got to be funny. You are the brand in stand-up. If your character doesn't work in a TV show, you could go,

bad writing, bad producing, bad directing, bad casting, whatever. Yeah. If you don't work and stand up, it's because you didn't work. Yeah, and I like that. Oh.

Because I trust me. Yeah. I trust me to do the work. I trust me to make it work. But it's also hard to not take that personally. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

But like, I like knowing that if it doesn't work out, it's because I fucked up. Because I can control that. I believe I can control that. If a show doesn't work out, if a TV show doesn't work out, then that could be any number of reasons

why it didn't work out that I had absolutely no control over whatsoever. So there's a movie out right now with Eric Andre called a bad trip. It's on Netflix. It's a great movie, and the whole concept of the movie, for those you don't know, is

it's like it's like a sitcom, but it's taking place in real life with real people. and there's insane. Like, imagine if you were just walking down the street and a chase scene happened from Fast and the Furious and you're like, the fuck?

Like, but they're also getting the people's reactions. That's what the movie is. It's a brilliant concept. And I'm laughing about it because about seven, eight years ago, I was in a pilot or NBC that did not go. It did not get picked up. But it was a sitcom that took place in the real world. We would go to dinner and those sitcom family arguments would happen at a restaurant with real people that didn't know they were on a show.

So we would like throw gravy at each other and everyone would go like there was one scene where I was at a where I was at a bookstore with my twin brother who wasn't a dwarf. Yeah, fun. It's a weird show. And like something happened and all the bookshelves fell over and like we rigged it to where it would happen that way. But then no one in the store knew that that was going to happen. It's their real reactions. It's us reacting to it. I thought it was brilliant.

but it didn't go. And for whatever reason, name your reason. But in that case, you can't go. Not my fault. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can say not my fault, but I don't want it. I don't want to do that. I want it to be my fault because then I have control.

If it's because a new executive doesn't like that kind of show or the writing wasn't good or whatever, then it's like, well, then why the fuck am I doing it? If you're going to fuck it up, like it's the team sport. versus the individual sport. If, like, if Roger Federer doesn't win at tennis, it's because Roger Federer wasn't good at tennis.

If the guard from your favorite football team does everything right, he could still lose because the wide receiver dropped it, the quarterback through the wrong guy, the running back fumbled it, or the defense sucked. Like, all of that can happen. And he's like,

mother, like, you know, it's every name every, great player that didn't win a championship. And then you have like Adam Morrison who's won two. And if you don't know who that is, he was a great college player, went to the Lakers, was sitting on the bench, never got in the game, won two championships.

He has two rings. But he has two rings. So it's like, it's that whole thing of like, what do you prefer? Do you want teammates who you can rely on, who can possibly fuck up and then also pick you up when you're not doing well? Or do you want to be the individual show where it's like, no, no, it's you.

It's you. It's all you. and if it goes wrong, it's you. Wouldn't you think, though, that when you get an audition or you get a breakdown, they're looking for you. You would think that?

I had an incident during an audition one time where they, it was for, it was for a commercial, I won't say the brand, but in the audition, it said,

we are looking for a funny little person. I'm talking funny. Improop comedy. Prop comedy. like great comedic timing like just everything like that. Yeah, you're like, who better? Yeah, and I'm reading the part like, holy shit.

Yeah, me, great. So I get to the audition and they're like, okay, for this audition, we want you to mime picking up those boxes and putting them on the shelf. There's no boxes, there's no shelf. But like, pick up the box and I go, okay, and then what? And they go, oh, that's it.

And I did it. And then I try to do it funny. And then they told me like, no, no, no, just play it for real. And I'm like, but you want, okay? So I did it. And then they went, okay, that's all. And I stopped in the room and went, The breakdown said this.

They go, uh-huh, that's what we need. And I went, that's me. Okay, just so you know, if this is what you want, me. Like, yes, there are other very talented dwarf actors out there. There are other dwarf comedians out there. There are funny little people out there, no doubt. But I go, if this is what you want,

this is literally me and me alone. gave me the fucking like and I kind of I kind of said that to him like in the room didn't get the part probably because of that but like it made me so it infuriated me because I'm like you literally just said yeah you literally just said we want

Brad Williams Brad Williams showed up and then you went but what can you like and there's so many stories that well sometimes not everybody will know this but sometimes you'll get a breakdown and it will say we're looking for a Ryan Reynolds type

yeah and you're like get Ryan Reynolds. Right. Call him. It sounds like here. They were saying, we want a Brad Williams type. Yeah.

Then Brad Williams showed up and they're like, but Kenny. Did you see who they ended up casting? I did. They cast anybody who would like, maybe it was Asian or black, you could go,

ah. Right. I go, okay, that's what you wanted. And that, and that does happen sometimes where I don't get a part,

I'm and go, wow. And then I see the person's performance and go, cool. Like, yeah, okay.

So you saw the movie, you saw the movie, you saw the movie Joker? Of course. There's a dwarf in that movie. Oh, you audition for it? Yes. I auditioned for that one.

Didn't get it. I thought I did well. I was really mad about not getting the part. And then I saw, his name is Lee. He's a great actor. I saw what he did. And I went, oh, yeah. Him.

Okay, yeah. Give that to him. He won. And I've gone in for auditions and then I see the person that they cast. I go, I was nothing like that person. Why did you call me? Yes. Why was I?

there. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, and it's just a crazy business that way. But, and that's one of the reasons why I love being a stand-of-com comedian because if I don't get the part, if my show doesn't go, if whatever doesn't happen, I still have comedy. I have comedy. And you'll always have that.

Yeah, I can't stop doing that. Like, the worst case scenario is I literally never write another joke and I just do the same act that I'm doing right now for the rest of my life. But the act works. So there'll always be some people that laugh. There'll be people that tired of it and never come back and see me.

But it will always get some laughs. So that's the worst case. So I got that. And that's why I'm really happy to be a comedian. A lot of people that are watching this or listening to this will know you from the Chris Jericho Cruz. Oh, yeah. The Rock and Rager.

How did that? Rock and Wrestling Rager at C. Okay. How did that connection happen? I'll tell you this story. And by the way, I think for the new one, or the third one, some cabins, it was sold out, but I think some cabins just became available and it's a complicated vaccine situation.

It's some politics. I don't know. I don't want to step there. But anyway. So yeah, if you want to go, look it up. So yeah, the Chris Jericho, rock and wrestling, Ragerd Sea, which is the, like,

people make fun of comedians on cruises. Not this one. This is, it's comedy, it's metal rock bands, and it's wrestling on a fucking boat. Like how, this, yes, this is my people. This is my cruise.

So I'm doing this how that happened. So I was doing the Tampa Improv and I was headlining it and I do meet and greets after every show. And this lovely attractive blonde woman comes up to me after the show and says, wow, that was really great. You were really funny. You know, my husband's in show business. He would really like you. And whenever I hear my husbands and show business, my son's doing stand-up, my whatever the, I'm just like, uh-huh.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Your husband's in show business out here in Tampa. Yeah. Okay. So he's done like a used car commercial. Like that's what's going through my head. So I go, oh, your husband's in show business. And I just kind of nonch and I go, oh, who's your husband? She goes, Chris Jericho. And I go, oh. It ain't on my face. Okay. Well, please tell him hi. I'm a big fan. Blah, blah, blah. And I probably geeked out and said way too many insights. information about Chris Jericho during that time where she's like, how do you know that? Yeah, you have that thing in your house. I haven't been there. But she goes, no, I'm going to tell him about you. And I go, okay, cool. And I think, I think, well,

there's a fun story I can tell people, but I don't think really anything of it. A few days later, I get a DM on Twitter, and it's from Chris Jericho. And I'm a lifelong wrestling fan. like we geeked out before the, before the cameras went on. And Chris Jericho is definitely one of my favorites.

And so he DMs me and says, hey man, my wife says you're really funny. I'm going to be out in L.A. in a couple months. You want to do my podcast? And I'm like, yes. Yes, Chris Jericho. So I, we set a date

and I go to his studio where he does his podcast. And I sit down and I talk with them for an hour. talk is Jericho. I tried not to geek out too much. I tried to act professional. There's probably some moments where I geeked out. And then at the end of the, we stopped the podcast.

And he goes, wow, that was really fun. Cool. Nice to meet you. And we got along really well. And then he goes, you know, I'm doing this. This is before it was announced. This is the first cruise. I'm doing this cruise thing.

Like, what do you think? You think it's going to, I go, how can I be on this cruise? Yeah. And he's like, I can't really. pay you that much because I'm losing money on it and I go, I don't care, pay me, don't pay me. It's wrestling on a boat.

I want to do this cruise and at the time AEW didn't exist. So it was Ring of Honor versus V-Vist is Impact Wrestling. Yeah, it was right before AEW was announced. Yeah, which was really cool because there was still a Chris Jericho Kenny Omega match on that boat. So we got to see that. So yeah, it was amazing. I go, yes, I will do it

it and I did the cruise, I did shows, but one thing is that I went to everything. Like every wrestling event, I was there, every rock performance I tried to go see every because every live podcast I did. I was involved in some of them. At one point, Jim Ross called me humping Don Callis's leg where he's like, good God, oh, madder, that leg's got a family. Oh, my God. It was like the biggest nerd moment.

And I did everything. And Jericho noticed that. Like, I was at the one-man show. Like, Mick Foley did his one-man show. Jericho did the one-man show. And I did that stuff. And he's like, oh, you're really, like, you're really into this. And the fans saw that too.

So the fans were like, oh, Brad's not just showing up here for a paycheck. Like he wants. Like, one of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of us. Yeah, definitely. So after that, Jericho and I legitimately, and I can say this honestly, became friends.

Like, friends. There's one time I was in Columbus, Ohio. I noticed that his band Fawsey was doing a rock festival there at that time. And I was like, hey, I'm in Columbus. You're doing Columbus. He goes, oh, I'm done at like 2 o'clock. We're one of the day sets. So I'll come see you.

And he drove by himself over an hour and a half. Just showed up the comic club. He's like, hey. And he walked up and I'm Chris Derek. And they're like, yeah, we don't. You can't get in here. And yeah, he watched the show. show and hung out afterward. It was great.

Like, we're legitimately friends right now. And it's the weirdest thing. Because I have to, like, he's a great guy, the best dude. And then I have to remind myself like, oh yeah, that's, that's like one of your heroes when you were a kid. And now you're friends of them. That's the weirdest shit ever.

He's such a good guy. He's a great guy. And he makes time. Like, his text aren't just like, okay. Yes. He makes time to communicate. He's caring. He read it. He knows. He knows. He he knows what we're talking about. So I was going to be on the second Jericho Cruz,

but then my wife had the nerve to get pregnant. Oh, I know. How dare she? So I wasn't able to do that one because... Partly your fault, too. I had something to do with it. But yeah, the due date was like a week before the cruise. So it couldn't be like, all right, you're born, you're healthy, good, all right, bye.

Like, I couldn't do that. So I didn't do that. but now I'm on the third one. I'm hosting it and also doing some stand-up shows on it. I love it. So yeah, it'll be great. I can't wait. It's the most fun.

It's the most fun if you're a wrestling fan. Because like I said, it's rock music, it's comedy. And all the comedians on it either like wrestling or associated with wrestling in some way. So they're not just getting people that are, like I said, are just showing up for the paycheck. Like, these are all people that have respect for the business. So it's going to be a blast. That's such a good story that I think we're going to end on that story. Let's do it, man.

Where can people find you online? You can find me. Go to my website, Brad Williamscom. That's got links to everywhere. But if you want the shortcuts, Instagram. The short cuts? That's the name of my next special, maybe. I don't know.

But then go to Instagram at Brad Williams comic, Twitter, at Funny Brad. But my whole touring schedule is on my website. We talked about this before. You are on the road pretty much every weekend for the next year. I got college to eventually pay. So yes, I'm on the road pretty much all the time. So if I'm not in your city, wait. I'll be there. I'll be within a stone's throw.

No problem. Just a short distance away. Get! You're funny. You're funny. Chris Van Vliet. I end every interview with the same question because... Six inches. Well, there we go. Okay, no, no. I'm very driven by gratitude. And I feel like I start and end every day.

Saying out loud three things that I'm grateful for. So I end every interview with this too. Because it gets people that are listening to think in that same term of like, hey, I can be grateful as well. Yeah. So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? Wow. It's such a simple question, but also such a great question where it does.

It makes you stop and go like. Because so many people think about the things they don't have, instead of thinking about the things, but they do have. Yeah. I'm very grateful that my wife is patient and lets me go on the road and do stuff on the road and entertain. She let us hang out today. She let us hang out today. You know, she's got the baby there. And because I'm wealthy enough to where I'm okay. I'm not wealthy enough to where I've got a staff of nannies.

And we just wake up. We go, oh, I'd like to see the children today. And we wander in and see the child whenever we feel like. It's like, no, we're there. We're in it. We're doing all this stuff. So, yes, I'm very grateful, very grateful to have a patient wife, very grateful to have a healthy daughter. And I don't want to make this a political thing, but very grateful for the vaccine. Because I can now go back on the road and I can do stand up and I can do meet and greets afterward and not worry about me getting sick or me passing it off to anyone.

or if I do get sick, it won't be as bad. So, yes, yay, science. So, yeah, I'll say that I'm grateful for the vaccine. And here come the tweets. Save your tweets. Whether you're pro or anti-vaccine, I think we can be happy that we're able to leave our houses now. Yes.

We're able to eat in a restaurant, I guess. Yes. We're able to go to comedy shows, to movie theaters. Yes, thank God, because my industry shut down for a year, and I do virtual shows, which don't give me wrong. They were okay. But yeah, it's kind of weird when you tell a joke about anal sex and you see

someone's three-year-old like wander into the camera and you're like, all right, send me the invoice for the therapy. I know I just caused that kid some harm. But yes, thanks for having me. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me to the apartment and showing me all your Emmys. Do I have to polish them now? Is that one of the things? Yep. That's what I brought you here. I got to go polish his daytime Emmys.

Please. Thank you so much. Thanks, Mom. Brad Williams. There you go. I'm just so inspired by his story of being laser focused on what you want and then chasing after it. If you live in the U.S., by the way, there's a pretty good chance that Brad is coming to your city and coming to your city pretty soon. Check out his website, bradwilliamscom for all of the dates and the locations and give him a follow on Instagram at Brad Williamscom. Over on Twitter, he is at Funny Brad. And I'll leave you with this quote from the great. Joan Rivers, who said,

when you can laugh at yourself, no one can ever make a fool out of you. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more. Hopefully in person. Insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands

trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley.

Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.