Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Comedian Michael Yo On Why You Should Go ALL IN On Your Dream

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

Michael Yo (@michaelyo) is a comedian and radio & television personality. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his new comedy special "I Never Thought" and why he funded it himself, how he went from being a TV host to a stand-up comedian, his comedy inspirations, the advice the Kobe Bryant gave him, how his family feels about the jokes he tells about them, how appearing on Chelsea Handler's TV show "Chelsea Lately" started his comedy career, his friendship with Joe Rogan and much more! Visit Michael Yo's website: https://www.michaelyo.com/ For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.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. Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet CVV CLIPS: youtube.com/CVVCLIPS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blaine! Yes, welcome back, my friends, to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. You were awesome for being here. I appreciate you spending time with us. Michael Yo, also very awesome. Great to have him back on the show.

This time for an in-person interview. We did this Inside the beautiful, incredible, incredible. unbelievable Blue Wire Studios that win Las Vegas. And I've known him for almost 10 years now. We met when we were both covering entertainment news and doing celebrity interviews. I just love this guy.

He is such a testament to hard work paying off. You've probably seen him on e-news, Extra, the insider, that's where he was working as an entertainment correspondent. He's now crushing it as a comedian. He was a contestant recently on America's got talent and has a new comedy special on his YouTube channel called I Never Thought. And he produced it and funded it himself.

And we get into why he was the one who wanted to fund this himself. And when you're done with this episode, go to his YouTube channel. It's just called Michael Yo and be prepared to laugh at his special for the full 29 minutes. It's amazing. And I just, I love his story of how hard he's worked to get where he's at right now. And I promise you, this conversation is going to light a fire in you or perhaps under you. I don't know where the fire is, but it's going to make you want to do something. Check him out on social media.

Give him a follow. He's at Michael Yo. Very simple. It's just his name. If you're not following me, also very simple, just my name. At Chris Van Fleet. And our fan of the week is Jerry Kellerman. Quick, simple review from Apple Podcast.

It says, great show. my top podcast right now. That is very kind of you, Jerry. Thank you. I read one review on every single episode. It's my way to say thank you to give you a free shout out for listening to the show. And I'm just so glad that we're on this journey together. So if you have an iPhone, if you have Apple Podcasts, please go in there, leave a few words,

and we'll read it on the show. If you want to promote something like your show or your YouTube channel, sneak that into the review. And I'll read it on here. And if you're listening on Spotify, they have ratings on there. So please go in, click the five stars. Well, actually, click whatever star rating you think is appropriate, but five would be great. Go in there on Spotify. It takes just a few seconds.

So I just want to say thank you. Thank you for all of this. We're in episode 342. And I could never do this without you. So I appreciate you. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, the very talented Michael Yo. I can't believe I'm seeing you in person.

I know. Oh, finally. I know. I love the sign in the back. Your name is in headline. You're like, this is so Las Vegas. Your name was as we walked in, the guest today on Insight with Chris Van Fleet,

Michael Yo. I know. I feel good. It made me feel special. I'm trying to think of the last time I saw you in person. We've zoomed a lot. We've phased time. We've had lots of phone calls over last one years.

We almost worked together on New Year's Eve. That fell apart for you. Yeah. Look good for you. Oh, it was great. Yeah. I love Nikki Novak. We both know her, and she's doing so well, and I'm happy for her.

Hopefully this year, we can all be on it. Fingers crossed. Yeah. I think the last time I saw you must have been at a junket, though. I don't remember the last year. But I haven't done a junket. What's the last junket you did? I haven't done a junket in four years.

What was the last one? I can't remember. You know, one of the last ones was Charlize Theron in Italy or Berlin. I was not there. It was something like that. What movie was that? I don't know. She played an assassin.

Anybody know that movie? She played in a sad. Lucy. Lucy. Was it Lucy? Yeah. Yeah, it might have been. But she was awesome.

I loved interviewing her. But I went out there and, you know, in entertainment, literally, you're there. They throw a big party. You eat. And then the next day, you're home. Yeah. Like, when I worked for the insider for CBS and ET, I was, they only fly American Airlines. I was concierge status.

I got concierge. Ancierge key. Yeah. I got that. So I've experienced that life and now I'm normal. But I'm a Delta guy now. I love Delta. Delta's my jam.

Do you ever, like, we had so much access with doing junkets and premieres. Do you ever look back at some moments where you go, geez, I was at a party with so-and-so or I was at a premiere with this person and didn't do anything. You know, no, the one moment that stood out in, it was a great moment. Kobe Bryant, he did an event. it was a hoop blow. He loved watches. So he did a who blow event. It was all these corporate heads, and I interviewed him for the insider. I flew out there. And he flew in in a helicopter because it was in Napa. And so you're talking about 50 corporate heads, me and him. So he asked me to have lunch

with them so he didn't have to sit with all the corporate heads, you know? And it was just me and him at a table for like an hour. Oh my God. Just me and Kobe Bryant. And I go, what's the biggest mistake you made in your career? Because the biggest mistake I made in my career, if I could go back, can change anything is not taking money from these companies that paid me, I would have to stop in their companies. So I would have rather owned part of the company than to take million dollar endorsement deals. So, hey, instead of giving me $10 million, give me X number of stock in your company. So that's, you know, I'm not on Kobe Bryant's level, but if I ever break through, or when I break through and get to that level, I will be that guy to be like, oh, $10 million, no,

give me a percentage of the company. This is what we're seeing now. I think the Rock's a perfect example of this. Absolutely. Right? Like, Teramana could have sponsored him. Zoha could have sponsored him. But instead, he owns, I'm sure, a pretty large percentage of the company.

And now he has no problem promoting it all the time. And why not own it? Exactly. If you're going to fill up your Instagram with something, you might as well own some of it or all of it, you know? Speaking of that, you own all of your comedy special. Yes. I never thought, congratulations.

It's blowing up. Look, it's on YouTube, and it's pretty amazing because YouTube can be a vicious place with comments, but there's over 400 comments. I think the one negative comment, and I look at all of them, the only negative comment I got is a lady goes, I don't know if it's late, but I'm just too tired to watch it. Like, that was the worst. That's not even negative. I know it's not even negative.

But it's so much love on YouTube, and I had experience with my last comedy special that was good, but I didn't own it. I didn't have anything to do with it. This one, I was in edit Bay. I did everything with director. His name is Coach Taylor. So we did everything together. And from start to finish, my hands were all over it.

And to see, it just broke 47,000. And to see the people love it, the clips have gone viral. I was a guy that had 3,000 people on YouTube. And in less than two weeks now, I got over 20,000, 23,000. And so it really, on the social media game, changed my, I would. We'll say it changed my life because now people are coming up to me going, hey, can we do something with you? Can we do that with you? Well, before, I used it as a dumping ground.

I was like, you know, I'm not in that game of YouTube. I'm not in the game of Facebook. But now Facebook makes me a lot of money. And now YouTube is starting to happen. Facebook's making you a lot of money from the videos you're putting on there? A lot of money. Like monetization? Yes.

Oh, wow. Even though right now on Facebook, this is weird. My podcast clips make me tons of money on Facebook. But this new special where I own everything, for some reason there's a glitch in Facebook. And I can't monetize it because they say there's a copyright claim on my material that I own. So I probably missed out on about five to six grand this month, just off those videos. Gosh. Because the videos have millions of views.

And what's different about Facebook and YouTube, which I love YouTube because it's more of a search engine. But you make, the money is incredible on Facebook compared to it. Like you do a million views on YouTube. You make okay money. Do a million views on Facebook. You're making five, six grand. It's like crazy. Facebook has that share button.

And that's the biggest thing. Yes. If you love something on YouTube, you have to go copy the URL, send it to your friend on Facebook. If you like something, you just hit that share button. Instantly, it's on your wall.

Done. Done. So, and I think I can't wait because I have a tier plan where, like after a year, year I'm going to put my special after all the clips and everything, then do it on Facebook. And then hopefully it catches a second, because I own it. I can do that. It's not even on Facebook right now. No, it's just on YouTube because I wanted to maximize each one. Yeah. So I want to see what it will do on YouTube. And then I want to see what it does on Facebook. And that's pretty

good research for myself because I'm recording another one. I want to put one out every year, year and a half. Yeah. So I'll have all the numbers from both so I know how to strategize. So what was the plan to do this on your own and do it on YouTube? Because before you answer that, I think a lot of people go, well, I could put anything on YouTube and it'll either get watched by millions of people or, you know, maybe it gets watched by not a lot of people. Yeah, and that was a scary part. Sure. But my thing is I rather, because I had, my last one went on Amazon, right? And it's been out for three and a half years and only has 160 comments.

And half of those were people I begged to watch it. And, you know, this one has over 400 and less than two weeks. So it's very organic, I feel. And, you know, I met with some people at YouTube. It's a surgeon. And the more people that like it, the higher it goes up in the ranks, and then they suggested more. Yeah.

So I was like, I knew the special, after I shot it, I was like, this is great. I didn't even pitch it to Netflix or any, because I wanted to put it out March 17, two years after I went into the hospital with COVID. So that date was very important to me. I shot it in the middle of February. So we didn't have much time to turn it around. And we did. I shot it like February 7, right?

So we didn't have much time to turn it around. So I didn't even pitch it. And I knew even if Netflix or Comedy Central or if somebody wanted it, they wouldn't turn it around that fast. I did it myself and I go, Sam Marell, Mark Norman, some other comedians that put their stuff on YouTube. And it's changed your life. Literally, they've gone from selling no tickets to selling out,

like clubs every weekend and small videos. Wow. Yeah. So YouTube for comedy right now is it. What was it before? Was it Netflix? It was Netflix. If you had the Netflix comedy special? I honestly, like, when I first started promoting a special, people,

fans, not my fans, just fans of whatever show I was on. They watched it and they would hit me up going, you're totally underselling your special. Because I was very humble and be like, you know, I think you're like, look, I will tell you this. You will laugh from beginning to end. Because now I have the feedback. Yeah.

And to me, it's one of the best specials in the last five years. Like, it's so good. And to see all the response from Facebook. I mean, from YouTube and Facebook, the clips. Everywhere it goes, people are loving it and sharing it. And it's huge. It's changed my life already in just two and a half weeks. It's changed my life.

I'm just so proud of you. Thank you, bro. It's been just, like you said, just two and a half weeks. The great thing about YouTube, especially with content that's super shareable like that, is this will continue to live on for a slow burn. Months, yes, months and years to count. Yeah. And that's the thing is also every special I do, it's a legacy, people.

for my family, for my kids, my son's five, my daughter's suit. They'll look back at this. They go, oh, that was my dad when I'm long and gone, you know, so they can show their kids. So that's why I decided to own the content, too. You know, because who knows? Fifty years from now when I'm gone, my kids may say, oh, we want to do something. Since we own the footage, let's do a tribute thing or whatever. We own it.

And moving forward, I think I will always own it and always put it on YouTube or a platform. Because the last special I shot, they shot it, and they shot it. then I didn't see anything until it was out. This one I saw every cut. And that's why I feel like the biggest compliment I get is like you can feel the energy in the room. It's just not me on stage. It's crowd shots. You can feel the energy, the laughs.

And that's what I love about it. So logistically, what do you have to pay for here? You have to pay for the venue. You have a camera, editing. Everything. You pay for it out of pocket. Yeah. But I was smart enough in the any comedian out there.

That's a big investment, though. It is a big investment. but I had great friends like Joel Backroff. I had Matt Comet. They gave me a Tempe Improv for a great price. They started me in comedy at the Miami Improv. They owned Miami Improv. They own Fort Lauderdale Improv that was at the Hard Rock Casino at one time.

They just opened Danea Improv. But they gave me the room for a great price. I found an up-and-coming director. I knew he was hungry because he reminded me of myself. Like, oh, I do basically, to get into the industry, you would do anything. You just want your shot. And he was that guy. And he shot it beautifully.

And I knew he would. And just the team came together. And if any comic out there is listening, shoot your special in a market where you can sell tickets and have a great weekend. Because I left Tempe that weekend paid off the special. Oh, yeah. From all the tickets I sold from all the merch I sold. So I was walking out with zero dollars made, but everything was paid for.

That's perfect. And that's all you can ask. So everyone's sitting in the audience knows they're there for your special. No's there. We did Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We did five shows. So Thursday was a practice show, no cameras. Just the directors and stuff walking through.

Second, and I mean, Friday and Saturday, two shows a night, and they were all taped. Because I owned everything. So I was like, if the crew's there, you know how it works. If a cruise there half a day or a full day, they get paid the same. So I was like, I'm going to just shoot both. So I shot both each night. I had it after the first. I believe the one that we actually put out is the first cut.

And then for Sirius XM, big shout out to them to play in my special on their channels. I did a clean version. So the last show, the fourth show, last one Saturday night was a clean version. So because I know clean versions get more play on the radio than dirty version. Yeah. So I kind of had a strategy through it all and it worked out beautifully. The most, I tell you the expensive part was I have a phenomenal PR. company. Like, uh, and Rob Greenwald, he's phenomenal. He has like Jim Jeffries and everything,

but he's a lot of money. Yeah. But he got me on Good Morning America. I was on Good Morning America promoting my special. What a dream. Hold on. You're on Good Morning America, promoting your special that you own that's on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. That's that I mean, that's, and that's worth the, the money I spent right there. Yeah. But they've gotten me tons of press and like I said, it's 47,000 views right now, but it's climbing so fast and what feels so good. It's betting on yourself. That's the thing. Joe Coy brought me in the stand-up. And he was like, you're at that point where you got to bet on yourself. Because once you start winning on your own, then everybody else wants to be a part. And I fit, let me tell you,

just two and a half weeks. And this is what I'm telling anyone that's betting on themselves or thinking about it, do it. Because in two and a half weeks, so many doors have opened. Huge meetings are coming down the line because these massive celebrities, these massive celebrities, these massive production companies have watched my special. And I just had a meeting. I can't say the people, but I just had a huge meeting yesterday, and it all generated from that special.

They were going, we would have never known about you until we saw this special, but this shows us you can do this. So let's work together on a project. But you've been in comedy now, how long? I'm going on 11 years, which is fairly, in the comedy world,

that's fairly new. It is. Yeah. But don't you also kind of feel like after 11 years that it's this that's final? getting people to notice you? Well, this is what I want people to notice me for. Because if you're in entertainment news,

like, people know me from that. There's no more I could have done. I worked for every channel. Like, if you- Yeah, you interviewed every celebrity. Every celebrity. If you watch that type of news, you know who I am. Sure.

Right. Now I'm breaking into acting, so that's new and exciting for me. But stand-up now is becoming, over the last three years, even during the pandemic, I changed all my socials to comedian. because people always introduce me as a host comedian.

We're like, oh, you're a host and comedian. And it kind of downplay the comedian side. So I go, any show I'm on, it has to promote, I'm a comedian. I don't care. It's not a host. I don't even, like, of course I hosted all those shows, but that's not the first part. They promote now. Now when I go on shows, they're like comedian, Michael, yeah.

Well, and as you and I know, and we've talked about before, almost anybody can be a host. It takes a rare breed to be a comedian. Yes. Anybody can be a host. I tell people all the time, it's not that hard. It is not that hard to be a host. So when we take this back 11 years ago,

you're having a very successful career, flying all around the world, interviewing some of the biggest stars on a national TV show. It takes a lot of courage to get on stage for the first time. Yes. What was that thought process like?

And then what made you finally pulled the trigger? Well, I was on Chelsea lately. And there were comedians always around me. And I was the reporter on the show. So I wasn't even supposed to be funny. I was just supposed to defend the celebrity because my job was not to talk crap about the celebrity because I had to interview them. So I couldn't do it. Yeah. So I just defended them and then I became the celebrity ass kisser on the show. So everybody would talk about me the whole show and just dogg on me, which made me even bigger.

So then one day I decided to tweet, and this is when people went to Twitter. I go, you know what, I'm going to try stand up. Chelsea got a wind of it. Next time I was on the show, they put the tweet up. They all made fun of me. She goes, there's no way you're that funny. I did it. Crushed it at the Miami Improv. Because I did it in a place where I knew I would be comfortable. At the time, I had a huge radio show in Miami, sold out my first show ever, and did 15 minutes because the crowd was so nice.

Fifteen minutes. My first time ever, I was just having fun with the crowd. But they were there because they were fans of the radio show. So it's so supportive. You know, it's like doing it in front of your family and they're all like Miamians or Miami nights or whatever they call them. But it was so comforting. I did so well. The owner of the club, Joel, was like,

oh, why don't you open it up for the Wayne's brothers the next night? So my second night ever, I'm opening up for Marlon and Sean Wayne's. And they were the first people to put me, like big comedies to put me on. So my second night ever doing comedy. Was there something on that second night? Like, those guys are legend. Legend. Was there something that they said or maybe did that you went,

oh, that has really helped advance my process? They just gave me the shot. That's what I tell everybody, man. And that's why I'm trying to pass that down. In this special, a director that's never shot a special. Has he ever shot comedy? No. I mean, he does for friends, like just little things here and there.

But this was his first special. But in my mind, I'm like, yeah, I've been on movie sets. I've been on sitcom set. It's not hard to shoot a stage. Just put some cameras up and we'll cut. Yeah. You know what I mean? So at the same time, it's not hard.

but the vision of how you move the cameras and all that, he had it. I mean, this dude is so talented. And after my special, he's now shooting Angela Johnson special. I'm telling you, in the comedy game, he's going to be a huge director. And I love that I was the first person to get that shot. Because here's the biggest piece of advice. I'm going to tell someone that ever moves out Hollywood, and I got it for one of the biggest casting directors in the world.

She's done like Star Trek, Star Wars, big shows. She goes, nobody ever wants to be the first one to give you a chance, but they love being second, third, fourth. They love that. So if you can find someone to give you that first shot, that's you. That's so good. Yeah.

What's the best piece of advice that you've been given as a comedian and who to come from? It came from Joe Coy. He goes, if you sit down to write a joke, stop. If you sit down to write a real story, that's where you want to do. Oh, that's so good. Because what I found out in comedy is people outgrow jokes, but they don't outgrow you. So if they're coming to me to hear about my family, every show,

and how that advances, like, oh, we saw a special last year, let's see where his family is that this year. Now they're invested in you. They're not invested necessarily in, yeah, you need to be funny. But they're not invested in the jokes as much as they're invested in you. Now, there were comedians that came out a long time ago. It was all about the jokes. And those tend to fall off.

Like, look at all the greats. They're all about, they talk about fans. They talk about personal stories. What comedian besides Rodney Dangerfield, and there's probably others, because I'm not a comedy connoisseur. Yeah. But that we mentioned today,

Rodney Dangerfield is the one, hey, you know, taking my mother, he was at one punchline show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Richard Pryor, Redfield. Seinfeld.

It's all, it's all, well, Seinfeld's more observational. Yeah. He's the kind of one that broke through. But most comedians, yeah, yeah. Most comedians talk about, personal issues, not observational.

You know what I mean? Where you get to know them. So my point in my specials is I want to become a real-life sitcom. If they're not going to give me a sitcom, I'm making my own. And I'm putting it out 30 minutes a year. So every year you're going to get a new episode of my life done through stand-up. Do your parents ever go, Michael, please don't share this story? Oh, they say that.

And then when I don't share it, they're like, oh, my mom's like, oh, why you know share a story? Because you told me not, well, you know, I like it. My mom loves it. My mom did an autograph session after one of my shows. No, she did it. People were coming to her after the show. It's like, oh, my God, you're amazing.

Oh, yeah. She's a celebrity of my show. You've made your parents famous. My parents have a video out and it has something like on TikTok. This is my parents on TikTok, right? It's just an interview with them. My dad talks about being in a closet. Not gay, but he talks about he sits in a closet all day and does work.

And the closet is like no bigger than like a quarter of this room. But, no, because he heats it up because my mom likes to keep the house cold. So he has a heater in the closet and he warms with it. And he sits in there and looks at stocks. And he stays in the closet. So he talks about this. And it has over 200,000 views on TikTok. People love my parents because it's just funny, man.

The conversations that come out is just so funny. Well, it's so relatable too. Like when someone sees that on TikTok, they can, hit that share button on TikTok, and send it to any of their friends who could relate to that. It's so funny because a lot of parents, like what I'm reading after seeing all the, oh, I send it to my mom because my dad has a certain room

and he just stays in that room. Or I'm finding out a lot of fathers have closets. They stay in. I love it. You know what's so funny is men brag about a man cave? And literally, that is like 300 square feet of a whole house. We brag about having 300 square feet in a whole house. How pathetic is that?

Well, it's because the rest of the house is just whatever you'd like, honey. Sounds great. 100%. 100%. Like the house, like my wife's man cave is the whole house. Her wife cave or whatever is the whole house. When I moved to, you know, growing up in Toronto and then I lived in Cleveland for a long time, those houses have basements.

And right. So that you, that's your main cave. All my friends. who still live back in Canada have the whole basement. That's their man cave. We watch the games down there. See, next house I get, I'm going to have them build a basement.

I guess you could build a basement in Nevada. I don't know, but we're doing it. You couldn't do it in Florida. No. The basement would just be flooded. Exactly. That's a great idea. Just put it underground so then you can just lock it up.

That's it. Yep. You're just down there. I love it. Man, I wouldn't live there. So are you working on stuff constantly, new material. Any conversation I'm in, anything, observation I'm making my life, if somebody laughs at something, it mentally goes in my head. I may not remember it right away, but it'll come back if it was funny. Do you write it down in your iPhone notes? I've never written down a joke. I just go up there and work on it. Yeah, like my wife brought up something. She loves, like, this isn't a joke. This is just

something that happened yesterday. My wife loves Usher, the song Confessions. She loves that album, which blows me away because the whole album is about cheating, right? So I go, Why do women love, like, the bachelor where a guy hooks up with a bunch of different women. And, like, they love stuff about being cheated on. And I go, dudes don't like that. Like, you remember that song, Don't Want No short, short man came out? No dude is singing that in a club. You know what I mean?

Like, oh, I love this jam. Don't want no short, short, you know. So it's just those little things where you'll get an idea like that. And then you'll just make it into a bigger idea. You'll start peeling it apart and then go, why do women like that in men, don't like this. You know, so it becomes a whole different bit where it starts with the music, but then it's like, you know what? And women like this, and men hate that. And men, like, men and women are, so in my mind right now, I'm talking this out. This is all coming to me right now.

But it's kind of like that little door you open is so much women like this, men don't like that. That could become a 10-minute bit if you find funny things. All you need is like three or four funny things to compare and then you break it down and add jokes. So now that becomes a real life bit from a real bit. How do you work on your transitions? Because the best comedians transition so seamlessly from one story to another. And you're so good at it. I'm a storyteller. So in my mind, like when I do the seller, you're coming to the cellar today. I can't wait. It won't be in order. Because I only do that for specials. I'll be throwing different jokes because it's practiced to me. So I, when you come to the cellar, you should expect to see people

try out new jokes. You should see comedy that's being, I tell everybody, it's like being a reporter a writer for a newspaper. It's your first draft. And so many comedians get torn apart because of their first draft. If you see them in the club, it's not final. Yeah. You know? So you're seeing us work out stuff. When you see it on a special, that's when you can criticize or whatever you want it because that's final. This is like, here's the paper, read it, go. But before that, in a club, you shouldn't ever criticize because we're working stuff out. How often do you getting on stage? I'm getting on stage at least some weeks, 14 times. I do two shows. I do two shows.

shows a night. I go every night because it fits our schedule with our family. And with the family all day, I go, I get to work about 7.30 and I leave at 11. And you're getting paid when you're- I get paid from the seller and then I sell merch out. I meet all the fans sell merch after the show. It's living in Vegas has become a dream come true where it's given me the seller has comedy seller, which is huge in New York, has really came through. And that's why I was able to get this special done even during a pandemic because I was practicing the material. And I'm already, I'm doing a new 30-minute special every year. I'm already 15 minutes into my next special.

And I'm not going to shoot it until January or February next year. This is, so you always hear to people talking about like, oh, I wake up one hour earlier now, which means I now have seven extra hours in a week that I can work. If you're going on stage twice a day, every day, 14 times a week, think of how much further ahead in that whole Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours real thing. Think of how much further along you are. Sure, you're only 11 years.

years into it. Only 11 years into it. But my stage time is probably like 15 to 16 right now. If not more. If not more. Because I remember Russell Peters, one of the biggest comedians in the world, told me. A fellow Canadian as well. A fellow Canadian sells out all over the world.

Yes. Told me that you're going to do a lot, a lot of things faster because you're going to have more stage time than a lot of people. A lot of people go, I've been doing comedy 10 years. But their stage time is like three. Because it's hard because you start with three minutes. You go to seven, 10, 15. you're fighting for spots everywhere.

Me, luckily, I had a name in TV, so they wanted me on shows. Sure. So my time moved so fast, and this is when I knew this special was special. I love Berg Kreischer. Like, he's one of my boys. He flew in, because now he's on jets,

private jets, and he landed. This was like when I, this is the day before I put it out. He texted me at 5 a.m. He's like, dude, this is special. This is it right here, you know? And all these big comedians are promote Jim Jeffries just put it out. Ronnie Chang just put it. So, and even my friends that see me from the beginning, close friends, they saw me in Dallas

last week and they go, all right, it happened. Whatever it was, you've leveled on. It's, you could tell now you're a comedian. Before you were a comedian, you were funny. But it's just a difference. Like, it's this comfortability? Well, I know I'm going on and do well. So, you know?

What's the next level from here, though? Is it acting? Oh, well, now, oh, well, acting, here's the thing. To me, it's all the same. You know, it all feeds, anything I do moving forward feeds comedy, stand-up comedy, and ticket sales. But there's a lot of comedians that never break out into the acting world. I love acting. Like, I was lucky enough, I have an Apple show coming out in a couple of months. I can't say when. But Bonnie Hunt, the legendary Bonnie Hunt, wrote it, produced, and directed it with Michelle Manning, who did Breakfast Club. It's such an amazing, people directed it. Gene Segal was in there. But anyway, it's Sarah Drew. She was on Greeds Anatomy. She played April Kempner. The girl that plays our daughter is Carson Rhodes. I'm letting everybody know. Carson Rose. Remember that name. She will win an Oscar before she's 20. She's 11 now. The girl's phenomenal. You have Ashley Williams and Darren Brooks that's on General Hospital or something like that. I think he's on one of those soaps. But it's so fun to be on set with these people. And I think. think in acting, it's going to, that will definitely open a lot of doors. All this is opening a lot of doors for me. You know what I mean? Are you working on acting as much as you're working on comedy? You can't.

I do have an acting coach. And I'm not, but I do auditions a lot, which is working. Sure. But I'm not going to a. It's also heartbreaking. Yeah. That's what auditions are. Yeah.

Well, and this is what's so great about comedy is when I lived in L.A. You would get all these nose and acting or whatever you did hosting. But then when you know you can go up that night and get 400 yeses, it's a lot easier to take that no, because in your mind, because you have an ego, you're like, oh, these people just haven't caught up yet. Yeah. Because real people like me. Yeah.

You know the audience you're trying to get? Yeah. They like me. So y'all haven't caught up. You may not think I'm right for that, which is fine. But I know me being me people like. And now I'm starting to see that catch up. And hopefully it keeps going.

So it's just a matter now of getting that. Like you've had a lot of breaks. A lot. A lot of break. Now it's just a matter of getting that one like huge break. Like the Kevin Hart break. Yeah. Have you ever read the book to Tipping Point?

Yes. Another Malcolm Gladwell book. Yeah. So I feel like I'm on that tip. It's just one, one project, one video, one something away from just going bananas. You know what I mean? Nobody knows what it is. So that's why you got to keep putting stuff up.

It could be on this podcast. Judd Apatow could be listening to this going, oh, you know what? His wife did hit on me during an interview. See there? Yeah, that went viral. But she hit on me too. I mean, that's not a big, she hits on everybody.

Did she ask you to take your shirt off? Well, she asked me more. No, I'm just, no, no, no, no. Whoa. I wish I could tell you this story, but I can't. You can tell me off camera. Yeah, but I had a celebrity's wife going hard. Like, when I say, like, hard.

like hard where the publicist had to rip her away from me like was touchy feeling handsy all over me on a red carpet and people were like oh my god and she was married to one of the biggest stars in the world can i guess who it is no no not at all and it was such a moment and somebody has that on camera somebody has it but they've been divorced now but somebody has that moment of on camera be like, this is the moment they got a divorce. I mean, because literally probably a couple months out of there, they got a divorce. So I knew she, they weren't on good turns. By the way, she came up to me on a red carpet.

That's so funny. I was like, you know, it's kind of one of those moments. You know, like a mic and people are watching this? There's a camera right there. Right there. Like, and you're on a red carpet. And it's your red carpet. So, anyway.

I think you're going to be able to continue to get work. forever because you're going to look 32 for the rest of your life. I am 137 years old right now. But black and Asian does that. You know, black don't crack, Asian, no raisin. That's what they're like. And I'm both, man. But seriously, you look so young.

Do I? Oh, yeah. Especially on camera. Oh, no, I look good on camera in real life. Look at this. Yeah. What? Yeah.

When people don't know you, what did they think your ethnicity is? Because you could be anything. I'm Puerto Rican. I'm Dominican. When I go to Hawaiian. When I go to Hawaii. They're like, welcome home. I'm like, I'm not from here, dude.

I'm not Texas. No, but I'm anything. And that's what I love is that, you know, also this TV show I'm in, it's about a mixed family. But we don't talk about race. You just see the representation on the screen. Yeah. I never had that growing up. And this will blow you away.

1967, it was finally legal to interracial marriage, be married. Interracially, in America, in 1967, which is not that long ago. Yeah. So a couple of years, a couple of years. after that my parents got married and had me. And then I was like, oh, now I know being older, why I never saw mixed-race TV shows? Because it wasn't legal to make those shows

until many years later where people felt comfortable. I don't know if you remember this. There was a Cheerios commercial about eight years ago, 2015, that had a white woman and a mixed kid in the kitchen, a black father on the couch in the living room. And it was so sweet. It said, Cheerios is. it's good for your heart or whatever cereal it is is good for your heart.

Yeah. So the mixed kid goes from the kitchen to the living room, gives it to her father and puts it by his heart and goes, oh, this is good for your heart. People lost their minds and saying, like, those type of people lost their mind. And they had to take the commercial off. They're like, you shouldn't be showing this on TV, mixed race family. Yeah. What?

This was 2015. Who cares? This was 2015, bro. 2015. Well, you're in an interracial marriage yourself. Oh, my God. Our families are everywhere, bro. Like, I'm black and Asian.

My wife is white. Our kids are white, black, and Asian. We got pandas running around. I mean, it's bananas. Our family is beautiful. Like, my dad is black. My mom's Asian. My wife's parents are from, like, Canada.

One is from Canada. Her mom's from Canada. Her dad's from, like, Nebraska. Like, it's all over the person. Your kids are beautiful. They are. Yeah. You know, I couldn't be a lot of headaches in like 15 years.

It is. It is. Like, look, my son is, he looks just. like me, but better looking. My daughter, though, looks just like my wife, but with bigger lips, like she got my lips. She looks, she will be a model. Like, she's already, it's ridiculous. It's like when parents are with their little daughter and they comment how beautiful your daughter is in front of their own daughter, you know, like, get out of here. That daughter is going, like, it's crazy how beautiful my kids are. I'm so lucky, man. I don't know. I didn't, you know. I didn't, you know.

And my wife is way better looking than me. Like, my wife, people, my friends, how'd you get her? Like, I don't know. Well, how did you get her? I don't know. My wife is the nicest, sweetest, selfless. I've only met her once, but she's great. Amazing.

It makes you want to be married. I know what I mean? I met her at the Moana Junkett before we interviewed The Rock. Yes. Yes. And that's the thing about my wife. She makes me want to be married. Like, you know, like a lot of friends I have, they're like, I'm married.

You know, but like, I love being married. But it's my personality, too. I never want to be that husband that's like, I gotta go back to the old bowling chain. Yeah, no. Maybe you should have picked a better life partner. Exactly. I love going home.

But I have a whole bit about it on state. I love predictability. I like things when I'm older being predictable. When you're young, you don't like predictability. That's why you're going out with random people. You're going out at night. You like the excitement. I don't like excitement.

This is my excitement for today, Chris. Like this podcast, this is very unpredictable. Yeah, oh, my God. I could ask you anything. That's fine. But I, like, just walking through the hotels, like, it's too much. Because one thing in Vegas, like, these fancy hotels right here, yeah.

People dress up to the nines. Women are looking the best they ever look. The guys who try to pick up these women. I'm like, it's too much of a show for me. I just wear all black. I wear this every day, Chris. That's a good, I have like five different, this is my uniform. I have five different versions of it and I wear it every day.

Like, I don't want to think. I'm not trying to show off. The only thing I collect is Jordans. And so I'll have a different pair of Jordan. But I'm so simple right now and it feels so great. Those are good shoes, by the way. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those Js. Do you feel like you've been really, really close on a project? And then it just didn't pan out. Oh, I was told I was going to get this project.

the day before, and we're going to sign the contracts the next day. Network calls me and goes, ah, we had to go with a celebrity. Because right now in hosting, it's all about celebrities. You've got to be a celebrity to get a hosting. They don't want host anymore. If you're, you have to have this. Welcome to my world. No, it's true, though.

You have to be a celebrity. So I don't even lean on my, I have an agent for hosting, but I know the environment and the, what they're looking for right now. So at least I'm conscious of it. fight to get hosting gigs they want a celebrity on. I've been on so many pilots that they've gone with a celebrity. And that's fine. It's a trend.

Like there will never be a Pat Sejack, Alex Trebek anymore, a host that's just a host that comes out of nowhere. You have to do something else to get the hosting gig. Look at Ken Jung's on 197 TV shows. And I love Ken. He's one of my best friends. But he hosts everything on Fox. Good for him.

him get that money. But he's a big movie star. He was a big TV star. I mean, you got to be that level to get hosted. Like Craig Robinson, one of my good friends that's the standard. He's in every Pizza Hut commercial. This dude has like 19 commercials on TV. Yeah.

You know, they're not casting normal people anymore. The funny thing is there's a lot of people who are getting more recognized for their commercials like J.K. Simmons. Yes. The farmer's insurance guy. He won an Oscar. And people just know him as the farmer's insurance. Well, I mean, let's talk about these award shows.

Like, they're so, it's just celebrities, the industry's celebrating each other. You know, that's all it is. And most of the movies that went, nobody has seen except the industry. Yeah. So, I mean, of course. That was a good movie that he won. He went for Weplash. Oh, that was a phenomenal movie.

He's so good. But nobody saw it. I think it was did okay. But what I'm saying is when it's an industry award, no, mainstream doesn't care about it. Yeah. Actually, it's probably opposite. They go against it. You know, when it, if it's an end, oh, the Oscars voted this.

Yeah, you will get a bump in that movie. But a lot of times people are like, I'm over Hollywood. And then the Chris Rock and Will Smith thing didn't help. It just kind of amplify what people are saying. They're entitled. They're this. And then a dude slaps a dude and gets to sit front row and a show. And they get to a standing ovation.

And then gets so it kind of reinforces what those people thought. You know, even though I don't think it's like that. I mean, it's entitled, but I think it does do a lot of good. And I don't think Will Smith, even though it was horrible what he did, should be judged for the rest of his life by the slot, even though it will come up. But he's done so much body. He's at work. You've interviewed himself. Such a nice guy.

So great. Yeah. Unfortunately, though, not everybody has seen every Will Smith movie. But it's not about movies. I'm talking about as a person. Right. He should not, people shouldn't say Will Smith is a horrible person because of that once. If that was the case, we're all horrible because we've all done something that bad or worse.

Oh, yeah. If we were all judged by our worst moment, we'd all be canceled. That's what I'm saying. So I don't defend what he did. Violence is never the answer. But I'm also smart enough to say, Will Smith shouldn't be judged as a person for the rest of his life, like for the life he's lived till that point by that slap, if that makes. I don't even know if I'm wording that.

That makes sense. Unfortunately, though, the clip has gone viral. It was played on news stations forever, right? It's all over YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and everything. That unfortunately, I feel like this is going to be the Tom Cruise jumping on the couch moment. This is going to be the Kanye grabbing the mic away from Taylor Swift moment, that whatever their body of work was, you're going to be remembered by that viral moment that was played over and over and over again. But remembering that moment in the moment.

and defining him as a person is two different things. Like, Kanye, like Tom Cruise jumping on the couch, okay, he was crazy at that moment, or whatever you wanted to say about him. He was in love was the true story there. That was him announcing that he loved Katie Holmes. Okay, great. Kind of crazy, but still.

But great, but he still has a career, and he's still moving on. And a lot of people that probably know him wouldn't be like, oh, he's not that guy. Like, I've interviewed Will Smith. I would say Will Smith knows who I am. and I think he's been so phenomenal to me for 15 years. And I'm not defending him for what he did.

But I also believe if you make a mistake, you shouldn't, the futures shouldn't hold that. He was a terrible person his whole life because of that slap. You know what I mean? I totally know you know. But I know what you're saying that every moment, every Oscars now, it's going to come up to slap. Of course.

And it's terrible for Chris Rock because every Oscars, all I'm going to remember is him like, you know, on camera like that, like being slapped. So you're going to be the guy that got slapped at the Oscars for the rest of your life. Yeah. I feel bad for Questlove. Yeah. Quest Love won that Oscar that Chris Rock was presenting. Yeah.

And nobody remembers that. You know what Quest Love feels like right now? He feels like Christina Aguilera when Britney and Madonna kissed. Because Christina Aguilera was there, too. You know, and people like, hey, they forgot about me. Or he feels like whoever else was performing with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl that year. Absolutely. And we don't even know who that was.

Exactly. He felt like cold play when they performed with Katie Perry and then I think Beyonce came out or Missy Elliott. Yeah. So what do you think is the other thing? Like for me, for example, if you've got to layer that other thing onto, you know, if anybody can be a host, and you've got to have that extra thing. I'll never forget you saying to me on a junket bus like eight years ago that you were like, As soon as I started doing comedy, I started getting so many more auditions.

Yes. People started taking me so much more seriously. 100%. And I'm like, oh, great. Like, I probably should have taken your advice eight years ago. You know what was interesting. When I would go into rooms for auditions, because I didn't do a lot of acting, but occasionally I would get something. Literally, the casting director would look at me and go, oh, you're a host.

Okay, go ahead. Like, it was like, oh, you're a host. Okay. Go ahead. Now, when I'm a host, you're a host. go into castings. They're like, like, when I lived in L.A., they were like, oh my God, I saw you at the Laugh Factory or Comedy Store or Melrose.

You're so funny. Go ahead. We want to see what you got to say. Wow. So it's comedians are respected so much by the industry as far as acting. Yeah. I was on the set of Modern Family when it was Modern Family. The Peak. I would never forget it. Tyberrell, I believe his name in, Julie Bowen. And they knew I did comedy. because somebody said they saw me that was on set. Like, how do you do that?

Like, we get our stuff written and we just say it, but to go up there by yourself, how do it? And it blew me away because actors know how hard. They get stuff written for them. You know, you just got to execute it. And it takes a talent to do that. But what I love about comedy is the stage doesn't care who you are, man. It's the only place in Hollywood I felt like it was no judgment.

If you're funny, you're funny. I can go after Chris Rock before Chris Rock before Bill Burr, after Bill Burr. If you're funny, I went after in New York at Gothen Comedy Club. I went after Jerry Seinfeld three times. Wow. And crushed. He crushed. I crushed because the stage doesn't care who you are.

It just wants you to be funny. And the crowd just cares if you're funny. And that's, it's almost like it's stand up to me is the only moment everything's equal. And the whole world. the whole world. Yes, if you're a celebrity, you will get love for like a minute or two, but then you've got to be funny,

or they'll turn on you. I've seen rooms like that. It's such a wild profession because it is your job to get in front of a crowd of strangers, hold the microphone, and convince them that your thoughts are funny. Yes.

And a lot of them had crappy days that day. Yeah. Like, you've got to win them over now. Well, here's what's interesting. interesting. I remember Joe Coy would come back for the tour. And this is before I started doing headline. He goes, I'm so tired. And I understand the travel part, but I go, what is it about? He goes, it's just draining, performing. And as I started doing it, I kind of understand. Well, now I know it's, because you're transferring so much energy. You're giving all your good

energy to people and they're taking it. And they're giving you last, but they're also their negative energy is going somewhere too. So I believe in energy. I believe you can have a room full of people in a bad move. One person can come in and light up the whole room and change the whole tone. Just like the opposite. You could have a room that everybody's having fun and then one a hole comes in and it changes the whole mood. So I think it's a big transfer of energy where a comic is up there trying to be funny. And if I had a bad day, this guy got to make me laugh. So at the beginning, I'm giving them negative energy. And then it starts to change. Because the more, Because he has to give me more energy.

You know? And I feel that energy process doesn't happen when a comic's up there that's not confident because he's not, you know, it's just a weird, to me it's all about energy. And now I understand why people are so drained because you're giving all yourself for the crowd. And they're sometimes giving you all of them. Yeah. But sometimes they're just giving you the bad and you got to take it. You're absorbing everything.

The interesting thing about being a comedian is there's a lot of actors in L.A. You know that. Oh, yeah, 100%. You can say to an actor like, Oh, have they seen you in anything? Or what was the last show or movie you were in? And you get a lot of, well, I auditioned for this. Yeah.

When you're a comedian? If I say to you, when was the last time you performed? And your answer isn't like something within the last month. Yeah. Are you really a comedian? But I mean, so many people that, look, since I'm in acting now, I understand what they were saying. But if you look at it from a bird's eye view, if you're not doing it and getting paid,

you're not an actor. You're not a comedian. You know, there's a acting. a lot of people. That's like saying, today that's like saying I got a podcast. Everybody got a podcast. I always say it's the best and worst thing. Yeah, but, but you're not doing a podcast unless people are watching it. And, and seeing your content. Yeah. You know, like, yeah, you, you do

a podcast, but that doesn't, you know, yeah, you could do comedy. You could have done it once in your life and say, I'm a comedian. Like, when I lived in L.A., people's like, I'm an actor. I go, what have you been at nothing? I'm in class. And it's like, fine. There's no judgment. But can you call yourself an actor when you've never been in something, but I guess you can't. What I'm saying in comedy is, if you wanted to get up on a stage tonight in whatever city that you live in, no, like, anyone, not becoming, yes, a comedian, you could get up on a stage. No, you can't. Really? No, it's tough. You couldn't get to an open mic? No, no, it's tough

because they have lines for open mic. It's so hard. See, one thing that benefited me, I was on Chelsea, I was on E, I skipped that line. Yeah. And I was lucky. Because I remember Chelsea telling me, hey, you're going to get a lot of opportunities. Nobody else gets in stand up. Like, you'll be skipping a lot of lines. So just bust your ass and work hard at it because you don't want to be the celebrity that shows up the places that are horrible on stage. And so I took that to heart. That's why I don't have to go up 14 times a week at the seller, but I enjoy it.

And I love it. When I tell you, I love it, it's part of me. It's part of me. And I love it so much. So for the people that are just coming out, it's hard to get staged. I talk to these comments. all the time because there may be an open mic, right? You got every comic in town trying to do that open mic

because that open mic will open the door for them being a host at that club. So they used the open mics to see who's funny. And then from that host, you move to feature and then you headline eventually, you know. But it's so hard because you got every comic that wants to be a stand-up. They got two hours and each comic does three minutes, right? So you're talking about maybe 30 comics in a night. doing three minutes. And what can you really do in three minutes?

Right. Yeah. You know, so, but that's 30 comics out of probably like three, 400 in that city that want to perform. And then nobody else is putting them up. When you look back at your old stuff, what's the biggest shift that you've made? I'm, the comedy's just better.

I mean, it's written better. It's intelligent. Like, my first comedy special, I tell everybody. And it's only three and a half years. I've grown so much. It's like a Taylor Swift song. Fun, Poppy. everybody can dance to it, doesn't offend people.

My new one doesn't offend people, but it's written so much better. It's just a different level. Like if you watched them back to back, you'd be like, yo, I can, like, you can really see it. My friends have seen it. Like, comics have seen it. It's just a different level that I'm operating at where I'm comfortable going before anybody. I'm kind of like, you know, I don't know where before I didn't have that confidence. But you get it for practicing.

And I have, I'm putting in hours. I'm putting in hours a week. Is it also because you've got so much more material now? No, because you can have a lot of crappy material. It's just I'm smarter about it. I found my, you know what it is? After COVID, after almost dying from it, I found my voice. And I found that when I shot my first special, which is called Blasian, if you want to watch it,

I did a lot of running around on stage, like a lot of walking, pacing, because Joe Coy was my mentoring comedy. So I was like, oh, this is what you're supposed to do. Then after I beat COVID, for nine months, I couldn't really, I wanted to get on stage, but I couldn't really function that well. Everything was shut down. So when I got back on stage, I was like, yo, let me sit down. And then from sitting down, I found people were more engaged with my content because I was writing

better jokes for myself. And I found out I'm more of a sit-down storyteller. Like, I want to be the Bill Cosby before the rape. You know, like, I want to be that dude where I go on stage, sit down and tell family stories. You know? Yeah. That's where it's, so I want to be like a, I love Jim Gaffigan. I want to be a cool, like my version of Jim Gaffigan, but not clean.

Like I'm clean, but I'm not super clean. Yeah. You know, like I want to be that guy. Like a Joe Coy, but I sit. You know what I think? I feel like people are going to like go back and listen to this interview in six months a year or two years, whatever, when that big thing hits. Oh, I hope so. And this will be, like, pathetic.

No, like. It will be. Because I know it's going to happen. It's so weird. I told my wife. after I put out this special, I told her, because I was only expect what the goal was,

so everybody knows the goal, to do 120,000 views in a year, 10 a month, 10K a month. And that's respect. Just on the YouTube special. And that's respectable. That would have helped ticket sales. And she goes,

what do you think is going to get you to that next level? I said, everything's a step. But I go, I will reach that note, because I've already seen this movie. It's so weird. I've already visualized it. So I've already seen it. What's going to happen?

So I know it's going to happen. What do you mean? I've seen me selling out venues. I've seen me at the pinnacle of act. I'm going to be one of the greatest comedians ever. I'm going to be one of the greatest actors. I'm going to be one of the greatest business guys. I've already seen it.

I visualize it. I dreamed it. I don't know. It just seems so clear. It's like this is just getting me there. But I've already seen it happen. I don't know. It's so, it's hard to explain.

It's almost like I live. it already, but I just got to get there again. I don't know. It's so clear. Wow. Like this is just this right here is just like, oh, I know it's going to happen. I just, I'm going through everything I got to go to get there. But I already know it's going to happen. I love this so much. It's, it's crazy. And even the special, I go, even if it does 120,000 the first year, that will help me move so many more tickets because those are true fans that will come out to your shows and tell other people. You're on pace to crush that. Oh, I'm on pace. Yeah. My first month, I may do 75,000. Yeah. You know, and then with YouTube, you know about it, it just picks up.

It's going to get into the algorithm. Yeah. It'll get into, I call it the Matrix. Once it gets into the Matrix, it's over. Once you become a YouTube recommended and they put you on their front lights out. It's over. That's what happened to my YouTube channel. Yeah. I know. That was like 2018, I went from, I gained 108,000 subscribers in 2019. See? Because every single time, whether you had seen one of my videos or not, I was always on your homepage. And I've gone up this month, like in two and a half weeks, 23,000 people in two and a half weeks. And it's just rolling, man.

Have you been on the website Social Blade? No. I'm going to show this to you. What is it? It predicts out like you're going to hit this many subscribers on this date. Is it accurate? It's pretty accurate. Based on the growth you're currently received.

Oh, I would love to see that. Yeah. So like my clips channel, it was like, you're going to hit 50,000 subscribers. I think it was by like May. Mm-hmm. And then I just kept like getting more and more and more subscribers. That's great. I'm going to hit it today.

Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. I started the year with 25,000 subscribers in that channel. Yeah. Now 50,000. That's amazing. Yeah.

So you're, anybody that's listening to this watching this, you need to go check out Michael's special. Please do because. I never thought. I never thought. thought, and it's because I never thought I would see what I just saw in the last two years. And I'd break down my life. I break down the pandemic. I break down everything.

But it's not a pandemic special. It's my life. Yeah. You know, and it's so funny. And like I said, I believe it's one of the best specials we'll see. And then, like, so good. It is. And I don't want to, and the only reason I'm confident about it now is because I've seen

the result. I've seen the comments. And when I did a huge radio show in Philadelphia, when I had to, so many, because that show is like the Howard Stern of that town, uh, so many of their audience was like, you totally undersold this. You could have had so many more people.

Because I was like, you know, I just want people to watch it. Because I funded myself and it. And they'll go, yo, you just need to come out and say it's great. Just say, be con. It's great. Yeah. And they go, say you will laugh from beginning. I guarantee you a laugh from beginning.

And so now I'm like, okay, I've seen the evidence where it's like that. I've seen the comments where it's like that. I'm going to say it. Yeah. I'm a say. I can't wait to see your show tonight. Yeah, man. Can't wait for you to come out.

So I end every interview with the same question because I love gratitude. I don't think I asked you this. I don't think I was asking this question when you were on the show last time. I say out loud every morning and every night, three things I'm grateful for. I end every interview with the same question. So what are three things in your life? Oh, I say it every morning every night too. Oh, I love it.

It's my wife. It's my kids and it's my family around me. Like, it's all about family to me. Because without them, I'm nothing. So if I don't give gratitude, gratitude towards them because they are the rock of everything. Everything happens because of them because I could shoot this special. I could go out every night because my wife is holding it down at home with my kids.

If I didn't have my kids, I wouldn't have the material I had, the father stuff I would have. If I didn't have my parents who were a big part of my stand-up special, I wouldn't have it. If I didn't have my wife's family that's always there to watch the kids when me and my wife have to do something, then I couldn't do a lot of things. Yeah. You know, so everything revolves around my family. I give gratitude every morning. I say each person's name,

and I give gratitude towards them, because without them, I'm nothing. I love that so much. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. Oh, yeah, thank you, man. Thanks for coming by. I can't wait.

You bet. Michael Yo, ladies and gentlemen, so glad he could join us inside the Blue Wire Studios for this one. So glad you could be in there with us as well. Go check out his special. It's on his YouTube channel. I never thought so good. So, so.

good and share this episode with someone that would love this. And take a screenshot. Share it on social media. Tag us so we can share it. Michael is at Michael Yo. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And I'll leave you with a quote from Rob Dial, who was a guest on the show about a year ago.

He hosts an amazing podcast called The Mindset Mentor. And I actually tweeted this out recently because I love this so much. When you notice yourself worrying about what could go wrong, remind yourself to get excited. excited about what could go right. How good is that? Be great, be grateful. We will see you tomorrow with a brand new episode right here on 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 1986.

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.