Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 89. Chris Redd: How to Express Your Mind on Stage

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

Mike and Chris Redd first met when they appeared in the movie Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Since then they’ve become friends in the world of stand-up comedy. Today they break down how to express ADHD, depression, and anxiety through comedy and how Chris arrived at the material for his new HBO special “Why Am I Like This?” Chris and Mike also discuss the relationship between hip-hop and comedy, the mechanics of crowd work, and why there’s a playlist for everything.Please consider donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Your special's so good, some of the specials should not be specials out there. No, man, it should just be, you know what, they should have a category called, I'm just dropping some shit off. It's not a special, it's just like, we just dropping some shit off real quick. These are some thoughts I had. Yeah. They're not fully flesh. Let's come up with a name for that. Yeah, it's mid, it's called mid.

Mid, yep. You heard it here, I'm working it out, it's mid. It's called mid. Mid. Yep. You heard it here. I'm working it out. It's mid. Drop the mid special. Mid special. That's a mid special. Yeah, it was a mid special.

It was pretty good for a mid special. Yeah, and then if it's great, it's like, damn, it should have been a real special. Oh, yeah, that was like a real special. Damn. That mid special should have been a real special. That is the voice of Chris Redd. Chris is a phenomenally funny comedian.

You might know him from Saturday Night Live as a cast member for many years, which he won an Emmy for. He was in Popstar, Never Stop, Never Stopping, a movie that I did a cameo in. That's where he and I met originally.

We had a great conversation today. By the way, it is week 11 of my Broadway show, The Old Man and the Pool. I've had such a blast doing it. There are two more weeks. There's very few tickets left. You can get them on mikeonbroadway.com or on TodayTix, which is probably the least expensive way to get tickets. There's great deals over there.

I think you're going to love this episode with Chris Redd. He is an interesting guy. He has this new special on HBO Max called Why Am I Like This? I love the special. I mean, we talk about the special a lot, but I have to say it made me laugh out loud alone countless times. He blends improv and characters and stand-up in a way that I think is completely unique and original. We have a great chat today. I think you're going to love this one.

Enjoy my conversation with the great Chris Redd. In your special, you make a reference to when you're broke and you're looking at how much money rappers have and spend, and you reference Jay-Z. I thought of myself because I used to sleep on my friends' couches when I would tour. A yeah and so like i remember staying with my friends ryan and mary when i would play dc like all the time yeah and i and i said when i would always go when my ship comes in i'm gonna get you guys a jay-z fridge what i meant by jay-z fridge yeah i'm trying to figure out what's the jay-z fridge is that like one time i saw like

documentary or cribs or something on jay-z and his house just like had like a full fridge and i was like that's the jay-z fridge like whose whose fridge is full with like fresh things jay-z jay-z jay-z's fridge and every southern house i've ever been to. Oh, is that right? Yeah, mad leftovers. That's interesting. Yeah. I always have a dream of like rich people have the Jay-Z fridge. They just have the full ass fridge. Just full, unopened things.

And fresh. And everything's fresh. Now, that's a Jay-Z fridge. That's a Jay-Z fridge. You have a person doing that. Yeah, man. See, my shit is hide and seek with something that got old. You know what I'm saying?

So every time I open up, I'm like, all right, what should be here? That's what mine is. I'm just looking around like, all right, all right. I literally was rushing here because I had this bizarre thing. I had HR, the harassment speech meeting thing. And it was on Zoom. And it was like, it's weird. It's probably hard, I think, for people like you and me,

where our coping mechanism is humor. And so they're saying serious shit to us. And then all you're thinking, as a comedian, I think we train our brains to always think of the joke. Always. So everything they say, I'm thinking of as a comedian i think we're we train our brains to always think of the joke always so everything they say i'm thinking of as a setup and my brain just goes to punchline punchline punchline but i can't say it right because it's obviously inappropriate and so i was just silent the whole time just going yes absolutely thank you so much thank you so much i've learned a lot i'm just waiting for somebody to be in those harassment trainings and they set up

a scenario. They give an answer and somebody's like, oh. Yes. Although, like, genuinely, like, damn. Y'all right. I think every now and then, in this one, I go, yeah, George isn't so good at that. You know what I mean? Like, I did

have a couple of those where I was like, because part of it's old school like part of it is like you have some co-workers who get up there in age and like some of the stuff they say in the harassment training you're like all right well we'll see we'll see if that ever gets called my god yeah oh that's that's out there that's honestly is my guilty pleasure i like seeing the older folks get really like... Get really up in arms when they can't hug no more. I know.

This dude, I'm not going to put you out there like that. But we were in a harassment training with somebody I work with, and he's like, let me ask a question. If I hug someone, and we've hugged before, that's wrong. Well, you know, it depends on the relationship. But I'm saying so i

can't hug anymore right hey man well there's some anger why are you so mad about this there's some anger there's some anger at the hr institution for sure and i would say generally and again i want to be careful i don't want to use ageism. No. Because ageism is in the HR handbook. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't use ageism. People can be any age they want to be until they die. I don't want to be ageist when I say this, but one of the trends I've noticed is that in the HR situation, the older folks generally don't do as well and are more angry.

They're just mad the world's changing. You know what? I get it. I understand. Like, I remember when I started therapy, I went and I told my folks about it. And I have a little bit in the special, but I left. I love that stuff about therapy in your special. And I talked to my folks, and they were really open, surprisingly.

And then we got mad close off of that. Yeah. And I was talking to my, me and my dad talked more than we ever talked growing up. And I noticed he had social anxiety. And I'm like, Dad, you got social anxiety, bro. You should go get that treated. And he's like, boy, I'm 70. It's over.

Oh, shit. Not life. Life ain't over. It's over. Oh, shit. Not life. Life ain't over. It's just like growth. Right. Growth. Growth. Personal growth.

I'm done, boy. I am who I am. But hey, that's cool for you. That's tricky. My parents are 82, and I have to sometimes come to grips with the fact that my dad and I disagree about certain political things, but I'm not going to change him. Yeah. All I can do is express love in a way that supports who he is

and that I love him. And I think if we had a little bit more of that in the world, we'd be all right. We have a little bit more love, like we love our parents. We have a little bit more mid-specials. A little bit more mid-specials. Mid-specials are wild. So when you were talking about open micers yeah because yeah sometimes

you see the open micers and they try to put out the mid specials on youtube and stuff and you're like no hold on to that mid special yeah hold on or that or the crowd work stuff which there's some great crowd work stuff yeah but there's a lot of crowd work stuff that's not really crowd work it's just question and answer yeah and it's like bro maybe maybe write a joke or well you bob and weave in your special into crowd work in a way that's completely seamless i was wondering whether it's a function of like your personality because i feel like you go this topic this topic crowd work you're back so back. So I came out and said for the first time ever to a crowd of people that have ADHD, depression, and anxiety, and this special, this particular body of work is supposed to

be in the style of my brain. Yeah. Because the whole thing is very selfish and narcissistic kind of, because I'm just talking about my inner shit. Yeah. But it's supposed to feel like how I think. And when I was doing the tour, I love improv.

Not enough to just be an improv troupe forever. And be broke forever. And have no job forever. And wear nothing but hoodies. Even though I love hoodies. Oh, wait, I don't have a hoodie today. No! Where's your Second City hoodie?

Oh, it's at the crib. They're real soft. But, like, I wanted to keep the improv alive because I love, like, real crowd, real off-the-cuff joke writing. It's really dope to me. And I feel like crowd work got a lot of, like, flack. I mean, there's a lot of guys doing it now. Like, Schultz and, like, there's a couple folks that are doing it off the cuff that are writing real jokes. Yeah.

But then there's, like, I just hated seeing, like, the really set up. Like, clearly you set this person up to, like, say a certain thing so you could get to a certain thing. Yeah. Or it's just, like, plants or just weird shit. I just wanted to, I hope it came off elevated. That's what I was trying to do. Oh, it does. And also you do the cool split screen. Yo. Which I like. I don't to, I hope it came off elevated. That's what I was trying to do. Oh, it does. And also you do the cool split screen, which I like.

I don't think I've seen that. I was looking at a thousand specials, you know. Again, I guess, because I had watched most of them. But I was trying to look and see if anybody had done it. But I was like, man, I just wanted the feeling of you being there. Yeah. And even when I'm roasting on the road and people laugh and they don't see this person. Most people don't see the person I'm talking about.

I feel like it just adds a little piece if you can actually see who I'm talking about so I'm being accurate about the things I'm saying about them and not just like. I like that you repeat what they say, too. Because sometimes comedians forget to be like just so you know this person said this they're not miked right yeah they're not miked and it's not set up in a way where like can you say that again sir you know yeah can you say it again sir it's really funny all right but it's also gives me a little second to think to be honest with you yeah uh so i mean sometimes it's like right away, and sometimes, you know what I'm saying, I repeat it real quick to just be like, okay, all right, where am I going?

Just figure out the angle and then just dive in. So you and I met, I want to say, like at the premiere of Popstar. We're both in Popstar. You're like a major part. I'm like a cameo. You killed that shit. Thanks, man.

I'm in the TMZ, like, parody. Yeah, that TMZ shit was so funny, though, man. But I got introduced to you. I think the best way to be introduced to somebody is when somebody else says, that guy's hilarious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? 100%.

Way better than being like, hi, I'm Mike. I'm a comedian. Yeah, he does comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But Yorma Takono, who's part of The Lonely Island, who made the movie Popstar, said, because I had read the script for Popstar and I thought it was a riot. And he goes, the guy that we have playing the featured rapper comes on the road. He's Chris Redd.

He's one of the funniest dudes I've ever seen. Oh, man. He's amazing. I love Norma, man. Isn't he great? Yeah, he's the best, dude. So your character in pop star is hunter the hunter hunter the hungry hunter the hungry yeah and is he is he loosely based on tyler

the creator yeah i love tyler man he's uh one of the funniest one of the most creative rappers just ever bro and uh and i heard he was a fan of bustust Down, which was like a real pleasure. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, man, because I wanted to do him justice, you know what I mean, in that way. Because I feel like making fun of motherfuckers is like showing love, man, like most of the time. You know what I'm saying?

You can tell when it's not. Oh, I agree. But I think that like – Well, you just want to be mentioned. That's the other thing. You know what I'm saying? Whenever they roast people and they go like— It's like the most insulting is not being mentioned at the roast.

100%. Yeah. Even one step above not being mentioned is like, I don't know why you're here in the roast. Oh, my God. So when you did that movie, I mean, did you go from, like, not being in anything to being, like, this big part in a movie? Like, was that a huge thing? It was, like, my first, like, huge, big movie ever.

You know what I mean? And I had got a couple, like, guest starring roles in Chicago, like Empire and some other stuff. But that was the first big thing. So I'm showing up the most unknown person in the cast. Every day, super famous people just everywhere. Yeah, Sarah Silverman was in it. Yeah, dog. Oh, Sarah's the best. Will Arnett was in my scenes. Yeah, I think it's-

Yeah, Chelsea Peretti. Yeah, man. It was just like a slew of some of the best. I came to set on days I wasn't even shooting, bro. Yeah. I was like, is this cool? Is this good? That's cool. And then Jorm was like, oh, I did the same thing.

You know what I mean? I was like, I had to check, make sure, but I wanted to jump in as many times as I could because I was like, I'm going to learn everything I can about this whole business. What would you give for advice for someone who's nervous about being on the set for a first time or doing a job that they think is over their head or whatever? I say, you got the job for a reason, so bring your best, everything that you've ever done to prepare for that moment. Bring it every single day of your life.

Work like you're trying to outwork all these motherfuckers you're intimidated by yeah you'll be so focused on that that you're not gonna like pay attention to the bullshit and also just like be aware as hell just be very aware like you know of people's energies yeah all of that shit you uh you say in your special you want to be a basketball player and a rapper when you're a kid i had those two aspirations as well in my first special I talk about I want to be a rapper and a basketball player

and an owner of a pizza restaurant where third graders could hang out that was when I had to go it's a very niche market very niche when I was in third grade

it made so much sense yeah yeah it's like oh I'm gonna fucking kill it later flash forward 20 years later you're such a sadist man i know well no that's what i

realized i was like i grew up began with grown up i was like that's a pretty creepy goal hitting up the third grade market yeah only third graders baby are you gonna be like hannibal where you're gonna become a hip-hop star later in your career like hann Buress is legit. I mean, and of course, you know, Childish Gambino is the biggest example. I mean, Donald had like a major comedy career and then became a major hip-hop star.

This dude's doing it. Look, there's a wide lane for my style of comedy music. I am still doing it. I left SNL, I am still doing it. I left SNL and I honed it there. But there's a lot of shit you can't say on that show, a lot of shit you can't do. Right.

And so now I get to do it. So I don't know if I'm going to be a big star or nothing like that. But I think I'm going to put out some cool stuff, some interesting stuff. There's also dudes like Zach Fox, who's very good at this shit, too. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. He's very funny and a very good rapper. Yeah. Yeah.

Shout out to Zach. Text me back, motherfucker. No, I'm playing. That's like a running joke. But yeah, there's a lot of comedy guys and ladies who are getting into the space of music and making some good, cool shit and different stuff. So it's nice. What do you think is the similarity and difference between hip-hop and stand-up comedy? Laughs.

Laughs. I think there's a lot of similarities, though, man. Like, a lot of rappers think they're comics. For sure. And a lot of them are very funny. Yeah. And then, you know, the rhythm of how you tell jokes your laugh rates versus your punch lines are pretty similar like that was yeah i feel like that's where i got

my liking for how for my joke rate was from how i wrote punch lines so like i would i would write punch lines like every bar or sometimes i would try to split i would try to split and write two punch lines in one bar so yeah so when i got over to joke writing, it was kind of like, oh, I just like to, you know what I mean? So when I was editing, I was editing out a bunch of dumbass jokes that I like to say. I had Sam Jay look at the special before it came out, and I was like, any notes? And she was like, hey, you know the little dumbass jokes you like? Take them little dumbass jokes out. ass jokes you like, take them little dumb ass jokes out.

I love Sam so much because she is the most honest person I've ever, I think I've ever encountered. Yeah, dog. It's beautiful. It's like, no matter where I am in life, no matter what it is, she's going to be Sam J and she's going to be the realest motherfucker on earth with me. So, but the thing that Sam is commenting on, like take out these little jokes that you like. It's the mid-special jokes.

The mid-special jokes. I'm a road guy. I like the road a lot. And I grew up on the road because I couldn't get booked and shit. So I just was like on the road a bunch. Why couldn't you get booked? It's just like coming up. In Chicago?

Yeah. Why couldn't you get booked? It's just like coming up. In Chicago? Yeah. Well, I couldn't get booked in major clubs or on certain shows or Netflix stuff because I was improvising and doing written jokes. And they always thought I was just lacking material. They always saw the improv as like, oh, he doesn't have an hour. When it's really just me mining jokes. I'm doing the same process as everybody else. It's just like sometimes, depending on the show that you saw, there might be

more X, Y, and Z. When it's not all together, it's a rough work in progress like everybody else's shit. Even when it was tight, I would have a tight 20 and I would just do a couple things in the crowd. They just thought I was filling time. That's really what made me be like,

in my special, I'm going to fucking show these people what they've been saying no to all these years. So all my drive comes from revenge. Yeah, that's really funny. Which is why you wrote the joke, your Jesus is from New Jersey. Because I hate New York. I actually do not understand the beef

with New York and New Jersey at all. Like, I don't get it. Y'all Jersey at all. Like, I don't get it. Y'all both knew, but oh, I don't get it. It's all good. Your Jesus is from New Jersey line from your special is one of my favorite comedy lines I've heard. Well, because you put it in the context of you go to Utah. You're talking to Mormons. I think as comics, we've all gone to utah and

had these mormon conversations every single one of us i think all of us have because utah is a great place for comedy 100 they love comedy they love oh that's what's that's what's beautiful i remember when somebody got mad about the mormon uh joke and they weren't mormon and i was like bro you don't know what the fuck you're getting mad at, bro. Right. Because every Mormon I've ever performed this joke for loves this joke because it's so close and so real to what they are. And they like Book of Mormon. They love Book of Mormon, bro. It's a musical of making fun of their religion for two hours. Say what you want about Mormons.

They can take a joke, bro. They can take a joke. They can take a joke. I don't know what else they do in there. And also, I don't understand their religion, like, almost at all. No, it's ridiculous. The premise is wild. It's like Jesus was born in Colorado.

Like, what are you talking about? Right. But cool, man. It's the only religion that you can, like, disprove with a paper trail. You're like, dude, i have emails that say this religion isn't true i'm like yeah dog oh man there was there was speaking of mid uh speaking of mid jokes i utah loves jokes so much they love terrible jokes i remember i came with like uh church of latter-day saints where the earlier day saints at and they went crazy yeah yeah and i knew in my

mind this joke is fucking bad. I'm cutting it. I'm cutting it. I can't believe I said the full thing. But they laughed so hard, I was like, if I wasn't self-aware, I would have been like, this is going right into my special. That's the thing about touring, is local jokes kill harder than anything you could possibly. One time, Mulaney sent me an audio recording. He was just about to film a special, and he was like,

hey, can you listen to this show I did in Florida? He opened with 20 minutes on Florida and crushed, did 20 minutes of improv Florida jokes. I've never heard people laugh this loud in my life. It was like breaking my phone. My phone was shaking. Man, dog, that's crazy. I called him. I i go you're gonna use

the florida jokes i have to say they're pretty good yeah like that's some pretty good florida material but you know cat williams i was about to mention that yeah so cat williams opens his special talking about jacksonville i want to say for at least 15 yeah yeah and it works it works there's something about that it's a classic example of like in the specific is the universal if you do the specific on jacksonville well enough like he does we all kind of get it yeah yeah well i'm like you know i haven't been to that part of jacksonville but sounds real yeah that sounds right yeah it sounds about right or like that's reminds me of you know worcester massachusetts where i grew up which is is sort of the Jacksonville of Massachusetts.

Yeah, right. Because there's always a place that's very similar to any place that you shit on. No, absolutely. Or make fun of, you know. But you had a joke where you're like, all right, that's going to go away because it's just doing well because it's local. Yeah, I was like, no one's going to have it. First of all, I always like to try things enough before I'm putting it in a special.

And if it hasn't, it has to kill at least five or six times for me to really consider moving it in something. Then it has to make sense against the rhythm and the theme of shit. Well, it's interesting because you were saying that Sam Jay would take out XYyz jokes because they're too light or whatever they're too small that's one of the things about your special i think is so good is it's so dense like it's just laugh to laugh to laugh to laugh and it's like when you are is that

in the performance phase or is that in the editing room phase that you're cutting it back i'm i we cut like an hour we cut an hour of jokes i was just i just did two hours and you cut it to an hour you cut it to an hour it was very tough wow yeah i improvised for a long time um and then like i was stretching certain stuff uh but you know it was i mean i like to machine gun jokes. That's kind of what I like to do. It's my favorite thing. So I'm like, if I can make that feeling, you know what I mean, and get as many jokes in here as possible that are on theme. I think that was Sam's other point was like, this joke isn't really doing anything for the theme of this specific section, X, Y, and Z. So that's what you get. I overwrite jokes for the hour, and then I have to pick which ones.

And then I'm like, all right, this is kind of weak. But that's what I wanted it to feel like. It was just like, damn, machine gun of jokes. You know what I mean? I hope that every special I do is like that. So you're jotting down stuff, you're making notes, and then, like, I'll see you at the Comedy Cellar sometimes. Like, when you're at the Comedy Cellar, what makes you want to put a joke on stage for the first time? If I can't stop thinking about it.

That's funny. Yeah. If it's just, like, if I'm constantly thinking about it, I'm constantly going back to it. Sometimes now, it's changing now because I feel like I'm in a place where comedy is like I'm becoming more comfortable in comedy. You know what I mean? In a way that I don't worry about being funny. It's just kind of like, what am I going to do with the funny? Yeah.

So it's like sometimes we'll just be having a good conversation at the cellar. And then I'm like, oh, I want to talk about this. Yeah. You know, rarely. Or I'll have a challenge for myself. And I'll just be like, go say the realest thing you can think of in the moment. Yeah. For you at that second.

And then go from there, you know. That's interesting. Yeah. I think like people ask me a lot like after old man in the pool what are you gonna do and i'm like whatever i'm obsessed with yeah but i don't know what that is until i i'm there exactly you know there is like the new set i was like i don't know what i'm you know after you drop one you're like okay what the fuck am i gonna talk about yeah and i took the month the the the doctor recommended month off.

Stand up after you drop a special. And then I snuck back on stage just to kind of see where my head is at. And I just started talking about running away. And I had a whole chunk of stories about shit. I'm like, oh, okay. And it was like the whole five shows I did that night were just my temperature check to see where my head was going to be at and I was like oh I like

okay I like where this is going so there's a lot of stories about running away it's just about like one like I like well the premise is you know

getting back to a place getting back to a place of like a happiness that we had as kids and like and like how you can't run away anymore

like as an adult you can't run away like running away is like with like i'm gonna go start a new life you know what i mean like you're a kid you're an idiot so you're just like i'm gonna run away from the people that take care of me like i'm gonna run away from home yeah yeah i'm gonna go start a new life with with my friends somewhere like you don't have this even thought out completely. Right. And everybody who runs away always comes back. There's kids at school

like, I'm running away tonight. Right. I'm sick of my parents. Yeah. I hate the teachers. And those people grow up to be people who tell you they're going to leave Facebook.

You know what I mean? Because you're like, I'm running away, nigga. I'm going to see you in math class tomorrow, you little bitch. Oh my God, that's so funny. Because I feel like that builds out to a much larger concept.

Right. Right? There's a big thematic globe there. Yeah, because I wanted to do something more observational of what's going on. Yeah. For the second special. I knew I wanted to do that, but I didn't know how I wanted to get in there. And then I started talking about that, and I was like, oh, I'll find it.

Yeah. There's still a whole lot to figure out. Yeah. But then I got hit in the face, so I'm going to incorporate that somehow. Oh, of course. Well, I am going to. Yeah, of course. Just how much of it, you know.

And then just a lot of shit. I just kind of like. I felt terrible when I saw that. I mean, what a weird thing to see something about your friend in the news. My friend got hit. It's crazy. It's in the news. I've done all this charity and nothing got me more headlines than getting fucking knocked in the face, Mike.

My God. Like, God damn. It was crazy. I was still going to go perform. That's the fucking bullshit about it. I got hit in the face and I got hit so fast that I hit the ground and jumped up and didn't even know I hit the ground and I was about to go

right back in and do a set I was like this is going to be a weird beginning you know what I mean that's all I thought of and then I just kept

leaving and I was like alright maybe I should maybe I should not do a set I jumped through the second story window

in Walla Walla, Washington in 2005 next night I had a gig at University of Portland I drove there University of Oregon in. I drove there. University of Oregon in Eugene. I drove there.

Crazy. I did it. I had glass shards that they had taken out of my legs. I had stitches, all this stuff. Holy shit. And I did the gig. Because I feel like that's the thing you were describing of like you were going to get on stage. Yeah. That's where our heads are at as comics all the time.

Sickness. Absolute sickness. That's where our heads are at as comics all the time. Sickness. Absolute sickness. That's a sickness. And I've got stitches, bro. And I was about to go on stage right after that. Sam Jay again. Sam Jay is my voice of reason for most things. I was like, I'm going to get on stage like a warrior.

I got stitches in my face. It's still puffy a little bit. I'm going to be a warrior. Wait, did I got stitches in my face. It's still puffy a little bit. I'm going to be a warrior. Wait, did you have stitches right away? And I had black eyes. A medic came in and... Oh, yeah, yeah. They tied my shit like a shoelace in Bellevue Hospital,

the worst hospital in New York City. I was sitting in that hospital, man, and at one point, at several points throughout the night, a man was like, I'm going to kill everybody in here. He just yelled that a lot. And I was like, hey, man, you know we all in here, don't you? He was mad. I think something

was going on with his foot gangrene or something. I don't know. Was someone with you as your friend there? Yeah, my girl was there, and then my cousin was there. Wow. Yeah, so I just sat there bleeding. And then they tied my face up, and I went home like, I'm going to get back on stage. So I went to the gym that day and that was a bad decision. Because there's no way to work out with a black eye and a broken nose and not look like J-Lo and enough.

You know what I mean? Like, this ain't never going to happen again. Like, there's no way to not look like that. People are looking at me like, I hope he overcomes what he went through. And I'm just like, I'm just out here working out. I work out every day, y'all. Y'all see me every day.

So I'm just like, that anger, I can't take that on stage. I realized I couldn't do it. Wow. And I did, you know. I feel like a lot of us comics have been punched in our lives. That's the thing, too. That's the most irritating part of it. Well, there's a lot of irritating parts of it.

Yeah. But the main one was like people, oh, my God, so much trauma. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, no, racism is trauma, nigga. That was just a bad surprise, nigga. God damn it. You allude to things in your first special that are tip of the iceberg of what you could talk about, selling crack for a week in your life. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, you know, just like how many comedians have sold crack? Like not that many. Like you're like. Well, not that many. Let's say not that many. Variety's top ten crack dealers turned comedians. Oh my God, you got number one. Oh man.

I got a number one for something. I wasn't good at it. I shouldn't be number one. Well, it's like, you're one of these people who, between that and being on SNL and being a road comic and living in Chicago and Naperville and all

these places, you've lived a lot of life for someone who's young. I've had so many jobs. I've lived a lot of life. I've been chasing different dreams all my life. I just knew I wanted to do something outside of the norm of what society set up. I just didn't know what it was. I searched a lot. And when you don't know yourself when you're young,

but you're ambitious and you work hard, you end up just trying a bunch of different shit. And that's what I did. I just dived into a bunch of things. And if people told me I couldn't do it, I did it 50 times harder. Even if it was a bad idea. That's why I did all the running the streets shit.

I was trying to fit in. And then eventually did for a while and it still wasn't great. Never was great at the street shit, but I held my own. I think you got to dig into that in the second special because it's such a universe that when we see it depicted in film or novels, it's super dramatic, but it's never funny. Yeah. See, I'm balancing how much I want to put in a special, and I will, versus what I'm writing. So I'm working on some shows and some different projects that I'm like, what's the best format and way to tell these stories? And so I think I'll tell some of them in like a music form, some of them in a show. I have a show I'm working on right now that's going to, I used to be, I used to con with

a couple people. We used to like, this is way before comedy. This is back when I was doing bullshit. We used to just like be little con artists. So I'm making a show about that and shit. Like three card Monty and shit like that. Just hitting stores, just hitting licks.

I don't want to incriminate myself. I think you're already dead. But you know, we used to be badasses running around stealing shit, reselling it, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. So it's really about like, yeah, I was just, I was concerned for a long time about like, if I retell these stories, am I going to implicate myself or some shit?

But I don't worry about that too much anymore. I change a lot of stuff up. And honestly, it's been so long, I don't think. I also think there's, I think there's plausible deniability with comedy. 100%. I think that comedy, if someone said, hey, you stole blah, blah, blah 10 years ago, you'd just be like, no, I didn't. That's just a funny story I tell, and it's embellished.

Also, people don't really believe me, and that's hilarious. No, a dude was so fucking mad on Twitter, bro, and that's new. People mad on Twitter? New as fuck. And this dude hit me up like, yo, this man's assault is almost more capped than him selling drugs. And I'm like, I sold drugs terribly, and I was honest about it. You say I'm lying about selling drugs bad? That doesn't even make any sense.

That's like me coming up and lying about having bad sex. My nigga like, oh, my dick game is terrible. Oh, hit cap. Like, what are you talking about, bro? Wait, what is cap? I don't understand what the criticism is. Cap is lying. It's a lie. Oh. Yeah. Putting you on, son. I'm trying to get hip to this

stuff. Yeah, man. Take that back to your HR meeting, man. When I moved to New York, I got trashed at the Comedy Cellar so hard by Patrice. Patrice was the greatest of all time at just trashing young comics. 100%. I heard stories forever.

Did you have that when you came into comedy? What? Came up in Chicago, boy. Ballhead Phillips. Marlon Mitchell. What's up, niggas? Lil Rel.

These motherfuckers. D-Ray Davis. These motherfuckers can roast your ass to death. David Williams. I'm not naming all you motherfuckers. I love y'all. But like, man, coming up under these motherfuckers man you get roasted all the time you get roasted in the lobby yeah you'll go you'll go catch the bomb chicago's mean

bro like i remember like going up at jokes no shout out to mary lindsey i do a lot of shout outs apparently and and that was a club that would fucking they would do bomb sounds like they couldn't wait for your joke not to work. As soon as you said a joke and it didn't work, someone's like, eee! And the whole crowd is doing a eee!

Like, here's some bomb noise, dog. Devastating. And then you go outside and like, yo, let's go to White Palace.

It was this restaurant that was like 10 minutes up the road so she could sit down, have breakfast at 11.30 and get roasted all night. Wow. And if you could hang, you know what I'm saying?

You could just come back tomorrow and eventually you get in good. But man, that pissed me off at first. Yeah. I didn't like it because I was like, man, all these motherfuckers roasting me. I ain't never coming back. Yeah. But then I was back that next week. Same.

Doing the same shit. Yeah. Yeah, man. I think that's what you need. Doing the same shit. Yeah. Yeah, man. I think that's what you need. You need that shit, bro. They're just introducing you to how tough the game is in general. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And also letting you know about your flaws in case you didn't know. This is called the slow round. This is just sort of like thoughts and memories and random things. Do you have a nickname growing up that was either particularly bad or particularly good? I'll give you two because I feel like it's unfair to give the cool one without giving the one that pissed me off a lot. Chief was my last rap name that I had. And that's because I was smoking and I was deleted. But the bad one that my best friend's cousin gave me is Bobblehead.

And it was before the rap song Bobblehead came out, which is about a person who sucks dick. That's not what the joke was for me, though. My head, when I was growing up, was way bigger than my body because I was really skinny. This is the cruelest. This is now the cruelest, cruelest nickname. So I'm sitting, when I sit in cars and shit, and I didn't really realize this, I would be like, my head. this. I would be like in my head.

I would be sitting in cars riding and smoking in my head just doing this. And I'm listening to the music but I look like a fucking pop bobblehead, bro. And they were like, hey. I'm doing it now. I remember just being in the car and I'm smoking.

And then he was like, hey, Chris, your bobblehead ass. And everybody in the car went crazy. I'm like and I'm smoking and then he was like hey Chris your bobblehead ass and everybody in the car went crazy I'm like I'm not no bobblehead while my head bobbled it was fucking awful

and then the song came out and that just reunited the joke wow yeah it was terrible I hung out with some funny that's the worst is when someone

nails something about you yo Patrice O'Neal used to call me big head Leah because my head was too big I was like Patrice you'Neal used to call me Big Head Leah. Because my head was too big.

I was like, Patrice, you have the biggest head I've ever seen. That don't matter. By the way, it doesn't matter. It never matters. Also, no one heard that. Because his voice was so much louder than everybody else's. Yep, that's it. They would hear him make fun of me, and then he would win. Oh, man.

I love being loud. Because when you're on a roll, no motherfucker's not as loud as you, and you're taking a good joke. There's been roasts where I've been in going back to back, and someone had got me good. No one heard it, and I buried it. I was like, ha, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my favorite thing.

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Being louder in roasts is a very effective tool. Yeah, because no one's going to be like, wait, wait, wait. What'd you say? Shh. You know what I mean? No one's going to clear space for you in a roast.

That's insane. What's the best advice anyone's ever given you that you used? There's been a lot. But one of the best pieces of advice I got from a dude outside of a 7-Eleven, he had pulled up in his dope-ass car. I didn't have a car. I was maybe 14 or 15 at the time. I was hanging out with my friends.

We were going to get a Swisher or some shit. This kid pulls up. Dude's maybe a year older than me. Fresh-ass car. I'm like, what the fuck did you do? He had to be a couple years than me fresh ass car like what the fuck did you do he had to be a couple years like maybe 17 or something like that but he was like um man i just like he had his own business already you know i mean i'm sure there's probably more to it because 17 year old man's own

business you know but he he was like i just you know put my head down and i worked for three years and party i didn't do nothing i just i just I just went and I worked for what I wanted. Yeah. And that shit stuck with me so hard. Oh my gosh, yeah. Because when it came time to doing comedy, there was a lot of people going out and drinking every night. I was doing improv and stand-up, so I had a lot of circles that were out partying a lot. And I didn't do that.

and stand-up. So I had a lot of circles that were out partying a lot and I didn't do that. So it took me a longer time to get to know people on a personal level because I was always working because I was on this schedule. I got to put these years in. I always use three years as a test to see if I'm really into what I'm about to do. And so when I got into comedy, it was like three years I needed to see some kind of – well, I was ignorant. So I was like, three years, if I ain't make it, I'm done. Obviously, I didn't make it, but there was enough there for me to know that this is a trajectory I wanted to invest my time into. It's funny. I was reading this book that Scott Galloway wrote called The Algebra of Happiness that I read recently.

And he says this thing. It's not dissimilar to what your advice was. He goes, your 20s, if you want to be successful in your 30s, you're going to have to work so hard in your 20s that you have no free time to do anything, basically. No free time. I spent my 20s watching people get married, families. Yeah.

Go to weddings. Go to weddings. Bro, I didn't go to weddings. I just went to my first wedding. It was my little brother. My friends are so annoyed at me. I don't make anybody's wedding. Oh, man.

I've only been to like three weddings. Bro, I swear to God. I miss everybody's wedding. I was just like known for this. I'm known for missing weddings. Yeah. I mean, I was broke until 31. So all my 20s, I was, what? I didn't have a dollar to my name that I could keep for too long. That's just what

it was. And when you, you talk about in your special, when you got money, when you made money for the first time, you were like, I'm going to take my friends out and party or go on a trip. Bro, I swear to God, yeah. I go on a trip. Bro, that's what I got. Yeah, I go on a trip. And we went to Miami. That was the first big party. What I said, especially, was very rare. I flew out, six of my friends and me, to Miami, got a yacht, jet skis.

Every day was like an event. We did three, four, five clubs every night. It's Jay-Z Fridge. Four days, Jay-ZZ fridge. Four days is just the craziest shit you could ever imagine. I spent easily, this is way too much bread, easily over 20. Wow. Easily. And then I was like, yo, y'all throw me what you can. Oh my God, no. Like, yo, y'all throw me what you can. Oh, my God, no.

$100 here. I hate this story. $55 here. I hate this story. Dogs. One guy was like, you got this, right? Nigga, what? Oh, my God. Jay-Z didn't rap one lyric about this.

Throw me what you can. Throw me what you can. And that was my fault for doing. Oh, you're buried. Oh, yeah. Throw me what you can. I was like, oh, that was my first introduction to like, these things are different, bro. This is why people don't do this.

Or you do it just differently. Wow. And can you think of a moment in your life that now, in hindsight, you realize changed your life? Ooh. Oh, man. Huh. Damn, that's a good question. Steve.

I mean, damn, that's a lot, I guess. I can throw a couple of other ones at you if you want. I mean, I guess I knew... I guess I didn't... When my friend Worm died after one of my homies' houses got shot up that I used to live at. And he wasn't a part of anything. He was just a kid who was hanging around us and playing video games, and he got shot. And me and my friend was in the thick of shit, on bullshit, in the streets or whatever.

And when that happened, we went to his funeral with his family, and we cried, and we were like, yo, we're going to stop doing the bullshit. So that kind of put me on a track that got me here, really. Yeah. And so that would be maybe, that's what comes to mind. How old was he? And that's not funny. No, I know. I mean, it's awful.

How old was he or how old were you? He was 16. Wow. Yeah. Maybe 15, 15 or 16. mean, it's awful. How old was he or how old were you? He was 16. Wow. Yeah, maybe 15, 15 or 16. Oh, man. Yeah. But it was like, it just takes, you know, it was terrible, but sometimes it takes that. And with moments like that, you go one or two ways.

You either go angry and go deeper and harder. You try to like, you know. Yeah. angry and go deeper and harder. You try to like, you know. Yeah. What's something you've learned about yourself as an adult that you didn't know about yourself when you were a kid? That a lot of this shit that I was thinking that was happening

was actually in here. If I had understood my anxiety and ADHD and my depression more as a kid, I probably would have had an easier time dealing with some things. Yeah. And I wish I just hadn't known. You know what I mean? Yeah. But now that I do know, I know how to break down a situation way better.

Yeah. I was just angry as a kid all the time because I just had a lot of shit I didn't understand. Yeah. Are these answers going to be funny? I feel like I'm getting real serious. No, it's good. It's good. That's what the show always is.

It's like the slow round stuff is like more like introspective. I like that shit. Look at you, Mike. Deep as a motherfucker, fam. This is a section we do called From the Notebook. It's just like things I wrote down that aren't done. I reach a point where I dread doing anything at all. Like if I'm going to the Comedy Cellar, all day I'm thinking,

I got to take the F train from Bergen Street to West 4th. And then I get on the subway and I'm like, I like the subway. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then like even when it's pretty fast. You know what I mean? Like even when it's slow. I'm like, it's slow.

I knew it would be slow. I like being right. And then I'm on the subway and I'm like, oh, I got to walk from West 4th Street to McDougal. And then I'm walking there. I'm like, I like walking. Get some steps in. So much of my life is balancing dread and excitement. Oh, 100%. That's so good. I do that shit any time I have to go see people.

You know what I'm saying? I'm like, oh, no. Oh, man. Yeah. This is going to be so much. I got to record a podcast, a mic. And then I get there, and every time I'm like, oh, I enjoyed this. I have fun here.

It's just like me constantly battling my mind. That's such a good bit, bro. Thanks. Yeah. I'm kicking that one around. And then I wrote this down, which is parenting, I feel like, is like hiking. No one's ever like, hey, great job hiking. They're just like, keep hiking.

At some point, you see grandparents on the hike, and you walk with them for a little while, and then they can't keep up, and you're like, we're going to have to leave the grandparents behind. Nothing we can do, long hike. So that was like a loose thing. And then the other day I wrote this down, which is the other day I saw in Brooklyn a middle school kid almost ran over a homeless man with a cello.

And I thought, never has a metaphor for Brooklyn gentrification been more on the nose. Oh, that's great. A cello. I'd be pissed if I got hit with a cello. I would, because you don't even know who to punch. Play me something. Yeah, this little kid with a big with a cello. I would, because you don't even know who to punch. Play me something. Yeah, this little kid with a big-ass cello. Oh, God.

How much does that cello cost? Yeah. Cello's got to cost thousands of dollars. Thousands, right? Easily thousands of dollars. Yeah, come on. Take that cello back. Yeah.

Buy a video game. Let me see. I got some really dumb shit in here. Oh, yeah. That's what we're about. Super short. So I was in TJ Maxx, and we were waiting in line. And this dude got on the intercom.

I was like, I'll give it up for Jason Phillips. He has saved 10% with the Target coupon. Woo! And then another person got it. And then I was like, yo, if they don't give me an announcement do i just make them yeah like you get up and you're like you you're not doing something announcement worthy but all you did was come here to get announced you're like what i gotta buy my nigga announce me yes yes we only announce with coupons nigga fuck your coupons bro i bought a thousand dollars worth of shit announce me i love that it's so uh oh i just love also like

the just the observation of the announcement thing it's like it's absurd it's like we don't we don't we're good we don't need any announcements yeah and the announcements is mad weird too it's like oh gave it up for jason phillips uh he saved money because he didn't have enough real money right like what the fuck, bro? Don't put my shit out there, dog. Right, right, right. You know what I mean? Give it up for Chris Redd, who made us have to tell his name.

It's such a weird thing. Oh, they have a playlist for everything. There's a playlist on Spotify right now called Songs You Can Do CPR To. Oh, my God. I once almost drowned in a wave pool when i was eight and if i wasn't for cpr i wouldn't be here but i will say when i come to i wasn't like thank god i'm alive and y'all picked the right song that is so funny i also i feel like if you're gonna dig into that it's a great premise it's like like, what are the songs? Dude, it was like, Hero to save us.

Oh, my gosh. Nickelback. Wow, there you go. Could you imagine being brought back to life? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never made it as a wise man. Like, that's crazy. There might be a joke in like,

if I were brought back to life from an accident, blah, blah, blah, I just don't know if I'd want to hear Nickelback. Yeah. I might be like, that might hurt the cause. But then again, if it was like, back to life, that'd be lit. That'd be lit. That's nice. Then a motherfucker RuPaul comes out.

There you go. Motherfuckers Jay-Z's dead with his fridge. It should be crazy. Well, Chris, thanks for doing this. This is long overdue. I love your stand-up. Yeah, it's so fun. I love everything you're doing, man, comedy-wise. You still acting, bro? I'm still acting.

Good, man. I want you to do some shit. Yeah, you're one of the folks at the Comedy Cellar I'm always so psyched to see because you just always crush, and I'm so glad that your special is just so joke-dense and funny and original. It means a lot, bro. And you just knocked it out of the park. I'm so happy for you.

Thank you, man. I don't think anything should stay in the park. All of it should get knocked out that bitch. You know what I'm saying? That's a line. Knock it out that park. Look, I'm trying to get the word out on that, but sometimes my voice is so quiet. You got to get louder, baby.

All right, Mike. Appreciate you, bro. All right, me too. That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. I loved talking to Chris Redd. Oh, and his Working It Out for Cause is NAACP Legal Defense Fund. We will link to them in the show notes and contribute to them as well. We encourage you to do the same. You can watch his HBO Max special on HBO Max. Chris Redd, why am I like this?

It's so funny. You can see The Old Man and the Pool in January. Must close January 15th. I think there's only a few seats left. Go on mikeonbroadway.com or get great deals on TodayTix. The producers of Working It Out Are Myself, along with Peter Salamone and Joseph Verbigli, associate producer Mabel Lewis,

consulting producer Seth Barish, assistant producer Gary Simons and Lucy Jones, sound mix by Shubh Saran, Special thanks to The music in the show right now, if you like the music in the show, is a project that Jack did called Red Hearse, which is fantastic, with Sam Du and Soundwave. Love that album as well. Special thanks to J-Hope Stein. Her book Little Astronaut is in your local bookstore.

Special thanks, as always, to my daughter, Una, who built the original Radio 4 made of pillows. Thanks most of all to you who are listening. Thank you for all the feedback and nice comments on the Apple podcast site. If you're enjoying it, give us a star rating and a comment. Say which episode that you enjoy most would help us a lot. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Even if you're looking for a New Year's resolution, you can say, you know, this is the year I'm going to tell my enemies.

I'm going to approach my enemies and tell them about my favorite podcast for creatives. Work out new ideas. I'll see you soon, everybody. Thanks for listening.