Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - BEST OF WIO: Hasan Minhaj

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Hasan Minhaj Returns: Good Boy Syndrome(Recorded August 2023) Hasan Minhaj was one of the first guests on Working It Out back in 2020 and it remains one of the most popular episodes because of Hasan��s natural inclination to work out bits. Off-air Mike and Hasan often trade notes and ideas and today it spills into the podcast. Hasan compares comedy craft to Steph Curry’s approach to basketball, explains what it’s like to interview Barack Obama, and confesses to the guilty pleasure of watching couples argue in public.Please consider donating to Vituity Cares

My dad is 72, and then my son is like two, and I'm 37. So I'm like the half, I'm the Rihanna halftime show. And they're both on like two ends of the couch, like on the iPad, doing the same thing, being like, like they're both angry at the iPad. And I'm just in the middle. I love this. But I'm hurtling towards this. I'm hurtling towards not. Towards your father.

Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Like, it's good. yeah yes yeah like it's gonna this is the way it's gonna end yeah what are you doing in between yeah this is getting too heavy

um this is getting like so real I love it though I love it really are you kidding me this is my favorite part this is not very funny

no I love this and I think this I hope this is what your next hour is about. That is the voice of the great Hasan Minhaj. We are re-airing this episode from last fall. I love it. I think it's a great, great episode.

I mean, Hasan's been on the show a couple times. I always recommend his episodes to people if they don't know the podcast because we actually work out bits. We're real friends in real life and we talk about bits on the phone and he's someone who, like Pete Holmes, we work out bits and it's real. So when you hear us talking about bits, that's actually

how we do it and that's what's fun, I think, about this podcast in general. Thanks everybody who's been coming out to the Please Stop the Ride tour. Last week I was in Niagara Falls. At the end of this month I'm doing five sold out shows at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor and then I'm

going in the fall to Red Bank, New Jersey, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Champaign, Illinois, Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Dayton, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Asheville, and Charleston, South Carolina. I'm trying to hit everywhere. I'm going to be adding some cities in January and February. So post in the comment section of Instagram

of where you would love me to visit. I'm trying to make it to Salt Lake City. I'm trying to make it to San Diego. There's a whole bunch of places I'm trying to make work. To be the first to find out, sign up for the mailing list. It was a great talk with Hassan. One of my favorite people, You can see him live this month at the San Jose Civic in San Jose, California, July 12th and 13th. On this episode, we talk about basketball.

We talk about the time Hassan interviewed Barack Obama, former President Barack Obama. What was that like? We talk about The Daily Show. It's important to note this was recorded before the whole article in The New Yorker about fact-checking Haasen's comedy, so we don't talk about that. We have talked about that a lot off-air, but we don't mention it today. But I love this episode. It's really—he's so game. That's how I describe Haas really, he's so game.

That's how I describe Hassan. He's so game for the process of comedy. He's obsessed with the process of comedy and sort of finding it and honing it. It's very vulnerable. We talk about being parents and how hard it is sometimes to be a parent and to have a very taxing job that you love simultaneously and how balancing those things can be really challenging.

But we have a blast. I always love seeing them. Enjoy my conversation with the great Hasan Minhaj. You are currently working on your third hour. Yes. That one was special. And this is your favorite part? This moment right now is my favorite part of the process.

Describe that to me. It is all blue sky and possibility. Yeah. And it could be anything. There's parts of it where, for people that aren't comedians that are listening to this, your show gets to a certain point where it pretty much is what it is,

and then you just have to hit, like, human retweet every night. Oh, interesting. You're like, Chicago Theater, 8 o'clock, retweet it. That's really interesting. So, whereas now, it is the creation period. Anything's possible. Put the beginning.

Yeah, do the beginning at the front. You know what? Actually, don't even do your closer. Don't do it. Don't do it, yeah. Yeah, and I'm going to go back and forth. This is the way my mind works between basketball analogies and comedy.

Okay. And my friends make fun of me about this, and they're like, why do you do that? And I'm like, it's the only two things and comedy. Okay. And my friends make fun of me about this and they're like, why do you do that? And I'm like, it's the only two things I know. Okay. I'm not going to just jump to another sort of metaphor. So when you start out, you learn very basic fundamentals

where they go, hey, you have the mic in the mic stand. Don't keep the mic stand in front of you. Right. So there's early performances of me at the Sacramento Punchline and there's a fucking mic stand in front of me. And what are you doing? Like, it's very basic.

Like, put the mic stand behind you and continue, right? Right. Early lessons instead of comedy. Very early lessons or whatever. Same thing with like, just shooting form. Just like, okay, get it in a pocket here. Use this as a guiding thing. Yeah, and just follow through.

Versus like when you go play pickup, say on West 4th, and there's a guiding thing. Yeah, and just follow through versus like when you go play pickup, say on West Forth and there's a guy in like khakis and dress shoes, just straight up doing anything and everything. And you're like, oh, I think this guy's here for cardio. He's having some sort of mental breakdown and he's playing pickup with us right now. He doesn't really play basketball.

And you can tell by the way they like shoot, like, oh, they're shooting from here. Oh, right. Yeah, there's no follow through. So the basics, the fundamentals. Yeah, same with stand-up. Okay. All of that's really important.

But at the same time, things can be so rigid and comedy class-ish. It becomes— Set a punch tag tag. Yeah, it becomes predictable. It becomes, I expect and I already know what's going to happen. Yeah. And one of the things that you love or I love most about art and the form, at least the form of comedy, is like, you got to surprise me a little bit. You have to.

There has to be something here that subverts my expectations. This is such an important, any creatives will say, this is such a great universal for all art. Yes. Which is surprise. Yes. You have art. Yes. Which is surprise. Yes. You have to. Yes. And I agree with you. So, so there's the bread and butter things that you want to have in order. You want to have jokes. You want to have stories. You want to have some kind of structure, but you also, you have to have a spontaneity to it. Correct. Yeah. Spontaneity. And then another thing that I felt like, I gotta work on this a little bit more and I have to be deliberate about it,

is this feeling of like fun. Yeah. And you get to a certain level and you gotta do so many shows on the road and you're like, you're just jamming the show into like, oh, it's gotta be this and this has to close cleanly and then go to this, go to this, go to, which is all very well and important.

Yeah. But I don't know if you've experienced this. You can also become a caricature of yourself. Yeah. Of like, Birbiglia is gonna do the Birbiglia thing and he's gonna Birbiglia his way out of it. You had Jim on this, Gavigan will have a Gavigan way out of it. I will, we'll all have our moves

and you're not defying expectations. on this, Gavigan will have a Gavigan way out of it. Milani, I will, we'll all have our moves. And you're not defying expectations. In fact, you're just delivering straight up on expectations. Yeah. And then this is for me personally, is like, are you surprising yourself? And there was times, especially on the last tour,

I was not having fun on the road. Yeah. This is actually isn't fun. Yeah. And I'm not like surprising myself in new ways. Yeah. In discovering new things. And to go back to basketball, did you see the new, the Steph Curry doc on Apple? No. TV plus? I can't wait. No, it's great. Now that you're saying it. It's really, really, really wonderful and fantastic. But one of the things I hate about Curry being a Sacramento Kings fan is I hate the Warriors and the Lakers because the Bay and LA always shit on Sacramento.

Yeah, yeah. We're a very common punchline. That being said, as Steph is entering this final chapter of his career, I do have to give him props and be like, you're fucking amazing. You're great. But more importantly,

and the lesson that I took away from him is he's having so much fucking fun. Wow. And when I watch him play, I'm like, oh, he's not doing the set. Fuck, he's not doing the set. Interesting. In fact, he's like doing the Sunday brunch set

while Esty's watching and being like, oh, my set, goodbye. Oh, he's doing the Montreal showcase while Robbie's in the room at comics. You're using so many names that people don't know. And he's fucking punting it. He's like, oh, this. So you're saying Steph Curry in basketball

is doing the equivalent of, instead of comedy, doing a set, throwing away your set list, disregarding whether the booker for Montreal or the booker for the Comedy Cellar is watching you on the biggest stage. Yes, yes. Yeah, that's interesting.

While his mouth guard's hanging out or something like this, being like, oh, I'm not even trying right now, by the way. Oh, you're wearing a mouth guard for protection. It's as if a quarterback were to do a play in the fourth quarter and have his helmet just hanging off his head. Be like, oh, I'm not even going to pull it down. I don't care.

All that is to say is it was inspiring. It made me realize, oh, this thing should also be extremely fun and it should be playful. And I think the place that, and I did this very much following in your footsteps, there was a part of me that really wanted to honor the form and the function of what this is. And in the process of that, I may have lost a little bit of like, just like the pure unbridled joy and fun of it. The looseness, the looseness of it. So inspiring talking to you. I'm so glad that we're meeting up today. Yeah. The looseness of it. It's so inspiring

talking to you. I'm so glad that we're meeting up today. This is really giving me a fire. Why is it so inspiring? I always find you so inspiring.

Because I love your work. Okay. And then when you talk, when we're just talking, this is, might as well not be rolling camera, rolling sound.

Like, this is just how we talk. Yes. And that was the goal of the podcast in the first place. Totally. It's like, what's it like behind the scenes with two people who create stuff? Yeah.

And how does that affect your life? How does that affect your work or whatever? And so I love that. I love that you're sharing this with me because also like selfishly, I'm like, oh, this is gonna push me into writing my next hour right now and writing my next movie right now because I'm exactly the same place.

Like 40 minutes is hot of my next hour right now, and writing my next movie right now because I'm exactly the same place. Like 40 minutes is hot of my new hour. I was just at a club in New Jersey this weekend. I was like, 40 minutes is ready to go. And it's like, what's the other 40 and what's the arc? For me, that's what it is. Yeah. But like with your specials, they have an arc. They bring you on a journey with you.

Yes. Some, very few standup comedians, you know, Brennan and you and me and Hannah Gadsby. Look, there's a handful. Alex. There's quite a lot. Alex Edelman. There's a handful of people.

And in the UK, there's a whole lot. Right, who do these shows that are shows. And it's like, and a lot of times people ask me this and i'll say the same thing to you why i have my own answer i'm curious why you do it oh interesting um as opposed to just doing an hour straight stand-up yeah for me at least the the um selfishly i was trying to be as like green room. I'm hanging with my friends, conversational, funny, and interesting on stage. Yeah. So like there were times that I felt like when I would talk to people about comedy

or about my set or the thing that I'm working on, they'd be like, oh, that's really interesting. But kind of like my Rooster Teeth Feathers seven-minute set could not capture that. So it's like, how do I show you how interesting my mind, and again, the audience is like, what's Rooster Teeth Feathers? The Rooster Teeth Feathers is a comedy club in Sunnyvale, that famously does not have a green room. You actually have to like hang out.

I can't believe we work in places called Rooster Teeth Feathers. Yeah, next to a tire shop. In the stress factory. Cock-a-doodle-doo. What are we doing? It's like... Yeah. But I also love that.

There's a photo of you in Rooster Teeth Feathers. There's a photo of Jerry Seinfeld. Yeah, in Rooster Teeth Feathers, yeah. Wow. Yeah, from like a booklet from like 1981 or something like that. Yeah. That's so funny. Well, you know that yours and my history goes to Montreal Comedy Festival. You did New F that. Yeah. That's so funny. Well, you know that yours in my history

goes to Montreal Comedy Festival. You did New Faces as well as a gala. And I want to say it was like 2013-ish. And you were so cool to me. You were very nice to me. Well, it was funny because

I mean, it's selfishly nice. I didn't know you. I just saw you on stage in real time. I go, this guy's hilarious, which is the best way to, as a comedian, it's the best way to meet somebody.

You don't have to fake a compliment. Yeah, yeah. When you meet them, you go, hey, great stuff. Okay, all right. That was good. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was good stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, because it's the greatest gift when someone's hilarious. That's very cool. And you were a young kid, and I was just able to be like, dude, come on. Amazing.

Amazing comic. Thank you. And then I was like, where be like dude come on amazing amazing comic thank you and then and then I was like where are you from and you were like Davis I go playing Davis

in like two months you should come you should come open for me if you want you go absolutely cut to you get the daily show like three weeks later

you're like hey man I'm moving to New York I can't do it I'm moving to New York to be on the daily show but can my parents get tickets

and they did go they loved the show, yeah. And so we met then. Yeah. Here's what I always think about working it out in relation to. If you have this person here, what's your burning question? My burning question for you is, you had success fast. What did it feel like to have people resent you?

Because they probably did. So I was 30 when we met. So I wasn't- Yeah, you're young. Is that young for comedy to make it? Come on. 30? 30 is like, I think young. I mean, if you're real young, it would be 24, 25. Yeah. I mean, considering what I gave up. So I was supposed to go to law school and then I deferred and then denied my admission. Wow. So I basically like perfect for plot points. Burned the, I burned the boats. Yeah. Um, at 25. Yeah. So that, that, those five years before I, you know, it was a very, uh, stressful time for me personally.

20 through 20, 20 through 27, 25 to 30, 25 to 30. Right. Because at the time I was like, oh, so you basically took a really great career path forward and you set it on fire. You didn't do the part-time thing. You didn't go like, oh, I go to, I'm an L1 student by day and I do stand up at night. You really believe this is going to work while you're a feature act occasionally at Tommy T's Comedy Club in Pleasanton.

Love the name. Are you out of your mind? You know what I mean? Tommy T's. Tommy T's in Pleasanton. Wow. Yeah. And so what was the cut?

The cutoff was rejecting the acceptance into law school. Yeah. It was basically if you give yourself an out, you're always going to be like one foot in, one foot school. Yeah. It was basically, if you give yourself an out, you're always going to be like one foot in one foot out. You're going to do this part time. And everybody that I looked up to in the Bay that was like really serious about it, Allie Wong, Moshe Kasher, W. Kamau Bell, Arj Barker, all of them, they were like all in, you. You know, and you know this, like when you're coming up, there's the, okay, we all like this. We're all passionate about it. And then the, oh, he's like for real, for real, all in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I imagine from what I understand about you, you were that at Georgetown, right? Yeah, it was all, once I got into the improv group, I was all in on my whole life being comedy forevermore. Wow. Yeah. So that like 19. Yeah, 19. my whole life being comedy forevermore. Wow. Yeah. So that like 19. Yeah, 19. Wow.

That was wild. That is wild. Yeah. Because it was just a real inflection point. It's like a true kind of like, I want to do this. And then once I got the improv group friends, I was like, oh, these are my folks. And I feel that, by the way, I'm 45, I feel that today still, like when I see like you and Ronnie, like going at each other, I love that.

I'm like, that's why I love being a comedian. Yeah, it's the funnest. Like, to me, it's like a, it's like a life choice of like the types of people you like to be around, like to give each other a hard time. And I don't know. But what I was going to say about the Ronnie thing too is, you and I are close friends, but we don't roast each other. No. And I was thinking today, I was like, what would be your roast of me?

Oh, wow. Because I got a lot on you. I would have to, if I had to do it, I would like do, I would do an act out. It would have to be, it would be very physical and I'd have to take a joke

and then I would like stretch it out. And I would let, I would kind of putter. I would putter out the space. Putter. Yeah, putter. Softly putter.

What I said was, ba-da-da-da. Mine of you would just be like, literally what Trevor Noah said about you, which is like you and Bina are Indian, Barbie and Ken. Right. Like you look too good.

Like my thought about you is like, how long does it take you to get out of the house? Your hair looks perfect. Everything looks nice. Your shoes are perfect. It's like, how long is it? What does it take you? An hour?

No, it doesn't take me an hour, but that's very sweet of you to say. That's very sweet of you to say. I'm just going to accept the couple. We don't need to go down this road. You're a beautiful couple. Oh, thank you. Yes. You're very beautiful. Beautiful children. say. I'm just going to accept the couple. We don't need to go down this rabbit hole. You're a beautiful couple. Oh, thank you. Yes. You're very beautiful.

Beautiful children. Yeah. I don't know. You know, there's certain people in your life, and by the way, people don't know this. People don't know. I'm going to say, you can cut this out. Okay. People don't know.

People think you and Mulaney are like very nice guys, which you are. But people don't know you can fucking suplex people through tables. Yeah. Like if you play WCW versus NWO on N64 and it's like reverse and then they fucking suplex you through a table, you are so good at being like, nice guy, nice guy.

And then you tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And then you like fucking reverse it and slam through a table. When I did the correspondence dinner, dude, Mulaney could send, would send David Angelo and me these fucking haymakers. Oh, yeah. That would just body people.

Brutal. Yeah. Brutal. And he would have 12. He could just like. Yeah. Yeah. Chat GPT.

Just like. For me, it's because. It was incredible. I came up at the cellar. Yeah. In the early 2000s just getting bullied by Patrice O'Neill and Todd Lynn and all these guys who were the great bullies.

Yes. The greatest bullies of all time. The greatest ever, yeah. And so honestly, I didn't even really hold my own with them. I just stayed alive. Yeah. And by staying alive, I got good enough to just be like alright so what was your Tai Chi because were you at that

moment because at that moment you were probably like Mike Birbiglia Conan guitar set yeah they would bring that up quite a bit isn't that crazy like I knew you before I knew you I know like I was like oh yeah

he had the thing and then he had this like other special then this two drink mic I like knew you and then now I know you like I have your number and I can text you and I can call you

it's truly bizarre the whole thing it's so surreal no I mean I first of all I played guitar early in my career I tried a lot of things

you try everything when you're starting out I sounded like Mitch Hedberg you know what I mean like you just copy everything you see sounded like stephen lynch for five minutes sounded like mitch hedberg for five minutes sound like greg drawl for five but your story's so inspiring to me because of that oh but but the thing that you have the secret special skill you have that i feel like you don't sort of brag about is like you did that Obama thing

and like you made fun of his playlist from the year. It's so funny. All right. And it's so bold because like... But is it though? Yes. But like is it? Yes.

Yeah, because I would be like, oh no, like what if he just cuts this off? Oh. You know what I mean? What if he just, what if he goes cold? Okay. Don't you have that? Because if he just, what if he goes cold? Okay. Don't you have that? Cause you have a thing in your personality,

which isn't in your offstage personality, which is your shit starter. Your onstage persona, like you start things. Like that could be like, that could have made it bad. Yes, it could have. You asked like one of the most influential people in the last century, like, hey, by the way, there's no way you watch and listen to all this stuff.

Yeah. And like, that could go badly. What were you thinking in that moment? What was the calculation? So the calculation in that moment is like, what I try to bring to these interviews, whether it's like President Obama or Prime Minister Trudeau or whatever,

there has to be this like, so I have a text thread with all my boys that we grew up in high school together. We played basketball since we were in middle school. We're called Hit Squad, okay? We played in like basketball. Yeah, of course, you know Hit Squad. And you've obviously heard of what we've done

at the 24 Hour Fitness Basketball Leagues in the Sacramento, greater Sacramento area since the early 2000s. Lesser known stuff, for sure. Of course, Hit Squad. So Hit Squad, we're on a text thread. But there's always this thing of like, what would Hit Squad ask of me if they knew-

That you got to. I went to go meet Michael Jordan or I met Steven Spielberg. They'd be like, how tall is he? They would always ask you that sort of thing. So I always approach it from a very like, come on bro level with me thing. So I always approach it from a very like, come on bro level with me. Yeah.

Thing. And from a place of like, I'm not here to get you. Yes. Like I'm not here on behalf of the wallstreetjournal.com. Right. To be like, Mr. Birbiglia,

comedy's in a existential moment right now. And with the threat of democracy, do you feel like some of the, and you're like, okay, you're trying to corner me into like giving you a soundbite on cancel culture. Yes. Got it. Like, I'm not interested in this. Yes. But if there was like, I tried to approach it from like, it's a very like, come on level with me question, but it's also innocuous. It is a very like come on level with me question. Yeah. But it's also innocuous. It is a warmup joke. Oh, that's interesting. Do you really read all those books?

Yeah. Really? Like you read this book by Abdul Razak Gurnah? Yeah. Okay. Mr. President, what happened in TAR? What happened? What was your favorite thing about TAR?

And you cannot say Cate Blanchett. So explain TAR to me. That's very funny. And then if you can then explain american health care to me like that sort of like i love that just level with me and i think he could sense oh he's like being real right now yeah like i'm just like just fuck the lav mic like you you really read all those 10 books. Yeah. And Scribs Riley is one of your favorite artists of 2020. Yes. Really? Yeah.

You know what I mean? Did you come away from it believing that he had? The moment where I believed him is where he goes, dude, how much time we got? And I was like, oh, oh, I like tried to check your cred. And you're like, don't, I think the music stuff, he was like, I'll let it slide. Where he's like, you think you're the guys are the only ones that listen to music and, you know, like irreverent stuff. But when I checked him on like, you don't read all that much.

I think 44 felt, hey, don't come at like my ability to read a briefing and like be an intellectually curious person. That's interesting. But my place was like, but we're both married guys with children. Like there's just too much. Where's the time? Where's the fucking time? Yeah.

You know. What wouldn't you ask him out of respect? So there was a thing at the very end of the interview called, let's not talk about it. Oh, really? Let's not talk about it. Yeah. But what I wanted to signal to him was like, I know each of these is like an hour and a half conversation, but let's not talk about it. Yeah.

So I also cashed it in a joke. So I had all these cards. And so one of the cards was like it was like guantanamo bay let's not talk about it yeah yeah i was like edward snowden yeah yeah drone strikes in pakistan at a wedding let's not talk about it let's just not talk about it oh my god and i was like boxers briefs commandos in chief and then he's like let's not talk about classified i know so what i did is like what i wanted to do was each of these alone they're major drone strikes is foreign policy war on terror right this alone is like a two and a half hour conversation of course let's not

but i need to snowden like that alone privacy and all that whistleblowing, that's a two-hour conversation. Guantanamo, obviously, in his campaign was like, my first day in office, I'm going to close it. Did not. I was like, okay, we don't need to talk about it. But what I had to signal to him was like, I know. And to the audience, I know. Because I also had to be like, you are a former sitting president. You do wield incredible amount of power.

This isn't like a hashtag sponsored post. Yeah. I want this to be a meaningful conversation. This may be one of the only conversations I get with you in my life. Let's do this for real. I don't have enough time to get into this, but I want to let you know that I know, and I want to let the audience know that I'm aware. And then I buttoned

it with the, you know, boxers, briefs, commandos, and chief joke. Here's my, let's not talk about it. Okay. Just write down whether or not you're going to host the daily show and then just, you can write it, write down your answer. Then you put it down, and the audience can only see my reaction to it. Sure, sure, sure. Okay, great. Got it. Yeah. Good to know. This is what you expected, right?

Good to know. Okay, there you go. Speaking of fun, like this being the theme, so there's this photo of us at Andrews Air Force Base. We did this USO show with David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Jon Mulaney, Judd Apatow, and Mike Birbiglia. And then at the time, President Obama, the First Lady, Joe Biden, and Joe Biden were there. And I remember there was like a bus ride there and a bus ride after. Yes. You're referencing a photo on, actually on my wall of you and me and john stewart and flatterman and millennium and judd yes at andrews air force yeah yeah yeah there's a yeah

there's a bus and christian shaw was in the bus with us i'm remembering yes and i remember at the end of like our sets we were all like did you do that like how did you know like we were all like super analyzing it. And there was this little part of me where I was like, ah, we're overthinking this a little bit too much. Cause it's just a gig and it's a USO gig. We've done this gig before. Yeah. In fact, like this is light work for all of us. We know how to rip in front of this audience. And I wish there was this part of me that I was like,

we need to act the way my dad did. So Letterman was there, who's obviously a legend to all of us. And I remember there was like, there was people that kind of were like staying away from him that were like, hey, do we engage with him? Do we, like, we weren't shooting the shit with him the way we were.

I know. The way we were all commiserating. And then my dad straight up beelines and goes up to David Letterman. And he's like, who is your favorite president to interview? Oh my God. You know? And he goes,

I was going to guess Nixon. But what I loved about like his, just like, let's just get right to it. Attitude was, he wasn't like, oh, that's one of the greatest late night hosts in history.

Rarely does Letterman come back and do stand up. Like he was gonna, he was like quasi hosting, you know. And remember he was like stretching. He was doing a lot of like stretches backstage. Yeah, and also by the way, it's funny you should mention that about your dad because the other person that talked to him was Mulaney's dad.

So it was your dad and Mulaney's dad were the only people who actually had the nerve to go person to talk to him was mulaney's dad so it's your dad and mulaney's that were the only people who actually had the nerve to go up and talk to david letterman but like we're all surgeons and we're not going to talk to this other surgeon like do you know what i mean my dad would would have talked to him if he was there too i think it's honestly yeah people who are not in the field of entertainment are just kind of like, yeah, that's just some guy. Like it doesn't matter. Whereas we give a certain like distance to him. And so to go back to like the thing of it, the Steph of it and what we were talking about

at the beginning. Steph Curry. Yeah, Steph Curry is you can play loose. Like that's allowed. Yeah. And I think in a weird way i also think the art form culture and art needs that now yeah i think that's true there was this moment i you know i think between 2015 to say like even just this past year where uh art in and of itself was put on this pedestal of like it can be a form of resistance.

It can be a form to subvert power structures and all these things. And I think we've all lived through the varying degrees of you do that and you can do these very sanctimonious presentations about its importance. Yeah. But at the end of the day, you're also squelching any fun of it. Yes. Or also, that's not the only way to be subversive or interesting. You're making the same point as the movie Tar. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. Totally. Yes. I don't know the point of the movie Tar. I don't know the point of the movie Tar. I don't know the point of the movie talk. No, traffic's in this topic a little bit. But still, you're absolutely right.

I think that there's a degree to which people just want to laugh, just want to have a good time at the theater, just want to have a good time at the movies. Yeah. I mean, Barbie making a billion dollars is a good example of that. Of course, there is a subversion to that. Right. But on its face, it's also very very funny and by the way like this is a this is a lesson like for me so i'm gonna apply this to me i think my um my work would be more interesting if it was that so this current show that i'm doing

the new hour you're trying to hour that i'm doing. You know, and I'll start taking it to bigger theaters very shortly. But one of the guys who opened for me, he said this to me privately backstage where he was like, hey, it still doesn't have like that like big like Hasan Minhaj like point at the end. Like I'm waiting for the point. I'm waiting for the point. And I'm like, you know, I don't think some of the themes that I'm exploring have this clean, like, bow tie and it's all done now. Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Yeah. Yeah, I'm touring with an hour right now that doesn't have a main event.

It doesn't have a thing we're going towards. Yeah. But that's fun too. I think that stand-up comedy is great in all versions of itself when the person who's on stage cares about what they're talking about, even if it's 10 different things. My thing is with A New Hour, when you're doing A New Hour, I'm interested in what are you personally obsessed with? I'm always thinking about what am I obsessed with? Right now, I'm sort of obsessed with like my

daughter's eight and like I remember I remember now being wow that's crazy I used to be like I remember when she's a baby yeah it's kind of like I have a joke about this is like yeah when you have a baby it's like an animated sack of rice you know what I mean and then it's like a person yeah who's like dad I'd like to have dinner now. You know, like, oh, shit. Wow. Like, I gotta, like,

figure out how to teach her stuff. So Una's in the third grade. Yeah, rising third grader. Dude, I remember. That's crazy because I do remember the third grade. I remember Ramona Quimby,

age eight. Oh, my God. Mrs. Dunphy? Are you kidding me? Yeah, totally. You remember your teacher? You remember the movies you saw when you were eight?

Oh, yeah. That is crazy. Yeah, I mean, so now, that's my current obsession on stage is like, what was I thinking about in third grade? And what is my experience with her now? And my relationship with my parents when I was a kid? And what's my relationship with my parents now? And all that stuff.

My question to you is like, what's your obsession? What do you think about a lot that you bring on stage? Right now, it's kind of deciphering and I'm kind of working on it through the new show is, this is going to sound so weird to say, but trauma and pettiness. Okay. Like, I'm a very petty person. I'm all about it. Like, one of the opening jokes that I have is like really

fucked up. And sometimes people are like, what? One of my favorite things in New York city to do is watching other couples argue in public. I fucking love it. And I love it more when my wife is with me. Yes. Yes. Like there's this weird thing where I'm like, they're losing. They won't advance to the sweet 16. We move on and emotional March Madness. No, it's- In New York City, you get it all the public breakups. Like this is the Paris of public breakups. No, you're absolutely right.

Joe and I have been talking about this lately in relation to divorces. Your friends get divorced. Yeah. And you do like a divorce autopsy with your wife. You go, yeah, they didn't communicate. We communicate. Like right now we're communicating.

So what is, so then I was like, there's no word for this in the English language. They're like the explicit joy you get in the suffering of others. There's only a German word for it. Right, schadenfreude. Schadenfreude. Yeah, yeah. We don't have it. Schadenfreude, yeah.

Here it's just, I guess, gossip. Yeah, yeah. schadenfreude yeah yeah we don't have it schadenfreude yeah here it's just i guess gossip yeah yeah yeah but like we have american schadenfreude which is not only obviously it's so german to like enjoy the suffering of others but we also have this like other thing in america that we love which is like i call it like hate and ass energy which is just hating ass, just mouth breathing ass. It's the explicit hatred in other people's joy. I'm exploring that like that just, you know what I'm talking about? It's just like the way we talk shit in the green room.

Oh, forget about it. Just hating ass, mouth breathing ass, jealous. But I'm obsessed with like, why am I thinking this way why am i doing this i have this thing where i'm like starting the joke where i'm like so like uh so it's just like yeah we're in like you know we do couples therapy and i go like is it wrong that i try to win yes and i did this in front of like roy roywood jr who's fucking hilarious and Roy was like bro like don't you don't like good luck with your marriage if you're gonna do that but I'm like but I oh my god it's like I'm telling you dude I feel like they double team me yeah like it will have 60 minutes on the

shot clock and they'll be like so how are we doing and I'll be like I think we're doing great how are we doing and then it'll just like, and then with like three minutes left, they'll be like, do you have anything to say? You know, I want to explore that. The subtext of why am I doing this? Like, why do I feel this way? That like, do you know what I mean? Why do I feel like I have to defend myself in that way?

Or why do I, you know? Yeah, no, and I have a line in my show right now where I said my love language is keeping score yeah and it's similar because it's like I think about I mean because if you think about it like a majority of my time is with my wife and my daughter right it's probably 80 plus yes of my time your time with being in your kids is probably like 80 of your time yes and it's like it becomes and i wonder with you like how do you how do you draw the line of like well that actually is one step too far similar to the obama thing except it's with your own life uh did we talk about this but what i will do, and this is where I just give like,

Pina just so much props. She lets me be me. She does not put constraints on that. Yeah. Basically her rule is like, I'll let, you can let it fly at the cellar at these like small shows.

Yeah. Before it goes to Netflix. Yes, Netflix, can you show me the doc? Can you show me the Google doc of what's about to go live? Yeah. Or before it goes to, let's say, the Chicago theater, big theaters. She'll be like, can I just see what you're kind of saying? But she's never pumped the brakes on the exploration phase of it. But then I'll show it to her.

I'll be like, is there anything that you feel like I should change or feels like mean-spirited? Or is there like a blind spot that I'm having where you could just like dunk on me here? Well, that's what I find is like, when I run stuff by Jen, more often than not, she'll point out something that is true also, but is contrary to what I'm saying. Because the best jokes are,

I think, multi point of view. Yeah. So like there was something that we were chatting about. I'm like, oh, I got to figure this out. Like we were chatting and I go, hey, Bean, have you ever felt, this is like the thing I was trying to talk about was like being in trouble in your relationship. Yeah. Like a feeling that you get like, oh, fuck, I'm in trouble. Like, fuck, I'm in trouble. And I have this whole chunk about like a therapist asked me like, what's your, a lot of people like you that are like first generation immigrants, you have this thing called like good boy syndrome. You feel like you want to make everybody happy.

You have like your family, you're sending money overseas to cousins and stuff. You have your brother-in-law, sister-in-law, you have all thing called like good boy syndrome. You feel like you want to make everybody happy. You have like your family, you're sending money overseas to cousins and stuff. You have your brother-in-law, sister-in-law, you have all these things. But good boys sometimes are like hiding a kink. There's something inside them that they're not sharing. Like what's your kink? And I'm just like, I don't know, like acceptance.

You know, like my biggest kink would be like, if, you know, just my dad came up to me and it was just like, no one's mad at you anymore. Oh my God. Anyway. So there's that, that idea. That's a great one. Yeah. I love that. I'm just working on that. Right. And then what's mad at you anymore? Yeah. Like you're just not in trouble. And then I was talking to Bean about this. She's like, really, are you gonna do a kink joke? And I'm like, it may or not may not make it in. But I was just like, I was like, have you ever felt like a bean? Have you ever felt like you're in trouble? My whole life, from the moment I was leaving the house when I was at UC Davis when I was 19

to go to the punchline or, you know, to Tommy T's or to go do the open mics. Yeah. I would like sneak out and I'm like, fuck, I'm going to get back at 10.38 PM and I'm going to be in trouble. Yeah. I'm going to be in trouble.

I have to plug this hole sometime. So I'm like, I feel like everything that I've done has, the majority of my adult life has been some sort of burden. Like, oh fuck, he's doing the thing that he's doing, right? I go, have you ever felt like you're

in trouble with me? She's like, no. And I'm like, that's so interesting. That's great. It's funny because like when you're saying the whole, am I in trouble thing, and Jen and I have this conversation a lot of like, she'll be like, am I in trouble for this? Or are you mad at me for this? And it's like, it actually is rarely true.

Oh, yeah. I find that like most times that she'll say something like, no. She'll say something like, no. But also, I think there's, it's more like there's an accumulation of, you know each other, and Gaffigan and I were talking about this the other day on the podcast. It's like, you know the person so well

that you can just squash them if you choose to. And so as a result, the person in some ways has so, it's such a perverse amount of power over you. That's your, you guys both are Oppenheimer in this situation. You have your emotional Manhattan project. Yes. Yeah, mutually assured destruction.

Yes. Sure. But don't you think? Yeah, totally. Would your, did your parents ever apologize to each other? Like, have you seen your, not that I've seen,

I will call him. Isn't that crazy? I'll follow up. But I don't think so, no. You never witnessed your father say to your mother, I'm sorry. Or vice versa. No, although there's things about my dad

that, you know, I'm working on a joke right now about how when I was a kid, my dad would shout, all you want me to do is send the check. Just send the check. And I remember as a kid just thinking like, dad's crazy. And now I'm a grown up with a wife and child. I'm like, I know what he means about that.

You know what I mean? Like, he's not wrong about the check. So there are these moments you'll have of like, this ties to the Obama interview of like real emotional honesty. And I've come up to you after shows where I'm like, dude, that's so great that you're doing that. Oh, thanks. You had this joke and I so thought you were going to change it in your last special about, I understand why some dads decide to leave. Why some dads leave, yeah.

Some dads leave. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I understand, you're not saying it's right. I'm not going to do it, but I get it. Yeah, you don't condone it, but you're like, I can see that. And I could see how you can intellectually analyze that joke and be like, don't do that. It could be considered cruel. There's all these other tabs that it opens up.

Yeah. that it opens up. Yeah. But what I loved about the joke, and you keeping that joke, is don't, don't, don't page A8 of the New York Times.

Don't opinion, like. Right. Well, don't, you know, and it's don't write this like there's going to be a comment section.

Yeah. That's not what comedy, comedy's not for a comment section. Sure. Yeah, correct. Correct. Because the New York Times comment section

is actually pretty good. Oh, it's lit. Oh, it's lit. I go like, oh, this is as good as the article. Oh, let's dive in. Take me to page A8,

opinion article. I'd be like, okay, this is the hot take, comments, because what's great about that is that like that's being cross-checked.

By the way, by New York Times readers. By New York Timesork times readers again so that's like coastal liberal elites being like okay 324 comments just of relative sanity i find them to be thoughtful yeah very very like relatively thoughtful sometimes more than the writer. Right, correct, correct. You know what I mean? Some of them are like, yeah, that's a fair point. Yeah, and so at times, what I loved about it is there can be this obsession with what you are saying as if it's congressional testimony versus you know what I mean. Yeah, no, it's dance like no one's watching. Except it's write comedy like there's no comment section.

Correct, correct. It's like, but you're right. But the soul of it, and I appreciate you keeping the soul and the smudge of it in. It is an emotional smudge. Well, it's funny because I say in that special, I go, for the first time in my life, I thought I get why dads leave. I'm not going to do it.

That's why I'm comfortable saying it, but I get it. It's like there were a handful of people who were like, that's a bridge too far. It was way, way outbalanced by people who said that was very moving to me, particularly people whose dads left. Wow. That was the most moving part of that whole experience. Totally. You also talk about another thing that I thought that was great that you kept in the special.

I'm like, keep this, please. Please, for the love of God. You talk about your experience going to the red light district. Oh, yeah. And then you finish the story by being like, am I in the way? Like, I think I'm a good guy. Yes. You know?

And I think I'm decent. Yeah, I think I'm decent good guy. Yes. You know? And I think I'm decent. Yeah, I think I'm decent. Yeah, yeah. And what's really beautiful about that is like, you can intellectualize that move and be like, I already know how this is gonna get picked apart and how I could lose the audience or I could lose a reviewer.

Yeah, for sure. And so what you start to do is you lose, what that does is you lose these like core soul moments that make the show great. Human beings, I think, are allowed to be messy, petty, complicated, not great. Yeah, sure. Make bad decisions.

Yeah. And that's okay. I know. And I would say that that part of it is actually meeting the current, needs to meet the current moment that 2023, 2024 and beyond needs more than ever. Well, I think honestly,

I think this segues into what I would, if we were off air, I would ask you and I would ask myself too. It's like, what do you think maybe in your next hour that you're going to crack into that's a flaw of your own that maybe you don't have a joke for yet, but maybe is just something that you think about sometimes? Like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe this is kind of what makes me not a good boy, to use your words. Totally. Probably the pettiness.

That's interesting. Yeah. So, in other words, like the pettiness of you looking at other couples and being like yeah like us yeah and all these like little things where i have to have i mean one of the things that i talk about in the show is i was like yeah i i know there's something clearly wrong with me one of my most seminal pieces of work is a 70 minute show that i wrote about a girl who wouldn't go to prom with me. And I wrote that show when I was 30. Right. That's fucking insane.

Right. That is so, I mean, that's, I mean, we are full Drake Petty here. I mean, we're petty. Full Drake Petty. Yeah, this is like nuts. Yeah. How could you, why, what is wrong with you?

Yeah. And so it's stuff like that, that I think is, you know. Or like even, you know, I've been doing these shows with Ronnie where both me and him will be on stage and we'll roast each other. Go at each other. Huston hates Ronnie, Ronnie hates Huston. And we'll just go at each other. And people will be like, whoa, this is like unhinged behavior. What's the thing he says to you that you're like, that actually hurts?

Is there anything? Oh, wow. I mean, he said one that just bodied me. I asked him, I think he got invited to Chappelle's summer camp. And I said this on stage. I go, so we're basically airing out our grievances as friends. And I go, Ronnie, I asked you if I could go to summer camp with you. You know what I mean?

And if I could be your plus one and go with you. And you were like, oh, I'm going to bring Hannah instead or whatever. And then he goes, sorry. Like, Dave wants to hang out with funny people, not people that do PowerPoint. Oh, my God. And it fucking destroyed. Oh, my God. It wrecked the room.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, they're not going to have a PowerPoint, like, projector in Yellow Springs, Ohio. You can't show us, like, a bell curve of, like, a bell curve of democracy or whatever. And he's like, yeah, he just wants to be with funny people. And he's fucking, Ronnie is roast, and the crowd is going crazy. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. You're right.

You know, and it was just, I was crushed. what's the biggest challenge in your life on a day-to-day basis what's the thing where you're like i just can't find the time to blank i mean it the is your joke man is the you have this joke about parenting where you it's not winning surviving is winning yeah about parenting where it's not winning. Surviving is winning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, man, like I'll give you just an example, a hard example this week. I have to help my daughter with her homework. She has these like little like homework packets that she does. And my son really wanted me to – so I have a five-and-a-half-year-old daughter and then a three-and-a-half-year-old son. And he's into basketball now.

Like he wants to play basketball. He sometimes walks by the park and like sees some of like the boys playing basketball. And my wife was like, he really wants to play. Like you should take him to go play now. Yeah. When I tried to take him when he was a little bit younger,

it was just too much. Like the ball's bouncing way above his, he's the rim's too high. It's just all too much. But he kind of like wants to like bounce the ball with both hands. Now I can see him. And just this week,

I was supposed to take him to go do that. But he's dually conflicted because he's really into trucks and sand right now. Yeah. So he was in the trucks and sand. And then I went to go do that. And then I'm like leaving to go do this podcast. And earlier this afternoon,

Bean asked me like, hey, have you taken him to go play basketball this week? He said, you'd take him to go play basketball this week. And I'm leaving for the road tomorrow. And I'm like, fuck, I haven't. I have the ball. Like I have the little Franklin, small kid size, rubber basketball, the tiny one.

And just like, we didn't get around to doing it. And it breaks my heart. And I'm like, ah, fuck, I am a bad dad. And you're not. I mean, I think- But I bought the ball from Ace Hardware. Like there's an Ace Hardware down the street. I have it in the trunk.

Like I'm like, all right, we're going to go do it. But I got caught up doing his other things. But I didn't do the thing. I didn't do the memory, the core memory. I didn't do it. Right. But I think about this all the time with Una because I'm just like, I could be with her right now. I could be downstairs.

Yeah. We could be making a puzzle. Yes. You know, we could be watching the tennis documentary. You know what I mean? But ultimately, then you think back to your own childhood and you're like, oh, well, actually, like, a lot of my core memories are just being with my friends or being alone. I know, dude. And then there's this thing of like, by the way, my core memories are just being with my friends or being alone. I know, dude. And then there's this thing of like, by the way, he's talking about the theme of being in trouble.

It's like, I'm like, fuck, I'm in trouble. Not with her. I'm talking about like, I'm in trouble. Like, dude, am I a bad dad? Am I not pouring everything into this guy? Because what I mean by that is that like, I should have at point i don't know if i could a monday morning quarterbacking here but like um he's obsessed with chicken nuggets right now like he'll just eat chicken so i'd like cut i'll get these chicken and i'll chop chop them a nugget into four yeah

this dude will just fist them and wolf them down. But what I could have done, and we were watching like something on PBS or whatever, like PBS Kids or whatever. What I could have done after we finished, I was like, let's just sit down and watch this. Sometimes I'll take a layup. Yeah. Like if I see an easy path to basket, I'm like, oh fuck yeah,

you just like wolf down these nuggets. And like, now you want to watch this for 30 minutes. I get to like sit and kind of like, I can take a quick power nap on the thing with you. Yeah. Fuck yeah, let's do it. Yeah. But I totally could have been like, hey, let's go to the park and let's go shoot.

But I didn't. I took an easier way out. And now that I'm guilty, I'm going to be gone Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And I'm like, fuck, I could have done that. And am I a bad dad because of that? You're not. I mean, man, we've had a tricky summer because Una, this is a bit that I was trying to do last weekend,

but it's like we took her to a birthday party at this place called Urban Air. You ever heard of these places? The trampoline places, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. Like a big warehouse, like 40 trampolines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you play dodgeball on them, and it's crazy.

They give you this formed sign when you walk in and it's like all the worst things that can happen. Your kid gets paralyzed. I've read it. It's fucking crazy. It's crazy. And then it all happens. Yeah, yeah.

All this stuff happens. She broke her foot at this thing. Una broke her foot at it? Yeah. Awful. Oh, no. And then the one thing that's not in those forms is you actually can talk about it on your podcast. Got it.

But you can't sue them. You can't sue them, but you can mention it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can mention that some month later. You can monetize it on YouTube. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it. Understood.

But I had a funny thing the other day. I'm forming it into a joke. Sure. Long term, it's like she was in a cast for like four weeks. And it was because a kid jumped in, a boy jumped in front of her. Sure. It could have been anybody, but she said to me, she goes, Dad, boys are terrible.

And I said, you're absolutely right. And it's not even for the reasons you're thinking. Oh, that's a great joke. That's a phenomenal joke. And then I started explaining the patriarchy and she kind of like lost interest sure okay but yeah that's great a lot of my stuff right now is like figuring out like honestly like it's my life struggle of like what what do i have to teach what can i teach you know she's good she's gonna go through all the stuff the kids go through and yeah i have to explain that as best i can there is this store so this summer um they're at have you guys done

disneyland yet no okay so my eldest she's definitely disneyland age okay what i i this is my take i think prime disneyland age and there's gonna be some disney adults that get mad at me but let's not even get into that. Yeah, yeah. That's the comment section. Forget about them. I think it's five to eight. I think it's when you look at Mickey, you don't think, it's just like, there's a sweaty dude wearing a Mickey costume. That's very astute. And it's five to eight. Yes. That you're like, and I

remember when I met the cast of Tailspin in second grade. I'm seven, and I still went up and hugged them. I met Chip and Dale and danced with them. And I wasn't thinking, oh, there's a junior in high school dancing with me right now. This is a great observation. Okay.

As soon as you get to fourth or fifth grade, you can see in Mickey's eyes, you're like, there's a person in there. There's like a dehydrated guy who's going to be chugging Pedialyte. You know what I mean? As soon as this is over. You see like the humanity. I'm choking on ice right now. But my daughter, when she met Fantasia Mickey, there's this great photo. I'll show you it.

She hugs Mickey and she closes her eyes. So she's just like, she gets on her knees and she hugs Mickey like this. You know what I mean? And she really believes she met Mickey Mouse. It was like the most beautiful thing ever and what's beautiful again about the experience everybody there at disneyland i mean it is racially diverse economically diverse politically diverse you got fucking maga there you got antif

everybody's there yeah all the all the park goers oh yes the star of the show is not democrats republicans blacks whites rich it's it is we are here to see lightning mcqueen and mickey and all Oh, dude, the star of the show is not Democrats, Republicans, Blacks, Whites, rich, it is, we are here to see Lightning McQueen and Mickey and all the characters. Never thought about that. Oh yeah, we're here for a common vision, which is joy. Like we're here for unbridled joy and fantasy. Yeah. Okay.

And we want my kid to be able to experience that. Yeah. And it's a very beautiful thing. Yeah. And I know there's a lot of criticism of Disney and corporate. Yes, full agreement. I'm talking about just the idea of unbridled joy and fantasy.

Yeah. Of that. Very beautiful. But there was this moment where you go to California Adventure and there's this thing in Cars Land where you actually do the, like, Lightning McQueen racetrack.

Yeah. You gotta wait in line. It's like two hours. It's a lot. And everybody there is humbled by, it's really beautiful. I was just like, I'm fucking tired. My back hurts.

I'm in cargo pants. But then this guy's in cargo pants too. And we're just in cargo pants with our fucking hats and our sunglasses and like the sunblock and just like chugging water with a backpack. And we are all humbled by life. Yes. Like right in that moment, just life is straight up humbling us.

But there's this family in front of us. They get to the ride and the ride is really fast. And one of the kids, he's like six. You have to be taller than 42 inches to ride the ride. He doesn't want to get on the ride. And we've been waiting, mind you, like an hour and 40 minutes. And the mom turns around and she's like, Brendan, Brendan, this is your chance. And then she looks at him and she goes,

we're not coming back. Oh no. You know? And in the moment, like the kid like looks at me and the joke, I'm like, you know, like you're not coming back. You are not. Get on the ride. Oh my God, god dude because just do the mental math 150 a ticket there was fucking six of you bro i yeah yeah and they're from cincinnati so i was like not

even direct flight you're not fucking coming back get on get on get. Dude, that is a great joke. But it was like this allegory for life. Yes. No, absolutely. Dude, I had this thing. And it's like one of my dreams and why like when I met you, I was just like, fuck, I met you or I met Mulaney. Or Dimitri Martin. Again, as a kid growing up in Davis, you guys did Conan. And on my Vimeo page, there's like Hasan Minhaj Conan submission V8.mov.

So I kept sending it to- V8. V8. Oh, I love it. And there's heartbreaking ones. Version eight for the viewers alone. But you can check the views and some of them are still sitting at zero.

For real? Yeah, so they weren't open. And then when Conan ends, I was like, oh fuck, I never got to do- You're gonna send it to Conan. Conan, I never had to do Conan. Well, I can't, I can't subvert it because now when, you know how Conan has his pod,

Conan O'Brien needs friends. Oh, right. But all of his friends are people that have done Conan. Oh my God, that's so funny. For the most part. No, you should ask to go on that podcast because he would love that story. Yeah.

He would be so, that would make him so happy. Yeah, yeah. But that story that I lived through and I never get to do Conan. And this was to do stand-up on Conan. Five minutes.

Five minutes on Conan. Yeah. That's, oh, I love that. You got to go on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend and tell that story and then play him.

The dream, the dream. Da-na-na-na-na. Da-na-na-na-na. Boom. And then you walk out. Well, it's funny because, and I still remember the purplish glittery

sort of weird backdrop I would see the videos on Myspace I'd go Kumail Nanjiani was on Conan that must be so fucking cool maybe you could weigh in on this because I've been telling from my girlfriend's boyfriend

show I've been recently retelling this story about going on the Scrambler, which is a ride at the carnival. Yeah. And how when I was like in seventh grade, I asked this girl to go on the carnival with me and I thought it was going to be my first kiss. And then I basically end up like going on the Scrambler

and I throw up on the Scrambler and it ends up on this special. And it's a fun story to tell but i've been this is from one of your early albums right from my girlfriend's boyfriend 2011 or something like that and i've been telling that story on stage lately because i've been thinking about it in relation to like who knows eight years old she's in third grade and like you know like like we're starting to tell her about drugs and sex and grown-up stuff. But I tell the scrambler story in the context of flashing back to my own childhood. And I've been just thinking about the idea of calling my show, Please Stop the Ride.

Because that's what I say to the scrambler operator. I go, please stop the ride because I know I'm going to throw up yeah yeah and but I've just been thinking a lot about lately how when you're a kid your life is a lot

like a ride you don't feel like you can make many choices or at least I did really I always felt yeah I always felt like you have to show up to school

you got to leave at 3 o'clock you got to go to the program you got to go to the program. You got to go to camp in the summer, whatever it is. My view on it is so different. Yeah. But then where it's going is that when you grow up, weirdly, my experience is I still feel like I'm on the ride.

I still feel like I can't quite do exactly the thing I want to do. Right. I got to make the flight. I've got to be in Cincinnati. Yeah, yeah. I've got to be in Austin, you know. Yeah. And not that I don't love that.

See, I feel that part of it. It's not that I don't love it and feel gratitude for it, but I'm also sometimes like, oh, my God, can I get off the ride for a moment? You know, like there's this great line. Kate Berlant was on the podcast recently, and she goes, she goes, life, you know, like there's this great line. Kate Burlant was on the podcast recently and she goes, she goes, life. She goes, it's crazy when you realize that life is consecutive. Oh, wow.

That's great. Isn't that great? Yeah. She's so right. Yeah. Life is consecutive. Yeah. So I feel like I'm grappling with that recently.

Oh, yeah. So to me, the thing that I think about the most is like, even when you were on The scrambler as a kid, I just felt this as a kid. Like there's this like unsigned rapper energy of like, you motherfuckers just wait till I get the fuck out of here. Like then it's on. Cause a kid is all possibility. The sun is rising. When you mean when you're on the ride?

I'm talking about- When you're a kid. When you're a kid. Just a kid at all. When you have to go to that camp that you don't want to go to, or they take you to your aunt's place and you don't want to be there. You're like, just wait, just wait till my time is mine. Someday.

Yeah, yeah. Your every debut rapper's first album. Just your get rich or die trying. Your 50 cents debut. Just fucking wait. You are the Marshall Mathers LP. Just fucking wait till I get signed. Just wait till I get out of this fucking house. It's on. The sun is rising. You are all possibility.

The same reason why, like, if I meet Una or you meet my daughter or my son, what could they be? That he could be an improviser. He could be a doctor. He could be an engineer. He could be anything. There's all these possibilities. What's crazy is as you get older, the sun is starting to set. It's true. Doors are closing and there is no going back. You're absolutely right. Brandon, get on the fucking ride.

We're not coming back. Get on the ride. You're not coming back. I'm never doing Conan. It's not happening. But let's scale. Let's do this at scale. I never got to do a Comedy Central half hour.

Yeah. It was a, I was like, oh man, and they write your name and big on the back. There are things that you will want in life that you do not get. And the losses become bigger. A loved one gets cancer. Oh, yeah.

A parent dies. Yeah. The door's closed. You're burying dad in the ground, dirt, throwing dirt on it, tombstone, it's over. And those things become realer, like as you get older. And I'm feeling that more. It is not an intellectual game.

It is a feeling thing of like, dude, my mom had her second knee replaced. Oh man, she needs to take her diabetes medication. I am watching them enter this part of their life where I have to parent them. And this is very weird. And also what I've realized is like- And doors are closing. You're right.

The memories and doors of that are closing. The way I think about it sometimes is so many of my dreams have come true. But when your dreams come true, you realize that they never happened the way you thought they were going to. Yeah, true. And because your dream from 2001 is not what it looks like in 2023. Right. Because the whole world changes. it looks like in 2023 right because the whole world changes the thing that you thought that you could do totally is a 180 from what it was is that what your letterman set was where you're like

i'll do letterman it'll change everything and then it doesn't and you're like you wake up the next day and you go oh yeah i'm still broke yeah. Yeah. So like that is what adulthood has felt like to me. Yeah. I felt like these doors kind of closing. Yeah. Or I can now sense doors closing. Yeah. Even in my body.

Sometimes I'll sit on the couch, like I'm going back to Sacramento next week. And sometimes I'll sit on the couch. My dad is 72. And then my son is like two and I'm 37. So I'm like the half, I'm the Rihanna halftime show. And they're both on like two ends of the couch,

like on the iPad doing the same thing, being like, like they're both angry at the iPad. And I'm just in the middle. I love this. But I'm hurtling towards this. I'm hurtling towards. Towards your father.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And so like, I'm just like kind of like sitting there in between them. I love that visually, by the way. I'm hurtling towards your father. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so like, I'm just like kind of like sitting there in between them. I love that visually, by the way. I'm just like, okay, it's going this way. Yeah. And you know, my dad, my, his body type and my body top is very similar. So when I look at that, I'm like, this is where it's going, buddy. Right. Like it's good. This

is the way it's going to end. Yeah. What are you doing in between? Yeah, I know. And that's where I feel so bad where I'm like, fuck, we didn't play basketball this week. That's going to do it. It's getting too heavy. I love it, though. I love it. Really?

Are you kidding me? This is my favorite part. This is not very funny. No, I love this. I hope this is what your next hour is about. Yeah, stuff like this yes so okay the final thing we do is working out for a cause is there a non-profit that you like to support and we will plug them on here and donate to them and link them in the show notes? One nonprofit that I love,

I'm going to plug the nonprofit that my wife works for, Vituity Cares Foundation, which is great. I will donate to them. I'll link to them in the show notes and encourage folks to contribute as well. Hassan, congratulations on everything. You're just crushing in so many ways, and crushing as a dad.

So you're saying I'm not in trouble? You're not in trouble. Not in trouble. The kids are lucky to have you. Thank you, man. You are the Steph Curry of comedy. Oh, dude, that's not even true, but I appreciate it. Same height.

Same height. Come on. There we go. Working it out, because it's not done. Working it out, because there's no hope. That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. I love talking with Hassan. You can watch his special, The King's Gesture, on Netflix.

You can watch his interview with Barack Obama on YouTube, which is where you can also watch this interview right now. You can follow Hassan on Instagram, at Hassan Minhaj, H-A-S-S-A-N-M-I-N-H-A-J. And check out Burbiglia.com, sign up for the mailing list. Our producers are myself along with Peter Salamone and Joseph Burbiglia. Associate producer Mabel Lewis, consulting producer Seth Barish, assistant producer Gary Simons, sound mix by Ben Cruz, supervising engineer Kate Balinski.

Special thanks to Marissa Hurwitz and Josh Upfall as well as David Raphael and Nina Quick. My consigliere is Mike Berkowitz. Special thanks to Jack Antonoff and Bleachers for their music. Special thanks to my wife, the poet J. Hope Stein. You can follow her on Instagram at at jhopestein.

Special thanks as always to my daughter Una who built the original radio fort made of pillows. And thanks to most of all to you, the listeners. If you're enjoying the show, rate us and review us. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Maybe you're waiting in line at Disneyland and everyone is at their wits' end.

And you just say, hey, you know what would really lighten the mood around here? A deep dive on how to deconstruct comedy. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time.