Podcrushed - Roy Wood Jr.

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Our conversation with Roy Wood Jr, front runner to take over the Daily Show and host of this year’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner, runs the gamut —from why he started a fight at a Stop the Violence rally when he was a middle schooler to why he isn’t afraid to get political in his standup.  Follow Podcrushed on socials: TikTokTwitterFacebookSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lemonada I think we can start Bowner without him because he wasn't... I think we can start Bowner. Bowner. Without her. We are in New York right now filming some Pudkerhers episodes

and I took a break to see the Harry Potter play. If I took a break, I mean in the evening, obviously. She just left us in the middle of the work day. You guys do this interview. Just like the Chris Olson. Yeah, she was like, I wasn't going to go. Chris, I'm going to skip this one too. You guys don't name me.

Loved it, so impressed. And I started thinking, which house would each of us be in? Penn, do you know what the houses are? I think I can name them. I think it's, okay, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff. There you go. Ravenclaw, and I can't remember. Oh, Slytherin.

Amazing. Can you know what the traits are associated with each house? Slytherin is hot and sexy. Ravenclaw is nerdy and sexy. Gryffindor is like just regular sexy Which is the most boring kind of sexy But like when you know By the way

I'm making this fully tongue in cheek But then remembering that this is YAA franchise I know I was like Nobody of the YAA franchises She was the most restrained She did not sexualize them Right no that's so true But Penn is

And I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go ahead and sexualize our youth Ravenclaw really smart Hufflepuff really sweet Gryffindore really brave No Gryffindor really brave and...

Navas reached out and touched my arm like, you sweet, misguided child. Kartik, am I wrong? No, I'm right, okay. And... Kartik, by the way. Who went to the play with me? Also has a giant Harry Potter tattoo.

Yeah, yeah, he knows. He knows about Harry Potter. And then Slytherin are cunning. Cunning. Cunning. I mean, they're also evil. Evil, yeah. They're not meant to be evil, though. No, they're not.

Snape. Yeah, yeah. And in the play, it's the only non-evil one. It is a very big plot point in the play that Slytherin does not equal evil. So, which house, Which house do you guys think you'd be in? How would you get sorted?

I don't want to put myself in my own house, but go ahead, so. I think people would look at me and they'd say, oh, Hufflepuff, you're sweet. No, I'm not. I want people to know, once and for all. I would probably be. Are you calling yourself Gryffindorf? Are you just, you're like, no, I'm not sweet. I'm a star.

I actually, I don't fit into any of the boxes. I probably out of the four would be in Hufflepuff, but I resent that. Okay. I don't think I'm actually Hufflepuff. What are you actually? What's your like standout attribute if it's not sweet? I think I think I'm like playful and a little goofy. I think those are out of those.

How is that not sweet? I think that people have a conception of me as like, you know, submissive, sweet. And I just don't, that doesn't quite resonate for me. I think you can be sweet without being submissive. Yes. You can also be submissive without being sweet. True. I'm with you.

By the way, I don't perceive you that way. Okay. Of course, we do business together. Yeah. Like, Sylvia's not sweet. Not once, as it crossed my mind. Cool. I like to think that I'm Ravenclaw, but I've taken...

Oh, really? I never guess that. It's shocking. But I've taken the test. There's like online. And it's scientific. No, but I've taken it multiple times. I'm always like, I'm going to get Ravenclaw this time.

And I always get her friends. I always get the good one every time. I just want the niche smart one, but I'm a hero. I'm popular! It's brave. That's the quality, brave. I don't know what I would be. I honestly, okay, so I guess I'm not, what's the sweet one?

Hufflepuff. Guys, in truth though, I'm actually quite sweet. You might be a Hufflepuff. You know what's really sweet? My man bun right now. I just want to call to attention for those who aren't watching. You're missing. out on my

long hair that I've put up because it gets so like just got to put it up and then everybody has an opinion about it so I'm going to take it down I'm going to take it down when Roy gets here which by the way is me skirting which

house I am and going right to our guest but you said people would think Hufflepuff No I don't think people would ever think Hufflepuff but I think internally maybe but what are they other than sweet I don't know Tartick, what are they other than sweet? That's the thing they're like the least.

This is much worse than astrology. You've got four choices. That's pretty much it. And we don't have more than one adjective. He said that's pretty much it. But by the way, I just want to say that if that's all we've got to go on, Slytherin, a house that years after the current play is full of murderers, right? I'm sorry, it is full of murderers.

And one mole, one plant, which is Snape, sorry, spoiler alert. That we're not going to go ahead. They're cunning, but Hufflepuff, surely, wasn't Mr. what's his, the, Neville, I was going to... Neville Longbottom is Gryff. Oh, he's Gryndor. Who isn't Hufflepuff? Nobody in the main character. Did anybody make a sacrifice?

Cedric. Oh, Cedric Diggery. That's one of the best characters in your party. Isn't that Ron Pattinson? Peterson. That's an Easter egg. So, yeah, I'm just thinking, like, I'm just thinking that I don't like this categorization. So let's leave it to the listeners I would say Ravenclaw

If I had to Yeah, yeah I would say Ravenclaw Well, we've established I'm not as smarties over here Well, we've established I'm not as smart as I think I am But why wouldn't I be Gryffindor? Oh no, you've taken it repeatedly and you are Gryffindor No, you could be Gryffindor

No, you could be Gryffindor But do you think brave is your standout quality Over intellect? What do you think? Maybe internally, no I don't know, I don't think it is I wish it was I think brave is one that manifests outwardly

Yeah Do you think? Yeah, no, I don't think you're you two are in Ravenclaw together No, but she's in Gryffindor, that's Oh yeah, that's right We're all upfitted against each other We've all become Slithering

And David is Slytherin Is he really? He's not though No, I'm just trying to complete Actually, David is quite sweet David's probably a Hufflepuff Yeah, David's probably the real Hufflepuff That's how we met

Of the team in Hufflepuffe You might be a Slytherin Honestly, I think that's what my family would say Cute Okay, I'm going to let my hair down I don't know, but just give me a pause for the, for people who are just listening. Watch this. Watch this. I'm going to do a hair flip.

Oh. Here we go. See, we're trying to get numbers here, aren't we? It probably looks quite bad, actually. That's very frizzy in the front. Let's switch to our guests now. So today we have, how does one make every guest seem very special? This guest really is.

No, no, no, no, no, really? No, but I mean, I actually, I was going to say, no, but he really is. Because we did have, man, an number. incredible conversation. Roy Wood Jr., a writer. I mean, he's an actor, but let's call it right now. I mean, what he's known for, what he's hot for. He hosted the White House Correspondents Center. We should be inspired by the events in France. They rioted when the retirement age went up two years to 64. They rioted it because they didn't want to work till 64. Meanwhile, in America, we have an 80-year-old man begging us for four more years.

of work. Begging. I, I, I, well, I don't want to ruin it because we start right there. So, what else do you know Roy Wood Jr. from? from the Daily Show, from his stand-up specials. If you don't know them yet, you will now. I think you'll love this.

Welcome to Podcrushed. We're hosts. I'm Penn. I'm Sophie, and I'm Nava, and I think we would have been your middle school besties. Getting a middle school rebellion and outsting the administration. Does anyone else ever get that nagging feeling that their dog might be bored? And do you also feel like super guilty about it? Well, one way that I combat that feeling is I'm making meal time everything it can be

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follow us now so you don't miss an episode first of all as of right now if we booked you a day later we wouldn't have gotten you so you're certainly ascending I mean you recently

host is it hosted what do you call hosting the some people say headliner some people say host but I'm technically not the host headlined I like that headlining the hardest room in the world

probably the White House Correspondents dinner Yeah, I'm trying to think of like, no Is there a harder room? I don't think so. I don't think so, especially in 2023, like the hardest room

with the hardest time. The only way that gig could be harder is if it was an outdoor day show. Comedy outdoors is a recipe for death. Comedy during the day. Interesting.

That makes sense. It just pushes against every... Comedy requires attention and focus, and it's better in darkness. That makes sense. And, like, that... That's the only way you commit the correspondence done it more tough.

Right. That room is where comedy meets journalism and really becomes something like modern philosophy. You know, I don't know if that sounds way too high-minded to you because some comedians tend to reject that, but I think that is what happens at least in that space. In a best case scenario, yeah But as a comedian

You can't make that the goal You also can't proclaim that As your objective as a performer Because that's such a moving target That if you hit it cool If not, it's not that big of a deal Because hey, it was just jokes Of course

Yeah, then it's a win-win That's true Yeah, so if you Like double bonus Okay, you made them laugh But then you also left them with something To consider then okay then that's a better that's the best case scenario yeah but that wasn't the the goal the goal was

all right the people who do know me only know me from daily show everybody else i must assume you have never seen me professionally as a comedian so i have to establish that first first i need you to just believe that i'm funny before there's anything else to be said so let's do a couple jokes there. Then, before I started attacking people in the room, because you don't trust me, let's attack people that we all agree, or issues that we all agree, could be attacked.

So you go George Santos and Tucker Carlson in school shootings, then you get into the granular people that everybody's touchy about, and then you end with the president and the vice president. And so that was the idea. And then I just

wanted to talk about journalism, so I just said, I'll mention my dad. So at least know that I kind of know what I'm talking about but I didn't think people was going to do your father's story and it resonated and your dad was embedded in all the wars and he was covering everything which is one of the

highest forms of respect in journalism is to be an embedded war reporter which my father was but I didn't know that they were going to leave with that and it's just no I just need you to laugh long enough so I can say that the media needs to get that shit together Roy was there a joke that you were the most

nervous to tell the stuff about the vice president I wasn't sure how that was going to go because I have to attack her to start which is what I like about comedy is going to the edge taking the audience to the edge whoa he's going to go over the line

oh he brought it's bad I think you did that really well I was like oh it's juggling dynamite but it's exciting so I have to say I feel like in those really difficult moments I see like these flashes of like a really boyish pure smile

where you have brought the audience to the edge and you're kind of now you're like all right now I'm going to bring you back and I also feel like maybe if I'm seeing anything you're getting just a really I don't know private personal

moment of joy is this yeah there was there was a moment near the end where I like just in the middle like them laughing at a joke I just looked over at my mom but just where she was just like

that that's so cute Just hot-dogging at that point. But that's also, in a way, though, boyish smile works against me in that scenario because the expectation is mean and roast. Yeah. You know, the best roasters, if you go back and really look at them, they didn't smile. That's true, actually. That's very true.

Maybe at the end, like Rodney Dangerfield might give you a quick smirk. I don't think Don Rickles ever smiled. in anything that I can Jeff Ross more modern day but that works against me yeah I feel you okay so I have to like

work against oh you want to like me yeah but I still gotta say the president takes naps that was so good you are often quite stone-faced I mean again I have to say like that room has it's never been harder like this year of all years

like I really was thinking I mean I was nervous watching you but it was those moments and look I'm I'm seeing something and magnifying it for our selfish purpose which is like is that does that track at all to when you were a kid were you were you mischievous

like just paint a bit of a picture for us when you were just about 12 years old growing and at that point were you in Alabama by the way yeah we were in Birmingham we moved to Birmingham when I was in the third grade from Memphis so I was born in you New York, but I mean, within a year, we were in Mississippi and Memphis or whatever.

I was, I don't think I was that bad of a child. Like, I'm trying to think, like, when I was 12, 10 or 11, maybe 12, I remember one year my mom wouldn't let me go outside and light fireworks for Fourth of July. Just, you can't. Just on some, just because I said so type shit. So that night when I'm washing dishes, I decided I was going to light a bottle rocket in house and drop it in the dishwater. Whoa.

Oh, no. I'll show her. But what I didn't know is that the filament on a bottle rocket is waterproof and dishes fire and bottle rockets up into the rain. Like a lot of fireworks, most aerial fireworks, the stem or whatever. It's water resistant, whatever, I don't know, whatever it is, water ain't putting that shit out. Yeah. And I dropped a bottle rocket into the dishwasher thinking it would go out and then ignite it and it fired across the house. Oh my gosh.

Wow. And my parents literally did say a word. Was that scarier? Yeah. My mom just quietly went upstairs and took both of my Nintendo controllers. It's so much self-control. And just went back and sat back on the couch. Never looked at me, never said anything.

Wow. Like, that's the type of mischief I was into. Like, I wasn't. Like, I got into trouble. Yeah, I got into trouble in college. But, like, I tried to shoplift in elementary school, like, with the, cool kid to whatever, walking home from school. And I remember, like, I was in the mall, and there was this space shuttle.

There was this fucking space shuttle in KB Toys. And it was at that age, like, about 11, about middle school, where you can split up from your parents in the mall. Like, you know, this is before they kidnap kids, you know. Kidnap it didn't start to, like, 0.4, 05. It's never happened before. And I went in KB Toys and I tried to steal a space shuttle, and the lady... That's a big thing to steal. It's like...

Like a sixth grader, and you're trying to steal, like, a pretty size... Like the packaging about the size of an iPad, it's not... You're not just slipping this into the small of your back. Yeah. And as I'm walking out the store, the lady just goes, put it back. Where did you put it? I want to know that where did you have it on your body? In my under, in my underarm, and then I had my left arm down.

So I'm walking with one arm straight, like it got wounded in war. Like it just, like, oh, this arm never moves. And she goes, put it back. And I put it back, and then sure shit, I go back and meet my mom at the department store like an hour later like I'm supposed to. And then she goes, oh, come with me, I need to go to the toy store. I got to get a birthday gift. Oh, my mom. Oh, no.

And I have to go back in the store that I just tried to steal something from with my mom. And the lady just stared. at me the whole time but she never snitched she never snitched like on some community take a village yeah yeah well the staring was probably enough of a lesson yeah it was like the threat was enough

she should have snitched I stole blue jeans in college and got caught she might have stopped you on your trajectory but no like that I wasn't a bad kid I was very imaginative you know I have a lot of half siblings and stuff but I grew up an only child, I used to do, I drew a comic book, like a proper comic strip, I should say.

I would draw like panel comic strips and take them to school and pass them around to my classmates to see if they thought it was funny. I read, I was Mad Magazine and baseball cards. Like that's maybe a Nintendo power if I had a little extra money from doing yard work and stuff. But for the most part, I didn't get into a lot of trouble. You know, and I grew up in a pretty, pretty, I'd say rough neighborhood, but I grew up, I grew up on the better, you know, I like a rough neighborhood still. Like, all neighborhoods have a good side.

Yeah, yeah. So it's a bad zip code, bad neighborhood, but this little pocket here, it's okay. You know, because a lot of the stuff happens over on that street and a lot of the other stuff happens across the tracks. So, you know, I had a basketball goal. um that my mother got me in middle school and so because of that i didn't have to walk to i didn't have to walk down to powderly park anymore to play ball and that's where a lot of shit went down so i didn't really get into a lot of trouble because everything i needed was in the yard and if i was venturing off of our house it was to work or go to library class for computer class at the library so i'm either raking leaves or i have a destination but i just didn't hang in a lot of places where you could get in the shit. So what was the vibe like at home? Because from what I could tell, from what we could tell, you know,

not only do you have the history that your dad, that you mentioned about your father, but your mother was an administrator in college. Is that right? Yeah. In those days, she was still working in high school and middle school. Okay. So, you know, I was latchkey, like my parents for the most part.

The only time we were even home, I would say the three of us at the same time is Sundays. Wow. Because everybody had shit to do My dad was a morning newsman So he was out the door at 5 o'clock So by the time I woke up for school Yeah, he's gone He's already gone

And so then he would come home in the afternoon And like he picked me up from baseball practice And all of that I might see my mom for five minutes And then she's back out the door to night school To grad school to Ph.D and law school And then my dad By the time my mom gets back home at like

830 or 9 My dad is out the door because he's doing overnights and doing a jazz show on top of the new show. That's amazing. So it's like so much, it's also like so much, it feels like there's just so much knowledge and, like, culture, power, whatever you want to call those things. I mean, like, it sounds like on one hand, the potential for so much simulation. But then, another hand, you're, like, alone a lot.

Yeah. You know? Yeah, I was alone a lot. And you just live in your head. Right. No siblings? A lot of halves, but I grew up alone. I was in that house alone.

I might see my house Like my father There's like a bunch of kids all over town But They have their parent They have their mom You have your mom I'll see you when I see you around town

At some thing And my dad would drag us to a barbecue together Some shit But for the most part we didn't And also there was an age disparity as well Like you know Keep in mind I'm 11, 12 years old These are like 25 year old men

And then like a 6 year old I can't kick it With either end of that spectrum So, you know, I just stayed at the house. I'd go outside and play baseball, pretend to be Dave Stewart and try and throw a ball against a wall because I was going to be a pitcher. I was going to be Dave Stewart. I was going to be Ken Griffey. Like, that was going to be my thing.

It sounds like you enjoyed time to yourself, too. Is that true today? You kind of have to. But that's all I ever knew. Yeah. And then keep in mind in Memphis, when we were living there, my dad was bouncing around from city to see. Because essentially what it was before we got to Birmingham, you know, my father being a journalist, you move from market to market. I'm not going to uproot my whole family until I know for sure that this is a stable thing.

So let me stay here a year and I'll drive back to Memphis every weekend and say hey or whatever. But Monday through Friday, it's me and my mom. Right. So I'm going to school, like K through three, I'm going, I'm into after school care. And then my mom brings me home at five when she got off of work. Here's food. I'm headed to grad school be in the bed at 8

the homework better be on the table I'm gonna pick you up I do my homework I watch Nickelone and I go to fuck the bed so that was that was just life like back then

like there just was no babies you knew not to go outside like there was enough of a threat like you know they'd take you away from your parents now if they found out you did that with a first grader

but I knew how to I was a habit what it does also though in a weird way when you have educators in your houses that I think it matures you. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that makes a rate. So. I was going to say there's a lot of, like, trust. She's, like, just placing so much trust in your, in your, like, self-discipline almost, which is, which is, I mean, look, everything has a tax, but there's something very empowering about that, I would say, you know. Yeah.

And I know there's a tax. Yeah. There's definitely a tax. Yeah. We heard that your parents divorced and then got back together. Yeah. Did you parent trap them? How did that happen?

Well, it wasn't a divorce. It was a separation. It was like a long separation. It was like a couple of years. No, I didn't parent trap them. I was just like, oh, you're back? Oh, y'all back together. Oh, we're going to Birmingham?

All right, cool. Oh, really? That's what it was like. Because I would assume that for a lot of kids, that's like the goal. That's the dream if their parents reconcile like that. But was it kind of just run in the mill? Like, okay, this is what's happening? You have to remember, though, when my parents,

when I was born, they were together, and they were together when my mom moved to Memphis and my dad was coming into town. So when they decided to break things off for a while, he never stopped coming to town. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So I never had a sense of a different dynamic. It's not like a divorce in the middle school

and then get back together in high school. This is just, oh, that's the dude that comes every Friday, Saturday, and brings me a truck from a toy truck from a truck stop. Hello, sir. Do you have my toys and snacks? So then it just became, if anything, it was more of a promotion. Because, like, oh, we're going to go live with toy and truck dude.

I remember him from every weekend in Memphis. So the not together, together dynamic, I think, was something more for them. But for me, it just started off as one thing. And then it escalated into what we would consider a traditional home. So, like, that's kind of, you know, I don't know. It's like a backwards process for. most people maybe start with something traditional and then it breaks apart but it sounds like you kind of started with something a little bit more compartmentalized yeah and then and then yeah my mom didn't even tell me we were moving to birmingham like I would get sent to Birmingham like those two years before we went to Birmingham Memphis city schools ended like a month before Birmingham but my mom was like ready to be done with me and you need to go be with your day so she would send me to Birmingham on the plane, and I would sit in Birmingham at my dad's house for like a month

until I went back to Mississippi with my cousins and my dad, because he's old school, civil rights, he kind of guy. He doesn't believe in kids just sitting around all day. So he would fucking wake me up at 5 o'clock in the morning to go with them to the radio station, and I would sit in a production room and just for two hours, watch him read the news, And he would rip, like, the wire, like, today, in today's world, kids, you would just go to a website and copy and paste. But in those days, the AP wire, it was literally a printer that was connected to a satellite, and it just printed news. And you would just go to it and read stuff.

And, like, when they say ripped from the wire or ripped from the head, that was because you literally ripped a sheet of paper off of a printer. and then you take it into a room and you read that to the world so I'll watch my pops do that to like 7 o'clock in the morning then at 7 in the morning Francine Palmer were walking to the office and take me to Kingston Elementary School and I got dropped off

and because my pops was the man around town he knew people he was connected he just dropped me off at a fucking school any school I know a teacher over there what grade are you in third all right we'll go sit in in a fourth grade class Wow. Wow. I mean, this is really like, this is a, I actually have quite an unconventional upbringing and didn't have a lot of schooling.

And this is really, this takes the take place. My pop's considered it a sneak preview of whatever you're going to be learning next year. Right. But it was free babysitting. Because you had finished the school year in Memphis already. Done with third grade. So go watch the last month of fourth grade live. Right.

Wow. In exchange for, you know, I'm an adult now. It was child care. Yeah. He dropped me off, of course. But it was educational, and you know I'm in a safe place. You know, I'm going to be fed. It's fine.

I mean, it was an ideal as a child. But you're in a room full of strangers, which is, you know, which is behaviorally the norm for me. It's just there was always constant moving around with schools. Stick around. We'll be right back. All right. So let's just real talk, as they say, for a second. That's a little bit of an aged thing to say now.

That dates me, doesn't it? But no, real talk. How important is your health to you? You know, on like a one to ten? And I don't mean in the sense of vanity. I mean in the sense of like you want your day to go well, right? You want to be less stressed. You don't want it as sick.

When you have responsibilities, I know myself. I'm a householder. I have two children and two more on the way. A spouse, a pet. You know, a job that sometimes has a demand. So I really want to feel like when I'm not getting the sleep and I'm not getting nutrition when my eating's down, I want to know that I'm being held down some other way physically.

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Roy, you described sitting in, in the morning, early morning, five to seven, listening to your dad, read off the news. I'm wondering if that inspired you in any way, or was it just boring? Were you like, I'm, I'm done with this? It's boring at the time. You don't, that's a seed that doesn't sprout to you in your 30s. Yeah. You know, I don't know if he was planting that on purpose, but, you know, when I got my learner's permit when I was 15, my dad died when I was 16 from cancer. But when he got, as the cancer progressed and I got older, I became his driver to a lot of his speaking engagements. And so take everything I said that wasn't funny at the correspondence dinner and now stretch that for 60 minutes. And that's what my father would do.

Just real and raw about what's going on in the world and like nothing motivational about it. Like you can be inspired, but I'm going to tell you that the world is terrible and here's all the different ways it's terrible. And the ways you have to consider it that it could be terrible for your kids. And here's how you need to prepare. Thank you, Roy Wood. Where's my money? So I drove him around to a lot of those speaking engagements. So I got to watch him perform.

and then you get older and then once my comedy turned into something more opinionated it was like ah shit I'm just like him yeah that's what I've been wondering this is like as we all we all try to resist

aspects of our parents and then part of us becomes them what's your relationship to that now like do you see yourself then being well I guess you said you know the seed is being planted sort of whether you want it to or not yeah I just think you're a certain I think I think a lot of who we are as adults is products of circumstance or intention from my childhood.

So I don't believe my father was intentionally trying to make me be him. He never, I don't think my dad ever asked me what I wanted to be. I don't even think it's a conversation we ever breached. It was just be respectful and do your work and just, you know, you'll figure it out type shit, I guess, you know, I don't know. But I don't think it was ever intentional in that. that regard. And then as a result, now with my son, I don't try to ever put anything on him. You know, like, I don't even really let him watch me on TV that much. Like, he knows. Like, during the

pandemic, there was no hiding it because just cameras were everywhere in the house. But I'm not going to try to influence or steer or make you ever feel pressured that you must do what I do. And this is the family business and you know it's do whatever you want whatever you feel like doing my mom was the one that would whatever you're curious in i'm going to encourage you to be the best version of it that's great but yeah the day i lost interest was the day she would stop talking about it she never forced me to stick with it when i wanted when i had my baseball dream she made sure i had all the best equipment you know um when i wanted to be an astronaut she tried to get me to Space Camp in Huntsville.

I was a fire inspector. She had a friend who was a firefighter come sit me down. I wanted to be a firefighter. She had a friend who was a firefighter. Come sit me down and go, here's why you should be a fire inspector. Do firefighting, but work your way up to. How old were you then? I don't know, fourth grade.

Okay, I was going to say that's like that real boyish childhood. Yeah. Yeah, firefighter. Have you thought about chemicals and particles and accelerators? and a lot of the different molecular things. No, I just like the truck. I recently, sometimes I substitute teach, and I recently subbed in a kindergarten class.

And the entire day was about firefighters. It was like in the morning, they read a book about firefighters. And then they made a firefighter hat. And then in the afternoon, the firefighters came to visit the class. I was like, this is a good gig to be a kindergarten teacher. But there was one student who, you know, we'd spent the afternoon with the firefighters, and we were getting ready to leave.

We're all saying goodbye. and he just, like, left the group of kindergartners and ran to the firefighter and hugged his leg. I was like, take me with you. The firefighter was like, you have to stay in school. He's like, I hate school. Good. It was so cute.

I don't, well, as educators, let me ask you all this then. How do you feel a, what am I trying to say? I don't like the fact that they only push certain jobs at school for career day. Yeah. I don't feel like. the true array of occupations and what we've evolved into as a society is still properly portrayed. Yeah. And I know that school is ultimately about creating people that are smart enough to do the thing they love.

And hopefully you make money from it so you can be a provider for yourself and whoever you're with. So you have to think about jobs. You have to think about occupations. But I also wonder sometimes how much does school still think about it beyond the traditional occupations. We know what the big ten are. It's

it's it's hero it's all the hero jobs and I'm counting nurses in the military and that and then it's educator, doctor, lawyer. It's suit, it's hero job and suit jobs.

Right. But like I never got like if I had known that video game tester was a thing like why didn't you You motherfuckers knew And you just didn't invite them

So like whenever I hear like Career Day and stuff I get like so mad Yeah Tell them about the other Tell them about the good shit Yeah Honestly

I think schools are not I believe in schooling But I think schools are not Fit for purpose Like I think they're based on some You know Everyone in the same classroom Early Early model

And there should be like differentiated design and we should be teaching to like habits of mind so that whatever you go into like how do you learn I think that schools should teach you how to learn like in any setting like you know continuous learning and like the habits of mind and the discipline that you need to get through life and I don't think schools teach that to I don't think most schools are doing that so I think schools need like a total we just like need a revolution in our school systems most kids seem to become exhausted by learning you know like this the notion of like learning very early on becomes uncool and undesirable, you know, and I think the one thing I got by not going

to a lot of school traditionally is that I never lost the love of learning. And I would think for you, it might be split because, like, while you had a quite unconventional path and were in all these different spaces, your parents were educators. And I mean, yeah, I'm just curious, like, especially in middle school when you're starting to, your mind is really developing in a different way. What was your relationship

to school and to teachers and stuff then? I wasn't really cool. I wasn't anti-learning. My issue was I was never in the same school district for more than two years until high school.

Because I was in a gifted program. So in Birmingham City Schools, there's always only one school. that offers the gifted whatever curriculum. So whoever the gifted kids were in the city limits, you all had to go to that school. And then every year or two, they would change the program and just move.

So you just have to take another bus. Wow. And so sixth grade, I ended up, I was on the bus at 6.34, 8 o'clock school day. So I'm spending three hours every day on the bus You cannot thrive like that So that's when I started making

My first Cs and Ds and stuff like that Because I'm just showing up to class tired It's a new space I found learning to be Structurally repetitive And once it got to that place I just didn't respect it And I'm not going to say I was too smart to learn this stuff

But it just I was never inspired to But then that's also you know, an 80s, 90s, public school teacher model where the, you know, we're talking class ratio is 30 to 1. So it's not enough, the teacher can't give you enough individualized whatever the hell you need. But I enjoy knowledge, you know, like I hated learning, but I like knowledge, if that made sense. Yeah, yeah. I watched all the nature shows. I remember, like, One show I used to watch other than Nickelonian when I was latchkey was Wild America with Marty Stouffer.

And Marty Stouffer was like the OG David Attenborough on the narration nature side of shit. So, you know, you watch PBS, you leave it on long enough. It gets into animals and shit. Like, it gets away from Sesame Street. So I love reading about animals. I had encyclopedias. I had a computer, my mother bust her ass to get me an Apple 2E. Was that one of those colorful ones?

Yeah, yeah. This is by middle school. Now, elementary school, I was going to the library and taking computer classes, and I would play Oregon Trail and all of this stuff. And then she ordered these encyclopedias. And so when she would take the Nintendo, I also lost phone privileges. I lost TV privileges. So the only thing I could do when I was home was read.

So I would just read the fucking encyclopedia. I would just find an animal that I like. And just, I'm going to read about wolves today. Wow. And then at the end of wolves, you know, they have, if you like wolves, jackals, fox. That is so cool, honestly. So then I'd go get the F and cycle. Fuck it, I'll read about a fox.

Wow. If you like fox, would you like to read about weasels? Yeah. I would. It's like the original. algorithm. Original crabby. That was

the related videos. So it got to a point where I would just read encyclopedias by the letter just front to back. What?

That? Wow. Yeah. I'm impressed. In those days, I mean, it started from me just, you know,

cutting up in school or making an F or being an asshole in the house. But then I would just sit and just read. I just let me learn everything about everything.

What is the difference between a flap and an aileron and why does the plane go up and down okay let me read about that let's read about some aerodynamics so incredible that's kind of what but now if you put me in a classroom and you go okay i need you to tell me why napoleon invaded this country i don't know man i don't even know why i need to know that yeah i don't i don't know i just if i didn't respect the curriculum, I wouldn't connect with it. And once I didn't connect with it, I was guaranteed to have a C. And then on top of that, you add on top of that, my father passing, like those last

two years, I'm working more to help cover bills in the house. Right. If I could die, IRS is coming for the house. So I have to work 30 hours this week. At 16. Yeah. So I'm sorry, Ms. Shaw. I'm not prepped for the fucking U.S.

history exam, well, you're going to go to summer school. Probably best that we spread this out anyway. I got shit to do. You're like already negotiating. I feel like I wish you could have. Yeah. Did you ever want to leave the gifted and talented program so that you could

kind of be in a situation that was more stable? I left my junior year at high school. I was like, just give me a diploma, bro. I don't even care about like an AP. course and you need a credit for college i just want to graduate just let me leave here yeah yeah and i knew like i wasn't going to get a bunch of scholarships anyway because at that point i had enough c's that my GPA was fucked so i thankfully because my mom's educator for years she had me on the prep

courses and all of the ac t kaplan books where you learn all of the yeah that's right here's how to take us Standard die. Here's how to think analytically. So I murdered my ACT. Oh, good. So that's what saved my ass. But, you know, I just, I'm not, I'm not anti-learning, but it's just how do you make this exciting? And then trying to negotiate that with my son, who's old enough to be able to say school is boring.

Right. The only thing I like about school is lunch and P.E. And I like geography. But they're not even teaching geography yet because he's in the first grade. So he's learning all of that on his own. My son could name more capitals. My son can name more countries than anybody in this room. Wow.

That's for sure. I believe that. Blind. I don't want to give him a blind map. Wow. You're kidding. That's amazing, man. Which means when it's time to take geography, he's fucked.

Yeah, because he's going to be bored. He's going to be bored because he already knows it. Yeah. What I'm supposed to do, tell him don't learn stuff you're excited. That's him, Wolf, to fight. ox to weasel. Yeah, yeah. So I can't.

No, I think you have to encourage that, that individual desire for learning. And I think more and more, not all schools, definitely not all schools, but some schools are, are coming around and figuring that out. They're trying. They're trying. Yeah, I think so. That there needs to be differentiation for different kids. There's no, there is, like most schools, most teachers are, because like you said, it's 30 to one. I think it still is.

Like when I was teaching a few years ago, it was like, you. in New York average like 26 to 30 to 1. It was, yeah. And so most teachers are teaching to the middle, but that's, there's, there's this thing called the myth of the average learner. There is no average learner. So they're teaching to no one. Yeah, no one's really able to access it.

But I think more and more, like that concept is becoming more known and there's more ways to address it and to reach many, many kids at once. but Roy you mentioned earlier that you sometimes have moments where you realize like oh shit I'm my dad and I wonder now that you're a father and you have a son yes what are the ways in which you see yourself in your son and then what are the ways in which he's totally unique it's like I don't know where he got that from I know he's young still so maybe that's still developing he's more adventurous than I was physically. He's more of a risk taker.

I'm very reserved. I'm very calculated for when I decide to take a chance. But like on a base level adrenaline junkie type behavior. Is his mom that way or is it just his own thing?

I do not know. I don't think his mom was like that when she was a child. But I definitely was not the daredevil run, jump, hop off of this thing. I'm going to learn to ride this bike without the training wheels.

Thank you very much. I'll figure it out. Oh, I fail. It's fine. I'm going to get back up again. So in terms of where he gets self-motivation from, I do not know. I do not know. I was not like that growing up.

He definitely is aware of his sense of humor. And I don't know how much that is a, good thing you know we try not to encourage it how come but I'm not going to discourage it because

attention is a drug and I don't know if you're doing this naturally because that's who you are or because you need attention so let me just give you attention even when you're not being funny like I'm not

going to give you an extra pat on the head because you walked in the room and told the joke. And he's constantly ideating original jokes. Wow. What did the dad sushi say to the kid sushi? Let's roll. That's a off the dome. Yeah. That is, I think that might be a brilliant joke for a seven-year-old.

Yeah. Yeah. And so I have to go, yeah, that was a good one. I can't go, wow, you thought it at yourself. Yeah. Because I don't want them to get the idea of that. Also. That's really insightful.

by the way. Yeah. I really like that. You know, give them attention regardless, because that is what we need. That's what we all need.

Yeah, you need acceptance. Unconditionally. Correct. So I'm not going, you're not going to only be loved when you do your stupid pet trick. Right, right. I'm not going to give you

an extra pat on their head for that. So that's something that, you know, that me and his mom are, we're lock and step on with that, you know, but he's definitely, he definitely has a sense of humor.

And I had that. You know, I was drawing comic strips. Humor was the connector. When you're in a different school district, you better make them laugh or you're going to get punched. So you better figure out a way to try to connect with people. And, you know, and I've tried to get them to understand that, you know, being able to make people laugh, it's a superpower. Because if you can make someone laugh, you can make them think or feel anything you want on the other side of that. So, you know, be careful in how you use it when you use it

because it is, you know, a high responsibility. But I just, I never, I was never, but, you know, he's smarter because he also has access to far more information. His tablet is an encyclopedia set. That's true. And everything else. Roy, you mentioned getting punched, and I wanted to ask, You've been in one, two fights?

Two fights. Can you tell us about that? One loss, one tie. Tell us the story. The first fight was easy. That was fourth grade I lost. It wasn't over a girl, but it was over a girl. She liked me, not him.

So I have to fight you now. But you lost? Oh, yeah, I lost. Yeah, I lost. But you kept the girl? The girl still liked you? No, she's somewhere in Alabama married. Oh, I don't mean like, like, now.

Yeah, but after that fight Oh yeah, we went out for like two weeks And then our older sister said, I better not see you with my sister anymore Or I'll beat your ass And I was like, yes ma'am I lost one fight this year That's not for me

Another one What's funny is that years later On a Google search I found out that that sister was like Did like some time in jail For like aggravated assault And I'm like, oh okay You made the right choice

Yeah She really do be beating ass That's a true That woman is true to her fucking cause The other fight, though, is a little more, that's... I don't know if hilarious is the word. It sounds funny, the little bit that we know about it. Was that a stop the violence rally?

I got in a fight at a stop the violence rally. Do you tell, please. Which, okay, if somebody, if you have a pending showdown with the person, like, okay, if you know you have to fight, But you don't want to fight. Oh, the worst. Start the fight at a place where the fight cannot happen. Yeah, no, that's so smart.

Full the part. It's like the way people talk shit in the airport. You're not going to fight me in the airport. It's the airport and you know the cops are coming. Or I'm going to talk shit until the cops come. Right. So, me and this guy, we've been kind of going back and forth all day. How old were you?

This is seventh grade. Yeah, Sinner Street Middle School And We played this game Do you know why? Do you know why the fight happened? No, we don't know. All we know is stop the violence.

It's just a great movie. So there's a game that we play in Birmingham. I don't know if they still play it now, but there's a game we play in Birmingham called BB Bull. Okay. And so BB Bull is a game where you pinky lock in with other people within the school. You don't know.

everyone who's playing. But the idea of BB Bull is that for the entire day, you cannot say a single word that starts with the letter B. What? Wow. So you have to literally be conscious of everything you're saying at all times. If you say a word that starts

with the letter B, if you don't say B.B. Bull, then whoever is playing B.B. Boole can just beat the shit out of it. Just literally start punching you in the face and the chest. You get jumped. Oh, my God.

This is what we did for fun in Alabama. So you get beat up until you say BB Bull. You can be pinched. I can inflict pain on you and you cannot retaliate because you said a B word without saying B.B. Bull. Fine. I play the game. We've played the game all the time.

Bibi Bull is a fun, adolescent, puberty-driven, aggression. We get into this Stop the Violence Rally It's Black History Month And like all of the black Wokety Woke adults are speaking And y'all got to stay off the drugs And you got to stop doing

And killing each other And then we sing We Shall Overcome You know, the old Negro anthem And there's a line in the song Where it goes, We Shall Overcome, We Shall Overcome Deep in my heart

I do believe that we shall overcome something and I get to believe and a motherfucker behind me punches me and I'm like hey man we're singing a civil rights we're singing a Negro spiritual right now

I thought this was like safe space I thought there's certain exemptions to BB Bull To the gentleman behind me, there are no exemptions I don't care what it is If the word starts with a bee And you say it, I'm punching you

And he punched me square in the back of the head Oh my goodness To this day Oh yeah This is like But in the moment Fucking Mario punches me square In the back of my knuckle to skull

Like there's no skin There's no cushion There's no fat In the back of your head. Wow. So I turned around and I punched him

square in his motherfucking chest at a stop the violence rally while we're singing we shall overcome I'm in a full-blown fight

and he goes you didn't say BB bull I don't give a damn about a BB Bull and we're going at each other and two teachers came and snatched us up wow

we got like proper detention for like a week and a half but in the midst of that fight like he punches me in the back of the head I turn around and punch him and like this quick jab slap like it so come to find out years later Mario's daddy was military so I'm like okay

I shouldn't have been punching my daddy a radio DJ he got soft hands your daddy was out there in shit so he slapped me I'll call it a tie Depends on who you asked that day

And it's also one of those fights where If you don't see the initial two blows And all you see is a slap Then in school they just go Mario slept the shit out of Roy And I'm like no no hang on I also had a lick You had to do PR

Come on You're still doing it That's the record Yeah Yeah middle school Middle school is wild I've never been a fighter But it took something like that

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Keep mealtime exciting with NomNum available at your local pet smart store or at Chewy. Learn more at trinom.com slash podcrushed, spelled trinom.m.com slash podcrushed. I think particularly for you, you know, you described a youth that is like so conceptually, intellectually, ideologically rich, which is like so much. It's almost everything but for, but for feelings, you know? and like and so so with this really interesting kind of path you were on through your youth where did uh where did love come into play you know crushes like like like i you know there's crushes which are unique because often they're not requited but then there's also heartbreak you know do you have like a like a crush or a heartbreak store you did describe a fight like over a

girl i guess but that was in middle school that was fourth grade yeah yeah that was fourth grade because he got older what did that look like for you i didn't really date a lot like i didn't like i wasn't suave i wasn't cool and girls in middle school you've got to have the muscles of the statute like you almost have to be a specimen of a man to be a catch you know like looking back on the girl i dated in middle school it's really not that different than now in the sense that we have to interact and be around one another and then eventually oh you like me

like the spark happens like that so I didn't go out a lot I didn't write a lot of love letters when I was in eighth grade I was dating a girl in the sixth grade which almost sounds illegal like in a weird way and then like once I got to high school I was like we have to break up yeah I'm a ninth grader now

you're in the seventh great. It's weird. But 8 to 6 somehow made sense. That was my first kiss, too, in the back of her uncle's van. Was her uncle in there? No. Yeah, he was driving.

But it was one of those the Chevy Econo. I call it the A-Team van. So, I mean, you'd have to... It's not like the Econa line. There were the vans in the 80s and 90s where it was like two captain chairs in the middle.

Like if you imagine like a proper SUV now, where it's two seats in the middle and then there's the back row. Only in those days it was like fur and carpet and it was like a living room. Yes, no, I remember those very well. With the TV and the ceiling and all that. I drove across country one of those when I moved from east to west coast. So we went to a school dance together. Her uncle drove us and I got a kiss from her and I wrote the high of that kiss for like, I don't know, fucking three months

but the problem in middle school though is that at least for me you just didn't really have anywhere to like even try to do shit you're horny but you don't have access like every story I heard of middle schoolers who were sexually

active they were all fucking in just weird places it's just sex in the most inopportunes they had sex in the biology lab and they got caught by the janitor but he didn't say nothing. It's true.

Oh, yeah. That's how you had to coppers feel. Like, even in high school with my high school, sweetheart, we would, like, sneak down to the boiler. Like, if both of our school buses got to school early enough, you'd know you had an extra 10 minutes to play with, let's go downstairs and fucking kiss. Everything so much had to coalesce,

and all of it was out of your control. Yeah, like no teachers were going to teachers' lounge in the morning. We figured that out once we were, because we kept going to the boiler room. and it was high and they were like just close the door of the teacher's lounge

and just lock it yeah okay it's air condition it's grope in here yeah that's also a bold which just goes to show when you're that age

you're just like anything yeah anything you don't know you don't know but you don't I'm gonna steal

this space shuttle she won't notice this right angle protruding from my clothing it's true well Bray I think we're gonna

move into your illustrious career different comedians have different stances on whether or not it's appropriate to comment on political issues. So sort of Seinfeld famously, you know, has a stance like, don't do it, not appropriate. Chappelle is on the other side of the spectrum. How do you feel about it? How do you feel about comedians talking or commenting heavily on social issues, politics? I think every comedian is, I think comedy is a form of journalism, first of all.

But I think every comedian is either I'm going to report on myself or I'm going to report on the world. You know, and it could be as deep or as surface as you want it to be in terms of the emotion and the depth of the story. But, you know, I look at it. And if you think about comedy as journalism, then you have some people who choose to be overseas correspondents. You have finance reporters. You have sports reporters. You have hard news people. It's all the same.

Yeah, you're right. It's all journalism. So I don't think the sports reporter is judging the war correspondent. And I don't think the war correspondent should be judging the journal. Every town has the one journalist that just does the wacky store. This dog loves cupcakes and will only eat cupcakes. Okay. That's what that person, that's the part of the world that that person, that that journalist wanted to point a camera at and they have a right to.

I just think it's one big ecosystem. It's a beehive. And so we all service the greater good, which is to educate the people. But I enjoy talking about the world. I enjoy, clearly, I enjoy juggling dynamite. Yeah. Bottle rockets. That's more fun.

Yeah. That's more fun to me. I have more fun seeing if I can pull off a trans right school shooting joke in under three sentences. It was so good. Some people on the internet disagree with you. I know. I think it was so good. But that's still good. Yeah.

Love it or hate it, having an emotion about it. Yeah. And to me, that's, if you didn't learn anything else from Donald Trump, hate is still engagement. Yeah. That's true. It's true. It's true. It's still relevance.

Yeah. So I'm not even mad at people that didn't like anything that I did or a particular joke rubbed you the wrong way. It's not going to change what I do. But, you know, other comics, you know, they, you know, like guys like Seinfeld, they're amazing at what they choose to do, the lane they choose to stay in. You know, Jim Gaffigan is one that was like that for a long time.

And then during Trump, a switch flipped, and Gaffigan went from Hulk Hogan to Hollywood Hogan on the motherfucking. No. Patent Oswald. Patton Oswald was very apolitical. He was French political.

Right. That's a good way. Yeah. King of Queens era. Because I was going to say, like, I didn't ever think of him as that, but you're right. King of Queens era, Patent, I'm just like, I'll dabble in this, I'll dabble in this a little bit, but I'm going to talk about nerd culture. Because he's like an OG alt comic from the Sarah Silverman early arts. Right.

But if you look at what he does now comedically versus 15 years ago, and that's two totally different performers. Some performers evolve into something that is a deeper version or a different version of themselves. So you become the sports. reporter who is now a war correspondent. And then some people are war correspondents and now they just do entertainment news. That's

still journalism. You know, it's, there's people that want to know who's Pete Davidson fucking this week. A lot of people want to know that. A lot of people want to know that. The same way some people want to know what's happening in Ukraine. Yeah. So, I bet you

both of those stories have the same amount of views on YouTube. Yeah. So, I just you know I don't I don't worry about what the other journalists choose to cover I just know what my what my beat is it's a very inclusive take which I really like I'm also imagining a kid going through an encyclopedia be like who is Pete Davidson fucking yeah you like learning about the algorithm functioning now do you like Pete Davidson see also Pauly Shore it's like giving you terrible comparisons if you're listening, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to compare you to Pauly Shore.

Much better. Now, I don't know if you've, you know, call what we do research. I don't know. But you did mention mental health in some capacity. Everybody mentions it at some point. What are we talking about? I mean, that word is used, like, kind of all the time now. So I don't know how much you think about it in those terms.

But we did read something where you're talking about it. You're acknowledging the reality. You know, like, particularly, I think, I think maybe anxiety you were speaking about or something. Yeah, I mean, I was in a depressed place when I started doing stand-up. I wouldn't say that I still sit in that place now. I go to therapy, but I wouldn't diagnose myself as depressed. And, you know, neither therapist is saying that I'm in that spot. But it's definitely help.

But then to that point of the word being used too much, like there's like a lie. There's a show that I do just kind of as an aside with a license mental health therapist where it's just me and comedians. We let the audience anonymously just tell us what they're going through. That's really cool. We talk shit about it. Where do you do this? This is in New York. Probably once a quarter we do it.

It's called Tribulations. And we're starting to, we're going to live stream the next one again so people can watch it or whatever. But me and the comedian's clown and make fun of it. and you know we're silly and then a licensed therapist comes on that's very cool and unpacks the whole thing that's so smart

but the thing I'm trying to do is figure out a way to part of the reason why we did it was to get people in the room if you put 300 people in the room and you anonymously let them say what they're going through oh you get some shit

so that means they've written something it's an app we have a it's like an app that everybody in the room can look at So you can scroll through and see everybody else's tribulations and know what other people in the room are going through. And so in a way, it lets you know you're not alone. Because it's one thing to read it. But when you're in the proximity of other people...

Like the point is, they know that they're sitting in a room where this is... But this person is going through this thing right now. I feel like this is the most compelling plug of any guests we've ever. I mean, like, I want to be there. This is so fascinating to me. I really love that. fun it's it's really fun it's cathartic it's weird

it's meaningful and people end up talking after the show we did a tribulation show about a year ago myself the therapist is a B Arthur she's black it's not it's not

can't be hurt with respect but you know but we did one one year where someone was talking about how they have trouble making friends in their 30s in the city because how do you make new friends especially if you work remote

Yeah that's a big one I think a lot of people face that So You know we have a part at the end of the show Where if people want to come up and confess What their tribulation was in the app So we can just put a face to it or whatever And this woman came up And like eight, nine people are like

Let's swap numbers That's so cool Dude this is beautiful So nice How do you feel about it? I like it You know as a comic You know I try to run away from the warmth of

I'm just doing jokes I'm not trying to change the world okay I just put together a show where sad people get with sad people maybe they don't have to be sad but other than that it's just jokes wait can I ask

I don't want to diminish it because it sounds so special but what's like the what was there ever tribulation where you're like oh shit like I don't know like what's like the wildest one we've had what was their name and was it Penn we've had a

there was a guy who got his brother's wife pregnant and she had the kid and they still haven't told him oh my goodness wait wait wait wait hold on a guy got his brother's wife pregnant my nephew is my son and I haven't told my goodness what should I do what did you I guess there were jokes there I passed that one off to the therapist You're like, all right

I'm not handling that one at all You know That's why y'all Yeah But then there's like silly stuff Like there was a guy who He found the guy who stole his car And knows where he works

And it's like been plotting for the last two months On what to do Oh that's incredible I want to follow that story Yeah I want to like should I beat him up What should I'm just like You kind of got to let it go

You got your car back It's fine But he wants to fucking demolish his person. Wow. To which I said, if he works in, because the tribulation was vague, if he works in any type of forward-facing customer service job, it's just get him fired. Yeah.

Just figure out a way to get him fired. I know that's terrible. Yeah. But that's fair. That's fair. That's fair. You stole my car, you didn't get caught for it, and now I know where you are.

Yeah. That's fair. You're like, you've got to get over it, or you could get him fired. Because someone who's asking a tribulation like that, that tells me you're not a violent person. You don't own a gun. Yeah. Because anybody that's about that life, you would just walk in and beat the shit out of them. So that means you're a quiet, silent petty like me.

And that's what I'm into. Yeah. You leave Yelp reviews about things that never happened. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. that's like a quick way it's like the beginning of beef yes it's just literally

just figuring out ways to surgically demolish that person you know bit by bit and then you can sleep better at night but I just

it's a fun and silly show but like we're trying to destigmatize the idea of just dealing with all of your issues alone yeah and putting it somewhere

but again Like, when you say mental health, when you say therapy, some people shut down when they hear that word. But then I also don't like the word advice because it's more than that. Yeah. You know, it's not an advice show. Yeah. It is, but it's deeper. Yeah, it's like a compassion.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, there's a Twitter page for it. And if you just search Tribulation Show on Instagram, you can watch clips from past shows or whatever. But, like, we had a lady that... Her mother died, and she's the last living child of her mother. Like, the mother's like 90. She's 70. All of her siblings are gone.

How does she go through the process of cleaning out her childhood home and realizing that she is the only person left of her lineage from her family? I mean, you've got the grandkids, but you know what I mean? It's just me. I suppose that one wasn't quite anonymous. Everybody just looks around for the 70. Well, I guess that's her. No, she came down front

She came down front and confessed that one In front of everybody But that one was That one was heavy And I was like, all right, therapist You can handle that one I'm gonna help you So of all the things you're doing right now

Is that like it sounds like it kind of started small But you have a lot of investment in it Turbulations is probably the thing I'm most excited about That's cool I mean I'm touring, I'm doing stand-up I do not know what late night is going to be on the other side of the strike like because it's always well do you want to

host the daily show okay yeah but what the fuck is happening with late night as a whole that's a great question what's happening with the economics of the business as a whole right yeah what am i agreeing to host yeah yeah what's your idea now that we're cut corners and penny pension again you know the house is down so then hedging bets like a motherfucker so if that's the case I can only worry about the things I can control and that's the road and tribulations So that's what I'm working on building That makes sense

Do you have a show The tour you're going on Is it already put together Do you have a name for it and stuff? Yeah happy to be here Okay Because some of those cities I'm not going to be happy to be

Only some But the other ones I like those cities Those cities are cool Yeah happy to be here tour It starts in Kansas City At the top of June And we're going to go through The end of November

into South Florida and somewhere in between all of that once a month I'll be doing the Tribulation show in New York which is something people can also live stream if you don't have a city So it's been once a quarter but now it's going to move to once a month We're moving it up to a month later That's great

You know I think it's something that eventually we can grow Into something that's You know hopefully a little more meaningful Yeah But you know just it takes time Of course It takes time If you could go back to 12 year old

Roy Yeah, just for a moment, what would you say or do? Oh, man. Tell them to focus more. Tell them to focus more, worry less about what people think about you and worry more about what you want to do. If you focus on what you want to do, the people who want to do it and want to run with you will gravitate to you.

Stop trying to fit in, let the people come to you. and then decide who deserves to be in your circle. You know, choose instead of waiting to be chose. I think that's what I would. I love that. There's so many good lines in that. I think that's, yeah, I think that's what I would do. Thank you, Roy.

Thank you so much, Roy. This was so nice. I appreciate this. Thank you. This was fun. I'm glad you think so. Let me hit up my middle school crush right quick. You can follow Roy Wood Jr. online at Roy Wood Jr.

and check out his show at Tribulations. Show. You can also get tickets for his happy-to-be-here stand-up tour at www.roywoodjr.com. Our guest today is Roywood Jr. And we were really so pleased shoot I was hoping you'd scream I wanted to prank him on camera

I just wanted him to scream I wanted him to do ice cream I would just reach out with a with a cold wet hand no but it's ice that's what you were doing no but you know it's funny how long were you planning that

no just in the moment that I saw the ice I was coming up let's see how he reacts this banter isn't taking long enough it's not it's not cold enough for me I couldn't feel the ice it was just like

why is your hand so wet Oh, my God, you're like, now that you need to see a doctor. That's funny. Stitcher.