The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Banned for a Swastika. Can Comedians Go Too Far? with Tyler Fischer and Philip Abraham

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Phillip Abraham is a developing stand-up comedian making waves in Austin, Texas who recently got himself banned from a number of clubs. Tyler Fischer is a comedian, actor and filmmaker known for his stand-up & sketch videos with over 200 million views. He is a regular at The Comedy Cellar.

This is Live from the Table, the official podcast of the world-famous comedy seller coming at you on SiriusXM 99 Raw Comedy. And wherever you get your podcasts, also available on YouTube if you want that multimedia audio and video experience. Dan Aderman here. I am a comedy seller regular. Not as regular as I've been in times past. But what can I tell you? That's how it it goes there's no tenure here at the Comedy Cellar I'm here with

Noam Dwarman he's the owner of the Comedy Cellar as you probably know there's a new Comedy Cellar room by the way opening in 2025 I guess we're not sure precisely when in 2025 we're not sure no quick in 2025 we're not sure no

quick question are you keeping the skylights no okay no skylights because the McDonald's that used to be there had skylights anyway Noam is here Perrielle is here Perrielle is always here and we have with us a guest we have Philip Abraham a developing stand-up

comedian making waves in Austin and originally from Houston he talks about his Guest, we have Philip Abraham, a developing stand-up comedian making waves in Austin. And originally from Houston, he talks about his Pentecostal preacher father at his mixed heritage. He's part Indian, part Mexican, part European, I guess. Does that cover everything? Not really part, but I lived in those places. Okay, he lived in those places. What are you ethnically? I'm Malayali.

Oh, I don't know what that is. What's that? It's southern coast of India. There's a place called Malayali. Oh, I don't know what that is. What's that? It's southern coast of India. There's a place called Kerala. Oh, sure. That place is... So my dad's side of the family are Syrian Jews. My mom's side's Orthodox Catholic.

So you're half Jewish. Oh, my dad's side. Well, his name is Abraham. Wait, from Kerala, though? Yeah, Kerala. Fun fact, Keralola has the oldest mosque, church, synagogue in all of Asia. Wow.

Where's O'Carola? In southern India. Near Goa. We're also waiting on Tyler Fisher. He's here. Tyler Fisher is with us. Tyler has been on the show before. I have one question about geography.

Yeah. So your father, who's Jewish, but he's Indian Jewish? Yeah, so that side of the family, they are Syrian Jews who migrated to Kerala, and then that side of the family converted to a religion called Marthoma. But they don't look like Indian people. They look like Middle Eastern people. It's a range.

We go from charcoal black to white. your father nobody what he doesn't look he's not indian he's indian but we kind of look different we don't look like other indians so he's he's a few generations in to the mix with the syrian jews yeah okay uh tyler fisher is most decidedly not Jewish or Indian or anything exotic, and therein lies perhaps the problem. Well, why isn't an Irish exotic? Why isn't this, you know, it's pretty exotic, isn't it? I didn't know you were a fucking African. Fisher doesn't sound, that sounds more Germanic to me. So let me, go ahead, Dan, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Well, Tyler was recently on Dr. Phil, I believe. That was a long time ago. Was it? I recently saw you on Dr. Phil. It just took me a long time to post it. Oh, he recently posted an appearance on Dr. Phil, I believe. That was a long time ago. Was it? I recently saw you. It just took me a long time to post it. Oh, he recently posted an appearance on Dr. Phil, wherein he was talking about how an agency, and we talked about this actually on a previous episode, an agency refused to represent you because, quote,

not an exact quote, but paraphrased, we got enough white people, white men. No, thank you, but no thank you. Said I'm not charcoal enough. Oh, man. All right, so we'll get to that. I don't want to start a fight here. So the reason Philip Abraham came on my radar is because I saw an interesting post.

I don't want to cause trouble. You know, I'm getting an award from the National Coalition Against Censorship. Did you know that? You are? They're giving me an award, yeah. That's awesome. I'm not sure what I did. First one ever given out.

Is that a real award? Yeah, it's me, Floyd Abrams, the famous First Amendment attorney, Henry Louis Gates, and somebody else. Anyway, so just by coincidence, I saw somebody write something about a show that you did somewhere in Austin. I don't want to name the book. You're a comedian? Yeah, I'm a comedian from Austin.

Nice to meet you. I'm moving to Austin. You are? Yeah. When? Excuse me. Okay. We'll talk later.

Beautiful eyes, by the way. All right. It says something happened yesterday. So it's a story here that you held, you attached swastikas to your body. Sounds bad when you say it like that. Well, I'm going to let you explain yourself. Swastikas to your body and displaying swastikas on stage. And then you got thrown out of the club.

And I said, well, that's interesting that a comedian presented himself using swastikas and got thrown out of the club. And then later I found out that his name is Abrams. It sounds Jewish. Then later I found out that his name is Abrams. It sounds Jewish. Then later I found out that he was Indian and I said, well, this is probably an interesting story. Yeah. Which, you know, I don't want to lose my censorship award.

Everything you do now. It's presented to me. So can you please tell us the story of using a swastika in your, in your comedy act? Oh man. Okay. So I have a joke that I've been developing and I've,

I've told that joke in different iterations, probably a dozen times on that stage. And I hope it's the funniest one ever told. It's all right. I mean, it's in development. Well, it needed help if he had to bring this i mean the it's in development well it needed help if he had to bring

this yeah it's in development the concept is that i'm very angry that hitler has appropriated my culture which is the swastika which is a sanskrit word right so he stole the word and the symbol and the hindu it's not a mirror image. It's the actual symbol. I've heard that it's the mirror image. So the Hindu swastika is horizontal. Are you saying swastika or swastika? You're saying swastika.

Swastika. It's like shawarma. Swastika. It's the same pronunciation. Swastika. It's an S problem. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Forget about it. Using the original. So sorry. Go ahead. The original. That award is just drifting away, man. I have a lisp. Continue, please.

So the Hindu swastika is horizontal, right? And the German swastika is slightly angled because they're real good with engineering right so they just angle it slightly that's the only difference that's the only difference it's not mirrored there's a version of the hindu swastika that has four dots in the corners they love dots um i mean a lot of people love dots. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Hindus are... Hindus are not adverse to them. Very famously dot people. So I had been developing that joke. I'd said that joke.

So I thought... Try not to disturb Dan. I'm just showing that that's the Hindu version of the swastika. Can you hold it up to the camera? What can you do, Max? That's all we need for YouTube to demonetize this one, too. These are the two. There's a good side.

One is, as you can see, is late. Send it to Max. Text it to Max. Go ahead. You should have changed his name to... Never mind. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Go ahead, Adolf. Philip, go ahead. Dot off. Dot off. It's Fuhrer to you. So I had developed that joke, and then there's this show called Banana Phone that happens every Sunday.

It's a heckle mic. You go up, you do a minute of comedy. There's a panel that roasts you, an entire audience. It's like the late night lounge show here at the Cellar. It's rough. And I've been on that show like five, six times, right? Oh, there it is.

You can see the... There it is. Yeah. Okay. So the one on the left is the Nazi one. Thank you. And the one on the right is the Hindu one. In case you haven't been alive.

The Sanskrit one. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Okay. You can take that off, please, Max. And that showed him behind it, right? In front of it. Yeah, that's going to be...

That's all I need. Just get it close up. Put it behind Tyler. So continue, continue. Just get a close up on Norm on that. So I had the idea of, I really wanted to level that room because you can't really do a minute and do well there because they're just waiting to roast you.

So you want to make an impact. Yeah. And so I've been up there and there's a lot of stuff that's been said to me on that stage, which is fine. You know, magic carpets and shitting and all sorts of things like related to eating. Now when you say shitting, you mean sitting or shitting? You know, I have the problem no uh so sitting and it's just like uh you know complete free-for-all so they're waiting for you to finish your minute so they could roast you so i really wanted uh i had an idea to do a tag to my existing joke so i'm very upset hitler stole that swastika and i'm pissed because i

can't get my swastika tattooed now and so there's a couple of jokes there and then there's an additional tag that i thought of for this this particular show so it's not my act i don't do this but i painted a hindu swastika on my stomach a large one i'm kind of out of shape so it's funnier because you know you have a belly yeah yeah that's funny if i was ripped up it would not be as funny and then i had two baby hindu swastikas on my nipples right you had the ones with the dots on them no but i had it horizontal okay right so it is the hindu swastika, not the German Hitler swastika. Very important distinction. And when I tell that joke, I tell people, you know, Hitler stole the swastika. And you can always see one or two people that kind of like agree as if they've known that.

But the rest of the audience is surprised, which I'm kind of surprised at, at this day and age that people don't know that. So walk in that line between trying to educate people, but also make this day and age that people don't know that so uh walk in that line between trying to educate people but also make this funny and and try to make it you know a good joke so um i went to um banana phone and i know everybody there on that panel so they put me on that list um and i went up and i did the joke and and part of the joke is showing the stomach first and then taking the whole shirt off to show the breasts. The breasts, yes.

I got some good ones. And so the bit went off better than I could have imagined. People laughed. It was... It's funny. It was like an explosion, like multiple explosions because people were just shocked.

There was like laughing, hysterical laughing, but also gasping and freaking out. And it's the swastika, your belly, your nipples. He's not a white guy. Not a white guy. Not a white guy. The whole thing is... But he's bald.

And I'm like brown power. It's like bizarre. It's like bizarre. Yeah, it's supposed to make you think about things, which that's what I'm in comedy for, to make you laugh and also think about different perspectives of things or question the reality that we're living in. So that was my intention. So I go up and do the joke.

It goes really well. Get off stage. People are very excited giving me fist bumps the entire bar high fives the whole place was high fives

everyone's saying hi to me hello hello they're good there was a point where the entire bar rushed over to see because of all the commotion and uh um i'm trying not to drop any names here so uh yeah people were there headliners from new york were there there was a couple people there they were laughing but you can say their name probably or maybe not i don't know. From all accounts, everybody was laughing there, right?

The door guys, the staff, the bartenders, everybody was telling me positive things. So they don't hire Jews in that club. That's right. That's correct. So I leave, and I think everything's fine. Yeah. The next day, I get a call from one of the employees there that tells me, hey, we've gotten a text with your picture the swastika picture you

have the picture i don't but but somebody says hey um you we're getting a text here that you're not we're not allowed to let you in so it's like okay wow um and then about two hours later, I see the Rebecca's post. Extend, Echaburay. Oh, shit. Well, it was public. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Shit, man. I got to watch that.

You guys can edit this. Eggshell. Yeah, but was that a public post? Yeah, I mean, listen. I mean, it was a public post. You're right. Yeah, it's a public post. You're right.

Yeah, public post to all Austin open micers, you know. And it was that commentary about being upset about this. Yeah. And that I was banned forever from the club. And that's the thing. Oh, there you are. Can you? I'm not seeing the dots in that swastika.

He said there was no dots. The belly button and the nipples. Can I just say something? After this, I mean, I saw this and I took one lesson away. I've got to lose some weight. This is terrible. But the swastika's slimming. Yeah.

It was three-dimensional. We had white lines around the edges to give it a three-dimensional pop. Don't your horizontal stripes make you thinner? It's the vertigo. Now you have everything. You can take that down, Max. So, did you

allow an appeal? Were you able to speak to her about it? No, and I never... That sounds fascist. That's not how it works. Idiot. I never heard from her originally. I just saw the post, right? So, I was a little shocked. Guilty until proven more guilty. So, listen, I just saw the post, right? Nice. So I was a little shocked.

Guilty until proven more guilty. So listen, I feel bad because I'm sure, you know, maybe she got some flack, you know, but. So, I mean, when I heard the story, I'm like, I was trying to wonder, like, how would I react to that at the club? Well, what if it was a white guy that looked like, say, for example, Andrew Schultz with a swastika, not to mention his haircut? And that would have been a lot more shocking and powerful. The truth is I wouldn't care one way or another unless it was bad, unless the audience was, you know. It wouldn't have gotten laughs, I'll tell you that.

If a white guy with those on, no. And not just any white guy, Andrew Schultz. No laugh. Well, if he got laughs, I wouldn't care. Why would I care? No, no, I mean, if it was a white guy with it on, I think it wouldn't have gotten any laughs. Right, but I'm saying, but let's say he,

Philip, right? That's your name, Philip. What, what, what, you think the audience would care?'s say he, Philip, right? That's your name, Philip. What, what, what? You think the audience would care? Is it illegal what you did? It's not illegal. I don't think so. Then there's no problem.

There's no rules as well. And so I wasn't told, hey, you can't do certain things on stage. Nobody gave me a warning after that. But also it was the original swastika. That's right. That's also a big distinction. Swastika.

Now listen. Fuffling swastika. First of all, there's a question. Did the people at the club know that you're Jewish? Or that you're partly Jewish? Like you could do birthright in Israel. That's such a, yeah. It's true.

Chris Rock could do birthright. No, no, he really could. No. You need a Jewish star around your neck next time you do that show.

It sounds like his father is a couple of generations away from Judaism. Is your father's mother Jewish? Your grandmother? Father's mother, yes. Oh,

then you're Jewish. Okay. Yeah. Jewish by, no, for birthright, yeah. But Jewish by,

by ethnic background or Jewish by? I think birthright But Jewish by Ethnic background Or Jewish by I think birthright You have to have One Jewish grandparent What are we talking about I don't know what The birthright rules are

What difference does it I don't give a fuck We're trying to decide Whether he could go to Israel Go ahead Anyway I really don't see a point In arguing that case

Because I really You can do an apology tour In Israel That's true That's true But I don't know. I know that people there know this. How long have you been doing comedy for?

A year and a half. Oh my god. I mean... And I go to Creek in the Cave every day for a year and a half. Every day I do mics and shows. You start by doing really shocking stuff. I mean, I used to do wild stuff.

I had them on the back, too. You know what I mean? But this is the venue for that. Like, you know, this particular show is for that kind of stuff. Do your father identify as Jewish? Identify as Jewish? It doesn't sound like it. It says here, to have birthright, you have to have one Jewish parent

who identifies as Jewish, any of the denominations, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox, whatever, you have to have one Jewish parent who identifies as Jewish. That's what it says for birthright. It seems like they must need to have... However, for the Nazi party,

you have to prove pure Aryan ancestry back, I think, to 1800 was the rule, something like that. And you have to have the swast ancestry back, I think, to 1800 was the rule. Something like that. And you have to have the swastika in the right direction on your... And no dots. So wait, so let's just... But to be in the SS, I'm sorry. To be a regular Nazi, I'm not sure.

I think they're... So, okay. You have to go to NYU. Guys, one second. So you didn't try to appeal the decision in any way? There's no appeal process. There's nothing. You could call somebody and say, listen, I think you misunderstood,

or I won't do it anymore in the future. I want my lawyer. I had some intermediaries that are, because this to me seemed like a class thing as well, because the post was specifically an Austin open mic scene. So there was something in that that led me to believe there's kind of a hierarchy there, and she's talking to people who are starting comedy.

And so there are folks that are features or headliners, whatever, that know her directly that I spoke to, and they spoke to her. And I asked one of those people to ask her if she would receive a letter from me. And I wrote a two-page letter explaining things and kind of talking about it. You have the letter?

No, I don't. I might. Yeah, I might have it. Do you want to read some of it to us? Jesus. Why are you saying Jesus when you came all the way to New York to talk about this incident? God, I got to look it up, though. Well, you can paraphrase, maybe. We're just giving the background on what you gave us, the history of it.

It's basically talking about my perspective, my heritage, the joke itself, the fact that I didn't intend to. It's rough when a joke needs a two-page length. It's so lame to explain a joke. But I see why you did it. I've heard that there's a lot of casual kind of race. Like Austin's apparently... I'm not saying this is true because I have no experience, and I'm almost skeptical that it's true,

but I've been told that there's some kind of racism down in Austin. There's a kind of a vibe that's taken over that. I don't think so. Taken over the comedy scene or taken over the city in general? Because I wouldn't be going there. I got an email from somebody who told me there's a lot of casual racism. Well, there's a reason Tyler is going there. It's a place where you feel like you really can joke about whatever you want.

Wait, wait. That's just comedy. Would you say that the Austin comedy scene is distinct from the New York comedy scene in that way? It's different because it's a way newer group of comedians who are learning how to do comedy. And you're always going to go what might seem as the easier, cheaper route, but it's just an experience. Do you think Rogan sort of has an influence on the kind of people that are going to Austin these days? I think it's like a gold rush opportunity

for a young comic. I'm going there because I want to live in a house and I want a gun. But for a young comic to be able to get that much stage time within a really small area and not feel like you have to censor yourself, that's important when you're starting out.

The thing you did, that's really important that you had the balls to do it. What if he had done that at your club and say you got literally 200 outraged emails and people were really upset? I would stop him. You wouldn't ban him. You would say, don't do it again. No, You wouldn't ban him. You would say, don't do it again. No, I wouldn't ban him. You'd say, don't do it again,

but you're welcome to come back. Just don't do that. But it sounds like that's not what happened. No, it's not what happened, but I'm wondering if that would have been known throughout. Why would I ban him? Especially unless he was... But you would tell him not to do that again. Yes, if 200, if 100% of the customers hated him.

I mean, I would say, listen, I would say, listen, I can't use you anymore because the customers hate you. And that's completely valid. But if you're willing to change your act, you can continue to work. But also, by the time you, I mean, it took me, I think, 13 years to get into the cellar. A lot of the stuff I did, the, the, the stuff maybe that you were doing, I never put a swastika myself just to be clear, but we,

you wouldn't be doing it by the time you got in here. Tyler, you know what I mean? Tyler, that show though is for kind of everybody dresses up. Oh yeah. Weird. Right.

But Dan, Dan's made a very good point here, which is that why, why could you just say, listen, I won't do the swastika anymore? In other words, you're being treated as if you were actually endorsing Nazism. But it's clear that you were not. So why would the logical response not be, listen, you can't do that swastika thing here anymore. But, you know, and let's, you know, case closed.

Unless, unless they thought that you were actually doing it to cause trouble, which is, it's not just a swastika. It's like you are a troublemaker. We don't need troublemakers here. Yeah, no, I'm not really. You should be a bit of a troublemaker. If you're a comedian, you're causing a little bit of trouble every joke. Well, not for my business.

No, I don't know. I mean, like, no. Not trouble. Maybe not that. Maybe that's not the right. No, I know what you're saying. Like, it's part of the personality of a comedian to be. Provocative.

A little bit, yeah. But, so, why did you get, but you're banned anyway. It's beyond the swastika. Yeah, banned for life, based on that post. That's all I've had communication, which is a one-way conversation, right? And it also says anybody that wants to disagree you know but there's no commenting on that post it's disabled so um and i'm hearing all this from employees that are all friends that work at these places

so and then a few days later i'm going to go to sunset strip to go do a mic in the daytime, like 5 o'clock mic they have there. And then I get a call from another employee that works there, a friend, who says, hey, you're also banned here. And then three weeks later, I go to Cap City Comedy Club, which I'm on the list for the mic. And I got taken off the list. And I'm a little surprised surprised i'm sitting at the bar again friend of mine that works there a bartender goes up to the office comes down he says man i got some bad news for you and i i'm almost like thinking he's doing a bit so and he just lifts up his swastika. Yeah, he sure lifts up his swastika. Says, you're banned. Nine.

Nine? Nine? That's terrible. Yeah, it's terrible. So then he tells me that... Is there something you're not telling me about this story? The person who I will not name emailed the GM at Cap City and had them... I swear when he said GM, I thought he was going to say Jew. I swear.

I emailed the GM. I swear. I emailed the GM. It does seem like... The Jew-M. It does seem hard to believe. Maybe, as Noam said, there's something you're not telling us. It's not hard to believe at all.

Not nowadays. It's hard to believe. This is pretty standard stuff. He was not doing a Nazi thing. He was just making a joke about the fact that the Nazis stole the Sanskrit symbol. Just outrageous. They said, listen, that's too much for us here. You can't show your ass and you can't show your swastika. I get it.

But why would everybody have to ban him? I'll tell you what. This is also what's surprising. A lot of the comedians that know me there are shocked that I've been banned because I'm very respectful. I run multiple shows. I run open mics. You brought me a gift. I brought you a gift, you know, and I'm an older person, you know, I have a professional job as well. So I have, you know, I know how to treat people people and so I'm not there disrespecting anybody. Did they hear it's your job about the swastika? What kind of job is it?

I stencil swastikas professionally. That was just free advertisement. The swastika stenciler. No, you don't have to tell us what your job is, but I'm saying like in the private sector,

you could get fired in the same way. Are we worried about that? Well, I'm not promoting any kind of hate speech here. I know, but the clubs, the comedy clubs. He works for Volkswagen. It's fine. No, so you're not worried about your job. You're not worried about losing your job.

No, because I haven't done anything wrong. But you did anything wrong. But they could still fire you even if you haven't done anything wrong. A lot of people get fired for that. He's an illegal immigrant. They don't even know he's on the book. What's up, sorry? Do your employers know about the swastika thing?

No, Norm. Thank you for highlighting this, though. I appreciate that. No, no, seriously. No. No, no, no. Well, they love this podcast. They're big fans of this podcast.

But you're not worried if... No, because I don't think there's anything to take that action. This is like that Jerry Seinfeld. Babu, serve from your native land. So, yeah, it's okay to do a swastika. Baboo, baboo, baboo. You have nothing to worry about.

Are you going to continue to do this bit? You know, you've thought about that. Going down with the swastika. No, I've never done that bit with that. Had you only done it once this one time? Yes. Oh my God. It's a funny concept, though.

Like, you're culturally appropriating the swastika. Yeah. On is... It's a funny concept, though. Like, you're culturally appropriating the swastika on paper. It's really funny. Even on tits, it's funny. The joke has been doing very well. I've been playing with it

and changing it up. And then this tag, the visual... Let's call it the visual tag. The piece de resistance. Yeah. It was only for this show.

This heckle mic venue. And I really wouldn't do it anywhere else. And you need to do shocking stuff. I love doing, sometimes I'll do the last spot on the 1 p.m. lounge show. It's really, you go on around 3 a.m. Closer to 3 a.m. People are desensitized. And it's a challenge, but you have to do something.

You go outside of yourself. You're exhausted. Everybody's half in the can. I've taken my pants off or started to just to get the crowd to quiet down. The crowd's like jackals. They couldn't see the swastika on my penis, though. They're waiting to rip into you, so you really have to shock them. It was successful because

they couldn't roast me yeah you want can you intercede on his behalf or would you you said you were a friend of the owner of that establishment yeah i hold her in high regard i i i think she's a nice person she i can't say a single bad thing about her i always liked her her very much. Even wanted to do business with her one time. I got nothing bad to say about her. That's why I'm surprised. Here's the thing, though. That's why I'm worried that there's something about the story I don't know, but you don't seem to be.

I'm telling you, there's nothing you don't know. This is it. This is everything that's happened. One thing I will caveat is that she was not in the room at the time. So she didn't actually see it. She didn't see it. Another comedian that was visiting who has a very bad reputation there

sent her the photo. And a lot of people are upset that. Look, I was in a bad mood that night. You piece of shit. I swear to God. All right, so somehow it's related in some ways as a symbol of our times to what happened to Tyler.

Don't link me to the swastika story. They're going to chop it up. Really? I don't know. So we talked about his thing. You know his story one time. I don't know. So when was this Dr. Phil appearance?

This was, I don't know, it was probably a year and a half ago or so. I was like really depressed at the time. I don't even hardly remember going on. I didn't want to go on. I remember I deliberated with like my therapist, my manager, because I don't, you know, but we just were like, why not? So the story is that you have a lawsuit. The lawsuit is still ongoing?

The lawsuit is still ongoing. Because, story is that you have a lawsuit. The lawsuit's still ongoing? The lawsuit's still ongoing. Because, why don't you give a little... Yeah, yeah, this was about, I don't know, three years ago or so. I've been acting for 17 years, been in TV shows, films, all that. And slowly my reps started being, like, quietly going,

you know, they don't really want white guys. And slowly my audition stopped. My agent let go of me. started quietly going, they don't really want white guys. And slowly my audition stopped. My agent let go of me over email and said, sorry, it's too hard for white guys and removed me from the roster. And I was a pussy back then. I was a woke, just like, do what you say. You know what I mean?

I would try to tell people and they'd be like, nah, your time is up, whatever. Now you know how it feels. And I was like, okay. And so I quit acting for three years after that, and then another manager scouted me. They go out and they watch your show and see, make sure you don't have any swastikas on your tits.

And they're like, we want to rep you you know do you want to be on curb your enthusiasm the whole the whole thing you know like i've got a i've got a nice acting resume wow yeah and then a month went by two months went by and finally you know i said can you just you're holding me hostage here i'm passing up on all sorts of opportunities. I think it was seven months. I could be wrong. And he called and he was like, we've hit a problem. We're not going to hire white guys anymore. And my therapist said, hire or rep? Rep. Is there a legal issue to that? Okay, so just to get back to the thing, Can you make a full screen of the one on the top right there?

I feel like their lawyer hired you to come and... Just double click on the image. Oh, that's... There we go. So anyway, so the point is like... That's my attorney. If Mel Brooks can do that, you know, pretty close to the Holocaust.

And so long ago. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Because there's really no reason. If you're listening on Spotify or something, there's a picture of Mel Brooks as a Nazi with a big swastika behind him. And then there's other pictures of Mel Brooks

with Nazi armbands and stuff. And there's other pictures of Mel Brooks with Nazi armbands and stuff. Well, also, that's the real Swastika. Sorry, that's the fake one, really. And this is when Mel Brooks was an open-miker. So go ahead. Okay, you can take it down. Finish your storytelling.

There's a comedy tradition of Swastika. It's not like you're doing something that hasn't been done before. Yeah, if the joke is not about Jews dying, if the joke is something else, you're almost like you're watering it down. You're weakening it in a good way. I'm also trying to bring a new perspective to that. So your manager won't rep you anymore because you're white?

Well, no. They presented that they wanted to rep me, and then I was just waiting for the call, waiting for the call. And then they said, yeah, it's now company policy. We're not going to represent white men. And I'm like, he's like, but it could change at any moment. Can we play the recording? Sure.

Comedian Tyler Fisher claims he has been turned down by three agencies because they said they just weren't looking for white men. Do you think it was justified for me to be told we can't represent you? You don't have the chance to now compete for jobs because you're white. Yes or no? Was that okay or was that not okay? I think that what is described by you don't give me your little well no let me tell you what what is described by you someone telling you that you can't get get that job because you're white does not sound right to me well let's hear what was

actually said he's not he's making this up let me say this he recorded the call with an agent he claims turned him down for being white so let's listen to the call is it a policy like explicit that they're not taking on any like white men or is it like case by case on camera talent stand up probably not okay so no so no white men are allowed for on-camera stuff now first question is this first question is, didn't your agent notice the ominous music behind the call? I was composing. I had like a little orchestra. What the hell is that?

When you go on Dr. Phil, you don't have a lot of say. I mean, I wasted a lot of money going on that show they dubbed in that ominous music onto your phone call it's like a pretty funny production decision now it was

so first of all I didn't know they were going to play that and I believe we told them not to I think my lawyer told them not to so that was done as far as I know, against our wishes. And so you can actually see my face when he goes, we have the recording. I'm like, oh, man.

But after they played it, the whole crowd gasped. Like, everybody. The people. Because half the people there were fighting, saying this is okay and justified And that just ended it It doesn't help that you look like a proud boy though Huh?

You kind of look like a proud boy though In that video What's a proud boy? With the beard and everything That's also what a yoga teacher looks like Everyone wants everything Oh that's a conservative look Brooklyn. See, this is the thing. Everyone wants everything. Oh, that's a conservative look. I'm like, no, this is the barista look.

Do you think the, was that an agent assistant that you were talking to? I think he's a manager. Anyway, do you think he got the sense that he was saying anything wrong? Because he certainly, you would think he would have been a little more hesitant to say that over a phone call. This has become, when I tell you this is, I can't tell you how many times, there's comedians, I'm not going to say anyone's name because I'm not giving them the,

I don't want to give them the time of day. Twice, two big podcasts where they said, where I was invited and then said, we don't want to have white guys on right now. That happened twice. I booked a commercial campaign

during the pandemic when I was living off the government because I couldn't perform. I didn't get the vaccine. My pediatrician said I was too tiny. And so, uh, um,

I was replaced in a commercial campaign that I booked. They, they sought me out cause they need someone to do impressions and hosting and all that. And they said, the CEO said they just, they want a person, a female person of color.

So this was happening time and time again for like eight years. And this was the first time I was prepared to go I'm getting it this time. There's other stories in the news like this at major companies

that people have blown the whistle where people had written actually in the company chats like, no, we have to have somebody that's not white i mean it's not it's not microsoft or ibm someone just yeah i don't remember no one i mean this is not it's not uncommon and um very common and people and it's not okay for no matter what it is it's a lot of people like well you're just standing up for white men i'm like I'm standing up for myself personally, and I don't describe myself as a white man. It seems to be against the law.

I think it is against the law. Well, an agency's job is to find talent that they think can work. So to play devil's advocate, the agent is looking at you and saying, we don't think you're going to book anything. They can do that. Not because of our policy, but because that's the way the wind is blowing now they can they can justify it but what but it's a pretty decent

justification you can't turn you can't but explicitly turn someone right but they're not they're not they're not your employer they're trying i don't know i don't know that's why i asked you if they're repping you or hiring that that i don't know uh i don't yeah so i mean i'm i i would find more fault not with the agency, but because the agency could have represented you and then you wouldn't have booked anyway, according to what what they seem to think is the climate. Yeah. But you can see that's the thing.

What you keep justifying it and the snowball grows. And so to me, it's like you have to throw a wrench in somewhere because I think the irony is, is how successful you are. I was before that, too, though. I mean, I would actually argue I was I'm less successful now because I used to be on TV where you get residual checks. I mean, I ended up working with The Daily Wire, which may have destroyed my acting career because that's a pretty controversial, openly conservative. I mean, you don't do that in Hollywood. Non-union, so I also took jobs illegally to be able to pay rent.

So those were one-time checks that I essentially lost money on. You can make the argument. Candace Owens just left The Daily Wire, so they're looking for a Nazi. Can I get your manager? Tyler, what do you do if you're an agency and you just, the climate of the times is that nobody seems to be hiring white men. Well, that's just not true, though. That isn't true.

Because if you turn on the TV, it became fashionable. I'm not speaking for them, but it became fashionable to go, let's have as least white people and as much... I'm not going to say diversity because white people are included in diversity and I'm sick of hearing that word. No, but it's a euphemism.

I didn't want to put you on the spot about this, but that's why I have Dan because he just trumps... He's on the spectrum. Yeah, he's on the spot about this, but that's why I have Dan because, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't, he just trumps. He's on the spectrum. Yeah. He's on a spectrum. It just feels nothing. It's like tramples all over these lines. But since Dan did it, he's making a point,

which is that if you're an agent and you know that none of the, none of the people that, that you are bringing people to to hire, if they're at the studios are all saying, listen, we don't want any white people right now, then he says to you, listen, I can't represent you because they've told me they don't want to hire any white people now. What's he supposed to do? You know what a great thing to do would be? Would say, you're not allowed to do that.

You know, they need to be standing up to... They deal directly to the studios. So if anyone's going to stand up to this bullshit, it's the agents and managers that have to say, enough. You can't tell us to discriminate based on race. Because there's plenty of movies with all types of races. A lot of roles don't even

distinguish the race of the role. Especially nowadays. You can be, you know, you could play George Washington with Hitler tits. So it's like like someone's got to man up. It's like it's all these weak men in Hollywood that just take it up the ass. And someone has to, you know, I'm not going to be the sacrificial lamb. It's like once you break this down individually, it's like, all right,

we're going to destroy your life and take away your career. It's like, once you break this down individually, it's like, all right, we're going to destroy your life and take away your career. It's like, I'm not doing that. And I'll die on the Hill. So they picked the wrong person to think they could do it to. How's the lawsuit going? This is a lawsuit against the agency? The management company.

Yeah, it's a civil rights, you know, discrimination lawsuit. They haven't settled yet, so. Yeah, I mean, these things take a long time to even get seen. I mean, I do wonder what, you know, when people hire actors, that may be one of the few times that judging people by their color, it might be appropriate. Like if you're casting for George Washington, obviously you'd want a white person.

For a specific role. If you're casting for Frederick Douglass, you'd want a black person. Yeah. So, you know, if all the movies being made right now are movies about Asians, movies, you know,

then you would see a decrease in the number of white people hired as actors. They also saw my value in my stand-up, though. This was comedy and acting. You know, they would have helped me get, you know, I just got a touring agent for the first time in my life. I've been ready to tour for quite some time. I mean, I started selling out clubs instantly. I mean, you know, helping you get touring agents.

Well, it sounds like the good news is you don't really need them anymore. It sounds like. Well, my dream was acting. Stand-up was just to get me the manager. I mean, I'm literally killing myself touring. I just did six shows with the flu and almost had to go to the hospital because I needed the money. I was like, you don't have to tell me about hating stand up.

I love stand up. I love stand up. But I don't want to. I don't want to hate it. He wants to get into it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think nowadays also like the bigger you get on social media, the more likely you are to get those movies and those TV shows.

You know, if you have, if you can bring... Not if you're speaking out against it. You think an agent's going to take me on after this? There's no way. Yeah. Why not? I don't know. It hasn't happened.

Yeah, I don't, I mean, I understand what you're saying. Only one touring agent was willing to, I mean, I'm not shy about reaching out to people and say, please, will you look at my, one guy in the world was willing to be my touring agent was willing to, I mean, I'm not shy about reaching out to people and say, please, will you look at my, one guy in the world was willing to be my touring agent. So you think because they determined that you're litigious in some way that you would Or that he just has a, he's just been tarred with a brush. Yeah, and people will, there's the whole guilt by association thing.

You know, I'm sure people that were there laughing at you, they'll probably get in trouble as well. You know, that might spread a little. See, there is a connection, you see. Some of the people that are defending you are bad people, right? I mean, not most of them, but some of them are going to be bad people and looking at you as sort of their hero for sticking up for the white man. Among those people are some sketchy people. And so I think that association.

I don't really know. You're becoming a symbol for white nationalism? I think that association... I don't really know. You're becoming a symbol for white nationalism? I think that association... I don't care what people think. And they're wrong to associate you with those people. But I think that's probably part of what might be going on. There's also nothing wrong with someone saying, I'm glad he's standing up for the discrimination against white people.

It doesn't mean they're white supremacists. Absolutely, absolutely. But among those people, there are some that are probably white supremacists. And I think maybe that association could be hurting you. So this issue came up on Twitter yesterday with some people. And this argument. Jamie Foxx is coming at me too, by the way.

What did he say? Well, he just thinks it's hilarious. He just responded with like 10 laughy emojis. But he's done it before he's commented before like haha you think you have it so bad as a white guy and i'm like okay you're the most one of the most famous people in the world you had your opportunity you nailed it you know and and uh so so pretty interesting are, let me, let me come back to the point I was just going to make and ask you this. Do you have like, do you feel racial resentment? You sound like maybe you like, do you feel-

What's racial resentment? Do you feel, do you think you're feeling in some way what people of color have felt at different times in terms of being angry from a racial point of view. I don't know exactly how to put it. Well, I don't speak for people of color. Are you feeling camaraderie with whiteness?

Or are you just feeling that this is bullshit? It has nothing to do with... It's racial discrimination. I happen to be white, but I don't obsess about my color. Right, but you're not feeling like a kinship with whiteness. No, see, that's the problem with woke...

The woke ideology is they've created... They want to have their cake and eat it too, which is fine. I love cake and I have cake in my bag and I'll eat it. But they want to say... They won't have it anymore. they want to do this racial divide and push this like people of color have had a certain way,

which they have. But then you go, well, you're going to create this other thing, which is other races, where then they go white man, white man, white man, and then you can't have it both ways. So this was the other point I was going to make to you because you said, I don't care what, I said, are you becoming a symbol for white nationalists? I don't care what people think.

No, I would say I'm definitely not becoming a symbol for white nationalists. If anything, you feel alone, I would say. Is that something? Well, it was very isolating. I mean, couldn't talk about it with anybody you know uh but uh but i the most support i got was from black people you know of all types of some famous some you know jamie foxx actually reached out to me uh when i started putting videos out and we became like buddies online and i i didn't so why is he laughing at you

well i think he liked more probably my fighting the the covid mandates so he turned on you yeah yeah so you were friendly and then he made fun of you yeah oh yeah yeah i oh i i like call you know uh leave him funny messages when he had a stroke and stuff. And I mean, I've been supporting the guy since I was five years old as a white boy, you know, like, and then suddenly it's this, ha ha. Now you get to see how it feels.

And I'm like, well, I never said it wasn't bad for you. If anything, I got to learn by how bad it was, which is what I've been fighting since I was five. I mean, like you start in a public school. I mean, it's tempting to say Jamie Foxx has been fighting since I was five. I mean, like, you start in a public school.

I mean, it's tempting to say Jamie Foxx has been famous since he was very young. Yeah, that's awesome. He may never have actually, he may never have, but I'm sure he. He may or may not have, and I don't make those assumptions. Enough examples of it happening close enough to his life and his family that he would identify with it. Yeah, I mean, the fact is that the civil rights laws were created by suing in court. It all happened in the legal system. And then those very laws apply to all races. And now a lot of people will say, I'm not allowed to...

Civil rights law was passed by legislation, but the integration of the schools was... Well, I mean, they're law. Separate but equal. The end of Jim Crow was through legal action, but the actual civil rights law, 64, was it? Yeah, that was... Well, saying ha-ha now,

you know how it feels. Public accommodations. It's not going to make you want to, you know, have camaraderie. That's for sure. But I don't see it that way. For private actors, it was legislated. Noam, did you want to get back to that point that you were about to make?

About Twitter? No, so I sometimes see certain people become, they attract, like they're a moth to a flame, horrible people. And I feel like if I was tweeting about, you know, Israel, and then a bunch of horrible, hateful, anti-Muslim people started, you know, writing their anti-Muslim bigoted tweets to support me, I would feel a moral obligation to say, no, no, no, no. I have nothing to do with what you're saying. I'm blocking you. I don't need you.

I don't want anything to any part of you. But other people take the position that, no, I don't. It's not my business who supports me. I'm not going to make trouble. Well, if there is something like explicitly racist, sure. But actually, the most of the comments from everybody are discrimination is discrimination. We can't go backwards and then have separate rules. So that's pretty much the main reaction.

The most hate is coming actually from people that aren't white saying, now you get a taste of it. Good luck. Have fun with it. I mean, I've gone through every comment. So the majority of the hate is actually from non-white people. And that's not making a comment about black people or whatever, but that's just a fact of the matter.

It is true that as opposed to like DEI and all this nonsense we're seeing in so many different areas, there was a national moment where the country was really emotionally invested in wanting to embrace people of color after George Floyd. And there was an audience for this stuff. The audience was intensely interested in this stuff, which would of course then have a ripple effect all the way to casting directors

and all that. As opposed to other cases of it, this actually was in some way meeting the demand of the audience. But, of course, they also... So was what Hitler did. Hitler responded to the audience. Hitler didn't...

If you go back and watch his speeches... They weren't about killing Jews. So was what Hitler did. Hitler responded to the audience. Hitler didn't... If you go back and watch his speech... Oh, we have an expert here. They weren't about killing Jews. He put it out there, and then the audience responded, and he slowly adapted his tune. And so you can make an argument that that can happen, but it's still illegal and immoral. All arguments lead to Hitler, Dan.

Argument them ad Hitlerdom. On this podcast. The good news is that, especially nowadays, a good comic can create their own audience, generate their own ticket sales. Yeah. I know you said you wanted to be an actor, and you still want to be an actor, and you are an actor,

but stand-up is almost immune to all these forces that we're discussing no it is it's it's great and and mike i have a almost except for yeah we're incredibly uh diverse of fan base i mean i have i have trans people at my show i have every all types of people people that like jokes about everything. And so that is wonderful. But I also feel like now that I don't need money, I have a duty to actually fight this with a clear head because I don't need to be wasting my time on it. But by the way, this hurts people of all backgrounds

because you'll see, you know, because they'll say, well, we're just going to take this person and skip the line and put him in the role. He might not be ready. I've seen a lot of those comics and actors disappear overnight. Overnight. Because they weren't ready. Not to say they should have turned it down, because if you get offered SNL tomorrow, of course you're going to take it.

But back to this not being a white issue, this hurts all types of people. Noam, what if any... I think I've asked you this question before, but what if any value do you give when booking shows, even though you're not the booker, but you oversee everything, to having a diverse show? You have to define diversity first, though.

Well, diversity meaning people, including people that are not white or straight or male. I mean, do you put any thought into that? Your lineups generally have that kind of diversity, but is that by design or is it just by...

Also, when I was involved in music, I don't put any value on it. Do you think the audience... If you say all white men on a show, I've never, also when I was involved in music, I don't put any value on it. It's always- But do you think the audience, if you say all white men on a show, do you think you'd probably get some emails? I don't know.

I mean- It happens. It's like sometimes- Yeah. I mean, in New York, we're lucky enough that it's really easy to not have to worry about it because the comedy community is so diverse and the musician community is so diverse

that it basically works out for itself. It's trickier when it comes to women. There's actually plenty of black comics of color, right? Male black color. But in general, there's fewer female comics in general. Yeah. So we do have shows from time to time that don't have women on them. And we get complaints.

Complaints how funny it is. They go, man. It doesn't happen that often. And it happens less and less, actually. I mean mean you guys know better than i do you know how the well it's also you know you can make an argument that it's it's a stupid thing to pursue the success rate has got to be somewhere around two percent if that so it's not like you know it's not a great argument to go we need more women in here because

most are going to fail no well that. Well, that's a separate argument. I usually tell the customers when they complain about there wasn't a woman, I say, listen, the only thing you like less than the show you saw was the show you think you wanted to see. Meaning, like, if I had whatever was available to us at that time, if we had just put on the woman, obviously, in our opinion, they would not have been as funny as... Can't you just be like, that guy, Tyler, was a woman. He identifies as a woman.

We should have taken Sam Morrell off the show to put on the woman that was available that night. My girlfriend who's got in the bush. Whatever it was. I don't want the listeners to take the wrong impression. It doesn't happen that often, but from time to time it happens,

and from time to time we get complaints. That's the problem with equity. It's just impossible. Tyler, you had said that most people fail. The one thing I will say about stand-up comedy is if you can make an audience laugh, I tell this to every young comic that wants my opinion, but if you can make an audience laugh, you'll work. You'll make a living.

Unlike acting, which I think you could be the greatest actor in the world, I don't think that guarantees you anything. Oh, the SAG, the amount of people that are in SAG that make a living is five, I think it's five percent. So that's people that pay dues. It's better than the people who work for me. But every comic that's funny that's been at it

is making a living. They may not be a star, but they're all making a living. Can I add one other thing? Not everyone. Yeah. If you make an audience laugh consistently, you're making a, I mean. But you also need, you know, you still have to have a business sense. You have to, you have to not be an alcoholic.

You know, there's a lot of things like to. Can I add one more thing just because I don't want to get myself in trouble. What also happens is that there is, we do diversity of um style and lack of monotony and quite often okay um to keep a show varied yeah you end up also then having a diverse lineup because you don't want to have five you know clever nerdy jewish guys yeah yeah you know so so that guys. So that also works also. Energies. You have so many different things. It all seems to work out for itself.

Diversity and perspective. I don't care about that. Yeah, shit. Nobody cares about your dumb perspective. You said here today that I'm in comedy to be funny and to teach people something. Just drop to teach people something. I'll tell's important. You said here today that I'm in comedy to be funny and to teach people something. I was like, just drop the teach people something.

I'll tell you why. Just be funny. Most of the baseline where I'm coming from, people don't know what I'm talking about. Right. So it's like I have to convey something, but I can't convey it like a lecture. I got to figure out how to make it. Yeah, that's like. Right.

But your goal is. To laugh. That's it. As an entertainer. Yeah. And if what you find funny requires them to be educated in some way, to explain it to them in some way. Like Colin Quinn. Colin Quinn.

You're going to learn about history. You're going to learn about all sorts of stuff. Yeah, yeah. That's brilliant. You're actually going to entertain them on your own terms, which is like the opposite of being a hack. It's like I'm not going to bend to them. I'm going to bring them to me.

Now, David Tell doesn't educate people, but he's brilliant. But, you know, that's his style. But he's not seeking to educate, enlighten, or expose profound truths. Yeah. I think it's fair to say. Like a Stephen Wright. Like a Stephen. More anime.

Stephen Wright. Now, as for myself, I was in the no profound truth category, but I'm... Are you doing stand-up now? I'm making a switch, yeah. I'm doing stand-up. I gotta come see you.

And I'm making, and I'm slowly trying to make a switch into a little bit more issue-based comedy, simply because I think that's what's more likely to go viral. You know? I mean, my clever joke. But my joke that Louis C.K. told me. Yeah, yeah. You know, the joke about the...

Okay, that's as good a joke as I'm going to write. I'm not going to write a better joke than that. Louis C.K. said, this is a great joke. I love this joke. It was one of his favorite jokes, I think. Yeah, yeah. Didn't do shit. Nobody cared.

Yeah. Didn't go viral. Didn't do shit. Then the seller put it on their Instagram feed. Didn't do shit nobody cared didn't go viral didn't do shit then the seller put it on their Instagram feed didn't do shit there either so I'm not gonna write a cleverer joke

so either pharmaceutical sales or or try another kind of comedy that's where I'm at but that's fun anyways because

we have a lot of time to grow your career's long so if you wanna do political jokes for a year, whatever. And every comic, I think after 30 years, should do something different.

That's my, you know, it's enough already. But anyway. All right, we're about done here. Any last, well, Perry, what do you think about diversity in comics? Do you want somebody to give you a spot because you're a woman? No, I want somebody to give you a spot because you're a woman? No,

I want somebody to give me a spot because I'm funny, but I have, I'm more, more than that. I think that I actually think that I can understand, like, I'm trying to think like if I owned a comedy club, I might say you can't go on stage with a swastika on just because of who I am as what I think about Jews.

Would you tell Mel Brooks you can't make the producers? I don't know, maybe. I have different opinions about free speech than you do. Would you tell him I can't make Holger's Heroes? Listen. Well, would you allow everything, and then when you see something, have a conversation? Yeah, so that's the thing that bothers me is that unless there is something that we don't know and it certainly doesn't seem like there is.

It seems like first of all, the fact that you're Jewish does change your right to have access to the swastika and the fact that you're Indian and all of those things, it's very different than if you were like a KKK member or a white nationalist. I mean, I think context, why are you looking at me like that? Because that's the whole joke is that he's Indian. I understand that. But I would absolutely, of course, I would read your letter. And I certainly don't understand why other clubs are following suit. I mean, I think that that's terribly unfair. And, you know, you could also say I would appreciate if you don't do that joke here. That's fair enough, yeah. Yeah.

Tell me the rules, I'll follow the rules. Yeah, I don't think that that's very nice. Yeah, but who makes the rules? Well, the owner of the comedy club makes the rules. Sure, yeah. That's a slippery slope, too. What are the rules? How are we establishing the rules?

And when do the rules change for who? Well, Noam's rule is that you have entirely free speech. Until the 50th email. No, and he's never going to censor any comic. But if it's not funny, or he gets like a thousand emails about people hating it, then that, I mean,

but that goes along to being funny, right? Like if you're killing in the room, you don't care. Even if you vehemently disagree with it, you will never say you can't tell that joke. If the audience likes it? Yes. But what if the audience likes it and it's really, really bad?

He will not. He doesn't. He's not going to agree. I mean, you can imagine a scenario that will never happen, by the way, where a comic is up there doing a white guy's talk of the N-word this and the N-word that and I hate the N-word and the audience is howling. Look, I was trying to do stuff last night. That would never happen, but that would be a line,

a hypothetical line, where you would probably intervene. Yeah, I don't feel that I have to have my own First Amendment that I can never violate. It's my club, I'll do what I want. But my own natural inclination is that it's better to have a thick skin and better let people say what they want. And, you know, these things don't actually, it doesn't actually bother me.

Like when I hear stuff, it's like, I don't know. I usually think people are faking it when they pretend to be so bothered. Like who cares that much about what somebody jokes about or something like that? Yeah, I've never gotten upset at any joke. Like, even if it's bad. I mean, people have to try things. They have to work things out. That's the whole process of standing up.

Yeah, you don't know where in the line of freshness you're seeing a joke. And I think, you know, you've got to water every seed and see where it goes. And then for this, though, the fact that it killed in that room is what was the most surprising to me. My only risk assessment— Are the other comics backing you up? Well, I don't know what you mean by backup. I don't know. Sign your letter, I guess. Everybody wants to get booked, so they also don't want to get booked so they also don't want to get

you're not going to get a lot rarely do you get somebody I'll tell you what I have hundreds of DM's and calls from comics in the scene in the shadows telling me they support me when I put that video up the other day

it's probably thousands. I'll go and publicly state, I support Tyler Fisher's fight for non-discrimination. Thank you. What about me? Appreciate that. And free the nipple. And I support you.

I think you were unjustly banned. Maybe I would have said, if I were the club owner, don't do that again. Reasonable. And by the way, I'm sorry I made fun of your lisp. I didn't mean to make fun of the lisp.

At first, I actually thought it was a different pronunciation of swastika. I didn't mean to. Then it became funny. No, I don't have a lisp. You don't have a lisp.

He's kidding. I don't have a lisp. No. Yeah. Okay. So, listen, I really appreciate... You want to say something else? I was going gonna say um you said say perfectly well paul mooney said if you concentrate on it like paul mooney paul mooney said don't get too comfortable around white people and i think that's what happened

i got too comfortable around white people what the fuck does that mean? Cut. We'll be right back. No, it's just funny that I was talking about a joke specifically with Hindu culture and Hitler taking in appropriation, and then all these clubs are white-owned. And so I just think it's so confusing. That would have killed in a black room, too. I started in black room.

Wait, are they Jewish-owned? Some must be. I don't think they are. The Laugh Factory. But that wasn't the... Creek is. No, she's Jewish? No.

That's what everybody is telling me. That's just because they didn't like her. That's what the assumption was. People were saying that even in the panel, they said, I think the owner is Jewish. I don't think she's Jewish. No, I don't think so. Certainly, last name is not Jewish.

It's not. Did you guys see that new Holocaust museum that just opened? Another one? At the Creek? It's at Columbia University right in the squad. At the Creek. Yeah, that's it. I don't like Holocaust museums

as a general rule. I don't know that you're supposed to like Holocaust museums. I don't like the idea of Holocaust museums. What? I don't like the idea of Holocaust museums.

I don't like telling people, look, this is what you can do. We can get away with it. We got away with it once. Here's the blueprint. Yeah. This is how it's done. Well, that famous famous story I'll tell

my famous story of getting caught cheating I was going to see a holocaust museum so it's an extra and it turned out to be 9-11

so it's like what do you guys make all this stuff on the college campus I know it's a can of worms right now but what do you mean you guys you mean this stuff on the college campus? I know it's a can of worms right now, but. What do you mean you guys?

You mean you people? Yeah, you people. Yeah. Who let this go in? Is it wild? Isn't it wild? Okay, what do you think? I mean, it's free speech. What do you think of it?

No, no, no. It's not only free speech. There's free speech, and then there's actual inciting of violence. Yes, very different. And then there's also actual. Is that inciting violence? Yes, some of them are inciting of violence very different and then there's also that inciting violence yes some of them are inciting violence and by the way calling for the murder of all fucking people who live in israel and annihilating the country and also forming lines screaming against anybody who is a quote-unquote Zionist?

And sending all the Jews home from Colombia? What's a Zionist exactly? Somebody who believes that Jews should have, that Israel should exist. So yeah, I heard them chanting, they're like, well, we have a Zionist here. We found a Zionist, like they were like hunting them. Yeah.

That's not good. Yeah. But no, I just think it's ridiculous. Like now these kids have to work remotely again. Like it's like now. But no, I just think it's ridiculous. Now kids have to work remotely again. It's like now it's just I don't know. Sending the Jewish students home from Columbia because they don't feel safe on campus

is not fucking okay. I get the sense that no one doesn't want to I'm trying to get you some views here. I don't know exactly what I think. I think I think I'm trying to get you some views here. I don't know exactly what I think. I think I'm against it. Just stop there. I just see it on the screen.

You're the free speech guy. Right, right. So, I mean, okay, there's a couple issues that swirl around it. issue is that the hypocrisy of it in terms of whether or not they whatever it is whatever their explanation is as to why columbia is allowing this don't kid us that it's because you believe in free speech because you know goddamn well they're not shutting columbia down university for people who are anti-trans or pro-life or against affirmative action, they would find a way to start enforcing their rules immediately. So it's clear that part of the reason this is going on this way is because the general

view in academia is sympathetic to this point of view. So that's very important because if that's true, and I believe it is true, then I don't even need to deal with the free speech issue. What you're doing is selectively enforcing your rules here by being a hierarchy of oppression. And they decide who's... Now let's say for the sake of argument, that wasn't the case. And they actually did believe in free speech as a university. Now you have a tougher issue

because does the fact that one student says go back to Poland or these people, is that reason to tell all the protesters to go home? No, it's probably not. It's probably a time you would just try to find out that person who crossed the line and see to it. You would probably have some latitude for mistakes or for discipline, whatever it is, before you canceled an entire protest for the number one issue in the world. So, you know, that's where I'm torn.

Further, my personal feeling is that they shouldn't be having these protests at universities anyway. They should tell people, listen, we have to have an esprit de corps here among students. It's a campus. You can go right over beyond that gate there and protest on Main Street like every other person in America is entitled to. But I think the university may want to hand out leaflets. They can have some rules and certainly want to have academic freedom. Like camping out.

But it is not good for the vibe of a university to fan the flames of protest, especially when the issues of the day are so contentious and people are dying and children in rubble, whatever it is, and then expect the university to be a nice place to learn. So I wouldn't have that. And finally, since they did have to send everybody to home and have remote classes, that seems to be a good indication that they let this go on too long because

the primary mission of a university is to have classes. And if you've lost the ability to have your classes because you're trying to maintain free speech, obviously you've gone too far. If the free speech is incompatible with your classes, then the free speech has obviously gotten out of hand. So that's what I feel about it. But, you know, these videos, like you hear that somebody got stabbed in the flag with a Palestinian, somebody got stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag.

And I'm like, you know, I really would like to see that video. I'm not really sure if it's what they're saying. Well, I do know that your joke would kill on campus right now. Yeah, yeah. If you want that career back, buddy. I mean, in general, what's true is that there's a tremendous ugly wave of anti-Semitism fueled by intersectionality. One of the people quoted in the Atlantic Magazine, one of the students said, brown people have

always been oppressed by Jewish people, by white Jewish people, and it's always been the case, always will be. Something along those lines. This is what people think. And you're not going to fix that by sending the protesters home. The problem is much deeper than... Well, you're not going to fix that

by sending the Jews home either. I mean, when you have kids on Cooper Union campus locked in a library with so-called protesters pounding down the doors, screaming anti-Semitic slurs at them you have a real fucking problem and this is spreading to every single campus on the slowly in this country

that's why i gotta go to state college uri no one gave a shit about us yeah i feel if you want to be a college if you want to be a stand-up this is a rough time imagine being a comic in college right now it's just gotta be brutal fucking brutal I got hired yeah I'm doing Bill Burr I went up after him the other night

and I did his voice the whole time that's a great Burr can you do Colin Quinn I've never tried Jay Moore does an unbelievable Colin Quinn, it's so fun. Can you do Colin Quinn? I've never tried. I would have to work on that. Jay Moore does an unbelievable Colin Quinn. And it's all the more unbelievable because he's the only one,

as far as I know, that does it. Jay Moore's in this new animated show I'm doing on the Daily Wire. We have a cartoon coming out. I might as well plug the only acting thing I'm allowed to do. Okay, plug. Adam Carolla.

Yeah, it's Adam Carolla's show. Plug away. It's coming out, I think, May 7th or 8th. Adam Carolla, Put, it's Adam Carolla's show. Plug away. It's coming out, I think, May 7th or 8th. Adam Carolla, Putty from Seinfeld, Roseanne, all sorts of people. White Jewish people are today and always have been the oppressors of all brown people. So this is like what they're marching to. And this is insanity. You know, I mean, it's insanity in so many ways,

but especially the fact that they seem to not understand that white Jewish people were the only white people to speak of who actually were involved in the civil rights movement. White Jewish parents, white Jewish people were killed in the civil rights movement. I mean, the white Jewish people. I mean, in fairness, they weren't the only ones, but they were overrepresented as a group. As an ethnic group, I mean, it was

white Jews were all throughout the Civil Rights Movement everybody knows this, and somehow it comes out on the other end of history as white Jewish people have always been the oppressors of brown people. When did we even have the opportunity? You know, Larry David's great-grandfather

was a slave owner. Were we oppressing people in Russia or Poland? But you understand that nobody cares what the truth is. Yeah, it's a hierarchy of oppression. I mean, I gotta say, for the straight white guys right now who aren't Jewish,

it's a nice little vacation from being responsible. I check the news every day and go, still not responsible. Just slavery. That's all I have to own. I get the month off. Now, obviously, somewhere in his family, someone was oppressing somebody. But it came out all right. They're all shit.

Are you just in New York to be on this podcast? Is that what this is? I think so, yeah. I came up. Wow. We got to end. We got to end. All right. They're all shit. Are you, so you're just in New York to be on this podcast? Is that what this is? I think so, yeah. Yeah, I came up. Wow. Okay, we gotta end. We gotta end. All right, thank you.

Podcast at ComedyCellar.com for comments, questions, and suggestions. We thank Tyler Fisher. Hot episode. Free speech. We thank Philip Abraham. Comedy.

And, Noam, congratulations on your award. Danke. And, Max, good stuff behind the scenes. Thank you for having me. Now you told us the joke verbatim, right?

And that was a brief Mark Norman impression. Thank you everybody. Hey, hey, hey, comedy. Bye-bye. I'm Kevin Hart. I'm gay.