The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - RYDER DIE: Ryder Kessler and Mike Feeney

Episode Date: May 6, 2022

Ryder Kessler is a Working Families Party-endorsed candidate for New York State Assembly in the 66th District. He was the founding CEO of DipJar, and since 2016, he has worked in Democratic politics to take back the House, Senate, and White House, with a focus on voting rights. He is a member of Community Board 2 in Manhattan and has written extensively about the need for more vibrant, equitable, sustainable neighborhoods downtown. Mike Feeney’s appearances include NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, Barstool Sports, Fox’s Laughs, Funny or Die and more. His stand up special is called “Rage Against The Routine.” He is a Comedy Cellar regular. 

This is live from the table, recorded at the world famousfamous Comedy Cellar, coming at you on Sirius XM 99. Radha! And on the Laugh Button Podcast Network, this is Dan Natterman with me. Perrie Alashenbrand, she is our producer, and she also does on-air work with us. That evolved, you know, as things do. Noam Dorman is coming at us once again

from Westchester. You can run, but you cannot hide. Noam Dorman stricken with COVID-19. After two years wearing the most effective masks, being careful,

I guess we can add COVID to death and taxes as an inevitability in life noam why do they call it covid 19 why why is it up to covid 22 because it came out in 2019 but the variants are so dissimilar maybe they should they would just call it's not a car company noam this is epidemiology there a disease that everybody got and died from. And now there's a disease that we treat really serious, but nobody's dying from it. It's like we should put a different name.

Maybe people would not be so scared of it. Well, but who's scared of it? Noam, how do you feel? I feel okay. Yeah. Well, you were vaxxed, you know, and boosted. Excuse me. I think I lost.

Boosted, vaxxed, everything know, and boosted. Excuse me. I think I've boosted back to everything. So it's my wife's fault. It's like a lot of things in my life because the whole, the whole family had COVID and I didn't get it for three weeks. I moved from my wife to my son, to my other, to my daughter, to the other sons and daughters and nanny. And at some point four to of five of them had covid so my daughter says mommy how come daddy you know why do we all have to be locked in our rooms how

come daddy can't just lock in a room and we can run around the house like normal so one of you said oh that's a good idea mila but was it a good idea because they're all running around the house with no masks on everywhere because i come down to go to the bathroom or to eat something and i'm walking through a COVID fog. And I finally got I don't know if it necessarily transmits through surfaces. Mainly, I think it transmits person to person from. No, they leave it in the air. I mean, it's just all these kids with COVID.

Right. But you should have gotten out of the house and you had the opportunity to get out of the house and you turned it down. I had a softball. I got I'd gone so long without catching it with despite. You got cocky. You got cocky. Yeah, I got cocky. Yeah. Anyway, let's let's move on to our guests. We have two guests, but the I should have remembered that cockiness, you know, from my STDs. But anyway, our first guest tonight, Mike Feeney, a relatively new.

They keep coming, right? I mean, and somehow I'm still hanging on. They haven't gotten rid of me yet, but anyway, he's new at the car. Oh, Dan, I think I'm part of by getting rid of you. Make a mental note. I want to talk about that. Go ahead. But Mike Feeney, everybody. Hi, everyone. Hi. He sounds like John Mulaney. He is not John Mulaney. Yes. Without the success. He's staying up special rage against the routine.

That's a good name. And that's on YouTube. Yes. That's what everybody's doing nowadays. Fuck the gatekeepers. Yes. Fuck Netflix. They're going right to the people. And many have had success with it. Yeah. No guarantee, but many. And how is it doing? It's great. I don't want to hear about your success. Is it getting a lot of hits? A lot of hits. I know that Joe List also has one out on YouTube and, you know, and comics are very good about plugging other comics on YouTube.

Yeah, once it started, because it used to be like an embarrassment to be like, oh, my specials on YouTube. But now once everybody's doing it now, it seems people like to share others and stuff like that. So it's very nice. Comedians can be generous with their with their kind of like going out with Pete Davidson. I have a theory, though, that people only share it like comics, share it still out of a selfishness because they're like, I'm promoting it because I want them to restory it and then put it on there. Look, we can argue whether a true altruism exists.

And philosophers have argued that for centuries. What's that? Who does anything except for that reason? Yeah. I mean, you could argue that there's always a selfish reason behind any act of charity, but maybe not. Maybe true altruism is this.

Here's the scenario. The podcast on Twitch. You think a woman performs oral sex on you because she has nothing coming in return? Go ahead. Either she enjoys it or she was once quid pro quo. Mike Feeney is a New York City-based

comedian featured on these... You don't have to read the whole bio. Perio likes me to do along. No, no, no. Perrie likes to send you things so that you can be acquainted with what's going on. Anyway, can I talk about the replacing you thing? Yeah, go ahead. So I was looking at the before I guess I was looking at the Stan's website tonight and and stand up New York.

First of all, I can only imagine how many poor customers get those two clubs confused. Anyway, there's a comedy seller and a comics seller. Anyway, but anyway, there's a lot of comedians working at this club that I don't know.

A lot. Most of them. At the stand you're talking about. It used to be there like a big overlap, but somehow over time it's kind of morphed. Like, except for like a few people like Ari Shafir, like those guys, they have their own crew over there working there and people working here. So I told Liz and Esty,

I want to make a spreadsheet of every single name of people working at the stand. And then I want to go through every single one of them and figure out, you know, who, who's, who should be working at the cellar, but it could be a lot, Dan, I want to warn you. Well, you know, I'm trying to zero sum game. I am trying to stay, stay funny and, and, and doing the best I can, but if it's time to go, it's time to go.

Mike Feeney is part of this new crop that we're talking about. Mike, who do you know that works at the stand that we should be using at the cellar? Who's the first person you think of? I don't know who the overlap is, though.

I would have to look at the website. I know they have a lot of their guys, but I think a lot of them work here, don't they? Like Monroe Martin and like Derek Gaines. And I'm trying to think of those guys work here. Yeah. Weren't you going to open another club? I'm trying to, but I haven't been able to pull it off by another club.

He means another room under the same under the Comedy Cellar umbrella. Yeah. It's to be slightly more present. There goes that ching ching again. Oh, for the love of God. And it was perfectly time was we're talking about opening up another. That's Noam's phone makes a ching ching sound. Oh, but it always all doing this. It always seems to ching ching at like exactly the right moment. Like Lenny and Squiggy used to always like just, you know, they'd say

they'd come into the if you remember Laverne and Shirley, Shirley Feeney. So, you know, these names are Ted Jones. Are you reading Ted Jones? I knew he's a he's a he's newer, but he produces shows there. Yeah. Danielle Janine. Casey Balsham. Now, Casey Balsham is fucking hilarious and should absolutely be working here. And her husband, Robbie Slowak, is very funny, too, who is also a comic

who writes on Jon Stewart. Robbie's amazing. Yeah, both of those people would be my L or Ellie Orlando. I don't know. L. Yeah, she's she's newer, too, but she's she's working hard around so far. Working hard. But so far, Casey

Balsham is is a keeper and Robbie. Robbie's great. Yeah, I don't know if Robbie works at the stand, but he is. He is very funny. Both of them are very funny. Robbie's done my show before. He's hilarious. Yeah. And Karen Feehan. Yep. She's she's been doing coming while she she hosts

a lot of their shows there and stuff like that. She's been working the stand for forever. I got to get on this we we can't afford to have these people working in town i don't even know who they are that's that's some i gotta get back on my game okay so anyways that's it then so so you know we'll try we're trying to try to hold on to you i mean you know we have a soft spot well you might be doing me a favor if you let me go might light a fire under my ass or at least motivate me to get into pharmaceutical sales. At least there's a lucrative business for what I understand. Mike,

can you tell us a little bit about your association with John Mulaney and how that is plaguing you? Well, we, we have, we're both skinny white guys or we're tall and married, or at least now I still am. But we, we both have a similar voice, which is unfortunate for me, not so much for him.

I don't think he's ever got a you sound like Mike Feeney, but I have run into him in Brooklyn and he was very amicable, a nice guy. And he, you know, he was nice enough to not address that we have a very similar voice.

So, yeah, my my plague is trying to not be compared to the problem is on like social media on things like TikTok or Instagram and stuff. People will hear a bit and be like, I think this is like because the people will hear just a sound on TikTok sometimes and they go, I thought this was John Mulaney, which is fine because it's like, whatever. I understand it's not a specific, but then some people will be like, this is stolen. This is a John Mulaney joke. And I have to like individually write some people you can ignore. But then you have to write to these people and be like, listen,

I know we sound a lot like this is not him. This is actually me. And then they're like, oh, every single one has been like, oh, my bad. But it's just so funny how in the world of social media, people just throw out the what is the worst accusation for comedy with comedians, which is like thief, you know, and then. But but yeah, but that's that's my cross to bear. But do you think it might hurt? But do you think it might be a positive thing? But you know, we're looking for a John Mulaney type.

Yeah, I did one time I did a show, this great show Hot Tub in Los Angeles that is run by Kurt Braun, Howard and Kristin God damn, why am I blanking on her name? that is run by Kurt Braun Hauer and Kristen. Goddamn, why am I blanking on her name? She does the voice in Bob's Burgers and in Wig. No, not in Shaw. Shaw. That's right. Kristen Shaw.

And she told me she was like, I did the show. I did very well. And she goes, you can come back anytime you want, because we always want to get Mulaney. We can't get him. So you'd be an easy replacement, which which is, you know, it's fun. It's like a nice little joke. And then she actually had messaged me the next day, which is so funny because she's pretty successful. So she messaged me the next day and was like, hey, I was thinking about it. I'm sorry about the Mulaney thing. That was shitty. And it just

it was very nice of her to see that it's like even when you get higher up in comedy, people still get that neurotic, like, ah, why did I say that to that kid for, you know, and then message me. But yeah, so that so to that end, I guess it helped. Well, no, have you seen Mike's on stage? I have not seen his act. No, no, I haven't seen his act. Well, he's obviously he's a strong comic as he passed him. But I predict good things for Mike Fadey. He's young. He's handsome in a non-threatening way. I think Nicole would agree to describe it in a non-masculine, but not not toxically. So he's not talking. Yes. So. And and he does the job on stage, but that's a given, you know, if you're working here, I guess, but but what

you're saying, it's not a given. It's that saying it's not a given sometimes it's not so are you this might sound like a cliched podcast question then I'm going to let Noam I'm sure Noam has some things he probably I have COVID I'm hanging by a thread go ahead

but I assume your ambition in this business is to have a John Mulaney-like career, to be in front of the camera, acting and stand-up. If I said to you, you can only do acting, but you'll be a big movie star. I asked this question to Harrison Greenbaum. No, no, I asked him a similar question, but the other night I asked this question to Ariel Elias. I'll ask it to you. I asked him a similar question, but the other night I asked this question to Ariel Elias. I'll ask it to you.

You can be a movie star, but never do stand up. You'll be a movie star. You'll be making millions of dollars. You'll be a movie star. In fact, I'll even let you write the movies. Mm hmm. These are these are it's a it's a

it's a Mike Feeney joint. Sure. OK, as Spike Lee would say. But you're not doing stand up ever again. Or you can be a stand up and you'll make a living. You only got a living.

All right. You'll pay your rent. You have a decent house. Yeah. You make a couple hundred grand a year. Tops. A couple hundred grand a year is pretty. But but but that's it. And you'll be working and you'll be working a funny bone and you'll be like, you know, in Pittsburgh in a hotel. Yeah. Here's the thing. The life of a stand up comedy is a very lonely one, especially on the road. I mean, it's miserable. I mean, I don't I don't really like the idea. Like I'm not I'm not a strong actor. Like I can do like comedic stuff, but I'm not like I don't want to be an actor. I would love to do more like directing and writing and then put

myself in a small scene. If I ever got to do the like Happy Madison thing or like what Seth Rogen does where it's like him and his very funny friends write a movie and then they all are in it together or a show or something like that. That, to me, seems like the absolute dream because you're with the funniest people on the planet and you're all making something together. So you would take that over the funny bone? Over the Hartford funny bone, I'd probably. But you're making a decent living and you're doing your stand up. I mean, listen, a decent living, a couple hundred thousand dollars a year is more than

a decent living to me. hundred thousand dollars a year is more than a decent living to me. That sounds like a great living. Or I give you the directing, writing, and you can give yourself a cameo and you're a star, but you'll never do stand up again. So you're taking the writing. That's like, it's almost like an Adam Sandler, right? Where it's like, he doesn't,

or he doesn't do stand up anymore, but he was, you know, he got to, I mean, he shoots every movie in Hawaii now. So which one are you taking? Well. Or I give you 2 million and you're out completely. No, that I don't want because that's just going to be that's going to make me feel terrible about myself in a matter of six months. You know, I'll just go, what am I doing? What do I need the money?

I don't need the money. You know, it's just going to be I think, you know, it's it's hard. I really want to do both. That's my these young comics. Arielle Elias said she would take the stand-up. I said, are you out of your goddamn mind? I think that... But here's the thing.

I think it used to be like you get into stand-up and then you do Montreal and then you get a sitcom and then you can get in movies. Now it's like get famous and then you can do stand-up because now you have an audience. What I don't want is to be in my late 40s

selling half-filled rooms in the Midwest by myself. But enough about Dan, that is that's, that's, uh, that's pretty brutal. Um, if only I were in my forties, but it's, but it is, you know, it is what it is. Like it, I was a bit passive aggressive. I would say, look, he's so young. He doesn't even realize what he's saying at his age. He doesn't like, it's like I was at that age. I would like, look, he's so young, he doesn't even realize what he's saying at his age. He doesn't like it's like I was at that age. I would like, you know, to me, if you were you in your 40s, you're fucking old. Well, and it's I mean, you know, you got to face it, because when I started comedy,

like it's different for you and for people that have been doing it like a lot longer than me, like Bobby Kelly and all this stuff like you, you guys started at a time when like the landscape was so different. When I started, it was still like the Internet being famous on the internet wasn't a thing it was still like get on Letterman get on Conan get it to Montreal and since I started it all shifted which is kind of crazy because the rug got kind of pulled while I was trying to catch my footing meanwhile comics who start now it's just like to start a YouTube start a do a do of reels in a TikTok a day and then do a podcast and that's how you get famous versus. But the problem with those people is they're not funny enough. I can't imagine the

hell that I had multiple like videos of me doing stand up in my first seven years. If that was on the Internet anywhere, I'd want I'd want to kill myself. I mean, that would be so brutal. But now there's like there's kids who've been doing comedy six months that have Instagram clips up, but nobody's laughing. But it looks good because it's shot in 4K and they're standing in front of a crowd. And, you know, you put up your clips on Instagram like everybody else. Yeah. And is it working for you in terms of getting a following? It did. Yeah. And especially on TikTok. I was like one of the big like pushers of TikTok back in like 2020. Everybody made fun of me. But I I got I came to Twitter too late. I came to Instagram too late. So now I'm like,

I'm an early adopter. I got on everything right away. Worst case scenario, it flames out like Vine did or Periscope or any of these other things. But or Periel or Periel. You know how to dance the Renegade?

What was that? You know how to dance the Renegade? That was a big TikTok dance. Renegade. Oh, no. Yeah, I see. I've never done any of the dances. I've just posted my standup clips on there because i saw a huge need that there was

only like two or three only two or three people that i knew that were on tiktok posting stand-up clips and they would do great and i go oh my god why aren't i posting this on there so i started posting all the stuff from rage against the routine and they started going viral like some of them had like eight million views views and i views. And I got up to about 330,000 followers on there, which then started moving over to my Instagram. And at the same time, it was a weird trifecta where it was that. And then I had another viral video happen

that got on Barstool and then COVID happened. So all at the same time, people were suddenly indoors with nothing to do but watch videos. So all of that kind of came out at a perfect time. But then I got banned from TikTok for six months. Why? Because we made a comedy sketch. And in the sketch, we showed a literal flash frame as a joke of Osama bin Laden not even doing anything. It was just a picture of him. And they said that I was promoting terrorist organizations. No way. So they first they they suspended me for six months,

but you're allowed to appeal it. So I appealed the suspension. And then they said, you know what? Now you're banned. And then they banned me. And I was like, how do you make the punishment worse than the original, you know, than the original punishment? But then after two weeks, they emailed me and go, we reviewed your banning and we've decided we're just going to give you a six month suspension. Do you want to appeal that? And I was like, no, not again. And so now I just came back onto it in like October,

but my views are like one 50th of what they were before. That is so insane. Can you believe that they ban you for six months for showing a picture of Osama bin Laden? I don't I don't know if he's used to working at the Comedy Cellar. What did he say? What did he say? I don't know. I mean, I'm not bin Laden fan. Maybe I know this guy, Feeny.

Yeah. And I want to say it wasn't a probe bin Laden thing. It was more just it was the funniest thing to put in the series of heightened. Well, it was inappropriate. Yeah. Why? And you'll never. Why was it? Why was it inappropriate? I don't get I'm I'm just following up on your dad. I know what. Who cares? I'm asking like, well, why did they is there a role? They're not allowed to use the lines.

This is like again, they said they were their exact line was promoting terrorist organizations or groups. That was it. And so it's like if you put like Hitler up with that, but Hitler up, you're done. Any sort of. Yeah. Yeah.

Any of these people. Saddam Hussein, you're done. But I don't know if you caught it. No. Mike said he was married. Now, what do you think? I know that we spoke about that. Yeah.

Do you think he's too young? He should have held out for, you know, for the Hollywood vagina parade that might be coming his way. Yeah, but I would say that to any man of any age. But yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I was never a guy. My parents are divorced. I never assumed I would ever get married. And then, you know, I met a woman in college. And next thing I know, it's been like 15 years.

So it just it happened faster than I could have imagined. But also, if it wasn't for faster than I could have imagined. But also, if it wasn't for her, I would still be wearing like extra large black band T-shirts and giant jeans that don't fit me. And I would be I don't know if I'd even be doing comedy. She was the one she was at my first comedy show. She was very much like she's the biggest supporter and pushes me to do it. And what does she do? She works at NYU, actually. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you found a good one. Yeah. I have some friends who got married young and they're all very happy still. We say they say they're still happy.

Do you think they're not? No, I think they are actually all of my friends who got married in their 20s are by and large divorced. Well, here's here's my thing. We why? Why? Of course, because my friends would be different than yours. Like like you have flighty. I know. Really? Really? What kind of fucking friends do I have? My people are more settled and more like wholesome and more like grounded, grounded. They're people who are grounded. You you know what i know your friends remember that what what will you delve into this um you're not you're not scaring me by saying you

know my friends and um they're just like you know they're just more grounded they're more traditional and your friends you know are like you know doing threesomes and foursomes and it's like you know it's different i i'm not surprised that your friends are divorced. I'm just not surprised. I'm going to refrain from responding for that out of respect for your wife. If you had to do it all over. None of my friends have written a book like the only bush I trust is my own and on my knees. I guess that's not the way my friends are.

That's your that's your click. I'm sorry that my books are scandalous to you. Well, no, no, they're great. I'm like Picasso was married. I mean, like I mean, like you're from a different milieu and and you know, you're you're you're you're milieu is important to the world, too. It's like takes takes takes a village. No, you're sort of from that milieu.

You are a musician, are a musician. You you know, you you certainly dabbled, you know, in the in the in the delights of the flesh that come with musicianship. Yeah, I got married later than my friends did. But even I'm even I'm more traditional than Perry. Oh, God, this is such a crock of shit. Are you buying any of this? How long have you been with Juanita? 27 years. OK, do we need to go through like your escapades and just abominable behavior?

I'm not. My sound is a little cutting. Nicole, are you hearing the crackling? It might be your headphones. OK, first of all. You know, that's what men are okay let's just be honest okay now the whole thing changes now it's that's what men are my behavior is not abominable my behavior is top where were you on september 11th no um i was i was in

washington dc having with who with what don't interrupt him let them finish the story my behavior is not abominable my behavior is probably top five or ten percent of good behavior for men that's just the way it is men are men all right and and we're not we're nothing to be proud of but that's it's you know i don't know like i know people be listening to this and say oh he's such an asshole but i know how men talk privately and um you know i, I'm pretty well grounded, I would say. I waited a long time, even though we were together a long time, I waited a long time to get married because I just I don't know. There's a part of me that was like, maybe I'll maybe we'll break up someday

and then I'll be like I was still there is that man element, like to what you're saying of like holding that in the back of your head, like maybe maybe this won't work out and I'll be single in New York City. But then every single time it just becomes a grass is greener situation. And then when I got to be twenty seven or something, I was like, what am I what am I like? What leaving her besides, you know, an immediate six month like instant gratification of just doing that around New York City? What is out like the person I'm going to be looking for is going to be someone like her, like someone who's supportive, who's nice. Who's got a good fit.

Like all of the things she would check all the boxes. I think I was just, you know, I was just kind of holding out. You know, I wanted to ask you something before I next guest. I think you're undervaluing that six months of instant gratification. You know what? I'll call her tonight. It's over. You talked yourself into like ah it's just six months of the most awesome time i've ever had if you could go back over again do you

think you just get married earlier or do you and do you uh think you did the right thing by uh by playing playing around a little bit um i should have got married earlier i because i because i should have started a family earlier. You know, you can't have your cake and eat it too. That's just the way it is. But here's my, this is how I know I didn't miss out on, like, because all of my friends at the time were single and the dating apps had just come out like literally seven months into our relationship.

So I missed all of online dating. And my friends were all like, this is the best word. Like my buddy's like, I slept with 70 women this year. Like they were just, but then within a matter of months, they were the loneliest,

saddest people. Like my buddy, who is the most alpha dude you've ever met was just like, I just want someone to lay in bed with. I mean, that's literally a sentence that he told me. So I'm like, oh,

okay. So after a while, no one has never said, I had said that, but it's true. There's like the mob while, Noam has never said. No, I have said that. But it's true. There's like the mobsters, like the Sopranos guys. They have it the most sensibly.

They have their family. I mean, I'm not saying you can pull us off anymore, but and then they and then they fill the knees on the side. And that's that was kind of an accepted

arrangement, even in like Perrielle as support of that relationship. They have that in France. And as long as the French do it, Perrielle thinks it's, you know, the classiest thing in the world. Literally, she'll live in France.

Like, so what, Perrielle? But she has, she's a Franco file. So they do that in France. They let the men have mistresses. And the women. It's not just the men. It's not all about just the men. But it always leads to something emotional

every single time. It'll lead no matter. I mean, it's like every movie, every TV show, every mistress eventually gets jealous or the or the wife gets jealous. It always, always converges at some point where then they go, I'm leaving my wife for you. And then he doesn't. It's it's madmen.

It's good fellas. It's good. It's the Sopranos. It's everything. Well, it is possible that human beings are not meant to be monogamous, that we're not actually monogamous creatures. Although I would like to say that for all of what Noam is saying, if Juanita is further than five feet away from him at any given time,

he's like, where's Juanita? Yeah. So, you know, it's like it's nice. I love my wife. Did I say anything to indicate I don't love my wife? No, you didn't. I guess, I guess it's joyous. I love my wife very much. We've been married four years.

We've been dating though, a total of 14 years, which is, I know I had to make sure. And she's great. I mean, if I'm being honest, she's one of my favorite people right now. And anything, when you tell people that you've been in a relationship that long a lot of times from men it's met with pity which is unfortunate you know a lot of men will be like ah 14 years jesus christ the sex must have gotten so stale by now right

and i'm like no sex hasn't gotten stale it's gotten efficient that's where we're at you know like our sex life is like a billy joel this point. We are just, yeah, we're just fucking playing the hits. No new shit. Everybody's happy. Like that's how we're, you know? Yeah. Yeah, you're never going to go to a Billy Joel concert. You're going to be like, this is off my next, you're like, piano man, get to it right now.

All right. Know what you want, you know? And we don't have to do that thing that new couples have to do, which is like after sex, you gotta like build up each other's confidence, you know, we are well past that at this point. The last time my wife and I had sex, the first words out of her mouth when we got done, she just went, good stuff, and walked out of the room.

So I'm no longer in a marriage, I'm just on a lacrosse team with my wife, so that is just, hey, good stuff out there, let's hit the showers. And action! All right, well, let me do the introduction. Because that's sort of my thing, Mike. Oh, yeah.

I'm the introduction guy. And you probably did a great job. Well, you probably noticed that I do have a certain act for it. Ryder Kessler, which is a great name. Ryder Kessler. That is an awesome name. Ryder Kessler. That is an awesome name. Ryder Kessler. Thank you. Is it Ryder with a Y or with an I? R-Y-E-R

like Winona. Like in Paw Patrol. Like in Paw Patrol, yes. The Generation Alpha. Is there still a company like a U-Haul company that was called Ryder? Yeah, the trucking company. Ryder Kessler, a lifelong downtown Manhattanite and working families party endorsed candidate for New York State Assembly in the 66th district, founder and CEO of Dipjar, which is a startup whose technology helps low wage, low wage service workers and nonprofit organizations collect credit card tips and donations.

Thank you, Ryder Kessler, for joining us. Just let me introduce you to everybody here. If you don't know, this is Perry L. Ashenbrand. She's our producer, but you'll notice she's more than a producer. She is also chimes in. She yaps. Yeah. You know, I don't really I don't like the word. Yeah, because it has a sexist connotation. No, Dorman is the owner of the comedy cellar. Hi there. He's also a fine musician. And normally on Monday nights, he plays downstairs with the band.

But he has covid, so he can't come. But you'll be happy to know his symptoms are mild. And Mike Beeney, he is an up and coming comedian. My money is on him. You never know in this business. And no one likes to think he can predict, but he can't. But if I had to put money on anybody, it would be

Mike Feeney. Wow. Thank you. Wow, Dan. Well, like I said, he fits all the criteria. So, you know, I think I'm a little unfocused with the COVID, but can I call you Ryder or Mr. Kessler? Of course you can call me Ryder. He're half your age, for God's sake.

Mr. Kessler, you had written something, but it's a long time ago already, about all these shacks, these satellite restaurants that have sprung up on the sidewalks in New York City. Yeah, I wrote about outdoor dining back before I announced my campaign.

And that's why I wanted to have you on because, you know, we had outdoor dining and you were supporting, you were supportive of it. Big supporter. Which is so unlike any kind of community-minded, I used to be on the community board. The community-minded people are generally so anti-business, so, you know, such kill joys, really.

So I was like, oh my God, this guy's awesome. He's in favor of the dining. So tell us about it. Why are you in favor of these outdoor dinings? Yeah. Thank you for having me. Thanks for asking. And to give a little context for folks who maybe aren't as familiar with community boards, is that is it OK if I provide that context? Maybe your viewers, listeners know all about your community board service and experience, but, you know, the community boards are all volunteer appointed boards around the city. There are 50 of them, 59 of them rather. And our board community board two covers canal to 14th street from the West side to the Bowery. And yeah, boards like this are volunteers and they make advisory opinions about land use, about how we should use the streets.

And they weigh in on zoning, things like that. And they are generally older, wealthier, whiter and not really representative of the full community. So I was appointed to my community board, CB2, three years ago, and I was one of very few people under the age of 50. And, you know, so it was important to me to represent what I think is a broader sensibility. And that really came to a head around outdoor dining. So, you know, this program that started during COVID to allow restaurants to have broader access to sidewalk cafes and to open structures in the roadbed where parking spaces usually are, was absolutely critical to saving restaurants. 95% of restaurants surveyed said this saved their businesses. And 90% of them say continuing to be able to offer outdoor dining is critical to their economic success going forward.

It helped save 100,000 service jobs in the city. And it allowed New Yorkers who live here to eat and drink outside safely during COVID. And it was massively popular. There's a couple of different surveys, but they have found between a 78 and 84% approval of outdoor dining as a program amongst Manhattanites. So successful in so many metrics. It's made the streetscape vibrant. It's helped restaurants. It's helped the people they employ. It's helped New Yorkers. Parking is the downside. And that is the thing that I think-

Not for him. He wants to get rid of cars. Right. So I think for the folks who are frustrated by it, there are many kind of sensible concerns that have been raised about the lack of uniformity in the aesthetics and the structural integrity, and some are not as nice looking as others. And there should be some standardization. But I think the folks who are militantly opposed to say under no circumstances can we have outdoor dining continue. And I would note one of those people is the incumbent assembly member who I'm challenging, who is a militant opponent of outdoor dining. I think for them, the parking spaces are a really big issue. So let me let me double dab again. By the way, I said that about a community boards, but there were many, many people on the community board when I was on CB2 that were I were were heroes in my mind.

Very, very reasonable. Yeah. And I do not mean to impugn my colleagues who are lovely people and all acting in good faith to support. But in the overall, they were, you know, they they were people who moved to Greenwich Village when they were younger and when they were younger and even today, but especially when they were younger, Greenwich Village was the most famous nightlife district on planet earth. Literally. And that's not, that's not hyperbole. It was a synecdoche for, for, for, for nightlife, right? There's no need to use that word. I actually, I was almost a literature professor before I was a tech entrepreneur.

So I really, I appreciate it. Synecdoche, synecdoche So thank you for correcting yourself before I had to, I'll be good. There was a joke about that going on. Maybe it was, maybe it was on the other podcast where, where I corrected somebody that says Synecdoche. So anyway, so and then they got a little bit older and they'd forgotten the choice that they made to move into a kind of rambunctious neighborhood, you know. And then I thought that was quite unfair. And then they then they wanted to reshape the neighborhood in terms of the lifestyle, which was which was comfortable for them now that they've gotten older. And that rubbed me the wrong way. And it was like really ironic. I remember being on the community board when Ken Burns had that jazz fest, that jazz documentary documentary and they all wanted to end the meeting to go home and watch this ken burns jazz documentary

and i'm like do you guys understand that everything you're going home to see are in clubs exactly that the clubs that you're opposing in greenwich village right now overcrowded like everything you guys are here to stop you have such admiration for as part of american culture and this is where it happens in greenwich village but um having said all that let me be devil's advocate um is it hasn't happened yet but it seems only a matter of time before one of these things go up goes up in flames there's no sprinklers there's not even the requirement as i know it to have um uh fire extinguishers in them uh who knows how the wiring electricity is done and all this stuff fans heaters um and people have their their homes right next to these things what do you say about

that yeah before i respond to that um i want to pick up on something you said about the vibrancy of this neighborhood as being so poor to its identity you know i just a few days ago was at a uh an event at julius's the bar on West 10th and Waverly to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the sip in, which was, you know, this really important moment in, uh, the history of queer liberation. It was before the Stonewall riots. It was a bar, uh, the oldest gay bar in New York where a few guys went in and they said, Hey, we're gay. And we, we want to drink. And there was an unofficial policy at the time where any gathering of gay people was a public nuisance. And so they would be refused service. And sure enough, at Julius's,

the bartender put his hand over the guy's drink. And there's a very famous picture of that. And he said, no, we can't serve you. And this started a lot of coverage. And it really got the queer rights movement going. I say that as a gay man who was born in this district, who grew up here, who recognizes that our nightlife, whether it's Julius's Sipman or the Stonewall riots, the vibrancy of this neighborhood is what has given it its identity as a place where marginalized folks can gather and seek liberation. So I really don't want that energy to go away. But yeah, sure. So let's talk about safety. And I think the folks who are engaged in good faith about the future of outdoor dining want to have conversations about safety and structural integrity and aesthetics and making sure that as we roll out the program permanently, we do so in a way where we acknowledge those potential pitfalls. The status quo alternative is 3 million free parking spaces, which are equivalent to 12 central parks.

That's how much space we give away to parking in New York. And so what if we continue to give away spaces to parking? We incentivize more driving. And you know what's really dangerous? More driving. Last year was the deadliest year in terms of traffic fatalities of the quote unquote Vision Zero era that started in 2013 when we were going to reduce traffic fatalities to zero is in New York city in New York city. Yeah. We had almost 300 people die in traffic collisions, um, in 2021. And we know that free parking spaces that allocating the

space to parking induces more driving, uh, in Amsterdam when they eliminated free parking in the city center, car ownership went down by 30%. And I don't want to just be here to lecture about statistics, but I think it's way safer to have a city where we are using this space alternatively. Let me tell you what I think. And by the way, of course, I want to keep the outdoor dining. Of course I do. But to be fair, and I see this a lot, this is a common thing that happens because your particular lifestyle is not dependent on the automobile. You might be being a little, um, uh, um, I don't know, might, might be tossing it off a little bit. Um, in sense, what's the word? Like

not giving full empathy to people whose lifestyles revolve around a middle-class life with the family. Maybe they're professionals. They need to go around town. Maybe they work air conditioning, various things. They don't, or they're commuters and they don't work near conveniently to Grand Central Station or Penn Station. And they made life decisions based on a certain assumption that they had. Well, this will be my life.

I'll drive here and there's parking in the neighborhood and I'll have my family and I'll be able to work. And now the rug is pulled out from under them. And that's not really fair, is it? It's just not fair. I think that's a great point. And to me, I look at the big picture and I say, what is the, how are we balancing these different people's experiences? That person versus the person who needs to take the bus or the subway or bikes to get to their job or, you know, school or their doctor's appointment. Right now, we're

very balanced towards- People can't do even those things in the winter. You can't take your bike to work in the winter. I mean, take your bike to work in the winter. So I think New York is very unique in being disproportionately designed for car usage, but a lot of other places have a lot more equitable allocation of street space. And I would note too that, I think the story you're telling is real, but writ large in Manhattan,

20% of households own cars and car owning households have median income that is double that of households that don't own cars. So when we think about, so, you know, the alternatives is more protected bike lanes, more dedicated busways. Yeah. But funding for transit. Aren't you worried? I mean, New York depends very much on those people who earn. I mean, New York depends on everyone. Yeah earn. I mean, everyone. Yeah, no,

no, I would assume New York doesn't depend on everybody. New York spends a lot of money. New York has the highest rate per capita of spending on students. New York has the highest rate per capita of health of any city, the health outlays. I mean, and all this money has to come from somewhere. It's got to come from people who earn.

And my kind of point, I think you wanted to make my. Oh, I'm in a unique position here because I would also say that I think obviously there's a lot of like commuting in. There's all the tolls that they're getting and stuff. But I'm a person who lives in Queens, but I drive in to my to do shows all around the city because the subway is so wildly unreliable, especially after I get done at night. I'd rather drive and take the ride in

than get a quick ride home instead of taking two hours and six trains to get home. But since they, like when Stablasio, when they did the Vision Zero thing, and it's like they reduced the speed limit to 25 miles an hour, and then they put all the bike lanes in taking out all the parking, and then with adding this thing. So it's like they reduce the speed limit to 25 miles an hour. And then they put all the bike lanes in taking out all the parking and then with adding this thing. So it's like now there's less parking for the same amount of cars. And then people are now circling more to look for

spots, which is causing more congestion. It's also causing more pollution and it's becoming a nightmare. And then I keep hearing on the radio, all of these Vision Zero initiative things where they keep saying, like, look, you got to look and make sure you don't hit anybody. Look both ways before you make a left turn. But if you ever drive in the city, you know that like people literally will like lunge out in between cars. People come out from the outdoor dining. They just go out. People aren't crossing at the crosswalks here. So it never it doesn't seem like there's ever a lot of like focus on pedestrians being like, guys, watch for moving cars because they will kill you. You know, it always seems to be a lot of like, you know,

when Perry asked me who I wanted to book tonight, I said, Mike Feeney. She said, why? Because he's a great comic. I said, are you kidding me? His views of Vision Zero. These are the conversations that are so exciting to have about these competing preferences and the balance of the different values. And, you know, we, I think the problem is structural. It can't be about individuals having to look out for everyone or, you know, not, I mean, I do think drivers should have to look out for everyone, but also pedestrians should have to be responsible, but it's about how we structure the streets. And right now, you know, I think we have a hard time stepping back and assessing what we have because it's what we've had and it's hard to see a potential alternative but we have 19 000 miles of lanes for cars and we have 545 miles of protected

bike lanes so we have we've made a decision we make it every day to have a city design you really know these uh numbers huh and there are more you know bikers in new york than there are drivers so it's just a question of what's the optimal way and those those bikers, those bikers need their own set of rules. Cause it feels like sometimes they're like, I'll, I'll obey the traffic laws. Other times they blow through it. Or they're going the opposite way.

The opposite way down a one way. It drives me crazy. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm going to do about these people in the bike lanes that are riding their, their,

their mopeds and their motorcycles. Is this, are we turning a blind eye? Now, obviously this is not the biggest issue in the world, but are they even getting ticketed? You know, it seems like we've decided it's legal now to drive your motorcycle on the bike lane. I know it's crazy.

The other thing is, I just want to say that I am a born and raised New Yorker. I grew up in Queens. Whatever argument people are making against this aesthetic thing of this outdoor dining. I mean, there are like. Millions of rats and garbage strewn across this city, like this is the least of our problems. I'm so glad you brought up the rats. I love you rats, because I think a lot of folks who don't like outdoor dining, which reminder, 80% approval, a lot of them say,

well, what about the rats? They're attracting the rats. And I think that's just not borne out by the data. You know, I love data. Rates of rat sightings increased way before COVID. There were cuts to the sanitation budget. And then during COVID, household waste doubled

because we were all doing everything at home. And New York keeps doing this really unique thing. Do you want to? Yeah, sorry. No, I think New York is the greatest city in the world. But we do this really singular thing where we pile garbage bags on the street. So disgusting.

And we just create this buffet. We cut the sanitation budget so there's less frequent trash pickup. We've created double the household waste. And we're, you know, just letting the rats have this endless buffet. Would you rather go to your apartment looking for food? I would rather put the garbage bags in rat proof containers. And that's something that a lot of

other cities do. They containerize their trash rather than having these, you know, Mount garbage on every corner or buffet as you put down the rats. Like I was reading about during the pandemic, they said if the rats can't find food on the streets, they'll go into your house. I think there's great evidence to suggest that if we containerize the trash and reduce that buffet, that it actually will reduce the rat population. Well, I don't know, Ryder. I'll take your word for it.

There's certain problems that just never get solved. So listen, you have my vote. You have my vote, Ryder. I mean, I'd even be happy to do an event for you at the aisle for the seller to raise money for you. Not because I expect to agree with you on everything, but just because I like your. Now, what's your slogan? I like your vibe of being.

Streets are less wider with Ryder. No, I truly my slogan is simple. New York is for everyone. New York is for people who rent and can't afford to anymore, not just homeowners. It's for people who use all modes of transportation. It's for people who are working class, not just wealthy. It's for people who like outdoor dining and like to complain. New York truly is.

So for Jews also. Can we work on the making the park right over here? Not a full active war zone at all times, because I mean, there's that that park. Every time I go near it, it's just like, I mean, there's a whole section that gets taken over, almost like a tent. It's one of the few areas in New York City

where it's almost like a tent city. You're talking about Washington Square? Washington Square Park. There's so much we could be doing. It frustrates me. I'm enjoying this conversation, but I'm truly indignant with rage that we are not doing common sense things

to help clean up the park, make it vibrant for people who live around here and serve the folks who are struggling, who are vulnerable, who, because of COVID, have lost access to housing and mental health care and jobs and families. And we can be doing so much better. And we're just not. And that. Yeah, I agree. It's it really is scandalous what we've let happen. Here's some words that rhyme with rider. Subdivider, hang glider, hard cider, divider. There's a lot you can do with it.

There's a lot you can do with it. It is a missed opportunity. Rider, I hardly know her. You can do that. There's near rhymes. I've never heard that. Do an all-nighter with rider. There you go. Nice. My modest proposal, I just want to, well, a question really. Do an all-nighter with Ryder. No, my modest proposal. I just want

to, well, a question, really. Do we want to continue with New York City politics or get into Twitter, which I think is something I'd like to discuss, and I'm sure Ryder has opinions about Twitter. I just wanted to say one thing about, so just to wrap it up, I think that it's a classic

problem in politics where people have trouble viewing things through the eyes of other people. And, you know, it's true, for instance, that I'm sure you're right, that the average income of a family of a person who drives a car is much higher. But I'm sure so are the average expenses, because the people who have cars are most likely to have bigger apartments, families, the expenses of families, they take vacations, they have to pay for school, books, you know, they're not living on easy street. As a matter of fact, they can be struggling every bit as hard as someone who makes half their income because their lifestyle, when you have a family, I mean, it costs, you have to to health insurance alone for entire

families it can be a couple thousand dollars a month so you know i i think that just income is not a good measure of somebody's lifestyle the people who are truly wealthy uh or they don't park on the street they're parking in parking garages the people who are leaving their cars on the street are middle class for the most part, I think. Well, there's a lot of snorers out there that don't want to pay for parking, even they got money.

I always find free parking around here. Greatest city in the world to park after 7 p.m. before 8 a.m. I do think, yes, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that, you know, really the problem, what we need to focus on

is making sure the billionaires and the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations are paying their fair share, because if we're just divided between working class and middle class, we're letting the legislature hand $600 million over to the owners of the bills to build a new stadium rather than a tax cut for middle class people or investments in programs that everyone can benefit from. Speaking of billionaires, can we get to Twitter in our front?

Go ahead, Twitter. Go, Twitter. Go, go, go. Well, I just think it's fascinating that the whole notion, you know, the whole question and we've addressed it before, but I'd like to address it again. I've been struggling all kind of week thinking is freedom of speech on Twitter. The best thing or is it not? I mean, we all know that Twitter is not the government, so they can restrict speech as they want to. Is is it the best thing to do to allow unfettered speech? You know, for example, I mean, is there is there any value to a tweet that says the vaccine is bullshit? Is there a value to that tweet or is there a value? Is there a value to

allowing people to tweet that, especially people that are very influential? I have zero data on this, but I would think that if if I'm a person who is like the vaccine is bullshit and I try to tweet that and they delete my tweet and suppress it, that makes my convictions emboldened. Now I go, oh, see, they're trying to and then you find like minded people who also are feeling like their voice is being suppressed because of a truth. I feel like that's how it creates those types of, you know, psychotic, far, either right or left versions of people. Yeah, I think there's merit to that. I think. Yeah, I think that's true.

I mean, no, do you have any thoughts? Well, I mean, they've gotten it wrong famously a number of times already and things that they didn't allow to be said. I think that anything that can be refuted factually ought to be left on Twitter. I mean, obviously calling people ugly names and things like that, you know, is it would make, would turn Twitter into a cesspool. But the fact that you couldn't

discuss whether the, the, the, the, whether the, the virus leaked from a lab in China, and that was called racist by New York Times writers. No, I think we should learn a lesson from that and understand that once you put somebody in charge of censoring, they have to fulfill their portfolio and they find things to censor. That's just the way it is. And we've learned this over and over,

movie boards, whatever it is. And we have to trust. People are not stupid. Like everybody on both sides, left and right, seems to think the other side is stupid. And I think we have to allow people to read and see things factually refuted.

That's the only way. The alternative is not going to work. That's my opinion on it. I think that Musk would do well. I think too many people think that free speech is the real problem. But I think what's the real problem is the bubble, that people can create a Twitter world for themselves where they follow 50 people, all who feed them exactly the kind of things they think they agree with. And they never hear an intelligent reputation. So I'm very, very pro-vaccine.

But there certainly were people making good arguments about certain age groups and certain scenarios about the vaccines. And as the things change with the vaccine, and people need to hear those things. So if there was a way that Musk could force people to see, if there's an algorithm to put certain things in front of people, which were like intelligent refutations of what the algorithm interpreted their opinion to be, I think that would be good. Like we can tell you're very, very far left. So we're going to, we're going to put some intelligent right wingers in there into your feed, whether you like it or not. And so you can kind of see people,

what people are saying on the other side. So people can be more reasons, but yeah, I mean, I don't know, Dan, of course, there's no perfect solution, right. Or you have a, you have a, well, I mean, I can take the pro content moderation position. You can take a position that you believe in. It is the position I believe in. You know, before I was running for office, I was doing democracy work, voter protection. So in the 2020 election and then the 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs, helping to make sure every voter who wanted to participate could register and vote and have their vote counted.

And the disinformation and misinformation spreading on social media was a huge problem. And it's the kind of thing where it really undermines the idea that good facts, that the right answers can be a corrective against the bad information. Because the tweet that says, you know, they're throwing out all the ballots or this polling place is going to be closed or, you know, if you're whatever, you're not going to get counted. That gets retweeted 100000 times. And then the correction that says, oh, actually, that was wrong. That polling place isn't closing, gets, you know, eight likes and two retweets. And so I think, you know, the democracy work was a really powerful example of where we need platforms to intercede when bad

information is either accidentally or deliberately being spread. And I think the same could be made for vaccines. I would say, except that they were wrong about a lot of the stuff they spread about the vaccine. I mean, some of the vaccine skeptics turned out. I don't say it happily because, you know, you don't know me, but I was not one of them. But some of the vaccine skeptics turned out to be correct. But look, you're a gay man. And I would want you to think, I would make the argument to you that content moderation,

as it were, for most of history has been the enemy of oppressed groups. We live in a particular time right now where oppressed groups are really in the sunshine and they're the cause celeb now and content moderation would favor them and be on their side. But that's not a principle. For most of, not that long ago,

things about gay marriage, things like this. Look at what Florida's trying to do when they don't say gay. This is this is content moderation. Well, no, I think that's where it's really important to draw the distinction between state sanctioned censorship and, you know, legislators using. No, it is. No, but I would disagree. It's not censorship because it's a school. It's not free speech. The school, the schools don't have free speech. The schools have a curriculum and it's curriculum is decided. It's classic content moderation. And let me give you an example. I'll give you an example. So you know this. This is just a hypothetical. So you know that like trans is

still considered, gender dysphoria is still considered mental illness in a DSM, right? We know this. Imagine the school wants to start teaching that and it's factually true. And we say, wait a second, we don't want you teaching that. And all of factually true. And we say, wait a second, we don't want you teaching that. And all of a sudden you see everything flip and we say, well, we need, we need, we can't have the school teaching this. We need content moderation. So I w I would say that I think that what's, when you get down to a community, uh, deciding what's taught in, in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, this is very analogous in my mind to content moderation is not a free speech issue. Nobody wants to give a second grade teacher free speech

to teach whatever they want. And it's fine when the content moderation goes your way, but it's very painful when it doesn't. And people can be very, very short-sighted with no eye on history or no eye on what could be if they make these decisions based on the status quo to them at that moment that's what's really going on in my opinion i think we need to let people say and we have to work on breaking down this bubble because they don't if they don't go in the bubble on twitter they'll leave twitter they'll go to reddit they'll go you're not gonna you're not going to fix it by, what? Did anything happen after they censored like Hunter Biden's laptop?

Did that really stop anything? I mean, you know, they can't censor ideas. No, I mean, I'm sorry, right? Did you have a response? Oh, no, I just want to really draw a distinction between content moderation on social media, which is a very new problem. And the fact that, you know, when I see unfiltered, unmoderated content run rampant, it is not to the benefit of marginalized groups. It's a lot of hate and harassment and death threats and things that we should make a positive case for. Well, hate, harassment and death threats.

I think most people agree, certainly harassment and death threats, I think most people agree, should be moderated. Of course, yeah. You can report those. Fall under the purview of the First Amendment. I think this is what we're talking about is, you know, what on Twitter should be allowed to stand. Right, but then there's just wrong information. I think that's amazing.

Anything that can be refuted factually should be allowed on Twitter. Well, what if they do that thing like they did when the COVID-19, when you used to tweet about COVID-19, it would be like, hey, this is a COVID-19 tweet. Make sure you're looking at the right information. It's kind of like a might be wrong, but we're not

saying it is, but maybe look into this more kind of a thing, something like that. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Not the worst thing in the world. So, so, Ryder, you know, like just to give an example, during the Gaza war with Israel, I tweeted out or was on facebook i just posted a a tweet by chuck schumer from the other the last war was it 2017 i don't remember

2015 the previous gaza war and it was taken down from Facebook as not meeting community standards. And I had made no comment. All I did was repeat Chuck Schumer's tweet where he said there's no moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel. This is how crazy it gets. And we were discussing that with Mike Pesky. He said it might've just been an algorithm bug.

No, it wasn't an algorithm. But even if it was an algorithm we we can we we really should not be naive to the fact that we're putting people in charge of this stuff who are young and they have their own agendas and this is proven in psychological experiments over and over and over again that people cannot rise above their biases. This was the whole genius of the Constitution that the founding fathers understood. This is why we have a First Amendment. And if you don't think this stuff should be allowed on Twitter, I would ask you then, well, why shouldn't the government be able to? I mean, if it's really dangerous,

why should we take half measures? Why not just make it illegal altogether? Why shouldn't we have somebody in the government who says, no, no, you can't say that about the vaccine. I mean, that, that would protect people, right? But we know, but we can't do that. It's a bad idea. We don't want to set up that structure. No. You know, at the risk of laboring the point, I just draw a distinction between a social media platform like Twitter and, and what is, you know, and making suggestions of the government banning content. I think it's just very different. And social media has engagement led algorithms that, you know, drive the social media examination of very harmful and wrong content. Social media certainly can do it, but, but they also have the freedom not to do it.

That's what I'm saying. Sure, yeah. Absolutely, Twitter has the freedom to decide not to do content moderation. Okay, that's fine. And I think that Musk, I mean, I don't know him, but I just have a feeling that he is going to try to hit a sweeter spot on this. I don't think he's going to try to hit a, hit a sweeter spot on this.

I don't think he's looking to turn Twitter into a garbage thing where people are just calling each other horrible names and, and bullshitting. I think he wants to improve it, you know? Yeah. I don't see it becoming, becoming like 4chan. And one of those things are 8chan. But I do think that just as a general note, we as people should like be pro Elon Musk just in terms of like supporting him, because I as this eccentric billionaire guy who likes flamethrowers, I think he's like three mean tweets away from becoming a James Bond villain. And if we could just keep him on our good side, that would be he's turning into like Hank Scorpio from that episode of The Simpsons. But he's a good reference. And it's I mean, I think you were very young at the time that episode came

out. I've watched it. You've seen. Well, I used to watch the Flintstones and that came up before my time. Noam AOC said on Twitter that she's worried that there will be an increase in hate crimes if Twitter becomes a sort of uncensored. Is it possible that there could be an increase in hate crimes? And even if it is possible, you have to weigh that against whatever benefits free speech on Twitter might bring. But it certainly is possible that speech can lead to hate crime. It is possible.

And if there was good data that showed that that's what was happening, I hope that whoever's in charge of Twitter would tweak things to try to stop that. Now, we should just make the point that horrible hate crimes have existed on planet Earth long before the internet. I mean, long before TV, long before movies, long before the internet i mean long before tv long before movies

long before the printing press so let's not pretend that hatred and bigotry and and violent bigotry are functions of the modern era um but yeah yeah i i agree AOC said something else that I really liked recently. She she voted against this law to seize the property of these Russian oligarchs. This the seizure of assets thing. And she's 100 percent right. There's no due process. We don't even know that they did anything wrong. Asset forfeiture has been used against restaurant owners to the most horrible way. And there was a whole expose about it where it turned out, you can Google it, it was in Washington Post, where it turned out that they knew they were seizing the assets of innocent restaurateurs, but they did it because it was low-hanging fruit to make the money. And then the restaurateur would have to get a lawyer and he'd get back like, you know, 70 cents on the dollar of his entire life savings.

So, I mean, I have no love for Russian oligarchs or Russians who are involved in anything wrong, but I don't know that a rich Russian is, if these guys are criminals, why didn't they do this in January? Like all of a sudden have to seize every russian yacht so good for her showing some interest in civil liberties and she's and he's these and she's right these these laws have been used um against uh minorities too

they'll they'll decide that they're drug dealers and seize their property and they never get the property back it's crazy it's un-amer Ryder, what else is on your agenda as assemblyman? What are you going to fight for as assemblyman? I think the number one problem is the lack of affordability of rent in New York. We have the most expensive rental market in the country, and that's leading as big as it ever has been. The 2020 census had us at eight point eight million people. But between 2010 and 2020, we lost four point five percent of our black population. That's basically people being priced out of the city. In other words, your slogan is less whiter with right. And, you know, last year, 100000 New Yorkers spent a night in a homeless shelter and 30,000 of them were children. And we just have this one-way ratchet of rents going up and up and up. And that is the core problem. It's underlying the street homelessness we see in Washington Square and the subway. that rent control contributes to this. Paul Krugman, of all people, has written that it's obvious, obvious that rent control is what keeps the prices up

and keeps housing up. I'm open to all arguments. And I love evidence-based discussions. And I think there is an unpopular, or I think it's gaining in popularity, actually, a recognition that folks like Paul Krugman and the New York Times editorial page

are coming to, which is that the underlying issue of rents is not that we aren't controlling them enough. The underlying issue is that there is not enough housing. We have built a million fewer units of housing in the last 50 years than we did in the 50 years before. And in the last 10 years, we built 100,000 units for 500,000 new people. We stopped building. We downzoned. A lot of city, said we can't build anything new here. And that is why we've relied so much on demand side issues of rent control and rental assistance to address the problem. But the problem is that rents go up because there isn't enough housing.

It's both. The kind of Upper West Side liberals that I grew up around, they didn't want any new building ever. They could snapshot in time. The year that I live, this is the way it should stay. So of course, but then, then also what's true, I believe is that people never leave these apartments and you have a huge Upper West Side apartments with like two old ladies in them, you know, and, and, and this would be, you know, it's true. It's rent stabilization. It traps people where they are because why, how can they leave? How can they even consider leaving? It's the only way they can survive.

And so, but yeah, if we freeze the housing stock in Amber and say no new units, it really just reinforces the problem that people won't want to leave the stabilization. And then that reduces the number of units that are in the market and it drives up prices for everyone. I want to alert the, the, the, the listeners to the option of Fort Lee, New Jersey. I was just there yesterday. It's beautiful there.

And I got a beautiful buildings. You get a nice apartment with a view. You can't even imagine this view. You're on a cliff. You got the city before, but it's like 1600 a month. You got a nice one bedroom. Problem is there's not a lot going on in Fort Lee. My cousin lived in Fort Lee. It's just, it's like, hundred a month. You get a nice one bedroom. Problem is, there's not a lot going on in Fort Lee. My cousin lived in Fort Lee. It's just it's like there's just there's no like there's not a lot of culture. It's just it's a commuter town.

The biggest problem is that you're in Fort Lee. Yes, that is. But you know, you're right. But you can't have everything. Not everybody can afford Manhattan. And there's other options that are not far, that are not too far away. Although I have to say, I grew up in Queens and spent my entire teenage life just trying to desperately claw my way out into Manhattan. Yeah, Perry, can we just speak here? Everybody want to say when you say you grew up in Queens,

we don't think you grew up in New York City. All right. That's Long Island. Now, let me just read something I saw to say on marginal revolution.com which is a most popular economic site so this is interesting hopefully doesn't take too long to read so it's about rent control was studied in oslo norway and found that during the rent control era it was common for landlords to require their tenants to be of a certain age occupation and even religion which would be illegal in the United States. Landlords would also find ways to charge extra by asking renters for extra services, such as babysitting, garden work, or snow clearing.

When rent control was eliminated, however, the number of apartments increased, and landlords no longer advertised these kinds of apartments. Perhaps most telling, in the rent control era, it was most telling in the rent control era, it was common in the rent control era. Pay attention. This is a good one. In the rent control era, it was common for renters,

the landlords to advertise. I'm sorry. I fucked it up. In the rent control era, it was common for renters. That's tenants, the people renting. It was common for renters to advertise apartment wanted, but when rent controls were lifted, it became much more common for landlords to advertise apartments for rent.

So this is good, presumably, and it links to the paper, the study, what this is taken from. So this is good data to be open minded to at least, you know, I don't know that it's right. Ryder likes fact-based. Yeah. I mean, I think right now the status quo is just really broken and, you know, there are a hundred people show up to every, you know,

open house for a new rental and the landlords have all the power and that's because they have control of a very limited supply. And if there was more housing in the city than any individual landlord would have much less of a, of a, you know, ability to squeeze every tenant. You know, they're also building in the Bronx

neck near the Willis Avenue. Have you seen all that shit near the Willis Avenue bridge? It's like a whole new luxury building. You don't want to talk about Ryder. It was like what used to be, this was like the South Bronx. This used to be like the war zone and all these luxury buildings. Right. Well, what I started to say before Noam cut me off was that it's incredible to me that people are now moving to Queens. I mean, and. It's beautiful. I mean, it happens in Brooklyn, you know, probably starting 25 years ago, right?

That it was like nobody ever wanted to live in Brooklyn or Queens or the Bronx. You just wanted to live in Manhattan. I don't know. For me, I've never I mean, obviously, living in Manhattan is great. But as a person, I literally Manhattan turns me off to living there purely because I have a car, because like my dad lived in New York City on the Upper East Side for like 16 years. But he he had to, you know, he did the car thing. He did a reverse commute out to Long Island. But to me, that was like, oh, I'll just live in Queens or Brooklyn, get it right into the city and three stops. And then I can actually have a car and I feel like I can breathe a little. And did you grow up on the Upper East Side? No, no, we grew up. I grew up on Long Island.

So I grew up in space. How are your polls looking? So there isn't really polling in a state assembly race like this. It's, you know, it's pretty small scale. But the metrics we have are, you know, who's raising more money? And I raised three times as much money as my opponent by the first public filing. Who has the energy? You know, we have all these volunteers coming out to knock doors every weekend. And it's about the institutional support, getting the endorsements from the Working Families Party and other folks who are on the more progressive side. But then also getting support from folks who care about housing density and public transit and restaurants and from folks in the queer community like the Jim Owls Club, which is the premier progressive LGBTQ Democratic club. We have this coalition that spans all these different parts of the community.

And the incumbent has, you know, a small subset of folks who hate outdoor dining and don't want new housing. And I think they are not the majority of the district. Well, let me know afterwards if any way I can help you help you. I think I think you're terrific. I think you I appreciate that. What I hear is that you're committing to max out to my campaign, making $4,700 individual donation. What's the max? $4,700. No, I can't commit to that. I had to try.

My campaign manager would have- How's two grand? Two grand is great. It has to be personal or business is allowed? Personal. Has to be personal, okay. I don't take corporate donations. And this is tax deductible

when you donate to a candidate? You're investing in a better future, a more affordable, equitable, and sustainable New York. No one doesn't even live in New York City, buddy. Oh, well. Buddy, but his business is here. All right. Yeah.

So you're really, am I allowed to donate if I don't live in the city? Yeah. Yeah, okay. You have my commitment. I appreciate it. Okay, so. I'd like a pin.

What? I'd like a pin. Let me see if I have one. I'll take a t-shirt if you have one. I just need t-shirts for the gym and to show my, to show my support, but also because I need t-shirts.

I'll come back with a swag bag for everyone. Should we wrap it up now? I really am. I mean, I don't need a coin, but I really am. I'm really am pleased to meet you

and to hear somebody who's not just on autopilot saying, you know, cliche, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Who's young and wants to get involved with city politics. That's, that's terrific. I mean, thank you. And Noam, you said you would all be open to a fundraiser for Ryder here at the club. I believe I'd be happy to do that. Yeah. Well, you guys can talk about a possible fundraiser. Wow. And Ryder,

I don't know if you know anything about comedy, but are there any comedians you would like at your fundraiser? I mean, my favorite comedian is Maria Bamford. Yeah, we have a works here. I mean, for the right price, you get anybody. Yeah. You know, for 100K, you get Seinfeld. Ten minutes. I know. You know, I don't want to alien anyone.

I really it's generally women and gay men who are the comedic sensibilities. The tail lane, Jessica Kirsten will put together a hell of a week. We certainly we got and we got we got, you know, we're very diverse here, despite what some of the in the media have said about the comedy. So we got everything here. Great. This might be the most diverse club that I work. I'm just from like a person who works in a lot of other clubs. And that's not by design.

Like we want to be diverse. That's by picking the funny people and you pick the funny people. And we happen to just it so happens that it winds up being diverse. No, but I don't know how you would argue elsewhere. Diversity is a beautiful outcome of the human race.

It went when when it's allowed to happen naturally. It can be. I don't I don't like it when it's allowed to happen naturally. It can be, I don't like it when it's, we talked about this, I don't like it when it's imposed because it leads to a lot of, I think, animosity between people and a lot of people looking at each other,

like, well, the only reason you got this job was because you're this, the only reason you got this job because of that. But in the comedy cellar where we, I think you're right. I think that, and my goodness, if you look at the lineups now um it's extremely diverse and nobody suspects that they're there for any other reason than they're in the top one percent of funny comedians in this in the country and

that's why they belong at the comedy cellar and that that leads to a wonderful atmosphere, I think. Great. Anyway, I agree. Yeah, 100. Yeah. I don't have many straight white men anymore. You got. And that's kind of the product of it. Right. Which is I mean, this is a whole other conversation. But like, you know, stand up comedy traditionally forever was a straight white male. And it's still it. I mean, if you look, if you take every comedian in America, it's about 95 percent straight white people. And that's its own argument as to why that is or something. But that also, you know, it's proportionate, I think. I feel like this this the lineups here are more proportionate than there are.

You know, how many I think comedy has been diverse for a while. And certainly, certainly when you compare it to other industries, even in the seventies was more diverse than say big oil. I have to admit that I had a little, not a change of heart, but I had to rethink something when I found out that Zarna Garg, who I don't know if you know who she is, Ryder. She's an Indian comic. She's a mom. I think she was an attorney and she's kind of like an Indian Roseanne Barnaway, right? It's like she talks about being a wife.

She has the accent. She's from the old country. Yeah. And she's fantastic. I mean, she is killing. I mean, the audience, we get emails about her every day. Audiences just love, they can't get enough of her. She gets more spots, I think, than anybody. And yet she tells me that the other clubs are not really booking her that much. And that throws me for a loop, you know?

I mean, I don't say that the reason they're doing it is because they have any kind of racial animosity, God forbid. I say that that is definitely not the reason, but maybe it's just this kind of like people having trouble appreciating people other than themselves. And they just go with what they're calling, what they know in some way. I don't know. I've been like, what club wouldn't be booking this woman? Like the audience goes crazy for her. I think there's a misconception i mean i'm the one in not in this industry but um you know that maybe stories like

hers or jokes like hers aren't universal that and i think there's a misconception that you know the straight white male experience is the universal experience but um the specificity of everyone's experience is what resonates and you know yeah i think watching almost every experience is universal i think that's part of what's nice about diversity right when we have we have gay comics even when they're doing very the same kind of gay material that they would do in a gay club uh it's still universal somehow because relationships are relationships and insecurities are insecurities and you know, I haven't seen any evidence that the white straight audience laughed less hard at a gay comic. I haven't seen that at all. Have you seen that, Feeney? I haven't seen that. And I also think it's also like the reverse where, you know, I had always said, like, if I could fill up a theater with middle aged black women, that would be my ideal crowd, because I don't for whatever reason, they maybe it's I'm like a novelty or whatever it is.

But they're they're them hearing my experience makes them really tickled, you know, really. So it's like, but you wouldn't think that right away, you know? Yeah. Well, I don't see you filling up theaters with all black women. I'll take I'll take that might be a smattering. Let me fill up clubs. That would be nice. I guess we got to go that might be a smattering. Let me fill up clubs. That would be nice.

I guess we got to go. OK, so let me. Perrie, will you give him my emails? We can give it to his campaign manager. Yes. I would also like to say that we've been trying to book Ryder since that article came out in December. And we have rebooked. I mean, I'm telling you, as the person who books this show, that it is incredibly unusual for us to cancel and rebook any guests. And we all owe Ryder an apology because we have rebooked him, I think, five times.

I have difficulty apologizing. I don't. Well, first of all, it's just admit wrongdoing. Very, very difficult. It's my tenacity and my commitment to my constituents. No, but it's what do you mean? What do you mean? We well, it's actually been your fault if you really want me to get into it. And I have the written evidence of every email.

I think twice once you were sick, once you were sick, once you were out of the country and once you had that, you had a gig that you had been booked for. But anyway, I didn't want you to come in when Noam wasn't here because he was so excited to have you on and to meet you. And then today. He got COVID. He said he can't come in. I I said I'm absolutely I don't care there's no way we're rescheduling this so he was supposed to be no you didn't but I wanted you to be in here for when Ryder was here

anyway I've been wanting to meet him I thought that I was really impressed by that article about the restaurant just to hear somebody you know I don't want to say it again but just to hear somebody like open to things because, you know, the community boards for a long time have been trying to take away every last outdoor table. Well, we, I think we had a full show.

We didn't get to the duty in the bed from Amber Heard, but perhaps next week. Thank you, Mike Beeney, for joining us. And I, you know, I got a weird feeling, Mike Feeney, in a couple of years, we won't be able to get him on the show. It happened. It's Pete Davidson was on the show. Trevor Noah was on the show. Wow. I mean, years ago. Yeah, we would. They wouldn't come on. But Ronnie Chang, we had on he we might he might come back. Come on. Ronnie will come on. Ronnie's one of the nicest people of all time. In 2017, when I first was asking him advice about how to work this club,

he gave me very terrific, very thoughtful advice. He is a sweet man. I think Pete Davidson would do it. Well, we can ask Pete. Maybe not with Kim. We can ask Pete, but I don't... Judd did it recently. What are you talking about?

I'm saying yes, but others have not. There's there's some people that we used to have on that. We will be harder to get. That's for sure. And I'm worried that we're going to lose Feeney. I, I promise I won't. I won't. And we might lose Ryder when he's living in Gracie Mansion. Thomas is right. If you're the mayor, you'll at least answer our email. I'm never moving north of 23rd Street.

OK, Ryder Kessler,ler is running for New York City Assembly. So we don't endorse candidates on the show, but... Yes, we do. Oh, we do? I'm endorsing him. They can learn more about me at RyderForNewYork.com. Ryder For New York.com. Ryder Die. Ryder Die. That's a good one.

Merch to come. And Perry L. Ashton Brand, our producer and on-air... I mean mean i don't know what you call it he's like uh the second auxiliary host and of course i'd be remiss if i didn't mention nicole lyons the best sound person in the business this woman is a wizard perry el can you check the lineups and see if there's any gay comics that writer might like before he leaves maybe he wants to go down and see mateo or something like that. Of course, invited to see the show. Also, food, half off, Ryder.

Thank you, everybody. We'll see you next time. Good night. Good night.