The Digression Sessions - Ep. 194 - Monroe Martin III! (@MonroeMartinIII)

Episode Date: August 15, 2016

Holy hell this is a good one! Monroe Martin is a hilarious young stand up who will be filming his new special very soon! The Philadelphia native talks to Josh and Mike about growing up in foster care and group homes, starting comedy in Philly, and giving back to the family he has. This was a inspirational and truly fun talk.   Follow the podcast and Josh Kuderna and Mike Finazzo on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Josh - @JoshKuderna on Twitter and @JoshKuderna on Instagram Mike Finazzo - @TheeMikeFinazzo on Twitter The Pod - @DigSeshPod on Twitter The Pod's Facebook page - Dig Sesh on Facebook Thanks for listening, all! Do the pod a favor and rate and review the pod on iTunes & Stitcher plz!

thunder grunt podcast network monroe martin the third is the guest on this week's program everybody josh kaderna here sitting in a very hot 2016 Prius 3. Thank you very much. Sitting next to my good friend, Mike Fonazzo. Hello. We're both very sweaty. Yeah, a little sweaty.

Yeah, a little sweaty. But yeah, we just interviewed Monroe Martin in his hotel room. He's here in Baltimore doing shows this weekend. And yeah, he was nice enough to talk to us for a while about comedy, growing up in foster care and kind of bouncing around from like group homes and foster care, but then stand up and kind of his path. And then as well as kind of like giving back as well.

And he's one of those guys where he's so inspiring, it's almost depressing. Yes. Where there's like a precipice of like wow you're such a good guy and you're doing so many things yes and not old yeah he's a year younger than me and i still found myself being like you're much nicer better looking and have a better career you're well adjusted yeah you went through way more shit sweet person yeah very good. Could not have been nicer. And I say that like kiddingly. He was actually just really inspiring and cool. Absolutely.

And we kind of touch on it a little bit, but don't go into too much depth. But basically from the age of seven, he bounced around either from foster care or group homes and uh pretty pretty rough stuff and for somebody that's so nice you would never know except uh he told us he's crazy which is fair yeah but i also feel and i meant to mention this during the conversation where it's just like i think for the way he talks about it so openly and like how he can look at things like pretty analytically like i think as much as like he said he was like fucked up i think you have to be well well adjusted to be like that vulnerable and the best be that open with your feelings yeah stuff and i think the most crazy people are the ones that say they're not

crazy absolutely like i'm just just a normal guy i don't scream into pillows every night that's not me you know uh and uh yeah it was it was very very cool one of my favorite pods yeah just one of my one of my favorite guys but he is he's gonna be doing stand-up uh a good bit of stand-up before november where he's gonna preview his special that he's gonna be doing at the new york comedy festival in uh new york of all places and that is november 1st through the 6th uh he's not sure the date of of his show yet but uh if you're in new york or you're going to the festival definitely check him out because he's he's one of those performers that is the rare mix of just like he's just fun to watch as it is but the material is really good as well and uh very likable and we talk about this in the podcast

just a naturally funny guy but he's also like just like a great writer and you get a chance to see him live go do that and it sounds like his special uh the new york comedy festival like the preview that's going to be amazing so check it out if you can which i believe is going to be called childhood issues or minor turbulence we'll see we'll see you know you get you get a peek behind the curtain in this one. You absolutely do. You get to see how the old ice cream is made, folks. That's the saying. Old ice cream. So, yeah. So I hope you guys enjoy that.

Sorry there was no podcast last week. I was in Mexico, man. Where's that? That's how they say it. Around Dundalk? Yeah. I was in Little Mexico of Dundalk. I was just hiding out doing meth for a week.

Went to Mexico, went to Cuba, and I don't think I got Zika, which is nice. Congratulations. Thank you. That is quite the accomplishment. Went and saw Castro, and I was like, what up? And he was like, I'm a big fan of the digsish. That's how he talks. I'm not being racist.

He's mean. Ay, yay, yay. Yes, me. Ay-yi-yi. Oh, yeah. So we had a really good time. And I'm happy to be back. And I don't think the only thing I have to promote this week is I will be at the Crown in Baltimore doing Chris Milner's specific ignorance show on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Come to that. It's a fun little game show.

And there's usually free drinks for the audience. So go to that. Michael? I'm doing a benefit show for the Ellicott City Relief Fund on September 4th at Magoobie's Joke House with Justin Schlegel, Jason Weems, Tommy Simbazzo, and a bunch of other people. And then if you're in New York, Wits End is playing at the Bushwick Film Festival September 29th through October 2nd. That is so exciting.

That's fun. Fucking A. It'll be a good time. Fucking A. Well, yeah, let's get to the interview. Thank you to everybody that's listening. Say hi on the Facebook page and Twitter and all that stuff. The Twitter is at DigSeshPod.

I'm on there at Josh Kaderna as well. And, uh, on Instagram at Josh Kaderna and, uh, Mike, you're on Twitter at the Mike Fanezzo, the two E's,

two E's, you know, you know, uh, all right, well, that's it. Let's,

uh, let's go to a holiday in, uh, with us sitting around talking to Monroe, Monroe Martin. Great talk. Let's do it. Bye. Bye. That was kind of an NPR ending there. Let. Great talk. Let's do it. Bye bye. That was kind of an NPR ending there.

Let's do that. Okay. Now let's go to a holiday inn. Let's fade this out. We're fading out. Yeah. Are we ready already? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just go right into it. Yeah. Fonazo was texting me last night.

He's like, I feel bad. He hasn't done, he's done like maybe four bits in a half hour. Yeah. He's having fun, but I want to see him do comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You had that one line that was just so killer. And I think I told you this, where you're talking to the girl in the front row and she was like, she's only dated Jewish men.

And you're like, what are you waiting for your dad to die? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was such a killer line. And then you had the whole, when you were messing with the girl with the big diamond, with the big wedding ring. Oh, yeah, that was a hurt. Did you see the ring?

I did, yeah, yeah. That ring was fucking huge yes yeah it was big as shit you're like i feel like they're four africans and like just holding it up but that was definitely like one of those shows like it was like a friday late show in terms of like half the crowd's tired half the crowd's rowdy yeah and it's like and we know pat's hilarious and eddie's a good comedian it's like there's definitely morrison yeah yeah and it's like and we know pat's hilarious and eddie's a good comedian yeah yeah and there are definitely like some ups and downs and then like as soon as you got on stage like you're killing in the first 30 seconds you just got to bring them i'm just like because at the end of

the day i'm like when you're headlining as your show regardless of who goes on right and it's your responsibility to control that energy right and i'm like I don't care what energy you gave the comics beforehand right but this is my show now right we got a like we got to be on the same page yeah I've done weekends where you know the audience just didn't give a shit and I'm like like the whole yeah not even a whole weekend but just like yeah like when I get up there and they're just tired or whatever. And they're just like, nah, I don't care. And I tell them, I go, if this is the energy you have, this is the energy I'm going to give you.

And then I let them choose. They'll be like, all right, get this shit up. Choose your own adventure. Choose your own adventure. Because I'm like, I don't cater. I'm trying to give you a treat comedy. Like you're a guest at my house. So you have to allow me to show you a good time yeah that shows and that that actually shows it in terms of you definitely like as much as you're doing crowd working like messing with people so if you show

them the amount of respect you're like I just want to give you a good show yeah figure this out how we're gonna do yeah yeah yeah it was a fun time that I do a good job of this though cuz even though I did crowd work there's still little tricks where you best stuff you wrote you go put it in there you can set yourself up yeah you did that last night with you sagged into the ex-girlfriend stuff yeah just waiting to go into that like all right once i get them here then i can grab them to this bit yeah and that's the great thing about like when you see like good comedians do crowd work and i saw this like in your set last

night where it feels like it's just a conversation yeah and it's like you can't tell the difference between something that you're just like talking out of your ass with versus a bit you've done a million times before yeah yeah yeah yeah that was definitely like i felt that like in the bits you were doing in that like early part of your set it's like it was like really seamless from going back and forth between just like riffing and crowd work versus you know a structured that you've worked out a ton i feel like that structure stuff was for late night sets like you know like i can't sit there and talk to i don't do that in conversation. I'm not always setting up

and then punching the joke. I'm not always doing that in a conversation. Yeah, right, right. I'm not like, I went to the store and ba-da-ba. Right, right.

So I'm like, if I'm going to be up there for an hour, it has to be organic. Right. It has to be a conversation. You have to feel invested. Yeah, and I think

that's what we were talking a little bit about last night which you were just like, you're kind of sick of when you see comedians having a one-sided conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, there are great comics that do that. There are great comics who, like, that's just not, like, I like comics who do that, but, like, that's just not how I will approach comedy. Right, right. I'm not going to hide behind my jokes.

Plus, I got a mentor who just, he gets on me about that stuff. He goes, yeah, it's cool. You can write a good joke, but that's, you got to be up there 45 minutes to an hour.

Right, right. He's like, bring them in. Right, right. And that's something that Keith Robinson, Oh, okay. Yeah.

But that's something I always heard. Like, when I was still in Philly, there was this comic, two comics, yeah, B-Flat and Ture Gordon. And they were both like, yeah, Ture. The first hosting gig I ever did in a comedy club was Ture Gordon.

He's a beast. Baltimore Comedy Factory. That dude kills. He is a beast. And there was a show 7, 9, and 11. And each show for him could not have been more different in terms of the material. Yeah, he got material for days. Material for days material for days and i remember just uh starting out even before i left new york i would always just get little tidbits of information from him and b flat and one thing that both of

them said just in different ways were uh yeah you gotta you gotta talk to them like you're talking to your friends yeah yeah yeah if you if you can't talk to them like you're talking to your friends. Yeah, yeah. If you can't talk to them like you're talking to your friends, they're never going to attach to you. They're never going to stay with you all the way through your set because I'm going to say some fucked up shit. Yeah. And I'm going to need you to be there with me. And I reward the people who do.

Right, right. When the people, like I think I got to a portion when I was talking about the pregnancy scare and the girl losing it. And then, like, the audience, they, most of them don't feel bad. Right. But they don't want to look bad. Yeah. So they kind of go, oh.

But that one lady who was just like, yeah, yeah, get your life back. I was like, that's what I'm talking about. I was like, I rock with you. Right, right. I was like, that's what I'm talking about. I was like, I'll rock with you. And sometimes when I'm on the road and the shows are going great, I offer to buy people a shot or a drink. If I really connect with them, they've been rocking out the whole time, I'll go, I like this person a lot. Can we get them a drink?

I'll cover your tab. And then they're more excited, but then that also makes the rest of the audience perk up like, holy shit, he's giving out stickers? He's giving out liquor? Yeah. What? But then there's also the subconscious thing of the rest of the audience is like, oh, well, that's a connection that could be happening or should be happening. And it makes you want to be part of that experience, too.

And I look at people. I learned that from Big J. He goes, I will look you and he go he looks his audience members in the eyes and you know most like not most comics but there are some comics out there that when they're doing their material they look down they look above people's heads of the crowd above the crowds big j he said this may be a long time ago i've been in new york going on seven years he probably probably said this three, four years ago. He goes, I'm looking them in their face.

I'm looking you in your eye because I'm never going to be uncomfortable. You are. Right, right. Yeah, he was like, so if I, he goes, especially if I'm like saying something and I got that person that cringes, I'm delivering that next joke to them.

Right, right. And I was like, wow. And me and my friend derek we both kind of took that from him like we do that when we're doing our when we're doing our material we see people get uncomfortable instead of retreating we go we we continue to do it but we look at you make you a little uncomfortable so you're like holy all right yeah this guy's really digging in right yeah right but i think that's such an interesting thing, especially depending on the comic,

because Big Jay Oakerson's so aggressive. Oh, my God, I love him. He's so aggressive, but he's still just sitting in a stool. That's amazing. Just sitting there, owning the stage, but not moving. And he's saying this dark stuff. For you, it's like you do some really personal stuff. People still call it dark.

People go like downstairs the receptionist she's like i'm a huge fan of yours even though your comedy is a little dark and i don't want to get into it i'm like it's not dark it's just i'm exploring and i'm vulnerable about that part of my life that some people like shy away from that's not dark that's realistic right yeah it's not like you're talking about like stuff didn't happen to you. Yeah, I'm not. It's kind of cool, right? Yeah, I'm not up there like, hey, I would never talk about this girl losing the baby if it didn't happen. Because I wouldn't make jokes about shit that weren't accurate or weren't a part of my life. Right, but if it's your life, then that's fair game. But people are like, oh, that's a little dark, a little edgy.

What do you want me to talk about? Bacon bits and shit? Right, right, right. Bitches be shopping. Bitches be shopping. Bitches be shopping. Yeah, because I just think, especially when you talk about the Jay Oakerson thing with the eye contact and giving jokes personally, for you, I feel like that lends itself to it even more because you are talking about growing up in foster care yeah and you know your relationships and like to me it's like that's you're you're

giving something you're showing a sense of like vulnerability and like you know a personal like side of like not just being funny but just like a personal side of you so it's like that connection should be there like yeah so it's like i like the idea of it's like you're not saying that over the audience or yeah no i'm like i'm letting you because I got to deal with that. Every time I go up there, I'm revealing a piece of myself. Even if sometimes I'll do jokes about politics and stuff, I still will talk about other parts. Yesterday, I did the cop thing.

Yeah, you had the line. That was something I dealt with for a while where it was just like, it sounds bad, but I never experienced that. I never experienced being arrested, all that stuff. I had other things I had to deal with in group homes, but being in that group home kept me from getting in trouble in that.

But I could have still got arrested and did all that other shit. But I'm like, I got to talk about it. I got to talk about race. It affects me. I'm a black man. I got gotta talk about race it affects me i'm a black man i gotta talk about dating now yeah i gotta talk about dating outside my race like and people don't want you to talk about some they don't want you to talk about the obvious sometimes sometimes you have to you gotta talk about the obvious to talk about the deeper shit but when i'm up there

and i'm vulnerable yeah yeah i get uncomfortable but then i'm like once you get that laugh you're like oh yeah let's do that yeah okay yeah now i got him uh was your comedy always like that was it always kind of introspective and personal no it was always i will say this it was always um i i always felt talked about material and topics like I knew everything. So it was always that type of stuff. Gotcha. But when I was in Philly, I was really heavy on the jokes and stuff like that. And then when I moved to New York, I met Keith, who was a Philly guy,

but he lived in New York for so long. Yeah, Big J too, right? Yeah. And just watching him and talking to them and then keith kind of just laying into me like hey look you funny your jokes are funny but you ain't talking about shit ain't nobody gonna remember you that's me no he would say he said it just like that and that's and that was the best way to hear it too right did he go dummy like nine times called me dummy you fucking dummy shut up dummy but it it sat with me because he said a bunch of things.

He was just like, you talk about your life and your experiences would separate you. Once you start trying to be the most creative and all that shit, he goes, you're just putting another group of people who can do that. Right. Yeah. And it makes you less unique, too. Yeah. yeah and it makes you less unique too yeah because and the weird thing is too that your uh material is so specific to you but then it becomes more relatable in a way yeah yeah like the more specific it is the wider audience you're going to reach yeah when i started talking about foster

care so many people would come to the show like i remember the first time i did Caroline's Presents. I only did it once, but I did it. And I didn't expect anyone to show up, to be honest, nobody. It was maybe like 100 people there, all mixed. Yeah, yeah. Like Asian guy, white women, black dudes, black women, all that stuff. That's great. And my friends pointed it out, like, how the fuck do you know them? I was like, I don't know any of these people but after the show people come to me and

they go hey man love you material uh either they were in the foster either they were in foster care or they knew somebody in foster care or they worked in the system right and they're all just like man you're so brave to be talking about that and i like that you're so honest and stuff and i'm like oh this really reaches uh another group yeah you know exactly and it's just interesting too to see that story as well like you have something to say about your experience yeah yeah yeah keith always says this too because i do get caught up in trying to write the best joke and stuff like that but he'd go be genius by accident as he said he goes be a genius by accident he's like when you when you try you fall short but when you just let things come naturally and you say your feelings you go say your feelings say the truth and then everything

follows after that now does that filter into your style of like being in the moment trying to fool around the crowd and stuff? Yeah. If I'm completely present, then the rest will take care of itself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I kind of just do that. I go up there. I still need to be able to stick to the bullet points.

Like, I got freaking pages and pages of, look at that. It says, where is it? I'm looking at my laptop. Our special notes and jokes and then you go here and then this is just pages and pages and pages like if i printed it out maybe like 15 20 pages some pictures i got chalkboard wall in my room i'm serious about this shit chalkboard wall yeah i erased it because uh i don't want my girlfriend reading my deep thoughts especially if they're about her yeah like i just erased it off my wall because i don't want my girlfriend reading my deep thoughts about her I

don't want to be getting dressed and she's in my room like so this is how you really feel I just picture her like walking in and you're like frantically erasing I'm like don't worry I was just cheating on you yeah it's not what you think that's right yeah but I write so much that I'm like, when I go up there, I forget to say certain things or I forget all that stuff. So I'm trying to just train myself to go up there and go, these are the topics that I'm going to talk about. This is where the jokes fall.

This is where I have room to wiggle. I even write in certain sets. I'm like, all right, you can freestyle here. Right, right. Once you get to this point, you can go into the audience, audience dig around and you know where you're going to come out at but even if you don't know where you come out at you got topics for the stuff where you like right if i come out if i'm talking about my sister and then i go into the audience and then somehow i come out talking about like not being able to drive then I got material on that now.

Right. How different is that for you in terms of structuring your sets where you're actually deliberately saying riff here or freestyle here? Easier. It gives me the freedom. It gives me the freedom, and you got to have some sort of discipline in this business. You have to.

You know? So it gives me a little bit of freedom so when i do record that special or that cd i know what i can go all right i did jokes up into here they work let's cut that and we can start back here again you know when you like and in terms of like doing like your special like how does that differ in the way you approach that particular set because some of my favorite specials are those like looser sets like one of my favorite specials is like mark maron's like thinky pain and there's so much of him figuring it out as he's going along not just i mean i like that stuff too uh my one of my

favorites specials recently is Still Elephant in the Room I was there He recorded that in 2010 That was the first special I've ever seen live Did he do it in DC? No he did it at Skirball Center at NYU And that's also

It's weird how shit works So I got free tickets Off of Blacklist, which is ran by Samantha Black. I told all my friends, like, hey, I'm going to this Patrice O'Neal thing. I got one ticket. Nobody will go. So I went. I showed her the pass. She was like, oh, is this you?

I'm like, yeah. She sat me in the middle, like in the middle row, third row, middle aisle, third row to the back. Right. Was the show. Had a great time. I spoke to her. I'm like, oh, I really had a good time. She was like, oh, cool.

You're a comic. I'm like, yeah. She was like, I'll probably work with you one day. After last comic, my first Comedy Central. Yeah. Taping. She was the audience coordinator for that. Oh, that's crazy.

That's awesome. Yeah, me and her are tight now. Of course. We're tight. I went to Michael Chase last week. She was like, you're next. She was like, you better hire me for yours. That's awesome. That's so cool. I love that stuff when you meet up later. Yeah, how things come together and stuff like that.

But watching that, watching his jokes are in the background. When you're recording a a special they put them on a monitor not word for word but just like bullet points so you know where to go yeah but i could tell he wasn't really he wasn't looking at that he came out with it he came out with a plan he was my jokes right here but he went into the audience and then from the audience he came up with these great bits about white women and dating and this and that and blah blah and the jokes in the background but he was just like yeah that's plan b right if this doesn't work i know where to go right and that's why and that's what i want to do yeah i wonder if the teleprompter guy was like i don't

know what the fuck they just put it on there right che did the same thing i didn't get to see his from the beginning i think i've seen it from like uh 10 20 minutes in i got there late and then his jokes are there and all my friends were like he didn't read the single fucking joke off of there he just was in the moment and i want yeah i want to be in the moment because there's a there's going to be that energy and stuff you can't recreate you still have you write your jokes for a reason yeah you you need to use them and then you want to be in the moment too like you don't want to be like a robot up there especially if you're recording right like and then this happened yeah so you want to do that stuff that keeps you in the moment yeah because i think like each like specials like such a unique like capsulated thing and when you see like somebody

like louis ck or like pat and oswald, you're seeing them capturing that particular hour at that time. So those bits, that's the set list they're doing. But when you see how Patrice was or Maren or Pryor, those older specials, it's more of capturing that particular moment they were in. And sometimes that's things going off the rails and being a little unhinged. Yeah, and I like that. And sometimes that's things going off the rails and being a little unhinged. Yeah. And I like that. So Keith's been pressuring me because he's like, all right, dude, this has been, what, two, three years after the last comic?

He goes, you're on TV. He goes, make a special. And I'm like, because you get nervous on that. You go, that's a whole nother level yeah you enter like right now i can just coast off of doing like five ten minutes on television stuff like that but when you put an hour out there yeah that's that's like that's also your statement that's your statement like okay this is who i am you know this is who the fuck i am and i'm a little nervous on that yeah because i wanted to be great and even my agent was like all right what are you going to do right so that's why we did this that's why

we're doing this new york comedy festival festival show all my agents are there managers there they're bringing some uh network people there and they're like let's see it cool i'm like god damn it so is this kind of like the preview of like you know yeah, which one of you guys wants to pay me to record this? Yeah, so I'm like a little nervous, but I'll figure it out. Dude, it sounds like you're in good shape, though. Yeah. I got it. Yeah, I'm having wood.

Knock on wood. Hopefully this is real wood. This is fucking the Holiday Inn. This could be plastic. I'm sure it's nice plastic. Nice plastic. The nicest. This is,

I've never stayed in a Holiday Inn, and in my head, they always come over, they always seem like a Motel 6 to me. Especially when Chingy had it in the song, just chilling at a Holiday Inn. I'm like, oh,

you're just going back to the motel, getting drunk, fucking and then dipping. And then I'm here, I'm like, this is not too bad. Yeah, it's a good hotel.

Yeah, I've stayed in hotel chains that were supposedly better they looked exactly the same right right yeah that should be holiday ends like motto or slogan like not that bad yeah we're not that bad actually yeah we're on par with your favorite hotel you could do worse yeah yeah exactly um so what has it been like it like when you decided to move to new york were you were you nervous about that or when did you know it was time to go up there yeah of course you get i got nervous but um i got nervous i'm still nervous really i don't

fuck yeah really i'm i'm from philadelphia i know how to navigate Through Philly But I know if I move back There's nothing for me You know But here I'm just like There's no safety net For me There's nothing for me To fall back on

If I stop doing comedy Or anything I can't go Well you know I'll just go live with my mom My mom lives with my sister Right I'm like

They're all doing their own lives They all have their own lives And stuff like that So I'm in New they're all doing their own lives. They all have their own lives and stuff like that. So I'm in New York just fucking shooting, just shooting my shot. I'm like, hey, this is what people do. They're up here. I'm shooting.

You get on stage as much as you can. Try to have consistent good sets. Build a rapport with people. Yeah. And then hopefully shit goes somewhere. And the thing that got me to New York was just hearing so many comics go, man, you're not a real comic unless you go to New York, which I think, eh,

there's still some dope-ass comics who are still home in their hometown. But to me, I knew that I had nothing to lose by doing that. I had no kids. I broke up with my girlfriend at the time. I was working as a teaching assistant at a charter school, and even that lady was like, you're a comic? I'm like, yeah.

She was like, then why aren't you getting paid to do it? I'm like, well, you know, you got to work up to that. She goes, yeah, then don't call yourself a comic. She was very nice. She said it like that. She was like, don't call yourself a comic. I'm like, what? Like, I'm a comic.

I perform. She was like, jazz musicians don't have side hustles. Wow. Jazz musicians aren't working at Starbucks. Yeah. They're always working on their craft. If they do get a job, it's a job where they're either teaching music or something like that. I'm like, damn, you're right.

Got fired two months ago. Got fired two months after that. It was like, I'm going. I just went to New York. How far into doing stand-up were you? I was only three years. Oh, wow. Yeah, and that was premature.

I wasn't even good yet. Yeah, I was going to say three. Yeah. Three's not a lot at all. I wasn't even good yet. Three's not a lot at all. I wasn't good yet. I had the promise, I would think. You know Naeem? You ever heard of Naeem Lin? No. He opens up for Kev. He's a good writer. Kevin Hart. Great writer.

Funny dude. He told me he rarely spoke to me but when he did it was always words of encouragement first thing he said is i always i still do it a little bit i slur my words i have like sort of like a speech impediment and he was like you need to figure that out get past that so people can hear you he goes also get the fuck out of philly right that's what he said he's like get the fuck out of philly he's like move go up. He was like, get the fuck out of Philly. He was like, move. Go up there.

Do some shit. Yeah. Also, New York's not that far either. It's not in the middle of the country. It's like drive two hours. Yeah. I'm like, all right. It was this LA.

And I'm like, all right. I'm going to just go to New York because I can afford that. I can just take a train up there. Yeah. And I did it. I slept on recliners. I slept on my best friend's recliner for about two months uh two to three months he lost that place uh i stayed at a hostel for like

another three to four months yeah like a hostel in like q gardens what the hell dude yeah sleeping on bunk beds with fucking flight attendants and asian kids. Jesus Christ. They steal your socks. They stole my fucking socks. Asian kids did? They will. Like, I had a little, I moved up there with three 18-gallon bins of clothes. I had actually two for clothes and one for just, like, electronics and, like, my radio and shit like that.

I'm used to moving like that. That's how I bounce around in foster care. You got to know how to prioritize your shit. Here's my clothes. Here's my summer clothes. Here's my winter fall clothes. And here's my entertainment shit. Right.

And I will go out. I will do stand up. I'll come back. There's always some underwear missing, t-shirt, socks, drawers, toothbrush. They're just walking around rocking your stuff they didn't give a fuck they weren't buying shit they were just like i guess this is for everybody let's open this up take some socks yeah there was one dude who i slept in the closet his name was like

kenji or some shit like that i remember i remember his name was kenji it was a big ass mansion in q gardens it was a five bedroom house and they took each room and they put bunk beds in it and they put four bunk beds in it and everybody slept in the open everybody had their little luggage and shit they lived out of that but there was a walk-in closet that was probably not even that big it wasn't that big at all it was a regular size like the size of this hotel nook right there. Right. It had a door. Kid, he was like short, like regular Asian size.

I don't know. Short. You know, like 5'4", some shit like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Set up a little pad with a pillow, and that's where he slept. He slept in the closet. Kenji's got his own room now. He do.

He does. Smartest dude of all of us. He wasn't sleeping on no bunk bed. He slept in a closet. Closed my door. Right. No, he wouldn't. Just closed his door.

He's out. Like, damn, he figured it out. Yeah. So with them taking your shit, did you do anything? No, man. I just was like i gotta get the fuck out of here something gotta happen i will come this close to crying every single night i'm like all of this for comedy yeah this is what people do that was my next question like you're

just struggling to survive and then at the end of the night you have to ingratiate yourself into the scene you have to be funny because most mics are only comedians as well yeah i'm like with no all it is no socks oh the ones that they never took the ones with the holes in them like take the ones i don't fucking wear anymore yeah um but yeah what was that like where it's just like during the day you're just struggling and then i just convinced myself that i've been through worse wow that's it i was just like and i have you know foster care wasn't no no walk in the park yeah but i just was like this is for something better yeah uh because i yeah i listened to a few uh interviews you did and i've you know i've seen your material and stuff and it just sounds just brutal just bouncing around it's bouncing around

i had some good i said i had some good homes and stuff. Yeah, and there was some good stuff. But ending up in a group home, you're like, well. Group home was actually, when I first went to foster care, first it was a mother and children shelter type thing where they rehabilitate the mom and you're there for a little bit. And then the kids get to go on an on-campus daycare or school okay and then they take and they put the mom in classes so she can eventually be independent and get her place gotcha

uh didn't work out right so we ended up leaving that and then uh i went in a foster home i was there for maybe like a year or two right and that was an older woman right older woman named mrs blackwell i don't know if she's still alive or not uh old lady very old she was like 70 right she's like 78 almost yeah 78 pushing 80 she's a widow um her son was in the army her daughter just lived somewhere else and i felt sorry for this old lady i'm a little kid that doesn't understand what the fuck is going on why i'm in her house I'm acting out she can barely move you know and I was destructive I was very destructive I my grandmother brought me a bike and I just took it all apart because that's all what I do like I used to take shit apart put it back together and see how it worked I would do that i painted uh it with house paint i would

like throw screwdrivers in the air and see how long it'll take before they came down and i can move out of the way i was very struggling with the foster brother we used to get in the fights and all that stuff right um yeah and then i ended up moving out of that. And I think it was also, like, the relationship with my mom. It wasn't healthy with them, too. Yeah. I went in group homes after that. I think five years where I bounced around all-boy group homes in, like, rural Pennsylvania. Okay.

So not even inner city stuff. Like, in the mountains. Right. Where fucking kids who were in there because they sold drugs and shit like that the youngest kid there i'm the youngest kid there right and then i did that for about five years went back into foster care and then i ended up living with people again who had their own problems uh like i can i mixed the two together i mixed mixed Blackwell and another lady, Miss Pearl, to kind of condense it. But Miss Pearl, she was like an alcoholic.

She was a beautiful lady. Loved her. I'm not. Hopefully, I can't get sued for this or whatever. Allegedly. But no, she was just like in AA and all that stuff. But that's when I also met my friends, too. Oh, really?

Like all my best friends. Oh, okay. Like in that in that period yeah and how old were you at that at that time i just i think i was maybe like 10th grade when i met all my friends okay so like 15 yeah like 15 she was like smoked a lot of cigarettes i lived with other people who just weren't in aa but they should have been you know and They were all holier than thou. They were the ones that would say shit like, yeah, get your shit together. God don't like ugly while they're fucking getting

drunk. Yeah, God going to strike you for being a piece of shit. I'm like, that's not how that goes at all. Yeah, that's not how that goes. But what great training for being a road comic right just about yes bouncing around like just bouncing around road to road i get yeah i get homesick because like i got to talk to my friends on group chat i talk to my sisters via

text i don't get to see them enough but i'm very like grateful i'm like all right yeah this time i get to bounce around getting paid for it yeah right yeah yeah is there ever like a level of like when you like come from like shitty situations like you know because it sounds like you're all over the place and he's like foster care experiences like is there ever like a level of like when you have like a bad set it's like can that really affect you because it's like you've been through way worse it's like you know what's the worst that's gonna happen yeah no i've i used to i still let like bad sets get to me and they're only bad when i don't connect right i'm like okay they didn't laugh at certain stuff i get that like i learned don't be an attention whore you

understand i work at the cellar i watch chris rock dave chappelle go up there two hours maybe get 10 minutes of laughs yeah yeah they don't sweat they don't sweat it because they're like this is the process of getting better right so i don't get upset with that i don't get upset when a joke don't work i get upset when like they don't connect with me i just mean like in terms of like when it comes like some of the stuff like when you childhood and like dealing with these shitty situations it kind of puts like some things in perspective it's like when you know like if you don't you know get a tv deal or something or if you don't it's like oh well you're still doing what you love and you're oh yeah no oh

definitely yeah no i kind of just let that i'm like i'm not used to getting what i want comedy was the first time i actually started like getting shit that i'm like i'm not used to getting what i want comedy was the first time i actually started like getting that i worked for and stuff like that so i'm always grateful you know i had a pilot that didn't get picked up by comedy central i got the it was me kurt masker annie letterman and uh and dan powell the ep of amy sure that's right for that no he did a joke pass for it though dan soda did some joke passes but we're all comics so we knew how to write stuff like that but we definitely yeah yeah had some great comics do joke passes at it yeah mike lawrence he did a joke pass if

i'm not mistaken i think dan sent it to him yeah because when i worked with him he was working on a show with annie latterman i was wondering if that's what no him, he was working on a show with Annie Letterman. I was wondering if that's what it was. No, no, no. He was working on her show. Oh, so it was a different show. She had a show with E or something like that. Okay. Yeah. Dan Soder, he worked on our, like, they just, like, sent a script to him, like, punch this up.

How's it look? How's it read? And stuff like that. Right, right. But that process just took too long. And I think in the beginning, it was like, like yo this is the best ever and then towards the end where you had to do that regime change and like people left they just probably didn't see the same vision we had anymore and it just didn't get picked up and i wasn't beat up about it just

because i'm like i got the opportunity to write a show yeah i didn't see it for Comedy Central I'm like that wasn't something that like I even thought could happen right you know I can't be disappointed for some unexpected shit that didn't work out I still got paid Comedy Central still likes me and wants to work with me a lot and I get offers and stuff but I'm like hey it's a learning experience i'm gonna hear no a bunch of times yeah but just keep working and i think that experience is huge too like next time you go through it you know what to expect know what first time it's completely new and like ah yeah like i'm working on a show now or i'm working on a script deal i'm working with a writer named Angela Nissel. She wrote The Broke Diaries. She worked on Boondocks.

She worked for, she was like the head writer, I believe, for, what is that? Scrubs. Very, very funny woman.

From Southwest Philly. She grew up with like the roots and all of them. So she, she'd been through some hard stuff too. And we're trying to get a script deal about a show about my life right now. And like, I get, I get a little frustrated a little bit,

but then I just go back to being, I don't know. You know, this is just an experiment. I can be doing nothing right now. Yeah. At least you always still have standup to fall back on. Yeah.

I got standup, but I got people who are interested in creating a show about my life. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. That's nuts. So I'm like, I always try to find the brightest side. When you got into comedy, were you thinking of TV and stuff, or was it always about being a stand-up? Always about being a stand-up. I honestly didn't think comedy can pan out until I moved to New York.

Right. Second year in New York is when I was like, all right, this could actually be some shit. Because after the whole hostile thing and bouncing around on friends' couches, and I had a girlfriend at the time who just, I don't't know she just believed in me and she still does she still did but you can tell her her personal feelings started like seeping in there and stuff but we used to sleep on a twin bed man this girl used to sleep in a twin bed yeah fucking i get up and grind and i wanted to do nice shit for couldn't afford it but i wanted to do comedy the whole time but i think once i like once i'm like figured started figuring stuff out and talking to more comics

i started going oh this can be like a real thing yeah i'm like i could really do something with this you know like because i i would do the open mics and stuff, and I had like a set and stuff like that, but I was still doing open mics. And people would go, oh, you're funny, this, that, and the third. Oh, this is a good joke, blah, zay, blah. But when I started making friends, and then I'm seeing friends get stuff,

and then I'm getting validation from other comics like Goffrey, Keith, Robert Kelly, Artie Fuqua, like all those comics, and they'd never seen me do stand-up, they would just, I would just shoot the shit with them, and they'd go, you're a funny dude. And I'd go, oh, I can be something. And they'll go, who reps you? And I'm like, nobody.

Me. I read something. I'm like, nobody. But they're like, all right, don't worry about it. Don't sweat it. Just keep doing you. And I was like, if these guys who get paid to do this shit for a living are asking me who reps me to think I'm funny, I go, something could really come out of this.

And then I just started pushing myself harder. Yeah, but it's somebody you respect saying that in this situation you're genuinely funny. Yeah, yeah. Like Godfrey never seen me do stand-up he would just say he never he didn't he never seen me do stand-up right he now he does and it was in new york we would just shoot the shit go back and forth at the cellar we're all like uh and i wasn't even working there i'll just hang out there because keith was like come hang out stop being a punk hanging around comics that that you admire. They're going to make you better.

They'll give you advice secondhand. Right? So I was like, all right, I'll do it. Hung out. Made friends. We don't want to be shot to shit. We'll hang out. Mess with pedestrians.

Walk them by the cellar until 4 in the morning. And then one day, Godfrey was headlining Helium in Philly. And I was there visiting my sister and I was like hey you think I do a guest spot he was like sure come through never seen before me was like I'm kind of nervous never seen you before went on I think I had the great I think I had a great set and he also did too he's like holy shit you're like really fucking funny so I went back to I went back to New York that Sunday he's at which we call it he's at stand-up New York that Sunday.

He's at, whatchamacallit, he's at Stand Up New York. And he's like, you work here? And I'm like, no, I just like hanging out. I do like the open mics. And this time Benji was the booker. And he called, he was like, Benji, come here. He was like, put this dude on. This dude's funny.

Damn. And then Benji's like, oh, yo. He goes, put him on or I'm not performing. Whoa. I was like, holy shit. But he said it like a playful way. And Benji was like, all right, cool. Went up there, bombed my face off.

I bombed my ass. I was sweating. I was just like, nothing was connecting. Godfrey was like, whatever. I don't give a shit. Benji was like, all right, I'll give you another shot. He started giving me check spots. And then I would go and I would do the best I could with them check spots. Because some people, that's when the check spots are when you perform and the audience is paying their bills and stuff like that.

So they're not really paying attention. But I was like, I'm going to make them pay attention. Fuck that. You're not going to pay checks on me. So I would go up there and I would do my best material, make them pay attention. Fuck that. You're not going to pay checks on me. So I would go up there and I would do my best material, make them laugh. So where the host would have to go back up there and go,

they're not done paying checks. I'm going to eat some of that time up. So I would do that and I kept doing that and getting better and getting better. Then they started offering me guest spots. Nice. Right?

Yeah. Started doing that and then eventually I got to paid spots. I remember my first paid spot. First paid spot, I was hanging around. Amy Schumer didn't show up for a spot. I think she had to cancel last minute. She's fucking Amy Schumer.

She was getting shit, right? She didn't show up for a spot. Benji was just like, you want to take her spot? I'm like, sure, I did a spot. I just think it's a regular guest spot. I was like, so do to take her spot? I'm like, sure. I did a spot. And I just think it's a regular guest spot. I was like, so do I get her money? He's like, yeah. He gave her money.

I was like, fuck yeah. It was a weekday. It was $25. What? You're getting paid? That's awesome. And from there, I just kept doing it. I would go to this comedy club called Broadway.

They showed me a lot of love. You ever heard of Broadway comedy club? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They showed me a lot of love. You ever heard of Broadway comedy club? They showed me a lot of love. Another comic, Chris DiStefano helped me out because he seen me do an open, not an open mic, but like a produce show with him. I did a good job. I showed up there just hanging out. And the manager was like, who the fuck is this? Like on sneak tip, like, who the fuck is this guy?

And Chris was like, oh, this Monroe, he's a really funny dude. Guy came over to me. He was just like chris says you're funny send me a clip uh something we'll see what you can do send him a clip the next day he's like yeah you can just start doing late night spots here i would do it 20 like i would host the late night shows for like 20 i would like they have that club. They had New York Comedy Club and they were opening another club. I just bounce around. Greenwich Village Comedy Club.

And I would just bounce around and do all those. And I'm getting paid $20 on a weekend. But I'm like, to me, that's like $200 fucking dollars. Right?

Yeah. So, I just had, that's when I started believing in myself more. I'm like, I'm getting somewhere i auditioned for montreal twice didn't get it third time got it fucking a yeah your godfrey

story reminds me of uh i opened up for godfrey and then i never talked to him again so i guess i didn't leave as much of an impression oh you gotta be around man he's a great i love that great dude he's one that guy. Great dude. He's another one of those comics where I never hear him tell the same joke twice. Yeah, yeah. He's another one. It was the same. It was at the Comedy Factory.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they do the 7, 9, and 11 shows. And it's three hours of material. And he's just boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. And I'm watching like, where the fuck does all this come from? And also, for somebody that i think people get caught up in how good of a performer he is because he's a really good actor too really good actor really good performer really great joke right yeah exactly an amazing writer like that dude will like not will even take a common premise and put such a unique spin on it and it's uniquely him

and he's just like such a good writer he dissects it from every angle every every angle he possibly can i think i heard this dude talk about ordering a coffee and he did he talked about for like 20 minutes and it was just different scenarios and coffee how this person how this person was reacting how the person in the background probably interpreted he was just killing it and i'm like this dude's a fucking beast right as something i would take and make a 30 second joke he makes a five minute five minute every possible every possible angle yeah so that first uh night that he vouched for you it's like hey put this guy up or else i'm not going up did that did you feel like a tremendous sense of pressure then fuck yeah that's why i'm bombed like this guy oh yeah

the dude vouch for me yeah and i'm bombed and then i had another and then i had a similar situation again there's another uh big j same thing was in uh was that helium once again as to do a guest spot. It was like, sure, come through. Did a good job. Christine Evans, his woman. She also worked at New York Comedy Club. And whenever Benji wasn't there, she would throw me up. And like she showed me a lot of love. And she's also one of the comic.

I mean, not a comic, but I was like hey like you're really into comedy maybe you could manage me and she was like no and I'm like why and she was like you're going to be great so I'm not going to ruin you right now she was like you got a lot of learning and I always every time I see her show a lot of love she was just like

you're going to find somebody who's going to know exactly what to do with you but until now until then no I'm not going to fuck that up don't to know exactly what to do with you. But until now, until then, no. I'm not going to fuck that up. Don't let anybody else do that. And I'm like, yeah. That's awesome. That's the best no you can hear.

Yeah. No. I'm like, all right. So I lucked out. I think, yeah. Like most people, they talk about the ups and downs. I think a lot of my downs were in my childhood. And then it's just up.

As long as I continue to be like a like a good guy and like you know right back i think you every comic everybody who's making something themselves should always give back if not in money and advice or whatever you just keep paying it forward and as long as i keep doing that i'll continue to have good karma and make it totally yeah it feels good to do that stuff because like you're saying it was done for you too you know what i mean and i think it's done for those guys as well so just yeah part of it like you know you find somebody you like and you're like all right let's give them a shot yeah yeah and i i got my i got so many comedy friends like i got my group of friends we call ourselves six but nothing just like we do because we're like we're all tall.

We're all like six foot. But then there's some of us that are like maybe like 5'10", 5'7". So that's where the nothing part came from. But we. I mean 5'7 is fine. Yeah. Are you little? Not even.

How dare you. How dare you. But we just hustled together. There would be times none of us could afford to go home, and only one of us, maybe two of us, would have a Metro car with some money on it. So we'll go find a station that was not attended, and we'll swipe, and we'll all go through the turnstile at the same time.

Like three people, a turnstile. Just crushed together. We never let each other go hungry like if I had two dollars one of those dollars was yours that's how my friends were so I got enough money to buy two slices you're going to get a slice that's so dope that we're like that tight and now is that do you think that came out of like the way you grew up where it's like you came out of way as you're choosing your family yeah and i'm kind of like that too like my you know went through divorce or parents went through divorce and all that stuff and kind of yeah all that stuff so it's

kind of i think you realize i mean pales in comparison to your story but like you realize that like the people that you choose to have in your life are way important you know yeah yeah i latch on like my friends know i love them yes you know it Yeah, yeah, yeah. I latch on. Like, my friends know I love them. Yes. You know, it's not like, oh, I kind of like you. It's just like, no, like, you're my friend. I say I love you to my friends all the time.

I hug, all that shit. Yeah. Why not? And they know. We've been through some shit. And, yeah. And that's the family that I got to choose. Exactly.

We put that together. And we have blow-up arguments. We get close to fighting. But at the end of the day, I'm like, you're still my best friend. Yeah. And even that stuff, I think, makes you closer in the end, too. Because some people, it's like, well, I'm not blowing up with this person. It's like, well, you barely know them.

Yeah. So you're not going to be crushed in a turnstile with that person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I'm with this person so much, we're going you barely know them. Yeah. So you're not going to be, you know, crushed in a turnstile with that person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm with this person so much, we're going to bump heads eventually. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm always open. But now I'm at that point in my life where people, when they ask for, like, I got to sift through to people who are asking for advice because they want to be better comics or people who are asking for advice because they want a shortcut. They don't want to do the long shit. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. And like you said, you're very lucky. But it wouldn't have happened if you didn't put in the work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You got to put yourself in a position to be lucky. If I never had moved to New York, none of this shit would have happened. Because I wouldn't have put myself in that position for luck to keep striking. Right. And hanging out at clubs and being around. Like, you got to make your own opportunities, basically. Make your own opportunities. Make a name for yourself.

I tell, like, there's another friend who's making a name for himself. His name is Reggie Conquest. It's very funny. And I remember the first day he moved up from Philly, and we seen him on McDougal Street, and he was walking down the street, and he was like, what's up, y'all? Yeah. He thinking he can just hang out.

Just like I moved up here, let's hang out. I'm in. I'm in. And Derek, my friend Derek Gaines, without skipping the beat, he was like, alright, now you up here. Get on that stage, boy. It's time to get on that stage. Meaning, yeah, you up here, but not to hang out. Hang out after spots. Make a name

for yourself. And Reggie did that and he would go around, make names for himself. And I would purposely go, I'm not going to any spots with you because I don't want you to be attached to me in that way. I don't want them to be like, oh, that's Monroe's friend, blah, blah, blah. You go. You hang out. You do what you need to do. At the end of the night, we're all kicking.

We have friend days where we all get together either at my house or in the park or something, do edibles and then fucking shoot the shit. We get invited to barbecues. People call us the Philly crew or they're like the blacks. Ari Shaffir loves calling us the blacks. And he doesn't call us the black because we're a bunch of black people.

He just goes, I don't know. He goes, I know. There's white guys in your group, all that stuff. He goes, but you're the blacks. For some reason, that's how I just look at you. So I go, where's the blacks at, man? All right, nice fucking dude. Nice guy. He's a Maryland guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But awesome. It's good. It's good to have your comedy friends. And we try to help each other out. That's so cool, man. Yeah, we're at that point. And our friendship and our career was just like all right i'm getting opportunities we're all getting different opportunities but let's create together yeah i was doing that i text my friend

that i made we made one of my friends buy a laptop because he always does shit on his phone i'm like buy a laptop because we're writing a movie together i'm like buy a fucking laptop dude yeah do that i don't want to have to look at you type shit out on your phone buy it's an investment you can write that shit off yeah and it's worth it too it's like yeah i mean you can fuck around a little bit but it's for work it's for work yeah like get it done uh-huh we force each other to do shit and that's inspiring too because you guys it i mean because stand-up is a solo endeavor so you're handling your own shit but then you can kind of come back and refuel your creative tanks like together yeah I love that shit so was that so coming out of

out of your childhood and in the comedy you seem like such a well-adjusted guy oh no i'm batshit crazy man all right right right i am batshit i deal with a lot of yeah i deal with a lot of insecurities i talk about that i'm trying to open up more that was a joke i wrote a long time ago about like me and my friend were just talking i go i don't i don't know how to handle my emotions i go i i down or blow up, and I'm not trying to do that. And I go, and I just feel like there's this little dude in my head, this little unintended kid with his feet kicked up. And when some real shit happens, he panics, and I start pushing buttons. And that's how it is.

I still got a lot of stuff I need to let go. I'm still doing a lot of growing up. I'm more spiritual now. Does stand-up help at all stand-up help a lot it helps you vent that has to be like your therapy that was my question because especially for how personal and like vulnerable like how much vulnerability there are on some of those beds like that has to be yeah yeah getting it off your chest because yeah saying like i went through some shit growing up and i'll tell some people about it and they're like how come you're

not more crazy yeah i went to therapy yeah i think there was a yeah i did therapy for a while i don't i don't think i need it anymore i'm just like i don't people go to therapy and they just keep going and then they build a dependence yeah there should be an end goal like yeah my therapist straight up was just like whenever you decide to not come i know i did something right because he's just like my job is to give you the tools that you learn how to use them yourself because if you keep coming to me week after week you ain't getting shit done you're just venting and telling me your problems yeah so he would tell i would talk about family issues and stuff like that and tell him

what i'm dealing with because these are the things I suggest this is what you can try blah blah and I would do it and I did it for like two months and I just stopped coming and he wasn't upset anything like that yeah and honestly like stand up is probably the best venue for you like yeah you can talk about this stuff publicly to an audience and it becomes therapeutic and cathartic that way. That's really the best outlet. Also, being around people who don't make you feel like a victim or don't make you feel just ashamed of yourself. Yeah, and nothing's out of bounds either with comics. They can be taught all the time.

They can rag on you for that. They rag on me. My friends know I hate the holidays because it was just never something I enjoyed as a kid and stuff like that. And they make fun of me, but at the end of them making fun of me, yo, you can always come over to my house. Or my mom said, what's up? She got a plate for you, this, that, and the third. So they're always there for me.

But now that I'm in a position where I don't have to feel sorry for myself, I'm let me create my own traditions yeah so once a month i just started this i did it uh last week i'm like once a month instead of buying sneakers because i buy a shitload of sneakers i buy a shitload of sneakers i spent like eighteen thousand dollars last year on sneakers and my fucking accountant was like dude what the fuck are you doing he was like that was the down payment on a condo he goes what are you doing i'm like childhood issues man can we write off child right yeah he's like i can only write off maybe a third of this. Right. Yeah. I'm like, all right. I'll stop. $18,000.

Woo. Right? I didn't even know I made that much money last year. Let alone the time. I was like, wait. How much? When he told me that, he goes, uh. Because I got a mint now in a mint account.

And they let you know how much you spend on shit. And I just ignore it. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And he was like, when he said that, I was like, well, how much did I make? And he was just like, you made enough, but this is where all your money is going. You made $18,000 more.

Yeah. He's like, you could have took this money and put it here. Right. So I was like, I cut back on sneakers. I'll probably buy a pair of sneakers every three to four months, and they got to be some shit I really, really like. Right. Right.

Right? I got a pair of sneakers. I bought the, are you into Jordans at all? No. I bought these limited edition, they call it trophies and confettis. Okay. I bought both of them.

It was like 500 bucks. Sure. But then I was like, my roommate was like, why are you doing that? So I was like, all right, well I'm going to send one of them back. And I sent one of them back and kept the other ones. That's huge.

And I wrote on the box, can't wear these until I record my special. Oh, that's awesome. And I just got them sitting there with the thing on there. I'm not tempted to put them on. I did some cool shit in between that time. I did the Kevin Hart thing two weeks ago in Montreal. Oh, what was that? Like a showcase?

No, he has an OTT, so it was like an online thing happening. And I did that, and that was pretty awesome. Nice. But I was like, ooh, I can wear it from that. And I was like, no, that's not mine. That's not mine. That would cheapen it. Yeah, it would cheapen it.

Yeah. So instead of spending money on clothes and all that stuff, I was like, I'll go home once a month. And I'll take my nieces and nephews out, my sisters and my moms out. And I said moms. And my mom out. Because I still, even though I wasn't raised by my mom, bouncing around, foster care, she was always there. Right. She was always there for me to be mad at.

So I'm like, I can't hate her for not providing or whatever she did her best but she was always there yeah and she she helps my sisters out with their kids and stuff now so i'm like right she's a great mom but i still gotta talk about these issues that i dealt with in the past absolutely but stuff now i'm like she's an awesome awesome mom right so i went back. I took my girlfriend. She came with me. My sisters, my best friend, his woman. My sister even brought somebody. She brought my niece's best friend. And we took them to the trampoline park in King of Pressure.

And I'm like, oh, this is going to break my pockets. $160 for all those people. I was like, good. For like a whole day of shit. For a whole day of shit. They had a good time. The next day, me and my girlfriend took my mom and my grandmother out because this was the first time they met my girlfriend. We took them out to, what is that, Legal Seafoods in the movie.

Mom had a good time. Because I only eat seafood. Gotcha. My girls do. we're pescatarian so yeah me too yeah yeah i feel like i want to live a little bit a little bit a little long now they're fucking up seafood by cloning the meat like cloning it and painting it and shit yeah there's two tuna left in the world right two original tuna everybody else is a clone exactly but at once a month i gotta i gotta do that so next

month i asked my sisters i'm like what do y'all want to do with the kids that's so cool uh we'll take them to like they want to go to like one of those like like go-kart places and stuff so we'll do that and i'm getting my license by next month i will have my driver's license okay so i'm like all right i'll be good it's good that's awesome that's so cool man yeah the thing about that too is that like it's really important to those kids too and they don't even know it but when they get older they're gonna remember that as well and like maybe pay that for and that's the tradition that i was like let me do that let me i'm like yeah i don't like christmas because i could never spend that time with them i like thanksgiving because i always spent it at some stranger's house i'll go but let's create our own uh our

own traditions let me do that let me be an uncle that just didn't make a bunch of money and go oh yeah come over my house let me look at all my jordan look at all this shit right no you can't touch him don't touch no i did get like that for a little bit. Why are you stepping on my sneakers? What the fuck am I doing? Why are you stepping on my childhood issues? Yeah, I'm like, childhood issues, right? I'm like, what the fuck? Yo, that may be a good name for a comedy album or something like that.

There's a picture of my sneakers and my childhood issues. Air childhood issues or something. Hey, I may have to do that. I'm going to write that down when we leave. That's not bad. I'm trying to picture the logo instead of a guy dunking. Maybe it's just a kid crying. I don't know.

We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Gerard Carmichael has a great joke about black guys in sneakers. He goes, when you see a black dude, the cleaner his sneakers, the deeper their pain or some shit like that. He goes, so when you... Like to try to clean their soul. Yeah. to deepen our pain or some shit like that he goes so when you like to try to like clean their soul yeah so when you see i don't i don't know if i'm doing the joke justice but i think he says when you see a dude with all white sneakers just give him a hug yeah that's a great joke there's a great joke great fucking joke but that's so cool man i it's really cool like you're putting your energy

like into family and stuff and then family feels good too and like you know that it's like you're getting something out of it they are too yeah i'm starting to do more uh foster care events and i i convince myself i hate them but i'm like you don't hate them you're just not used to them these are just different uh this is just a different like chapter in your life now. So I gotta figure out how to write a speech that's vulnerable and funny at times.

Stuff like that. Like I'm doing one in New York coming up October 5th or whatever. I'm doing that. I did other ones in the past. But I want to get more involved. I'm creating a film the past. But I want to get more involved. I'm creating a film festival with me and my managers and hopefully above average. Oh, nice.

Yeah, for kids in care or who, yeah, like kids who are currently in care and they're in like certain programs. Do that. Just give them a shot. Yeah, where they could put up like a short film or something. Put a short film or something put a short film up we'll help them write it and then we'll like kind of like narrow it down to like maybe five that you can that will air at the film festival then i'll get put up on somebody's site but i'm trying i'm just trying to like do my part you know dude sounds like you're going above and beyond that's awesome yeah it's tight it's i just got to get more focus

like i'm very all over the place well you got a lot going on yeah but i'm still like focus i got a checklist my roommate she's really good at like staying on task so i've been like stealing shit from her like she'll do like little postcards and stuff and i'll be like on the corner like all right that's what she's doing i mean push it together that's how but yeah there's a lot i want to do before 40. there's a lot i want to do before 35. how old are you now i'm 30 now oh dude and i accomplished a lot i feel like i accomplished a lot yeah before 30. like i didn't think i would ever even be on tv until like late 30s and when I got on what 27 yeah for last comic

27 just turned 28 cause I had my birthday there I did no one cared I was like it's my birthday y'all they didn't I was like it's my birthday Wanda was like happy birthday gave me a hug we still got a show to shoot

thank you Wanda Sykes yeah but i didn't think that in a year goes by fast you know so i'm like let me focus get some shit done yeah yeah dude you're well you're doing great so the so it for the new york comedy festival that's kind of like the preview of that's gonna be a preview that's gonna tell me how long i got like where i'm at uh like my manager and agents they feel that it's like 85 done because they get like calls and they always check up with the comedy club like how did he do and blah blah blah and i'll go oh he did really well he did these jokes people said this and that and blah, blah, blah. And they'll be like, all right, just focus.

Get it 100% done. So I'm still like, I'm 65% done. But there's still stuff that I want to talk about that I haven't yet. And I know they're like, well, just save it for the next one. But in my mind, I'm like, there is no next one. I want to fucking do this the best I can and then see how i feel afterwards see how i feel two years later okay you know are you oh go ahead

man i was gonna just want to put it out there and if that's the last set you ever do it's what you're yeah yeah we had two yeah you know they had two they were were phenomenal. Yeah, so funny. Yeah. So I'm treating it like that. I'm like, let's just see where I'm at. If I'm in love with certain stuff, I may lose some jokes, may gain some stuff. Yeah. Are you a bit of a perfectionist, though? Yeah.

That's kind of what I'm picking up on. But perfectionist just means you're indecisive. Okay. And you have commitment issues. That's what perfectionist means. Where'd you get thoseecisive. And you have commitment issues. That's what perfectionist means. Where'd you get those from? But I'm going to try, man. I'm really putting it together.

I told my friends, I go, I'm going to probably bug y'all to come watch me whenever I'm in the city. I got enough shows up until that point. I'm on the road. I got two more shows today. And then I'm in Arizona next week, sorry, Wednesday through Sunday. Seven shows there.

I come back. I think I got one off at college. Then I come back from my college. I got two more shows. And I'm on the road. So I'm really busy all the way up until November. So I'm like, I got no excuses, nothing excuses nothing but time to like sit down and go let's figure this out let's get this portion done let's get this portion done and are you recording all your sets and yeah i hate the sound

of my voice though yeah yeah i got i haven't recorded this weekend but next weekend i'm gonna record all of them i should have recorded this weekend i think i had some really great moments that i should have recorded but i still got like this hard drive is like 40 this is like uh maybe 500 gigs i got 42 gigs uh just of sets of sets and audio recordings and stuff like that that i should listen to when i'm on the train or when i'm like flying somewhere and just like take 20 minutes 30 minutes listen to half of it and go

let me just do this I listen to music a lot though oh okay you know yeah but I'm gonna figure it out then it becomes where it's like man I have 42 gigs to listen to

I know it gets bigger and bigger I know so I have a to do I have a daily to do list and I put new stuff on there and that's gonna be one album

where it's just like, all right, for an hour, I've got to listen to a set or a set or two, regardless if it's an hour set or a bunch of 20-minute sets. I've got to do that. I've got to write on it. I've got to expand some material, see what I can lose, and then I allow myself to go do something else. So I'm trying to train myself.

That's great, yeah. I mean, that you're so diligent like that. I don't think a lot of people think of stand-up like that where it's like so much work it's like okay you're up there for an hour and that's it it's like no i gotta listen to it again pause it write it out and then try to remember what i said and yeah and be like all right i like this i don't like this i could merge this with that you don't have a boss yeah you have a boss no one's gonna tell you to do any of that shit right they just want to sell it the agents and managers they just want to sell it all right yeah you know and if you don't get nothing from the cell then

yeah so you always gotta they're asking a bring a product they don't care how you make it intensive it was just bring it to it's like making a movie but you're the writer director producer, producer, editor, star. They're like, hey, man, you figure it out. We give you all the time you need. All the time meaning you have two months. Right, right, right. Yeah.

Jesus, man. Well, yeah, this has been great, man. Thank you for talking to us. Thank you all for letting me talk your ear off. What time is it? I talked for like, oh, it's only an hour. Yeah. Oh, wow. This has been great, oh, it's only an hour. Yeah. Oh, wow. This is great.

Dude, it flew by, man. It's honestly like really inspiring to hear all this. It's so cool, man. Yeah, absolutely, dude. You're fucking killing it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. I appreciate it. Anything you want us to plug? When does it come out? This will be out on Monday. Monday. What do we got coming out on Monday? I'm on the road.

So you said Arizona. I'm in Arizona at the House of Comedy from Wednesday through Sunday. What else? Joking off on MTV. I think my episode airs like next week or something like that. Comedy KO. I think it airs like at the end of this month, too. That's a true TV show.

There's another MTV show called Acting Out I think that starts to air like later This month or Stuff like that And then if you're in New York Come to New York Comedy Festival To my show Either Tumultuous

Life Circus Or Minor Turbulence But I like Minor Turbulence Religious, life circus, or minor turbulence. But I like minor turbulence. Minor turbulence kind of comes out to me. And when is the date of the New York Comedy Festival? I don't even know. My manager was just like, what's the name of your show? We've got to put it in time out in New York.

We've got to send it to the guy. And I'm like, I've got to figure it out. Still in New York. We got to send it to the guy. And I'm like, I got to figure it out. Yeah. Still. Dude, that's so great. And then it's MonroeMartinThe3rd on Twitter. MonroeMartinThe3rd, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. All that ish.

All that shit. Hell yeah. And we built my website. Fucking A. Well, thank you for doing this, man. Thank you all for coming through. Thank you for thinking I'm interesting enough to do a podcast. Absolutely, man. This is awesome. Thank you. you for doing this man thank y'all for coming through thank you for thinking i'm interested enough to podcast absolutely man uh yeah so follow the podcast on twitter at dig sesh pod mike here at the mike fanazo on twitter i'm at josh cadern on twitter and instagram

digressionsessions.com for uh everything related to the podcast and uh david keckner take this out digressionsessions Coming to an end. Thank you. Oh yeah, oh yeah