The Digression Sessions - Ep. 210 - Pierre Bennu! (@exittheapple)

Episode Date: February 27, 2017

Hola Digheads! It's a one on one with Josh Kuderna and Baltimore based painter, film maker, comedian, dad, and all around badass Pierre Bennu! Pierre discusses his journey from art school to being homeless (naturally), to working on Wall Street, to running his own studio and company with his wife. Truly an awesome guy with an awesome story. Inspiring shit. Glue your walnuts together, people.  He also runs the art space - Exit The Apple - in Baltimore. Follow the podcast, 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!

Hello, this is Nigel from the Tony Kornage Show, and you're listening to the Digression Sessions. Did I say that right? Do I get paid now? Can I leave? Hey! Hi everybody, welcome to the Digression Sessions. Hi, Josh Kaderna here. How are you? Long time no pod. Yeah, this is... hello. I haven't done an intro in a while. Always fun. But yeah, I hope you're well. I know we haven't posted an episode in a while, but me and my co-host Mike Fonazzo have took up some other gigs. He's now editing some films and stuff. So he's been busy. But over the weekend, I interviewed one of my favorite artists here in

Baltimore, Pierre Banu, who I first got introduced to through the comedy scene. I thought he was just a comedian, but turns out he's like this crazy multi-talented dude from like music to painting to animation. This guy, he does it all. And he has his own art space, which you can rent. And he does shows there. It's called Exit the Apple here in Baltimore. And you can check out exittheapple.com for upcoming events. I know the one that he wants me to plug is going to be on April 1st.

And I think it's called The Big Show. And it's going to be sort of like a variety show thing with like comedy and music and sketches and stuff. So check that out and check out Exit the Apple online. And Pierre is on Instagram. He's at Exit the Apple. And he has really, really great artwork. So this episode is just a one-on-one with me and Pierre over at his art space. And I get to know him a little better. And I hope you guys dig it because he is really one of the best and coolest dudes in Baltimore.

So that was very fun. And I'll keep this brief and we'll just plug some stuff. We'll get right into the interview. Hope you guys enjoyed the Oscars last night. That was wild fun. And I'll keep this brief and we'll just plug some stuff. We'll get right into the interview. Hope you guys enjoyed the Oscars last night. That was wild, huh? Wild. I don't know what happened. Okay, well, let's plug some stuff.

Shows, shows, shows, shows. What do we got going on? I want to say if anybody came out to see me at the DC Improv when I was hosting, I'm sure a ton of people did. But maybe a few. But I had a blast at the DC Improv with Jacqueline Novak and Jamie Lee. And that was so fun. And then just did a show here at the Auto Bar here in Baltimore with Michael Ian Black and Jessica Murphy Garrett. And that was a lot of fun.

So anybody listening now that came out to those shows, thank you for coming. This week I will be at the DC Draft House on Friday the 3rd for a show called Vent, which is like a happy hour show. It's very like audience interactive-y and you get to voice your grievances and vent about your week and comedians riff on it and all that stuff. So that's 6 o'clock at the DC Draft House, and that's free. On the 7th, I'll be at George Washington doing improv and come out to that. Let's see.

On the 10th, I have an orthodontic appointment, of course. The 10th and the 11th, I'll be hosting at the Harrisburg Comedy Zone. And on the 12th, I will be at the dc draft house again at 7 p.m for a benefit show which uh my good buddy mike finazzo is headlining uh i'll be opening the show and doing some improv with some dc peeps but uh the benefit is for natasha's justice project which uh pete bergen helped put together a very funny funny DC comic. And so this goes towards the benefit of women that have been sexually assaulted and goes towards a really good cause,

so if you want to come out to that. And then you get to see both of the Dig Sesh boys doing their thing, so that should be a good time. And we always like to hear from people, too, so check out the Digression Sessions Facebook page. We're on Twitter at DigSeshPod. I'm on Twitter and Instagram at Josh Kaderna. Mike's on Twitter.

He is at TheMikeFanazzo. DigressionSessions.com and all that stuff. So really appreciate you guys listening. And sorry for the lack of episodes the dearth but uh yeah it's always fun so we're gonna keep doing these as long as we can and uh i really hope you guys enjoy this interview with uh pierre benu he's really really cool and uh really interesting story too so check him out check us out and uh we'll talk to you guys next week let's talk to you guys next week. Let's talk to Pierre Benut. Pierre! Pierre!

Let's just get right into it. No, it's okay. No. All right, so we're at Exit the Apple. Am I on? Is it on? Yeah, this is it. Oh, boom. All right. This is it. We're here. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it's okay. No. All right. So we're at Exit the Apple. Am I on? Is it on? Yeah, this is it. Oh, boom. All right.

This is it. We're here. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's not much. Not much at all for setup wise. But we're in your studio and there's paintings everywhere and a lot of pro white power stuff.

I'm kind of surprised. I mean, from the stuff I see on Instagram, very different. But no, man, it's so cool. So you are a painter, comedian, father. Yes. Last time you checked. I'll ask them, but yeah. But you're working on everything. You're one of those guys who I first saw.

I'm like, oh, he's like a really funny kind of outside the box standup. Not, not like an alti way, but like, just like you would come at stuff different and sometimes do like a character or something like that. And it was like always impressive. Then it's like,

Oh, he paints too. Oh, he's a really good painter. And then like all kinds of multimedia stuff, like, uh, like it's just,

and so I come over here and then you're like, yeah, now I have an animation that I'm working on too. So, so it break it down pierre let's what what how did you get started like what was your first thing wow um well my first thing was growing up in a very dangerous new york okay uh and so i kind of my options were kind of limited yeah yeah so uh i would i wanted to be a graffiti artist okay these people were my heroes they created all these masterpieces in the middle of the night it was dangerous right right but my mom was like if you leave you will come home to a locked door so i was

like all right so she gave me sketchbooks as many as i wanted okay and that was my like beginning and then i like rather than give you a key to the house she's like here's a sketchbook don't risk your life yeah and then here's the key to staying alive and um and then when i was eight um she gave me and my brother our first reels of film and so i shot and edited my first film when i was eight wow and uh well we were editing prior to that like we didn't have vcr so we'd have like eight millimeter films and we would you know back in the day you used to buy the eight millimeter Wow. Well, we were editing prior to that. Really? We didn't have VCR, so we'd have like 8mm films. And we would, you know, back in the day you used to buy the 8mm scenes from a film. Okay. And then you'd watch it, like, you know, Pinocchio or Zorro, and you'd just see the scene from the film.

You'd play it. This is something I don't know anything about. You could do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they'd sell it like, well, this is before VCRs, before I had them anyway. Right. And so, you know, buy Zorro or, you know, all these little black and white films. yeah and they'd sell it like well this is before vcrs before i had them anyway right and so you know by zorro or you know all these little black and white films and so me and my brother would

watch them ad nauseum but then we would um we would edit them we'd cut them like this is boring so we'd scratch in little like curse words and bullets and then edit them and flip it backwards so that they're running backwards and fighting on the train yeah that's how we learned to like edit and that's cool yeah it's kind of like the uh film version of like the beginning of like being a dj of taking music that's already there and then you kind of splice it up in a different way right but this way with like film that's so that's so cool and you were eight and got into that and then we were like trying to outwit each other because you know living in that i was a skinny i was a skinny kid. So you had to kind of be really witty. If you couldn't fight, you had to be able to snap or talk to somebody.

But we and my brother's older, so he just kind of beat on me lyrically. But but but when we would make these films, we would watch them and we would like we would try to out talk each other. So whoever was the funniest got to keep on going. It's like, oh, let's fight. And Padoki would fall down the steps backwards or something. So it kind of built a speed into our creativity. Gotcha, because you had to just be there. You had to be on point.

So that was my beginnings anyway. God, that's so cool. So obviously you must have had a really artistic bent early on. So did your mom kind of notice that? Yeah. I mean, I just, or was like the sketchbook just like here, this is something that it's like inexpensive. You can do it by yourself. Like, no, go do it. She, she kind of peeped game. Like I was, I was very much, uh, I was very much into the arts. I you know and plus i i couldn't i couldn't really participate with the other all the other kids in their reindeer games like i wasn't the fastest i wasn't i just would kind of be the weird one who's like i let me just go off in the corner and draw

uh-huh that was who i was yeah i mean i just didn't want to I just I just didn't want to participate I was kind of weird okay so so not like like an athletic guy that I guess I'm right I'd rather draw yeah yeah okay well I mean it seems like it's paid off like yeah so okay so you're in New York young drawing and making films already a filmmaker at eight so then how do you end up in baltimore baltimore well uh so like things went real bad well we kind of like post 9-11 new york just became too expensive for us to live in anymore um it just like everyone from from like manhattan moved to brooklyn because of like fear or just like everyone from like Manhattan moved to Brooklyn.

Because of like fear or just like Brooklyn was cheaper or like everything. Just kind of. Brooklyn just kind of became what you see it is now. But it's kind of, you can't really live there.

Like if you're living in an apartment, it's six of y'all living in an apartment or you're very rich. It's like one of the two. Right. And we kind of got moved out of our neighborhood, and we were hunting for a city. Yeah.

And Baltimore, we had a screening of one of my films down here. Mm-hmm. And yo, the love was, I'm like, you don't know me? And these people were like,

ah! It was so much love. Wow. What was the film? The film was called RBG, Redbone Gorillas. It was Zorro. I made it when I was eight.

People loved it it i've been riding on that zoro fame for a long time um and it was a film i made in 2003 it's on imdb nice you know it did its rounds but um it uh right into that mic pierre just uh like glued up to your bottom lip basically oh i'm sorry oh it's fine it's fine you'll never find this is great all right so no um so we did that yeah and uh the love here was just amazing and then just being in baltimore i had a couple friends here it felt like the new york i grew up in it felt so familiar and i was just like all of this magic there was danger here but it was also like you guys don't see what you're this is like this is amazing yeah and so i just it just felt right and so

me and my wife just moved here plus our rent money yeah uh went way long i was like you got a yard yeah exactly yeah house like we can both fit in the kitchen how about that you're joking but yeah i was like that's how it is in new york where you're just like yeah i paid for like five square feet it's like two thousand bucks a month no i had a friend live in an apartment for two thousand dollars a month they were holes in the steps leading up to the apartment where rats ran in and out and they had a uh uh what do you call it a shower in the kitchen yeah like the old school tenement stuff oh and you could literally touch the building next door out of the kitchen window i was like why are you paying to live in new york city yeah it's

crazy like even going down to dc like i was uh i was looking to to buy a house and then like i was like well let me see what's in i'm I'm down in D.C. a lot. Let me think. I was like, wow. It's like $600,000 to buy an apartment or something. Holy fucking shit. It's crazy. So when people come to Baltimore, they're like, what?

It's this? And yeah, you can buy a house with a yard and not be like a half a million dollars? Right. And there's actually a pretty good arts scene down here too which is cool and then it's one of those things where it's like it's not super overpopulated in a way where like a bunch of people are trying to get the same thing at once so you really have to fight here it's more like it's a little more spread out so if you're doing something cool people are going to gravitate to it in a way that's like supportive and organic no it is and that's the

other thing at least when i got here i'm starting to smell it turn a little bit but oh really a little tiny bit but for the most part i'll say 90 of all of the arts in baltimore from what i'm seeing from theater to comedy to to the arts arts whatever you want to call that film or whatever it's very supportive everyone kind of has everyone else's back it's not a crab in the barrel situation right right right but you're starting to see it turn a little bit a little it's getting a little stinky and it's not not in a bad way but it's just like people kind of as as it's starting to grow i'm seeing people kind of want to i'm the thing you know what i mean and i don't want egos to get involved but

i think if people kind of came together in this moment yeah it would be it would be an amazing thing for the world I think Baltimore you know I mean yeah it's one of those things where it is it is funny yeah when like you say Baltimore people like but it's like it's actually pretty good I mean I mean of course there's some bad parts too but like then it's going to happen in any scene also where there's going to be people that are jealous or things like that or egos are going to get in the way. But for the most part, it's pretty good. I mean, between here and DC,

I think we're in a pretty good spot as far as opportunities and stuff. And you being a part of it, I think is so cool. Thank you. I don't mean it in a blow smoke up your ass part of it, I think, is so cool. Thank you. I don't mean it in a blow-smoke-up-your-ass kind of way, but you've got to follow Pierre on Instagram. It's at ExitTheApple, right? And then the ExitTheApple art space has its own Instagram

that we're slowly building up because of events and stuff. Right, and that's what we're in now, and that's why I think it's so cool. You're a guy that's doing so much different stuff, and then you have your own space where you're going to be putting on shows. Like that's really important for a scene for somebody to like kind of facilitate other people as well as put out stuff. You're like, I don't have anything to say.

No, no, I'm nodding. Like you can hear that. You're just like, yeah, I'm great. Yeah.

What can you say to that? No, I, it's, it's, it's, it it's it's amazing to just be recognized thank you so much for having me on this podcast I just feel like

you know like I got this space after kind of years of working me and my wife have a business very successful and I kind of for like eight or so years I was like I'm not doing anything but getting this business off the ground so I kind of was like I can't I kind of tied my own hands as far as the art is concerned okay but now that

we've made enough money for me to get this space it was like okay we have enough staff you can go go get the art space running so i'm over here and at first i was just it's gonna be me walking around in my drawers and painting and expressing all these eight years of wound up stuff yeah and then i was like nah man like there's so much need in baltimore there's so much thirst there's so much hunger i and you know and other people don't have spaces wouldn't it be cool what would you have wanted when you were in your early 20s or if you were an older artist that didn't get that shine like what would you have wanted yeah would you've wanted like a break or like I'm just like I want to kind of want to offer that space,

that moment to people that otherwise wouldn't have it yet. Yeah, I think that's great because it's – you could just be like, all right, what do I need to grow? But then it's also like, oh, what would have been cool to have? Because that's – if you're doing well and then you can kind of give back, it's going to make everything else better. Plus they make me better. Like whoever figures it out here.

Like, oh, I don't quite have a gallery, but I'm learning to put shows on or I'm learning to display my work or learning to do stand-up or sing in front of public, you know, whatever. That makes me better because their excellence is like, okay, I got to step my game up. So it's like, you know what I mean? That's the best type of not like jealousy, but inspiration where you watch somebody just crush and you're like oh i gotta work harder like it it can't go a little too far where like somebody's like great like you're watching a bill burr or louis ck or something like that where you're like man this is so cool like i got to see louis ck do like he popped into uh the big hunt which is like this small kind of club now basically in dc and he popped in and did 20 minutes and he was just working on new stuff and

it was like uh it was just so exciting because you're like wow louis ck oh my god and then you know it just kind of drops off eventually on that bell curve like oh now i'll i'm depressed because i'm not gonna i'm going to get to that spot. But I think you doing that and taking it in a good way of like, oh, okay, I want to step my game up is really cool. And something that is what we're talking about of people getting jealous of stuff. You can be like, man, fuck that guy. All right, I want to try harder too, which I think is great, man. So let's get back to the journey.

So you got the movie. You come down. People are like, oh, Pierre, you're great. You're like, all right, I'll move here. Really, it was a lot having to do with the vibe and the prices. Just the cost of living, dude. Did you have kids at that point? No.

Yo. I'm not no shots to whoever wants to have kids have them when you have them but we waited like 10 plus years before we had kids we were married we knew each other we had fun we ran around the world you know i mean like we knew who we were before we were like let's have some roommates like because that's what it is you don't know who these people are right right so um so yeah no we were completely like i like the idea like you're making people on craigslist essentially like i don't know who you are yeah and it's terrifying because it's those it's it's you really don't know who you're having yeah yeah i mean look think about i don't know if you don't

have any brothers or sisters right i have a half a half brother, but I haven't met him, but yeah. Right. Okay. Okay. All right. So, but you know, like. Well, I mean, I'm primarily an only child for sure. For sure.

Okay. So, but you know that like you have friends who have been raised by the same parents, but are completely different people. Like you don't know how the hell did you and you sleep in the same bed, like, you know what I mean? Right. Right. And it's the same thing. Like I'm raising both of my sons.

I don't know if they're going to be jerks or this one's going to be, you know what I mean? Yeah. And just even judging from who they are right now, like, if they were in college, they would totally never hang out. Like, those are two different vibes. I mean. Okay. Is that kind of a sibling thing, too, of, like, what you were saying, like, your brother would kind of fuck with you a little bit oh no not a little bit he was a lot of bits excuse me but um no i think me and my brother are way more different than my two sons are okay but um you could tell

like aesthetically the difference like my younger son is like i won't wear red like he'll be very like he's six and he's like i'm not wearing that that's i couldn't wear that hat with this i'm like dude you just know who's looking at you you think i'm gonna go on the playground with that what are you crazy i'll be finished in this town get out of here and and and uh the eight-year-old, he's just so, like, he can walk into any crowd. Like, he's like, they call it a speech delay. He's on the autism spectrum, yeah? Okay. But he doesn't either, he doesn't care or know.

So he's one of these kids, like, usually when you have on the spectrum, you're kind of shy about, yo, he has no inhibitions. Like, if he's in a room with a mic, he gets immediately on mic it's like everybody look what's going on how y'all doing tonight can i have your like he's all right now just the ladies right he has he's so correct not it's courageous for me because i'm just a shy kid with the sketchbook right right he doesn't care it's like i'm in this room yeah what's up everybody let's let's have a party like so great because yeah it's one of those you take a bad thing and then you kind of turn into your superpower like quote unquote bad but it's like he doesn't know he has no clue and i'm not gonna yeah i mean i have a friend like that her her daughter kind of has something along those lines where it's like she's super creative and outgoing and she kind of has a very rare condition

and one of the things is like she's actually a byproduct of it is that she's very happy. That's so great. What? But it's one of those things where like kind of doesn't pick up on like social cues or things like that to like the normal extent. Like she's very functional and like great. But it's like, God, that's so cool to like not even be aware of it. Yeah. No, that's my son totally uh-huh and and in studying

not studying but in in like getting diagnosis for him over these past couple of years i'm clearly seeing that i have like i'm self-diagnosing but somewhere on the spectrum absolutely if i'm like if that's autism if that's on the spectrum i totally totally, I totally, I'm looking back at my past, you know, like just the Kaiser So Say moments. I'm looking like, oh, oh, oh, wait a minute. Yeah. You know? So, yeah. Just like my obsession with film.

Like the way I used to edit and just be so meticulous. I'm like, okay. I used to, I used to get walnut shells after they were eaten. Just collect everyone's walnut shells and sit with a glue, like Elmer's glue and just put the shells back together. Stuff like that. If I saw my kid doing that, I'd be like, he's a serial killer.

For sure. But you know, to my mom's, you know, credit, she was like, here's some Elmer's glue. Go ahead.

Finish that project up. You know what I mean? And I wasn't trying to trick anybody. I was just just like i want to see these things look the way they did before they were cracked piles of them it's like that child clearly has autism something something something but that's cool that she she kind of embraced it too it was like all right if that's where you're going like right i'll facilitate that even more versus like throw that away, which could have been detrimental. Right. Which is probably what more my dad did.

Oh, gotcha. Are you on good terms with your dad? We are. I mean, they were divorced most of the time I was a kid. Yeah. But it's not – I mean, we talk and we're pretty good. Yeah. It's a pretty common thing, I think, for performers.

I did a show last night, kind of a storytelling show, and it was about my half-brother, actually. And so I started out by saying I'm from, like, my parents divorced, anybody else from a broken home, and it was just all the other performers were like, woo! And I was like, of course. The people seeking attention from strangers are the ones, you know. But it's one of those things, too, where it's another negative that's kind of a positive, too.

Where it's like you kind of, you know, like, all right, I'm a little fucked up about this. But then you kind of facilitate it in an artistic way, which I think is, for the most part, healthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to get through regardless. You know what I'm saying? There's several people I know, family members I know with both parents. parents and i'm just like maybe y'all should have broke up right that might have been better for you right yeah it's a good point yeah louis ck says like when uh people find out they're divorced or a friend of theirs is getting a divorce like i'm so sorry it's like no no it's

probably for a good reason like you should be like good you know right uh so but it seems like you took uh the different route though because you've been with your wife a long time i mean 10 years then you had kids and is that one of those things where like you saw what your parents did and where you can kind of like a lot of people emulate what's going on around them or you can kind of take it and be like no i want to go a different way with that we you know we had no consciousness like had we thought about marriage we probably wouldn't have got married really it was very kind of like let's get married all right it was very casual i like that and uh do you say all right all right you know we were just having so much fun and we had no money and we were just

like this what is there to lose? You know what it's like? It's like a sleepover. That's how I, you know, like when your friends come sleepover and your parents are about to pick you up. Yeah. You know that anxiety? Uh-huh. It feels like a sleepover, but your parents are never coming.

Yeah. It's just like, oh, we get to play. Yeah, there's snacks. We're going to stay up late. Pillow fort, maybe. I don't know. Whatever we want. Exactly. Yeah. And pre-kids, it get to play. Yeah, there's snacks. We're going to stay up late. Pillow fort, maybe. I don't know. Whatever we want. Exactly.

And pre-kids, it was only that. So we were like, bleh. It was so, we were the kids until we had them. So it was that. Uh-huh. Yeah. Was that a tough transition? Is like having kids?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, dude. I haven't slept in eight years. Eating over the sink and stuff like that. I had a great body prior to this. I was sexy. I was fully Idris Elba prior to this. Now it's not so much.

You're like, I'm going to wear whatever. It's going to be covered in paint. I don't care. Paint, food, throw up, whatever it is. No, that was it. Yeah, man. It's's great but it's just like yo it's yeah it's you can't well i'm over i'm hyper nervous like my wife had four other siblings it seems like you have a lot of energy anyway yeah no no yeah yeah yeah so that that helped

and then me and her constantly fighting to find more time to be with each other so they kind of split us split us up but it's like it's two on two now yeah it's two on two so it is a thing when they go to sleep we're like remember when we used to be slim and have fun and you know so there's that and um you know and then there's work we're we work in the same building but it's still like yeah you know let's work to get back and hang out with each other more like it's it's yeah it's it's still fun man that's great that's so cool you have that so then you guys started the business what's the business you have okay so um the business on that side the whole other side of the factory over there is oen handmade okay it's all it's oen is a yoruba word for honey. Okay. So that is in most of our products.

It's hair, all natural hair and body products. So it's stuff that's amazing for your skin, amazing for your hair that she just invented from scratch. No shit. Which is amazing. This is more than 15 years ago. Damn. And mind you, it was part of our let go process. She was doing a PhD at NYU, and I was working on Wall Street. What?

When we met, we've had many lives. Yeah, who are you? What? Exactly. And we were like, yo, we're smart enough to at least make rent and eat. Like, let's quit. You quit yours, I'll quit mine, and let's just throw everything against the wall so no shit we i was like what can we do i was like i can dj uh we taught a writing performance class in our in our apartment uh she started making these

products she was making them anyway it was like let's sell them interesting so we were like let's whatever sticks we'll keep we'll throw everything against the whatever sticks, we'll keep. We'll throw everything against the wall. Whatever sticks, we'll keep. And whatever doesn't, we won't do because we can't afford hobbies. So this was one of the things that stuck. That's wild. And we wrote a book at the time, Bullshit of Fertilizer. That's still going strong. We made a movie around that time.

That's 2003. So a couple of things stuck for a while, but this has kind of been the most consistent. All right. Well, let's break this down i want to know about wall street pierre oh that was that was terrifying how did you get there so did like i i pictured you going to like art school immediately i did i did i did and um that was that was that was okay yeah art school was weird it was very weird because I went for film. And everyone was like, you should go for illustration. You should go. I was like, nah, film.

And it was the worst film department pretty much in New York. But again, it's like you learned to use what you didn't have. So it made me better. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you didn't have all the tools. So it's like, I got to try harder. Right.

And you had to pull the cameras apart and know how they worked because they were always broken god it's wild um but uh shite what was i about to say so art school oh art school so i get out of art school okay so the day i graduate from art school me and my mom are driving around i got my little you know crooked hat with the triangle or the square or whatever and and um we're at a we're at like a bus stop, and we're about to make a left to get back to the graduation area. And I see this guy digging in a garbage bin, and he comes out of the garbage bin wearing Pratt Institute sweatshirt, which is the institute I graduated from. And we both looked at each other like, oh, my God, what's about to happen to me? Out of a movie. It's terrifying. He just looks over. He's like, oh, my God, what's about to happen to me? Out of a movie. It's terrifying. He just looks over.

He's like, I'm you from the future. Pierre, do it differently. I found your degree. This is my house. So after that, I found out that you could do nothing with a film degree. It means nothing anywhere. Sure. And luckily, I had a friend uh after

i was you know i remember selling tickets on the streets of new york for comedy shows anyway that's a whole nother thing so i'm struggling and a friend of mine's like i have a space i was working at ai is it aig i was working in a law office how did you do you're like i can draw i can withdraw funds no it was it was it was uh, it was a temp job initially. Okay, gotcha. And this guy was working there who was just, I'm just filing law office stuff. So I'd go around to all the lawyers and file in this big file room by myself. Yeah.

And the guy who was working there died. The guy who I was replacing, I was temping for, was an old dude dude been there forever died and his daughter came and collected all his pictures and was looking at me like you know my dad wanted to sing when he came here to new york in 60 whatever oh he's pulling pictures i was like oh my god yeah and i remember my had a beard, like my patches of hair were falling out, so I started to shave because of stress. Uh-huh.

And I'd see the sun like once a day. There was this little, like the file cabinet was built up to the only window in my office. Right. And there's this little triangle as the sun would set between the buildings. You see this triangle of light just go across the room. Yeah. And I was like, fuck, if I don't, I don't want to curse on you. this triangle of light just go across the room yeah and i was like fuck if i don't i'm gonna have a curse on you oh okay so i'm like if i don't if i don't go outside if i don't go outside i'm not gonna see the sun today so i would see it in the morning and then

that triangle i had to find a way to get to lunch before that triangle was gone and it was just so depressing i was just like dude that's a very office thing it's like you know i really like it 9 17 in the morning we get that one stream of light for about like four minutes and then the sun moves on yeah yeah and i was like you know i i don't want to be that dude i don't want to be like oh i wanted to sing when i was but oh here's all the security and you know i'm getting paid well and yeah and oh and one of the lawyers was for a movie called election okay so he was doing something he said hey i gotta you're a film guy right so election is this film and you should here's a i got a script for it and he was like talking to me about election i was like oh that sounds cool

so you know whenever you get out of here man maybe you get back on that film thing again who knows and this is before the guy died but i was just like i don't want i don't want to die here my comfort it was comfortable but i was like i don't want to die here it sounds like like the universe was giving you little little uh hints you were getting them like to have a guy wearing a sweatshirt of your alma mater picking trash i don't think it'd be much more clear like you'd have to be pretty like unaware to see that and be like so where are we getting lunch like all right my heart sank note taken yeah right okay so yeah so that guy dies and it's like all right i don't want to die here yeah like it's comfortable but yeah so now it's like

let's let me try something yeah we had just gotten married and know, we were making the rent quite easily. But it was just like, do you want to make the rent easily and have no soul? Or do you want to like I could fail by myself, but I could be happy. Like I'd much rather be struggling. And the thing is, it never was a struggle. Even when we had nothing, like we were like two months behind in rent or something. We were still like, hey, this is the sleepover we're having fun yeah yeah you know maybe that's just youth but um it was more fun figuring it out than it was like being assured that that those chips are coming in i was just like yeah wow that's great because i i'm i'm deaf i'm in the office world

for sure and i think i going to be there a while. We'll see. But I flirt with that sometimes, the idea of being like, well, fuck it. I'm just going to do something. Have a plan. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, don't jump without having anything.

Sure, because you guys were like, all right, this is what we're good at. Right. Let's do this. Right. Versus like, let's just quit. Right. I mean, because I would do it for like comedy, but comedy ain't paying the bills right now.

I mean, it's fine, but like I'm definitely in that gilded cage. I'm not complaining, but it's nice. But when I first started where I work, because I'm in the cubicle world, and you would go to offices of like managers and they would have like little plaques up on the wall that say like to 30 years of service or something like that your heart just kind of hurt you're like oh 30 years but you know they're fine like right right financially and everything else but it's

also like did you want to do something right but i'm lucky that my job is flexible enough where i can like do comedy and stuff like that and they they're pretty good. Like when we did the podcast with Patton Oswalt, I was just like, I was at work and I was like, I gotta go. We're doing this. And my boss is cool. She's like,

remember us little people. You know, like, so it's not like it's two souls deadening and then it's pretty flexible. So I think it'd be foolish to be like, well, I just, I love comedy.

Fuck the office world. It's like, well, if it's working for you, you can do that too. But it sounds like you guys were well enough equipped to handle it. I think that that was cool to not just be like, well, we'll figure it out. But you're like, well, let's have a plan.

This is what we're good at. And this is what we have a passion for that we can put all of our energy into versus like, I don't know. I'll wash dishes like that. We'll figure it out. And I'm not ever looking down on – like, we were completely open to be like, look, if this completely fails, I'll get a job at wherever. Like, it's – I have no shame in it. It's just like you have to know.

You know what I'm saying? Like, if you don't know, then you're going to be – that's going to eat at you. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Uh-huh. know then you're gonna be that's gonna eat at you yeah you know i'm saying like and uh if you have a job that finances like here's this is the way i like to tell you know people about having a job and being an artist simultaneously it's like think of it as your sponsor yes if you work at mcdonald's mcdonald's is sponsoring your comedy career you know what i'm saying yeah so that's that that

clears your head about feeling any kind of guilt towards you know i'm saying like and and and and it's fine like being a sellout or something like right like do what you have to absolutely do i just literally was getting chest pains at 20 like you're not supposed to care falling out dude like i was like i can't yeah that's wild yeah that's that's death i can't right right you know so i i had to go i needed something plus you're talking about the streets yeah yo the dudes on my steps were beyond like i would say disrespectful they were like totally selling drugs and shooting people whatever but it was just like okay if you're gonna sell drugs if you must could you be nice could you say good morning to me i must say just like okay if you're gonna sell drugs if you must could you be nice could you say good morning to me i must i walk out here and you're looking at me angrily

for coming into my house i live here i don't mind if you guys work out there and i said work that's right being nice and and they were just like really obvious and didn't care and i was just like dude i see you every day can we can we smile like something obvious and didn't care. And I was just like, dude, I see you every day. Can we at least smile? Like something? Yeah. And the psychology of moving here, like seeing the sunset behind trees opposed to seeing the sun setting behind buildings, it does something different to your psyche.

It really does. Yeah. You know what I mean? Even if you're still in the city, but then you're like, oh, there's a park. Or like here's a collection of grass. Right, right. Which is nice. And, you know, that's, you know what i mean even if you're still in the city but then you're like oh there's a park or like here's a collection of grass right right it's nice yeah and and you know that that's you know i need that too like city's fun for a while but then you kind of need to get back to i think it's just something in our dna or our bones where you're like oh being amongst trees just feels better yeah like psychologically like the color blue and the color green calm you down like right yeah you know what i mean yeah

yeah so uh so how did you and your wife meet oh man uh it was a wonderful it was an it was it was it was one of those it was one of those gut check moments man like for her and for me i was uh i was uh i had wow damn you damn you're good well there's so much i mean there's so much to your story that i'm like well how did this happen how did this um i was homeless for a little while i was ready i was about to say you were either homeless or the mayor of new york at the time so me and de blasio um no um so i was the comptroller and uh we're having a hell of a time with the budget. And she's an astronaut. She is completely, she's like mathematically on the genius spectrum. I don't, my wife is, you could drop her in the middle of anywhere and she will figure it out.

Right. Anyway, so I was homeless. I like you're both on the spectrum. I like that. One of them. Two separate parts. You're both on spectrum, so for sure. Okay, so I was homeless for a minute. Were you the homeless guy in the dumpster?

Is that what it was? Were you seeing your young self? Is this like a Westworld situation? Two different timelines were intersecting. Right. They blanked out my memory and put me back in another outfit. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so you were homeless? Yeah.

And so I was living on the A train and the 2 train. And I was cleaning up at Penn Station. I was seeing friends and being like, hey, can I use your bathroom real quick? And fully take a shower in the sink. So where'd you go into school? This was post-school. Okay. So you did become that guy living out of the dumpster

wasn't that bad going to college you learn to live on very little so you know a Pepsi and a bag full of snickerdoodles will hold you for a week if you're paying attention anyway so

towards the end of that stint I decided to reach out to my mother. And I was just like, Mom, can I hang out here for a minute? Never told her. So if she's listening to this, hey, what's up, Mom? She didn't know? She still doesn't? She kind of knows. She doesn't know the extent or for how long.

Right. But anyway, so I came back home. So I was in my mom's basement. Pride kept me. I was just like, I could have went there. But I was just like, I'm a man. Yeah, like right away you could have gone there probably. Absolutely.

Yeah. But I was like, I'm a man. I need to learn to make my own money. And so anyway, I'm in my mom's basement. And she was living in Long Island at the time. And I was like, okay. I woke up one morning. I was like, I have to get to Brooklyn.

I don't know what that was. So I'm digging, change, found change, got literally a pocket full of change. And I went to the Long Island Railroad, and I was like, I got to get to Brooklyn. Didn't say that, but you know. Like you're in the 20s or the 30s. Like, listen here, see? These fistful of nickels got to get to brooklyn i don't know why what's the deal with dames and trousers um so i um i got and so i got on the train and i headed to brooklyn and she was having the on her side of it she's

having the same kind of day she's rollerblading which tells you how long ago this was and we went to the basically we ended up at the promenade and in brooklyn and uh there were only two spaces left on one bench and we both ended up sitting next to each other no shit and we had seen each other like a day or two before and i hadn't stopped thinking about her just because she just her face and the circumstance which is a whole nother story but so you just kind of saw her randomly yes very randomly in brooklyn in in manhattan like a couple of days before wow yeah and it was a very weird how we can't talk on that it was a weird situation basically she was with a bunch of friends and i was with a with a friend of mine and it was just hey because they weren't paying any attention to either of us

we were like hey person how you doing person all right well see you see you didn't think about the encounter right and so two days later we're sitting next to each other on the promenade and what are the fucking odds dude the the conversation we had was about how much we both hated relationships and what would it be like if people were just honest? There was no performance. This is a conversation I'm having with a stranger, dude, about taking the performance out of friendships and out of relationships.

Like, what if we were just people and we farted and we were ugly and disgusting and we were just who we were all the time? Now I'm holding hands with this stranger we're holding hands i don't know who this is still sitting next to each other still sitting next to each other laughing our asses off uh-huh and we went to get we went after like the sunset and we went to get soup and uh i had only enough money for me for me and she had only enough money for her and we bought soup and we hugged and that hug was like it was the best i know a hug doesn't seem like much but it was like it was like one of those

hugs where when they let go you feel all the cold air after the hug it's like one of those right and i was just like wow that was a great night uh-huh i have no idea how i'm getting back home yeah so i had to like ask friends for for money to get back home but that night was just so that conversation like with any human being it was just so amazing and then soon after that we started like hanging out all the time and we really like hadn't stopped that's crazy like maybe two weeks after that we were we were inseparable and then less than a year later we were married and here we are yeah man wow yeah how long have you been together total 1999 to now so what's that 40 years 40

i'm not good we don't we never count yeah we just it's just it's i guess 16 years or something like what a rare thing that's so just like immediate just clicked and overlapped perfectly yeah and i was like well i mean that is a dream woman when she's like let's just fart you're like yes i need to lock you down of course yeah yeah and what's funny is that for the time we were hanging out, I don't take hints well. Okay. So she was like, hey, look at my legs, whatever. And I was just like, man, those are nice legs. I was completely oblivious.

I have legs too. You're gluing walnuts together. I'm kind of in the middle of something here. Ma'am. You're kind of bothering me. Yes, I see your breasts, but I i don't that's the point do they come apart and get glued back together yeah what are you getting here and she so but it was a mutual friend of ours who said why don't you guys kind of be more about each other i think you like each

other uh-huh that like someone had to like point it out because i was like i'm good i don't need to be in a relationship ever again i was like i was really done okay with relationships i was just like got it never seen it work before so how about i never do it gotcha yeah not a good track record there no for yourself or other people no i've destroyed lives so god i can't get over it like it it's so weird that you wanted to go to brooklyn did she live in brooklyn or like at the time yeah okay and you didn't know that nope i hadn't i had no idea who she was i saw her that once and we'd been in spaces like different events and parties and stuff together but but never she'd never like was like hey i like to rollerblade at the promenade

it wasn't like noted or like planted that seed nope and she had never been there before that day she was just like i should go down there and just rollerblade god that's so cool yeah that's great yeah man that is a fun thing too of like the odds are insane and then you're just like oh she's cool and so he's like no you two should be together i guess i'm glad i'm glad they did because my dumb ass i've yeah i just don't get hints oh but still it still happened that's fucking great man okay so so you guys are together and then like i guess you got a job the aig thing while you guys were together and so then it was like all right we're just going to be on the straight and narrow and then you've got your job and i've got mine right and then

you kind of get stressed out and kind of fed up with that and your soul is slowly dying yes and uh so and then she's making like these products i guess just for her and like her friends and stuff just for her and the thing is at the time they were absolutely pure natural i mean they are natural now but they have like natural preservatives now so they could stay on shelves but prior it was just like she's blending up bananas and shit like it's stuff that's rotting in the fridge and it looks and tastes like food so i'm like can i put this on my bread she's like no no that's my shampoo i'm like dude this is only enough for one shampoo and then it's rotting in the fridge. Can we sell the rest?

Can we bottle the rest of this? Yeah. And that's how it started, essentially. Wow. Yeah. And what are the products called? Like, what is your guys' line again? Oyin Handmade.

Oyin is Yoruba for honey. Oyin. Yeah. That's awesome. So then how does that start? How do you start selling that stuff? So we were like, well, we should put it in a bottle. You get on the train.

You're like, I am homeless. I know this looks like food. But you should put it in. Yeah, exactly. No, we had friends who dug the products already. Yeah. And we just had bottles. We buy bottles.

But it's always cheaper to buy 100 than it is to buy 10. Yeah. So we buy 100. And it's just really super organic. than it is to buy 10. So we buy 100. And it's just really super organic. You have 100 bottles, so let's fill up 100 bottles. Yeah. And it was always enough for her. So whatever worked on her, she'd test.

And it was really the beginnings kind of on online chat rooms and stuff. Okay. So people were having these conversations online. Uh-huh. And when you talk about filling a need, particularly for women of color who, you know, have texture or highly textured hair, that's not just women of color, but, you know,

there were no products out there at the time for that. So people are, you know, sharing notes, what works, what doesn't. And so she was already a tech head, so she was in that. Gotcha. And so she kind of just the right time the need and those things kind of met in a glorious kind of moment and we just have been snowballing off of that since then that's great so do you sell everything online are you guys in certain shops and well we we started online which was awesome um we were early uh early people kind of like on youtube so we like have these early youtube ads

and blah blah very weird um don't dig too hard for them they're they're very they're very eccentric and weird but but um no we we used to like have these boxes and packages and then um then uh now they're in target no shit they're in sally's they're in rite aid they're in. They're in Sally's. They're in Rite Aid. They're in Giant. They're in a bunch of places now. Pretty mainstream. That's huge. Yeah, in select places, but select ones, but yeah.

And you guys just make it all here? It ships from here. We have pallets and it started in our kitchen and then my mom's basement. now it's cool all around the country and about to be all around the world look at you guys crushing it so you have your studio over here performance space then your wife is making all that great stuff over there man god that's awesome it's all just right here in baltimore yeah yeah balt i'm saying like

and here's the thing we could have never done this in New York. I love New York. It raised me, but it's like, they're not giving you that kind of space to grow. Like it's like- Literally the space we're in would be like thousands and thousands of dollars a month. Oh yeah, no, absolutely. And it's not like it's huge, but it's a good size space. This would be a CVS in four minutes.

Sure, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Great point, yeah. Or a parking lot. Right, or a CVS. Right. cvs right god damn man so that's so cool so so you guys had that going and then did that really take off once you moved to baltimore or was it already kind of like up and running in new york it was it was in new york uh-huh um um we tried to move to arizona really uh why arizona um well you know her mom had moved to arizona and was like yo there's an art scene out here and it's it's bubbling you guys well you know

what can you lose come try it out and we did and it was like not working not working which is fine love arizona yeah not really um tried it though tried it though and um you know we just there's certain things uh both aesthetically and culturally that we were just like i don't like the roads being this new you know i mean like we like kind of the east coast feel and old buildings and history and you know so we moved back and uh it kind of popped off when we got back but we weren't sure like when we moved to to um to baltimore we got one of those horrible balloon loans or whatever you call them oh okay i don't know well it's it's it's kind of okay so remember when there was a housing yeah i know that yeah those are arms or whatever it's adjustable

something rate mortgages or whatever so we had one of the ones that would kind of it was like kind of easy to get in but hard to get out because the you know the prices kind of went up immediately so we were like let's get one of those they'll give us a house right now so we got one and we kind of not gambled we were like i bet you that we can make enough money with our our o-yen products to pay that off before it balloons and we did nice so we were good and we made our house our factory yeah and we really didn't leave our house for like two three years we were just in the house bugging out we didn't have cars we had bikes i mean we're just having a good ass time making money right and just it was cool yeah so that's uh there's a running theme of you guys kind of betting on yourselves you got to yeah you know what i mean they know your worth like people who hire you

they know exactly what you're worth man and it's like you have to know what you're worth too i'm like so great and also that your wife can be your partner like that yo yeah that's a that's the like the real like man i don't get sick of you like we don't get sick of each other really not at all like we're fighting to hang out more still yeah you know we put a lot of work between us but it's like work that we love to i don't know man yeah you would think but it's where we've been that that conversation about being raw like we've been that since then so there's no like yeah weird hang-ups or you know secrets if there's something even small we're like let's deal with this yeah i'm like that too where it's like all right let's just get it out of the way yeah and my girl's kind of like i need some space to think about it before i'm like let's talk about it it just makes it worse you

know um but uh that's great yeah because you have such a solid foundation that you built off of because you didn't think it was gonna be a relationship so you're like let me just get it all out to this rollerblader right wow man that's awesome okay so then you're you're together for a while and then the company's going well and then you're you're together for a while and the company's going well and then you're like all right let's uh let's uh make kids yeah that was a weird decision because we it was it was that it was like okay we're at the age where we're either gonna be the cool auntie and uncle or this is the time to have kids because i don't want to be old chasing trying to play basketball and i'm you know what i'm saying right in the walker. So we were like, let's try.

Luckily, we had one, but we both were like, you can't have one kid. Like, that's just, you know. No, I'm sorry with that. Oh, no, sure, that's fine. It's been a good talk, Pierre. No, I'm just saying, like,

we felt like, here's the thing, with what we saw with kids, people who had single one child. It's like I don't want to be in your face. Yeah. Like, dude, we come from a generation where it's like the kids are over there. Yep. We're over here and we don't have our family out here. So we were like, you need someone to talk to.

Yeah. You need a pet person to be with. Exactly. So we had we knew if we had one kid, we were going to have two. Yeah. And they can support each other. Yes. There like yeah you're not just crazy yeah yeah you know we're in this together right right um so we we just tried and we've seen what's in the fridge they make money off of that they're crazy it's bananas um literally bananas but yeah no we we had uh we decided to have two

kids so we kind of did that back to back yeah and uh it's been berserk like we still are constantly evolving because it's it's another full-time job and so yeah it it's never presented to you like that though oh people like you should have kids and it's great and it's most rewarding experience and blah blah if they don't there's the the dark side they don't tell you about it's like so much work it's all of you yeah if you if you're doing it right it's hard yeah you could i could be that dude who's like i got my work yeah yeah yeah no yeah you could be be derelict in your duties. Right.

And then be like, yeah, no, it's great. I'm having a good time. I make sandwiches. It's fun. I have time to myself. Right. I don't know what they do. Right.

Yeah. Kids will be kids. If any parent out there in this day and age who's saying that is suspect, I'm sorry. Sure, sure. If you're having a great time, no, ma'am. No, it's not great. Right. There's great moments, but overall.

So as they get older, is there any kind of reprieve as they're getting older? No, it's dope. I mean, not that they're old. I mean, they're like eight, but now they're more, I don't know, kind of people-ish. Yeah, no, they're here. They're sentient now. They're like, hey, hi. They ask such amazing questions we get like especially after school like when i'm gonna pick

them up right now we have these amazing political conversations uh-huh and their understanding of the world is so it's so free of bullshit so it's like yeah so wait like they don't have uh pre-existing thoughts or concerns or things like that. It's just what it is. They're in the moment. Right. My youngest was asking me, he's like, okay, so Trump won, right? I was like, yeah.

Because I'm trying to explain to him pussy hats. I'm like, I can't. All these weird things you have to explain to a kid. Right. And so, why are these women wearing these red hats? That's so funny. I haven't heard that yet like how do i explain these pussy hats to my kids basically and and so he was like okay

he didn't get all the votes but he won i'm like yeah but he didn't get all the votes like okay and then he then he broke it down to me like this he was like you're an adult, right? And I'm a kid. If I want to do something, you tell me I can't do it. So you control, basically you control what I do, even if I want to do it. And he looked at me with such sincerity, and I'm paraphrasing, of course, but he's just like, okay, I'm a kid, you're an adult. Is there another thing above you?

Like, is there another adult that tells you guys what to do? Or is just, like he couldn't conceive, like y'all did what you wanted. You're adults. You could eat all the candy you want. You could do what you want. And if you didn't want this, why did it happen? And it's like, holy, you as the adult have to fucking go deep.

And explain the electoral college. Right. Yeah, he made me do that one day. You're like, I don't even get it. And I'm like, I'm trying to break it down for a fucking six. It's like, and then he'll ask something like, well, why does the Batmobile have brake lights? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know.

That's a really good point. Yeah, why? Why? So like, and you get. He's asking all the right questions right so like your mind by the end of it is just torn but you see the pieces of you and you see you get to you have to answer questions that you were gray on like i i don't like you'd have your personal stuff you'd go home and be like i feel this way but now you have to explain the world to a person and in simple terms not like some complex you have to be like this means this because of this right that's it that's it yeah so and that's another thing too is that as i get

older like i'm like i don't know shit about shit you realize like my mom had me when she was 26 and i'm 30 and like oh i can't imagine having a kid 26, and I'm 30, and I'm like, whew, I can't imagine having a kid. Like, I have a 13-pound dog, and I'm like, he is exhausting. He needs to work on his behavior. I can't imagine being in charge of another human. Dude, it's really just fascinating. People are like, oh, I'm scared. It's not scary.

It's just like I just want to make somebody who doesn't cut you off in traffic. Like I don't have big dreams. I don't want you to be broke. I don't want you to be a jerk. Yeah. Or if you're a jerk, I want you to be a jerk for the right side. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like a public defender or something. Use your jerk powers for good. Yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah. It's like I just want you to hold the door for people. Yeah. You know, that's all.

Say hello to a stranger. Right. That'd be great. Right. Yeah. yeah but um it's like i just want you to hold the door for people yeah no that's all say hello to a stranger right that'd be great right yeah if you must sell drugs say hello to the people on whom steps be considerate be a considerate drug dealer that's all i'm hoping for you the heart of gold god man so god what a fucking journey you guys have gone on like seriously it's so thank you man it's so interesting and cool that like speaking of like using your powers for good like you and your wife totally did i hope so yeah so man yeah i just yeah i know i keep saying it but it's so cool thank you it's inspiring dude and uh so the studio space is called exit the apple so i'm guessing that's reference to New York, right? Yeah. I lived in Cali for my high school years.

My dad had moved and I followed him because I was like well, if I don't, I'll never know this dude. So I left and went with him and that's when I wrote my first real script. And at the end of it, I wanted to copyright it

or whatever, so I made a company and I just said exit the Apple. And so I've been using that since I was about 16. Oh, okay. And basically, it's just about learning all the stuff that happens kind of outside of the box. Gotcha. Like I learned that there was a world outside of New York, which I really didn't. Like living in New York, you are totally spoiled because you see here and here in contact with kind of everybody.

Yeah. But we have an arrogance in New York. So like when I left, I was like, Oh, you're just this. There's people here who have a whole culture that has nothing to do with us. They don't even know about New York.

Right. Or care. Or, you know what I mean? Have no connection to. How quaint you have your own little lives outside of New York. The rest of the world. Yeah, right.

Very nice. Very nice. So, yeah. It's gone on to mean, you know, exploring the world outside of your personal expectations or perceptions. So that's – I've just held on to it. Yeah. I think it's great. So do you guys have a website for this space and like

because you're gonna start doing events and stuff yeah it's it's we're still like i've had the websites probably as long as we've been married it's evolved a bunch of times so this current incarnation it's still evolving to uh accommodate you know uh events and rentals we rent out for like photography and there's a green screen wall as you see behind us and you know there's lectures and stuff that happen here but um yeah so yeah the the site is up exit the apple.com you can go there to you know rent or eventually see what's going on here as far as the calendar so yeah okay yeah people should check that out and as we wrap up here because i know you gotta get your kids as you were saying uh uh let's talk comedy when did you because oh shite because that's the first that's the first thing i got introduced to you

through and then we we've been talking for like an hour and we haven't even got to it i'm sorry no i love it i love it no man there's that's that's the the interesting thing about you is that there's so many layers to you that are like we're wrapping up like oh yeah comedy so how did you get involved in that? Wow. Okay. So it's kind of twofold. One, I've always kind of been quick, not quick, but like snappy.

Yeah. And a friend of mine when I was 16, who just died a couple years ago, he was like, yo, when you turn 16, I'm taking you to, I was living in Cali at the time. He's like, I'm taking you to the Laugh Factory, open mic night. And for like three days, because he had a car, I didn't. For three days, I hid from him. Like hid in my closet, hid in my outside closet. Like literally didn't go to school on the Friday that he was like, I hid from him. And so I've been kind of running from comedy forever.

And then fast forward to like my 20s, I was like heavy, heavy into into the poetry performance scene in New York in the 90s. And I had a friend who transferred. He went into comedy. He's just like, yo, follow. I just followed him around to his comedy spots in New York. And it was all the famous ones, all of the underground spots. I remember seeing Patrice O'neill and different people like young young young doing it yeah before they're known like they're just guys that are in the scene

yeah and and i remember seeing them and being completely in awe but he was just like pete what you're doing on the stage is basically that you're making people laugh but you're being safe because no one's gonna boo you in poetry so but i never i never jumped i never made that leap and it wasn't till i came here um i was supporting another friend of mine and it was at sidebar and i came and he was like you should be a comic too i'm like nah i'm good and he put my i showed up like late i was like hey man sorry i'm late and literally i sat down and he said next up is pierre benu pierre benu like i had no time to i was like what the what did you just do And literally I sat down and he said, next up is Pierre Benu. Pierre Benu. Like I had no time to.

I was like, what did you just do? He said, I put you on the list, man. I told you you should be a cop. And I forget who it was. I think it was. I forget who it was. It was Luke. It was Luke.

Yeah. At the time. Yeah. And he was just like, he kept saying it. Pierre Benu. Because nobody's coming up. Because nobody's coming up. And I'm like, what?

You know, I have anxiety problems. So I ran up on stage. Oh, I thought you'd be looking around like, who is this Pierre guy? You should get up there. I just was, I don't know why. And I ran up there and I did maybe three minutes and killed. Yeah. I was like, what?

Did you even know what you were going to talk about? I have no idea. I just freestyled. idea just i just freestyled wow i just freestyled just kind of riffing on whatever popped into your mind yeah do you remember what it was like what the topics were i remember i do remember one thing i said was the worst part i don't even have to repeat this go go for it uh it's it's not funny now, but I said the worst part about – this is disgusting. I said the worst part about jail rape is all the screaming and – I'm not going to repeat the whole – never mind. I'm not going to talk about it.

Well, it's your first time doing stand-up. I don't think anybody's expecting a home run. But it went over well, which it shouldn't have, but it was really a dark joke. Anyway, so. Sometimes those are the best. And it just went well. And then I think it was dark mark outside. A couple other people were like, yo, you need to come back.

Yeah. And that along with something Ruby Dee told me a long time ago. Great actress, great writer, great performer, great actress. I had brought her to my school for a year to teach for a semester. And she pulled me aside at the end of the performance class and was like, you can do this for a living. Wow. That effed with me forever. She was like, you can go around the world

with with you know you could talk for a living like you can do this and i kept denying it it's like one of those things i just kept pushing away uh-huh and uh it just caught like kind of came back to a head in baltimore it's like here's your opportunity to do it to do something you've been dodging and so and i still i'm on the fence sometimes like yeah but you know mike quindlen uh dark mark a couple other people really kind of put me in situations i'm gonna put you on a show and you're gonna do 20 minutes i'm like bye and then i i show up you know i mean so yep that has been inspirational that's great well it's uh you're you're just uh i mean not to sound like too lame but you you're an

artist at your core up here and i i think that that's gonna shine through like because you know even and if your back's against the wall like it seems like you're the type of guy it's like all right well fuck it i'm already here right we got to do it like what am i gonna do be on stage and not say anything like i better say something right so is it one of those things where it's like your life is going in so many different directions that stand-up requires so much attention that you're like is that why you're kind of weary of it of being like if i pursue this i don't want to be like half in half out right that and i always want to be excellent at what i do and i think stand-up is really the the fear I've had of standup was more about it being one of the hardest,

most important arts. Like people don't see it as a craft or an art. Oh yeah, yeah. But it's like, dude, you have the opportunity to, like when you open someone up with laughter, you can put all this stuff in there. And I'm like, that is you,

that's so important. So I'm like, I don't want to waste that moment. That's why a lot of stuff I do is kind of fused with politics or fused with, you know what I mean? I try not to waste that moment. Like I have dick jokes, but why? Why? You know what I'm saying? For me.

Sometimes they're just good, though. No, absolutely. But I like that you have a loftier goal with it. But I haven't really got there yet of being like trying to like quote unquote say something and i don't know if i will i mean maybe here and there like i'll kind of make little comments and stuff but i think that's cool to aspire to try to say something a little more because i've seen you do that too but then you also have like a sillier like where you do the uh uh kind of making fun of poetry right i love that this this slam poet who like doesn't really say

anything they're just kind of using all the little like tricks and stuff where your little thing of like dramatic pauses that don't pay off i love that i love that man but yeah every every time i've seen you it's always been so funny and so it's been really cool to be like oh like i thought you were just like this really good stand up. And it's like, oh, there's so much more going on here. So and that's why I was like, yeah, I wanted to talk to Pierre for a long time. And obviously your story paid off. Like it's way better than I thought it was going to be.

Like I was sure it was going to be interesting. But all the different lives you've had, like how many people are like, yeah, so I was homeless. But anyway, and I went to art school and then I was on Wall Street for a little while. you've had like like how many people are like yeah so i was homeless but and uh just anyway and i went to art school and then i was on wall street for a little while and like dude it's uh it's great to talk to you man and yo thank you so much i've been watching you since i've been here pretty much and you're you're just brilliant man and i don't know about that but thank you i'll take it no no i really just uh for you to say that I'm rocking at comedy or whatever is, I'm honored, man. I appreciate that.

Oh, thank you, dude. Yeah. I mean, you are, my good friend Ruby D once said that you could do that. Yeah, and you're one of those guys we watch where you're entertaining regardless. You know what you're doing up there. Thank you. Thank you. So I think we're done complimenting each other, I think. I think so we could wrap it up. Let's just go to another hour. Like, no, you're doing up there thank you so uh i think uh we're done complimenting

i think so we could wrap it up let's just go to another hour like no you're the best so is there anything you want to plug besides exit the apple.com there's exit the apple.com of course there is a uh a variety show that i'm working on for april 1st called the big show i'm still filling it full of stuff we don't know what it's going to be we're going to see it's going to be an experimental very fun very funny thing so there's that and um you know check out oyin handmade.com o-y-i-n handmade.com awesome for all your hair and skin needs yes yes yes i support bal, yes. And support Baltimore folks. Hell yeah.

I know there's a lot more coming, but just get on the mailing list, and we will hit you off with all the excitement. Oh, one thing. Yes, sir. That's great. And then I just saw the shirt in the corner, Black Nerds Unite. Did you make that shirt? Absolutely.

You guys made that shirt? That's so great. Because that's been popping up like all kinds of places. Who's the – what's her name from insecure was she wearing one uh the hbo show oh yeah yeah yeah yeah what's what's her name i'm blanking on her name but the lead actress from insecure and then like i saw um is it baron vaughn is that what his name is yeah yeah baron vaughn yeah that's so cool like you guys are so that's like a part of uh of of your company the t-shirt yeah the t-shirt we've had that t-shirt again for like 16 15 years like that was one of the things we were printing up to make money and it just stuck around we had others but

that's been the hottest selling one that's awesome all right well cool i just i meant to get to that earlier and then i just saw it as we were wrapping up so probably not professional but whatever anyway this show rocks man i've been following this podcast for a minute too oh thank you yeah we took a break for a minute just from like life and shit like i bought a house and was like trying to do all that shit congrats thank you thank you that's big man stuff there man i know it's another game it's crazy yeah i have my first uh after my first mortgage payment it's like oh i only owe 235 000 now it's so crazy on the wall yeah it's so fucking wild um but yeah i want to commission a piece maybe or something man for the for the house because i need some artwork so

that would be great and uh yeah check out uh exit the apple online and uh find pier. And pretty much anything he does is going to be good. So I don't know if he'll say it, but that's how I feel. So thanks, everybody, for listening. Pierre, thanks for doing the show, man. Appreciate it. People, check out other podcasts and stuff, digressionsessions.com. We're on iTunes and a bunch of other places like Stitcher.

And follow me on Twitter at Josh Coderna. And on Instagram at Josh Coderna. Mike Fonazzo, my co-host. He's at the Mike Fon follow me on Twitter at Josh Coderna and on Instagram at Josh Coderna. Mike Fonazzo, my co-host. He's at the Mike Fonazzo on Twitter.

We're at BigSuchPod. We have a Digression Sessions Facebook page. I hate doing all this stuff at the end, but it's nice connecting with everybody.

Let them know. Pierre, thanks again. And David Kekker, take us out. Digression Sessions coming to an end. Thank you. Oh yeah, oh yeah