The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #110 Chill Tourette’s with Benny Feldman

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Benny Feldman shares the downsides of ordering edible bugs in bulk, preparing grasshoppers for consumption, people online thinking you’re faking Tourette’s in your stand-up comedy, not being allowed to perform on [REDACTED] because you can’t help but curse, what happens when one of your tics is THE bad word, and then Gianmarco tears into Delta Airlines for destroying his roller bag but they’ve since refunded him in full so he’d like to make clear they’re all good.  You can watch full video of this episode HERE! Join the Patreon for ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and MORE. Listen to our live weekly show on AMP, every Tuesday at 4 PM ET. Follow Benny Feldman on Twitter, Instagram, & TikTok Get tickets to Benny Feldman's show, Live Forever, at Brooklyn Comedy Collective For more info on Benny Feldman, visit his website: https://bennyfeld.com/ Follow Gianmarco Soresi on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, & YouTube Subscribe to Gianmarco Soresi's email & texting lists Check out Gianmarco Soresi's bi-monthly show in NYC Get tickets to see Gianmarco Soresi in a city near you Watch Gianmarco Soresi's special "Shelf Life" on Amazon Follow Russell Daniels on Twitter & Instagram E-mail the show at [e-mail] Produced by Paige Asachika & Gianmarco Soresi Video edited by Spencer Sileo Special Thanks Tovah Silbermann Part of the Authentic Podcast Network Original music by Douglas Goodhart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to are you gonna look at your phone? I'm checking Listen, I'm present. How often are you gonna check the phone? No, not at all Tova and I we've been talking deeply because I call her from the road and I hear it You hear when I hear her voice when she goes to the phone. I know it's hard I've been I've been like listen, baby. We we gotta cuz we're both like this Yeah, and I'm like we have to we have to put the phones away because we think we think we're paying attention no you can and i mean i don't know i honestly i don't know what my parents have done for the last 10 years of their lives because i haven't i haven't

listened to them with my full intention for that long yeah i don't even know they could be dead no uh well your mom had a really interesting story. Oh, my God. My mom posted this on Instagram. I was in a state of shock. She posted it publicly. She didn't tell you that story, right? Like, this news to you. I don't know any of it. So my mother posted on Instagram.

This feels like your mother, like a different version of your mom's story, where she said it's a picture of photo picture of her looking looking fine in a bikini in a bikini looking great over in a bikini yeah definitely like a like a good shot like like if you were to see the photo with no caption you would think she was like kind of posting like a sexy photo of herself like a like a throwback photo of like hey what do you mean throwback you think that's a long time ago she still looks good no i don't i'm not saying like yeah yeah tbt uh so the picture of her on't, but I'm saying like, you know. TBT. So there's a picture of her on a boat looking good.

And then I thought, you know, I thought I was going to call her and be like, oh, you went on a boat this weekend. What'd you do? And it says, so sad to learn that my favorite boating companion was found washed ashore on a beach in Napolo in March. In March. In March. Her favorite boating companion washed ashore. a beach in Napolo in March. In March. In March. Her favorite boating committee washed ashore. We're recording this early. Not that early. In March.

I thought he was still out on his great boating adventure, Rip Bill. I have so many questions about, did he, just his body, washed ashore? Or did his whole boat with him dead in it wash ashore? You have to find out. Why did you, you didn't call her after this? No, well, I don't. You just were like, well, no more questions. I'm done.

I'd rather, like. Because, yeah, tell me, Mom, was he recognizable? Did they have to use his dentures to identify his body? I think you could have asked a few more questions. Did he have children and grandchildren who cried? Let me get all the details. Did you know about Bill? No, but it's my

stepfather's name, so for a second I was like, but my mom would never post a so sorry if he was watching the show. Yeah. Was this guy doing like a Greta Thunberg

type thing, like sailing? No, no, I think the opposite. I think probably like a lot of money, had like a nice boat. But you're right. How did he wash it?

Where was he going? Was he doing Amelia Earhart around the world? Exactly. Was he taking his yacht like cross ocean or something? Did you see that Amelia Earhart? They think they found her remains and they suspect that she crash landed, was on this island where she was eaten by coconut crabs,

I think they're called. They're like big fucking crabs. And they think that's how she died. She probably starved to death and then was eaten, don't you think? Maybe. Are coconut crabs big enough to overtake a human being? I don't know. Maybe if there's enough of them.

Maybe a woman. Okay, well. She was a strong woman. She flew. I don't know. Maybe if there's enough of them. Maybe a woman. Okay, well. She was a strong woman. She flew. I don't know. Did the airplane have guns? I'm imagining her in the airplane. I don't know. If the airplane had any survival stuff

like a flare or a gun or something, she could have been just like... I'd love to play a video game where you play as Amelia Earhart versus the crabs or something. Just her in the cockpit It really is a sad story because she's like inspirational And tragic Like she's known and she's like a feminist icon in certain respects I always wondered why

All she did was fly a plane Okay well she was like the first She was the first woman Yeah but it's not like she fucked it up entirely I'm just kidding I'm kidding No you're right she did a great job you're not kidding a really good job this is the downside okay we're recording this a little bit earlier we're recording this uh on halloween this is november 15th oh sure uh uh but uh russell did

you have a costume no why do you think we're in theater because we're both we both are like this we're both in theater but we don't lean into the costumes is it because we get other opportunities for costumes or i do i like like i i had fun like doing like a light kind of like a costume thing for when i went to margara but i don't i don't get into i know the halloween costume i don't know you do it all you know we've done it like we're of an age you did it a lot when you're younger and then there were years where you kind of were forced to do it like like you're going to a halloween party in college or you know even in your 20 you know what was your best costume

of all time one year for three years in a row i went as a nun just because i bought a costume and i was like i'm gonna get some mileage out of this costume you know I was like I spent like 40 bucks on it and I was like so I just did that for three Halloween's in a row um but I don't know best costume oh I went oh this is before she was canceled I went as season three Roseanne from the TV show Roseanne what is season three specific was that when she was a little heavier? Oh. That was when she was her fattest. No, I had a red wig. She had red hair in that season.

So I had a wig that looked like her in that season. She had. She changed her. She had like red. Face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so you went. That's just because you had that wig. So you're like season three.

I had that wig and I had like a pair of jeans and a big shirt like that she would wear. You know, like I, and yeah. Did people recognize it or was it one of those? No, it was one of those ones where people are like, what the hell are you? And you're like, I'm season three Roseanne. Did she have red hair season three? She changed her hair. Season three Roseanne, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You told me you were a butterfly. A butterfly fairy, yeah. A butterfly fairy. Oh, that's good. Thank you, I appreciate it. I feel like a lot of costumes are coming back around to being kind of straightforward, simple stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. There was like an era where it was like, I'm Will Arnett when he was doing this thing or something. And now it's like coming back around to people being like, I'm a wizard. My roommate was a wizard. I saw Usama Siddiqui, friend of the the pod and he was like a character from kim possible and no everyone i saw interact with him we had no idea what it was and he would get frustrated and then he'd tell you and you were like oh i don't know that yeah what do you have any other costumes in your in your past lives yeah i was a praying mantis one

year that was really that was probably my favorite i think like was it an elaborate costume like a and my mom i was like young so your mom your mom made it pretty much entirely um but just like cardboard stuff and i like really got into character and i walked around like that nice little freak child but my mom made me a care bear once when i was young young uh and it was the brown bear with the heart and that felt that felt meaningful yeah that's the last loving thing she did for me you guys make your costumes growing up usually usually sometimes they were bought

I was very much I was a big I wore a big by the way this is coming out November 15th yeah I don't know how much Halloween time

how about Thanksgiving whoa whoa whoa I I may have told the story in the podcast before I went as I was just lazy with it I went as a hippie once

just tied eye shirt I had big long kind of puffy hair and I went as a hippie once just tied i shirt i had big long kind of puffy hair and i went with a bunch of girls for some reason and the girls that i like liked and crushes on and we went to a door and the woman at the door said and what are you supposed to be a little boy and uh she thought that that i was a girl dressing up like a boy. Yeah. And I was at the age where that kind of comment That was devastating. That kind of comment

sent me spiraling in front of these girls I had a crush on. I'm like, none of them are going to hug me now. It's funny too because I think like a parent

or someone would their advice to be like, don't worry. They don't care. It matters more to you than to them. And I actually think, no, it probably did really impact how they saw you.

I think about a lot where they tell people, people aren't thinking about you as much as you think they are. And I'm like, really? Because I'm thinking about everyone. I'm judging them. I'm pretty sure that's incorrect entirely. Sometimes you'll hear a very specific roast of a person and then it'll be like kind of lodged in how you think of them.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I can't dissociate them. You know, you can try not to judge them for that, but you can be like, all right. Some celebrities, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but like an SNL sketch or something like

pierced to the core of them so deeply that's what they became known for like people can't look at them and not see it yeah um well welcome to uh if you're if you're new to the downside we've been growing we've been growing i have shows i was in mckinney texas and people came out of there a big fan of the podcast and they go like i just caught up and'm like, God damn. When someone says that, I'm like, you know so much about me. I know. And like just a little about Russell. Just a little. I don't reveal too much.

So if you're new here, this is a podcast where we celebrate the negatives. We complain. We kvetch. There's a strain of Jewishness to it that Russell fights against as hard as he can. You can't make those jokes right now You can't see even on the screen Russell's wearing a new Yeezys

It looks like You just bought these Yeezys You said you got a bunch on sale If you're a fan We got a live show Every Tuesday 4-5pm EST On AMP And then

if you like this podcast, you get bonus episodes and old bonus episodes and those AMP episodes. You can listen whenever you want if you join our Patreon. Patreon.com slash downside ticket link and bio. We just recorded technically a live podcast episode with

Counting My Chickens Before They Hatch with Michael Longfellow from Saturday Night Live. If he cancels, if he cancels, then disregard this. I think I'm just going to put the live episode on the Patreon. It's time to give the Patreon some more exclusive

stuff. So if you want to listen to new SNL cast member Michael Longfellow, please go to patreon.com. I have a little complaint just to open this before we get to you, Benny. I was flying. Normally we have a travel

minute. That was our agreement. I was having a lot of travel problems. I said we'd have a minute to complain. So, Russell, could you set the timer? Yes. This is the last time you get on your... He's already on his phone. So, okay. Are you ready? here you go

fuck you Delta I landed I got my bag one of the wheels was obliterated I mean fucking obliterated and I went to the baggage person and he said oh that's normal wear and tear that's their clause wear and tear so I submitted a whole claim it took a fucking hour and the person said we usually don't cover wheels so i don't think you're gonna

get any money for it so it's insane i put a picture online and then someone sent me you know erica says she's the lawyer on tiktok and instagram which was she's like if they say this say actually the contract says blah blah blah and they go how did you know that erica's like erica told me so i watch these videos erica says and it seems so simple. Like I'm going to go up to the Delta lady and be like, well, actually, the contract says, and they're going to go, who told you this? They're going to say, go fuck yourself. I don't give a fuck what Erica says. Erica is not my boss.

And I just don't know what to do with those videos because it makes you feel really optimistic. And I don't know if it's going to come back. And I promise if it doesn't,'t downside you're going to hear about it and we're going to break the minute rule so i can complain about delta more fuck you delta time very good wow that is frustrating i think uh i don't understand why wheels would not be included but the rest of the i think because they're just so they break a lot breakable yeah but when i when i took it off it's like they did a the serve they they like asked the people like what breaks the most like 90 of it is wheels and they're like let's cut that out like let's not include that that's wear and tear like yeah

i just think i was just shocked when i if you could have seen my face when i saw it and i was like what did you yeah well when i went to la with chris and natalie uh she got her her luggage came and it was like a brand new she was just talking about how it was brand new suitcase and it came out of the thing and it was so dented like it was dented beyond like it was so busted you know and it was just like yeah it's this thing of like i don't know that's why when people get really nice luggage and they're like i'm like i don't know if it's worth getting like really nice luggage because it always gets fucked up. There needs to be a term of like, because when you go to see the person,

they go, she was like, yeah, it's probably not going to be covered. And you want to talk to them. And they're just like, oh, why can't, I don't control it. There's like companies set up a way where they put these employees to deal with the mad customer. And then beyond that employee, there's nothing. You're like asking for the McDonald's secret menu. Yeah. Can I get the one where the wheels aren't broken, please?

Can I get the fucking CEO's address right now so I can chase him down? You're doing good, Russell. You've been performing a bunch at Titanic. Good. Yes. Crazy week. Crazy, crazy. you're doing good russell you've you've been performing a bunch of titanic good yes um crazy week crazy crazy i mean they have all you know i i can't imagine the life of people doing broadway shows right now for extended periods with all the covid stuff and the rules and the things and

you're testing every day and you know we had a new cast every day this past week doing i'm you know and like being put in to fill in for someone and then i'm doing it through next week um but like i mean they sent in the covid safety officer to play one of the parts this week shut the fuck up no wait so actually it's it's a it's a nice story but what's funny so i will will tell it because it actually goes against the downside, but it actually is a lovely story. So it happened so that there's like three backup singers in the show that they fill in for other people if people are sick. There's no backup singers because they're all filling in for people

or they've gotten COVID. So they've pulled from all the things. They're trying to do everything. On this one day this week, they find out there's no one available to play the molly part they're like kathy bates part that's a huge big part big part big part big solo i mean like two or three songs yeah so they have no one they have no one at noon for that night's show so uh so we're all like you know we don't know this information but find out that last minute they they tell us that the covid safety officer this woman named emma from scotland is going in and you know she's just been you know

taking our spit for like like very lovely woman uh very sweet very nice like send gives nice compliments but you're like you have no awareness like you had no idea she's a performer you know you're like oh so we go to the theater you had no idea. She's a performer, you know? You're like, Oh, so we go to the theater a little early. Cause they're doing a rehearsal, like to put her into all the group numbers. And then like right before we are going to, they're going to let the audience in to sit. They're like,

we're going to go through one song with the, with the band. And she starts singing and it was so good. And it was like this lovely moment where everyone was like like because we were like the covid safety officers going in like what like yeah like and it was i guess the director heard her singing three months ago like in the back like while they were rehearsing something on stage and was like oh you can really sing he's like you know send me a video you're singing and she did she me a video of you singing. And she did.

She sent a video of her singing one of Molly's songs. And he remembered that. And then she had five hours to learn the entire part and all the lines and the blocking. And she killed it. She did so well. It was like, but it was crazy. You know, it was like crazy. So the director's gone in.

The musical director had to go in one night. So it's every day this week. So the director's gone in. The musical director had to go in one night. So it's every day this week. It's been like this very last. Yesterday, the woman playing Rose, 30 minutes before, tested positive for COVID. So I had to send her home.

Why did they test so close? That's really tight. Well, apparently she had taken a home test, and it was like a super, super faint thing. So they were like, come in. We'll do a PCR, which takes half an hour so she came an hour early but then it was like they're like oh you have covid so it's like goodwill hunting dude like they heard her singing like i know it's like it was like oh the coolest i forgot the coolest thing this woman from scotland it happened to be that her parents were in town visiting her from

scotland so they got to come see the show and like she had never been in an opera show. She like, it was like just, it was like a lovely, like very, it was like so touching to like watch it happen. It was really cool. I think people forget, you know,

just because Millions died, COVID also opened the doors for a couple actors along the way. For COVID safety officers to make, like, that's it.

I wrote that. So it's just been a wild, that kind of energy of a thing and it feels like it was hanging on by a thread. But it's just been a wild that kind of energy of a thing and it feels like it was hanging on by a thread but it's fun and you know it's going well well I can't wait to hear the truth

whenever the show closes I told you the truth so for people who have been listening closely well first we're gonna start talking to you Benny and I'm sure for people uh who have been listening closely can uh can tell that you eat bugs um so so but before we get into your bug eating which i am i'm very excited to do uh can you uh tell us something sad something bothering you let us get into this theme music something

something bothered me in general what's annoying or what's something negative that happened to you today your life anything

you know I mean something so I have Tourette's which is that's the red herring you were doing for the eating bugs thing you've probably heard me

having little tics and stuff shit fucking people have been sometimes when i tell them they're extremely patronizing about it in a way that is like as if i'm a small little baby and like i'm like uh like the other day i was at a show where i was i was on the show i was like i was headlining a show yeah uh just Just to brag, just a quick flex. But I was, like, waiting in the crowd to go up,

and I was having this tick. I was like, and this girl, like, turned to me. She's like, you okay? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I've got Tourette's. And she's like, oh, don't you worry about it. Like, you're totally, don't you, don't you worry. And I was like, I fucking, I'm headlining this show. You're at, I don't know. It was like show like you're at i don't know it was like i'm good i don't know what to tell you yeah well this is the downside

you're listening to the downside the downside with john marco cerezi i imagine that happens. Do you feel like that happens a lot? That people treat it as if you said... It's the same way we talk to people about who they lost a dad recently. And everyone goes like, hey, are you okay? And they're like, okay, enough. Stop putting this on me. Do you feel like you get a lot of that? Like, hey, it's okay.

And you're like, I've been having this a long time yeah it should be um it should be neutral it should be like a like the reason i tell people is because if i'm like flipping out or doing like if i'm having like a tick attack or something like that yeah like if i'm like really in it or something uh i want people to be like i want people to just know that it's cool you know just information have them go oh gotcha you know what i mean but instead a lot of people are like oh there's no need to apologize you be yourself and i'm like yeah i don't know i'm not like there's no option b here yeah yeah i'm not like groveling i'm not like oh my god i'm so sorry i have Tourette's yeah i have yeah i'm just catching you up you know what i mean yeah yeah so that really does it um i think what bothers me about it particularly is the implication that it is something that

they think is like, like, like that it is something to apologize for in some capacity. I don't know. Or like that it is lesser than or something about it where they're like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like as if they're, they're sort of almost a savior complex type thing I think some people have where they're like, I'm one of the good ones.

He's going to be cool with you having Tourette's. Yeah, and I think because maybe people aren't as, they don't encounter as much maybe. It's not like if someone showed up in a wheelchair, you wouldn't be like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. Like you wouldn't do that to them. You know what I mean? It's a crazy response to

someone. It's just very weird, but I think they see it more, so they're more conditioned to, you know. But that is a very weird thing. Maybe you don't know this. You don't have to be an expert on Tourette's. Oh, sure. I know a bunch about it. I read the

week of people. What's the percent in the general population who has Tourette's? Oh, man. I think it's like one out of a thousand, if not more. Wow. Okay. I don't know that off the top of my head. I do know that like...

So I actually have the cursing type. And that's actually only like 10% of people with Tourette's have the cursing type. So why is that the famous one? Just because it's the most salacious? Yeah, yeah. It's the one people notice. Well, it's the one that everyone, like when you were a kid,

like that's the one people hear about. Yeah, I'm trying to think what was... Yeah. I feel like there was some... Maybe it was like a viral video. Oh, South Park? Well, there's also a Tourette's guy as a YouTube guy.

Oh, yeah? Yeah, that's a viral video guy. But what's the South... Did they have a character? Cartman pretended to have Tourette's guy is a YouTube guy. Oh, yeah? Yeah, that's a viral video guy. But what's the self? Did they have a character? Cartman pretended to have Tourette's. And so that was like... And then he pretended to have Tourette's, and then I think the joke premise

was that it actually gave him Tourette's somehow. I don't know exactly what it was. That's good. I haven't seen it in years. That's a good way to share what Tourette's is. I always remember... I remember learning about, I took AP Psych in high

school, which to this day, best class I ever took. They went deep into Tourette's. That's how I wrote, I have one Tourette's joke that I'm still, it's one of those where I'm like, is this bad? Is this good? I can't tell. I saw a guy do,

I'd love to hear it and then i'll tell you sure jokes out of context usually work oh yeah for sure yeah what's the kind of context i'm on stage and i'm killing uh i uh i told it when we were in when we were in richmond but i'm sure i don't yeah you weren't watching yeah no i wasn't paying attention not at all i was eating the food uh yes it was good food. It was good food. We worked together at Sandman Comedy Club, Richmond, Virginia. So, okay.

I do want to talk about it. I do want to talk about the bugs, though, because you have a lot of stand-up about bugs. Yeah. Have you always been into bugs? Or just eating them? As far as I can remember.

The eating thing is later on in my life. But you were a bug kid? Definitely. Yeah, for sure. Did you have a... I was a nature kid in general and then bugs are just a subset of that. Creepy crawlers, did you ever do that?

What's that? Oh, man. Do you remember creepy crawlers? No. How old are you? I'm 28. 28, okay. I'm 24.

So it could have been a different era. But there was Easy Bake Oven for women and then Creepy Crawlers and then it was advertised towards boys and you would put like you would put

yeah you make a gummy and it was like a little oven I haven't thought about them in over a decade and they were really fun but it felt like that was like a bug a bug thing

yeah yeah I mean I would have been into that I just never had it were you like an outdoorsy person or were you like were you were your was your family outdoorsy or did you just were you drawn to bugs i was drawn to nature i used to go to like the main camp i would go to over the summer was like uh a nature day camp where i would go like craw fishing and stuff like that and like a you know in the wissaken creek yeah um and so i just like and like we'd find snakes and like like flip over logs and look

at all the slugs and bugs and stuff and uh we you know there were turtles and everything and i just got so into that and like um and i that got really ingrained in my general vibe i think because i remember we were talking about you took a long bus to richmond like a seven hour bus or something oh yeah and i was like what do you do what how you keep you said i just look out the window and see how the environment changes and i was like we are different animals i am i am i am watching the office from beginning to end for the 10th time no i mean that i mean that is fascinating to me the like going from uh this new york area and then going down to like Virginia, you can see like the trees slowly change and like the flora and I don't know about the fauna. You're not seeing too many like animals, but you're definitely seeing like, oh, that's the type of tree that isn't in like Pennsylvania.

You know what I mean? I know. Can you imagine ever being like, that tree is not in Pennsylvania. Fauna is animals? Yeah. Okay, cool. Did you know that? Fauna, yeah.

But what are their characters in something, right? Flora and fauna? Or am I like... Oh, maybe like a fable or something? Yeah, I felt like... There's like the flora and the fauna. There's some like biblical quote that's like God made the flora and the fauna.

Okay, that's it. Yeah, it's not like a Pixar movie. That's a Disney movie. Flora That's the fox and the hound No No I'm not a I wish I liked

Well I know I can appreciate nature But I sometimes Sometimes like Okay so I don't like hiking And I feel like Sometimes the whole point

Of the hike is to get to A thing with a view And I never have felt When I've gotten to it that it was worth the thing. Well, the view could be tough because I really have to like, I see it and I'm like, cool. Keep looking. Keep looking, Joe Marco. You're getting something.

Something I got into during COVID was that park across the street from me, which is like a 200-acre park in New York City. And the fact that you could go on these trails and not see another person in the woods was very cool. Where is this? In Woodhill Park. Okay. And it's right across the street from where I live, so, well, now everyone knows where I live.

But, no, there's a lot of different people. Please, if you had a stalker, it would be so funny. Because I feel like people would be like, Russell's lying. Russell doesn't have no fans but one sucker i just keep finding that person in the park um but no um so when did you start eating bugs so in like 2011 uh i watched a ted talk that was like really pro eating bugs and i was like i was a genuinely generally like weird kid and still am.

I'm not like, I haven't, I haven't fixed that. At some point I went to normal school. I went to normal conversion therapy and they were like, that's just called school. But so this is my, my did my,

um, and then like 2012 I did my like senior thesis. Uh, that's when I graduated high school. That so this is my, I did my, and then like 2012, I did my like senior thesis. That's when I graduated high school. That's my age. Oh my God. I did my like thesis about eating bugs. And like, I've just,

I've been into it since then, but because I was in high school. So I ordered 500 live crickets to my home when I was in high school. Live? Oh yeah. Live? Yeah. Why? Because they go bad?

Well, so the intention was to like, first you starve them until they shit out all the poop and stuff. And then you clean them. Well, you freeze them and then you, so they're not moving. And then you clean them and you cook them. I don't get why people don't eat them more. So these days I buy them pre-cooked and everything. I buy them pre-cooked, pre-flavored and everything.

But you wanted, I mean, this is like one of those blue apron kits for crickets. You wanted it raw. Well, so these are intended for pets. So I shouldn't have done this. And so my parents were like... Wait, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They thought you were,

Oh, this guy wants 500 pet crickets. No, no, no. They're to feed other animals. Oh, for feeding a lizard.

Oh my God. Yeah. No, no, no, no. I thought, I thought these were like,

these were like, you know, they were, they were bred. They were on a leash. They were, they each had a name. Those guys are like a hundred dogs on the leashes or whatever.

It's me, but I have like a 500 crickets dangling from my hand. I imagine 500 crickets. What kind of space does that occupy? Not much. How do you get it? It's a box this big with air holes in it. Air holes, yeah.

So I get that and intending to eat it, et cetera. My parents are like, absolutely not. Are you kidding? So they made me release it. And I released it. I was like, all right, fine. But I went right to the front door, and I just opened the door, and I released them there.

But I didn't go far from the house or anything. So just 500 crickets right in the doorway, immediately jumping back in the house and everything. And just getting it. My parents were like, what the fuck are you doing? So I had to get a broom, and I'm sweeping all these like crickets out and so this is um this is pennsylvania outside of philly and these crickets are like some sort of like arizona texas like sand breed uh-huh very clearly an invasive like non-native species and so we're like finding

them for like months if not years like in the yard. Just these colored crickets that are not supposed to be there. This is how COVID starts. It's something like this. Some dumb shit like this. Had you eaten a bug before? Or was this like the fantasy? No, before that. Getting the 500 and starting with that. Definitely before that.

There were like, you can get these things called crickets that are like just a pack of crickets that are like pretty flavored like salt and vinegar. I've eaten some. I went to a zoo once and they sold crickets there that were like salt and vinegar. Exactly. There's little tiny packs. Yeah. And it was fine. I mean you gotta, you know,

it's like when you eat the animal and it's the whole animal in front of you and you gotta like deal with the fact that you're like, oh that's its legs. That's its heart. That's its brain. So did you like the taste or you were like, oh, that's its legs. Yeah. That's its heart. That's its brain. So did you like the taste? I really enjoyed it. What do you like about it?

Describe the taste. They are like, well, it's like if chips were healthy for you. Like if they're high in, they taste like chips, but with their own unique flavor because they each are different, like bugs,

they have their own flavors. But then it's also high in protein. When you saw Timon and Pumbaa eating the bugs and the lion king, were you like that? Yeah. flavor because they each are different like bugs they have their own flavors um but then when you saw timon and pumbaa eating the bugs in the line were you like that yeah you could play you could play timon i could probably play timon yeah i can see that uh uh so so they're good for you they're good high in protein good for the environment because they're cold-blooded so they use way less energy and resources to farm and you can farm them in like vertical farming spaces as well as opposed to like horizontal so they take up way less land as well why do why does cold-blooded make it better warm-blooded animals a lot of the energy from the

food that they eat goes to heating their bodies whereas cold-blooded animals all of the energy goes to making their body which is is like making the protein, etc. Now, in terms of being humane or not, are crickets, do we all agree as a society that... Soulless. Is that what everyone feels? I think so. I mean, like, vegans eat honey. Some of

them do, some of them don't. If you don't, it's like, what the hell's... I don't believe. They have souls. The crickets. I don't think we know. You know, sometimes we're like, what the hell? I don't believe. They have souls. The crickets. I don't think we know. You know, sometimes we're like, that animal is blah, blah, blah. It's not as smart.

It's not that they're intelligent. Yes, but you know, I mean. They're not like, oh, I wanted to be a boxer. Right, right. I wanted to be an actor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we know that. I think we can assume that.

You have to imagine, I agree with you that we probably, like famously, Descartes said only human beings have souls, which is crazy to see a dog and be like, no, that doesn't have any feeling. But the lower

we go, at least I feel like crickets, they might not remember what happened. So they're not like... If a cricket loses a leg, they're not like... I always think it's always really moving when you see a dog with three legs because you're like, oh, it doesn't know it's disabled. You know when they have the wheels for the dogs?

It's like that cricket, but you have two tiny little wheels on the back. Yeah. So... Because I guess the thing is with bugs also like you don't need to worry about being humane. Right. Well, part of it, too, is like if you get worms like a big thing of worms and they're all just on top of each other in the dark, as long as they have like food, they're happy. I mean, as far as we can tell, how was like what? How far can we tell? I mean, how do you...

Would you ask a worm? It's like in a smiley face. Like, well, I mean, I wonder if you can measure stress levels in different animals from hormones and stuff. But if you look at like cows, for example, like it's very obvious that factory farming them in horrible conditions,

like stresses them out deeply, leads to like worse outcomes, et cetera. Yeah, yeah. But if doing that like putting worms in a big bucket in the dark they love that shit

you know what I mean they love that shit you know what I mean they don't have a lot of worms don't have eyes anyway I mean I don't know

if they shut the fuck up Russell god damn it I think we have the same phone oh yeah the new one

oh no I got the new one oh god you can talk about his new phone shit fuck okay so okay so crickets you tried it Oh, yeah, the new one? Similar look, I mean. Oh, no. I got the new one. Oh, God, he's going to talk about his new phone. Shit, fuck. Okay, so crickets, you tried it.

This whole experiment didn't work. And then what are all the bugs? Crickets is the most common, I would say. Crickets are, so grasshoppers are my main one. And the thing is, like, the entire world, except for Europe, Canada, and the United States, eats bugs. So literally every other country, like 80% of the world, it's a food source that's, like, relevant. So it depends on where you are in the world. Where is it, like, when you're checking out at the convenience store? Is that the front?

Like, is there any place where it's that common? You know, I'm not sure. I would bet you. So, chapulines are Mexican, are grasshoppers in Mexico. They might be in other places as well. But those are so good. They're salt and lemon grasshoppers.

That's the one I get the most consistently. They're, like, my favorite. Where do you get them? I buy them online in bulk from edibleinsects.com Alright, if I get something from there, will you eat them? Maybe. It really would have to depend on looking at it.

You get nauseous with medical things, but what about food? Do you feel that throwing up thing? Certain things with certain textures. I think I could do it maybe if it was flavored and also it just would depend. It would be a game-time decision. I couldn't guarantee anything.

So they have the unflavored ones, which are good for cooking or for flavoring yourself. But I recommend getting something flavored. What do you put in cooking? What do you cook it with? People are going to hate this. But if I got roasted crickets that were unflavored, and I put them in cooking? Like, what do you cook it with? So, people are going to hate this, but I like, if I got the, I got like roasted crickets that were unflavored and I put them in like an omelet and then put some Old Bay or something. You know?

I feel like, honestly, that feels more manageable to me than raw, you know? Well, guess what I snuck in your seltzer? You notice a little crunch to it this time around? What's the biggest insect you've ever eaten? That's a good question. I think I had a scorpion lollipop one time. A lollipop? And they take out the poison, I imagine.

You know, I don't know what they do. I assume so. I would hope so. I hear a lot. Good point, yeah. Was this before the trance? Wait, do... Has there ever been an insect you didn't like eating?

Yeah, I mean I got some crickets that were they just like, the flavor was like bad. Like they put What did I get? I got barbecue something and they were like way too spicy and I was like, this must be barbecue I don't know. Does anything gross you out

in terms of like, if you were on Fear Factor back in the day could you have done any of that? you were on Fear Factor back in the day? Could you have done any of that? Like do you not? I'm sorry. Oh my gosh. Are you not grossed out by anything? Like do you find that your gross out level is lower when you compare it to other people?

Or like if you had a maggot smoothie, would you be like, I can't do that? Cow testicles. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it would mess me up a little bit more. Testicles are hard for me mentally, I would say. Just because, like, you're empathizing with it.

You're, like, biting the testicle, and you're, like, imagining getting your own testicles bitten. Sure. You're like that. I mean, I don't know. It's like something with with dad is tricky pig ears which I found to be gross is just very chewy

I've had tongue before tongue's good tongue is really good what kind of tongue yeah tongue is surprisingly good I'm dying to have horse because my dad neglected me for his horses

and I just want to get back oh my god I want it specifically to be his horse jeez um okay I've had like weird

jerkies before but I always feel like jerky is like just tastes the same like I've had you know I've had like weird jerky's before But I always feel like jerky is like Just tastes the same Like alligator or like And you're just like I'd rather have like An actual slice of the meat or something Would you eat any kind of dog?

I had snake jerky the other day Last week It was good? Yeah it was good It was fine it was like jerky Once want to talk about it. No, yeah, it was good. It was fine. It was like jerky. You know, once it's jerky,

it's maybe a little different. I think I'd try anything. I would try dog. If it was the right, like the dog that you actually eat, not like your dog. Yeah. I don't think I would eat like a monkey,

like monkey brain. Like I don't know where it's a thing. I know some places have humans. I don't think I would eat a monkey. i don't know where it's a thing i know some places humans i uh i don't think i would eat a monkey i don't know that would be really upsetting that would really fuck me up oh yeah well part of the thing with the insects is like i know it's like i'm like pro for like reasons outside of it and so the gross part is something i'm like i want to get past you know what i mean and i am past it now but with like monkey brain it's not like oh eating monkey brain is good for you like it's not like good for the environment or anything to like eat a monkey's brain sure you know what i mean so it doesn't brain oh yeah that's like a delicacy i'm not

gonna like take a guess at what countries because it's you know no no no feels dangerous but it feels like it is there a reason or it just tastes good uh maybe they have a reason it's one of those things it's like like it's a it's not easy to get so it's special like isn't there's there's some famous maybe it's a horror movie and maybe they were just making it up for this movie i did a podcast where you watched a horror movie like a fucked up movie and there was like they had a monkey and it was in the middle of the table and you smash it in the head you open up right there yeah like you know it's like live or whatever there's that scene oh yeah yeah they take off that monkey's brain they're like

monkey and then they eat it you know what accent were you doing I stopped myself I couldn't remember what it was and then I also was like

whatever it is I shouldn't do it so I was like I was like I was almost did an accent that um

I is it kosher because I feel like bugs, no one even thought about it. I kind of doubt it. I imagine they're along the lines of shellfish, where it's like... Fuck, really?

You can't. Shellfish? If you're allergic to shellfish, there's a good chance you're allergic to bugs. Because I was going to say, I was going to go to Tova and be like, all right, you don't want to eat bacon? Well, guess what?

We're introducing it to the diet. Crickets, bugs. Hey, look it up. Maybe look it up. Well, it might not be like, all right, you don't want to eat bacon? Well, guess what? We're introducing it to the diet. Crickets, bugs. Hey, look it up. Maybe look it up. Well, it might not be explicit,

but I think it's like, I mean, the intention of those old meats was like that they were like dirty and like of the mud. Yeah. So I imagine they wouldn't be.

They probably weren't. You know what I mean? Yeah. You probably know more about that than I do. You're Jewish too. I am Jewish, but I haven't kept up with it.

I don't know. Can't be neither. But one day a Jewish woman will grab you. This episode is brought to you by A Real Pain. From Searchlight Pictures comes one of the buzziest films at Sundance Film Festival, A Real Pain. Written, directed, and starring Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg alongside Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin.

Witness a hilarious and moving story about two mismatched cousins as they tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th.

A&W is now serving Pret Organic Coffee and you can get a $1 small coffee, a $2 small latte, or like me, a $1 small coffee and a $2 small latte. Available now until November 24th in Ontario only. Woohoo! So, I did, because it was so interesting. I went to your website earlier today. You had this section that was like, what was it, like Q&A or more info where you talk about Tourette's.

I get to ask the same question. I just never seen it. And I was like, oh, I guess that makes sense that it kind of addressed like when, what is this. So you said it developed more strongly later in life. What did you, when you were younger, what what how did it uh show itself so i i had longer hair and i had like a head twitch like um just kind of like going like that like all the time what we thought we thought forever um as far as we could tell like forever like i had i had like pretty long hair for like a long time uh but then when i finally got the hair shorter uh i was

still doing that. And that's, I think my parents at that point, they were like, that's when they were like, oh, is something wrong? I don't know. You know what I mean? I didn't get officially diagnosed until after I did psychedelics and it got noticeably more severe. So when you were younger, did you go to a doctor? No, never for the Tourette's.

Undiagnosed for. Did your family have any is this something that like is is hereditary you said someone in your family had OCD or my cousin has Tourette's also um late on also late onset um she got it when she was 18 I gotta ask her if she did I haven't asked her she's on psychedelics or anything I don't want to put that on her uh but um she uh yeah so she has same breakdown the different kinds there's verbal which you said are 10 percent or the the uh cursing is 10 percent curse yeah um Tourette's in general like by definition you have to have both vocal and motor tics uh vocal meaning

anything with your mouth pretty much um and then like motor being uh body there's also a bunch of other weird ones like uh there's echolalia uh which is like where you repeat something that somebody says which is that's a vocal tick um i have some breathing ticks where like i'll just weird stuff with my lungs or what is that one called uh breathing tickets i don't know dude but you said if it's only verbal it's not not Tourette's? Yeah, for some... Well, it's a tic disorder in that case for some reason. It's like... I don't know why they delineate it like that,

but for some reason the definition of Tourette's... It actually... I actually might have a different tic disorder just because Tourette's, by definition, you're supposed to get it before you're 18. And so I got the... I did have it then, but it got more severe when I was 21 so it's it's

it could be some sort of different like adult onset tic disorder or something it's hard to tell I love what I loved what I learned about or what I remember from psychology just so much was just like I don't know what DSM we're at the what does DSM stand for again it's diagnostic something manual it's where they break down all the mental disorders. And it's like they update this shit every long amount of time. And it's ultimately a council of some people, and they decide what the definitions are. But they're all loose. And being gay used to be in that book. And then one day they met up, and they said, okay, that's no longer.

Now it's being trans. Jesus Christ. No, no, no. That's not my actual opinion that's probably what it was back in that and then like now they now they now they meet again and they redefine it and like it's just like it's you realize how uh complicated or not not it's just how like oh ultimately we say it's this because this group agreed in 1998. Yeah. It's tricky to find. Yeah.

Yeah. And I'm sure, like, I'm sure every, I mean, I used to do a joke where, like, my therapist said I had mild OCD. And it's like, you know, there's something about, like, no one ever, no one would, we treat mental illnesses differently. Like, you know, if I had mild pedophilia, I would not tell you. And, like, that's's the but that's in there too and ocd's in there and uh uh so so that's the first joke i ever heard of yours and which one uh the pedophilia one oh the r kelly one and yet i will i think it's something or the hemophilia like there you break down the type you know i you know i heard it and it's

something funny and just a brief tangent uh The Stand Up Shots subreddit. I saw you post in there. And I want to complain about that subreddit briefly. And I don't know if you've noticed this, but when you post a stand-up shot in there, you get no new followers. Sure. I don't know if you've noticed.

So for people who get outside, Reddit has a stand-up page where you put up pictures and you type out the joke. And you put your handle. And you can go like crazy viral and then it doesn't have any real world consequences. It leads to absolutely nothing. And I thought that was funny. I was posting in there for a little bit just to see what it would do. And I was like, oh, this means nothing.

Reddit is so silly. But anyway, we can re-rail. No, Reddit is a – if they all have the uses twitter could be going away and reddit might be the thing reddit reddit is great for the video section if you post a video and it does well that will lead to people will find your other stuff you wrote me you said post more videos i'm planning on it's in my calendar i was trying to yeah um you can't you're leaning forward in a way of like you're going no i uh i just realized i like was uncomfortable leaning back so i'm leaning forward do you not like these chairs because you know as you move you do like them yeah um okay so your your cousin has them

how what's the age difference between you and your cousin uh i don't know fucking like six years seven years do you like do you talk about it with her? Yeah, we talked about it a little bit. Like when she started developing it, it was after I had already developed mine. And so she was like interested in the process of like, how did you, like, what did you do about it? I mean, how did you manage it in public?

You have a joke when Tourette's people get together with other Tourette's people, there's a feedback they trigger each other yeah thinking about tourettes causes tourettes uh i get it's also like just seeing tics is some sort of empathetic body thing where i'm gonna give you this power over me if you ever uh wink at me please don't do it uh you can do it anytime i'm not looking at their eyes anymore if you if you wink at me it will cause me to have tourettes um no way that is a dangerous thing to share yes yeah i immediately i you want to do it even though you say oh i was like dying to just do it at some point it feels like it's like a oh now i have like a superpower like i'm like yeah so what what would what would oh you

okay oh yeah go for it um so what would happen, what happens if I wink? I don't know. It's some sort of like, it'll make me go like that, like it immediately hits my brain somehow. And so it's like when I see other people with Tourette's having Tourette's, everything they're doing hits that mind center. And so the joke is, it's like when you put two Alexas next to each other. Uh-huh, yeah.

So, okay, so you did psychedelics. So you were going throughout school. Do people make fun of you for it? No, I think if I was, like, kids with Tourette's get a lot more shit for it. When I was, I had the milder form and like i did have like a like one of my classes my nickname was like twitchy from one of the teachers um i'm sorry from one of the teachers yeah did they know it was tourette's or they just thought you were twitchy twitchy kid yeah uh-huh um okay and so i'm just like in retrospect you go back and cancel that t-shirt i mean definitely in like retrospect it's like um

like oh that is a little fucked but i uh i don't know it yeah but you know i was just like oh sure i guess i you know i'm just feeling like that a lot i don't know um what's the question oh so so okay so then you said psychedelics you you. You've pinpointed it to psychedelics. Yeah. How confident are you? I'm not 100%. Uh-huh. So the timeline goes, I did like shrooms and acid in the same week.

Why? Were you trying to checklist a TikTok challenge? I mean, I don't know. How old? 21. Okay. The plan was to do acid, and then I did that, and I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun on it.

And then I did shrooms a week later because I was like, all right, well, let's try this now. I had a much worse time on that. I don't know. But anyway. We talked. I did shrooms for the first time two weeks ago. And I had a great time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, it could be. I just had a bad trip for, yeah, context. Do you think it's possible because it was close to the acid or you think that's just, that's negligible? No, I think it was just, I was with people I didn't know and I think that was like part of it. Yeah. You know what I mean?

So, but that's fine. I don't think that was relevant to the, I think doing it in general. So then I got, for a few months I had like more intense, I had like paranoia and like auditory hallucinations. And I was like, how, how defined were those auditory hallucinations? Pretty vague. Um, but it was like very much like, it wasn't like, um, it was kind of like, it was like

this one dude basically making the same noise over and over again it was kind of creepy it was like kind of this guy going like and i was like pretty freaked out by it uh i'm very nervous happy halloween i am but so that slowly faded out um and i would only get the paranoia i would have this really bad like paranoia attacks and i still do if i smoke too much weed i'll like have a uh like i smoked weed and i a bit after that and i like freaked out i thought i was trying to kill me i like barricaded my door and everything um who was trying to kill you like my roommates and stuff okay but so as the as the paranoia and the auditory hallucinations faded out this is over

a few months the Tourette's started to get worse uh honestly it literally feels like the auditory hallucinations started coming out of my mouth like I know that's I know that sounds ridiculous but like it that's how it like almost felt like it like you know it felt like a manifest like something was like like whatever the auditory installations are where it's like some automatic firing of the brain that I'm not doing on purpose that part moved from uh the part where you can hear things. To some motor function or something. So I don't know. It's a serotonin imbalance.

In some capacity. Were you upset. When it happened. Were you like fuck. I have to deal with this. It's a big life change. It's a whole new thing. i mean it's a it's a whole new thing you have to figure out yeah i mean honestly um it it was because it was slow

uh okay so i'll give you a little bit of the timeline of like my reaction to it uh i didn't know it was threats at first i so initially um i like I would be at like a job I was doing like an internship in school um and I remember like sitting in my cubicle and I had like a pencil I just went like that and I was like holy fuck like I'm not moving my arm like I'm not like I'm just like sat there for like 20 minutes staring at my hand like like you know what I mean yeah and I was like I was like freaking out I thought I was having like partial body seizures or something. Um, yeah. Uh, so I went, I went to, um, the school like doctor and, uh, that was the first time they were like, this might be Tourette's. Uh, and I was like, Oh, weird. And then by the time I went to see a neurologist,

I had already started cursing. Uh, and so that was like, once I started cursing uncontrollably, like not by my own volition, that's when it was like very obviously Tourette's syndrome. And I think I was of two minds about it where I was like, I hope this doesn't get annoying. I hope this doesn't like ruin my life. I hope this doesn't get annoying. I hope this doesn't ruin my life. But at the same time, I was also like, well, it can't because people have to be fine with it because it's a disability.

So I was like, I'm just going to have fun with it. And so I've just had a lot of fun with it. Well, that's what I think is so... This is like, it's such an interesting thing where... And we've talked about, I hate, as any comedian would, like censorship in TV and whatnot. But there's this degree of like, well, can you not go on the... Are they going to censor if you say fuck?

Because that seems absurd. Which one's f***ed or whatever? They actually said I can't. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but they actually specifically told me, yeah, we can't have... That is insane. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but they actually specifically told me, yeah, we can't have... That is insane.

But I feel like that's... I think. Frankly, a lawsuit. Because that's discrimination. Listen, maybe. I don't know. I don't need bad blood. It doesn't matter.

You're not going to be on the fucking show, it seems like. But it's like, I just don't, it feels strange that if it is, it's not uncommon. It's not like it's your three people

in America. So there should be some version where it's allowed on television. Yeah, true. I think it is allowed on TV,

on other shows. You know what I mean? I'm just going to try to do a different show. Would you want, do you think it would be if it was bleeped? Because I think I saw, I saw you did an interview on Tosh.0

and they bleeped it. Yeah, yeah. And like part of it's like, part of it feels, it's just like where now it feels insane. You're going to bleep it. So there's just random bleeps throughout the set, but maybe it's kind of fun. It bleeps still like there's something in me that a bleep is so there's just random bleeps throughout the set but maybe it's

kind of fun it bleeps still like there's something in me that a bleep is still can be funny yeah it goes back to those south park days the nostalgia of like hearing a lot of bleeps yeah i don't mind being bleeped on i don't know like uh like network tv or whatever or like or tv shows like that like um as long as i get to uh not be bleeped in my own content or special or whatever. You know what I mean? I have noticed that. I think, like, TikTok, like, whatever their algorithm is. Because, you know, people try to avoid cursing to be better in the TikTok algorithm.

I'm like, I literally can't. You know what I mean? But that's the problem with all of this shit. I mean, like, I think if there was any way to, like, really fucking take down the FCC, it would be like you are being discriminatory because, I mean, literally they have created situations where you cannot exist in front of the camera without being censored. It's funny. Take it down.

This would be the Supreme Court case of the, you know, Benny versus the Tonight Show. I was not going to side with him. I don't know. It's one of those, listen, listen, Republicans, this feels a little bit on the line of like Republicans being like, well. They would be like, not our children having to hear these words. You know, yes, there's a free speech to them, but if it came down to it being on fucking nbc or c you

know they'd be like no our kids can't hear these words i think it's such an i i think but like i think you're right but like what's but i feel like the case against it is so no i think you're also right i think it feels like um the thing is though um i'm if it impacts me greatly in some capacity then maybe all like if I if I truly can't do shows or something then like then I'll like really then I'll be like all right it's time to do something about it but uh like like I don't know I'm not like George

Carlin like George Carlin was like fighting to say the word shit you can say shit now you know what I mean I don't know I almost I've always forgot to do it but when you're opening for me in Richmond, I curse a lot and I was going to say something

like I know I cursed more than my future. What, okay, let me tell you, let me tell you, and this is only, people should know,

we work together enough that I feel like it's okay for me to ask you, is this joke, what joke is, is hacked to you or just like, all of them.

Sure. Is it... What's a bad... I mean, do you hear a lot of... I get that one a lot, by the way. Which one? The one where I curse more than you. Well, there you go. Good.

I'm glad I didn't do it. Maybe I didn't do it because something in me blocked it. I literally get it constantly. I still find it funny. I don't know. I still enjoy... Like, I still enjoy people trying to joke with me about it. Sure.

I like that more than treating me like a little baby it's like I don't know there's like there's because it's it's fun to see what joke people make you know what I mean sure I get what do I get a lot hmm I don't know I have to make a spreadsheet or something

so mine was and this is this is the only reason I like I held onto this joke is because I had the thought of this joke in high school when i learned about tourette's like the concept of what this joke became oh yeah where uh it's basically uh my i have a family member little brother uh or kemi cousin whatever uh who has tourette's syndrome this is when i'm really being clear that i'm like lying to the audience because then later i talk about my brother and they're like wait a second but so i say he has the kind of tourette's Syndrome. This is when I'm really being clear that I'm lying to the audience about everything. Because then later I talk about my brother and they're like, wait a second. So I say he has the kind of Tourette's Syndrome where he's constantly shouting

expletives, saying expletives. And I feel guilty because I'm his older brother. I taught him all the expletives. When he was a kid, I told him the worst word you could say is fuck. So now he's like, fuck, fuck, fuck. If I told him the worst word was hot dogs, he'd be working at Yankee Stadium. That's a good joke. Thank you. But I just remember I think the reason in high school word was hot dogs he'd be working at yankee stadium and and that's a good joke thank you

but i i just remember i think the reason in in high school the what i what it was the idea of where it's like in high school it was just like oh the word fuck that's the word that said because it's identified as a bad word or as a and that's what's so fascinating about that if it was a different country or a different language it would be a different verbal tick yes because it's more about it it reaches into the recesses of a bad word it's yeah it's some specific like part of like uh curse words and expletives are literally like a different part of the brain than the rest of like language yeah they're like uh my my friend uh cameron bradford uh he's my roommate he made a joke about how it's like like a sign that says like adult section and you have to go behind like a bead curtain to get back to like that yeah i remember those days you

remember the video store days oh yeah and they had a camera right at that door you couldn't sneak yeah exactly and it's like um that like so whatever's back there so some people have like the middle finger and stuff like that. Yeah. Some people. Well, we talked. We talked. I asked you when we were touring.

It's like, obviously, the N-word. It's like. Oh, God. I hadn't thought. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, the biggest problem with my joke is fuck is not the worst word you can say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, in terms of society, like that is the word. And there are people who do have that tick. And I don't know what you, I don't know how you fucking deal with that one. I don't know how you go about the day. Yeah, I mean, luckily, I've only had it, I have had it, but only a few times. Never in public.

I have had the hard F, the F slur for queer people. I have had that one fairly often. You have that one, too, Russell. slur for queer people. I have had that one. Yeah. Uh, fairly often. You have that one too, Russell. That is hard because you're like, there's no, uh,

yeah, it would be hard if it went, if it happened in your opportunity time, you know, that card, the Joker has where it's like plain, like, you know,

remember that card, the Joker has where it's like, I have a laughing disorder. It'd be like, but there's, there's opportunities where like you'll get clocked yeah yeah you know well you know what's incredibly funny is i've been on stage and i've been having my tics and stuff and i've had that one on stage and i can feel the crowd i can feel like me lose the crowd

and i'm like guys i still have tourette's. I can't. I'm not picking the words. I'm not deciding to say this one or this one. You know what I mean? If you were an Edgelord comic, though, you could really get away with, like, when a joke bombs. You'd be like, that was not me. I almost hit my punchline. Now, I guess I was curious, like, does even talking about it, would it make it enter the space again? Like, like.

It might. Yeah. I honestly tried to avoid thinking about the N-word. It'd be amazing if this is where the podcast ended. And then, like, we're like, after this, Benny said the N-word about a hundred times in the podcast, so we're not going to air it for the rest of it at all. hundred times in the pocket so we're not gonna air it at all i can you tell what the word is like a millisecond before it comes out or do you hear it as it's being set uh it's funny you say that i like kind of not not a millisecond before but like the millisecond during if that makes sense so for example um i can uh actually i do a joke about

like the word motherfucker i can kind of like catch it sometimes and like um do it halfway and i just go like mother and i sound like a spoiled british brat yeah yeah you know what i mean it's like uh because i know i'm gonna yell fucker yeah after that um i tend not to try to catch them too much uh but on stage i am doing kind of a catch i am doing like flow control to try to like maintain a rhythm it's gonna be exhausting to like to like do that to yourself yeah if it's a tick like you know to yeah that when you did your jfl set great set thank you uh but like you too man thank you uh but did you is it set in stone or do you let that because you have a lot of jokes off your tics that you'll like right away and it's it makes it a very

kind of magical thing to watch because you're like oh this is not this is not controlled yet if for a second it's like you feel like it's kind of like if you had the perfect response to a heckle every single time yeah and and so are you able to plan it or do you have to go with the flow and kind of improvise based on your it's both it's both yeah i mean it's all the jokes that are jokes that i'm doing because i don't like um tourette's is obviously a part of my act because it has to be yeah but uh i'm my act isn't about Tourette's. It's about bugs and dirt and shit like that. And so all the jokes I'm telling that I want to tell, I have in an order.

But then I have pre-planned, for the most part, riffs off the Tourette's that are conditional. So it's like, if I go, fuck, I go, the police. If I go, piece of shit, I can kind of do a few things. I can go I'm talking to that guy. I can go I'm my own heckler. That's a fun line. Thank you.

I've got some like recovery lines where it's like if I'm going like too long or something with a tick and it's kind of interrupting the flow, I go like I'm buffering or whatever. And that gets me – that gets them back and maintains the rhythm again. I can go back into the next joke. So there's jokes that I can do, but depending on what takes happen, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

Do you ever get, do you ever have a set where it's like, where it's like they were, they were more active than normal and you're frustrated? Or do you feel very like... Oh, my God, yeah. And the inverse, too.

Sometimes I'll go on stage and be like, hey, I happen to have Tourette's, so if I shake and curse, don't worry about it, I'm all right. And I'm just kind of chilling. And I'm just like, you know what I mean? And then people are like, what? Have you ever... have you ever, have you ever then just did it just to go with,

have you ever like faked one for a moment just to like do the thing you normally do? Not fake, but the word is stimming. It's called, it's stimulating. And stimming is short for that. And the idea is um there's this so the whole thing in the head uh with Tourette's is a sort of like um with the OCD it's a tension that builds with Tourette's it can be kind of like a kind of a flash of the pan um type of like

uh mental stimulation thing but I can um, if I don't want that like tension to build too much, I can stim and release whatever's in there. You know what I mean? Fascinating. So that's kind of like, I think a lot of people tell me that my set kind of has like a metronome quality to it.

And I think part of where that's coming from is I'll tell a joke and then like let it out. Tell a joke, let it out. out tell a joke let it out because i don't want it to interrupt the joke sure so uh and and and what however like whatever the build-up of the chemicals of the tension in my mind is must be happening at some sort of like almost like uh sine wave-esque uh like like predictable level where it's like uh all right the tension there it is like you know what i mean like to to some degree um and so it ends up like my act is like joke tick joke tick

you know what i mean yeah uh and so some people think it's fake because of that but i'm like no i'm just like managing it in a specific method i just can't imagine accusing someone of faking yeah yeah wow um and and is do you have any hopes of like are like do you think oh maybe one day there'll be a do you think one day there'll be a uh a medication or anything or you do you feel like you know what i'm chill you know i i was on medicine for a little bit uh they have medicine that treats it's not directly treating Tourette's and that's the issue that it treats like adhd or ocd or anxiety or whatever yeah um and they try to mitigate in that capacity i was on this thing called guanfacine for a little bit uh or 10x if people know it and it's like um for anxiety in general and it like keeps your heart rate low um because like i mean when my heart rate increases that's when i get more ticks like

too much caffeine or from embarrassed or adrenaline nerves etc um but by artificially keeping my heart rate low uh when at times when i wanted to have a higher heart rate it fucking hurt my body um and so i like went to the hospital because i was like i thought I was having like a heart attack and stuff like that. So I had to like, I went off the medicine and since then I've had like, just like my heart still hurts once in a while. And I'm just like, fuck that.

I wish I never went on that shit. Um, if they could have medicine that helped and didn't have a bunch of bullshit side effects, that'd be great. But I guess that's medicine in general. It's like tricky to land. You what i mean yeah uh i think the biggest hope um a little corny to say but like i i do want to just be kind of like the face of chill ass turrets

you know what i mean or like yeah I watched a documentary that made me cry about children with Tourette's. What's it called? So the Tourette's Association, the slogan is, I have Tourette's, but Tourette's doesn't have me. And that's the name of the documentary.

And it's about, that's a long ass documentary title. But it's like, they they filmed it in 2005 and these kids are in like fifth grade and which is exactly when i was in fifth grade so it's weird to see like i remember that era i remember playing those video games and looking like that and being those kids and having these kids talk about the alienation they experience well they don't say the word alienation but they're like talking about like the kids in the class. Don't you know,

they think I'm just being weird or they're like, they call me a spaz or whatever. And then they get kind of isolated from friend groups and like that sort of thing. And it's like, it shows them trying to, it's only like 30 minutes, but I was like,

fucking so sad. The point is I'd like to have, I'd like to be, um, I would like to have children especially and people in general be able to go like oh he's got the thing that guy has you know what i mean yeah yeah we know about that you know what's what's the the have you ever been in a room with like a lot of people with Tourette's at the same time like a whole like like like a gag you know like you know an ability for a community

to like build like a yeah sure they have they have meetups uh the most i've been with is like one other person at a time i've met plenty of people other people with Tourette's yeah um but never in like a group setting yeah yeah um i think chill ass Tourette, that's a good, that's merch. I got Chill Ass Tourette's. All right, well, let's go on to our next segment that I got it here. This has got to stop. This has got to stop. This has got to stop. Do you have a this has got to stop for us?

You kind of gave us one up top, which was a good one. Oh, yeah. I love the soundboard. Yeah, it's good. We'll get some of my tics on the soundboard. This has got to stop. Something's got to stop. Do you have one at the top of your head?

Russ always has one prepared. I got one. You do? Yeah. Go for it, baby. Well, Nicole and I were talking about this, and I think she sent it to you. Oh, yes. Good. Okay.

I don't like that every twice a year. This kind of goes in the one we were talking about the Patreon the other day, but a lot of people don't have the Patreon. So it's similar, though. It's the thing of like. Join the Patreon, though. Don't let that discourage you. Two times a year, we do daylight savings time.

And people complain about it for their whole entire lives. And again, it's just like, just accept it. Just accept it. Just accept. We are going to spring forward. We are going to fall back. And it's just like just accept it just accept it just accept we are going to spring forward we are going to fall back and it's fine and and then also like for the two weeks after people are like they they think it's an interesting thing to tell you my kid's not adapting to daylight savings time my dog thinks it's their day and you're like shut the fuck up

every twice a year this is going to happen for our entire lives. So I don't want to hear about it. And we're not going to change it. People every year are like, we should change this. We should really think about changing it. Shut the fuck up. We're not going to change it. Okay, let me counter just for one second.

Okay. Don't you think, I feel like the fact that we can't change it is sometimes it's like a signal of just like how broken of a system we've created for ourselves that something that almost everyone let me just ask you this if there was a button here uh-huh if it was this button i just programmed it yeah and it could get rid of daylight savings time yeah aside from the fact that it would get rid of people complaining about it, but just to change it, would you press that button? No, because I want to fall back

this weekend. I want to get an extra hour this weekend. That's very short-sighted thinking, Russell. You would fail the marshmallow experiment so badly right now.

As someone who's now been traveling a lot, like between time zones, there is a part of me that's like, it's an hour. Grow the fuck up. It's fine.

It's just an hour. I'm vacillating between three all the goddamn time. We can figure it out. The thing is, and I'm sure someone could present a paper to me about why we should change it. There's an increase in car accidents. That hour difference increases car accidents. What? Really?

Because people have an hour less increases car accidents. What? Really? How? Because people have an hour less sleep. Huh. What? When you lose that hour, it does feel like someone stole something from you.

Yeah. But are there even fewer car accidents on the day when people get more sleep to make up for it? Yeah, there we go. Everybody has an hour

extra sleep to be. How it balances out. Maybe we should just give someone an extra hour every day. Yeah. Furthermore, we should have more sleep in should just give someone an extra hour every day. Furthermore, we should have more sleep in this world and we'd have less deaths. Yeah.

We could organize the week differently. It could be like eight days, three weekend days. That is something that, you know. Can you imagine? I bet you if we did that as a society, I would never not be able to feel. I would never be able to adapt. I think my brain's ingrained with seven days. Yeah. Seven days.

Yeah. That's like, you know they there's some study they said it's really hard to get to it but like if you sleep four different times during the day you only need this amount of sleep and it's less but like to to adapt to that system is hell yeah your body goes through hell i think the guy that made pokemon does that really like? He has a really weird... He's like a real weird dude who does that kind of shit. The creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! died recently. Really?

And he was trying to save someone in the ocean. Really? Oh, damn. Did they both die? Did the person get saved? I don't think the person in the ocean had done anything with their life, so no one reported on them being alive. Okay.

There's a shadow realm. That's bleak. Do you have a this has got to stop? Activated charcoal. What the hell is that? We've actually had that ten times before. Wait.

It self-started? Like, what is that? No, it's been in, like, food. They're, like, putting charcoal in food now. As if it's, like, something that's good for you. I'm like, I kind of doubt it. I don't feel like that. What's a food that...

Like, I've seen it. There's, like, a coffee shop near me that has it. There was, like, a... Does it taste smoky? What does it taste like? I didn't get it. There was like a. Does it taste smoky? What does it taste like? I didn't get it because I was like, I'm not eating charcoal. I don't know. I like don't understand.

I don't know if you're in a place to judge people for what they put in their body. I know. I don't eat charcoal with my crickets and slugs. Crickets are definitely better for you than charcoal. It's like burnt wood. You're eating ash. Yeah. Right? Isn't that fucked up sure i i'm one of those guys where i would definitely like if there's some new drink and it's 14 and it has some

ingredient i've never heard of it i gotta try it sea moss yet but he keep putting sea moss into stuff these days i'll try it i'm like i don't know it tastes like fucking the ocean i don't know what what bug should i get for this this picky guy over here to eat what's what's the one i should start with hmm i'm like it's for tova too uh get the chapulins get the salt and lemon grasshoppers salt and lemon grasshopper chapulins and what's the website called edibleinsects.com what if that was our sponsor i think I'd be more into it if they didn't have legs. There's worms?

The legs are... No, no, that sounds awful to me. Well, you just countered your own point. I want the crunch, I think, of a grasshopper. Worms are crunchy. Mealworms. I should clarify, they're not wormworms. They're beetle larvae.

Oh, that sounds awful to me. That's like maggots. I actually have a maggot joke. There's like this... Either bread or cheese in France where they have maggots in it as a part of it. It practically

eats itself. Anyway. Are they alive when you eat it? You know i'm not entirely sure i actually have to look into that i think so maggots for me like i just remember you know the one time my dad made me take out the trash as a kid the maid was sick and i went to open the trash can there it was filled with maggots and like something you know how it's like even with like babies if they the way a mouse moves or a snake moves it activates something oh yeah and like the with maggots. And like something, you know how it's like, even with like babies, the way a mouse moves or a snake moves, it activates something in them. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And like the way maggots move, it makes me want to scream. Yeah, well, maggots, I mean, you know, that's an indication the food they're in is bad. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's like, you're not supposed to eat maggots. I'll get a couple different ones. We'll try them all. Get a scorpion, dude.

Get a fucking, get like a tarantula or some shit. Or ants. Ants are supposed to be good. And ant eggs are supposed to be a delicacy. Oh, God. We're doing all of this, Russell. This is exciting. Wait, do you have the, can you pull it up right now?

I'd love to hear you riff about it. The website. Oh, the website? Yeah. Eatbugs.com. Edibleinsects.com. Edibleinsects.com. Yeah.

Shit, fucking. Russell, if you have to take a call It's okay Okay If I leave abruptly I'll let you know And then Is it a long call? I don't know

I don't think so Okay We're nearing the end Do you want to do it on the podcast? No I'm joking I know Okay Entomarket

At EdibleInsects.com Okay Yeah Entolife Alright Bugs you can eat Alright let me go to Buying anything Yeah at edibleinsects.com. Okay. Ento Life. All right. Bugs you can eat. All right. Let me go to buying anything.

Yeah. They got pumpkin spice flavored crickets. Oh. The joke about that. Russell. Russell can't resist the pumpkin spice. I'm a pumpkin spice bitch. Buying bugs in bulk online is now basic.

Yeah. Jesus. Edible scorpion four pack. Yeah, yeah. $23.95. Yeah. $24 for. Those are expensive. Yeah, yeah. $23.95. $24 for... It says, great cake decoration idea, unusual party favor, exotic menu item.

Yeah. They're not the cheapest in the world. Oh, my God. It's here on a cookie. But the protein is, like, way high. The scorpions are more expensive because, you know, scorpions. You know what I mean? I'm always looking for healthy snacks on the road.

And, like, this is making me go, like, let's give it a try. We got pizza, super worms, pizza-flavored super worms, a bag for $4.95. That's a good price. I wonder if Tova must be able to eat worms. You can't call that shellfish. There's no shells. Well, you can easily Google it, John Marco. Google can Jews have.

I don't think anyone's ever thought about this before. Giant water scorpion. You can put it in like a drink. That's a fun. Crickets by the pound. These are just like fucking big containers of crickets. That's where they have all the flavors and shit. Mezcal worms.

People eat that at the bottom. Does that make you hallucinate or is that just like a wives tale? I think it makes you drunk. Why do they call it a wives tale? Because women be lying. Women be lying. Scorpion in a bottle. We're going to get all of this, Russell.

I think what I'm going to get, it's the spicy roasted cricket snacks. It's a sample pack. And we'll try them all. Yeah. If we get to 51 Patreon subscribers. 50 is tattoo. No, no, no.

51 is you eating a lot of crickets. At least 60, 70. Sure. For the crickets. 100 is shrooms. We'll do it on the camera. You're going to do shrooms on camera if you get 100? No, I don't think.

We want to do it. We're going to do it in a good space. And then we're going to talk about it. i would love to although i've heard two stories today about shrooms but like where i was like i you know like it stresses me out that something it could activate something in my brain that you know oh yeah but it was also way around teenager being a teenager is when is when you're 21 21 yeah that is also like the age where things emerge, right? Yeah. If your brain...

They don't add 46. Once you're past 25, then you're... Yeah. I'm less worried about that. There was a different story I read about someone killing themselves on shrooms today.

I mean, I think it is a fair disclaimer to say that psychedelics can affect people in different ways and that it would be irresponsible to you. You suck, Russell. I'm already dead. I'm already dead from it in my brain. But you know what I mean.

Yeah, like it would be irresponsible to recommend it to another person, but you can go, you make your own judgment. Look at that. Look at that, DeMarco. Fucking do it. I'm not recommending it.

I'm demanding it for the Patreon. I had such a great time do you don't do shrooms anymore no i ironically i would love to uh but i just think it would be a dangerous you joked on your site that maybe it would make the threats go away like yeah you know you know one of the movies they get hit like you get hit in the head with a coconut and you like have issues for a while and then they get hit in the head with another coconut and it cures it. Yeah. I was like, maybe they'll do that. Yeah.

That's so funny. I don't know. I think I don't want to mess with it. Let's go on to our final segment. God, I got to fix these. No, wait. Did I get rid of it? Jesus.

Wait. Why does it say... Oh, here it is. Yep. You better count your blessings. You better count your blessings. Russell, you got a blessing for us? Yeah.

My blessing is we are falling back this weekend, baby. And I'm getting an extra hour. And I am excited already about that hour because I got big plans. And I'm going to rest. I'm going to sleep in an extra hour. hour and i am excited already about that hour because i got big plans and i'm gonna rest i'm gonna sleep in an extra hour and i'm just i'm that's what i'm excited about i'm not even kidding i'm excited to fall back this weekend i have a lot of weekend plans and i was nervous you know because i had no plans on sunday and i was like you know what i'm gonna be tired on sunday and then i thought oh my god it's fallback. I'm going to be just fine.

Good. Well, hopefully we can fix this in the government soon. We are seeing LCD sound system. Yes, we are. What day? Not till November 27th. So come to that. I'm going to be on shrooms.

You're going to be on shrooms there. I thought about microdosing for the concert because I struggle with. Tove and I, this is how we got... We took shrooms for the whole day. Did not listen to music once. And I think that says so much about we just are not music people. Deeply.

My blessing other than this concert, and I appreciate the invitation, Tove and I had our two-year anniversary. We saw Funny Girl with Lea Michele. And then before that, went to Butter, where we were treated to an incredible meal by Michael Jenkins, who was on our podcast. And I'm going to apologize to listeners. We might have 20 chefs in a row on this podcast, and we might just be a chef podcast. You can start to feel that this is going to be a podcast where I'm really getting

guests for the perks. What is Benny going to give me? A cricket? I'm going to get some more chefs. If I'd known you wanted some, I would have brought some. Yeah, we'll get back. Next time I see you. Yeah, yeah, please. Please don't loose in your pocket. I want

them dead, cooked. I don't want to have to wait until they shit. And Benny, do you have a blessing? Yeah, I mean, actually, just going to combine music and getting stoned. Stoner metal. I love stoner metal

and I've just been listening to it like, I don't know, I've just been really vibing with this band called K-Y-U-S-S and a band called Clutch. They got a song called space grass i've been fucking loving so i don't know i just something about it because to me metal is uh is like counter to being chill yeah it's like um really like uh fuzzy heavy guitars that are like

like slower than like uh like slower than like heavy metal i guess it is heavy metal. I guess it is heavy metal. Like, there's like, it'll be like, like, like, it'll be really fuzz down. Like, I don't know. Just an old album. We don't play that stuff. I don't know. You're just like, whatever.

Like, there's like a Spotify playlist and the description's like, you can taste the desert sand in your mouth. And I'm like, I don't know what that means, but I fucking,

but hell yeah, I don't know. So these are bands that that's their whole genre. That's their whole stoner metal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if they specifically set out to make metal for stoners. Some of them do. There's like a band called Bongzilla

where it's like very obviously, like once stoner metal became a genre, they're like, we're making stoner metal. But yeah, that's like, I're making stoner metal. Yeah. That's like, I don't know. I just fucking love it. I look like I'll just play it and like dance in my room or whatever, you know. So this is coming out November 15th.

Anything you want to plug Russell? No. Well, yes. You can see Russell one Tuesday in December in Titanic. No, no, no, no. We have a I think Good Uncle Function show. I just don't know the exact. I one Tuesday in December in Titanic. No, no, no, no. We have a Good Uncle Function show. I just don't know the exact. I know it's December 17th.

You understand this helps people go. At Asylum NYC. Okay. November 17th. No, no, no. Listen. Will you listen to me? This is coming out November 15th.

I'm telling you that in December, Saturday, December 17th, Uncle Function will be at Asylum NYC to do our Christmas show. Thank you. Very exciting. Big ones for me. We have the Silver Lining on November 20th. That is the show at Sesh Comedy Club. It's always a lot of downside listeners.

You get to see me work out some new material. And then in between that i have some very special guests i think we have uh fuck where'd it go where'd it go where'd it go here it is we have elon altman and joyelle nicole johnson um so again that's uh november 20th at 8 p.m at sesh comedy club ticket link in the description here Then the other big thing we have, I am doing a clean album at Sesh Comedy Club December 4th. I'm doing two recordings.

It's being released by Blonde Medicine, but we're only releasing it for SiriusXM, although I think I'm going to take the video and put it on Patreon. Wow.

So join that Patreon, patreon.com slash downside. And Benny, anything you want to plug? Yeah. So November 20th, I run a show

at Brooklyn Comedy Collective called Live Forever. The whole premise is that we have a bunch of comedians on and we get them like good tapes. So I'll have you on

at some point, man. That'd be awesome. I need a tape. And I think, well, speaking of tapes, actually, I think like right around then should be when

our fucking JFL shit comes out on youtube oh really oh good good so i don't know let's hope it looks good yeah they released it like in the metaverse or something and like yeah if you have the goggles you can watch it currently but if you don't have the cock if we knew if we do i promise i promise three people saw it and they were all meta employees who were forced to for their job. I know this for a fact. My friend borrowed his friend's headset and he was like, it's not even like you're in the crowd. It's like you're in a room and you're watching

it on a TV screen. Oh, weird. It should come out on YouTube right around that, I think. Right around when this comes out. Well, thank you for listening to The Downside. And remember, ladies and gentlemen, no matter how many bugs you eat, one day, the bugs will be eating you. listening to The Downside. And remember, ladies and gentlemen, no matter how many bugs you eat, one day the bugs will be eating you.

This is The Downside. One, two, three. Downside. Downside. You're listening to The Downside. The Downside. With Gianmarco Ceresi.