The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #206 Dark Puns with Sammy Obeid

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Comedian Sammy Obeid joins to share the downsides of knowing Gianmarco during his infamous scarf phase, how he embraced being mistaken for American Idol’s Sanjaya, protesting the Iraq War, joking about Israel as a half-Palestinian comic, and whether or not loving puns is a mental illness.  You can watch full video of this episode HERE! Join the Patreon free for 7 days for ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and MORE. Follow Sammy on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, & YouTube See Sammy in a city near you: https://sammyko.com/pages/shows Follow The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi on Instagram Get tickets to our live podcast recording in NYC on May 13 https://www.showclix.com/event/the-downside-w-gianmarco-soresi 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 Dave Columbo Technical production by Chris Mueller Special Thanks Tovah Silbermann Original music by Douglas Goodhart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Red One... We're coming at you. ...is the movie event of the holiday season. Santa Claus has been kidnapped? You're gonna help us find him. You can't trust this guy. He's on the list. Is that Naughty Lister? Naughty Lister?

Dwayne Johnson. We got snowmen! Chris Evans. I might just go back to the car. Let's save Christmas. I'm not gonna say that. Say it. Alright.

Let's save Christmas. There it is. Only in theaters November 15th. Russell's secret pod. Oh, that was just an idea. Stop looking at my notes. Welcome to the downside. Russell and I have taken our blue chew and the race is on. Which one will get a boner first or last?

We haven't decided how you win. Look at you. It's notes on the side. Yeah. One page. Stop. What are you doing? Sorry.

This is not entertaining. Okay. Welcome to The Downside again. My name is Drew Marcus Reza. I'm here with my co-host, Russell Daniels. Hi. And I might as well say we're here with our guest, who's a friend. Whenever I have people on, I know that you don't know that I know them well or not not yeah but i know this guy yeah i know this guy sammy obeyed i known him a long time

this piece of shit we met each other in boston way back yep when i was uh in my scarf scarf yeah my scarf phase oh yeah i was wearing a purple scarf and you were very nice to me i did five minutes on a headlining show. I was very impressed mostly by the scarf. I think it was, the set was awesome, but the scarf enhanced it. I have a question about your scarf.

Did you, I remember it kind of, but it was mainly just when you did comedy. I don't remember you wearing it in life. I, yeah, pretty, I think I wore it around with me.

Like it was, it was, it was fun. A scarf is fun. No, I just think it's interesting. My sister me when did you stop it yeah my sister's the one who got me to stop she like she does all my fashion like she'll text me she's like she'll see a picture on instagram and goes what's this and i go okay that's it was for a bit yeah uh the scarf she told me she said it doesn't make sense wearing a scarf with the t-shirt functionally because if it was cold enough for a scarf you wouldn't be wearing a t-shirt yeah

and when she framed it like that it made sense to me yeah yeah it was spring so i knew it was a prop but it was nice yeah um well i almost commented recently on something you were wearing and then i didn't because i was like i don't want to i don't want to make him feel self-conscious about. I was like, you know, it was a cool outfit. And I was like, wow, that is a cool outfit. But it was like, oh, I felt like you were like, oh, you made it like you're like, and that felt good. It looked great. But I didn't want to make you feel self-conscious about it. Wait, which outfit is this?

I can't describe it other than it was a cool outfit. And it was noticeably cooler than what you usually wear. You're telling me about a time you wanted to compliment me and then you didn't. No, I didn't. Because I thought I would come across like I was making fun of you. Like being like, oh, okay, cool comedy guy now. But you can't give a compliment sincerely? No, I could have.

But I didn't know through text if it would have been misconstrued as music in front of you. I really thought your outfit was cool. Yeah. It would be weird. I feel like, okay. Yeah, no, I know. I just noticed it. No, I appreciate it.

You know. If you could pinpoint which outfit it is. There was a jacket involved. Okay. Good to know. Do you ever have an outfit phase on stage? Do you ever like wear something specific? Yeah.

Actually, when I started, I used to wear a baseball cap. Really yeah because i used to have long hair so i started it was it was down on my shoulders oh my god i can't even imagine yeah so i started in 2007 and do you remember american idol vaguely roughly yeah of course i never watched it i never got into it not even the first season no oh that first season was a thrill. Okay. I don't know. Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guarini. Was that like 06 or something like that or 05? No, maybe before that, I think. Before that, 04.

Yeah. So I started in 07. In 07, there was this sensation, this teen sensation, Sanjaya. Do you remember Sanjaya? I remember Sanjaya, yeah. Indian kid, long hair. Yeah. And so when I started stand-up, I happened to have the same hair, similar complexion,

didn't look like a mother was, but people on the street would be like, hey, Sanjaya, honking horns. The whole summer I was Sanjaya. So starting comedy, what an easy bit to open with. But I realized it was like- What'd you say? As a misdirect, I had the hair up in the hat

and I would be like, oh, hey, guys, I'm nobody special. Just Sanjaya from American Idol. And then they would lose it. And then I would just tank for the next four minutes. Yeah. Yeah. That's the stupidest bit I remember. They were so excited.

And then you go, did you go not? No. They knew I, they knew I, at some point they knew it was a joke. But, but like like when you started singing they're like yeah yeah yeah garbage wait i want to look up sanjaya to see like how how off this look is i remember the hair i don't remember the face and you could i mean if you look at old pictures of me you can see the hair that wasn't the hair though i don't think wasn't it it was tall right or no his hair so he had he did styles don't look alike. You don't have the same nose.

No. Yeah. Russell, Russell can't even tell you. He's like, pull up central. It's not pulling up. That's there.

I remember. Oh, okay. That this one. Yeah. No, the big one like that. Oh,

the big. Yeah. That's what I remember. Yeah. He had a big poof. Um, what did a fan say to you recently? I can't say it.

Cause they listen to podcasts. They said it. It's a funny thing. No, but I don't, I they listen you can't say yes but they said it's a funny thing no but I don't I don't want to say it because they listen they feel like a cute thing that they say no it's not cute well can we have a little more time before we it's being released in a month no I'd be more okay you know

story story I'm a listener it shit on a listener. It's not a shitting. I think they shit on you, Frank. No, I know that. Come on, Peter. Okay.

So I wanted to start this with a thing. I don't know if this is cruel. We can decide if it's cruel or not. But I got an email. You've been in the comedy trenches. We've been in the trenches. I got an email from uh uh a booker and uh i think it was i think it really captured the spirit of of what what comedy

is and how ruthless of an industry it is and how uh heartless it can be um okay are you ready yeah subject recently had a heart attack oh my god dot dot dot okay hey joe marco i hope you're doing well i actually had a heart attack recently had two stents put in and i am feeling better i have already started going to the gym to resume my normal workouts but because of my heart attack I have fallen behind on my promotions and marketing. Therefore, I would be grateful. I would be beyond grateful if you could possibly promote my free seminar, How to Break into Comedy, on Sunday, April 28th to your network. I realize that you normally get paid for promoting events.

So I'm very grateful for anything you can do. Well, that's not what I was expecting at all. Where do you think it was going? Uh, I thought it was like, I thought it was like metaphorical. It's like,

I had a heart attack, dot, dot, dot, looking at your sales count, you know? And then it was just, then like,

can you pick it up? Or, you know, like in a way it was worse because it concluded the same way that email did, but it started with a literal, you could ignore that other one, and this one feels like it's meaner. Well, I think in a way,

even though this is coming out after the seminar, this is a good plug for the Manhattan Comedy School. And that's the plug I feel comfortable giving, is as long as I can use it for my own. Manhattan Comedy School. That is wild. So, I mean, we can just look up who this person is pretty easily, right? Yeah, you can sign up for their seminar.

I truly believe that this person will go, oh, thanks for the promo. Yeah. It's promo. Yeah. You know this guy is dedicated to this job. And you're paying for a new gym membership. Uh-huh. Yep.

If I had a heart attack, I'm trying to think what kind of favor I would call in. Because you survive a heart attack. What were you going to ask for? Like a roll? Oh, like... I thought you meant like a... Like a dinner roll. No, like a casting, you know?

Hey, just wanted to let you know, Chelsea, I'm back on the market. I recently had a heart attack. Ready to be back on stage. Yeah. I had an actor. They had a baby and they said they were going to the agency to bring the baby over to make them feel bad. To give them more auditions.

Oh, really? See, I wouldn't think that. If I was casting, I'd be like, oh, they got a lot of baggage. Maybe that, you know. I wouldn't think like, oh be like if I was casting They got a lot of baggage I wouldn't think like Oh we need to give them a role I think they have other things going on in their life They don't need this Sure Sammy your heart feels heavy

How are you doing? You can tell I had a heart attack as well actually This is the downside Yeah One, two, three Downside Yeah I could tell I had a heart attack as well actually This is the downside Yeah One Two Three

Downside Downside You're listening to The Downside The Downside With Gianmarco Cerezi This is the downside With Gianmarco Cerezi

I can feel the blue chew kicking in But I'm not gonna let it win If you're a fan of the show Join the Patreon Patreon.com The reason I'm making that joke We had a clip the blue chew kicking in, but I'm not going to let it win. If you're a fan of the show, join the Patreon, patreon.com. The reason I'm making that joke, we had a clip about blue chew, and they reached out to us. They did reach out. And I'm trying to get that sponsor, baby. We're here for you, blue chew.

We'll do whatever you want. If you're a fan of the show, join the Patreon, patreon.com slash downside bonus episodes, live episodes, my comedy special, The rats are in me. I have a dumb thing because we don't really have real ads for our podcast yet. Yeah. What happens? Like they just send us two pills or do they send us money? Do you know what I mean?

They don't just send us money. That's for fucking sure. But I'm saying like, why would we care we care? What do we get from them? I wonder if you had a heart attack from the blue chew. Maybe. That's my biggest fear. When I have to start taking heart attack. I don't need it yet. I don't need it yet because I'm not having a lot of sex.

But it's not good. It can give you a heart attack. And man, that's a brutal way to die. Because you know you're leaving that person yeah really fucked up you want to finish quickly before do you that's what you're gonna do you have that heart attack you're like let me finish let me finish one more time kind of a noble way to go out yeah no you think so okay so you're so you're you're making love to uh your your wife presumably yeah you don't say like that and uh you feel as love to, uh, your, your wife, presumably. Yeah. You don't say like that. And, uh,

you feel as opposed to what my pets, like you. Okay. Is this a PG 13 pot or what? Yeah. The way you said it, it was like, Oh,

you know, you've, you've gotten married and you've consummated. So you feel that heart attack coming on and you're like, I have, you're like, I think I'm going to be dead in 15 seconds. Yeah. Are you, are you completing?

No, no, no, no. I think in real life I'm screaming and I'm, I'm sad and I want more, I want so many more years of life to live. And that's all it is. That's all that comes out. It's overwhelming to think of all the things that I would try to do in those 15 seconds. What is he going to try to do?

Get one less dinner roll in? No. Well, I'm finishing for sure because that's my kink. Almost dying. Almost dying. Yeah. So what they do, they could send free blue shoes. They could send a little backdrop.

They could say we could, you know, a lot of these things you bring in the reps to discuss like, Hey, if they do 10 promos, we'll give them this much. But then they, then they screw away.

So great. They probably have like a shirt or free or free. We need advertisers. None of that sounds good. I want money. Um, Sammy, how are you doing uh not too well after the blue chew yeah yeah yeah i'm doing all right can't complain i guess you can't no well you're gonna have to dig deep i know i'm on the wrong show the wrong show uh yeah i know i i you know things are going well for me uh you're touring vicious touring

touring i saw you at a third show in boston a 3 p.m show really wow yeah um we're in the matinee phase now let me let's jump right into it you're half palestinian yeah uh you've you've been talking a lot on stage yeah you know discussing it and you were doing this before before uh the last year you had a bit that went viral for for a while at the comedy store no less yes very bold that one how would you describe that bit how would you summarize that well that was uh that was an interesting night because it was in 2019. I was booked to perform on a fundraiser with Sarah Silverman, some other heavy hitters. And it was for an organization that I know has a very difficult history

with Palestinian cause, Palestinian people. And so people, a couple people saw that I was on the show and they're like, hey, just like letting you know, like they're probably using you as like a token or whatever. Oh. And I was like, Oh, it's, it's going to be a great opportunity. And so I asked that I got a plus one and I asked him to film it. And which I don't know if that was, you know, against policy or whatever, but he just held up his phone very discreetly. And then I, to be honest, man, when I got there, I was like, I don't know if I'll be able to do it. Like it was just the vibe in the room. Scary.

Yeah. Because the, the, the, the show was stand up against hate. Right. Which is like, Hey, I'm all for that. But there's an irony to it because if you look at this. It's such a generic. I can't handle that shit anymore. Yeah.

If you look at this particular organization's website, it's hilarious because they're like, oh, we- Is it Blue Chew? It's Blue Chew. Yeah, exactly. Blue Chew. You know why it's blue? It's for that Israel flag. Yeah.

And it's like, they're like, oh, this is the stuff we've done in the last hundred years. We've stood up for civil rights and black people. You're like, awesome. We've stood up for LGBTQ. Awesome. Great. And then they're like, the Palestinians aren't a real people. They deserved, you know, like they're, it's just, it's just a hard shift when you get to the issue of Palestine. This is like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And why include that? You think they just admit it? Yeah. You know, it's just so weird. And it's just like, okay. And does not anybody notice this? So then I did my set. I just did like math jokes for like five minutes. And it's just like really like lighthearted, fun stuff. Yeah. And I know math, irony, but like they were into it. Okay.

Sure, sure. And so, and then like they're all on board. And then I was like, I'm Palestinian American. And then there was like a gasp. It was like a literal gasp. But like they were still fine. I just had to kind of like work them in then i did this whole bit about the geopolitics of where is bethlehem and um and and

i wasn't expecting like it to finish to land but it it there was enough people in the room to make it land so that it worked yeah and then my after comment was like you know how hard that is to do that in this room but i did it you know and then that's to do that in this room, but I did it, you know? And then that's when they like started to like to clap. And that was, it was just like a nice moment. And that was in 2019. And I was like, the guy sent me the thing and I watched it. I'm like, if nobody knows the context, like this is going to mean. Sure. Sure. Sure. And then in 2021, there's a war happens with, you know, between Hamas and Israel, there's like rocket fire and all this stuff and, and Gaza's being bombed and and

like it becomes a big deal everybody talks about it and then I released the bit and then it went viral yeah yeah is it is it overwhelming you know because you've certainly you've you've been touring for for many many many years but right now I'm sure there's like an extra energy to the room that you're talking about this you know thing that we're very much in the moment of, is it, is it overwhelming to go, oh fuck, I got to write a students on college campus bit now. Right. Yeah. Oh, definitely. Definitely. Like, like last night, for instance, like, um, you know, it depends exactly on the locale, but like in certain regions, like for instance, last night, cause I've been doing a handful of shows in New York city. So like last night, everybody was there for that topic and so

you could tell everybody was thinking about what's going on at columbia right now what's going on at colleges and people were a little bit somber so like i was doing the set and it was taking them a while to crack and then i was like how about what's going on at the college campuses and then they like erupted and that and then that bit like so it's like they were here they were they did want to hear about it do you have a do you have an angle ready i mean angles take time i know they they i've always said one of my problems with writing uh political material is that i don't want me to be the good guy i said yeah the comedic angle is fucked up sometimes it doesn't seem fucked up and hateful.

For sure. But like, what was your angle? I didn't, so I didn't really have one. And that's why, and like this whole week I was like, you know, I was on tour and I was like, what's my bit gonna be? Cause I gotta write one. And then, so as normal, I'm like,

well, I got like pun ideas. So I'll just start there. And then I'll, you know, cause I do a lot of puns in my set. And I started there. And then the angle just became like the critique of these, these kids, like they're trespassing. Like if I pay 60K tuition,

I can sit in any fucking Bush I want. Sure. You know what I mean? Sure. Or they're terrorists. They're asking for divestment from Israel. It's a form of boycott. That's like, that's the most American patriotic shit you can do.

It's not terrorism, right? It's using your first amendment. Republicans patriotic shit you can do it's not terrorism right it's using your first republicans love that they love it they should they should be all exactly they should be all this is just it's just bud light 2.0 you know what i mean yeah yeah so uh maybe bad example but but yeah but like uh i mean israel is you have to get dylan mulvaney over there right that would mix things up right right hey there's a lot of yeah a lot of different angles and that's so complicated like i can't even nav that's my point though is like even as i make that joke i'm like i don't even know how to navigate that joke in a way that's not offensive to something or someone right tricky oh you're always gonna lose someone it's just you know

it's yeah what would you do you do more characters so what would your character be would you be my character would you be like police officer like arresting people like undercover police officer who's clearly not undercover i mean he's gonna be seeing those videos sure these giant men that are like just like a little bit around you know um i guess that maybe i've had to come up with one right now yeah under your head probably probably for sure um and then and then do you do you i just don't like do you feel maybe you don't care like like that it feels like uh people are also coming at least in this moment right now i'm sure just to feel like with people that they can yeah agree with to a degree yeah i don't know if they actually come for that reason

but they when they leave they mention it they're like wow this is really cool i didn't know i could be in a room with this many like like-minded people yeah about a specific topic you know yeah yeah i think it's so it's so crazy because it feels so frustrating to not have any institution or person anyone for anything from the top to like look to right now yeah that you're like there's a desperate thing of like i just need some i just need i'll go to laughs at 3 p.m if i have some validation you know i need something this is there's such a great injustice happening and no one at the top in every single form of across the board is really like, you know, it just feels, but do you ever go up there and go, Oh, I just want to talk about this one time I came too quick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No, I mean,

there's definitely like, but the thing is I've experienced, you know, I've been doing this now for 17 years and I've experienced so many waves where people come out to my shows for different reasons. And I'm like, okay, now I'm playing to this crowd, you know? Sure. And fortunately this crowd is coming for a topic that I've been talking about for a long time. So it feels like just very, like, it feels comfortable. Um, but yes, the crowds that were coming out right now, they're a little more conservative. Like I'm not going to be doing, you know, a lot of cum jokes, you know what I'm saying? So, so, so yes, I'm, I'm keeping that in mind, but I, it's just like, Hey, like any wave, like who knows, maybe in a couple of years, I'll be talking about another subject and people will be coming for

that. So, you know, I'm just like, I'm just riding the wave right now. But like, if I want to go do something like that, I'll go to an open mic. Like they're everywhere. Sure. Yeah. I did. It's, it's, it's, it's when you do have, I have i last night i did a show at a place called paisanos in new jersey it's not a show it's not a show i need to be doing anymore yeah but it was like like an old booker reached out yeah uh do you want to headline this restaurant these are the kinds of gigs that i did in my first couple years sure yeah and i'm like yeah and i immediately regretted it at the moment we started driving out there i'm like what am i doing but but it was it was brutal it was tough i mean it was fine yeah but it was brutal. It was tough. I mean, it was fine.

Yeah, yeah. But it was like, I had one joke about Joe Biden. That's not even that harsh. But this is a restaurant of 40 people in New Jersey. And this one woman whose birthday it was just goes, yeah, fuck Biden. Fuck Biden. Let's go, Brandon. It's one of those moments where I was like was like yeah when it's not your fan base

it is a different fucking ball game yeah it is different the kind of jokes you could make because she was so charged up there was nothing you couldn't play with her yeah you couldn't play with it it's also such a unique feeling when you're like i hate this person too but we hate them for different reasons and i don't like yours of course you know and you're yeah you're like, I hate this person too, but we hate them for different reasons and I don't like yours. Of course. And you're like, how to navigate that being like, because it's not, you're like, you want to argue with them about it,

but you're like, ultimately we both hate this person. And I think I must've said, I've said some version of fuck you to her. It was not good. I didn't handle it. Thank God she was like a fun in a fucked up way because she did not get offended. But I really like,

I hadn't dealt with it in a while and it was my opening joke. Oh wow. And so I tried making it about Trump. I go like, she said, fuck Biden. I said, Oh,

they're both sold. They're not fucking anybody anymore. Yeah. Silence. And, uh, then I, I forget. I did. I I said, oh, they're both sold. They're not fucking anybody anymore. Yeah. Silence. And then I forget. I did. I did.

You know, did you do any research on me for your birthday? Yeah. It's like if I went to your house for my birthday and I was like, why are there so many Confederate flags here? So, yeah, that was okay. But that is all that being said is like, I certainly know the few things I have about Israel or Palestine. It's to bring it up at a show. Yeah. Especially because I have a lot of Jewish fans just because I'm Jewish and I've made some Jewish jokes.

And a lot of them just assume that politically we're on the same page. Right, right, right. You know, the same way every post with my girlfriend, I get a comment that says that says wait i thought you were gay yeah it's the same way that every time i post something critical of israel i get wait wait i thought you were a jew yeah yeah by the way that was true my manager called me i said can we get russell's wife a comp for the podcast live manager calls me immediately wait russell straight russell rus, your podcast co-host? I know. It's the biggest kept secret.

It's so funny. Yeah. I present pretty gay. And I'm in Titanic right now. I've heard you talk about Sidney Sweeney enough that you don't present as gay to me at all. You presented me as very straight. No, but you know me. And, you know, like I'm a gentle bigger guy and i'm in

titanic i don't see it as gay at all well i just i think what did you think were you surprised just now are you holding back shock um no i mean i i think if if somebody could see you as gay they could see him as gay i think it's like a kind of we both seem pretty gay yeah for for for straight men for the arts we're jocks we're jocks we're jocks. We're jocks. We're jocks. We've been to a baseball game before. We didn't know any of the players or the rules. So it's just got to be tough. I mean, does it feel more stressful to be performing right now?

Do you feel a burden? Oh no no actually it to me it's cathartic for sure yeah i mean you know when everything started on this last about in october when everything you know started or restarted um i had a Broadway debut i would get oh that's what really yeah wow yeah wow what's your what was your production called? Gutenberg. I was Josh Gad's understudy. He was out, and so I was in that day. Yeah, he wanted to go to the front lines. Gutenberg?

Gutenberg the musical, yeah. What a day to have a German name. I know. Wow. Man. Yeah, I didn't know it was happening until later on. Okay. And then I was like, oh, okay. That's why some of those jokes didn't know what was happening until later on okay and I was like oh okay

that's why some of those jokes didn't go over so well oh man no it's just like the musical had a lot of jokes about anti-semitism and anti-semitism in a way that like it's one of those things where you're like no it always has been complicated but then like it wasn't complicated for a lot of people

and then suddenly it's like oh now we know more facts right yeah right yeah yeah i was you know for the first those first few weeks it was just very difficult and then one of the first shows i did was i popped in at your show in uh chicago i did a guest spot on your show really yeah that was like the second show i had done a show the night before and so that was when i was kind of like getting into it i remember your crowd i was like i remember when i was like i was like i'm palestinian and like there was a palestinian in the front of your row he's like yeah i was like all right let's go dude and then um yeah from there it just after doing a couple months like now i feel in the groove i just feel like i'm i'm i'm on

it and i could talk about it and yeah it's good for me yeah where were you born uh oakland california oakland california yeah and which parent is Palestinian? Dad. Dad? Yeah. And he was born in Palestine? No, so my dad, he grew up in Lebanon. In Lebanon, okay. Yes, yes, yes.

So my grandma, she was in Palestine in 1948. And then I have family who like traces back there as well. Like she was actually, she was the only one who was actually there and she left in 48. And then she went to Lebanon and yeah, so my dad and his family. Did she leave, did she leave?

Cause she wanted to? Not on good terms, not on good terms. Yeah, I wouldn't say it was on good terms, no. Yeah, it was the Nakba, right? The Nakba, exactly, yeah. My friend Tim's grandma too, Tim, you know Tim. Oh yeah, same thing. Oh wow, there you go.

So forgive me if I ask any naive questions yeah yeah no no you're good but so um so your dad grew up in in lebanon and your your mom they he met your mom in lebanon no so my mom she's my mom grew up in texas and she's half lebanese so her her dad knew my dad's dad yeah yeah they were all yeah. They're old buddies. They're not related, I checked. So yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, so my dad, I think they'd actually met when they were kids. And then my dad went to UT to do his grad school. So my mom was there.

So yeah, UT Austin is where they started to get together. And when you were like a kid, how did, did they talk about Palestine? No, actually, you know, when you were like a kid, kid, how did, did, did they talk about Palestine? Like, no, actually, you know, my, my parents, well, they were, they were like very like, they were, they were like kind of like your regular, like liberal type. They were always kind of like very progressive, like kind of hippie types. But they were also, my dad was also an immigrant. He was like in America, just kind of like living, like living the American dream.

Like, yeah, fuck yeah, America, it's really cool. There's not wars going on all around you. So I think it took him some time before he started getting a little more bold with politics. And so it was really after, like in the post 9-11,

you know, Iraq war phase where they started to do more activism stuff. Sure. They were always educated on it, but they didn't, I didn't really hear them talking about it until about then. And then they actually started taking me to like to protests and vigils and stuff really in around 2003 so i just that was like 18 19 when i started let me

ask you just described it as hippie i feel like i'm so uh from so many uh comedians talking about their immigrant parents sure talking about them in a not hippie sure sure yeah how do you get into the the hippie lifestyle yeah so. So, so, so my parents are definitely different. You're a typical immigrant parents. Cause they're, they're like, first of all, they liked me doing comedy, you know? Yeah. Yeah. There's no, no struggling. Do you have like a complete different, like the opposite of immigrant parent act? That's why I say I can't complain. It's because like, no, I'm, we're watching, watching suffering and God's it hurts me, but it's like, I am, I am, I live a great life and

it's like, I, you you know the best i can do is is try to help other people i'm not like i have nothing to complain about my parents were always very supportive of any artistic thing that i did they raised me very well um my so both my parents they did drugs and you know college so they were they were cool you know like if you looked at my parents like a picture of them in college and you looked at me in college or me now like they're way cooler than i'll ever be not anymore i'm now cooler than them like in their coolest moment they were much cooler than i've ever been you know what i mean and so they they both had their hippie like 60s 70s you know woodstock hendrix you know that whole life was going to woodstock and were they hippies and not hippies no i mean they went

to concert stuff but they were not hippies i would not say that my dad was he was a hippie but yeah he's trouble like telling me real memories i've seen the pictures though he was his hair down yeah yeah he looks like that that indian kid from american idol and uh uh okay so so you went they brought you to, do you remember your first protest? Yeah, it was against the Iraq War in March of 2003. That's wild. Yeah. My parents did not give a shit about anything in this world at all.

Really? I mean, they just were not, they weren't activists. Yeah. They weren't going to things. They were, you know, look after your own. Yeah. Where were your parents? Where was that? Potomac, Maryland. Yeah, to things. They were, you know, look after your own. Where were your parents? Where was that? Potomac, Maryland.

Yeah, I mean, that's, you know. Yeah, I think most of those, I think everyone there was profiting from the Iraq war, frankly. You were going to a protest with your parents? No, but I was very like, I felt like that was like the first kind of radicalizing of me was the Iraq war. Really?

Yeah. I was too young to pay attention. I was in high school and then, um, college. And I remember like, you know, I had pins and like very,

you know, like, like being very angry and like that kind of thing. Yeah. That was the first time I had that sort of thing, you know, but it was the age, you know,

you're like a year. That's when it happens when you have stuff like that happening and you feel like what's going on. Right. It's fucking nuts. Right. Um, I had just started college at UC Berkeley. So it's like, we're going to protest whatever was happening anyway. And so it happened to be the Iraq war. And then Palestine became kind of a focal issue in that at that point as well, because it became like, you know, Middle Eastern centric politics, you know, what was going on over there and the whole, all the unrest in the Middle East, it all kind of traces back to the Israel Palestine issue when you actually look at it. So, yeah. Do you remember those college protests? Like, were they intense or were? Yeah. I mean, there was, there was, um, I remember, so I remember

when the Iraq war broke out spring of 2003, it was not like it right now quite, but like there was, I remember I was in philosophy class and we had an Israeli professor and there was a kid who was a kid who like in the middle of lecture, he got up, he's like, hey, there's going to be a protest. protest uh we're protesting the war down at uh sproul hall i want you all to join and then he sat down and then and then the professor was like well you know sometimes it's good to just lay you know kind of look at things before we actually get out and and he was trying to like relax everybody and then the guy just stood up he's like yeah uh 10 of our fellow students just got arrested so you should go out there and join them and it was just like that was like the most tense thing i saw you know but yeah there was people getting arrested it wasn't it wasn and join them. And it was just like, that was like the most tense thing I saw, you know, but yeah, there was people getting arrested. It wasn't, it wasn't violent, but it was, it was confrontational.

It's a pretty good metaphor philosophy teacher. Yeah. It's also wild that like, it's so funny. Now you're like all the same people that were for the Iraq war who then now are like, that was bad. We shouldn't have done that. Are now like for this and you're're like we can't fucking trust you all of the same exact people in 2003 we're like we gotta do it we gotta do it right and then now you're like here being like we gotta do it and you've since then been like we shouldn't have done that we should have gotten out of there what were we thinking that was so silly of us yeah shut the fuck up it's so crazy it makes you feel insane right what's that i think

that the the tweet is like liberals are against every war except for the one happening right now yeah that's good that's good i uh i don't know i was so i look back and i was uneducated about a lot of politics and i go well it's because i was you know studying musical theater i wasn't i was i was truly like right i was researching but it was all you know different sondheim things right and i didn't find out i just i just can remember you know i i had that i'm with her sticker on my laptop for for i remember that sketch comedy and you had that don't act like you you weren't you weren't as a public with your radical i got right i know when i when i was radical and radicalized it was there was like an album um 2016 um the artist anoni did

a great album and it was all about the drone bomb uh drone like it was all it's like this beautiful kind of dance record but like thing yeah and i had like it was like listening to it and like i was like wait what and then like i felt like all of a sudden i was like my eyes were open and i was and it was it was very silly it was not the news it was like i listened to this album i really liked and it was like the first song on it's called drone bomb me and i was like wait what's going on and then i and then i read all and then i was like reading all these things about it. I was like, this is crazy. And that's when it happened. And then I like really turned it. It really like shut something off and on inside of me where I was like, oh, fuck.

This whole thing is fucked. And it has been for our entire thing. Can you imagine if I could tell a Swift would fucking do one goddamn song called Drone. Anyways, this is a beautiful song um i just remember what it was what i just remember the ease with which i was like that i bought into the system of uh conservatives bad and liberals good right and not questioning this this this supposed good side or like investigating the way it was more, it's just,

I don't know. I think for a lot of people, I'm sure a lot of people are having the new challenge. I feel like with Trump, things felt so easy of like, well, this is clearly bad. Or like, you know,

when it comes to like a pro choice, it feels very easy to just be like, come on, this is insane. Right. And will they play on, you know, young people like ourselves, desires for progressive issues like abortion, and they use that to manipulate us. And that's what they've kind of been doing for years. Like, I don't, you know, I'm not trying to be preachy,

but like having come from a family who's's very pro-Palestinian activists, we saw through the Democrats' bullshit a long time ago. And so never, ever, through all these... I'm surrounded by people who are liberals and super Democrat. And I'm like, I get it. I'm with most of your values. But the Democrats as an institution

are just as corrupt as the Republicans. What was the last time you were like early Obama? Were you? Yeah. Well, I thought like most people thought that was a cool moment. Yeah. To have a black president. Sure.

And that was cool. And he's funny and he's a great speaker, but he sent drones to Syria. He fucked up a lot of civilian livelihood and infrastructure in the Middle East. And like that totally got slept on, you know? I think there's such a degree where I'm like, what is it with people's need to like who's ever in charge or to praise them? Right. Like they don't need it. They're the most powerful, supposedly the most powerful person in the world.

They don't need you to also gather and cheer them on you can just be brutally critical of them right and and you don't need to and that's what the you know what trump i think brought out even more in people was just as fair like we gotta we gotta you know riz our guy up we gotta get excited right get pumped and i'm like you can be critical i don't know man yeah it's just it's just that's how the leadership game works it's a popularity contest and you know people are dumb most people are dumb in that regard that's that's the bottom line that's his bottom line you know like even that woman at the show last night you're just like what do you mean what do you mean on both sides what do you mean fuck biden like like on both sides? What do you mean? Fuck Biden? Like, like,

okay, then go do something about it, bitch. Like you fuck, fuck the guy. Then go get out of the fucking chair or, or like, yeah,

Trump. Yeah. Like, what are you saying? Right. What are you saying? This, this,

this, this, yeah, it's more than tribalism. It's like something they want to feel like, I don't know. You did. You,

there is a team kind of thing to it and feeling like you belong to something yeah and there's like you you easily have all your values and wonder under wonder umbrella yeah it's like easy to maintain and i don't know though because it feels very it feels so crazy to me um now sure to to feel that way but can i ask one thing that liberals and then you know we don't have to just talk about this it's not a samuel bade show um but uh one thing that i think uh like uh liberals will say especially when i say liberals big big l liberal Big L, liberal, big L. Big loser liberal. They'll go, well, Israel is more pro-LGBTQIA2 plus than other parts of the Middle East, to say the least. Sure.

And for them, it's like that's sticking. And it's the same thing that shitty hack comics do where they go, why don't you send these protesters through their last semester in gaza yeah tyler fisher yeah that joke fucking sucks uh but like or you know there's a lot of that why don't you tell the they thems sure uh they'll be thrown off it's like and that's right you know that's the thing because especially for liberals like pro-lgbtq rights was is the driving force of a lot sure of people's passion sure and what do you what do you think the uh how yeah i'm sure you i have a whole 10 minutes on it sure on pink washing and it's like you stop telling lgbtq folk how to feel like they can decide things on their own

sure you know uh if you could pick your pronouns you can pick a stance you know that's like like it's it's manipulative sure like they don't like the idea of children being bombed. It's as simple as that. They're not down with those values. What does it matter? Like, you know, they're always like, oh, look at the track record of gay rights in Palestine. It's like, look at everywhere's track record of gay rights.

It's horrible. Sure. You know, why is this only coming up when Gaza's being bombed? It's because it's manipulative. So it's just listen to LGBTQ folk.q folk they're not down with it yeah like most of them i was obviously i can't speak for everybody of course surely there's plenty who are pro-israel but it's like most lgbtq folk very like like ice and i's have you special little group like what would you what are you thinking like you need to you need to submit right to us and

what right you know and that's what the lack of otherwise you don't get the good things here like we can treat you badly it's very there is also that there's that feeling of like you want us to treat you here you want to be nicely treated here then maybe you should get in line exactly it's fucking oh god it comes from the same mentality of people who would want to restrict their rights anyways yes yes yes sometimes i i whenever i see uh people just so like black and white talk about Israel, I think about, I go on Twitter, which of all the social media apps is the one where the least censored of them all. Sure. And I go, I have this urge to want to send images and videos to people going like, look at what you're talking about here. Look at this. Look at this thing. Look're talking about here. Look at this.

Look at this thing. Look at this dead kid. Look at this dead family. Look at this child who just lost both his parents. And there's so much of like, you know, the news doesn't show it to a degree. Social media would block it. It would get rid of an account.

And sometimes I'm like that's the part that's so that's so missing from people uh when they share their perspective on this that they they just they're literally not confronting because there's probably like you cannot be seeing the same thing i'm seeing no they're not and thinking this simply about it right right and i guess i i don't i just don't but then but then you know then they go what is what what what numbs people what is just like i don't know people have complicated views on it because part of me is like just put it all open the news and it should be a fucking horror show but then no one will watch the news i don't know right right no i mean even even for somebody who like i like to know what's going on there and I want to see it. It's sometimes like a video comes up

and it's just like, you know, that when on Instagram, it's like blocked and you have to, yeah. Sometimes like, I'm just not in the mood to look at this. Sure, sure. But I know what's going on. I occasionally force myself to watch it.

Like there's a human instinct, like I don't want to just ruin my moment right now. And so people can live in that perpetually and just be like, and they tune it out. And then the algorithm rewards them by not showing them. Sure, sure. So then, you know, the algorithm is programmed to show people what they continuously consume.

And some people will put themselves through that. And some people will not, and not to mention, there's like deliberate censorship also on a lot of these platforms too. Were you kicked off something? I was kicked off TikTok years ago and TikTok was kind of different back then. This was in 2021, but I think I pissed off both sides.

That is what I was doing by posting material during an active war. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the material was kind of old. So it wasn't like I was appealing to the sensitivities of that moment. I was just kind of like reposting old Israel-Palestine jokes. I feel you. I have a post of jokes about the 2020 election all over. And they all make sense. Still, it's a really beautiful thing.

Yeah. Before we move on from this, I did have a, this guy stopped related to it. So it felt like. Sure. You can do an early. This is going to stop. I feel like it's early. Well, cause we talked about this the other day too. We've both gotten a couple of DMs from people.

Oh, sure. And for my This Has Got to Stop, it is this, like, you know, if you are a downside listener and you find yourself being pro-war, pro-genocide. I know you probably wouldn't label it that way. You'd label it differently, but you're, you're sort of, you're uncomfortable by us talking about this. And I, I just feel like what's got to stop is, um, you know, the majority of Americans are not in support of this. Okay. And, but you have every single major us institution, politician, the white house, all on your side, you have that. So you don't, you don't get me in the money. You don't get the co-host of the downside to, sorry, you have everything.

You have everything. You don't get me. You just got Hillary. We got Biden. We got Obama. You don't get me. We got Hillary. We got Biden. We got Obama. We didn't get Russell. But Russell Daniels. So you just don't get me. And the least I can do as the co-host of the comedy podcast, The Downside, is to make you slightly uncomfortable in your bloodthirst. That's it. That's the least I can do.

And so I just don't think it's going to be for you if it, you know, and it's not a lot of people, it's a handful, but you're not going to convince me. You're not going to change my mind. I, you know, I've read the talking points that Netanyahu puts out. Um, you're I'm good. Like don't need it from you. I just realized Hillary Clinton spent more time on a Broadway stage than you have. No, no, she hasn't. Yeah. She's been the concerts and the fundraisers. Oh,

okay. Yeah. Yeah. I guess so. Um, my favorite, my favorite story from the 2016 election was someone was, I believe radio city music hall and everyone thought Hillary was going to

win. Can I just say that? I remember the feeling when i voted for hillary yeah in harlem and i was walking and i was like oh we're finally gonna be done with all this trump stuff and i was listening to katie perry oh no and katie perry she was supposed to perform at the victory at the glass shattering and so so all these people had tickets to radio city music hall and katie paris is in the green room dressed probably in 10 inch heels and you know disco balls on her tits and they keep coming back and they're like uh it's gonna be a little bit more

they're still they're still doing the counts and then i just i wish i could see that moment of the person that goes like take off off your heels. You can take off your heels. You're not, you're not singing classic back today. The Sephora savings event is here. World in my hand. I'll take this and that. And that.

Ooh. And this. Oh, it's true. Find everything you want on sale at the Sephora savings event. It only happens twice a year and it's on now through November 11th. Find brands like Rare Beauty, Glow Recipe, Valentino, K18, and more, all for less. Shop at Sephora today.

Limitations apply. Must be a beauty insider. See terms at sephora.com for complete details. Celebrate all the little moments of cheer and togetherness at starbucks pair your peppermint mocha with a cozy game night sip your chestnut praline latte at a holiday movie marathon or take your caramel brulee latte along on your impromptu catch-up these are sips worth sharing so come together and find your holiday magic only at Starbucks. All right. Well, let's... Yeah, we can't. Let's...

You like puns. Yeah. Is that a mental illness? For sure. We have a friend who likes puns. He loves them. And he'll write sketches and it's always like

really great sketch. Let's just take out the puns. What's that? Let's just take out the puns. I think it's because he uses them almost in every sketch. You know what I mean? It's not like this sketch is about puns what's that let's just take out the puns take i think it's because it's there he uses them almost in every sketch you know i mean it's not like this sketch is about puns let's have a time and a place they do i trust me you know i do a lot of my act but like i'm very critical of

puns like tell me your philosophy i see them abused you have to the best ones are really really edgy uh-huh the best ones are really really ed edgy. The best ones are really, really edgy or they take a very, very serious moment. It's just like breaking the tension in comedy. Puns shouldn't, like when something's already fun and fluffy, I don't need a pun. I need a pun somewhere where it's really dark and unexpected. That's kind of a general rule that I go by.

Also, you really got to commit to it. Like I see people like they bail out halfway through and then, you know, they're like, whatever, you know, like, yeah, like no own that shit. Like there's nothing better than just being extremely confident about a pun. It, that's a mental illness right there. And that's what, I think that's what people actually like. Also ready for groans know the groans are coming and and plow through them if you plow through the groans you people will respect you yeah would you any like as you were talking i was trying to think of a pun yeah yeah sure and i like they don't present themselves to me really don't they don't pop in my head maybe once or twice have you ever thought upon in your life not really no

I'm not that's how my brain works I'm thinking right now yeah do you do remember any either from your actor or classic puns ego oh that was brilliant so so there's also there's one that I like wrote like a month ago it's one that I wrote a month ago. It's one of my favorites recently. And that's that one of, back in the day, I really liked to date Latino women. Or I was very interested in Latino women. I'm setting this bit up correctly.

When I was younger, I was very interested in Latino women. You could say it was my first kink. And I was 15, so you could say it was my first kink and I was 15. So you could say it was my kink in Yeda. Yeah. I almost cried when I wrote that one. I like that one a lot. I, Oh, that's good. That's good. Yeah. I like that. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Like why that, why that pops more. Yeah. Oh man. You, you were a mathematician. Yeah. I try to be. Once you are, you're right.

Yeah. You're inducted for life. Once you count, you can't subtract. Well, it's not like it's a, being a mathematician doesn't mean that you get money. Like it'd be like, I'm, if you mathematician doesn't mean that you get money. Right. It'd be like, if you're a musician, you're a musician, right? Right. I don't know. I'm a hobbyist.

Yeah. What does that mean? You read a math journal? No, I could be doing a lot more than that. He could still do math. I just think math. Am I a mathematician? I'm doing math too.

Yeah. No, but you never were. I do too. I'm a statistician. Well, what do you mean what level what where did you take this math so i i i got a a you know a bachelor's you know in math at berkeley and um so i took you know like nine upper division courses i had like a you know a thesis uh uh so you either do pure math or you do applied math i did applied math and my you have to choose a

focus for your applied math mine was probability theory so it was like a lot of stats we had a a mathematician on yeah and i thought it would be matt broussard uh matt broussard as well ever start as well you told me that you and matt had a talk way back one would be the math comedian yeah a long long time ago matt was like he was like i'm not really interested in doing math jokes so you can talk about math in your set and i'll talk about science and like that and then you realize that people weren't interested in either yeah yeah i tried to get a re-signing of the contract yeah we pick science was that he picked science yeah he wanted to do science yeah that's very arrogant to claim the whole field of science as a very broad i understand there's not like a lot of competition yeah yeah well science social science as a comedian. I understand there's not a lot of competition.

Science, social science, it's a lot there. How far did you take the math? Are you in a book? No. No. I'm not really in my book. I like how you're limited knowledge

of trying to even talk about this. You're like, so... Okay, tell me, other than book and nobel prize what else can a math guy get i don't know a job with math he could be so many things he could work for nasa it could be an accountant you know sure anything in between yeah i mean you know all mathematical formulas well-known formulas are used in in constructing modern technology, whether it's the phone you use or the bombs. Sure, sure. So did you decide to quit math?

Did stand-up take over? Like what was that journey? Yeah, well, I was a teacher. I was a math teacher. So I did the major and then I was thinking about doing grad. I was thinking about doing a PhD because at Berkeley you could go straight to a PhD

and it was just a two-year program because a grad program would have been nine years. So I was like, fuck that. I'll do a PhD two years. The only problem is to do the PhD program at Berkeley, you have to first be proficient in French, Russian, and German. So I would have to learn three languages before that. Yeah, so it would have been another 10 years.

Oh my God. What language? French, German? French, Russian, and German. So I would have to learn three languages before that. Yeah, so it would have been another, you know, 10 years. Oh my God. Yeah, so. What language? French, German? French, Russian and German. Because those are the two kind of like most mathematical, you know, texts you'd have to learn. Just look at numbers.

You got to read? Yeah. Yeah, you got to read those numbers and those languages. You saw Oppenheimer, right? I did. I feel like so many movies, they try to, they do this like capturing creativity, but also capturing, figuring out math.

And like, I think Oppen figuring out math right and like i think oppenheimer's he was like seeing planets and then explosion whiteboards it's cute yeah but but like is it like comedy is it just like you just comes to you you go oh yeah yeah no it's all it's all that same kind of thinking i remember when i was taking the math classes and i was like solving because you know those upper division math classes and i was like solving because you know those upper division math classes it's not like you're it's not like the elementary school math that we used to do like were you just like solving problem or you know yeah it's you're writing like proofs you're writing essays and you're and you have to like find creative ways to prove something

so it's very much like jokes jokes are like proofs when you write a convincing argument right you gotta be like it's easy when you say it it sounds cool but if i were to say my comedy is like math it sounds like shut the fuck up shut the fuck up yeah well you're figuring something out well yeah but that's the extent of it yeah that's a that's a broad brush oh you figure things out right proofs i remember oh so stressful proofs yeah proofs the only thing i know about proofs is doing it as a play proof you ever read that play? There you go. Good play. I don't remember the play.

Oh, it's classic. Her dad's going nuts. Oh, yeah. He's trying to find out if her dad finds out she's the one. And he goes, a woman doing math? That's the show. Wait, that's not the one with the molestation. What am I thinking?

You're thinking doubt? That and I'm thinking how I learned to drive or what's that? Yeah, that's a totally different play with Mary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's whenever you tell Russell you've been molested, he goes, proof. Proof. Proof.

Proof. Proof or it didn't happen. See, there you go. Young mathematician. What grade did you teach? So I taught various grades because I didn't teach at a public school. I taught at some afterschool programs.

So I taught everything from fourth grade through senior high school. What was the most fun age to teach math to? I liked the kids who were like 11, 12, like the sixth graders. It was like before they become full on devils. They're a little more malleable and, you know, nice. Did you, were you a good teacher?

I was, but I was like, I was a little too easygoing. And then they started to not really respect me. That's why I quit. They didn't respect you? What did they, how did they not respect you? I just, I was at this afterschool program. So it wasn't like a public school. And that could have, would have been even worse if I was at a public school.

But like the kids were just kind of like running around and not really like. I'd be like, sit, do the problems. And they just, they weren't. Because I was just, they felt like they could do whatever they wanted. Fucking kids. Yeah. I'd like to try being a teacher. I think I'd be a good teacher.

I think you'd be okay. Yeah, you would. Yeah, you'd be okay. That'd be fun. Yeah. I don't know what you teach. Don't use that. Yeah, what would I teach? yeah and i could theater i could be an acting teacher and but like one of those and then they see me perform and they go oh my god this is the guy we took the lessons from i oh man i uh so when you did when you did stand up i know one of the things that uh

you're known for for a portion of your life was uh the most colleges in a row oh yeah really i don't know i don't know if i actually hold a record for that, but I booked something like 150 colleges in 2013 and 2014. Oh my God. Do you know how crazy that is? Do you know how crazy that is? That is really crazy. Yeah. Was it a nightmare of a year or a fun year?

It was, when I didn't know how to do it at first, it was horrible. It was horrible. In fact, the very first college tour I ever did, I lost my driver's license at the very beginning and you know colleges you got to fly out to a city and then you got to drive to fucking nowhere yeah it's great it's crazy these colleges i'm like how do you the airport's two and a half hours away what a miserable yeah why yeah yeah it's like or you can take like a

three transfer flight to some you know know, shit nowhere airport, right? So a lot of rental car. And I lost my driver's license at the beginning of the tour. And so I had two weeks of colleges and I had to figure out how to get from one to the other without a car. And so I took buses. I took trains. I was on Tinder back in the day and I was like meeting women on tinder and asking them for rides really yes and it worked yeah yeah it did well i didn't i don't know it wasn't like hey

can i can you give me a ride it was just like hey you're cool what's your sign that you know next day can you give me a ride you know so you didn't go on the date first you just chatted about yeah it was just like like well let's meet oh i'm here you know and like oh no i lost my license oh my god and uh where should we go on a date let's go to a kansas city tech yeah yeah that would be a fun day yeah i heard their cafeteria is really fantastic strangely still the most noble way tinder has ever been used so yeah yeah i mean back in the day it was it was it was a mess i mean it still is i don't i'm not on anymore but i listened to a podcast where you said you

went on 100 dates in a in a year did i say that it was you were going for the record of tinder and colleges but it sounded like you i have right here it says tinder 100 dates i okay between 2013 and 2015 i easily went on like 100 Tinder dates. Yeah. That sounds like my personal hell. That sounds like my. Did you. Nicole, was your first Tinder date?

No. Second. Tell me about that first one. Well, it was with someone I matched with on Tinder, but we also knew each other. Nice. From college. It was fine, but. Just just one day not a love connection i went on three okay cupids okay that was it in my whole life yeah yeah three okay cupids

one is this woman we were we kept chatting back and forth and we have these talk about charlie kaufman that's when you got my heart at least back then until these recent movies. But then my roommate, gay guy, he was like, you need to meet this person. And I was like, I'll get to it. And she was like, you need to meet. You're doing a lot of chatting. And sure enough, the moment we met. And I came with a stick hard drive with Steve Martin's book on it. This was before I was a stand-up comedian.

So like, you know, here, we were talking about Steve Martin's book. And the moment we sat down, I was like, no. Why? It was like the way they laughed. But it was like, you know, who knows? It was smells that are unconscious. What was the laugh? I don't remember.

It wasn't committed. It was, ah. Oh, okay. And I was like, I could never be with that laugh. Yeah. And uh two other dates i remember them all and they were all torture really you're good at ending a date where you're not feeling it um yeah yeah because a lot of my dates would be like hey can we meet at my show and so how would you have them watch it yes and so how that's unfair no i you know i that

gives you too much of a leg that's that's that if i ever have a me too story it's going to be that like this guy invited me to watch his comedy show he made me i was i was so well behaved on all these things like as a as a date but like i i subjected a lot of people to some really really bad shows and um and so would it be funny people got more upset about that than all the other i should i should be locked up for that i really really should i i'm i'm admitting it right now you would you would say hey yeah i would love to hang out you want to come to the show it was extremely lazy it's just a very extremely lazy way of speed dating it's like okay if you don't like the set this is probably not going to work, you know? Or, you know, another test was like,

if the set goes really bad, do you still treat me nicely after the show? Yeah. And there was a bunch of times where like, I just, I tanked it. And they were just like, just like really weird. Did they relieve? There was a couple of times

where the person just left during the show, yeah. Oh, that is brutal. That's brutal on multiple levels. And not all of those were bad shows either too which is like another sure yeah so it's like you know even even in my best you know like i just don't like puns yeah but there's something weird about like if you're killing it yeah they leave and you're like okay well then they just didn't like how it looked yeah yeah totally like there's like some sort of weird fucked up thing there so it really was a very efficient way of.

Can you imagine starting a date? You brought someone to Titanic. I went on one date. My friend Lindsay hooked me up with a date and she came to a show first and it was early. And I was trying new like politics and race and I bombed real bad. And then we went to dinner after. And that was excruciating. I was trying new, like, politics and race. And I bombed real bad. And then we went to dinner after. And that was excruciating. I was humiliated.

When was this? Oh, I mean, it was at the pit. Which, who performs at the pit anymore? Uncle function next week. But we went on a date. And we sat down. And she was from, she was German? Or she was, like, South African. And she was she was like i don't like comedy and i was like just based on me or like overall luckily you got none tonight um

that's that's very brave of you and you are you still in oakland right now yeah fremont so you're like you still in Oakland right now? Yeah, Fremont. It's like, you know, 30 minutes south of Oakland. That's where you grew up? Mm-hmm. You like it? Yeah, I mean, it's peaceful. It's actually voted the happiest city in America four years in a row. Really?

How do they get to that? I mean, if you drive around the city, nobody's happy. I don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Elon Musk has a Tesla factory there. I don't know if that factors in somehow. Maybe that's why they're happy. Yeah. He a good job yeah when you say how how do you how do they know what do you think they could possibly mean it means some weird fucking poll some weird poll but do we all take out i didn't take one right you know i've mistaken it i think

they skipped new york city yeah i think you can look around it's not gonna be this one it's definitely not wait what city is it again fremont fremont fremont is the happiest city in the world in america that's that's crazy why why am i hearing about this now yeah look it up look it up i don't know yeah i don't know who's taking these polls whatever it's it's bullshit but yeah like sponsored by tesla we do have that going on probably uh ever gonna move to new york i feel like the whole time i've been telling you yeah and but as time went on it's just like there's less reason to live here amazing city fucking best comedy scene in the game but like with the way the industry works now it's like i

can be wherever i want i don't really need to be here where would you want to be that you want to be in i'm cool with it being there right now. Um, but you know, eventually I need a change of scenery. I just don't know if it's going to be New York. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I know you got New Orleans as a backup place. If you want a little bit of a, um, a short story, but you know, Sean Riley, who you work with Sean Riley. Yeah. So me and Sean, we've been on the road and we, we were doing, we were coming from Jersey into New York City a couple weeks ago and we were staying in Jersey we went out of the tunnel and we pull up you know you get out of the Lincoln Tunnel and you get into New York City

you know you get above ground and and you have to make a turn whatever when you get out and you have to like stop the light before you make the turn so we stop at the light and then you know know, a man on the street, probably homeless, whatever. I don't know how, you know, the PC terms you guys use out here, but he walks, he's hardly wearing a shirt. Like he has a shirt, but it's kind of like torn. Okay. He comes, he walks right in front of our car, like slowly and the light turns green.

So we're supposed to be going. And he walks right in front of our car and he stops. then sean is like getting impatient he's like dude come on man like move we need to go and the guy kind of picks up on that and he stops looks at us directly through the windshield and then slowly raises an air gun no way and then does a little and we're just like staring speechless and I jokingly said Sean run him over but I was just joking because I knew Sean was going to do that and so and so

he just made the motion but I mean it's threatening is somebody doing this to you I wish you'd stop pointing at me right now you knew it was an air gun right out the gate it was close enough to us it was clear that it was an air gun right out the gate. We do. It was, it was close enough to us. So we, it was clear that it was his justice hands,

but like the, the, the intent behind it was horrible. Um, and, and, and then, you know,

and then I remember at that time I saw a police officer driving by and I was like, what the fuck? Like, can you, do you know, help provide some, you know,

some law and order out here. Sure. And then I'm like, Hey man, I gotta go arrest a student at Columbia right now. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta go beat up an 18 out here. Sure. And then I'm like, hey, man. He's like, I got to go arrest a student at Columbia right now. Yeah, yeah. I got to go beat up an 18-year-old.

So the police officer, he sees the guy with the air gun and he just, he reaches into his pocket and he pulls out an air gun and he's just like, bang, bang. And that was the end of it. I'm just kidding. That didn't happen to the police.

But there is no law and order. I was like, oh, police have air guns too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we defend New York. Russell defends New York. I attack New York. I do. I mean, I think that's funny.

But I saw a guy recently. He was in the middle. He was, I don't know, unhoused or not, but he was in the middle of the street. He was having a heroin trip. Yeah. And I was like, oh, you should go on the sidewalk. Yeah. And I tapped him on the shoulder.

I said, hey, man, you want to go over there? That's where he went. He went up. He went, oh, thanks, dude. Walked over. Went back down. I was like, whoa. It was incredible.

You truly, like, completely sober said that to me. Yeah, yeah. Oh, thank you. Wow. Wow. That was very nice. Yeah. Well, I think I've got a couple extra discussed.

Let's go to our next segment. This has got to stop. Cool. This has got to stop. This has got to's go to our next segment This has got to stop This has got to stop Russell did his this has got to stop And it's you don't get Russell You don't get me You don't get him You spelled my name wrong

Yes I did What does it say Oh so I wanted to say We haven't done street jokes in a long time But I did Passover at my girlfriend's family's house. And you know what's weird about, and I'm talking about the Jews specifically, is all like so many of the tradition, like they were doing things where they had to put aluminum foil. I mean, you put aluminum foil over all the things that are not kosher. And not just kosher, there's kosher, and then there's Passover kosher.

There's different degrees of kosher and different signs, and you put aluminum foil over all the things that are not Passover kosher. And you ask, like, well, how do we get to this? How do we get to this? It's so complicated. Yeah. And Jews will explain to you, like like all the different steps of why this thing that doesn't make any sense and they know it doesn't make any sense but then they still do

it anyway like if you don't feel like a christian i feel like about like a a sin or whatever they're like well because it's a sin yeah like the bottom line is because it's evil or because it's good you talk to the jews are like well because they this there and they did this there and we're still doing it. And I'm like, and if not, if not, what happens? You're like,

did the CEO of aluminum foil come up with this? Yes. Listen, I get suspicious the whole time that, oh, you have to buy a new thing

of tomato sauce with the kosher Passover thing? You just made a new sale. Yeah. And then you got to, you employ the rabbi at the factory. He sits there

and he goes, that's kosher. And he you got to, you employ the rabbi at the factory. He sits there and he goes, that's kosher. And he checks the box. Like, like, and, uh, oh,

I got so, I got so, I just think it's so strange. We're like with, with, with there's also, there's no punishment. Christians,

there's hell. You don't do it. You go to hell. Jews. It's like, well, you don't do the thing. You should do the thing. Yeah. If you don't do it, that's fine. You don't do it, you go to hell. Jews, it's like, well, you don't do the thing. Eh, you should do the thing.

Yeah. If you don't do it, eh, it's fine. Do the thing. And you're like, how do you continue the motivation for all these things? And they went to dinner, and then someone brought a wine that was just kosher, but it wasn't Passover kosher, so there was a crisis in the kitchen and everyone talking. But Tova's dad has a lot of good street jokes and i guess uh someone in tova's family i

think i believe her great uncle could be wrong uh was princess diana's bodyguard oh my god um did do a great job. Well, he did well. Well, it wasn't a bodyguard's fault. It was the driver. No, he wasn't there for that. But apparently he said Princess Diana told him this joke once. Oh, that's exciting. Let's see if you know it. What's better than roses on a piano?

What? Tulips on an organ. Oh. Do you get it? No. Can you explain? Okay. I'll do. Oh. Do you get it? No. Can you explain? Okay. I'll do it slower and then you get it.

Yeah. What's better than roses on a piano? Two lips on an organ. Oh. Blowjob. Blowjob. And if it was a Princess Diana, she would blowjob.

Blowjob. There you go. There you go. There you go. Seize the confidence. My this got stopped. I'm just going to do two quick ones to make it for Russell going early. One is, okay, we all get on elevators and the elevators fall. And you're going down.

You got nine more floors to go. And what happens? It opens up on every floor and someone looks in and goes oh and i go no one's no one solved this yeah no one's come up with a a weight thing no one's come up with a reader where you see 10 heads you go no more and it's it's just one of these things never been fixed in fixed in my entire life. And this has got to stop. I'll come back. Do you have a this has got to stop?

The first one that I thought of was being asked to prepare stuff for podcasts. I agree. We'll go back to me, then we'll go back to you. I had one elevator one that I forgot. So I was at a hotel and it was a woman and her two kids.

She and her daughter came out of the elevator. The little kid stayed behind and she didn't see. And the doors closed. And this kid is screaming, bloody murder, just weeping, crying, wailing.

And, and then eventually the, the fade, the screaming stops because the elevator goes back up. And the mom is like more calm until the elevator comes back down and opens no little boy and she starts freaking out and suddenly i'm like i'm like going to the front of the hotel like i'm like you come here uh we'll we'll go scan the floors and everything was fine yeah but just to see to see this mom was like my son being crazy crying in the elevator and then open empty and

she was like oh oh my god um and uh so wait what's gonna stop there people having kids elevators or clearly there's a lot of elevator technology that we are behind on another one you gotta swipe the card before you press the button i hate that oh my god i hate that one oh my god the worst yeah or like if you're like on the top floor and you have to scan it to go to the lobby or something the crazy irony is that you can just use the stairs it's like way to crack down on out of shape criminals you know yeah yeah yeah uh do you have a second this has got to stop yeah yeah well this is this is a more broad thing but i'll tell you why i'm thinking about this it just people making stuff about them sorry this isn't personal but sure yeah just uh so this this week two things happened um last night i did a

show where the venue did not tell the crowd to record to not record the comedian which is this is a very specific to the situation i understand a lot of people come to comedy shows they don't know you're not supposed to record that's fine so a bunch of people are recording in the middle of my sets i find it very distracting that's awful and then i'm like hey like what do you guys all bootleggers like stop this shit no more recording and like i shut it down whatever and then i started doing another bit and a woman raises up her phone again and i'm like i just fucking told you like i broke the bit i'm like i just fucking told you and she was like i was just taking a photo you said no video and then she like for the rest of the show she just like sits like this and like is just

totally unhappy and then she writes me a dm after the show saying like i was really enjoying your show until you publicly humiliated me by the way this was my first comedy show like yeah well that's what we do at comedy shows we publicly humiliate everybody but like she made it about her like nobody gave a fuck about that moment nobody was looking at her in that situation but she made it all about her so that happened have you ever had where they're filming and you're like i try this i try really suddenly i do one of these yeah and then sometimes you say it to them and they, they, they like, they check out and they're just,

they just stay. You're like, please, can you put it down? Right. And they freeze and you don't, you don't know what to do. Yeah.

You don't know what to do. It's scary. Especially if you're like trying to work out some stuff. Right. Or say something edgy. Cause in my mind, your mind just goes, I see the clip.

Oh, totally. I see the clip. Totally. There's a guy, there's a guy that comes to Titanic a lot and he does this. He, I don't have a thing. He, um, puts the, he like's yeah there's a guy that comes to titanic a lot and he does this he oh i don't have a thing he um puts the he like yeah yeah yeah sits there and then when he's watching like if action is happening over there he like moves his body in weird ways to catch it and you're like you're very clearly yeah yeah filming all of this in your thing he sits like

in the front row and um but then he like makes us like these nice pins so i'm like is he just filming this to then make these like like pins for us you know i don't think he's doing anything malicious with the content but it's just like yeah yeah no one wants these bootlegs guys even even there's some comedians there's some comedians that i love out there and once in a while i'll i'll look up an old bootleg and after 10 minutes, you're like, eh, the sound sucks. Yeah, yeah, the audio sucks.

It's not fun. Yeah. Okay, what was your second thing? So the other thing was also this week at a show, this girl comes with her boyfriend and her friend

and they sit in the front and she just keeps talking during the show. And again, this is a comedy centric thing. So she's, you know, obviously some people don't know

that they're not helping the show when they have, well, that's fine. Whatever. Your first time, I get it. So I shut it down and I'm like she's, you know, obviously some people don't know that they're not helping the show when they heckle. That's fine. Whatever, your first time, I get it. So I shut it down and I'm like, hey, you need to stop talking. People aren't enjoying this.

Da da da da. I did it in the nicest way possible. And then she did the same thing where she went like this. And as she's doing that for now, like 10 minutes and just like really awkward, like really, really weird body language. And then, and then I like, I end one of my jokes and then she's like, yeah,

because I was just trying to come here to my jokes and then she's like yeah because i was just trying to come here to enjoy and then she just starts going letting out everything that she wanted to say for the last time and then she starts crying and starts crying and oh my god and the audience starts booing but like i also i can't i can't like just go off on her because this is a crying woman in the front and she's like this is like i can't believe i was such a fish even she was wearing a hat from my my website like a merch she was wearing my merch so so it it suddenly became all about her when all i was trying to explain to her that she was ruining the show for other paid ticket holders that's all but but she made it all about her and she's like you're an asshole and because i opened the show saying you know i just turned 40 and they're like

well she's like you just become a 40 year old asshole you know and i was like i've been an asshole my whole life that's how you know who i am you know what i mean and then it just it became all about her and to the point where there was a guy who walked a guy was like i'm gonna leave because it's too much and he left i'm like see what happened and then she started crying even more and then finally and then i was like you know if you guys want to leave you can leave and then they like security kind of came out talking and they left and then they left. And, and, and, oh, and then as she was walking out, like, I didn't want to say anything cause she was crying as she was walking out. So it's not like one of those things, but like good

riddance, you know, while crying woman is leaving, but then she leaves, finally she leaves. And I'm like, I'm gonna get a really bad Yelp review tonight. She walks around the other corner. She's like, I'm not going to leave you a a yelp and then her boyfriend comes and like pulls her back and then like and then they leave god yeah i i don't know i don't have but the the sympathy of like i get it's your first comedy show i haven't been to a soccer game i wouldn't be like can i go on the field and tickle the players my balls out sorry i didn't know i've never been to a soccer game before. Yeah. Let's go on to our final segment.

You better count your blessings. You better count your blessings. I might have more than one for once. Russell, do you have a blessing? Other than Harvey Weinstein being the verdict to be overturned. Hey, it's my last weekend at Titanic. And I'm very excited to have some time coming up where I won't be in a show for a little bit.

And I'm thankful for everyone at Titanicanic it's been you know i'm very thankful for that show it's had a huge impact on my life and i'm excited to to um so you'll never go back i'm not saying that okay i'm just saying i'm i'm thankful to like be done for uh for a bit and i'm very grateful for what it has done for me sure um well that's exciting i hope you're you're back on it's something soon but i hope you get a nice break yeah uh my my do you have a blessing sammy where did my blessing go um i might get a few i get earplugs i'm a big fan of earplugs oh yeah yeah i just hate noise really yeah i hate i have where you're wearing these earplugs?

When I sleep, when I lay down. Anytime, even for like a nap, I put in earplugs. Mine always, they fall out. You should get ones that can fit your ears better. Yeah, and they help. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder if it would help me. Oh yeah, definitely. Sleep.

Definitely, just tune the world out because yeah, I'm just, I hate noise. But I have that condition, misophonia. I need noise to sleep. That's the thing. Misophonia is yeah. Like chewing, even breathing, like just little noises bug the shit out of me. I guess I got to tell you every time I hear it, all I can think is, I know maybe you're

not allowed to say it. All I can hear is me. So sure. Me so hard. No, no, we're all, we're all thinking the same thing. Yeah. We're all think that. But every now and then I just think I'm like i'm like no no no don't say it yeah

be so funny you hear it too it's not just me no i knew any same person yeah okay i like that i uh i have i have a weird a blessing so i i uh to make it vague uh to a degree i have a friend who's going through some tough, tough,

uh, depression stuff. And it really was, uh, you know, it was one of these where it's just like, if someone's depressed, especially when you're as cynical as I am,

it can be tough. It can be tough to, uh, tell them why they shouldn't be depressed or why, why they should hold on to life. Yeah. And it really makes you go, I feel there's some moments that I figure like,

Oh, this is why religion did this. Cause I think like at some point someone had to be like, you can't cause God, God said you can't. And then you go to hell and you don't want that because that's like the real, like you go like, well, good.

Touché. Why? Touché why? And I was like, you know what? You got to, I said, you know, you might be able to be happy later. You might be depressed now, but you will look back. And I was like, go watch Gary Goldman's The Great Depress on HBO. It was like, it literally is a story about, you know,

this comedian who's as low as a human being can be. And ultimately, you know, made it through that period and at least seems to look back and glad that he did. And it was like a real i think i saw on twitter it was ethan hawke maybe had a it was about art is about like the the few times in life where you need art yeah and he was talking about like you know if you lose a daughter or you lose someone you're like i have this pain that i can't describe how has anyone ever made it through this pain and that's when you read and then you listen to some poet.

And my version of this in that moment, I realized it was just like, I don't know how to articulate this. Well, you know what? There is literally this thing. And it made me, you know, it just made me look at, I think I look at sometimes that kind of comedy with a lesson or a moral attached

with the degree of cynicism i go this is a marketing thing or this is this was the hook that said hbo could give you the special but in this moment it felt very pure and like what it is and it was just someone sharing their journey and it felt it felt you know in that moment where i had nothing else to say to be like, I check this out. Yeah. So that's a, that's nice. That's a blessing.

It makes your job as a friend easier. Yeah. I mean, and I told him to watch Gary Coleman's other specials and Gary, you got to keep putting them out because the moment Gary stops making specials, my friend is fucked. Um,

Sammy, where can people find you? Uh, all the,s all the stuff sammy obeyed um you can just put in sammy oh it should autofill the rest russell russell j daniels and this is out after any show i have so free on the market to be employed. Casting directors, please. Please. Please put Russell in something. Put me in something. Our LA Downside Live show, which we will have already taped by the time this comes out, it was with Moshe Kasher. And it will be available in full on the Patreon, patreon.com slash downside.

We sold it out. We sold it out. It's our biggest space to date. And we do Downside Lives here in New York. So check it out on my website, link down below come see us live and we are we're gonna uh we're still finalizing the details but i think russell and i we're gonna do a little a little east coast tour little tour little little four city tour so uh and those shows they're only gonna be available on the patreon so again support the, patreon.com slash, uh,

downside. And, tell me one more pun to take us out. I know you got one more deep down. Um, sure, sure, sure.

Let me give you something. Um, if you can beat him, Russell, you can, why would I try? I don't have funds. Um,

can you give me a topic just cause I, my head is, Oh wow. We can just give you a topic. Yeah. Food, food. Um, okay. Uh, um can you give me a topic just because my head is oh wow we can just give you a topic yeah food food um okay uh i guess that's so broad uh firefighting wow i'm really bad at this we'll take time we'll shorten it in post yeah yeah yeah okay um um okay okay um trying to think of one that i wrote recently so i can

also use this as an opportunity to try new jokes sure use that as an open mic yeah i'll think of a joke ever recently what you think um this is so tough i don't want to do an old one. I just feel like it's, it's, we're not going to judge you. You can lie to us. Say it just came to you.

Okay. Um, one second. You, you'll edit this out, right? Russell, we'll talk while you find this.

Okay. Russell. Yeah. Um, what did I want to tell you? If you haven't seen baby reindeer on Netflix, we're going to, we got to take pictures after this. We're going to use it for the fly. I got to tell you? If you haven't seen Baby Reindeer on Netflix, we've got to take pictures after this.

We're going to use it for the fly. I've got to do something. I'm so glad you volunteered. Why? Because I don't want to just come to you every time and go. Every time there's a fat person and say, hey, do you want to do this fat thing with me? But also as a woman, that's your specialty.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She has my whole heart. Have you finished it? I have two more episodes i've only watched the first two or three it's captivating yeah we're gonna get him on the pod i haven't had time we're gonna get her on the pod would love to have her on the pod and she'll be a fan i heard that the real woman oh don't say anything okay don't say anything oh my god i can't believe you almost did that that's what this has got to stop people will say like oh

i'm not gonna spoil i'm not gonna spoil it and then they say something they go oh well that's like the time he killed i don't think anything i would have been saying it's it's all in the synopsis like i was gonna say about the real woman i'm gonna kill myself no no i don't what she just i think the the woman it's based on what oh i don't want to hear it i don't want to hear it i don't want to hear it was mad about how she was portrayed russell because now i know that she's alive oh don't you understand oh i don't know i don't want to hear it. I was mad about how she was portrayed. Russell, because now I know that she's alive. Oh. Don't you understand? Oh, I don't know. Don't you understand?

That's what I mean. Okay, we're going to have to edit that out. No, we're going to keep it. Everyone will have seen it by now. But that's my point. I didn't even think that was on the table. But that's a perfect explanation of my point. Okay.

Is that now if there's any moment where the question is, could there be a suicide? I go, well, no, there's not. Oh, I see what you're saying. Do you see what I mean? This is what happens where people don't understand. I never thought someone like that not. I see. Do you see what I mean? This is what happens where people don't understand. I never thought someone like that would ever kill themselves. I, do you know what I mean?

Sure. In my mind, that person has too much of a drive to live. Oh, here's another thing I learned, uh, is that there's, there's a,

there's a kind of Jew called black Hatter. Okay. I can't believe that I'm still learning about different kinds of Jews. And it's different than Hasidic. It's different than Chabad. Yeah. And I'm like, I thought there weren't that many Jews. How are there that many groups?

Remember that Black Hat Hacker? Sure. Do you remember that? Sure. I hated it. I never saw that movie, but I really hated it. Hacking movies are the worst. I know.

Because it was Hemsworth that was the hacker. And he was like, I'm a hacker. And you're like, you're like you're not a hacker hot hacker you know what i mean like how people don't i'm i'm the block hot hawker and you're like no you're not you're a hemsworth shut up we need movies we need is you're gonna be i want hackers to be a ghost yeah show me an uncharismatic uncharismatic too you got one oh yeah yeah i got i got like three great i just was like i was trying to look at like ones that i wrote in like the last um okay i'll give you so i'll give you a recent one uh because i you know i post about the genocide in gaza but people don't believe it's a genocide so they won't even comment on my post they'll just direct message me they're like oh i think it's a genocide because it doesn't feel like a genocide oh we're going

about your feelings now it's like why don't you just comment this on my post you know yeah you had a genus slide into my dms oh that's good so it's like a dark topic really really corny joke you know what i mean um i'm actually creating a instagram account. It's like all of Andrew Tate's clips, but it's just for children. It's tater tots. I hooked up with a contortionist recently. He was cool. Oh, you don't like twist?

Oh, that's a good one. That was good. Cause I was like, Oh, this is the downside. Oh, that's a good one. That was good because I was like, oh, that would be so fun. Oh, this is the downside. One, two, three. Downside. You're listening to The Downside.

The Downside. With Gianmarco Cerezi.