The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #212 Embracing The Flop with Viggo Venn

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Britain's Got Talent winner Viggo Venn joins to share the downsides of Norway and why the "happiest" country has such a high suicide rate, what you can learn from flopping (bombing for clowns), and whether clowning is appropriate at a family member's funeral. Gianmarco also tells his story from the one time he went to The Box for the millionth time.  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 Viggo on Instagram, TikTok, & Twitter Watch Viggo's Britain's Got Talent performances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd53BJGox5s See Viggo in a city near you and stay up to date on all the latest at: https://viggovenn.com/ See Viggo's partner, Julia Masli's show, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha: https://www.juliamasli.com/ Follow The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi on Instagram Get tickets to our live podcast recording in NYC on July 1: https://www.showclix.com/event/the-downside-with-gianmarco-soresi-live 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

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome to a little... This is not the regular episode. No. And if you have a sharp eye, you'll notice we're on the other couch. Wow. It feels good.

It feels good. This is a regular episode of VigoVen, but we had to do this. We have a special announcement. Yes. But first, I want to share a story. Okay. Just because it's more timely. First, watch Ren Faire on HBO.

Yeah. Oh, my God. Show biz, succession. It's about a renaissance fair, and we had a renaissance guest. Yeah. And it's about this old man, 81, and he runs this.

It's like a kingdom. They have a town with a mayor, and it's like a Disneyland, but smaller, but very powerful. And it's about who's going to succeed him. He's planning to euthanize himself when he's 90 in Sweden. Yes. And it's an old man who talks to his weird angel statues in the morning,

but is a genius in certain respects, but also has an assistant who is exclusively in charge of running like 15 dating apps. Yes. Including a sugar daddy site. And he has nine years left. And he's decided. I mean, he could have three days left. Yeah.

He looks worn. But it's very funny. He looks older than 81. He doesn't look like a good 81. Yeah. You know what I mean? And they don't show, I mean, 81-year-old normally, you're like, that's it.

Well, no, but there's some in 81-year-olds where you're like... One of his eyes is done. The eye's not helping things. You have a lazy eye, right? It's not like his. That first shot of him, I was like, oh, my God, I am out on. That cameraman was pretty shitty. He's like,

look at this shot I got. He looks like real shit here. Here's the thing. It's not all nonfiction. That's... Okay, so how much is not? Because it was so beautifully shot. I was like, what is this? I know. And like some parts you're like, oh, this seems nonfiction. And then there were certain parts I was like, oh, this is staged for sure.

It's like a weird hybrid of fiction, nonfiction, docudrama. I don't understand what that means, though. But I think it's more scripted than we think. But it's based on real people. I think the real people are playing themselves. It's like a very weird. But when I thought that, I'm like, well, are they the best actors in the world? Because they don't have a hint of fakeness to them.

No, I know. I know. Oh, that's kind of cool. So it's very good. I just like watching him dating and talking about women because it reminds me of my father. Yeah. Who is, I guess, 11 years away from that. And it's just very like,

he's on sugar daddy sites where you list your net worth, which he listed on a hundred million, over a hundred million dollars. It seems like it was exaggerated. For sure. But I'm sure my dad does that too.

And do you remember what he had, the assistant message where he was taking them? Nowhere. He asked a woman out via his assistant to go to Olive Garden together. Oh, yeah. And said 400 bucks.

Like, I don't want to waste your time, 400 bucks. Yeah. But he wants a companion, and I guess that's sweet, but he's trying to get it the wrong way. But he gets boners. He gets testosterone, and he takes Viagra, so he can jerk off every day, right? Or get a boner every day. Boner every day. I don't think he can jerk off every day, right? Or get a boner every day. Boner every day. I don't think he said jerk off every day.

He definitely wanted a boner every day, he said. There's an incredible scene with one of his many, many assistants where he's talking to the camera like, the way I want to go, just make a woman making love to me and just screwing me right until I croak. Yeah.

And then he said erection every day and then his assistant's like mm-hmm. Great. Because you know she's heard it so many times. She's like, okay, there happen to be cameras here this time. Yeah, yeah. She's like finally I told you guys. He says every morning. It really, it does, it's again, the part of it

being scripted or not, you're like, that's crazy you're putting this on film. That seems like a pre-Me Too era. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back to the as russell would call the good old days um uh so we have an announcement uh and we have a regular episode but before we get to the announcement one thing i wanted to say we talked i forget who the guest was but i got an email like a while ago saying uh i was a fan but you're criticizing israel you're blah blah and this person you'll remember the clip if you follow me where he quoted a sweeney todd at me a musical theater kid and sweeney todd notoriously the demon barber of fleet street

and uh just a poor choice of a quote it would it would be like what's an equivalent for non-musical theater uh people it would be like if if you said here's a quote of kindness from the shark in Jaws. Yeah, okay. The quote, ba-bum. So I'm in Barcelona. You've never been before? Never. I went when I was like 21. But I had a gig the next night.

I did a red eye and i i signed up for a food tour just to have do one thing there and i'm with these uh mostly older people and couples and having a lovely time a little drunk but kind of on my own and we stop and the tour guide shares some history that i wouldn't remember for all the world and i hear john marco and i i mean i'm shocked shocked I look up and there's an older man And he comes over to me And I would say like Like not

Like younger than the guy who owns the Ren Faire Still getting erections every day And he goes Hey it's me I'm the one who And it kind of came together so fast Like my brain He said I'm the one who quoted a musical theater or something. And immediately, or he said I quoted Sweeney Todd.

He said Sweeney Todd. And then we covered it on the podcast. Because I've literally made a clip. And I don't know if he knows. I don't know what he consumes, like how he consumes my entertainment. But he goes, oh, I'm still a fan. Shakes my hand. And then he goes and he says, stop spreading anti-Semitism.

And he says it in a tone of like, remember to call your parents for their birthday. And he goes, stop spreading anti-Semitism. And then I go back to the group and they've just seen a stranger recognize me. So they're like, whoa, you must be more famous than we thought. And what did he say? And I'm nothing nothing nothing and then i got an email hi again jamarco uh i just wanted to share a quote from the shark from jaws just want you to know that it was me who said hello to you on the street last night sorry to bother you on your email but i'm old and i don't do social media i had to let you know the amazing coincidence to bother you on your email, but I'm old and I don't do social media. Woo!

I had to let you know the amazing coincidence to see you in Barcelona. I am from, oh my God, I'm from my hometown. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. You didn't read this yet? No, I was standing for the pod. I've decided God must have wanted one of two things.

Either I should uncancel you, please, and start listening to your... Well, maybe you're listening to this, buddy. Maybe you're listening to this right now. And look. Wait, read the rest. Oh, okay. There are enough people railing against Israel these days, so you are not needed there. You need to use your platform to rail against Hamas. Watch the hostage videos, the little girl, the guy with no hand. Sorry, I was getting over the kid with no head, but we'll get to the guy with no hand. Care about them and ask your fans to care about them too, because I really don't think God would bother to send me a message. Be well. Dave Falk.

Dave, we agree on that last point. I don't think God. I don't think, yeah. I think we agree with you. God did not. But, you know, he does bring up a point. You are always singing the praises of Hamas. Well, you know, on Instagram, I can go to the thing that breaks down like the listeners

and followers, and it is a higher percentage Hamas than other fans. So Hamas, if you're listening, we'll add to the tour that's coming. But you know what? Fine. Fine. Listen, there's a lot worse ways to confront someone than to shake your hand say i'm still a fan yeah stop spreading anti-semitism yeah um i like that you ran into him you know yeah i like to imagine this is the start of a you know kind of a rom-com

between you and him like that would be you're just running into each other all over the place. We're an odd couple. He's a Zionist. I'm Hamas. They're the odd couple. So shout out to you if you're listening to the pod again. I'm sure you're about to stop right now. Keep listening. I'll watch those videos. You go on Twitter for a second.

Watch the videos I've shared. Okay. We got a great episode coming up yes uh this was almost a little preview of uh we are doing our first east coast tour of the downside and and it's we're elevating it you know i was i was gonna it was gonna be uh oh my god was going to be just us talking, jamming. But Tova had some thoughts. Yeah. You know, Tova, your manager.

Yeah. My girlfriend. Your girlfriend. And we're going to be doing some cool segments. We're going to be doing some audience participation. Yeah. We've talked about, we're going to have slips of paper. Maybe you submit your, this got us asked before the show. We're going to do a thing. We're going to try, we're doing a slips of paper maybe you you submit your this got us off before the show

we're gonna do a thing we're gonna try we're doing a live show tonight in new york and we got another one in new york if you want to see a test of this this show on july 1st at sesh comedy club we're gonna do three people i think we're gonna say uh what's uh who had the worst week who had the worst week and then we're going to give a prize. I think maybe for one of these shows, the prize is going to be the dildo. Yeah. Love it. We're going to have some music.

We're going to have some music. Some music involved. We're going to have like a special guest here and there. Maybe we'll be singing. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe we'll be singing. Maybe.

Who knows? Because that 500 Patreon, it's not far away, but it's not close. And maybe you'll get to see us. Can I tell you, though? What? I am nervous. I'm doing this. I'm doing something else where I'm singing. And no one's going for me singing. It is rougher

than I thought it would be. It is, yeah. If you don't do it for a while. Some of those high notes are shocking. Even not doing the show for a few weeks, I was like, ooh, this is hard. Luckily, I had an audition tomorrow that I've been working on, and then I had this. Another musical?

Another musical. Okay, okay. So, here's what we're announcing, and we're going to put the flyer up. I think you're going to like the flyer. But, we will be... Now, listen, I know you're going like the flyer um but we will be now listen i know you're gonna go tuesday well guess what buddy come out that's the night that we get right now come out on a tuesday and let me just share for also by the way if you if you'd like me for my stand-up

i'm gonna do some stand-up at the beginning yes he's gonna do stand-up and god knows if going well i'll just do an hour stand-up and i and I'll say, Russell's here. Good night. That's it. Yeah. I mean, believe you me, I would be fine with that. So here's the deal. I know a lot of you don't live on the East Coast. Shockingly, a lot of you live in Rhode Island. And guess what? Boston is close enough. Some of you guys live in Texas. Some of you live in California. If you have friends who are into podcasts, who like comedy, this is where I'm truly enlisting you to

tell them to go. Because if we sell out this tour, it really does mean I was in London, people know the downside. I was in Dublin. So many people in Dublin knew the downside. And I want to bring Russell there. But I got to pay for that flight. We got to make it make sense on the East Coast first

logistically. We don't want on our hands a J-Lo situation where we announce this and then like a week before we're like, actually, never mind. I guess that's why I've always I've always like sympathized because I saw that and I was like, I know people were being I think. Listen, I'm not going to be a J-Lo stand here. I don't really like J-Lo. j-lo stan here i i don't really like j-lo um i think i understand the impulse to to kind of like be happy that someone like that maybe is not yeah it is me it like that's gotta be an embarrassing thing i don't believe that everyone's celebrating it is because they go well she's rude to the staff sometimes yes yeah that's what i'm saying yeah. People are celebrating in a way that's, I don't know.

But as someone who did ask it and sat through this is me dot dot dot now, I mean, shocking. Shocking. Yeah. I'd rather watch an episode. I'd rather watch her

as a guest on the downside than the $20 million. I mean, yeah. I mean, honestly, the way her career is going. Maybe. Okay. The dates. million dollar i mean yeah i mean honestly the way her career is going maybe uh okay the dates tuesday july 23rd 2024 washington dc at the dc comedy loft wednesday july 24th it says medford massachusetts it is boston i've been assured. I can say it's Boston. Pretty much Boston.

Austin, Rhode Island, Portland, Maine. You can make it out. Thursday, July 25th, Philadelphia at the Underground Arts. And then finally, concluding this tour, in New York City. This one's quite a date. Friday, July 26th, City Winery. And we're going to be in New York City. This one's quite a date. Friday, July 26th, City Winery. And we're going to be in New York, so we might have some even more exciting surprises there.

Yeah, we should, yeah. So again, that's D.C., July 23rd. Boston, July 24th. Philadelphia, July 25th. New York, July 26th. Love it. It's going to be fun. Yeah.

We're going to be there. We're going to be selling some shirts, or you could win a shirt if you win the competition. Yeah. And you'll be seeing all of us and lots of cool segments. And again, if you live not near there, go if you can. If you can't, tell your friends, because I just saw Bad Friends, that podcast.

I forget the comedian's name uh santino and someone else they's got a cartoon yeah off their podcast yeah and listen um we had sold out shows in in la so like and and we've had almost sold out in houston that one yeah that was small yeah but but so just, there's cities... We'd love for these to sell out. We need these to sell out. Really. We need these to sell out. And it is on you. And I don't want to be hyperbolic,

but if they don't sell out, the next video will be us killing ourselves. And we'll put it on the Patreon. Put it on the Patreon. Put it on the Patreon and you'll have to pay $25 to our families to see it.

I also, by the way, there's a little other thing. I recorded, I think I upgraded, we're recording this last weekend. I've just been waiting

for someone to give me a special and I'm like, I need to release some of this shit. And we might have like a really good 15 minutes, like the

best standup I got that we'll put on the Patreon early. So again, also, if you're listening, join the Patreon. And we're going to be throughout this tour uploading footage, parts of the show, because we don't want to give away the full live show,

but to the Patreon. So patreon.com slash downside. Enjoy the regular episode now with Vigovan. Not yet. This is the downside. 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 this episode is brought to you by a real Pain. From Searchlight Pictures comes one of the buzziest films at Sundance Film Festival, A Real Pain. Written, directed, and starring Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg alongside Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin. Witness a hilarious and moving story about two mismatched cousins as they tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history see a real pain only in theaters november 15th this is the downside where originally the theme was negativity and now it's just whatever is interesting me at the moment that's why we've had three of four clowns in the last four guests we heard you you said enough theater guests and we moved to clowning a very small pivot which is theater it is theater i agree russell i agree of course good i i think i'm anti-clown

well i i love clowning i You love clowning? I've never heard you bring it up before until just now. Well, now I went to Stamptown. I loved it. I brought him to Stamptown. You know, we're the American school. What's the punchline exactly? That's Russell, Mr. Punchline. You guys are a sketch also, no?

We're your sketch team. Yeah. But I didn't know if we'd need, like I saw Stamptown in Austin and I dug it so much. It brought me back to my theater days and I was like, oh, I could do this on stage.

All these things. Yeah, yeah. And I was so, I was nervous that you wouldn't see what I saw. I feel like I have the most of a, think about like police lineup, that sketch, that sketch.

That's clowning. Also, I don't feel that there's... No one needs to defend the clowning. It's like it's an ancient old thing. Like, it's about this, you know, it's Mr. Bean, you know. Like you can watch it, your kids can watch it, your grandma can watch it. But sometimes it ends up in this like comedians, comedian things as well but not always sometimes

it's just a mainstream thing you know i just think it's it's like stand-up comedy i love by the way you're a stand-up and you have caroline's t-shirt here's the thing i wouldn't wear it until it closed and now that it closed it felt like a little bit less like, eh, it's the place I work sometimes. But it's dead. It is now a ping pong restaurant. Yeah, I went there. You went there? Yeah.

How could you? Was I not supposed to? Where I made my headlining debut, you went there? Poor Russell. Yeah, there was a cast party for Gutenberg. I went there. I'm sorry. I didn't know.

I wasn't allowed to. If your parents were buried somewhere and then they changed it to an escape room and I went there for my birthday.. I didn't know I wasn't allowed to. If your parents were buried somewhere and then they changed it to an escape room and I went there for my birthday. Let's go. Yeah. We would stay there forever. All your parents. Yeah. We are joined today by

I have no doubt what will be our most physical guest. I'm so glad we got this. It's so rare that a guest gets up and comes to our couch. I mean, never. I don't think a single this. It's so rare that a guest gets up and comes to our couch. I mean, never, I don't think a single time. It's an advert. You thought the couch was small before? Well, here we go.

Wow. Thank God we got the wires cleaned up before this. If you had done what you did, I don't know, a month ago, the whole room would have collapsed. It would have collapsed in on itself. If you're listening to this, you haven't heard me yet, but I can't believe you brought a physical foreigner on the podcast that's so dumb i tried to get him to stop yeah a first norwegian yeah

i listen i'll be honest we've asked daniel simonson he will he won't do a podcast you know him he won't do it they went to the clown school oh right not at the same time though but i was hugely inspired by Daniel. Yeah. I came to Edinburgh Fringe, you know this festival? Just the biggest art festival in the world. We don't really know. We've never been. No one in America knows really.

Russell just knows it from Baby Reindeer. He learned about it for the first time. I saw him in a 42 seat in Edinburgh. That's what's beautiful about it. You can find like, you know, the play that goes wrong. Have you had that on Broadway? Yeah. I saw that in Edinburgh

in like a 200 seater. And after I bought the script because they sold it. I was like, this is really good. And then six years later, it's like Broadway, West End in London.

My problem with it is that you always hear these romantic stories. We had the Fringe Festival here. It kind of dissipated. But in the summer, it was pretty big. And every show I saw, fucking that was it

it didn't go anywhere yeah so there's always these romantic stories you are here already by the skin of my teeth 15 years later yeah but this is it though like if you do well at the french you can come here you are already in the metropolitan of everything no yeah like uh you have you are in the show on broadway no i was not anymore not anymore. Okay, yeah. Sorry. But you could do the Fringe. If you do that one-person show, you could do the Fringe? That one-person show that I haven't invented yet. You guys are here.

I could do anything that I haven't started or thought of yet. You could make a movie, go to the Oscars. I don't know. I could do it. But I saw Daniel. That was my point. I was a young Norwegian, not funny comedian. And then I saw Daniel that was my point I was a young Norwegian not funny comedian and then I saw

Daniel Simons and he won best newcomer in Edinburgh Fringe and I was like what a Norwegian in the UK

is that possible even to like to be so foreign and do comedy one newcomer right one newcomer that wins that award

yeah yeah yeah so that's like that's the big fucking deal 4,000 shows 4,000 shows every day for a month. And best newcomer. That's crazy. That's nuts.

Because Natalie wanted two, right? Yeah. That's crazy. We've had two best newcomers. Two best newcomers. But Daniel, he's too underground or what? Now? Yeah, Daniel Simonson.

He is killing it here. You'd have to ask. He's killing it here for sure. have to ask he's killing here for sure whenever i talk with him i don't think i'm speaking up turn he's a perfectionist yeah in the way we're like he'll he filmed something and then he was like i can't release it yeah and i don't know him well enough to do what i do which is i'm like danger just fucking release it no he is he is the true artist he is a true artist is is the truest artist one who just doesn't put out no but like he he was in norway started to be a bit successful then he moved to

london started open mic level yeah then he worked himself up he won best newcomer he got a pilot he got he was on a sitcom and then he just was on a sitcom yeah and then he had the pilot as well yes and then he just left it all and went to New York because like he wants to follow this stand up dream, you know? And then he went open mic again, as I understood. And now he's been on all the talk shows and he's a regular at the Cellar, which is like all the comics in Norway are like, man, we are so happy. There's a-

We can sing his praises when he does the fucking show. So let's- I'm the guy in the UK and he's the guy in America from Norway now. So we went to see... Oh, let me just say real quick. This is the downside. Is this the downside? The downside.

Ah, I thought this was downstairs. Look at this. Little joke. Look at this. GM's basement. You started in stand-up. What is this? Can I come over here? Yeah, yeah, why not? It's brick, I think. stand-up. Look at this. What is this? Can I come over here?

Yeah, yeah, why not? It's brick, I think. I hope you watch this on YouTube. Yes, watch. We get more views than listens. Yeah. That's for sure. YouTube.

People are watching. They come to my shows. They say, did you get your sashimi in the green room today? I get a lot of, did you get your sashimi today? It's so weird to have sashimi. Okay. It's nice to be here in your basement though it's really cool thank you thank you good don't i did a joke no you did well i know you started with with

with stand-up do you remember what your act was when you did stand-up yeah really bad what were some of the jokes ah so i uh i had a joke about my name, but... Classic start. Yeah. What was your name joke? My last name is Friend. It actually is Friend. So you need to know that before, I guess. Ven, my last name. Viggo Ven. That means it's the literal translation Friend in Norwegian.

So I had a joke that, oh, I don't get any... I was studying economics at the time and like, oh, it's not so popular for me, you know. And I worked in a zoo, in a bakery zoo, in a fairy tale land, which is also very famous in Norway. So it was too much set up here. But anyway, I came and like, oh, it's not so cool for me to come out on the city.

I meet this girl, she studied economics, you know, financial studies, financial market. What about you? I'm like, I'm the baker friend, you know, baker friend or something like this, which sounds funny in Norwegian. Bakke mest er venn. Sure.

Oh my God. I bombed when I translated my first standup joke. It was bad then as well. If I was doing standup in a second language, every time it didn't get loved, that kills in Norwegian. That'd be my save for every joke. I did the Britain's Got Talent in Norwegian joke. Did you see?

Oh, remind me what you did. We did. We watched the whole thing here. Yeah, yeah. We did. What was the joke again? Give me the set up. Let's see if I can remember the punchline.

The joke is, two guys went on a new stage and then... Have you heard it before? Yeah, that was the joke. Yeah. And what was nice about that, like I just said something in Norwegian, and then the audience were there like this,

and then they laugh because they don't understand. And I'm like, oh, you heard it before. Okay. But what was cool is that when I did that joke live in the UK, it was the comedy club where I did stuff in Norway. They were live streaming this illegally. Sure. Yeah. They filled up the big room, like 500 people, all the comics are there watching this live. And what I said was two people walked into comedy seller or the name of this club in

Norway. Yeah. So they were like, I named drop the room in Norway. Who watched this live? You know, that was really nice nice because when I was really poor and traveling around with Zach and stuff, I always came when I came back to Norway, they let me sleep above the comedy club. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. This place. So it was nice to shout them out on live UK television.

That's the thing. When I look at you folks that kind of work as comics in Europe, the travel of it all all seems so much harder. It's not easy being a road comic in America. But it's the same, no? Same size in a way. California to New York. To a degree, but you have to,

you're going to such different places. If I go to the middle of the country, if you go that same distance in Europe, you're in a whole different culture. And like, I could just see- Different money sometimes different money bombing your ass somewhere different money different everything and it sounds like it sounds on one hand it sounds very exciting and thrilling and you get different cultures and on the other it sounds frustrating that like you have to make it appeal to literally this wider swath right then americans have to do yeah to be fair i haven't done much in like

europe it's mostly like uh uk australia sure you know like english culture because it's australia they love british humor as well they kind of they watch taskmaster uk in australia as well it translates and in english speaking places like or am, they speak a bit. Scandinavia, they speak a bit English. But you guys are blessed. You have the whole country speaks. I mean, it's lucky. Yeah. It's certainly lucky.

Yeah. I'm going to, we're releasing this a little bit later, but I'm going to be in Monkey Barrel. I saw. On your website. This Friday or Saturday. And you are there for three days or something? I'm going to Barcelona for two, Edinburgh for two, Dublin for two. Yeah, we're doing the same venue in Dublin.

I'm there a week after you. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Liberty Hall in Dublin. You sold out? No, apparently Dublin is slow. Okay, good. I've sold out my whole UK tour except Dublin.

Okay. But they are not part of the UK, though. How big is this venue? 400 seats. 400, yeah. Have you done Dublin before? No, first time. This is me like seeing, I did a little Europe run last year, did a little one this year and then I want to do a bigger one next year. Because I had no idea how it would sell. It's just YouTube, I didn't know. But I think it's going to be well though because they said like oh it's the capital,

it's kind of like people are more loose there i don't know yeah yeah who knows i sold out uh because i did small rooms and then britain's got talent and i've done like thousand seats around the country so 400 in dublin it's also one of my like oh what's up in dublin but they don't like to be part of uk though they're sure sure yeah is. Is there an Ireland's got talent? Probably not. There's just drinking. Everyone's got this talent. Every talent was just like how much you could drink.

We are in a bit Ireland here in New York. What do you mean? There's an Irish Boston is very Irish. Yeah. But there's a lot of Irish here too. Are you Irish? No, I'm Scottish. Are you really?

Yeah. So go to you really? Yeah. So go to your homeland. Yeah, it was the McDaniels brothers that moved over here, and they dropped the Mc, and just Daniels. Oh. Yeah. Maybe our podcast is popular there. Maybe.

Probably not. What was I going to say? Oh, my God. OK. Stamptown. I saw you said the sweetest thing to your wife. Did I? It was they brought up the burlesque dancer and they said that she's one of the top 10 burlesque dancers

in the whole world. And then you, Najee, said, are they bringing you up there? And I thought, oh, what a romantic guy. What a romantic guy. That is fantastic. Is she your partner, a burlesque dancer? She's not.

No, no, no. Not yet. Not yet. You know, I don't know. She has hobbies. She plays saxophone. Maybe next is burlesque. Usually it starts there.

This guy Dylan at Stanton, he taught himself to roller skate this year. This year? That's his whole thing? Or maybe in December, yeah. Oh, my God. That was scary. I would never. That guy who put the drill in his penis,

that's a fake penis, right? Oh, yeah. The guy who closes the show now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this will be a long time since I've done it. I've done it in Australia and London. What do you mean that's a fake penis?

But I thought- I asked Tove. She said there's no way he's hard that whole time. Fully erect. I was backstage and I thought it was fake. Okay. I assume that maybe he took drugs to, you know, like took a thing

to make it hard the whole time. And then put a drill in it? That penis is not going to last. We were in a theater show. We weren't close enough. After all the fake to last. We were in a theater show. I didn't, I wasn't, we weren't close enough to After all the thick penises you've seen in the last month. They must have been good prosthetics because he was like letting

it go and flipping it around and you know what I mean? I don't know if the technology is out there to do that. Let's just be clear. This is not my act we're talking about. This is Simon Cowell said, holy shit, what the fuck? Were people upset that you were on Brins got talent as a Norwegian yeah online yeah yeah really but I was just uh you saw Stanton in this guy closes

the act he he drills uh in his penis no yeah he put something I don't know if I should look or not look at that it's such a screamed but he performed he performs in you know the box I do know the box I did I did a play with Jessica Fryer a good friend in the box I screamed. But he performed, he performs in, you know, The Box. I do know The Box. I did, I did a play with Jessica Fry, our good friend in The Box. We did like,

we did a clown, it was called Clown Bar. Oh yeah? Way back in the day and we would do it earlier because those shows started like three in the morning. Yeah.

And I've told the story but I do love telling it. Oh. There was a guy and his whole thing was that he fists his, himself in the ass.

Yeah. And just to be clear, The Box is like a late night, very VIP exclusive. The show starts at 3 a.m. And there's like a couple acts and then there's dancing for an hour. And then you are done at like 5 or 6. And I was not – I should be into cocaine if I'm going to do that. It's late. Once I hit 4, I'm like, please let me leave.

So – and just to be careful it's this performer they would they tried to fist themselves in the ass and uh they did it once not quite so then they you know rang their hangout handout and then they tried again got a little closer felt like they got to that second knuckle but no not there is this in the green room or on stage? And then everyone was so excited. They went for that third time and they didn't get it. And then they said,

all right, we're going to call it. And they left. Every time you tell it, it's amazing because it feels like it's setting up like, oh, I tried. Oh, I tried. And then you'll...

That's what you should do. And they really were trying. It makes me think they were really trying the whole time. There was no sort of game about it. I heard a story. There's a musical called Barnum. And someone told me a story of like,

there's a tightrope thing. And this guy, he like fell. And I was like, oh my God, that's not supposed to happen. Then he did a second time, fell. And third time he did it, they went fucking ape shit. And then when they went back,

he was like, please, I only fall on purpose. And then it was all an act. And I thought thought how cool is that yeah that's what i did in british gotelt i lost my balloon uh on purpose or me or i don't know maybe i didn't but a lot of people like oh was it on purpose or not but uh it's nice to fool the audience a bit to that uh you don't know exactly the level you know how stupid am i you know or like how talented is this tightrope guy you know you have to create a bit of a risk no yeah i think stand-ups do that with the the

topics they talk about we have to physically create risk that's what i think i what i loved about the clowning where it's just like stand-ups we're so obsessed and it's become like commercialized to the point of of just exhaustion about saying. That we're saying something. Yeah. And I think like seeing Natalie or seeing the guy with the drill on his penis, I was like, oh, yeah, you can be brave in other ways. In embarrassing yourself, in nudity is one form of this thing. And it just reminded me because stand-ups get so obsessed with, I said the thing

and it's usually not even a bold thing at all. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I felt like struck by too the thing of like you go to a stand-up show and there's an expectation

that you have to like laugh. Like there's an expectation of like that's what deems this whole experience successful. And what was so refreshing is that like taking that pressure off i felt like i was so much more engaged because i was like some of this may make me laugh and i'm like ready for that and then some of it maybe you can be like holy shit and and then

some of it there's long periods of building tension where you're like you lean in and you're like and then you get a bigger laugh so I just felt like the whole thing was felt like very freeing that there was not this expectation that everything has to hit. And it's this rhythm of laugh, laugh, laugh. Again, you're talking about Stamptown. Stamptown, the whole thing. My show, laughter the whole time.

Okay. This is the downside. You're listening to The Downside with John Marcos Serezi This is The Downside This is a place where we can be negative we can complain, we don't have to pretend that the world's not rapidly coming to a close

and America as an empire isn't collapsing before our very eyes more rapidly every second Caroline's close though Caroline's close That. Caroline's close. Caroline's close. That's the first sign. Yeah, that was the first sign.

This episode is coming out June 11th, which is a little far from now. So let's make some predictions. Trump is badly beating Kamala Harris in the polls right now. Russell is on SNL, but only as a writer. And there are still tickets available for my Portland show. Wow, so much happening in 20 days. I got, we'll talk to you in a second.

I got an email from, I have a business manager now, very exciting. But I got an email. It was like this large sum of money from wicked.com. From who? Wicked.com. And I was like, what? I thought the Wicked the musical. And that's all all the emails had from this new person i'm working with and i click on it very hardcore

pornography site oh my god i go i my mind starts right you know it's one of those things where like the cops if the cops are that you think you did something illegal i'm like yeah dude i have a porn career that i didn't know about. And then recently I had this video where there's a fake penis prosthetic. We were going to try, it was like a promo where you thought you saw my penis in the thing. There's a prosthetic. But what we were going to try to do

is put it on a porn site early and then like leak it on Reddit and be like, oh my God, comedians penis revealed. You know how hard it is to upload onto porn sites? Is it? It's, first of all, most of them wanted me to give them my ID. Oh.

And I think there's something like- Oh, there's like a verification because of age now and like things like that. Yeah. And part of me is like, who cares? But then there's something in me that I've, I don't think I've ever signed up, truly signed up for a porn site in my whole life.

In my whole life. Dude, this whole podcast, all you talk about is drilling penis. There's this story about me getting contacted by the penis company. What is this? I took a snapshot. I said, I'm going to have that visual on Never Need Porn Again. So what happened?

Well, you had something. No, they wanted you to do something. And you also wanted. I called them immediately because it's just a new business manager. And like, you know, they know I do stand know they know Wicked.com was giving you money yeah and like ah you know

OnlyFans did that in the UK they had a bunch of comedians on as well no it wasn't that it was just whatever comedy club I like recently performed at yeah

they used some kind of payment portal that's through no no actually no here's what it was their company is called...

Russell's face. Their company... So they said wicked.com and they linked it. My business person. And I called, I said, just so you know, just so you know,

I tell you if I did porn, we have to have an open relationship. I don't do porn. This company is Wicked Comedy. And when they abbreviated it on the thing, it looked like Wicked Com. So they sent it to me with the link wicked.com oh my god for a second for a second i thought maybe someone uploaded

photos of me and and they linked it to me and i'm getting free i thought i was getting like a big fat check yeah for being on a porn set i was so excited yeah wow like congratulations your stuff has been doing well yeah yeah i i we couldn't upload it i went to i had like eight different i made a whole email i think the email we made was like stand up fucker 69 at gmail.com and and then there was one website i didn't have to give them my id but you had to like identify who the performer was so i was like do i have to make a whole id on me for the website so then i faked it i just picked a random ital Italian and then it didn't get verified. And I'm like, that means someone's watching every

new video and verifying who the performer is. And I thought that would be a great job for you, Russell. Think about how much time you've been wasting. You catalog it on Excel. I know you do that with your... You could verify. That's the guy. He is strict

also. You can't come here with anything, you know? Can't do like crowd work porn. You need to be solid stuff. Can I say something? Crowd work porn. Crowd work porn. I don't think anyone's ever done that. Like a crowd work where like the chemistry is so electric.

Are they fucking then in front of the crowd? Like right there? Okay. I think so. Could be a long story. They could meet that way. Tell me this. You've never had the thought of like, I have some good porn ideas.

No, I have great porn ideas. Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Great ones. Interesting. No, I don't have great ones.

I don't have great ones, but I do think that for me, what's funny and what I would do if I was a porn writer it would be really long lots of like lots of like i would make a whole movie and then it would basically be like i've always thought that like those hallmark movies would be so great if it was just what the hallmark movie is just what it is like nothing has changed about it it's two hours long of like very sweet like like no one's swearing it's all like that and then at the end it's the most aggressive sex explicit what is a hallmark movie okay it's like it's like a wholesome almost like almost like it's like small town girl

and you know yeah it's not in the union it's like you gotta be a non-union actor to do it they film it in the course of 10 days some of them are union but um but anyways forgive me yeah so um so um but anyways it would just be the full hallmark movie and then the last 10 minutes would be really aggressive porn is what i've always thought would be if i was gonna make a porn yeah because they do have movies they do have movies but it's like every scene ends. Yes. In something. Yeah. Yeah, that's the problem. It's too much porn in the porn movies.

Yeah, make it special. Because it'll be sexier, I think, if we're like, when is it going to happen? And we just get sucked into a full movie. And then finally the payoff at the end. Yeah, yeah. I just love you watching Hallmark movie. And at the end, they kiss. It goes to credits.

And you're like, come on! Damn it! Come on! Damn it! Yeah. I like that. that yeah that's a good idea yeah yeah uh Norway is is filming pornography legal in Norway uh I don't know I I feel uncomfortable talking about it definitely I feel myself who is it I think that's, though. I feel like Europe probably is chiller in general with porn. Chiller? Chiller. Like, I bet everywhere can film it.

It's not the same. Americans. Porn is from America, no? Really? Isn't it? Isn't it? Like, internet exists because of it. Or like, wasn't it military?

Porn is from the caves when we were in caves. True. Yeah, true, true, true, true. I'm sure it's a big export. But I mean, like, the industry is some LA. We definitely have, like, a big, we were in caves. True, yeah, true, true, true, true. I'm sure it's a big export. But I mean, like, the industry is some LA stuff. We definitely have, like, a big, like, in LA. It's fascinating to watch because it's kind of like, it works like Hollywood does, but just, like, at a frenetic pace.

Like, casting, there's no callbacks in porn. It just moves quickly. But I've heard that so much of technology and internet was developed because of porn. It much you know well that's why when they talk about ai and they're like well we can't use this for porn i'm like guys it's exactly yes gaming and porn is where it's gonna make it develop oh my god clearly those goggles are not doing the thing everyone thought that we'd wear those goggles and we'd all just be yeah i haven I haven't tried them, the goggles. Have you? For porn? No, no, just in general. No, me neither.

I would love to try them. It must not be that good, though. Since people are not like, oh my god. I was in Hawaii and I was, you know, yeah, maybe. I still want to try. Send them. Let's see, what have we gotten so far

fake CBD chocolates and some drink that we're too scared to have a sip of let's go on to the $800 Oculus please send the Oculus to us please what do you know about Norway tell me everything you know about Norway trolls

I'm basing everything I have off of trolls you mean the dolls no real trolls real trolls they have real trolls in Norway Trolls are there, yeah? Yeah. I'm basing everything I have off of... Trolls, you mean the dolls? No. Real trolls. Real trolls, Jamal. Yeah, real trolls. They have real trolls in Norway. Yeah, yeah.

What do you mean? Yeah, mountain troll come and eat blonde women. That's a Norway thing? You are lucky your hair is dark. And he would enjoy this one. Big one. My mom. because he would enjoy this one big one you're like you are a bit pizza no italian uh yeah more jewish ah jewish that jewish is tasty you know sure yeah for uh trolls i think they eat every

all the human beings yeah is and that's the story when we grow up. Trolls are in the forest and they eat you. Were you ever scared of them as a kid? Nah. No? I know. But trolls are also the little doll things. They're not real. Yeah, those are troll dolls. Your hair looks like a troll doll.

True, true. I'm basing everything I know of Norway from the ride at Disney World in Epcot. Yes. It was a Norway ride and you would get on a boat and you would like drive around and like there were Viking things and there were trolls.

There was kind of like a troll that kept appearing. Kind of like that was a scary part of the ride. The wooden shoes. Is that Norway? Yeah. Okay. The what? The wooden shoes. The wooden shoes. Ah, Amsterdam. But my cousin worked at Epcot and it's so nice to see the image of your country. It's like, oh yeah, that's the American, that's good for clown in a way.

It's the stereotype. It's right there. Yes. So I put on, for Brits Got Clown, put on some similar type of pants, some, a little bit traditional stuff. It's nice to see the stereotype a little bit. What is, I wonder if we had the America land in Norway. Oh God. Here is the guns. Yeah. Here's the fat people. You go with like a Trump. You have like a joke, like bulletproof vest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. stuff america's just too fucking big dude yeah it's time to break it up oh my god it's time to break this shit up it doesn't make any sense anymore i think it's so cool that it's together it's amazing that this whole this whole shit is like yeah i don't know if it's a good thing i mean it's amazing though it's like one market if you're a stand-up pair you can travel yeah sure i guess if you view the world strictly through the lens what would you what would be but think about and it's a great thing about left to their own devices like certain places if they were were their own country well then you have

negotiations you go okay you want some of the movies from the hollywood liberals well oh yeah that's true we have trades yeah and then they say they wouldn't have any money say, do you want a hamburger? And we're like, yeah, we do. Yeah. Um, what about the, tell me about Norway. Fair though. Everyone lives in America in the way, you know, it's like the stereotype is cowboy. It's something old because Norway is like a very America. If you come to, if you come to Norway and gig, you are a star already. We're like, Oh, American. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All the foreign English-speaking comics do well in Norway. It's kind of cool, you know?

You guys... I think. And whereas me, when I go to UK, people are like, that guy's a bit foreign, no? He looks, he speaks a bit, he's a bit strange. Now, in America, you, like, Daniel Simon Sagan go on stage and go, hello, and he gets a laugh.

Yeah. Is it like that in Europe? Or do they go, we've heard, we know Norwegian? You don't get that. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. But Daniel is genuinely strange guy though. Well, that's what's tough to tell. And this also has a special glint in his eye, no? A clown school glint in his eye.

But I think because he's the only Norwegian I knew originally, I go, well, that's all Norwegian. Yeah. But I think because he's the only Norwegian I knew originally, I go, well, that's all Norwegian. Yeah. But I love being, I love in a way not doing comedy in Norway. Like on Britain's Got Talent, you asked if they were angry if I was a Norwegian. Like some people are like, he's not even British. And then I usually comment on there,

and I don't have any talent either. Because I think it's funny that the guy comes on, he doesn't really have any talent. They were just taking off clothes maybe. And then I'm also a foreign because they just had Brexit, you know, when they separated from Europe and here comes a guy from a different country. That's fun. Yeah, rubbed in the face.

But they have been very welcoming to me, you know, and I like being a bit strange. And I am a bit strange too but there it's i sound strange as well like in norway is your hair is that the common haircut this yeah no no there's a clown here no no it's a beautiful clown it's fantastic yeah yeah i recently got some big shoes as well sure because we're trying to be a bit more clown you know because that's our upbringing me and because zach was on the podcast no zach's podcast and natalie we talked all about uh the what's his name the french guy yeah i call philippe goulie or i call it school so philippe goulie i want to get into a little more the meat of of tell me like how does he teach you like what kind of is he an angry teacher is he a is he a

relaxed teacher what is he ruthless yeah he's like how do i say your name by the way john marco john john yeah john marco yeah he'd be like john marco like you would come on stage and then he would bang his drum and like john marco when you look at him do you think ah charming american oh you call uh you call north and Hello, let's go to war. Gianmarco in the middle. You know? He would be like, just insult you constantly. How did he insult you when you started?

Because you were like fresh. You were not like a seasoned performer. I was doing stand-up really badly. That's why I love stand-up still. Like I went to do stand-up at Netflix's A Joke Festival. Like you were as well? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did your sketch show there?

Yeah. And I saw Cat Williams. I was like, yeah. Oh yeah. I love stand-up, but I cannot do it. I'm also in the second language. Like I can barely string a sentence together. So to have a punchline as well.

You're stringing great. Yeah. Thank you. But what was I saying? What did he say to you? Did he ever get mad at you? Yes. What happened?

But I went to this guy who studied there before, Dr. Brown, an American clown. And I was broken down a bit before I went to Goliad. So I thought I was funny, you know, I was a funny guy, always had a joke. And then this guy was like, dude, look at the audience, dude. No one's laughing. Dr. Brown. So I was just, my ego just got crushed.

I'm not going to tell this whole story because, I mean, if you're here because of me, then you heard this story before that I've sat in a field in Wales crying you know because uh all my dreams were broken you know yeah yeah because I wanted to be comedian so bad and then I went to this clown workshop I told I was bad you know so that's similar to theater school then it feels like it's like they're breaking you down they're breaking you down but but they build you up again as well yeah clown school they just break you down wow like you build you up again as well. Yeah. Clown school, they just break you down.

Wow. Like when you go to Philippe and he's like, you're bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, and then maybe after, for me it happened after seven months, it's like, oh, I'm free. I don't care if I'm bad or not. And then, but you have to really accept that you're a piece of shit. Can I say that? Not in the UK. Oh, you can't say that not in the uk oh you have to apologize after the final on britain's got talent to the two hosts they were like oh we just want to

apologize for something that happened today they didn't mean it because you said shit yeah apparently i did we just talked about porn pretty explicitly yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm a family friendly guy you know um sure but uh yes uh anyway he would just break you break you break you down until you accept you're a piece of shit and then there's a unlimited freedom down there but stand-ups experience this by bombing though did you ever have though that moment like you then went into class you fucking broken down and then you do something crazy in class and then he goes ha ha ha ha yeah but he wouldn't go like that. He'd be like, not bad. Uh-huh, okay.

What was your moment? Do you remember? Do you bring in, you go, here's my piece for the day. Yeah, every Friday we bring a piece. But for me, it happened in an improvisation where I fell in love with my partner, which is the reason why I'm in New York, by the way. I'm wearing this because it's a premiere tonight. Oh, partner julia julia masley uh premieres uh off broadway

run today yeah yeah everyone's been telling me to see it so good we were just in melbourne comedy festival she was nominated for best comedy and she insists it's not a comedy but like it's yeah you gotta see it if you can that's the true that's the true he says it's a trauma please stop please stop laughing i know and she's said it all along and her show is called ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha seven house so yeah anyway i'm here because of that very cool you had a moment in class with her yeah yeah yeah this feels like being to therapy you had the thought earlier and then i get so distracted i'm so sad by the way that you guys saw the tuesday show because the monday

show i was doing vest all through the show i did my bait i was like all over the show and then when you came i was a bit late and then we thought backstage we were like oh would be fun if you continue to say that i'm late all the way to the end and then i just come on and go off immediately yeah yeah well that's what we thought it was a bit yeah it is a bit but uh we thought for a second you would be one of the like purple figures or one of the figures that were completely covered up that would have been good yeah if you're just in the end like I was here the whole time but yeah I found the moment in melodrama this old theater style looking at you as if you're more actor, but you are also acting background.

Probably more, but yeah, yeah. I mean, no, no. You studied acting, no? I studied acting, but I feel it's like a distant past. Yeah, because you're a comedian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's hard to imagine being sincere. That's how I feel as well.

I'm really bad at acting, I think. So I was in this melodrama, which is supposed to be this old style theater where you play for the fifth gallery. You know so you look up and you have to walk in a circle so that the people of Paris, the poor people can see you. And you have to speak loud. Your shoes has to make noise. Clack, clack, clack. So that they can hear that the actor is coming. You know it's an... He teaches like a dream of an old theater. But I was really, really bad and so was my partner.

But then he put us back to back and like, now play the nightmare of this theater style. Like just forget everything, do the worst stuff. And then we started back to back and felt like some support in the back and we just went wild because there was no limitations or anything yeah and then usually he kick you off after seven seconds 20 seconds one minute if you're lucky you have been on stage for two minutes that day it's like bam you're off it's finished but then that day we stayed on for 15 minutes because

if you're good you can stay you know and we were free we were screaming shouting ah yeah you're coming and that more after i came off and i was like and everyone in the audience were also because with philippe it's either you are fantastic or you are on the street of paris there's no like yeah man that was really good l.a man so you were seeing him give praise? Yeah, I love your sketch. He didn't give praise, but the audience were like this when I came off stage. The audience was like, ah. And then he hits the drum if he's done.

No, if you're good, you continue. But then if you're not good? Off. Yeah. Off. But then you've done shows where you've crushed, no? And you don't need to talk about it. It's like the audience know you know yeah this was

we were floating on the laugh today you know you were surfing it was just everything you did was funny every look was funny you got a laugh just scoffing you know everything was uh it should be like that when comedy is like that it's like we are all in the audience one family we all laugh together you know it's it's not like a funny, funny joke, it's like, you know? And when you finish this program, is it Edinburgh or bust? Like, do you just gotta get that Edinburgh show and it explodes?

Like, what is the career? What was the period before things started clicking in? You and Zach were working together. By the way, Zach said you did not wanna work with him in the beginning, is that true? Did he say that? Oh, he said that you pretended that you did not want to work with him in the beginning. Is that true? Did he say that? He said that you pretended that you did not hear him when he said we should work together.

That's true. Yeah. That's true. I remember the moment we were in the cafe and then, because we were kind of three people who had three shows kind of. And then I had a group of people that I was going with and Zach had some people. He was like, we should do something good together. And I'm like, just like, yes. You know, like he was too American for me in the beginning. Was it? What does that mean? Too American? In French clown school, it's like you need to come from underneath. You need to have humility. There was a guy who came in with sunglasses, you know, and like, okay, we hate

them immediately. You know, you need to earn the love from the audience. Like a Broadway play doesn't start. Oh, maybe it does. Maybe it does. But you need to see the performer and to see their eyes, their, their soul, their heart a bit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I just pretended I didn't hear him because I was like, we're not the right fit. But then the people in my show pulled out. And then people in Zach's show pulled out. We're a good fit. Yeah, let's check this out.

And then we were like, we were both desperate to perform. So we did it together. And what I love about Zach that he is, he never gives up. He wants to entertain the audience no matter what and i have the similar energy like if it's good for the show if it's funny i can do anything you know as you can see stamptown also is like it's very in your face kind of anything that's funny we'll do throw ourselves interrupt the performer like all this i want to see a low energy clown because like i get the energy aspect of it i think that's the part of clowning where i want to see a low energy clown because like i get the energy

aspect of it i think that's the part of clowning where i'm like when when an audience is there suddenly i can be filled with energy i'm just i feed off that thing yeah but are there some low energy ones yeah yeah yeah to be fair though stamptown is very high and for sure the whole thing and also my act is a bit high energy and likeous. Oh, yeah. But for sure, Philippe, by the way, doesn't want you to go to the Fringe. He wants you to go to Sydney Opera House. He always said to us like, no, it's not some shitty pub theater. No, it's Sydney Opera House. You drink champagne after the show.

Hotel? Three star? No. Five star hotel! Gio Marco? You go to Portland, Oregon on the 22nd of June? You don't stay in a motel? No!

You play Fifth Gallery, five star hotel, you drink a bit, you say oh, tonight was special, Portland. Tonight was special. You know, he tells you... Are there a lot of clowns living that lifestyle? That's amazing. Did he lived that life yeah he lived that life really he you know also some of the vaudeville performers of the back in the day the biggest performers were clowns i bet even in america you have the red charles chaplin redkelton in America. And you have a guy, Little Pitch, Grimaldi.

And you get all this old, they're like the vaudeville performers. And he's always been around, you know. And I play this crazy rooms now as well. It's just insane. Because I was doing five minutes open mics like seven months ago. What's hard about the bigger rooms? Like what do you have to figure out? Nothing.

Nothing? It's the hard about the bigger rooms? Like what's, what was, what'd you have to figure out? Nothing. Nothing? It's the same jam? It's, but it's, it's, my situation is a bit special though, because they already love me. Yeah. So for me it was like, oh yeah, they, they love me more than before. I had to come into London, all the cool comedians and I have to be on the standup lineup and I have to. I'd love for you to come to the comedy clubs here and do go to the cellar. Yeah, I usually do it.

That's what I did in London. I did just did standup clubs and it's so nice. But even in America, I think America, like the audience, I think you could do it. Yeah, yeah. But I think the audience for a significant period of time would be like, what the fuck is going on? No, American audience are so open.

They're like loud. Where, where, where'd you do it? Not all of the American audiences. I can think of some closed ones. Have you gigged in Scandinavia? Not yet. Don't do it. That's closed audience.

Don't do it. No, but it's very introverted audience. Like it takes time to dare to laugh. I think it's just a cultural thing well like in italy i did milan and when it's a when they really like a joke they don't laugh they just go and applaud yeah and it ruins the the music yeah they do it sometimes i'm like it's the middle of the the joke and then they bring up the lights a little to like almost like let you know that everyone's applauding and it's a communal and then they bring the lights back down yeah

so my lights are on the whole fucking show i was like please which is bad usually for the mood it needs to be dark and yeah it's weird it's weird i mean and that's what i gotta figure out as i go out there to be like i tell them like oh this is this is how you do it um in the clown world is it what's the opinion of like a cirque du Soleil like is that cool to do is it selling out like is it what like I mean and there's so many different shows so I imagine it's different but like clowning with Cirque du Soleil what's that like how's that and now to be fair it's like if you asked us about SNL we would not give the fully unvarnished answer we'd want to give yeah but yeah you'd have to like yeah but I guess you could say about SNL is like, it's been there.

It's an institution. Yeah. It's not what it was because TV is less and it may be the older sketches that like they make them everywhere. It's not like, it's not where you go if you're on YouTube and want to see the best comedy maybe. Sure. Is it your words?

But if you get the chance to be on SNl and make it as funny as you can you would do it yes no sure right yeah sure may i could see maybe in a couple years going and i've done with that dream i don't know i i think you're like snl it's not the dream it's not sydney opera house it was never is that the dream i guess i got into comedy later i mean my dreams were to be a dan-Lewis. But that is the Cirque du Soleil equivalent. Like, Cirque du Soleil is the thing. It's kind of like an institution.

Maybe, for some people. Clown is different, though. Like, Philippe insisted. It's not a physical theater school. It's a theater school. Like, it's a full-on theater school in his head. There's just a lot of comedians go there. But we did Shakespeare. We did greek tragedy melodrama we did text you know like greek text

so a lot of people are actors and stuff and but we have some people who have gone to do Cirque du Soleil and stuff i auditioned in vegas just before covid and thank god uh because i thought vegas would be so cool but i heard from zach as well that like yeah vegas is uh for a foreigner vegas is uh entertainment heaven but is vegas is one of the worst places i've ever been it was a hellhole it was a shit i've only ever been there for like three day chunks and even in those three day chunks i'm like if i lived here it's very there's a steep sadness. Everyone's trying to fuck you out of everything. It's like, it's like capitalism on cocaine.

It's so awful. Every, every piece of art I saw there, it was like, it had to be done in 60 minutes. Exactly. There was no room for creativity. It had to, every piece of art had to appeal to, if you could not understand what language was being spoken you would still get it yeah and that's fine for some pieces but when everything every piece of the world is done it lacks specificity yeah it's it's oh god i would love to go there i would love to see carrot top you know and i'd see carrot top because there's also another guy a taped face

you know him i tape face i do know tape face yeah america's got talent yeah i mean we know him from the fringe and he was just crushing the fringe like being really funny and original and creative he'd like use stuff he found to make shows and then he did the agt america's got talent and then he's done a vegas show forever no and his show is fantastically funny and but it's clown so it appeals to everyone he can be in vegas yeah since you blew up and i i saw i was looking through your tiktok and there's you know there's you have fans who are kids yeah is it ever is it ever feel limiting or you go fuck now my act has to appeal to people bringing their four-year-olds there? In your world, is there room to be like,

all right, this is the adult Vigo show where I take more than the vest off? Yeah. In a way, I always performed for adults. When people hear clown, they think I do kid stuff. Sure. I'll do it. Especially in America.

I mean, America, clown is for kids. Everywhere. it's a swear word just a clown you're like oh you have balloons and it's like yeah that's honestly why cirque was so explosive i think in america when it when it really was yeah it was like it's clowns for adults yeah right yeah but some there's some some of the best theater actors when the what this clown for me is when the audience laugh and there's a there's pleasure that you can see that the performer have the most fun like when an improv scene goes wrong and you start cracking up and someone does it again like when it goes when it peaks for me that's clown when everything fails kind of and it's creates this special energy do you ever have a you know sometimes sometimes I'll be on the road,

something bad happened that day or I'm in a shitty mood or I don't feel good at all. And at least with standup, like I can be energized sometimes, but if I need to take it back or like kind of do a different mode, but like,

I'd love to see you do your full fest routine and you had the, you're fucking depressed and you just look miserable you know i have i've like since i went on a big uk tour now i've been like really tired and stuff yeah but it cheers me up though sure because like put yourself in my situation for one second like i've never played this size of room ever in my life sure and then i come out and then uh here's a thousand people and 800 of those people are wearing a vest like what what was the last time you saw 800 people in a Caroline's

t-shirt it's crazy you know like and also this is such a you're at home and you're like should we put this on I don't know will everyone do it I don't know it's such a visible thing like yeah I can't believe they actually came as if it's not gonna last but for this year it's been amazing yeah I'm like how I'm it's so easy to have joy and to your point about kids though like first of all I'm glad you can say that I've I'll never say that in my time it's so easy to have joy I wish I felt that way that's interesting a clown and a stand-up comedian it's so easy to have joy that's good yeah but just imagine for a second though that 800 people in caroline's t-shirt and like hairy legs they put they put they put extra hair

i like that they're not wearing your merch they're not wearing your merch they're wearing caroline's t-shirt and i'm'm like, wow. Just imagine 800 people with cum rags, cum towels that you sell. And they're all swaying them when you come out. That's the bizarre though. What's your version? 800 people understudying Josh Gad?

It's over my head, but I laugh. I like this. It's a good roast. Josh Gad? You roast. Josh Gad. Josh Gad. You are not Josh Gad. Not anymore. Not anymore. Is that... Was that in the musical you did?

Yeah, I was there. You were... Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. But I found it so interesting, but all these kids, because they come with like drawn on beard and stuff. And I said,

what is going on here? You know, that's just my face. Yeah. But the cool... The sad thing about clown is that it's not about anything. The good thing about clown is that, yeah, kids like it. Grandma love it. Yeah. When you say sad, you say sad.

Because I love stand up that is about something. It's cool, I think, to be like explorer. You could, you know, when your balloon pops, have a Palestinian flag fly out. Oh my Lord. It's like, I'm touring internationally. You know, fucking right here, it's very complicated. No, but I think that would be my nightmare too. I don't know enough about politics.

Although, yeah, it's like, peace is good, but- It's tough to go around the whole world and like know all the politics. Yeah. I know the politics like in relation to America. Yeah. But like, I don't know where Norway stands on anything. With America.

God bless America. We would be Russian if it weren't for you guys. So, thank you so much. Tell me about Norway. I saw you say something about Norway, by the way. I went to Klausko. I don't,

I mean, I love Norway, but you have pride. Yeah. Cause we don't for Norway or you don't have pride. You don't like the gays.

Come on. Progressive America. You, but you mean Norwegian pride? Yeah. Do you have Norwegian pride? Yeah. Do you have Norwegian pride? Yeah, I do. But Norway is special because we are this tiny one and we were invaded by the Nazis. So when I wave a Norwegian flag, my partner, Julia, uh, find that's a bit creepy. Like you

would, if, uh, you were, if you had a big American flag here. I would be like, okay. There's a weird thing with like, I feel like. You could celebrate for the job, but the flag on the wall is a bit too much. Yes. Yeah. It's like, what's going on? Like, I feel a bit. Yeah.

But the Norway day was 17th of May just recently when we record this. And everyone was with a flag, but we're celebrating being free and not german kind of and not danish and not swedish we've always been owned by a different country what is that is there a day for that the the no nazi day no yeah it was like 17th of may we celebrate uh the swedes gave us no the oh i should know this but swedes gave us to denmark or something but on the transfer day they quickly wrote the constitution that was

partly from the American and the French constitution so thank you again so we're celebrating freedom I'm sure we had ulterior motives I American history

is so steeped in we are taught deep down you live in the greatest country in the entire world. Yeah. And no. It's so, and you look like, looking back at it, it's a real degree of like, oh my God,

I can't believe like they taught that as if it were a fact. And what is it like in Norway in history? Do they go, do they they go we're the greatest country in the whole world yeah we cling to what we are best at number one in suicide is that true yeah most suicides in the world yeah is that because it's legal is it no no no i think we're number three i think finland is number top or number one wow you have a lot of suicides there it's a real thing yeah but it's also like ranking number two or something happiest country

in the world, Norway. Wow. Free education. Is it because you're knocking out all the people that are unhappy? Everyone left is pretty good. Is that true? But America is technically

like you have all the money or every trade in the world is dollar or it was at least until next year. I don't know. It's gone away. So America is yeah. Why is it high in Norway?

Why is it why is suicide high of happiness? I guess the metrics they're measuring to measure the happiness is like low in employment. And employment is very low. We measure ours in inches. We just did a bit. Let's have a moment of silence for that joke. That's going to play great for the listeners. Joke appreciated. I love that though. Sometimes jokes pass and people talk over them this tell me about it tell me about it yeah it's nice when a joke just gets to do i do that to you no you can

definitely tell it a way of like uh i can tell when i'm talking to like an improv person that does yes and that no matter even if it's a bad joke they'll they'll build on it and they'll appreciate it yeah i think we're more similar in a way where like if we don't find something funny we do not know how to engage with it and we just keep going and it's a real it's a real awful hanging off a cliff feeling and your friend walking by you know what that is though what that's clown that's clown. I agree. I think that's why. It has a term, the flop.

The flop. Yeah. Tell me. You tell a joke, no one laugh. And then we laugh. Like now we laughed a lot. We're like, is that joke? Look around, nothing.

And then you feel. I don't think that inch joke flopped. I think it was just. Let's rewind here. It was the- Well, let's rewind here. It was the fun, but that's so interesting. Like in clown school, they talk about the flop. You know, what is a clown? It's an idiot who has a shitty joke and he loves to tell it.

You tell it, no one laugh. And then they laugh of him telling the joke. Like Britain's, do you think it's funny taking off many pieces of clothing? No. It's the absurdity of the continuation of it is funny. Yeah or like yeah that the fact that the fact that the guy thought that was funny sure is a bit stupid no? I find that bits like what watching it it's not it's not funny until it goes too far almost. Oh no, it's lore kind of like, it's kind of flopping. My audition set is like, it's not working. Simon Cowell X's it, this is bad.

That's what's amazing is that it didn't get all the way. Like that it could have, in a different universe, they could have been out. But because only one, and it was very cool to watch. But you know what? I was, I didn't expect to go far, but I was prepared for being x out x out that's why i wore a red high-vis under because i was like my act starts after i get x out that's when i'm gonna do the red one like um like pretend i'm sad and then

just as i walk out i'm gonna go right one more time you know and then that is gonna be so funny so i was uh almost kind of uh oh they they burned it too fast did you ever ask me is there any more i'm like yes i have three left but i'm gonna do that after my performance is finished you know yeah but yeah um can you talk a little bit about the origin of this idea like like the the like describe the act because for people who haven't seen we'll put a link to all this stuff yeah i mean we'll put a link to the to the thing i mean you're you're you i mean let's have him describe it but also now it took it back to my act we were talking about the joke that flopped i just had to say that i find that so funny when the joke flops yeah that's when they're real yeah have you have

you ever had a a bit or a chunk that truly i've never had the chunks by the way sure yeah no but i only have short have you ever had an idea like like the vest thing which for people it's the neon uh like we're working on a construction site yeah essentially yeah and have you ever had an idea like that where you bought all the props you you really and it just it did not even doing it again and again and again and again just didn't fucking click yeah yeah yeah yeah that's the best like i remember me and zach we did the double act uh just after clown school no and then we made this big basketball board you know backboard

backboard yeah and we put our face in it and we were like this is genius you know and then Zach would be like on stage and he would pretend

to say like oh yeah I scored or something like that and then I would come out in the backboard or something and then I was like

this is gonna murder it's gonna be so funny and I remember this was yeah anyway I just opened or something and then i was like this is gonna murder it's gonna be so funny and i remember this was yeah anyway i just opened the curtain and then nothing but then sack then shitting on me for five minutes after i was the best yeah so it's like you do get paid in the way we're like yeah oh and then and then sack was like uh well first first he tried to, well, you look silly. No laughter. But then once he starts to diss you for not getting a laugh almost,

that becomes the best thing ever. You know? And then I stayed with that. Yeah. That's the limitation of sketch compared to other things, is that when it bombs, you don't have that fun. You don't have that fun thing thing you move on to the next sketch uh we're more regimented though like we could that's true we could i had that sketch with a

fake dildo i could have if i were a different person i had a sketch and a lot of your stuff involved the penis i know it's a recent thing it's a recent recent thing and and it was the idea someone uses it as a fidget spinner that's a recent thing. And, and it was the idea of someone who uses it as a fidget spinner. That's their anxiety thing. And so the last beat did particularly just bad. And it was a runner. And the third beat was, uh,

at my father's funeral. And I felt like I emotionally, like I really, I like went back to my acting days and like, really, I visualized holding my father's dying hand and I, I felt his touch. And then I went out there, my eyes a little hand. And I felt his touch. And then I went out there.

My eyes a little bit red. I could feel it. I try not to think about it, but you do. And then I start the speech. And I go, I'm sorry. I'm a little anxious. And I reach into my suit pocket. And I pulled it out to silence.

And if I had conjured the spirit of the clown, I'd just keep going. And I'd make it bigger. And I'd go out and start smacking the audience with it. No, no, no. Opposite. Bad. Off. Stop.

I'd stop? Yeah. And just say the rest of my thoughts? No, no, no. It has to be funny. I think many people misunderstand that if you don't get a laugh, you just repeat it too many times. No, no. First, if you do something get a laugh, you just repeat it too many times. Like no, no. The first, if you do something funny, then you can do it again.

Like if the first vest doesn't get a laugh, do not do it again. In a way that's about it. You know what you're done? If you were on stage, you do one vest, no laugh. You go, all right, back to the stand up. But although the first vest, uh, never, uh, did not get a laugh except, um except in the corporate gig once and then that went truly awful

tell me but like I used the vest we talked about that gig what happened they didn't laugh at the vest and then I thought uh oh

uh oh that first laugh then that goes these layers I have under are gone now next bit kind of you moved on. Now next bit, kind of. You moved on to the next bit?

Yeah. You just kept the show going with 20 shirts on? Yeah, but I did the one vest in the end though. But no, I think I went out in the audience because they were not responsive. They didn't know each other. It was a conference room. There was a lot of space between the tables.

It was morning. It was 9 a.m. Big round tables with like 10 meters around the table so then i went to a table and did all the vests there and then that table laughed but that was pathetic oh it was so hard brutal that when that first laugh is not there that's what i was gonna say though about the the la thing like when we just did our show in la yeah we had it we closed with the sketch sets always killed yeah. Yeah. Always killed. Killed on the Monday before here in New York.

And it gets to this moment where you really got to commit vocally, physically. And I did it. And it normally kills. And it's the very first time. And if they don't laugh at that, the whole rest of the sketch is just more of that. And they didn't laugh in la and i was like fuck me yeah and and that's the that's the problem with sketch you're like oh i'm gonna have to keep i have to keep doing it and you're like and it was not if you had stopped though right

after that first one if i closed the skin you move the chair his shoulders are dislocated and he's a waiter and you move that first year you go ah, ah! That's our show, everybody. That's our show, everyone. Thank you so much for coming out. That's where we purposely wanted to end the show tonight. Thank you. Yeah, it just is that, that, oh God,

I hate such an awful feeling. It was awful. And then, but it's those situations where I think it's worse to wimp it, wimp out. You just got to go harder for it.

But that's what happened with my sketch where my sketch was allowed it was like the wrong space for big some people were expecting to stand up

and like space for big like kind of like loud yeah yeah yeah we just have backup we should have a vest

underneath our shirt last year because that's our version of that that's how I used the vest when I was in London I wanted to do stand up

and I used it as a save I would try my material and that I'm not funny verbally. So that would flop and then I'd save it with the vest. That's how I used it. Really? Yep. And then they saw the act when I did a gong show and comedy store and I thought it would be funny to not tell a joke. So yeah, it wasn't really my act. I used that as a save kind of like. But I was interesting when you took out that thing and that flops like telling us now that's hilarious, no? And stand up do that a lot.

No, if a joke flops, you could say like, oh, never say that again. Or like when you test the material. And that's always the funniest stuff. It works. I think like. But I guess you don't want to use that all the time. No. Yeah. The problem is like there's versions of it.

There comes a point where it becomes like you're just constantly excusing yourself. Whereas like Norm Macdonald is, I think, pretty admired where like if he thought a joke was really good or he just thought everyone was uncomfortable, he'd sit there. Yeah. And he'd say, I said it. Yeah. And we'll move on. Yeah. Like I'm not going to pretend to not say it.

It's just standard. It's just such freedom to really be able to pivot. You don't want to be the comment that's constantly like, well, that didn't do well. Yeah, because then it's like you're putting yourself down. But Norm would kind of like stare at you. I think you just have to acknowledge the elephant that's in the room. Acknowledge the flop.

The better that you can articulate the flop, if you can go like, whoa, you guys are feeling this. It can be fun. Though I never forget, our friend Chris said he saw an open mic once in the middle of a set that was bombing, said, do you want to see my impression

of a comedian turning it around halfway through his set? And I thought like, that is such a good line. I think about that all the time. It's so funny. Fuck. Say it again.

What was it? So he's bombing, he's bombing. He's like, okay, do you guys want to see my impression of a comedian turning it all around halfway through a set? And I'm like, God, that's so funny. That's amazing. That's amazing. And like, he probably never did that again.

Whereas that got a huge laugh on the night, but you have to bomb properly before for that to be funny. And that's how I would think with a vest as well. It's like it has to kind of, or like the first one needs to get a laugh, but then it has to kind of not work a little bit or I need to get an ex or I need to pretend to leave. Reminds me, Tig Notaro had a bit

that she did on Conan O'Brien late night, which on TV, this bit is incredible. She talked about how something is funny and then it can stop being funny. But if you keep doing it, it gets funny again. And she pushes this chair, this like stool on the stage and the squeaking of it. Yes. And like it gets a laugh and then like people get bored and then she keeps going and it gets a laugh again.

And it really is like she's just showing you almost like an equation of comedy in front of you. Yeah. And so committed with no with no embarrassment no worried about it and it's amazing oh thank you it's amazing that she did it on tv and it's just like a principle i think of clowning too where we should all google that by the way us watching me like i need to see this oh i love ting notaro that's all i this bit i would like to oh it's fucking brilliant because she also listens no she's like and then she could say

if she doesn't get a laugh oh I didn't do it correctly or something it's true clowning oh there it is yeah alt comedy at least for some point

in American state of comedy was borderline clowning there's an intersection there Andy Kaufman Jimmy what's his name Jimmy Carr no but

what's this this guy The Mask what's his name? Oh, Jim Carrey. He did stand-up. If you were to do one physical thing... I get it now. He did his stand-up back in the day.

And he would fall on the ground. I would think about the talking with the ass for Jim Carrey. You'd get up all the way. It's like... May I ask you a question? you get up all the way it's like it's like may I ask you a question I thought you were gonna come and

is the camera okay yeah it's fine you're not great say more like more stuff like that though in American

stand-up history that like that clip for example I just think and that guy who said like do you want to see here's an impression of a comedian who turns it around that's like that clip, for example? Well, I just think... And that guy who said, like, do you want to see,

here's an impression of a comedian who turns it around. That's like, that would go, that's material, man. That's so brilliant. For sure. I think like, I've always said that I think when UCB, you know, UCB,

when I feel like when it was created, the Jim Carrey's of the world, if they were around when UCB was around, they would have gone to UCB. And so there was a real divide created. And I think there were some stand-up comics who looked down on clowning. Or they just, they go, where's the joke?

And part of it is just like the worlds we have to occupy where we have to travel to someplace that is not into clowning. Many parts of the South, for example. And they just need a hard joke. They are into clowning in the South. They are in certain places. There's certain environments that like,

they just need something more. I just see why comics became bitter. It's easy for a comic to become bitter to go, wait a second, I worked to craft this joke. You took off your shirt 10 times. It's easy to become that, especially when the worlds are separated. And then there becomes a lack of respect on both ends.

I want it to – like I want my show – I want to figure out a way to get more clowning in. But the audience has to get used to it. I want Russell to do characters on my show. But I understand why he's hesitant because as as our show went in la some people go what is this like i'm not willing to be silly something else and it and it sometimes it's hard to like yeah and it's like i'll see an audience where like martin urbano who's so funny and if you if you love comedy like no one no one who loves comedy doesn't love martin yeah but i've also seen like audiences now and then.

They don't. Who don't get it and they're going like, what? And like I could see my mom seeing it and not just clicking into what's going on. But they think he's real, no? Sure. A lot of people who don't like me online, they think I'm an idiot. Well, I am in a way, but I'm also pretending to be an idiot. Sure.

But I am also an idiot though. Like my life is fucked up. Like, I struggle. But Martin Urban is a great example because I saw him in Edinburgh and it's like some people are like sitting a little bit like, what, how much is this guy aware? But then as a comedian, you're like, you can hear through his jokes that he's playing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What time is it? Oh, we're about like an hour, hour and a half. Oh, let me see. Yeah. Yeah. What time is it? Oh, we're about like an hour, hour and a half. Oh,

let me see. Okay, great. Okay, let's, let's, let's go on to our, this has got to stop.

This has got to stop. Oh, wow. You listen to Zach's episode? Very good. I lucked out. Most research anyone's ever done for this entire show.

It's incredible. All right. This has got to stop. This is a place lucked out most research anyone's ever done for this entire show it's incredible all right this has got to stop uh this is a place where we say something that needs to go away get the fuck out of here big small personal large i'll go first okay uh this has got to stop if you're posting online or sending an email if i see a picture of an old person before any context my brain goes they just died that's where it goes i need i got an email from my middle school and it was a uh no i got an email from my high school and it was a picture of a professor who taught a shakespeare class really loved it in high school. Of course, theater kid. And I saw that picture and I said,

fuck, that sucks. He's dead. And then I was like, we're so excited to announce the retirement of so-and-so, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, how fucking dare you? It's a big picture of his face. And they haven't figured this out with Twitter.

Things trend on Twitter all the time. And you go, oh, so-and-so is trending. I remember there was one time Harvey Weinstein was trending. You were terrified he had died. Shut up. And we need to figure out a way with the way that we announce things to make clear right out the gate, either put a happy face next to it, put something on top, put alive, alive.

Alive, alive, alive. Alive, alive, alive. But you could just see, i just felt this moment of sadness yeah and then uh he was alive and he's fine good but you were disappointed when you oh he's not dead sure i was i was i was just mad that they made me feel that rush of like oh oh i'll never talk to him again and we'll never have any communication it doesn't matter at all you were slightly disappointed he was alive, in a way. I wanted to write them.

I wanted to write them. You almost made me feel sad just for a second. They're asking for the money? They don't ask you for money? My middle school still asks me for money. My public school does not ask me for money. I went to public school. Oh, sorry. Well, guess what? I'm paying for that public school.

Yeah, okay, okay. I don't think i'll ever give money to anything any of my school oh that's my dream in norway school is free though but it's my dream to create a scholar or not scholarship but a fund for people who fail at school at uni yeah that's my dream to put up... Yeah, like you can apply. Because I did university, but I found comedy by mistake through a student organization. I would love to set up a thing for failing students.

That's nice. Something like that would be cool, no? Yeah. This is why Norway's happy. Free schools. Yeah. It's not free, though. We pay tax.

Yeah, same as... We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax.

We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay tax. We pay though, we pay tax. So yeah, same as schools here too. In a way you went to a private high school. I didn't pick it by the way. I'm just saying like we have that system here too. I wish I could go back in time and say, no, my mom. You're acting like they're doing something that we're not doing.

I know, yeah, but also they ask you, they're like, come pay, hey, this guy's retiring, give us some money. But Norway just take it. I prefer that, raise the taxes you have free health care in norway yeah it's not free we pay tax though yeah we pay taxes too but we don't get it yeah no way's better no way's better you just you shoot the other countries no yeah no health care and no iraq you know what yeah how do you really view America?

Tell me. America? Love it. You look like you have a gun to your head. America? Love it. Love it. God bless.

Well, I hope you win America's Got Talent. You know what the guy told me? Or he was like, you're that guy. You won America's Got Talent. You know what the guy told me? He was like, you're that guy. You won America's Got Talent Europe. I thought that was such... America's Got Talent Europe. That's incredible.

I thought that was so beautiful. Because he's like, it's definitely America's Got Talent, but it was the European version. So it's America. They called it America's Got Talent Europe. That's beautiful. Tell me one talent europe that's beautiful tell me one shitty thing about norway tell me one critique boring norway so boring extremely boring oh they don't laugh so much audience is boring uh does it create do a lot of clowns come out of

norway because sometimes i feel like boring places can sometimes uh you go crazy there and you snap yeah yeah but a lot of people just uh you know we have a culture no music music but uh i the comedy scene comedy scene is better now but it was really awful boring like stand-up is american american comedians and you british humor is like it's ridiculous it's clever you know and also uh american stand-ups there a lot of silliness there as well yeah like bill burr okay he talks about this but he's also silly like chapelle is also silly sometimes he's fucking with the audience even when he talks about something serious no yeah yeah i

think it's uh comedy is so good in the uk and the us yeah i love i love when transphobia is silly if it's silly div Do you love Harvey? No, no. He likes to try to get me in trouble. My, this has got to stop. This has got to stop. We're in that window every year. Every year in New York City goes through this when it gets to be spring, creeping up to summer,

where there's a two-week period where no one knows how to air condition anything. Right. Like, it gets, like, we're on the subways, and you get on a train, and you're like, okay, I know it's not hot, hot yet, but we need some more air circulation here. What are we doing? What are we doing? I don't know how we don't know how to do it.

And I was at a coffee shop the other day. It was 85 degrees in that coffee shop. I'm like, guys, I know you have air conditioners turn them on i know you're not quite ready for it yet it's a little early and we don't go full blast we don't go crazy just a little air circulation where where it's because it's muggy but it's like the temperature's not there yet and so it's like it's like muggy though and you're like i there's no reason for me to be hot right now. Like if I'm outside, it's fine.

But I go in the subway or I go in a restaurant and it's just a little too hot. Turn the air conditioning on. Just get it going. There is a reason why you're hot though. Because it's hot outside, no? Yes, but it's because it's muggy and we're at like 72 or 73. There's a transition period. There's a transition period.

And they just wait too long. And then when it gets to be 85, you go inside and it's freezing in places. And they've done it. But I'm like, what is going on? Just like turn it on a little bit. I don't understand how it works. There was one time though when it was scorching hot in New York. And sometimes the train, one train will have no ac yeah and i did go on that train because it was so fun to watch every person walk

in that train and they go oh my god it was such a fun i want to make a video montage of everyone's reaction yeah um that or a really bad smell on the train sometimes if you are willing to sit on that train it's very funny to watch people everyone have the reaction it would be funny if you came into and it's the first guy who says it they turn it on immediately yeah you're like you come in and like hey and then the downside guy yeah yeah here we go here comes russell um do you ever this gotta stop i i don't i i uh feel free to join in on this though. But I have a thing that like, it's not like, I'm not annoyed at anything, really. I'm, I don't know if you know, but I'm pretty happy. But I think one thing that has to stop is incompetence. I noticed by myself, like I was gonna, here you have pictures on the wall. I was gonna put up a picture before i went on tour and i just chickened out i was like oh there's some i don't know about this and then i was scared you know that uh and scared about getting in trouble for putting an air it could be a water pipe and also

electrocution yeah do i need to drill a hole and then do this i mean i know that this is i talked to a guy he's, we know this inherently. You stick a thing in and you put it on. It's intuitive, but we are too scared in this. I wish I could tell you that I did this myself and didn't hire a task rabbit to do all of it for me. I guess that's it, yeah. But that should change.

We should... We should be nailing things more. Yeah. You ever nailed a thing no no i'm saying all of us so we are all yeah the three of us are not people who would hang a picture or frame you know yeah we should we should those guys are actually wearing neon vests building shit outside yeah that's it maybe i'm just envious of builders kind of sure they do the yay i want to be like that guy

so let's go on to our final segment you better count your blessings you better count your blessings Russell do you have a blessing yeah I have to pull up something though so you do yours first

oh wait I found it hold on your blessings. Russell, do you have a blessing? Yeah, I have to pull up something though. So you do yours first. I have to pull up my audio. Oh wait, I found it. Great. Hold on. Maybe I didn't. Oh, I did. Okay. Hold on. So this is very sweet. Our friend Jessica it was just her birthday. But she's been doing a show

so now that I'm not on a show I've been having a little more free time. So I was helping out a babysitter her daughter margo the last couple weeks here and there and uh it's been so and i like you know we met margo a bunch of times and and like you know we were around when she was born and she's gonna be four soon um but she's so sweet and it's been very cool to like, get to like, like play like uncle to my friend's kid. And, um, the other day brought me so much joy.

I was babysitting and I was recording, uh, cause she was like, I had told her to go to bed and she kept like occasionally like talking from the other room to me. And I caught this, this on video cause I was, I was going to send it to Jessica and,

um, but it was just so sweet. She called me uncle Russell in a really sweet way. And here it is. Oh my god. Hold on. You know you can send these to Krista? No, I can't. Okay, here we go.

I'll be a September 5th. Oh, wait! Uncle Russell, I gotta tell you something. So cute. It's so sweet. That's cute. It's so sweet. It's so sweet. Anyways, that's been very cool.

Can I tag onto that something? My good old clown teacher, Philippe Goulier, used to use that as a metaphor. Exactly like, what does a clown do? He's like a child who has been told, ah, Russell, or what's Margot her name? Margot, yeah. He's like, Margot, you have to go to bed or what's Margo her name? Margo, yeah. He's like, Margo, you have to go to bed. It's 8 PM, you have to go.

And she goes, and then she's like, oh, Uncle Russell, I need to tell you something. You know? It's like, OK, OK, do you tell? And then you go to bed. And then like a second later, you sit around the table, and then she's there with a wig on like, yeah, you know? Always want to entertain so I can stay up a little bit more and if the adults laugh okay okay five minutes you know definitely yeah it's like with that spirit of

like okay uncle russell yeah yeah it's such a good stuff next time you're there i will love that um she would like it she would never go to bed. My blessing, and I don't think we can read any of them. It's Russell's mom's reviews of SNL. So I had no idea, but Russell's mom watches SNL and texts little reviews to Russell. And I don't think she understands the career consequences of her reviews. So they're very free.

They're very free from the industry chains that bind us. I will say one frustrating thing about it is because I'm on a sketch comedy group. And she calls them skits. And I'm like, okay, well, you've been watching SNL, like, the entirety of its run here and there, you know, and you're still calling them skits. There's something very funny. I think it's time to give up on skits. Yeah, I think it's time to get up. They're never going to call it sketches.

My dad's going to call stand-up skits. It's all skits. Yeah, you're right. I don't know what he does for a living. Why is sketch that much of a better word? I don't know what they do for their jobs, so I can't expect them to know my lingo. Yeah, that's true. Typing on your computer. Clown. They could call

it a clown. How's your clown to read, mom? And are we going to hear him? Oh, no, we can't. They're too positive. And it just feels like it's just an ad for SNL. Do you have a blessing? Yeah.

I just really want to hear your mom slaughter SNL. We'll read them after. Okay, good. My blessing. Yes, I was... It's a bit real, but that's all allowed at the end of the podcast. I was just thinking about my grandfather because I was in Melbourne Comedy Festival before this

and my grandfather passed away. And I thought like, oh yeah, that's sad, but he was old. So then I felt like, oh, it's a blessing. I saw him before he went like twice and I don't see him that often. But then we were putting wood and he was so old, but he was insisting putting wood for a winter you know it's like this old man putting so much wood you know and i was just thought i was uh yeah it

was a blessing that i got that moment uh chopping wood with my granddad yeah it's a norwegian thing as well yeah yeah did you did you go back to the funeral? no I was here would you ever give a eulogy and at the very end rip off and have 10 vests underneath? imagine I hope someone does that in my funeral that would be really great

oh yeah it would be great if I had one now at the end of the podcast I mean there's still time there's still time you should have it at all times I should I really should I had one now at the end of the podcast. I mean, there's still time. There's still time. This is the end, no? You should have it at all times. I should. I really should.

This has been so long, yeah. Where can people find you, Viggo? Viggoven.com. And hopefully I'll come to the States again. Did you do a New York show? No. Just my partner. I'm writing something at the moment,

but I would love to do a show here because oh i did just the stand towns but i haven't done my show yet i'm still on tour in the uk and i'm doing norway and then i would love to come back because i i can be here now um so it's a business website we we have international listeners but uh but you'll be back and i'll be back in new york plug your uh your girlfriend your yeah yeah girlfriend julley. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It doesn't need any plugging. It's sold out in London. It's added run in London.

Sold out in Australia. And now it's in New York and it's already... Where's it at? Full. It's at Soho Playhouse. Soho Playhouse. Great.

And I think she's going to come back as well because... Yeah. If you have the chance, you have to see it. Amazing. Great. And vigovan.com

if you see some tickets in America or all around Europe. Yeah. Yeah. Vig And vigovenn.com if you see some tickets in America or all around Europe. Yeah. Yeah. Vigovenn on Instagram maybe. Sure. Yeah. All the things.

We'll put the link to your performances. And Russell, anything to plug? Oh my God. No. But maybe one day. Maybe one day. Nothing right now on May 20th, 2024. Plug our next Downside Live.

Oh, yeah. When is it? Wait. But follow me on Instagram at Russell J. Daniels. And then also, when is our next? Wait, let me pull it up. I'll pull it up. Oh, good.

Okay. I'll start plugging some stuff. Portland. We didn't mention it earlier. Yeah, Portland. It was a good memory. You remember the day, too. Join the Patreon. Patreon.com slash Downside. Let me do was a good memory. You remember the day too. Join the Patreon.

Patreon.com slash Downside. Let me do just a quick little pitch. We've recorded like two amazing live episodes at the Comedy Store with Moshe Kasher and here with Kareem Rama. And it's only on the Patreon. Ross and I are about to do next week just us just talking. Patreon. We answer your questions. I have a comedy special on there called The Rats Are In Me

it's great join the Patreon it's great and when you come up after the show tell me you're a Patreon member and usually I can slip you a free sticker

for the downside we are we are announcing a tour we probably will have announced by the time this episode comes out but Russell and I are going to

DC Austin Philly and then we're doing one here in New York at City Winery so So be on the lookout. Tell your friends. All that's going to go on the Patreon. But we're building.

People want us to go. So we got to get this tour to sell out. Live podcast? Live podcast, yeah. And then New York City, July 1st, Monday, July 1st, we will be doing a Downside Live here in New York City. So go check it out.

And the last thing, I'll be at Fort Collins this weekend at the Comedy Fort. And the weekend after that, Portland. My mom will be at the first show if you want to say hi to her. And that's why I remember that show. I fuck your mom a lot. Whoa. This is the downside. You're listening to The Downside.

The Downside. With Gianmarco Ceresi.