The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #22 Booed Off Stage at The Apollo with Ted Alexandro

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

Stand-up comedy legend Tex Alexandro shares the downsides of getting booed off stage at The Apollo after performing with his rap group "Brotherly Love", being blacklisted from comedy clubs when he fought for a pay raise, teaching music to middle schoolers, and opening for Jim Gaffigan. Gianmarco also complains about his friend's destination wedding in Hawaii that he was asked to perform at for free and part of him hopes his friend sees this episode description and at least offers him a hotel room for f*ck's sake.  Join The Downside Patreon for full video of this episode or see an extended YouTube clip HERE. Listen to TED ALEXANDRO’s new album The Lost Record Join TED ALEXANDRO’s Patreon Visit TED ALEXANDRO’s website Follow TED ALEXANDRO’s twitter, instagram, & youtube Follow GIANMARCO SORESI on twitter, instagram, tiktok, & youtube Check out GIANMARCO SORESI's special 'Shelf Life' on amazon & on spotify Subscribe to GIANMARCO SORESI's mailchimp Follow RUSSELL DANIELS on twitter & instagram E-mail the show at [e-mail] Original music by Douglas Goodhart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tell me, because I've never officially met you, is it Gianmarco or Gianmarco? Like, I want to pronounce your name properly. Yeah, I appreciate it. Gianmarco Soresi is great. Okay. But great. All right, we're recording here. Say one more thing, Ted. Hello, check, check. I am back. I am in my proper environment, feeling safe. Okay, good, good. I'm glad you feel safe in this tumultuous time. All right, welcome to The Downside.

Hi. Hi, my name is Joe Marcos-Arez. I'm here with my co-host. Russell. Russell Daniels. Oh, my God. And we are scooting a little bit, buddy. We're here with legendary stand-up comedian, actor, performer, podcaster, everything, Ted Alexandro. And let's hit this music. One, two, three. Downside.

You're listening to The Downside. The Downside. With Gianmarco Ceresi. All right. Ted, thank you. You're here from Connecticut, yes? That's true. I'm still getting used to saying that.

But, yeah, and I think that fits right in with the whole negative vibe of the podcast. I've left New York for Connecticut. We can shit all over Connecticut. But we'll get back to you in a second. I'm feeling very stressed right now. I'm doing a lot of traveling. This is my first time stand-up comedian, like, touring a little bit. But also I'm doing a lot of, like, my friends getting married in Hawaii.

I have an old middle school friend. Everyone is at a different economic level than me at this whole wedding. He went to Stanford, soccer scholarship, Stanford business. He works for DoorDash right now. Not as, like, a – No, not delivering the food. As a programmer or something. he works for DoorDash right now not as like a no not delivering the food as a programmer as a programmer

the guy who's making sure they don't unionize that kind of job a lot of money to be made there and it's just one of these trips where I'm like I want him to know just so you know me coming to this that's my one thing for the year and I'm like, I want him to know, just so you know, me coming to this, that's my one thing for the year.

And I'm doing it for you. And I'm trying to get gigs while I'm there. I'm trying to extend the trip, get gigs in Hawaii. But then you book a gig and you're like, oh, there's different islands in Hawaii. And so is this gig in Honolulu? And I'm asking me and my girlfriend, Tova Silberman, to add an extra flight. It's just very,

very tough. And I'm not famous enough to call up a venue and say, hey, lucky you, Gianmarco Cerezi's flying to Honolulu today. Let's set up a one-nighter. And so then it's like, then am I booking a bar show for 10 minutes and we're adding a $500 new flights to make that happen. And should I just relax and not do standup for four days? No, that's not the answer. It's a lot. Yeah. Am I allowed to interject?

No, please. Okay. You know, you know, my struggle more, more than traveling weddings. Where's the furthest you've ever gone for a wedding? I know it all too well uh the furthest i've gone for a wedding um i don't think i've gone out of the states you know probably just the west coast and even that was asking a bit too much i think uh what you're what you're saying as far as this being the favor for the year i would extrapolate that to five years or even a decade because in these times,

the audacity of anyone to invite you to leave like a five mile radius of your home is audacious and bordering on obnoxious. So yeah, I mean, I think it's good to try to find work to offset that, not just offset it, offset it emotionally. So you're back in a comfortable space for you. Well, it's also, he's also asked, he's not sure yet.

He's like, we think we may want you to perform. And then it's like, we think we may want you to perform at the dinner. We're still figuring it out. And of course, I would never tell my friend, you know, give me I'd love to be paid. My wedding fee is quite high because it's one of those gigs you don't want to do. You don't want to do it. But there's so much money. I would love if a room was offered.

I've already thought of a couple lines. I was going to open with something about DoorDash, so I'll be working for tips, something like that. I really want to stick it to DoorDash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. But also he said he's a – just so you know, her family is Catholic. He's Asian. His wife's Asian.

The whole family will be Asian. So there's a lot of – I'll have jokes where I'll be like – or I don't want to ruin the wedding. The wedding is not the time for me to prove that I'm the next George Carlin. No, I have, you know, I hate to be the one to bring this up, but you might not be right for the gig. Yeah. You might not be right for the gig. You know, like for a wedding, it's such a specific environment already. And then added on top of that, you know them.

You know, and then if it's an all asian wedding i mean god forbid you're just trying to make something funny if you fuck up at a club and offend somebody that's one thing but if you fuck up at a wedding and you're hanging out you know in hawaii for the rest of the week after you said something you know yeah uh and i've done i've done wedding i've done families weddings it's it's always a chore you know it's never just a gig. It's like, yeah, trying not to step on a landmine, you know. Well, it's tough. Yeah. It's also like, OK, so you and your girlfriend, you know, you're going to pay probably a thousand or so dollars in plane tickets. Yeah. Then hotel. And then on top of that, put together half an hour of content. and then on top of that put together half an hour of content you know like it's it's another thing where it's like that's it's a big i mean it almost balances out if it's like we'll pay for

something yeah one of the components you know maybe that's worth it but maybe but there is also there's also a thing where it's like you know people like oh comedian you'll do a speech but i'm like writing new material it's much harder than people realize and sure if i'm going to speak at a wedding i better be the funniest at the wedding well yeah no a speech though has a different level of expectation than will you do a set for us you know and i always feel like it's good as a comedian to unplug from things if you've already said yes to the wedding, you and your girlfriend are going. Did you say girlfriend, wife?

I don't mean. Oh, no. Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Okay. Forgive me. Edit that out if it's. Jesus Christ.

So you and your girlfriend are going. This might be a good opportunity to detach, unplug from John Marco comedian and just be a human being going to Hawaii. Oh, wouldn't that be a treat? You know how tough that is, you know, as a young, as a stand up comic. Being for, for four days.

I like just a whole year off for COVID. And so it feels, I feel like no more breaks for another 10 years. Next pandemic we'll go to Hawaii in the, in the height of it when the flights are cheap well maybe a speech then I you know as your uh consultant uh I think a speech would be adequate unless they're throwing big money at you or they cover the room or something you know some sort of thing that makes it worth your while because for me I would have just all this anxiety it colors the whole trip.

If you know, I have to do a half hour in front of both families, then you can't enjoy. It's like you sabotage a trip to Hawaii where you're going to be thinking about that. And you sabotage your time with your girlfriend. Cause it's like, for me anyway,

I would be just consumed with now. This is not a trip to my friend's wedding to Hawaii, to paradise. This is a gig that I have to figure out a tough gig, a non-paying gig in fucking Hawaii. When you do, you've done weddings and like, do you have those gigs where you're like, Oh, do I want to push? Do I want to say my Catholic church joke at this one? There's a lot of Catholics there. Am I going to do it? Don't do it.

Oh, I want to do it. I have a lot of Catholic church jokes. We all do. Yeah, no, I I've, I've been in that position and you know, I, you know how it is where you kind of dip a toe and you say like, well, this one's kind of tepid. I'll see how it goes. And then if, if it looks like the room's digging it, then I'll, then I'll bring out the big guns. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's it's it's the kind of thing that you never know until you you test that first one now you had you your wedding was not too long ago right yeah it'll be three years in october congratulations did you have where the comedians speak did you have any comedians like do a really

killer set i did not although i bet some of them were itching to, but, uh, and I had some, some, some big names not to drop. I mean, I had the Todd Barry's, the Judy goals of the world. Um, yeah, so it was, I mean, I had plenty of great community. I'm not just, I don't mean to leave anyone else out, but, uh, I had my, my two brothers, uh, were my co best men and they're both very funny. they both I mean comedians were coming up to me and commenting on how funny both of my brothers were uh that's fun that's fun my yeah and then my wife's sister spoke so um there was plenty of humor but it was not provided by professionals good good good I did your vows did you have a little joke did you get any laughs in your vows

or were you like no this is none of that you know i i'm kind of a sappy guy so like for the vows i mean i had one or two like little nuggets just you know to remind people that i'm a comedian but but for the most part like i was pretty sappy and pretty like you know telling our story yeah. And she was funnier than I was. You know, she, yeah, she, my wife is funny. So, yeah, but I, I don't know. I always feel like I have plenty of opportunities to be funny.

So this is, my vows is an opportunity to show other colors. Maybe there's some casting people out there. And I'll sit down. Oh, you can do drama too. All right. Law and order maybe. Okay.

Exactly. So, so you, you relocated to Connecticut pretty recently. Yeah. Yeah. Pandemic move on November of last year. So, you know, as I said, as I told you before this, this is a negative podcast and any downsides to being in Connecticut? Well, all the ones that you would think just that like leaving new york i i'm a born and raised queens kid i had been in astoria for the past 20 years um so i had this aversion my you know my brother and his family live in connecticut but i that's what i thought of it as it's's like a family place. And if you're in the arts, it's where you go to die.

It's like it's over. You're just like you're a family man now. So I had a real aversion. And we were mostly looking like upstate New York because that's where all the artists go and, you know, beacon and where everyone, you know, where you can't afford anything. So then finally we switched. afford anything. So then finally, we switched, you know, we've been looking since before the pandemic, by the way, but the pandemic kind of just gave us a little bit more motivation. So then we started looking, we're like, why don't we take a look? I mean, it's still, you know, less than two hours from the city. So we looked, and we found a really nice place and kind of like,

it's like the woods, really, like, we're kind of out there um but yeah it's i do feel in a mental sense like almost like i'm out of show business like even though i'm you know i'm getting back to stand up and i'm doing my own podcast and everything there is this thing of like now i'm like pretending to be in show business yeah i'm i'm a connecticut guy so do you who. Do you come in for shows? Like at all? Yeah. Not yet. Not yet. Yeah.

Honestly, like my first gig that's on the books is August 6th and 7th. I'm going to Vegas. I work with Jim Gaffigan. I've been opening for him for, you know, six years now. So that's the first gig that I have on the books, like proper gig. But my plan is to, and this kind of excites me uh you guys can probably relate just to find some divey open mic in Connecticut like doesn't even have to be comedy could be like poetry and a folk song and and I'm just gonna sign my name to the list and I'm gonna

do 10-15 minutes to get ready for for Vegas I'm gonna try to find a few of those just like the shittiest things I can find to feel like I'm starting again. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's fun. That's so stressful to me. That sounds for you going from, you know, I'm like, oh, I'm scared about my stand up New York gig. I mean, you're going to a fucking huge gig.

Have you performed since COVID yet on stage? No, not other than Zoom. No, I have not. But I've done all those things man like i was talking to my friend my comedian friend recently about how all of those like prestige things whether it's you know getting passed at the cellar or you know whatever room i mean i was in the cellar i was out of the cellar uh i was blacklisted i was back when were you blacklisted uh well i organized the comedians for a pay raise in the early 2000s and when i did that uh i was blacklisted by i mean they didn't come out and say it but suddenly my spots dried up at the cellar at uh caroline's because i had a fight with lew veranda uh because there was supposed to be like a

meeting almost like a godfather like meeting of the five families where all of the club owners and managers were supposed to meet at the friars club and they all rsvp'd everybody said we'll be there so there was like maybe a group of gosh it was probably close to 30 40 comedians that showed up. And we had a lawyer from AFTRA who was kind of acting on our behalf. And then everyone showed up except for Caroline's. They didn't have anybody at the meeting after saying they would. So I called up Louis Ferranda and I gave him a piece of my mind. First, I spoke to his assistant and I said, you know, this is really disrespectful. A lot of work went into organizing this. Everyone else showed up. There's dozens of comedians who are negotiating for a standard of living that, you know, that they can get by in New York. And you not only you said you would show up, you did not show up and there was no

explanation. So then he took real offense uh to that actually i left it as a voicemail first because his assistant wouldn't wouldn't put me through yeah i'm like all right well give me his give me his voicemail so i unloaded on him and then he called back and he's like uh lewis is really uh lewis is really upset about the voice i'm like good put him on the phone i want to talk to him that's why i called yeah you know uh so yeah so needless to say uh that's the last time i worked caroline's uh except for the time uh that during during the um what is it called the new york comedy festival i guess caroline's is kind of behind that um louie back in the day uh i was opening for louie in like 2008 or 9 louie insisted that i opened for him and louis was uh i guess pushed back because louie called me and said do you have some kind

of thing with uh louis veranda i was like i was like yeah sort of why he's like because he said uh you couldn't open and i was like fuck, fuck you. Ted's opening for me. So, yeah. So that was I have this kind of long history with with Caroline's where I still haven't. I still haven't performed there. Oh, wow. And did you get that pay raise? Yeah.

On two occasions. On two occasions. The first time I did it by myself, I wrote a petition in like I guess it was 2001 or so. Got that signed by about 100 comedians. Got like a $10 pay raise. The second time, Russ Meneve called me like maybe 2007, 2008 and said, do you want to revisit this? And honestly, I said, no. I said I had too much shit the first time and it was so much work. It was really like a full time job because this was really also pre like social media. So I physically was meeting people like I'm going to be at a Starbucks between eight and ten.

I'm going to be at Ben's Pizza on the corner of this because I couldn't be at the club, you know, like, hey, guys, want to sign the petition? So I would I would park myself like nearby to a club for a couple hours and just wait. And, you know, typically a bunch of comedians would come by together and they'd be like yeah you know like i think tracy morgan just happened to be walking by with like sarah silverman and five other people they all signed it um so i wound up getting 100 signatures and the pay raised that first time so so russ asked me a second time and i was kind of reluctant to do it uh but then he he was so passionate and i i i got the sense like okay he he's for real this is he's not fucking around either so then we did it and we formed the new york comedians coalition that year uh tom shalhoub also helped and buddy bolton a few there were about

four or five of us doing the majority of the organizing uh and that was when after got involved too so that kind of gave us a stamp of legitimacy. And we got the pay raised on a second occasion there. So, yeah, I mean, to me that, you know, it was we were having these meetings at AFTRA and at the Writers Guild, two, three hundred comedians coming down. It was I mean, part of me wishes that we had those recorded because it was so funny and chaotic. Had those recorded because it was so funny and chaotic. I read I'm Dying Up Here, which was about the strikes in L.A. with the store. And the guy who organized that, I'm pretty sure he he was the one who killed himself shortly after. Right. And because Mitzi had blacklisted him from the store.

Yes. Yes. But it's funny you bring that up because Tom Dreesen, who was also involved in that, came and spoke to us. He came to, you know, because somebody hooked me up with his info. So I felt like, you know, this will be a good probably a couple hundred of us. And yeah, so that was kind of beneficial to hear what they had been through. So hopefully, you know, thankfully, we didn't have any suicides. Well, it's so, one story I always remember from that book and why I think it would be so hard to do anything anymore, two reasons. One, they said they got like every LA comedian

in a conference room at like a Holiday Inn or something. And I was like, you'd have to rank out Yankee Stadium now to get every comedian in a space together. And then there was this thing with Jay Leno who was like, he was the killer on the scene, that someone in the meeting would be like, order, order. And Jay Leno would go, a quarter pounder with fries. And everyone would laugh and laugh.

And no one, there's a relentless not taking it seriously that we every comedian has. And you get a room full of us. It's a fucking nightmare of who's going to get the spotlight. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was it was there was an element of that, an element of like who could kind of undermine what was trying to be organized. what was trying to be organized uh but it was good because the four of us who were kind of the face of it were all at that kind of perfect phase where we weren't beginners we were probably like 10 years in 12 years in we weren't beginners but we weren't like wealthy you know people who we stood to benefit from the raise and we were working all the clubs so like the newbies were not going to speak up uh because they're afraid and the older comedians weren't going to speak up because they don't give a shit you know they don't really that's my thing i think like sometimes i'm

like the only ones who can really do this change is like seinfeld feels like he could go to a club and say i'm not performing here ever again or i I'm never doing a drop in again until you do this. Or I've always thought, you know, sometimes people will get bumped when he comes in and I'm like, slip every comedian a hundred dollars. You made it. You made it in the time you've been here. You'll be known as the nicest guy in the world and it'll be nothing to you. I a hundred percent agree. Yeah. a lot of those people who pop in

and you know maybe it is indicative of of their attitude or their ego uh because they kind of feel and to an extent i think they're right that they are doing people a favor uh the crowd first and foremost yeah the club benefits for sure. New comedians benefit. And I can attest to this as a young comedian. If Chris Rock or Chappelle dropped in or even Seinfeld, it was like a class in that you were learning. But having said that, who gives a shit? Just drop.

Give whoever's working the door. Here's a thousand bucks for all the wait staff and all the comedians who were on the bill. You know what I mean? And, and that's nothing to Seinfeld. It's like almost a billionaire. So yeah, I, I, I agree. And I think they lack that perspective. I remember Chappelle used to do sets where he would go like five, six, seven hours. And the staff had to stay there until five in the morning. And I was thinking to myself, like, are you not aware that these people probably have kids?

They probably have to wake up with them to go to school. Like all that kind of shit. Like, yeah, it baffles me. Do you feel a certain degree of futility in terms of like like it's the idea of like comedians unionizing or like getting a pay raise i'm also looking at these clubs a lot of whom it seems like they have business models on the verge of collapse yeah i mean you know like like bringers bringers in general feel like a kind of a last ditch effort to to keep things afloat. And I'm like, well, you're not going to get the money raised here when they are also essentially

scamming people into paying insane amounts of money to come see their friend do five minutes. So I just don't, I feel very cynical about it all. For sure. I mean, it is a very, it's, it's almost like one step removed from strip clubs and stuff like that. It is a very scammy, very kind of underworld. And you got to see some of the seediness depending on the club. I remember Al Martin was like, he was saying, you know, I can't afford a raise. I just opened a third club.

And how am I supposed to wait a second? You just opened a third comedy club and you're having trouble like what you're gonna just keep opening more is that the business model right opening more clubs because you're having such difficulty yeah um yeah so they always claim poverty and whatever but it's like look you're a comedy club we're all independent contractors it's like cry me a river like if your business model depends on us not getting paid, then you've got a fucked up business. Yeah, it's a bad business model. Well, as a young comic, I just want to put in a note here. Lou friend, I love Martin. I love I love all the owners of all the comedy clubs.

Well, which comedy club do you think does it does it right? Which one do you like? Do you think they did it well? Honestly, I think the seller it's funny, despite, you know, and this is why I always tell young comedians don't burn any bridges. Don't say like, fuck them. I'm done with them because the seller, I thought I was done with them twice. And then, you know, Noam and Esty wound up coming to our wedding because we became. Yeah. Yeah. I just went back to the cellar one night with a bunch of comedians after a show that i did uh down in like chinatown and they were like we're going by the cellar for a drink do you want to come and i was like the cellar shit man i haven't been there in probably like five years all right yeah i'll go for a drink so i go in and i don't know if you know

julia mccullough but julian mccullough was there and he the way he described it He said it was like a western Like you walked in and it was almost like the doors Because I hadn't been there And he said everything stopped Which you know it was not true But it was so funny to me Because Esty said like Ted where have you been come

You know like sit down She treated me like the prodigal son And I was like man man, maybe like, do I not remember this? So then I was back in the fold. And to be fair, I was also a better comedian. Five years had gone by. I'd done more things. The seller repeatedly has gotten things right where they've given raises, not only when we asked, but even unsolicited. I mean, even though we're constantly asking, but unsolicited in the sense of we hadn't organized. They gave us a couple more raises. So the seller pays like the most in the city by far at this point, even though, be fair, I mean, I say this to know it's still not enough, you know,

compared to what they're bringing in where the, where the comedians. And I even said, I said to him one time, it's like, no, what would you consider the comedians who work your club? Would you consider them what the top five, 10% in the business? He said probably top 1%. I'm like top 1%. Okay. What other fields are we still working for like a stipend that doesn't even pay our fucking cab? You know, if we buy a slice of pizza and take a cab, we're done. You know, like what other field, like the top 1% is still, you know?

So, yeah, it's crazy. But, you know, I like that I have that kind of relationship and that I allow allow myself the freedom to speak to owners like that. And, you know, we are friends now and we do have that mutual respect. So, yeah, even though I do think comedians should be paid a lot more than they're being paid. I think it'll just be so interesting. We worked at UCB now and then. And now that UCB is kind of in the rubble i feel very free to talk freely about kind of the insanity but also it's like it's so interesting because they they operated in a similar model uh to the store where there was so much heat at the

beginning of ucb that they really could get away with saying this is a showcase because so many people yeah you'd go to these i went to LA once and it was like, people were signing the performers at the end of the shows. Like there were industry was there. And then, then they, they build, they grow,

they make their school. Suddenly there's so many people coming in. They feel resentful that they didn't get the things that they, they thought they were going to get out of it. UCB is like, well, we didn't, we didn't promise this to you.

And it was kind of there was an implied contract between everyone. The heat is gone. So now you're just working for free. And there's a lot of new theaters trying. They're, you know, post-COVID, we're going to see what happens, where they're paying their performers. But I will always remember when I started West Side Comedy Club, when they first opened, like I would always remember when I started a West side comedy club, when they first

opened, like I was, would host a Sunday night and it was 125 and dinner. And I was like, Whoa, I'm a fucking King. And then sure enough, a month later I showed up, this bothered me. Hey, it's only 50 now. Is that okay? And I'm like, well, I'm fucking here and I'm three years in, what do you think I'm going to say? And then it was just, then it was, then it was 50 and no dinner. And that's, that's no food is always the one that rubs me the wrong way. Give me fucking food. There's nothing to you. This is $5 to you. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said,

you can fill Yankee stadium with the number of comedians. So there's always someone who's going to take that gig if if it's 25 and no food you know so yeah we're kind of almost uh operating against one another in a certain respect but i always i always took issue with that suggestion that uh the club is doing you any kind of favors like if it's a comedy club or an improv club and they're putting you on their stage it's because you belong there it's because you know you're you're doing the work you know you're you're you know a professional or someone who's earned the right to be on that stage so you know the the insinuation that you're like doing me some favor that i can be discovered or whatever i remember tony from uh danger fields tony i forget his last name but he was they were partners he and rodney

were partners forever and he's like this is uh this is like college for you guys think of it like you know you're going to like comedy college i'm like no i went to college i already went to college this is my job this is my job i've been my job. I've been on Letterman. I've been on Conan. I've done everything. I'm like, it benefits you that the likes of me and these people with TV credits are playing your club, you know, so you're not doing me any favors. This is not college. This is my job, you know? So yeah, a lot of that shit is such a perverse notion, but comedians buy into it too a lot of times i remember at the meetings a lot of comedians saying like well we're lucky to work at the cellar you know or they use that family it's like family i'm like no no i have a family this is not my family you know that we can be friends it's great but a respectful business relationship to me is is what's important more so than calling somebody my family i I won't get too details, but I had a comedian friend older who passed away from COVID. And he worked at this club for a very long time. And not seeing the owner of this club that he worked religiously for over a decade, not

seeing the owner at the funeral was just one of those lessons, not to not surprising, but just being like, don't ever do don't ever inconvenience myself as a favor. Yeah. Like like they like it was just, you know, it's the metaphor come to life. They don't care if you die. And I try to remember it. You know, those times like, hey, can you move it from this to this? And I'm like, oh, I guess if I, you know, I'll leave my date early and run. And it's like, no, no, I owe nothing. Yeah. And that's something you have to learn.

And I, you know, to be fair, I think that also comes with time. Like I said, you know, like there's things that you do in year one and year two that you would never do in year 10 and, and, and on and on. But I think comedy or life in the arts and probably any field is a constant process of realizing what you'll say no to, and when it's time to say no to things. So that's kind of the beauty of, you know, it's almost like it's time to assess where you're at every week or month, or certainly as the years go by it's like no i'm not doing that gig anymore i fucking hate going to that place and i i there's nothing

i like about it whereas you know maybe five years ago you there were some things you liked about it yeah i'm i'm working on it saying no saying no oh man yeah you gotta so okay so you said you're born in queens yeah bell rose queens and is that okay. So you said you were born in Queens. Yeah. Belrose, Queens. And is that good? Now, you're not raising your kids there. You have two kids now, very young. But what were the downsides of growing up in Queens or that you're like, oh, no kid should be raised here? No, you know, I actually liked where I grew up in Belrose. It was kind of the border of Queens. And then I lived in Belrose. And then across the Jamaica Avenue. See, and here's this, this illustrates it. On our side, on the Queen side, it was called Jamaica Avenue. On the other side, which was Nassau, Long Island, it was called Jericho Turnpike and that side was bell rose manor they were bell rose manor we were bell rose queens so it i grew up with a very uh like stark awareness that oh

okay they think they're better they think they're better than us across the street you know uh and they were i mean financially but uh yeah so so uh as far as where I grew up, though, I really, I liked it. It was, you know, blue collar, working class, a lot of teachers, fireman cops, the whole nine yards. But it wasn't like I had an aversion, like I'm never bringing my kids up in Queens. It was more that, you know, my wife grew up in a part of New Jersey where they had a yard, they had some space. wife grew up in a part of New Jersey where they had a yard, they had some space. And I just never considered like, you know, well, like I said, we're kind of in the woods. And we have a little bit of like a lawn and, you know, fresh air. Like, I just never really, you know, how sometimes you deny yourself the ability to dream. Yeah. And she was adamant. She like no i i think you know if we can find it and we looked for a long time uh we should get a yard for the kids and so yeah we found something that with a nice little sprawl of space for the kids so that it was more based on that than any aversion

i had to like you know bringing the kids to queen is i as a kid i had my, we lived in Maryland, and we had like seven acres of yard. And I hated every single acre. I'm just like, I was not that kid. I was not that kid. I saw the city, and I was like, oh, I dream of no trees. And it was just so wasted on me that the concept of a yard is not necessarily something me personally I get. Do you want a yard no um you have a rooftop i grew up yeah um but i grew up upstate and had the yard um and and things and similar i didn't feel a strong connection to it you know i'd go to a lot of friends houses that

would have acres and farms you know and and i never it wasn't something maybe it's every generation it's yard and then city yard and each one one's like, oh, I wish we had had this. Yeah. Yeah. And we were coming from a two bedroom apartment in Astoria. Oh, yeah. We had our son December of 2019. So he was like three or four months when lockdown happened.

And now we just had our daughter a month ago. So now we have two little ones. So yeah, it just, it would have been, you know, just insane to have both of them. I mean, people do it. And so I'm not saying you can't, but, but, uh, I think the pandemic on top of it just made it like, we can't go anywhere, you know? So now having everything just out the door and having like a few more rooms that our son can run around. It just means for, even for our own sanity, I don't know if they'll appreciate it or not, but we appreciate it.

Yeah. So the pandemic happened and you were like, we need another person in this world. You're like, this is great, great time. Or the world's going to end soon. We got to get these people in fast. Yeah. It was a defiant act. Like, all right, Iris, I'm going to give you another. You see, let's see how many of my family you can infect.

How old is the youngest? The youngest is a month old. Oh, wow. OK, wow. Was that and you is it did you had siblings? You were one of five, right? That's right.

So, yeah, I guess did you want the, you know, your son to have a sibling yeah my wife and i are both one of five she's the youngest of five i'm the second oldest of five uh both of us are from three boys two girls um so yeah we we liked being from big families we like kind of the tumultuous just uh you know nature of of all those people living together. We never thought five though, but we thought it would be nice for our son to have a sibling.

Only children are weird. There's something. There's some deep entitlement deep down. I think there's a weird thing too. It's like there's weirdness with the parents and them. The parents like them too much. Do you know what I mean? They're very precious about it.

There is a weird thing about it there's that balance between between 12 and you're like okay if three of them die yeah and then one and it's just too much importance i think when you're married you look for a distraction from just dealing with the two of you all the time so if there's just one kid that's too much responsibility yes for that kid like yeah like you know there's you just constantly need like all right we're not going to deal with finances we're not going to deal with all the shit that is is kind of coming down so let's let's focus on being a good dad or mom you know so i think that's too much pressure when there's two of them then it can dissipate

that a little bit and they have each other so there's no ganging up you're always ganging up you'd always be like pairing off of like well you know these two are getting along extra well and then you're leaving someone out you know it's it's easier to gang up on someone we have a friend uh our friend chris cafero and he he's a middle child yeah and he always claimed that like his father treated his younger brother like the you know so sweetly and wonderfully and his dad didn't believe him and i guess they watched a uh he found an old family movie and like like there was a moment i guess where his dad like clearly like didn't give a fuck about like just a family that captured exactly what he was saying and his father was surprised i think he was shocked that he had

like made this i think he cried he cried yeah it was i wow i you know it's one of those things where i'm such a big therapy proponent and i'm like it couldn't hurt to have a someone who specializes in family dynamics just come around the house every couple years just hang out for a day and be like just so you know you're you're giving her an eating disorder you're giving him an inferiority complex just so you know so you don't find out when they're 30 and then they hate you forever. Would it be delivered in that manner? Just so you know. Just so you know. You're fucking up. Big time.

She's an artist? She's an artist and a psychic medium. Ted, I just have to ask I mean, you know, I'm a cynical, skeptical comedian But I certainly don't want to dismiss your wife Say what's on your mind Say what's on your mind, friend I don't buy any of that shit I don't buy any of that shit

You're a skeptical guy, I imagine Yes and no, man I mean, come on. Look, I think we straddle that line of absolutely skeptical, cynical. But as artists, also like, yes, of course. Yes, the world, the universe. I'm with you. What's out there?

I can't possibly grasp everything that's going on. So both of those things are at play. And my wife is the same way. And she constantly like even questions herself. She's like, you know, it's just this gift that she's had and felt for a long time and then studied with notable people and learned, you know, she spent probably two or three years really immersing herself in study and practice and that kind of stuff. And then kind of stuff.

And then kind of opened her own practice. But yeah, always, you know, it's very much akin to stand up where you have those self doubts and like, what the fuck am I even doing? Am I a comedian? You know, she constantly has those doubts. But then, you know, she has a reading where it really helps someone and it helps someone who's grieving someone who's lost. And yeah. And I've seen, I've seen my wife where she really has these I don't know if it's, I don't even know the terminology around it,

like a visitation or somebody, you know? Yeah. I mean, I get it. And let me give you a stand up comedy. I make up stuff all the time. So I totally see how the two. And you die all the time yes yes let me give you one example i have a close friend whose whose sister uh died tragically when we were in college it was like one of the most kind of like viscerally um you know just seared things in my memory because i was around when it happened and uh my my wife said to me one time and i'd never mentioned her talked about my friend's sister and she said his sister's name she said does is his is does he have a did he have a sister whose name was sarah and i said yeah and she said you know she she wants him to know that she's okay you know and it was kind of

just like it just came through one day she didn't know she didn't know my friend's sister didn't know any of the detail so yeah that kind of thing is is that primarily uh the work that she does is is is like meeting with families and doing that sort of thing or like because you know i i feel like there's sometimes different you know psychic mediums have different abilities and different things is that primarily the kind of of work she does in in that way she's mostly doing theaters now no uh she's doing the theater circuit no she uh yeah she does she does family she does uh one-on-one consultations people you know through her website people that reach out and say you know um i would like to book a reading so that's kind of yeah. Does that ever come up like in, so it must be so fascinating, your Mary tour.

Like there must be things popping up. I tell you all the time, say, hey, I'd love to check in with so-and-so. Does that happen? How's grandma? Yeah, are you checking? Is that something that comes up or like once in a while? Because I feel like, you know, that could be like,

if it was every day, it might be like, I don't need to hear from that person today, you know, like, but I imagine it's right, right, reserved for special things. But I don't, you know, no, that's almost in a way, that's almost like a personal space thing. It was it was unusual that she offered that to me. Okay, about my friend. It's not like she's constantly like, I've got Aunt Pam here, you know, it's not like she's constantly like i've got uh aunt pam here you know it's not it's not like it constantly comes up and i have not like i've not booked a reading with her or done anything like that almost like i i don't know well she's never booked like a private show from you yeah yeah yeah i think it's that kind of thing where it's like i don't and also the just the familiarity we probably she'd wind up yelling at me like, no, no,

I'm talking about your aunt. You know, like we just get into a fight about it because it's too close. But no, I have, honestly. You'd be doing jokes about your wife. You're like, my wife, she's always this. And yeah. Well, let me just say like, there's, so there's the rational, irrational, all these things.

But there's also, here's where I emotionally I go when I hear about readings. I think, okay, this person who died is visiting. I'm like, do you know how many fucking people died right now? What about all the people? For some reason, North Korea is always like my go-to point where I'm like, you know all the fucking people who died in North Korea today who don't get to visit or say hi? Or what about all the people who died in North Korea today who don't get to visit or say hi or what about all the people who died all I think about it's it's a Louis CK bit but he always talked about all the people who had died he opened something with like most people are dead and I'm

like there's there's dead people spanning centuries and centuries and none of them ever say hi no one ever says oh I'm being visited by oh it's this is before they even had names his names is and he says oh why would they be visiting a person if they had no connection to them because maybe they're mad maybe they're just mad mad about maybe someone in fucking you know north korea is mad that no one fucking it's just i'm sure north korea psychics are getting contacted from North Koreans that are dead. I don't even

know if there's North Korean psychics. I don't know if that's allowed. I don't know. And then I go to like, you know, fucking Reagan, Ronald Reagan made policy decisions based on his wife's astrologist. And I'm like, this is not good.

This is not, this is no. Well, maybe Reagan comes through now too. Maybe he comes through to Biden and he's still making. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't look. All of those things are valid. And my, my wife would say the same thing to you.

She'd say, yeah, you know, maybe this isn't for you. Yeah, yeah. And also, there's just no easy answer, you know. You have to be like anything else, right? Like religion or anything that you do. Going to see a magic show. You know, going, like, there is a surrender to anything that you're opening up to, you know, unless you're just going and sitting in the pew of some church or mosque or temple, because it's what your family does. And, you know,

you check out for an hour. But if you're going there with some sort of openness, there is a surrender of like, yeah, this could all be bullshit. But, you know, I kind of I get something out of congregating. I get something out of this interaction. Yeah. And and saying, yeah, I don't know either. But here I am. I listen. I want to be I want to be an open. No, you don't. I do. I desperately do. And I like remember I remember when I used to feel like like I remember listening to George Carlin early on and like George Carlin, especially in his later years, would do stuff like there's no God.

And that was the whole track. And it was like, it was brutal when you're like a young hoping you're like, please let there be a purpose to have this person you admire be like, and there still could be no God and spirits. Sure. Just chaos. I mean, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I'm sure. There was like a real, uh, I mean, certainty is't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. I'm sure there was like a real I mean, certainty is always appealing. Right. So whether it's Carlin being certain or though this is 180 Trump being certain, certainty always has its appeal to people.

And there's going to be an audience for that. So I remember being affected the same way by Carlin, like, wow, you know, cause people don't speak with that much conviction about like atheism or about the lack of a God or, you know what I mean? So like you said, especially as a young person, when you see that it's like, it's kind of ground shifting just in the sense of like, wow, he's not even flinching. He's just like, he's the conviction that he stands there and delivers. This is impressive. Yeah. Which makes sense why you connected so hard to

Trump. Yeah. That's why I was a big Trump supporter. I, uh, Oh, Oh, this is a, let me, this is a commercial. Y'all afraid of ghosts. How about ghost peppers? It's the moment you've been waiting for the ghost pepper sandwiches sandwich is back at Popeyes. A buttermilk battered chicken breast served on a brioche bun with barrel cured pickles and here's the best part. It's topped with a sauce made from ghost peppers and oncho chilies. If that

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Perfect for stocking stuffers. And my stocking's looking good. Shop holiday deals early on Amazon now. All right, and we're back. I'm still getting, I'm figuring all this shit out. So I want to talk because you were a music teacher. Is that correct? That's correct.

Five years when I first graduated college, I was teaching during the day at two different schools and starting stand-up at night. Wow. I went to school to be a music teacher. Oh, wow. But I never did it. You never did it. I did the student teaching, graduated with a degree, and then didn't do it. Wow. How old were the kids that you were teaching? Elementary school. Elementary school. K through five, yeah.

Did you enjoy it? I did. It was kind of the perfect compliment while you're starting out in comedy because it was public speaking. It was kind of figuring out your voice like teachers have voices in a similar sense that comedians do. You have your teacher persona, your voice. It's you know, you're in front of groups of especially as the music teacher because of like budget cuts and stuff. They would group like, you know, I'd have like three classes at once. So it could be like 100 kids or whatever it was. So yeah, it was beneficial in that I was flexing that muscle of keeping people's attention being engaging, trying in this sense, trying to teach them something as opposed to comedy. So yeah, I think it it had its benefit. And I you know, I studied music and I love music. So,

and I also had done a lot of musical theater from age 13 through. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was really my entree into being on stage and performing properly. I've never heard you talk about musicals on stage. You know, I went to college for musical theater and if you've seen me do standup for two minutes, you know i i went to college for musical theater and if you've seen me do stand-up for two minutes you know that fact uh i see you uh tweet about it and stuff but yeah i was not aware which is enough um uh did you so when you taught for five years did you was comedy going well that you were like i can i'm gonna stop teaching was that was that what happened there because i

imagine yeah i imagine that's a funny thing to tell other teachers like five years and be like, I'm leaving to do stand up like full time. I imagine being another teacher being like, OK, good luck. It's just a wild thing to hear from a teacher. It's funny you bring that up because I kept it a secret for the first two to three years. I didn't tell any of the staff. I was really kind of undercover. I'd come in. Like I said, I was at two different schools and I think it was two days a week at each school. So I was really just like the young teacher who would blow in, teach and leave, you know, and come back next week. So they didn't know a whole lot about me and I didn't offer much of anything. But what happened was I got Conan. Conan was my first like TV thing.

And the parents heard about it. The parents maybe saw my name in the TV guide or whatever. However the hell it broke, word got out that Mr. Alexandra was going to be on Conan. And then they taped it and a bunch of people brought it in. And, you know, so in a way, that was the best way for people to find out. For sure. For sure. As a start, as opposed to my start was like hey so um i'm performing at broadway comedy club this saturday at 4 p.m and i need 15 of you to be there that's such a cool way to start letting people know i love also like stand-up comedy that's a that's probably the only profession teachers could be like i heard that doesn't pay very well.

Yeah, exactly. But, you know, it's funny to circle back to what we were talking about earlier. One of the principals asked me to perform at like a teacher conference of like, you know, kind of team building. And foolishly, I said yes. I don't to this day. I don't know why the fuck I would say. I mean, they saw me on Conan Like, just leave well enough alone So I say yes, and I go to this You know, like, teacher retreat

And I do, like Probably 20 minutes or something And, you know, I'm not gonna say I bombed But it was just, like, work the whole way And it's like, now You know, now I replaced the shine From, like, they saw me on TV To, like, yeah yeah this is real this is

really what i do they're like oh i guess they add the laughs and post i guess that's how it works yes um that's and uh uh before we get to the last segment i am curious because like so you open for jim gaffigan a lot and jim gaffigan is i mean until the the trump stuff uh was a notoriously just a notoriously clean, just in a certain way. I have a friend who opens for Brian Regan sometimes. And I, I'm always curious, like, because you, you have a hard edge. Your standup is, is not, you're not a clean comic by any stretch of the imagination. No, no. I mean, it's, it's funny, you know, Jim and I have known each other for probably close to 20 years. So we, you know, he is like a few years ahead of me.

But we kind of essentially came up through the clubs around the same time. And even like did some road gigs together where we drove. So, you know, our friendship was, was solidified going way back. So yeah, I think it was just, you know, he was he was a fan of what I did and fortunately asked me to open for him at a time that, you know, the gig was was needed. And, you know, it kind of got me out of not the minor leagues, but, you know, there's only so many times that you can go back to some club in the Midwest, you know, for for, you know, the same money that you've been making for eight years. So it was an opportunity to open for him who was playing arenas at that point and hang out with my

friend, you know, so it was kind of the best of all worlds where I was making more money than I was headlining. So it allowed me the flexibility to do both where I could kind of fill my off weekends with my own stuff and keep doing my thing. But when I opened for him, I would keep it kind of, you know, I had enough stuff that I could keep it down the middle, maybe like we were talking about earlier, like, all right, maybe I can drop this thing in and just like, you know, ruffle some feathers, get a few fans that dig what I do. You know, so I was still doing my act, but I was leaving out some of the more edgy stuff. Yeah. I imagine though, I imagine at an arena, you could still like crush, but still be doing something where there's 10 people in that arena that are going to write a letter to Jim. Sure. Sure. That, and that has happened, you know, and luckily, you know,

like I said, he's, he knows who I am. He knows what I do. Yeah. And he doesn't, he doesn't care, you know, cause I'm not the type that's going to be like, fuck I'm, I'm going, I'm going to blow this fucking place up. I'm going to do all my, my political stuff. I'm going to do my stuff about abortion or whatever. And, and then let's see, you know, follow that Jim, you know, it's not, I'm there to, I'm there to, I'm there to be like, what the fuck, dude, I filled this stadium, dude, come on. Yeah. Yeah.

It's hard. I mean, you know, I, I, I still feel like I'm figuring out as a, as a comedian because, uh, I'm not clean, but I can work clean. I like some political stuff, but I just did this gig in Connecticut, and it was the most I had ever done. It was 800 people outside, and it was tough circumstances. I had to really – I couldn't lose them. My wife and I were there.

We were there. We were in the back. Oh, you were in the Trump shirt in the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I go there, and the stage, it's on a tractor and a huge American flag behind me. Oh, God. And I kept thinking in my head, like, you know, I wanted to push the envelope a little bit, or I wanted to do a couple things about Trump. And, you know, I have this one, it's so funny, because obviously,

I'm usually with liberals. And so I have a lot of jokes that poke fun at liberals. And it's something about my grandma, she, she passed away three years ago, but she hated Donald Trump. And she would just be so happy to know she voted for Biden. And that's like, that's the treat that they get, because they go ape shit for that. And then I have to be like, guys, I'm a New York Jew. I hate you. I hate everything about you and your culture. And you'd hate me if you knew me. And I get a couple of things about Trump in there,

but it's almost this thing, the show went well. And then, you know, these orange men in polos come up after and they're like, we were nervous when you got into politics, but you took some shots at Biden too, so that's okay. And it's this mix where I'm like, well, I'm glad I didn't bomb. I'm glad I did well at the show. And then immediately I'm like, they liked me. I don't want them to like me. It's this fucking, you know, it's it's. That's the yeah, that's that's the way it goes, man.

You know, like when you're younger, I remember for me there was thisversion to like, I'm doing what the fuck I want to do. And so be it. You're like, you're not going to tell me you're not going to give me parameters. I'm doing what I want to do. And then enough times where things go wrong and you're like, well, maybe I didn't have to behave. Maybe I, you know, I have 20 other minutes that that I wrote. It's my act. It's not like they're telling me I can't do my stuff. They're just saying, could you not do the prison rape joke at a corporate gig? You know, so I had to learn that lesson. Like, I'm an artist. You know, you're not going to give me any parameters. So I had to learn that. And and, you know, that's part of being a professional, too. It's not like you're a sellout. You're, you're,

you're doing the job that you were hired to do. But you also pick those other rooms where I know I'm really free here. This is my room to experiment. This is where I really go for it. And you, you grow and you blossom and you find your full voice there. And then, you know, you kind of you bring that with you wherever you go and you kind of gauge like, all right, you know, I'm making two thousand bucks on this gig. Do I really want to sacrifice it for the prison rape joke? Yeah. Did you have you ever have you ever been booed off stage? A full boo?

As a rapper, I was my brother and I were a rap duo. Oh, brotherly love. And we performed at the Apollo. Oh my God. Oh my God. How quick was that? That must have been the world record, Boo, when you walked on stage, Boo. There were boos when we walked on, but we made it through my brother's first verse with kind of a smattering of boos. and then like once i came in uh i think i made it like another five to ten seconds and then and then we got we got booted off was this a joke group or like a serious like you no this was legit man brotherly love that's a

serious representing belrose queen oh wow that's so funny yeah wow yeah yeah no we were serious about we we did it for like a better part of a decade. It was most of the 80s that we were writing, performing. We you know, we do like block parties, just shows around Queens and stuff. So it wasn't like we did it like a lark. It was like we had recorded a bunch of tracks. Are you on Spotify? We do have a Facebook fan group. You can look up Brotherly Love, and several of our tracks are there. I absolutely will. Just don't boo as you listen to it. Can we insert like 10 seconds of a song into this episode?

Yeah, go for it. put down the knife open your eyes letting the sun celebrate like unload the gun pain in our world is a reality you look around and you try to find morality your spirits are down i can't think anymore where am i going what's the score do you do you miss rapping i always fantasize about rapping i i never will but i could see if i became like crazy famous, I could see like at 50 just being like Chamarco dropped a rap album and everyone hates it. And I love rap, though. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, that's where it came from. It came from love. It came from, you know, we had both gone to like a predominantly black and Latino junior high school. And this was at the inception of rap by the way this you know this was like when the genre came to be it wasn't like oh uh you know whoever has a new album

like jay-z has a new album this was like this is a new music so like we were listening to this shit like you know early run dmc and just all the early stuff that you know rappers delight all that stuff was like what the fuck is this, man? Holy shit. Like, guys were bringing in cassette tapes and blowing your mind on a weekly basis. And it was poetry, you know. And my brother to this day is still a poet. He's a poet.

He's a published poet. So, yeah, for us, it was all creativity, man. It was just like falling in love with this culture and falling in love with this mute this new music so it all came from that but you know uh we were just a couple white kids from queens and you know man either you have it or you don't i think everyone should have to go up at the apollo one time in their life there's i tell you man after that nothing what the fucking comedy is gonna compare to that you know that you know i got booed off the stage as a rapper at the apollo like yeah comedy bring bring whatever you bring whatever you've got chappelle was booed off at 13 i think that was his kind of his story i remember that might have been around the same time now that i think of it because uh i was around 19 or 20 so i'm about that i'm about that

you know that there's that that uh gap between chappelle and i and you and chappelle you and your brother and Chappelle are at a diner. You're like, no, we're going to make it. This rap group and you as a comedian, we're going to go all the way with this. We're going to be just fine. We'll get the last laugh. All right, let's go to our segment. This is This Has Got to Stop. Paige pointed out, Paige, who helps me caption the videos and helps with social media, pointed out, I listened to your new album, The Lost Record.

It's fantastic. I'm not blowing smoke up your ass. I would have listened to it either way. I've listened to all your stuff. But I also love the concept of it because when I think of the comedians that I really love, sometimes there's like bootlegs out there or like you see like weird tapings of jokes that didn't make the specials that you can find. And so you kind of compiled all sorts of material from different sources during like a gap, I guess, that you put out stuff on like comedy central late night. And it was fantastic. And one of them though, you said this, you said the phrase, this has got to stop. You were talking,

this was the boys choir and then a Negro spiritual spirituals that you said like, this has got to stop. And I was like, well, that's why, that's the name of the segment. Yeah. Yeah. No, perfect. Yeah. So yeah, the album was a collection of jokes from like 11 years between my first and second album. To this day, I don't fully comprehend why I waited that long. This is stuff that I was, I put out a Comedy Central special. I was on Letterman and Conan. So the stuff was going out in these big platforms, but I just foolishly never put out a proper album. So again, with the pandemic, having the time and finally being able to zero in and listen back to all the stuff,

that's what the Lost album is. It's just this stuff that I love and I'm as proud of it as any other stuff. And also stuff that um i i discovered in listening back like oh shit i really love like the negro spiritual joke that you're talking about i mean uh that's a joke where i just talk about these genres of music whether it's boys choir music or negro spirituals like maybe like we shouldn't maybe these shouldn't be genres of music anymore like if you walk into a store like um do you have any boy you know boys choir uh well there's a choir section over there no i'm specifically boys uh specifically boys choir you know just bizarre nature and and and same with negro spirituals that like that's really

the only context that we're still using the word negro you know uh for like this genre of music so yeah things like that when i listen back some of them were jokes I even forgot about. And that's one of them. I'm like, you know, this one's a little like a little like on the line, a little weird, but it makes me laugh, you know? So some of the stuff was that and I decided to put that out. And yeah, so it was exciting to kind of mark the time of that lost period and put that album out. Yeah think it's like i think about you know i'm still figuring out like oh do i want to record an album do i'm gonna wait for my first late night do i want to and like i think it's becoming increasingly fractured in terms of like there was a time where it felt like you put out a special in that and and now it's like you put

out little things here little things there and it's kind of the artist's responsibility if they want it to kind of centralize or like be like hey if you want to see kind of this era of my life i'll collect it for you so i just thought there's a lot of there's a lot of other comedians where i'm like oh it'd be cool if they made their lost album of sorts yeah no i mean i think it's a it's a good thing to do for the reason that you're saying like so that it is centralized into one place. Here it is, here's this period of time, here's where my head was at, here's where the country or the world was at, because some of it is is topical, or political in nature. But you know, that was also a decision

to make, like, all right, so some of this stuff is kind of ephemeral, and no longer really needs to be, you know, out there. But the stuff that I felt stood up, regardless of what I was talking about, was the stuff that I wound up including. So then for this segment, do you have a, this has got to stop, other than boys choir music, anything that's got to stop right now?

You know, in a certain sense, I feel like it's got to stop just talking about the pandemic. I realize we have to like we have to talk about it. But anytime you feel like that's going to be the way that you couch a statement. Yes. Like, oh, this was pre pandemic or, you know, just like like like let's we all know what just happened. Yes. Like I'm so tired of it being just, you know, pervasive Like every conversation has to be about the pandemic Or that the pandemic comes back

Or, oh, now there's a new strain It's like, no There has to be that line, like, you know, talking And by the way, there's someone who loves talking about politics, activism But I almost have a line like, you know, I get offended if you bring up the pandemic. I want to be like, don't talk about the pandemic around me. Yeah, because it really is everything. Someone will be like, well, I was doing this thing, but then.

And you're like, yes, that happened to the entire world. Like it wasn't just like, yeah, I figured that you stopped doing this one thing because of the fucking pandemic. Like it's one of those things where it's at this point. It's just a given. So it's not it's not a way to like start a conversation or define common ground. It's just boring. You know, I mean, like it's and it's not to take away from anyone that, you know, if they're dealing with a health thing or blah, blah. But it's just the thing. And I was just talking to him earlier about this. Like, it's just like, I went on a trip and I ran into every American. That's all they wanted to talk about was the pandemic.

And it was just like, good God, we're on like vacation in this beautiful place. And all you fucking Americans want to talk about are like masks and how like, we have to wear masks here we don't have to wear masks in america and you're like just shut the fuck up like just you know so anyways um it's just really boring it's boring it is boring and it's it's human nature because it's kind of inserted itself as like the go-to uh just chit chat kind of like icebreaker small talk yes instead of the weather yes let's. I got five minutes on the pandemic. Everybody does, you know, like I just mean in small talk, not even stage.

I'm just talking about, I got five small talk minutes on the pen. Sure. Sure. You know? Yeah. Well, yeah. I'll now when I tell people how much traveling I did last year, I won't mention it was during the pandemic of all the waves. That's a good one, though. I do think we're stuck there. All right. Well, then let's go to this lovely.

You better count your blessings. You can hear that, right, Ted? I can hear that, yeah. Okay, good. For a second, I was scared. You just saw us just go like. So this is you. You better count your blessing.

We say one thing we're thankful for. Russell, you got something coming to mind? Are you still thinking? Come back. Okay, yeah. You had a look on your face like, oh, right, we do this at the end. Oh, right, we do this segment. Episode number 23.

So I will say, because I know she's uh uh our mutual friend of page um uh she she's been such a blessing in in my life she reached out to me kind of randomly and she was like i'm looking for some comedians to work with i'm in between jobs and and helped me uh very generously and kind of helped figure out a lot of things in my life. Introduced me to you via email. And then she just helped a lot with this podcast. She captions all the videos. So for those of people who like the videos and all our stuff, if you are looking for someone to help with your social media, your captions, reach out to me.

And then I will assess if you are up to snuff for me to pass along your info to Paige. But I'm very thankful for her and I do want to give her a very specific shout out. Russell, you got one? Yeah. My friend Vincent is visiting from Illinois right now and I haven't seen him in a long, long time and it's been, I'm very thankful to get time with him. Where's he from? Where do you know him from?

I used to do Shakespeare with him back in the day and so but he now is getting his doctorate and so he's traveling a lot but I just haven't seen him in so long and it's been like I only get to see him for a couple days but it's been really nice and fun to catch up with him. Do you quote Shakespeare's

go? No we don't. What light through your window breaks? No we don't. for a couple days but it's been really nice and fun to catch up do you quote shake juice go uh no we don't what what light three on the window breaks no we it's russ all yeah yeah that's what we do um and ted do you have uh something your blessing for the yes i do um first i'm going to piggyback on on your shout out to page because she has had the same impact on on my life my career she's been so helpful. She's always just so professional and on point with everything, any requests you have. And like you said, with kind of offering to help me, even when like kind of our budget shrunk

and I wasn't really able to pay her the same way that we had been. Yeah, so Paige, if any comedian is looking for someone to do all of those things i mean i could not give her a higher recommendation so i want to first piggyback on that because she deserves all that and more uh but as far as you know it's funny man as much as i shit on like social media and the time suck and just the nature of like as a comedian like yeah you have to do it but do we really have to do it or am i convincing myself i've had to do a lot of like promotional stuff

for for the lost album coming out but you know i hopped on and i hate like facebook and like they bury your posts i posted about my album by the way my album to on my fan page which has 8 000 uh fans followers it The post got one like and it was from the guy who edited the album. Do you believe that? We have a sketch team and we joked for brutally a long

amount of time. Thank God we had five team members because it meant five likes on every single post. I'm like, I think there are people that like it but no facebook they're they're monsters they bury it unless unless you pay unless you pay yeah so like even my family was like oh i didn't i didn't see it i didn't know so but this is not about that what this is about was i hopped on uh twitter has this new thing that

i think kind of mimics um clubhouse right the Spaces. So I've spent some time on Clubhouse in various rooms and stuff. So I was like, let me just hop on Twitter spaces impromptu, do a little thing talking about the album. And about 15 people wound up coming on over the course of, I think I did like, I don't know, half hour, 45 minutes. And it was really cool. Like some of them were comedians. Some of them were people that just follow me. Some didn't know me. And it wound up being this like cool, just like forum of like talking about the album, talking about comedy. So I was, you know, as,

as kind of burnt out as you can get on all the things in the business, it was just like this nice connection and kind of burnt out as you can get on all the things in the business. It was just like this nice connection and kind of, I don't know, in some weird way. And people were so sweet. And one guy told me, I first started listening to your stuff when I was in junior high school, like 12. I saw your Comedy Central special. So, yeah, there was just these little moments of connecting. special. So, yeah, there was just these like little moments of connecting. And I came out of it just feeling boosted, you know, rather than depleted by social media.

Yeah. So, you know, that was something that made me feel good. Great. All right. Twitter needs some help and it's coming our way. So thank you for that, Twitter. Russell, do you have anything to plug? This is going to I was going to look up what day this is actually going to come out. When's our sketch show? You can tell me about that. July 9th. We have a show, Asylum NYC, Uncle Function, Friday night, 7.30 p.m. Yeah, this comes out June 29th.

So that'll still be good. Ted won't be there, but Joe Marco and I will be there. For me, I forgot to say at the beginning, you know, this is the downside. You're probably listening on Spotify, Pandora, Apple. But we do have a Patreon where you can see the full video of this. It's patreon.com slash downside. And $5 a month, you get two bonus episodes a month. You get videos of fucking everything.

It's a shitload of work. But I do it for you. We also, if you go to my YouTube channel, we're going to upload longer clips and all my social media. I have shows. Go to my Instagram to see the shows, but we really appreciate you listening. Subscribe, join

the Patreon, post about it on shit, and help us keep this going. We really appreciate you. Ted, any plugs? TedAlexandro.com at TedAlexandro all over the socials. And just love what you guys are doing. Support this dynamic duo, people. I mean, you're listening to them.

They're entertaining you. They're edifying you. Support them. And so where do you want people to get the Lost album? Like, what's the best? Is it buying it on iTunes, listening on Spotify? You don't give a shit. Join the Patreon.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't care. As long as they're listening to it, just make sure you follow, subscribe, or whatever. So that my – because I think they – Spotify or Apple Music or wherever it is, they wind up playing you more if you amass a larger number of followers. So wherever you're listening to the Lost album, just click that subscribe button. up playing you more if you amass a larger number of followers so if you you know whatever wherever you're listening to the lost album just click that subscribe and cut up was last year too right you know i put out i'm not bragging here i'm just stating facts i put out three three specials slash albums during the pandemic uh i put out stay at home comedian which was just

put together from my Instagram live. You know, it was just kind of this lark. I put a tongue in cheek comedy special out that was shot on my phone in my two bedroom apartment. And the New York Times wound up writing about Stay at Home Comedian because it was like the first pandemic special. Yeah. And nobody had done it. So, you know, I mean, I'm doing comedy 28 years and the Times finally reviews the special that I do in my living room. But then, yeah, I did cut up about a year ago and now the Lost album is is the third one. Pretty incredible. Well, thank you for joining us. And we should remember whether whether you you know, whether you're in New York or you move to Connecticut, someday we'll all move six feet under the ground.

This is the downside. One, two, three. Downside. Downside. Downside. Downside Downside