The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #71 Hearing Aid Sex with DJ Demers

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

DJ Demers joins to discuss getting a phone call on his bluetooth hearing aids in the middle of sex, worrying covid will take away one of his four senses, trying to film a comedy special before his wife’s water breaks, splitting a comedian’s salary among a soon-to-be family of three, telling jokes with an ASL interpreter onstage, and how the hell a Canadian got on America’s Got Talent.  You can watch full video of this episode HERE! Follow DJ DEMERS on instagram & youtube Watch DJ DEMERS standup here 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] Produced by Fawn Sullivan, Paige Asachika, & Gianmarco Soresi Video edited by Spencer Sileo Special Thanks Tovah Silbermann Part of the Authentic Podcast Network Original music by Douglas Goodhart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

uh uh hello hello how do i say your last name demers uh no no it's demers demers but everybody says demers and i don't correct them i've never heard it it sounds very close to demers which is well there's a french last name so really it should be demers demers or even demers without pronouncing the s if you want to go really french with it i I don't. So wait, what is it? The right one? Demers. Demers. Yeah. Hello, everyone.

Welcome to The Downside. I am recording on location in a hotel room. This is very stressful for me, setting all this shit up. You have your own camera, thank God. But my headphones are broken. The one works. That's why they're on. I'm not just using it as like a prop.

You're like, just take them off. It a look more than just a look um uh so and i'm here with dj demers there you go dj demers uh uh this is our first time meeting in person uh we i did your podcast over zoom yeah but we uh we met years ago at Flappers, and then you were in LA over the summer, and we saw each other too at Nightcap. Well, I'm a piece of shit. This is the downside. It's a pandemic.

You're listening to The Downside. It is true. There's some people you see, there's's some people you see and you're like, oh, I haven't seen you for three years. And it's a good excuse because I forget names a lot. Oh, I'm a terrible name person. You got a name that's hard to forget. Yeah, but I get a lot of Giancarlo.

Which I don't mind. I really don't care. It's just embarrassing when I don't correct someone and then someone corrects them and then I look like a fool for not correcting them. It's the most boring. Every comedian has... I used to have so many name jokes when you start out.

I used to do, my name is Gianmarco Sorrese, which is not a typical Jewish name. And it would get such a soft laugh. But at the time I was like, this is a killer. This crush is up top. It's weird. You're right. Every comedian's got a name joke and a like what I look like joke. Yeah. I never had a what I look like. Now I do. I used to be a theater kid, but you could tell. I look like before I wake up, I whisper to myself a five, six, seven, eight. And I got that from a roast battle.

J.P. McDade used it on me. And I said, can I have that? Because I've never. Did you have a looks like? What was yours? You never did? No, I never did. A lot of people did.

But I'm like, I don't know what I look like. You never had a gap tooth joke? No. Should I? Is that what you see? Because I'll write a gap tooth joke. Do you notice it? You ever get things?

Maybe I should have a gap tooth joke. Do you notice it? You ever get things? Maybe I should have a gap tooth joke. Thank you. Yeah. If you think of one, I'll take it from you like you did from that guy at the roast battle. Yeah. I asked him. I said, sir, can I please have this? Did you ever have braces?

No. I asked for him when I was young and the orthodontist was like, nah. And I was like, really? You're turning down my money? No. Really? Your money's no good here. He said, you love your gap.

That's what he said. Embrace it. Embrace it? No, he didn't say that. But I felt like he was with his, you know what I mean? That's what he meant when he said it. Don't brace it. Embrace it.

That's the worst orthodontist in the world who has made no sales. I was curious, like, whether braces are as much a thing in Canada, which is where you grew up. Like, maybe are braces as big, like everyone, at least where I am, everyone goes through a phase in middle school where they have braces and like the, the lame kids,

they have them in high school. And then sometimes adults get them. So many people have Invisalign now. I want to get it. Do you? I have said to myself that the moment I'm back on health insurance through SAG-AFTRA, I will get, I don't think it'll cover Invisalign, but it just means my life will be going better.

Why are you off insurance from SAG-AFTRA? You have to make at least $16,000 a year through SAG-AFTRA projects. I have not booked acting work in a long time. So there was a time I did these commercials and I was like tier one and amazing insurance. And then the next year you make a little less, you move to tier two. Some of your doctors are not covered by tier two. And then, then I was back to the worst doctors. Now you're really a standup comedian. True. I had a doctor and his PhD, you know, they have it all framed.

His frame was like, if this was the size of the PhD, the frame was like this big. So the PhD kind of sat in one of the corners and I was like, this is a terrible sign.

This is not a doctor who pays attention to detail at all. Yeah. I'm not going to trust his prescription. No. And his writing

on the prescription was like really clear and legible. You're like, you're not a doctor. I shouldn't be able to read this. So I had a doctor's appointment and Bob Saget, we're going to release this in a couple of weeks.

So Bob Saget died a couple of years ago and it was very tragic. Did you know him? Did you say a couple of years? I thought you said a couple of years ago. I was like, how soon are you releasing this? Well, that's the joke, DJ. But you said a couple weeks and then a couple years, didn't you?

The timeline got me messed up. I was going to edit it in post. I was going to slip it in. Now I got hours of work. Well, how am I supposed to know the joke if we're doing work in post? I worked with Bob Saget once, yeah.

Oh, yeah? It was the same thing everybody has said. He was super nice. Just the nicest guy. Sure. Yeah. Did you ever work with him?

No, but I did have someone message me immediately. Like, the body was still warm. And wrote, Bob Saget is dead. Call your agent. You should play him in a movie. And I thought, wow, that's the business we live in. And I think she's right.

I had a couple people, they waited a couple days. And I think she's right. I had a couple people days, they waited a couple days and some people said, maybe. But she did it the moment it came out. And I said, you should be an agent because that's what you need

an agent to be. Oh yeah, heartless. It's a business. We can't let emotions weigh in on that. I will say though that Bob Saget had such a,

you know, dirty, blue sense of humor that I think he would appreciate something like that. Sure, sure. He would appreciate it comedically, but she meant it in a very slimy way. And then she was like, and I could play,

isn't there a DJ in Full House? Oh, yeah. There's a DJ. People tried to make fun of me because I was a kid when DJ Tanner was big on Full House. And I was like, DJ Tanner's awesome. You're not hurting my feelings right now. Sure, sure. Yeah. I never really on Full House and I was like DJ Tanner's awesome you're not hurting my feelings right now sure sure right yeah um I never really watched Full House I was a little how old are you

30 I just turned 36 I'm 33 so Full House was like a little a little ahead of I was too young I was watching a lot of Full House I was the same age as Mary Kate oh really and Ashley yeah yeah so so we're here in Chicago. We're recording this without my co-host, Russell. But I wanted to grab you while I could because you're in LA. I've had a strange show last night. It was Zany's in St. Rosemont.

Rosemont. Just Rosemont. Rosemont, not St. And because I'm performing at a place, this is all very new to me still. I'm performing at a place this is all very new to me so I'm performing at this place called Comedy Vault in April or May contractually I wasn't allowed to promote

and we run shows by them they let me do other things but they were like for whatever reason it's like please don't promote another show in the area which is it's weird because like I feel like for you you have people who come for you i'm nobody so part of me is like this won't matter it's better for me let me advertise they'll come to the show in two months it also doesn't matter for me i

appreciate the compliment but until you're like levels above either of us yeah it doesn't matter people are just going to see a comedy show and they're like who the hell is this guy oh he was funny yeah yeah there's like i'm getting out of place where like two people came for me two people have to go like i know you from tiktok but that's it so like that's the difference we're making here it's two or three people yeah and um so so zany's they were kind enough to let me headline and uh uh the omnicron is is uh ripping through chicago it was already in new york so it was they billed me as a secret headliner and i saw that they had you all blurred out on their and i was i was i was cheeky about it i thought i had enough room to like i posted like i'm gonna go check this guy out tonight um but it meant i couldn't like pay

for ads or do pr or anything like that and uh it was light it was light which makes sense who's gonna see a mystery headliner because you know in the middle of covid like because it's not the good kind of mystery you know if a cafeteria serving mystery meat you know it's not the good kind of mystery. If a cafeteria is serving mystery meat, you know it's not filet mignon. They knew John Mulaney is not walking out on that stage. The way it comes off is the club was like you can headline here, but could you not tell

anybody about it? Could you not tell anyone we spent the night together? It was light and it's one of those things I always assume someone's going to see me perform for 12, 15 people and go, this guy sucks. He didn't really do really well. And that's still always my fear. And like they were apologizing to me, I was apologizing to them. And we'll just hope they have me back. just hope they have me back but i i get nervous that i get nervous that no one in the audience is going to realize there's 12 people there they're gonna go this guy is not getting any applause breaks there's there's only 12 people here so i get anxious that's where i'm at you don't really have to worry about the audience in that situation you just have to make sure the club

knows and they know they know what it is and it's the middle of covid like covid has actually been a nice ego soother right now like whenever i have a show that's light yeah i'm like covid whereas pre-covid i would be like man i suck i'm not a draw nobody likes me but now when people don't show up i'm like i mean this disease what can you do what can you do so i don't think audiences and i don't mean any disrespect to audiences, but they have no fucking clue what stand-up is. No respect to audiences. You don't know what the fuck you bought tickets to. Well, they're just watching somebody up on stage,

but they're not thinking about all this mental calculus we're doing. Is the club going to hold this against me? Am I not promoting enough? All these sorts of things. They're just sitting in a chair and watching somebody on stage, not thinking about all these external factors that we're describing right now.

Nor should they. I wonder though, when they go to a show and they go, why are there only 10 people here? Like there is a certain degree where like sometimes you have to acknowledge, you have to acknowledge that it's light in a way that's fun, not complain, but you have to let them know like, just you have to acknowledge, you have to acknowledge that it's light in a way that's fun.

Not complain, but you have to let them know, like, just so you guys know, I'm not crazy. I know this is not great. Yeah. But it is a fine line to walk because I've also done it before where you like bring it up too much and they're like, yeah, okay. Yeah. We hired a babysitter. Yeah. Get over it.

Yeah. Was it a fun show even with 12 people? It was a fun show, but like, you know, I do, I did 45 minutes and I've been doing hours and feeling good about it. But like, I take for granted when people are laughing, when there's enough people for there to be like a rolling laugh, it gives your brain a little time to reset and be like, where do I want to go next? What do I want to do next?

And so, and I hope this doesn't come off as me like bragging. I have plenty of material. I have hours of material I can go on. But like when the biggest laugh you're going to get is, you move so fast that I hit 30 and all of a sudden I had this moment of like, fuck, what else? What else? That moment of like fuck what else what else that moment of like oh i've run out and i know i have it yeah i know there's huge chasms chasms that like once i realized like oh talk about this subject i'm like oh right right right but i had one of those moments it's brief but a moment on stage i was

like i don't i don't think i have any more i know that feeling i just had it a couple nights ago too i had a show that was pretty light in california and the show i was on they had a clock at the back of the room showing you how much time you'd been on stage so i've been running an hour because i'm filming a special in a month so i have an hour an exact hour that i'm working on right now and i looked at the clock and it was 25 minutes. I had 35 minutes to go and it was like there was 50 people in a 500 seat venue. And I looked, same thing. It was, there was 35 minutes to go and I was like, I think I have 10 minutes left.

Like, cause I was powering through it. Trying to keep that energy going. Exact same feeling. Ended up working out. I had more than I thought, but yeah, that feeling where you're just like, and then the jokes that you love aren't doing as well as you like. So you're like like i'm not even excited about doing the jokes i have left because yeah

yeah and there's some new stuff i wanted to do or like newish yeah but but what happens is like it starts to be so tough or you're so you know the best you get is that little laugh that you're like oh i can't i can't touch that shit it's just the the hits yeah how do you i try not to talk about stand-up too much but i am curious because i'm getting to a place where like i need to start filming something on my own just to be done with it do you do you fight the urge when you're in that situation to just go back and do you have so much old shit i it's not even in my brain anymore it's not even an urge to fight yeah i will go to crowd work before i go to old material and especially covid like i don't even feel like the same guy i was before covid i know what you mean i feel like i would be doing

somebody else's jokes so no i don't even fight that urge like i've done cruise ships and stuff where i had to fill out like three different shows and i didn't have the time so i was doing stuff from like my first six months in stand-up i was doing whatever it took to fill that time so there it's a fighter not like where dj no exactly yeah i got a gap in my teeth uh so yeah i don't know what you're thinking is the boat gonna dock in here I always think of that line it was in the Nutty Professor and Eddie Murphy when he was the cool character in Nutty Professor he's sitting in the audience and Dave Chappelle was up on stage yeah

and then Eddie Murphy talks about his gap and he's like I don't know whether to smile back or kick a field goal that's a good line I don't something like that that's i bet that that's a good that's a good hack so maybe i'll just say that and hope nobody remembers nutty professor but uh no i i don't feel that urge because i i don't even like those jokes as much i'd rather do a new shitty joke that i'm not confident in yet yeah that's that's where i gotta get i still think i this is my struggle this is my new struggle of it's just like letting go of old things. There's like some urge of like, well, this needs to be, yeah, I need to put it down for, it's so good. Or I spent so much time on it, I want to get it down.

It's very hard for me to be like, let that go. There's no right or wrong. Your way might be right because you got great jokes. Sure, sure. But I always, whenever I do some of those old jokes, I leave and I go like, what did I do? I know, you never forget. Oh, I discovered the thing that used to work still works.

Bravo, you brave motherfucker. Yeah. But then if I do badly, I go like, Zayn, he's just never having me back again. Exactly. They're not like, well, he did bad, but I'm sure he's got old jokes that are really good that he just didn't want to do tonight.

They're just like, oh, he sucks. That'd be so gracious. Like, hey, he bombed, but I bet he has some really fire jokes. He was just saving. I bet he had some tricks up his sleeve that he didn't want to play,

you know? It's so funny where there's so many audiences that never know that because I'm working on newer stuff, I'm like, I could have given them a much better night. I could have really given the, I could have made them laugh and laugh. And instead, they paid money for what for me was way below what I could have done. And they'll never know. I know, but don't they feel the authenticity of you in that moment?

You got to believe. They feel the authenticity going, okay, what else? What else did I want to talk about? Okay. I just want to say you said chasm earlier and then changed it to chasm, the correct pronunciation, which I really appreciate because every time I say the word chasm, I say chasm in my head first and then change it to chasm.

So I go through that exact process. You just did it externally. I just did it externally. Yeah. It should be chasm. It should be chasm. I just did it externally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it should be chasm. It should be chasm.

It should be chasm. English is fucked. Do you speak French? Nah, a little bit, but a little bit. Yeah. You?

Uh, no, I took it. So I can say, un pomme, un poisson. An apple fish. Um,

have you ever done standup in French? Could you do it? No, no, I couldn't. I'm not, I'm not nearly good enough to i i basically know apple and fish like you just said sure sure yeah no i would suck

um well i'm excited to have you on the downside there's a lot to talk about of course i i would be remiss to bring up uh your your your hearing i don't want to talk about it john marco sure sure do you ever get tired of it do you ever go like i mean because it's gotta be it's good because like it's it's a hook you've talked about it on america's got talent i watched your your uh jfl special oh nice and uh you had an interpreter on stage that's the term right interpreter yeah and uh it added a whole I've done a couple shows with interpreters and

it's just it's always it's something to play with it's fun it's cool yeah it is fun it is cool

it's like it's an amazing language did you know her before so just for people listening go what is it called again interpreted interpreted

and it's on YouTube yeah and you recorded it in Canada but you had an interpreter on stage with you yeah What is it called again? Interpreted. Interpreted. And it's on YouTube. Yeah. And you recorded it in Canada, but you had an interpreter on stage with you. Yeah. And in the screen, there was a box with her there. Had you worked with her? Yeah, I had done a show three or four years prior where I wanted to have an interpreter on stage. So I found her.

I forget how I found her. I think there was a listing of interpreters in the area now do you can you you said you couldn't in the thing but can you do sign language at all no i'm gonna learn any about as well as i can speak french i know a couple words okay you know thank you sorry oh yeah thank you this is thank you thank you yeah this is fuck you in italian yes very. Thank you, fuck you. And then she's a great friend now. After I did that show with her years ago when I wanted to do this show and film it, I knew I had to have her

because she loves comedy too. That's the thing with interpreters. That's what you have to have. Yeah, you have interpreters who aren't down for the jokes and some think it's an affront to the language and their culture. Sure.

Which it can be. You can't not make fun of them she did one was it like fingering there was something where like it was really was like her rubbing a clip in her hands or blow jobs or there was all the sexual stuff is pretty graphic in sign language yeah and i could see someone being like fuck you yeah you're gonna make me do this you're gonna make a fool out of me in front of everybody i try to and you know i i've done a lot of shows for deaf people before and and with interpreters so i like to believe that i'm doing it in a way that's inclusive and not because i do think it's a beautiful language and i i respect deaf people and you know full deaf i'm lowercase

d deaf their capital is that is that the terminology yeah really yeah so i'm hard of hearing or lowercase d deaf and then people who can't hear at all are capital d deaf so tell me so was this from birth uh i start i got my hearing aids when i was four and i had a lot of ear infections when i was young so might have been from birth or it might have been like over those first four years so is the ear infections it's not genetic or it was having the ear infections that did damage as it was developing yeah but I actually saw this uh this audiologist came up to me after a show like four or five months ago and he told me actually it was really funny because the show had a stand-up show and then there was a room right beside it where the second the stand-up show ended there was a jazz band playing like right in the room beside it so as my show ended

i went over and i watched this jazz show and i'm standing there and then this older gentleman a 75 year old dude comes up to me and he's like i bet it's hard for you to appreciate jazz and i was like what and he's like i just at your show i i saw that you were hearing aids i'm like that's a weird line to start with. I bet it's hard for you. I'm like, no, I think I'm appreciating it, but maybe I'm not. But he was a retired audiologist, and he said that a lot of kids used to get ear infections, and in like 90 or 91, they found some antibiotic or some vaccine or something that eliminated the germ or bacteria that caused most of the ear infections that a lot of kids had.

So most kids now born after like 90 or 91 don't have like a lot of childhood ear infection. That's what he told me. Interesting. But I know a lot of people who had the same thing as me who had a lot of ear infections when they were kids. But did he mean that, that it's hard for you to enjoy jazz even with your hearing aids?

Or was he making a joke? Could be either or. It would just be interesting if you hated it. it's hard for you to enjoy jazz even with your hearing aids or was he making a joke uh could be either or but i mean i'm probably not hated it like like you know there's i'm sure there's people with covid who now have fucked up smell or taste and i bet there's certain things that like they just won't be into dude i got covid in december and i was so worried about losing my smell or taste because like i mean i'm joking about it now but i would be down to like three of five senses like you know what i mean like i'm no way i value all my other senses every day i would wake up and i was just smelling everything i was picking stuff up smelling it like in the beginning when we knew so little that's how that was that was the at-home test was like smelling okay i don't think i have

covid okay good thank god but I do have terrible BO. I need to get that looked at. But no COVID. That would be very sad. Oh, yeah. Because you joke, what was it, Helen Keller? Your wife is, oh, when she goes to sleep? What did you say about together you're Helen Keller? Oh, when she takes out her contacts, I take out my hearing aids.

As a couple, we've gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. COVID, that would be brutal. That would be the joke if i was going back to old material that would be the one that i would go back to all right i'd find that and then pull out a gun and blow my brain dead on stage because it's the ones that like you know kill that that always come back but they're the ones that you've done the most that you hate yeah the most too yeah so yeah but uh yeah so my mom actually has gone like a lot deafer in recent years and

she had full hearing and then her left ear went on her when she was in her like 30s or early 40s maybe and then in recent years her right here ear has gone on her so and then her dad had hearing aids his whole life so it could could be genetic but my mom had hearing when she had me so who knows but my wife's pregnant right now. Yeah. And I'm like, what, is this baby going to have hearing problems? I have no idea. Did you ask the...

They said it's probably not genetic. Nobody seems to be too concerned about it. But I'm going to be fine. They're like, you can hear, right? Okay, so we're going to deal with something else. Do some people get those ear infections and lose their hearing altogether, become deaf? Yeah, it happened. Do you feel a kinship with deaf people?

Capital D? Yes and no. I feel like less of a kinship with them. I shouldn't say less. I grew up around all hearing people. So I didn't feel like I was part of the deaf culture. And it's such a different culture. Like they have their own culture.

And I wasn't part of it. So I felt more of a kinship as I've gotten older. And I've met more deaf people. And I've gotten to perform for them. But I'm way more part of the hearing world than the deaf world. But I feel some kinship with them. Because when I take my hearing aids out, I'm deaf. And I feel more of a kinship with them now than ever because covid everybody's got the mask on i've never been deafer in my life than the past two years like i can't hear anybody

sure that i'm relying on lip reading so much there were when we took the elevator here there were there was two times i said something and i was like oh i'm not being loud enough with the mask oh yeah i was just biding time until we got to the room and could take the mask down. I was like, so where were you performing? And you answered. And I was like,

I'll ask him again when we get to the room. It's so funny. But I, I tell everybody now it's made me really vocal and have to advocate for myself. Like when I checked in at the hotel just now or a couple hours ago, like she said something and I was like, I wear hearing aids i

don't know what you're saying is it important yeah i mean do you say like would you mind speaking louder i usually i tell them i wear hearing aids and then let them decide how they want to proceed from there because it's not even a loudness thing like it's just i mean i guess it is a little bit but it's just i didn't realize how much I relied on lip reading. Do you have a, is there a volume knob? There is, but if I do that, like in the hotel lobby, everything's increasing. Sure. So it doesn't help that much, but I have a little device called a Roger On made by Phonak Hearing Aid.

But it's like, it allows me to like just focus on one. Like a directional mic. Exactly. It's a directional mic. But it's like a directional mic me to like just focus on one. Like a directional mic. Exactly. It's a directional mic. But it's like a directional mic like pointing from your ear. No, I can hold it. Oh, you can hold it. So I could like put it on a table if somebody was talking there.

But you can do different directions. So if the person was sitting there, but there's another person sitting here, from my phone, I can just have the mics face those two ways and drown out all the other direction. Wow. It's pretty, technology is helping a lot. I just talked to my uber driver lyft driver i should say i'm not i guess it makes a difference uber's generally not as highly regarded as lyft i think well sure but i think i'm sure lyft is just better at branding than probably yeah um that pink logo you know

makes me feel good black uber Uber, bad. Pink, hey. Inclusive, I think. On the podcast, the downside thinks black is beautiful, but that's you, DJ. Yeah, I don't know how to come back from that one. You took a lift. And I was using the mic the whole time I was talking to him. Like my directional mic. Because we were on the highway and I was sitting in the backseat

and I just had it on my leg like that, facing him. Heard it perfectly. If I had hearing, I would never talk to an Uber driver again. You like that conversation? You enjoy it? I haven't talked to a Lyft driver or an Uber driver. Next time an Uber driver talks to me, I'm going to be like, oh, sorry, I got to get my directional mic. It's a whole setup.

It's going to take me 10 minutes just to avoid. You know what? Because I haven't been hearing well so lately, this guy had such a good voice and he projected so well that i was actually like appreciative that i was able to have a conversation with him it was i haven't talked to a lyft driver in a while i gotta be honest i was like that was nice it's a beautiful good the way you talk about it makes me feel like i'm an asshole i go full out asshole and lifts usually too i just but they usually want it too. They don't want to talk.

That's why they start talking to you, you open the window, take out your earrings and throw them out. That's how little I want to do this. So in Canada, was it a big part of your childhood? Did people make fun of you for it? Did you not give a shit?

Were you feeling anything about it? I didn't give a shit, but feeling anything about it i didn't give a shit but uh i was just talking about this with my wife a couple days ago i'm sure like i'm more positive and nice because that helped me not be bullied because i never was bullied but i'm sure there was some sort of part of me that was like hey if i'm really nice to people they're gonna really feel bad about being an asshole to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think. But I never really felt bullied or anything.

No. You ever lean on it to get out of trouble? You ever? No, I don't think so. I'm sure it got me out of trouble without me knowing. Yeah. But no, I didn't lean on it at all, really.

No. And can you shower with these things? Say it again. Can you shower with them in in or do you have to take them out no i i take them out to shower you do yeah and is it is it overwhelming what is it is it ever i feel like i would be scared to lose the sense would be scary i rely on my sound i have anxieties for things that are creaking in the night. And I think I would, do you ever feel scared when you take them out or if they run out of battery that you,

you lost a, I always have batteries with me. I'm always ready. Uh, but yeah, like if I'm, if I, I've done,

you know, shows in the middle of nowhere where like you're just in a, at a motel where the door is outside uh and when i take my hearing aids out in those places i i get worried sometimes i'll sleep with one hearing aid in if it's particularly really but i love being in hotels like right now we're on like the 14th floor yeah you know this door is locked i'm like nobody's coming in i sleep like a baby in hotels sleep well at home my wife's there i know if something happened uh she'll protect me uh but or wake me up to protect her but um no i don't really feel i feel i take them out on airplanes

yeah i so i feel like there's advent like advantages too i take them out on an airplane i sleep like a baby um it's just all i've known man i've had him since i was four so it's like you just kind of yeah it is what it is you know sure yeah but i do there are situations where like one time i i was kind of having like a one night stand with a girl and we'd smoked way too much weed and uh and this was this year this was like you're married and she's pregnant. If I caught you suddenly and you're like, turn off the cameras, delete this, then you would be the one telling me to delete an episode. This was like a while back, six or seven years ago maybe, but we smoked too much weed and she was a super sweet girl.

I had no reason to feel this paranoia. But when we went to sleep, I slept with my hearing aids in that night because i was like i don't know what she's gonna do she wasn't gonna do anything she was you thought she'd like kill you like an anxiety thought kill me rob me i didn't know i smoked too much weed but i was like damn i think being a hard of hearing girl would be way scarier like that feeling made me realize like i don't think i'd ever take my hearing aids out if i was a girl sleeping over at some random dude's place there's there's been one woman in my life where i had a thought that

she could kill me like like it was you know it was it was we were hooking up for a couple weeks but once that thought entered my head i was i it was horrible i couldn't sleep i was like yep she'll kill me i've had that before with a long-term. A long-term. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This woman, I was in a car with her, and I was stoned. We went to an improv show just to watch. And she talked about her.

So basically, her father had cheated on her mother and was now with this woman. And she was talking about, if I ever see this woman, and I remember this, gonna grab her jaw and i'm gonna rip it off like it's a grape i'm gonna twist it and twist it and twist it and i'm in this cab stoned as fuck and i was like oh god you know have you ever have you ever thought about going to therapy and she turned to me she said that's the third time you told me that this car ride. And I hadn't, I was so stoned. I guess I told her three times in a car ride,

have you considered going to therapy? And I thought about, I truly, I thought about opening the cab door and jumping out because she just told me she was going to twist, twist off a jaw. That's a graphic. That's a very graphic to think about like the sinews of your jaw gradually just snapping off.

And I was high, so I was like visualizing it fully. Oh yeah, I'm not high and I can feel it. That's a rough way to go. Yeah. Now, people always say good stuff

about Canada. In America, it's very casually, especially when Trump won, there was a lot of like, Canada's better. They have the health insurance. And then Justin Trudeau put on blackface a couple times,

and there was a little bit like, yeah, they're not perfect. So while you're on the downside, as a Canadian, what's bad about Canada? What's bad about Canada? Don't act like it's tough. The entertainment industry sucks. That's why I'm in america you can't make a living it's very hard to make a living as a stand-up comedian so really you can't just headline the yuck yucks and you can once every two years like and then they'll pay you you know in fucking chicken wings. Really? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

What are the good clubs? Just by the way, if you're listening from Yuck Yucks, I'd be honored to work for chicken wings. Honored. Mark Breslin, you want to hit him up? He's the owner of Yuck Yucks. Oh, God. Renaming names is great.

The Order of Canada they gave him. He's in the Canadian Walk of Fame. Like, yeah, he's a big shot. Ooh in the Canadian Walk of Fame. Like, yeah, he's a big shot. Ooh, the Canadian Walk of Fame. That's exciting. The Canadian, something I had never

known about until just now. Jim Carrey, Howie Mandel, Justin Bieber. No, you're right too. But it's easy to make fun of the Canadian Walk of Fame, but the Hollywood Walk of Fame

sucks balls too. It's disgusting. I lived right beside it. it it's terrible there's human feces all over you're like oh there's fucking humphrey bogart with urine on him his start like it's all the accolades in general are disgusting but uh that's how you know we haven't gotten enough of them yet exactly yeah they're disgusting when other people get My girlfriend and I fight about this a lot. I say to her, I say, I want to be the guy who doesn't even go to the Emmys. And first, this is all assuming that I ever have the success to be nominated. But I admire the people who go there, get wasted,

don't give a shit. It's vile. It's all PR people just campaigning for their clients. And I, on the way up, you got to embrace it. It's vile. It's all PR people just campaigning for their clients. And I, on the way up, you got to embrace it. If my comedy album is nominated for anything, the best stand-up album, Pyongyang North Korea Awards, I'm going to go there for that.

But then I want to hit a level one day where I say, awards? I'm not going to the Grammys. Because I got a club I want to do. Yeah, that would be a pretty baller move. I'd love, you know, I'm not going to the Grammys. I'm going to, because I got a club I want to do. Yeah, that would be a pretty baller move. I'd love to do that. Woody Allen used to do it. Did he?

He like didn't go to any award shows. You always want to use Woody Allen as your North Star. When he was a North Star, he never went to award shows. And then like, I think it was after September 11th, I believe, he went to the Oscars and, like, you know, gave a speech like, New York is still great. Like, it was a big deal because he never went. But I admired that one aspect of Woody Allen.

That one aspect, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I saw a Pearl Jam documentary years ago years ago and i forget i think it was their drummer or their guitarist was like looking through his basement for something and then like in the back corner behind all this other all these other boxes covered in cobwebs was a grammy that they won in like the mid 90s he's like oh that's where that is like he didn't give a shit yeah i like that too i like awards because they make people think you're good and then they want to come watch you and then you get to have a more viable career. So I like them for that reason.

But to actually put that much stock into what the award means, I don't want to ever have a personality that gives a shit about that. My comedy special, I got to fight this. Sometimes I say my comedy special and I can't help but undermine it and go special.

Yeah, you put it in quotes there. It was a special. Yeah, it was it in quotes there. It was a special. Yeah, it was great too. Thank you. Thank you for watching it. It was nominated for three New York Emmy Awards, but one of them was for set design. But I still tout that three everywhere I go. Three.

I had nothing. The set design, I walked there and I said, let's move a plant here. Great. Great. Hey. Hey, you got an eye for where the plant should go. Don't undermine that. My producers will get upset. They did help a little bit.

They moved some stuff. But I wouldn't frame an award about it. We didn't win, so it doesn't matter. So Canada, so not a lot of entertainment. Do you feel like you hit the peak of what a canadian comic can do there no there's people who have done more there's you can like there's like one or two people who have successful sitcoms at a time yes so you can be that person and then you're lucky you're that person who's been able to make a great career off it but the odds are

like here's the thing that sucks about the canadian entertainment system is there's no like star system like if you hit a certain level of fame in america you can kind of coast on that like i say and you'll get some other recurring roles in tv or whatever but like in canada you could have like the number one show on tv for a few years and then when that ends they can't find anything else for you they're like well hey you had a good run see you later whereas america like they're like oh well you're not going anywhere ever yeah unless you have some big scandal so canada doesn't allow you to coast on any sure yeah sure you know which makes you work your ass off or it makes you quit there's no middle ground do are there some canadian like do you think it could ever change do you think canada could build a bigger system or just as it's one of these things where america for its many many flaws

australians are coming here canadians are coming here people from london are coming here for the arts it's like we really have this just behemoth for the arts yeah and uh it's kind of funny because america is so not an arts first country i mean you know there's not a lot of admiration from the government for the arts it doesn't seem to be the priority uh but nonetheless if you want to like make it you have to come here i mean would you say the majority of your tv was in american media or do you think it was like a real 50-50? That I've been on or that I consumed? That you've consumed.

Oh, yeah. Mainly America. That's another thing with Canada. It's like it's so it's got this inferiority complex where because we're watching 90% American TV. So we don't even value our own Canadian TV. And even as a Canadian performer, until you've had success in america we don't value you yeah we need you to go off and do well and then say ah you are pretty good because america says so sure you know come back we'll we'll shower some praise on you but

yeah no it's it's very american american driven the media um so you when did you go to America? 2016 is when I moved here. And was it easy transition? Was it easy to get citizenship here? How did you get it? I'm not a citizen. I'm a permanent resident. And that took, no, you got to like,

I had to work with a lawyer and put a whole packet together. And I had to have like credits already that showed. Had you done America's Got Talent yet? Or was it after after i did america's got talent right when i was in the process of moving so i had already gotten my visa approved but i hadn't moved yet and no offense but that's kind of crazy to be an america's got talent before you they had people from all over though like oh yeah well they they need to at least admit at the beginning they go well we ran out no i think what it is is america considers itself the world so america's got talent really is world's got talent like britain's got talent canada's got talent that's

britain's got talent that's canada's got talent but america that american exceptionalism allows for anybody to be on it because this is America. There's inclusivity when it comes to talent, but not anything else. Not escaping totalitarian regimes. Yeah. But I think even that, not everybody agrees with that. I think a lot of people welcome people from wherever,

whatever country you want to name. You go back even to like the 60s or 70s, people escaping Khmer Rouge and Cambodia. I just watched an awesome documentary called The Donut King. And he came over from Cambodia and started like a hundred donut chains and really good documentary. That's nice. But there were people even then saying we shouldn't allow Cambodians there. But then there were also people who were giving these refugees, you know, homes and sponsors. I wonder if you appreciate America more than me

or appreciate the good because you're newer here, I take things for granted. I just can't shit on it too much because they can kick me out at any moment. Do you really, do you feel any of that? Do you feel any of that? Not totally, but until I get my citizenship, I'll feel like, green card,

I feel like pretty secure. Before I had my green card, I was not saying anything. Green card, I'll say a little bit. Citizenship, then I will utilize my right. Then you do a special,

fuck America. This country's broken, man. DJ takes the shit on America. Yeah, no, I do see the problems with this country, but I mean, it's hard for me

to shit on it because I made the choice to move here. So if I really thought it was a problem, then, you know, the old go back to your country really applies. I should just go back to my country if I think it's that bad. So you're going to raise a kid in L.A. Your wife is an American citizen? No, she's from Canada, too.

Really? Yeah. Did you meet her in Canada? Yeah. So you both came here together. I came and then she came. We met right when I moved to America. So we did long distance for a couple of years.

Oh my God. Yeah. Was that tough? Yeah. Oh, is the battery dead? Oh, shit. It's fine. I'm going to do it on my phone for the rest of this.

You sure? Yeah, an eclectic totally. My bad, dude. No, no, dude. Please don't worry about it. This will be a good place for a commercial break. I am so dreading groceries this week. Why?

You can skip it. Oh, what? Just like that? Just like that. How about dinner with my third cousin? Skip it. Prince Fluffy's favorite treats? Skippable.

Midnight snacks? Skip. My neighbor's nightly saxophone practices? Uh, nope. You're on your own there. Skippable. Skip. Nope, you're on your own there. Could have skipped it, should have skipped it.in-class noise cancellation and an enhanced sound range, making them perfect for enjoying music and podcasts. Get up to 55 hours of listening

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performance may vary based on environmental conditions and usage. Accessories sold separately. And we're back from the commercials. With a different camera. I mean, my dream when I go to LA, I rent out a studio and it's heaven. It's heaven. They send me everything so well completed, but I'm not making that money.

It's expensive. It's expensive. Oh, yeah. You're talking to a guy right now who's got a kid on the way who, sorry, I got a phone call and it goes right into my hearing aid because technology is amazing. Bluetooth, baby. Listen to my music in my hearing aid, everything.

It goes to the hearing aid. Oh, that's amazing. It, baby. Listen to my music in my hearing aid, everything. It goes to the hearing aid. Oh, that's amazing. It started ringing in my ears yesterday when I was making love to my wife. I had to decline a phone call in my hearing aid. So did you keep them on during sex? I keep them on, yeah. I actually have a really hard time getting hard if I don't have my hearing aid in. You realize how much hearing has to do with your stimulation.

Really? But I don't have a hard time masturbating with my hearing agent, which shows you that those are two very different things. I could see that. I don't need my sounds to get off. Yeah. But I very much understand. That's why it was so frustrating it's like when you have

roommates and you're watching porn without the sound and so you just turn up you turn up that one that one little thing you just have always had it right into your ears yeah but i'm saying with porn i don't need sound on i can masturbate oh porn i can do on mute. I see. And, you know, sex, if I have my hearing aids out, I have a hard time even getting it out. Sure. Baby, get my hearing aids. Let's make love. That's the shit.

I'm going to get a condom and my hearing aids. Condom, hearing aids. When I was single. No condom now, obviously. Sure, sure. Of course. That's why you're in the mess you're in right now. Yeah, the mess.

That's how I'd like to describe it. But, yeah, that's what I was going to say is you're talking to a guy who's got a baby on the way paying la rent and all that whose special just got delayed because of covid and i'm relying on the income that will come from that special i've i honestly have not been more stressed in my life than right now which is good because life is still great so it shows i've lived a pretty stress-free life yeah but yeah la is crazy expensive man what area of la are you living in we just moved from we were in east hollywood and we just moved up to altadena okay i'm still learning all the things my mom just moved with her boyfriend in the palisades and i was i was

with a jewish comic today who said mazel so i guess that means that's an expensive area yeah yeah um well that's obviously very scary i mean mean, like I was, I was starting to make money touring and then I started like being like, let's get PR, let's get ads. And now the money is now, now my overhead has increased a lot, but it is one of these things where I make money, but it's just for me. And so like when I get that two, if I get two grand doing a casino tomorrow, I'll get two grand. And I'm like,

Ooh, great. I know. But if I had anyone else involved, that suddenly becomes like a, okay, I got, how do I get that again next weekend at the minimum?

I, exactly what you're describing is exactly the mental shift that's happening in my head right now. Yeah. Like, okay, it's not just me that the money's for anymore. Things I used to be satisfied with are not going to be enough.

I think about now when people have twins. I'm like, now that's a horror movie. That's a horror movie. Yeah. You plan it for it. You're like, maybe I can have one baby. I think I can do it. Yeah.

And then you're like, two. Unless you're like living a regular nine to five, you know, and you got your life set up and you're ready for it. But that's not my life. What does your wife work? She works at a flower shop and she makes pottery. She's like a potter.

So a flower shop, she sells her pottery there. She's making millions. Yeah, of course. You know, the thriving pottery business. But she's really good. And she just started making money off it in the last couple years because she used to be a painter,

and then now she's moved on to pottery. So she will make good money. Like, I tell my wife all the time, like, in, like, you know, not to put pressure on it, but I think in five to ten years, like, I can retire, and you can take it from here

because, like, she's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, we are going to be two artists raising a kid. You would retire? Oh, yeah. are going to be two artists raising a kid you would retire oh yeah you want to retire oh yeah oh i never want to retire no i don't actually want to retire either but i would only do it for do what i want to do like i would sure i wouldn't do a casino gig i don't want to do or whatever i thought you'd be I want to do podcasts like this. I wouldn't do whatever this is.

Yeah, that's very, let me ask, because I'm touring. I have a girlfriend now. I'm touring. How often did she go with you on the road ever? Did you like the break? Did you feel like the break was nice? We're figuring that out. How often she comes.

Because sometimes she comes and i'm like look like if she had come to this trip it was not a peaceful trip i was busy i did this i met with someone else earlier i did like an interview for a date later i'm trying to cram in the gym i'm i'm it's not a fun thing so part of me me is like, don't come. Yeah. Because you're going to travel and you're going to feel like it's a vacation. And I'm getting used to, oh,

just because I'm somewhere else doesn't mean I'm on vacation. Yeah. I might go somewhere and not do any of the sites because it's a Thursday and I'm at work. Mm-hmm.

So, did she come with you a lot? Does she come, do you think, when she has the kid, do you think the kid will come a lot? Are you going to be like, daddy's gone for Thursday through Saturday? Yeah, I think that's more accurate. And also a few years ago, my wife did come with me to Chicago. And I did treat it like we just hung out during the day.

And I just did the shows at night. But you are a hardworking man. You are trying to cram a lot of this in. So you could make the decision to not do but you are a hardworking man. You are trying to cram a lot of this in. Sure. So you could make the decision to not do all this and make it a vacation with your wife during the day and just do the shows at night. But you know, that's not the way to get ahead in your career. So I think you know the answer to that.

The answer is no, she can't come with you a lot. If you want to work hard. Yes. And then you can make a decision every once in a while you say you circled in your calendar you say oh this trip to boston and april i'll vacation during the day and we'll do the shows at night but even then i don't know about you but when i got shows at night like i'm it's on my mind all day it's on my mind all day yeah and i'm like listen if you're gonna be here i'm gonna be i'm gonna be flinging jokes at you and be like, hey, is this interesting? It's just I'm in a certain space, and I'm not going to be fun.

It's tough. That's the hardest part about being a comedian on the road. I felt bad last night. I had a last night show. I'm a sensitive boy, and it was a tough show 12 people and i felt i felt bad i felt like in my mind like oh i should have been so good that i like made this room just light on fire yeah and i i really had a bad it's one of those things if i was single i would have just had to deal with it but because i have this girlfriend who will listen to me she she bears this weight that i have to work on

not always putting on her, but it's tough. My wife does the same thing, but they kind of know what they're signing up for. Cause I've had girlfriends who didn't want to deal with it. And those relationships didn't last. Sure. You are right. You have to be sure to not put it all on them, but it's also like,

is this the person you want to be with? Cause this is who I am. I am a man who's going to bomb a set and want to talk to you about how terrible i feel i had this thing and uh it was resolved where i told you that i was banned from tiktok but i found out i was banned from tiktok like midnight walking back from spots oh that was just last night oh it was two nights ago no no so i had it's been a tough 24 hours i feel better now but i so i'm going home uh my girlfriend i call her and she picks up the phone and she's doing a bit where she's as if she's asleep already and so she's like hello

and i was like i was like no my tiktok was banned i need to talk like it was it was but it was it felt it felt like i had lost a i made three thousand dollars off tiktok last year it's a it was a big deal yeah but you know i called her and she was trying to be cute. And I was like, nope, we're having a bad night now. Whatever you were feeling before. Whatever joke, oh, you want to snuggle tonight? I don't think so. Because we're talking for two hours tonight.

And I'm going to be pacing for the whole time. And I talked to a comedian friend of mine who was banned from TikTok and I was talking about the stress of it. And cause he understood it. And I told him, I said to my, luckily my girlfriend was there and he said, he's like, yeah, I'm single now. Cause I can't put, I can't inflict this on anybody. He was like, I'm single because I'm at a place in my life where I'm a, I'm miserable. And I understood what he meant. I understood what he meant. You feel miserable? No, no, no. I just go through pockets where I am so needy. And if I was alone, I'd have to

kind of confront it. But if you're my partner, you just got to be around this person who every once in a while, some guy in China decides to disable their TikTok account and it ruins your day. It's so weird that your career and success is tied to this platform that just censors people so easily. That's actually, I don't put a lot of effort into TikTok because I don't respect what they do. Like I don't want to censor. My favorite comedians would be banned off TikTok in a day. You're right. You're right. So why would I?

And why would I want to put my faith in a company that can do that to me and make me feel that way? That was a tough way to learn that I was not one of your favorite comedians. You were banned. I was banned. You're right. There you go. Well, let's go on to our next segment. You don't have an earpiece.

I should have Bluetoothed this to your things, but here comes the music cue. This has got to stop. It was a very good singer of mine, a friend named Douglas Goodhart. He said, this has got to stop. And do you have a this has got to stop? Yeah.

You know i i just noticed something right before you came the news was on i never watched the news but it was on in the i mean i i take in the news but i don't just watch like the local news station sure so there was a uh the news station here in chicago had a story about how uh you know baby shark that youtube video baby shark do do do do do do, it was actually my first time seeing it. I'd never seen it before, which makes me a minority big time because it just became the first YouTube video

to ever hit 10 billion views. Wow. And then I was, so I was on the phone with my wife and I was like, hey, that Baby Shark video just became the first, I don't know why I'm holding this. We were Bluetooth in it, so I was hands free. But I was like, like, that Baby Shark video became the first video to hit 10 billion views. And then as we're talking, it cut to the news anchors laughing about that,

whatever they were saying, because I had it on mute, and then cut to their next segment, and it was a local Chicago story, and it said a pregnant woman shot and killed at whatever street. And this has got to stop. We can't go from a positive, life-affirming, whimsical story to the worst news you've ever heard. Because I'm telling my wife, oh, baby, sure. Oh, a pregnant woman.

I'm talking to my pregnant wife. Oh, a pregnant woman was shot and killed. We should have said that. Well, I mean, I'm just, you know, talking about what I'm seeing. Hey, there's a painting on the wall. You've run out of things to say to your wife. You're just recounting what's on the TV for her. But listen, it's not my fault that they did that jump.

What's got to stop is I think they should organize the news into good news and bad news. Because what it does also is it creates calluses on my heart. You know what I mean? Where I wasn't even fully ready. I wasn't able to really take in the news at this pregnant woman was shot because I had to, I had to, it was a defense mechanism.

I couldn't fully take it in because my, my pores were open from this, this soft little baby shark. Yeah. So it needs to be like, that concludes a good news segment of the news. The first 15 minutes.

Now you can either leave or buckle up because we're getting into the bad news. I think they just need to have better transitions. Like, well, here's one baby who will never be hearing Baby Shark. Here's one mother who will be happy she never had to hear Baby Shark. I hear what you're saying.

I think it could also work in the reverse where every time I hear good news, someone's like, oh, I just got a promotion at work. I'm like, yeah, but how many pregnant women died while you were getting that promotion yeah i don't know how many friends you would have if that was your i think people would be afraid to tell you good news but that's the trouble with the news i think it's it's well uh who the good jim from the office he made something called like good news where it was just good news yeah and i I appreciate that because that was like a really, what's his name?

John Krasinski. And he also sold it so quickly. It did. He sold it. Here's 10 million. He's like, oh great. I don't have to do this bullshit anymore.

But what I'm saying is that's cool. But the world is full of bad news. I want the bad news too. His good news thing. I didn't really watch because it was like, it's fluff. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I was, you know, good on him for trying to bring light to the world during that initial darkness of covid yada yada yada but i want the bad news too just separate it a bit yeah you know what i mean i know you mean don't don't give me the one two punch of good bad give me 10 good 10 bad well give me the bad first and then i'm like oh this is bad is bad, but I know the good's coming. I like that. End with something nice. Yeah. All right. That was very good.

This has got to stop. Do you watch Canadian news? Do you stay in touch? Do you say, like, what's Justin Trudeau's Halloween costume this year? No, not – I mean, a little bit. Do you like Justin? Who, Justin? Trudeau. When you said Justin, I immediately went to Bieber.

That showed you how politically untouchable well they just had in canada when i was there timbit you know tim hortons the company yeah they had their little timbits which are the most delicious thing on the planet the little donut holes the little donut holes yeah yeah yeah but they're called timbits uh we don't even say donut holes they're timbits you know um but they had a promotion with Justin Bieber, and they were called Tim Biebs. And so you could just eat these Justin Bieber-themed Timbits. He's doing that now? Yeah, I mean, they might be over.

That seems like something beneath his level. I mean, the thing about Canada is when people get big there, when they get big in America, they're cool with doing promotions in Canada because it feels like how you feel doing an open mic where you're like oh you're gonna give me five million dollars throw my name on what's like what robert de niro does a commercial in china and it's like oh tin beebs timbee timbee yeah like timbit like yeah timbee were they different in any way did they say they had different colors i didn't try him i didn't need him yeah that just seems like such a lame thing for justin bieber to do i that sounds like something i'd do

i would gladly yeah i mean i would too they probably paid him a shitload but to answer your question about trudeau uh yeah he's fine i don't like any politician really good that's the position we all should be in yeah um uh then i want to do this is new this is your my first to do it oh okay uh i don't know what if i'm gonna keep calling it this but too late to apologize or sorry or apology we'll figure it out i'll figure out a fun music cue you're talking to a canadian we specialize in apologies you know we say sorry is that really true is that like you feel like that's really part of the culture of canada i think i i're like a little passive aggressive, but we do apologize a lot, I think. I've noticed it being down here because nobody apologizes.

And something bad you did in your life you'd like to apologize for? Yeah, you know, I was thinking about this. You told me this would be a segment. I said, what would I like to apologize for? And, you know, I thought of something that's bugged me for years. I was in high school, and I was driving. We were on lunch break. We were driving to some fast food restaurant or something,

as you do on your lunch break in high school, and a car full of people. And I tilted my rearview window down because there was a girl in the middle named Stacy in the middle of the back seat, and she was shorter than, like, the two guys who were back there too. So I wanted to be able to read her lips because I can't hear people in the back seat well because the mic's on my hearing aid face forward and so I tilted it down and then she while we were driving she noticed it and she was like oh why are you tilting it down like to look

at me and then I think this is the insecurity at that time of not wanting to like talk about my hearing aid or something I went into like offensive mode and i was like oh like i would want to look at your ugly face but the thing is stacy was cute like she was you know yeah i mean stacy's mom really had it going on shut the fuck up very good very good um but she was really cute so i i didn't even think that would like upset her maybe i didn't think it through to her. But anyway, the next time I looked back after saying that, she was crying. But like trying to hide it. Wow.

How old? We were probably like 16. And she probably, I mean, we were all insecure teenagers. Maybe she didn't like how her face looked. Or maybe it was just mean. And who knows? Well, I can understand how you felt defensive there's there's nothing worse than if you're if you're legitimately trying to do something and someone's like are you like oh you're being gross or creepy and it's i'm like

can it be both uh i'm deaf and creepy okay don't try to box me in uh but i felt bad about that and you know it's kind of it was a lesson for me as a person with hearing aids and also as a comedian. Because when I started, I wasn't a comedian at that time, but as a comedian, too, you're like, for me especially, well, not especially, but you see it with a lot of comedians, an audience member says something, you go into attack mode right away. And it's like sometimes they weren't even trying to be rude or anything,

and you are the one who made it, turned it into a thing. So I apologize to stacy for that and i hope that i'm sure she doesn't remember it but for me it's like even thinking back on it today i'm like that's a good lesson that no need to no need to go into attack mode that's a good one. Now I feel like this segment has legs or ears. Final segment. There's a guy singing. Same friends. It's very beautiful.

I'll send it to you sometime. Awesome. This is You Better Count Your Blessing. This has been a very nice episode. It hasn't been too negative, but negative enough. Negative enough. I try hasn't been too negative, but negative enough. Negative enough. I try to not be too negative. So I knew that your whole thing with the downside is being slightly negative.

I was like, I wonder if I'm going to be able to go as negative as you. No, no, you did plenty good. We talked about a pregnant woman getting shot. So I think we did. But I felt bad about it, John Merkle. I know. I share my blessing for this. Mine is, you know, it's very new still,

but I had someone at Zany's who listens to the podcast and came because they listened to the podcast. And it's still very new. And, you know, it's one of these things like there's so many compliments you get along the way that don't penetrate. They don't make me feel good. I don't even remember them.

It's almost a nuisance to be like, thank you. But like there's still new, there's certain things that are still like people who enjoy the podcast, which is a new thing, which I do into a void, which is so much fucking work. It's still in that special place where if someone's like i love the podcast you're like oh you listen to the podcast yeah it means more than then it was someone you know the worst is you do an old joke and someone goes like oh that one joke and you're

like yeah i fucking know yeah you're the one from five years ago that i shouldn't have even told yeah yeah i'm glad you like i don't respect your opinion at all so uh to the three podcast listeners please keep coming to shows and telling me you like the podcast that's great that's my blessing do you have a blessing for us dj uh yeah but before i say that i will say the podcast compliments really good too because you're really revealing a lot about yourself stand Stand-up, it's like you in your most refined form. Podcast, you're like, I think they might like me. I remember so much, especially that when I was single, and I did not like, I was not a sleep with a lot of audience members kind of guy.

I'm just shy. And there's a lot of reasons I don't. But sometimes someone out of my league, like clearly out of my league, would be attracted to me after the show or want to hang out. And I would be like, just so you're aware, what you saw is like the best I have. Those were, that was like 15 years of thoughts, edited, fine-tuned. Like, I'm not going to be this funny this funny you're gonna hear me and it's not gonna be that but you have that nervous that if you make it seem off the cuff that someone's just

gonna be like you're hilarious yeah i want to see a second hour and you're like you're getting the open mic yeah you're and uh uh it's it's that same thing with a podcast. It really is like me. You can't hide it. At a certain point, you talk for so long, you can tell how stupid I am. You can tell like I have made some gaffes of not knowing where places are or like you thinking it was Justin Bieber, me reminding you that Justin Trudeau

was the prime minister of Canada. You can't hide it. Or when I said Lyft was good because it was pink and Uber is bad because it was black and you took it to a race place and I was only talking about the traditional color scheme. You think that's not going to weigh on me tonight, John Marco? You're dead wrong. Yeah, no, I think that's a great compliment. And I see why that would have that impact.

My blessing is I'm going to go. I got a baby on the way, man. My wife's belly is big. This baby is kicking like a ninja. How many months? She's doing seven weeks. So we're at like almost eight months, like seven. We count in weeks.

She's at almost 33 weeks. Are you trying to not be on the road around the range she might have it well yeah i was trying to film my special january 15th and then go off for a few months and then now i've had to push it push it to february 12th which is in the range that she could have the baby so like i'm cutting it real close right now but yeah after i film the special on the 12th i will not be on the road for a bit but uh hopefully she doesn't listen if you end the special with like all right guys i gotta go my wife's having a baby i mean no that's that's a good bit well you know how they say we're pregnant like men are allowed to say that i'm thinking about like maybe making it like my ali wong special where like how brave i am for doing a special well that would be very

funny i would like that a lot yeah but that's, man. We got a healthy baby on the way, and I love my wife. I love my life. So how many people get to say that? I don't know. You're the only one I know. Well, we're not sure when it's going to come out, so I don't know if plugging dates would be great, but do you have any easier social medias or your specials already online?

Yeah, look for my special. Follow me on social media instagram at dj demers and the special will film it in february so it should be out by i'm hoping april do you have a name no you like to wait till after yeah i'm gonna wait till after see what feels right yeah and find your other specials indistinct chatter and interpreted and Interpreted. Interpreted. Yeah, they're both on YouTube. They're both very, very good. Well, DJ, I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you being here in my hotel room. It's true.

Yeah, you know what? You should be. I take mine back. You're welcome. This camera, if you watch the video of this at home, it is a multimedia piece. It is like a moment. It's like a mixed media. it's a mixed media piece yeah different angles different cameras different frame speeds um and for those listening at home uh whether you have uh five senses four senses three two or one one day you're gonna die and you're gonna have have none. This is the downside.