The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - 368: Jay Chandrasekhar | The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #368 | Full Episode

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

My HoneyDew this week is comedian and actor Jay Chandrasekhar! Check out his Podcast Mustache Tales, and his app Vouch. Jay joins me to Highlight the Lowlights of growing up in the Chicago suburbs, having doctor parents, and how he paved his way into Hollywood and comedy. We talk about the history of arranged marriages in Indian culture, and how Jay’s grandma once offered to pay $10,000 in diamonds to keep her son from marrying someone she hadn’t chose. We also dive into Jay’s experience being one of the only Indian families in his neighborhood, and the moment with his father that sparked his desire to write his own scripts and get on screen.SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE and watch full episodes of The Dew every toozdee! https://youtube.com/@rsicklerSUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON - The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I Highlight the Lowlights with Y’all! Get audio and video of The HoneyDew a day early, ad-free at no additional cost! It’s only $5/month!AND we just added a second tier. For a total of $8/month, you get everything from the first tier, PLUS The Wayback a day early, ad-free, censor free AND extra bonus content you won't see anywhere else!🎟️See me live. All tickets atwww.ryansickler.com/tour🎤Check out my new standup special “Live & Alive” streaming on my YouTube now!youtu.be/PMGWVyM2NJo?si=SrhXjgzR1pe6CyYE👉 Subscribe for more standup and new episodes of The HoneyDew, The Wayback, and more!www.youtube.com/@rsickler✅ Subscribe to my Patreon “The HoneyDew with Y’all”! Get The HoneyDew audio and video a day early, ad-free, for just $5/month!Want more? Upgrade to the $8/month premium tier and get everything above plus The Wayback a day early, ad-free, censor-free, and exclusive bonus content you won’t find anywhere else!www.patreon.com/RyanSickler📧What’s your story?? Submit at [e-mail]👕Get Your Merch👕www.bonfire.com/store/ryansickler/🎧 Listen to my Podcasts 🎧The HoneyDew - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honeydew-with-ryan-sickler/id527446250The Wayback - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wayback-with-ryan-sickler/id1721601479Patreon - www.patreon.com/ryansickler📣 Follow Me📣▪ Instagram:   www.instagram.com/ryansickler/▪ TikTok:   www.tiktok.com/@ryan.sickler▪ Facebook:   www.facebook.com/RyanSicklerOfficial🕸️ryansickler.com/🍈thehoneydewpodcast.com/🦀Subscribe to The CrabFeast Podcast🦀podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crabfeast-with-ryan-sickler-and-jay-larson/id1452403187

Kansas City. I'm headed back your way, Valentine's weekend. That's right, Valentine's weekend. I'll be there February 13th and the 14th, Connecticut. Come see me at Comics Roadhouse March 13th and 14th. Get your tickets now at Ryan Sickler.com. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to the honeydew, y'all. We're over here doing it in the nightpants. studios. I'm Ryan Sickler. Ryan Sickler. On all your social media and starting this episode like I start them all with gratitude. Thank you. Thank you for watching this show. Thank you for supporting this channel. If you're watching this far, drop a comment, help it all out. And if you got to have more, then you've got to have the Patreon. All right? It is this show. It's the honeydew with y'all. And you all have the craziest stories I've ever heard. I've been promoting this show for years. It's $5.

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It will remain $5. If you or someone you know has a story that has to be heard, please submit it to Honeydew Podcast at gmail.com. And hopefully we get to do your story. All right. That's the biz. You know what we do here. We highlight the low.

lights. And I always say that these are the stories behind the storytellers. I'm very excited to have this guest on here today. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. Jay, Chandra Sankar. Did I get it right? Nailed it. He nailed it. Yes, sir. Did I really? You really did. Thank you. Well done. Jay, it's a pleasure to have you here. Before we dive into whatever we're going to talk about today right there, plug everything you'd like, please. I'm at the Arlington Draft House, August 7th, 8th, and 9th of doing five shows. Come on by. I hear my Bert Reynolds stories, my Willie and Olson stories, and my lots of drug and drinking stories. I have a podcast called Mustache Tales with Hayes MacArthur. You know, it's a podcast. It's funny. And then I have an app called Vouch Vault,

which is my revenge machine against Rotten Tomatoes. And it's a recommendations app. So you go on there, you follow me. You find out. out all the movies, all the TV, all the books, all the restaurants I love. You put your own stuff in there. People follow each other. Try to make the sort of the Instagram of recommendations. Okay, cool. You created that app? I created the app with two other guys. Okay, great. So you can go on there and if these people are saying it sucks, it's like, oh, let's see what this group of people saying over here. Well, the whole premise is that, you know, my film Super Troopers was like the toast of Sundance in 99. And then when it came out,

it got a 36% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And this is from the New York Times, the paper I read every day. And I was like, God, it's humiliating. Like, this is like, because first of all, the audiences at Sundance loved it. And the audiences all over the country loved it. Now, I'm not saying that to say. We all love it. Yeah, no, I'm not saying that to say I made a great movie.

I'm saying the reaction was generally elation, right? Laughing. And then these critics came out. And I was thinking to myself back in 2000. I'm like, who are these critics? Like, do they smoke weed? Do they drink beer? Do they eat pizza?

Who are they? They never made a film. Well, they're strangers is the point, right? And the point of the app was, like, when's the last time you walked up to a stranger and said, what movie should I see, right? Now, you don't do that. You ask your friends and your family and your people who you trust Tarantino. he makes a list you're like okay that's what this this app is built to do it's built to get recommendations

from people you know got it that's it all right and it's just for movies no right now or for everything restaurants anything anything okay so if you go on the road to arlington then you go have a cheeseburger after you're like this is a great gastro pub put it in and then when i'm in arlington i'll say that's a great idea especially for us on the road i'll be like what a jay fucking go here yeah like this spot here yeah scler brothers are on it. What's it called again? Vouch Vault. Vouch Vault. All right. I'm definitely going to check that out. Do you like a comic? Put it on there. Rory Scoville. Yeah. That's great. For example. Let's dive into your story here, bud. Originally, where are you from? Let's start there first. Where are you born? I was born and raised

in Chicago at Cook County Hospital. My parents were both there. They were both doctors at Cook County at the time. Oh, they were. Okay. Yeah, they came over in the 60s, like 63, probably 63. And are they married or together at the time when they come over? No, my dad. Separately, they were here. No, my dad was number one in his class at Madras Medical School. He came over to New York, ended up at Cook County. Number one? How many do you even know? I don't even know. My mom, one year later, was number one in the same school. Get the fuck. No. Same school. So she comes over. And they didn't know each other? Didn't know each other. But my, my mom had a buddy who was in the same year as my dad at Cook County. And she called him at,

she landed like some like one in the morning in February. And she's like, what the fuck is going on? And, you know, like there was like a guy who was out of money at O'Hare Airport. I hard to believe he's homeless, but she gave him her only 20. And then she called my dad's buddy and he's like, I'm coming in a cab. You guys, you better be waiting for me outside. And my dad, he heard she was hot. So he sort of came down to check out the new chick. And he's sorry. He goes, I'm going to marry that girl. And what ended up really happening is they started dating and he got her pregnant. And now he has to call his mother who's back in India. And he's like, Listen, I'm thinking about marrying this Indian woman here and she's a doctor and all that stuff.

And my mom is in a higher cast than my dad, right? Like, we're bramans, but there are levels of brambans. Okay. So she's like a little snootier. And my grandmother, though, is still like, you don't pick your wife. I pick your wife. Is that right? I want to ask you about that.

So it's the matriarch of the family that chooses the partner. So my dad's like, now he's looking at my mother. is six months pregnant. And he goes, I think I'm going to marry her anyway. And she goes, now, now. She goes, put her on the phone. And she gets on the phone and my grandmother offers my mother 10,000 in diamonds to walk away. No, in diamonds, bro. Indians have a lot of jewels. Indians have a lot of jewels. 10 grand. 10 grand in diamonds to walk away. And my mom is like, are you going to tell her? And so he gets on the phone and she's pregnant. And my grandmother says, I'll be there. there in two weeks. And she moves to America.

Moves. I mean, two, three, whatever the number of weeks is. And she moves there. And both parents are doctors, so they have to go to work. And so my grandmother basically takes care of my sister and then me. Your sister's older. Yeah, a little older. So she ends up approving? Or is she? Yes. I mean, to some degree. My mother really is the one who took care of my grandmother in the end. And throughout her life, really, made sure she was happy and successful. But my grandmother never quite got over it. You know, she never quite got over the fact that she didn't get to pick. And so they all always had like a conflict. There was always a conflict.

Were your parents together and had a good marriage? Yeah. They were together till the end. See, I watched the documentary Meet the Patels. Yeah. I know that dude, Ravi. You do. Yeah. And what I was blown away by was the arranged marriages, they still, like when you see them years later, they're still laughing with each other. They're still in this documentary, still having fun with each other. You're seeing what I was surprised by was the sort of success rate that an arranged marriage had versus a what we call traditional here.

But also, I know that's one documentary from the POV. of this director and filmmaker, and that might not be the case for everyone. But I was blown away that these people went along with it. It's still that tradition. Yeah, I mean, my uncles, aside from my father, my uncles were all in arranged marriages. And did it work out? One of them got divorced and the other two stayed. Now, are they staying like a lot of American couple stay? Who could know? Who could know, right? And then, there are other, some of my cousins, a few of them got arranged and one of them or two of them ended up in divorce. So I think the idea is super antiquated. Like there's no fucking way I would

ever get in. I mean, in fact, when I went to India when I was 20, I was sitting there having, you know, a coffee with my mother and her best buddy from medical school in Madras, South India. and the doorbell rang. And this hot little, like, you know, 19-year-old rolls in with her mother. And they sit and we chat. Okay, boom, they leave. And then, you know, about 10 minutes later, like, you know, a 17-year-old walks in with her mother.

And I'm like, what's going on? And four or five different women came in. And they're like, look, you're, you know, you're an Indian in America. And you're, like, a pretty good idea here. Like, you like, you like one of these girls, you know. I'm like, I'm 20, man. No. absolutely not. They want you to lock down early, huh?

Well, my mom was like... Is it all about family? Is that what it is about? Yeah, they were all like... And my mom was like, I know you're not... I mean, she goes, I told them no. She was, I'm not trying to arrange your marriage. I know you. Of course, we're not going to do that. But they have to take a shot at you. They're still coming by that house. I mean, there's no scenario where I could marry somebody I didn't really know that well. Like, I don't know how they do it.

I get why they do it, but I don't know how they do it. So then is your dad sort of a black sheep? Is he the first one to buck that trend and the tradition in the family? He is. Yeah. I mean, but he's, you know, black sheep is interesting. I mean, nobody ever mistreated him for it. But at the core, he got a chick pregnant and then married her.

And not one that someone said. You get this one pregnant. Not approved. Yeah, yeah. And my mother was always like, even though she was a very like liberal and open-minded person, she was like, I'm higher cast than him. That's what I want to ask you. So she's higher cast than your father is.

Who's by the way, plenty high. So how were your paternal grandparents with that? Were they like, whoa. My grandmother was the only one left. The other ones had all died. And was she approved? You know. She liked that she was a higher cast, but she really was burned that she didn't get to pick her husband's.

I'm sorry. You're, how about your dad's parents? Oh, no, they were gone. They were dead. They were both gone. Yeah, they were dead. Okay, so now you have two parents. When do they get married?

Are they already married when they have you? They get married before my sister was delivered. Okay. Although that doesn't make sense. Yeah, right? because either they got, because I've seen the wedding photos and my mom is skinny. Makes me think they must have gotten married after. In between you guys.

Well, yeah, must have. Must have. Because it just doesn't add up. And this is the first time I'm realizing. You're doing a math right now? I'm like, wait a minute. She wasn't pregnant of those pictures. So my sister must have been born out of wedlock.

There's no other, there's no other explanation. So your dad's, man. he's got a lady he picked himself pregnant out of wedlock gets married gets her pregnant again well wait so why is grandma upset about she's already got a kid he's already got a kid with this lady when they told him about you no no it was when they told them about my sister oh got it got it that's the that was the issue got it yeah you're just too bad now he's coming when i came along she was thrilled. And to be frankly with you is because

I was a boy. Is that right? Yeah. This desire, it makes it sound like Indians are really like archaic, but in terms of this male air, it matters to them.

We carry on the name. You know, I think that frankly at the time in India, you couldn't be a woman and really a accomplish money outside the house in the same way men could. Now, obviously, my mother was a doctor. So the things had changed.

You know, India's had, you know, a leader that's a woman twice that they voted for. So there's a lot of... Blows me away that other countries have had that. We have not had one. That's wild. Yeah. But I mean, you know, in a second, I ask about your mom. So you say in the 60s, I believe you said they came here.

So your mom early on is not only Indian. But she's a woman too doing this. So is she a big deal in the medical world back then, at least for who she is and what she's doing at the time? Like she was a very skilled radiologist. Like when Reagan came to town, they called her up and they said, are you a Democrat? And she goes, of course. And they said, if the president gets shot, will you take care of him? And she said, of course.

Absolutely. And so she was one of the doctors on call in case. you know in case something happened. I didn't know they did that. Oh, yeah. They would say who's, who are the best people in town, you know,

we'll call them and make sure they're just available in case something happens, you know. It's interesting. You could be like, nah, I'm not going to take care of that guy. You could really say that.

Right, right, right, right, right. That's right. That's right. But yeah, I mean, she came, when she came here, it was Chicago in the 60s, right? So there was a, in addition to the civil rights movement,

there was a massive women's rights movement, right? And my dad was like, well, okay, we had the two kids, we did the thing here, let's go back and live in India. She goes, I'm not going back there. And he goes, what do you? She goes, I'm not, I already, I have way more rights over here. She goes, I'm not going back there. She goes, you can go back if you want to, but we're staying there.

Because I'm more free here. more. A person. Yeah. I mean, look, Indian women have accomplished a ton over there. Like I mentioned, the prime minister. But I think it was just not as caught up as it is now. Like, it's apparently now a lot, a lot better. It's still not here. But it's on its way.

You know. So what's it like growing up for you in Chicago then? Are you, like we talked before we recorded, you're the Indian family? Are you- Yeah, the only one. The only one. Like for miles and miles and miles around. There's no Indian community in the area. No.

We were on the, we were on the sort of the vanguard of it. Like, and we were living in Hinsdale, which is like a, you know, it's like a white suburb, right? And, but, you know, I had two doctor parents, right? So where there was no doubt racism in. the country and in the city of Chicago and the suburbs. Sure, of course there was, right? But we were coming in at a financial level that was confusing, I think, to people, you know, because we were skiing in steamboat and we were going to England and France and whatever. And there were people who were like, oh, yeah, these are, they're doctors and what the, you know, so we were always treated with

immense respect. Okay. You know, like I don't, and it's why when it comes to racism, if you ask me, the story isn't the same as what I see in the news and the, you know, it's not, it wasn't. Like, you know, the worst it got for me as a kid was my best friend. He had white, he was white, blonde hair. And he said, you're brown because your mom left you in the toaster too. and I said, you're white because your mom didn't toast.

Right? And that was, that was, you know, it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean, ball busting when you're kids, yeah. It doesn't mean people didn't say things privately about me, who the fuck knows? I mean, people make, used to make Indian jokes routinely, but I always kind of thought they were funny. Like, I was, I always played the Indian in Cowboys and Indians. always.

I never played the cowboy. You were never a cowboy. Never. And we used to do that thing where you go, and my grandmother was like, stop. And I'm like,

what? She goes, you know, that's the sound you make at an Indian funeral when someone dies. And I'm like, you can't even do the sound

and the, you know, and people are like, you're a terrible Indian if you won't do the sound. You're like, okay, well.

Yeah. But I mean, I was trying to be... You never had an issue with friends' parents not want you to spend the night or any of that, nothing. You were always welcome.

Never. Never. And I, you know, they were, you know, like my friend's parents were, like, from Kansas and they just were like, fantastic. I mean, like, they, they, you remember racial language around black people.

You'd hear it, right? Well, how old are you, Jay? Uh, 57. Yeah, I'm 52. We grew up with truly tasteless jokes. Remember those books? And there were Polish, but there were dead baby jokes. There was a whole section of every.

You couldn't even print that book today. Great, great books. Great fucking mom. I used to sit in the bookstore and read those and Farside. I could just, the lady's like, are you going to buy this book? I'm like, no, I'd sit there and read Farside and fucking truly tasteless joke. And there were volumes of them. Yeah.

Volumes of them. Yeah, right. And so, you know, it was, but they were, yeah, I was very, very accepted. But the place where I would say it started to kind of, I had to pull off, hooking up with white girls as not their ideal image of what. You know, because all girls in the country are fed Sean Cass. and they're fed, you know, like, you know, Fet times at Richmond High, they're fed a guy. Sure.

And I'm not, I don't look like that guy, right? And so. Does that work against you or for you? It worked against me. Okay. But I had to figure out how to do it. And it made me, probably made me really lean into the funny. Because there was no doubt I was funny to them and charming to them.

And I was also also the fastest guy in the neighborhood. Oh, yeah? And at the time being fast meant being cool, because you're picked first in all the games. Capture the flag, smear the queer we used to play. Yeah. And I was fast. And so I was valuable. And, you know, the girls who would kind of hang around, they were like, pretty fast.

He's got it funny. And we would be drinking and I would manage to pull it off. you know, I managed to certainly pull it off. What I always felt was I didn't get the easy stuff, the one where I would be with, like, friends and some random hot girl would walk up and then be like, you're cute, and they, you know, they do that. And I'm like, I never got that. I mean, I did get it eventually.

But initially I didn't get that. And it bothered me a little bit that how hard I had to work for. Yeah. But, you know, look, in the country's, like, origin, in the origin, in the order. origin of this country, it says, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. And I thought that must be true. And so I'm like, I'm equal. I mean, it says so in the thing, even though I know they didn't mean it for women are black people or brown people than we weren't around. But had they thought about it properly, they would have written it more explicitly.

luckily, luckily they didn't. It didn't even occur to them. Yeah. That some brown guy could come here and hook up with their white women. You never had an issue with that. Now, I think about it, no parents were problematic with you dating their white daughter. There was a Jewish girl who I dated in summer school and her dad, to her, called me the Bhopal Flash. The Bhopal Flash was enormous chemical.

explosion in India. And it blew up in like the mid-80s. This chemical plant. Like three-mile island here. Yeah, there's like a chemical plant. And he's calling you that. And hundreds of Indians just vaporized. And he would, as his joke, he called me the Bhopal Flash. And he was like, he, what he really didn't want is his, her daughter with like a non-Jewish guy. And you know, look, the, the, the understanding of, of that culture. and the need to procreate. I kind of get it. But no, the answer is, you know, there were a couple girls I dated who were like, I probably shouldn't introduce you to my dad.

And I'm like, I get it and I don't care. And so what? Like, is that the worst? I'm having, I hear, yeah. I'm putting my penis inside of you. Is the worst thing? Is that the worst thing that's happening? Like, I'm like, everything's a little tough for every.

Is that my crutch to bear? Okay, fine. My cross to bear. right okay so what what point in your career or life excuse me do you decide to make comedy your career and and how's that met by two doctor parents well i was i was i was i got made people laugh my friends then i i ended up in high school i went to boarding school lake forest academy where my sister was already a student and i end up in the second I ask you, what exactly are they teaching you in boarding school? What are they trying to,

what's different about even a private regular school? Well, you know, my mother had read a story about some black kids getting bullied in the public school, a grade school. And she's like, that's not going to be a good mental start if this happens to our kids. So she goes, we'll send you to the best private school in the area. And she always told me, what you do is you find out where the Jewish kids go and that's where you send the kids. And now it's you find out where the Indian kids go and that's where you send them.

But whatever. So at the time, we were the only Indian kids in the school. And there was no bullying, like zero. No racial bullying, I can tell you that. Because there are only 25 kids in the class in grade school. Oh, is that in? Yeah. So they're like being watched.

There's no chance that you could get away with it. And what's, do you sleep there? No, no. Well, when I go to high school, yeah. Yeah. High school. So you went boarding school all through? Just starting in high school.

Oh, just starting high school. And my sister was already there. She really liked it. I didn't really want to go. I was like, let me go to the public school. I knew a bunch of kids that were going there. And my parents had gone to boarding school when they were tent in India, British boarding schools.

And I was like, they're like, just go for a year. See how you do. And so I did. And immediately I had this Japanese roommate from Japan named Shingo Suzuki. And I'm like, this is some fucking least John Hughes motherfucking thing I'm going to, I mean, can you fucking believe it? And I'm also, I'm also in the minority dorm. And I'm like, listen, I'm like, I like animal house too. What am I doing?

Yeah, why am I in this fucking dorm? The tiny dorm. The dorm they could keep an eye on, so no one's getting bullied. And I'm like, gosh, fucking shit. And the kid, you know, Shingo, he didn't speak a word. None. And he had an older brother, Matsu, who was, like, three years older. The rumor was they both knew karate.

And I know they're from Japan. I know karate's from another place, but okay, whatever. So Shingo gets a boil on his face, like a real big thing. It's a huge pimple it looks like. And I'm like, I got a roommate with a boil, and he doesn't speak Japanese. and I'm just really annoyed with my situation quickly. And I come home to my room and it's locked. And I'm like trying to get in with my key,

but there's a body leaning up against the door. And I smell what I know has to be weed, right? I know it. And I'm like... I just smoked at that point. No? No. No, I thought it was for bad people.

Me too. And I, you know, I drank. I mean, I drank a lot. already quite a bit by at the end of seventh grade and eighth grade. So I was hip in my view. But weed, I don't know. And the weed, if you get caught with weed at that boarding school, one strike you're out. Kicked out of school.

Same with alcohol. And so I was like, oh, Shingo and this other dude down the hall are in there smoking weed. And they open the door and they look through the crack. They're like, we're busy. And I'm like, okay. So I go down the hall to my buddy's house and my buddy's room, they're smoking one. weight in there and he goes and my friends like hey that's pretty bad I'm like you know I could get kicked out if if the people are like hey they're all smoking weed in there they think I'm

so I fucking tell on him and I tell the proctor the whatever the senior who lives on her hall and he's like well that's I'll talk to them I'll take care of this meanwhile I'm thinking I can get a new roommate right because he's going to get kicked out but now this guy's like no I'm I'll take care of it and I'm like he's not going to take care of it. So I tell the vice principal, I go to the thing and I'm like, he was smoking weed in there. Dude is kicked out of school. Okay. So is the other guy. And everyone is like, you fucking nark. And I'm like, I didn't do it. Of course, I did do it. And, and I'm like, it's going back to Japan. Oh, yeah. No, he's going to military school in America. Can you imagine

how rough that was for Shingo? Fucking shaved head. Oh, my God. Right. And he doesn't speak English and he's about to go get yelled at in English from this far away. They're going to screaming. Oh, my God. Kids in that school. My God. So now I'm the narque going through freshman year. And people are like, this fucking narque.

And I'm like, no, I'm cool. I want to hook up with chicks. And so I'm having a kind of a hard landing. And my sister's like, why don't you get in the play? She goes, I'm in the play. I'm in the chorus. And I'm like, okay. She goes, you make tons of friends.

I'm like, okay, play, whatever. So I audition for the play. There's a huge chorus, and they don't even take me in the chorus. And I'm like, they say no. What the fuck? You know, I'm not even getting that to be a chorus. And that was the beginning. Your badness will stand out.

That was the beginning of my, fuck you, I'm going to do it anyway. Okay. So the next play, I'm like. This is ninth grade? Yeah. I'm like, I'm coming, bum. And so I get cast in this next play. I'm brigadoon. I play a Scottish clansman. I've got a kilt on. And I sing a couple lines. And the

teacher's like, you're pretty good. And I end up becoming the lead in all these plays. You know, eventually like, you know, death of a salesman, kissed me, Kate, a lot of singing and dance it and just regular acting. And I'm getting laughs in the place. Had you ever sang before in front of people? No, I was in the chorus. Did you know you could sing a little bit? Carriotune. I played Tony in West Side Story. That's how good I used to be. Okay. I can't do it anymore.

And then I graduate to Colgate University where I went to school. And I'm in all the plays. I'm getting laughs. I'm getting laughs. And I'm like, you know, I'm going to give this career a try. But first, instead of just taking what I've done here, I'm going to go to Chicago and I'm going to see if I can make strangers laugh. If I can make strangers laugh, I'll give this career a try.

And so I go to Chicago, like I take a semester off and I study there, but I'm, and I get involved in the Improv Olympic and I'm in a like an improv group with like a mom, an accountant who wants to come out a little more. And like we were the worst improv group in Chicago. And we were getting zero laps. Meanwhile, Chris Farley. So what, you had created an actual group. This wasn't class. No, I was part of the Improv Olympic. I was in classes with this guy Delclose, who was the teacher.

Chris Farley was in the class. class. Sharna. I've heard that name so many times with all the people. Deekner was in the class. Okay, yeah, yeah. These guys were the top comedy group and my buddy James Grace was in that group. And they were killing. And then we would go up and it would be crickets. And I'm like, this is not. This is not. I haven't made anybody laugh. So I go, I write 10 minutes of stand up. I go do a standup show in Chicago, like an improv, whatever, open mic. And I get some laughs. And I'm like, okay, okay. I'm going to give this career. a try at some point. And my dad is like,

because they're no, what do you mean? You're going to give this career? My dad, you know, when I was applying to college, I had a B plus average in high school. And he's like, and I applied to all these Ivy League schools

because I'm like, they're going to want me. And he goes, he goes, why would they want a junkie B plus Indian where there are all these good A plus Indians to choose from? And I was like, I mean, this dude was number one. was number one. I'm like they, and they were right. I didn't get into any of those schools. And so they were like, what do you, are you out of your mind? There are no Indians on the screens.

None, except for Ben Kingsley. And, you know, the, they weren't going to make a Gandhi too, the way that one ended, right? I mean, there wasn't going to be another movie for me, right? So I was like, I was like, okay. And then I remember telling my dad, I was talking to my dad about a movie and it was short circuit. I remember short circuit. Is that Spielberg? I don't think so. No?

No, I don't think so. I remember the robots. It might be short circuit two. He goes, you have to see short circuit too. There's an Indian in it. And I said, Dad, that's not an Indian. So it's a white guy in Brownface. It's Fisher Stevens in Brownface.

Is that right? Yeah. And he goes, well, it's as close as we get. And I'm like, give me a few minutes. Give me a fucking few years. I'm going to make that happen. And then I decided, you know, somewhere along, you know, I'd started a comedy group at Colgate, which eventually became the comedy group I'm in now, Broken Lizard.

And I was like, the only way I'm going to get on the screen is if I write my own scripts and put an Indian in the middle of the movie. And then they'll have to cast me. And then I was like, they might cast somebody else, right? So I better direct this movie. So I learned how to direct. and then I directed and raised the money and produced it and with a buddy of mine who really produced it.

I just sort of raised money. And then I forced myself into the middle of the movie, shot the movie, got into Sundance, and people are like, oh, there's one. There's a real Indian right there. I'm the Jackie Robinson of Indian comedians. I mean, I am. You can ask Mindy Kaling.

You can ask Aziz. I'll fucking tell you. They give you the nod. They'll tell you. Absolutely. Um, so did they try? Because I've had so many comedians. I've had to pitch as myself, Josh Wolf is one of my favorite stories where he pitched his show to NBC, the Josh Wolf show.

And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then at the end, they literally said, so who do you see playing Josh Wolf? And he was like, me. And they were like, yeah, nah. Yeah. Did you get any of that? We got, you know, because we made this film Puddle Cruiser independently, it was like we made it at shot at a Colgate after we graduated. We were in it.

And then we tried to go make super troopers. And we were going around town with this script and nobody wanted to finance it because we were in it. And they were like, you know, this one guy is like, I'll give you the money, but Ben Affleck has to play that part, Thorny. And I'm like, that's my part. And he goes, not in this picture, kid. And I was like, dude.

And I was like, dude. And so we somehow man. at the last second, when we were basically about to break up, we got the money and made it. And we were then, we sold it. And so we proved. You did more than sold it, but you created a fucking, yeah. We made it for a million two and sold it for about three and a half, right? Yeah.

So we were making Hollywood money. And then they were like, okay, okay, you guys, you guys can actually be in the next one because you made a lot of money for us. And, you know, I forced my way in the door. Had I been a white actor, I would have never learned how to write. I would have never learned how to direct because I wouldn't have felt like I had to. It would be like that cute girl coming up to me, be like, you're cute, you want to make out? Like, that didn't happen to me.

That wasn't going to happen for me in show business. I had to force my way in the door with, you know, whatever means necessary. And how hard has it been to stay in? Look, at the end of the day, it's incredibly hard to maintain a show business career because you're known for that one success and they're like, we don't need you anymore. But if you keep writing movies with your character, an Indian character in the middle, and people are like, they made money on the last ones. And we keep, now we're going to make our, you know, pretty soon probably going to make

our ninth movie, the next one, you know, like Python made four. Yeah. You know, like, and I'm not saying we're Python. We modeled ourselves. I mean, Monty Python, broken lizard. We named ourselves after them. Is that right? Yeah, we're trying to.

Holy Grail. Yeah, we're trying to be that. So let me ask you this. I have a couple questions. I want to know who was more supportive at first, mom or dad, but also I use this example all the time. They're doctors, you know, and I say all the time, you know what they call the person who finished last in med school?

But for a doctor, there's a very specific program. You do this, you do this, you go here, you do this, you do this, you become a doctor, you become a surgery, become whatever. For us, there's none of that shit. Like, it's literally you, someone could look at you and be like, you just mind me of an X and I don't want to work with you. It can be that dumb sometimes here. So, who was more supportive at first? And were they super resistant? Like I'm saying, like they're like, wait, what are you talking about? We're both top of our class, and if you just do A to Z, you become this. They thought, they knew I was a little bit of an odd duck in terms of the Indian kid. They, you know, they knew I drank. They knew I was. Is that not typical?

I drank it. I mean, for Indian kids growing up. I got hammered in fifth grade. Did you how? What the hell did you find it? I went behind my dad's bar with my buddies. We put in like two inches of every single alcohol. Jesus. And a pit tennis pitcher. Oh, you did it all in one pitcher. And put ice in there, shook it up, walked around the neighborhood and drank it.

Got absolutely blasted. You probably got, fuck. The little fifth grade body with liquor. Yeah. And my friends rang the doorbell and ran home. I drank the most because I wanted to prove I'm that fucking kid in the movies. And my mom is like,

and, you know, she sat up with me all night. I was throwing up. and I was apparently calling her a fucking bitch, right? And I don't know. I don't know. And then the next day, they took me to dinner and I couldn't even look at the glass of wine on the next table.

And they, you know, my parents are never big on punishment. They're like, that's your punishment. And I'm like, okay. And I didn't drink again for another two years. And then in seventh grade... By the way, yeah, that's funny. Seventh grade. Yeah, two years.

Seventh grade started drinking and never stopped. Still never stopped. And, you know, they knew I probably was, you know, into weed. And they kind of knew I was probably into, at some point in the Coke. And they would say stuff like, everything in moderation. And I'm like, everything? And your sister was more straight-laced? A little more, yeah.

I mean, absolutely. I mean, she dropped acid in high school. But she was, you know, she was like number three in her class. He was, too. Man. Yeah. I mean, by the way, that was number seven. I wasn't like I was nothing, right?

That top ten, bro. But B plus, right? And so she, she was, went to law school and she was better. Yeah, she was just, it was impossible to say, like, objectively from a numbers perspective, she was right to higher. But they liked what I was. I was this rebellious guy. Okay. And they liked.

and they knew I was like, to them, like insanely cocky. They were like, how do you think you're going to? Okay, you really think so? Okay. But I would accomplish things. They would go, okay, wow, you did that. So they were like, he's definitely going to fail, but we're not going to say that to him. We're going to say, what are you going to do in four years?

We're going to give you four years. What are you going to do? And I said, I go to law school. They're like, okay, deal. And so I've talked to them. They're like, yeah, we knew you'd fail. We knew you'd fail and you'd go to law school. And that was good enough for us.

Law school, great, fantastic. We wanted you to have a, you lived a certain life. We wanted you to have a life similar because, you know, the other life would be harder on you. And we are, you were ready, was right in your grasp if you wanted it. And if you're going to let it go, just make the deal. Four years, go to law school. And, you know, got into Sundance and they went there. How quickly?

Was it in that four-year window? No. It was seven years. Seven. You know, but we were doing shows in New York and we were selling them out and we were getting on little tiny things on Comedy Central. And they were like, seeing enough progress that we're going to keep going. I mean, I can't believe you even did that thing. Right.

You're on that TV. Yeah, you're on the fire. Yeah. Holy crap. And then we get in a Sundance. They come and they're like, they see the crowds. I was going to say, oh, my God. they're so i mean you know and people because oh is that your son they're like wow and indians love

and you're all off their skiing they're like look at these guys i know Indians you know the great thing about india is it makes the most movies of any culture in the entire planet i wanted to mention that before so bollywood hadn't really popped off or any of this like coming over here i mean as far as our awareness here you still are just before that then you're like eric estrata before the Latin boom hit, bro. You know, like when J-Lo and Ricky Martinose guys got it. Right, that's right. I mean, there were no...

The only Indians on screen at the time were Peter Sellers in The Party. Bro, I'm ignorant as fuck. Peter Sellers is Indian? No, no, he played an Indian. Oh, I was going to say, I love Peter Sellers. Watch a movie called The Party, and it's a fucking great movie, and he's great in it.

He is. I love him. It's why I always say to my kids, Not everything is racist. I'm glad to hear you say that. You know, like, there are things that are a little racial, but that's a little bit natural human behavior. Somebody cuts you off in your car.

You notice their race. That's the first thing you notice, or their sexuality or whatever. And you're like, you mother, you know, like, it's just reality, right? And so not everything is meant to be mean, you know, like racism, you know, There was the South where there were shooting black people with hoses and unleashing dogs. And there was the Chicago suburbs where the girl was like, I don't know, you're not the, you don't look like Sean Cassidy. Like, one's racism and one's like, no, you know, preference.

Right. Like it's not, I don't know. I mean, ultimately, you know, the beauty of this country at the time was that there was a, if you made an independent film in the 90s with your friends, you made it cheap. Harvey Weinstein might buy it, put it in 1,400 screens, and boom, you're Ben Affleck, right? Like, that was possible. And all we did is we're like, well, let's take that system. We'll make a movie, plug it in.

Dazed and Confuse, you got. McConnor, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck. What's his name now that's on Yellowstone? That guy is, the RIP guy is from Dazed and Confused. The Red Hair dude. Yeah. Yeah. It ended up launching like monsters, monsters, not just like, oh, I've seen that guy, monsters.

And I'm sure I'm missing some that are in there, too. Jeremy London or one of those guys. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I mean, it's a great movie. That's a great. McConaughey, you said, right? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, so that was available to us. So sadly, it's not available now. Like, it's not the same, you know? like now you make an independent film and Netflix buys it, does no advertising, and they're like, maybe somebody will watch it. And often some people do watch it, but it doesn't have the majesty and the magic and the movie star. I was on big screens in wide release. And people were like, that guy's a movie star? And really what they meant was I started a movie. You know, movie stars.

It's another thing. But you know what I mean? Like, I was up there. And so they got used to it. And they're like, okay, I guess they can be up there. I guess we don't have to put Peter Sellers in brown face. But, you know, it was, but, you know, to, to complain about the racism of Hollywood is a little, it's not that it's silly. It's it, here's how it works. The majority of the writers when I was coming up, and I mean like 99.9% were white. So their writing stories. Are mostly male as well?

Yeah. Or do you have a mix of female on there? Mostly, mostly male. Just curious. And they, it's not the case now. Mm-hmm. But they naturally are writing for the memories of their high school. Sure.

When they were going to school with a bunch of white kids and they're trying to date the hot, white girl or the hot white guy. And the Indian guy is the funny buddy, often with an accent, long duck dong, right? Right? That dude is funny as fuck. Long dung as fuck, right? But if I'm looking to get into a movie, I'm playing long duck dong. Like, that's how I'm getting in that movie.

And when you play long duck dong, you're not going to be the guy who eventually, you know, is fucking Jennifer Anston in some other movie. That's not how that's going to go down. And so you got to, like, I was like, I don't want to be long duck dong. I want to be the guy who gets to fuck Jennifer Anston in the movie. So I'm going to write myself into the middle of this movie as this guy who actually does hook up. And see people go, this Indian guy can hook up. Yeah, okay. You know, it's just, it's eventually you realize it's sort of like, it's not mind control,

but it's like conditioning. You're conditioning people to see you as the person you are. Like, listen to this voice. Like, where's it from? Right. And I'm a Chicago Bears fan. I mean, I've seen almost every single goddamn game since I was a kid. Is that how you think of Indians?

No. No. I play golf every single day. I shot even par yesterday. Did you really? Yeah. Fuck, yeah, dude. Yeah.

I mean, is that how you think of Indians? No. Right. And so, you know, the job of the people like me is to change the minds. You know, Irish used to be do not apply. The Italians used to be called all sorts of awful names. Now, they're all the ones in Trump's party trying to exclude the new guys, right? Indians, you know, in 20, 30 years, like, we're hoping to be in.

that Republican Party excluding all the new guys. That's what we want. So once... I'm kidding. I'm all for whatever. I'm kidding. Politics can have at it. Once you do that, once you accomplish this and your parents see you up there, are they just

blown away? Because now you're doing something nobody's ever even done before. Is it something that, you know, you look back on fondly later and realize what you did? Or are you feeling it in the most? You know, do you know what's happening? I'm not feeling it at the moment because as far as I'm concerned, I'm an American dude in a comedy movie. And I'm like, well, that's what I wanted it to be and that's what I have.

And it worked amazingly. And, you know, I always say the country is very big-hearted, that it was like, sure, great, fine. That's funny. Funny is funny, right? The country is open-minded enough to go, yeah, this guy, sure, yeah, it worked. It worked. It's hilarious. Listen, I've always felt that about comedy.

Yeah. I feel like if it's funny, people fucking go with it. Yeah. I understand drama, whatever, whatever. But if it's fucking funny, I don't think people give a shit what race you are, what you're wearing. None of it. If it's just fucking funny, then I think people resonate and relate to that.

Yes. I agree 100%. I agree 100%. And my parents were like, you know, they couldn't really. deny it because I was continuing to make films. And a living at it. And a living. You're not bumming money from them. I'm assuming. No, it was not. Right. Right. And so they were kind of like, wow. And they told me then, like, we thought you were going to fail. Of course they do. But I mean, that's what success ultimately is is a bunch of failures. If you stay in it long enough, you learn and you

grow and boom, you finally get one. I always say show business is like a tiny island. of success in a vast ocean of rejection. Oh, yeah, you're not wrong about that. You get way more nose and... And you have to be tough about it, right? And that's like that guy, Wolf, you know, you have to be, you have to say, okay, you said no to me, but I'm going to figure out a way somehow.

Has there ever been a project where you were like, fuck yeah, this one, this one, and it got a lot of momentum and then just no. There has been something where you were like, man, that one, I wish we could have arrived. Or maybe you're still trying with it. I never in my mind give up. Like, I never go, oh, we lost.

It's not going to happen. I always am like, I'm going to go hide in the bushes for a while and I'm going to pounce when my moment happens. I mean, it's the behind the scenes of show business is about crafty people who are like, you know, I'm not going to take out this script now because I can feel I'm a little colder than I would. But when this other movie gets announced, I'm going to attack. And you're trying to constantly, you know, force the person with the money to go,

shit, this might be a good bet. And he's going to make money with somebody else if he doesn't make money. I should, I should, uh, you know, like, because if they make the wrong decisions enough, they get fired. And if they make a right decision and they make some money, they're like, hey, look who's the genius? It's hard for them. And it's hard. But you've got to be reasonable and crafty about, about, uh,

When do attack? And look, you know, I have directed, I think, 10 films already. Is that right now? And with Broken Lizard, it'll be like eight or nine with Broken Lizard. But maybe 11, okay, 11 films. But you have to be crafty about it. There have been times that I've been cult, you know, but you can't be, oh, I'm so sad. But you've also, you're directing and putting yourself in the films.

Yeah. So you're shattering two fucking. stereotypes and crack. Well, maybe not shattering, but you're the tipping point for not only Indian directors, but also actors. And you're doing both of them in this one fucking film. Because I have to. Because like I was saying, the writers who are writing, they're all writing for white people because that's what they naturally do, right? They're not like, hey, I'm going to put this in fictitious Indian guy. I know nothing about it into the center of this movie. So the opportunities for me as an actor were almost zero unless I want to play the long duck don't character.

What was less for you? What was directing or acting role? Oh, acting. Directing, sure. They don't give a shit. Who gives you behind the camera? Who cares? But acting, they're like, you know, look at all the people who came out of days of confused. Like they all acted in other people's shit.

Less so for me. Also all white people. Well, okay. They are. Because they have all these opportunities, right? and you can go, oh, that's racist. Okay, I suppose. I don't mean it like that.

I just mean you also don't have, you're also Indians. So you've got even a harder. Right. Yeah. I don't see it as racist. I just see it as a natural way that people write. When I write, I write an Indian in almost everything I do because I'm writing for me. So it's just, it's the story of what the writers changing the color of the writers in the, in the television rooms and the phone rooms.

That's the key to changing the people on the screen. Because those, you know, you get a kid from whatever, Harlem writing in a room like New Girl. And they're like, we should have this character is a really funny guy who happens to be black who was in my neighborhood. And they go, okay, let's guess this guy. And suddenly there's a guy on screen who's fleshed out. And, you know, there was a time where people were like, we have to have more black

stories, right? And they only had all these white writers. And so all these white writers were writing black stories, right? And you're like, okay. And then they would send it to me. They're like, you're kind of black to direct it. You're kind of. Kind.

No, no kidding me. I mean, the kind of, the amount of times I've been like, they're like, can you? No, but they mean it. Yeah. Can you jump on this job? Because we got two white writers, kind of about a black thing. And well, you're a good face to bring in and you make good stuff. And you know, and then, you know, you're like, you know you're along for the ride.

But who gives a shit? shit. Like, I'll make something great and so be it. I mean, it's like, they, Hollywood had they had a choice about me, they would have said, direct more, like, look, I made the Dukes a Hazard, right? I know. I mean, that movie made $180 million. And there was Knoxville and show Liam Scott and Willie and Berk. And the general lien. For the crazy thing. Right. I mean, that is the other side of what my career would have been if I didn't act. Did you grow up watching that show? loved it. Oh my God. It's what a wet dream you get to do that. I had Daisy Duke on my wall. Did you get into General Lee at all? Yeah. I drove that thing. We were on the, we were jumping the generally

into 55 miles an hour of traffic on the 10 freeway in New Orleans. And so what happened was we put the car on a hydraulic lift. And I say we, it wasn't me. It was Dan Bradley. It was the second unit stunt guy. He's a killer. And I was there that day and I was driving in one of the cars because I'm like, I want to watch the General League get launched. And he launched it into the air and it landed in the space between all the other cars. There were cameramen in different cars. And it landed and the front axle always broke on the General E when you jumped it and would slamming into a car. It was incredible.

And I was standing on the 10 freeway and the chief of police, you know, walks up to me. And he goes, hey, son, I'm chief police norms. And I was like, oh, how are you doing? He goes, you getting any trouble down here? You give me a call. And he gives me the card. He goes, anything short of murder. Anything short of murder.

And then he paused. He goes, actually for you, murder's okay too. Yeah. You got the general lead jumping on his. freeways, dude. That is awesome. And then he's like, he goes, he goes, you're going to drive this thing? And I'm like, I mean, I'd like to.

And he goes, calls his police guys out where he goes, you get his guy an escort. Bullshit. And so we're fucking flying on the 10 with a police car in front and behind. And the generally. And you can't really get it much faster than about 90 before it's like, yeah. It was incredible. I just, the other night I sat and watched like a 20. minute smash cut of every

generally jump from the show. Someone put it together on YouTube, but it's just jump after jump. And I'm like, yes, yeah, yeah. That's fucking great. Back then, there were guys in those cars. When we were doing it, we did some smaller jumps with guys in the cars, but

you know. So wait, when you say he launched this car, there's no driver in that one there. Were there any drivers in any of the jumps? Some of them. Okay. Some of them. How many cars? How many generalese did you guys have for the movie? On the weekend it got greenlit, you could get a Dodge Charger for about, you know, used one for about 2,000.

A 69? Yeah, like 2 to 4,000. Like it wasn't mint. Like pretty good dot charger. Four grand maybe, right? The word started spreading that the Dukes. And by the end of that weekend, they were going for 10, 15. I mean, we got, we took 25 generalese down to Baton Rouge. And we had a, and we bought 50 police cars from Chris Nolan after his Batman. And we had all those cars sent down there. We had 24-hour garage running. And so we, they would crash the cars in the daytime and they'd send them in at night. They'd bang out what they could and take parts and fix them up. And they'd send them back out to those guys in the daytime. And we left town with one working mint.

condition generally, which is in the Warner Brothers Museum, which they probably don't display because of the roof. I don't know, maybe. I just bought a generally shirt. I looked for one that didn't prominently display the roof. I got me a nice side one, just of the O-1 and it looks good out there, you know. They offered me. Do you have one?

They offered me a generally. And I was like, I said, guys, I live in Hollywood. You know, like, listen. I love what the car stands for, the show. That roof's a problem. The roof's a problem. You know, they... I don't know.

I take that. They called me before we shot, and they're like, we got to take the flag off the roof. And I said, brother, I got a list of other guys who want to direct this movie, and I will bring them in. I will prep them. I'll give them all my notes. But there's no fucking way this Indian is going to be the guy who takes the fucking general... The roof up to generally. Man, I hadn't thought about that.

I said, it's a lot. It's alone enough that I'm doing this. And there got to be some good old boys who are like, what the fuck? But I'm not going to be the fucking guy. Well, they want to change it to an American flag or something? You didn't even get that far. Probably. Probably. And I am like, they're like, well, I don't.

Well, I mean, are you what? Like, they didn't. Isn't it funny to you, because you said about racism and stuff like these, there's people like, we've got to take the flag off the cart. You rerun the show. The show, I could go watch the show on. on air right now. You didn't take the flag off and that.

Why the fuck do we got to do it now? I don't know. And Knoxville... Go for you for not. Knoxville called me and he goes, I'm out. And I'm like, what? He goes, they're taking the flag off the roof.

I'm like, they're not taking the flag off the roof because I'm out. And then when they found out, we were both out, they're like, fine, keep the fucking flag. I mean, but you're like, you got to figure out something. They want to keep the flag on. And so we. ended up in the opening of the movie there's no flag on that roof right i gotta go back and watch it is that right in the opening and it's a crashed up beat up fucking dodged charger and they they get the duke boys smash it up and it's all destroyed and they get the car towed to cooters okay played by

uh... david keckner and um and cooter fucking mince that thing out he paints it orange he gets everything perfect. And they are getting chased by the cops of Dukes and they sneak into cooters and they break out of cooters, crash out, the cops are chasing. They get away. And they end up in Atlanta. And they're on their way to Atlanta to go check some coal samples. And they're in traffic in Atlanta. And people are like honking horns and go, all right, rebel yell. And they're like, all right, brother. And then other people are like, fuck you. And they're like, what, what, what? And eventually they get out of the car and they realize that Cooters painted the Confederate flag on the roof. And then they grow through a real black part of Atlanta and they're stopping at a sign and all

these black dudes, like, what the fuck? You know, and we just dealt with it in a modern way. And it was on the roof the rest of the way. That's smart. I mean, you know, I get it. I get it. But it's called the General League. It's literally called the General League.

It's literally called the General League. Yeah. Dude, thank you for doing it. doing this. This is a great episode. Okay. Before we wrap up here, I'd like to hear advice you'd give to 16-year-old Jay. I would say to 16-year-old Jay to treat the guys from entourage with respect.

What happened? Wait, I can't let you go out on that. I was. What the hell happened? I was living in Hollywood. I'd made a couple movies. I was going to all the parties. I was hooking up with hot actresses.

I was like living it, right? Not to the level that Mark Wahlberg lived it. Okay, I know, I know. But I had a little mini version of it. So, and I'm shooting television. I'm like directing a rest of development. And I'm like, all these fucking real, people are like, this fucking guy.

And so I get a call, my agents, like, there's a television show, HBO. It's called Entourage. Take a look. They want you to direct. I'm like, they're big Super Troopers fans. I'm like, okay, whatever. I watch it.

I'm like, no, this is, this is fucking junk. And so I call my agent, I'm like, I'm not doing that fucking show. I'm like, it's nothing like it. I'm like, I'm living it. It's not like that. These guys are not, this is dorky. This is not working. No.

And he calls me back. He goes, I told him you were going to come in. And I'm like, why? I don't want to fucking do the show. He goes, it's HBO. outed. You can go go in there and get the fucking job. Make it better. And I'm like, okay, I'll go in. So meanwhile, we're pitching with the great Larry Charles, right? Larry Charles, he directed Borat. He was one of the head guys on Seinfeld. He was eventually on curb.

Larry Charles is like, wow. So now Larry Charles wants to direct the new Cheech and Chong movie. And he wants, and we, Broken Litter, come up with a pitch for this idea. And it's a whole Cheech and Chong movie. We come up with the whole pitch. We pitched Larry. He goes, I fucking love it. And we were like, oh, we're going to write it together. And Larry's like, I can't write with five guys. Just let me have it. I'll buy it from you guys. And I'll write. I'm like, you're Larry Charles. You can have the goddamn thing. Fine. But we got to know Larry Charles. And we're like, cool. We know Larry Charles. So I walk in this entourage at HBO. and there's Larry Charles sitting there.

He's fucking an entourage, too. And he's sitting with these two guys. And, you know, I don't know these guys, but I know they made this show. And I spend, I has to be, 30 minutes talking to Larry Charles, ignoring those dudes about Cheech and Chong and da-da-da, and Seinfeld and we're laughing, da-da-da-da. Eventually one of these guys, I think it was Doug, goes, so what did you think of the show? And I'm like, I said, well, look, I mean, I think it's a miss. I think you, I said, I'm living aversion of this life.

And it's, you know, it's a lot more fun. It's a lot funnier than it's just different. It's more, it's just different, okay? It's funnier and it's more irreverent. And, you know, I think it's a mess. And they were like, they've been told I'm. coming in to want to direct their show. And they're like, because they were lied to by the agent, of course.

Of course. Of course. Why the hell is it else? And I'm like, all right. Well, good to know you. And I'm like assuming I don't know anything about enough about television that it's not going to go. And then I'm driving down Sunset and I see these entourage billboards.

I'm like, what the fuck? Why would they make this terrible show? And so I watch the first episode. I'm like, yeah, they did it again. It's the same show. It's terrible. And they watch the second one, I'm like, it's a little more irreverent.

And watch the third one, I'm like, yeah, it's pretty good. And now I've become the biggest entourage fan in Hollywood. I'm like, this show is fantastic. And it's on HBO. I'm like, that's pretty good. And there are all these hot girls in it.

I'm like, oh, I like it a lot. And so I'm sending word. I'm like, hey, I'd like to direct this show. And they're icing me. Nobody will fucking nobody. And so I end up working with almost every single actor on that show. Oh, yeah?

And I'm like, you tell Doug that I'm real big fan of the show. And they're all, I was like, yeah, yeah, well, you should direct the show. And I'm like, yeah, shit. And one by one, they're all told, yeah, I heard your meeting didn't go. So, well. And I'm like, ah, man. Had I done that show, I'm sure I would have directed Game of Thrones eventually. I'm sure I would have been.

And I'm like, and the, like, that. The lesson is don't be an asshole. Just they're trying something creative. The pilots are always hard. Be open-minded. But what were you going for? I see what you're going for. We can make it better this way.

That was really another thing your agent said is make it better. And that's fucking great. That's great advice. It might suck. You might think it suck. Get in there. Make it better then. That's right.

Great episode. Thank you very much, man. Please promote everything you'd like one more time. August 8th. Seventh, eighth, and ninth. I'm at the Alamo Draft House in Arlington, Virginia. And get my app. Yeah.

Vouch Vault and vouch for all the things you love. Follow me. I'll follow you back. And I have a podcast called Mustache Tales with Hayes MacArthur. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. As always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media.

We'll talk to you all next week.