The Pomp Podcast - #395: Comedian Rachel Feinstein on COVID-19 and 2020

Episode Date: September 29, 2020

Rachel Feinstein is a stand-up comedian. She is also a new mother and married to a NY Fire Department Captain, which provides a never-ending amount of hilarious content. In this conversation, we discuss having a baby during coronavirus, the impact of the economic shock to comedians, and what has been going on inside NY fire houses over the last few months. ============================== Smart investors know being early is critical to success in crypto. CoinList is where early adopters invest in, earn, and trade the best new crypto assets before they list on other exchanges. Try CoinList Pro and be first to trade Filecoin on network launch. Sign up via coinlist.co/pomp and earn $10 in BTC after you trade $100 ============================== Athletic Brewing is re-imagining beer for the modern adult. We love beer. But we also love being healthy, active and at our best. No matter your motivation, if you want to keep a clear head and drink healthier, we are here for you. Athletic makes non-alcoholic beer that you don't have to compromise to enjoy. The beers are fully flavored, clean ingredient, and a fraction of the calories of full strength beer - they fit in any occasion. Check out www.athleticbrewing.com for more details and free shipping nationwide. ============================== Pomp writes a daily letter to over 50,000 investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy to understand language, while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://www.pompletter.com

What's up everyone? This is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Let's kick this thing off. Rachel Feinstein is a stand-up comedian. She's also a new mother and married to a New York fire department captain, which provides a never-ending amount of hilarious content. In this conversation, we discuss having a baby during coronavirus, the impact of the economic shock to comedians, and what has been going on inside New York firehouses over the last few months. I really enjoyed this conversation with Rachel, and it was as funny as ever. So I hope you enjoy it as well. Before we get into this episode, though, I want to quickly talk about

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You can subscribe at pompletter.com. Again, pompletter.com. All right, let's get into this episode with Rachel. I hope you guys enjoy this one. Anthony Pompliano is a partner at Morgan Creek Digital. All opinions expressed by Pomp or his guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Morgan Creek Digital or Morgan Creek Capital Management. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only. All right, guys. Bang, bang. Rachel is back for round two. What's going on? How are you?

Hey, thank you for having me. Absolutely. I feel like you have a crazy, crazy life to begin with. And now you've got Corona. You have a new baby. You have a husband who is a firefighter who I'm sure is doing all kinds of awesome, cool, crazy things. What has been going on in your life over the last couple of months? It's like a really cool time to have a baby with the first responder in Brooklyn, like around May. I was just like really feeling that. Yeah, it was crazy. But I will say there's a few benefits to a COVID birth, even though there are no commercials for COVID births. There are a few benefits, like no fear of missing out. No unwanted guests. All you have to say is,

sorry, we're trying not to kill her. So there were a couple perks. But it was strange. It was definitely strange to be married to a firefighter during that time. I mean, I get a kick out of being married to a fireman. Usually, it's just something I can like whore out at airports and try to get upgrades with, you know, but it definitely got a little bit real around Corona. That's what I'm like, Oh, this isn't as fun loving a time as it was before. What exactly was going on? So let's talk let's talk about the baby first you obviously were pregnant before corona happened then you have a child uh during this whole thing were you nervous were you scared were you excited because then you didn't have to deal with people like what were you feeling going through i mean i was

definitely scared i was i'm not one of those women that is pumped up about pregnancy to begin with so uh that was a little tough um i mean i first of all i hadn't told people in the beginning because I had recently sold this pilot to Fox based on my life and being married to an FDNY firefighter and just kind of my life with my Jewish liberal, aggressively liberal parents that would have preferred me marrying like a Nigerian lesbian or something. And now my new life of like Staten Island dinner dances and everyone's name is like Gina. And so I sold a pilot about that and I was really excited um then I got pregnant and I was like wait this it's gonna shoot in March when I'll be like an actual whale like I won't be able to hold any laundry basket that can cover it um and

my character wouldn't hold laundry baskets anyway uh my character which is me but um so I was kind of like fuck fuck that's not good timing and then I was just covering it I was just dressing like Bea Arthur, a lot of oversized Paula Poundstone lasers. And then COVID happened. And I was like, oh, it was never going to even shoot in March anyway. So it was a set of problems I never expected to have, you know, because he's, I guess my worst fear being when I was being pregnant was that I would kind of like be isolated and dependent. And then I was, but for completely teach it for reasons. So, um, you know, she's healthy. And as a mother, I start all my sentences that way, by the way, now I just go as a mother. And then I just pass out drunk after that. But

so I'm just I'm grateful for that. But no, I was not into it. All my friends wanted me to like have a home birth. I was like, fuck that I want. Like that, like this lady was like, what are the words that you want surrounding your birth like and I was like I don't know like I don't have a vision I just want like doctors and I don't know sterile I guess that would be a good word around my birth vanity drugs I just wanted to be crunching on drugs and a sterile hospital environment and it was hard to find that in COVID in New York so we moved up to um to a hospital up to Westchester and uh it was yeah it was weird i had gestational diabetes so i had to like prick myself five times a day because the hospital couldn't do any i mean i had to do all virtual appointments they couldn't

do any like diabetic in-person checks for a few months we couldn't do a sonogram so there was like a lot of crazy stuff uh but then she turned out pretty good i feel like going through this is uh it kind of removes a lot of the bullshit of like the kind of, uh, I'll call it like medical theater. Like I feel like there's a lot of just people trying to make people feel good and happy and safe during a lot of this, but like the actual process, uh, I've got a friend right now that's pregnant. And, uh, for the longest time, like she would go to the doctor, but like, um,

her significant other couldn't go with her. Right. And so like, there's all these things where like, it's kind of weird where you don't have like the emotional support, But at the same time, like, I don't know, 50 different visits gets cut down to like the 20 essential ones. Yeah. So it's like kind of this like really weird, like, is that a positive or is that a negative? I'm not really sure.

But it seems to have worked out. There are odd benefits to it, for sure. And the time where you'd be at home nesting, we were doing that, you know, anyway, and not feeling like we were missing out on everything. So there were some weird benefits, for sure. and it was just like in the beginning remember in march when like first of all when i found out i was in florida on the road so everybody at home was pissed that i was in florida and everybody in florida was pissed because i canceled my shows halfway through the weekend and then you feel

terrible as a comic ever doing that because you're letting the staff down and if i wasn't pregnant i would have just kept performing but um i was like it'd be really awkward if i you know killed my baby at like captain brian's in florida comedy club it would just be a really it wouldn't be a good look you know but florida was open they were chilling they were to let you keep they were oh yeah it was bustling i mean the shows were full i don't know if and it wasn't even because of me they were just yeah they that was around the time where you couldn't get a loaf of bread or like toilet paper in brooklyn but uh florida i would just like mention to the lady at the hotel we were staying on she was like blink at me like what just this weird lobotomized blink like what

everything's fine so i uh in maybe july i went to florida to see somebody uh it was an important thing right and when i went uh i felt like there was uh two very different worlds like literally new york everyone's walking around with the masks like you know very serious uh this is but like now there's toilet paper the grocery store like so things are kind of like getting a little normal but still very serious in florida there they were chilling like i don't know if there was ever a period where they weren't chilling but they were just hanging out there was no problem whatsoever yeah like looking at people if you wore a mask you were weird yes for sure definitely and so i had i was walking around in that in march when it was like

remember when tom we found out tom hanks had it and like a couple guys from the golden state warriors and everybody was like oh then we can get it too since we have so much in common it's very strange remember how that made it real for everyone they're like Tom Hanks I'm next obviously uh since we have all the same friends but that was strange I know and then I had my mother on the phone like you know just yelling at me like how can you do this with COVID-19 and like nobody says the 19th anymore my mom is still saying the 19th um and I'm like where does she live again my mom lives in Maryland and yeah I mean she didn't even meet the baby until like four months they were just they had bags over their heads for like four months they were just like

and yeah a hefty plastic bag so all right so all all this is going on you eventually have the child uh meanwhile uh we go through covid which i have no clue what firemen were doing during covid but i wouldn't want to be a fireman or a police officer during any of that and then we get the protests and then we get like riots i guess i i don't know there was like some protests some riots sometimes they were mixed sometimes they weren't it's funny my my family called him protest and his family called him riots it was amazing like my mom was like are you gonna join any of the protests and his family watch out for the riots it's funny yeah they uh thank god there was no um to fund the fire department that would have been awkward but um i i feel i feel like uh

firemen are kind of safe like no one ever like goes at the fire department because they realize when the fire starts you want somebody to show up to put it out yeah i mean there's definitely like there's definitely moments when like if i'm having an argument with him on the street when he's in his uniform uh that i wouldn't mind walking by a protest and people you know against him but um there's got to be some cop who's like his wife is just like yeah yell at him for me today thank you you know but no everybody gets around i mean everybody likes fireman and what's not to like about, I mean, you know, the scene could be what it is, but they tend to be pretty hot. I like being a firewife or badge banger. That's what I prefer to call it. What do they call firewife is one of

the terms I tried to get started, but it couldn't really get much traction. Okay, so now I just identify as a badge banger. So what was he doing this entire time? Well, okay, so he was, I realized As I watch you try to keep up with what I'm saying, I realize I am quite manic. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I feel like we're talking about a person who kind of exists, kind of doesn't. Because every time,

last time you came on and this time, we don't say his name. We don't say what he does. We just say fireman. And then you just rattle off a bunch of funny stories. I'll make him pass by at some point. He saw you on CNN or something. So he was very impressed.

I think it was CNN. You were on CNN, right? good i tricked him yes perfect finance in a very in an impressive looking suit uh that suit was from kohl's let's not call it let's not call it uh expensive or so yeah so he totally knows who you are and you're on all his uh crypto apps so i'll make him come to us if anyone didn't listen to the first episode uh rachel's husband is a fire chief if i remember correctly he's a he's a fire captain but he just passed his cheap test so he will be a cheap okay and he is a uh secret bitcoiner or uh is he an outed bitcoiner he's outed outed and my

favorite part of the last episode was rachel told a story where other people from the fire department come over and they just yell things either about the government bitcoin or lock her up and i said that sounds about like every bitcoiner on twitter oh yeah lock her up but uh no it's a lot yeah there's always and they all scream about the founding fathers when they're drunk there's a lot of founding fathering um and then they come home with like conspiracy theories like he goes to the firehouse and he comes back i have to make sure and he'll come back like vinnie said they legit went to the moon i'm like no they did like vinnie knows nothing and don't believe anything after someone says legit please stop listening but yeah they come

home because they have access to his brain for like more of the week than i do so i can only undo so much there's a lot of pamphlets going around what's the craziest conspiracy theory that you've heard this wasn't pete specifically but um i was at this dinner dance one of the staten island dinner i'm always the only jew too i'm just wait what was a dinner dance what they have an fdny dinner dances where you go with your man and then it's like they he just deposits me at like some shrimp station you know with these goodfellas extras and i uh and then they do it's like fdny dances and so i do you dance with him or do the firemen dance with each other no i dance with him but that would be great i would watch a couple of greased firemen dancing

with each other um i'd prefer them greased but yeah no we we dance with each other there's just like food and you know a lot of acrylics you know with with start like stars and stripes on them and shit and uh yeah that's the world basically and so um they're either there's usually like gina uh vinny um what are the other names there's like four names you know maybe colleen um and they're all are they all like neighbors yeah everybody knows each other and they usually tell me when they know another jew like one of the other chiefs was like i met a jew a very nice lady very nice lady yum kaput like they'll just say one jew thing they've heard of it's a lot does it buy street cred no i mean when people like drop that one jew thing it's it's alarming

yeah it's like i think they don't see anything but a jew and they're talking to me they're just like jew they just see like a giant j it's like i'm talking to a jew i'm talking to a jew like they just see like little horns or a rope i don't know floating the star of david or some shit it's strange because i because i don't even i'm not even religious but they just hear my name and they're like jew i know a jew you know so anyway so he leaves me at some table and this guy comes up he was like you gotta come with me and my wife he goes to epcot and then he goes that's the real japan and epcot that's japan and then he goes people think you gotta spend all this cash and fly all the way to japan but it's a fucking scam he referred to traveling the world as a scam

and epcot is reality somehow to be fair to some people he's not wrong no people believe it's japan they think it's i mean we went we did go yeah did you go with him or by yourselves we went with another fireman couple actually yeah we went to epcot and then you know he him too he was like so you don't even have to go because it's here it's here i mean there's so there's too many things to go there all right let's talk about stand-up there's so much going on uh you don't know the story yet but uh maybe in like april i got an email from somebody and they were like hey uh i need you to come on this live stream this is when everyone was like figuring out like what is zoom and they were like oh i have a like i have a camera on my laptop i didn't know i had

that there's microphones and they were trying to figure it all out and this guy was like uh we're having a virtual event this was the first virtual event that i was going to participate in and i was like what is that he goes we're gonna take the real event we're gonna put it online i was like this is gonna be a disaster and so he's he said uh and after you are going to be these two comedians i don't remember their names they weren't somebody that i'd uh recognized and uh it was the first time that i saw how hard it was going to be for comedians to basically talk into their laptop with no fan reactions or audience reactions and just hope that it's going well like it was yeah it's not it's not a virtual sport you know so talk a little bit just about like what you have

you been doing from a comedy side and then like now as things are opening up kind of what's the plan um i mean stand-up has taken a massive massive hit so it's just like we can't i mean i took for granted the money i could make in weekend especially if you're headlining you know what the features now i'm sorry it's the opposite the people that are featuring opening okay when i used to open you barely cover your travel it's just the way you you build up and try to um you know build a fan base basically uh so those the people that are featuring are the most screwed and um the openers and and i was there and you're barely making ends meet anyways you sell a cd or something like that like online album or something to try to make extra cash on top of what

you're making some headliners will cover your you know hotel or travel um and i always did that if anybody was featuring for me but now we're making you know i mean less than a third or i mean maybe a fifth of what we were making because we can't uh they all want if they are opening a club it's going to be a third of capacity and then um or they're doing it outside i'm performing on like fields and fire escapes it's not okay i i did this show in somebody's backyard recently and there was like some people outside in brooklyn and they were like don't talk whatever you do before I got on stage, if you can call it that, somebody goes, listen, whatever you do, don't talk to the lady in blue hair. She's been screaming about the patriarchy and she's really drunk.

And I was like, can you just like kick her out? And they were like, no, it's her yard. And I was like, okay, fair. But that's that in a nutshell is where we're at. Like I had such arrogance as a comic because we've always, since I started headlining, you just, you get work because people go to comedy clubs and it's been a somewhat successful business at least if you can't make your money and if you don't get this pilot picked up or this writing job or whatever you always have stand-up because you just jump on stage you don't need anybody else you don't need like i that's why i always feel sorry for people in bands because such a skill i don't have and i'm they don't need me to feel sorry for them i mean i also envy them but i'm like they have to wait on like four other

guys and you know and a drum set the guitar and like equipment we can just go on and do stand-up and it's the best, you get to write it, you get to, you control so many aspects of it. It's a very independent thing, you know, and you can tweak your act to fit all these factors, you know, how old, how young, how PC, how are they Trump people? Are they super liberal or, you know, whatever. So, um, I just always made money doing it no matter what I was waiting on. And there's been plenty of like heartbreak with, you know, with those like pilots or TV things or whatever. but I took it for granted because I just couldn't imagine a scenario that would destroy it like that you know so I mean couldn't work at all for months and I'd never gone that

long without doing stand-up since I started stand-up when I was like 20 21 I haven't gone like uh you know a week or two without doing stand-up so you get the most was probably my honeymoon which was like two weeks yeah do you get rusty you I forgot like my material like things that I've I've done for years it was crazy like stuff that this is like the joke I do when I'm bombing and I'm kind of embarrassed and hope a comic's not in the room to see it but it's like that easy bit I know will do well and I grab it when I'm having a tough set like those bits I forgot it was so strange I was like I have people always ask you they go how do you remember it all and I'm always like it's not a thing you just they're your stories you know them but you forget

it. If you don't do it for months, you forget how it goes. I was just on stage, like mixing up a setup and a punch. You're just lost, you know? So now I, that's why I'm going up at all these free places in between or any comedy club that's having a show on their patio, just because I want to remember how to do it for when I am headlining, um, in a local field or, you know, some sort of heated tent. They're coming, they're coming. What are you, what are you hearing from like the comedy clubs themselves in terms of uh i'm assuming one they're struggling just like every small business it's got a physical location but two have they been able to do certain things to maybe kind of get some kind of revenue when they were shut down or how do they look at uh kind of

moving forward a lot of them are closing some of my favorite clubs in the world my favorite clubs in austin this club cap city uh that i've played for years and they're just like it's just an awesome family-owned cool place and um they shut down i was like no way a lot of them are shutting down or they're going to have to shut down. It's impending. And in New York, the way I feel is it's very low here right now. COVID is really low. So if they're opening restaurants, we should open comedy clubs so that they don't all fall apart. You know, I understand when it was high, why we had to close them. But now if they're going to slowly open up restaurants and it is under 1% in New York, I'm like, then open up comedy clubs because people are dining. They're allowed to take

their masks off when they're dining and you know see how it goes and if it doesn't go well then close them back up again but are they not opening up right now uh no they're not um why is that like they just i don't like nightclubs they have it's some sort of idea about the comic i don't know their face being exposed or something i mean cuomo is the one who doesn't want to open it and and schumer the senator chuck schumer has this bill like save our stages that he's trying to push through to open up to open up comedy again so I'm really hoping that that bill goes through for now especially because I feel like people need it and obviously we need it to to live and we don't want all our favorite clubs and places to shut down but um while we can I say like

let's get some in and see how it goes you know if you're opening up restaurants it's essentially the same thing people have their masks off when they're inside of restaurants so it's like why can't the one comedian have their mask off and just perform at a third of capacity or however they're opening up so i feel like it's worth trying i went and uh i've gotten two haircuts last month which is like more than i got the whole year because i basically just you know let it let it let it loose and said whatever during corona uh at both times they've got like the temperature gun and each time that they like shoot you with this temperature gun i'm like first of all how do i know that you're taking my temperature and you're not like somehow putting some shit in

my brain or you know whatever like a true libertarian that's something my husband would say no one cares no one's putting a chip in you oh my god that was that's the kind of shit he says all the time how do i know they're not like actually reading my thoughts i feel like me and your husband would get along really well no so like they got this temperature gun thing but and like that's fine whatever like i get it you want to check the temperature i don't know if necessarily you know whether uh i have covet or not based on this temperature check thing but somebody said somewhere that they do so fine but then you go you sit down they're gonna cut your hair and she's like leave your mask on and i was like okay uh that's gonna be weird but like sure

we'll give this a shot starts cutting and then at one point she's like can you take it off of your ear but like hold it over your mouth still and i was like what is going on here like they have the small distinctions get a little confusing they have like plexiglass but it's not like fully encapsulating like the plexiglass basically just goes to like where the person sitting down shoulder is so like does the virus like not go under the plexiglass or around it it's just very weird it is very confusing a lot of like the smaller distinctions you know and i i think some of it is probably like theater just like airport security is you know but like i don't know it's confusing but then i get i mean i guess i do think that like some something's gotta help i mean i

have no information that with formal education i should find out well i don't know my favorite thing to say is uh i'm not a scientist and i literally have no clue what's true anymore like i have no clue right it's just like there's like some common sense things and i'm like okay i'm just gonna put my mask on and just like go go do whatever they tell me fine like i'll play this game uh yeah i mean yeah i guess it can't hurt you know i mean i do think that like some amount of you know we got to take some measures right and then see how it goes but i do think it's insane to say just like restaurants can open but comedy clubs can't and it's unnecessarily punishing just give it a shot you know that's all i i feel strongly about that you know and i hope

that schumer bill goes through i think personally i think cuomo's taking it too far with that there's a guy who owns a restaurant down the street uh from me and i walk by him every day and he was like my uh barometer for uh for how the small business reaction to all this was so uh when they first opened up he was you know basically bitching and complaining that uh he had to build something in the street so they could have seating but he did it and then at one point he uh he like i'm walking by and he like got really animated and started dropping the f-bomb like and i was like this is not how this guy normally acts and i was like what's up man and he was like you're telling me they can go get a massage and get their nails

done but you can't go inside my restaurant and he was freaking out i was like look man you're talking to the wrong guy i'm not going to get a massage i'm not getting my nails done but i'll come eat at your restaurant that's all i got for you no i mean some of the yeah some of it is crazy and i feel like i i don't know i hope that bill goes through because i feel like it you know especially the places where it's super low we have to like find some model to open up again you know so what are other comedians doing over the last couple of months or is anyone practicing are they getting better or is everyone just like fuck it no we just started like performing outside in New York, like comedy clubs are having patio shows and stuff like that. I had

shows and like, you know, outside venues, we can do that still while it's warm. So we're performing locally and doing that, um, as much as we can and seeing each other. And I don't know if we're getting better, but we're starting not to get as awful. It's getting a lot. It's definitely, I'll say this. I definitely feel comfortable and I can do my hour now. I can headline again. And I'm, you know, so I don't know if I'm writing a whole new one, you know, but practicing on patios, but, um, with blue haired ladies screaming about the patriarchy, but I do know that, uh, I'm not, I don't think I'm getting worse again. So, and I think people need it.

Like the crowds have been really good. I mean, I will say that they haven't been as large as we'd like them to be. Um, we're not making the living that we're making at all, but you know, the people are coming out and it feels good to do some standup right now. You know, people are hurting. Absolutely. uh when is your next one this is going to get published on tuesday you've got one on wednesday so my next one is on uh september 30th at the stress factory in new jersey and it's outside

kind of like heated uh 10 kind of thing and there'll be mozzarella sticks and good jokes jokes i don't know that's why i go places for the mozzarella sticks and the beer i always say that before what city what city is this uh this is in hold on i have to check isn't that sad um the stress factories new brunswick new brunswick all right the stress factory it's called the stress factory so if you want to get tickets you go to new brunswick.stressfactory.com and then you can get tickets to see me at 7 30 and it's my birthday so So keep your birthday. Yeah. Oh, nice. All right. Everyone go buy tickets. Duh. No brainer. I know a bunch of you live in New Jersey. Go do it. Uh, what's going on with, uh, the pilot and with, um,

the television, uh, Netflix, all the things that everyone thinks comedians sit around and do all day. I mean, all I watch personally in terms of watching is, is murder. I can't get enough true crime. I don't know what that says about me, but I can't go to sleep until I've seen like a forensic files on a wives with knives for some reason. Like my husband handled pandemic anxiety, you know, having a baby and global pandemic anxiety by like, he's a researcher. So he just over-researches everything. And I'm the opposite. Like we got a car recently and I would come home and he would just like, kept like having those car videos playing with like cars on different terrain and stuff. And it was just so boring. I could weep. And he was always just like,

what do you think of this? You know, like, I know nothing. He could bring home like a Ford Dart and I'd be like, oh, so I guess it comes from money. You know, like, I don't give a shit. I just was like, how about the kind of car where you can put your cell phone and it just charges it? You know, like you can just balance it there. He's like, I can't buy an SUV based on whether it can charge my cell phone in a certain way. And I was like, eh, that's all I cared about. But he over-researches everything. So he dealt with his pandemic fear by just watching a lot of like diaper hacks and like you know jackson's tummy time tips like baby jackson's tummy time that's what he did i would get into bed and not me my fireman husband would lay there in his uniform

watching like some like one of those you don't mean those youtube twats that are like so anyway with my first kid jackson we were able to do sleep sacks and truman didn't take as well to it runner was really amazing with sleep sacks so every baby's different and i'm like please stop please stop. Listen, I got, I got to defend them. Here's the thing that people don't understand. So I'm watching a friend of mine go through this right now. He's having his first kid. Guys don't know anything about anything. Like we, we all went, uh, somewhere for a weekend and we were all standing in the kitchen and I like, you know, I got real confident and I was like, all right, I'm gonna ask some questions here. Like, I'm gonna get a little bit of education.

And as soon as I started asking questions, like my wife is like staring across the kitchen at me, like ready to murder me and i was just like like uh you know like that cord uh what's up with the cord thing like you know they like cut it and she you know they're like looking like what do you mean and by the way the guy who's having the kid is getting the education at the same time my kid doesn't know any of this and so it's like i don't think people understand like you're going from zero to having to be educated it's not like it's not like oh i kind of sort of know some of this stuff and like now I just got to learn the details it's like I've never even heard of that topic before now let me go get educated to be ready for this human to like be under my control that is

true and guys have no idea they have some strange impulses he was like can I put the baby in a swing at the park I'm like no she's four months old you can't just put her on a swing she doesn't have like were you just gonna do that were you just gonna drop a four month old on a swing and like, see what happened. But all that being said, I will say I am kind of like worthless too. I didn't read any books. You know, I just wanted to watch serial killer documentaries when I was pregnant. So we had a baby nurse and she told me everything, you know, I mean, she just explained everything. And, and I was sitting on her bed at one point after we had the baby and it was like a perfectly made bed. Cause she just does everything in that perfect little baby nurse

way. Like, I'm like, I'll never be able to replicate this when this woman is gone. And all of a sudden she looked at me and she was like, oh my God, you're bleeding. And I was like, I've gotten through COVID. I've gotten through everything. What the fuck now? And I looked down and I realized that I had smeared my protein bar all over the bed of this lovely woman who's like helping me care for my newborn baby. And there was just like fudge and like cranberry from a protein bar. And I was like, I am a pig. How can I keep a human alive? So that was kind of my experience. I'm not like a normal mother, you know, and I can tell that. But if you start every sentence with as a mother, as a mother, yeah. And then you just strip protein bar all over the baby

nurses. What's the craziest thing you've blamed on being a mother? Like, what's the thing that you've like, just be, ah, no worries. I'm a mother. I mean, anything I'll have like a smear of Jaeger on my cheek and I'm like I'm sorry mom you know how like all those moms they always have like they always have like Instagram headings like boxed wine is my juice box or whatever you know so I kind of try to get on that like I'll check my wine with my whining or whatever um and so I usually try to do that but with like you know Jaeger or harder liquor you know I'm like 10 shots of whiskey polina's been showing me these uh tiktoks there's like a like a mom tiktok uh thing and uh they're all different moms all over the country and they like basically create content

for each other on tiktok where their kids are and i'm sure the kids aren't excited that their moms are on the same platform or whatever interesting but they're just like you know when my when uh the baby goes to bed and literally every video is the same they're just chugging liquor and i'm like okay and so hearing you talk about Jaeger I'm like there is a reoccurring theme here yeah but with them it's usually just like a glass of rosé or something somehow it feels acceptable um but my husband doesn't drink anymore so I'm not as worthless as I used to he quit drinking a couple years ago so now it's more it's more like just falling asleep eating just doing a lot of feeding in bed passing out that's how I numb myself what's been the biggest surprise since

you had a kid um honestly you know I thought I had a lot of fear about it because I was like what if I don't connect to her especially because I'm an oversharer like I tell I'll tell anybody anything I have I hang out for like five minutes and I'm just like so I still have some anger at my dad but I'm feeling better about it you know so I was like what if I don't connect to her because I'll tell people I was like I'll be that woman at a barbecue like isn't it weird that I don't love her like I'll have one corona and just start telling people and I'm like that'll be worse than not loving her I won't be able to not tell people and it won't be cool so thank god I like I think I had so much anxiety about it and like fear and focused on all the potential

catastrophic things happening on top of what was happening you know in the world that I didn't consider all the good and fun parts so it was like pleasantly surprising you know and I was like I loved her right away, which makes me a hero, I think, right? Sorry, my husband just walked in and out of the room. Probably because he heard you talking about the fact that you were worried about not loving your daughter. Well, I was like, it is a thing you hear about that women don't connect. That happens. It doesn't mean they don't eventually love. In the beginning, sometimes women have postpartum or they have some issue and they don't like bond as early. A lot of women will say that they don't bond right away or something and then they slowly do usually i don't know anybody

that still doesn't love their kids but yeah that's like the 15 year old that's the one we just don't get we just don't really hit it off i mean sometimes there is a hole in the team you know you'll see three kids and you're like they definitely love that one the most you know not the other one so but luckily we only have one kid and uh yeah loved her right away i think because i had so much nerves about it that i was just so pleasantly surprised and she's very cute so i'm i'm pretty into it it's fun it's like a movie like you just she entertains us she does silly little things all the time she's very cute i i feel like uh you guys seem to have like done pretty well with this like coronavirus uh protest riots baby like still alive you have a car it

charges your phone like there's progress going on in your house he's an amazing dad like does everything everything does he have does he have the uh front backpack yes he has the carrier thing yeah he's got all of that and he's obsessed like jumps up every time she cries when i was pregnant he was like somewhat uh worthless like we got on uh when i was in florida he was with me and then we went back to the airport after we had to fly and it was like you know may 15 whatever whenever uh the golden state warriors got so and then he boarded the plane without me i went to get a water i was seven months pregnant he boards the plane without me and fireman or maybe he thought you were on the plane no he thought i went to get a water and i

was taking too long and i got on the plane i'm like what the fuck and he was like yeah i just thought i'd like get situated i'm like there's nobody even on this plane there was like a third the people were even on the plane you thought you'd get yourself situated i was like what in the fuck were you thinking but he's firemen because they're first responders and maybe other first responders too they're like under reactors in those situations it's like having an argument with like the 911 operator you know when you whenever you hear those tapes and you're like that poor woman like won't she at least put some warmth in her voice like i know she can't say certain stuff but just be like don't we'll be right there they're always like all right man

okay you know that's what that's what it's like with him I'm like where the fuck were you he's like yeah just thought I'd get situated I'm like do you not understand how insanely awful that is he's like yeah he's just figuring you'd be on your way and I'm like no so he was that he was that he he may have just been checking the plane for COVID making sure that he got it off before you got there I mean it was yeah it was astonishing but then I think you know what but the baby I mean also maybe it's something about a girl I don't know I mean he's he'll do everything for her yeah yeah that's great he'll do it all so he's definitely very into being a dad um I feel like that that is the one thing that every guy talks about is like it's a rite of passage you get the

little carrier thing strapping on your chest you walk down the street little babies bopping around you can't put it in a swing we i now know that that's i'm glad that he uh he figured that out before i ever have a kid so i know that uh i gotta ask you i have not seen it yet but i've had multiple people tell me the movie uh king of staten island i think it's called is that the one it's about uh fdy and pete davidson pete davidson's dad died in 9-11 and so it's it's about like what his life kind of it's sort of he's not a comedian in the movie but it's about his his life and his family you know some things are changed but did you guys watch it yeah i watched it separately from him but it's it's really good it's excellent is that what the and bill burr who's

a good friend of mine and a comedian and he's amazing and super talented and is incredible in it yeah i went on bill burr's podcast and he was screaming about the federal reserve for like half the time to the point where i thought he was going to run for president he's always equally equally furious about like it could be he's super educated though that's that's the scariest part is a comedian who's educated and mad like i was i was very impressed with how much he knew but he was very mad and i was i was there for it i loved it uh but is that is that what the fdny culture is like in that movie yeah i mean a lot of it is very accurate i mean this is also like a while ago but you know it's definitely it's definitely very active I mean there's a there's a subculture to

the fire department and they understand each other in a way nobody else does it's a lot like comics in a way except you know again they save people's lives and we're narcissists but uh they I mean there's they work off adrenaline you know their highs are really high and then the downtime is like awesome you know so and the lows are very low and very scary so it's like there's this and there's this language they speak that nobody else speaks. Like when we hang out at the table at the comedy cellar, this, this club that we, it's kind of my home club when I'm in New York and I miss being there so much now. We just sit at that table and like slam wings in our dumb faces and just say unspeakable things to each other, you know? And then a comedian will come up with his girlfriend

or a, or a, or a female comic will come up with her boyfriend or whatever. And the comics get annoyed. They're like, oh, so-and-so had to bring a, and we'll call them a civilian. We'll be like, oh they had to bring us a billion you know because we can't speak the way we speak because we're just we're disgusting we're animals and we just say like crazy nonsense that other people called by environment are the same are people going to get offended just we don't feel like we could talk as comfortably you know with non-comics i think that's how a lot of comedians feel and like also people that aren't comedians they'll sort of come and try to be on in a certain way or be like you should i should be a comedian you should put that in your skin you should put

this and you're a scout we're crazy you've got to come to my job you get that a lot like you should come to where i work and i'm like i don't really need to go to like the store you work at in tampa like i have a good idea of what happens there i'll get material i think on my own but people do that and so comics get like weird they don't want yeah they just want to be comedians and not think about it yeah i think it's kevin hart's kind of piece where he's like people come up to him and they're like hey man be funny and he's like what the fuck like and they're like yeah come on let's go like tell me a joke and he's just like this isn't how this works like and he has this whole thing about just like people expect comedians to be funny 100 of the time no

matter where they are at all like literally just walk up to you while you're eating dinner and be like rachel come on tell me a joke like that's your job yeah they don't understand you have like other aspects to your i mean a lot there are a lot of people that do and they're really lovely but a lot of times people from the audience right after the show will sort of expect you to be funny or they'll come up and kind of nag you like give you shit and think like that's how you like to be talked to or something. So it's weird. And environment is the same kind of thing. When I stopped by the firehouse, like I feel like that chemical change in the room when I walk into that firehouse kitchen, because, and I want to be like, no, I'm an animal too. Like you can keep saying

the disgusting things you were just saying. She hear my friends were like 10 times worse, but there's some weird similarities, you know? Have you walked into the firehouse yet and just roasted a bunch of them? Like, I feel like that immediately puts you on even playing field. Just walk in one day and just the worst things that you would say to your comedian friends just go down the line every single fireman and my guess is that not only will they not be mad they'll just come right back and then your husband will have to go hey guys come on i mean i can't i wouldn't do that because they don't know me like that but i'll so i wouldn't i don't know them to fuck with them like that you know what i mean but i will he's what's called a bouncing captain so he goes

to different firehouses so he might be at one firehouse this week another firehouse next week and he's the boss so the guys are like you know nervous around so it's fun to drop in because they don't know that i'm his wife at the beginning so there's one firehouse where they all stand outside and they like the younger guys there's like a little bit of a separation you know between the boss like he wouldn't go out with them or whatever so he'll be up in his office uh smoking a cigar or watching new porn or something and um i'll walk up outside and then like so the young guys they stand outside with dog treats so that if a cute girl comes by with the dog they can give it to her you know so it was like halloween and i walked up kind of slowly and um one of the guys

did that thing where he looks back at the other guy and tells him there's an ass worth reviewing as you're passing they go like you know and they think we don't know this like this is the most simple obvious eye contact and i was very flattered that i had an ass worth reviewing but they could do this and he looks back to his friends and then so they all look and so then i just kind of slowed down and it was like you know halloween so there's a lot of drunks in the street so i was like it's really scary out there boys first of all thank you for your service i think i could come in for a little bit and take cover just a lot of douchebags out there and i'm frightened you know and they just did not expect that so one of the guys was like yeah sure come on in uh we get some snacks

in the kitchen uh yeah absolutely come in you know so i walk in i'm like it's captain brennan to hear about any chefs and they just like turn fucking white you know and then he calls him on the little walkie like you he goes boss your boss is here and so pete comes down he wouldn't give a shit first of all he's not jealous he'll just hand me to anybody that asks for me just be like have her back within a week or so but uh and another time i went by the firehouse and this was fun so sometimes i'll bring by food like you know wings from the comedy cellar or whatever and a lot of them are really uh attractive um so i'll look for any excuse to just like pop in something you know so i come by and i have a box they get very suspicious of outside food right

because people bring probably like weird jacked up gangrenous things like just some old lady that brings them some strange shit and they may get a chip a chip may get implanted in their brains if they eat the cookies. All right, so you bring her the box. So they're a suspicious group in general. So I come by with this box and these cookies I bought. And they had a like a tie around them. And I go to one of the guys, don't worry, I bought these. You know, they're not I didn't bring them from my home. And then they don't know I'm, you know, Pete's wife and I go, and they're all tied up. You can see I just got them from the place. And the guy was like, you like to be tied up so then so one of the other guys happens to know because he used to work in a

different firehouse but i'm pete's like he's like hey come here buddy he's like what do you like to be done he thinks it's just some neighborhood twat that you know has the hots for firemen come by with cookies one of the guys is like let me talk to you for a second buddy he kind of takes him on a walk around the rig and the guy came back just shook you know and it was so fun to fuck with them and i told pete on the way home and he's like oh he'll have a nickname forever for that incident you know but he doesn't give a shit again he'll just hand me right off it it's literally like the army like you just the the culture is so different and i feel like you get the best of both worlds is which is like you get to participate in the comedians world and then you

get to go and you know exactly the buttons to push in the fireman world and they have like it's unfair of you to walk in there to these unsuspecting suspects and just destroy them and then you and then you have like the trump card oh yeah by the way uh can i see the boss i know it's so it's the best i love it um i love it yeah also it's fun just to like i mean it's fun to just tell everybody like i tell i tell anyone he's a firefighter i'm like i'll be at cvs and i'll be like they can take their badge out they call it tinham i'll be like you know like he'll be like we're in a cvs they just don't have the kind of gum i'm looking for it's not a tinham situation but i just have fun with it you know until um a global pandemic hits

exactly yeah it's it's it's cool though it's a cool world and uh they're fun they're definitely a fun group firefighters i love it i love it well as a new mother uh where can people find you on the internet and find me at rachel on instagram at rachel feinstein underscore and on is there that many rachel feinstein's that you had to get the underscore you know this is going to sound like such a name drop and it absolutely is but i did this show with shack and shack was like you're Not on Instagram. We used to do this TV show that was canceled immediately. Me and Shaq co-hosted it.

He's like, you got to be on Instagram. And so that was like, not the best Shaq, but he set it up for me. He was like, you need to do it. And he just took my phone and he did that. And he put the underscore because you couldn't just have your name. You got to have an underscore. I guess so. But I didn't set it up.

And you should just put it Rachel Feinstein underscore Shaq. Just put Shaq's name in there. Just give him some credit. All right. So you're on Instagram. Where else? You can go to my website at rachel-feinstein.com. And, oh, I should let Pete say hi.

He'll be happy to meet you. All right, let's do it. Is he here? Yes. Yes. So for those of you that are listening and or watching, Rachel is going to get her husband real quick. I have no clue if he's inside the house, outside the house.

Maybe he's at the fire station. We're going to find out in a second. but she's now left she's going to get him maybe i can do like a filibuster like they do on the uh on the senate floor i think or the congressional floor so we can find him he may refuse he may say no no he's coming on he's got that he's just trying to press down his no covid haircut yeah haven't cut my hair in months where is he oh what's up man listen i got one question sure sure what's the best conspiracy theory you've ever heard at the firehouse oh man you told me about the mini stories but by the way i said that it sounds like it's just a bunch of bitcoiners from

twitter like just hanging out at the firehouse oh yeah they read someone else's conspiracy like yeah it sounds good enough let's spread that one let's see how far this one goes you know My favorite thing is, uh, uh, when you see whether policemen, firemen, whatever, you know, like, I'm like, what do you think the two cops sitting in that car outside CVS with their lights on? And they're just trying to deter people from stealing shit. What are they talking about all day? Cause it's definitely, it's definitely stuff that the public doesn't want to hear.

It's the same with the, yeah. When you're in the fire, you know, in the engine or the truck, it's, uh, you're kind of, you're up front with the chauffeur and then there's the guys hanging on the back of the cab. Sometimes I can overhear their conversation. and they just start talking about the most random stuff. All right, guys, you know, it's just like zone out and forward. That's it. That's how it is, though, you know.

I love it because of the distrust of the government, of society, et cetera. We were talking about the temperature gun, right? And it's like, oh, I know that something's getting in my brain with a temperature gun. That's what he said. I was like, that's insane. That's spoken like a true libertarian. They're planting a chip in my brain when they take my temperature. i i like the temperature i'm not sure she loves all this stuff yeah we disagree on when it comes

to these kind of things you know i'll take a temperature check i feel like that's the next vaccine first i don't know about the vaccine i'll take my time i'll let her sit down and see in a couple years you know i feel like this is the pilot the pilot that we need is like rachel's like rational approach to the world and you taking the best conspiracy theories from the firehouse and just throwing her at her and letting her react to them perfect but he has been uh definitely uh he was into bitcoin for the beginning not the beginning probably uh what was it around 2013-ish 2014 good time it was it was a good time to get who told you about it you know it's funny i just it i just from the internet kind of thing where it's just like i was

i kind of listened to some of the libertarian podcasts and things like that and they kind of started to mention it and i remember just seeing like these articles like i get these rss feeds and it was just like bitcoin it's ten dollars bitcoin it's a hundred dollars and then all of a sudden when i hit a hundred i was like all right what is this bitcoin thing and i started to read up on it up on it you know my only problem was then so once i really learned about it i'm like wow it sounds pretty amazing and everything it just had so many great fundamentals and principles to it that i'm like yeah i definitely want to get involved with it and uh but now at this point the price went from like a hundred to like a thousand and then it

crashed down to like 800 or whatever it was like 750 i'm like all right it's dipping let's buy so that's when i started buying and it dipped all the way down to like 200 or something i kind of just forgot about it until 2017 he goes when your cab driver's telling you about it get out yeah yapping about it get out yes but i bought at a bad time but this is gonna be encouraging to people that bought during the last bitcoin boom and now things kind of looks like things are starting slowly rise now but this could be like the next series for all that and these guys could have similar stories how this is what i got him for christmas because he said so much when your bastards yapping oh when your barber when your barber's yapping about it get out that's true

listen that's true like once guys at the firehouse kitchen start talking like the people that aren't invested i'm just like and like you'd ask me like you know because one of the fundamentals about it what do you know about it it was just purely about making money i'm like uh-oh he's definitely gonna have he's got like a activist short fund he's just gonna go around the firehouse say hey what are the hot stocks like let's go short all those yeah yeah that's it once once you hear the fireman so i'm not it's just like that quote all right get out that'll be the indicator it's like all right let's take some money off the table kind of thing yeah but i hear all this stuff all the time money is imaginary so i get little bits it's true

that's the fact that i agree with the fiction the conspiracy theorists of the world we the reason why we all get along is because we're probably more right than wrong right yeah sure there's a couple ones that we're not right about but if you think about it like well it's probably more true than not exactly a little bit a little degree of something right and the worst part the worst part is i'm assuming that uh if there's ever something that comes out to prove one of them correct it's game over because the next 100 of them are for sure you know they're just like that last one that was true, right? It's like, you give them a little bit of confidence and they're like, Oh God, here we go. I don't know about, I mean, I don't understand very much about money to be

fair. So he's, that's not my territory. He talks about it. And I, well, the dollars are fake and the Bitcoin is real. That's all you got to remember. Okay. That's what I'll remember. I got it. Poppy. You said that exact sentence to me, by the way, many a time. Congratulations again on your marriage. And are you going to have, before I go, or do you think you guys are gonna create a human well uh now that i know that the four-month-old can't go on a swing uh i'm prepared that was a good lesson we were talking about the uh the rite of passage of getting the carrier that goes in front like the little backpack thing where the baby goes in that's like yeah that's like a big step right that's like a i'm gonna you definitely have to practice you

make fun because i practice stuff beforehand he would do drills you know every fireman's got a bunker by the way they've all got bunkers you're you're laughing but if he but if he put the child in the backpack and and it fell you would you would have been horrified she was like with the pack and play he'd be like we gotta get the pack and play down gets up in the morning we gotta figure this out we gotta get it down it was like always how can i put it up and down in under 60 seconds i'm like there's a supply and demand issue with trying oh yeah the other that's the other problem with cops firemen soldiers etc it's like uh when i went through basic training they gave us a gun and they're like hey here's how you take it apart

like the m16 next thing you know literally within like three days people are literally having races doing it blindfolded you know with like one hand and it's just like oh this is competitive sure like i can i bet you i can do it faster than you so what's different with the uh the baby equipment exactly oh yeah who's putting their babies to sleep the fastest it's always a race all right guys you would be you guys would be good parents from what i know you seem like a happy couple so uh yeah we're just having fun whatever we're gonna let you we're gonna let you guys make all the mistakes and then we'll just be perfect it's like yeah i mean when you're ready we wait wait until like the bottom of the ninth yeah so take your time thank you so much though

thanks for having me of course what uh tell me the website one more time where people can go in new jersey and listen to you or actually just eat mozzarella sticks and drink beer it's uh hold on just looking at it right now it is new brunswick n-e-w-b-r-u-n-s-w-i-c-k dot stress factory dot com it's at 7 30 on uh september the 30th uh doors open at six well you know outside doors i don't know what that means exactly but uh six an hour and a half before the show does seem kind of early um just get there at 6 30 that should be plenty of time get some food sit down chill it's a good club the stress factory like their outside situation i hear is very good like it's it's heated it's there's usually generally pretty full crowds there and

they have uh again uh good mozzarella sticks so get involved all right guys thank you guys so much for doing this thank you thank you so much bye