The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Joe Pera

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Joe Pera joins Andy Richter to discuss his new comedy special, “Slow & Steady,” the jokes that don’t fit into his set, why he loves casting non-performers, his future as a filmmaker, and much more. 

Hi everybody, welcome back to The Three Questions. I'm your host, Andy Richter. Today I'm talking to Joe Pera. Joe is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor. He was the creator and star of Joe Pera Talks With You on Adult Swim and currently hosts the podcast Drifting Off with Joe Pera. Joe's new stand-up special, Slow and Steady, is available now on YouTube. Joe joined me via Zoom from New York City. Here is my conversation with the very funny Joe Pera. Can't you tell my love?

Are you at home or is that a workspace for you? Yep, I'm in my basement. Oh, nice. Yeah, I have a garden level apartment with a little basement and I'm able to work down here. I got my desk and a little, yeah, it's quiet. It's very quiet for New York. That's good. That's good.

And do you do your podcast down there? Mm-hmm. Nice. Hard to pick up the computer, but there's a little closet I'll record in, and then I'll write it down here, and it's kind of nice because the subway is a block away, and every few minutes there's a little rumble, but I think it has a nice effect for the feel of the podcast. Yeah, like a little white noise, the notion of a little bit of rocking someone to sleep.

Truly. You feel like you're in a basement when we record, and we don't try and hide that too much. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. How about you? I just recently got remarried, and I'm moving into a—

my wife and I bought a house together before we even got married that needed a lot of renovation. It's from 1907. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's an oldie. And so we just are getting it ready finally to be moved into. And so I'm like, my whole life is in flux.

Every time I leave the house, I fill up the house. Or I fill up my car with junk to take over to the new house new old house and yeah you know it's just and you know and it also is just like uh it's a good lesson on like i that never occurs to me until i'm ready to move but just why do i have so much shit why so many things so many things that really you know like someone could come in in the night and steal two-thirds of my belongings and i probably would be able to continue on just fine no i know it feels like i learned that lesson every time i move and then i forget it this just seems to be like a rule that as much space as you have you'll'll fill it up. Yeah. And then, yeah.

And then get angry at yourself for a little bit, but. Yeah. Yeah. No, this last move, I was like, okay. As the movers were coming, I'm like, I was really supposed to get rid of some of this crap. And then they came and now I'm like, you know, it's at the other end. I'm like, I really should have gotten rid of some of this crap, especially because my

wife and I are combining two households. So lots of redundancies. So combining all your knickknacks. My wife thinks I'm a knickknack person, but I don't think I am necessarily. Um, I mean, I have, I do like to cook, so I have too much kitchen stuff. So that's, you know, that's when she finds out how much kitchen stuff i actually have that will be embarrassing oh she hasn't you didn't tell her before the wedding well no i mean it just was she you know she'd been to my house but i don't think that she was there and was like i need to check on how much you know let me go through his kitchen cabinets and see how much

stuff he has. Yeah. But yeah, no, she's going to find out that, you know, like that I, you know, that there's just like a lot of dumb stuff that I have. Is it cooking tools or do you like glasses? Oh, no, it's not like that. It's no, it's just like things. It's like particular kinds of pans, you know, and, and also to like, you know, like I have a thing that where you can, one of those burners you put in your backyard that you can do like crawfish boils with. And it's like a big pot that you could do like a crawfish boil in. And, uh, you know, and I know she's going to be like, wow, what are you doing?

You know, the Cajun chef, what the hell is going on with this? But I don't know if you've ever had like a crab boil in your backyard. It is exciting. It is a lot of fun. You know, uh, so stuff like that, you know, stuff that like, like giant things that you use once or twice a year, you know, that sort of thing. Yeah. That's funny. she has no idea

she should have known do many people have an idea what a crawfish guy you are uh i don't i don't know about that you know no but i think people do know i like to cook uh you know like i i for years have been someone who, uh, especially in Los Angeles, you know, you go to people's house and they'll have like, they'll say we're having dinner. And then you get there and somebody else's cooked the dinner. Like they hired somebody to cook the dinner. And I don't, I feel like that's not the point. Like the cooking is the point, you know, is like, I did all this work for you.

Like I chopped onions for you and I, you know, I made a crust for you. And, um, and also then too, by the time the food is ready, I'm like, that's what I'm giving you. I don't really want to talk that much. Just slump over in your chair. Just eat it. Just eat it and go. And that's enough of a transaction for me.

Now, wait, we're got to stop talking about me. We got to start talking about you. Because you're living in New York City, right? Yeah. And you're from New York State, right? So are you close to home? Eight hours in the car, 50-minute flight. I'm from Buffalo originally.

Oh, from Buffalo, right. And so I kind of made my way across the state. I went to school in Ithaca. Not Cornell. I'm not an Ivy League guy. But I then just kind of kept working my way east. And after school, I ended up in Brooklyn. Yeah.

And do you still have family up in Buffalo? And are you close to them? Do you see them a lot? Yeah, it's great. Most of them are there. And I think a lot of the reason, in addition to just being a place where there's a lot of stand-up happening, I like it here because I can get home in an hour if I want. I go home for a lot of stand-up happening uh i like it here because i can get home in an hour if i want

i go home for a lot of the holidays so i gotta i got nice folks so i yeah i go home as often as possible and your parent are your parents still together yes i'm sorry why did you laugh at that it that? It's a legit question these days. No, I know. I know. It's just funny. I just wondering. Yeah.

No, I guess that's interesting. You can't picture them being apart from each other? No, no, no. It's just funny from a comedy perspective. I guess it's funny if you ever watched like a show and thought like which performers have divorced parents parents that are i yeah well i mean and i also too like you can yeah there's a lot you can make that supposition about lots of people whether or not they're comedians or otherwise, you can be like, oh, that person experienced loss at a very early age, you know? Um, I mean, well, what do you, I mean, what do you think, you know, I mean, what do you

think that, that you have that, uh, if your parents were divorced, that would be different about you? Uh, definitely my stuff hanging on the wall behind me would just be a little bit more, uh, tilted and off center. It is very, very organized. There are bulletin boards behind you. I think the main difference, I have either one ponytail or two ponytails. Two ponytails are called pigtails, and you would have pigtails then.

Yeah, yeah. So that's probably the big difference. Are you from a big family? Two ponytails are called pigtails, and you would have pigtails then. Yeah. Yeah. So that's probably the big difference. Are you from a big family? Siblings? Yeah. I got a brother and a sister. Oh, okay.

We had an extended, not enormous, but a pretty big family. My dad, he's Italian. So they had a close family, large family gatherings. Lots of cousins. Yeah. Yes. And so that was a pretty big part of my upbringing, have that large of a family.

And, yeah, I guess I may have boiled down. Like, my dad's side of the family is like real kind of ball busters and they like making fun of each other and then my mom's side is a little more sensitive so i think it's like that combination is kind of where my sense of humor comes from is where those two things kind of collide yeah yeah and do you do you tend to land more on one or the other in your regular life? Depends. I had a joke a while ago. I probably ought to work it in.

It's like under my cool German-Irish exterior, I got a passionate Italian anger or something like that. I forget how it went. But there's a little bit of anger in there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my joke about mine is that I'm German and Swedish, so I'm angry and depressed. You know, I get the best of both of those illustrious nationalities.

Can't you tell my love's a crow? You have a very specific comic persona. And that specific, I mean, specific comic persona in terms of the spectrum of comedy, like there's not a lot of people doing what you do. You know that there's not a lot of people that kind of are working in the colors that you work in and kind of in the themes that you work in and at the pace that you work. And, you know, with with the the affect that you that you have like joe para is joe para but your name is joe para like you didn't become you know like bobcat para you know what i mean you're joe para and i just wonder like was that a calculation that you had like early on like because i don't mean, cause the whole asking you how much of the Joe Pera that we see is the Joe Pera that everyone else sees is that I feel, I mean, although I just said it, but it's like, that's, that seems an inelegant question.

question that's kind of a little personal and i and i feel like that we should i want to find that out by showing rather than telling um but i mean is that kind of do you think that that causes this discomfort with people knowing things about you that aren't just comedy it's much more interesting to me to leave certain things on uh unsketched or like uncolored and leaving a certain degree of open-endedness coming into the show or watching a special or or any other my other's a, I feel it's much more interesting if there isn't everything that's known, which is hard. Yeah, it seems like it's harder, if not impossible these days. But like, I got to talk with Danny McBride's producer, and he's like pretty serious about not doing social media

and not having everything shown so that people can truly get into his characters and work without, I don't know, kind of like the celebrity aspects or involved and the stuff outside of the work, not interfering with the stuff inside the work. really important to me and not, yeah, not creating too many elements outside of it so that the focus is the thing that I'm presenting or saying at the time. Okay. I mean, cause when we talk about your work, we're talking about the Joe Pera that we all see. And I'm wondering how that guy, because I know at college, I mean, one of the, one of the, one of the things that I have about you is that you entered in one, the college's standup comedy competition, uh, three times. And I can just think of somebody in college getting on stage and doing what you do for a bunch of college students is not a not a run-of-the-mill

decision you know it's not like it's not like you're not gonna like i said i bet there was no other joe perra like people up on stage there and i'm wondering how much kind of calculation went into that how much you thought you know like i I'm going to go the other way from what most comedy is. Or was it just, this is the way I like to be funny and I'm going to give it a try. I think maybe the stuff that I grew up with in the 90s was real loud in your face. There are a lot of, I don't know, it felt, I don't know, maybe it was just the stuff that I was exposed to was very, I don't know. Yeah, very fast-paced and obnoxious.

I think, I don't know, people were still getting the kick out of, like, dropping certain swear words on stage. So I kind of just thought about taking it in the other direction if I could. Not necessarily as a means to stand out, but just what I thought was more interesting and direct. I think so. Yeah.

So I started in high school, and i would just write jokes with my friend dan lakada who i still work with in his basement and we never performed them until until i got to school and there was a stand-up competition i decided to enter and uh i think it was some of the jokes that i wrote in high school and uh but it was always kind of, I don't know. We got to see, Dan and I, we got to see Mitch Hedberg before he passed. And that was, I don't know. There's probably a bit of influence from him at the time, I think, for a lot of comedians.

But just the appreciation of the sparseness of, or not the sparseness, but the conciseness of his words and the way that he was able to just be so precise with his laughs and he was a great joke writer. I guess we saw him a few, I think it might have been not more than a few weeks before he died in Buffalo. We saw it and like, yeah, it was, we got a, me and Dan thought he was hilarious because he was a little bit, he was very under the influence on stage. He had to lie down to get through his set. And, like, that was awesome to us. That was so funny.

And he grabbed a broom and pretended to sweep the bad jokes off the stage because he was fumbling his words and stuff. And then like, or it was our, went with our dads and they kind of saw kind of what was going on for real. And it was not, I don't know, years later, I understand why my dad didn't think it was as funny to him. But because he probably, he probably had the father's concern for someone you know in in crisis basically you know and you guys are young and you're like hardy har yeah and it was the whole punk rock spirit of it even if he couldn't get through all the jokes it was fine but they i think had an older school take on comedy my dad dad has an old school taste in comedy and thought it was unprofessional,

which I guess is how you take it. It was a riot to us. Yeah, but sad. I don't know. That's another guy. Yeah. I like that about Mitch Mitch too, I guess. Maybe that was an influence of his.

It's like. Yeah, very conceptual, but it wasn't like, hey, I'm Mitch Hedberg and here's the, you know, you know, it wasn't like, here's the problem with women these days. It was very much like, hey, I'm mitch headberg and here's a blueprint of how my brain works yes it was interesting creative approach to all these jokes he wasn't taking concepts that were you know wildly philosophical he was taking everyday stuff like worry the yeah what you know that joke about a million grains of rice or trying to stay in a quadruple tree because it's better than a double tree.

Yeah, yeah. That was, there wasn't, it was just an interesting way to look at the world and it wasn't trying to be that, I don't know. Who are other people coming up like that,

that you kind of, you know, that, that were influences on you that were, that were in opposition to all that kind of obnoxious, loud, you know, trashy trashies.

That's my, that's my, that's my editorializing, but the obnoxious ones that you say you were kind of turned off by. I mean, I love Christopher Guest movies and I would

love when I first moved to New York, it was always like a treat to see Hannibal Buress perform and I got to be there kind of at the time where he would still drop in and do a bar show and uh like people would pack in to see him that was really exciting you know and i think that that's the people i always looked to like so i mean that's the goal. They're like, Hannibal is so deeply funny to his core that just the simple mannerisms or the way he delivers a line that's not even a joke can be funny.

Yeah. Same with Mitch, same with a lot of the Christopher Guest characters. I don't know. That's always the goal to just kind of like tap in and be funny to your corner. You know, if it feels like get to like a Zen level of comedy and they, you know, and thinking about it,

you know, to just be funny. Was standup what always like, was that always the pinnacle for you or did you, I mean, because, because most people that don't go to stand-up know you from your shows and from your sort of like you know and and i think that they're

kind of more aware of you in these environments that you create as opposed to a stand-up comedy environment which quite frankly it's hard to picture jo picture Joe para in a lot of standup clubs. Like I just, you know, to go to like the, you know, the chuckle factory in Lincoln, Nebraska,

I feel like there's probably a lot of impatient people in that audience that are like, what the fuck is this guy? That's part of the fun and you can't win them all. But like, I remember being at a stand-up club, and I knew that I tried to work a little bit at both alt rooms and clubs. It was a treat to get into a club and get paid $25

or get dinner at Caroline's early on. But I think that I had tried to take the ideas that were making me laugh and were maybe a little bit more on the creative side or less traditional stand up. But I had been, there's an episode in the first season of my show where I'm talking about fireworks and the four stages of watching fireworks. And that started as a bit that i did live and there would be uh there was like fireworks sound effects and a pause while i reacted to watching fireworks on stage and so i think i knew i had a good bit when i kind of like formed it in an alt room and then made sure that the jokes were tight enough that I could go into a comedy club. And they would be patient enough and laughing constantly enough that the whole bit would still maintain its kind of creative feel while still holding the attention of a comedy club audience. And that was like, it was amazing.

I had like, when they're playing this firework sound effect and a club comedy audience is patient enough to watch me react to fake fireworks on the back wall. And it's working on both of those levels. That's when it's like, this is exciting for me that I can take something like this and make it work in different sorts of rooms. Is that, is the, is that kind of charge? Is that like, is that the pinnacle for you in terms of like, you know, is that,

is that like the most delicious thing that you get to experience? Yes. It's taking something that would be hard to get laughs or keep attention with and making it work. Or just taking like a small concept. I don't know, the joke about the ice cubes in my new special and taking a bit just about ice cubes and then making ice cubes for your boys and then turning it into a longer bit at the end, tied into air conditioning and having the relationship

where you're now living with your partner and the cubes bridging that all the way to the ending of the special. And trying to just take a small concept and figure out from almost any to find a joke in otherwise and try and make it not only like do a joke about it, but like swell it as big as possible and try and find some meaning in it too. Yeah. that like just don't fit your, you know, I mean, because there are jokes, you know, there are like some real kind of rim shoddy kind of jokes that might not even kind of fit into your world. And I'm wondering, do you ever come up with stuff

that you think like, oh yeah, I'd love to do that, but it's not really me. Yeah. I got a new joke that I'm working on and it's, I don't know how it fits into the new set, but I know that it works, and it's like I have the premises. I'm not a strip club guy, but I've got an insider tip. If you bring an exotic dancer, a tropical fish, they will do next-level freak stuff for you.

do next level freak stuff for you yeah see that's what but see that i i find that that fits right in i mean well a it's just fucking funny and and because what's great about it is that there's a whole history it's just like it's like it's like one of those statements that it just blossoms in your head of, like, you can see the trial and error. You can see this guy thinking, I'm going to the strip club. What would the ladies appreciate? You know, well, who doesn't like tropical fish? Or standing in Petco and going, you know what? Looking into this tank, I'm thinking of titty. You know, I mean, it's great.

It's got like a, you know, it's got a whole backstory to it. Yeah. So I'm trying to grow it. I'm reading a book about a, uh, this, uh, arowana fish that is highly priced in East Asia. And I don't, I don't, you know, know i could maybe the joke will grow in that direction maybe it'll grow in the direction of uh actually how it plays out when i bring a stripper a peppermint angle fish yeah but part of it just left alone. That's why I guess maybe I don't feel the need to do personal stuff that much or specific details about personal stuff is because it's more fun when somebody

could say, I don't know, is Joe actually a strip club guy? Yeah. And did he actually try this? And then if those questions aren't answered, it's more fun for an audience to think on for a little bit. Because I don't know. Maybe I am a strip club guy, Andy. Maybe I go every day.

I am a strip book guy, Andy. Maybe I go every day. Well, I am interested because like on the Talks With You show, you know, your name again is Joe Pera. You are kind of, you know, the same guy that you are on stage, but you're a different guy. You know, you're not from Marquette, Michigan, and you're not a choir teacher. And that show does end up i mean there is kind of the same kind of slow quiet unfolding of a concept that happens and often you know in your show it'll be about something ostensibly but then it turns out it's about something completely else which is a great dare i say gimmick you know that is just that you can do over and over and over in a really wonderful kind of like a very sturdy kind of way like it's a great great form to to be able to do something repeatedly which is like the key to all tv you know comedy series um but there is a

lot of emotion you know and there is a lot of like stuff about human contact and human relationships and there are a lot of heartstrings in there and it does seem it does seem separate from your stand-up because your stand-up you know and as you said it's not personal and so it's like it can it can be and i mean and this isn't necessarily about about yours you know what i mean like there's there does seem to be like a difference like when you do get to be in a in a filmed environment it does become become more humanized, maybe? I don't know. I mean, have you noticed that and thought about that?

And why? I think, I mean, the show, we set it in Marquette because I'm a comedian. That's how I, That's my profession. I didn't want to do a show about a comedian because that's been done a million times. It'll be done a million more. So being from Buffalo, I kind of chose Marquette because it's for a lot of reasons. There's overlap, but it's a little bit more dramatic.

It's at the foot of this big lake, lonely, surrounded by nature, stuff I wanted to incorporate with the show. But also it allowed me to put a little bit more imagination on it because as soon as it was slightly fictionalized, it added to a lot of, it gave creatively way. And yeah, I guess I imagined it as perhaps like what my life might be like if I studied to be a music teacher like a lot of my friends did at school and maybe stayed in Buffalo as opposed to doing comedy.

And it allowed me to perhaps live that alternative life in a way. But I think with the stand-up, and a lot of the stuff on the show did come from stand-up, at least in the, I don't know, everything that i talk about and uh the emotions they do i feel come exactly from real life but like the grandmother dying in the show that happened kind of in season two yeah which happened to me in during season one and i I don't think I was so buried in making the show that I didn't really have time to deal with it properly. Yeah. So I kind of used the show. And with stand-up, I do talk about real things.

I do talk about real things. And at the end of the special, I have a stand-in for my real girlfriend, except for I named her Yubi in the joke. And it adds creative leeway, but the emotions about being comfortable living and sleeping with somebody for the first time remain. And I hope that that can be felt. I don't know. There's some goofier stuff in there too, which I wanted to, especially coming out of the show, felt freeing to maybe be able to do some goofier stuff in the stand-up special. And I don't know, maybe say some things that the choir teacher in Michigan wouldn't say. I see.

Yeah, that was actually something that had occurred to me in looking at your stuff is, do you ever feel constrained by, well like in the show like you know like like there's just like so many things that i don't know this might be a dumb question because you know there's every character has a list of what they would do and what they wouldn't do you know but i mean but has it ever felt kind of, you know, because there is kind of, he does live in kind of a defined environment. And does, you know, do you ever worry like, I can't ever do anything about rage or I don't know, or, you know. No, he gets angry about the same little things that I do sometimes. But no, we had some writers like Conor O'Malley and Dan Licata.

A maestro of rage. Absolutely. But he, I always, one of the harder parts about the show was like, but I think it's what made it good is him and Dan would stretch what would fit into the show. But at the same time, yeah, having to pull that back and find the balance between having that work against the sweetness or the emotional stuff was what made it really work. For the first thing we ever made, the live action was, Joe Pera helps you find the perfect Christmas tree. Yeah.

And we couldn't figure out the perfect ending. And Connor's idea was, he can't find the perfect Christmas tree and then Connor had the idea that I forget why but that I receive horse punishment and the

people in town tie me to the back of the horse and drag me through town but then my students come out and stop it at the very last minute and and uh it's hard to deny that's the funniest idea but what it was uh trying to pull back and find something that was possible, but within the weird range of the show was that the students chipped in together to buy me a Christmas tree, which is also strange in its own way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I thought it was sweet and funny, but Connors would have...

It's just like, how do you make the choice? And we chose what could potentially happen if that was what could potentially happen. It could potentially happen, believably. Maybe it was a short stretch but yeah so it was all kind of like trying to the push and pull between that but we had to strike a lot of like true like amazing ideas um because yeah just they didn't fit in that universe yeah and it would just be too far-fetched for real life and sometimes it's so fun to take those swings like and i feel like in stand-up where there's less restraints you're able to yeah take it anywhere but still

i try and yeah to maintain a tone on up ground in the same way yeah where it's not because you gotta stretch i think but not do something that then they think, oh, he's just plain lying to us up there. Yeah. But I feel, yeah. Just out of, I mean, these are just nuts and bolts questions, but why Marquette, Michigan? Why did you settle upon there? It was 20,000 people. upon there it was it's 20 000 people it's about uh it uh it's a that's a size of a town i felt

where kind of you could run into anybody and there was lots of different stuff going on, but also small enough where you could also recognize people. And, you know, you know kind of a little bit of what's going on, or you catch clutches. But it's big enough to sustain all aspects of a community. And then the hockey, the beer, they get a lot of snow. And yeah, just like the way that the whole downtown, the people, they're funny. There's a lot of Finnish people there, and I appreciate their sense of humor. And it's, you know, the dryness adjacent to certain types of Canadian humor that I like a lot. And,

but the whole, one of the main streets just opens up onto Lake Superior and you get this view and it's just, there's something about being in the middle of a town, but also having this enormous cold Lake. Yeah. Full of metal. Always full also having this enormous cold lake. Yeah. Full of metal. Always full of metal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. I just ask because I'm from the Midwest and I, and people, I mean, and I still, the Great Lakes are like absolutely gorgeous. absolutely gorgeous and yet i've always like and i i've always kind of liked that you know it's like you said there's fins you know it's like like where else you'd be like oh yeah there's a lot of fins up there and so like you get a lot of finnish food up there and it's you know i mean i just kind of love that and i also love the fact that there are these beautiful places, waterfront, you get all, you know, because you think waterfront, you don't think giant barges filled with ore.

But that's what most of the Great Lakes and where the sort of population centers are, were based on commerce, just commerce, you know? And so it's a perfect setting for the show. Do you cast from up there, or do you cast in New York and then bring people out? One of the nice parts, we shot each season a few weeks in Marquette, and then the rest in Milwaukee. Oh, wow. Just worked out that way because you can drive up there.

But we had kind of, we cast a lot of local people in Milwaukee. Yeah. And then it was amazing because we could bring in Chicago improvisers, people that are so good, but like perhaps you haven't seen them on TV a ton. So it was like really exciting to have access to both those things. Yeah, so that was a real treat, and I loved it. We would cast a lot of, we ended up, we had a lot of extras casting that turned into regular roles and just stuff.

We would go into a restaurant and if someone was in there and they seemed perfect or the woman in the hairdressing shop who actually owned the shop she ended up um we just asked her to do it because and her staff to play the roles because nobody could do it as well as them. Yeah. They've worked there for 50 years and to see them do their thing, you know, there's challenges, but I don't know. I just want to add also Marquette. I saw this. It feels like a good place for interesting people.

There's a guy walk out of a snowmobile bar. He took, as he was smoking he took uh snow off the roof rubbed his hands together and then slicked his hair back and i was like that's like that's that's going yeah yeah that's just an interesting guy yeah that's that's like Arctic Circle Fonzie right there. Exactly. We asked him if he would be in the show, but he said no, which is even cooler. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He doesn't want to be

seen on camera for various reasons, I bet. Do you have grand plans for the rest of your life? Is a family in the picture for you do you think you'll always be a new yorker do you think you'll you know some ways become the joe pera character and and move away from it all yeah well family wise yeah i hope to get uh to to to to have kids someday i think that would be very nice but it, yeah, I'm appreciating this bit of time

before I have them to continue doing shows on the road and hopefully figuring out new stuff. I'm kind of using stand-up right now to help me figure out the new thing. And, like, if the special seemed different than the show, it was like, I want to keep the comedy growing helped me figure out the new thing. And if the special seemed different than the show, it was like, I want to keep the comedy growing in an interesting direction that I don't know what it is, but performing live, I feel, helps figure it out

and set new ideas in motion. Part of me, I do want to make a film someday, but part of me does feel like I kind of did make the show I was meant to make. And there's a relief in that. And I kind of like, I feel good. I feel good that it happened especially at this point it sucks it was canceled but like i felt like that's that was the show and the characters i was supposed to do and everything else now is a little bit of a bonus oh i don't know does that does that does that feel does that because i know, I mean, I've seen it a lot where when somebody achieves, you know, they kind of achieve their own personal bullseye and then they got to go on with their life.

And there's a little bit of like, okay, now what? And have you experienced a bit of that because of because like you said you did the show you were supposed to do and now it's over i don't know it's it's three seasons of 15 minute episodes yeah yeah yeah this is no i don't know no no no i i know and maybe i'm yeah i know i'm no, like, Kurosawa. I'm not going to make Seven Samurai. I know, I know. But, yeah, part of me feels like I had something inside of me that I don't want to say vomited, but it came out.

Yeah. And it's not perfect, but I feel like it was a true expression of everything I really wanted to put in a show. Yeah. And that's a nice feeling. And I know I've got a couple ideas I'm playing with, but yeah, for a film. But last week, I felt fired up. I got to perform a week of shows at this small venue in Pittsburgh

to start working on new material and performing live for people and drinking beers with them at the end of the night. It was called Bottle Rocket. It was like the best time, and it felt so good to do nothing but write and perform in such like a kind of a way that felt like when I was starting and nothing else mattered. That was exciting and I feel like something's going to come from that and being on tour again. And I'm going to find, I don't know. I could get fired up about lots of stuff. So I think there's something else in there, but yeah.

If, yeah. I want everyone to know that tickets for your 2024 tour dates are available. So go out and see you. 2024 tour dates are available. So go out and see you. But are you at the point now where you're mostly being seen by people, by Joe Pera fans, but not a lot of just kind of looky-loos, randos coming in, you know?

I hope that more random people come in because, like, I think that's – no, I'm so excited that fans are coming out. It feels like the thing you always work for. But there's something exciting about winning over an audience that doesn't know what's going on. So that's, yeah, both are great. I hope that there's new people to win over. Because like at the, the comedy clubs,

when you got to make something work for the first time for people who have, who had no preconceived notions about what you're going to do is really a treat. I imagine, I imagine too, it's fun to have a room that's mixed of both and you can feel both presences there, uh, you know, where, yeah. You know, cause you, you know, to, to feel the one shift into the other, you know? Yeah.

I just want to say, yeah. If anybody comes to the shows next year, don't cut me any slack. Make sure it's not perfect. Get yeah hair trigger boos uh please yeah pick it up can't you tell my loves there's the there's the the what have you learned part of this i mean the kind of and i think i think about what you've talked about you know people can probably discern about a lot of you know a lot of like the point of what you do uh and it's a very individual point it's a very sort of like it's a you know it's it's unique it's and it's a very individual point. It's a very sort of like, it's a, you know, it's, it's unique, it's quiet, it's, you know, intellectual, but you know, it also ends up being, you know, a little bit revelatory about just kind of human, human stuff.

But I wonder if there's something that you've, you know, that you've learned that you kind of feel is like, you know, the main thing up to this, to this point, cause you're not, you know, you're not old or anything. No, no. I think, I mean, I've, I've learned a ton of stuff. Having to go, I think the biggest thing going from stand-up to having to make the show was how to share ideas with collaborators and how to work with other people. Because as stand-up, you don't really have to do that as much.

with other people because as stand-up, you don't really have to do that as much. And, like, kind of, it's scary to tell an idea. Like, it was really, I mean, a lot of the show was hard to describe even to, like, the director. But, like, we had the, I remember there was a moment where, like where I lay a pumpkin to rest the first season. And it was like, it was so ridiculous, but it had to, you had to feel a real emotion about it because of what it represented. And like,

a real emotion about it because of what it represented. And like, it was a little embarrassing to describe what this pumpkin represented to another person, but at the same time you knew it had to be, it had to be done. And like, I, you can't do that yourself on a TV show.

There's too many people involved. So learning to like explain and trust people with your vision and allowing them to take it further than you ever could is like a big thing. And how to properly discuss when things are out of tone or not, what is inside your head in the best way possible in a way that stays, you know, positive and encouraging. Because it's really hard to, yeah, I think working with people is a hard thing. And it's one of the things that I'm excited to keep getting better at,

learn a lot of lessons in it throughout making the show and um yeah it's exciting because now i feel like me marty scousebo who's the director and our production designer katie birmingham the writers we all kind of yeah we have a certain understanding in the shorthand and uh that's so cool that they're like i i don't we don't even have to talk sometimes and they get it and to know that we're all communicating well and excited yeah that's why i'm excited to make the next thing with them knowing that we're all on the same page like that was with uh yeah that's so that's that's the big thing i learned is lessons and how to collaborate and does that does that spread over into other areas of your life certainly yeah i mean uh i mean it carries over

to everything i don don't know. Like doing a writer's room is one of the hardest things you can do, I think, and keeping everybody on the same creative path and making sure everybody's feeling good. It didn't go perfectly during our show, especially because we were all close friends. But, like, if you can make it function it's and listen to everybody's personality get to know them and what bothers them that's what

i don't know it feels like that spreads to everybody if dealing with family issues dealing uh more patiently with uh I don't know, when the neighbor's dog is barking. This is problem solving and understanding people. It's like one of the main things about being a grown-up is learning collaboration. If you're not collaborating, I mean, if you're some weirdo poet or something, I don't know about that, but collaborating is where all the best stuff happens, I think. I mean, there has to be kind of a uniqueness of vision, but I think you've just explained it. Yeah, there's a very unique vision, but you've got a bunch of people to share in it with you.

And that's got to feel pretty great. Yeah. And when even being able to say, like, I don't know, I have no idea what's going to happen. And either being like, would you mind giving me a little bit of time to figuring out? Or could you help talk this through with me? Because I'm lost. Yeah. Being, I don't know.

That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's the stuff that's, yeah, that was nice to learn. Well, your new special, I'm going to tell you this. You probably don't know this. Joe Pera, Slow and Steady. It was released on YouTube on October 6 6th and it's very funny uh and uh you you described it as an alternative comedian at the tail end of the second comedy boom which is you really know how to promote yourself man that's that you can't turn that down let me act that no but it's a very funny special i really enjoyed it

thank you very much i appreciate it sure and you you uh and then there's you also have a podcast called drifting off with joe para uh where you help people unwind or even fall asleep uh which you know i mean it is interesting to set yourself as a, up as a comedian who is not offended if your work makes people not off. No, that was, that was a thing I learned. I, my friend said they should. Yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know. I can be content with that.

Well, good. Well, I'm sure they didn't fall asleep to this podcast. People are probably like punching the wall right now. I have to listen to this. Furious. Yeah, just angry. I don't know why, I'm just mad! Alright, well Joe Pera, thank you so much

for spending the time, and I hope our paths cross soon. Yeah, I hope so too. Yeah, and thank all of you out there for listening and I'll be back next week with more of this. The three questions with Andy Richter is a team cocoa production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia, additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel executive produced by Nick

Adam Sachs and and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddie Ogden. Research by Alyssa Grahl. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it ain't a-showing? Oh, you must be a-knowing. I've got a big, big love. This has been a Team Coco production.