This Past Weekend - #617 - Aziz Ansari

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Starting point is 00:00:28 If you were unable to grab a piece of tour merch then, and you want to get something, we've put whatever we have remaining there online. We also have some new Mbubby teas that have been restocked, and we've got hoodies coming on those, some Camo Gang, Hitter Hunt Club, a lot of new items in there. And thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:00:53 Some people are getting gifts for their friends or family for Christmas. So thank you for letting us be a part of your holidays, and thanks for supporting the show, TheoVonStore.com. Thank you, guys. Today's guest is a stand-up comedian. He's an actor and a filmmaker. He just directed his first film called Good Fortune, which we're going to talk about, and I'm looking forward to getting to meet him, really. We never even known each other.

Starting point is 00:01:24 So we're going to do that now. Today's guest is Mr. Aziz on Sari. Sweet, man. I get a hit of this. What do you drink, man? Do you have a beverage of choice, kind of? Just espresso and water. Really?

Starting point is 00:01:55 I mean, not together, but I drink espresso a lot, and then water. And then if I'm drinking, like, when a wine or whatever, a martini or whatever, but... Ooh, a martini, huh? Check, check. You good? Okay. Yeah. Do Indian people react about a martini?

Starting point is 00:02:15 Is your family Indian by nature? Yeah, by nature, they are Indian. Okay. Yeah, my family's from India. I was born in South Carolina. Yeah. Yeah, wait, are we going now or no? Yeah, we can be.

Starting point is 00:02:28 Yeah, whatever you're on? Okay, wait. So, where are you from? You're from Louisiana. I'm from Louisiana, yeah. Okay. Because, you know, whatever I hear someone else with a Southern accident, it's almost like when I see someone that's Indian. I'm a little like, oh, I need to, but I, we've never really met, I don't think, properly.

Starting point is 00:02:46 I was a, you were at Chris Rock's birthday party. I saw you there, but, you know, that was a crazy thing. I didn't really get to say hi, but do you have that? when you hear someone with a southern accent because to me there's so few people I don't have one but I'm from South Carolina I lost my accent it comes out when I start talking to other people

Starting point is 00:03:05 that have it even the guy that picked me up at the airport he was from Atlanta and I started and I like it started seeping in but yours has stayed strong mine is gone but I remember when I met Danny McBride because there's so few people that have

Starting point is 00:03:22 Southern accents that are in our kind of acting Hollywood comedian rule. Strange. I think right before our generation it was more prevalent. Before, well, there was the whole like blue collar.

Starting point is 00:03:36 Right, those guys. Those guys, they had their run. That was, that was, they all had Southern accents. Larry the Cable guy, definitely Southern accent. Yeah, he's going back on tour I just saw.

Starting point is 00:03:46 Yeah, I remember when I was a kid, you know, I grew up in a small town in South Carolina called Bennett'sville. There's like 8,000 people there. No one ever toured there. anything and I remember some kids went and saw Jeff Foxworthy and he came to Florence South Carolina which is like 45 minutes and like we saw Jeff Foxworthy that was the first time I'd ever heard of someone going to a live comedy show oh

Starting point is 00:04:08 wow by the way I'm shivering a little bit because so I I you know I came from I was in Chicago and I had to get up at like five in the morning and you had a cold plunge and your producer was like if you want to jump in the cold plunge and I was like are you Are you kidding? Are you serious? Because I'm a little tired and I didn't really sleep yesterday and I did it.

Starting point is 00:04:28 But like I'm a little cold. I'm a little cold. I'm scared a little bit. It'll rattle you. Yeah, no, I'm glad you got in. Dude, yeah, I got in. I was in there earlier this morning. I get in now because I don't want to.

Starting point is 00:04:39 So I'm like, let me go do something that I don't want to do to start my day and I think it adjusts my attitude, which I need a lot. And dude, I just went to, I just went to University of South Carolina. We met a chauffeur over there. his girlfriend had thrown

Starting point is 00:04:53 Fettuccini like a hot thing of boiling Fettuccini on him Yeah and he had to be like It's crazy bro That story took a dark turn really fast That's the last thing I expected to happen And this guy in the story is Boiling Fettuccini thrown on him

Starting point is 00:05:09 Bro, 100% And but he was our shirt Wait with the water not Yeah Okay because if it was just a Fettuccini That's not too bad Yeah I was like Water in the mix too though that's that's

Starting point is 00:05:20 That's a crime Yeah oh it was a crime And his, yeah, his neck was, like, dripping off of him and stuff. It was, he went through a lot. But anyway, met him. He's a chauffeur over there. Stan, he's out of the, he's out of the Bronx originally. But we just had him come in.

Starting point is 00:05:33 He was just, like, kind of a unique character. So, um, but, hey, Trev, will you cut the AC off just in case? I don't want to fucking lose Aziz. Am I looking crazy? No, you seem fine. Okay. I didn't know if I was sitting there. But no, I know what you mean.

Starting point is 00:05:48 Sometimes if you get that in, and that AC's on, it's kind of a lot. Dude, is this true? And thanks so much for coming in today, man. Oh, man, I really appreciate it. And, you know, I'm not really super familiar with a lot of podcasts. And I haven't done a big press tour in, like, a long time. Because, you know, the last time I had something come out was during COVID. So that was weird.

Starting point is 00:06:09 You didn't really do the normal stuff. And then I've been working on these films for a bit. And so before I was like, they were like, oh, do all these podcasts. I was like, where I'm going to listen to episodes. and I listened to a couple of years. I listened to the Bernie Sanders one. Oh, yeah. Which I really liked, and to me, really connected with my film

Starting point is 00:06:30 because the stuff you guys were talking about, you're talking about something that I hadn't heard where the number one cause of bankruptcy is medical bills. Yeah. And in my character in the film, you're never really given a clear explanation of what happened in this guy. The guy's, you know, he's lost his job, he's sleeping in his car.

Starting point is 00:06:48 Oh, in good fortune, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. But it made me think. of that, what your conversation with Bernie Sanders, and I was like, oh man, this is really on the, in the same kind of realm. And then, um, and I loved your episode with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm always fascinated by Arnold. Really? Yeah, because I think he's so, I think he's so smart. And, um, yeah, I don't know why. I, I think you realize, like, the more you're in this

Starting point is 00:07:14 business, especially the, in the kind of movie acting world to, like, be an actor that's kind of had a few hits like a lot of things have to come together and it's not an accident you know what i mean when these guys have this run of hits like they've got to be really sharp yeah yeah it was pretty fascinating i guess we went to his office and there's like the his like conan thing is in there and like the sword he's like wait did you meet that little donkey he has i don't know if the donkey was there there was some hair on the floor that's in his house this was in his office oh no this was his office yeah there was some hair on the floor but i don't know what it was from i don't think um oh my god he Yeah, there's a donkey.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Oh, because I think he's very Dutch like that or something. Oh, my God. Yeah, those are mini donkeys. They look mixed, too. I met a small donkey in Nashville once. Oh. First of all, I love Nashville. I go to Zanis a lot when I'm, like, working on sets.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Yeah. Oh, I think I remember. That's what the last thing I remember. I remember hearing you came to Zanis and did like six or seven nights or something over there. Yeah, and one time, one of my favorite shows, the power went out, and I had to do the show like the power went out and we were like

Starting point is 00:08:21 what do we do and the staff there was amazing they like immediately brought candles out and I was like yelling my set and then some guy like brought like a speaker

Starting point is 00:08:29 and a microphone it was incredible oh dude I think didn't they I think it was an article or something about that I even remember I remember seeing a picture about that

Starting point is 00:08:36 or at least just hearing about it like in local lore you know one thing about Nashville is dude it's a very small city like it's small it's like people it's something happened

Starting point is 00:08:45 you hear about it it's not like it just feels like a huge town. How long you lived here? A really big town. I lived here for, I think, almost four years. Where were you before?

Starting point is 00:08:54 The pandemic. I was in L.A. Oh, okay. Yeah, and I moved directly from there because during the pandemic, I remember seeing, like, Kid Rock's Bar, you know, and people are having a blast there.

Starting point is 00:09:04 And meanwhile, like, my landlord is, like, making us wear a hazmat suits to get our fucking mail and chickens everybody's all paranoid and shit out there. And I was like, fuck this shit. I got a fucking go, you know?

Starting point is 00:09:15 I've always lived Nashville. I did a series for Netflix and we filmed an episode here and I always come here for stand-up. I did the rhyme and I'd never done the rhyme and I'd always done some other theater and I did the Ryman on this tour that a few months ago

Starting point is 00:09:28 and that's one of the best best places I've ever performed. Yeah, there's that thing. Yeah, that was it. Isn't that so crazy? Yeah. A power outage force comedian in his season has already finished the set in the dark Monday night, dude.

Starting point is 00:09:41 That was cool. That was like one of those cool, cool moments. That was fun. But when I was here for that trip to get back to the donkeys. My wife, she's Danish and she loves donkeys. And there was some fair here. And they had miniature donkeys. Oh, beautiful. And we sought them out and we said what's up to him. One of them's name was, his name was Roger. And he was born October 4th. So Roger 10-4. So we met Roger and there was another little donkey named Lily. But But I

Starting point is 00:10:17 She was She was a little big I don't know She was a micro donkey Rodger was straight up micro Lily was a little big I don't know if she was micro At that size

Starting point is 00:10:27 I don't judge their weight To be honest with them You know what I'm saying Because the bodies There's already a lot going on You know It's like Yeah I think

Starting point is 00:10:34 I think that I mean I think they're beautiful I remember I met The world's smallest horse One time When was that and where? And this is his name

Starting point is 00:10:44 was Tom Thumb And I met him in Alameda, I believe. And how did that intro come about? Well, people, people like, you got to go meet him and shit. And I remember I'd been at a bar. Alameda is where? California? California, yeah.

Starting point is 00:10:57 Okay. So you were doing a show in Alameda and then like, you got to meet the smallest horse. No, we'd been out there for a, I was just, I think I'd heard about it. I think I'd been in conversations about like smaller animals and amelia generally. The world's, the one I met was Tom Thumb. And if you can also look up separately on perplexity here, if you can just look up the Ovan Tom Thumb. I did a post on it.

Starting point is 00:11:22 It was pretty fascinating. What's perplexity? Perplexity is like a different AI. It does, for me, I like it because it's, it can help me, like, edit and pull clips out of things that you can put something in it and be like, like, what clips do you like in this? What do you suggest, that sort of thing?

Starting point is 00:11:37 Oh, well. So it's kind of like, it's like an AI, you know? It's far beyond my, I don't know any of this stuff. Dude, what are you talking about? Do people, how do your parents feel about that? That I don't know, uh, perplexity? That you don't know about the AIs. I mean, I know what it is.

Starting point is 00:11:53 I, uh, I don't really use that stuff much. Yeah. I don't really use internet or phone or anything very much. I try to stay off. Yes. Oh, here we go right here. Let's take a video. I am into this.

Starting point is 00:12:04 Superhero right there. How long are you going to be here today for? He'll be here all day? How small is he? And he's more Pequino than some his classic

Starting point is 00:12:18 Whoa But as new a baby He has a Caballito Fresino And he's alive too Oh that would be dark

Starting point is 00:12:26 You don't know What people are doing Dude But yeah So just to let you know I guess we have a lot of symbiosis They are

Starting point is 00:12:34 In our love For the small horses Small What are horses And donkeys What's that Ask the AI What is that

Starting point is 00:12:41 What is that kind of animal Horses, donkeys the four-legged kind of, they're similar. There must be some group. Yeah, what is that called? The equis. Yeah, the equis.

Starting point is 00:12:51 The equine. The equine. But dude, when you think that God took all the beauty of a huge horse and put it into like a baby snicker of a horse, a little horse. Yeah, there's not, is there any other animals that have minis? Like, because there's many horses, there's many donkeys. What is it? There's many cows?

Starting point is 00:13:11 There are? Oh, wow. Oh, God. That'd be a dark moment you go to a steakhouse. They're like, just so you know, these are all mini cows. Yeah. It's still. That's too dark.

Starting point is 00:13:22 I'd have a little. You know what I'm saying? You probably could only have a little. Yeah, that's true, dude. There's not like a 40 ounce mini cow steak. That's not happening. It's like he's a one ounce. It's like when you go to a sushi restaurant, they have that one little piece of Wagyu.

Starting point is 00:13:37 This is from a mini cow. Oh, my God. They're all furry. Maybe I'm going to finish this show. get addicted to the internet, because this is pretty fun. I never knew about mini cows. I didn't know. I would have just been wondering about equines, equists. Well, look, dude, I think you could get your wife one of these. Let me see these miniature horses rarely exceed 34 inches in height. Minature donkeys also max out at around 34 inches. There's mini micro pigs. Oh,

Starting point is 00:14:05 wait, this is a whole list of everything there's many of. There's many horses, donkeys, pygmy goats. They don't call them micro goats. They prefer to be referred to as pigmy goats. mini sheeps, micro pigs micro pigs I've heard of imagine a mini sheep though you can make a very small sweater you're just sitting there oh dude we gotta get some of these animals

Starting point is 00:14:31 but dude when I was a kid they only had big dogs and then the dogs started getting littler a lot of this I think is crossbreeding and inbreeding you know I grew up in a kind of an not an inbreeding district but I grew up in like certainly like the stray animal bell and the inbreeding belt kind of like they you can they run across some of the same planes in America okay and we would see a lot of you know people start getting smaller over time in the

Starting point is 00:14:55 area because you and that's when you knew like okay people need to start walking farther or driving farther for sex you know you just knew the inbreeding was heating up you know you know the kettle the kettle was getting a little warm you know when somebody'd have a baby and they could just put it on like a key ring or whatever it was like that thing's too small small you know um good to see you man because we've never really gotten to talk and it's good to laugh with somebody um you know i i i love meeting comedians that i haven't met before i i uh i was thinking this the other day like when i was on tour i was you know i bring some of the same guys out with me and who do you take with you sorry to interject um wilsel vince uh he he hosts a lot

Starting point is 00:15:40 isn't he? Will is in the movie, and Ricky Veles, they came out with me a lot early this year and then our tour manager, Beth, who I love. Will, especially, have you ever met Will? Do you know Will at all? I don't know him, but I recognized him immediately. I know, I know

Starting point is 00:15:56 him well. The hardest I laugh in my life is after shows going to dinner with Will because he's just the most ridiculous guy. And he just, he's so funny like just this stuff like this one of my favorite

Starting point is 00:16:14 will anecdotes one time I told him I said I wanted to send him a playlist of some music and he's like I don't use Spotify and I was like well what do you use I use Amazon music oh type shit and I was like why do you use Amazon music he's like because I like to download the MP3s and burn them on the CDs

Starting point is 00:16:30 I was like this is this is such a unique dude yeah I mean it sounds illegal but it also sounds like I respect it you know but I but I let's say I love comedians comedians are my favorite people well I think in the end it's like

Starting point is 00:16:45 you have to realize how rare it is that people do it and that uh that we do all have something in common yeah and it used to feel like a lot more like that again it's like the southern accent it's like when I see another Indian person there's something that pulls me towards them yeah it makes me comfortable yeah I think well some of that's just tribes you know there's a little bit of like whatever's built into us um what a specific tribe

Starting point is 00:17:07 to you know because most people people's, you know, most people's worst fear is public speaking, and it's what we do for a living. So there's something deep inside that's a bond with all of us, has to be. Oh, we're like Satan's mini donkeys of self-esteem. Yeah. Me's self-esteem. That's why we need so much approval with laughter. It's like if you pet me enough.

Starting point is 00:17:30 Micro self-esteem people. Yeah, if you pet me enough, I'll grow into a regular-sized horse, you know. Yeah, yeah. We get enough laughs. We play enough theaters. If you graduate to arenas, then we become full-sized people. This is enough. That's hilarious. It's almost like our Pinocchio story.

Starting point is 00:17:45 Yeah. Yeah, dude, I stayed up watching the movie last night, Good Fortune. That's a new movie. Yeah. Dude, the amount of turns that started to happen, I'm about like, I guess maybe 45 minutes in. The amount of turns that started to happen in the plot, really were making it heat up. Oh, well, thank you. It's cool, dude.

Starting point is 00:18:05 And Keanu Reeves, he's like this. like he almost reminds me of like a surfer dude that won best in show at Westminster type of vibe you know what I'm saying yeah there's a little bit of California kind of but he's very sweet like a like a little pup and his posture is so good it seems like he would win best in show like he seems like he's very good posture I never noticed his posture but you didn't no but you know I remember when we first started screening the movie as soon as he came up on screen I could tell there was something like, whoa, this dude's a movie star.

Starting point is 00:18:40 And it's not just that he's handsome. There's something, this other, you know, there's this other thing that he has. And he's so funny in the movie. I mean, he just kills. And by the end of the movie, when I've watched it with crowds, like he's just doing the smallest thing and just getting huge laughs.

Starting point is 00:18:59 And, um, yeah, but, um... You directed and wrote and you're in it, right? You wrote it too? I wrote it. Dude, that's awesome, bro. Produced, acted everything. Too much. So you have control issues, you think?

Starting point is 00:19:11 Yeah, a little bit, but in a positive way as well. You know, Seth Rogen's in the movie, and he does his show, the studio, and we've talked about that about, you know, kind of doing everything, because he does everything on that. And there's something that's kind of streamlined about it, you know, to like, oh, I had this idea, this is how I'm going to write it, and you kind of have, for me, whenever I'm writing something, I kind of have, you know, an idea in my head of how I want it to sound and look and everything. And directing is pretty much just

Starting point is 00:19:37 conveying that to a group of people to execute it. Yeah. So if it's all coming from one person and if you're one of the people acting, it does make things easier in a sense. Yeah, man, that does make a lot of sense, dude. Yeah, and, you know, you have other people

Starting point is 00:19:54 like Seth and Keanu who, you know, they have iconic voices. So when I'm writing, I have their voice in the head. And then when they're there, they do it like even funnier than you think they were going to do it when you had in your head they add something or they improvise and you know

Starting point is 00:20:10 the goal is really you have like the version in your head and then you have this whole crew and cast and you kind of convey your vision and then they take that and then they give you something else that's something from them and it becomes better than you thought. How long was you guys to shoot for?

Starting point is 00:20:27 Well it was a little weird because we shot like one or two days and then the writer strike happened. We have to stop for a few months. Yeah. And then we came back And this sounds crazy When I'm saying it out loud So we came back after the writer's strike

Starting point is 00:20:42 Which was like, I don't know Seven months or something It was a while And were people pregnant and stuff Like was it different? No one got pregnant But no everyone was still the same But um

Starting point is 00:20:52 Oh thank God We shot for like a couple days And then Keanu broke his knee He broke his kneecap Like on our like second or third day back What was he doing? I mean it sounds insane as I'm saying it out loud because this guy's done all the Matrix movies all the

Starting point is 00:21:07 John Wick movies never got hurt yeah we filmed a scene in a cold plunge and he was going back to his dressing room he was all wrapped up in a robe and everything and he like tripped on a rug and fell on his kneecap oh yeah they got pictures of him in the crutches here on on perplexity uh no he broke his freaking kneecap and when you guys right there could you hear it no no it was in his in his dressing room so I just heard like someone on the walk he's like oh I'm Keanu's down so he went through it alone

Starting point is 00:21:40 yeah he fell down and then they were like he's hurt and then he came down he was ready to film right away his knee was like bleeding right crazy and we're like hey man maybe you should go to a doctor and he was like no no no let's shoot he loves he loves shooting he just wants to shoot but anyway

Starting point is 00:21:55 we could film most of his stuff he had like a knee brace that we like edited out with VFX He didn't get that stupid one with the wheels on it. No, he didn't have the wheel. I just kind of mean to call it stupid, man. That's something people got to use. But, dude, I saw some drunk lady and her husband. They were going down Broadway in Nashville.

Starting point is 00:22:16 And I know the thing you're talking about. It's kind of like this thing. Yeah. It's like a mini scooter. My friend broke his Achilles, Tori's Achilles heel, and he had to use that for a while. Yeah, it's like the X games of being crippled or whatever. Yeah, it's a little weird. Yeah, it seems a little silly.

Starting point is 00:22:31 But he didn't have one of those He just had a big knee brace But we had these scenes where he had Like most of the stuff we could kind of figure it out But there was a couple of scenes where we needed him to dance There's a whole thing where he starts dancing cumbia And we were like Keanu we can't shoot the cumbia stuff So

Starting point is 00:22:47 We came back after his leg healed and shot a few more days But it was like a 30 day shoot Oh wow it's fast that's a lot of work Yeah that's not too much But it's not too little Yeah Yeah we just I just David Spade and I made a move And I can't talk about it anymore on here because we've talked about it a lot.

Starting point is 00:23:04 But how many days? 23 days. That's pretty tight. I mean, I don't know the script or anything, but 23, you know, that's a lot of work. But over 30, yeah, we probably had a few days off in between, you know. But it was a lot, it was like the fires that happened, we had to move. Oh, God. One scene that just happens to be firing, and you're like, okay, well, this has to be part of it.

Starting point is 00:23:22 Because you've already set up for the day and whatever the space is going to be. So, like, one day it's crazy winds. A winds were like 45 miles an hour. I remember that. I remember that. I was in LA right during the fires. I remember the day of four, there was a crazy winds. I was like, what's happening? Okay, so we're like talking about kites.

Starting point is 00:23:38 We wrote that into the script. Like, yeah, we should get some kites. You wrote it in afterwards. Yeah, just to add like, yeah. Maybe we'll get some kites after, you know, we like threw in a line. It's like just trying to make things make sense, you know, because you just have, you're already set up. Everybody's already driven there.

Starting point is 00:23:51 The people are there. There's a lady standing in there with makeup. You know what I'm saying? Like people have washed their bodies and gotten in their vehicles and gotten over there. People have put on deodorant. People have put on. clean panties and men's panties or whatever they're called under men's underwear they put on their undergarments and they showed up and it's a lot of

Starting point is 00:24:09 people and it's crazy because you know you write these random things and then all these people get to work to do it and it's like some silly joke about a pillowcase or whatever like oh which pillowcase do you want to use yeah someone's as dumb as that like all these people will drive to one place just so somebody can be like Rick is a bitch and you're like Okay, that's lunch. You're like, that fucking took four hours. God, and Ricky's not even a bitch anymore. He's had a surgery by the end of the day.

Starting point is 00:24:38 You know what I'm saying? So everything's changed. It blows my mind that, you know, because it's like, stand up, you do these things and you're just on a mic and there's people they're listening. But when you write a joke for a movie, there's all these trucks. Everybody's showed up.

Starting point is 00:24:52 It's, it really makes you pause for a second. I don't know if you had this thing where you're like, oh, man, this is a lot of hope. Oh, this is worth it for these people. Oh, yeah, I remember the first day we got to do, to set. I was like, holy shit. I thought this had just been a bunch of emails, you know? And it was like all the emails that come together in real life.

Starting point is 00:25:13 Like there was trailers. There was some guy got electrocuted. Oh, no. Yeah. But it was like everything, you know, you were like, oh, people are acting. There's some guy practicing his things. They're like firing an extra. Like all the shit was going on, you know?

Starting point is 00:25:28 Like some guys. It's just like, you know, I had bought the wrong peanut. Just all the shit's happening, you know, there's no coffee. There was always no coffee when I got over there. It's fine. But it was just like, it's fascinating to see it happen. And it's one of those things that has to, like, it's so expensive to do that you have to get it done on that day. It's like, whatever elements come, if somebody breaks their leg, if somebody goes missing, you have to, for an hour, you have to, like, shoot around.

Starting point is 00:25:55 It's just all these little things that kind of go on, you know? I was telling someone, because people always ask me, like, what's the difference between? doing stand-up and doing a film. To me, doing stand-up, it's like you're running around a track. And you go, hey, I'm ready to go. And then you go to all these cities and you run around the track, and you're done.

Starting point is 00:26:14 And a movie is like, you have to go to these people and go, hey, I want to climb this mountain. Can you give me money to climb this mountain? And they're like, let me see your plan, which is like your script. And they're like, hmm, well, we can give you this much. Oh, that's not really enough supplies. And then they're like, well, can Brad Pitt climb the mountain with you?

Starting point is 00:26:31 Can you get, you know, these other famous, can, you know, and. Yeah. And then if you're lucky enough to even get to start climbing the mountain, then people just start throwing boulders at you. Hey, here's the rider's strike. Hey, there's the fires in L.A. Oh, wait, Keanu's broke his kneecap. And it is a positive blood test.

Starting point is 00:26:49 You're like, oh, that's rough. It's all just, you're just trying to avoid all these different disasters. and if you're lucky, you make it to the top. But it's so much harder to either so much more that's out of your control. Stand-up is so... In your control. Yeah, there's something so pure and beautiful about stand-up. I like doing both, but there is something so pure and beautiful about stand-up

Starting point is 00:27:15 where it's just literally a person talking to microphone. It's kind of such a pure and direct art form. And filmmaking, there's so many other things that are out of your control and it's a lot more complex. But it's rewarding in its own way. I mean, I think about how, you know, I'll, I'm working on other scripts now, and I'll have some joke, and it'll be like, well, this will be maybe years from now before I'll see this joke play in a theater and hear a crowd of people laugh.

Starting point is 00:27:45 And then a stand-up joke, you know, you were like a thing of something tonight and go to a comedy club and try it and hear it get a laugh. And that's so satisfying. But there's also something crazy about, like, I remember I started writing Good Fortune, like probably in the pandemic, I started writing it on and off. And there's jokes I wrote in. And then years later, it's like,

Starting point is 00:28:04 I'm in a theater in Burbank and Keanu Reeves is saying the joke and, you know, a crowd full of people goes crazy. And they're both amazing, but in different ways. Yeah. That's so wild, dude.

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Starting point is 00:31:16 They all feel like, oh, man, I hope I can make this. You know, I've got two movies that I, two other scripts that I've written. I had this movie with Bill Murray that I was doing that got shut down. I want to finish that. Why? What happened? Oh, well, Bill Murray was part of this movie we did called Being Mortal. Being Mortal was a book by this gentleman named Atul Gawande.

Starting point is 00:31:39 It's all about like end of life issues. It's about stuff, you know, that people my age of, you're dealing with with their parents, you know, maybe not all the people might be older, but, you know, they're getting sick, you got to put them in retirement homes, and you got to figure all this stuff out. Very, you know, very interesting book. And it's about, very highly recommend this book.

Starting point is 00:32:01 Have you met our tool guy one day? Yeah, yeah. I had to talk to a tool to get rights to the book. And when I decided to turn into script, he helped me. And, um, is it cool? There he is. Very cool, very smart guy. And, um, uh, uh, So I thought, okay, this is like, the book is not a fiction book, it's nonfiction.

Starting point is 00:32:25 But I was like, oh man, if you turn this into a story, there's things that are funny, even though it's dark, you know? Like, there's things that are funny about like, you know, you have to go, like, take your parents to, like, all, or your mom or dad, you have to take them to all these different retirement homes. And, like, you know, all these people in his book, they'd always be like, I don't want to be in here, everybody in here's old. It's like, that's people's perspective It's kind of funny And just like how out of depth You are talking to these doctors Doctors talk to you like

Starting point is 00:32:53 You know, you know these super complicated things They're like, anyway, so what do you want to do? If you do this, you know, he might be paralyzed But if you do this, you know, you're like, wait, what? Yeah, but if you do this, he might be able to do a back flip And you're like, well, that's a mixed bag It's so, you're just immediately out of your depth But anyway, I read the story and read the book

Starting point is 00:33:14 And you notice these patterns. Like the parents are like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. And then they, like, drive their car through the house or something. And then you're like, we got to take you to home, man. You know, that kind of thing. But that's really how it happens, though, for people. It's really how it happens. And I was like, well, if you did a story about this and the guy was Bill Murray, that could be really funny.

Starting point is 00:33:32 And really poignant because he, you know, I think about him in like Lawson Translation or Broken Flowers. And he's one of these, he's got this rare ability to be so funny, but so grounded and touching. and sincere. So I wrote the whole thing with him and mine. And there was no like, oh, I'll get another guy. It was like, this movie only works in my head if it's Bill Murray. I can't think of anybody else. I wrote it.

Starting point is 00:33:58 And he's like famously the hardest guy to get a hold up to be of something. Yeah, you can't even get him. Yeah. I knew him a little bit socially. I had his number. I call him. He answers the phone. I said, hey, I have a script that I wrote.

Starting point is 00:34:10 You know, I said, hello, whatever. And we talked for a minute. And I said, I was calling him because I wrote the script and I think he'd be great. And he's like, oh, that's wonderful. You know, mail it to my house. Very old school. He's like printing out and sent in my house. So I sent it to him.

Starting point is 00:34:21 He calls me like a couple of weeks later. He's like, yeah, I like this. Can you send me the book? I sent him the book. He was really into the book as well. And we eventually set it up. Seth Rogen plays his son. Kiki Palmer was playing Seth's wife.

Starting point is 00:34:38 And we shot for like three weeks. And then something has. happened on set where Bill was inappropriate with someone that was working on the film. Oh, I remember something about it. Yeah. Yeah. And was it real or was it fabricated? Who knows? I mean, something really happened. Okay, so something occurred and people felt their ways about it, right? Yeah, I don't want to get into it too much because it's not my story to tell. So something happened on set. And you had to shut the movie down. Yeah, he had a mask on, a COVID mask, and this is from what I understand. He had a COVID mask on, and he was trying to be funny and he was

Starting point is 00:35:14 kissing this woman that he was friends with with the mask on trying to be funny but this woman didn't like this and was upset and eventually it turned into this whole thing and they shut the whole movie down. No. Yeah. There's the Wikipedia page

Starting point is 00:35:29 but yes this is what Bill said at the time. I did something I thought was funny and was taking that way. The company movie studio wanted to do the right thing so they wanted to check it all out. Investigated so they stopped their production. Yeah. The whole movie shut down.

Starting point is 00:35:47 And sorry, I shared that 75%. It wasn't 75%. We shot like half of it. But anyway, I can't remember how we started on this. But that, yeah, I'd love to finish that at some point. You know, if we can, because, you know, it was very special. Gosh, that must have been, I must have been heartbreaking for everybody. It was.

Starting point is 00:36:06 But it was one of those things that was so crazy. I don't think I ever fully processed it. I mean, you want to know some crazy? I remember the week it happened. I was getting married that summer. And my friends had, they wanted to plan some sort of bachelor party for it. Not like, I'm not like,

Starting point is 00:36:24 hey, let's go to the strip club kind of guy. They were like going to, we were going to go to a restaurant and go to the spa or something like that. Like a very silly kind of like. Go to like a mathathon or something. Nothing calm. What's a mathathon?

Starting point is 00:36:36 We just do a bunch of math? Yeah, aggressive people. Is that a real thing? Or did you just make up that word? I don't know. But I could say. See, for some reason, I just think that's what I'm into? No, I'm not in the mathathons.

Starting point is 00:36:47 Wait, it's a real thing. It's a fundraising event where you do math. Wow. Yeah, it is. Zuckerberg was a mathlete. Andrew Wang was a mathlete. No, Alexander Wang was a mathlete. A lot of those tech bros were mathletes, dude.

Starting point is 00:37:01 Alexander Wang, the fashion guy? No, there's a new one. A new Alexander Wang? That guy died or something, I think. I don't think he did. This is a different guy. Oh, this is a Gen Z billionaire. This is Alexander without the E.

Starting point is 00:37:15 A. Wang, they call him in the streets, boy. Whoa, he's 28 years old. In the tech trenches, deep in the modals. Is this screen with the guy looking stuff up with you around all the time or just when you do the podcast? That would be so great. Because I'm the opposite of this. I never look anything up. You know, I don't, you know what my wife said to me yesterday.

Starting point is 00:37:35 I, you know, I don't have, I don't keep a smartphone on me. I don't, I blocked all the shit on the internet. I don't really use the internet. So sometimes I'll just ask my wife stuff the same way you're asking this guy. And she's like, you know I'm not the Internet. I'm your wife. Because what I'm secretly asking without asking is like, can you look that up for me? Because I can't look it up.

Starting point is 00:37:57 And she was like, I'm not the Internet. Dude, it was a dark moment. You married just to have the Internet. That's so great. I just needed to have a smartphone without having one. So that's why I got married. dude she said that to me i'm not the inner she loves me very much we're just texting about how much we love each other but sounds like you look we believe all that it's tough man it's tough i mean i i've

Starting point is 00:38:22 i've gotten lost and had to call her and and been like hey where where are we yeah i can't find a man because i live in london and you know there's you live in london yeah most of the time i'm there because we met in london we live there and um oh your wife is Is it London? Don't pull up the ex-girlfriend. She's in some... Some of these are wrong. Some of these are wrong.

Starting point is 00:38:46 But anyway, we live in London. We met there and, you know... Does she speak Danish as well? Yeah, she speak Danish. And I love languages, but Danish is pretty tough. Is it? It's tough, yeah. Is it romantic?

Starting point is 00:38:59 Is it considered a romantic language? Oh, this gets... This is back to the donkey thing. Okay. So she said that... I was like, well, what's like a Danish term of affection? Like, maybe we can use that. And she said it was like,

Starting point is 00:39:10 skit. And I was like, that sounds harsh. That doesn't sound very sweet. And we were somewhere where we saw a donkey. And I said, what's the word for donkey? And she said, Essel. And she said, Essel. And she said it was her first word and that she loved don't don't we call each other that. And so we started calling each other that. Yeah. And now I have, you see that A.E. That's here on this chain, the A.E. And that's what led to us meeting the little Mini Donkey in Nashville. Where we are now, boom. God, did.

Starting point is 00:39:45 Essel. Yes. Oh, you're my little Essel. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, it's pretty close. Yeah, that's it. Pretty close.

Starting point is 00:39:54 I mean, no, you said it right. You're actually saying it better than I do. You're doing the combined A.E. Yeah, that Danish is, you know, it's like, wait a second. Now we're coming up with new letters. You're combining the A&E. I can speak Italian, okay. My family speaks Tummo, it's an Indian language.

Starting point is 00:40:10 I can speak that a little bit. But Danish is a tricky one. Well, a lot of are cis and bi-gender now. Some vowels are. Like there'll be a vowel that is trans now. It's changing identity. Yeah, it's like, what's the other one? How do you pronounce you, bro?

Starting point is 00:40:27 That's all we've won. Hey, we just want to show you respect and do it right. Do whatever you want, but just tell, we just need to know how to use you in a word. And some vowels now are like, I don't want to be in your fucking words. whatever and we're like bitch or sir just be in the fucking word dude you're a letter but that's where it's at now man it's it dan it's tough because we'll be there that's not a real thing which thing that isn't that oh with the circle elon's kid's name i don't know eh so you're saying it right that that's pretty good pronunciation no and whenever i whenever i whenever we're in denmark and i try

Starting point is 00:41:01 to read a word i'll try to pronounce it right and it's just i just don't know the pronunciation rules. I get everything wrong. But wait, how do we start talking about? Oh, because I use her as a phone. Sometimes I'm walking around in London, and London, there's a lot of, like, maps on the street. So if I get lost, I can find the map and kind of make my way. But sometimes

Starting point is 00:41:19 I'll, like, keep walking around, hoping to run into one of these maps, and I won't run into one, and I have to call her, and I'll have to be like, hey, I'm over here. You got to tell me how to get to the tube station. And I remember that even when I first came to L.A., I don't know, whatever you

Starting point is 00:41:35 first came to L.A. how long ago it was, but, you know, there wasn't GPS and stuff. GPS was, like, a fancy thing if they had it at all. So I would, like, print out directions on MapQuest, and I remember, you know, I would call my little brother, my little brother was a few years younger than me. He was still in South Carolina, and I'd call him and be like, hey, man, I'm on Caesar Chavez. How do I get back to me? Because we didn't have the stuff. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:42:03 When you came to L.A., was it like that? Yeah, dude, people had maps, drawings. You'd have a guy who had directions tattooed on his arm of how to get home if he was an alcoholic or whatever. Oh, my God. Like, shit was definitely more primitive back then. People would, like, just write on their dashboard how to get home.

Starting point is 00:42:19 Like, yeah, people had to remember. Remember when you just... Knew everybody's phone number. Yeah, but also when somebody would give you directions, dude, and if you missed one of them or something and you were going to a party, you just drove around their neighborhood for an hour and then went home.

Starting point is 00:42:33 Like, you would drive and roll your window down and see if you heard a party from the backyard. Yeah. We're basically like a bunch of like, um, uh, Magellans, you know? And it's strange to think there's, there's people that grew up without knowing that at all. And it really does seem nuts that we were able to be okay without it.

Starting point is 00:42:55 Yeah. You know? Well, it's like, if you imagine now, it's like we're going to do the airport and nobody's going to go through TSA, right? Because that's how it was. Oh, I barely remember that. Like that you could go up to the gate and all that.

Starting point is 00:43:05 stuff. You know, all of my travel, you know, I started doing comedy by the time I was touring and stuff and traveling all the time like we do. So you were already big touring when you started doing comedy or no? No, no, no. I'm saying like I didn't start traveling a bunch, you know, touring and doing all the stuff until after TSA and all these kind of things. You know, I barely remember traveling. I wasn't on that many, you know, I wasn't flying all the time like, you know, I do now. So I barely remember that time where like you could walk up to the gate. I might not even remember it, actually. Yeah, I mean, that all happened after 9-11s, it was after 2001, you know.

Starting point is 00:43:42 Yeah, maybe a couple flights I'd take him probably, but yeah, dude. Imagine if we went back to that now. Would you think, say right now you go to the airport, there's no TSA, would you trust everyone enough to be like, okay, we're all going to fly home together, guys, does everybody promise they're not going to cause any problems? I mean I don't know It'd be It's it's wild times right now I don't know

Starting point is 00:44:08 And they would ask you twice I mean I was in the airport These past couple days And you know The government's been shut down Those people They're working for free

Starting point is 00:44:15 Like guy was like Hey Just so you know guys We're working for free And I was like Oh my God That's unbelievable It's wild

Starting point is 00:44:22 Yeah the government It's just turned into Like a shitty vehicle It's like every now And then it just fucking shuts down or whatever Dude I mean

Starting point is 00:44:29 You gotta understand For me to like be in London and read about all the stuff happening here and then come here. Like, I was in Chicago yesterday and my friend's like, wow, time to be in Chicago. I was like, what do you mean? They're like, oh, the National Guard's there just grabbing Mexican people. I was like, what? What?

Starting point is 00:44:46 When did that happen? I'm just over here trying to tell people about good fortune. And they're like, yeah, they're grabbing, they're grabbing Mexican people. And the National Guard's there and Pah, Pah, P, TSA. Oh, yeah, they're, oh, yeah, what are you? You getting on a plane later to fly to Nashville? Oh, yeah, the government shut down. Like, most of the air traffic people have went home.

Starting point is 00:45:07 Oh, great. Thanks. Yeah, it's okay. I'm going to fly to Nashville and then get on another plane back to New York same day. Cool weekend to be on all these planes. Yeah, you're like, it's just the bad news bears of TSA right now. You got all the people that are like down to come and work in for free. Yeah, dude.

Starting point is 00:45:23 You have just like the militant guy. You have the guy who's been waiting to get in the game. Like, wait, like no training, but just fucking. waiting to get in the... I'm flying back today. This could be a really dark last interview snippet. And here's a clip or Aziz. Perix.

Starting point is 00:45:40 Oh my God, bro. That's so hilarious that there's like backup. Everybody's backup right now. Like the park wardens are like, bro, welcome to the fucking park, bro. It's like... It's just like the second string, dude. He's like, dude, the owls are fucking monumental right now, bro.

Starting point is 00:46:00 We take all these people for granted. That's so true, huh? Well, the raids and stuff like that are crazy because they let so many people into the country, right? Like without having a pattern of like, this is an organized way to do something, right? Because I think they need to organize it. It needs to be organized, right? Because it's odd if people are here that they live in fear that they're always going to be like, you know, found out or something. And then it's odd that people are, that there's nefarious people here that don't,

Starting point is 00:46:30 want to be found out you know so i think like they need some organization of it but yeah the fact that it gets like where people are being ripped out of places and then you don't know also some these days i i really believe you don't know what's real and what's not when you see it sometimes like it could literally be a scene that was put together like some of like the antifa stuff you would see in the park during the pandemic i watch i watched that movie you see one battle after another it's good it's amazing but it's it's it's it's crazy because, you know, he wrote that movie a long time ago and it's like, I was in Chicago and I was like, damn, this is one battle after another because, you know, in the movie, it's very much like a military state and like the military is just, you know, around going and doing this kind of stuff and it's kind of wild. You know, he's supposedly been working on a movie for like 15 years or something.

Starting point is 00:47:23 Wow. And it's out now when this stuff is, you know, so top of mind. so in there, you know? Yeah, Eddington was really great. You see Eddington? I didn't see Eddington, but I've heard it's kind of they're dealing with similar stuff.

Starting point is 00:47:38 I need to see that. Yeah, just a lot of things happening at once. Mm-hmm. But I believe we're headed to a surveillance state. You know, I believe that we're ahead. That's why they're trying. That happened like a long time. No.

Starting point is 00:47:51 No. I'm talking about drones in the sky surveillance. Like that vibe. Oh, my God. Like, that's where we're heading. Like, dude, the movie I want to see, this is how I think it ends. Blacks versus drones.

Starting point is 00:48:00 drones, dude. What? That's how it ends, bro. That is, people are wanting how does time, how does this all... Where do the Indian people fit in this? Are we running... We're just running the door.

Starting point is 00:48:11 Okay, the right... Where do the Indians fit in this movie? Okay, we need Kyrie Irving to move over to the... Kyrie Erfing to move over to the... You're just like... Let's he okay? Because he plays basketball? No, I mean, I'm just thinking of a cool black guy.

Starting point is 00:48:24 But yeah, you're like, okay. But dude, that's how it ends. Like, I think everybody's like, what's going on in society and like these different groups and people back and like you know genocide all these stuff going on and you're like how does it all and i think it's black first drones i don't know for me any as someone that used to live here and now comes here occasionally for work every time i come back it just feels wild and it feels i think it feels wilder to me because i think for people that are here it's like oh they're slowly seeing it

Starting point is 00:48:56 get crazy so they're not going from like one to a hundred like i do Like, you know, my time in L.A., you know, I remember, you know, just seeing the amount of tents and all that stuff, you know, coming, you know, going to L.A. and in New York after COVID. Because during COVID, I was in London the whole time with my wife. So coming back to both those cities after COVID, I was like, whoa. Yeah, it's like a Slipknot tailgate out there now, you know? It's fucking crazy. You know, my wife loves Slipknot. You're lying.

Starting point is 00:49:27 My wife has a Ph.D. in physics. Or how? She's a genius and she loves, it's like she had this emo phase and I, I, I, every now that I'll just, I'll just bring up that she loves, my two favorite facts about my wife, she's going to hate that I'm bringing this stuff up. No, it's important. One is that she loves Slipknot. And the other thing is that she was Little Miss Denmark. That was a little competition for little kids when she was like five, six years year olds and she won two years in a row. and then they stopped the contest

Starting point is 00:50:01 because she kept winning. God. They shut it down? They shut it down. What? They don't like somebody really stepping out of the norm there? I think they were just like,

Starting point is 00:50:13 we should be doing these little pageants for these kids. And my wife, she said like they would have a, you know, like, oh, you'd have the talent portion or whatever and she would be like, you know, doing her dance, whatever. And they're like, all right, that's good.

Starting point is 00:50:27 And she's like, no, no, I'm not finished with my first. routine. I don't mean to be an asshole. Yeah. But I'm about to win this bitch for a third time.

Starting point is 00:50:37 Dude, holy shit. She's like the Boston Celtics of those fucking Danish competitions. Yeah. And then she had her ebo phase and got really into slip night.

Starting point is 00:50:46 Rebelled against the pageant life. You shut down a pageant queen like that where they can't even perform anymore. That is a direct avenue to slip nine. Corey understands. How else do you even manage that sort of? sort of stress and strain. Where are you going to put those fucking pirouettes, bro?

Starting point is 00:51:06 You're going to package those bitches and put them into a slip-knot mosh pit. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple. And in just a few clicks, you can have action. access to our exclusive library of the best slots and top-tier table games.

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Starting point is 00:53:29 investing involves risk acorns advisors LLC an SEC registered investment advisor view important disclosures at acorns.com slash theo I didn't think we get into little little miss Denmark my wife's going to be thrilled oh that's awesome I'm glad that you found love out there man did you uh were you go with the ladies growing up what was your energy like um you know I grew up in it's weird because I grew up in South Carolina I remember every school like in the South kind of had an Indian guy was it like that at your school, or was there were a big Indian group? There's two versions of this. Okay.

Starting point is 00:54:00 There's like, oh, if you're in like Atlanta or something, there's like the Indian crew and they hang out. And then there's what I grew up with, which is like just me. And when I was little, I kind of forget this sometimes. In like first and second grade, there was this Thai girl and her name was Tisha, which doesn't make sense. That doesn't really sound like a Thai name, but her name was Tisha. But they left. Kind of a black tie. It sounds like a black tie.

Starting point is 00:54:28 It sounds like a black tie affair. She was tie. But they left, and then it was just me as Indian, and it's in the 80s. And, you know, it's so interesting to look back. I was thinking about this, and I had a conversation with my mom a while ago that really, like, blew me away. So first off, you know, as soon as I tell people I grew up in South Carolina, they're always like, oh, it must have been so racist, all the stuff. And, of course, there's moments where it wasn't. nice and I and whatever calling you almost inward or something like that oh inward not almost oh really yeah

Starting point is 00:55:01 yeah well those people are nearsighted or whatever I don't that's crazy but there is also I feel like you know there was a time I was writing something and I asked my parents to just tell me like I didn't want to write stuff about people being racist to to people I wanted to write something positive so I was like tell me things you remember that were positive like experiences you had you know being someone, because, you know, my parents are there in the 80s. Yeah, it was different for sure. They don't, people there didn't even know what Indian people were. They didn't see them in the culture.

Starting point is 00:55:33 They didn't see nothing. They didn't understand. It looks like a black person that they didn't finish the job on or whatever. Kind of, you know, no judgment. Let's just make sure that quote is attributed to you. But I think it's like, because sometimes you do see that Indian dude. You're like, is this a black dude or an Indian dude? But we're joking, but it is what people were saying.

Starting point is 00:55:58 They had never seen Indian people before. Yes, I agree. And they were not in the media or anything. And so my experience, you know, I'm talking about the positive stuff. First off, I skipped first and second grade. I did first and second grade in one year. So people were like, people were like, oh my God, this genius little brown boy. And so I was like, I was in a small school.

Starting point is 00:56:20 There was like 30 kids in my class. There's 8,000 people that live in. my town um yeah but uh you know i was raised by my parents but uh first grade's fucking easy first grade is easy my dad would like show me the fact that it takes a whole year you're like what the fuck are we doing my dad would like write little math problems and stuff for me so i was really advanced and like math and stuff so it's so easy go back and look at it yeah no it's it's yeah you should be able to teach your kid all that stuff before they can even eavesdrop you can tap into like classrooms you can watch it's like this is so fucking easy dude i wish you had a ring camera in there

Starting point is 00:56:51 and just be giving the kids the answers and shit? What? It's yellow. If they had like one of those ring cameras, you could talk in like a children's class or whatever. I mean, back then, no ring camera. Just had my dad teaching me stuff. So by the time I was like halfway through first grade,

Starting point is 00:57:05 they called my parents and like, you got to get him out of here. He's got to go up to second grade. And so I went to second grade and that was like this big story in the school that some kid had skipped the grade. Yeah, it's like when LeBron left Miami. It was exactly like LeBron.

Starting point is 00:57:20 I was like, LeBron with, like, very elementary math problems. Yeah, LeBrahman. Yes, exactly. And, but, you know, when I was thinking back about my childhood and talking to my parents, and, you know, there was these two ladies that took care of us. First off, I was talking to my mom, and she was talking about how, when she came to South Carolina, my dad had been in America.

Starting point is 00:57:44 He was in New Jersey doing his residency. Then he went back to India, married my mom, and then they came to South Carolina, where my dad moved because he applied for these jobs all over the country and in South Carolina they didn't have a lot of the doctor he was he was gastroenterologist so then they moved to South Carolina my mom comes to South Carolina

Starting point is 00:58:02 this woman's never left India like this she's in Benettsville South Carolina not like oh you're in New York City no Benittsville South Carolina and my dad brings her home and then he has to go to work and I asked my mom I was like you know what was that day like

Starting point is 00:58:19 And she was like, and I put this in my show. She said, oh, I just sat on the couch and I cried. And I was like, oh, my God, it's so dark. It was like so much braver than I could be, you know? I mean, there's no FaceTime, none of that. You're really alone. It was hard even- There's cable television.

Starting point is 00:58:34 Yeah, but I'm talking about like to have a connection with your family or anything. There's no way to communicate. You're just praying and like lighting candles and putting those oranges in that little thing. There's no, even like making a long-distance call was a different thing back then. Yeah, it was like $11. Yeah, it was not the way it is now. you could you know so she was really alone but she used to go and do laundry all the time

Starting point is 00:58:54 to just be around other people and there was some lady there an older white lady that recognized that you know became saw him saw her with me and uh and and became friendly with her and they called her grandma i don't know the woman's real name actually when and and i called her grandma and she would take care of me and like kind of looked out for our family and she eventually i i think she moved or something or whatever but she she couldn't take care of us anymore and this woman uh who we called nana is what her grandkids called her she started taking care of us and then there was this woman named miss beulah who who would take care of us after school she had some tits on her i miss beulah rest in peace i'm not going to pass away my bad yeah i didn't know that and i hope let's not

Starting point is 00:59:49 but miss beulah as you might guess from the name beulah black woman from the south and would cook the meanest southern food for us so i would eat indian food and southern food and um and so nana miss bueller part of my life and um you know i uh i i had a sister that passed away and she was um a few years younger than me, and she had a very rare, she had something called Hurler syndrome. It's a super rare liver disease. Sorry, it's obviously a little heavy for me, but. So she passed away.

Starting point is 01:00:34 What's her name? Her name is Nefis. Nefis. That's a pretty name, huh? Yeah. And she passed away. and uh nana um nana passed away a few years ago when i was in college it was a while ago now and um you know i didn't get a chance to press miss beul i got to say a proper goodbye to i went and

Starting point is 01:00:57 saw her when she was standing in retirement home nana i didn't have that same moment i was in college and and it wasn't uh the same kind of thing where i had that opportunity to say bye um but my mom had told me that she went to go see, um, uh, visit my sister at cemetery. And, and, you know, we're, my sister's buried in, in, in South Carolina, in, in Bennett'sville. And, you know, that is a tricky thing because my family's from a Muslim background

Starting point is 01:01:27 and they wanted to do, they were asking a cemetery, can we do the things we do for our culture? And the, and the cemetery was like, yeah, of course, whatever you need to do, which is just so cool to me that they were open to that and the whole community, you know, we're visiting our family and everything. And I remember even like a priest came by to just, you know, even though we were a different religion, he came and like wanted to talk to us and stuff. And everyone was just so kind about it.

Starting point is 01:01:59 And my mom told me that she went to go see my sister. sister at the cemetery and she said oh and we saw nana too i was like what do you mean she's like well nana's buried right next to her no and i just i like melted as a human because i i did not know that and and and to me like i heard that and i was like wow like you know i was saying all the stuff about crazy this country is and how crazy it feels right now but that story that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world man like those two people my sister and this woman that befriended you guys yeah have that close to bond where she's like I want to be buried next to her I mean it was I did not know that and and and you know I I heard that and I was like I I don't know why

Starting point is 01:02:59 it popped in my head but I'm so glad it did and then I got to share that with you because I heard that story and I was like man people need to hear that story because it's not the story people want to tell it's not the story that the media wants to tell it's not a story that it's a story that it's a story that doesn't really get the clicks but it's the story that's probably it's the truth that most people that the human part of us is what makes us special and that's the part that we should all try and lean into the most is that we're this special thing that can care about each other you know yeah i mean the the the fact that these people saw my parents and and and and and tried to forge this bond with them and i mean i hope we're still a place where that kind of

Starting point is 01:03:48 stuff can happen i think it happens a lot i think you're just right i think it's not the like the new it's not the news you know but i think it is more common probably than we think um thanks for sharing that dude it is an important story that's a great story Oh, sorry. Did your sister have it the whole time when she was growing up, when she was from birth? Yeah, it was one of these things where, you know, the life expectancy with that hurlers is not, it's not very long. She passed when she was like six, eight years old. Oh.

Starting point is 01:04:22 Yeah. And was she? And it's one of these things. I don't really talk about it very much. And a lot of people even that know me don't know I had a sister because people would ask me like, do you have any siblings? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I got a little brother. And I had a sister that passed away.

Starting point is 01:04:38 And I would say it like that. And then people would like, oh, it's a very, like, heavy thing to hear all of a sudden. And so I was like, oh, I don't want to make people uncomfortable. So I'll just say, oh, I have a little brother. And then they'll be like, what's you guys gap? Oh, he's seven years younger. Wow, it's a big gap. Yeah, I'm going to not go down this thing because I don't want to bum everybody out

Starting point is 01:05:01 because we're all just hanging out at Chick-Player. sitting there tapping her foot like what are we doing here no dude that's um my sister was born with the rare liver disease and she had to get a liver transplant when we were kids oh wow so we spent most of our childhood like um you know she was always this thing that we couldn't touch because she always had to have these surgeries and stuff so i think it just reminds me like a lot of that i think some of that kind of oh man that stuff you know i think it's just interesting when you grow up with a sibling that's sick because i think it i never even thought about it to you were saying some of this it just like I don't know you have to adjust yourself I think to try and

Starting point is 01:05:37 maybe like my sister got most of the care right but she needed most of it so it was weird so there were times where I'd be like I don't you know later on in life I'd be like oh I didn't get this care but it was like I didn't need it the most you know what was you guys's age difference um two years and she's still alive she ended up getting a liver transfer she got one of the first liver transplants in um we moved to Arizona she got it out there and but um that's incredible but it was just this whole time when she was a kid she was always being flown off to these places and they sounded magical like Rochester Minnesota just different places where these these big hospitals and she'd come back like this like almost like this build a bear that somebody

Starting point is 01:06:16 done a shitty job with you know what i'm saying like just all these scars and stuff but it was just she was always this it was weird because you like couldn't hold it was just like it was interesting Did you have any experience like that with your sister, or what was it like? There wasn't that kind of, there wasn't like all these things to try because the hurlers is pretty, they don't really have a thing. You know, there's like, you know, oh, you can maybe do a bone marrow transplant, but it's not really a thing they've made much progress on. So there was never anything like that. And I don't know. It's interesting talking about this because you think about.

Starting point is 01:06:56 about, it's like when you're a kid, it's so hard to understand what's happening. You have no frame of reference. And, you know, when I look back on that stuff as an adult, I can't imagine how hard it was for my parents. Like, you know, to have a child that has something like that and then to lose a child, it's, you know, I can't, it's strange to, like, step outside of yourself.

Starting point is 01:07:24 And honestly, this is, like, like some of the most i've talked about it with anybody and i don't mean to pry about it it's just and it's also a thing in the no and not at all i don't think prying at all and i i think it's really interesting that you know you had something your sister had something as well and and um but you know there's a thing with like indian families and you know i mean it's it's a lot of families in that time it's like you don't talk about stuff oh really is that like an indian thing kind of I think there's something of like, oh, you're not as open about your feelings and stuff

Starting point is 01:07:58 and you're just a little bit more closed off. I think so, yeah, with Asian families, Indian families, I think with emotional stuff like that, you know? But you guys do reincarnation, so you're probably just like, oh, we can have the feelings later, we can have this. That's at Hinduism. That's a different thing.

Starting point is 01:08:13 Oh, really? Fuck. So you guys are one time only? Islam, it's the same as Christianity. It's, you know, in terms of that stuff. As far as I know, I'm not a super religious guy, But yes, that's the reincarnation is just in Hindu culture. Dang.

Starting point is 01:08:29 See, you guys are one and done, huh? I mean, so is a lot of people. Okay. I'm just saying, yeah. But yeah. Man, this got really, we really went for a heavy turn after micro-donkeys. It's okay. You're teared up over here.

Starting point is 01:08:44 I'm tearing up. But it's good to talk about the stuff. And, you know, it's so strange to think back about. you know, those times and everything my family went through, especially my parents, you know. I never think about that. I always think about things. This is one place that I kind of like struggle with, I think. A lot of times I'll think about certain periods and things that happen.

Starting point is 01:09:10 And I only think about it like as to how it affected me. And it's like, man, to get into that place of where you're even thinking like, well, how did this affect my parents? Like I was eating dinner with some friends yesterday. and in the background she has like these four kids and they're beautiful kids they have the cutest kids um and they're all going haywire and i there was the first time i thought holy shit my mom had four kids and nobody to fucking help like there was and it was oh yeah imagine what that would be like these days that sounds impossible impossible and our parents were able to do that kind of stuff but it was the first time that i like even had a perspective moment like that that was that clear

Starting point is 01:09:49 you know oh yeah I just just for you to have that I think is pretty cool that you think like oh how what my parents must have went through you know because it's like yeah it's like for us it's a sibling but for them it's like you know it's probably something that feels far greater you know yeah anyway I didn't mean to delve into that man no no I'm glad we did and I think it's a really interesting thing to talk about and and for me I you know um I bet you be so proud of you Oh You know what I think about sometimes

Starting point is 01:10:23 Do you know the comic strip Comic Strip? Comic Strip live in New York? Oh, yeah, yeah. You know that club? Yep. That was the first club I ever got past at And there was a guy

Starting point is 01:10:34 His name was Lucien Hold And he was the guy that would pass you You know, you've heard of like Esty at the cellar He was like a guy Yeah, there's always that person There's always a person that was a gatekeeper And I went in there when I was like 18

Starting point is 01:10:47 And what was cool about the comic strip was they had a thing where anybody could audition. Like, you just lined up and then you could audition. Which is kind of crazy. Which is like, because, you know, I don't know if this was your experience when you're starting out, but it's like you just wanted a shot, right? You just wanted a shot.

Starting point is 01:11:05 And the idea of that you could be a regular at the comedy club, I remember I used to go to the comedy seller, and I just be like, oh my God, could you imagine just getting spots here? Could you imagine just how amazing would be to get spots? That was my dream. I know, you're so right. And so I went to the comic strip.

Starting point is 01:11:22 They had this, you know, open call, like you just had a waiting line, and then you'd pick from a, I believe what would do is you'd pick from a lottery and it would give you a date. A date? Yeah, like they would do on Mondays they'd have a certain number of people that were from this audition. That's cool. So I picked a date and then I showed up and you went through this one woman. And if she said, okay, you can see Lucian. You'd audition for Lucian. And so I got through it, and then I audition for Lucian, and, you know, you wait around, you wait around, all these kind of things.

Starting point is 01:11:58 Even, like, S&L, you hear these stories, I feel like, yeah, you just wait around. They just make you wait around. And then he spoke to me at the end, and he was like, he was like, you could start working at the club. And I was like, and I was terrible. I was not good. But I was, like, very young, and I was very comfortable on stage. And he told me he was like, you know, when people your age come in here, he was like, you're still at NYU, right?

Starting point is 01:12:22 And I was like, yeah, yeah. He said, you know, Adam Sandler was in NYU when I passed him. And so was Sarah Silverman. And I was like, oh, wow. I mean, I remember I said, oh, wow, it would be amazing if I had a career like that. He's like, I don't know if that's in the cards for you, but you could, he was like the most straight shooting guy. I mean, there's very few people that are honest like that, that I've met in my 20-something

Starting point is 01:12:45 years. He was a guy that was like that. And he was like, I don't know if that's, uh, it's not an impression of him, but he's like, I, I don't know if that's something that's in the card for you, but you could start working in the club and, um, I would do, uh, you would do like late night,

Starting point is 01:13:01 which is like, uh, they'd have the show and then you could sign up to go on at the end of the show. So there'd be like, nobody there. I'd do that all the time. For sure, but getting up on stage, even just that walking up, when you're coming up, you, if he, If there's six people there, it feels like a million people. You're so excited. The feeling that is the energy that the fear and that energy and that nervous,

Starting point is 01:13:25 it feels like a million. And sometimes, I mean, and I'll say this, and you're going to light up because you'll know this feeling. Sometimes someone on the bill that was supposed to be on it like 9 o'clock wouldn't show up. And they'd pull someone from late night. And so you'd get to go on. When people were still there. Still there, yes.

Starting point is 01:13:43 and I remember one time I'm gonna show these bitches that's what I would say I had kind of an aggressive nature but go on but it was like this kind of like oh I'm gonna get to prove myself a little bit

Starting point is 01:13:53 but oh one time I remember Chris Rock dropped in and I went on after him and like everybody everyone's like oh Chris Rock just went on they just all started leaving and I told Chris the story

Starting point is 01:14:06 the other day I was like I forgot this I forgot this I mean and now he's my fucking friend it's the craziest thing in the world to me But Lucian, he had a disease called Skeleterma. I don't know why I'm saying the disease he had, but anyway, he passed away.

Starting point is 01:14:21 It's like a skin problem. Yeah, yeah, I don't know what it is exactly. Skeletermia. This dude stopped looking up stuff because it's gotten too dark the stuff for top. And he's like, I'm not going to pull up this stuff on Wikipedia. It's too dark. He's like, oh, I don't think it's appropriate.

Starting point is 01:14:37 I'm not going to, I'm just going to let this be. I don't wait until they start talking about mini cows again. pull up those cute pictures. He has a whole barrel full. You know, maybe I do bring it up because if someone wants to donate to his fund or whatever. So Lucian had this disease and we knew he was passing away and I went and visited him and it was like that movie Being Mortal, you know, it was like I knew he was passing away. I knew this was probably our last conversation and he, and dude, this dude passed away.

Starting point is 01:15:08 You know, Chris spoke at his funeral. I think Seinfeld may have said something. I can't remember. I remember I went to the funeral and I was like a little kid. I remember I went and like was crying in the bathroom and stuff because this dude

Starting point is 01:15:19 was the first dude ever to genuinely believe that I could do something in our world. The first person to say hey I'm gonna give you and it was like fucking ten bucks or whatever

Starting point is 01:15:30 but he was like I believe in the idea of paying you to tell jokes and he we had that a conversation and I remember

Starting point is 01:15:40 he said something to me and he talked about some comic that he used to know that went to L.A. and not like a super successful guy, but a guy that did okay. And he was like, you know, he said this guy told him that he was in L.A. and he said

Starting point is 01:15:54 that's Lusian, yes, that's Lusian mold. Yeah. But all, I mean, he's like, you know, if you talk to guys like... They love him? Yeah, and they remember him from back in the day. He was a character. He's the guy that passed, you know, Eddie Murphy and like the famous story of,

Starting point is 01:16:12 of Chris Rock is like Eddie Murphy was at the club and he asked Lucian, do you have any black comics? And he said, yeah, I got one. I'll put him up if you'll watch him. And it was Chris Rock. Wow. And then Eddie Murphy watched him and then put him in Beverly Hills Cop 2.

Starting point is 01:16:31 But anyway. Dude, that's so great though. It's a huge deal. It's a huge amount of validation because it's, I can't really explain. It's still like when I think of all the things I've done in my career, it's still, I was excited as about that. I mean, dude, it was like, I think it was like 10 years ago.

Starting point is 01:16:50 I did Madison Square Garden. I, it was a similar feeling to get past. Yeah. You know? And, but anyway, he told me this story about some guy in L.A. And he said, that guy told him, like, you know, there's all these idiots in L.A. And if they're able to do it, I can do it too, something to that extent. like and uh it was a more

Starting point is 01:17:13 said it more eloquent than that i'm not doing it justice but he basically said to me you're gonna be okay and he left me with that and it was really cool lucian did yeah he said you're gonna be okay like you're a smart guy and you're gonna be okay and um i mean i've been fortunate enough and i think i'm i mean that was what i was a little kid you know i hadn't done anything really and and you know I feel like I've been fortunate in my career to be more than okay and done a lot of great things I never would have thought possible when I was, you know, interacting with Lucian and, you know, one of my, not regrets or I don't know, not, just one of my, oh man, kind of feelings is that like, oh, this guy, that was the first guy to believe in me. me, yeah.

Starting point is 01:18:05 Didn't get to see that how far I really went, you know? And weird, sorry, I feel like I'm like taking up too much of your time. No, this is good. Well, you're a great storyteller, I'm realizing. That's honestly one thing I've realized sitting here. And I can see why you're able to do what you do even more, like, writing your movies and knowing, like, yeah, saying how streamlined it is, I'm enjoying it. So go on, sorry.

Starting point is 01:18:28 You know, I was in a cab one time in London, and I was like, it's weird because, Once you become successful, it's weird when you drop into a comedy club, everyone goes nuts, and everything's a little sweeter because they're excited because you're famous. And I was in a cab with my wife in London, and someone was like, tell us about this thing or whatever. And I talked about this whole story of something that happened to us. And when I left, the cab driver said, hey, you're a really good storyteller. And I was like, holy shit. that was like winning an Emmy for me

Starting point is 01:19:06 because I was like that guy has no clue who I am and he he went out of his way to tell me that that made me feel really good Was he an Indian guy? No, why would he be Indian Theo? Racism

Starting point is 01:19:19 He was like a black guy that was fully finished Okay, okay He was a fully finished black guy He was a black guy I love Ray stuff It's fun to joke about and think about

Starting point is 01:19:32 because it's so different and it's fun, you know. It's some of the funniest stuff. But that's, you're right, man, sorry. But yeah, somebody telling you a great storyteller. It's so funny. It's something just that one word or one thing.

Starting point is 01:19:42 It's like. And you get it from someone that doesn't know anything because sometimes you feel like, oh, man, like, not like, oh, people, you feel like I don't know how much of this is sweetened up because of whatever.

Starting point is 01:19:53 And it's very frustrating because I don't think anyone that's successful like that wants any of that. But, you know, you get a little bit of that when you drop in and you're working on material and, you know, when you're on stage for a while, eventually people care. And you don't even know if it's that good.

Starting point is 01:20:06 That's the worst part. You're like, is this even good? And you're like, you're just getting unfair reactions. But then hopefully if you're self-aware enough and that judge inside you, that little party that's always hated you is still, like, and lurking around. You got to have that guy in there. That guy needs to be there. And if he's there, you know, because, you know, all your people, oh, man, it's, it's your best hour.

Starting point is 01:20:25 It's like, it's getting there. Right. You got to have that little guy. And you got to have that little guy. And look, that's, that's, you know. whether it's a movie or stand-up show, like, you know, screen in a movie, it's like, yeah, people don't lie eventually.

Starting point is 01:20:38 Like, they'll be sweet for a little bit, but eventually they are like, all right, come on. You know, that drops after a few minutes. Yeah, and if you start smoking your own bullshit, too, that's when it can get really spooky. Oh, that's when you got to make sure you, you know, I've been around people enough to be like, oh, that when you start having a bunch of people around you

Starting point is 01:20:57 that tell you you're awesome, that's when everything starts falling apart. Have you ever had ego problems? Have you ever had anything like that? Like, or have you ever able to check your own ego kind of type of things? Because ego is so dangerous because it can kind of grow in the distance. It's almost like something that you don't see growing. It's almost like you're standing there with your shadow,

Starting point is 01:21:12 and then your shadow gets bigger without you noticing it, you know? You know, I think the way I hopefully have been able to avoid that kind of problem is, I'm not around all the time. You know what I mean? I kind of go away in a hole and work on stuff. This is like the most shit I've done. I haven't, I haven't been on your podcast. I haven't been on anybody's podcast. I haven't done anything. I've just been working. And, you know, being back out in, in, in, in, in kind of, wild. Yeah, in the kind of press world. It's been kind of a little overwhelming for me. I get very overwhelmed. Whenever I finished, like, season one and two of my show, like, whenever it came on Netflix, like, I left the country because I was just a little bit, it was just too much for me. Like, I went to, uh, I went to Japan for a couple of months. I was like, I see a piece of work.

Starting point is 01:22:03 Did you see Kanye or not? He wasn't there at the time. But, you know, I, I wanted to be somewhere where people didn't really know who I was. It felt a bit, it can be a little overwhelming. Like that part of our jobs of red carpets and interviews, it's a lot. Yeah, I never done a lot of that stuff. So that part I don't know about, but I can imagine, though. But, you know, I'm here and I've been doing all stuff.

Starting point is 01:22:26 I love doing this because we're just having a great conversation. Not everything is this fun. But, you know, I do it because I feel like it's a part of the job and I got to support the work and the studio that paid for the movie and everything. So I do it, but it's not my, I like the work. I mean, all I'm looking forward to is getting back on. To work. Getting back to work. Like being on set with some people and being like, hey, do this.

Starting point is 01:22:51 Or, you know, I'm going back on the road for a little bit, like being on the road. Like that is a billion times more fun than some of the stuff you have to do, excluding like this and I actually like that podcast are a thing now because I did Amy Polar's podcast that was so fun she's so great she's great I hadn't seen her in a while and I was like oh man I'm just excited to like be with you for an hour and change because I hadn't seen you in so long but yeah dude thanks for making me think about we had a guy named Tommy at the comedy story and I and he was like the guy and he's like this character and I've heard his name yeah yeah and people impersonated him all the time and he really was

Starting point is 01:23:29 he had this long hair and he looked like a rock and roll guy and I believe he was. I think he also played in a band and he made jellies and jams and he would bring those. He was this very, like, eccentric type of guy. Yeah, yeah. But he took care of Mitzie, sure.

Starting point is 01:23:43 But he would be the guy and he'd sit there and he'd open little curtains of the little will call booth had little curtains on it. And he'd be like, you're doing good. But I happened to, I went to the comedy store one time

Starting point is 01:23:53 I was trying to find out how do they do signups, I remember. And I was buying a beer on the porch and he thought I was somebody else. He's like, haven't seen you around here in a while. you know we miss you coming around and uh i was like yeah i and he goes why don't you come in come back in on sunday man i'm gonna i want to i want to see you back up there and he fucking had me confused with whoa did you do the other spot yeah he did the spot and did you put your

Starting point is 01:24:20 name down or no i just i i i didn't even think about that and i just got fucking doing and how'd your set go and it went good enough where i got to keep going but it was but before that for sure I went and signed up and waited outside and there's like a guy that's practicing juggling who can't even talk and he's like telling his jokes through like bowling pins and shit it's like there's all types of stuff there's somebody training a bird or whatever

Starting point is 01:24:44 and he's like barely trained it and he's like trying to train it really fast in the parking lot of it's like you cannot train a bird really fast but this is the same thing I was talking about earlier it's so interesting to me that you know comedy comedians we're all having you know this is a crazy moment to be a comedian

Starting point is 01:24:59 and people are having such overwhelming amounts of success but at the end of the day like all of us started just wanting a room full of people just a crowd and to be able to perform yeah well you know one one thing that was great about a good fortune dude and i haven't finished it but i really i like it and i'm excited to see the end of it it's not that long a movie by the way but i didn't get home last night so probably 1130 no i'm just saying for people that are worried that oh yeah no no it's not it's an hour and a half movie but it's good dude there were so many like

Starting point is 01:25:32 there started to be some really good plot changes for me that I really dug like right around the spot where I'm at where the you think it's going to go one way and now it starts to change up and then I don't want to give too much of it away but one thing that was really amazing about it

Starting point is 01:25:47 and my friend was watching it with me was that you felt of how tough it is that first year to in LA you felt of like when your character is sleeping in his car or like when there's door dash delivery and just like the jobs you get when you first get to a big city to try to survive the parking tickets and how you lose your car you just come out of a place you barely had enough money to go get some avocados it was the one thing you were treating

Starting point is 01:26:14 yourself to this week it was like two avocados i'm gonna cut those bitches up and i'm gonna eat those bitches right and then i'm gonna go to sleep right you were so excited and you come out and your fucking car has been towed because you didn't pay tickets all that shit my friend and I slept in the McDonald's ball pit we would jump the fence and sleep in that fucking ball pit because it was like kind of some more space to lay out

Starting point is 01:26:36 right if you got under the balls there's hair in there there's coins under there but it is there's a little bit more room for your body than like because we tried to sleep in his car one night and it was just a nightmare

Starting point is 01:26:46 but going through all of that yeah and there is the hair goes to the bottom which I don't understand how that works that's science but and yeah

Starting point is 01:26:56 they should do a they should see see what's in the bottom of a lot of these it's not good but yeah we we would jump over the fence and sleep in one that you know that that closed at 10 we get in just get five five hours of sleep or something you know oh my god I'm so sorry but I could relate no it was awesome it was fucking great stories yeah one night we're in there dude we're talking shit to each other laughing and stuff and a fucking Asian guy's on the slide he's asleep he's on the slide he pipes like he's very very exposed no like in one of those high slides where there was room where

Starting point is 01:27:28 You could kind of get, you know, it was in compassed. He was in the best spot. Oh, my God. Yes, he was in one of the tubes. Oh, damn. That's better than the ball pit. That's a pro move. Yeah, and he even came up to the window.

Starting point is 01:27:39 It was like a little hamster showing up. They were pretty fucking dope. But dude, that was like, but I forget, you forget about all the pieces of the things and the moments that, like, were so big. And that was in L.A.? And that was in L.A. And I think we all for- McDonald's in L.A.

Starting point is 01:27:56 It's on Wilshire Boulevard. Like, Wilshire. Does that Asian guy have a podcast now, too? I hope he does. I think it's Ronnie Chang. You know, I was doing one of those shows at the comedy seller where people don't know who's going to show up. It was like, surprise headliner. And it's just me working on stuff.

Starting point is 01:28:15 And I walk by the line and some lady goes, I hope it's not Ronnie Chang. Oh, really? Yeah, but then I found out that it's because she'd been to another one of these and it was Ronnie Chang. And we talked about it in the show But it wasn't because she doesn't like All love to Ronnie Chang I love Ronnie Chang Dude, I just got to see him last week

Starting point is 01:28:36 I bumped into him I went into the comedy comedy cellar Okay, yeah, yeah Just stopped in and he was in there It was awesome, dude Just to get to see him He is great You got some great specials too

Starting point is 01:28:44 If you haven't seen him I get him to come in and talk sometime Yeah, no, he's great But I just thought it was funny To walk by and hear that That's so funny dude Yeah But yeah

Starting point is 01:28:54 That's one thing I loved about good fortune You and Seth Rogen are just You guys are buddies I guess it is Work buddies And we spoke about this movie And you know If anyone listening

Starting point is 01:29:04 Is gonna see the movie Please You know See it in a theater With the crowd Because we were talking about These movies like I think it's worth it for sure

Starting point is 01:29:11 It definitely felt like a real movie to me It didn't feel like Some forced shit You know I know like they're like You know sometimes you get these movies And it's like You know

Starting point is 01:29:20 They're getting It felt shit feels force Or too fake Or like it's not real I didn't feel any of that I didn't feel like any pandering for some like social causes or any shit like that.

Starting point is 01:29:29 No, it's just trying to be very real and very funny and you know. It's good, dude. I'm fucking excited about finishing it. Because your character starts to get like, what the fuck? I thought he was great. And then he's like,

Starting point is 01:29:40 but you see the different parts of us that can come out and come to the surface when different things like are attached to us. Yeah. But when we were making the movie Seth and I would talk about like, you know, how we'd go to movie theaters and see movies like Anchorman or Superbad

Starting point is 01:29:53 or, you know, Pineapple Express. and you'd have like a room, it'd be like a stand-up show, you know, like a room full of people erupting and, you know, it's like what we feel when you do stand-up. Like if we did stand-up and there was only like one person in the crowd, that's not the same thing. Like the people make a difference. So like seeing a movie, a comedy in theaters, it's something that's kind of gone away after the pandemic and everything and I hope we can bring it back.

Starting point is 01:30:17 I mean, we were just in Chicago last night and we screened the movie. We've been doing these like little secret screenings and I've been sitting in a little bit watching it and I'm like I don't even remember the last time I've been in a pack theater watching a comedy so I hope the movie works and that people get to make more comedies and they get to see them in theaters because you know it's something that I miss and yeah I mean especially because our movie's like an original movie um a comedy theatrical it's tough to get it done I mean I really I'm not even lying or joking or pandering to you or to our no I appreciate fans I wouldn't say that I think it's worth going to see I think if you took a date or a friend or your buddy you guys would

Starting point is 01:30:53 have a good time. It would be worth your money. It would be worth driving over there and sitting in there so far. And I'm not even done with it unless it gets really bad in the second half. The back gas, oh man, the back gas great. We'd have to talk about it afterwards because it really relates to a lot of the things, some of the stuff we were talking about earlier, some of the emotional things we were talking about in terms of just kind of seeing other people and seeing what they're going through and just kind of giving them a look. You know, I was thinking about that when my mom was telling me that story. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was a great story, man. Do you, feel like, why do you feel like you have to do so much?

Starting point is 01:31:27 Because this is something I've struggled with in my own life. Like I always feel like... I think I need to have a kid or something because I feel like as I've gotten older, you know, I do things like, oh yeah, you know, I was... I'm like, finished. You've done so many TV shows, you've written, you've directed, you've won, haven't you won an Emmy before? Yeah, one two Emmys.

Starting point is 01:31:47 Damn, brother. Gang. Yeah. But I'm just saying like, and sorry I don't know, I don't know a lot about that. Oh, it's fine. But, but, but, doing too much thing. Do you ever know why you feel like you, because some people, they could do half of that and feel extremely accomplished and they would be.

Starting point is 01:32:07 But do you feel like, is it, is it financial, which is fine? It's definitely nice to have money and have security. Is it like, is there something that you find because? Well, it's not financial because doing movies, I, you know, I technically would make way more money touring. Yeah. I'm like losing money doing these movies. Like, trying to make a movie for theaters.

Starting point is 01:32:26 It's kind of like trying to be like, hey, I want to build a tower records. Good luck, Aziz. It's not what's the lucrative thing. You know what I mean? Like, it's interesting because I, my, like, heyday of touring and everything was probably, you know, 10 years ago. When I did The Garden and all that stuff, I was touring like crazy. And back in that time, not many people were doing theaters and arenas. Like, there was only a few people, and now it's like, fucking everybody does.

Starting point is 01:32:55 And when I go on tour, I'm like, who's Alton Brown, the chef? He's playing the D-Pack Center in Durham? He's just chopping food up and people are coming. Everybody's on tour, dude. There'll be a dude, Julianing a carrot for 11,000 people. Yes, and you're like, what? Dude, is it cake? That TV show, Is It Cake is going on tour?

Starting point is 01:33:13 I'm like, who gives a fuck? Is it Cake tour? And you're like, wait, that's what I'm competing with. People in the stands of binoculars trying to find to. figure out if it's cake. It was not like this. At 70 yards. It's ridiculous. It's not. It's not like this. Who cares if it's fonded?

Starting point is 01:33:29 It was not like this. And in that time, there was a whole podcast boom. Everybody found an audience. You didn't, you cut out the middleman of Netflix or whatever. People are putting stuff on YouTube. But now all these people are touring. And there's been this massive boom. And I, during that time, made my TV series, worked on these movies,

Starting point is 01:33:46 and have kind of stepped away. But what are coming back? touring again. Yeah, I'm touring again now, and it's been so fun. And I have, uh, I've had a great time, but I'm also like, damn, dude, the travel, it hits me in a different way. And like, I'm, yeah, you see October 23rd, I'm getting stressed. I'm like, I can't go to Temecula. I got to, I got to cancel Temecula. St. Diego. Oh, God. Oh, Modesta. Monterey. Oh, God. At least I can hub out of L.A. Oh, no. Then I got to fly to Cincinnati on the 13th. Oh, God. Then we've got to fly to Louisville.

Starting point is 01:34:22 TSA is going to be closed. There's going to be, like, one air traffic controller. Then I'm probably going to go down on my way to St. Louis. That's going to be delayed. Oh, Indianapolis would be fun, dude. Indianapolis. Then I go see my family in Charlotte. That's nice.

Starting point is 01:34:34 I love Asheville. Asheville is a great, great town. And Savannah's a great town. Savannah's beautiful, too. Yeah, that, no, I love the show, and I love being in the different cities. Because, you know, when you tour, you form a relationship with these cities. For sure. Oh, you're excited to go back.

Starting point is 01:34:48 You're excited to see, like, oh, oh, look. at this crowd this one's different this energy this place is yeah and and what's so cool is is and i think this is why people like to go to live stand-up is like even if you watch it special it's not the same as that show and that town and it's really fun and um you know for me like this tour it's been fun because i haven't toured a while so it's a lot of stuff has happened you know i've been married me and my wife are trying to have a kid and to go back to the thing we're talking about of like doing too much like the movies i feel like that comes from like i have an idea and I have this vision of, it sounds cheesy to say vision, but I have a vision of something

Starting point is 01:35:23 I want to execute and it's something I'm really excited about. I'm like racing to be on set to do like, it could just be like, I'm writing something now and I have this one scene. I'm like, oh man, I just want to shoot that scene. I like think this would be so, I got to get there and it's a long time to get there. Movies are so slow. You got to work with so many other people. It's a nightmare. But I do it because I really love films and I want to make more films. But I do think I realize recently like I've got to calm down like I think I've overestimated my ability to work and and as I get older you know you get burnt out they get stressed the stress builds I've seen friends that are burned out oh dude you're looking at one of them we're not even friends but

Starting point is 01:36:01 you're looking at somebody that's been burnt out but we could maybe be friends I mean I I hope so dude we went we went deep here this is deeper than I went on any other podcast we're talking about some heavy stuff yeah in a great way I love it I mean yeah I think this is so much about a lot of this stuff on here it's important you know it's nice to like I really I really like it but no I that burnout feeling it's like oh it's real I started shedding hair recently dude we had a freaking retired Boston detective with some of the craziest stories found a wiener on the sidewalk and it was like a real who done it or whatever obviously the person missing the wiener did it but uh so it was pretty

Starting point is 01:36:37 kind of easy it wasn't like knives out actually it was like knives out it's a long story but um anyway oh shit I forgot I was talking about we were talking about like just the burnout Oh, yeah, the burnout is real that happens, dude. Yeah, it started shedding hair, all that kind of stuff happens. It's tough to say no, too, because, you know, you're having a moment right now, and I've had a moment, and, you know, people start telling you to do all this stuff. And no one on your side of the business is going to be like, dude, you got to, you got to chill, you got to take some rest. No one ever says that. Like, well, that's a great opportunity.

Starting point is 01:37:05 You should do it. And you're like, well, that's a great opportunity. I should do it. And when I was younger, I could do all that stuff. When I look back at schedules and stuff I did, I'm like, how did I do all this? I can't do it anymore at this day. It's a different thing. And I'm married now.

Starting point is 01:37:18 It's like, I've been away from my wife a lot. And it's not, I don't feel nice about it sometimes. Well, look, I have a suggestion that help you relax. Go watch. Good fortune. Go to you, go with your wife. I'm not even joking. Go sit and watch it.

Starting point is 01:37:36 You don't like it. You guys will laugh. You'll get to spend some time together. It's good. I do know it's out October 17th. I do want to remind everybody about that. Yeah, thank you. I feel lucky you get to be in London.

Starting point is 01:37:45 One of my favorite musicians, James Blake lives over there. Dermott Kennedy is a, he's in the United Kingdom. He's a guy that I really love, who actually is coming in town soon. Yeah, I would love to get to live over there sometimes. People feel very... It's nice you're a little bit, I mean, you probably feel this here, too. Like you're a little bit away from the circus. Oh, yeah, I feel totally good.

Starting point is 01:38:08 And the circuses dissolved. The circuses... It's a different thing you don't really need to be there anymore. They're finding new places. There's new mini circuses popping up. Yeah, yeah. But then, but yeah, but is Nashville becoming a circus? No, I don't think so. Not too much. It still feels kind of small. There's a lot of people moving here and a lot of stuff going on, but it still feels pretty small.

Starting point is 01:38:23 No, I mean, I feel like that in London that I'm away from things. Whenever I go back to L.A., I start feeling like, oh, my God, I'm falling behind. I need to do this. Because you hear about it. Oh, I've just made this. I'm working on. I'm like, oh, shit, what am I doing? I'm not doing anything.

Starting point is 01:38:34 You've done so much, dude. I mean, from all, from television to, I know. I know that series I watched for a lot on Netflix. It was just you. Yeah, yeah. That was Master Nun. Yeah, yeah. The book that you wrote, I know, about dating and, like, the struggling of love.

Starting point is 01:38:49 You've done enough, you've done, let me tell you this. If nobody ever tells you, you've done enough. No, but finishing the movie is a big deal, and I'm glad I did it, because it took a minute to get it done, and I'm really proud of it and proud of the work that I did. Yeah. My whole team did. All the actors did, and I'd love to make more, but yeah, I definitely, I hear you. And it's, yeah.

Starting point is 01:39:12 You've done a lot. That's what I mean. I didn't mean enough. I didn't mean enough. I know you mean it. I appreciate it, yeah. And I think, yeah, and your sister would be so proud of you. What was her name again?

Starting point is 01:39:20 I want to say it one more time. N-F-E-E-N-A-F-E-Z. How do you spell it? N-A-F-E-Z. Ooh, N-F-E-Z. I'm so glad we talked about that because I feel like I'm here with some people that work with me, and they're like, wait, what?

Starting point is 01:39:35 Because I think when we say people's names out loud, people that have been a part of our lives, like even when we're talking about, like, if you wanted to say something illusion, I think when we say people's names they feel that wherever they are that is a felt thing because otherwise why would we feel it?

Starting point is 01:39:48 No, it's bringing there it's putting them in the... Yeah, and I believe it's like... Yeah. I believe they feel it wherever they are, they feel it, you know? I think you definitely, if you're here for this long,

Starting point is 01:39:59 you definitely keep an anchor locked in. I mean, the other person I was going to mention and tell me we can, if you, I don't want you to run late for whatever, but the other person I was thinking of when I was talking about Lucian was, have you ever heard of Manny that ran the comedy cell?

Starting point is 01:40:11 Manny Dorman was the owner of the comedy seller. His son, Nome's there now. Oh yeah, I know Nome. Yeah, yeah. So Nome's dad is Manny. Okay. First time I ever did comedy was at the Comedy Seller. They had a new talent night, which doesn't even exist anymore.

Starting point is 01:40:30 Now they just have like fucking 10 comedy sellers and 10 shows like, but this was like back in the day they had a new talent night at like 6 o'clock. And you'd bring like a couple of friends and they'd give you stage time. time and I did that and I was 18 years old summer of my freshman year in college didn't do good at I did well my material was terrible but I did well because I was very comfortable on stage and public speaking and I was just kind of funny and it worked and and I came back and did it again and I did a couple of open mics and you know had a reality check like oh fuck this is really hard and then um the third time I did stand up third time I ever did

Starting point is 01:41:10 did stand up was again at the comedy cellar and it was one of these new talent nights and i for some reason this crowd and me it just it i didn't go well no no went super well oh fuck all your stories in it they go good but but uh and they went nuts and i like said something at the end i was like oh by the way like whenever we perform where we have to bring a certain number of friends I'm running out of friends So if you want to come Like come see say hi backstage And whatever you know

Starting point is 01:41:45 And I was just being serious And they were all just losing it And Manning saw this And he said like You're there's Mani And he goes he basically came up And it was like some old Hollywood thing He was like you're ready for the big room

Starting point is 01:42:00 I'd done stand up like three times There's no way I was ready to perform At the hardest comedy comedy And this is like comedy seller where it's like, Attel, Geraldo, Jim Norton. He's like, you're ready for the big room. And so I would show up there and they would put me on late at night,

Starting point is 01:42:22 almost like a late night. Yeah, for sure. And it was like really odd because I probably shouldn't have been doing it. I was just so green. And I was doing it. And eventually, you know, Esty, who's the, you know,

Starting point is 01:42:35 famously runs a comedy seller past its comics, she's like okay let's you go on and I went on and she was like yeah you you can't be performing here because it's been doing this she's like you can't be can't be doing this she's fucking tough I was like a little kid she was like you can't you can't be doing this you're not ready and I was like okay and then um you know now again one of the you know emmy maskware garden whatever like this to me is the coolest thing is that I can perform at the comedy cellar and just drop in

Starting point is 01:43:11 and they'll just let me do material and perform and then the crowd goes nuts and knows who I am that's the craziest thing to me. That's crazy. That's like kind of above everything else. And my biggest dream I told people is like that I'm just like 90 years old and I drop into the comedy seller and

Starting point is 01:43:27 maybe a couple of people know I am but that I'm able to fucking hold my own. But anyway I was there at the comedy seller one night and me and S you were talking about this and she was like you know manny saw you whenever you were really young and and he must be up there smiling now seeing all you've done and uh yeah that that uh that made me smile and um i i wasn't super super close with manny but um but he was another guy before lucian oddly even saw me and this said something what's a reminder i think for anybody that has a has been in a field for a while of when you

Starting point is 01:44:04 take a moment to connect with somebody that's just coming into it, you know, that it could have an effect. You know, that's a nice reminder. It means the world to them. And you don't realize because I think we're all like, we're all in our own head and don't realize. I mean, yeah, especially when you're young, there's one person having to believe like, oh, good job, just little things like that.

Starting point is 01:44:22 And I'm still grateful it reminded me that Neil Brennan and Amy Schumer are the ones that helped me get past at the comedy seller. Oh, wow. And I've only performed there like probably six, seven times, maybe 10, but I walked in the other night and I was so nervous like you want to go up. I was like, no way. I'm not freaking going up, dude. But I think some of that's just places you used to be in, you know, so. Um, Aziz, I got to go, man. Thank you so much. Oh, man, this was such a great conversation. This has been cool. I, um, I, um, I really enjoyed it. And, and we talked about so many,

Starting point is 01:44:51 uh, interesting things. And, um, and, and, and really some, some heavy stuff. But I, I thought it was great. And I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do it. I appreciate it, man. I think it's exciting that you get to live in London and have a new experience. It sounds like you've had a lot of unique experiences and that's like, that's such a gift, you know. God's had a lot of grace. It seems like in your whole just like ability to be creative and like, man, thank you for sharing that with us. Oh, thanks, man. Thank you for having me. You bet. And best of luck with the film, dude. Out October 17th, so this week, I think. And all right, everybody, be good. Thanks so much.

Starting point is 01:45:30 Like these leaves, I must be cornerstone. Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of mind I found I can feel it in my bones. But it's going to tell you.

This Past Weekend - #617 - Aziz Ansari

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