WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 941 - Jimmy O. Yang

Episode Date: August 12, 2018

Jimmy O. Yang felt like an outsider growing up in Hong Kong and then felt like he didn't fit in studying economics in America. It was only once he starting paying five bucks to do an open mic night in Hollywood that he found a community. Jimmy tells Marc how the immigrant story was different for everyone in his family, how he got his first real lessons in American life from watching BET, and how his performances in Silicon Valley and Crazy Rich Asians are so different when it comes to the pressures of representation. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th, exclusively on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing with cannabis legalization. It's a brand new challenging marketing category.

legalization. It's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Lock the gates! store and ACAS Creative. What the fuck, buddies? What the fucksters? What's happening? I'm Mark Maron. This is my podcast, WTF. Welcome to it.

I'm going to try to do the business up front the way that shows do it in the professional way. Today on the show, how about a little of that? Today on the show, I talk to, huh? Even with a cold, I can lock into broadcast voice. So today on the show, I'm going to be talking to Jimmy O. Yang. O. Yang. You might know him from Silicon Valley or his new movie, Crazy Rich Asians, which is out this Wednesday, August 15th. So look forward to that a little later in the show. Jimmy O. Yang is going to be here. I do still have the cold and yes, Jimmy O. Yang is going to be here.

He was here and I'm going to share it with you. That's how it generally works here. But I'm going to try to do some other business up front where people do business, which is kind of interesting. Just, uh-oh, did it fall out of my pocket? Did I just drop my new sobriety chip? My new brass metal? I don't know what kind of metal it is, but my new 19-year chip.

Did I just drop it on the floor? I did. Hold on a second. Oh, did I mention I had 19 years sober the other day? Did I mention? I didn't talk to you about it on Thursday, which was actually the day that it happened because I recorded Wednesday and who knows what could happen in 24 hours. You don't want to jinx it.

I could have just lost my mind, had some sort of stroke or aneurysm, and decided that the last 19 years didn't even exist, and I was just having a weird dream, and it was time to go get some blow. So I didn't tell you about it, but hold on. Let me pick up my 19-year sobriety chip. dream and it was time to go get some blow so i didn't tell you about it but hold on let me let me pick up my 19 year sobriety chip oh yeah sarah the painter gave this to me i don't get them at meetings anymore not all the meetings have the fancy chips what was i in the middle of before i interrupted with uh with this sort of self-congratulatory, somewhat prideful,

you know, off-the-cuff announcement of my 19 years sober. I'll talk to you about it in a minute. But I did want to give everyone a heads up about some dates coming up. First of all, the general ticketing for the Beacon Theater show in New York City, November 10th at 7.30 p.m. And tickets go on sale for the general public today, Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern time. The little secret code pre-sale thing is over. And I sold upwards of a thousand tickets.

So I don't know where it's at now, but I would get these tickets if you want to see me in New York City at the big old Beacon Theater. Okay, there's that. On other fronts, I have other dates coming up at the Comedy Addict, August 30th through September 1st. I'll be at ACME, but I believe that is sold out in Minneapolis September 6th through September 8th. And I'll be at the Comedy Works in Denver, September 21st and 22nd. And I got a show at Stand Up Live, October 13th. I think I'm throwing one in Largo, at Largo, in there somewhere before I do the Beacon.

But those are the ones that are on the books. And you can get tickets for those at wtfpod.com slash tour. Those are where the links are. And the New York Comedy Festival link will be there as well. You know, it's a strange thing as you go on in this thing, this sobriety thing. A lot of people are congratulating me and saying good job and that was hard work. The weird thing is, if you get sober, and I have been speaking to people that are struggling lately because they are, and I hear from them. And no one except for maybe one or two assholes, you know, tells me to, you know, quit talking to people directly.

I don't even need to address them, as I just did. But because this is my sobriety anniversary month, it's important. And 19 years seems like a lot of time, and it is. And it seems like something that is seemingly impossible to those people who are either trying to stop drinking or can't get any time together. I'm not saying that it's not hard work, but when somebody says, wow, what an amazing achievement,

is what's supposed to happen when you get sober, if you go into recovery and you are basically diligent about doing some of the work, is that you won't think about booze and drugs all the time. I mean, that is supposed to happen. The obsession will be lifted. It says it in the literature. It seems like a dream, a fantasy, something that could never happen. But this is the beautiful gift of it.

Even if you do the basic work is that I don't know when it will be lifted for you, but you won't think about it anymore. It's not going to be at the forefront of your brain. If you put being sober and your sobriety at the forefront of your brain, eventually you won't think about it anymore. I work in nightclubs. I'm around booze all the time. I do not think about it,

and I haven't thought about it in probably 15 years. The idea of like, oh, fuck. Fuck. God damn it, I fucking need a drink. I gotta get out of here. I can't even look at this stuff. I can't be around this. Just the smell of it.

What do you got there? Is that a line? Oh my God. Fuck. Fuck. How much blood do you have like how much holy shit is that a whole eight ball god damn it i gotta go i gotta get out of here that struggle goes away and uh that that i can guarantee you so as much as i appreciate the congratulations it is still one day at a a time. It was harder work than it is now, and I'm grateful for that,

but I will tell you this, that if you do some of the work, you won't think about it all the fucking time. You might think about something else, but as long as it's not ruining your life or killing you, it's all right. You can get a little obsessed with things. Lock in.

I get obsessed with shit all the time. I lock in. What did I get obsessed with just recently? Oh yeah, the shoe shining business. I didn't start a business, but I kind of, you know, I do that. Like, you know, I act out in fits and starts compulsively and it's how I get things done. I can only hope for those things to happen. I think there's a more laid back way to get things done and more sort of efficient, maybe not efficient, but kind of like a more disciplined or structured way to get things done. But for me, I get things done in a flurry, just a fucking

chaotic flurry of doing it. And then I sit down and I'm like, holy fuck, that wasn't so hard. Why did I dread that for the last year? Why didn't I just do that? It took an hour. And I've been like putting this off. It's just a flurry, a compulsive flurry of chaos and closure is how I get things done. And then you feel good after that. You get the buzz, you know, if you wait it out. If you procrastinate long enough and

just do things in a chaotic flurry of activity yeah there there's a buzz involved and when you are a recovering addict or an active addict 90 of what you do you know kind of try to identify the buzz you're going after you know so uh there are some new t-shirts. If you haven't checked out our new WTF shirts, go to podswag.com slash WTF or the merch section of wtfpod.com. So like, look, it'd been a long time since we had the WTF logo on a shirt. It's this weird logo.

And we never changed it. If you go to iTunes or you look around, the WTF logo, which is about two thirds of my face, it was taken from a painting by this kid, Nathan Smith, who was living up in Seattle at the time. And he gave me the painting and I used it for the cover of one of the records. I think Final Engagement, maybe. And then we just locked in. But there was never a whole face.

It's just this weird thing that because and he designed the avatar too because of the color turquoise and because of uh jimmy wertz uh lettering which we put on there and because of nathan smith's uh art we we think it like it really popped it was we we kind of like thought it was one of the main drivers of the early success of this show was that fucking weirdo logo of this painting of me. It's an odd logo, so we dug it back out and we put it on a shirt and we kind of jammed that original logo into something new and trippy.

And it's sort of like code. If you know what it is, you know what it is. So those are available. My cat, LaFonda, started pe peeing blood again and she's 14 years old and I think they just turned 14 she's a you know pretty tense cat and you know you get scared you get scared I just like man I can't take it but again it's interesting how I don't know, you do what you have to do in the moment you have to do it if you're that kind of person. And, you know, as soon as I saw her, you know, having trouble peeing

and peeing a little blood, I knew from the last time it was probably a urinary tract infection or a bladder infection. So this means I got to get that monster into a fucking box. I got bloodied. I got ripped up. My hand was a mess. She bit me like monster into a fucking box I got bloodied I got ripped up my hand was a mess she bit me like I was a fucking stranger and hurt in that weird way that when cats bite on purpose it hurts in a very unique way almost like there's a venom to their teeth and I get into the vet and this cat as some of you know who have been with me for a while this cat is just a knot of nerves a little feline fist of defensive fury a scary little

fucking animal and and and it scared she she Lafonda has scared most vets I get her in there and I'm dealing with this woman who's a new vet she's very she's great very nice and I just said look you know I think it's the same thing she had like six months ago and I said you can't examine her she doesn't need to be have x-rays she doesn't need to be probed you don't need to do a urinalysis don't take blood don't do all this sort of like you know like uh add-ons let's just get her shot up with some of that stuff just shoot her up with some of that covenia and let's see if it takes and then you just sort of wait you don't know if these old cats are going to die on you or what and And she's a tough little cat. She's throwing up and shit.

So I take her home and then it happens again. She peed blood all over the beds, both beds. It's almost like she did it on purpose. And then she's bouncing back again. She's bouncing back. I got a cold and she got a urinary infection the same day. I don't know if it's stress. I think this buster kitten is beating up on these old guys,

so we had to cut his nails. It's been a lot of cat drama, but everybody's okay. All right? All right? You just, and look, I know there are bigger problems. You know, she could be a person, but she's not. She's a cat, and it seems like she's going to be okay. There was a car out in front of

my house for like a week and a half that was wrecked and both airbags were shot and the windshield was was shattered but it right where heads go just out there i don't know what was going on with that i don't know what story what's the story behind it you know it's just like it's weird it's eerie like what is that who dumped that there what's the story behind it. You know, it's just like it's weird, it's eerie. Like, what is that? Who dumped that there? What's the back story? Was it stolen?

There was dealer plates on the fucking car, so I called the number on the plates. It was like a small used car dealer. I told him maybe one of his cars got stolen, joy ridden, destroyed, and left. And he said, nope, I sold that car, but I'll try to find those people and ask what's up. I'm like, I don't want nothing to do with that, but they're going to come pick it up.

So then yesterday, when my buddy Matt Sweeney would drop by because I was talking to Kurt Vile in here, and they know each other, and Sweeney was in town, but the cops were out front. He's like, what's going on, man? The cops are out in front of your house. I'm like, it's not me, dude. Those days are behind me. It's not me. And I asked the cop, I'm like, what's up?

And he's like, no, nothing. I'm like, what's going on with this car? Just taking it away. I'm like, what happened? I can't really tell you, but there's a story. He's like, oh yeah, oh yeah, there's a story. Yeah, where's that story? I'd like to hear that story about the car that was left destroyed in my front yard.

Anyway, I was very happy to to meet and talk to Jimmy O. Yang. He's got a book out. The book is called How to American. Funny. Got a little forward by Mike Judge in there. An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents. Got a little foreword by Mike Judge in there, An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents. And the new movie, Crazy Rich Asians, opens on Wednesday, August 15th. And of course, you can see his work on Silicon Valley. But I really enjoyed this conversation. This is me and Jimmy O. Yang. Be honest. When was the last time you thought about your current business insurance policy?

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Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com. So we're talking about the Ice House. So when did you start doing comedy? When I was 21.

So I'm 31 now. This was 10 years ago. Oh, really? Yeah. So the first few years, I hit it super hard. You know, all the mics. Oh, yeah. Every show I can do.

Bringers. You know, just... Where were you living? I started... Okay, first... I started first in the Ha Ha Comedy Club during the summer from college. Oh, in the Valley. Or in New York.

No, no, no. In the Valley. Yeah, yeah. In North Hollywood. comedy club during the summer from college valley or new york no no no here in north hollywood and i had to pay five dollars for five minutes of stage time yeah and it was miserable but i i nothing else going on that was still a better alternative than whatever i had in my life five bucks five bucks and um after that i went back to school in San Diego. It's weird, though. It's not a bad room, is it? It's not. It's fun.

Yeah. I mean, it's tight, small, right? Yeah. Was it the dark one or the newer one? I know there was the Ha Ha Club. You walk in, there's a little bar there, and then there's like 30 seats. It's barely a room, right? Or is it the dark, weird one?

It's slightly bigger with a fake brick wall in North Hollywood on Lancashire. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. They had since moved. Okay, okay, yeah. But yeah, it's not a bad room. And it's a good mix of like, there's white people, black people, Latinos, a lot of Armenians because the owners were Armenian. So it skews a little more urban, which has always been my style more.

And then I went back to San Diego and I really developed in San Diego. I couldn't imagine developing in LA. Yeah. Well, there's so many people here. It's very easy to get lost. You don't have much room for yourself. There's no stage time. The only real shows were like bringer shows when you first start. How do you develop in an open mic when nobody cares? Yeah. When it's all comics, just waiting to get on and their friends waiting to watch them. It's hard. So you're in San Diego going to college though, right? Yeah, I was finishing college on my economics degree.

Oh, yeah. And I hated every bit of that degree. And I hated every bit of college, really. Well, I guess we should talk about how you got here because, I mean, like the book, I was going through it. I didn't have time to read the whole thing. How to American. Yeah.

It's funny, but it's inside all the humorous stories i mean it's like a real kind of journey and struggle to sort of adapt right i can't like i can't i don't i have no sense of of what that would be like i mean i get uncomfortable if i go to another country where english isn't the uh primary language in in a day i'm sort of like, oh, God, this is, I can't, how am I going to go to the bathroom? What am I going to, you know? Yeah, that was my life when I was 13. But do you remember Hong Kong, though, like from when you were a kid? It's interesting. I think there's a switch because the language changed.

Because in Hong Kong, I never really spoke English. And then when I came here, I spoke English. So there's a part of my brain that the memory comes out when I start speaking Cantonese. When I do go back to Hong Kong, the memories come back. But in general, they're not there. In general, like from one to 13, I don't really remember anything. But like if I asked you about it, you could remember things? If you asked me in Cantonese, I would have remembered it a little better.

But I vaguely remember stuff, but not as much as I should. How many siblings do you have? I have one older brother. He's five years older than me. And so your family, they were fine. They didn't have to run away from Hong Kong. What was the story? Well, my parents grew up in Shanghai during the communist revolution where they got fucked over. Really? Like people were really kicking down doors, taking whatever shit they wanted. And they threw both my grandparents in jail for like, I don't know, talking bad about the government and stuff like that.

For the original Mao trip. People don't know this. Like people have fucking Mao posters in their house. Yeah. That's like having a Hitler poster in your house. To a Chinese person. Seriously. Like to, well, there's some Chinese people that's pro-communist. Sure. house. Yeah. That's like having a Hitler poster in your house. To a Chinese person. Seriously. Well, there's some Chinese people

that's pro-communist, I'm sure. Sure, right, right. But to the people that experienced the purge. The people that got fucked with. Yeah. It was literally the purge

from the stories that my dad was telling me. He wanted to go to college but he was just sitting at home for 10 years because he couldn't go anywhere. Yeah. And then they'll assign you

to your jobs. It's real communism in a way. Yeah. My uncle got assigned to a field somewhere in a farm and he almost fucking died from like dysentery and what was his what was his practice like what was he uh trained to do what did he do before that do you know like you just graduate high school you weren't trained to do anything oh i see and one of my other uncle they say he got lucky he got sent to the uh the uh grocery market yeah and he was just like selling

fish and like produce. And that was like a good, chill gig. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because you're not out there, you know, all day long in the sun. Yeah. Getting beat up. Exactly.

So, everyone like went through the shit. What did your dad end up doing? I think he wanted to join the Air Force, but he couldn't because he was flat footed. Uh-huh. So, he's always had a grudge against that. he was flat-footed. Uh-huh. So he's always had a grudge against that. He, I don't, I think he just ended up like studying English on his own.

I think he got out of some stuff. I'm not really sure. Maybe he never really talked about it. My mom got lucky. She worked at a candy store, which is like a dream job. But then eventually my dad got the golden ticket to go to Hong Kong because I had a rich uncle that was already established in Hong Kong. Right.

And this is a British colony at the time? It was a British colony for 100 years. Yeah. So it was westernized. It was free. It wasn't communist. So it was a real ticket out. It was the real ticket out.

It's like, you know, I guess the equivalent of a Mexican immigrant, you know, finally getting approved to go to America. Like it's like the golden ticket or Nigerian immigrant, whatever. Right. Yeah. So my dad went there and my mom went there with him. And that's when they had me and my brother. So kind of growing up in a way, I already felt like a foreigner in Hong Kong because my family was so different than the Cantonese Hong Kong families.

Oh yeah. Hong Kong people are elitist, man. Yeah. They think they're better than their mainland counterparts. Yeah. In some ways, they are, maybe. In some way, you know, the city's cleaner, for the most part. They have their own government.

They can choose their own jobs. Exactly. That's big. That's big. Yeah. So, yeah. And then I grew up in Hong Kong, and we moved here to America when I was 13 and my brother was 18. But like, okay, so like when you're 11, 12 and 13, like when you're that age, I mean, like there's, you know, there's social systems in place.

You're in school. Like, so you were actually, you're actually able to compare the kind of like, you know, what it's like to be a kid who's 13 in in hong kong and a kid who's 13 it's a very awkward time absolutely for anybody yeah so like what like what are the differences what were you doing in hong kong to impress people or to sort of like you know keep you know what i mean just in school what was the dynamic like what was the hierarchy it's interesting because everybody in hong kong was asian everybody in hong kong was chinese right so in a way everybody was kind of the same page yeah yeah you know we all ate the same food we all love the same food we all love certain things like uh well we after school we

go to this video game store and bought like bootleg dvds yeah you know and and the pirated american video pirated you know version of fifa if you bought, like, the real version of FIFA, you're an idiot. Nobody bought that. We made fun of this kid for buying the, he had a real box. Yeah. Like, with the real nice FIFA. Yeah. And we just made fun of him.

We're like, what the hell's wrong with you? Like, it's $4. Yeah, yeah. Like, if you bought the fake one. Yeah. But everybody was just kind of the same page. Video game was big. You know, TV shows.

Yeah. It's not, like, now, especially now,, like there's a thousand TV shows out there. Everybody's watching different things. Yeah. In Hong Kong, everybody just watched the show at eight o'clock. Yeah. You know, this Cantonese drama. Everybody just watched this.

One channel? Stephen Chow movie. There's usually two channels. Yeah. There's the J channel and that's called TVB. And then the Asian something channel and then those two channels each have a sister channel

that has English programming. So like the Simpsons, WWE, things like that. They would come? Yeah, they would come. Yeah, I remember watching Simpsons when I was younger.

I didn't understand a bit of it. That was the first thing that was international that was on TV there, I bet. It was Simpsons and Hulk Hogan. Oh yeah. Yeah.

So did you watch wrestling? I did. I watched a little bitpsons and Hulk Hogan. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So did you watch wrestling? I did. I watched a little bit of wrestling. Oh, and movie-wise, all the action heroes, those were big. Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport. Yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger. We watched every Schwarzenegger movie.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. We watched Terminator 2 every other Saturday in my house. You and your family? Oh, your family? Yeah, my family. And the thing is with Hong Kong- Every other week.

The main difference, I feel feel like is the family structure. And we never really had friends over. Kids here would have friends over. They have sleepovers. Yeah. They go out and just go frolic in the street. It's very freeing, I find. You play ball in the street, hang out at the corner.

Yeah. Whatever, yeah. I can't do that. My mother would yell at me. Yeah, yeah. We just, nuclear family, four of of us we just did everything together and and was that sort of also because you were different you weren't cantonese no i think it's just um we find most of our happiness and contentment from family you do uh in general or you? Me and also Asian people in general.

So here's a lot of finding yourself, the independence, finding your own creed, your own group of friends. Whereas I feel like in Hong Kong and China, it's you know who you are, this is your family, and this is who you hang out with. Your cousins are your best friends. You might have one or two other best friends, but usually it's all about family outings.

Yeah. When it comes to Chinese New Year, that's the biggest holiday there. Yeah. So it's two weeks. Every day you will go to somebody's house and your family friends, your relatives, and beg for the red envelope as a kid. What's the red envelope? Oh, the red envelope is your older relatives will give the kids money in a red envelope as a kid. What's the red envelope? So every day you just, oh, the red envelope is your older relatives would give the kids money in a red envelope.

Right. And that's how you teach kids financial sense. And if you come from a poor family, unfortunately, your parents would probably just take those red envelopes. Right. So it's a give and take. You give the doorman and your apartment complex a little $10 red envelope. But it's like somebody really close, your grandma will give you $100,

$200 or whatever. And then you build it up. Hopefully by the time you're 18, you can, you know, go start your own business or something. So that was the plan. It's like an ongoing bar mitzvah. Oh, yeah, every year. Yeah, every year.

You're supposed to save it, though. You're supposed to save it. Well, I mean, there's got to be some, you know, bad Asian kids that just go spend it on shit. Yeah, I guess. Did you save yours? I think I saved mine. I don't know what I did with mine.

I never had a concept of money until I graduated college. Right, yeah. Because I was never cool. I never used it to go to movie theaters, take girls on dates or anything like that. I just chilled at home and played football with my friends, which is just free. Yeah. Okay, so when you're in Hong Kong as a 12, 13-year-old, your brother's older, but you're just hanging out with your mom and dad, so I guess you like them.

Well, you have to, in a way. Yeah. Well, they liked me, right? In a way, I think Chinese parents put a lot more focus on their kids. Yeah. And also more focus on keeping the family together. Yeah. I've always said that if my parents were white, they would have gotten divorced a long fucking time ago.

Like, I don't think they like each other. No? There was never love involved or anything like that. How well are they married? Is it set up? I asked my dad, I'm like, after 35 years, do you love mommy? He's like, love? Are you serious?

Your mom married me to escape communism. It's true. And look, it's a companion. I'm glad they still live together. They have a dog now. So I don't have to worry about them. Right. Like, I'll feel really bad if my dad lived by himself.

Yeah, right. Which for a while did happen because my mom didn't move back to Shanghai for 10 years. Really? Before? When I was like 15, I think. Oh, oh. Yeah. Oh, she went back.

Yeah. And that was kind of hard. For 10 years? For 10 years. It was like a de facto divorce in a way, but they're still married. And now she's back? Now she's back. Why didn't she go to Shanghai?

She just didn't want to be here she just wasn't happy this is like a lot of stuff that people don't talk about like in the immigrant story yeah it's it's your family kind of maybe you guys are together in a new country yeah but everybody needs to assimilate right i assimilated differently because i was 13 i was able to become more american yeah i learned how to play football. I learned about hip hop music. So I try to be as American as possible and I'm way more Americanized than even my brother who came here when he was 18 and he sat in his waist. He went to Santa Monica College, but he would always go hang out with his friends in Monterey Parks and Gabriel Valley where all

that Chinese food is, Asian people is. And he never really had that many American friends. Interesting. Because he was already set in his ways. And he has much more of an accent. Oh, yeah, still? Absolutely. Yeah. I think your brain sets when you're like 13, 14.

So luckily, I came here in a good cusp. I have maybe a little bit of an accent sometimes. Yeah, yeah. And my parents, my dad's English is pretty good. Yeah. He's a great businessman. So he got a job at Merrill Lynch working as a financial advisor. He caught on pretty well. Yeah. He's a great businessman. So he got a job at Merrill Lynch working as a financial advisor. He caught on pretty well.

Yeah. But still, even with that job, he needs to go out and find his own clients. Yeah. And who is he? Like he was working

at the Beverly Hills office. Who's going to trust this foreign Chinese man that just came to this country? Yeah. You know? So he got to go find Chinese clients.

Exactly. That's the hope when they hired him. Like to get some rich Hong Kong people to come and invest in Merrill Lynch. And then my mother- Did it work? I think.

I think he did okay. He did all right. He had a Pontiac and then he upgraded to like a Chrysler Sebring convertible. All right. Like the poor man's midlife crisis car. And your mom? And my mom just never got her footing in a way. Her English wasn't that great.

She worked at telemarketing for Chinese people. She worked at a Chinese bank. Whereas back in Hong Kong, she was a very fashionable lady. She was a general manager of this high fashion store. Yeah. So she just never found a fulfillment here. And even with friends, she never had that friend group that she found. It's weird.

That whole status shift in terms of jobs is like, it's got to be daunting in the sense of, because I remember when I lived in a building in Queens, the guy who owned the building

was Dominican, I think, and he moved, he was a dentist. Yeah. And he'd come here and he had money enough to invest in real estate, but he couldn't be a dentist.

Exactly. Like all those Russian people, I think it's a movie trope now, like a Russian guy mopping the floors in the university. He used to be a freaking engineer or something. But it's true. Absolutely. Even if it's not a big job, just even social status or whatever,

the shift has got to be pretty monumental if you're an adult. But in a way, it speaks volumes that being a janitor in America is somehow still better than being an engineer in a different country. I guess we'll see after this presidency if that's holding. I don't know. I think the one thing he might succeed in doing is really making people in other countries be like, yeah, maybe it's not so bad here. Yeah, maybe I'll just be a chemical engineer in Russia.

Why not? I'll stay put. Exactly. But did you do sports or anything before? Like, did you do, like, I saw a part of your book, like everyone in China plays ping pong. Plays ping pong. It's a real thing. It's a real thing.

I was competing in the youth tournaments, like under 13. That's the sport. I was on TV. That was like the big sport. That was my first TV debut when I was like 10 years old. I was a really cute, very small kid. Yeah. And they had me like demonstrate playing some ping pong with some pros.

Yeah. And I was interviewed by the news. Yeah. And yeah. Did you get any laughs? Yeah. I was like, yeah, I was getting laughs. I was like the local celebrity.

People thought I was like big cheese at my school. Yeah. But I actually couldn't, my form was nice, but I actually couldn't play that well because I was just like a little tiny kid. Yeah. And then, yeah. How's your game now? I need to practice. But is it like you've been playing all your life so it's kind of second nature like you could probably beat most people that kind of thing yes but like say something

like drew the freelander who's actually like he plays and he's great is he actually world champion I think he's actually good and I don't I don't I don't think there's no way I can beat him now I need to practice to beat him hey he's your he's, that's your guy, that's your nemesis, ping pong nemesis? We should do like a 30 for 30 of me training to beat Judah Freeland. In ping pong? In ping pong. I didn't know he was good at that. How do you know Judah?

Just from comedy? Just, actually, from the ping pong community. Really? No. I know he's, because ping pong is so like Understated here It's like a stupid party sport Yeah it's like Yeah we got the table

When we were kids But no one uses it anymore It's more like shuffleboard It's an arcade game It's not a real sport But in Hong Kong Everybody like got mad skills You know

Are there parks Where there are like 20 tables Or places Oh yeah Big gyms Oh yeah So like pool halls But with ping pong tables Or every You know, and there are parks where there are like 20 tables or places. Yeah. Yeah. Big gym. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So like pool halls, but with ping pong ping pong table.

Every say swimming pool, like club place would have like five, six ping pong tables. Oh, yeah. In a separate area. And just hear that clacking all the time. Oh, yeah, man. And everybody got form. Everybody knows how to play. Like here, you know, you just like ping pong rally on.

You just tip the ball up and the guy hits it. Everybody got spin. Everybody knows how to hit it. So it's a real thing. And it was that and a soccer growing up for me. Well, I remember they tried to, like, I remember ping pong was kind of a thing here for a minute when I was a kid, you know, cause I remember playing with guys that were into it, but it was, they didn't take off like soccer either but i guess every we're the only ones in the world that don't like ping pong and soccer i guess i was never that good in soccer in my school i'll always be like the backup of the backup team uh in hong kong but when i came here i remember i was just like super good because nobody played

soccer like i was scoring like five goals in pe class you know everyone was impressed yeah everyone thought i was cool. That was your superpower. Yeah, playing a sport that nobody cares about. That's my life. Being good at things that nobody cares about. Yeah. But it's nice to be impressive.

Especially when you come from another place. If you show up and you've got a skill, people are like, oh, shit. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's... I was always... like, I'm small and I look like, I don't look like a jock or the most athletic kid.

Yeah. But I've always been fairly coordinated and, like, you know, athletic. So that was, like, how I coped with fitting in a lot. I was pretty good at sports. Yeah. Even, like, the first day playing football, I was fast, you know, I can jump pretty high.

So that's how I got away from getting bullied and you know trying to trying to be funny try to talk to people but um yeah it helped in the assimilation process but um it was hard yeah so when you got here when you're 13 it was like right out of the gate you moved to where you la you were here in la eighth grade la um john grade, L.A., John Burroughs Middle School. What part of town is that? So that was on Highland and Wilshire, pretty central L.A. Oh, yeah, yeah. Wow, yeah. So that was a place, and they threw you right in there.

They threw me right in eighth grade. Yeah. The last year of middle school, meaning that everybody already knew each other for at least two, maybe eight years. Yeah, so how'd it work out? They put me in ESL classes. What's that, accelerator? No, no eight years. Yeah. So how'd it work out? They put me in ESL classes. What's that? Accelerator? No, no, no.

It's the opposite. It's English as second language. Okay. That's ESL. Which is a good concept on paper, but I don't know if it actually works. Yeah. Because everybody is foreign in that class, but not foreign in the same way. You got me, the Chinese kid.

You got Filipino kid, Nigerian kid sri lankan kid yeah like how am i supposed to learn english faster if i'm with other foreign kids yeah it was how did it go it was it was fine and that was when i made some of my first friends yeah one of my first friend was like this nigerian guy this sri lankan guy because we're all just as lost as the other ones. Yeah, right, sure. Blind leading the blind. Right. And, yeah, we're just, I remember just observing from an outsider point of view. Like, seeing, like, this white girl in eighth grade that was, like, 5'10". Yeah.

And looks, like, fucking, like, Molly Sims. And I was, like, oh, my God, this is America. Like, this, one day, someday. Yeah. Someday, you know, maybe. Yeah. Maybe she'll be my girl and then watching has that happened yet well yeah yeah i've had sex with a couple white women yeah is that is that your question i don't know but still there's a part of me it's like white dudes like asian girl who's

exotic to me white people are still kind of exotic yeah sure you know that was like my dream growing i'm so ridiculous to think about it now yeah it's interesting though the two sides of that though that there are certain types of americans that are obsessed with asian women but i i don't know right see that creeps me out the fetish the fetishizing of asians i mean i've gotten laid a few times because a girl is a huge anime fan yeah or or she she has a K-pop poster in her apartment. Yeah. And I know I was going to fuck.

Yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah. Like she has a proclivity for Asians. Yeah. Thank God, right? Thank God. And hopefully it's getting better and better, you know?

Because it wasn't, not too many people is into Asians. Well, I mean, when you were a kid though, I mean- Back in the day. Yeah. But I mean, in LA though, there must have been other Asians at school, right? Yeah. A lot of Koreans. Ah.

And you know, the most painful part, I wrote about this a little bit in my book, the most painful part was not that the black kids, white kids, Latino kids didn't accept me, because I expected that. I was the foreign guy coming from Hong Kong, whatever. The painful part was the other Asian kids wanted nothing to do with me. Yeah. Because they were the ABCs, like Asian-born Chinese or Asian-born Koreans.

Yeah. And they, in their mind, they're American, which is true. They are American. Yeah. Right? So it's unfair to say that they're the foreigner. But I was the foreign kid.

Right. And they don't want to associate themselves with me because they don't want to be thought of as the foreign kid. And that was the most painful part. I think if i understand correctly that happens with all ethnicities you know like with mexicans you know and even with i think in the african-american community the difference between like a ghetto black person and somebody who's middle class like there's always that distancing from the more primitive or the more ethnic. Yes, absolutely.

Because you don't want to be grouped in. And also the class issues too. But yeah. So that happens. That must be painful to be like, you know, alienated from your own people. Yes. Because you're too Chinese. Yeah.

And like also the Korean kids. There weren't a lot of Chinese kids. The Korean kids would call me like, hey, China boy or like chinese boy or whatever like that yeah and uh they'll say maybe in a friendly way but i never really made a true friend in middle school the first year i was just getting my footing that was like my basic training you and the nigerian and yeah we'll hang out have some lunch yeah you know but basically that was like it's so it's so classic though just that sort of alienation you know it's a you know it's like that scene in animal house at the frat house where the three foreign guys are like this is did you meet raj and you know but that's like how it happens that's how

these these horrible clicky hierarchies work when you're a kid it's i mean when you're that age it's clicky anyway yeah i know but i was never able to kind of find my click. Because in high school, it's all about clicks. You got skaters, stoners, jocks, whatever. Even you have the Mexicans hanging out, the black people. You got clicks, whatever you base it on. Sure. Ethnicity, interest, or whatever.

Emo kids, or whatever. So where do you find some footing? What do you start doing? I joined the Chinese chinese culture club there was a chinese art teacher in high school so there's three chinese kids and we just chill there at lunch that was like my safe refuge so i wasn't eating my sticky rice by the lockers by myself yeah you know i mean so i had somewhere to hang out with but i always felt unsatisfied doing that because I came all the way to this country not to just hermit in the Chinese pocket. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I know a lot of people that do that. Yeah. If you go to like- Your brother. Yeah, my brother. You go to Little Armenia, you go to Monterey Park, people only stay in that community. But I wanted to be American.

I want to understand and be excited about the Super Bowl. Yeah. I wanted that white girl. Yeah. You know, I wanted to understand American humor excited about the super bowl yeah i want i wanted that white girl yeah you know i i wanted to understand american humor yeah you know um so i wanted to as painful as it was i needed to kind of break out of that kind of yeah um bubble yeah so i just went out and i start like trying to make some random friends and one of my my first friends I met, I guess, in America and in high school is still my best friend today.

Yeah. Persian guy named Jeremy. And he was kind of like a jock. He was really athletic. He was a football player. But we just met in art class. He was kind of nerdy. He plays video games.

And he was one of the only first people that didn't judge me as a foreign Chinese guy. We just kind of joked as if it was an old friend from hong kong right and i started hanging out with him his cousins and i got a bunch of persian friends yeah and then they got their own group of friends that uh we had a table um upstairs uh in the patio of um uh the cafeteria uh-huh and it was jeremy his cousin Phil, two Persian guys, Persian Jews. Yeah.

And then my buddy Zaki, who's Bengali, this kid Derek, who was Chinese, Bo Kim, who was a Korean immigrant. And then this, my buddy Chris,

who was like, this really hip hop, you know, what back in the day they would call a Uyghur kid. Yeah. You know,

he's like half white and half native american so we none of us really fit into any group yeah but that was like the group of misfit that we found each other and that became my best friends in high school and still some of my best friends now how did you you know since you were so conscious of wanting to be an american you know what did you sort of, you know, consciously set out to do? Like, what did you decide? I think I saw America since, from such an outsider view, what's presented to me on screen,

on TV, in media, that was what I thought America was. Right. Big football players. Yeah. BET Rap City. Yeah. Hip hop music videos. You saw you saw bet rap city oh when you were a kid not in china oh no no yeah yeah i mean i mean uh here yeah you know when i got here so i

was just trying to fit in by being as american as possible so i started emulating a lot of that football rap i started playing football right and uh i i started making hip hop music. Yeah. You know, and BET was like amazing. Yeah. I never seen anything like that. Yeah. You know, the only black people I really seen was in back in Hong Kong was like the NBA. Right. You know, Wesley Stipes maybe.

Yeah. But like BET was like a real insider look of what real American urban culture was like. And it was mind-blowing. Yeah. Because everything was in a way so flamboyant and flashy. What kid didn't want to live like Ludacris or like Jay-Z, Big Pimpin'? Yeah. Right?

Like just a hundred women on a yacht with champagne pouring on their face. Like, oh, I want to do that. Yeah. So watching that, I was like, holy shit, this is what I want to do. Yeah. You know? I want to get there. I want to do that yeah yeah so watching that i was like holy shit this is what i want to do yeah you know i want to get there i want to get that was my american dream each music video on bet was the epitome of three minutes of an american dream right right yeah so i wanted to do that and then i started just like making hip-hop music yeah i couldn't rap but you were beat you were serious about i couldn't rap. But you were serious about it. I was making beats. You know, I was serious about it because that was kind of

what made me just a little cool. Even though I was weird as shit and I was foreign, it's like, okay, this kid made beats. Like, he's cool. Or in my mind, I thought I was cool by doing it.

And you were good at it? I was good at it. I got to a point where I actually sold some beats. I started a rap group. It was me, my black friend Julian and then my other friend Yuji

who's half black and half Japanese. So we're one and a half Asian dudes and one and a half black dudes and we called ourselves the Yellow Panthers. Yeah.

So the Yellow Panthers never sold any records but I would make beats for the Yellow Panthers. Yeah. I didn't really rap on it but I'll make beats and my beats became pretty good

and I started selling online. Ah. And I made a couple hundred bucks and one of the first people that pay me for a beat was this dude named LeBron James uh-huh LeBron James was a stage name for porn okay he owned a website it's this black dude with like a 12 inch penis yeah sure Yeah, sure. And he owned a website. Yeah, sure. Yeah, okay, yeah. I'm able. He owned a website. I've heard. It's been rumored.

Yeah. He owned a website called fudgestick.com where LeBron was a performer and he would have sex with MILFs, quote-unquote. And he called me out of blue one day because I would post my beats online. He was like,

hey, is this doc west i was like yeah because that was my producer name i combined dr dre and kanye west my name was doc west and it was so fucking hacky now to think about it yeah um and he was like are you christian i was like no what he was like yeah because a lot of conservative people doesn't like what i do i was like what do you do you sell drugs or something i'll sell the beats to whoever he's like no i actually want to use one of your beats for my porno trailer i was like yes absolutely so i sold him one of my beats and the next week it ended up on like on like a porno trailer where literally this lady was like just like sucking him off and then like he's like it's it's ridiculous and but that was, I still have that video. Yeah, of course.

It's your big break. That was my big break. Exactly. And you used to do live shows too? No, I never really did live shows. I was just sitting in my parents' house and in my room, just make beats eight hours a day. Was that your first exposure to the comedy as well on BET? Comic View.

You were watching a lot of Comic View? That was my... There was really no stand-up in Hong Kong. Stand-up comedy wasn't really a thing. There wasn't a Comedy Central Presents or BET Comic View, nothing like that. Traditionally in China, I think there's a two-man act. It's more like a sketch. Yeah, yeah.

Lauren Hardy, Vaudeville, kind of going back and forth. Sure, sure. I did stand-up in Hong Kong once. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Some guy used to book kind of going back and forth. Sure, sure. I did stand up in Hong Kong once. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Some guy used to book Hong Kong and Shanghai and Beijing. So I did stand up in Beijing. And then that was weird, mostly for expats.

And then in Hong Kong, I did it too. But the place where they did the show wasn't quite built yet. But I liked being there. It was very... Beijing was just mind-blowing to me. It's like you can't see because the air stinks. Oh, yeah. But I've never seen so many types of bicycles.

So many things that aren't cars with wheels. Yes. In my life. A lot of two-wheelers in all those Asian countries. It's crazy. And then there's markets where you're like, is this for pets or for eating? Right. Everything's live.

We value freshness. Yeah. You see like a fresh toe jumping around, chickens running around. Yeah. Like that's our free range chicken. We let you see it's free range. Yeah. Look, it's there.

Go get it. Yeah. Because I mean, the cultural difference is, I remember in America when I first came here, what people are used to is going to Ralph's or going to Costco once a week, maybe once a month, stocking up your fridge, and that's what you ate for the whole week, whole month. Yeah, yeah. In Hong Kong and China, you go to the market fresh every day, and you prepare a four-course meal every day for your family.

Yeah. That was the difference. Yeah, I think it's better. Oh, of course. Yeah. Just the fact that, you know, you're actually making something every day and you're seeing where the food comes from, like seeing them slaughtering the chicken or like, you know. Yeah.

You know, someone's got to be in charge of that shit because it's a job. Yeah. I can't imagine that to make a four course dinner every day and have snacks and shit. Absolutely. But you have rice in the rice cooker. Yeah. Yeah. Every day.

That was my responsibility. Yeah. Yeah. Every day. That was my responsibility. Yeah. So me and my brother was responsible for cooking the rice and laying the table setting. And if we fucked the rice up, my dad would be so mad because that would fuck the whole meal up. Right. Because it's either we put too much water, it becomes soggy or too little water, then it's not cooked and you can't really eat it. Yeah.

Because my dad would work from like eight to five and then go to the market, come home and cook like a four course meal. Yeah. Because my dad would work from like eight to five and then go to the market, come home and cook like a four course meal. Yeah. And he kind of wouldn't let my mom cook because he didn't think she was that good of a cook. Oh, right. So he kind of enjoyed cooking, but he would never let people know that. He'd probably be mad at me if he listens to this podcast. He's like, you can't tell people I love to cook.

Because to him, it's very emasculating. Yeah. He used to pull me aside while he's cooking. He's like, Jimmy, don't be doing what the fuck I do. Yeah. Okay. Cooking is supposed to be a woman's job. Okay. You don't do that when you grow up let your wife do that yeah and then he'll go back to cooking you know it's his secret yeah it's a bit of misogyny and yeah he's he's

cooks he cooks on the down low yeah he cooks on the down he's not out of closet when he's cooking i guess i'm outing him now but he's a great cook you know are you good well I can cook but I just don't I live by myself so if I cook like a thing of pasta

I have to eat it eight meals in a row yeah but I think it's interesting I think it's true about the you know about like just that

the freshness of it but where did you start getting the into the comedy bug it was comic view I remember it was Cedric DanAnstainer, Jay Anthony Brown,

Bruce Bruce, all those hosts. And then seeing all these five minute sets, ten minute sets, I didn't understand what they were talking about. Not just the subject matter,

but the way they talked. I could not understand anything. That was to me like the highest level of English. I felt like if I could understand that, I could understand anything. Comic view? Yeah. Look, if you can understand comic view, you understand America.

You have mastered the English language at that point. And it was just so intriguing to me because they were because comedy is so cultural, especially that kind of comedy. Because it was a lot of it was talking about white people do this, black people do that. One comic was talking about because you know how all black people got bad transmissions i was like they do

i didn't know that so you were learning the stereotype lesson i was learning the stereotype and i was learning about america how one american feels about thinks about the other americans and it was not just like a funny comedy thing it was like a cultural lesson to me and it was so intriguing do you think the like in because i guess the idea is like well obviously not all black people have bad transmission but of course you know but like i did you have to actually put that stuff into some sort of context like you would hear it and then you just walk through the world assuming like well there's a black person's gotta have a bad transmission or were you able to realize like well they're

they're stereotyping to make a point and make it funny I think I understand it's for the sake of comedy yeah but at the same time I was just so new and foreign

yeah that basic information yeah helped me you know at least get a footing yeah on what any of this means

yeah you know so it's like painting the broad strokes from my mind first right and then when you actually meet black people in real life when I go hang out with my black friend at Julian's house and his mom is making a certain type of food, how they behaved and stuff like that.

That was my detailed look into American families. When I go to my Persian friend's house and they're making a certain meal and they live a certain way, their furniture is a certain way. Sure. That's when I got the more detailed lines and really filled out the painting. So, okay, so you got the beats going through high school. It seems like there's a real kind of a premium put on education and success. Absolutely.

Like an inordinate amount of pressure. Yeah, it's all about following this path. Education leads to success, and there are certain jobs that are considered legit. And then here in America, it's pursuing your dream. An inordinate amount of pressure. Yeah. It's all about following this path. Education leads to success. And there are certain jobs that are considered legit. And then here in America, it's pursuing your dreams. That was one of the hard things too, like reconciling the two mindsets. So I grew up a certain way.

There's an expectation from my parents to do the traditional jobs. Right. In- What they want you to be. A general sense, obviously a doctor, lawyer, accountant, finance, but just anything that's legit, that's considered a job. And security. Exactly.

Yeah. Because there's a premium to that because my dad wished he would have went to college. He could have went to college during the communist revolution and had a regular job, but he wasn't. He didn't have that opportunity.

But he'd have to be a communist. Yeah, so he wanted me to do that you know they wanted the best for their kids so um is that one of the reasons they left absolutely yeah for opportunity because in hong kong yeah you can go to university but if you go to you graduate from hong kong university versus a kid that came back with a degree from ucla yeah they will hire the kid from UCLA. Oh. And also, it's just Hong Kong, the opportunities are slightly limited. You know, it's finance and mostly finance and real estate. Yeah. Other than that, it's not like I can just go pursue the arts in Hong Kong.

My dad always told me it's like, and he's not wrong because that's how he grew up. It's like, oh, you want to be an artist? That's how you become homeless. Right. Like artistry and homelessness is synonymous you know to him and to a lot of old school people sure a lot of brilliant artists on the street absolutely yeah because they didn't take care of themselves yeah because the value is obedience right on the path and doing what your family but it's interesting though because like

you know from even early on whether you knew it or not whether it was just self-expression i mean that's the other thing about being in la and being in america is that like you know you can make money uh-huh you know as an artist like you know they just don't they i guess it it happens in all cultures around entertainment though they just think it's a long shot and it might be but you can point to people you know jay-zZ made some money. Right, right, right. So, you know, it's possible, but it's like they seem to think that there's a guarantee if you do this other path. Absolutely. But in a way, there isn't.

My buddy's in medical school. He couldn't get placed in residency. 25% of people can't get placed. It's not that safe now because there's so many fucking doctors out there. Yeah. It's like being, okay, you might not make it as an actor yeah that okay that of course comes down to talent and a bit of luck also of course you drive and everything but there's so many things you could do in entertainment if you just work hard enough

yeah if it's a real job yeah i mean it is and then the smarter people like i i've said this before the um the smarter people like that i who were comics, when we all started out just stand-ups, the ones that were smart were the ones that realized, I'm never going to be one of the big guys. Right. But I'm good at this writing or the joke writing, and I'm good at that. Exactly. And they figure out how to make real life out of it, as opposed to putting it all in

one barrel and waiting to be the biggest stand-up in the world exactly yeah and i don't blame those people they are actually smart and more logical than me that's right no i i i'm saying i'm the same way career no i'll i'll tell people that like you know like they're like well what should i do as a young stand-up i'm like learn how to work with other people learn how to write yeah Figure out how to act. Do something. Because when I started, I'm like, I'm going to be a comic. That's all that's important. And then you're stuck.

Exactly. Even if you become a successful booker and you make $1,000 booking shows or something, a lot of failed comics end up running comedy clubs. That's a job. That's a job you still love and it's great. It's annoying when they give themselves the best spot. I don't have to name any names. yeah that's a job you still love and it's great it's annoying when they give themselves the best spot but you know yeah

we don't have to name any names no I get it yeah but yeah you just gotta ask them for a little

more money those guys they take it for granted that's the racket of that the produce show oh yeah

it's sort of like dude we just because they think like you know like you just want stage time right and I'm like who's making all

the money from selling this room out yeah oh I'm a professional comedian. You're going to have to give me more than the $25. If there's one day ever like stand-up comedians could unionize. They've tried. That would be the day.

They've tried. They have? Oh, yeah. Over the years. I don't remember when it was, but they tried to do a comedian's union within AFTRA at one point. Oh, wow. Yeah, there have been attempts. What is the bar, though?

Because there's no barrier of entry. Like SAG, you got to get three vouchers. You got to get tapped heart, you know, whatever. What is it? You got to do three open mics? No. You got to get passed at the store? Well, I think you'd have to, right.

No. Like, who are the union comics and the non-union comics? It would have to be dependent on, I would think, on some sort of income or pay or buy-in. Because now everyone just says they're a comic. Because when you were coming up, there's these mics all over. When I was younger, there were no mics. You had to go to the fucking club on their night. They had an open mic night.

But now there's fucking mics everywhere. Everywhere. And then anybody who does two mics a week can be like, I'm doing stand-up now. Are you, though? Yeah, exactly. I'm not as annoyed about it as i used to be because like who gives a fuck sure say you're a stand-up as long as you want yeah it's not too precious anymore it's like yeah i bet you know it used to bother my ruffle my you know old veteran feathers like you're not a real comic are you getting paid you're getting paid to work no can you do an hour no fucking quit

calling yourself a comic now i might do what you want man good luck good luck with everything yeah yeah so so you go to school for what economics you said economics man but you had no desire no compulsion i hated college in general but you were you still when you go to college were you still into the music was that still your thing i was still doing my thing that was the only thing that was keeping me sane yeah uh i would just lock myself in the room, not even go to class

and make beats. Yeah. And I'll start selling some beats and stuff like that. But I just couldn't, I would love to have been a producer, but at the same time,

that's also being locked in a studio in a way. Yeah. And I was kind of fearful of that. I just didn't know what I wanted to do like most college kids.

I think college, first of all, is the biggest fucking racket. Everybody graduating college with this debt. with this debt and also sort of like you you kind of waste the time because there's an idea about college like i'm gonna do whatever i want some people actually knew some people's parents beat it into their brains hard enough that they knew i'm here to work to get this thing done so i can do this other thing yeah but a lot of us are like we're gonna party and like think about stuff and experience some things.

I often wished I could go back to college as a grownup. I don't really want to. But then at least you could take some of this shit in. Absolutely. And process it and learn something. It's insane that we are telling kids by 18 years old, you have to choose a major. Yeah. The major that technically means this is what you're going to do for the rest of your life.

And none of it guarantees anything anymore. No, man. Yeah. So you're there. You're miserable. I was miserable. It took me five years to get an economics degree. And I just had odd jobs.

I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had an internship at Smith Barney, a pretty prestigious financial firm that my dad helped me with. And they offered me a job. They were like, whenever you graduate, we'd love to have you come back to work for us. Yeah. But I just remember working that internship. At first, it's kind of fun.

You're meeting new people. That's like every job. You can work at McDonald's the first month. It's going to be fun. Sure. And then it just slowly deteriorates. And then I just see my life flash in front of me. Yeah.

Like I'm 60 years old, you know, and i'm just sitting in front of my computer doing the same old shit and i just fucking hate myself yeah yeah like that was that gave me a fucking panic attack yeah so i didn't know what to do i had three jobs uh after i graduated i definitely didn't go back to smith barney i worked as a used car salesman you did yeah i worked at um the comedy palace in the evening after my used car salesman job. Comedy Palace. Yeah, this Greek restaurant turned comedy club at night in San Diego. In San Diego? Okay. Yeah.

So I'll do some sets there. I'll work the doors and stuff like that. So when did you just start to, what made you, when did you first go up? Like what was the, like how did that unfold? I think it was desperation. It was just, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wasn't getting laid and I wasn't making new friends. I was stuck playing video games with the same group of friends.

I love them, but it's like, I need to expand my horizon. I live my life, man. And so I tried different things. This was, I think, towards my senior year of college. I tried like jujitsu, boxing or whatever. I'm horrible at those things. And then I was just like, fuck it. Like, you know, so many times people have such a good story of how they started stand-up.

It's like, I saw Eddie Murphy Raw when I was six years old with my brother. And then when my brother died with a heart disease, he told me on his deathbed, he was like, I want you to be a stand-up to make us proud or some shit like that live your childhood i don't i don't have any of that my parents don't even know what the fuck stand-up comedy is you know for me it was a complete desperation it's for me googling local open mic it's one step away from me googling how the fuck to kill myself yeah you know i mean like that's the last straw man like to embarrass yourself to pay five dollars for five minutes to embarrass yourself that's you might5 for five minutes to embarrass yourself. You might as well just fucking kill yourself.

You weren't that depressed though, were you? I was that desperate. It was depression and I just felt like I hit a dead end. I was like, I'm fucking like 21 years old. Like what the fuck? I hate my life. And everybody's telling you college is the best four years of your life. And I'm like, no.

This is miserable. So where did you do it? Did you write an act down or how did you handle it? So it was the Ha Ha Comedy Club. Oh, so it was Ha Ha. You came up here. It was in the summer. Oh, so you were working up here in the summer and you were like, this is it.

It was in the summer. I was just really lost because I was about to go back to the last semester of college. And I was like, fuck, what am I going to do? So this was when I tried all the things and then i went to haha comedy club um did you write an act i did uh it was really hacky stuff yeah you know about jerking off and shit like that yeah i think one of my bits was like my closer yeah was uh uh i was jerking off on my computer but then i always have the tv on on ESPN Sports Center on repeat. Yeah.

So like by accident, sometimes they show a top 10 highlight and I'm jerking off and I turn around, it's Michael Vick, so I just came in Michael Vick's face or something, like something so stupid and hacky

that every open mic-er would do. Right. And then I just remember, like after that, I felt good. It was just like a sense of community. Yeah, yeah. You know,

I didn't feel good about the joke. Right. But it was just a sense of community yeah yeah you know I didn't feel good about the joke but it was just a sense of community because you got off and all the other miserable comics were there

we're like hang out like I found a group of misfits like these friends that I'm fitting in and I remember this dude like he gave me a tag

like he was like yeah you know that jerk off joke is good what if you just say like now every time I see Michael Vick I just come a little bit

I was like oh shit like this guy's treating this like an art form you know I was just talking about every time I see Michael Vick I just come a little bit I was like oh shit like this guy's treating this like an art form you know I was just talking about jerking off to Michael Vick and I just remember there's just sense

of community cause yeah sure for my all my adult life my young adult life at that point was me trying to fit in

yeah me living like my my MO was I was the immigrant I didn't fit in i was the outsider but stand up it's like this is where all the weirdos that's exactly right and it didn't matter of your black white asian fat you know short uh whatever gender you are creepy creepy the weirder

you are the better off you are in stand-up yeah and i just i felt like i really found my creed there and that that was what really spoke to me it was the high on stage that felt good yeah you know getting some attention that felt good but that wasn't it it was the camaraderie of hanging out afterwards is like oh shit yeah i found a way out yeah this is a new group of friends and these friends got other friends yeah that and we're doing something yeah and now i can expand my horizon i'm not just playing madden you know with my high school friends. Yeah.

Right. You know? That's great. So I worked used car salesman like nine to five, go to Comedy Palace at seven. Were you good at it? I was very good. Yeah. I was a very good salesman because I look trustworthy.

Yeah. I'm not saying I'm not, but I look like an innocent kid that wouldn't scam you out of a car. Right. So I never learned sales techniques, but I was just honest with people. Yeah. And they trusted me. I was just honest with people and they trusted me I was very good

at that job and then I did the comedy palace and then at night I was a DJ at a strip club yeah that was always

with your beats or just no just doing strip but that was always like my dream growing up hip hop

you did it you lived it I lived it man so you were the guy putting on like what songs those horrible like rock songs if you oh uh girls girls girls sure there was a rule in that club uh where every five songs every three stripper rotation i have to do a showcase yeah and the showcase has to be a company

with girls girls girls yeah all the strippers will have to go on stage and I would force each customers to go get a lap dance. Oh, you would force them? Like on the mic? High pressure sales. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But like on the mic in the back?

How would you do it? Yeah. I was like, all right, ladies and gentlemen, ready for your showcase. You got the sexy Jay coming to stage. Milan, saucy. You guys had your eyes on these ladies. Don't be shy with your wallet and don't be shy gentlemen

two for one lap dances coming up right now get two lap dances with your favorite girl or get two girls for one lap dance VIP going on

right now two for one lap dances don't be shy I want everybody in the VIP two for one lap dances in the next ten minutes something like that

yeah and then you put on girls girls girls and then I would do that. I'd yell that over Girls, Girls, Girls. Oh, yeah. So it was a mixture

of salesmanship that I learned from the car lot and the stand-up comedy microphone skills that I learned at the comedy club. So you're in the strip club.

Now, like, how was that for you? Did you... It was, I think, every stupid 22-year-old's dream that watched too much hip-hop videos. Yeah.

It's like, dude, oh, my God, I'm going to bang all these strippers that watched too much hip hop. Yeah. It's like, dude, Oh my God, I want to bang all these strippers. Like this is going to be fucking awesome. This is gangster as fuck. That's a real gift. Yeah.

That's the funniest thing about that whole thing. It's like, Hey man, I did it. Yeah. I'm dating a stripper. Oh, great.

I think everybody had a dream of dating a stripper. And then you're like, Oh, I ain't a minute. You know, they're just people with problems. I actually, I never had sex with one of the strippers. No?

Because I was scared, honestly. I was like this kind of innocent kid going in, wanting to work at this strip club. But then I realized everybody that the owner, his name was Shooter. Yeah. And this dude's name was Beast. Everybody had nicknames from prison. Yeah. Because they'd been in the prison many times

and then no choice but to work at a strip club. Right. They wish they can just go work at a Subway. Yeah. You know, but they can't. Yeah. And here I am wanting to work at a strip club and all these strippers are fucked up.

Yeah. It wasn't like a glamorous like cheetah strip club. So was that, well, yeah, but I mean, they're all, I mean, it's different degrees of what it is. I mean, did it diminish a little bit of your sense of the reward of America? Yes.

It made me, it's a more realistic view of what it is. That's the first time when I realized, oh, these music videos are just music videos. People don't actually live like this in a happy way. I can't just go become a gangster. I wasn't born in the hood. You know what I mean? So that was just all me emulating, and it was kind of sobering.

I was like, yo, I got to find myself and be real with myself. I can't just emulate people and do these lives that's not me. How long did you work there? I think I worked there for a good three three four months and it got too gangster like like got scared it was fucked up um i thought it was still cool i remember christmas day i worked at the club christmas day yeah and it was so sad we closed down early and these two college kids were like yelling outside

like cussing us i was like yeah on on the internet it says that you guys open till two like what the fuck dude we want to see some titties or something yeah and then i just remember the bouncers went outside and started like beating them yeah like just like fucking them up right merry christmas and then i just i just stared into this picture i was like wait a minute like i'm i'm one of these college kids yeah but i'm on the other side of the fucking gangsters and shit. Yeah. And I'm like, dude, I can't do this. You don't want to live in that world. Yeah, and the owner actually really liked me.

Yeah. He was like a biker gang gangster guy. But you got frightened for your own corruption in a way. Like, where do you cross over? That and also getting sucked in too deep to the point of no return. Right, right. this was the last bit Where like I can make a choice Do I get out of this

Or do I keep doing this Right The owner He came to me He was like Yo I just came to some money And I want to open up a new club And want you to run it

So that sounds very appealing To a 22 year old kid That watched too much hip hop Yeah But Like luckily I had a mentor My buddy Sean Kelly Who was a comic in San Diego

Like an old school dude And he's really smart Business smart He was like Jimmy This is not funny Like I was telling these stories To like my buddies At the comedy club

Like bragging You know how people In the bag in the comedy Sounds like Yo I just banged this chick And then I almost got beat up By a boyfriend Like it's funny

Yeah But then like Sean I was telling Sean About this Christmas strip club story He's like Jimmy This is not fucking funny, dude. You need to get the fuck out. You're funny, dude.

Like, go to L.A., you know, and try to get an agent and do your thing, man. Like, you need to get the fuck out of here before it's too late. Yeah. So I'm glad I had him to really sober me up and, like, tell me, like, get the fuck out of here. Oh, man. That's a real crossroads. Yeah, man. Yeah.

So then you did. You come up here and you just started came up here i had nothing i had like two thousand dollars in my bank account that i you know saved up from the strip club and yeah car lot yeah i didn't want to live with my parents because they don't understand what stand-up is they're right they're very disappointed me at that point uh because i didn't do what they wanted i graduated a college degree and i i'm meandering so i rented this dude's apartment for like 300 bucks on craigslist uh his living room yeah i was just grinding it out i was trying to do 50 gigs in passive robles you know for some stand-up and uh whatever i can get just to scrape by so i can live another day to maybe find an agent yeah find an audition

yeah and everybody was telling me oh i did this one commercial and it paid me 60 grand for one day work so i was just trying to do that i never thought to be an actor at all i was just trying to scrape by so i can keep doing comedy and figure myself out yeah my goal was um to develop a college act and i can make two grand a night doing college shows. Yeah. That was my fucking dream, you know, to find a college agent. Did you do it? I did it eventually,

but oh my God, I did those NACA conferences. the worst. It was, I remember just sitting in a hotel room in like Minneapolis after I bombed. Yeah.

I paid my, I was broke, but I paid to fly out to Minneapolis. Yeah. I paid to do the showcase fees and all that. All your pictures. Everything. And nobody wanted to fuck with me. Yeah. And I booked like maybe one or two colleges but I paid to fly out to Minneapolis I paid to do the showcase fees and all that all your pictures and everything and nobody wanted

to fuck with me yeah and I booked like maybe one or two colleges that was like 1500 bucks yeah and I have to commission

and whatever what a racket oh my god yeah and that was that and I thought about quitting stand up in that hotel room

in Minneapolis I'm like okay either I just completely in a way sell out and just do a shit hacky college act for these college kids or i just i i can't like i how am i gonna make money doing that that was another point

of that where your uh your idea got shattered where you know like is it like do i sell my soul yeah the gangsters or to the college kids or do i figure something else out exactly yeah like at that point i i would rather go back to the strip club than do I figure something else out? Exactly. At that point, I would rather go back to the strip club than do a fucking college act. Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. Because I just,

you hear other friends, you're like, oh my God, he just booked 100 colleges and now he's fucking rich. I'm like, I'm funnier than that motherfucker. You know,

like what the fuck? No, it's not what you want to be doing. Yeah. Yeah. So how did it end up happening? What stepped in to make you stay in it? I don't know.

I was still just meandering. It was to a point that I was- But you're doing standup, right? Two, three times a week or what? I was, but it was hard in LA. I was nobody. Nobody was giving me stage time. I was back at the fucking ha-ha.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And I would just get far and in between. If I get a 20 minute set for 50 bucks in fucking wine country in Santa Barbara, I was happy as hell. Yeah. But now this college thing was a bust. I really didn't see a way to make it. Yeah.

And then eventually this agent took a chance on me. Really, really small one-woman agency in Manhattan Beach. Really? And then she just started sending me on auditions. Yeah. agency yeah and like manhattan beach really and then she just started sending me on auditions yeah like you know game show host random non-union bullshit right but then far and in between like maybe once every two months i'll get a good one like a two-line part on like modern family or something actually one of the favorite part of my of the book is i have a hundred and one uh auditions audition log yeah before the Silicon Valley audition. Yeah.

And it's all these shit auditions. Like, you know. Did you really keep a log? I did keep a log. Yeah. Because it was so important to me. I know if I just landed one of these,

two lines on Modern Family or whatever the fuck, that would change everything. Yeah. To me, like getting in SAG and getting one of those two line parts, it would change anything.

Yeah. Everything. But I was so bad at auditions. I never, I took an acting class in college I didn't know how to act so I'd spend all the money I had to

you know on acting classes audition classes which is a fucking different sport right like even auditions it's completely different it's the worst

and finally I found my footing I don't think anybody likes it I tolerate it yeah and I wasn't but I wasn't cut out for it I mean for years

I mean I didn't I didn't even have an agent like that. Because I just can't. I'm not the guy. You know what I mean? You walk into those things. I'm like, I'm not the guy they want. Look at this shit. I think it falls to you.

Eventually, the universe kind of answers. Yeah, if you keep at it. It's not like I can pick and choose. Like, okay, I would love to be an actor. Or I would love to just be that comedy store guy that eventually gets on Comedy Central and stuff like that. Comedy store never fucked with me. I was never passed or whatever

you know but this agent fucked with me so that was like that led me to my answer eventually and yeah man. So you did some other TV parts before Silicon Valley? Oh yeah just a lot of small parts here and there my first job was Two Broke Girls. Uh-huh.

Just two lines. Yeah. And that gave me my SAG card and then that led to, you know, some bigger things like a guest star on Always Sunny,

some commercials that never air. So I never made money but I was like, oh shit, I'm seeing, the most important thing I think being an artist

is seeing that upward mobility. Yeah. Or with any job. Yeah. You might only be making 50 bucks at, say, you know, upward mobility. Yeah. Or with any job. Yeah. You might only be making 50 bucks at, say, you know, Santa Barbara. Yeah. But last week,

you were making nothing. So that was huge. Yeah, right. And then the next day, maybe you're making 200 bucks on a non-union commercial. That's huge to me. Oh, yeah.

It's just a step up. I remember, like, when having, like, two grand in your bank account, you're like, fuck yeah. Yeah, I'm fucking rich, dude. I'm good. I can get through

the next month's rent, whatever, you know's all about counting okay this two bro girls job i got paid on a weekly rate two grand yeah oh shit that's three months of rent like four months of rent like yes that's that's how you think like okay that that's that's always how you think as a comic it's like you know i got enough to pay for this but you don't want to fuck with the money you can't you still know treat yourself money. You still can't treat yourself. Yeah. Because I might not get anything. It's all about how many months of rent you got in your bank account.

Exactly. How many months you can stay afloat. And if you got six months lead weight, that is huge. Great. That is great. You're like, oh, in six months, I can come up with some money. Yeah, yeah. Or in six months, I can figure something out.

Right. Right? And maybe that was, if I bust out in six months I bust out Move home with my parents Yeah And go do finance Yeah

You know So how did Silicon Valley happen It was one of those Auditioning parts Oh yeah It was a very small role I auditioned for it Actually I auditioned for it twice

The first time I auditioned for it Was it for the first season Or second season First season It was first season Yeah I auditioned for it For the first time When I wased for it. Was it for the first season or second season? First season. It was first season? Yeah. I auditioned for it for the first time

when it was the pilot and it was one of the main characters and I didn't get it, never heard back and then I auditioned a second time. It was only a two,

three line part and I got it. Didn't think much of it. It's just another guest star like two more girls. Yeah. 20, you know, 900 bucks a day

in a single camera shoot and I did it. They liked me. They brought me back for another episode and me and TJ had a scene and that was like, we really felt

some kind of chemistry there. Yeah. Just something very Lauren Hardy about this duel. And then, we did one more episode. I didn't think much of it.

You know, I was just happy. Yeah. That was my first recurring gig, which again, only pay me 900 bucks times three, $2,700.

Yeah. But it wasn't about that. It was about the upward mobility. I was one off guest star to now a recurring guest star. I can put that shit on my resume. But we didn't know if the show was going to be a hit and I definitely didn't think I was going to come back for a second season or anything. Yeah. So I actually used that $2,700 to buy a 2006 Prius for a down payment so I can drive Uber to stay afloat.

Because now you can just stay afloat. If you can drive Uber, it's like teaching a man to fish, teaching a man to drive Uber, you can just fucking live in LA now. Yeah, yeah. You know, so, and then eventually,

it is a crazy story that happened between season one and season two. I was still auditioning, right? And I auditioned. I got this other part as a series regular on a Yahoo series. Yahoo was trying to do the whole streaming thing. Sure, yeah.

And a series regular, that was fucking huge, right? Of course. And that would be life-changing. Yeah. But they said, if you do this, you can't do Silicon Valley or HBO show

because they're competitors in streaming. And HBO might not have let me. So I have to pick one or the other. Yeah. And I was like, holy shit. Like, they gave us the deadline. Like, literally, it's like a fucking, like, movie. It's like, you got until 12 p.m. to call us back.

Yeah. Or else the deal's off the table. Yeah. And then, of course, I was like, holy shit. I think it was like $7,500 an episode for 10 episodes. $75,000 for a comic. Yeah. And then, of course, I was like, holy shit. I think it was like $7,500 an episode for 10 episodes. $75,000 for a comic that just driving Uber to stay afloat, living in a one bedroom apartment with three fucking roommates. Yeah. That was a huge fucking deal.

But I'm like, dude, what if Silicon Valley comes back? I need to do Silicon Valley. That show. I think at that point, maybe we've gotten nominated for an Emmy. Yeah. And also HBO's prestigious. Absolutely. Yahoo's Yahoo.

So my agent at the time, yeah. I'm like, who the fuck? Who has a Yahoo streaming app on their Apple TV, right? Yeah. So at that point, I think- Is it even around anymore? That was their one and only season of any shows. They did two shows and that was one of it.

Seems like you did the right thing. Yeah. What did your agent say? She was like, well, I don't know. And then I then i was like well i think i really want to do silicon valley you know let's see if we can play hardball and she was like you know what let me call silicon valley see if they'll match the series regular offer and i was like no you're fucking crazy you're stupid my judge is gonna think i'm a fucking asshole they're never gonna call me back again are you serious i had like five words in the first season and then i guess they liked me enough they matched the offer uh

you know of making me a serious regular and then i just remembered i was this was 11 a.m i was at the grove i didn't know what to do with myself i was drinking a beer at the farmer's market yeah 11 a.m was just a bunch of other fucking alcoholics yeah and i was so fucking stressed out waiting for my agent to call me back i was in my sweats and on on the grove trolley you know they have this decorative trolley on the trolley and then i just remember i got the phone call my agent's like silicon valley is going to make you a series regular and i just started like weepingeping on the fucking trolley. I was like, fuck yeah.

Like just that was, I know that moment was going to change my life. And you know, it did. That was the breaking point. So you're half drunk and crying on the trolley at the Grove? At 1130 AM. Yeah. It was incredible. I still remember that.

That's an uplifting moment. Yeah. And, and, you know, it comes with a bit of you know, right place, right time, right? I guess. There was also some pretty good agenting on her part. For sure, for sure. And I will always thank her

in the book. I'm not with her now. She's a bit smaller. But I will always thank her. She did that for me. And she was the first one that believed in me when nobody did. Like, I remember I went to, like, a fucking, like, apartment rental office to audition for an agent. And I read a Staples commercial. Yeah.

And I got rejected. You know, and then this lady took a chance on me. And, yeah. What's your name? She got me to Jane Shulman. She's with Vesta Talent Agency. I think she's still around. And I gave her a shout out on the book. You know what I mean? And yeah, and then she got me to Jane Shulman. She's with Vesta Talent Agency. I think she's still around.

And I gave her a shout out on the book. You know what I mean? Like, you know, I always give people credits too. And all the casting directors that helped me out along the way. Sure. You know, like Wendy O'Brien. She was the one that cast me for Always Sunny and actually the Yahoo show. That eventually led to my series Regular Roll. I gave her a shout out.

And then the assholes. Like the guy, the fucking guy on Modern I gave her a shout out. And then the assholes, like the guy, the fucking guy on Modern Family, that cast Modern Family, Jeff Greenberg or something. That guy's a fucking dick. Like, I don't,

I don't, I'm not trying to start beef with anyone, but like, literally, like I was, I was just, it was one of my first auditions and I was in Modern Family,

nervous as shit, you know, reading two lines. Yeah. And then he gave me a note and I was like, oh, so you mean I'm actually genuine? I'm not lying to her? You know, I was just trying to gave me a note and i was like oh so you mean

i'm actually genuine i'm not lying to her you know i was just trying to get my foot in he's like jesus christ just tell me just do what i tell you just like yeah i was just like innocent young actor like how could it shook my confidence man you know but like how could you do that how could be so mean to some guy i just never done nothing to you so fuck him fuck him now i guess i don't ever plan on being a modern family fuck him yeah good i'm happy to like yeah it's weird the ones you carry with you isn't it yeah and and it's good i i actually don't deep down i don't care yeah you know uh but when you think about that moment you're like oh fuck that i don't fucking need yeah it just it feels good almost to sell someone to have somebody in your mind to tell the fuck off. Absolutely.

Yeah. So you and TJ had a thing, you know, and it really paid off. Were you upset when he left? I was sad. Yeah. I was very sad. Did you see it coming? Was he sort of like coming unhinged somehow?

I didn't see it coming myself. He's like my best friend on the show. He's my buddy. Every scene of me was with him. And honestly, without TJ, I don't know if I would have made it. Yeah. You know, my character would have made it. I's my buddy. Every scene of me was with him. And honestly, without TJ, I don't know if I would have made it. You know, my character would have made it.

I don't know, you know, where it is now. And we're just such a chemistry. We trusted each other and it was just great. It was just some kind of magic happened

between like season two, season three. And then he just called me in the middle of the night. He was like, I'm not coming back. You know, and I tried to convince him

to come back. But his mind was made up. You know, he wanted to go be a movie night. He was like, I'm not coming back. You know? And I tried to convince him to come back. But his mind was made up. You know? He wanted to go be a movie star. He wanted to move to New York with his wife. Yeah. You know?

And yeah, I was sad. And also scared in a way. Yeah. Because I didn't know where my character was going to go without TJ. But I think it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for my character, selfishly. Yeah. I would love to still be working with TJ but it just became a thing where my character could get to fly a little more

and kind of have its own plot line, be a, you know, have its own opinions and kind of, you know, mess with the other characters.

Yeah. You turned out to be great this past season. So you can do like a dynamic, you can evolve a dynamic with all the other guys. Exactly. Instead of just a me and TJ relationship.

Which I would have been happy to do for the next 15 years. Yeah, yeah. You know. It was fun. It was very fun. I just know I was going to go on set and have fun and we'll throw ideas out. Yeah. It might not work, but it will be.

I think that's the best part about the show is we throw ideas out and they'll throw outlines out. And it's a very collaborative environment. Everybody's so good. That's great. And that was my first show. And I'm so spoiled. Now I'm doing movies and other shows. Is it over or is they doing more Silicon Valley?

There's more. There's more. We'll come back. we'll come back. I don't know exactly when because I think Alec and Mike is busy running, you know, Barry and Mike's other show, Tales on the Tour Bus,

which is a very good show. But it'll come back. We're taking a little longer hiatus, but it should come back. And you just did the, what's that big movie? Oh, Crazy Rich Asians. Crazy Rich Asians.

Is that going to be funny? That's going to be great. Yeah? I'm not just saying that. There's movies I've done where I'm like, you don't need to go fucking see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's going to be great. Yeah? I'm not just saying that. There's movies I've done where I'm like, you don't need to go fucking see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's going to be great. Oh, real quick, HBO told me that I have to, right? I have to say. Oh, I'll take care of it. Okay, you got it. Okay. The DVDs of the first three seasons, is that what it is? Yeah, or first five now.

First five. I think the fifth season is coming out on DVD in September. Okay. Crazy Rich Asians, I mean, that is something I'm extremely, extremely excited about. I've heard a little bit about it. What is it about? It's based on three books. The first book is called Crazy Rich Asians.

It's a best-selling novel about kind of like a satire about these billionaire Singaporeans but have ridiculous problems. And it's a really heartfelt story about this girl in New York meeting this guy, didn't know he was actually a billionaire, going back to their family for a wedding and then realizing she's not accepted by the family. So the themes are very universal. Family, acceptance, classism, things like that. Yeah. But it's the first studio movie in 25 years that's with a full Asian cast.

Oh. Since Joy Luck Club. It's like historic. Historic. So at first when I read the script, I script i'm like okay this is something i have to do like i would love to do it i would love to be part uh every it's such an ensemble cast i think it's a very fun part yeah i play like a really insane asshole okay which i love yeah it's in a way like the kings of comedy but the kings of in general of a you have like beautiful model looking asians like the really talented asians from everywhere great actors

funny asians and it's the first time that i felt i'm not kind of judged by because here's the thing sadly when you do silicon valley whatever you're usually the only Asian person there. Yeah. And Asians are underrepresented in, you know, mostly in most media. So you get judged. Like, are you being a good representation of Asian or bad representation of Asian? Yeah. But I just want to be judged for my performance. Like, am I funny? Am I not funny?

Yeah. Like, when you go do your show, you don't get judged by like, oh, Mark Maron's a good white man or a bad white man. Yeah. It's just either Mark Maron's a good actor or a bad actor. Yeah. I want that. Right.

Right. I don't want to have to worry about being that, but I get where that's coming from. Right. Because each of us carry so much weight when we are on screen because we're one of the few. So now it's just all of you. This is all of us. I could just be as crazy, as funny, as ridiculous as I want.

And it just felt so fucking good, man. Yeah. And we shot in Malaysia and Singapore and everybody was on the same page, dude. That was like me finding my creed again in the acting community. Yeah. Everybody had parents that didn't wish they were actors. Everybody down to eat food in a way that I don't have to convince. It's like, Mark, if I come to you, I'm like, hey, Mark, let's go get some Chinese food.

I have to kind of convince you. I'm like, this place is cool. You're going to like it. It's not going to be some weird shit. You can handle it. Yeah. But no, over there, we all just down to like try the, you know, whatever authentic stuff and all that.

Yeah. And you got, you know, the best Asian people from Australian Asians, American Asians, Singaporean Asians and we all in the lobby of this hotel in fucking Singapore. Yeah. It was incredible.

Yeah. Because I don't know about you but every show I've done, every movie I've done, even Silicon Valley, I've been there for five years, I have two people that I'm actually close with

that I hang out with. Mike Judge, TJ, that we actually talk, we hang out. Everybody else, very nice, friendly. We're acquaintances. We work together.

We're colleagues. Right. But on this Crazy Rich Asians, we're like family. Yeah. Like I'm going to the director's wedding next week. Oh, wow. You know, and every time somebody come from England and they're in the movie, we hang out.

Yeah. You crash my house. I crash your house. We're just family, man. That's great. They're just such an understanding. That's exciting. I'm excited for the movie.

Open soon, right? August 15th. And it's actually just a excited for the movie open soon right August 15th and it's actually just a fun nice movie yeah it sounds great I love Ken

yeah he's so funny he's funny and you don't have to be Asian to watch it man it's just so fucking fun and it just it just feels warm and fuzzy

I think for everyone it makes you cry it makes you laugh so I think it's gonna be great oh that's that's great to hear it sounds like a great experience and you're working with Steve Byrne on that thing.

Yeah. You just finished that. The opening act. How'd that come out, you think? How'd that feel? We just wrapped yesterday, actually. I'm completely exhausted. It's his story, right?

It's his story, a very detailed look into stand-up comedy. It's a movie, and it's some great, great comics. You know, Cedric the Entertainer, Alex Moffat from SNL, Russell Peters, Brett Ernst was there yesterday, Ken Jeong's in it. I mean, just every,

the who's who. That's great. Yeah. Well, I'm glad, you know, because he did the TV show. He keeps plugging away, Steve. Oh, yeah. And you like the script? I like the script. It was very heartfelt, very honest. As a stand-up, I think glad, you know, because he did the TV show. He keeps plugging away, Steve. Oh, yeah. And you like the script?

I like the script. It was very heartfelt, very honest. As a stand-up, I think it will make you feel some kind of way. And also, it gives a normal audience a really in-depth look. It's called the opening act. So, the movie takes place throughout the whole weekend of this guy, me, my first weekend at a comedy club at an improv. Just trying Tribulation, trying to impress the headliner. Should I go out drinking or not?

Should I quit my job back home? Stuff like that. And it's in depth. The whole movie, it's just this one weekend from Thursday to Sunday. Oh, okay. And I think it turned out great. It's my first time playing a lead, so I was really fucking stoked for it.

But it's an indie, so it was exhausting. 19 days, 12 hour days. I was in every fucking scene. Yep. And I mean, I'm completely spent, but it's something I think we can all be proud of.

Oh, great. And hopefully looking back, we'll all be happy about. Great, man. And the book is out, How to American. And it's great. You got a lot going on. It's great talking to you. It was real fun. back we'll all be happy about you know great man and the book is out how to american and you got it's great you got a lot going on it's great talking to you it's real fun thank you mark thanks buddy appreciate it that was jimmy o yang funny guy quirky guy smart guy uh very engaging i

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