WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 945 - Jo Koy

Episode Date: August 26, 2018

Jo Koy is one of the biggest headlining comedians in the world and it might not have turned out that way if he hadn't become a vigorous self-promoter. Jo tells Marc how moving around a lot as part of a military family and dealing with his brother's severe mental illness  made him realize that if he was going to do something big, he had to do it himself. Jo and Marc also talk about holding down other jobs while doing comedy, the hazards of burning through material, and why people mistakenly think being a stand-up is easy. This episode is sponsored by The Jim Jefferies Show Podcast, ZipRecruiter, and Starbucks Doubleshot. 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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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 a cast creative all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucksters what's happening uh mark maron this is my podcast wtf

i'm a little punchy i'm a little tired i was up late last night i'm actually recording this a couple days shy of when it's supposed to to go out so again if anything dramatic or awful oh okay why don't i just rephrase that so all the shit that's dramatic and awful that's going to happen in the next couple of days i might not have a reaction to it i don't necessarily always have a reaction to it publicly anyways but but if it's uh if it gets real bad just know that this might be happening in a two-day vacuum all right that's all i'm saying like if i should be here saying like oh god this is it we all knew this day would come. I don't even know if we can get this up. I don't even know if the grid is working anymore.

I don't even know. Oh God, I knew this would happen. Oh God, I gotta go. I gotta go. They're here. They're here. Oh my God. I'm gonna go in the attic.

If that happens, I might've missed it. But let's hope it doesn't get that bad. Anyway, Joe Coy is on the show today. Joe Coy is a comic. He's been around for a bit of time. I've known of him. I knew he was out there. I knew he was big.

I didn't know him. I don't even think I had met him really. Maybe once. We discuss it. But I ran into him in montreal and i'm like all right i'd like to talk to you i'd like to know your story so joe coy is here joe coy is a big act he's a big act he's currently on his break the mold world tour through the end of the year and uh he puts it out there folks yeah. Yeah, he's a worker.

So I was in Chicago all week. I talked to you when I was there, but I just left there. Last night I shot until 2.30 in the morning. As you know, we're shooting, I think it is the final episode of Joe Swanberg's Easy, and it was my third time doing the show as the same character we take uh jacob malco a comic book artist graphic novelist and uh put him through the mill again i grew my beard out for it me and uh jane adams is there and melanie linsky came out literally flew out

for one scene to chicago and it was a lot there was a lot hanging in the balance of that scene. And this is all improv, and I love Melanie Linsky, and I love Jane Addams. I'm working with two of the best actresses around, and I'm nervous, but we're improvising in these characters and moving through the emotions. And it was pretty good. It was pretty harrowing. Jacob goes down a bit this season. But it was exciting. But nonetheless, shot till 2.30, got back to the hotel at 3, had to get a car at 6.45.

So got about two and a half hours, threw all my shit into a bag. And here I am. So look, buying tickets to shows you you're you're smart people but go to the site of the show do that before you just google mark maron tickets wherever you know because you're going to get those scalper sites then all of a sudden i get tweets and emails from people going like why does it cost900 to get tickets to your show? Oh, because you didn't go to the site of the venue or the site of the festival or the appropriate site for the show that you're speaking of. You went right to a scalper and there's tickets left. So just be aware, man. Anyway, the thing I wanted to clear up on the Shooter Jennings episode. Okay, I get it.

I said John Glenn instead of Scott Glenn. Scott Glenn was the guy in Urban Cowboy with the tequila and the worm in his teeth. John Glenn was an astronaut. Oddly, Scott Glenn was in the right stuff with Ed Harris playing John Glenn. But you know what? Let's not play these games. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. It doesn't mean anything. It's just a fucking fucking coincidence you can connect the dots to almost anything right

so John Glenn played by Ed Harris was in the right stuff with Scott Glenn which was about the space race which involved the Russians and Jeff Goldblum who is a Jew and still is a Jew, but he was working for the government and the Russians got a rocket up first. And that's why they didn't have anything to do with election tampering. See how easy it is to do that? See, that's their currency. That's how it works. There might be one doofus right-wing guy out there going, that that makes sense i gotta watch that movie again because you know make america great again right so anyways cleared that up it was an old man's mistake and i did it twice apparently uh what is the other thing i want to clear up oh yes i wanted to read this email because this seems a relatively a learning moment for all of us, from the Tanya Donnelly episode. I received an email, midwife versus doula.

So glad you explored Tanya's doula adventure. Just want to make a friendly addition to your birth movement data bank. Thank you. Because oddly, that one is not filled up. Mark asked if the doula thing was new and then stated that maybe doula is now what a midwife used to be. Just as a clarification, midwives are still around. I happen to be one.

Midwives are the actual health care providers who catch the baby. Doulas are birth assistants who support women during labor, birth, and postpartum, but they are not healthcare providers and they do not catch babies. Again, thanks for taking the time to explore this with her. We birth workers always love to hear our work being discussed. Kate in San Antonio, thank you, Kate, for that clarification and thank you for catching those babies out there.

Gotta be out there. Someone's gotta be out there catching the babies. Okay, so Lou Malnati. Lou Malnati's pizza. I do this every time I fucking go to Chicago. I got no regrets about it. And here's the interesting thing. Now, you guys have been with me a long time.

You've heard me talk to a lot of people. And a lot of times we get along great. And that's it. That's the only time I talk to those people. I'm not spending time with them occasionally i run into them and i don't even know if they necessarily remember we talked or if it had any impact whatsoever usually it does but i think you can also notice when i really get along with somebody out of nowhere and you might assume that we've met before but we haven't good

examples of this i think would be josh brolin recently, David Harbour, and Tracy Letts. These are all people whose work I enjoy. But what are you going to do? I don't even have Josh Brolin's email address. I don't have his phone number. I got nothing. I felt like, hey, we could be friends. But then I really thought it through.

I mean, can we? What, am I going to go out to the ranch and hang around? I don't know. Maybe we could. I mean, we got along good, but I wouldn't take the first step there to hang out. And also, as you get older, it gets harder, man. It's weird to make friends. And I've only got maybe, how many do I have left?

I got a few friends, but I haven't rotated them out. And some of them I don't talk to very often. Some of them out and some of them i don't talk to very often some of them are mad at me because i don't talk to them and it's just you get busy and you just you got those two or three friends man you better keep water in that garden but anyway i'm in chicago and tracy letts lives in chicago i'm a big fan of tracy let's genius playwright great actor just uh i don't know man i i if you listen to it we got along so i i figure what the fuck i'll text him i'll tell him i'm in town he texted me he said yeah let's do it so we we went me and uh tracy let's went to lou malnati's and um had a deep dish though he he initially was not, you know, I said, do you eat the pizza?

He goes, no, I don't. I live here. That's tourist stuff, that deep dish. But I want you to have a good time. And I'm like, you don't eat it? You never eat it? Not even once a year? Twice a year you don't eat it?

It's all this tourist stuff. It's like, but it's fucking Lou Malnati's. It's like the butter crust. I mean, come on. I mean, you know, other people have other opinions, but you're not even telling me that you have another opinion about another place. You're just like, you know, writing the whole thing off as some sort of ride at the Chicago amusement park. But we go, man. We went and we had it, had the Lou Malnati salad and then the deep dish classic with sausage and cheese for two people

and constant refills of uh diet coke and iced tea and we talked for like two hours a couple hours and change had a great time and it was fucking amazing pizza he enjoyed the pizza i don't know if he'll go back again but what was interesting is we're sitting there and i got recognized like two or three times like right off the bat like maybe maybe even four or five times. And I'm not look, I'm not bragging, but it was sort of interesting because he get recognized like once or twice sitting at the table. Then one guy came up and recognized him. And that was the third time. And then the guy looked at me and goes like, oh, shit, you're that guy from the other thing. And that was it was exciting but i started i feel bad because

i thought that my count was higher so so i told them maybe we should just hang out till it evens out and then go and uh we had a laugh i guess why i'm telling you this is because sometimes i do become friends with the people i talk to most of of the time, it's just a good talk. That's all I'm saying. I had a good time in Chicago. Thank you for asking. Joe Coy, like I said, I met him in Montreal. It was interesting, this interview, because I saw him in Montreal.

He got an award for the best comedian of the year, I think. He got choked up about it, about his past, about working with Tiffany Haddish at the Laugh Factory, starting out and stuff. And he was very emotional. Everyone got a little emotional. I got a little emotional, but that happens. But everyone was a little emotional in accepting their awards or giving awards.

It was sort of an emotional night for some reason. He got emotional, Joe Coy did. And then we do this interview and he's talking about his brother and it's a very difficult story but he went through with his older brother it's difficult and it's it's a bit harrowing and sad and while we were talking you know i i noticed he was sort of like flat-toned about it you know it felt like i've been talking to people a long time in here and i thought you know maybe maybe like there was sort of like it wasn't that the emotion wasn't

connected to him talking about his brother which was a sad and tragic bit of business and i didn't i didn't say anything like you know what are you a sociopath what's happening but it did i did notice it and i didn't say anything after either but he told me it's like he said like that stuff about my brother's heavy. I know it's heavy. And I usually get really emotional about it. But today I was just sort of like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to get emotional about it.

And I'm like, I noticed that. And of all the shows you're not going to get emotional about it, you chose this one to see if you had the metal to not engage emotionally with the sad story? All right. Okay. But it was a lovely chat. And again, he's currently, Joe Coy is currently on his Break the Mold World Tour through the end of the year. And this is me talking to Joe Coy.

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Uber Teen Accounts. Invite your teen to join your Uber account today. Available in select locations. See app for details. I lived in Vegas. I'm from Seattle originally. Originally. As a policy, you're an anti-AC guy. Anti-AC. Because the minute I moved, because I went from Seattle to Vegas, and when I moved to Vegas, I fell in love with that heat. My allergies went away.

Oh, yeah? Just everything. I kind of like it, too, and you feel kind of high all the time. Yeah. It's weird. You feel, I don't know, I feel energized. Yeah. When that sun hits your skin, I'm like, let's go.

Oh, really? Yeah. I'm more like, sort of like, oh, let's just slow down. You want to slow down with the sun? Yeah. I just want to like, when I go to Phoenix where my brother's from, it's 116. Yeah. Let's just stay in.

No, I'm outside. I'm like, this is great. But I'm like, I'm just going to enjoy it. Because you dehydrate so quickly that your body's just sort of knocked out. Yeah. And I'm sober sober so i like getting a freebie you know so i'll just let it free high from the sun exactly yeah yeah but like the weird thing with you uh in in in terms of my knowledge of things like i've always known you're out there

like yeah like i know joe coy's out there somewhere and i and i i don't know exactly he's out there somewhere and i and i i don't know exactly how he's doing or what he does completely but i know he's doing like a big comic and he's just sort of out there i know the name i know he's popular but i always like i'm like who who is it who is that guy yeah and like that was always my thing in terms of like knowing you were out there and i think we've run into into each other over the years yeah but we But we never worked together, really, did we? Never, no. Because, like, I think, I don't know. I was already headlining. You were already headlining.

And we just missed each other somehow. I guess. I mean, you were already big in the game. I'm not big. I mean, I was known. I don't know. I think you're probably bigger than me pretty quickly. That's my feeling.

It took me a while. Yeah. I mean, Nordstrom Rack doing the Tonight Show. You went to Nordstrom Rack? No, I was working there the day of.

Yeah. And this is when Jay was there and you didn't know how big the Tonight Show was until I got off, you know,

the next day and I'm working and like, every other customer was like, oh my God, you were so funny last night. Can I get this in a size nine? Yeah just brought you back down 10 yeah do you have

this in a narrow that's so funny that you don't want to talk about my set no no but it's a fundamental lack of respect that people have for comics yeah just sort of like oh nice little thing you did yeah but I'm here to get a shirt yeah if you don't mind they're not the sort of like you know why aren't you out there? No. Care less. They don't care. They think anyone can do it.

Yeah. I fucking hate that. I fucking hate it too, Mark, and I'm glad you said that. I'm so sick of someone coming up to me and like, yeah, there's this guy

at the office. He's doing comedy too. I don't give a fuck. Yeah, yeah. He does it on office night. He's hysterical during lunch. I don't give a fuck. I know.

This is two different things. I know. But you don't say that to him. No, I'm like, oh, cool. I like to meet him. Best of luck to him. Best of luck. I hope it works out for him.

I hope it works out. Yeah, yeah. It's really easy. Tell him how easy it is. Oh, yeah. Go to Elko, Nevada for a night. But we're, like, we're, like, I didn't know, like, I knew that you were Filipino. Yeah.

Half. I get it. Half. Yeah, half. like I didn't know like I knew that you were Filipino yeah half I get it yeah half but I knew that you played this is the thing I think in my head is I thought you were an ethnic act

fundamentally a lot of people did yeah but it was so funny because when I first started I chose not to play the Asian card for like the first 10 years

yeah because I already knew I had that in the bag oh really yeah I'm like I can do that all day reminds's gonna build the audience and then really yeah i mean i'm not gonna hone a graph that i already have right my mom is my my my go-to joke yeah my whole life yeah i'm like i already knew i had that so when i first started i was going after like you know you know i was so inspired by you know def, Def Jam and Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor.

That was your thing? I got on the Def Comedy Jam tour. Well, let's go back. So like you were, what, your mom's Filipino? My mom's Filipino. My dad's white. He's white. Yeah.

Regular white. Air Force white. Air Force. The specific type of white. That's the white. Air Force white. That's the white that brought half breeds to America. Yeah, of course.

Like they went shopping overseas. Yes. I always say this on stage, Mark. That brought half-breeds to America. Yeah, of course. They went shopping overseas. Yes! I always say this on stage, Mark. The armed forces is like the original Tinder. You know what I mean? Yeah. A lot of soldiers were like, you know what? Swipe left.

I'm going to the Philippines. For Asian fetish. Yeah. And no disrespect to my mom and dad. You know what I mean? Hey, that was the time. It happened. You have to put yourself in that time.

People don't get it. All right, so was your dad in war? Yeah. My dad was in the Vietnam War, yeah. Oh, really? He was part of. It happened. You have to put yourself in that time. People don't get it. All right, so was your dad in war? Yeah, my dad was in the Vietnam War, yeah. Oh, really? He was part of that, yeah. He was flying? No, he was loading. My dad had an obsession with cargo planes.

It's the weirdest obsession. So he was loading cargo planes in Vietnam. He loved it. He fucking loved it. So he was probably loading bodies. No, well, mostly he loaded the commissary. Oh. So the food. So he wasn't really in the line of fire necessarily.

Well, I mean. Depends on what base he was on. Yeah, depends on what base. But the cool thing is I always ask my dad, because he always told me, he goes, I love cargo planes. And I always go, dad, you're full of shit. You didn't get a fighter pilot's license and you wanted to work near planes.

Like I was just being a dick when you were a kid until I met his dad and his dad was like, no, that's all he loved. He would build cargo planes, like the model planes he'd always buy,

the big ones. My dad had this obsession on, he didn't understand how a plane could get a tank to another place. Oh, so he's just fascinated. He was fascinated by that and he became the loader.

He was a master sergeant and he was- He loaded the plane. Loaded that. And he became the loader. He was a master sergeant. He loaded the plane. Loaded the plane. And he's good at it. He's a fucking packer, man. He's good. And I got that skill set from him. Yeah.

I'm not joking. You can pack a truck for him. You got to move. Bro, when they pick our bags up at the airport and I see him just tossing shit on top, I'm like, just get the, go start the fucking car. Yeah, yeah. Let me load this. Or when you see the bags on those carts before they put them on the plane.

Yes. What a fucking mess. What the fuck are you guys doing? Yeah, go on. I can show you your tricks. Get the big square ones first. Put them at the bottom. So that's sort of an interesting fascination that you just couldn't get it out of his head

that they could fly tanks. Yeah. So he was fascinated. Very fascinated. But it's so hard because I try and explain to these kids today, especially my son. Yeah. They get to see everything on the internet and it's that fast. Yeah.

Whereas my dad, it's like, these planes just got built. Yeah. He had to buy a model. He had to buy a model. Did your kids ever put a model together? Yeah, he used to build. No, my son never put them. Are you kidding me?

They don't do that. It's not part of it. You get one that can fly. I know. With a goddamn camera. What the fuck do I want glue build... No, my son never put them on. Are you kidding me? They don't do that. It's not part of it. You get one that can fly with a goddamn camera. What the fuck do I want glue and paint for, Dad? That's true. You can get a little drone. This one spies on people, Dad. What the fuck are you talking about?

You got to do that in your act. It's so true, right? Yeah, it is true. It's so true. But these kids are so spoiled. I didn't love models. I don't think I ever got to the point where I actually took the time to paint one, but I put a few together.

I put a few together. But there were those dudes that would do the paint. Paint my dad. Oh, he did it? Yeah, paint him first, son. Paint him on the rack. Right. Fuck.

I put together a green plane. That's all I had. That's it. With a green pilot. Give a fuck. I'm painting this gray thing. And you still had one piece and you're like,

oh, fuck. Where's that one go? So how many brothers and sisters do you have? Man, it's pretty big. Really? Well, it's big because I'm the only one that came from my mom and dad.

So I'm the only half breed. My mom already came with kids. Oh, really? Yeah. From the Philippines. Yeah. How many? She had my sister and my brother, Robert and Rowena.

Yeah. So, and then we adopted another one who's, you know, she runs my business. Where's she from? She's from the Philippines. You adopted a Filipino. Yeah. Yeah. And your dad had some or?

Nope. Oh, so there's four. He had four. He had one and then the three were like a fucking bonus that he didn't know about. They just came with the package? Yeah. Was that a surprise package? Oh, by the way.

Yeah. As they were leaving? I forgot to tell you something. Oh, by the way, there's two more. And we're also getting one more. Sorry about that. You know, I shit on my dad a lot, and I don't talk about my dad a lot on stage. Because he did get a divorce when we were

like when I was like 9 10 so when he left yeah it was it was a it was partially you know this is a story I figured out on my own but it's partially due to racism you know he came back from the war yeah with a family yeah you know I mean he's from Buffalo New York but how did he meet your mom Vietnam but I mean I know but they were overseas overseas she was in vietnam they were over yeah so they they would do this thing where they hire entertainment out there and she was part of that she was part of that package the bands and stuff that go out there what part of the package was she no dancer i guess dancing package you didn't ask me let's go she's dancing was she playing something they were part of like a group that okay okay so yeah yeah okay yeah i'm so curious you want what you never asked

like what exactly what kind of entertainment was it yeah my dad told me and it was part of that whole like they always had entertainers a lot of them the filipinos are amazing singers that's why my sister's a singer isn't't the singer from Journey Filipino? Journey. Yeah, that's our thing, man. We're great for like, what is it called? When you imitate a song. What is it?

Cover. Cover band. Oh, cover band. Notorious for cover band. So that was what my mom was one of. People love that guy from Journey. Arnel Pineda, man. You know him?

I've met him twice. He's a Filipino guy? Filipino. He's about 4'8". Yeah. Amazing. He just sings the shit out of those Journey and he runs yeah runs what do you mean he runs around he runs around it runs around the stage yeah and he's running a mile a minute man and it's it's pretty it's pretty impressive to see someone that can hold a note especially that that range yeah that's

basically my introduction into entertainment because my mom, when she came to the stage, when they divorced, you know, I say this on stage, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to do shit that I do on stage, but what I say is, you know, before Facebook and MySpace and Instagram, you know, we're talking about 71, 72, 73, my mom had to find other Filipinos to associate with.

She had to build a community, man. She was walking up to Mexicans. Filipino. She didn't fucking know. You know what I mean? She started a clubhouse? She started a small group of Filipinos. You know what I mean?

It was a group. They called themselves the Filipino American Association. Where? It was in Tacoma, Washington. So your dad came back and moved. He was stationed in Tacoma? Yeah. We went everywhere. Misawa, Japan. It was stationed in Tacoma? Yeah, we went everywhere.

Misawa, Japan. You know, it was military. So every three years, we're moving. In your memory, what do you remember? Which ones? Man, Tacoma is what I always go to. So he ended up in Tacoma. Philippines was also good, too.

I remember the Philippines. Oh, yeah? Not too much, but I was there for six years. But, okay, so you're in Tacoma, and that's when you remember growing up? How old were you when you started growing up? That is like, it's so funny because that's like the time of my life where it just started to like, everything fell apart. You know what I mean?

Our family fell apart. When you were like nine. Yeah, I was like 10. 10. 10, yeah. And you were in the Philippines. You've been to Japan, but you don't remember it. Don't remember.

Don't remember St. Louis. Now you're up in the woods. Now we're in the Pacific Northwest. The cold fucking woods. I'm sorry if I'm cursing too much. It's all right, go ahead. Just cold, raining all the time, depressing. Yeah, it's heavy up there.

My brother, he's dealing with, that's when we find out that it's severe schizophrenia. Oh, really? Yeah. It got bad in St. Louis. How old was he when it hit? Oh, man. It hit right away.

That's why, you know, I was trying to tell you that, like, I understand why my dad left. He's a great guy. I shitted on him for a long time. Yeah. But the older you get, you start to understand someone's story. Like, I don't need my dad to tell me i know yeah you know i mean you're 28 and you marry a woman with two kids yeah one's eight and then right around 12 he becomes he's he's schizophrenic he's beating the shit out of

you you know i mean yeah i get it yeah i get why you left yeah i get it i respect you i told him that i respect you i get it and to this day he still visits my brother the most out of all of us you go to you go to the logbook at the hospital you'll see my dad's name there your schizophrenic brother and he's in the hospital how old is he now he's uh he's our he's my eldest he's 51 so shit a little older 52 uh-huh so did they diagnose it uh correctly early on no i mean it's also that time, you know, Mark? Yeah. That time was 1978. So they didn't know.

They didn't know. You know, he's just a kid. I still remember that vividly. What did he do? He said he was a tiger, and he was trying to fight my dad, and my mom put me in the room, and I remember laying there, and they were just calling the cops and trying to contain him. Twelve.

Yeah, it was about twelve. And that was it. That was the start of it. And it was. He believed it. Never looked back. He believed he was a tiger. Yeah.

It was bad. It was about like one in the morning, two in the morning. It was bad, man. I like that it was sort of an animal that was probably more indigenous to like Asian culture. Yeah. Than a fucking grizzly bear. Right.

Yeah. He chose a tiger. He chose a fucking tiger. He said that too. I'm a fucking tiger, dad. I'm a fucking tiger. It was rough, man. He was all lit up.

He's a good guy too, man. Well, how long did it take? Like what was the wrangling process? How long did they, did it take to get him diagnosed or get him in the hospital it was it was a lot of cops a lot of cops at the house a lot of on and off you mean off and on i mean we i mean no no you couldn't fuck with my brother man it's a small guy tiny he'll fight six seven cops it you could not contain that guy so this punch my dad he'll knock my dad's block off all the time really yeah man punched my mom and i remember when she came to

the school the black guy i was like god damn man and when did they finally institutionalize him how old was he you know it you the the state can only hold somebody like that for so long so long because it's the hospital gets filled yeah quite often my brother's very smart he knows how to play the system so he'll get out and then he'll start a fight he'll rob he'll do whatever it takes to go back in and that's always been my brother's hustle but he doesn't like being out but he wants to get out he wants to get out but when he's out he knows he needs to get in yeah because he's he's in- There's a shower there. There's food. You know what I mean? So he's on and off the streets kind of guy?

Yeah. But my brother, it's hard, man. I can't imagine. It's hard. But don't they have- I shot that special in Tacoma. My sisters were like, let's go visit Robert. I'm like, it's going to bring me in a different space, man.

Oh, before the special? Yeah. You got to wait. I can't. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's tough.

But he's in a place now that he can stay no he'll get out he'll get out it's just that it's you know what i mean it's it's a routine mark right and what does he do live on the streets he'll live on the street they'll put him in a group home and then he'll get into a fight and then they'll arrest him and then the judge will they can't get him on medicine for schizophrenia though? Like does he start- My brother's case is worse than anyone can imagine. It's pretty bad.

So he's- We can call my brother right now and he'll start off as Robert and then it'll just go somewhere else. And it's hard to get off the phone. Oh really? Yeah. Because like he's talking about other worlds?

Yeah. He's delusional. It'll go somewhere else. That's sad. Yeah, it is. In your whole life it was just sort of that. Yeah. It's delusional. It'll go somewhere else. That's sad. Yeah, it is. In your whole life, it was just sort of that. Yeah.

And your dad, you feel like in retrospect. Well, I hated my dad. Yeah, for leaving. Yeah. Yeah. And I hated his parents. That's why I call him his parents.

You know, I never had a relationship with his parents and he knew that. He cried. My dad cried too. He said it was the time. You know what I mean?

Like I was, I get it. And then, so I never had a relationship with that side of the family i don't know anyone on that side of the family you left at nine yeah i was 10 i think i was 10 and and it just sucked yeah and so my mom raised me and then my aunts raised me my aunt named me joe coy like you know what i mean like like that's that's where it all came from so So in Tacoma, your dad takes off, your mom creates the Filipino American Club. She didn't, it's so, I'm sorry, I did say that. She didn't create it, she became part of it. They founded like this group together.

It was called the Filipino, and she's still friends with a lot of them to this day. But yeah, they would rent out the Knights of Columbus Hall. Yeah. I don't know if you know what that is. It's called the Knights of Columbus Hall. It's It was, I don't know if you know what that is. It's called the Knights of Columbus Hall. The rented every Sunday. And you know,

these families, each family would bring like some type of Filipino food. Cause there was no Filipino restaurants out there. So everyone would bring some type of food and there'd be a big table. And yeah, it was potluck. And, and of course they'd make the kids entertain.

And that was my sister and I would do the most of the entertaining. I would dance and my sister would sing. Really? Every Sunday, yeah. Were there other kids? There were other kids, yeah. So everybody's hanging out being Filipino. Yeah, man.

Being Filipino, that's so good. Yeah. That's exactly what was going on. And that's why that was the culture that I identified with the most. Yeah, because you grew up in it. There was a big Filipino community in Eagle Rock. Yeah, yes. Huge.

And I remember that they opened a Filipino restaurant that I went to once, and then it didn't stay open, but it was, I never had anything like it. I don't remember any of it, but it was sort of challenging, the food. Really? Well, no, I mean like- I gotta get you some good food, man. Our chicken adobo is amazing.

Oh yeah, okay, that's good. That seems reasonable. Soy sauce with vinegar and a little bit of garlic. Yeah, yeah, that sounds good. Can't beat it. But this seemed a little, it seemed a little different. There was some different dish where I sort of like, that's interesting, I never had that before. Yeah, our. That sounds good. Can't beat it. But this seemed a little different. There was some different dish where I was sort of like, that's interesting. I never had that before.

Our weird dishes, I don't like to eat. Oh, really? Yeah, but everyone has it. It's like you got the didigawans and stuff like that. Yeah. What is that? That's heavy. That's the intestines and stuff like that.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. It's always that kind of stuff. Brains, intestines. Yeah, man. But the old timers eat it. Yeah, man. People that come from poverty have to eat it yeah man people that are come from

poverty have to eat it and if they're not in poverty anymore that reminds them that reminds yeah it reminds them they're out they're out and now we're eating it because it makes us feel like we did when we were kids yes man it was what made us feel better this is exactly this is the best thing we could get this is all we can get. Yeah, that's right. For this much money. The intestines. But you have money now. I know. I know, but it makes us feel comforted.

Yes. So it was Tacoma the whole time? Tacoma is where my dad retired, and that's where they got divorced. Yeah, that's where it all started for me. Well, what were you doing there? Were you a derelict or just hanging out? I was a derelict. Yeah.

You were shitty? I was shitty. You were? No, out? I was a derelict. Yeah. You were shitty? I was shitty. You were? No, no. I was a good kid. Yeah? But I was very, I was the only kid. I was the youngest kid.

Yeah. And, you know, like I said, my brother was in and out of the house and getting arrested. But that's just insanity. So, like, he took up a lot of the emotional time of the rest of the family. Exactly. Managing your schizophrenic brother. Yeah. So like, you know, you're in that weird position where you got to resent him for being sick.

Yeah. And then I'm resenting my dad for not being there. So I imagine everyone's just dealing with Robert the schizophrenic. Yeah. And that took up a lot of energy. That took a lot of energy. Oof. Yeah.

And I just found myself, you know, I knew I was the funniest guy all the time. That's what you did to make sense of things. Yeah, man. I loved it. Yep. And I was addicted to stand-up. I couldn't get enough of it, man. Is that how you escaped when you were a kid from the chaos?

Yeah. You'd watch, who were your guys? All of them. My favorite, of course, this is back when you had the VHS tapes. And you just put the tape over the uh yeah over whatever it was and then you could record and then you put it to extended play you could put you know put three or four on there and i had one my mom just got hbo and of course it had uh bill cosby himself on there yeah it had uh robin williams live from the met whoopi

goldberg around the world in 18 motherfucking Days. Delirious was on there. And then I started getting the other stuff that you could rent at these videotape stores. My friend Alan Portugal had a video store rental card because Blockbuster wasn't out yet. Right. And that's when I got Richard. Just so a family owned video store. Yeah. And I would get Richard and I got Carlin

and then my addiction just started getting worse and worse and then Dennis Wolfberg Oh yeah. Brian Regan. I love the storytellers man. Yeah.

So Dennis Wolfberg was like one of my favorites. Great. Yeah I loved it. Yeah I couldn't get enough of that guy. Yeah. The way he would

open his eyes when he would deliver something. It was wild. Yeah it was great, man. And just the list goes on. I got to see Chris Rock before he did Bring the Pain. So you were going to shows. Richard Jenny.

Yeah, I was going to it. When you were in high school? No, after high school. That's when I started going to the shows in Vegas. Oh, wait. So when did you end up in Vegas? 89. Okay.

So your mom moved down there. Yeah. Everybody moved down there. Why? My grandmother had cancer. Oh. Yeah. It always goes to a depressing stage.

I'm sorry, Mark. It's all right. But yeah. So you packed up the- She had cancer and we all left. The sisters and the schizophrenic brother. Yep. We all moved.

You all went into a car. Yeah. And then my brother was only there for about three months. Not three days into the trip because oh fuck he didn't even make it he didn't even make it he didn't he got yeah my mom and him got into a fight in a diner and my mom gave him all his money he demanded all the money all her cash and she just she was so fed up she just gave him whatever the cash she had and that was it that's all we saw that's all we saw robert you left him yeah and i'm probably mixing up a story

here and i'm sorry but that's my brain it's all over the place so you're that was the last time my mom spoke to my brother and uh on the way on the way to nevada yeah that was it that was it she she wrote him off after that she was like i can't deal with it anymore. I need to live my life. It's a lot of drama for a trip. Yeah. Yeah. Especially going to fun cities like Vegas. Well, yeah. But your grandma's sick.

That was the last time my mom and brother spoke. Yeah. She'll occasionally call him every now and then on the phone. But he's up in Tacoma. He may wait back. He went back to Tacoma and that was it. Wow. And I'm kind of happy she did that.

It's hard. Yeah. Because she didn't want, we were always yelling at her like, just let him go. Why do you keep bringing him back? Why do you keep opening the door? Can't help him. Yeah.

And then finally she's like, I'm done. So we were like, thank God, man. Wow. So you go from the woods to the desert. And that was everything for me, man. I was so depressed in Seattle. I was depressed in Tacoma, man. All I had was my comedy tapes, man. So you depressed in seattle yeah i was depressed in tacoma man all i have is my comedy tapes man so you were in seattle or tacoma well tacoma but anyone from tacoma says they're from seattle that's just how it is because you don't want to

sound like a hillbilly no because when you say when you say you're from tacoma they're like where the fuck is that and you go seattle oh why don't you say that so i just said okay so so nevada was like uh nirvana to you huh it was just sort of like, I'm here. Yeah. Yeah. Just got to see sun for the first time. I was playing basketball at one o'clock in the morning because they have 24-hour parks that are lit and brand new. Yeah. And Safeway was open 24-7 and streets were perfect.

Yeah. And this is before anybody else. The barrage hasn't even been built yet. Uh-huh. So if you can imagine that kind of Vegas. Right, right. It was a different it was mgm grand was still there mgm grand was still there before they knocked that thing down yeah because it was called the marina or something like that yeah so uh yeah that was that was my uh i loved it man how old were you when you moved there i was 18 but so

we start i remember when i saw you accept the uh what was the comedian of the year award stand-up comic of the world yeah stand-up comedian of the year at montreal that you accept the, what was it, Comedian of the Year Award? Stand-up comic of the year. Yeah, Stand-up Comedian of the Year. At Montreal, that you had told the story about going to see who? Was it Eddie Murphy? Eddie Murphy. Was that in Vegas? That was in Seattle.

That was in Seattle. Oh, it was? It was 1987. Oh, so right before you moved? Yeah. And I took my mom's credit card and bought it online. Ticketmaster, you had to call. Yeah.

You had to call it. Yeah. So I called, used my mom's credit card. Did she online ticket master you had to call yeah you had to call it yeah so i called with my mom's credit card did she know you took it she she knew i was going to get something for eddie murphy she thought it was a movie oh okay yeah so you know she doesn't know eddie murphy does stand up right and then then as she's driving like where the fuck are we watching this movie right yeah that was like we like, I'm going to a concert. I brought my friend William. Yeah.

So she had to drop us off in Seattle and just drive around for a couple hours. And that was the first, was that the first live show you saw? That was the first live,

and I had to beg my friend William to go because no one knew, kids didn't like stand-up back then, man. Right, right. That wasn't a thing. That's something your dad did.

Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, I get that, yeah. And I could, I get that and I could I had to beg William to go he's like what's Stan

I don't want to see him what is that what are you like 16 yeah I was like 16 yeah and we were like 12 rows from the stage man that concert

did he like you your friend yeah of course did you you know that concert raw yeah yeah yeah

you didn't get to go you didn't go to it no I didn't see it but it was all arenas you know he played it was where the Sonics played do you know that concert raw? No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't get to go. You didn't go to it. I didn't see it. Yeah. But it was all arenas. Yeah. You know what I mean? He played, it was where the Sonics played. Yeah.

And you know, the, the red screen where he's, they show his silhouette and he's holding the roses. That, that was a video screen that played all his hits, all like all his characters on SNL and all his movies. And it was just to music and it was just speeding up faster and faster, faster and bam, it turns red and he's standing behind it. And I fucking myself i was like is this really happening yeah and then it pulls up slowly and it's eddie yeah and i'm looking around there's 20 000 people just cheering i it was over with man i'm like that's i gotta do that he had a black leather suit on with no t-shirt

yeah he had driving gloves on. Yeah. Leather driving gloves. The kind that, you know, the Velcro right here. Yeah. And then a diamond ring over the glass. Like this fucking guy, man. And he just killed for like an hour and a half.

It was like two hours. Really? Yeah. It was like two hours or something. Yeah. It was amazing. Paul Mooney opened for him. Holy shit.

Yeah. He had a pink fedora on. He sat on the stool for like 40 minutes. Did it all right? Fucking crushed, man. You know, I've never seen anything like that. You've probably worked with Paul, haven't you? Oh, yeah. I worked with Paul. But, you know, that's at Laugh Factory and stuff like that. Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I middled for him once in Sacramento.

How'd that go? It's good. The thing I learned about Paul, though, is because Sack, I remember him from being a doorman at the comedy store, seeing him close enough. So I knew who he was, and I knew that he had found this new life with Chappelle and everybody. Eddie respected him and Richard, obviously.

But you work with him and Sack, which is not really, it was not a black crowd no you know it's just that punch line up there yeah right next to the arden wall right next to the bed yeah that story yeah yeah yeah right exactly the mattress store in the fucking mall and uh you know is that like he's doing when he's with white audiences he'll do like you know he'll do two hours or more sometimes. Yeah. So the thing is, if you don't think you're racist, he'll find it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He'll find it in you. That's his trick. Yeah. It's sort of like, because it's all driven that way. Yeah. So you may think you're open-minded,

but some of those white audiences are like, what the fuck? Yeah. How much of this shit do we got to tell? Yeah. And I thought it was kind of genius. Yeah. And he sits there with the calmest posture, man.

Oh, I know. I know. Look at you. Look at you all. Look at you, motherfucker. He's something else, man. So, all right. So that blew your mind, but you didn't have a plan after that.

You were sort of like, how do I do comedy? Yeah. I had no idea. Yeah. I had no idea. When did you figure that out? I called. I just started calling calling i called all the

comedy clubs and said i could do stand-up in tacoma or no no in in uh when you got down when i got to vegas yeah to figure out what you had to do yeah you want to start yeah and where they lead you to sharippa to nowhere nowhere no one's got it open sharippa would never and i would call him the most because he was the only one that would answer everyone else would like send me the voicemail but for some reason sharippa would always answer the calls yeah and i would call him the most because he was the only one that would answer. Everyone else would like send me the voicemail but for some reason Schripple would always answer the calls.

Yeah. And I would end up talking to him and then one day he was like, hey look kid, go to LA, get an act

and then come back to me. Yeah. We don't have open mics here, alright kid? But he knew because I would make up different names every time I call him.

I make up names all the time. Why? I'm Glenn Herbert. Yeah, why? What were you asking him i was just i would be like if you have a fallout i can do i could mc whatever you want all right but you had not been on stage never i've never been on stage yeah and then uh and then i found out about uh uh this competition was called the biggest fool and it was at the tropicana comedy

stop do you remember that yeah a little bit it's now it's now the laugh factory but back then it was called the comedy i know that room yeah yeah harry basil harry basil yeah right he was the owner right yeah he owns it some part he's got some part of it yeah yeah and then uh he had this thing called the biggest fool competition and what it was is two open micers go head-to-head during a regular show during the month of March, and then you just keep eliminating. Whoever wins that competition becomes the biggest fool, which is April Fool's Day. You get to open up for a headliner. Oh, sorry.

Well, you get to MC or some shit for a headliner. So they throw you on during a regular show? Yeah. Two open micers. Two open micers going head-to-head. Back-to-back. Yeah. For what, three minutes? Three minutes in between the feature and the headliner. Oh,ers. Two open micers. Back to back. Yeah. For what? Three minutes?

Three minutes in between the feature. Oh, man. Or no, before the feature. Right. Right after the opener. Yeah. We're going to start off with something a little unique. Yeah.

You're going to love this, you guys. These guys, if you think they're going to suck, they are. Yeah. So that's how you started? And if you don't laugh, remember, they're not comics. Yeah. Good. Here they are. Here they are. How'd you started? And if you don't laugh, remember, they're not comics. Good. Here they are.

Here they are. How'd you do? I bombed so bad. Really? Yeah. What were you doing? I can't even remember. Just sex jokes, dick jokes.

So you didn't start with a character or a story? No. Just right to dick jokes. Yeah. Nothing. Nothing. Had nothing. Didn't win.

Didn't get past a minute. I remember the routine I wrote. I was like, this is at least 35 minutes. How do I scale this down to three? Freaked out. Shit. 30 seconds in. You're just like, I'm done.

Heart in my mouth. It's the worst. I wanted to die, Mark. I still remember that feeling. It's the worst. It's the worst feeling. It was packed. Because you spent like a month thinking about it. Yeah. you get up there and just like yeah you know what was

crazy mark is seeing the back of the stage because you only see the front yeah oh you mean behind like the green yeah when you're backstage and it was just like it was like oh my god i'm really here i love that part of our business i love it i love when you walk through the guts of theaters yeah this is show business like look at. I love it. Look at the kitchen. Look at the people working in the kitchen. Look at this. They got real jobs. I'm gonna go fucking fool some people for an hour. I just love that part

of it. Even when you do TV and you're just, the guy's holding the curtain. You're like, what's up, man? Yeah. We're about to go on TV. Yeah, man. Make sure they don't see your hand. Yeah. I always want to see, like I see, like, you know, over the years, you see the same guys doing that. Like on Conan, I've done it a lot.

Yeah. And I always look at him and go, I got nothing, man. I got nothing. Mark Maron. Oh, shit. And now he looks at me and goes, what do you got? I'm like, nothing. I got nothing.

I loved it, man. I was addicted. Yeah. So how did you then make your... My sister, like I said, she's a singer, and she became a lounge act in Vegas. What hotel? Every single one.

Every single one. She's got a mouth on her, too. So it got to the point where my dad and I would always go, when do you think Rowena will get fired? Right. Because she always got fired from bands. Uh-huh. But then another band would hire her because she could sing.

Oh, good. She was so good. and then she entered this competition called star mania which was basically like star search but it was like the bootleg version and uh i go watch her do a competition yeah and there's a comedian that she's going up against oh yeah who's that i don't even remember all i remember is he took his pants off and he had glow-in-the-dark pants and i remember him going i need the i need this uh spotlight guy to turn off the house lights. Turn off the lights. And then he pulled his pants down. I fucking remember that.

He had these glow-in-the-dark pants. And my sister was like, she didn't even know I was trying to be a comedian. And she's like, you should be doing this. This guy's fucking stupid. But she had no idea I was trying to pursue standup. Oh. At all. And then I entered that contest.

Oh, you did? Yeah. Behind her back. She had no idea. Yeah. I don't think the glowing pants guy made it. No. Not at all.

No. That was it for him. I don't think he had another thing in him. He didn't even have a chance on the biggest fool competition. How do you get to the glowing pants? You open with it? Yeah. No. There was a buildup. Yeah. a chance on the biggest fool competition. How do you get to the glowing pants? You open with it? Yeah, no.

There was a buildup. Yeah. So you entered that competition. Yep. And I still remember the bar. Because what they did is that Starmania would book this show, the Starmania show, at local bars. And then the whole catch was, yeah, if you could just let Starmania be here on a Tuesday,

and all these people that enter the competition always bring people, and it'll fill your bar. So I got on this one show and it was on Tropicana and Eastern. The bar's still there. Yeah. And the stage is still there. I just went and looked at it the other day.

Oh, really? Oh, yeah, man. You lived there? I got all teary-eyed. I was like, oh, shit. Oh, you were just in town? Yeah, well, I bought a house out there too. Oh, you did?

Yeah. So you live there? Yeah, I live here. out there, too. Oh, you did? Yeah. So you live there? Yeah, I live here, but I have a restaurant out there, too. So if you want to eat, just go to my restaurant. Filipino food? No, it's Japanese. You bought a Japanese restaurant in Vegas? I bought a Japanese restaurant.

What's it called? Jokois? It's called Yoje. Yoje? Yeah, Yoje. Did you buy it with partners? I did, and then I bought them all out. You did?

Yeah. Doing all right? Yeah. Okay. It's doing doing good so you're a restaurant owner yeah why the fuck do show business people get into restaurants i don't know it's a weird thing it's it's fun for me because it was a passion project you like eating yeah and my sister runs it you know it's fun oh so the younger sister yeah jemma oh that's what she does for you well she runs that oh she runs my shit too. She runs your business. My business, yeah.

Everything. Oh. Everything, Joe Coy. And the restaurant. And the restaurant. And it's a popular restaurant. Yeah. Good.

Yeah. Now, it's a sushi restaurant? No, it's just Shabu Shabu. Oh, so the grill thing. It's like the Kobe beef and all that. Yeah. And is it on the strip, the other strip? It's off the strip by my house, Summerlin. So it's by your house.

Yeah. So you can just drive down the street to your restaurant from your house. Yes. And you have a house out here. Yeah. Okay. Shit. Where do you keep the kids?

My son, my ex and I, I made sure that she lives right next to me. In Vegas? No, she lives here in LA. Okay. So I have a house and then I moved her right, like literally five minutes. I'm assuming you get along. Oh,

of course. Oh good. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't want our relationship to be like my mom and dad's. I didn't want, I want, I want a good relationship with her.

And did you end it? We both did. Oh, okay. Yeah. We knew that it wasn't right. Okay. But we knew we had to be good parents.

So, so, so now you live down the street from each other. Yep. And then when you want, you can just go to your other house in Vegas and shabu shabu when you need a break yeah okay and i do need that break man you do too don't even act no i know people don't know how hard this is well yeah when you're self-employed you never really stop working no

yeah and when we do stop working we think about yeah what the fuck we should be working i know what do we got to do yeah How do we do the thing? But, you know, I mean, you run a pretty big operation. But, like, let's get from. So, I entered that competition. Yeah. And I bombed again. Yeah.

I lost to a Lionel Richie impersonator. Oh. Yeah. And I love that guy. I wish I knew his name because I was working at a shoe store that day. And I remember the same thing. I was like, I got too many at a shoe store that day and I remember the same thing. I was like, I got too many jokes here.

And I remember in my head, I envisioned the manager calling going, this kid, you got to see him like a movie moment. Yeah. That's what I envisioned. Sure. Fuck, it didn't happen. I tanked right when I got on stage and sat next to the guy that went up before me, the Lionel Richie guy.

And for some reason, I couldn't leave. I should have know what i mean it was so bad i was getting heckled really yeah it was so bad and then um i wasn't even 21 it was a bar yeah it was like 18 19 like penciled in my mustache everything to get in i didn't have an idea and uh i remember they asked me if i want anything to drink and i was like no no because i didn't want to get carded. Yeah, yeah. And he was like, hey, man, you got really good stage presence. I remember him saying that. Yeah. And that was it.

Did he say it like Lionel Richie? Yeah, he went, hello? But he did. He said that, and I remember, okay, I got it. Yeah. I got it, man. You got that part. I got stage presence.

Yeah. And he wasn't lying. Yeah. He goes, you have it, man. You got something up there, man. There's something about you, man. Yeah. I got it, man. You got that part. I got stage presence. Yeah. And he wasn't lying. Yeah. He goes, you have it, man. You got something up there, man. There's something about you, man. Yeah. Just work on your jokes.

Write some more jokes. He wasn't a comedian, but he said the right shit to me. Yeah. Because I wanted to quit that day. I remember going home. My mom and stepdad were on the couch, and I was all dressed up in a tie and had the fake mustache. And my mom was like, where were you? Where did you go, Joseph?

Yeah. And I couldn't tell her. Uh-huh. I just went right to my room. So where'd she pick up the stepdad? Vegas? Tacoma. Oh.

Another military guy. And I love this guy. He beat the shit out of my brother. So that was the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed. Robert. Yeah, because I'd never seen anyone throw hands with my brother before. So your dad splits, your mom gets a new guy,

and that guy... And she's still with him to this day. They've been together 30... Shit, 35 years? And she took care... And he beat the shit out of Robert. Beat the shit out of Robert when he kicked the door down.

Uh-huh. Yeah. And that was good. When I saw that, I was like, fucking Superman's living with us. Oh, man. I dare you to come to this house now, Robert.

I mean, imagine being bullied and terrorized your whole fucking life, man. Schizophrenic brother. Yeah. So how old were you when she married that guy? Oh, God. She married him later. You know what I mean?

I was like 21 when she married him, but they were together since I was like 16, 17. Oh, okay. I get it. Oh, wow. So he stepped in, huh? Yeah. All right, so it still doesn't sound like you're getting it together on the stand-up, 17. Oh, okay. I get it. Oh, wow. So he stepped in, huh? Yeah. All right.

So it still doesn't sound like you're getting it together on the standard. No. When does that click? Oh, it takes a long time. How long did it take you? You're a fucking God, by the way. So how did it happen? Same way.

You know, like back when I, but I was in, I started basically in Boston. There were open mics at clubs. That was the only option. Yeah. You know, it was to find the clubs that were open mics at clubs. That was the only option. Yeah. You know, it was to find the clubs that had open mics and then, you know, do them. Yeah. So, like, I was doing open mics and, you know, I was out here for a year doing, I was a non-paid regular at the comedy store when I was like 21 or 22.

Yeah. And I got fucked up and went back to Boston where I went to school. Started doing open mics. Got, you know, 10, got like 15, 20 minutes together. I went to school, started doing open mics, got like 15, 20 minutes together, entered a contest in 88 and came in second. But it was enough to get me opening work at one nighters. So I kind of pulled together 25, 30 minutes and I was driving to shitholes to open for two band shows. So that's how I avoided, that's how I just went, became like on on the regular road more of a feature act because I did that work the first work I got was like all right you're driving to Maine

you're opening for uh for Kevin Knox yeah you know yeah you need to do 25 to 30 you gotta do 30 minutes he's gonna do 45 and you gotta pick him up oh man how many of those have I had right that's how I that's how I started oh man but once I got going then you just have no choice you got to pick them up. Oh, man. How many of those have I had? Right. That's how I started. Oh, man. But once I got going, then you just have no choice. You got to get the fucking time together. Yeah.

You were blessed because you lived in a big city that had open mics. Yeah, but also had those one-nighters. At that time, those rooms, there was the road road, but then Boston,

there were three guys that booked just pubs and bowling alleys and fucking hotels. Yeah. They were booking agencies for one-nighters all over New England. Yeah. So you got in with them and you could fucking, if you did it, if you pulled it off, you could

work every week and make a little change. Yeah. You weren't going to get famous, but you were paying your dues. But you were paying your, yeah. That's how I see it. But Vegas was all about pro show pro shit yeah even those those shows the the comedy clubs were seven seven days a week yeah so the the the headliners worked from monday to sunday yeah it was ridiculous right they would do they would do

two on thursday two on friday two on saturday two on sunday it's like yeah like they just want people in and out in and out they out. They would rather comp the room just to keep people in their casino. Right. So those shows were always packed. But not great audiences necessarily. Horrible. They were just trying to kill time

or they were miserable because they had nothing else to go to. The worst. The worst crowd. So how do you start getting on? It took a while. And then eventually I founded a coffee house that started doing open mics.

Oh, really? And yeah. Like a variety show? No, no. They were doing straight standup. Straight standup. And then, and that's, that's where it took off. It was called Buzzy's Cafe.

And, and that's when I noticed a lot of my coworkers were coming to see me. Right. And then from then I started meeting other comics that were opening up other rooms like now this slow oh so the comic open mic it started opening up like this world i started seeing it what year are we talking oh man 90 92 93 uh-huh and then uh and then uh yeah and then that's how i met you know this you know how it is this comic has a room over here and but they all started having rooms and I started making 100 here, 100 there. And Rob, this one guy, Rob, was kind of

like a headliner that, but only did the B rooms, you know what I mean? Idaho. And he took me to open for him. And there was another guy that wrote for Sinbad and he took me and I had to pick him up, just like you said. I had to drive. I remember I was in Elko, Nevada and I remember I was getting a hundred bucks for

a night, but I had to pay for my own gas and I had to drive him back. It was so fucked. And I remember I had to make a decision. I had to make a decision. Do I eat tonight or do I save this money for breakfast tomorrow? Because I want to go home with something. I just wanted to go home with like 30 bucks. Right.

Just so I could show my mom I made money. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because if I would have ate dinner and ate breakfast, I would have went home with like five bucks. Right. For sure.

Yeah. But I wanted to go home with something. So I remember that. Oh, fuck, man. Elko, Nevada, man. Red light district for the truckers, man. Rough crowd. Rough crowd, man.

But those were the gigs. And then it just started all coming together. And Kevin Kearney was the one that gave me my first paid gig to open for a headliner at Catch a Rising Star at the MGM Grand. Wow. And it was $1,000 for like 12 shows. Nice. And I made a Xerox copy of that.

What were you doing, like 10, 15? I was doing 15. Yeah? Yeah, man. And then the manager gave me a stack of two for ones yeah there were orange two for one tickets hand them to your friends man bring them to and i was doing it yeah and i noticed everyone in line were my friends and fans yeah and i'm like well they're here to see me not this guy yeah but yet i'm giving the casino money

and then the money they're gonna make is more than what i'm getting paid right 12 shows divided by a thousand i think i'm making like 90 bucks a show yeah so i went looked for theaters really on your own wow and i and i rented this theater called the hunt ridge theater yeah and it was like this old movie theater from like the 50s yeah and it's uh and it's off on Charleston and Maryland Parkway. And you just rented it? Rented it, man. Wow. And then I'm trying to-

Had to take out a loan. I got sponsors. You did? Yeah. But did it work? Yeah, I sold it out. How many seats? 800.

So you just took it on yourself to promote your own show at the theater. Yeah. You just fucking figured it out. Yeah, man. And- I just did the math in my head i'm like why am i gonna let this guy get all the money and and so like who came everyone i

knew the same people that went to that show so that was the beginning of the the business that's why i can wear every hat like yeah that's why when uh when when i knew i could go on the road, I knew I was also able to book the road. Right. I knew how. Yeah. And I knew if I, just like this Netflix special, when they said no to me, they were like, no, we're good. We already got all our comics for 2017. Yeah.

As depressed as I was, because I knew that routine was great. And I had to do it now because my son's, you know, if I wait two more years, these jokes are dead. Right. Right. Like these jokes are now. Yeah. Right. Like my son. you know if i wait two more years these jokes are dead right right like these jokes are now yeah right my son yeah you know i mean he's 12 now and the jokes are about him being 10 yeah yeah like i if you wait two more years he's gonna be 18 like i gotta do it now and that's why i paid for that special on my own so you self-produced your last netflix special yeah and they picked it up even though though they said no, yeah. And what was that like? They said, absolutely not. And then how did you get them to?

I didn't care, Mark. You made it. They said, absolutely not. We are booked for 2017. And you went and made it. And then what was the next conversation? I was, don't get me wrong, I was so fucking depressed. And God bless all the comics that made it that year.

Yeah. You know, I saw them get their specials and they're my friends. I think I was one. Yeah, you were one. Yeah. Yeah. And God bless you guys. Yeah.

But I knew I should have been on there too. Yeah. And I was upset that why can't they make mine? Yeah. Why? So I just shot it myself and I was like, fuck it. If they don't get it, then I'll sell it out of the backseat of my car. I've done it before. But how did you get who did you talk to robbie after why my agent well first

of all god bless robbie for coming to netflix because we all have relationship with robbie and he's a beautiful guy and um robbie used to work at the montreal montreal yeah jfl and uh and he's a big part of my career and I shot that thing on my own and we got it to Robbie just in time to make it

during your during everyone you know that was a big year for Netflix stand up and I'm just happy that I was

on it with you and everybody else yeah it was and I wanted to be on that like I was not gonna wait everyone knew that everyone those specials were coming out not gonna wait i everyone knew that everyone

those specials were coming out in 2017 for netflix yeah everyone knew that netflix was gonna do a huge stand-up push and and for me to be like not on that i i couldn't i couldn't i couldn't man i have 30 years here man yeah and if i have to do it myself then i'm gonna do it myself and i did and it paid off fuck yeah it did. Times a million, man. But you were already, like, you know, like through the course of, like, so you start doing the theaters

like early on, you know, self-promoting yourself, but you still had to figure out how to get a name for yourself. So when did you come out here? But like I said, Mark, when I first came out to LA,

I still went into the factory and I became a factory comic. I never went to the store, I still went into the factory and I became a factory comic. I never went to the store. I never went to the improv. Jamie had beef with Bud for some reason and he was my manager. Yeah, it's funny. I never go to the factory or the improv. I only go to the store.

You only go to the store? Yeah, I'm a store guy. You don't do the improv at all? Not anymore. No? Okay. But he wouldn't let me. Once I started to sell tickets, I like why am I gonna why should they make

any money off of me they did nothing for me yeah I'd rather just go to the store yeah as far as the factory goes I don't even know like I know J. Davis

like a lot of these rooms it's sort of like who's doing it now yeah how do you who's booking the real room yeah what nights are they actually

having real shows yeah and I know J. Davis is down there but like i don't know i this story right now for me is just they're real crowds yeah there's no fucking comedy crowds yeah comedy crowds are you know they're diverse and weird uh and uh you know like just real crowds like every time i'm at the at the factory the times i've gone and they'd let me work there i could work anywhere at the factory i'm like where are all and they'd let me work there. I could work anywhere. At the factory, I'm like, do all these kids come on the same bus? You know, like I never... Do they get busted from UCLA? Yeah, I don't know where they're from.

I don't know what... And the improv, I'm just... That room even... It's never a great room. That's the hardest room, I think. Hands down. And now with the new one, it's like...

Easiest room is Laugh Factory. That's true. Yeah. But that... I love the the small room in at the improv now the the workout room the front room i love it man lab yeah the lab bar yeah it's nice i love it yeah i mean like i've done a couple shows here and there i just like the store like once you figure out how to do this store it's very rewarding yeah all right so

anyway so you come out here and you just lock in with jamie so yeah immediately jamie yeah charges me to come to a inside the goddamn oh really laugh yeah i was so fucking pissed i'm like i'm just dropping the tape off yeah i got a tape let me just hand i want to hand it they charge me to go in to the show to the show and i'm like to see dan cook yeah he was on that night of course and i'm like i'm just here to drop off a tape man it's the the show that's after this one. The girl that runs it, her name is Amy Anderson. That's her name.

And I just want to get the tape to her, please. And they charged me. That was so depressing. I was just like, come on, man. So, but anyways, I got in and Jamie signed me and kind of wouldn't let me go anywhere else. So I was doing that show. I was doing that room seven days a week, man. I was doing every single show.

And then eventually I had to let him go. He built you up, though. He got me my Hollywood presence. But he gave you the stage time. Gave me a lot of stage time, yeah. That's important. Yeah, very important. Yeah. And then from then I had to let him go.

Because I needed to make money, man, and he wouldn't let me do the improvs. And the improvs were really- And you were working at Nordstrom's? I was working at three jobs. Yeah. I was working at Nordstrom Rack. I was at Wells Fargo and I was doing this yacht every Saturday and Sunday. People would rent out this yacht and party for like four hours and then re-dock.

And then I had to clean it. What? Yeah, I had to clean all the forks and it had to clean the yacht fucking depressing and then go on stage with my my waiter outfit on you know what I mean and and I was just like Jamie I gotta get on the road man I got a kid I got a brand new kid man I need to make money and the improv's offering yeah so I had to let him go he didn't understand but I had to let him go he didn't understand and i didn't understand you talk to him now still doesn't talk to me oh really yeah it's all good i guess yeah of course improv you know i you know you you make that you you assume initially that these people are your friends yeah they're not yeah i just didn't understand how you didn't understand that i need to make money it's like come on man i know what they i get you have a beef but dude i know i don't know what do you

think is well what was his uh plan for you i don't know he said don't worry buddy i'll make you money you know yeah there's other gigs out there yeah yeah where well when i open the laugh factory on the moon you can play that yeah yeah opening one in, yeah. We're opening one in Chicago and one in New York. Yeah. And all those places just went dark. Never happened. It didn't. Did the one in Chicago happen?

Did you see the one in New York? Yeah. Did you ever go to it? It was a strip club. It was Peep World, I think. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I gotta go, Jamie. That's the best. After I did Peep World, I was like, I gotta go. It's the worst fucking block in the city. There's mirrors. Yeah. It's still like, yeah, it's, I was like, I gotta go. Worst fucking block in this city. There's mirrors. Yeah, it's still like, yeah,

it's still half a fucking, you gotta go upstairs. Yeah. It was the weirdest fucking place, There's a dungeon. Like, what happened here?

I don't know. I don't know whose great idea that was. It was literally, and then you still got the people that are coming in thinking it's the place.

Wait, is it still there? No, I don't think so. No, I don't think it's there. I don't know what happened to those clubs.

There was one in Chicago for a minute. Oh, that died fast. Yeah. Well, anyway, so, all right, so what's the break? What do you do? You got a new manager?

I get the new manager. I went through a couple. I went through a few. I went through a few managers. Improv started taking off. And then, you know, like I said, I knew that two for ones and all that stuff wasn't going to build my fan base. That was going to build a, that was going to set a,

an image for me. Yeah. So I got rid of that right away. No freebies. No freebies. Yeah. Like if we're going to do this. That's what I hate about the improv.

Well, you can tell them though. I know, but I get it. I don't sell it. Well, back when I couldn't sell tickets, they didn't give a fuck.

I just, yeah, fuck them. Yeah. Anyways, go ahead. I, I,

I, well, my relationship with the improv, I have no reason to be resentful i wish them nothing but good thing yeah you're mark fucking mariner yeah i uh i uh i have a japanese restaurant you just have a hit show on netflix that's all um no but i i i told them right away we can't do two for ones if I'm going to come into the

improvs. It's got to be a percentage deal or forget it. Yeah. And that's how I did it. I knew that my brand, especially my fans, I felt like once you start saying you're two for one, you're always going to be two for one. Yeah. They'll get mad at you if you don't do it.

Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, we got to get rid of that now. Yeah. So, and that's always been my goal. And yeah, I knew what I was worth and that's what i i'm gonna give you a show just pay for it so there were times where like a thursday night would have eight people but i didn't care and they would ask me joe let's just do two for one i'm like no next year there'll be 16 how's that

yeah so it was that soil but how did how what was the relationship with the the montreal comedy fest because it seems like you know i didn't realize because i go i've been there a few times but i'm in and out but it but when i presented the award for the best writers to uh the creators of glow and you got that award like it really seemed like you know you you have a real relationship with that festival yeah they were you know helped you create your yeah that's right i got my first agent there oh yeah uh i remember walking off of new faces and got my first agent yeah uh she walked right up to me and she's like i got yeah i want to blah blah i want to represent you give me a card and thank god yeah uh and then uh bob and ross walked up to me and they were like, you're getting the tonight show.

And that was, yeah. So you got that out of Montreal back when you could still be a new face. Yeah. Right. Back when you were really a new face. Right. Right.

And, uh, and that was it for me, man. That tonight show changed my life. Interesting. So that was what year? Oh God.

That was my son. Let's say 13 years. Yeah. It was about 13, 14 years ago. So it was like, it was the number one show. Oh, it was huge.

I had no idea how huge that show was. Right. I got so much stuff from that. I literally got to quit all my jobs. So you were actually working at Nordstrom. Working at Nordstrom the next day. Everybody watched it. Everybody watched it.

So every person that wanted a shoe, every woman that came up and gave me a shoe and I'm not exaggerating it was like you were so funny that's interesting so you got in under the wire when that actually

made a difference yes so that changed your bookings changed my life no shit I got to quit like in three months I was done with all my jobs

I remember I was so scared to quit Wells Fargo I was so nervous why you had insurance well I have a son yeah I had insurance I was like I can't quit man like I was holding on to it and then finally I was just nervous. Why, you had insurance? Well, I have a son. Yeah, I had insurance. I was like, I can't quit, man.

I was holding on to it. And then finally, I bit the bullet because I was getting all these gigs. Improvs wanted me. And I got this commercial deal with Ant Mobile. I was the spokesperson for the cell company. I was doing all these private gigs for Ant Mobile. And it was nuts, man. Just blew up.

I couldn't believe how much money. I spent all my money on my teeth. Look at my teeth. I bought, that's for my first big check. Yeah. I remember calling my mom going, they want almost 40,000 for my teeth, mom.

Yeah. And the only reason why I called her is because I knew she would say, no, don't do it. Yeah. And she told me yes. Oh, really? Fix your teeth?

Yeah. I'm tired of looking at your teeth. Fix your teeth, please. So you got the teeth. She was actually very, it was it was actually a sweet call yeah yeah yeah she she knew what it meant to me yeah that i had such a bad smile because i broke all my front teeth when i was like 13 i fell on a rock and cracked all my teeth so i had this one tooth that wouldn't grow anymore the other two were yellow and it was bad and she knew

what it meant she knew i was trying to do stand-up. She was like, just get your teeth, Joseph. You deserve it. My God. So you got your teeth? Yeah. And everything took off. Everything changed. Yeah. It was crazy.

So you were doing like just, but clubs though? Clubs, yep. And the people were coming? Yes. They were coming big. So was that when you started leaning on the Asian thing? Nope. Still took me a little bit longer. big so was is that when you started you know leaning on the asian thing or nope it still took

me a little bit longer uh and then when i finally figured out what it was mark is i didn't want to do the comparison jokes yeah i didn't want to do like filipinos eat like this and american white people eat like i didn't want to do that i wanted to figure it out like and it was hard it was hard for me to figure it out i wanted to tell tell stories. I wanted to do chocolate cake. Yeah. You know, I wanted to do Uncle Gus, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I finally figured it out.

I went up on stage and I just told this story about my mom playing the Wii with my son. And I just thought it was the coolest thing to see my mom play Wii with my son and how she wanted it so bad. Yeah. Because it was exercise for me. And I had to go buy her this Wii. And I went up on stage and told the whole story. And I was off and running, man. And it was personal and it was real.

Yeah. You're drawing from real experience. And you're finding the beats as you go along. Yeah. And they were working out like jokes. There were callbacks. It was a structured joke, but yet it seemed conversational. It's amazing to build those things.

Yeah, man. Yeah. And that was it., but yet it seemed conversational. It's amazing to build those things. Yeah, man. Yeah. And that was it. I changed the whole style. Yeah. And I remember when my first special came out and I said, game over, which was the big punchline that I was touring with. Yeah. You know, with that joke of her playing the Wii.

And I remember doing the special and then I was like, I have to let this thing go. Like, it's gone. Right. Like, I have to let this thing go. Like it's gone. Right. Like I can't do that joke anymore. It's like Gaffigan in Hot Pockets. Yes. Yeah. Exactly.

And I'm like, what am I going to do? And that's the whole thing about being a headliner. That's when I was like, okay, let's go. Let's write again. And it's crazy. How many hours have you turned over? Oh my God. 10 at least. just over and over yeah

there's hours that i couldn't even you know i mean because from lights out to to live from seattle no one offered me an hour and there's so many hours there that i had to drop but did you put them on cd nothing man oh really yeah you know there's a joke on live seattle that that's on live from Seattle that's so fucking old and I had to pretend that it was brand new but I didn't want it to die

because I love that joke so much I was like it's gotta live man I hate when they die yeah I do too it's like it's like losing a kid man

I don't think about it too much but what I started to think about it was that you know we all get into this habit of like we gotta get the new hour gotta get the new hour and like then when you do something on tv even though tv doesn't like

matter like you used to and and no one's even fucking watching no one but like it's sort of like i can't do that anymore and then i realized like fuck that i put it took me six months yeah it took get that 12 minute bit working and now i'm just not gonna fucking do it yeah so i pulled one out i pulled it back out yeah because no one never saw it good i did on like john oliver's comedy special right yeah and like comedy thing on comedy central but like no one's making note of that it's like and it's like a great piece and it worked great yeah that's how i feel about this one that i just did on jimmy fallon and i'm like i i and it was so funny because my my agent my fiance, they were

all like, you should do it on. It's perfect. It's the perfect joke. Yeah. Oh, not on Fallon on, on, on James Corden. Yeah. And, uh, and I was just like, I want that in this new hour. Oh, you don't want to burn it.

I didn't want to burn it. Yeah. And I did it. And I'm just like, God damn it. Like right now I'm still kicking myself cause I'm about to shoot my new hour and I'm contemplating. Do I do it? Of course. Why not do it?

I know. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. What's going to happen? Like three people are going to be like, I saw that one on film. It's like, what do you want from me? What do you want? It took me fucking months to get that thing working right.

Yeah, man. That was up on the, you know, I had that thing, you know, working on the undercarriage for a long time. Dude, I did the sleep apnea bit for about a year and a half. Yeah. Just talking about how I have sleep apnea and how I got it and how my mom did it. And then I shot it. And I remember it took me, it literally took me a month before I had to take my special

to get the damn punchline because it fell weak. It was such a great story. Yeah. There's big laughs and everything. But my punchline was just like, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. I got one of those. Nothing. nothing yeah and then i finally get it i finally get the the punchline which was a callback from another joke right and uh and i forgot to fucking do it on the special and i wanted

to fucking kill myself because it was such it took me so long to write that thing yeah and then i do the special and i forget I remember walking off stage going you gotta be kidding me yeah that whole chunk and everyone's like oh god man that was a great special and I'm like no fuck me where's that joke now

that's on the special I won't do it anymore people don't know how hard we write these things huh Mark don't you want hard we write these things, huh, Mark? Well, when you do it- Don't you want to punch people in their fucking mouths when they don't understand how hard it is? Sometimes.

Because especially if you do it like you seem to do, like I do, where you're talking things out. So you're talking things out. Yeah. Because a lot of dudes who write right, they're not going to just wait for a fucking punchline to be delivered. But if you do stories, you you're like, it's, it's strong enough,

but I know that the end is weak, but like the story is still interesting and it's, there's enough laughs there. And then one day it just finishes itself. Yeah. And it's a big day. And you don't know where it came from. No,

you never do. But like, not everybody writes like that. But for me, it's sort of like, it take, you know, some things are around for a year and they tag themselves.

You're like, Oh, that's it. Yeah. You know, and then it's done. So, yeah, I don't think people understand the relationship that we have with those things. A lot of people who just write jokes, they can throw them away. But if you do long form, it's sort of like, I can't throw that shit away. This isn't disposable. Uh-uh.

This stuff's all got to work together. Yeah. Mind you, this doesn't have a shelf life. Yeah. This is a joke that can live forever right now. You want it to. together. Yeah. Mind you, this doesn't have a shelf life. Yeah. This is a joke that can live forever right now. You want it to. Yeah.

Yeah. So Chelsea Waitley too, that helped you out a lot, right? Yeah, man, that was crazy. I couldn't believe how popular that show got. And it kind of sucked because I was in,

when I came to LA, I was in, you know, I was at the Laugh Factory but I was also doing spots at the Improv and I was in and then that Chelsea just, you know i was i was at the laugh factory but i was also doing spots at the improv and i was in and and then that chelsea just you know i had my son and then chelsea and my special it just it

it erupted the first special yeah and i was able to make money on the road and and i had to leave hollywood and i think that's why i lost a lot of connection with the guys that i had relationships with you know right right and it sucked you were you went you but but you're a guy though but you're not so you're uh uh you're you're a working comic yeah and that's what you do it's not like you know like you're not running around auditions no you know you're one of those guys like gaffigan or regan it's like that's where your money is yeah is doing the thing yeah not waiting for the thing yeah so you know we're not gonna wait for the no right so you're you're out working yeah so you yeah you lose the connection yeah and that's what happened with the waiting guys and i i literally did i i lost connect it sucked

because i you know i had a nice bond with all these comics you know we were all that's why when we went to jfl and when Tiffany said that about me, like that was, I started crying. I know. Because that was a part of my life, being at the Laugh Factory and seeing someone like Tiffany Haddish that's broke.

Yeah. You know, wants to be a comedian. She's trying to make it in this business and I'm buying her hot dogs. I didn't know that meant anything to her until she started crying on the stand and I started crying. Yeah.

Because I totally forgot I did that. Yeah. You know what I i mean but it's like a community yeah you missed that i i did miss that yeah i was lonely on the road i remember being on in saint charles at the fucking barn at uh whatever it's called i can't remember that damn comedy club you know saint charles oh man i can't remember it the funny bone oh the funny funny bone is saint charles it's it's in the middle of a cornfield or whatever in in a field somewhere. Oh, I heard about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're depressed.

You don't have that community anymore. You don't have your comic friends to hang out with. That's like another fucking universe. Yeah, man. Sad hotel. And I'm not able to bring my features yet. So now I got to wait for who's opening for me. And then, oh, I don't like this guy.

Who's going to try to blow me off stage for a week? Yeah. Who's going to who's opening for me and then oh i don't like this guy he's gonna try to blow me off stage for a week yeah he's gonna make it hard for me every night yeah exactly who's gonna who wants to become my friend because they want to you know but i don't really like them yeah yeah you know what it is but then the next day you're like do you want to go to the mall yeah i'll buy you lunch what are you doing you want to go to cheesecake factory yeah there's a chili's yeah man there's a chili's you like you like riblets fuck fuck me but no but that's behind you dude yeah but so like what where are you now like it's crazy bray i'm doing my last run at bray Improv, and I think it's like 600.

It's already sold out. I think we're like 14 shows sold. Really? Yeah. Wow. It's crazy, man. Yeah. But are you doing the bigger theaters too?

Yeah. It's crazy. Lincoln, I just came back. Lincoln, California, I did 10,000 seats. That's great. Yeah. So that's your huge act. Yeah. Yeah. Not everywhere, Mark. I know, I did 10,000 seats. That's great. Yeah. So you're a huge act. Yeah.

Yeah. Not everywhere, Mark. I know, I know. I got my spots where I still do the clubs. Right. But do you find that, like, you know, what's the audience like? Is it a generally ethnic audience? Yeah.

I'm not going to, yeah, you know, I pay a lot attention to my Filipino people that come out. It's about 45, 50%. And then, like I said, when I first started, I went after, I did Showtime at the Apollo, Def Jam, I did BET's Comic View, and then I started doing Latino nights, and I did the Spanish networks and got on those tours. And I waited before I could do the Filipino stuff. I wanted to get those audiences first. I got the Chelsea lately.

John Lovett's people, I was opening for them. Every time I opened for somebody and act like that, I always made sure to promote myself, man. 10,000 postcards. At the end of the show, I'd run out. Oh yeah? I'd be opening for John Lovitz.

I'd run out in the parking lot. Oh, did you enjoy the show? And just, I was establishing my audience, man. They used to make fun of me. I'm surprised Alonzo Bowden didn't say something during that award because that was his number one go-to. He would always say that to me.

Go out there and hand out your cards, Joe. Yeah. And I would go. I would. What was on the card? It would just say joekoi.com. And then at that time, whatever, like MySpace or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I would hand them out. Boom. So you did a lot of that. Left and right. Yep. Now, what about-

I would burn DVDs, Mark, from fries. I would burn them. And I would give those away for free. Like from live shows? No, I would burn whatever I did on TV. I would burn it. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

So like my Showtime at the Apollo and BET's Comic View. No shit. So you'd buy bulk DVDs? Yep, fries. It'd be $100. And then I would print the folding paper that goes inside the sleeve for a DVD. I would get 10,000 of those printed up so it would look official. And then my friend worked at Blockbuster, and he would give me the cases because he would throw those in garbage bags.

The gem boxes? Yep. I would grab boxes. Not boxes. Garbage bags. Yeah. And I would just fold them. It was just a little work.

You were giving away hundreds a night? Hundreds a night. It was just a little work. You were giving away hundreds a night? Hundreds a night. It was so cool. I did a show at some theater and a lady waited. She took a picture with me and she had the DVD. The old one.

The old one, yeah. No kidding. Yeah. Took a picture with it and everything, man. So everywhere you go, so you'd open for a headliner and you just like, you'd make sure that they remembered your name.

You said you were one of those guys like jokoi.com. Yep. Oh, no, no. I would hand a card. But after on stage, thank you. Thank you. I'm Jokoi, blah, blah, blah. I'll be out front. Yeah. I never wanted to sell, too. Never sold. Wasn't worth it to me.

And you still don't sell? I've never asked a headliner, yo, can I sell my stuff? I knew it was more important to shake everybody's hands and hand a card to them. Do you still don't sell? No, I sell now. What do you sell? Just shirts and tees, but I don't really care about it.

That's just something that's tangible. People want. You know what I mean? I still run out. You don't have to buy something to take a picture with me because I will literally run out into the audience after my show and take pictures with you. You'll take like two hours? I don't care. Yeah, two hours. I'll do it i love it man yeah no i mean it's like it's worked out for you yeah in a big way yeah yeah a lot of people don't like to do it i enjoy it

no i don't mind doing it but like you know when you get i'm not playing 10 000 seats either no but i mean if you're doing you know an 800 seater you kind of know sort of like well if i'm gonna do that yeah it's gonna be two hours yeah and like you know and there'sater you kind of know sort of like well if i'm gonna do that yeah it's gonna be two hours yeah and like you know and there's gonna be a lot of pictures of of strangers and a tired me yeah like yeah you start seeing those pictures yes of just people with you and you're like half like you know one eyes open like yeah it's just after a show you know they don't know how tired we are man i know i don't know that that hour on stage is tiring. I don't know either until I see those pictures.

I'm like, oh my God, I thought I was getting away with something. Yes. So true. I don't want you to think I play all 10,000 seats. I've been blessed to- Spread them out. Yeah, there's a lot of markets. I've been blessed, man.

I'm so honored to say that there's a city a there's a city in between seattle and tacoma called kent yeah and they built a brand new arena it's a hockey arena yeah and i sold it out twice it was like 11 000 tickets and uh and they painted my 10 foot mural it says two sold out shows and that's kind of like my like when i saw that i was just like when when I was 15, I saw Eddie Murphy and it happened. Because I remember, Mark, I remember looking at the 300 section going, that's impossible. Right. There's no way anyone can do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So for me to be able to be like, man, if you could dream it, it can happen. Oh, that's great. Yeah, man. And it's like a good homecoming. And it's always there. Every game, whatever concert that goes into that venue, they get to see that. Oh, they leave it there? Oh, they painted it. It's on their wall in the

hallway, man. Oh, that's nice. Local boy. Yeah, man. Oh, so, but you get along with your dad now? Oh, man. Like I said, man, you know, we both cried. Yeah. It was right around, I think I was like 21-ish. Yeah. And we both cried and i and i told

my dad i go dude i get it man i get it yeah you don't have to tell me yeah i wrote the story i get it yeah i would never want to be in that situation at your age i get it i probably would have walked away too yeah but he's been the biggest supporter of my stand-up career ever since oh yeah so yeah i remember he maxed out a visa card just to buy me a website oh really yeah it was like five grand yeah and that website is could have been free yeah but i got ripped off by some guy but he charged us five grand but i remember my dad was like all right here and he maxed out this credit card and gave me five grand to pay this guy to make my website because i told my dad i go dad i need a website because the website's gonna tell the world who i am yeah yeah sure did you pay him back no he owed me god damn it there you go

and uh all right well great how cool is it that when you said i i knew of you but i didn't know who you were yeah and i'm like i know that because when we got on the plane to JFL, I was moving my jacket for you. And you were like, thanks, buddy. No, I didn't quite put it together. Like, you know. Hey, thanks. Thanks, pal. Thanks for making space for my suit.

That's true. That was you, wasn't it? Yeah. Was it? Were you wearing a hat? Yeah. Oh. Yeah.

I really didn't recognize you. Yeah. You were like right across from me. I didn't care, man. You had your suit and I'm like, Mark needs to put his suit. He needs to hang his suit, God damn it. But you were wearing a hat. You had glasses on.

Yeah. And you had something around your neck and you did not look like you. Yeah. And I was wondering like, who the fuck is that guy? But then when you took your hat off and I saw you at the thing and you didn't have glasses on, I was like, I know who you are. Oh, okay. Just not at that time.

No, I didn't. That was you. Yeah. Oh, sorry, buddy. No. Yeah. I was honored to move my suit for you. But thanks, pal.

Yeah. That's it, man. He's selling out the entire state of hawaii that guy wow it was a nice to meet him nice guy solid dude so oh also there's still i believe there's still tickets for some shows i mean mostly most of the stuff sold out comedy works in denver september 21 and 22 uh if you're in den and you want to see me, I would grab those. Stand Up Live in Phoenix, Arizona. I would grab those.

Also, I will be at the New York Comedy Festival Saturday, November 10th at the Beacon Theater. Buy tickets, but go to nycomedyfestival.com and get the link there. Don't just search it and end up at wherever it is. StubHub or

whatever. And then ask me why is it $2,000 for a seat. Alright? Just go get the correctly priced ones for the event that's not sold out and, you know, don't complain. Alright? Okay. Should I play? Thank you. guitar solo Boomer lives!

Tired, man. 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. 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. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the 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

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