Netflix passed, then came crawling back - Joe DeRosa

44:34You want to move in with me? So I did. with him with him, his girlfriend at the time, and their daughter. And I just saw the three of them at Shane's show at Lincoln Financial Field. And, you know, now it's wild. His daughter is 20. She was two when I lived there. I mean, so she's in her mid-20s. Late to my math sucks. So it's just crazy. It's just crazy. But anyway, that was it. That's what started the New York journey. And it was not easy. I was blessed that Jay introduced me to people and helped me figure out ways to make a couple bucks initially. But it was a long process. And there was a lot of people in line.

45:30And that was tough. This is getting past the clubs in New York? It was that, and then it was you get past, they never use you. Like, it was you get past, then you get unpassed. It was a lot. When did you start feeling comfortable?

45:47I can't even, I don't even know. To be honest, when I left. Okay. I left New York. I left New York after about 15 years to go to L.A. for my first writing job on the Pete Holmes show. Um, Pete has been one of my closest friends in comedy for almost from the beginning, um, or at least the beginning since New York.

46:15And I had been headlining Gotham Comedy Club. They were amazing to me. They got behind me and really believed in me, you know? So there were places I felt comfortable. I felt comfortable at Gotham because I knew they believed in me because the Mazzilli brothers who own it and then Sean the booker and then also all the different managers and Ed and all the people that were there at that time. They were very, very vocal and supportive, which is not a thing always at a club. And did I get jealous when you played at other clubs? No, no, no. They were very like, there was none of that. There was none of the pissing contest territorialism with them.

47:03They were very vocal and very supportive. So I felt really comfortable there. nice um then i'd go to the comic strip and i never felt comfortable there i'd get spots at you know i'd get a check spot at 1 30 in the morning and i never really did that well and i didn't get a ton of spots and i just felt like they weren't that into me you know uh and i always felt like this is well that was probably the last spot um and i wasn't good in such at that time i wasn't good in situations like that because i would self-sabotage how i'm gonna dump you before you dump me i'm gonna go on stage tonight and if i'm having a bad set i'm gonna go out the audience in a way that you're gonna say i don't we're gonna not use you anymore stuff like that not good not healthy but it was where I was at the time and these are just you know hard lessons you got to learn I still have that that that demon is still in me I have to fight it it's it's tough it's tough that's of all the things I wish I could really change about myself I wish that was not there but it is I'm much better keeping it at bay but but New York was tough man and I didn't fully feel comfortable until I left.

48:34I went to LA. I started writing. Before you go to LA, did you have a team in New York? Did you ever work with a manager or an agent? Oh man, I went through fucking everybody. I was like the Liz Taylor of... I was married to everybody. Well, tell me. So who was your first manager? Who was your first agent? And this happened in New York, I see. My first managers were the Steinbergs. My first agent was APA. I think it was Mike Berkowitz brought me into APA. But I wasn't with him. I was with some other guys. I'm blanking on their names. Then I was with Three Arts. And then I was with McDonald Murray.

49:17and then I was with uh my friend Bjorn managed me but he went to a different company I can't remember what the company was and then I was with um Jonathan Branstein uh I'm still friends with all these people so why the rotation what because it was a different look it was a very different business back then there was no version of i want to do this let's figure out how to make it work it was i want to do this and if you want it to work it's going to cost an incredible amount of money that you don't have give me an example uh i can't get a special how about i shoot my own okay great you have four hundred thousand dollars there was no affordable camera to get there was no youtube um to put it on there was none none of this shit existed so it was you know eventually did obviously um so the rotation was merely me not being able to get things done within the system that existed which was the which was the hollywood system um now and then you would blame the manager for that i wouldn't blame them i would just be like we're not getting anywhere yeah okay and eventually both parties i think get a bit frustrated you know um i remember tj miller who's one of my best friends now I didn't know him that well back then but I remember both he and I were at three arts both he and I were at three arts at the same time I remember saying to my manager Josh Lieberman I'm not TJ Miller it's not going to be self-perpetuating because TJ was a guy that was just undeniable it just moved and he worked hard too I'm not going to say he didn't but it just moved.

51:33He was an undeniable presence. He was a good looking dude. He's a physically large man. His energy fills like an arena. He's very off the wall. He's very unique and he's a great actor and he's funny. you know it's just like i'm like i'm not that guy i'm the guy that's like a little more subdued that wants to try to do this web series about this thing that's a little more like a movie but it's in six part and they're just like what the fuck are you we can't there's no why are they going to give you money to do that it won't do anything you know so like it was just was tough this is the thing about managers there are there are the managers that just try to sign talented people and hopefully something takes off and then there's the other managers with the other type of manager which is i think the manager you have now emilio who is all about building equity and actually building a business and putting reality putting the outcome into your own control well emilio and i met at the right time emilio eventually this all led to Emilio.

52:48Um, and I don't have an agent right now. I just do everything with, with the Forza crew, but, um, he came in at the right time. He became a manager at the right time for the way he works. The way he works wouldn't have worked 15 years ago. He would have had to work in a very different way because back then, if they weren't giving you their money, that was, well, 15, years ago YouTube existed you could but that was such a different world it was like the things that were going viral back then on YouTube the things were getting millions of views and and subscribers you know it was it was the angry video game nerd and it was stuff like that it was it was suddenly this whole new type of show that I eventually realized was were the types of shows I was trying to get made you know the one that fucking kills me is i pitched a cooking show and i championed this thing forever and the premise this is i'm not exaggerating at least 20 years ago and the premise was you know when you watch a movie and they cook a meal in the movie well you take the movie scene and then you make the meal because those meals those scenes always me?

54:14Never going to happen. Never going to happen. Why? They're never going to pay for the licensing in the movie scene. It's, it's too much, too much red. It'll never happen. Why will it never happen? Because at that time, the only way it could happen was if the Food Network bought it. It's a fucking massive YouTube show now. This exact show is a massive YouTube show. I'm not saying it's the most unique idea in the world, but it, my point is, is what I started to notice on YouTube in, in later years was, oh, all of these things that I kind of wanted to do, you can do on YouTube now. Have I done them to some extent, not to, not to the extent I want to, and that I'm trying to do now, but you know, it thrills me that like I can have a show on YouTube slash podcast with YMH, and I can unbox four things I got in the mail that are going into my movie collection.

55:14There was no outlet for that before. You know, none, absolutely none. So, and, and, and it's coincidentally all happening as the system that we all needed to rely on 20 years ago is kind of crumbling. But that system was what it was. And back then, you banked very much on a couple things, selling script, selling a pilot, whether you were going to be in it or not, or booking something, you know, oh God, I got this movie or I got this TV show or I got this sitcom. And even then you weren't safe. You know, a lot of guys went into writing i dabbled i dabbled in all of it i knew as i did all that stuff out in la it was not sustainable um which just feels like you've got no control of your own destiny in that world it sounds like a nightmare you don't and if you're a true comedian you can't you can't give yourself over to it Pete Holmes was the only writing room I was ever brought back to.

56:25And it was because I wrote stand-up for that show.

56:31I was a good tool for him. Because I could write stand-up. And he wanted stand-up. He didn't want jokes. Like joke jokes. He wouldn't want late night jokes. He wanted stand-up. So that was a show I was instrumental on. And I'm not saying I didn't contribute to the other shows I worked on. But like, for instance, like Wet Hot American Summer, I had a great experience and an amazing thing getting to run on that first season. And I got some stuff on air and whatever, which is great. But I'm not the person you want in that room because I'm a stand up first. And if I think my idea is right, I will not let it go.

57:11And a showrunner can appreciate that but doesn't need it. they need a writer who goes, all right, boss, we'll do it your way. And I'm like, we'll do it your way, but it's stupid. I'm not disrespectful. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I get it. I totally get it. It's, it's just not a writer. A TV writer has to be a writer first. The TV writer, the best way I ever heard it summed up was there was a documentary on HBO about a bunch of old TV writers that met for breakfast every day at this one place. and they talked about all the stuff they wrote on the one guy like was like i wrote 47 episodes of gun smoke this old cowboy show for for the young viewers and he goes i was a writer i was a career writer but i was not a writer in the sense of hemingway i was a mechanic and that's what tv writing is you're a mechanic and you could be a really great mechanic and a really great mechanic can put together a beautiful automobile, you know, but a standup, it's just not, it's a different kind of thing.

58:23Your, your, your whole life. And also too, the, the ego shift that you have to do, which is really hard it's really hard to go into a room at night and do a stand-up set and be the person everybody is cheering for and sometimes afterwards wanting to take a picture with and all this stuff and then the next day go into a room where you have a boss you're an employee yeah it's hard yeah weird thing to do you know i used to have a joke about i'd be the worst uh batman because i'm too petty you know i was like all i would take is me dating a a pest you know a woman like pestering me where were you you're never here yeah listen I was like, I'm Batman, you selfish bitch.

59:32You know? But it felt like that. It feels like you want to go in the next day and be like, I'm a fucking comedian, man. You understand? I took 10 pictures last night. You think I'm great. My idea is fucking right. You know? Yeah. It's just too hard of a lane switch. So I enjoy doing it. I'm thrilled that, and in some situations, it's great. because like with tires, I loved riding on tires. We had a blast. I had a blast. Unbelievable show. Yeah, it's great. And it led to me being on the show. Yeah. Now I just get to be on the show. Yeah. A few episodes every season. It's fucking awesome. That's really what I want to do, you know?

1:00:15I still love directing. I love to direct episodes of stuff, you know? But even with directing, directing is far more in sync with stand-up. you're the guy saying here's how we're doing it this is my idea this is what i want to do that's that is far more in sacred stand-up so that's i still want to do that stuff and i still write i just write more for myself so i write my own scripts and uh and uh you know but back then like i was saying before you could do your own ever before everybody could have their own respective TV show on YouTube, the hope was get staffed, sell something, get hired to be in something.

1:00:55Getting hired to be in something was the hardest. Selling something was the second hardest. Third hardest was getting staffed. So I started getting staffed and I was acting in things. I got to be on Better Call Saul. And how are you getting these gigs? Did you have an agent at the time just auditions and submissions yeah it's yeah um you'd submit you have to submit a writing packet and that was a lot of work did you move to LA with some things lined up or did you move to LA and try and win some deals I called Pete Holmes he had a talk show it hadn't started yet I said Pete I'm trying to get into writing I want to write for your show he said okay um you know Unfortunately, because of the network, I still need you to send a submission.

1:01:44I don't have the authority to just bring you in or whatever. I said, okay, send me the packet. He sends you the packet. You got to write 10 pages of shit. One of them was a full monologue for him to do that was conceptual about one topic.

1:02:04banged it out sent it to him on a

1:02:10thursday or wednesday i was at gotham comedy club doing shows uh just spots i wasn't i wasn't um headlining and um uh pete called me and i went into the lobby to talk to him and i'm like hey man and he's like roses he always called me roses roses i love you buddy i'm just i i'm sorry man i got bad news i'm like it's all right dude don't worry about it we tried and he goes well you gotta you gotta fly to la on monday what a dick yeah i'm like fuck you and like wait I got it. He's like, you got it, buddy. Like, it's you. You're the guy for the job. It's undeniable. I was like, wow, that's awesome.

1:03:03So he hired me. I had to walk over to Sean the Booker. I go, I can't do my spots tomorrow night. I was like, why not? I'm like, I just got hired to write for a TV show. I started on Monday. I have to pack up my entire apartment tomorrow. He's like, okay, that's great. Good luck, man. They were a supportive bunch. um and that that's how that started we did two seasons and this is where i start to say like you start you start to realize it's not sustainable we did two seasons that got canceled i didn't have another job lined up it was a talk show man talk shows around the year you know there's no like real hiatus so I had nothing lined up and then I got what year was this oh how old we

1:03:56Well, 30. Okay, so you've been in the game. No, 35, 35, sorry. So you're 10 years in? 12 years in? 13. 13 years in, okay. Yeah, I was 35. Yep.

1:04:11And my friend Christina Lee called me and she said, hey, she was a writing partner with Michael Showalter. She called me, she said, hey, Michael and David Wayne or bringing back Wet Hot American Summer. I was like, wow, that's fucking awesome. I love that movie. She's like, yeah, they're doing it. It's going to be a TV show. I was like, wow, really? She's like, yeah. She goes, I really think you should submit for it. I think you'd be really good. And Michael likes you. You know, he's met you. He likes you. He thinks you're a nice guy. I was like, okay. So I submitted. I was on the road doing a gig when they called me and said, you have, you're hired.

1:04:53You have to be here Monday. Sick. And I, it was Saturday and I had gigs into the weekdays and I left. Call your agent so I deal with this? Called my manager. My manager was like, my manager Sam Safer at the time. She was my manager pre-Amelio. Okay. Sam, Sam was an amazing person. She is an amazing, she's still alive. She's not dead. she's an amazing person. In fact, she's married to Eric Abrams, the guy that I did my special with. Sam and I had a really, really great relationship. I was very sad when it came to an end, but it was time for it to end. You know, sometimes you just, people grow apart and that's okay.

1:05:37Explain that to me. Artist-manager relationship, how do you just grow apart? Sometimes it's just the manager starts to move in a new direction and the artist starts to move in a new direction and that's just kind of what it is, you know, and you still love each other They're very much, you know, but it happens with marriages all the time. You know, people grow apart and it's like, I just don't want to live this way anymore. I kind of want to live over there and be like this. I don't want that. I'm more interested in going further in this direction. And you, and you, you call it a day, but you still love each other and, and, and, and respect one another.

1:06:14But Sam was great. So she called me and we talked about it and she was like, I'm going to advise you to talk to Christina. I think you should do this as terrible as it is that you're about to bail. And, um, and I was like, oh my God, my anxiety. I was, I can't even begin to tell you. and um i called christina and i was like christina this i'm in a real bind here and she was like joe i think this could be a life-changing opportunity for you i really think you should do this it was such it was such a um what is what is the word um there was just so much hype around it There was so much hype around this show that this cult classic movie was going to be continuing on and that most likely the entire cast was coming back.

1:07:21And the entire cast meaning Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, these people, Elizabeth Banks, these people that had gone on to become massive movie stars. So I did it. I did it and it was a great experience but I wasn't right for it because I'm not right for a writer's room I'm just not I learned a lot it's honestly incredible to have that kind of clarity to be honest hey look I was a waiter and when I didn't get a lot of tips and was always furious at the table I was waiting on I was like I'm not supposed to be a waiter I'm not supposed to be a waiter i'm not good at this i think i'm a good writer i don't think i'm a good writer's room writer and it's because i'm a stand-up you know stand-ups don't walk off stage after

1:08:24delivering what they believe to be good material to a crowd that is not receptive saying oh well they walk off going what the fuck was wrong with those fucking people right don't they get it you know that's the thing so it's just a different mode of thinking it's a different energy that said i made some some really great friends there and people i was very happy to be around you know it's it's nice to it's nice to see michael showalter once in a while and be able to talk to him you know i grew up watching the state i respected the shit out of him david wayne same thing you know and when i did my comedy central special um the production company that produced wet hot american summer produced my special so that was a big moment for me that this very what i consider to be sort of exclusive production company wanted to work with me and this happened while you're in la great and they wanted to work with me because we we made a great rapport.

1:09:29I've never left any of these jobs on bad terms. It's just, it's the old Sinatra song. It was just one of those things where he's singing about the one night stand. It's just one of those things. It's just one of those crazy flings, you know? Let's not try to pretend it was more than it was. You had a good time. So after that, then I wrote for Moshe Cashers. He had a show called Problematic. Moshe's one of my close friends. It was fun writing with Moshe. It was fun working with him. And that I just worked on the pilot. Then I wrote for a cartoon. It was called Jeff and Some Aliens. It lasted one season.

1:10:16It got canceled. So you're seeing this pattern here where I'm just like... And amidst all this, I'm booking some acting work. but then the acting work is like you know i did better call saw which was great but i was only on two episodes a season you can't live off of that um and then i thought well better call saw is going to open all these other doors for me acting wise and it didn't because the business was changing the way they were casting was changing stunt casting was becoming much bigger what's stunt casting you know uh it's a small role but we're going to put the most famous person we possibly can into it cameo shit you know yeah yeah stunt casting was not only becoming more popular uh what your following was on social media was becoming a lot more popular and the way you could use your social media to help the show and then also the we don't want any more straight white guys things started creeping in which did not help me so it was a lot it was just changing um the writing jobs were becoming fewer and further between um in fact after jeff and some aliens i never wrote on a show again until tires that was a big gap um no that's not true i worked on crashing pete's show crashing just but just for a few weeks but um and then i had sold also amidst all this two or three pilots one thing leads to another something goes wrong they never make it to production you never see a dime i had a movie optioned i got paid a little bit of money to develop it never moved forward during all of this time of um of trying to get something away you're doing stand-up in LA?

1:12:15Barely. Okay. Because I wasn't a paid regular at the comedy store yet. And in LA, the game in LA is kind of like the comedy store is, if you're not famous, the comedy store is, in my opinion, is it. Because if you're a paid regular, you will get to work. The improv is great and the laugh factory is great but for me at the time those clubs felt more like hey there is a very distinct hierarchy here and if you're famous you can do a lot of stage time here unless somebody more famous wants to do you know but it's not the same in new york not as much not as much um but if you're just a comic which at the time i really was i was just kind of it was like it was you couldn't that was it it's hard to bust you way in yeah so i was doing a lot of the alternative rooms as they called them uh like uh nerd melt was big chris hardwick had had um nerdist the podcast network so that started happening by the way too all of a sudden this podcasting thing was becoming very real you know nerdist happened ear what was it earwolf is it Earwolf?

1:13:37Is that Scott Aukerman's? I think it's Earwolf. That happened. Red Band was doing the Death Squad thing and Rogan was massive. Rogan was already like this thing that was big. So this podcasting thing was becoming very real. I had no clue what kind of money people were making. Had I known, I would have taken podcasts seriously sooner. um but um so that was happening and um you could just see the shift but anyway i was doing these these alt rooms and these bar rooms and stuff and then all of a sudden they started closing um excuse me and

1:14:24uh that was it last acting role i had booked in la was for a sitcom

1:14:35called Living Biblically. It's a multicam for CBS.

1:14:42My podcast co-host at the time, Pat Walsh, was showrunning the show. He'd created it. And he said, I want you to come in and read for this guy, Gary. He's kind of like the office Lothario. I said, okay, cool. So I went in, Johnny Galecki from Big Bang Theory was the producer. And I went in and, um, and I read with this guy, Jay Ferguson, who was on Mad Men and, you know, great guy. Um, they're all, yeah. Um, but anyway, um, I read with Jay and we just, it popped. It was really good. It was really, really good. And I was like, I think I'm going to get this. And I got it. And we were shooting it.

1:15:32Andy Ackerman, who's like the Martin Scorsese of sitcom directing. He directed Cheers, Frasier, Seinfeld. It's nuts. He was directing it. I'm in a cast with Jay Ferguson, Sarah Gilbert, Cameron Manheim, David Krumholtz. I'm just like all these actors that I'd watched for years man I'm just like this is fucking crazy and um there were four female executives at CBS and they were the meanest women I'd ever met in my life and their boss was the reason I got the job their boss saw my tape and said this guy's fucking funny i want him to do it it's like wow the head of cbs comedy said he wants wow cool these four women under him they hate it i don't they just did not like me they said the character i was playing they they they hated me and uh we shot the pilot it's crushed I did great you know I was a key part of the pilot show gets picked up I get booked for 10 episodes I'm like here we go finally life is going to change two weeks before they fired me two weeks before production they fired me because they cut the character they didn't want the character in the show I didn't understand what was going on.

1:17:11And then two weeks after the show aired, Me Too hit. And I was like, oh, I played a perv. Oh. They didn't want a perv character on the show because it's a pervert in the workplace. And the reason those women were mean to me was because their boss was Les Moonves, who was one of the most Me Too guys. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It was like the worst luck. And, dude, the dominoes fell. It was three years of steady work in L.A., and the dominoes just fell. You're not on the sitcom. You and your manager just broke up. The two pilots aren't going to go to production. You're not getting a dime. Your movie's not moving forward.

1:18:08nerd melt is closing you're not a paid regular yet at the comedy store

1:18:17that was it so what was the personal cost to you during this time the personal cost yeah i spent all my money i spent all my money living off of what i had managed to save for three years and um and then i went into debt and then i said after three years i gotta get the fuck out of here can't do this anymore i gotta go i gotta go back to new york i gotta be a stand-up again i've lost my way uh this is not sustainable and um i moved home on credit cards the most stressful period of my life had it had it had a breakout of adult acne in my 40s. But I got back to New York. I managed to secure an apartment

1:19:09that Paul Italia, who owns The Stand, got me an apartment. He had real estate connections. He got me an apartment for two grand a month in Alphabet City. It was a dump, but it was two grand a month. and um there were no windows except for in the bedroom which was just a wall they put up that could fit the width of a bed the only sink was in the kitchen um it was it was it was a dump but i was like i don't care i'm gonna be doing comedy all the time i'm not this is just a place to lay my head to rest and i started making the rounds in new york comedy comedy comedy i was doing so much comedy all of a sudden every week i'm looking down at my you know because they would pay you cash at my cash pile in my room and every week i'm putting another 1500 bucks down what were you getting paid per spot per set at this time depends on where but like some of them they were like 150 bucks a set great some were 100 and you know and how how much were you working how many I was just doing shows every night.

1:20:23Multiple? Yeah. Right. And all of a sudden I went from having literally no money coming in to$1 ,500 a week and then starting to go on the road again. And I was able to do the road more easily because I was in New York. And this is the time you signed with Emilio? No, not yet. Okay. I was without any representation. No, no, no. I'm sorry. That's not true. I had signed with Zach Friedman. It's crazy. I can't remember the name of the company. Jesus Christ. I'd been with Zach since I was in LA. I'm sorry. I blagged. After Sam and I split, Zach and I started working together. And so Zach was able to help me get road work and stuff.

1:21:05And it's hard to do from LA at the time because I wasn't making a lot. And it was expensive to fly out from there. So anyway, I went back to New York and was making money and I was like, okay, this is going to work. And then COVID hit. Jesus. Yeah. You got perfect timing with all this stuff. I have terrible timing. I always have. Yeah. I always have. And that was rough. COVID hit and I was just like, Jesus.

1:21:40but not to not to get too deep into the darkness of covid but um because it was the darkest and you're in a room with only one window well no windows if you're in the living room part yeah oh my god horrible horrible that's that's as it's as close as i've kissed up to suicide in my life Really? Yeah, I just was like, what? Because New York, it was, at least in the States, New York, it was worse than anywhere because we got it first. Yeah. And nobody knew anything. You know, as it spread across the country, people started to, we were learning more. you were also seeing that it could be eventually contained because by the time it really was hitting like the west coast we had gotten it down where we could go outside again and like it was it was but new york was guinea pig that was ground zero so it was just horrible you didn't know what was going on you didn't know what was going to happen you thought you could get it from surfaces i'm walking out into the hallway of this disgusting building that smelled and it was so gross and it It was like...

1:22:51Death is all around me. Yeah, you're afraid you're going to get it from the fucking railing or whatever. Yeah. And then you go to a supermarket, but you're in New York, and everybody is shoving against you. This is all before we knew. You can't get it like that, man. Yeah. You can't cough or something. You know, like whatever it was. And also, too, chances are if you get it, you're not going to die. Totally. You know? Yeah. But this was like the Black Plague.

1:23:18So, that was a bad time. That was a bad time. But good thing that came from it was Sal Volcano, me, Jay Oakerson, and Ari Shafir, we were a COVID group. So when we were able to get tests and hang out safely with each other and all that bullshit, we were a COVID crew. And Jay and I were already very close for all those years. So we just became closer. um christine evans jay's girlfriend was there we became closer um ari and i became even closer ari and i really ari and i were good friends but covid really like cemented our friendship because we were like real partners in crime during that and then um sal who was again i was friends with already, but we really became friends.

1:24:16And then Sal and I started a podcast called Taste Buds. And one of the only times in my life where it was perfect timing, we dropped a podcast that was frivolous and silly and about food during a time when people were not only loving podcasts, but very much wanted an escape. And it popped. And all of a sudden I was making enough money to buy a house. Selling ad spots in the podcast. Awesome. Who was selling them for you? A guy named Alex. Okay. And that was it. That was life changing. Amazing. So that led to, you know your profile starts to rise now because of the pod

1:25:11and you buy I bought a house in Pennsylvania and that led to me doing my special that's the most money you've ever made in your life at this right yeah yeah well how did it feel uh it didn't feel real I mean it felt it's weird because you don't get it like you don't get it all at once you know you have great months and then slow months so on great months you get excited slow months you be like what's going on is this all stopping what's happening you know what I mean like um but but it didn't it it was so it was so incremental it was like gaining weight you know you just kind of look up one day and go oh shit what have I done you know like it's it it didn't it it I knew it was good but it just didn't feel uh real um But when I bought my house, that was pretty crazy.

1:26:16You know, I was at Skank Fest. I was at Skank Fest in Vegas, and I had to go meet the noterer at a bar in one of the casinos and sign for my house. And I was walking. I looked like somebody just, like, hit me in the head. And I saw a comic, and he's like, what's the matter, dude? And I go, I just signed for my house. how long did it when you walk around your house for the first time how i remember having this experience when i first bought a house and i was like this stair is my stair like that's a fucking weird feeling yeah it is weird it is weird and also too once you get it all decorated yeah it's pretty cool to say wow this is amazing now of course the house, came along with the worst neighbors I've ever had in my life.

1:27:07Good. That forced me to sell it eventually. Okay. Which is why I now live full time. But I was able to buy my apartment here too. So I was able to buy two properties from TasteBuds and what TasteBuds allowed to happen. TasteBuds allowed for me to get to a place in my life where I was able to finally start to provide some security for myself and um and none of that security felt real until um my friend james cargill he had become a financial advisor and he was calling me for years and saying you know we just stayed in touch because we're friends but for years joey man if you ever need any I was like I didn't even know what a financial advisor was I was like Jim I got an account I'm fine he's like no no I'm not an accountant it's completely different and I was like eventually I understood because I started to have friends that talked about their business you know and I was like so I called him one day and I was like Jim tell me what to do and he started guiding me I started putting money into appropriate accounts and diversifying that money through him.

1:28:30And that's when I was able to see like, oh, wow, like that, that period of taste buds forward has been a new phase of your life. Cause I finally saw what I'd been kind of putting away and, and also talking to him and understanding like, what, what does retirement look like? What do we have to do to get there? And seeing that I had a chance at it,

1:29:01whereas three years ago, I didn't think I had one. No window in New York time. You wouldn't have imagined it. No. My uncle, well, also too, my uncle used to say to me, my Uncle John, another rest in peace, he said to me, Joe, here's my retirement plan. I'm going to work until I drop dead. I was like, that's kind of what it is. He had opened a bunch of cell phone stores, and they were not doing well. And he had a lot of debt. And he said, he said, Joe, I thank God for two things every day. I don't have a boss anymore, and that there's no debtor, there's no such thing as debtor's prison. He's like, I wouldn't trade it ever to go back and work under somebody ever again.

1:29:51And he would talk to me about that because he understood how I felt with the fears of no structure. The only structure I ever had was when I was with Joey Roses and I was somebody that was at the top of the food chain in the sense that I was one of the founders of the company. And that sucks. I don't like that. I don't like that at all. It's nice when you can go, well, let's kick that up to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway. Anyway, I moved. I had started spending more time in Austin. Through Taste Buds, Salsa Windfall got a resurgence. Paul and I started really playing together again. uh people were coming out to the shows and excited that we were putting stuff out um we you know it was just it was just life-changing and were you friends with all of the um mothership comedians at this stage when you moved here is that why you moved or did you become friends after you moved really like i was you know joe and i were friendly I consider Joe a friend now and I wouldn't say wasn't a friend prior to that but we were friendly yeah but now it's like I see Joe and we text and you know whatever Tony and I were friends we had a nice connection Tony and I always had a nice connection I don't know what it was there was just something about me and him where when we would sit and have a few drinks we would lock in and laugh really hard together but we never really hung out when I moved down here I was not the part of Kill Tony that I've gotten to become you know where I'm really frequently on it which has been amazing um he and I just man we just we just fucking clicked like and we just laughed a lot and and have a lot of fun shane and i obviously were already very tight from philly and all that stuff but like you know so shane was down here coming down and seeing shane shane and what i realized was because i had lived here in 2000 moved back and then what i and i'd always wanted to come back what i realized when i got back it was just visiting oh Adam Eagot also who books Mothership uh um Rebecca Trent who owns um Creek in the Cave

1:32:41then Redman um there was just a lot more people down here that I already had established relationships with that only became stronger and tighter once I fully moved down here but the reason I bring that up is is that I did not move down here thinking oh well obviously I will play these clubs all the time I didn't know I just was like you know what you can live there again and now you can do your job there which you couldn't and that's why you never went back and that's when I realized I don't have to be in New York anymore and that was a massive change in life and career for me because I got out of a place that I found was bleeding me dry financially in, in an attempt to just live normally.

1:33:37Um, it was also, I love New York. I miss it a lot. Um, probably what I miss isn't there anymore, but I love New York. I'm not knocking New York. What I started to hate about New York was the cost. Cost became offensive to me. I felt like I was living in an airport. I felt like everybody was gouging me for as much as they possibly could. And I just got tired of never being able to turn my back without worrying somebody was going to steal something from me. It was so constant. My apartment got burgled at one point. It got burgled in such an impossible way. I was like, this is crazy. It's like you're surrounded by predators.

1:34:17Like, I can't do this anymore. and it's just, I started to get immensely angry when I would set foot back in the city. I would drive back in from Pennsylvania because I had the house there, and the second I pulled through the tunnel, I was screaming. Wow. Screaming, and I was like, I got to get out of here, and this isn't working for me anymore, and at that same time, luckily, again, one of the few moments of wonderful timing in this long story Austin Austin popped up and I did South by Southwest one year and I did a food show as part of the food part I did comedy in the comedy part and I did my in Sausage Windfall played in my part and my manager goes you just did three legs of South by Southwest you realize that and I said I'm moving to Austin and he He goes, what the fuck are you talking about?

1:35:13And I go, I'm convinced I'm going to move here. This is it. This is it. I was at the mothership while I was here. The club's great. We did all the food stuff at the creek. The creek's great. We screened my special at the creek. I'm like, dude, this salsa windfall, this is it. We're doing this. I'm going to move here. And I went that day. I had a flight at 7 p.m. I went that day to the apartment I live in. Now I looked at 1 p.m. Amazing. I heard you and Rogan talk about the community and family that you have here at Austin and the mothership and how it's so close and tight and how people on the outside of that community are so jealous and angry and kind of resentful about it.

1:36:02Now, on my show with Emilio, your manager on he spoke about this rift in austin that that happened since the mothership moved here yeah and i always thought it was a bit as an outsider from the music industry i always thought it was a bit juvenile because i was like the music industry has had scenes forever like when hip-hop came up everybody within hip-hop loved it everybody outside hated it metal same deal and i'm like this is just comedy getting a new genre for the first time and not know how to deal with it yeah and i always just associate it as this cultural thing but then rogan speaking to you said something that i don't think many people have picked up on or spoke about and he mentioned that the mothership pays everyone super well and it's just designed to break even it doesn't want to make money yeah they take care yeah right they take care of everybody which is extremely generous and extreme like that adds to the sense of community there but i wonder if there's this unintended consequence from that because you've got all of these other clubs around which would go bankrupt with that same they couldn't survive with that same mentality yeah and so maybe but the other clubs pay pretty well too they pay well but they need to be profitable to survive yes yes yeah but what i'm saying is is even though they can't do what the mothership's doing they they They pay in a way that's still nice.

1:37:24Yeah. So that's good too. Because trust me, there are clubs that would not do that. There are clubs that would go, we've got to survive, so we're going to, again, it's a gouging happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe$30. Yeah. So what do the mothership pay versus the other clubs in Austin? I can't say that. Okay, that's not public? No. Okay. Okay. I would never say what I make. Sure, sure. Yeah. so what's your take on it why do you think because because when when amelio was speaking about this on the show that is a part of we're a very industry podcast we don't really get out to the fans at all but that did obviously and it and it caught wind and there was a lot of like opinions about this mothership versus the rest what's your take on it being on the inside i don't understand why it matters to anybody I don't get it.

1:38:18I had somebody comment to me today on Instagram. Um, you know, I had posted a flyer this couple months ago. I posted one of the, uh, one of the original flyers for my band, the fancy lads. It had, it was 30 years old, the flyer. It was a really special memory. And, uh, I took a picture of it and I posted it and I said, this flyer turned 30 years old today. And It was a hand-drawn flyer, and I was like, my God, times have changed, you know, whatever. And somebody, for whatever reason, today goes, and now you perform at the mothership with like the like emojis, whatever that's called. And then I'm a smartass, so I go, yes, I do.

1:39:12next show Joe DeRose and Friends July 29th come through and I'm paraphrasing but she wrote something along the lines of I supported you for your first show there exclamation point had no idea the Manosphere vibes and blah blah blah blah of the venue I used to love your comedy because as a fellow grump I felt seen oh well good luck oh and then she goes punk rock I guess her thing is she loves punk and she goes punk rock has always been about inclusion so it's like okay first of all if you're into punk rock any any Manosphere comic joke ain't got shit on what these fucking punk rock bands have been doing over the years okay Okay, so you're not into punk rock.

1:40:12You're into Hot Topic. That's what you're into. You're into a... I get spiteful with this shit, and I started looking at her profile. So much fun at the Whatever Punk show last night. I jumped up and down the entire show. It's like, yeah, because you are doing 2026 punk rock. That's not what punk rock is, or that's not what it was. i'm glad you found this little insulated horseshit version of it where everything is safe and that was my response by the way i just wrote keep punk rock safe exclamation um because it's like it's like you don't even know what these words mean anymore you have homogenized them to fit your little fucking world and your, your, whatever your quotas and whatever are, are and, um, and ideals.

1:41:10And it just, none of it makes sense. But the point that I'm getting at is I don't know why anybody cares. I don't know why anybody cares. If you're so sensitive that you can't go see a performer that you wanted to see and support that you've been supposedly a longtime fan of, and somebody else on the show who is not me, who I have no responsibility for or control over, says something you don't care for, and that then makes you say, wipe them out, all of them, which is what the fucking emperor says in Star Wars, by the way. this this this this sick dictator mentality these people have of of that is out of line now they will all be destroyed it's just so crazy and i bring this up not just to publicly shit on this woman but to also point out it's the same mentality of these people that feel the need to dissect what it is going on at one club and this other club and so why does anybody care why first of all anybody bitching about austin and saying uh joe rogan this or joe rogan that number one you're an idiot and you don't understand how economies work because economies are started by people.

1:42:46That's how they work. People that have the ability to create something help start an economy and kickstart it. You might have problems with a lot of people that help start the economies in certain scenes in cities you've enjoyed yourself in. That's not me saying you should have a problem with Joe or you shouldn't. Your opinion is your opinion. I don't care. My point is, is anybody this short-sighted to not understand, well, that's how an economy begins, is ridiculous. Anybody to think that the entire comedy scene of Austin, Texas boils down to a handful of people is ridiculous. anybody judging those people they think it boils down to based on clips on the internet and not assuming there's more of a complete experience there filled with nuance and and and complications and interesting things and and beautiful things and things you might not care of and things that make up any complete human being is a moron and short-sighted uh and you know what here's what it really is at the end of the day.

1:44:02They're not morons. They're not short-sighted. They're self-serving egomaniacs. And they know this gets them clicks. And they know that when they say it online, it helps them boost their profile. It is cheap. It is lazy. It is the exact thing that comedians are not supposed to do. It's the exact thing that punk rock is not supposed to do. you know it's so interesting you say this so when i was running rolling stone in australia i was putting millions of dollars into this brand building up this company and i remember seeing headline after headline in rolling stone america just hating on dave chapelle because he said some trans joke you know hating on this comedian because and i'm like fuck it rolling stone was like counterculture not like um whatever the mouthpiece of the political trend was at the time and i remember emailing rolling stone going guys i'm investing millions of dollars in the brand this brand and you are ruining it with this being offended about every kind of little joke yeah it is like they've completely well i'm really sick too of the people that that built their empires with blood money turning around now and telling the rest of us how to live when they're not going to give back a dime of that blood money if this is so wrong for all of us now okay guys now let's talk about all the times you did it when it was wrong because you're the same people that will say, I don't want to hear the, it was a different time excuse.

1:45:32Are you talking about people at the Guardian? I'm talking about people everywhere. Chelsea Hamler comes to mind. Chelsea made her bones being a horrid human being saying terrible things that were extraordinarily mean about people. Now that she's got her money, now that it became cool to not say that kind of stuff anymore, she now is going to be the enlightened person teaching on the rest of us how to live. Okay, Chelsea, then sell the mansion and give the money back. You're not going to do that, though, are you? You're not going to do that, are you? These people are cons. They're cons. That's it.

1:46:11They're the people in the Wolf of Wall Street. They say whatever they have to say in that moment to win. They do whatever they have to do in that moment to get ahead. There are no real ethics. There are no real morals. And what the game is, is banking enough money that when your office finally gets raided and you get called on your shit, you can go away to the metaphorical prison and not worry about starving. That's all it is they're doing. The industry decided a few years back that ethics were going to be economized and morals were going to be monetized. And certain people chose to just embrace that.

1:46:56And that's another reason I don't buy them and their bullshit progressiveness. Because it is not progressive to start saying and doing the right thing because you were reprimanded and told if you didn't stop saying and doing certain things. that you would lose your job. That's not called being progressive. That's called getting in trouble. Being a progressive is a hard battle. It's being an underdog. It is not being the overdog. And the fact that these fuckers complain about people that punch down left and right, well, they're all working for Amazon. They're working for Jeff Bezos. They're working for Apple.

1:47:33They're working for the biggest, the biggest, most disgustingly capitalistic groups you could ever fucking fathom. We're punching down. We're punching down. You're sitting at the feet of the emperor. We're punching down. I don't want to hear it. I don't have time for it. I'm tired of it. It's trite. It's stupid. And I didn't need a bunch of bleeding hearts to tell me things like fat shaming were wrong. I was able to figure out fat shaming was wrong when I was 12 years old. Why? My mom struggled with weight. I saw it up close and personal. I had friends that struggled with weight. I felt sorry for them.

1:48:16I was smart enough and insightful to realize it's hard when you're addicted to a thing you have to ingest three times a day. That sucks. So guess what I didn't do? I didn't fat shame. this is common fucking sense but all these assholes and i love to use that example for one reason because the people fat shaming the anti-fat shaming thing became very popular in about 2013 i think if i remember correctly my my year might be off but who can't these were the same fucking people two years later cranking rage against the machine going You fat, lazy Americans. A little face-shave is wrong. Yeah, no shit.

1:49:03You know, man, punching down is wrong. Unless we're punching down on the dumb hicks that voted for Trump. Because they're stupid hicks that are too dumb and inbred and poor to know anything. Oh, now punching down's fine. So where do you think the main motivation comes from? Where was all the punching down concern when... And I'm not shitting on Conan O 'Brien. But where was all the punching down concern when Conan O 'Brien made Kirstie Alley jokes every fucking night in his monologue? He's in that tribe. Fat jokes. Fat jokes about Kirstie Alley every night. Oh, God, dude, don't. Well, you got me started.

1:49:39But so these people sitting there saying, especially L.A., you know, you want you want to reduce us to a scene of neo not whatever the fuck horse shit you guys call us. OK, then you're all pedophiles. Because out of all the pedophilia out there in the world, there seems to be a vast amount of it coming out of Hollywood. is that a fair assessment no of course it's not it's it's boneheaded it's boneheaded and what i don't get is why people just can't let another group of people go be a part of something somewhere else without this this just just animosity and you know what and and i'll and i'll shut up The people I'm most offended for, it's not for me.

1:50:34It's not for the pillars of the sea, whatever. It's for the young comics. New York has made it absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible to pursue your dream in the arts. You can't do it. It's financially impossible unless you're being funded. Because of inflation. Yeah. Can't do it. You think you can live hand to mouth in New York and forget it. um la escalating prices has made it impossible okay and by the way the systems in those cities have made it impossible it is a line a mile long to get into anywhere it's impossible guess what's happening in austin there's a ton of young comics here they're developing at the speed of light because they're able to get on stage every night and they're also able to live like human beings isn't that what all of these progressives are bitching that we should be doing isn't that what it's all about that people can actually live and afford food and be able to see a doctor and do exactly what they want to do with their lives well it's happening here it's actually happening here and because there's some political takes and opinions that some people don't like and can't deal with, they have reduced this to a complete fallacy that they describe it, with how they describe it as a complete fallacy.

1:52:06I dare anybody to go into the mothership and look at the lineups in there any night of the week. You are going to see on any given lineup, multiple black comics, multiple female comics, multiple comics of other ethnicities, okay? Gay comedians, okay? It's like, what are we talking about? What do you think they're talking about? Answer the question. Why do you think? It's so dumb and short-sighted, I don't even know. I don't even know at this point. I hear more comedians on stage, and I'm not just trying to say the mothership. I'm not trying to make this all about the mothership. But, you know, when you go to, you know, when you see that Moon Tower has, you know, every comedian is getting on stage and shitting on the mothership.

1:52:56Okay, clearly there's a, there's an agenda here of some kind. What's the agenda? What do you think that they're threatened by? They've got a massive problem with Joe Rogan and they've got, they seem to have a massive problem with Tony Hinchcliffe.

1:53:16okay, you're allowed to have a problem with somebody and not, I don't have a problem with them. And by the way, I don't agree politically with them. I'm just able to sit across from somebody and say, I don't agree. That's okay. Jesus Christ. Yeah, you sound like a radical.

1:53:38But they're my friends. I've seen, I'll tell you what, I've seen way more, behaviors out of them than anything is generosity. I just looked at New Faces, the New Faces lineup for JFL this year. Three or four of the comedians were spawned out of Kill Tony. Cam Patterson is on SNL now because of Kill Tony. Dedrick Flynn is blowing up because of Kill Tony. It's like, these are not straight white males that are staunch Republicans. That is not what's happening. People go, ah, he puts cripples on. He puts cripples on and celebrates them because they're hilarious. Fiona Cawley is in New Faces at JFL.

1:54:25Do you think that's because Tony brought her in and mocked her? Tony brings her in and celebrates her. I've done arenas with Fiona. The place goes fucking crazy for her, and they cheer. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Here's a person who's a comedian dealing with like a debilitating condition, truly debilitating. And her spirit is bigger than anybody's I've ever met. That's an amazing thing. Maybe I just choose to focus on that part of him and not the part where I go, I don't agree with that political thing that you think. So that's just me. That's just who I am. We've been down this road before.

1:55:06okay people hated reagan people hated bush people hated bush number two you know and i remember them saying george w bush was going to bring about the global apocalypse huh well he's doing paddle on kimmel now getting applause breaks so what the fuck are any of us really talking about that and by the way that's not me dismissing trump that's not me saying he's doing no that's not me saying any of that that's me saying i you know whatever so it's just the point is is i i just it drives me crazy man and i've seen people that i really respect and admire doing it and it's a bummer it's a bummer because it's just there's so much more to this place than political opinions of of a percentage of people i'm super looking forward to tonight so i've only ever been to the mothership i fucking love it but tonight is going to be the first night i go to every other club that's not the mothership to actually really get a sense of the you're gonna have a great time the creek is awesome which other clubs you going to i've got a list i don't know i'm gonna go through all this is great yeah uh black rabbit is great i have not been to east austin it's like right there yeah um i heard it's great i should go i'm like in walking distance from this place um they're all great man there's some oh sunset stripping is great which is red band's room uh that's a great it's great man it's a great scene here you're it's it's a diverse scene uh everybody doesn't play at every single club there are people that are more loyal to one place than another do you play at other clubs outside of the mother ship i try to i try well yeah dude Creek because Rebecca and I, you know, go way back and it's a completely different energy and it's great.

1:57:01I try to do Roscoe's. I really like Roscoe's. It's a new newer club, but they do really nice work over there and it keeps getting better and better. And I want them to, to, to succeed. Those are the three main ones I hit once in a while. I'll pop by a black rabbit and some of the other rooms, but, and then sunset too. Um, I do sunset most Thursdays. I'll do red bands like secret show, whatever. But, um, but yeah, it's a great scene in a bunch of different rooms. And, you know, the most important thing to me is that there are a lot of aspiring young comedians here working and, and getting work.

1:57:43And, you know, look, in my opinion, the last comic standing was one of the most damaging things that could have ever happened to comedy. Okay. They took comedians that for the most part, I shouldn't say for the most part, but a lot of them were not ready. And a lot of them were sent out on tours when they were 10-minute stand-ups and then suddenly they had the headline. They couldn't do it. It set a terrible precedent. And you know what? I didn't like that show. I didn't like what it was doing. I didn't say everybody affiliated with Last Comic Standing should not be in comedy and it's disgusting and what it's like people have just lost any concept of you're allowed to just not like something it doesn't have to be a crusade you know but i mean i are we surprised you can't even talk about the you can't even talk about the fucking new christopher nolan movie without people talking about how it's going to start a race war or whatever the fuck.

1:58:50I mean, this country is sick. Both sides, it's sick. All of these people are sick. You know? Both sides to this whole coin. It's just, I'm too old, man. I'm too tired. I go to the bar. I drink. I go home. I hope to get married one day so I can have a partner to say all this to in private and live a happier life outside. Maybe she's watching. if you're out there honey joe you you're you your special is out on netflix now you got there because you created a piece of art that is undeniable i am so inspired by this whole 25 year story of constantly improving we're getting rejected moving forward through the most crazy crazy circumstances of rejection and adversity it's super inspiring and i want you to finish this sentence for me for the comics building careers like you have the sentence is comics who survive 25 years are the ones who stop You know, for numerous reasons.

2:00:12The comics who survive 25 years are the ones who... Oh, I think you said other ones. No, no, no. Sorry, sorry. It's okay. You're like, what? Are the ones who don't stop. I'll just add the word don't. Look, I always say to young comedians when they start to go, and things start to move and it was advice that was given to me it was i said hey man all you got to do is not get in your own way you know if you like to drink that's fine don't drink too much don't show up don't don't fuck yourself up with drugs don't be a dick you know that's it man that kind of sums it all up well you know what through all of the times your projects didn't work throughout your 25 years you said while you were telling your story that you never left on bad terms with any project no no and you know i i almost i almost wish i would have only in the sense that you know sometimes that helps your status and you start to get into that sort of fabled like Harlan Ellison territory where they're like, one time he told an executive to go fuck his own ass and punch him in the face.

2:01:38And then those things make you go, wow, that guy's awesome. I'm always like, there's no need for us to be on hard turn. I leave amicably. No, but I will add to that list of things I just said. Don't lose hope. So those are the four things that will make you stop. You're either going to lose hope, you're going to fuck yourself up with drugs, you're going to fuck yourself up with booze, or you're going to be an asshole. Asshole is a wide blanket to cover the way you talk to people, the way you treat people. If you're going to be inappropriate in your behaviors with people, these are the things that will hurt you.

2:02:21um i think usually even people that succumb to some of those behaviors meaning the substance related ones uh that can be reversed people can get out of substance abuse and go wow i lost myself there but it's okay um people can lose hope and regain it asshole that's usually organic that's usually organic and you're probably not recovering from it because you're probably actually just an asshole so i still like to say it but chances are if somebody really wants to be a dick because that's who they are they're going to be one so but that's it it's just not stopping joe thanks for being the first artist to ever come on the black hoodie hey thanks for having me man thank you i appreciate it oh can i plug my podcast please yes okay well so watch the netflix special it's out now i never promised you a rose garden on netflix and then my podcast violent horrendous with the YMH Podcast Network.

2:03:22That is on YouTube, at Joe DeRosa Comedy on YouTube. You can find it there. It's a great show. Thank you very much. And you can follow me at Joe DeRosa Comedy on Instagram. And there you're going to see your announcements for live shows and stuff like that. But my tickets are always being sold on JoeDeRosa.com. I got a bunch of stuff coming up September, October, November, December. Please go look at the website and see if I'm coming to your city. You're a legend. Thanks, Joe. Oh, I'm back. I don't take breaks. The world need more hope. I pray it ain't too late. I don't know what the plot is. What if one bottle could replace the benefits of eight steps in your skincare routine?

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