#617 - Aziz Ansari

27:09And if you're lucky, you make it to the top. But it's so much harder. There's so much more that's out of your control. Stand-up is so... In your control. Yeah, there's something so pure and beautiful about stand-up. I like doing both, but there is something so pure and beautiful about stand-up where it's just literally a person talking in a microphone. It's kind of such a pure and direct art form. And filmmaking, there's so many other things that are out of your control and it's a lot more complex, but it's rewarding in its own way. I mean, I think about how, you know, I'll, I'm working on other scripts now and I'll have some joke and it'll be like, whoa, this will be maybe years from now before I'll see this joke play in a theater and hear a crowd of people laugh.

27:56And then a standup joke, you know, you or I could think of something tonight and go to a comedy club and try it and hear it get a laugh. And that's so satisfying. But there's also something crazy about like, I remember I started writing Good Fortune, like probably in the pandemic. I started writing it on and off. And there's jokes I wrote in. And then years later, it's like, I'm in a theater in Burbank and Keanu Reeves is saying the joke. And, you know, a crowd full of people goes crazy. And they're both amazing, but in different ways. Yeah. That's so wild, dude. It's pretty much a fact that PrizePix is the best place to win cash while watching sports.

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31:33I had this movie with Bill Murray that I was doing that got shut down. I want to finish that. Why? What happened? Oh, well, Bill Murray was part of this movie we did called Being Mortal. Being Mortal is a book by this gentleman named Atul Gawande. it's all about like end of life issues it's about stuff you know that people my age are dealing with with their parents maybe not all the people might be older but you know they're getting sick you gotta put them in retirement homes and you gotta figure all this this stuff out very you know very interesting book and it's about very highly recommend this book have you met Atul Gawande?

32:14yeah yeah I had to talk to Atul to get rights to the book and when I decided to turn into script he he helped me and is he cool? there he is very cool very smart guy and so I thought okay this is like the book is not a fiction book it's nonfiction but I was like oh man if you turn this into a story there's things that are funny even though it's dark you know like there's things that are funny about like you know you have to go like take your parents to like Like your mom or dad, you have to take them to all these different retirement homes. And like, you know, all these people in his book, they'd always be like, I want to be in here.

32:55Everybody in here is old. It's like that's people's perspective. It's kind of funny. And just like how out of depth you are talking to these doctors. Doctors talk to you like, you know, you know these super complicated things. They're like, anyway, so what do you want to do? If you do this, you know, he might be paralyzed. But if you do this, you know, you're like, wait, what? Yeah, but if you do this, he might be able to do a backflip. And you're like, well, that's a mixed bag. It's so, you're just immediately out of your depth. But anyway, I read the story and read the book and you notice these patterns.

33:27Like the parents are like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. And then they like drive their car through the house or something. And then you're like, we got to take you to home, man. You know, that kind of thing. But that's really how it happens though for people. It's really how it happens. And I was like, well, if you did a story about this and the guy was Bill Murray, that could be really funny. And really poignant. because he, you know, I think about him in like Lost in Translation or Broken Flowers and he's one of these, he's got this rare ability to be so funny, but so grounded and touching and sincere.

33:56So I wrote the whole thing with him in mind. And there was no like, oh, I'll get another guy. It was like, this movie only works in my head if it's Bill Murray. I can't think of anybody else. I wrote it and he's like famously the hardest guy to get a hold of. to be in something. Yeah, you can't even get him. Yeah. I knew him a little bit socially. I had his number. I call him. He answers the phone. I said, hey, I have a script that I wrote. I said, hello, whatever, and we talked for a minute. And I said, I was calling him because I wrote the script and I think he'd be great. And he's like, oh, that's wonderful.

34:28Mail it to my house. Very old school. He's like, print it out, send it to my house. So I sent it to him. He calls me a couple of weeks later. He's like, yeah, I like this. Can you send me the book? I sent him the book. He was really into the book as well. and we eventually set it up. Seth Rogen plays his son. Kiki Palmer is playing Seth's wife. And we shot for like three weeks and then something happened on set where Bill was inappropriate with someone that was working on the film. Oh, I remember something about that. Yeah. And was it real or was it fabricated? Who knows? I mean, something really happened.

35:07Okay, so something occurred and people felt their ways about it, right? Yeah, I don't want to get into it too much because it's not my story to tell. So something happened on set and you had to shut the movie down. Yeah, he had a mask on, a COVID mask and this is from what I understand. He had a COVID mask on and he was trying to be funny and he was kissing this woman that he was friends with with the mask on, trying to be funny but this woman didn't like this and was upset and eventually it turned into this whole thing and they shut the whole movie down. Oh. Yeah. there's the Wikipedia page but yes this is what Bill said at the time I did something I thought was funny it wasn't taken that way the company movie studio wanted to do the right thing so they wanted to check it all out investigate it so they stopped the production yeah the whole movie shut down

35:59I'm sorry I shared that 75 it wasn't 75 % we shot like half of it but anyway I can't remember how we started on this but that yeah I'd love to finish that at some point you know if we can because you know it was it was uh it was very special but god you know i must have been i must have been heartbreaking for everybody it was but it was one of those things it was so crazy i don't think i ever fully processed it i mean you want to know something crazy i remember the week it happened i was getting married that summer and my friends had uh they wanted to plan some sort of bachelor party for you not like a i I'm not like, hey, let's go to the strip club kind of guy.

36:38They were like, we were going to go to a restaurant, go to the spa or something like that. Like a very silly kind of thing. Go to like a math-a-thon or something. I'm calm. What's a math-a-thon? We just do a bunch of math? Where people are doing math, yeah, aggressive people. Is that a real thing or did you just make up that word? I don't know. But I could see, for some reason, I just think. You think that's what I'm into? No, I'm not into math-a-thons. Wait, it's a real thing. It's a fundraising event where you do math. Wow. Yeah, it is. Zuckerberg was a mathlete Andrew Wang was a mathlete no Alexander Wang was a mathlete a lot of those tech bros were mathletes dude Alexander Wang the fashion guy no there's a new one a new Alexander Wang that guy died or something I think I don't think he did this is a different guy oh this is a Gen Z billionaire this is Alexander without the E A Wang they call him in the streets whoa he's 28 years old in the tech trenches deep in the modal Is this screen with the guy looking stuff up with you around all the time or just when you do the podcast?

37:37That would be so great. Because I'm the opposite of this. I never look anything up. You know, I don't, you know what my wife said to me yesterday? I, you know, I don't have, I don't keep a smartphone on me. I don't, I blocked all shit on the internet. I don't really use the internet. So sometimes I'll just ask my wife stuff the same way you're asking this guy. And she's like, you know, I'm not the internet. I'm your wife. Because what I'm secretly asking without asking is like, can you look that up for me? Because I can't look it up. And she's like, I'm not the internet. It was a dark moment. You married just to have the internet.

38:17That's so great. I just needed to have a smartphone without having one. So that's why I got married. She said that to me. I'm not the internet. She loves me very much. We were just texting about how much we love each other. It sounds like it. Look, we believe all that. It's tough, man. It's tough. I mean, I've, you know, I've gotten lost and had to call her and been like, hey, where are we? Yeah, I can't find a mess. Because I live in London and, you know, there's. You live in London? Yeah. Most of the time I'm there because we met in London. We live there. And. Oh, your wife is in London? Don't pull up the ex-girlfriend.

38:53She's in some. Somebody's put us in a role. But anyway, we live in. We live in in London. And we met there and, you know. Does she speak Danish as well? Yeah, she speaks Danish. And I love languages, but Danish is pretty tough. Is it? It's tough, yeah. Is it romantic? Is it considered a romantic language? Oh, this gets back to the donkey thing. Okay. So she said that, I was like, well, what's like a Danish term of affection? Maybe we can use that. And she said it was like skit. And I was like, that sounds harsh. That doesn't sound very sweet. And we were somewhere where we saw a donkey. And I said, what's the word for donkey?

39:30And she said, esl. and she said and she said it was her first word and that she loved donkeys and I was like why don't we call each other that and so we started calling each other that and now I have you see that AE that's here on this chain and that's what led to us meeting the little mini donkey in Nashville where we are now boom God did oh you're my little Yeah, exactly. Just like that. Yeah, it's pretty close. Yeah, that's it. Pretty close. No, you said it right. You're actually saying it better than I do. You're doing the combined AE. Yeah, that Danish is, you know, it's like, wait a second.

40:14Now we're coming up with new letters? You're combining the A and E? You know, I can speak Italian, okay. My family speaks Tamil. It's an Indian language. I can speak that a little bit. But Danish is a tricky one. Well, a lot of them are cis and bi-gender now. Some vowels are. Like there'll be a vowel that is trans now. It's changing identity. Yeah, it's like. What's the other one? how do we even pronounce you bro that's all we want we just want to show you respect and do it right do whatever you want but just we just need to know how to use you in a word and some vowels now are like I don't want to be in your fucking words or whatever and we're like bitch or sir just be in the fucking word dude you're a letter but that's where it's at now man it's tough because we'll be there that's not a real thing which thing the O with the circle Elon's kid's name I don't know yeah so you're saying it right that that's pretty good pronunciation no and whenever i whenever we're in denmark and i try to read a word i'll try to pronounce it right and it's just i just don't know the pronunciation rules i get everything wrong but wait how do we start talking oh because i use it as a phone sometimes i'm walking around in london and london there's a lot of like maps on the street so if i get lost i can find the map and kind of make my way but sometimes i'll like I keep walking around hoping to run into one of these maps and I won't run into one and I have to call her and I have to be like, hey, I'm over here.

41:38You got to tell me how to get to the tube station. And I remember that even when I first came to L.A., I don't know whenever you first came to L.A., how long ago it was, but, you know, there wasn't GPS and stuff. GPS was like a fancy thing if they had it at all. So I would like print out directions on MapQuest. And I remember, you know, I would call my little brother. My little brother is a few years younger than me. He was still in South Carolina. And I'd call him and be like, hey, man, I'm on Cesar Chavez. How do I get back to you? Because we didn't have this stuff. When you came to L.A., was it like that?

42:16Yeah, dude. People had maps, drawings. You'd have a guy who had directions tattooed on his arm of how to get home if he was an alcoholic or whatever. Oh my God. Like shit was definitely more primitive back then. People would like just write on their dashboard how to get home. Like, yeah, people had to remember. Remember when you just knew everybody's phone number. Yeah. But also when somebody would give you directions, dude, and if you missed one of them or something and you were going to a party, you just drove around the neighborhood for an hour and then went home. Like you would drive and roll your windows down and see if you heard a party from the backyard.

42:49Yeah. We were basically like a bunch of like Magellans, you know? And it's strange to think there's people that grew up without knowing that at all. And it really does seem nuts that we were able to be okay without it. Yeah. You know? Well, it's like you imagine now. It's like we're going to go to the airport and nobody's going to go through TSA, right? Because that's how it was. Oh, I barely remember that. Like that you could go up to the gate and all that stuff. you know all of my travel you know i started doing comedy by the time i was touring and stuff and traveling all the time like we do that so you were already big touring when you started doing comedy or no no no i'm saying like i didn't start traveling a bunch you know touring and doing all this stuff until after tsa and all these kind of things you know i barely remember traveling um i wasn't on that many you know i wasn't flying all the time like you know i do now so i barely remember that time where you could walk up to the gate.

43:47I might not even remember it, actually. Yeah, I mean, that all happened after 9-11, so it was after 2001, you know? Yeah, maybe a couple flights I'd taken, probably, but yeah, dude. Imagine if we went back to that now. Would you think, say right now, you go to the airport, there's no TSA, would you trust everyone enough to be like, okay, we're all gonna fly home together, guys, does everybody promise they're not gonna cause any problems? I mean, I don't know. It'd be, it's wild times right now. I don't know. And they would ask you twice probably. I mean, I was in the airport these past couple days and, you know, the government's been shut down.

44:25Those people, they're working for free. Like, the guy was like, hey, just so you know, guys, we're working for free. And I was like, oh, my God. That's unbelievable. It's wild. Yeah, the government's just turned into, like, a shitty vehicle. It's like every now and then it just fucking shuts down or whatever. Dude, I mean, you got to understand. for me to like be in London and read about all the stuff happening here and then come here like I was in Chicago yesterday and my friend's like wow time to be in Chicago I was like what do you mean they're like oh the National Guard's there just grabbing Mexican people I was like what what when did that happen I'm just over here trying to tell people about good fortune and they're like yeah they're grabbing they're grabbing Mexican people and the National Guard's there and bop bop bop tsa oh yeah they're oh yeah what are you you getting on a plane later to fly to nashville oh yeah they the government shut down like most of the air traffic people went home oh great thanks yeah i'm it's okay i'm gonna i'm gonna fly to nashville and then get on another plane back to new york same day cool weekend to be on all these planes yeah you're like it's just the bad news bears of tsa right now you got all the people that are like down to come and work in for free yeah dude you have just like the militant guy you have the guy who's been waiting to get in the game like wait like no training but just fucking waiting to get in the back today this could be a really dark last interview snippet and here's the clip where aziz predicts oh my god bro that's so hilarious that there's like backup of everybody's backup right now like the park wardens are like bro welcome to the fucking park bro it's like it's just like to second string, dude.

46:06He's like, dude, the owls are fucking monumental right now, bro. Take all these people for granted. That's so true, huh? Well, the raids and stuff like that are crazy because they let so many people into the country, right? Like without having a pattern of like, this is an organized way to do something, right? Because I think they need to organize it. It needs to be organized, right? Because it's odd if people are here that they live in fear that they're always going to be like, they, you know, found out or something. And then it's odd that people are, that there's nefarious people here that don't want to be found out, you know?

46:43So I think like they need some organization of it. But yeah, the fact that it gets like where people are being ripped out of places. And then you don't know also, some of these days, I really believe you don't know what's real and what's not when you see it sometimes. Like it could literally be a scene that was put together. Like some of like the Antifa stuff you would see in the park during the pandemic and shit? I watched that movie. Did you see one battle after another? It's good. It's amazing, but it's crazy because, you know, he wrote that movie a long time ago, and it's like I was in Chicago, and I was like, damn, this is one battle after another because, you know, in the movie it's very much like a military state, and, like, the military is just, you know, around going and doing this kind of stuff, and it's kind of wild the dude, you know, He's supposedly been working on a movie for like 15 years or something.

47:35Wow. And it's out now when this stuff is, you know, so top of mind. It's so in there, you know. Yeah, Eddington was really great. You see Eddington? I didn't see Eddington, but I've heard it's kind of they're dealing with similar stuff. I need to see that. Yeah, just a lot of things happening at once. But I believe we're headed to a surveillance state. You know, I believe that we're – that's why they're trying – That happened like a long time ago. I'm talking about the drones, bro. I'm talking about drones in the sky surveillance. Like that vibe. Oh, my God. Like that's where we're heading. Like, dude, the movie I want to see, this is how I think it ends.

48:11Blacks versus drones, dude. What? That's how it ends, bro. That is, people are wondering how does time, how does this all. Where do Indian people fit in this? Are we running? We're just running the door. Okay, the right. Where do the Indians fit in this movie? Okay, we need Kyrie Irving to move over to the. Kyrie Irving. you're just like what's he okay because he plays basketball no i mean i'm just thinking of a cool black guy um but yeah you're like okay uh but dude that's how it ends like i think you're everybody's like what's going on in society and like these different groups and people back and like you know genocide all these stuff going on and you're like how does it all and i think it's black first drones i don't know for me any as someone that used to live here and now comes here occasionally for work every time I come back it just feels wild and it feels I think it feels wilder to me because I think for people that are here it's like oh they're slowly seeing it get crazy so they're not going from like one to a hundred like I do like you know my time in LA you know I remember you know just seeing the amount of tents and all that stuff you know coming you know going to LA and in New York after COVID because during COVID I was in london the whole time with my wife so coming back to both those cities after covid i was like whoa yeah it's like a slipknot tailgate out there now you know it's fucking crazy you know my wife loves slipknot you're lying my wife has a phd in physics or how she's a genius and she loves it's like she had this emo phase and i i every now and then i'll just i'll i'll just bring up that she loves my two favorite facts about my wife she's gonna hate that i'm bringing this stuff up no it's important one is that she loves slipknot and the other thing is that she was little miss denmark that was a little competition for little kids when she was like five six years old and she won two years in a row and then they stopped the contest no because she kept winning god God.

50:19They shut it down? They shut it down. What? They don't like somebody really stepping out of the norm there? I think they were just like, we shouldn't be doing these little pageants for these kids. And my wife, she said like they would have a, you know, like, oh, you'd have the talent portion or whatever. And she would be like, you know, doing her dance or whatever. And they're like, all right, that's good. And she's like, no, I'm not finished with my routine. I don't mean to be an S.O. Yeah. but I'm about to win this bitch for a third time, dude. Holy shit. She's like the Boston Celtics of those fucking Danish competition.

50:54Yeah. And then, and then she had her emo phase and got really, really into slip. Rebelled against the pageant life. You shut down a pageant queen like that, where they can't even perform anymore. That is a direct avenue to slip. Corey understands. How else do you even manage that sort of stress and strain? where are you gonna put those fucking pirouettes bro you're gonna package those bitches and put them into a slipknot mosh pit in the past i've uh struggled with wanting to invest you know i just i don't know enough you hear about this and this this etf or this stock or this this choice or this fund or this bond it just i just didn't know enough i didn't have the time to do it and i got kind of fearful, I guess you'd say.

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52:24Offer available at acorns.com slash T-H-E-O. That's A-C-O-R-N-S dot com slash Theo to get your$20 bonus investment today. Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Tier 2 compensation provided. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors, LLC. An SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash Theo. I didn't think we'd get into Little Miss Denmark. My wife's going to be thrilled. Oh, that's awesome. I'm glad that you found love out there, man. Did you, were you good with the ladies growing up? What was your energy like?

52:58You know, I grew up in, it's weird because I grew up in South Carolina. I remember every school like in the South kind of had an Indian guy. Was it like that at your school or was there a big Indian group? There's two versions of this. Okay. There's like, oh, if you're in like Atlanta or something, there's like the Indian crew and they hang out. And then there's what I grew up with, which is like just me. And when I was little, I kind of forget this sometimes. In like first and second grade, there was this Thai girl and her name was Tisha, which doesn't make sense. That doesn't really sound like a Thai name, but her name was Tisha.

53:35But they left. Kind of a black Thai affair. It sounds like a black Thai. It sounds like a black Thai affair. She was Thai. But they left and then it was just me as Indian. And it's in the 80s. And, you know, it's so interesting to look back. I was thinking about this and I had a conversation with my mom a while ago that really like blew me away. So first off, you know, as soon as I tell people I grew up in South Carolina, they're always like, oh, must have been so racist, all this stuff. And of course, there's moments where it wasn't nice and whatever. Like people calling you almost N-word or something like that?

54:10Oh, N-word, not almost. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Well, those people are nearsighted or whatever, I feel like. I don't know. That's crazy. But there was also, I feel like, you know, there was a time I was writing something and I asked my parents to just tell me, like, I didn't want to write stuff about people being racist to people. I wanted to write something positive. So I was like, tell me things you remember that were positive, like experiences you had, you know, being someone. Because, you know, my parents are there in the 80s. Yeah, it was different for sure. They don't, people there didn't even know what Indian people were.

54:43They didn't see them in the culture. They didn't see nothing. They didn't understand. It looks like a black person that they didn't finish the job on or whatever. Kind of. No judgment. Let's just make sure that quote is attributed to you. Yeah, for sure, dude. But I think it's like, because sometimes you do see that Indian dude, you're like, is this a black dude or an Indian dude? But we're joking, but it is what people were saying. They had never seen Indian people before. Yes, I agree. not in the media or anything and so my experience you know i'm talking about the positive stuff first off i skipped first and second grade i did first and second grade in one year so people were like people were like oh my god this genius little brown boy yeah and and so i was like i had and i i was in a small school there was like 30 kids in my class there's 8 000 people that live in my town um yeah but uh you know i was raised by my parents but uh first grade's fucking easy, dude.

55:42First grade is easy. My dad would, like, show me. Bro, the fact that it takes a whole year, you're like, what the fuck are we doing here? My dad would, like, write little math problems and stuff for me, so I was really advanced in, like, math and stuff. It's so easy. Go back and look at it. Yeah, no, it's, it's, yeah, you should be able to teach your kid all that stuff before they get to school. You can even eavesdrop. You can tap into, like, classrooms and watch it. It's like, this is so fucking easy, dude. I wish you had a ring camera in there and just be giving the kids the answers and shit.

56:05What? It's yellow. If they had, like, one of those ring cameras you could talk in, like, a children's class or whatever i mean back then no ring camera just had my dad teaching me stuff so by the time i was like halfway through first grade they called my parents like this is you got to get him out of here he's he's got to go up to second grade and so i went to second grade and that was like this big story in the school that some kid had skipped a grade yeah it's like when lebron left miami it was exactly like lebron i was like lebron with like very elementary math problems yeah Yeah, LeBrahman.

56:37Yes, exactly. But, you know, when I was thinking back about my childhood and talking to my parents, and, you know, there was these two ladies that took care of us. First off, I was talking to my mom, and she was talking about how when she came to South Carolina, my dad had been in America. He was in New Jersey doing his residency. Then he went back to India, married my mom, and then they came to South Carolina, where my dad moved because he applied for these jobs all over the country and in South Carolina, they didn't have a lot of the doctor he was. He was a gastroenterologist. So then they moved to South Carolina.

57:12My mom comes to South Carolina. This woman's never left India like this. Fuck, that's crazy. She's in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Not like, oh, you're in New York City. No, Bennettsville, South Carolina. And my dad brings her home and then he has to go to work. And I asked my mom, I was like, you know, what was that day like? And she was like, and I put this in my show. She said, oh, I just sat on the couch and I cried. And I was like, oh, my God, it's so dark. It was like so much braver than I could be, you know. I mean, there's no FaceTime, none of that. You're really alone. There's cable television.

57:46Yeah, but I'm talking about like to have a connection with your family or anything. There's no way to communicate. You're just praying and like lighting candles and putting those oranges in that little thing. There's no, even like making a long distance call was a different thing back then. Yeah, it was like$11. Yeah, it was not the way it is now where you could, you know, so she was really alone. But she used to go and do laundry all the time to just be around other people. And there was some lady there, an older white lady that recognized that, you know, became, saw her with me.

58:19And became friendly with her. And they called her grandma. I don't know the woman's real name, actually. And I called her grandma. and she would take care of me and like kind of looked out for our family and she eventually, I think she moved or something or whatever, but she couldn't take care of us anymore and this woman who we called Nana, that's what her grandkids called her, she started taking care of us and then there was this woman named Miss Bula who would take care of us after school. She had some tits on her, I bet. Miss Bula, rest in peace. I'm not going to comment on that. Oh, she passed away?

58:58My bad. Yeah. I didn't know that. And I hope. Let's not comment. But Ms. Bula, as you might guess from the name Bula, black woman from the South and would cook the meanest Southern food for us. So I would eat Indian food and Southern food. And, um, and so Nana and Ms. Bula were part of my life. And, um, you know, I, uh, I, I had a sister that passed away and she was, uh, a few years younger than me. And she had a very rare, she had something called Hurler syndrome. It's a super rare liver disease. Sorry. It's obviously a little heavy for me. But.

59:43So, she passed away What's her name? Her name is Nafis. Nafis. That's a pretty name, huh? Yeah. And she passed away. And Nana passed away a few years ago when I was in college. It was a while ago now. And, you know, I didn't get a chance. Ms. Buell, I got to say a proper goodbye to. I went and saw her when she was standing in a retirement home. Nana, I didn't have that same moment. when I was in college and it wasn't the same kind of thing where I had that opportunity to say bye. But my mom had told me that she went to go see, visit my sister at cemetery. And, you know, my sister's buried in South Carolina, in Bennettsville.

1:00:34And, you know, that is a tricky thing because my family's from a Muslim background and they wanted to do, they were asking the cemetery, can we do the things we do for our culture? And the cemetery was like, yeah, of course, whatever you need to do, which is just so cool to me that they were open to that and the whole community, you know, we're visiting our family and everything. And I remember even like a priest came by to just, you know, even though we were a different religion, he came and like wanted to talk to us and stuff and everyone was just so kind about it. And my mom told me that she went to go see my sister at the cemetery and she said, oh, and we saw Nana too.

1:01:22I was like, what do you mean? She's like, well, Nana's buried right next to her. No. And I just, I like melted as a human because I did not know that. And to me, like, I heard that and I was like, wow. Like, you know, I was saying all this stuff about crazy this country is and how crazy it feels right now. But that story, that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world, man. Like, those two people, my sister and this woman. They befriended you guys. Yeah. Have that close a bond where she's like, I want to be buried next to her. I mean, it was, I did not know that. And, and, and, you know, I, I, I heard that and I was like, I, I don't know why it popped in my head, but I'm so glad it did.

1:02:13And then I got to share that with you because I heard that story and I was like, man, people need to hear that story because it's not the story people want to tell. It's not the story that the media wants to tell. It's not a story that it's a story that doesn't really get the clicks, but it's the story. that's probably, it's the truth that most people, that the human part of us is what makes us special. And that's the part that we should all try and lean into the most is that we're this special thing that can care about each other, you know? Yeah. I mean, the fact that these people saw my parents and tried to forge this bond with them.

1:02:55And I mean, I hope we're still a place where that kind of stuff can happen. I think it happens a lot. I think you're just right. I think it's not the like the new it's not the news, you know, but I think it is more common probably than we think. Thanks for sharing that, dude. It is an important story. That's a great story. Oh, sorry. Did your sister have it the whole time when she was growing up when she was from birth? Yeah, it was it was one of these things where, you know, the life expectancy with that hurlers is not very long. She passed when she was like six, eight years old. Oh. Yeah. And was she – And it's one of these days I don't really talk about it very much, and a lot of people even that know me don't know I had a sister because people would ask me like, oh, do you have any siblings?

1:03:46And I'm like, oh, yeah, I got a little brother, and I had a sister that passed away. And I would say it like that, and people would be like, ah! like it's a very like heavy thing to hear all of a sudden. And so I was like, oh, I don't want to make people uncomfortable. So I'll just say, oh, I have a little brother. And then they'll be like, what's you guys gap? Oh, he's seven years younger. Wow. It's a big gap. Yeah. I'm going to not go down this thing. I don't want to bum everybody out. Cause we're all just hanging out at Chick-fil-A right now. Sitting there tapping her foot. Like, what are we doing here?

1:04:18No, dude, that's, um, my sister was born with a rare liver disease. and she had to get a liver transplant when we were kids. Oh, wow. So we spent most of our childhood, like, you know, she was always this thing that we couldn't touch because she always had to have these surgeries and stuff. So I think it just reminds me, like, a lot of that. I think some of that kind of stuff. Oh, man. You know, I think it's just interesting when you grow up with a sibling that's sick because I think it, I never even thought about it until you were saying some of this. It just, like, I don't know. You have to adjust yourself, I think, to try and maybe, like my sister got most of the care right but she needed most of it so it was weird so there were times where i'd be like i don't you know later on in life i'd be like oh i didn't get this care but it was like i didn't need it the most you know what was you guys's age difference um two years and she's still alive she ended up getting a liver transplant she got one of the first liver transplants in um we moved to arizona she got it out there and but um that's incredible but it was just this whole time when she was a kid she was always being flown off to these places and they sounded magical like Rochester, Minnesota, just different places where there's these big hospitals and she'd come back like this like almost like this build-a-bear that somebody had done a shitty job with, you know what I'm saying?

1:05:30Like just all these scars and stuff but it was just she was always just, it was weird because you like couldn't hold it, it was just like a, it was interesting. Did you have any experience like that with your sister or what was it like? There wasn't that kind of um, there wasn't like all these things to try because uh the hurlers is pretty, they don't really have a thing. You know, there's like, you know, oh, you can maybe do a bone marrow transplant, but it's not really a thing they've made much progress on. So there was never anything like that. And I don't know, it's interesting talking to you about this because you think about, it's like when you're a kid, it's so hard to understand what's happening.

1:06:16You have no frame of reference. And, you know, when I look back on that stuff as an adult, I can't imagine how hard it was for my parents. Like, you know, to have a child that has something like that and then to lose a child. It's, you know, I can't. It's strange to like step outside of yourself. And honestly, this is like some of the most I've talked about it with anybody. And I don't mean to pry about it. It's just. And there's also a thing. No, not at all. I don't think prying at all, and I think it's really interesting that, you know, you had something, your sister had something as well. But, you know, there's a thing with, like, Indian families and, you know, maybe it's a lot of families in that time.

1:07:01It's like you don't talk about stuff. Oh, really? Is that like an Indian thing kind of? I think there's something of like, oh, you're not as open about your feelings and stuff, and you're just a little bit more closed off. I think so, yeah. with Asian families, Indian families, I think with emotional stuff like that, you know? But you guys do reincarnation, so you can you're probably just like, oh, we can have the feelings later we can have this... That's in Hinduism. That's a different thing. Oh, really? Fuck. So you guys are one time only? Islam, it's the same as Christianity, you know, in terms of that stuff.

1:07:33As far as I know, I'm not a super religious guy, but yes, that's the reincarnation is just in Hindu culture. So you guys are one and done, I mean, so is a lot of people. Okay. I'm just saying. Yeah. But yeah. Man, this got really, we really went for a heavy turn after micro donkeys. It's okay. You're tearing up over here. I'm tearing up. But it's good to talk about this stuff and, you know, it's so strange to think back about, you know, those times. and everything my family went through, especially my parents. I never think about that. I always think about things. This is one place that I kind of struggle with, I think.

1:08:19A lot of times I'll think about certain periods and things that happen, and I'll only think about it as to how it affected me. And it's like, man, to get into that place of where you're even thinking like, well, how did this affect my parents? Like I was eating dinner with some friends yesterday, and in the background, she has these four kids, and they're beautiful kids. They have the cutest kids. And they're all going haywire. And it was the first time I thought, holy shit, my mom had four kids and nobody to fucking help. Like there was – can you imagine what that would be like these days? That sounds impossible.

1:08:53Impossible. And our parents were able to do that kind of stuff. But it was the first time that I like even had a perspective moment like that that was that clear, you know? Oh, yeah. I just, just for you to have that, I think is pretty cool that you think like, oh, how much, what my parents must've went through, you know? Cause it's like, yeah, it's like for us, it's a sibling, but for them, it's like, you know, it's probably something that feels far greater, you know? Yeah. Anyway, I didn't mean to delve into that, man. No, no, I'm glad we did. And I think it's a really interesting thing to talk about.

1:09:25And, and, and for me, I, I, you know, um, I bet you'd be so proud of you.

1:09:33you know who I think about sometimes is there was do you know the comic strip comic strip live in New York oh yeah yeah you know that club yep that was the first club I ever got passed at and there was a guy his name was Lucian Hold and he was the guy that would pass you you've heard of like Esty at the Cellar he was like Esty at the Cellar he was the guy yeah there's always that person there's always a person that was a gatekeeper and I went in there when I was like 18 And what was cool about the comic strip was they had a thing where anybody could audition. Like you just lined up and then you could audition.

1:10:08Which is kind of crazy. Which is like, because, you know, I don't know if this was your experience when you're starting out, but it's like you just wanted a shot, right? Oh, yeah. You just wanted a shot. And the idea that you could be a regular at the comedy club. I remember I used to go to the comedy cellar and I'd just be like, oh, my God. Could you imagine just getting spots here? Could you imagine just how amazing it would be to get spots? That was my dream. I know. You're so right. And so I went to the comic strip. They had this, you know, open call. Like you just had to wait in line. And then you'd pick from a, I believe what would do is you'd pick from a lottery and it would give you a date.

1:10:43A date? Yeah. Like they would do on Mondays. They'd have a certain number of people that were from this audition. That's cool. So I picked a date and then I showed up and you went through this one woman. and if she said, okay, you can see Lucian, you'd audition for Lucian. And so I got through it and then I auditioned for Lucian and you wait around, you wait around, all these kind of things. Even like SNL, you hear these stories, people are like, yeah, you just wait around. They just make you wait around. And then he spoke to me at the end and he was like, he was like, you could start working at the club.

1:11:19And I was like, ah! And I was terrible. I was not good. but I was like very young and I was very comfortable on stage and he told me he was like you know when people your age come in here he was like you're still at NYU right and I was like yeah yeah he said you know um Adam Sandler was in NYU when I passed him and so was Sarah Silverman and I was like oh wow I mean I remember I said oh wow it'd be amazing if I had a career like that he's like I don't know if that's in the cards for you but you could he was he was like the most straight shooting guy I mean there's a very few people that are honest like that that I've met in my 20 something years he was the guy that was like that he was like I don't know if that's uh it's not an impression of him but he's like I I don't know if that's uh something that's in the cards for you but you could start working in the club and and um I would do uh you would do like late night which is like uh they'd have the show and then you could sign up to go on at the end of the show so there'd be like nobody there i do that all the time sure but getting up on stage even just that walking up when you're coming up you if if there's six people there it feels like a million people it you're so excited the feeling that is the energy that the the the fear and that energy and that nervous it feels like a million and and sometimes i mean and i'll say this and you're gonna light up because you'll know this feeling sometimes someone on the bill like that was supposed to be on at like nine o 'clock wouldn't show up and they'd pull someone from late night and so you'd get to go on when people were still there yes and i remember one time like i'm gonna show these bitches that's what i would say this kind of an aggressive nature but yeah but it was like this kind of like oh i'm gonna get to prove myself a little bit but um oh one time i remember chris rock dropped in and i went after it went on after him and like everybody was Everyone's like, oh, Chris Rock just went on.

1:13:15They just all started leaving. And I told Chris the story the other day. I was like, I forgot this. I forgot. I mean, and now he's my fucking friend. It's the craziest thing in the world to me. But Lucian, he had a disease called a skeleoderma. I don't know why I'm saying the disease he had. But anyway, he passed away. Is that ashy skin? No, sorry. It's like a skin problem. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what it is exactly. Skeleoderma. This dude stopped looking up stuff because it's gotten too dark. The stuff we're talking about. And he's like, I'm not going to pull up this stuff on Wikipedia. It's too dark.

1:13:45He's like, oh, I don't think it's appropriate. I'm not going to. I'm just going to let this be. I'll wait until they start talking about mini cows again. I can pull up those cute pictures. He has a whole barrel full of them. Well, you know, maybe I do bring it up because if someone wants to donate to his fund or whatever. So Lucian had this disease, and we knew he was passing away, and I went and visited him. And it was like that movie Being Mortal. You know, it was like, I knew he was passed away. I knew this was probably our last conversation. And he, and dude, this dude passed away. You know, Chris spoke at his funeral.

1:14:22I think Seinfeld may have said something. I can't remember. I remember I went to the funeral and I was like a little kid. I remember I like went and like was crying in the bathroom and stuff. Because this dude was the first dude ever to genuinely believe that I could do something in our world. The first person to say, hey, I'm going to give you, it was like fucking 10 bucks or whatever. But he was like, I believe in the idea of paying you to tell jokes. And he, we had a conversation and I remember he said something to me and he talked about some comic that he used to know that went to LA. And not like a super successful guy, but a guy that did okay.

1:15:01And he was like, you know, he said this guy told him that he was in LA and he said that, that's Lucian. Yes, that's Lucian Mold. Yeah. But all, I mean, he's like, you know, if you talk to guys like. They love him? Yeah, and they remember him from back in the day. He was a character. He's the guy that passed, you know, Eddie Murphy. And like the famous story of Chris Rock is like Eddie Murphy was at the club. And he asked Lucian, do you have any black comics? And he said, yeah, I got one. I'll put them up if you'll watch them. and it was Chris Rock. Wow. And then Eddie Murphy watched him and then put him in Beverly Hills Cop 2.

1:15:42But anyway. Dude, that's so great though. It's a huge deal. It's a huge amount of validation because it's, I can't really explain. It's still like, when I think of all the things I've done in my career, it's still, I was excited about that. I mean, dude, it was like, I think it was like 10 years ago, I did Madison Square Garden. I it was a similar feeling to get past yeah you know and um but anyway he told me the story about some guy in in LA and he said that guy told him like you know there's all these idiots in LA and and and if if they're able to do it I can do it too something to that extent like and uh it was a more said it more eloquent than that I'm not doing it justice but he basically said to me you're gonna be okay and he left me with that and it was really cool lucian did yeah he said you're gonna be okay like you're a smart guy and you're gonna be okay and um i mean i've i've been fortunate enough and i think i'm i mean that was when i was a little kid you know i hadn't done anything really and and you know i i feel like i've been fortunate enough in my career to to be uh more than okay and done a lot of great things I never would have thought possible when I was, you know, interacting with Lucian.

1:17:02And, you know, one of my, not regrets or, I don't know, just one of my, oh, man, kind of feelings is that, like, oh, this guy that was the first guy to believe in me didn't get to see how far I really went, you know? And weird, sorry, I feel like I'm, like, taking up too much of your time. No, this is good. Well, you're a great storyteller, I'm realizing. That's honestly one thing I've realized sitting here. And I can see why you're able to do what you do even more, like writing your movies and knowing like, yeah, saying how streamlined it is. I'm enjoying it. So go on. Sorry. You know, I was in a cab one time in London.

1:17:43And I was like, it's weird because once you become successful, it's weird when you drop into a comedy club, everyone goes nuts. and everything's a little sweeter because they're excited because you're famous. And I was in a cab with my wife in London, and someone was like, tell us about this thing or whatever. And I talked about this whole story of something that happened to us. And when I left, the cab driver said, hey, you're a really good storyteller. And I was like, holy shit. That was like winning an Emmy for me because I was like, that guy has no clue who I am. and he went out of his way to tell me that.

1:18:24That made me feel really good. Was he an Indian guy? No. Why would he be Indian, Theo? Racism. He was like a black guy that was fully finished. Okay, okay. He was a fully finished black guy. He was a black guy.

1:18:40I love race stuff. It's fun to joke about and think about because it's so different and it's fun, you know? It's some of the funniest stuff. You're right, man. Sorry. but yeah somebody telling you a great storyteller it's so funny it's sometimes it's that one word or one thing it's like and you get it from someone that doesn't know anything because sometimes you feel like oh man like not like oh people you feel like i don't know how much of this is sweetened up because of whatever and and and it's very frustrating because i don't think anyone that's successful like that wants any of that but you know you get a little bit of that when you drop in and you're working on material and you know when you're on stage for a while eventually I don't even know if it's that good.

1:19:18That's the worst part. You're like, is this even good? And you're like, are you just getting unfair reactions? But then hopefully if you're self-aware enough and that judge inside of you, that little party that's always hated you is still lurking around. You got to have that guy in there. That guy needs to be there. That guy needs to be there. And if he's there, you know, because, you know, all your people, oh man, it's your best hour. It's like, it's getting there. Right. You got to have that little guy and you got to have that little guy. And look, that's, you know, whether it's a movie or stand-up show, like, you know, screening a movie, it's like, people don't lie eventually.

1:19:49Like, they'll be sweet for a little bit, but eventually they are like, all right, come on. You know, that drops after a few minutes. Yeah, and if you start smoking your own bullshit too, that's when it can get really spooky. Oh, that's when you got to make sure you, you know, I've been around people enough to be like, oh, when you start having a bunch of people around you that tell you you're awesome, that's when the everything starts falling apart. Have you ever had ego problems? You ever had anything like that? Like, or have you ever able to check your own ego kind of type of things? Cause ego is so dangerous cause it can kind of grow in the distance.

1:20:20It's almost like something that you don't see growing. It's almost like you're standing there with your shadow and then your shadow gets bigger without you noticing it. You know, you know, I think, I think the way I, I hopefully have been able to avoid that kind of problem is, is, um, I'm not around all the time. You know what I mean? I kind of go away in a hole and work on stuff. This is like the most shit I've done. I haven't, I haven't been on your podcast. I haven't been on anybody's podcast. I haven't done anything. I've just been working and, you know, being back out in, in, in kind of wild.

1:20:54Yeah. In the kind of press world, it's been kind of a little overwhelming for me. I get very overwhelmed whenever I finished like season one and two of my show, like whenever it came on Netflix, like I left the country cause I was just a little bit, It was just too much for me. Like I went to Japan for a couple of months. Really? For months? Did you see Kanye or not? He wasn't there at the time. But, you know, I wanted to be somewhere where people didn't really know who I was. It felt a bit. It can be a little overwhelming. Like that part of our jobs, of red carpets and interviews, it's a lot.

1:21:30Yeah, I never done a lot of that stuff. So that part I don't know about. But I can imagine though. But, you know, I'm here and I've been doing all this stuff. I love doing this because we're just having a great conversation. Not everything is this fun. But, you know, I do it because I feel like it's a part of the job and I got to support the work and the studio that paid for the movie and everything. So I do it. But it's not my I like the work. I mean, all I'm looking forward to is getting back on work, getting back to work, like doing like being on set with some people and being like, hey, do this.

1:22:03Or, you know, I'm going back on the road for a little bit, like being on the road like that. That is a billion times more fun than some of the stuff you have to do, excluding like this. And I actually like that podcasts are a thing now because I did Amy Poehler's podcast. That was so fun. She's so great. She's great. I hadn't seen her in a while. And I was like, oh, man, I'm just excited to like be with you for an hour and change because I hadn't seen you in so long. But yeah, dude, thanks for making me think about. We had a guy named Tommy at the comedy store and I and he was like the guy and he's like this character.

1:22:35I've heard his name. Yeah, yeah. And people impersonated him all the time. And he really was. He had this long hair and he looked like a rock and roll guy. And I believe he was. I think he also played in a band. And he made jellies and jams and he would bring those. He was this very eccentric type of guy. Yeah, yeah. But he took care of Mitzi Shore. But he would be the guy and he'd sit there and he'd open little curtains. The little will call booth had little curtains on it. And he'd be like, you're doing good. But I went to the comedy store one time. I was trying to find out how do they do signups, I remember.

1:23:08And I was buying a beer on the porch, and he thought I was somebody else. He's like, haven't seen you around here in a while. You know, we miss you coming around. And I was like, yeah. And he goes, why don't you come in? Come back in on Sunday, man. I want to see you back up there. And he fucking had me confused with somebody. Whoa, did you do the other spot? Yeah, he did the spot. And did you put your name down? I didn't even think about that. And I just kept fucking doing this. And how did your set go? And it went good enough where I got to keep going. But before that, for sure, I went and signed up and waited outside.

1:23:45And there's like a guy that's practicing juggling who can't even talk. And he's like telling his jokes through like bowling pins and shit. It's like there's all types of stuff. There's somebody training a bird or whatever. And he's like barely trained it. And he's like trying to train it really fast in the parking lot. It's like you cannot train a bird really fast. But this is the same thing I was talking about earlier. It's so interesting to me that, you know, comedy comedians were all having, you know, this is a crazy moment to be a comedian. And people are having such overwhelming amounts of success.

1:24:14But at the end of the day, like, all of us started just wanting a room full of people. Just a crowd. And to be able to perform. Yeah. Well, you know, one thing that was great about Good Fortune, dude, and I haven't finished it, but I really, I like it. And I'm excited to see the end of it. It's not that long a movie, by the way. But I didn't get home last night until probably 1130. No, I'm just saying for people that are worried that it's like a four-hour. It's an hour and a half movie. But it's good, dude. There were so many, like, there started to be some really good plot changes for me that I really dug, like right around the spot where I'm at, where you think it's going to go one way, and now it starts to change up, and then I don't want to give too much of it away.

1:24:56But one thing that was really amazing about it, and my friend was watching it with me, was that you felt of how tough it is that first year or two in LA. You felt of like when your character is sleeping in his car, right? Yeah. Or like when there's DoorDash delivery and just like the jobs you get when you first get to a big city to try to survive. The parking tickets and how you lose your car. You just come out of a place you barely had enough money to go get some avocados. It was the one thing you were treating yourself to this week. It was like two avocados. I'm going to cut those bitches up and I'm going to eat those bitches.

1:25:32Right. And then I'm going to go to sleep. Right. You were so excited and you come out and your fucking car has been towed because you didn't pay tickets. All that shit, dude. My friend and I slept in the McDonald's ball pit. We would jump the fence and sleep in that fucking ball pit because it was like kind of some more space to lay out. Right. Like if you got under the balls, there's hair in there, there's coins under there, but it is, there's a little bit more room for your body than like, cause we tried to sleep in his car one night and it was just a nightmare. air, but going through all of that.

1:26:00Yeah. And there is the hair goes to the bottom, which I don't understand how that works. That's science. But, uh, and yeah, they should do a, they should see what's in the bottom of a lot of these. It's not good, but yeah, we, we would jump over the fence and sleep in one that, you know, that, that closed at 10, we get in and just get five, five hours of sleep or something, you know? Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I could relate. No, it was awesome. It was fucking great stories. One night we're in there, dude, we're talking shit to each other laughing and stuff and a fucking Asian guy's on the slide he's asleep he's on the slide he's very exposed no like in one of those high slides where there was room where you could kind of get encompassed he was in the best spot oh my god yes he was in one of the tubes oh damn that's better than the ball pit that's a pro move yeah and he even came up to the window it was like a little hamster showing up he was pretty fucking dope but dude that was like But you forget about all the pieces of the things and the moments that were so big.

1:27:03And that was in L.A.? And that was in L.A. Which McDonald's in L.A.? It's on Wilshire Boulevard. Does that Asian guy have a podcast now too? I hope he does. I think it's Ronnie Chang. You know, I was doing one of those shows at the Comedy Cellar where people don't know who's going to show up. It was like, surprise headliner! and it's just me working on stuff. And I walk by the line and some lady goes, I hope it's not Ronnie Chang. Oh, really? Yeah, but then I found out that it's because she'd been to another one of these and it was Ronnie Chang. And we talked about it in the show, but it wasn't because she doesn't like, oh, love to Ronnie Chang.

1:27:44I love Ronnie Chang. Dude, I just got to see him last week. I bumped into him. I went into the comedy cellar. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. Just stopped there and he was in there. It was awesome, dude. Oh, he's great. He is great. But I just thought it was like a funny story here. He's got some great specials too if you haven't seen him. I'll get him to come in and talk sometime. Yeah, no, he's great. But I just thought it was funny to walk by and hear that. That's so funny, dude. Yeah. But yeah, that's one thing I loved about Good Fortune. You and Seth Rogen are just, you guys are buddies, I guess it is.

1:28:11Yeah, and we spoke about this movie. And, you know, if anyone listening is going to see the movie, please, you know, see it in a theater with the crowd. Because we were talking about these movies like. I think it's worth it for sure. it definitely felt like a real movie to me it didn't feel like some forced shit you know i know like they're like you know sometimes you get these movies and it's like uh you know they're getting felt shit feels forced or too fake or like it's not real i didn't feel any of that i didn't feel like any pandering for some like social causes or any shit like that just trying to be very real yeah and um and very funny and and you know it's good dude i'm fucking excited about finishing it oh because your character starts to get like what the fuck i thought he was great and then he's like but you see the different parts of us that can come out and come to the surface when different things like are attached to us yeah but when we were making the movie seth and i would talk about like you know how we'd go to movie theaters and see movies like anchorman or super bad or you know pineapple express and and and you'd have like a room it'd be like a stand-up show you know like a room full of people erupting and you know it's like what we feel when you do stand-up like if we did stand-up and there was only like one person in the crowd that's not the same thing like the people make a difference so like seeing a movie uh a comedy in theaters it's something that's kind of gone away after the pandemic and everything and and um i hope we can bring it back i mean we were just in chicago last night and we screened the movie we've been doing these like little secret screenings and and i've been sitting in a little bit and watching it i'm like i don't even remember the last time i've been in a packed theater watching a comedy so i i hope the movie works and that people get to make more comedies and they get to see him in theaters because you know it's something that i miss and um yeah i mean especially because our movie is like an original movie um a comedy theatrical it's tough to get it done i mean i really am not even lying or joking or pandering to you or to our fans i wouldn't say that i think it's worth going to see i think if you took a date or a friend or your buddy you guys would have a good time it would be worth your money it'd be worth driving over there and sitting in there so far and i'm not even done with it unless it gets really bad no no the back ass oh man the The back cast, great.

1:30:13We'd have to talk about it afterwards because it really relates to a lot of the things, some of the stuff we were talking about earlier, some of the emotional things we were talking about in terms of just kind of seeing other people and seeing what they're going through and just kind of giving them a look. You know, I was thinking about that when my mom was telling me that story. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was a great story, man. Do you feel like, why do you feel like you have to do so much? Because this is something I've struggled with in my own life. I think I need to have a kid or something because I feel like as I've gotten older I do things like oh yeah you know you're so prolific you've done so many TV shows you've written you've directed haven't you won an Emmy before?

1:30:57yeah I won two Emmys damn brother gang but I'm just saying like and sorry I don't know I don't know a lot about that but but doing too much thing Do you ever know why you feel like you – because some people, they could do half of that and feel extremely accomplished, and they would be. But do you feel – like is it financial, which is fine. It's definitely nice to have money and have security. Is it – like is there something that you find because – Well, it's not financial because doing movies, you know, I technically would make way more money touring. I'm like losing money doing these movies. like trying to make a movie for theaters it's kind of like trying to be like hey i want to build a tower records good luck aziz um it's it's not what's the lucrative thing you know what i mean like it's interesting because i i my like heyday of touring and everything was probably you know 10 years ago when i did um the garden and all that stuff i was touring like crazy and back in that time not many people were doing theaters and arenas like there was only a few people and now it's like fucking everybody does and when I go on tour I'm like who's Alton Brown the chef he's playing the Deepak Center in Durham he's just chopping food up and people are coming everybody's on tour dude there'll be a dude julienning a carrot for 11 ,000 people yes and you're like what dude is it cake that TV show is it cake is going on tour I'm like yes who gives a fuck is it cake tour and you're like wait I'm that's what I'm competing with people in the stands with binoculars trying to figure out if it's cake.

1:32:33It was not like this. At 70 yards. It's ridiculous. Who cares? It was not like this. Who cares if it's fondant? It was not like this. And in that time, there was a whole podcast boom. Everybody found an audience. You didn't, you cut out the middleman of Netflix or whatever. People are putting stuff on YouTube. And now all these people are touring. And there's been this massive boom. And I, during that time, made my TV series, worked on these movies, and have kind of stepped away. But now you're coming back. You're touring again. Yeah, I'm touring again now, and it's been so fun. And I have – I've had a great time, but I'm also like, damn, dude, the travel.

1:33:13It hits me in a different way. And, like, yeah, you see October 23rd. I'm getting stressed. I'm like, I can't go to Temecula. I got to cancel Temecula. San Diego, oh, God. Oh, Modesta. Monterey, oh, God. At least I can hub out of L.A. Oh, no, then I got to fly to Cincinnati on the 13th. Oh, God. Then we got to fly to Louisville. TSA is going to be closed. There's going to be like one air traffic controller. Then I'm probably going to go down on my way to St. Louis. That's going to be delayed. Oh, Indianapolis will be fun, dude. Indianapolis. Then I go see my family in Charlotte. That's nice. I love Asheville.

1:33:47Asheville is a great, great town. And Savannah is a great town. Savannah is beautiful, too. No, I love the show and I love being in the different cities because, you know, when you tour you form a relationship with with these cities for sure oh you're excited to go back you're excited to see like oh look at this crowd this one's different this energy this place is yeah and and and what's so cool is is and i think this is why people like to go to live stand-up is like even if you watch in special it's not the same as that show in that town and it's really fun and um you know for me like this tour it's been fun because i haven't toured in a while so it's a lot of stuff has happened you know i've been married me and my wife are trying to have a kid and to go back to the thing we were talking about of like doing too much like the movies I feel like that comes from like I have an idea and I have this vision of it sounds cheesy to say vision but I have a vision of something I want to execute and it's something I'm really excited about I'm like racing to be on set to do like it could just be like I'm writing something now I have this one scene I'm like oh man I just want to shoot that scene I like think this would be so I got to get there and it's a long time to get there movies are so slow you got to work with so many other people it's a nightmare but i do it because i really love films and and i want to make more films um but i do think i've realized recently like i've gotta calm down like i i think i've overestimated my ability to work and and and as i get older you know you get burnt out you get stressed the stress builds i've seen friends that are burned out oh dude you're looking at one of them we're not even friends but you're looking at somebody that's been burnt out but we could maybe be friends.

1:35:16I mean, I hope so. Dude, we went deep here. This is deeper than I went on any other podcast. Really? We talked about some heavy stuff. Yeah, in a great way. I love it. Oh, yeah. I think this is so much more. We talk about a lot of this stuff on here. It's important, you know? It's nice to like have. No, I really like it. But no, that burnout feeling, it's like. Bro, it's real. I started shedding hair recently, dude. We had a freaking retired Boston detective who has some of the craziest stories. Found a wiener on the sidewalk and was like a real whodunit or whatever. Obviously, the person missing the wiener did it.

1:35:47But so it was pretty kind of easy. It wasn't like knives out. Actually, it was like knives out. It's a long story. But anyway, oh, shit, I forgot what I was talking about. We're talking about like just the burnout. Oh, yeah, the burnout is real. It happens, dude. Yeah, it started shedding hair, all that kind of stuff. It's tough to say no, too, because, you know, you're having a moment right now, and I've had a moment, and, you know, people start telling you to do all this stuff, and no one on your side of the business is going to be like, dude, you got to chill. you got to take some rest. No one ever says that.

1:36:15Like, well, that's a great opportunity. You should do it. And you're like, well, that's a great opportunity. I should do it. And when I was younger, I could do all that stuff. When I look back at schedules and stuff I did, I'm like, how did I do all this? I can't do it anymore at this age. It's a different thing. And I'm married now. It's like I've been away from my wife a lot. And I don't feel nice about it sometimes. Well, look, I have a suggestion that'll help you relax. Go watch Good Fortune. go with your wife I'm not even joking go sit and watch it you'll like it you guys will laugh you'll get to spend some time together it's good I do know it's out October 17th I do want to remind everybody about that yeah thank you I feel lucky you get to be in London one of my favorite musicians James Blake lives over there Dermot Kennedy he's in the United Kingdom he's a guy that I really love who actually is coming in town soon yeah I would love to get to live over there sometimes people feel very...

1:37:14It's nice you're a little bit, I mean you probably feel this here too, like you're a little bit away from the circus. Oh yeah, I feel totally good. And the circus is dissolved. It's a different thing, you don't really need to be there anymore. They're finding new places, there's new mini circuses popping up. Yeah, yeah, but then, but yeah, but is Nashville becoming a circus? No, I don't think so, not too much. It still feels kinda small, there's a lot of people moving here and a lot of stuff going on, but it still feels pretty small. No, I mean I feel like that in London that I'm away from things.

1:37:37Whenever I go back to LA I start feeling like, oh my god, I'm falling behind, I need to do this. because you hear about it. Oh, I've just made this. I'm working on it. I'm like, oh, shit. What am I doing? I'm not doing anything. You've done so much, dude. Dude. I mean, from television to, I know you had that series I watched for a while on Netflix. It was just you. Yeah, yeah. That was Master of None. Yeah, yeah. The book that you wrote, I know, about dating. Yeah, that was 10 years ago, too. And the struggling of love. Yeah, yeah. You've done, let me tell you this. If nobody ever tells you, you've done enough.

1:38:05No, but finishing the movie was a big deal, and I'm glad I did it because it took a minute to get it done, and I'm really proud of it and proud of the work that I did, my whole team did, all the actors did, and I'd love to make more, but yeah, I definitely, I hear you. You've done a lot, that's what I mean. I didn't mean enough. No, no, I know what you mean. I appreciate it, yeah. And I think, yeah, and your sister would be so proud of you. What was her name again? I want to say it one more time. Nafis. Nafis? It's such a pretty name. How do you spell it? N-A-F-E-E-Z. Ooh, Nafis. I'm so glad we talked about that because I feel like I'm here with some people that work with me and they're like, wait, what?

1:38:46I think when we say people's names out loud, people that have been a part of our lives, like even when we're talking about like if you wanted to say something to Lucian, I think when we say people's names, they feel that wherever they are, that is a felt thing. Because otherwise, why would we feel it? You know what I'm saying? No, it's bringing their – it's putting them in the – Yeah, and I believe it's like – Yeah. I believe they feel it. Wherever they are, they feel it, you know? I think you definitely, if you're here for this long, you definitely keep an anchor locked in. I mean, the other person I was going to mention and tell me we can, if you, I don't want you to run late for whatever.

1:39:17But the other person I was thinking of when I was talking about Lucian was, have you ever heard of Manny that ran the Comedy Cellar? Manny Dorman was the owner of the Comedy Cellar. His son, Noam, is there now. Oh, yeah, I know Noam. Yeah, yeah. So Noam's dad is Manny. Okay. first time I ever did comedy was at the comedy cellar they had a new talent night which doesn't even exist anymore now they just have like fucking 10 comedy cellars and 10 shows but this was like back in the day they had a new talent night at like 6 o 'clock and you'd bring like a couple of friends and they'd give you stage time and I did that and I was 18 years old summer of my freshman year in college didn't do good at all I did well my material was terrible but I did well because I was very comfortable on stage and public speaking and I was just kind of funny and it worked.

1:40:09And I came back and did it again. And I did a couple of open mics and, you know, had a reality check. I'm like, oh, fuck, this is really hard. And then the third time I did stand up. Third time I ever did stand up was again at the Comedy Cellar. And it was one of these new talent nights. and I, for some reason, this crowd and me, it just, it, I was just. Didn't go well. No, no, it went super well. Oh, fuck. All your stories in a book, they go good. But, and they went nuts. And I like said something at the end. I was like, oh, by the way, like whenever we perform here, we have to bring a certain number of friends.

1:40:50I'm running out of friends. So if you want to come, like come say hi backstage or whatever, you know. and I was just being serious and they were all just losing it and Manny saw this and he said like there's Manny and he goes he basically came up and it was like some old Hollywood thing he was like you're ready for the big room I'd done stand up like three times there's no way I was ready to perform at the hardest comedy and this is like comedy cellar where it's like Attell Geraldo, Jim Norton he's like you're ready for the big room and so I would show up there and they would put me on late at night, almost like a late night and it was like really odd because I probably, I shouldn't have been doing it, I was just so green and I was doing it and eventually you know, Esty Esty, who's the you know, famously runs a comedy thriller passes comics, she's like, okay you go on and I went on and she was like, yeah, you can't be performing here she's like you can't be can't be doing this she's fucking tough i was like a little kid she was like you can't you can't be doing this you're not ready and i was like okay and and then um you know now again one of the you know emmy mass square garden whatever like this to me is the coolest thing is that i can perform at the comedy cellar and just drop in and they'll just let me do material and perform.

1:42:26And then the crowd goes nuts and knows who I am. That's the craziest thing to me. That's crazy. That's like kind of above everything else. And my biggest dream I've told people is like that I'm just like 90 years old and I drop it into the comedy cellar and maybe a couple of people know who I am, but that I'm able to fucking hold my own. But anyway, I was there at the comedy cellar one night and me and Esty were talking about this and she was like, Like, you know, Manny saw you whenever you were really young, and he must be up there smiling now, seeing all you've done. And, yeah, that made me smile.

1:43:01And I wasn't super, super close with Manny, but he was another guy. Before Lucian, oddly, even saw me and just said something. what's a reminder I think for anybody that has been in a field for a while of when you take a moment to connect with somebody that's just coming into it that it could have an effect that's a nice reminder it means the world to them and you don't realize because I think we're all in our own head and don't realize especially when you're young there's one person having to believe good job, little things like that and I'm still grateful it reminded me that Neil Brennan and Amy Schumer are the ones that helped me get past at the Comedy Cellar oh wow and i've only performed there like probably six seven times maybe ten but i walked in the other night and i was so nervous like you want to go up i was like no way i'm not freaking going up dude but i think some of that's just places you used to be in you know so um aziz i gotta go man thank you so much oh man this was such a great conversation i i um i really enjoyed it and and we talked about so many uh interesting things uh and um and and really some some heavy stuff but i I thought it was great, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do it.

1:44:10I appreciate it, man. I think it's exciting that you get to live in London and have a new experience. It sounds like you've had a lot of unique experiences, and that's such a gift. God's had a lot of grace, it seems like, in your whole ability to be creative. Man, thank you for sharing that with us. Oh, thanks, man. Thank you for having me. You bet. And best of luck with the film, dude. Out October 17th, so this week, I think. And all right, everybody, be good. Thanks so much. Now I'm just floating on the breeze And I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it in my bones But it's gonna take...