Comedian Frank Castillo joins Jemele to talk about his time at The Comedy Store, winning Roast Battle on Comedy Central, and how he went from working at the store to becoming a stand-up comic. He also talks about how he got to where he is today, and what it's like to be a part of one of the most famous comedy clubs in the country. He also tells the story of how he ended up at the Comedy Store and why he decided to come back to the place he grew up to become a stand up comic. And he talks about what it was like to work at the comedy store when he was a kid. He talks about the early days of the store and how it's changed since then, and why it's one of his favorite places in the whole world. It's a great episode, and I hope you all enjoy it! Thank you for listening and supporting the show! If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! I'll be looking out for you in the next episode! Thanks again for the support! Cheers! -Jon Sorrentino and Cheers, Jonny & Matt -Eugene & Jamie Thanks Jonny and Jamie! -Jonny and Matt - Matt & Matt, Jonny is a good friend of the show, and he's a good dude. - Matt is a great guy, and we love Jonny's music is great, too, so much so that you should know that he's great, so please give him a shout out on his music is amazing, so we're listening to his music, too. Jonny has a lot of good vibes, so you should do us a review of his music too. Thank you Jonny s music is really good, so thank you so much, too much, he's cool, so good, and you should listen to this guy's music too, too good of a good thing, so don't be nice, so he's good enough, good, good enough to do that's good, you're cool, good vibeeeeeeeeeeayeee, good night, good bye, good day, and so much more, so send us a little more than that kind of stuff like that, good morning, goodie, goodnight Jonny loves you.
00:01:00.000If you go to his Instagram page, let me just tell everybody, he just won Roast Battle on Comedy Central, which, with stand-up comedians, that's a huge deal.
00:01:30.000And then to see you do that, and to see you working at the store, like many other people before, like Like Duncan's done, like Ari's done, like Renizzisi's done, like so many people have gone from working at the store.
00:01:42.000Bobby Lee, I think, worked at the store?
00:03:17.000I mean, also just having you show up and just be a part of that, that was one of those things where everyone knew, like all the younger comics, all the open micers, because it started as an open mic, so when we saw you come in, everyone was just like, oh, this is different.
00:03:30.000That's when everyone kind of was like, oh, things are changing.
00:03:33.000Yeah, man, things have changed since then at the store.
00:03:39.000Like, I've been there, I started there in 94. And it was kind of like there's something that happened before I got there, like a bomb had gone off.
00:03:49.000And like, these are the survivors that just moved back to the city.
00:03:53.000It was like the age of Kinnison had died, you know, and then there was really no one after him.
00:03:58.000So, like, I came in the early 90s and Kinison was like 80, you know, like, the early 80s to like 86, 88, and then I believe he died in like, what did he die in like 1992 or something like that?
00:06:13.000It's because it's guys like you, these guys that are coming up, you're going to be in the same position that we're in someday, where you're capable of organizing a night and filling up a room, and then it pumps up the business, and then guys like you get in.
00:06:26.000Like when we did the Ice House Wednesday night.
00:06:29.000Guys like you get in, and then you'll be in that same position someday, too.
00:06:34.000It's absolutely just insane to be a part of, you know what I mean?
00:06:38.000I got to host when we were at the Laugh Factory that Wednesday, and that was bananas because it was just like meeting the booker and the manager and all these people.
00:07:33.000It was like, guys at the store and girls, I shouldn't be sexist, guys at the girls and girls at the store, we were following it like a sports team.
00:08:02.000But also, me winning was such a weird thing, because it was like, especially the LA comedy community, I don't want to say open micers, it's a terrible term, but it's like, I'm still an open micer.
00:09:00.000And it's like, it's very important to tell those people that, too.
00:09:02.000Like, tell them, you can do, because I remember people saying that to me.
00:09:06.000And it was a huge, like, Marc Maron gave me a speech one day after I did a show at the The Comedy Connection in Boston, which was a little tiny room, and he said some cool shit to me after my set, and I was just a raw open-miker.
00:10:26.000We moved here and then it was like, you know, people were like, oh, there's no time in Los Angeles.
00:10:29.000Like, no, there's time if you're willing to make it.
00:10:31.000Like, I will drive to a mic, sign up, drive to another mic, sign up, drive back to that first mic, hit a spot, text someone that's running a show or a host that I know is going to just toss me up at the end so I know I could go to that mic in two and a half hours while I'm waiting for this other mic.
00:11:17.000Tucked and in the groove and that's where a lot of times new ideas come from because you're so comfortable on stage Like maybe you're working on a new bit and out of nowhere this new angle comes up and it's the best angle the bit It's because it's just something you said.
00:11:38.000Yeah Like in seeing someone work hard and then it actually working.
00:11:43.000And then you see all these people that come up with excuses, and they're always fucking off, and they're not traveling enough, they're not doing enough sets, they're not writing enough, they're sticking with the same old material for too long.
00:11:54.000And now it's different, because it's like, I'm in a weird position where it's like, most people win something like that, and then they'll tear off their hour or something, and it's like, me, I'm just a, you know, I'm a door guy, so I've got like 15, maybe 20 good minutes, but now's the opportunity for me, like people ask me to headline somewhere, like some random club,
00:12:27.000Some people give me a little bit longer just because, you know.
00:12:29.000Yeah, but that's it's hard to come up like that for me.
00:12:33.000That's like the setup for a bit sometimes You know like you're just getting you're you're just getting the whole Sort of landscape laid out before you go into a bit Kinison used to say that that was a big thing about Kinison not liking to do late-night shows He's just like I can't get cooking in five minutes.
00:12:49.000Yeah, you know because he was used to doing those He would take the late spot at the store where he would just go as long as he wanted he would have that last spot The Kinnison spot.
00:12:58.000Yeah, I mean that's what we call it today.
00:13:07.000It was the first time I worked a potluck and usually at the rules of The store, once you first get hired, you don't get on friends and family list for a few months.
00:14:04.000Where everyone else has been that's been following these exact same footsteps.
00:14:08.000Yeah, you know, this is a conversation that I had the other day with another comedian.
00:14:12.000We were talking about how there's certain actors...
00:14:18.000Especially, I think, actors who will treat people that are like what they call below the line, like producers and people who are extras and people who are, you know, they're not caterers, things like that.
00:14:32.000They're not the executives and they're not the big top people and the other actors.
00:14:37.000So they treat them one way and then the rest of the folks that work on the set a different way.
00:14:44.000And we were talking about how with stand-up, Everybody at the store is pretty much, like once you start working there, once people like you and you're cool, we're all the same thing.
00:14:55.000Whether it's Daniel Tosh or Bill Burr, they'll talk to you like everybody talks to you.
00:15:31.000You know, you first started talking to me, or, like, Jesselnik, or, like, Jeff Ross first, like, gave me attention just to, like, talk, and, like, I could hold their attention, like, we, like, it felt like we were peers, and that's just an insane feeling to have as a young comic for the first time.
00:15:46.000Well, that's part of the scary thing about, I think it was probably any endeavor.
00:15:51.000Whether you want to become an artist or a surgeon or whatever the fuck you want to become, if you have people that you see that are ahead of you that are already doing it, it seems like the barrier between you and them is insurmountable.
00:16:04.000And sometimes just someone saying something to you, just someone saying, look, everybody starts out as a beginner.
00:16:24.000And the people that are further ahead, you kind of have an obligation to go, hey, if you like the art form, and I love the art form, I think stand-up comedy is still my favorite thing to watch after all these years of doing it.
00:16:52.000There's some of that where they're trying to kick you as you're trying to climb up behind them.
00:16:58.000I've experienced that a few times, but my mom always told me, and my dad too, my mom always said, it was one of those things where it was like, you treat everyone the way you want to be treated.
00:17:07.000And also, you also got to remember, it's like, you have to be nice to everybody, because you never know who's going to be who.
00:17:13.000Yeah, well, you should just be nice because it feels good, too.
00:17:16.000Feels good to them, feels good to you.
00:17:18.000When I go on open mics, I always make sure to tag all the guys running the mics.
00:17:23.000I always make sure to say thank you and stuff because I'm not the only one.
00:17:27.000And you always got to try to take care of other people and bring them up.
00:17:29.000Yeah, and that cool little network of social media, you know, of tagging people's Instagrams and, you know, letting people know, like, hey, the ha-ha on Tuesday nights, great show.
00:19:52.000Well, that's the thing about that roast battle show that's really interesting is that it's really a joke writer showcase because everything has to be new.
00:19:59.000You can't use stock jokes, and you're essentially given an assignment.
00:20:04.000You know, like, hey, Frank Castillo, this is, you know, Bob Smith, and, you know, you gotta figure out what's fucked up about Bob Smith's head.
00:20:11.000That one joke you said about that dude, what was it, his forehead?
00:20:14.000Oh, Joe's forehead, uh, Joe's forehead's, Joe's forehead looks like it added a second story on it, so there'd be more room to think about dicks.
00:20:25.000That kind of shit, you know, because the dude did have a large forehead.
00:20:28.000But, like, that's something that you have to think up about that person.
00:20:31.000And if you make a regular forehead joke, it's not gonna be, like, it's like, oh, okay, cool, he's got a big forehead, whatever.
00:20:37.000But if you make it and add layers to it, it's more funny.
00:20:40.000Yeah, and it really is a set-up punchline format.
00:20:44.000I mean, it's a really funny format because it's a blah-blah-blah is so blah-blah-blah.
00:20:50.000You know, you can't, there's no ranting.
00:20:52.000There's no, you really, you can't go on rants also because you're really only supposed to be allowed one line.
00:21:07.000That's the beauty of the roast battle show.
00:21:08.000It's not only writing, it's also performance.
00:21:11.000Especially in the finals, you can see where I do some crazy shit.
00:21:16.000That's something I learned from Mike Lawrence in Season 1. Mike Lawrence, Season 1, he was one of the only guys to start the thank you, blah, blah, blah, and then go into the joke.
00:21:28.000So it's fitting a rebuttal into your setup.
00:21:32.000And then this season, I did something new where it was like, I knew that if people hit me with the looks-like joke, they were going to stop and wait for the laughter and then do the rest of their joke.
00:21:41.000So in my mind, I was like, if I hit them quick with a better looks-like joke, it'll take the momentum out of that last joke, and now it just depends on this joke to create the momentum.
00:22:18.000You know, like, this whole roast battle thing is a totally different thing to regular stand-up, but regular stand-up is in it.
00:22:24.000Oh, yeah, because you still have to like perform.
00:22:26.000That's why like that last battle with me and Brouchard was so good because Brouchard is one of the funniest dudes I know.
00:22:32.000He's a great writer, super cool dude, and an amazing rose battler.
00:22:35.000But it's like when you're in that situation and there's just so much pressure because it's like you're getting made fun of, you have to memorize these jokes because they had us memorize the two guys we, the guy we're going against and the two possible winners of the other bracket.
00:22:49.000Oh, and how much time did you have to write these bits?
00:22:55.000Five days you had to write five jokes, four jokes to the first guy, one possible over time, and then the finals was five jokes, one possible over time.
00:23:31.000Well, that's what they want to do, because it's like, in the finals, they want it to be a great show.
00:23:34.000So for me, it wasn't like he was writing me jokes.
00:23:36.000It was like, we both sat down, and I wrote a bunch of premises and a bunch of angles, and we talked strategy.
00:23:41.000And then we went from there, because it was like, if I'm going to make fun of Joe, I can't just be making so many gay jokes, because I'm going to get dinged for that.
00:23:47.000But it's like, that's such a big characteristic of how he is and how he walks and just how he holds himself, that it's like, you can't not make jokes about that.
00:23:56.000So it was like, if I make jokes about it, I have to be Silly, and it has to come from a childlike ignorance.
00:24:25.000But if you can gain their trust to the point where you've said so many silly, funny things, that's where, at the end, you can really earn saying something terrible, as long as it's funny.
00:24:34.000Now, is it weird to be doing these roast battles where you're writing all this new stuff every week, but then when you're doing stand-up, you're doing a lot of stuff that you've already done before?
00:24:45.000Yeah, it is weird in the sense that it's like, it's making me realize that the different, like, that I can just, I can create new material.
00:24:54.000Because especially in not high pressure situations, but it's like, if I give, if I have a goal or a set, a set time, like, I can write new material.
00:25:02.000And now what I'm realizing is like, I can just do that with my standup.
00:25:05.000If I can do that with Rose Battle, where I sit down and write all these jokes, I can do that with writing packets.
00:25:40.000Yeah, and he talks about it and he sort of identifies it and then gives you tools to deal with it and explains how it affected him.
00:25:47.000He was essentially just not doing well at all in his life till he was about 40. And then at 40, he kind of got his shit together and now he's just an award-winning author.
00:25:57.000Written a bunch of great movies and a bunch of great books.
00:26:02.000But that's what I was kind of getting at.
00:26:04.000It's like I think that now that you're in this new spot where everybody knows who you are, you won the roast battle, you got all this heat on you, it's like super important now to take all that writing to the next level.
00:27:35.000Especially, like, I do, it does suck that I'm not going to be at the store as much working there, because that was one of my favorite things, was just sitting, working the door, and just watching all the comics go up.
00:27:44.000Because I really believe the store is a comedy college.
00:27:47.000Yeah, no, it definitely is, but you graduated from high school and now you're moving on into university life.
00:27:55.000This store right now, I think, is a wonderful place for you to come back to when you're doing other shows and then start doing shows there as a paid regular, you know, once you showcase and get through.
00:28:07.000I showcased once, and I can't wait to showcase again, but I think we were talking about this earlier.
00:28:12.000A lot of people come up to me and ask me, are you going to be a paid regular?
00:28:16.000It's one of those things where it's like, I want to, but I want it when I feel I've earned it and I deserve it.
00:28:21.000I want to get it just because of something.
00:28:23.000Yeah, dude, the funny shit that you wrote on Roast Battle, you could do that all day.
00:29:06.000The reporter that, he was talking about what kind of a landslide he won the Electoral College by, and then it's the greatest landslide ever, and this guy was like, absolutely not.
00:30:25.000Growing up in San Jose, my cousins, all they did was smoke weed, and one of my cousins, it was like a thing with him, whenever I'd roll a blunt, he'd get mad at me if it wasn't as full as possible.
00:33:30.000I guess my question is, why should Americans trust you when you accuse the information they receive of being fake when you're providing information with them?
00:33:51.000Like, you saw him adjust in mid-sentence where he was like, I was talking about Republicans, and then it turns out this guy hit him with a bomb.
00:34:04.000You know, he went Obama, and then he hits, he's like, well, I was talking about Republicans, and then he was like, look at this, George Herbert Walker, butch bitch!
00:34:36.000There was a joke I did, and it was right after the lady got fired from SNL. The joke I did was, and Dan Nolan was the one who wrote it, and he pushed me so hard to do it.
00:34:46.000And I was like, I don't know if I can do it.
00:34:47.000He's like, no man, you have to do this one.
00:35:51.000You gotta hold yourself to a higher standard.
00:35:53.000That's why I was making that joke, I felt like it was a higher standard.
00:35:57.000But that's good that you have that higher standard because I think we all recognize that base idea, that base instinct to attack someone's kid like that.
00:36:46.000Some people would just say you're crossed it, but I think they're wrong.
00:36:50.000And I think that's a perfect point, because it's like you have to not make these jokes to find line, but it's like, as comedians, that's our job.
00:36:58.000We gotta not push the boundaries and like say terrible things, but it's like you see a challenge You know see how finally you can walk that line When you see a guy like Trump going through this whatever he's going through right now Do you think that that's just the this is just total speculation?
00:37:15.000Do you think that's the weight of all these people that are upset at him?
00:37:19.000Do you think that's the magnitude of the job?
00:37:22.000Do you think he this is just who he is?
00:37:27.000I think he definitely, I think from what we can see, is he definitely stepped into a job he thought he could do, and now he's just like, oh, okay.
00:37:35.000Because there's definitely sometimes where you watch him and you see him try to run it like a business, or the way he talks to people, where it's just like, oh, that's the way a boss would talk to someone he thinks is employed by him.
00:38:00.000And in a sort of, you know, a cultural icon sense is the term of this billionaire, flamboyant character who puts his name on all these fabulous buildings and runs casinos and all that stuff.
00:38:17.000You don't get to be that successful without some crazy drive to win.
00:38:23.000And sometimes you get this Blinders sort of almost bullheaded determination forward and guys like that conquered worlds Yeah, you know, it's that's the real deal man.
00:38:36.000I mean, that's really what it is that mindset that it's not always correct But it's somehow or another almost always prosperous.
00:38:44.000Yes, and they can get through they can get through but I think A guy like that who's so business savvy and so is good at making money and some would argue, maybe you're right, maybe I'm wrong, you know, that he just invested his dad's money, I've heard all that, but he still made a lot of fucking money.
00:40:16.000I don't think he's ever been in a situation where...
00:40:18.000I think he's always been in a situation where he definitely feels and thinks he's like, I'm definitely the smartest person in the room right now.
00:40:25.000But when you put up against someone that are more intelligent and also have their shit ready and their facts, he doesn't know how to handle that.
00:40:34.000And then he just breaks down in a sense, which you just saw.
00:42:39.000Folks, as you get older, and you see this thing going on, you see these people, and you see the presidents, and you see the White House and Congress, and you realize, after a while, oh, these are all just people.
00:42:55.000And they're entrapped in this system that they've constructed in order to dictate where they go, when they go, how much they get, and how they can live.
00:43:24.000I think it's so funny because the more stuff that happens with him and then just seeing everything, the more and more I'm just like, this isn't real.
00:43:45.000And there's many a day where I'll just, especially going on the road with you, just being here, just anywhere, I'm just like, oh, if this was a simulation, this is definitely the simulation I'd be playing.
00:46:05.000But, I mean, I don't know anything about finances.
00:46:08.000I mean, I like to think I know a little bit about politics.
00:46:10.000But, I mean, if there's a group of scientists and people that are really, you know, designing, I'd much rather have that than one dude who's not a big fan of a certain amount of people.
00:48:29.000My favorite, too, is that it's like, you know, I talk about these things and stuff in a very joking manner, but these are real problems certain people are having.
00:48:36.000And I went to a small show, and it was in a house, and it was just a lot of, like, white chicks, white guys, which is fine, you know what I mean?
00:48:43.000But I could just see some of them start to get uncomfortable with the things I was saying.
00:48:51.000I just feel like one day, that's not going to be real.
00:48:56.000No, I don't think the wall is going to be ruled.
00:48:57.000I don't think there's going to be, and I don't think this is a great idea, like a new world order idea, like one government to rule the world.
00:49:08.000But I think it would be really nice if people could go wherever the fuck they want.
00:49:12.000I just feel like this idea that you can, like, legally restrict people's movement based on patches of dirt they were shit out onto is pretty ridiculous.
00:49:21.000It just seems like that's gonna go away.
00:49:23.000If it doesn't go away a hundred years from now, it's gonna go away a thousand years from now.
00:51:54.000He posted, it was on his Instagram, it was just a diagram of the solar system rotating, but then it showed, because we're technically flying through the universe, and then it shows just a group of us, just all...
00:52:07.000And the moment that I realized that we're not stationary, and that we're actually just moving through the universe, my head fucking exploded.
00:52:50.000It's just our version of time is so, so brief that we can't appreciate that this thing is in motion because its motion requires billions of years to complete.
00:53:06.000So it's literally like a bullet getting shot through the cannon and all those things around it are particles.
00:53:13.000That are sort of connected to it, like little fragments of it as it hurls through infinity.
00:55:40.000That's like, I think that's the most current theory of how the Earth and the moon were formed and why they're so close to each other.
00:55:48.000Yeah, there's a great diagram of an asteroid hitting Earth-1, is what they described it as, and then it just shows how it would spin off and just a piece of it.
00:55:57.000So there's a good diagram of how that's a pretty great theory.
00:58:08.000See, science is just such a fucking incredible thing, that someone could figure that out, and they could tell you, and then you don't have to figure it out on your own.
01:00:07.000I remember the first time I ever went, I didn't realize it.
01:00:10.000It's like when you're constantly surfing, you get water shoved up your nose all the time.
01:00:14.000So like there's just a moment where you'll be out doing something and it'll all just release because the pressure's gone.
01:00:20.000So I remember I was like, I don't know if I was like talking to my girlfriend or something, but I was just talking to someone and then just all of a sudden it just released.
01:00:26.000And I'm just talking to them and just salt water all over my face.
01:02:54.000With the same size as the asteroid that hit Russia in 2013, the size of the asteroid coupled with how fast it was moving and how low its albedo brightness made it difficult to view through a telescope.
01:04:13.000It passed between Earth and the Moon late Tuesday night, according to the clocks in the Americas.
01:04:18.000The asteroid's closest approach was 1145 Eastern Time on January 24th, 2017. It came within, I don't know what that means, 0.68 lunar distances.
01:05:09.000Not even it doesn't have to be Trump, but do you think if you're the president and you find out the world's going to end because of an asteroid, do you tell everybody?
01:05:15.000Well, no one wants to feel completely, totally helpless.
01:05:43.000Rogue planets go flying around and slam into other planets like billiard balls.
01:05:47.000Didn't they find a planet that they think is literally just a diamond?
01:05:53.000Dude, I was I was high as fuck once and I went outside it was foggy and The moon was full and it was foggy and so it was this crazy illusion like there was a Enormous moon flying in the sky.
01:06:08.000Oh enormous moon like many many times larger than the moon itself Like it was almost like another planet like just hovering right over us because the glow of the moon I remember looking at that man and thinking to myself That could be another reality.
01:06:25.000There could be another planet somewhere out there in the universe that is looking up at this gigantic thing that's like another planet just floating right above you.
01:07:10.000One of the cool, I guess it's a demo, it's an application on the VR thing I've got, on the HTC Vive.
01:07:17.000You can go into space and generate planets and send them into orbit, and you're just standing in the middle of it, and you can make that out like Alpha Centauri star.
01:07:25.000And then watch what it looks like when you send the earth around it, and then they explode into each other.
01:07:30.000And you can just keep making them pop up and whatever.
01:07:38.000My girlfriend's super into science and conspiracy things and stuff.
01:07:42.000So this is literally all we talk about.
01:07:44.000Well, I think that you're going to get to a point where virtual reality is going to be able to recreate a journey through space like in HD. If they can figure out a way to take really good photos, like some of the more recent photos they've been able to take with those satellites that they launch into space,
01:08:00.000the incredible detail of all these different planets.
01:08:05.000I mean, to be able to do that, like to put on one of those HTC vibes and fly through space...
01:09:44.000Wait, does that mean that there's more junk now in space?
01:09:47.000I don't know if they made it back and couldn't catch it.
01:09:51.000The system designed by a Japanese space agency and a fishing net company should have unfurled a 700-meter tether from space station resupply vehicle that was returning to Earth,
01:10:21.000And large as whole satellites and parts of rocket boosters have been accumulating and is estimated that over 100 million individual pieces of junk.
01:11:34.000I think there's going to get to a point where the planes, to get to places faster, they're going to use the orbit and go up high and then come right back down.
01:11:40.000Or you smoke a joint, go to Joshua Tree, and lay on your back, and you realize you are already in space.
01:13:10.000I mean, who knows how often it does happen?
01:13:12.000But they think that's how what we're saying before that the that's see if you could find that earth one and earth two I think that's what they're saying that that was the most recent Theory of how the moon was created that the moon is actually made out of the same shit that we're made out of Just dead as fuck float this guy our brother It's our dead brother floating over our head every day,
01:13:34.000but he's only like 10. That's why so little it's like the one that's still attached to us Dude, I mean, that is what it's like, right?
01:13:49.000Because all this information, like, I'm sure was probably around when my parents were my age, but in order to go get it, you had to do a lot of traveling, you had to read books, you had to go to school, you couldn't just Google it.
01:14:05.000No, everything's so readily available now.
01:14:07.000Don't you think, like, for comics, this is, like, the best time ever for creating material?
01:14:12.000That's why it's like, I mean, I talk about Trump and stuff all the time, but it's like, I've never seen, you know, a president that's just given us so much stuff to work with.
01:15:19.000I think if we could figure out a way to get rid of that, that whole inclination to want a left and a right, that whole inclination...
01:15:31.000It just seems to me that it's just so easy to pick a team and to get locked into that team's mindset, locked into that team's goals, locked into that team's ideology.
01:15:41.000Say the shit that the other people in the team...
01:15:43.000I see so many people that write their tweets now, and afterwards they write sad.
01:16:58.000Their theory also says the slow impact forced most of the smaller moon to attach to the side of the moon as a thick new layer of the lunar crust.
01:17:26.000The reality of what you're looking at, what you're focusing on, if you look close to your neighborhood or your city or your country, all of it is taking place in this ball hurling through infinity.
01:20:01.000I just wonder when, you know, because the kind of relationship that we have with each other all piled in together in a city like this and living so comfortably and for the most part like relatively low crime even in a place like Los Angeles if you really consider it.
01:20:49.000It's like I look at my grandfather and like he's I love him to death and he was an immigrant to this country and he felt a certain way around about other people and races and it was one of those things was like I growing up growing up around that I realized it's like oh that's just kind of the way he thinks I don't have to think that way right I can treat people nice and be cool with everybody Yeah,
01:21:10.000yeah, it's I think that's more apparent now than ever before.
01:21:13.000Yeah, I think that's people are more aware of The the similarities that we all share versus the differences more than ever before and people are more vocal I think any time in my life that I can remember I'm sure that during the civil rights movement people were very vocal about racial racial rights and you know when putting out or stomping out racial hatred But I don't remember it being like as much in the public forum as it is during the last like say like maybe 10 years or
01:21:43.000so it seems like the people have They're much more organized in their ability to protest, to educate people, to explain things, to show things that people might not have been aware of before.
01:21:57.000I think it's a lot of just social media and just the internet and having all that just readily more available.
01:22:07.000Like I think people arguing having these conversations are super important even if they do get Shouty and stuff because that's I think that's how you learn is you have to have these awkward hard conversations Yeah, and they're there.
01:22:20.000It's it's hard to it's hard to think that every time you you buy anything anytime you Anytime you do any kind of interacting with someone you're A lot of the stuff that you're getting is coming from places where people live hard lives.
01:22:40.000And people argue, well, hey, we've talked about this recently, they're like, well, hey, you know, that's how countries grow and prosper.
01:22:48.000And, you know, they have to start out this way, and they have this, you know, revolution, industrial revolution, and all these people, they start manufacturing things.
01:23:24.000Those people are stuck in terrible jobs.
01:23:26.000Tell me that when you read a history book a thousand years from now, and they talk about what kind of barbarians we are in 2017, they will start to talk about the rise of the machine.
01:23:36.000And they will talk about the cell phone.
01:23:37.000And they were like, the people coveted the cell phone so much.
01:23:40.000That they found a way to compartmentalize their ideas about slave labor to the point where these people worked 16 hours a day in a gigantic concrete structure making their beloved phones.
01:23:51.000And they hated their job so much and they jumped off the building so much, they put nets around the building.
01:25:26.000I think more likely you had a lot of smart people and then you had a few like Leonardo da Vinci's who were fucking super geniuses who had figured out a bunch of crazy shit and was designing things and drawing things and these people were just like these rare blips of like superpower creativity that exist all throughout history and they propel us forward.
01:25:53.000I can't remember which artist it was, but they would make all these ideas and they'd have their understudies or people that were almost as skilled as them do these things and make them.
01:26:04.000I mean, I think that's what happened with the pyramids and stuff.
01:26:06.000They probably had these people that were planning, but you also still need skilled workers to build these.
01:26:09.000Yeah, I think, well, particularly with something like the pyramids, there's a tremendous amount of math involved.
01:26:15.000And they're all doing this somehow or another when they didn't even have steel.
01:26:20.000They supposedly had copper tools, and they figured out some way to grind these stones so perfectly they just sit on top of each other, just completely flat, leveled.
01:26:32.000When I was looking up the stuff on the Foxconn factories, I remember it said the reason why, or at least that was their argument, why they weren't in America is because they had upwards of like 30,000 mechanical engineers and electronical engineers at the ready.
01:26:45.000So those would be your skilled workers.
01:26:48.000And there still are slave laborers underneath them.
01:26:50.000But those are the extra people that maybe that's why it's not happening.
01:26:53.000That makes sense, because I guess with something like that, where the demand is so high and the quality and the standard is so high, like iPhones, say what you want about iPhones, I've dropped this fucking stupid thing seven or eight times and it works great, you know?
01:27:38.000You know these people are having romances, connected to each other, looking at each other through glass while they're wearing goggles and they're making phones.
01:27:44.000That's the only socializing they get to do.
01:27:46.000Do you think we might have a bounce back moment where it rebounds a little bit?
01:27:51.000Not like that, but there might be a day where we see if next week happens, we can stop it, but we need to stop all of our jobs from being taken.
01:30:27.000The Great Pyramid of Giza, if you look at all those insane photographs, when they do those 3Ds, when they go over it, you know, with a drone and film it, and you just look at it, you go, that is an insane accomplishment.
01:30:39.000Like, I can't imagine what it feels like to be there in real life.
01:30:43.000I wish it wasn't such a sketchy part of the world right now.
01:31:14.000That's one of the jokes that I'm doing now that I really had fun with, which is like the idea of me getting deported and going back to Mexico and having just to be quiet the whole time.
01:31:42.000Well, I didn't learn because there was a moment for my grandparents and my mom and my dad where it was like, we don't want people to know he's...
01:31:50.000Because it was almost looked down upon that he's like, you're speaking Spanish in public.
01:31:55.000You have to speak English, blah, blah, blah.
01:31:57.000But now it's the point where it's much more of a benefit to learn multiple languages.
01:32:02.000Well, I would think if you were a guy who could speak Spanish, you could work in all sorts of different countries in South America, too.
01:33:31.000Like a lot of Mexicans in San Jose hit me up, like a lot of young kids after I won, like hit me up and they're like, yeah, fuck yeah, San Jose, blah, blah, blah.
01:33:38.000And they're like, you know, I want to do stand-up and they ask me for advice and I just, you know, just tell them, man, just do mics and shit.
01:33:43.000Yeah, no, you're in a great position right now as being a guy who's successful.
01:34:45.000Driving and watching, looking at those houses, I get anxiety just watching those houses.
01:34:50.000They had a giant back porch, and it just broke off and slid down the side of the hill.
01:34:55.000Imagine just being that guy that made so much money that you were like, finally, I get to enjoy my porch, it's raining, I get to look at all the Hollywood hills, I've worked so hard, and then it's just like...
01:35:05.000Dude, that's like a life-changing disaster.
01:35:07.000Like, when your house breaks and slides down a hill, that will change your fucking life.
01:35:11.000There was a whole house that slid down the hill.
01:37:12.000There was some article I was saying that I read about a mining operation where they were talking about how warm it got as you got lower and lower, deeper and deeper into the earth.
01:37:22.000You could literally feel the heat of the fucking lava that these assholes are drilling next to.
01:39:27.000Why was everybody so sensitive that you can't even say something in jest about a person's positive attributes when people think you're racist?
01:39:35.000Oh, you said the Jews are good about business!
01:40:02.000It's a weird thing, Jewish folks, because, especially like European Jews, there's more Nobel Prize winning European Jews than I think anybody.
01:40:16.000Like, there's a pillar of science, or just a pillar of, pillar's not a good word, a collective of incredible minds that have come out of European Jews for some strange reason.
01:40:29.000I feel like they're all hilarious, too.
01:40:52.000No, not until I was 30. What would you say, Jamie?
01:40:56.000When you're talking about diamonds, have you ever seen the people that dig for diamond dust and gold dust in the streets of New York?
01:41:02.000I don't know exactly what street it is, but you know that diamond area where they're all doing exchanges and whatnot?
01:41:08.000When they're looking at them in their car and whatnot, dust gets on their pants and little flecks fall off and they get into the street and into the dust.
01:41:18.000There's probably more people that do it now, obviously, but they just dig through the dirt and the dust and the street cracks and whatnot, and they can take it home and they can find hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of diamond dust and gold dust and diamond flex.
01:41:32.000I'm sure occasionally they get really lucky and find a whole one.
01:44:26.000Well, maybe I was wrong about how much it costs, or maybe I had a very expensive one near me, and maybe it's because they stacked them, they could do it for $300.
01:44:34.000But whatever the amount was, I don't remember what it was.
01:44:37.000I didn't make any fucking money back then, so there's no way it was going to work.
01:44:57.000I had a day job delivering newspapers.
01:44:59.000And so then I went from there to New York.
01:45:03.000And when I went to New York, I was just like...
01:45:04.000Almost making money doing stand-up like almost almost like some months I made it this month next month fuck I don't have any gigs, you know, it was like almost being able to pull it off So whatever the amount for parking and then living in New York City Plus the thing about New York City is New York's amazing and it's there's it's incredible you can hop around and go from club to club to club But it's it was harder at the time at least to do long sets So I wanted to do like sets That prepare me for headlining on the road.
01:45:33.000I wanted to keep doing that set, even during the weekdays, so I'd just try to get it stronger and do it all as a whole.
01:45:39.000And that was really only available on the road for a guy like me.
01:45:44.000I feel like that's kind of where I'm at now.
01:45:48.000This was the first month I was ever able to pay my bills and everything off a stand-up, and that was a great feeling.
01:45:55.000Well, I mean, I just got to be smart about it because, I mean, now that I have money, that's all just going to rent so I can afford to be on the road and to build that time to where I can, you know, feature regularly and then make that money.
01:48:45.000And you had posted a picture of him, and it was right after you guys did a set, and you had posted a picture of him on the plane writing new jokes already, and you were just like, this guy just did a set, blah, blah, and he's already writing new jokes.
01:49:40.000Really good with taking apart his act, retrying things in a different order, slipping new stuff in there, you know?
01:49:50.000It's cool, too, like, as a guy like you working, you know, as you're sort of getting everything going and working at a place like the comic stores, you get to see a bunch of different ways people do it.
01:50:01.000Which is really, like, that main room show on a Saturday night when you're getting to see, you know, five, six, seven headliners in a row and you get to see what's the difference in how they handle things and how they set things up.
01:50:13.000The 9 o'clock spot, the 9.15, the 9.30, the 9.45.
01:50:16.000You're getting, like, this crazy education in stand-up.
01:50:21.000I mean, it's cool because I've got to see the different careers and paths of people, like watching Brian Moses go from a door guy to the host of his own show that he created, along with a lot of great people in the community.
01:50:34.000And just to see him do that and to see where his career's going, and also to see Tony, same thing, his career...
01:51:10.000He is one of the best dudes, and I owe so much to that guy because he was the one that pushed for me getting a job.
01:51:17.000He was the one that's really had my back since day one.
01:51:21.000There was a few times where just me being a young guy and having a bitterness, like when Rose Battle first went to Montreal, I was just young and bitter because I was like, oh, I'm not going.
01:53:54.000And that's the thing that I like the most about him was, like, he could talk about these subjects and these jokes, and it didn't matter what kind of background you came from, you could relate to him.
01:54:34.000The first one, it shows him walking out on stage, the lights are still up, people aren't fully sat down at their seats, and he just walks in and he's like, alright guys, and he just starts getting them to come in, and you're just like, wow!
01:54:45.000And he just, it's like, I think, I don't know if he gets right into it, but he just, you know, it's seamless.
01:54:52.000Dude, remember when he would joke about lighting himself on fire?
01:56:35.000I like to watch people fuck in an art form.
01:56:37.000I just imagine some dude, yeah, I'm here, just some guy's like getting ready and he turns, he's like, oh shit, is that, oh man, I'm such a huge fan.
01:56:44.000Do you think, that's a crazy thing to say, but do you think that that would be almost like Like, watching people have sex in another time, in another culture, in another way, could almost be like an art form.
01:56:58.000Almost be like an expressive art form.
01:57:02.000Where, like, if people fucking on stage was, like, stand-up, and people went to watch these two people fuck?
01:57:07.000Yeah, people went to see how good you fuck.
01:57:45.000Could you imagine if there was professional fuck shows and like people got cheered like Tong Po and fucking Kickboxer that walk out and everybody goes crazy.
01:58:38.000I saw this on an article in Vice where someone asked a bunch of people what they were taking...
01:58:42.000They interviewed people that were taking photos at the thing and what they like to do with their photos and how creepy they are or not creepy.
02:00:31.000And they throw it back at her and she gets knocked out.
02:00:35.000I told my girlfriend I wanted to, when I get the, because I still haven't got the prize money, but when I do, I was like, I want to just get it in cash and just throw it at her.
02:00:44.000So when she gets bruised, she can call the cops and they can be like, what happened?
02:01:32.000I think that being that connected to nature the way they are, because they have the ocean there, and not to say that Hawaiian people don't have their problems, like everybody has their problems.
02:01:40.000But Hawaiian people have a more relaxed, you know, what they'll call like island style way about them.
02:01:46.000I think in some way it's probably influenced by the humility that you just naturally get by being so connected to nature.
02:01:53.000The ocean right there, the mountains right there, it's just like they're so connected to it.
02:02:24.000Then dudes put up these little shacks on where the lava is and they rope it off and that's like their land now.
02:02:30.000Like they go back to where their land is like GPSed out and they like put stakes in and make like a little fence over the fucking lava and then they put like a house there.
02:11:07.000Like, move after move where you're like, oh, and you can, these are real moves that, like, I've been doing jiu-jitsu for a long time and I haven't seen before.
02:11:15.000You know, I'm not the most knowledgeable guy when it comes to jiu-jitsu, but I know enough about it that when I see some completely new choke variation that I've never seen before and everybody starts doing it, I'm like, okay, that wasn't around.
02:11:58.000So if you're going to agree to just stand up I feel like you should be able to do whatever you want to do when you're standing up in terms of elbows, knees.
02:12:06.000It doesn't make any sense to limit clinching.
02:12:08.000So I think that's the number one stand-up thing as far as what I want to see.
02:12:13.000But the only way you get to see the highest level of expression is if there's no takedowns.
02:12:33.000Like you see a lot of crazy moves in Jiu Jitsu that you might not see if you had soccer kicks or stomps.
02:12:40.000You probably wouldn't for a lot of those things.
02:12:42.000Because there's a lot of stuff that people could do to mitigate your movement that they're agreeing not to do.
02:12:47.000It's not that you're just totally controlling them, but to get the highest level of grappling to watch it, you really kind of have to have only grappling.
02:12:54.000Yeah, because then it's like, these are rules we're agreeing to, and then from there, you can really start to learn how to bend the rules.
02:13:06.000There's strategy-based approaches to things, and that happens with jiu-jitsu, it happens with striking.
02:13:12.000That's what's really interesting about martial arts more than...
02:13:15.000People look at it in terms of this exciting, violent thing, this rah-rah, macho thing, which it definitely certainly is.
02:13:24.000That's definitely certainly a part of the appeal of MMA. But also what the appeal is, is that it's insanely difficult to do, and you have to be insanely brave to choose to do it for a living.
02:15:15.000If he's coming back, it's because he knows he's healed up probably better than ever.
02:15:19.000He's going to be really interesting to watch him return because he's different in the way he approaches fighting, I think, than almost anybody before him and he influenced so many people after him.
02:15:29.000In that he almost has no ego when it comes to listening to his coaches and absorbing information and being taught.
02:15:40.000You see him rolling and training and drilling with people.
02:15:43.000And I've had the opportunity to drill with him and do some kick moves with him, go over some stuff, and he's just so open-minded and so fucking smart.
02:15:51.000That guy's a really interesting dude because he's not a mean guy at all.
02:15:55.000He's like you would never think if you met him that he was this world champion Like one of the greatest if not the greatest I would say the greatest welterweight of all time You know does that mean that he would beat Damian Maia 100% of the time?
02:17:14.000Yeah, I think conventional wisdom is that Floyd boxes the shit out of him.
02:17:19.000But, uh, Teddy Atlas had something very interesting to say.
02:17:21.000He thinks that Floyd is, uh, not recognizing the fact that Conor might just decide to get disqualified.
02:17:28.000That, like, if it starts getting crazy, like, if they're in the middle of a fight, and he decides, like, he can't beat him, he might decide to, uh, just fucking flip him on his ass.
02:17:39.000Atlas McGregor will cheat against Mayweather, then proclaim himself as King of the Ring.
02:17:55.000Unless he catches Conor coming in with the haymaker to end all haymakers that can take that Irish assassin out with one punch, Conor's gonna grab him.
02:18:04.000If he grabs him, he's gonna ragdoll him to the ground.
02:18:06.000He's gonna do whatever the fuck he wants to do once he's there.
02:18:09.000And if he doesn't do that, he'll kick him from the outside.
02:18:11.000He can hit him from a place Floyd can't even touch him.
02:18:14.000He'll just sidekick the shit out of his legs.
02:18:16.000He'll stay on the outside, moving around.
02:18:21.000And in the first round, in particular, in the first round, if he decides to start kicking Floyd's legs, like if they agreed on that, like some sort of Inoki versus Ali match, did you ever see that?
02:21:15.000He's a legendary guy in the world of martial arts.
02:21:18.000Check out this last quote, too, from professional.
02:21:21.000Bret Hart was working for Inoki at the time, and he claimed in an autobiography that the black Muslims who were backing Ali made it clear that if Inoki laid a finger on their champ, they would kill him.
02:21:30.000That's why Inoki lay on his back for 15 rounds, kicking Ali in the shin so not to use his hands.
02:23:20.000It was fun in high school, man, I'll tell you that.
02:23:22.000I had a friend in high school who was training to become a wrestler, and I remember people would give him shit about it all the time, and then he was like, no man, wrestling training camp's no joke.
02:23:31.000And then he came in, he took his shirt off, and he had just bruises.
02:23:34.000Because I guess when they would practice, they would hit each other as hard as possible, so they know exactly how hard it is that they're going to get hit.
02:24:03.000All those wrestlers, at some point in time, wind up getting badly injured.
02:24:07.000Like Dan Gable, who's one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time, he's got all kinds of replacements, camp replacements and all that kind of crazy shit.
02:24:15.000He just had this indomitable will that sort of outran his own joints.
02:25:05.000I'll tell you what you were telling...
02:25:06.000I'll give away a giant spoiler alert if I say this, but I tried to watch that movie that we were talking about, The Arrival, or Arrival, whatever it is.
02:26:33.000You don't want to ruin it for everybody.
02:26:35.000Yeah, he's always been, like, that guy.
02:26:38.000There's, like, some dudes that get attached.
02:26:40.000It's really kind of fascinating when you think about how many people there are and think how many dudes get attached to, like, that action movie genre.
02:30:23.000I feel like it's one of those things where people just have gotten to this point where they're like, I don't want to say my opinion matters so much, but it's like no one can just enjoy something anymore.
02:30:31.000Everyone always has to have either a shitty opinion on it or a really, really not so shitty opinion on it.
02:30:37.000Well, I see people use all sorts of different things to sort of make their point.
02:30:41.000And I see if you were trying to make your point about some anti-corporate movie, you would see like this.
02:30:46.000But what I see is dynamics that make a good storyline where you're invested in the plot.
02:30:52.000I'm not looking at it as a propaganda film because it's in fucking space and they have floating islands and none of that's real.
02:34:04.000If you read the book, because the author, there's a lot of skepticism of where his politicalness lies, but they would say- I don't think that's a word, sorry.
02:34:32.000But Ender's Game's a really good movie.
02:34:34.000But at the end of it, it's all about, like, this alien race that's eventually coming to attack, and they have these kids do this game, but the whole time, spoiler alert, they're actually fighting, and they're controlling the ships from the game.