The Comment Section with Drew Afualo - A FEAR DUMP Ft. Joel Kim Booster ｜ Episode 166

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00:00:25.440 today. Conditions apply. And an action movie would be fun too. You know I'd love to be in a big

00:00:30.100 stupid like I'd love to actually I really want to be like the eye like the tech hacker guy in the van 0.99

00:00:36.080 while they're like doing the thing and be like I'm in you know. Like guys you're gonna want to see this. 1.00

00:00:42.120 Yeah exactly. I see it now. It's perfect. The vision is so clear to me.

00:00:49.060 Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the comment section show starring me your fave

00:00:59.520 everybody knows me. Who cares about me? On to the guest today we have the iconic, the talented,

00:01:04.360 the legendary Joel Kim Booster. Thank you so much for having me. Oh my gosh thank you for coming to

00:01:11.780 the show. I'm so excited. I hope your listeners know that you do shoot in a haunted elementary

00:01:16.760 school. Yeah I do. Many different sets. I'm a man of many hats. I'm also the principal of a

00:01:25.300 haunted school. So you know I'm so busy. I was like that's why I moonlight as a tiktoker. Yes. 0.80

00:01:31.580 That's my main job. But I'm glad you said haunted elementary school because the last person who

00:01:36.120 every time they go look they get scared over there because it's obviously scary. Yeah. But

00:01:40.420 they're one of my friends told me she goes it looks like porn. Wow that's a little fucked up that I 0.99

00:01:47.840 went haunted elementary school and then some it's like a Rorschach test you know like whatever you 0.97

00:01:53.000 see is like what you are inside I guess. Yeah you found out ENFJ over there. Well I'm so excited to

00:02:00.820 have you. I think you're an icon. Oh thank you so much. And we I've been trying to nail you down for

00:02:05.020 a while. Oh my gosh. Right. I've been chasing Joel for a minute. I'm so honored. I'm a little horny now.

00:02:11.600 Nipples hard. Love to hear that. Nailed down and chased. Period. But obviously I know you as a very 0.99

00:02:18.080 successful producer, writer, actor, obviously stand-up comedian. Speaking of a man of many hats.

00:02:25.760 But I do for people who aren't unfamiliar with your lore I would like to know how you got into

00:02:30.140 entertainment. How you got into show business in general. Yeah I mean listen I have always loved

00:02:34.220 attention like we all do. Right. And I was like a little ham as a kid and I I remember um seeing my

00:02:41.940 sister in a school play and like I was like I don't know like six and I was just like I want to do that

00:02:47.860 and literally from that point forward that was all I was ever wanted to do really like there was a

00:02:53.360 brief moment where I wanted to be a youth pastor. So you said that was a brief don't know what that

00:02:59.840 was about. Yeah yeah yeah. Uh and then I came out and quickly shift gears back over to wanting to be

00:03:06.200 an actor and like I uh went to theater school um for performance like musical theater. I did like

00:03:12.300 one summer of professional like summer stock musical theater and realized very quickly I did not like it

00:03:17.820 enough to want to do it. Really? Well because here's the thing like I realized like I'm a I'm an

00:03:23.340 okay actor. I was an okay singer. Could not dance to save my life. Physically dyslexic. Do not know

00:03:27.980 left from right. And um I was like oh I'm not good enough at this specific area. Like type of

00:03:34.700 entertainment. The thing is I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and like Broadway and like musical theater

00:03:39.800 and like community theater like that kind of stuff was like my only access to that's like my only

00:03:45.440 conception for how you would be an actor. Yeah like musicals and like doing that stuff and being

00:03:50.960 on Broadway and I soon realized like oh I'm not good enough at this. Like I was good enough to get

00:03:56.220 into the school and I was good enough to like you know get parts in high school and stuff like that

00:03:59.740 but like on a professional level I was like I'm not going to be competing with people who could

00:04:03.840 actually like blow the roof off this place. Yeah you're like this isn't my team. I'm like as an as a

00:04:08.280 and like as a young person as a 20 something in like trying out for Broadway roles you're only ever

00:04:13.320 going to get cast in the ensemble and that's if you can dance you know. And I was like I see. So

00:04:17.540 I'm fucked. So I went back to school. Oh drop that dream. Yeah yeah yeah. And so I went back to school 1.00

00:04:23.660 and I um changed my major to playwriting. Okay. Um because I was like you know I've always been

00:04:29.680 interested in writing as well and I um had started to write like uh plays that I would direct at school

00:04:36.160 in the student theater and that's and it just felt more sort of um I don't know gratifying to me in a lot

00:04:42.940 of ways because I was because like I did my first one and everyone was like wow that was so great and

00:04:47.140 like no one had ever reacted to me that way after seeing a performance of mine. So I was like

00:04:53.060 I was like the high I've been chasing. Yeah yeah yeah. Right. No honestly and so uh for the rest of

00:04:59.680 school I I was doing that I was still like uh taking performance and acting classes and stuff like

00:05:04.380 that but just like sort of dropped the dance in the scene and um and was just writing and like

00:05:09.140 I went I moved to Chicago because my first full-length play right out of college was being

00:05:14.000 produced as a part of the Fringe Festival out there which um was cool and I just stayed and

00:05:19.660 there's a there's a really vibrant like storefront theater scene in Chicago. Yeah. It's really amazing

00:05:23.860 and um the more I got successful in the scene in the theater scene in Chicago

00:05:29.160 the more frustrating it would get because like I would be doing these like really like

00:05:34.000 indie like plays like at like 60 seat theaters. Yeah. Getting paid like 25 bucks a performance like

00:05:41.740 that kind of thing. Yeah. But then as I slowly started to like get you know more successful in

00:05:46.720 that area and get called into like shows at Steppenwolf or the Goodman or something like that

00:05:50.980 like the big theaters. This was like 15 years ago like so it wasn't we were not having the

00:05:58.440 conversations about diversity and casting that we're having now and so the more higher up the

00:06:03.960 parts that were the less interesting they became. They became more about like just like caricature-y and

00:06:11.060 like just not interesting parts you know and so um I was working on a play called Five Lesbians

00:06:17.320 Eating a Quiche as a writing assistant. It was an original play and it's exactly what it sounds like

00:06:22.180 and um the comedian Beth Stelling was starring in that play and she's like a pretty big comedian

00:06:28.700 especially if you're a comedy nerd like right now and she was the one who was like you know you write

00:06:32.960 and you perform you should try stand-up if you're really frustrated with like you know what you've

00:06:38.300 the parts that you're getting called in for. She was like you can just like do it yourself and she

00:06:42.880 was the first person that suggested that and like up till this point like I didn't know that stand-up

00:06:49.540 would be like a place for me because like when I was in high school like the biggest name in

00:06:55.220 stand-up comedy was Dane Cook and no disrespect to Dane Cook made me laugh but like nothing about

00:06:59.440 what Dane Cook was doing said to me oh this is for you you know and like every time I'd been to a

00:07:05.260 comedy club it was like I never felt like that disgusting straight white yeah no I never felt like 1.00

00:07:11.460 in on the joke with them I felt like a part of the joke so exactly um and then I went and started

00:07:17.240 seeing like really like alt comedy in like bars in Chicago and like real and seeing people like

00:07:23.440 Beth and Kumail and like you know people in who were and Hannibal in Chicago and I was like oh this

00:07:28.740 is what stand-up could be I was like I had no idea and so I started doing it and doing well and it

00:07:33.560 slowly became like it started as this like outlet for me to be like get creative again and like sort

00:07:40.300 of like you know feel like myself on stage and then it just slowly took over and became way more

00:07:45.180 interesting than anything else I was doing so I moved to New York like two years in uh to like

00:07:49.680 really pursue it and like the way you've lived a thousand lives it's crazy like you're just mastering

00:07:55.180 talents and then moving on no I mean like you're mastering these skills and then you're like well

00:08:00.320 I'm at the top and it's boring up here well it's time to find something else I actually wasn't at the

00:08:04.500 top when I moved to New York in Chicago in fact a lot of people told me they were like you're too green

00:08:09.360 to go to New York yet like you haven't done yeah xyz show in Chicago you haven't done this theater

00:08:15.140 in Chicago blah blah blah and the thing about that for me was is I kind of like figured this but

00:08:21.140 like I moved to Chicago or to New York with a bunch of like the top people in Chicago at the time like 0.92

00:08:27.000 people many classes above me and the thing is is no one gives a shit what you did in Chicago once you 0.72

00:08:32.220 moved to New York you know like we all started from zero yeah and for me I was a lot closer to zero 0.70

00:08:37.320 than some of these other people I moved with so it wasn't as big a blow to the ego I was like oh I'm

00:08:41.440 going last at the open mic that's my life in Chicago too no I love that about you yeah I love

00:08:45.480 that you're like a deep end diver like yeah and I always tell people move a little bit before you're

00:08:51.060 ready yeah before before the people you know above you say that you're ready or before you even feel

00:08:56.000 ready right I think it it behooves you like you know to have like the base skill set but like

00:09:00.720 you know I no one thought I was ready to move to New York and I'm so glad I moved to New York because

00:09:05.520 I got a lot better a lot quicker yeah and like really you know honed in on um things and um yeah

00:09:12.280 and the rest is sort of history like I was in New York um grinding it out like doing a lot of open

00:09:17.380 mics and just like slowly over time there like um started doing like festivals there was a time in

00:09:22.880 comedy where every major city had a comedy festival yeah and like that was like a really exciting time

00:09:29.680 in comedy I'm so lucky I came up when I did because it really did feel like the golden age

00:09:33.440 of stand-up comedy and um that's so cool because like so many people were into it and like I don't

00:09:39.520 know like there was the economy for every major city to have a comedy festival which is not the

00:09:45.300 case anymore yeah and like and it gives you the ability to kind of like uh even I feel like when

00:09:52.700 you do comedy at the time that you were doing it was like it was coming out of this like Dane Cook

00:09:57.400 like era where it's like all straight white guys I fucking hate my wife type energy and then you 1.00

00:10:02.320 were right there where it's blossoming into so much more and like it's so funny because what I was 0.96

00:10:06.300 doing back then in like 2014 was like considered alt comedy because I was like a marginalized identity

00:10:13.020 talking about my life on stage um because you weren't talking about hitting your wife yeah no I was

00:10:17.240 referred to a lot as an alt comedian and I came up with a lot of like true actual alt comedians like

00:10:21.840 Julio Torres yeah and like people like that and like it was so funny because like what Julio was and

00:10:28.240 is doing is all like it is very much left to center what I was doing was like standard like

00:10:33.260 storytelling like you know observations about my life and the lives of others and it was just

00:10:38.180 happened to be because I was gay and Asian people lumped me in with the the Brooklyn alt scene and

00:10:43.680 they put you under other yeah well and the thing is is I did feel more comfortable doing those rooms

00:10:48.900 yeah totally for the audience for the audiences yeah you know because like it was like people who were

00:10:53.460 like into comedy and like comedy nerds and like we're not like we're just interested in like are

00:10:58.620 you funny and yeah not of like you how bad can you punch down for 40 minutes straight yeah um yeah

00:11:04.600 and at one of those uh comedy fuzzles in Portland I randomly that's where my eight my manager saw me

00:11:11.520 for the first time at like performing a 10 minute spot at a gay bar in Portland and like I got back

00:11:17.140 to New York and he called me and he was like let's meet when I'm in New York and um I saw your

00:11:23.180 set and I really enjoyed it and this is what I will always say to people who ask me like what can

00:11:28.620 I do to really like make it like how did you get where you are like how did you do it and the thing

00:11:33.540 is I always say like you cannot create the moment that the door opens for you all you can do is be

00:11:40.340 ready for when that moment happens and be prepared because when I sat down with that my manager who's

00:11:45.160 still a manager to this day he said the set was great do you have a tape of you doing like 15 minutes

00:11:51.760 do you have a spec script like a writing sample do you have like xyz things and I was able to say

00:11:57.760 like no no truly but like the thing was is I was sitting at my day job on my lunch break writing that

00:12:03.740 script and like you know running around the city with like my my fucking digital camera like making 0.97

00:12:09.720 sure that I got those clips and I was able to say like when he was when he sat down with me like 0.91

00:12:14.320 he was basically saying like are you ready to go and I was able to say yeah like let's do this

00:12:19.020 like here's all my my my multitudes in front of you yeah and um so like that was really and like

00:12:25.620 everything else like just sort of like started to happen right after that yeah and so yeah it's just

00:12:31.360 like you can't you have to be you know it's so random how it happened like you know of all the

00:12:37.560 places for him to be hanging out that night like watching the show yeah and like yeah it's just like

00:12:42.860 it's so random but you control how prepared you are for when it happens I agree you know and it's

00:12:48.240 hard it's hard to do that work when no one's asking you for it yet yeah yeah it's hard to keep going

00:12:53.120 exactly and doing it I've it's not the same by any means either but I've I feel like for mine I've told

00:12:59.040 people something similar but more specifically in the same kind of vein I've been like you have to

00:13:03.680 like really want to do it yeah because like sometimes people are like I'll just quit my job and just do

00:13:08.180 this full-time no don't do that right don't don't do that I'm like I remember maybe no not in this

00:13:13.560 economy yeah not in this economy especially not in this economy and I've told people before I'm like

00:13:17.260 don't do that like because if you really want to do it you'll make time like you'll find the time

00:13:22.860 to do it to keep going to keep pursuing regardless of what people say or do or whatever and I mean like

00:13:29.040 you say it's different but like it is very similar being like what you do with social media and stuff

00:13:34.580 like that because like listen you were putting stuff out on the internet before anybody gave a

00:13:38.860 shit about you you know and it takes like a lot of time to build that momentum and get to where you 0.74

00:13:44.680 are now and like I think like I'll respect you for that because like I tried to do the social media 0.97

00:13:50.100 thing and during lockdown like I was like oh I need to pivot to tiktok and boy do I not that is a

00:13:55.620 different skill set that is a different skill set that I do not possess and so I respect you all the more

00:14:01.700 my brain is rotted from the inside it's tar on the inside of my brain crack it open it like melted

00:14:06.780 chocolate but like no I don't I don't I don't have it so um you know um I think that's wonderful

00:14:14.020 though I do have a question and when it comes to writing did you notice a big difference when you

00:14:18.580 wrote for like theater stand-up and like uh the movie like movies or tv shows like is there a main

00:14:25.480 difference other than obviously like subject matter I will say like um stand-up is very different

00:14:31.600 I use a very different part of my writer brain for stand-up than I do when I'm writing scripts

00:14:35.940 I will say like the like the transition from like plays to screen writing like wasn't that big of a

00:14:42.660 leap like you can be a little bit more dynamic and a little bit you know in certain ways and you can

00:14:47.220 be a little bit more experimental in theater like sort of like the confines of like theater make it

00:14:52.460 really exciting to write for because like it's like if you want to do something really interesting and

00:14:56.960 this is my thing about theater now is like I don't want to see a play where it's just like

00:15:01.460 two people talking and like somebody's cutting vegetables and doing laundry like like these

00:15:06.300 like because I'm like this could be a movie like anything that I'm like this could be a movie like

00:15:11.120 what makes it so immediate and so special as a play as a piece of theater like Ontario the wait is over

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00:16:12.900 see golden nugget casino.com for details please play responsibly because it's like I see so many

00:16:18.560 plays where it's like oh you wanted to be your screenplay you know yeah what about it like makes

00:16:23.980 it special in this space like within front of a live audience you know like what can you do to like

00:16:29.740 work around that and so I you know it's it's different in that regard but like the fundamentals

00:16:35.120 are the same in screenwriting playwriting so and then first stand-up you said you use a completely

00:16:39.000 yeah because it's like I go up and I like I'm not somebody as a stand-up who like sits in a coffee

00:16:44.440 shop and like writes down the jokes verbatim in my notebook and then goes on stage and says them

00:16:48.920 you know word for word from the notebook yeah like I write down little like premises and ideas and

00:16:53.140 thoughts and things like that and then so much of my writing process as a comedian is about writing on

00:16:58.640 stage like I get up on stage and like I have very little idea where I'm going when I'm working out new

00:17:04.080 material and so much of it is about like working in conversation with the audience yeah figuring out

00:17:09.180 what the joke is and what the angle is and what the funny thing about whatever I'm talking about is

00:17:13.940 yeah and like I it's just I record every set and I listen to it back and I said oh hey that hit

00:17:18.360 and then I write it down you know and then I like start to like craft it a little bit more so it's a

00:17:22.880 little bit less precise than I think like yeah there's like a little bit more writing is yeah improv

00:17:27.840 yeah kind of oh that's so interesting because I do anybody who's seen my show like I do a lot of

00:17:32.880 crowd work yeah um which is my one of my favorite things to do I've seen a lot of your

00:17:37.160 crowd work on TikTok yeah and it wasn't posted by you someone else was clipping it well I love to

00:17:41.720 hear that because I don't know how and um yeah and I think like the thing is about like this is

00:17:48.900 like we are living in the moment where every comedian is posting crowd work clips like everybody's

00:17:53.680 got to and I understand that like it's a necessity I'm very lucky that I did not come up in an age

00:17:58.740 where I had to post content of myself doing stand-up whether it be a joke that you're burning for

00:18:03.940 the internet or crowd work that you're posting because you have to put out like a new clip every

00:18:08.580 week and you don't want to burn that material yeah but I see a lot of crowd work where I'm like

00:18:13.580 okay if the audience member that you're talking to is getting the bigger laugh and is being funnier

00:18:19.860 than you are then you're posting an L on your timeline right now like even when I'm doing crowd

00:18:24.860 work like I am in control I make sure that I'm saying the funny thing right you know in response to

00:18:30.180 whatever they're saying exactly not like letting them be interesting you working me at my show

00:18:35.200 yeah no it's like and I like listen that has happened to me before too but I don't post it online

00:18:40.100 nobody needs to know nobody needs to know um so yeah that's actually so true I have a lot of

00:18:49.500 sympathy for comedians who are now who who who need to do that but I'm also like baby like let's let's

00:18:55.900 really examine the material that also also I feel like because I've loved stand-up for so long like

00:19:02.580 that's been one of my favorite art forms of entertainment for a long time and unfortunately

00:19:07.980 when I started loving stand-up a lot of the comics didn't age well over time where I was like

00:19:14.120 right okay that's a bummer um but now like you said there's been a whole new wave of comedians who are 0.91

00:19:21.120 not you know making punching down jokes all the fucking time and being offensive for the sake of 0.98

00:19:25.480 being offensive which I find refreshing and thankful I'm thankful for but I think a lot of 0.98

00:19:30.860 times like what you said about TikTok sometimes as wonderful as it is it also can poison the well in a

00:19:35.420 lot of ways so now anyone who tells a joke that makes anybody kind of thinks they can do stand-up and

00:19:40.820 then on top of that they think stand all stand-up is is purely just crowd work yeah and nothing more

00:19:46.660 yeah which I was like you're crazy well and it's interesting like talking I mean like we we talked

00:19:52.400 about it earlier but it is a different skill set yeah and I feel like I feel bad for a lot of these

00:19:58.180 people who got really came up doing front-facing like comedy videos on TikTok yeah and now are being

00:20:03.560 asked or think it's expected of them to do stand-up in tandem with that because the touring is really

00:20:09.340 lucrative you know like it's a great way to you know to to get money doing what you love but it is

00:20:15.000 like it's so different and I I recently was on a show where I was backstage and this very I found 0.88

00:20:21.560 out like very big TikToker was hosting the show and it was funny because he had no fucking clue who 0.80

00:20:26.880 I was and I had no idea who he was and um but he was like talking to me and he's like yeah this is

00:20:32.580 the first time I've ever performed live in front of an audience and I was like oh that's great

00:20:36.580 interesting and of course he bombed and it was like how long was that it was like 15 20 minutes

00:20:42.320 damn it was rough first time 20 yeah I know exactly and my thing was is like I didn't blame

00:20:48.140 him I blame the producers I was like you should never have been put in this position in the first 0.98

00:20:51.980 place right exactly because they don't understand they think like oh this person has a lot of

00:20:56.280 followers and is funny online he'll be great to get butts in seats exactly yeah exactly and then

00:21:01.060 they throw him into the deep end and then and then it's just like it just tragedy it is and it's

00:21:05.900 just like it's a different thing I know people who do both but yeah they will they will cop to

00:21:10.940 this they don't it's a they use different skill sets to do both exactly exactly yeah and so yeah

00:21:16.700 I feel I feel bad I think it's happening less now I'm seeing it less because it's been so public

00:21:22.420 yeah yeah exactly but yeah it is interesting um no you're so it feels like a whole different world

00:21:28.500 and I think like it's okay that we we you know see them that way yeah yeah I agree and there's also

00:21:33.860 no shame in it either like being a tiktoker like and it's funny you say that because I I have been

00:21:38.440 sprinting away from stand-up for so long because I'm so afraid to find out I'm not good like I'm

00:21:43.660 so afraid because I I love stand-up so much and I was like I don't want to do that and bombing live

00:21:47.100 would kill me right and I've toured live I've toured live many times but that's like my podcast with

00:21:51.800 my sister so it's all improv there's no like planned anything um we take audience submission things and

00:21:57.500 then we make jokes about them on the fly and then do crowd work too it's like a kind of a twofer so I've

00:22:02.940 done that multiple times but I the only thing I've ever done um is five minutes for Caleb I opened

00:22:07.940 for Caleb but um he he was like please do it please do it for me like please like I'll help you I'll help

00:22:13.340 you write it so he like helped me so much um and I think it went pretty well for my first five but I

00:22:18.520 was so I tell everyone when I tell them about that I'm like I never get nervous I never get nervous

00:22:23.740 doing this I never get nervous talking on stage performing left none that was the most nervous I have

00:22:29.920 ever fucking been I was I read it a thousand times I was like sick to my stomach had fear dump right 0.84

00:22:36.440 before if yeah oh a mess that is that will follow you when you've been doing it for 14 years um but 0.97

00:22:43.760 like it it is um I mean if Caleb was helping you then yeah I'm sure it was great yeah I know and I

00:22:49.680 told him in his crowd too like right when I told Sabrina that she goes oh I bet he was a tough critic

00:22:55.020 and I was like oh yeah there were some jokes I told him where he literally was like anything else

00:23:00.720 and I was like yeah I got so many other jokes yeah of course um I mean but like you were smart

00:23:07.120 starting with five like yeah this poor kid like starting at that's why I said 20 minutes I was

00:23:11.940 like I you know it's a you really do not realize how long five minutes is no for real you're up there

00:23:19.520 I agree like and it's like whoa uh this is this is a long time you're like yeah you're talking so

00:23:25.140 fast and you look and it's like a minute 40 and you're like right so I have four minutes and 15

00:23:29.920 seconds left okay and I remember too when I uh when Caleb asked me he's like do you want me to add

00:23:34.920 you to the poster and like all that stuff I was like honestly no if you're cool leaving me off

00:23:39.200 because it was just Caleb and friends um I was like because I want to find out if I'm good I feel

00:23:43.720 like if I my fans will come and I I love them and I know I believe them that they think I'm funny

00:23:48.640 but I was like but I want to perform in front of people that are not my audience I just want to

00:23:52.160 see like if I'm good it is like that's so real because like quite honestly like post movie post

00:23:58.360 like special and stuff like that like it's I came up when I started touring and headlining in 2016

00:24:04.060 it was based off of like my one appearance on Conan and that was pretty much it I've seen that

00:24:09.500 it was great it's fantastic and you know I would be performing at these clubs for people who had no

00:24:15.540 idea who I was yeah you know and I would have to come out there every single night and like really

00:24:20.100 prove myself and really like win them over yeah you know by the first 10 minutes or I was screwed

00:24:25.660 and like that made me such a strong writer and like such a uh like uh word economy and all these

00:24:33.020 things and like getting to the punchline faster and like because you have to get to that punchline

00:24:36.280 fast if they don't know who you are yeah exactly yeah they're just they're waiting for you to make

00:24:40.180 them laugh and like um so you learn that and then like now there are moments on stage where I'm like

00:24:47.520 I wasn't that funny I don't trust you I was like you like me and that's good but like also I think

00:24:54.500 you're being a little charitable you're so mean you're so mean you're like that was made at best

00:25:00.520 I don't know why you guys are laughing so I love doing like my favorite thing to do is like a secret

00:25:04.600 headlining spot at like the store or something like that where like nobody everybody just shows up

00:25:09.040 it has and again like it's like having these moments where like most of those people don't

00:25:13.720 know who I am either like they ain't watching fire island I ain't showing up on their algorithm

00:25:17.120 um and so it's like it's like really necessary for me to do that yeah because like it really does

00:25:23.960 pinpoint those spots where it's like oh that was a fan that was there was a gas leak in the audience

00:25:28.860 you guys are drunk yeah yeah I'm on at the end of the night I opened first I did my five and then

00:25:34.800 Chris Fleming was after me oh my god I know for real and then Caleb closed obviously and like

00:25:39.320 for Chris after I did my five I was like so nervous when I got off the stage I thought I did pretty

00:25:45.400 well and then Chris Fleming came up to me and he was like this is the first time he and I had like

00:25:49.820 ever met in person and he was like that's your first time ever and I was like yeah um yeah I was

00:25:55.200 like I hope it was okay and then he was like I think you killed for your first time that's awesome

00:25:59.480 yeah and I was like oh thank you and I was like Chris Fleming that's huge listen etched in the it's

00:26:04.880 literally I play it like a memory of the all-time greats like for real it makes me believe that

00:26:09.800 stand-up can be funny and interesting you know you're so mean like he literally I I put it we're

00:26:15.600 just talking about Chris Fleming I I put a bit of his that he posted about but he called he was

00:26:21.120 talking about SNL 50 and he called Jimmy Fallon the smee to Lorne Michaels Captain Hook

00:26:27.980 and then he said Stephen Cool Bear was up there like here's jelly roll like he's just so ashamed

00:26:39.420 dude he's one of the funniest people I literally said I want to study you like Jane Goodall I just

00:26:46.960 want to live amongst the apes for a little bit you know what I mean just hang out see how they 0.53

00:26:50.420 interact and pick ticks out of each other's there that's how I feel watching your crowd work honestly

00:26:54.260 your crowd work is some of the best I've ever seen thank you thank you which is so funny and I'd love

00:26:57.740 to know what's your do you have like a favorite crowd work story um yeah actually I do it's um so

00:27:04.000 one of the when again going back to 2016 when I first started touring the only time I've ever

00:27:11.160 done a comedy club and bombed pretty much all six shows for an hour straight every night was Phoenix

00:27:18.420 Arizona the week before the 2016 election and um who hates you that put you up right there I was

00:27:26.080 um doing this club and I was the last minute replacement for the comic who was supposed to

00:27:29.900 be headlining that week and I was sitting there and like all the old the old comics like table

00:27:34.800 toppers and poster was still up right and I was sitting at the bar before my first show there and

00:27:39.200 this is like before my first show this guy's sitting at the bar ordered a drink looks at the 0.98

00:27:43.220 table topper and turns to the bartender and goes um this guy isn't too much of a faggot is he 1.00

00:27:48.080 and I'm sitting there and the bartender knew I was the replacement and she was like oh well 0.98

00:27:53.160 actually we have a different comedian than that one um and like I was just like well here we go

00:28:00.680 you said that news for you to mad to make matters worse the opener they had chosen for me his closer

00:28:06.800 involved getting the audience to chant lock her up in unison with him and I was like and of course he

00:28:13.700 was one of these guys who's like I think they're both bad I think they're both bad but like you know

00:28:17.660 he chose to end that way and then I come on stage and they're like immediately like you know my entire

00:28:24.520 person is politicized yeah and so they're just like sitting there and it was so rough but like

00:28:30.820 midway through that run of the uh of that week that I was there I was like talking about I have

00:28:36.060 the joke about how I'm adopted but my older brother who's biological to my family is also gay

00:28:41.540 and we were I was like talking about that I was talking about like I guess it's nurture you know 0.55

00:28:45.540 like and um that's my theory this woman shouts out from the crowd you wouldn't have been gay if you 1.00

00:28:52.020 were breastfed and I I turned and what a gift because of all that entire week of bombing this was

00:28:58.600 the funniest I was the entire week the only time I ever got the crowd on my side because I turned to

00:29:04.100 her and I was like I did not realize there was a scientist in the audience and I was like gotta talk to

00:29:08.960 you and I spent probably like 15 minutes interrogating this woman about like where she 1.00

00:29:14.620 was getting this and like what is the science behind it and like what is the belief system that

00:29:18.380 led her to that and it was again like even this conservative like crowd that hated me yeah hated

00:29:24.600 her more and like he said I only needed to be one it was the only time I had like ever gotten the

00:29:31.900 audience that week on my side for that like short 15 minutes and then of course they went back to

00:29:35.780 hating me once I got back to material like I like she I have a joke about her like that I

00:29:41.120 you know right you know that ended up in my my first special and like again like I look back on

00:29:46.260 that and I was like she was a gift sent to me from heaven because a reward yeah no truly for those six

00:29:52.680 days um and I I still like man I have so many scars from Phoenix they tried to get me they did get me

00:29:59.740 to go back a couple years later by like luring me and by being like oh no this one this shows in

00:30:04.100 historic downtown Phoenix which is like the Brooklyn of Phoenix and let me be clear let me be clear

00:30:10.560 there is no Brooklyn in Phoenix yeah for real like and historic downtown Phoenix I'm sorry you forget

00:30:16.720 that like the entire west coast is so new that historic downtown Phoenix looks like a Chipotle

00:30:22.560 like it is there is nothing that feels like historic about it at all because I'm like right oh this was

00:30:28.720 like from the 70s like it's like this is this is this place hasn't existed like right after they

00:30:33.700 replaced the wallpaper and talk about yeah exactly it's like right after that so yeah what is that

00:30:37.600 2010 and of course those shows were bad too so and Bob knows never never going back to this never ever

00:30:44.540 yeah that has to be like one of the worst yeah I will say like Tempe pretty cool you know

00:30:50.860 but but something about we shan't be going back to Phoenix yeah I shall not I ordered a Greek salad

00:30:59.460 at a restaurant in Phoenix and you know what they brought me out a bowl that was like a third full

00:31:03.980 of tzatziki then cucumbers and then fed on top of that and then more tzatziki on top of that and I was

00:31:09.240 like this is disgusting this is all the same bowl of sour cream yeah I was like yeah you gave me soup 0.99

00:31:15.000 like um this is not a salad what do you think a salad is you know racism yeah fucked up Greek salads 0.99

00:31:22.640 can you believe it yeah yeah don't go to Phoenix that's all they have there recommend so sorry to 0.97

00:31:27.580 disrespect anybody who lives there currently or is from there who loves it but um it's just you know

00:31:31.560 not every city is for everybody you know no you're right you're right have you noticed any I love

00:31:35.800 asking people who have done who are stand-ups like successful stand-ups if they have like a joke that

00:31:41.020 they notice hits in every city or like just a general theme and ones that never hit or you found

00:31:47.240 out only hit in certain cities uh yeah I mean like I will say like I haven't really bombed since Phoenix

00:31:53.740 um thankfully thankfully um you're too good and so like most of the material and I don't change the

00:31:59.400 material really switching up for for audiences I never have even and like I'm very proud of that

00:32:06.480 I've gotten some really nasty like very specific to me jokes like to hit and land but you do have

00:32:12.700 to like really like get them on your side first and sort of like get them to trust you and then you 0.87

00:32:17.580 can do the weirder shit and that's the stuff that like right now especially I love to do the most and 0.95

00:32:23.800 like I have a joke right now that like is the build-up to it is that like I am in love with a horse 0.99

00:32:29.620 and you know bestiality is tough especially in this climate and um judgment everywhere yeah yeah

00:32:36.580 and that joke um unfortunately you know it really does hit with some of them if I'm performing for

00:32:43.020 like an alt comedy crowd yeah you know who expects it to be weird yeah and it's like again like I think

00:32:49.560 like there's a difference in a crowd that's like comedy literate because they already know what the

00:32:53.820 obvious punchline to to a joke is yeah so like we're all trying to stay ahead and like honestly

00:33:00.080 the internet has made it really hard because like you like tweet out a joke and it becomes a meme and

00:33:03.940 it becomes disseminated around and everyone no one knows who started that's exactly what caleb's told

00:33:08.680 me yeah yeah it's so frustrating because like you do that obvious punchline of the joke you wrote and

00:33:12.920 people are like oh that's from the meme and you're like no it's not bitch it's from my stand-up 0.99

00:33:16.860 it's from a meme I'm gonna kill myself no literally and like um it's not always super helpful because if

00:33:22.460 you're performing for a comedy audience that has seen like maybe one or two comedy shows in their

00:33:26.400 entire life they don't even know what the obvious punchline is yet so if you're trying to go to step

00:33:30.940 two and stay ahead of it yeah you just left them behind and they're confused you know uh-huh and so

00:33:37.200 I prefer to perform for crowds that have seen a lot of comedy yeah love comedy and like have a lot of

00:33:44.440 context for it yeah um and then like you know you do have to sort of like um when I'm performing here in

00:33:50.360 LA especially at some of these clubs where it's a lot of tourists and a lot of people who've never

00:33:53.560 seen comedy before yeah I do have to like stay cognizant of that and they may be like I don't

00:33:58.660 change the joke too much I just maybe like will um stop a little bit before it gets to step two

00:34:04.820 you know yeah there's like certain parts you can leave out yeah you're like they only need the top

00:34:10.480 stuff they don't need the the underbelly exactly but that's what makes comedy the best yeah in my

00:34:15.600 opinion I think uh so I want to pivot to Fire Island okay I would love to talk about Fire Island

00:34:21.140 and just like how that how it came to be that project and how it like kind of got off the ground

00:34:25.420 and then obviously the reception of it yeah I mean um it started as like we would go to Fire Island

00:34:31.980 and I would I remember the first trip to Fire Island I brought Pride and Prejudice with me

00:34:36.240 and I would be reading it on the beach and like kind of look up and be like wow this is like really

00:34:40.620 similar to what we're dealing with this week and everyone was and it started as a bit I was like 0.98

00:34:45.960 I'm gonna write like a gay Pride and Prejudice set on Fire Island and they were like throwing shit at 1.00

00:34:50.040 me like boo like no um that's a dumb idea and I um every year we would go every summer we would go I 0.97

00:34:58.740 would read a different Jane Austen book it was like my my like tradition and like I so cute um just like

00:35:05.580 it got in my head more and more and it was like I'm gonna do this eventually and so it was sort of

00:35:10.760 a dare like my friends were like okay to do it and I wrote like a 30 minute pilot spec script um that

00:35:18.500 was loosely the same story that would end up in the movie and it was just like um you know it was

00:35:24.720 gonna be seven episodes and every episode would be a day on the island and I took that out and no one

00:35:29.680 wanted to buy it no one was interested again we were talking before we got on mic a little bit about

00:35:34.040 like people being like this is a little niche and it's like okay I know what you really want to say

00:35:39.060 um but um and it's a slur yeah and um but then you know I met with Quibi R.I.P. Quibi and say what

00:35:48.120 you will about Quibi they were taking some big swings and I was one of those swings and they were

00:35:53.080 like actually though can you make this into like a movie that we can then cut down into 10 quick

00:35:58.000 bites and so I developed it there at Quibi got the green light there and we're supposed to start

00:36:03.520 shooting summer of 2020 and yeah and we were like in pre-pro we were like trying and there was like

00:36:09.540 a moment before we really knew what deep shit we were in as a country um like we were like maybe we

00:36:15.100 shoot it in North Carolina and like shoot it like cheat it for Fire Island like you know go to one 0.98

00:36:19.860 place where that's open and like it quickly became apparent that it was just not gonna happen 0.98

00:36:23.580 and then Quibi shut down in December and we were like well shit um but they were very kind they gave

00:36:30.540 us the script back right away like they reverted the rights back to me oh that's really nice because

00:36:35.040 they were like we believe in this and we want it to happen if it's not gonna happen here and so um we

00:36:40.100 took it out and Searchlight was pretty quick to like scoop it up and and um and I really didn't have

00:36:45.560 to make I didn't make that many changes from Quibi to Searchlight it was like a pretty completed

00:36:49.720 package already um and of course like little like um edits here and there as we started to cast and

00:36:56.800 like you know originally Margaret Cho's character was like an older gay man it was like um I think I

00:37:04.220 can say this um it was supposed to be Alan Cumming but then he had to drop because he had to shoot

00:37:09.200 something in Scotland which of course we realize now was traitors yeah I was like oh it all worked 0.74

00:37:16.140 out exactly as it was supposed to work out because it was like Alan would have been amazing but like

00:37:20.720 Margaret was made it so much her own and we like it was so funny she reached out to um Andrew and I

00:37:26.340 and our people and we're and the studio and her reps were like she would love to be a cameo in this

00:37:31.260 movie she would like you know this was right after it was announced with me and Bowen starring

00:37:34.880 she was like she would love to and we and we just found out we needed to replace this part and we

00:37:40.280 were like oh like this could be really easily rewritten I wouldn't have to change that much

00:37:45.920 at all to make this fit Margaret yeah and so we met with her and like rewrote you know the part to fit

00:37:51.760 her and um yeah and we did that with a lot of the people that we cast like once we once we had like

00:37:56.960 certain people on board like um you know we rewrote a lot of it for to them to be specific and it was a

00:38:03.380 really wonderful process and a really quick process which is not normal um because they needed

00:38:10.240 to thank god for Bowen being the busiest man in Hollywood I have to say because that made it so

00:38:16.380 like they were like we got to rush this through we got to get this shot before Bowen goes back to SNL

00:38:20.580 yeah and so I'm very lucky in that regard the best experience filming in my life like just getting

00:38:26.200 to make something with my best friends yeah and like all of these wonderful people very like

00:38:31.160 low budget um so we were like making a lot of concessions like let me tell you that rain scene

00:38:37.140 when Keira Knightley shot her rain scene in Pride and Prejudice I bet the water was heated um

00:38:44.360 and I can tell you because she has money like that yeah uh it was not heated and it was September

00:38:49.800 it was the middle of the like it was like 2 a.m in September in New York um so it was like 40 degrees

00:38:57.560 outside and we were walking through this freezing cold rain and at one point the medic we were

00:39:02.180 sitting in this warming van in between takes and the medic came to take my temperature and he was

00:39:05.940 like we have to take a longer break because this temperature is so low it does not register on this

00:39:10.660 digital thermometer yeah um his lips are blue he's hypothermic we were like in the like FEMA like

00:39:16.260 tinfoil blankets like shivering and so like poor Andrew like had a lot of different shots planned for

00:39:22.060 that scene and they were like you're gonna have to get it in like a couple yeah and um so let's bring

00:39:28.780 them back to living body temperature like moments like that I was like I'm making a movie you know

00:39:33.860 yeah um so it was really it was really exciting and I'm I'm you know really grateful to the response

00:39:39.040 to it too you know like yeah I was gonna say what was that like seeing the response to it it's I mean

00:39:43.880 it's crazy listen not everybody loved it and that's fine but it is like I mean talk about the comment

00:39:48.080 section like I was in the comment section for a while and it's so funny because my my partner and

00:39:53.680 my now fiance then boyfriend was like he's gotten so good like now even I'll be sitting on the couch

00:39:58.740 and he just can tell from my face he'll be like put it away get off get out of the comments oh my god

00:40:03.900 me too that's crazy you say that same yeah and he's just like no no you don't need to be reading

00:40:09.420 whatever you're reading right now yeah um it's not important and um but for the most part we need that

00:40:14.580 I saw a lot no we need that yeah I like for the most part like people were really you know positive 0.98

00:40:21.680 about it I will say like no one is more willing to give me a note on that movie than a drunk gay 1.00

00:40:25.100 guy at a gay bar um the way they love to come up to me and say I have some notes yeah no and I'm like 1.00

00:40:31.480 okay well it's in the can I'm not contacting Hulu to like when you cut the movie wait let's let's

00:40:37.780 edit the movie actually um what's the most common piece of advice you get for it um I think like

00:40:43.940 people don't like that like um Bowen ends up with James like people don't like that like he gets a

00:40:51.080 happy ending they're like that's not realistic well art is meant to provoke emotion I know and I'm like

00:40:55.480 I'm making a rom-com here like of course somebody needs to have a happy ending and like my character

00:40:59.700 it's a little bit more ambiguous like what happens to them and I like that I like being able to show

00:41:04.400 both sides of like you know like sometimes you go on vacation and you meet someone and it's like

00:41:09.220 you're there for life that's how that's what happened to me I met my fiance on vacation sweet

00:41:14.380 in a in in Puerto Vallarta Mexico like having a gay old time and like and I brought him back to the real 0.93

00:41:19.280 world and made him my real boyfriend yeah and then like sometimes you have a really intense like

00:41:24.240 you know week with someone and it and that's where it ends you know and like I wanted to kind of show

00:41:30.560 like both sides of that happening in the movie and I think like people are like but that's not realistic

00:41:35.180 and I'm like yeah but sometimes love isn't realistic you know like what happened to me and

00:41:39.040 my partner like that was so unrealistic exactly yeah um well also I love that the notes are like

00:41:44.860 I just feel like he should have ended up with like yeah I feel like I like how those are the notes

00:41:50.000 like they're just like okay well art's meant to make you feel something so at least they're not like

00:41:54.280 I hated it well it's funny I get nagged a lot by guys too like um the amount of times I've heard like

00:42:00.960 I don't care what anyone else says I actually really liked your movie and I'm like okay well

00:42:06.280 you could have said nothing yeah or you could have just said I liked your movie yeah but I think like

00:42:11.400 especially with like other gay men like there is this idea I think people have of me that I have

00:42:16.280 a much bigger ego about the movie than I do right there's this need to like oh let's bring him down

00:42:21.480 a little bit before we like right they're like not too much it was all right yeah yeah no I mean truly

00:42:27.120 and I don't think people realize like I'm like pretty chill like whenever someone's like

00:42:31.400 oh like I meet someone and their friends like you know he he was a fire island guy and they're like

00:42:36.240 oh sorry I haven't seen it like and get weird about and I'm like I don't I actually prefer that like

00:42:41.380 it's just fine and like you can like you don't have to do this theatrical performance in front of

00:42:46.560 me I'm like oh sorry I haven't seen your movie like I'm like I don't need that I don't care I don't

00:42:51.020 need that also you're a comedian so that's a bold move for them right that's a bold move to try and

00:42:56.280 neg you yeah that's crazy it is it's pretty crazy um necking in general is so wild like when

00:43:01.700 LA opened up and that day that it opened up I was in high tops in WeHo and they have some bomb

00:43:08.000 salads at high tops in WeHo I will say it's it's random but they do and I was eating this buffalo

00:43:13.300 chicken salad standing up it was packed because LA had just opened and this guy comes up to hit on

00:43:17.080 me and his opening line though was um wow you really don't eat that salad confidently and I was

00:43:22.560 like okay new insecurity just dropped like what I was like I didn't even know there was a right way

00:43:28.040 to eat salad like let alone that I wasn't doing it confidently and then he proceeded to try and hit

00:43:33.860 on me and I was like no like you started off on I thought you were bullying me crazy plays and like

00:43:39.920 it was so it's so wild like and I'm sure like you know exactly what I'm talking about yeah men

00:43:45.740 yeah and I don't know why people think that this is a viable plan I know what's what's the plan

00:43:52.400 after you to talk to them yeah if I end up standing here longer what happens after you just hurt my 0.99

00:43:57.120 feelings I don't want to talk to you anymore hey fuck you that's so funny uh what's your sign 1.00

00:44:06.160 I'm a Pisces through and through archetypical are you February March Pisces I'm a leap year baby I'm a 1.00

00:44:12.260 I'm a February 29th Pisces ooh yeah so a little extra extra special extra extra special well that

00:44:18.840 makes sense that you were like you just hurt my feelings yeah and I feel it deep do you know your

00:44:25.880 big three so I'm because of I'm adopted and unfortunately this is a scary thing to say

00:44:32.360 in this time um my original birth certificate is nowhere to be found um and there so there is

00:44:37.940 no birth time um that I can choose your own adventure yeah we've kind of determined um so

00:44:44.680 uh I'm a Leo moon which is fucked up um and then I they think like basically there's like two there 0.74

00:44:52.780 were two options based on like where the stars were yeah I was born like if I was born during the day

00:44:58.340 then it was this and if I was born at night which they think based on the description of my rising

00:45:03.760 is Gemini like that is I guess I'm giving Gemini outwardly and um yeah but inside I'm like I'm a

00:45:10.660 I'm a Leo but I really do identify everything I've ever read about being a Pisces I'm like oh you

00:45:17.740 nailed me right um I also think you yeah I think that's why you're a really good writer too because

00:45:22.680 you're very emotional yeah and very like aware like emotionally cognizant and aware of others and

00:45:28.460 like how they move in this space that's probably why you're such a good writer yeah I bet it's observing

00:45:32.420 the dream the you know the like constantly dreaming and constantly imagining and constantly

00:45:36.840 living in a different like world basically yeah I thought you might have Virgo in your chart because

00:45:42.460 you're such a hard worker oh I mean you're just well you know I do identify as a Hufflepuff too

00:45:47.280 so maybe it's in there maybe it is in there well speaking of Hufflepuff I actually have some fun

00:45:53.380 facts about you oh no if we'd like to talk about them um this first one says that you were on your

00:45:59.060 college's quidditch team yep proudly what was your proudly what was your position I was a beater

00:46:06.800 um I was a beater on the play for Hufflepuff it's so funny like my first class in college and it is

00:46:13.160 sort of like it's tough to talk about now because it's like R.I.P. Harry Potter you know like it sucks 0.92

00:46:18.140 thanks a lot turf I know and um sorry I said that so I said that so like I hate J.K. Rowling

00:46:25.160 oh I do but I mean and it's just it's like you could have been the most beloved children's author

00:46:30.720 in history and now your legacy is like terrorizing trans people I know I know like you did this to

00:46:36.820 yourself yeah um but my first class uh my first like um seminar in college was about um Joseph

00:46:44.100 Campbell and the hero's journey through the lens of Harry Potter and so we were all sorted our first

00:46:49.940 week in college okay and like literally like if you were late you would she would be like five points

00:46:56.700 deducted from Hufflepuff and whoever won as a house at the end of the semester would get up a half letter 0.92

00:47:02.540 grade damn I know it was for shit like that's a good ass prize doing like like answering a question 0.97

00:47:08.480 in class yeah I have points to Gryffindor and I was like this is bizarre I'm in college um but 0.99

00:47:14.700 she was like it was like it does follow the hero's journey like you know so like I was learning about

00:47:21.120 Campbell you know um but it was just like goofy like she made us make wands at one point and I was

00:47:26.240 like how does this have to do with the reading you know that's an art school if I've ever heard one

00:47:31.000 yeah and so did you enjoy the Quidditch team experience I mean I did I had fun it was like

00:47:35.560 you know it was like um a way to be athletic for people who were not athletic and um it was yeah

00:47:42.480 feel included yeah I know my roommate broke her arm playing Quidditch um why or how uh she would

00:47:48.860 listen it was a contact sport at times and she got contacted and sometimes you're a beater and

00:47:54.020 sometimes you get beat in exactly were you a beater or were you b10 exactly the sex that says your

00:48:03.100 first cat was named rock hudson yep um we had a naming convention for all our pets growing up

00:48:09.320 where they were all old hollywood names like so we had like marlena dietrich and errol flynn and like

00:48:15.680 those were like the names of our pets and stuff like that and um yeah my mom brought this cat home

00:48:22.400 and it immediately bonded to me and so they're like okay joel this is your cat like what do you want

00:48:25.760 to name it and I was like eight and I was like rock hudson down and um they were like great and

00:48:31.920 like I don't think my parents were even aware of the like secret gay life of rock hudson and I

00:48:38.140 certainly wasn't aware but I think I intuit it you know and um I yeah and so I had a cat named rock

00:48:44.400 hudson growing up and um and was he a nice cat oh he was he was a cat who thought it was a dog

00:48:49.740 like literally would follow my dogs outside in the backyard and like just sort of like trot on and every

00:48:54.820 time like they would go to the front window and bark at somebody he would be there like sort of

00:48:59.240 like trying to make the same noises it was so cute um and he was so affectionate and so great and like

00:49:04.840 um yeah I loved him did you have a lot of pets growing up uh four dogs uh five cats two birds and

00:49:11.380 a lot of fish okay noah's ark yeah okay and we and I think the most we had concurrently was three dogs

00:49:18.920 three cats and one bird um but like over the course of my time yeah at home that that was it was that

00:49:26.140 number um so it was a lot and my mom's a home health nurse and most of them were strays that

00:49:32.240 she would like find on her route and like pick up and like my dad would be like you cannot bring

00:49:37.540 another animal home my mom would do the same thing actually that's why you know what I love that you

00:49:41.560 said that because I had a lot of family dogs growing up too at least more than the average household I feel

00:49:46.180 like most times when when you talk to people like I had one dog yeah for 20 years yeah I was like I

00:49:51.240 had like eight yeah when I was growing up which is not a good thing but like the naming convention

00:49:56.720 thing you said um it's so funny because my mom like me and my two siblings all have the same initials

00:50:02.360 we're all dta um so we're all my mom likes d names so like for the animals she would always ask like

00:50:08.920 okay what should we name this dog and my sister and I would both be like I think we should name it this

00:50:14.260 I think we should name it that she'd be perfect okay um his name is duke so like she she would

00:50:19.300 literally have the meeting and then pick the name so like like a real boss does yeah she's like well

00:50:25.480 I paid for the dog so his name is actually desi um but I did have a snow I had a husky named desi

00:50:30.960 arnaz oh like that was his real that is yeah and exactly fitting with what my family exactly and if

00:50:36.740 you're wondering if I was six and I I like desi arnaz I didn't um I suggested something else and she

00:50:41.340 said perfect his name is desi and then she did that to me all throughout high school

00:50:44.780 every time we got a new dog and it was funny because she got uh my parents got my sister a

00:50:49.360 bulldog for her birthday one year because that's what she really wanted and she wanted to name it

00:50:52.860 like taco or something um she had a very specific name picked out and then my mom goes what's his

00:50:57.100 name and she goes I think it's taco she goes or we could name it duke and then guess what his name

00:51:04.400 was duke yeah which I was like I love that I love when parents are like what do we think what do we 0.87

00:51:09.480 think that's stupid I'm gonna pick this instead I'm gonna pick this name listen you don't listen 0.80

00:51:16.260 to the children no they don't know nothing no you don't know I'm with you uh also it says on here 0.97

00:51:23.540 that you used to work for Groupon corporate I was the 70 something employee of Groupon actually um

00:51:30.240 wow it was my first job out of college I was a customer service temp I started as a temp there

00:51:36.180 answering phones for people um who bought Groupons and had problems and um by the time I was 25 and

00:51:42.660 left that job to move to New York I was managing call centers in Virginia Ohio and Texas and like

00:51:49.860 remotely from Chicago but I would have to go every quarter and like visit these call centers and it

00:51:54.260 was so funny because I was very young and it's just this thing of like uh back then that was like

00:51:58.660 early startup culture where it's like everyone's sitting on a yoga ball there's three snacks in the

00:52:03.520 kitchen there's a ping pong table you know like it was like the golden age jobs in the garage yeah

00:52:08.280 Groupon Google tried to buy Groupon for six billion dollars while I worked there and they said

00:52:13.640 no they said actually we think we can get bigger than that and I was like even then I was like okay

00:52:20.040 I was like real confident yeah I was like do you know what we do here

00:52:24.920 um and yeah and so it was like that thing of like when you start at a company that early that

00:52:32.760 grows that fast like they just start promoting you even though I was like a child and like you know

00:52:38.600 you're illoquent yeah and I like you said 25 managing three call centers I like and the thing

00:52:43.480 was is that when I had to go visit these call centers the like 40 something year old guys who like

00:52:47.780 ran the floor on these call centers who were like the the actual managers on the ground

00:52:51.560 yeah hated me because here I like this twink coming in like being like actually did you hit 1.00

00:52:57.260 your numbers and like they literally despised that they had to report to me and um I loved it

00:53:04.940 and naturally I loved that yeah it was that the worst job you've ever had you would say uh no

00:53:12.260 what would you say is the worst job um I worked actually you know technically Gribble was not my

00:53:17.240 first job out of college my first job out of college was a place called total attorneys and it sucked

00:53:20.800 because it was this place where like it was a not a scam but it was just like do you need a DUI

00:53:27.000 attorney a divorce attorney uh this attorney whatever and they would fill out these forms and then

00:53:32.320 they would uh we would call them and they would think that we were because we were called total

00:53:37.020 attorneys the person who was going to give them legal advice and a lot of these people were in jail

00:53:41.340 like in processing holding whatever and they needed an immediate help and our business model was

00:53:46.860 like oh we'll connect you with one of the attorneys in our network and like just basically and they'd

00:53:53.000 be like oh so I could have just googled this and like oh so you're useless yeah and it was hey why

00:53:59.120 do I need you for that heinous it was just a heinous job and I worked from like four to midnight

00:54:03.500 like that shift and it was just like so you were getting like you really were getting the DUIs that 0.57

00:54:08.160 were like people in jail shit and like yeah it was dark oh my god horrifying like a month and then I 0.92

00:54:14.900 switched over and that was definitely beyond anything else like the worst job I've ever had 0.99

00:54:18.640 and then you start cracking the whip over at Groupon yeah you start working it like the navy over there

00:54:23.820 in your mid-20s yeah uh it says that you were homeschooled until high school yep I was homeschooled 0.76

00:54:30.620 until I was a junior in high school damn yeah how was the homeschool experience bad um I mean I was

00:54:36.580 homeschooled for religious reasons primarily they did not want me learning about sex or evolution 0.74

00:54:40.540 and um they sent me to school when I was 16 junior year of high school and within the first month of

00:54:46.440 coming of going to school a public school came out of the closet smoked weed for the first time 0.99

00:54:51.080 smoked a cigarette for the first time drank for the first time sucked a dick for the first time 1.00

00:54:54.080 for the first time like did it all it's like you cannot keep a child under lock and key for that 1.00

00:55:00.100 long and then give me a little bit of freedom it was like over again too much slack on the leash

00:55:05.200 yeah um I like how you were like I don't know how long outside time's gonna last no I'm gonna get

00:55:10.180 it all in now it's all happening in October okay yeah yeah yeah um so yeah it was like it was it was

00:55:19.080 honestly like the best thing that ever happened to me was being able to go to public school because I

00:55:22.720 don't know where I'd be like when I that was the that was the period where I was like maybe I should

00:55:26.520 be a youth pastor um so like going to public school and like be like tasting freedom and like

00:55:32.420 really becoming who I am and myself and being able to like be who I wanted to be yeah it was

00:55:36.720 like life saving I think damn oh my god I know exactly what my life would have looked like if I

00:55:42.080 were a youth pastor I would have been on the deal on grinder hooking up with musical theater majors

00:55:47.400 home on break behind the target in my subaru you know like that is that what that is the picture

00:55:51.680 of that life and I know that because I was a musical theater major home on break

00:55:55.580 saw a lot of yeah I frequented those minivans don't let him in that's crazy well I'm glad you

00:56:04.540 went to public school then what a stark jump to for them to be like not even put you in private

00:56:09.520 school but put you in public yeah no it was it was real deep and it was like honestly like

00:56:14.200 because I was like really like I want to go to college and like I need to take the ACTs and like

00:56:20.060 prep for that and like at this point no one was like managing my my schooling at home yeah like

00:56:25.380 my parents both went back to work so I was just like home chilling like reading and like that was

00:56:30.860 your getting the math answers out of the back of the book and like not learning at all so by the time

00:56:36.120 I went to public school I was like light years ahead of people and reading and writing but so far behind

00:56:42.180 in math and science it was like really jarring for me and like I didn't learn I I just actually told

00:56:47.900 my partner this but like I really didn't understand how to do homework or study for tests until I was

00:56:52.020 probably a sophomore or junior in college like that skill set was like just lost on me yeah like I did

00:56:57.660 not know how to study I was like a terrible test taker great like any writing portion like nailed it

00:57:03.460 you know like that's it but like taking a test and doing like homework I was like wait but like I just

00:57:08.960 was at school for eight hours and now I have to do it more like what do you mean I have to take this home

00:57:13.120 yeah I was like I did not like it was just so strange I was like why aren't we doing this in school like 0.85

00:57:16.920 why were we talking about this shit you know like um but yeah so it was it was a rough transition 0.85

00:57:22.040 um academically for me in a lot of ways but um I figured it out eventually yeah obviously well 0.98

00:57:28.460 you're obviously you're incredibly intelligent but also I feel like you're so self-aware like you're

00:57:33.060 like I feel like I need like real school yeah you're like a junior and I still going I think I

00:57:39.120 need to go to real school I need help I'm in real school well a big part of it was a big part of it 0.92

00:57:44.740 was is I got this job working at a cold stone my sophomore year of high school damn you were on those

00:57:49.600 marble slabs yeah yeah yeah oh yeah the guia is what it's called thank you very much uh the technical

00:57:54.660 term for those slabs don't want to disrespect your craft and like the cold stone at this time was like

00:57:59.640 the underground railroad for gay teens in my high school basically like they all worked at this

00:58:05.060 cold stone and so like that was like my first intro because they were like I would be telling them

00:58:09.380 like what I was doing in homeschooling and they'd be like that's crazy you need to go to school if you

00:58:16.120 want to go to college and so that job really influenced like everything shout out cold stone you know like

00:58:23.200 I went to school because I was like pressured by cold stone creamery employees to do so and um

00:58:30.880 the gay people were yeah yeah exactly bullied me into going to high school exactly and the best thing 1.00

00:58:34.820 that ever happened all's well that ends well you know you said hey a win is a win okay in here all

00:58:41.140 right here it says in 2016 you made your late night stand-up uh debut on Conan obviously um but what was

00:58:48.480 that like I would love to know what the call was like getting to do it um I remember getting the call

00:58:52.900 I was in Portland actually sleeping in a hostel in a bunk bed in a hostel and um I was like doing a show

00:58:59.620 out there and um I had just done like a T a showcase for TBS okay and like in LA actually and

00:59:07.160 like it was um like a really it was like I had like really crafted this five minutes of stand-up

00:59:14.020 material and like like I knew like it was like all of my best jokes that from like the however many

00:59:20.180 years I'd been doing stand-up at that point um like four or five and like I knew that it was like

00:59:25.860 just a killer set and I I crushed that that showcase and from that showcase they booked

00:59:29.900 they the Conan Booker was in the audience it was like we want you to do that exact set on Conan

00:59:34.220 and um yeah it was a couple it was like a couple weeks later I did it and like um it was life-changing

00:59:39.700 it really was yeah I was gonna say the reception after I'm sure yeah crazy no it really was like I

00:59:44.920 I remember watching it on YouTube I don't think anybody like the response from like the Asian 1.00

00:59:49.440 community the gay Asian community the gay community the adopted community you know it was like a big

00:59:55.420 deal um because like so many uh people had not seen anything like me yeah yeah yet in 2016 I'm I'm

01:00:03.100 very grateful that I'm not the only one holding the torch by any means now you know and it wasn't at

01:00:08.280 the time either yeah but like you know there's just like there's so many of us now and it is like

01:00:14.640 really demonstrative of like the breadth of our experience as like queer people or people of color

01:00:19.600 whatever what have you yeah and like I'm so glad that like you know I'm for the first time in my

01:00:25.280 life I'm on lineups with other gay comics not the only one with other Asian comics not the only one

01:00:31.180 and like it just feels great because it's like yeah me and Mateo Lane who started like a week apart from

01:00:35.920 each other in Chicago and we're friends in Chicago when we were coming up and we're friends now

01:00:39.140 obviously but like we had this moment where like early on we realized we were not getting booked on

01:00:44.860 the same shows because people assumed that we were just like the same person basically and we were

01:00:50.180 like fuck that like right you guys look so much alike no and it was like we talk about completely 0.84

01:00:54.440 different stuff like our material did not overlap at all yeah it really like bonded us together and 0.99

01:01:00.300 they like made us like really good friends because we were like okay this is bullshit yeah like we don't

01:01:06.140 agree with this and like we started like demanding to do shows together because we were like we're

01:01:11.240 friends and like we are different and like and there's crossover in our audiences right yeah well no

01:01:16.000 you're so real for that too because I just had Grace Kulinchman on not too long ago and she was

01:01:20.360 telling me that like one of her favorite things is being on cards with like all gay people like all

01:01:27.220 people in the community like people that she's the people I have things in common with like our

01:01:31.420 communities have things in common with like she's like I don't have any interest in like going into

01:01:36.360 like straight spaces and like being on those cards like I don't want to be the token on other

01:01:41.020 other lineups I want to be around people that are like-minded and we all like have things in

01:01:45.260 common I think that makes a lot of sense too because well and there's an audience for it now

01:01:49.140 yeah that didn't quite exist when I was starting out exactly like it was like and now like you don't

01:01:55.560 have to yeah anymore because like the internet has made it possible for you know like if you're

01:02:00.900 seeking out a queer comedian you can find a treasure trove of us on the internet now and like seek out

01:02:07.520 and find us and like I perform in a lot of different rooms yeah but like um it is so refreshing

01:02:13.880 to be on the lineup of all gay comedians and like I can do one of those shows like once a week and

01:02:18.140 they're packed and sold out you know and like and good natured yeah they're always really fun and

01:02:23.440 they're down to laugh yeah for the most part which is nice I was like I think when I did Caleb's show

01:02:29.060 I was gonna do one later on in the year uh for another comic that's really famous but I like she asked

01:02:35.400 me to do something too but I my schedule overlapped so I couldn't do it but um I was also nervous to do it

01:02:40.920 because her audience and my audience are very different and so I was like I I'm not I didn't get

01:02:47.360 enough reps in I don't think like I was like I need to workshop this set a lot more and get like

01:02:51.760 kind of cut my teeth on it a lot more before I take it in front of an audience that I know is not

01:02:56.760 gonna like a lot of you're gonna need to really work get work to get them on your side exactly so

01:03:01.980 like I was like I think there is a world in which I can tailor this to that kind of room but I haven't

01:03:06.360 had like yeah well I mean all respect to you for being self-aware enough yeah because I was like

01:03:10.420 I don't want many people would not I know I was like I don't want to go and do it and then like

01:03:14.540 especially because a lot of my five is about white people and like my own experiences with them and

01:03:20.360 like peace and love and unity there's many of them in the room yes yes there's many whites behind the

01:03:25.640 camera peace and love and unity uh but I was like the audience I'm performing in front of is older and

01:03:31.620 white and probably conservative so I'm like you know yeah don't put yourself in a position like 0.70

01:03:37.800 yeah we're and then I was telling my team too I was like and then if I do it and I fucking bomb I'm 0.84

01:03:43.380 never gonna want to do that again which I don't want to scare myself out of doing it either

01:03:46.760 especially early on you need to wait you need to like feel the wind a little bit like to like to lead

01:03:52.260 you through those moments of bombing you know and I and I honestly like I feel that way so intensely

01:03:57.860 about that about stand-up because I'm like that's your only job yeah is to make them laugh that's it

01:04:04.000 like they sit there and wait to be like to laugh and be entertained and I was like and if I can't do

01:04:11.260 that what am I worth right and I still a lot but you know slightly less yeah exactly and uh I think

01:04:21.100 that was the best move for me because I was like I'm gonna workshop it a lot more and then get better

01:04:25.880 at it especially because I know you've done multiple specials like memorizing an hour of

01:04:31.940 material is crazy yeah it feels that way now but like once you're there it will feel I know I just

01:04:40.480 I you fascinate me like I was like that is so like to stay on subject stay on time I like go off book a

01:04:46.020 lot and that wastes time right before my prepared material well because like I'll tell you what like

01:04:51.220 when I was coming up in New York again like very like a big time where a lot of people were trying

01:04:56.500 to do stand-up and so I would wait like upwards of two hours to do 90 seconds of material at an

01:05:01.360 open mic and like when you got 90 seconds you learn what 90 seconds feels like and you learn how to get

01:05:08.120 three jokes and three punch lines in get your word economy down and like and that is a skill set that

01:05:14.240 I've kept with me and that I think like a lot of these a lot of I think that's like the big issue

01:05:19.260 with some of the like tiktokers that we've talked about is they don't have that innate sense of like 1.00

01:05:24.260 getting to the punchline exactly um it's very like meandering and like sort of like telling a story

01:05:31.740 but not writing punchlines around certain moments in the story it's just like oh like I saw this comic

01:05:37.220 recently and I was just like this is a good interesting story but you've done nothing but tell

01:05:41.720 the story you know like you've done nothing to zhuzh it up yeah like with some jokes um makes

01:05:46.660 what's what's your pov on what happened to you you know and like tell me that and like um that's

01:05:53.620 what's missing I think from a lot of what I see in young comics today yeah and I and you know what's

01:05:58.160 funny is like when I was practicing with Caleb I would like read him my jokes but I would read it

01:06:03.780 like he at first he told me just write them as if you're saying them write them all out and then send

01:06:08.600 that to me and then we'll work it back from there because it's better to just get it all out and then

01:06:12.200 wean back but he was telling me to like you got to get to the point like it's got to be quicker

01:06:16.960 so let's cut out this part let's cut out this part because I'm a yapper so that's why I was like no

01:06:21.280 those are great notes for me because then I'll go off book too much and you like you were saying it's

01:06:25.020 like you don't even get to the good parts of your jokes because honestly my five minutes I think I

01:06:29.620 went over like I think I did like six minutes like 30 seconds or something but I left out my last like

01:06:35.640 three jokes because I was talking too goddamn much in the beginning so I was like gotta tailor gotta 0.56

01:06:40.700 gotta wean it back but that's why I'm taking all the notes I can from you on the many accomplishments

01:06:45.340 you have okay last one says in 2022 you were a contestant on the great American baking show

01:06:51.740 uh-huh now Joel you have no idea what that show means to me specifically the great British baking show

01:06:59.100 I mean I got Prue and Paul and um we were in the English countryside in the the tent I need you to

01:07:08.200 know I have butterflies and it was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had even though I kind of

01:07:14.940 flopped the final um like hey but you made it I made it yeah uh everybody did but um it was like

01:07:23.160 it was just like a one episode thing one yeah and it was like Marshawn Lynch me Darcy Carden um

01:07:30.740 like it was putting you and Marshawn Lynch I know I know it was crazy yeah um but I had a lot it was

01:07:38.060 like so much fun and the thing is I was really reticent to do it because when they called me I was

01:07:41.760 like I don't bake I've never baked day of my life yeah like I don't know that I could do that show

01:07:47.320 and they were like listen like this is not nailed it like we're not here to like see you flop like we don't

01:07:52.860 want anyone to feel embarrassed they they have culinary producers on that show and they have

01:07:56.940 them on the main show too and they aren't there to like do it for you but it was a lot of like

01:08:01.340 hey does this consistency look right can I put this in the oven now and they'd be like yeah yeah

01:08:05.600 and so like I had a lot of help and a lot of prep time like they I basically met with those

01:08:10.120 producers beforehand and they were like so what would you want to bake if you could bake and then we

01:08:14.400 will sort of find a recipe that you can do that is close enough to what you have in your head

01:08:19.940 that's what I and like yeah and it was really great and so I didn't actually practice ever but

01:08:24.620 I did watch the YouTube videos many times over um and uh yeah and I said I got I got a handshake

01:08:31.140 from Paul in the first round oh and period um and that's all I really needed that was that was that

01:08:36.180 was the win for me I've never felt like true almost sinister jealousy I'll be so real I I I I felt a

01:08:47.600 little evil twinge in my spine just now clocked it you'll get there I caught it 0.96

01:08:52.540 I'm honest to god so jealous like I when I tell you I love that fucking show that's the only show 0.95

01:09:01.480 I never watch anything new for whatever reason I watch them I watch it kind of like when Chris 0.97

01:09:06.260 Fleming was on the show he said I'm a culture scavenger so he's like so you know 10 years after

01:09:11.500 everyone stops loving it I go and I rifle through it like a raccoon that's me too yeah so I watch it

01:09:16.300 like after everybody else does and so but the great british baking show that is the only 0.99

01:09:21.480 that's appointment television yeah each september I said fire it up yeah put it on the fucking tv 0.92

01:09:26.620 you gotta it's so relaxing it's the best show in the it's just and also the fact that they compete 0.62

01:09:31.260 for nothing yeah I love it just for the love of the game and that exactly for the love of the game 0.99

01:09:36.200 that's it they they compete for that fuck ass little tin and that's it that glass thing and that's it 0.99

01:09:42.580 me getting passionate I was going to talk to Paul and Prue but like like on like together and I was 0.99

01:09:50.480 like oh my god I'll freak out and then they were like actually they they're not gonna be in LA

01:09:54.480 whatever um like for this show but they were saying I could do it virtually and I was like

01:09:58.640 I just feel like that's a little too hard you want the I need the energy yeah sorry need to see in

01:10:04.100 person sorry invite me to the show but you had a fun experience I did it was it's a it's a really fun

01:10:09.960 experience and they make it really fun that's so for you and Paul and Prue are great and like um

01:10:15.480 yeah it was just a blast oh that's so fucking cool I always say too I'm going out round one like easily

01:10:20.740 I can't bake for shit I can't cook at all really but I mean I can cook but I just like don't like 0.93

01:10:24.900 well you'll be on a celebrity version like me exactly and then nobody where they hold my hand 0.98

01:10:28.100 and they give me training wheels exactly but I was like but the parts where you stand and make jokes

01:10:31.960 the whole time I'd kill it that put me in that part yeah and then someone else get my my body

01:10:39.740 double yeah making this stuff we'll just hire the rock to do it he and I are built the same about the

01:10:45.020 same okay so I also want to talk about your new show you have on bravo called love hotel yes we would

01:10:55.220 love to talk about it please tell us um it is it is bachelor in paradise meets um the housewives

01:11:01.960 basically it is literally um four housewives um and a bunch of men and we say unleash them upon them

01:11:11.060 and it's it's it's it's really going to be a fun show and it's like a really interesting I love that

01:11:17.600 they're taking the housewives out of their natural environment and putting them in this different 0.98

01:11:21.200 setting because you're used to seeing the women in conflict with one another and on this show like

01:11:27.060 they really do become this like sisterhood and like there's plenty of drama on the show yeah but

01:11:32.180 it's all between the women and the men very little between the women it's so nice to like get to see

01:11:37.700 them like sort of be you know um sort of there to support each other and not there to like um you

01:11:45.540 know do the the drama that you normally see on housewives for our benefit you know it's just like 1.00

01:11:50.980 they were in a you know out of their element and so they they really did sort of like hold on to

01:11:56.320 each other because they were all like doing this new thing and so that's like a fun um aspect of the

01:12:01.740 show that I think people can look forward to and like uh it's it looks really luxe it looks really

01:12:06.720 different from um the housewives shows and it's just it's a new it's a new thing and I think like

01:12:12.580 they picked four really funny ladies and like yeah it's it's it's it's funny I think it's real a lot of 0.99

01:12:19.780 the time um you know I yeah I it's it's it's gonna be interesting and it's the first time I've ever

01:12:27.180 done something like that um because like True Tea the reason I got this job is because I was

01:12:34.460 originally offered Trader season three and I turned it down and it was so hard because I love Traders

01:12:40.200 I love it so much I've seen every international English speaking season uh and but I was like I

01:12:45.900 don't want to be a contestant on a reality show that's not like you know like Bake Off is one

01:12:51.480 thing yeah but like it was for charity yeah you know but I also was like you know I didn't want

01:12:57.360 to work necessarily with an editor who was not maybe looking for my best takes and like and my

01:13:02.060 boyfriend my fiance put it out he told me this and I think it's a great point Traders is so huge

01:13:08.460 especially this season that we just aired the season I would have been on was so huge that I run

01:13:12.620 the risk of being known especially to a lot of straight people as that guy from Traders and I

01:13:17.540 don't want I didn't want that you know like I want like that's so real yeah and so I was like but I

01:13:24.060 was like you know sort of like clocking what Alan was doing I was like I would host a reality show

01:13:30.820 and they were like oh that's interesting you say that we have this one that we think you'd be really

01:13:34.000 great for and um I'm a huge Bravo fan and so it was a yeah it was a it was a easy sort of like

01:13:41.020 yes to make like a lateral move yeah and like again like I um Trafari Williams our our EP and

01:13:49.360 showrunner taught me how to do that job like I had her in my ear the entire time and um she came from 0.66

01:13:55.080 like Queens Court and Bachelor Nation and stuff like that so she was a pro she knew what she was doing

01:13:59.080 she didn't know the housewives though and so like we were like a really great team of like I was like

01:14:03.260 I know this world you know that world you're a perfect duo yeah yeah yeah and so and she was amazing

01:14:09.580 and I think she created a really incredible show so honestly Bachelor in Paradise mixed with housewives 0.99

01:14:14.780 the Bravo girls are gonna eat yeah that shit and I hope they continue to do it because there's so 1.00

01:14:18.920 many iterations of the show I'd love to see I'd love to see Heather Gay on the show I'd love to see 1.00

01:14:22.420 like Sonia on the show you know there's so many single women in the Bravo world that I think 1.00

01:14:28.500 like everybody needs to see like sort of be able to like have their pick of of these guys you know

01:14:35.100 yeah absolutely putting them in the power position oh my gosh yeah the amount of things I quote from

01:14:39.340 housewives I don't even watch housewives really well it's it's really easy if you're spent any time on

01:14:43.880 the internet yeah you know exactly um certain things I was explaining that to my fiancee the other

01:14:50.060 day I was like telling him because there was some joke that he made it was like a a clip from a

01:14:56.460 soundbite or something and I was like you know that's from housewives and he was like really and

01:15:01.080 I go a lot of things that people quote now actually quotes from housewives like my boyfriend referenced

01:15:06.780 who gonna check me boo recently and I was like that's housewives yeah that's housewives and he

01:15:12.200 it's like the one thing the one show I'm allowed to watch without him um and so I've actually picked

01:15:17.660 up a lot of Bravo shows that I normally didn't watch because I'm not on the road and I'm like oh I can't

01:15:22.200 watch our show without him and so I'm watching below deck now like you know and I'm all up in

01:15:28.580 Vanderpump yeah exactly that's so funny I know my sister and I's one for a while was I want to have

01:15:34.660 a baby I don't I don't it's like Kim I want to travel hilarious joggers was another one joggers

01:15:45.000 September uh spring spring summer uh September um well how exciting you're just putting on every

01:15:52.860 hat you can find girl you are conquering the wall I'm trying I'm trying I'm so happy for you multi 0.98

01:15:57.600 hyphenate to my bones yeah fucking period uh I want to ask you as we kind of wrap well first I would 0.98

01:16:05.980 like to ask you is there anything that you haven't done yet that you are looking forward to to maybe 0.99

01:16:10.440 doing one day um it seems like you've conquered every yeah I'm trying to think like I would love

01:16:16.300 uh to do two things be in an action movie and be in a horror movie those are like two things I would

01:16:22.120 love to do especially horror that like that's priority number one for me is like I would love

01:16:26.880 to be murdered um like please daddy murder me um and like I you know um have had a couple of 0.58

01:16:34.240 opportunities come up that haven't worked out or haven't aligned yet but like I'm really waiting for 0.87

01:16:38.780 that and I'm again it might be like something that I'm like maybe I need to write this myself

01:16:42.180 you know period and um and you can and you will and an action movie would be fun too you know I'd 0.76

01:16:47.460 love to be in a big stupid like I'd love to actually I really want to be like the I like the tech hacker 0.88

01:16:53.160 guy in the van while they're like doing the thing and be like I'm in you know like guys you're gonna 0.99

01:16:59.620 want to see this yeah exactly I see it now it's perfect the vision is so clear to me that's so

01:17:07.980 cool that is so sick I would love for you to do that especially horror I think you'd be great in

01:17:12.600 horror oh I you know I'm a scream queen baby yeah absolutely okay and then my next question for you

01:17:18.460 would be do you have any advice for any aspiring artists especially because you've done so many

01:17:23.600 mediums so many forms of entertainment um do you have any advice for aspiring creatives now

01:17:28.160 like whether they're pursuing it's acting yeah I mean I said it earlier in the podcast it's just be

01:17:33.600 prepared for when your moment uh arises you know like come to the table ready um and it's and it's

01:17:40.400 it remind yourself that like you're doing this work now for free on your own time and it's an

01:17:47.800 investment in yourself you know like it is not useless busy work it is an investment in yourself and so

01:17:54.240 um just push yourself to do it's really hard to do it's really hard to self-structure and

01:17:59.740 self-motivate to do that to write an entire script when no one's asking for it yet you know it's like

01:18:05.320 it's hard because writing sucks man like I love having written yeah but writing the act of doing

01:18:12.340 no no no no um it's tough and so yeah just push through and like make sure you're making those

01:18:18.540 investments in yourself I also too I want to say first I want to give you your flowers just for being

01:18:22.560 like such a trailblazer I think you've blazed so many trails just doing what it is you've been doing

01:18:27.080 for as long as you've been doing it too like and I mean in all the different forms that you've

01:18:30.880 conquered like I just think you're so fantastic and wonderful um and I also think too I feel like

01:18:35.940 you're a shining example of like creating art for the sake of creating art it's not necessarily to

01:18:41.580 gain anything it's not to like I want to be the most famous actor in the world I want to be the

01:18:45.520 most famous director in the world like you're literally making them because they matter and like

01:18:49.420 that's what you really want to put out in the world and I think the universe has a way of

01:18:53.340 rewarding creatives like yourself which is clearly it has because you're so talented I mean the thing

01:18:57.300 is is like I am so grateful every day I never imagined I would be where I am at and and that's

01:19:04.040 actually like what my struggle is and it's a champagne problem again is that like I am now moving the

01:19:09.640 goalposts for myself because like you know like my dream my goals were very modest when I started out

01:19:15.920 yeah and I've accomplished a lot of those goals now and so now I'm trying to be like okay but like

01:19:21.520 what's next what's reasonable for me to expect for myself like what you know like and so it is about

01:19:26.780 like it is I'm so grateful and I'm so blessed to be in the position that I'm at but like it is now

01:19:31.920 like a lot of like thinking of like okay um so I did that and now what you're like I need to

01:19:38.600 re-motivate myself yeah no it's true it's real no I think that that speaks to your spirit as an artist

01:19:43.640 like you constantly are looking for inspiration which I think is a beautiful thing and when I had

01:19:47.300 Alana Glazer on she was telling me too like uh it's wonderful to like take breaks in between

01:19:52.840 projects and stuff because you get to go live life and that's what refills your cup exactly as a

01:19:57.380 creator and that's the thing about stand-up too is that like I it's harder now because like when I

01:20:02.180 was struggling when I was working 50 hours a week at a day job and then going to do these shitty

01:20:05.960 open mics at night in New York like I was writing material yeah all the time because I was miserable

01:20:12.220 yeah and now that I'm happy nothing yeah like it's tough it sucks yeah the goalposts do keep

01:20:20.060 moving like you just said but I think you're so incredible and talented and I'm so glad you came

01:20:24.420 on the show thank you so much for having me this was so fun oh my god it was it was a key I love you

01:20:28.420 I think you're amazing and thank you all so much for tuning in to this episode of the comment section

01:20:31.960 with my fave Joel Kim Booster for those who maybe are born yesterday and don't know you

01:20:37.000 where can everybody find you uh I'm at I hate Joel Kim on Instagram I got there before anybody else

01:20:43.360 could and um yeah yeah that's all post like if I'm touring that's where the dates are etc so yeah

01:20:49.480 amazing thank you so much for joining us on the show we fucking love you and thank you all so much

01:20:53.740 don't forget new episodes of the comment section drop every Wednesday you can stream the audio on

01:20:57.620 all streaming poppers but the video list for free and exclusively on our favorite platform Spotify

01:21:01.520 thank you so much for joining us thank you to my amazing guest Joel Kim Booster and I'll see you next week bye

01:21:06.000 you

The Comment Section with Drew Afualo - April 23, 2025

A FEAR DUMP Ft. Joel Kim Booster ｜ Episode 166

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