Alex Stein, comedian, political activist, and provocateur joins Lou Dobbs on The Great America Show to talk about his new character, "Primetime 99" and how he got his start as a man on the street.
00:04:17.840But my comedic hero, Lou, is a guy named Andy Kaufman.
00:04:21.620I think Andy Kaufman, what he was so brilliant at doing, was mixing absurdity and making it seem real.
00:04:28.180And so what I did, I'm really just like a hack comedian.
00:04:31.300I'm basically mixing absurdity in a, you know, some sort of realistic package by being as crazy as possible.
00:04:41.140But doing it in these kind of fish out of water situations in front of unexpecting people, it creates humor because of the awkwardness, because of the cringe factor, because there's also truth in it.
00:07:48.340And that's why I bring up his tolerance is that this fentanyl crisis in America, to bring it to what's going on here in America, 108,000 drug overdose deaths, the most recorded United States history.
00:07:58.820We have a fentanyl problem that is just being flooded through the border with synthetic opioids that are, you know, strong enough to kill the entire population, you know, a million times over is how much they're producing.
00:08:47.880You know, that's the problem is everybody's trying to medicate the pain.
00:08:50.720You know, and I don't really think that we should make marijuana legal.
00:08:54.560But at the same time, you know, I don't think alcohol should be able to go to every corner and buy a bottle of liquor for 10, you know, literally for a dollar.
00:09:02.440So it's like I but I think that we should have the right to be able to drink.
00:09:05.780And I think we should have the right to probably use marijuana, even though I know that would be bad for society.
00:14:20.540But I think our government needs to do more to help out veterans.
00:14:23.540I think our government needs to do more to be a conflict interventionist and stop putting people in the line of fire.
00:14:29.520As human beings, I think that we should be able to rise to a level of understanding where we could come to some sort of agreement.
00:14:36.380But guys like Dan Crenshaw, who's just bought and sold by Halliburton, by Raytheon, I mean, that's the problem is that, Lou, we don't have human beings running the country.
00:14:46.640We basically have multinational corporations.
00:14:48.780We live in a corporatocracy where these guys can buy politicians.
00:14:52.180Maybe at one point Dan Crenshaw had the best interest, and he was, you know, even though he was never really a MAGA-type guy.
00:14:57.400But, you know, maybe at one point he did have the best interest.
00:14:59.560But now a guy who lost his eye, one of the biggest sacrifices you could do, is still encouraging sending young men over to fight wars for bankers, for lines in the sand that don't really affect you and I.
00:15:12.120So for me, after a 20-year war in the Middle East for weapons of mass destruction, I'm 100 percent against all war.
00:15:18.680And Dan Crenshaw, a guy that should be way more invested because he lost more than I, still wants to go to war.
00:15:27.540It is a sad thing that we have veterans who are almost reflexively supporting the military-industrial complex,
00:15:35.760about which Dwight David Eisenhower, President Eisenhower, warned us about 60 years ago, for crying out loud.
00:15:41.400And meanwhile, Joe Biden is shipping the 82nd Airborne into the eastern flank of Eastern Europe and doing his best, it seems to me, at various times of trying to start a war with Russia instead of concluding.
00:15:57.340Point of fact, that no one in the Biden administration, to my knowledge, has even raised the issue of negotiating a peace with Vladimir Putin and resolving this thing.
00:16:08.540And instead, you know, Vladimir Zelensky keeps running his mouth off and inviting more missile attacks, and his people are suffering.
00:16:17.340And the United States is paying for the whole sorry, tragic spectacle.
00:16:21.900Lou, at the beginning of this whole gimmick war, I believe that there was on the table, all they had to do was say the Donbass region was autonomous.
00:16:30.660I guess people could say they're Ukrainian or Russian.
00:16:32.580And that the Ukraine wouldn't join NATO.
00:16:36.080Ukraine's the poorest country in Eastern Europe.
00:16:40.920And we're going over there sending $100 billion.
00:16:44.320We're going to force, we're going to twist Vladimir Putin's arm into using some sort of nuclear weapon in order to start some sort of World War III.
00:17:03.760They cannot come to an agreement for lines in the sand between Russia and Ukraine when the Texas and Mexico border is being flooded every day with children that are being used as sexual objects.
00:17:14.620There's a thing called rape trees where they find condoms.1.00
00:18:03.040I'm a sergeant in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, and I'm here today to recruit some of you to go fight in the war in World War III.
00:18:11.940Now, I know that sounds crazy, but what's happening right now is an absolute nightmare.
00:18:17.580And I ask, if even just one of you, if even just one of you were to consider joining, it could change the whole landscape of the war.
00:18:26.680You guys don't realize the power that you have as a council member.
00:18:31.240If one member decides to stand up and do what is right and fight for this man right here, Vladimir Zelensky, you can make the difference, officer.
00:18:46.980You can make the difference, lady on a laptop.0.99
00:18:51.520Do you want to die a nobody or do you want to die a hero?
00:18:55.160I can tell you look like you're vibing with it.
00:18:57.080Are you interested in signing up for the American Foreign Legion and going and fighting in the Ukraine today as an American representative?
00:19:02.840And if you are, I have the sheet right here.
00:19:05.540You sign this sheet, your name, your Social Security number, your maiden, your mother's maiden name, and your credit card number.
00:19:14.840There is a small deposit to make sure that we can reserve your spot on this flight.
00:19:21.880And, by the way, I imagine you were just about trampled with volunteers rushing to sign on the dotted line and turn over their credit card numbers, do you?
00:19:30.660Well, Lou, 100% they were shaking in their boots.
00:19:33.220But it's funny that you picked that video because I have to name drop because, you know, now I'm a young man coming on the scene.
00:19:38.100But my biological father is a guy named Tucker Carlson.
00:19:41.200And that video that you just played, Tucker Carlson, no, he texted me when he saw that video and invited me on his show because he said that was one of the funniest videos he'd ever seen.
00:19:49.740And he loved it so much because of that video and because I went on Tucker Carlson.
00:20:10.600And I think we almost have to kind of put a mirror to it and sort of kind of laugh about it and bring about some humor instead of constant trauma and despair.
00:20:19.440One of my favorite expressions is there is no choice left to anyone who crosses the penumbra of the absurd.
00:20:31.660And I think you're the embodiment of that saying.
00:20:34.780And what you do is terrific because you make your points, your political points, and you also reach to the human nature and to the soul, make us laugh, and also make us think.
00:20:49.800That's a pretty good combination, Alex.
00:20:52.280I want to just get a few thoughts from you, though, on what you do next.
00:20:57.700Can you give us a sense of what you're working on?
00:21:04.360You know, a bunch of outlets, CNN, a bunch of, you know, whatever left-wing media has called out that I'm speaking at an event at Penn State on October 25th.
00:21:22.580And, you know, it's kind of a speech and like a Q&A, an open dialogue, and some of the students get to do a meet and greet.
00:21:29.600But now there's three different organizations that are holding counter events.
00:21:32.560So that basically just means an organization of protesters.
00:21:35.280So I think it's going to be really interesting, and I've never been to Happy Valley.
00:21:39.400And, you know, I've kind of had this – I don't – for lack of a better word, kind of a meteoric rise in the last year.
00:21:44.900So I go publicly speak, but this is my – this is the biggest college event, the most hoopla of any – one of my public speaking engagements that I've ever had.
00:21:54.340So it is kind of a big deal, and it's kind of a nervous anxiety, excited about it.
00:22:03.880And I know that you'll be terrific in whatever you do there in Happy Valley.
00:22:10.100I don't know if it'll be still called Happy Valley after the protesters and the demonstrators get through.
00:22:17.520But the fact that the university is not trying to crush you and stifle free speech and expression, and particularly you who are 180 degrees away from the conventional left-wing narrative that is commonplace in the indoctrination palaces we call universities.
00:22:40.260Well, 100 percent, and they've had to come out and make a statement and saying that they are going to let it happen and that, you know, they're upholding the Constitution.
00:22:47.920And it just stinks that, you know – it's funny, though, Lou, I go viral for going and Culture Jam is speaking at these meetings.
00:23:26.620And for me, Lou, as a content creator, these people, these protesters, and I hate to say it and I say this out loud and I say this in interviews, I'm so excited.
00:23:34.180I want a million protesters there because it only makes me seem more interesting and relevant.
00:23:38.560So it's funny how it really has a counterproductive mechanism when they protest.
00:23:44.820By them coming out, it just makes me seem like I'm much more popular and controversial than I really am, which I appreciate.
00:23:50.320And the fact is all of those demonstrators and protesters are really just unpaid extras in Alex Stein's movie for the folks at Happy Valley.
00:24:00.180I do want to congratulate Penn State for having the guts and the principle to stand for free speech, and I really do.
00:24:08.480I applaud them, and I applaud you for both your talent and your courage, and we wish you nothing but the best.
00:24:14.940Alex, we always give our guests the last word here, and so I'm going to ask you for your concluding thoughts as we wrap up.
00:24:21.960My last word, you had to give me one of your last words.
00:24:24.960I just want to ask you, I think the new digital media era, all of these cable companies are going to die.
00:24:30.960I know as you guys, you on broadcast television for a long time, don't you personally think it's a sinking ship when you saw CNN Plus fold so fast?
00:24:39.560I really think people in the future are going to get their media a la carte, and almost like a podcast, you'll be able to get it video,
00:24:44.960video, and it'll be just, you know, basically, there'll be some sort of universal future Napster, some sort of app where we can content share.
00:24:52.500So I don't think these dinosaur media companies are going to live.
00:24:55.880Personally, I'd like to get your opinion on that, and the last word I'd like to get people out there to say is,
00:25:00.440listen, guys, my favorite thing that people tell me, it's not the, oh, you've got hundreds of thousands of followers or whatever.
00:25:07.460That's, you know, everybody likes the likes and clicks, but I love when people come up to me, Lou, and they say, Alex, you know what?
00:25:14.120Because of your goofball antics, I went and I spoke at my school board meeting.
00:25:17.960I went and I spoke at my city council meeting.
00:25:20.060I went and I spoke at my HOA meeting, whatever it might be, because that's what I want to do is I want to encourage people,
00:25:25.240and I'm not virtue signaling, but I want to encourage people, even people that don't have the same viewpoints as me,