00:03:21.000Don't get fooled by the accent, ladies and gentlemen.
00:03:26.000You know, we were talking about your story in the green room, and I was like, we have to do a podcast because your story is so crazy how when the wall fell, so did your career.
00:06:27.000I joke about this in my show, but it was a blessing in disguise because I was all of a sudden, my humor was family friendly, and this town is very much like that.
00:06:43.000And they embraced me, and I mean, it wasn't right away, but it grew and grew and grew.
00:06:54.000Like, it was always like we would hear about it in LA that it was this freaky Bible town, that it's like creationist museums and stuff like that.
00:07:04.000Like, here's a reconstruction of the Ark.
00:07:06.000Like, that's the kind of stuff that you would hear.
00:07:08.000Obviously, I never went, so I don't know.
00:09:20.000So then I go to Andy Williams' show, and it's the same thing 2,000 people, full.
00:09:27.000And I'm going, well, if they can do this, I can do it as well.
00:09:33.000And so I, in May, I rented a small theater and I just set my shop there, put my name on the wall, and I got first show, 17 people came in.
00:09:48.000And I'm going, oh boy, I don't have a place to go, but this is not going to work.
00:09:56.000But then I started doing, I was pretty creative.
00:10:00.000I started, I said, I'm going to serve breakfast.
00:10:04.000In the showroom, I'll call it Yak in a Box.
00:10:09.000And I'm just going to make my mother recipe of breakfast, and people will pass it, eat, and hopefully more people will come.
00:10:20.000So I would do two shows a day in the morning and in the evening dinner and breakfast.
00:10:29.000And little by little, it grew, it grew, it grew.
00:10:32.000And then a year later, my average was like.
00:10:35.000400 people a show, and then the buses that's the big business.
00:10:41.000There is the people come by bus in those days, a lot of them, and they would just um discovered me, and I started to become more and more popular.
00:10:54.000And then I bought 2000 seat theater, and now I entertain over six million people there.
00:11:02.000And it became, yeah, this is uh, this is kind of.
00:12:04.000And then it's a nightmare all of a sudden, and you don't know what to do.
00:12:08.000That's the problem with the world before social media, right?
00:12:12.000Because before social media, like, you couldn't just put some clips out there and show that you're still performing and still going places.
00:13:25.000It's like the idea that you can't be a great comic and talk about other stuff is so stupid.0.98
00:13:31.000But what happened, it was an evolution for me.0.91
00:13:35.000I think that I look back and I'm going, thank you for this, because it was kind of a one note tune.
00:13:48.000And then it made me, forced me to go, okay, that topic is not necessarily the right thing.
00:13:56.000Uh, right now it's not nobody cares because the Soviet Union is not there and nobody's scared of it because I was kind of like a you know, it was a headache from the you know, or the pain in the butt, uh, Soviet Union, and I'm preparation H and I they used me and then after swelling and itching went away, you don't need it anymore, right?0.56
00:17:23.000So the magnets attract, but then when things don't go well, they repel.
00:17:31.000So I was going, what is it that's attracting us and what is it that's repelling us?
00:17:36.000And then after doing this, and I went to the University of Pennsylvania, got my master's degree in psychology, got my doctorate degree at Pepperdine.
00:20:34.000Flexible thing in our humor stays the same, but the needs or the setup is different.
00:20:44.000So, if every business is successful when they figure out what is the need of people, like Apple, for example, they say, We develop a product that you don't know you need, but then you can't live without it.
00:21:50.000I feel like the most important thing about comedy is you have to be actually, excuse me, you have to actually be interested in what you're talking about.
00:21:59.000But other than that, the second most important thing or the thing that really resonates with people is when someone's on stage and they're talking about something that means something to them, I get invested.
00:22:22.000And I totally, that's, you found that, whatever you want to call it, desire, need, whatever you want to call it.
00:22:29.000But whoever zooms in on that and understands it, they're successful in what they do.
00:22:35.000So in marriage, my focus switched from the Cold War between countries.
00:22:43.000To the Cold War between couples and understanding that men and women are different is very important because they have different needs.
00:22:56.000And so, part of my dissertation was to give that understanding so then the person is not like searching, it doesn't know what he's looking for.
00:23:08.000There, I'm married and I'm happily married now, and my main goal is to figure out what this.
00:23:35.000So there's a book by Dr. Willard Harley called His Needs, Her Needs.
00:23:40.000And what he did, he was dealing with a lot of couples that were getting a divorce, and he was trying to help them in marriage counseling.
00:23:51.000And he asked, he identified like 10 emotional needs.
00:23:58.000And he asked these people to prioritize men and women.
00:24:04.000And it was interesting that he said, I was shocked that five top needs for men were totally different from five top needs for women.
00:24:16.000So if we don't know that, so the needs for women were affection, conversation, openness and honesty, family commitment, and financial support.
00:26:48.000Like men, I mean, this is obviously a great generalization because there are probably some men, of course, that one of the things they love is the talent that a woman possesses or the drive.
00:26:59.000But for the most part, what men want is someone to be nice.
00:27:06.000Like my friends have joked around about this before, my single friends, about like, I don't give a Fuck, if a girl works at McDonald's, is she nice?0.98
00:27:20.000If she's cool and she's fun, but a woman meeting a cool, good looking guy that's nice that works at McDonald's, like, you fucking loser.1.00
00:27:31.000No shame to the people who work at McDonald's.0.99
00:27:33.000I worked fast food when I was younger, too.
00:27:37.000The first place I worked at was a burger place called Newport Creamery.
00:27:51.000Especially the women that want to have a family and settle down and all that jazz, they look at a guy working at McDonald's like, you don't have any ambition.
00:27:58.000And that's the thing that women want from men that men don't seem to really care that much from women.
00:28:04.000Women want a guy that has ambition and men do not care generally.
00:28:10.000Although I got to say, Phil Hartman, when he obviously did not have a good marriage because his wife killed him and then killed herself, obviously didn't have a good marriage.0.64
00:28:46.000Like the place that I actually bought in California, I found out about that part of California because of him, because he took me up on a plane.
00:28:54.000And he was explaining to me, like, there's other counties that you could live in, and these counties, like, they have land.
00:29:00.000It's like, yeah, it's a drive, but it's like more peaceful and relaxed.
00:29:04.000You don't have to be like in the heart of everything.
00:29:46.000Well, it's like sometimes when a couple, I've seen it the opposite.
00:29:50.000Like a friend of mine, she was dating this guy who was a comedian, and when she started doing well, he started getting really shitty with her.
00:29:56.000He started getting very resentful, and he would be insulting, and she could tell that there was, she was, He was not happy that she was doing well.
00:32:54.000You were going through it because you're going through that, which is always a bummer for people, especially with children when you're getting divorced.
00:33:00.000But then on top of that, your career goes away because the Soviet Union collapsed.
00:34:59.000And so, and on the way back, I forgot my passport on the plane from Odessa to Kiev, and I had to stay behind for a day to get a temporary passport.
00:35:12.000So I went to a park and I was waiting for this.
00:35:18.000And I see this lunchtime, and these gorgeous women are going to lunch and back.
00:35:26.000And I feel like I'm in Paris watching a runway show.
00:37:24.000I mean, I knew that if the father, if they're afraid of masculine energy, if they're being with the abusive dad or something is not right, they will not trust my energy.
00:37:38.000And that was the handshake I could tell pretty much if that woman and all 51 dates were, it didn't work.
00:37:48.000I mean, I just knew in a couple of seconds that it wasn't right, but then I have to eat, you know, so I gained weight.0.90
00:37:56.000Just because I had to eat all this time, three meals a day.
00:42:47.000Main guy that I would listen to, and in each apartment, there would be a little speaker that would be on all the time so they could brainwash you.
00:43:00.000You had a speaker in your apartment all the time.
00:50:11.000Right, but if they jammed it, how did he listen?
00:50:13.000No, they would jam it during the day, but at nighttime, they didn't think anybody would wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and sit there and listen to it.
00:51:36.000And when after I experienced the cruises and got to know this different environment, I came home and I go, Mom, Dad, I think we should consider trying to.
00:51:49.000To get out of, and mom was like mad at my dad.
00:51:54.000And my dad stood up, which was good for him at that time.
00:51:58.000Normally he would just be quiet, but he said to my mom, Clara, don't you, would you like your son, when he is my age, sit there by the radio and listen to a voice of America, hoping, wishing that he would be doing something like that?
00:52:16.000Or would you like him to be in America doing this?
00:52:21.000And my mom kind of went, You know what's going to happen when we apply for a visa?
00:52:29.000People who are considered your friends will cross the street and they will not want to talk to you and be seen with you, and you're going to go through hell.
00:54:06.000The idea of socialism comes from an idea of empathy and kindness that you want, you think the world would be better if we all shared, and that why are there people that are so rich and people that are so poor?
00:54:18.000But the solution is not to make the government decide who gets what because they never decide the right way, they do what people do.
00:54:28.000What people do when they have power is they enact total control over the population so that they can maintain power, and then they live in luxury, and then you wait in line for bread.0.97
00:54:37.000That's how it is all over the fucking world.0.99
00:54:39.000And if you step out of line, they shoot you.1.00
00:54:55.000Not like scams where you find out that 90% of the money is actually going to all the people that work there.
00:55:04.000We need to figure out a way to be more empathetic as a culture, but recognize that.
00:55:07.000The pursuit of freedom and the ability to have freedom is so huge and it's such a great gift.
00:55:12.000We're so lucky that we have this experiment in self government that is the United States of America and that we were, at least I was born here.
00:55:38.000The corruption should be fixed and guardrails should be put in place and maybe more.
00:55:42.000Regulations in regard to some things should be put in place, but the purpose of this whole thing is to allow people to have freedom to do whatever they want.
00:55:51.000And that's not ubiquitous in the world, that's not everywhere.
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00:57:26.000That represents all of us, right and left, independent, black, white, Asian, Russian, fill in the blanks, Filipino, everybody from everywhere.
00:59:52.000A big part of it because people from New York and Pennsylvania would go into the Poconos or the Catskills, and they would do that on summer vacation, and people would get jobs there, and comedians would go and book themselves at these places.
01:03:37.000But when you think about how many different people in show business changed their names back then, that was a super common thing.
01:03:44.000Like, you didn't keep the name that you were, if you had a goofy name, like Arnold Schwarzenegger was a groundbreaker because he was like one of the first guys to say, regardless of whether or not you could spell my name or even say, that's my name, I'm going to keep that name.
01:08:52.000I know, I know, it's silly to see in front of her portrait.
01:08:57.000And she goes, she owns the comedy store, go talk to her.
01:09:01.000So I go sit down next to her in that booth that is next to the original room, and I have no idea who I'm talking to, but and she says, You are very funny.
01:09:18.000Stay in Los Angeles, there's always a place for good and different.
01:09:25.000And I'm again, I'm like, Okay, I said, I'm sorry, but I, you know, I have parents in.
01:09:34.000In LA, in New York, and I need to go back because they rely on me.
01:09:42.000And she goes, So, what does your dad do?
01:09:46.000And I go, He's a building construction engineer.
01:12:00.000And I was practicing, I would do other clubs meantime just to get better and better and better.
01:12:09.000And then, you know, she'd been an amazing supporter, you know, and I continued, I built a lot in the belly room, I built a lot of things in the, in, and she, my main job was to go to her house.
01:12:28.000And uh, Paulie was a young kid who was smoking pot.
01:12:33.000And to prevent Mitzit from walking into on him, he would take off the doorknobs of the door and he would throw them away.
01:12:43.000And my job was to go and buy door new doorknobs and put them in, it was like a full time job, you know.
01:12:52.000And so, yeah, she's been a blessing, a blessing for me.
01:18:25.000And there was nothing like that back then.
01:18:28.000So the closest thing to it was The Tonight Show.
01:18:30.000And if you got on The Tonight Show and you did stand up, I mean, that was the first time I remember watching Richard Jenney was on The Tonight Show.
01:18:39.000And there's a bunch of other people that I saw on the Tonight Show too, but everybody would stay up late at night.
01:18:43.000And when there was a comedian on the Tonight Show, you'd get excited.
01:19:45.000It was really very, very well received.
01:19:49.000So, and that's another interesting thing that, you know, like when I met Reagan, I was still fairly unknown.
01:20:02.000And I was playing a club in Washington, D.C., and it was called Comedy Cafe.
01:20:10.000And somebody came over to me after the show, and a guy, I didn't know who he was, and he said, I'm having President Reagan and Nancy Reagan as my guests, dinner guests, at my home in two weeks.
01:20:28.000I would like to invite you to be one of the guests.0.84
01:20:32.000And I'm thinking, this guy's nuts.0.97
01:23:39.000I just changed some tone of kind of putting them on the Equal level as opposed to being talking down to the Soviet leaders, they didn't appreciate that.
01:23:50.000Can you explain how he was talking down?
01:23:53.000Just teaching them that capitalism is so much better than what they got and they should switch to that form of politics as opposed to kind of appreciate what they and their, you know, their empire at that time.
01:27:08.000And when we were, came, Because we're coming through Italy to come to America, and they would, in Italy, they kept us three months to check all the documents and make sure that we're not like the Communist Party or don't have a record.
01:27:44.000So they would do all the things, they would only like change you $100 per person, and you're supposed to survive like three months of living in a foreign country.
01:27:59.000And so, but they would give you a list of things that you could take with you.
01:28:04.000So, like a photo camera, hat, something you could sell there to live on.
01:28:12.000And yeah, and of Two suitcases for each person and very strict list of things.
01:28:19.000What was an interesting kind of loophole, we found out through the grapevine that condoms was a very expensive item in Italy for some reason.
01:28:38.000In the Soviet Union, you could buy them for a penny, and in Italy, you could sell them for a dollar.
01:28:46.000And so, my Quest was like when I've learned, and there was no restriction how many you can take with you.
01:28:53.000So I would go to each pharmacy, whatever I could get, and just I was, you know, we got like half of the suitcase of condoms and we put it in my mother's suitcase.
01:29:08.000So that way, hopefully, nobody's going to ask her what, why, you know, they would be embarrassed or whatever.
01:29:17.000So they didn't ask, and we got through.
01:29:21.000And so, my job and my parents' job was to go on the open market every Saturday and Sunday and try to sell those condoms so we can pay rent and food and whatever else.
01:29:37.000So, my parents, it was so funny how they transitioned.
01:29:40.000They were two very conservative people, and they're embarrassed, but then they realize we need money to eat.
01:29:50.000So they would, mom became pretty smart.
01:29:55.000She translated from Russian into Italian.
01:30:02.000If you don't want to have a kid like this, and would point at me and would hold that card and say, then buy a condom.
01:31:34.000There was one movie theater in Rome that would, for a dollar, you can sit and watch English speaking movies and you can sit there all day for a dollar.
01:31:47.000And so I would go, it was like my, I was learning English, listening to it, listening.
01:31:53.000And then one time I remember a couple, I needed to practice.
01:32:00.000And there was a couple, I asked them, Speak English and they said yes.
01:32:05.000And the guy, the girl was from Belgium, the guy was from Washington, D.C., and they said, We'll help you and we'll just come every week, like on Monday or some, whatever it was, and we'll just go to a coffee shop and we'll talk to you so you can practice English.
01:32:25.000And I remember they asked me, What did you do in Russia?
01:34:40.000There's been three different versions of Fear Factor now.
01:34:43.000You know, it's like now they're doing it with Johnny Knoxville.
01:34:47.000It's kind of crazy, like the amount of different things that have happened in your life, you know, and then now to find yourself with another revival because of Kill Tony.
01:37:07.000And I go back to The clubs, and I my goal was really to last year I would go to small clubs and develop an hour of material that is totally current.
01:37:21.000I talk about relationships, I talk about having a one year old in my life.
01:37:27.000I talk, and it's an interesting thing.
01:37:29.000I was doing it at your club, and it's great to watch the reaction of the audience.
01:37:41.000They have a lot of respect, but they're also laughing and they're seeing it's fun because I talk about relationships.
01:37:48.000So they might come in disconnected, but then all of a sudden you see how they put their hands next to each other.
01:40:13.000And if comedy done correctly is done from your perspective, whether your perspective is Nate Borghazi or your perspective is fucking, you know, fill in the blank, David Tell, whoever it is.0.93
01:43:04.000So, it took me a whole year to rewrite everything that I needed to rewrite to say it's punchline, punchline, it's just straight comedy.
01:43:16.000So, I became a stand up comedian again.
01:43:18.000Well, there's nothing wrong with one man show stand up comedy.
01:43:21.000Either because some people do their comedy like a one man show, and some of the best comics, like Colin Quinn, Colin Quinn does a series of one man shows.
01:43:30.000But if you ask Chat GPT who is Colin Quinn, he'll say he's a stand up comedian, right?
01:43:36.000But Chat GPT got me wrong, whatever it was, it doesn't matter, it's not even a person, right?
01:43:43.000But but it's actually helped me to uh tune in uh my comedy, and because I was maybe a little bit.
01:43:54.000More relaxed being in my own theater with all people coming to see me.
01:44:01.000So it's not like you're in a club when you're like with other comedians when you have to be really, really sharp.
01:44:08.000And that's what I think it did for me.
01:56:18.000As a nod, mother, she was a nod to Mitzi, yeah, yeah, it turned out much further.
01:56:22.000But as a nod to Mitzi, the idea was that, like, because she was always saying the inmates are running the asylum, she would say that all the time while we were there, like, she encouraged it, she liked when comedians were out of their minds, she loved it, she loved that environment.
01:56:37.000And so, as a nod to her, we were going to call it the asylum.
01:56:41.000But then I was like, one of the things that someone said, because you know, Ron White was the first guy to move here, he was really like.
01:56:49.000Patient Zero in the Austin comedy experience and the new version of the Austin comedy experience.
01:56:54.000And he was like, It's the center of the country.
01:56:57.000I love it because I can fly to New York.
02:04:00.000But it was part of the fucking cool, crazy weirdness of the comedy store is that we had a guy that dressed as Jesus that was there all the time.0.97
02:08:49.000A gift for her, so it will be easy to break up.
02:08:53.000So we go, we buy a ring, and I'll bring it, I brought it back, and I go, Tom, Andrew told me to buy this ring to give it to this girl, so it would be an easy breakup.
02:09:08.000And he looks and he goes, It's an engagement ring, you know that.
02:09:13.000And I go, But Andrew told me to buy it.0.96
02:09:16.000I'm going to, he goes, Tom goes, Andrew is not a representative of a human race.
02:11:52.000And I said, I tell her, I want a 5,000 square foot house with an acre of land, and I want to buy it with the view of LA, and I want to buy it for $150,000.
02:12:11.000And I'm thinking she's going to hit me with a hammer.
02:12:14.000She goes, I may have something for you.
02:18:08.000I mean, your show, I don't think you can fathom how big your show is.
02:18:15.000I mean, I know you know the numbers and you know, but.
02:18:22.000To get to have the conversation for three hours and not really knowing where it's going to go, what's going to happen, how it's going to be, you get nervous, you know.
02:18:36.000And I feel like I was going to Nashville and that was Nashville Comedy Festival a year and a half ago.
02:18:46.000And I went there and I walked into Ryman's auditorium and.
02:18:54.000Brian Dorfman, you probably know, he's a promoter.
02:18:58.000He remembered me from the years in the past.
02:19:02.000And there was a show that all the Nate Berghazi's proteges were doing.
02:19:14.000And I walked in, I didn't know what was going on.
02:19:24.000And I went in the middle of the show and I did 15 minutes, and the crowd gave me a standing ovation in the middle of the show.
02:19:34.000And I know it's, I get emotional because I feel like an ugly duckling that goes in and doesn't know if these young people are going to accept you or not.
02:21:20.000And I go, Well, I decided to get a doctorate degree because I really think that there is research on laughter that you could really help people understand it better.
02:21:35.000And he goes, Yakov, you're a comedian.
02:21:39.000You write a joke, you tell a joke, you pick up a check, and you go.