True Patriot Love - April 15, 2026


Comedy Got Softer? ft. Dave Merheje & Jean Paul


Episode Stats


Length

44 minutes

Words per minute

203.17946

Word count

9,134

Sentence count

72

Harmful content

Toxicity

24

sentences flagged

Hate speech

15

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of All Jokes Aside, I sit down with two of my favourite comedians in the building and talk about the early days of comedy in Canada and what it was like growing up in the 80s and 90s.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 you are tuned in yours truly jay martin the renaissance man and i call this all jokes aside
00:00:10.080 and this episode right here is going to be i'm going to say it before it even starts it's going
00:00:15.020 to be one of my favorite because i got two of my favorite comedians in the building uh these guys
00:00:21.180 go back with me like car seats like way back we all grew up and started roughly together
00:00:28.620 We went through the nervous energy
00:00:31.220 I'm going to allow them
00:00:32.720 I'm going to brag about them
00:00:34.660 Because they're amazing
00:00:35.840 Fresh off of coming into town
00:00:38.920 For the Juno Awards
00:00:40.220 Writers, movies
00:00:42.580 TV shows
00:00:44.320 Script writing
00:00:45.560 On stage award winners
00:00:47.400 Right here is like the real comedy
00:00:50.740 Canada Hall of Fame
00:00:52.380 And I don't want to brag
00:00:53.180 But it's just Julie J. Martin
00:00:54.620 All jokes aside
00:00:55.520 Introduce yourself
00:00:57.260 because you're my brother from another mother john paul tell them a little bit about yourself
00:01:00.620 uh i'm a lebanese comic man john paul uh the island hipster yeah yes so uh you know your
00:01:10.700 brethren for life and that's it one half of the trinette versus jamaica sensational decades
00:01:16.140 long running mother's day clean comedy clash and before he does it because that was a wonderful
00:01:21.340 intro by the way my brother before he does it when i heard this guy was in town right i was like what
00:01:28.540 i tried to get him uh you see them on so many movies tv shows i'll read off the accolades after
00:01:34.140 but i mean we know him as our guy dave barhash he's in the building say what's up tell where
00:01:39.580 you live tell why you're here that's my boy right there i reside in los angeles but i am canadian
00:01:46.380 yes i am the lebanese well i guess yeah the lebanese comedian but i have uh i was born in
00:01:52.220 canada wow so that'll get kicked out yes but i my parents were born in lebanon i just do a whole
00:01:57.500 bio of them but no i'm super super pumped yeah i mean we go like i'm actually even coming here
00:02:04.620 i thought about this time where um at the newbie and show where i think you were i think you were
00:02:10.300 headline i can't remember remember i think he won the first time when he first came on right
00:02:15.020 and then everyone uh i think they were trying to were they trying to stack
00:02:21.580 they did stack it and then you like murdered and we were like yeah it's all right he's okay yeah
00:02:26.860 he's cooking everyone it's so funny dude it was like uh every play was a blitz
00:02:34.220 every comedian was a blitz every get to the quarterback get to the quarterback
00:02:40.300 from what i can remember maybe my memories it was like uh like in a good way it was like a
00:02:46.060 like a storm was coming yes you know what it was you know what exactly what it was like
00:02:50.060 and you being from la will know exactly what it is it's like getting jumped in in a gang
00:02:54.060 yes like you came to like i don't think you had been doing it that was the thing i don't think
00:03:05.340 you'd be doing it long i don't think you've been doing it six months yeah no just six months in
00:03:08.780 and kenny kenny pulled a you want to headline this and i'm like okay in that time i was still
00:03:13.920 working at bell so i had access to limousines and i think that pissed off some people with
00:03:20.160 all due respect i think they were pissed too that you were just murdering right away and then you
00:03:24.860 weren't like i guess doing other you know because comedians are so uh like fixated on like the
00:03:31.420 the in between right the the crafting like you know they're not putting time or they are they
00:03:37.460 on the grind or whatever it was right it was like but people probably didn't know that you came from
00:03:41.860 entertainment back correct so you already had like speaking of you already had it yeah yeah
00:03:47.140 yeah you had a juno before comedians had accidents yours wasn't even from comedy right right you had
00:03:52.420 like such like good performance like it was like a it was like almost yeah in 2000s like people
00:03:58.500 were performing i don't think i mean people perform not as much now i think as comedians
00:04:03.860 it's more of like it feels like more of like you know delivery and delivery but back then it was
00:04:08.340 like a show i think there was wigs and wardrobe which we never seen anything i'm like what a
00:04:14.980 wardrobe change that's crazy it's culturally appropriating before before people were getting
00:04:20.180 canceled is he wearing indian shoes yeah i'm wearing indian shoes you know what to be honest with you
00:04:27.700 guys thank you thank you for all of that when we started out uh especially when i started out and
00:04:32.340 seeing all you guys especially that night it'll be a night it's in my head forever uh some of the
00:04:36.660 greatest names were on that show i don't even know how can he fit them of course you two were on it
00:04:41.140 mark was on it jason rouse jerry d uh john cedric it was just yeah act after act after act it was
00:04:50.580 crazy to see if you were there because i think the the nubian show at the time i mean it's still
00:04:55.140 great but at the time it was like i don't know it felt like it was a mystique yeah and it was
00:05:00.260 had a bit of mystique and it had a sheen on it you know what i mean yeah you couldn't really walk in
00:05:05.380 um now when people do it i guess it's like i don't know if it seems more welcoming not that it wasn't
00:05:10.740 super welcoming but like they would let you know yeah it's less confrontational yeah sorry not
00:05:15.780 confrontational it's less gladiatorial yeah way less that's the word i've seen people walk out i
00:05:21.540 i've had to walk out with like basically a body cast but like emotion yeah yeah my favorite story
00:05:27.940 from my favorite boo from all that is uh and and and i love wafik nasrallah did you hear him so
00:05:35.540 i want to hear it let's go so so wafik comes on uh great comedian from from ottawa and uh he's
00:05:42.420 he's pretty much blind in one eye and uh and he goes up first yeah i don't know i'm not laughing
00:05:49.220 at the first time goes up destroys kenny comes up and he's like you think we should have him back
00:05:54.740 and the crowd's like yeah so kenny brings it back whatever it is three four six whatever months later
00:06:00.580 to to do it again and you know wafer's feeling you know he's feeling himself he's smelling himself
00:06:05.540 and uh gets up and just just bombs same material i have no i can't remember oh and uh bombs and 0.96
00:06:13.300 then kenny gets on and the first thing kenny says is damn that took it in his good eye 0.93
00:06:17.860 I was like, wow. 0.97
00:06:22.800 Because if you Bob, Kenny would come in.
00:06:25.280 That was the best part about it.
00:06:26.540 He was watching people bob and be there.
00:06:29.360 But I got to kind of segue in.
00:06:32.040 Dave Miraj, you would come on.
00:06:35.120 And I like the guys that are coming up after us, so to speak.
00:06:38.500 They're like, oh my gosh, Dave Miraj on.
00:06:40.660 And wherever your name was slotted, no one wanted to go behind you.
00:06:44.720 because you were just you would be you had this way of looking so nervous in the green room
00:06:50.780 do you know you do it i don't know i don't know what i'm doing yeah and you would find a way
00:06:57.000 to take i don't know what i'm doing and go there and make it an absolute masterpiece like tell us
00:07:03.560 where where does your writing come from it was one of my questions where does your writing come
00:07:07.440 from especially then you would do the lights thing remember the lights yeah like i think it was like
00:07:13.080 i think energy i think it was like actual nerves which still kind of exist and then now it's like
00:07:20.360 a little bit more like it's controlled i could be like okay i'm gonna use this in a positive way not
00:07:26.120 that it wasn't used in a positive way back then but i think it was like you know obviously i would
00:07:30.200 write but i would like think about it all day or all week and like kind of put it this set in my
00:07:34.840 head um throughout the week but then i would always allow a space for if i could go if it
00:07:41.720 i can improvise or go the way not the way the audience wanted but like where i felt the journey
00:07:48.040 was going up there it wasn't like i didn't try to restrict myself like my act all the way through
00:07:54.200 because i i love the spontaneity of or even if it went bad because it was just like it felt like
00:07:59.960 super raw to me so i think that's where it a lot of it came from it was structured but like i think
00:08:07.480 sometimes when you see it it's like oh he's like rambling so it doesn't look like it's
00:08:12.600 structured or there's like punch lines they are it's just that like i leave it's like almost in
00:08:17.960 my head it's like a timeline or like it i can see the set this way right and then i'll just slide in
00:08:23.960 or yeah or if like somebody says some i'm like i'll slide this in there it's like from like
00:08:29.160 basically going up you know like 10 15 times at that time 10 15 times a week right and you were
00:08:35.880 obsessive when it came to doing spots he was he was crazy i think people think i am still and i'm
00:08:42.680 no man he'd make it to my my open mic to be like i gotta go and he's like downtown othington here
00:08:48.440 that that would time the bus yeah it was another comic i don't think i think he stopped doing it
00:08:52.440 but he would i i was like impressed he did a spot on your show yeah and then he goes all the bus is
00:08:57.640 here and he got from the stage yeah yeah from the stage because he missed the song in toronto and i
00:09:03.800 gotta get the transfer you leave and we were like oh he was hustling i can't i don't know why it's
00:09:08.280 not coming in my mind but i don't think i'm that obsessive now because i just think i try to work
00:09:13.240 a little smarter i think back then i needed to lighter you had to be the reps yeah but i agree
00:09:17.800 with you i think that's what everybody in the beginning you know yes you you you just did it
00:09:21.480 you were so happy one you were so happy to to be allowed to tell jokes and yeah to go somewhere
00:09:27.640 and then eventually you realize to to work smarter not harder correct you know i think
00:09:33.080 people still think though they'll be like man you you hitting it like the same way i go not
00:09:37.400 it i mean dude i'm not a chance i'm i don't even want to be there i don't even know how i did that
00:09:43.960 both of you come from such a unique background you know what i mean and how has your background
00:09:49.000 shaped the identity of your your comedy and and how did it how did it you know have a fixture in
00:09:54.440 how you deliver your i mean i don't i don't know about dave but i i'm speaking for myself like
00:09:58.680 being uh from trinidad and tobago the the climate and i don't mean temperature wise
00:10:06.280 um we're we're people where everybody in trinidad thinks they're funny and they are like super
00:10:10.920 comedic and we come from a lime in culture which is is just basically like a contained party and
00:10:17.800 and uh some of the best storytellers i've ever seen included in my family like my uncle trevor
00:10:22.600 my uncle larry were like some of the funniest dudes so so i think i have it in me uh pause
00:10:29.640 um uh to i i think i have that natural sense of timing and i think i get that um through genetics
00:10:37.000 as well as just through the fabric of the country and so so for me it it's it uh is an important
00:10:43.400 part of and plus i just have a genuine still do a genuine love for for stand-up right i mean like
00:10:49.400 you know new stuff old stuff like you know like i even like the mumble rap of comedy
00:10:56.680 not all of it obviously and your background mike um i i had an answer but i was just thinking about
00:11:03.480 like you know i mean i don't know this the comedy scene in toronto was like so cool back then
00:11:09.160 because i feel i mean not that it isn't now it's just kind of like because i was more entrenched
00:11:13.800 in it back then it's like you had like elements of like the alt scene correct then you had your room
00:11:18.680 and in ajax and then you had your like your brand basically was like an empire of like
00:11:24.440 different shows and it was just like i fully remember i was with nick reynolds and at your
00:11:30.360 show i think i was trying to dance and i turned around and this woman goes no don't do it she
00:11:37.480 did don't do it and i remember me and nick were like oh man i've never been stopped but it was
00:11:43.240 like you had like all these elements that made i think basically i was like man now i sound like a
00:11:50.840 like an old person but like i was so glad to come up in that time but i agree i agree too like when
00:11:57.320 i think of some of the names like uh like when i saw you today one i wasn't expecting i knew you
00:12:01.640 were in town but i wasn't expecting to see you today but when i saw you i was so i was filled
00:12:05.880 with like just like just joy because i i know i know who you were then and i know who you are now
00:12:12.440 and and when i think of the names when we came up with here's there was you it was nate mcintosh
00:12:17.640 uh to watch to watch bircher to watch nick reynolds come up to watch christopher to
00:12:22.760 watch pedro to watch you yeah me to yeah to watch like like just to watch all these people succeed
00:12:28.840 arthur arthur simeon like like all these names when you think about it are are all successful
00:12:34.280 comedians yeah yeah and and to and at least for me like i feel like the the the uncle uh you know
00:12:41.000 the cool uncle that got to even though i was just slightly ahead of them i know you guys looked up
00:12:46.680 to me like oh my god john paul yeah yo he's the guy bro yeah he's the guy but but to watch you guys
00:12:51.960 now be yourselves to me is like the dopest dopest feeling in the entire world that right there be
00:12:58.120 yourselves as comedians we were in a time where we could be ourselves yes and now we find that
00:13:04.680 something happened after covid a lot of people got more sensitive a lot of people got more what
00:13:10.040 you can say and can't say uh is there a time now within your careers that you guys are ever afraid
00:13:16.360 a of being canceled or taking it too far i'll say no just for the simple fact that uh i at least
00:13:24.120 take calculated risks right and if i am going to say something it's going to be something that i'm
00:13:28.920 willing to to stand on correct as as as the kids say ten toes down right you know what i mean but
00:13:34.520 But I can also say for myself, I'm not a controversial or a political guy.
00:13:41.720 But if something strikes me and I feel strongly about it, I'll say it, man, just because, you know, the stage is supposed to be our sanctity.
00:13:51.120 And I think we're the ones that people look to, regardless of whether people – and it's funny to go from class clown does he's not going to make it in life and he needs to blah, blah, blah, to all of a sudden,
00:14:03.420 we're the beacon of information correct we're the ones that people like this guy say that
00:14:08.360 so now all of a sudden you're taking us seriously correct so so if i am going to
00:14:13.400 say something that could be construed uh or misconstrued right uh as controversial that
00:14:19.520 might be canceled i'm gonna stand ten toes down and if it's just something that i think is
00:14:23.200 this is gonna get a reaction i'm not about that i'm not i'm not gonna do it just for that
00:14:27.560 dave i asked the question to you as well because i've seen your stand up from its conception
00:14:31.880 a lot of it was spontaneity sometimes you say something almost like a tourette's what comes
00:14:37.060 out and and that's authentically dave i wonder how he would go through the times where okay dave
00:14:44.100 you can't say that and that question's almost a double uh edged sword because you have to go
00:14:48.420 into tv where those risks aren't often taken yeah i mean like over time i mean now too i am very
00:14:55.660 i mean i'll very i'll admit that i am very self-aware of what i can and what i can't say
00:15:00.980 because i do want to work in places and spaces like i do really want to act more and all that
00:15:05.780 stuff but i do naturally not like a controversial person correct so i you know most of it is about
00:15:11.140 my family and you know and i also think like and it's not my place to judge anyone i'm not
00:15:16.740 even judging you know but i think a good sign of a joke of it's i feel it even if it's controversial
00:15:21.780 it's not harmful i think along the lines comedians are like also if you're like i i can't say
00:15:28.500 anything and you have a netflix special you can say something exactly they gave you something
00:15:33.220 that's just like something to make you say that yeah that's like a very weird like it feels
00:15:37.380 performative it's like who's this for man you got like you already have 10 you have like a lot of
00:15:42.260 netflix specials or a lot of hulu like whatever you're on like obviously somebody let you do that
00:15:46.900 you know the ultimate cancel someone greenlit it yeah you can't do anything but i feel like if you're
00:15:52.020 with your intention that's a lot of things too is like i feel like i don't want to be tricked
00:15:59.160 it's like look man if you want to be racist through your jokes or offensive purposely then
00:16:06.020 tell me you're going to do it right stand on business that way don't go hey man you're being
00:16:10.960 like woke yeah right like i'm not i'm like i know when it's a racist you know you know what you were
00:16:15.800 saying yeah just you're like you don't play me right because you know we know yeah on entertainment
00:16:20.700 like just because we're in a platform of entertainment but like you would like if we
00:16:24.340 were outside entertainment on not that i'm not a physical person or anything but i'm like just like 0.98
00:16:29.380 i'm the idiot like you're you know purposely that this intention was already like right you know 0.93
00:16:34.240 you see a lot of comedians you know back in the day like carlin and lenny bruce they were saying 0.99
00:16:38.740 things you can't say but it was done in a way where i don't think it was harmful to people's
00:16:42.460 culture and it was crafted yes it was crafted and it wasn't crafted to solicit or elicit a response
00:16:48.520 that's now feels like it was to to elicit laughter at the end of it all but it was still also you
00:16:54.600 know plant the seed for something to think about if that's something you've never thought about
00:16:58.040 before you know and and and one of my whole things too is when i say i'm going to stand 10 toes down
00:17:03.240 i'm glad that you mentioned the word that i i do my intention is a big thing for me you know in life
00:17:08.600 but uh and mostly in comedy and and like to to your to your appointment the way my grandmother
00:17:14.360 you know would describe it is you know if you're doing it to be performative don't piss on my back
00:17:17.960 and tell me it's raining it's like if you're gonna like if you like i come from middle eastern
00:17:25.000 background you're gonna insult my heritage right you're insulting my heritage there's no if it's
00:17:29.560 a joke that like if you just want to do that i don't care yeah so i think that's where the
00:17:35.320 not the confusion i think a lot of things i see is like that which that's what i mean where for me
00:17:41.000 not trying to stop you from freedom of speech or i'm not a person that would get offended that
00:17:46.360 easily it's just like you can tell when you being you being um shady with me about right that's what
00:17:52.920 it is where i'm like uh you know and don't be surprised when you get pushback yeah because you
00:17:57.320 get to say something so you have freedom of speech but i don't have freedom to say to say something
00:18:01.640 back it's like a lot of times you know i mean uh you know people of like ethnic background it's like
00:18:07.320 you know you both probably we've all been in that situation where i'm like i think they're being 0.80
00:18:11.320 racist yeah right they're like you know i mean it's like around i kind of feel like that right
00:18:15.080 now i got a question i'm itching to say your culture throughout your career that i've watched
00:18:23.520 dave has a lot of hip-hop influences i don't know many uh lebanese rappers but that being said your
00:18:33.180 influence how did you i both of you i know music is is in our in our comedy constantly uh i know
00:18:39.840 hip-hop was your thing um what's your letter to hip-hop and how is it personified in its way to
00:18:44.680 make you a better comedian and it's the same with the music of cultures because we all love all
00:18:48.620 music but i just know specifically dave has a lot of influences from hip-hop a lot of battle rap too
00:18:55.320 because of like the way they would like perform to me was like i think i feel like was influenced
00:19:02.440 by that like where the hand movements maybe or the energy of of hip-hop i i enjoyed from like
00:19:08.900 the marketing of it the presentation of it which i try to adapt to stand up perfect that was like
00:19:14.820 how i you know and i mean mine mine is is pretty much the same but just add that so so the the
00:19:22.280 thing i'm working on now is called dual citizen which is d-u-e-l not d-u-a-l right because i'm
00:19:26.760 both you know born trinity but like grew up in in toronto so i consider myself both but when it
00:19:32.500 comes to music um you know reggae soca and hip-hop are like my my big influences you know like the
00:19:39.520 bravado of of of hip-hop you know to be able to talk your shit and and just the the laid-back
00:19:45.980 niceness of of reggae and soca to to make you feel nice you feel loose yeah i try to combine
00:19:51.840 the two i'm basically like uh the fushnikins of um so it and it's a big influence and for me
00:20:02.060 uh music also because i'm i get i'm and i know it sounds crazy to say but i get so nervous
00:20:08.780 when i go before i perform even even you know anywhere even yeah and and to me my go-to music
00:20:16.420 to listen to like to calm myself down before is either hip-hop reggae or soca it's never
00:20:21.800 it's never r&b it's never a chris brown and no disrespect to chris brown loves music and all that
00:20:26.060 And just R&B in general, but like hip-hop or reggae or soca
00:20:30.020 are the musics that kind of slow me down 1.00
00:20:33.120 because I can feel it in here. 1.00
00:20:35.140 And if I can feel it in here,
00:20:36.400 hopefully it'll translate out here, outwardly.
00:20:39.800 In life, we make goals.
00:20:41.100 All of us make our comedic goals.
00:20:42.960 We started out, our first goal is open mic.
00:20:45.540 And then the next goal is, can I do the Nubian show?
00:20:48.240 And then from there, we go higher and higher and higher.
00:20:51.700 Experience for me, my first time was later.
00:20:54.460 I got to finally touch Just For Laughs.
00:20:56.620 I finally got to do the Halifax Comedy Festival.
00:20:59.340 You two are festival savants.
00:21:03.340 Explain to me the drive it was to get there,
00:21:07.100 when you got there, how you felt.
00:21:08.780 I've always loved my experience at Just For Laughs,
00:21:11.340 just being in the hotel where all the comedians
00:21:13.580 around the world were.
00:21:14.780 It's like hanging out with the X-Men.
00:21:16.140 Yeah, and tell me your experience.
00:21:18.540 You guys have went from getting to the Just For Laughs Festival
00:21:21.900 to be actually writing you know the ironic part about that journey for me to to get to just for
00:21:28.060 last if we're speaking about just for last specifically yeah and no disrespect any of
00:21:31.180 the other festivals like you would you had heard so much about just for last before you even really
00:21:37.420 started to be a proper comedian right uh and and when i started off i started off on kenny's all
00:21:44.300 black comedy show right and that's where my voice came from you know what i mean that's where i got
00:21:48.220 my voice and and then as i started to go more mainstream uh it used to be presented to me and
00:21:54.060 again ignorantly i i bought into some of it that that that was a crutch and and doing you know
00:22:00.540 ethnic comedy or black comedy or whatever oh you you you don't have any other gears so i wanted to
00:22:05.660 prove to them i can play your game i could learn the rules and i can win and i can win so when i
00:22:10.860 got to just for last like ah i did it but but i felt like i i had almost kind of lost something
00:22:17.180 on the way there and from doing it i was like oh it wasn't what i thought it was going to be it
00:22:22.300 was great don't get me wrong but i wanted to be able to then tack back and be able to tack
00:22:29.260 tap back into who i was culturally because that's that that was and still is a huge
00:22:34.620 component of of who i am i love being a representation of my culture of my people of
00:22:40.380 of my voice and all that kind of stuff without being over the top preachy or anything like that
00:22:44.780 but it is a real if you know me off stage you know that is you know it's like why is he why
00:22:49.420 is he talking like that like you you know that that's that's really me like i'm that guy and
00:22:54.060 then he walks in dave walks in fresh faces and wins at the home room yeah i mean that took like
00:23:02.940 that took a lot of years to get there i think it was a lot of times i i thought i was owed it that
00:23:08.460 year or whatever it was i was like oh i did really well here and then you know i mean but it just
00:23:12.940 wasn't my time i think back then i was just you know you're just kind of younger in comedy and
00:23:17.100 you're just like eager right i mean you're still eager now but like you're just kind of antsy and
00:23:22.140 then when i got in yeah i think at the end of the day i think all the years because i didn't see it
00:23:28.220 at the time of building up my act and gaining experience and then they really helped me you
00:23:33.740 know because back then the homegrown competition was a contest so right yeah it helped me win
00:23:38.380 because i was like i was really really vetted and seasoned and at the time again speaking of going
00:23:45.020 back to to battle rap yes yeah yeah so you treated it like that yeah i gotta win that comedy rap i
00:23:51.020 gotta win that one what what happened in uh yes eight wow that's what it reminds me of well it
00:23:56.460 was like a um i mean when i would treat it up there like you know i mean i heard it from someone else
00:24:02.700 uh to another comedian it's like when i'm when we're in that space i'm not trying to be your
00:24:07.900 friend right i know comedy's um um subjective and it's like you know you're trying to bring
00:24:14.000 laughter but i always back then at least back then i always looked at it i was like yo when we
00:24:18.480 when that in that space i don't care you yeah you can cook not a team sport yeah first thing i told
00:24:24.120 you yeah first thing he told me is not a team sport like you're like why is he doing this
00:24:27.820 dude this is not a relay race and and other cotton again just just be you do you because
00:24:34.360 other comics have whatever internal it could be past trauma whatever they're dealing with
00:24:39.880 at the time that they try to i i i need this you know i mean so i just always say don't let
00:24:47.420 whatever someone else's intention or or or goals are um you know upset what you're trying to do
00:24:54.380 so now i got to get into the gravy or the the itsy part of it um you guys have worked with so many
00:25:00.700 people like i know you're on the jerry d show i was doing your like so much tv people and and shout
00:25:07.020 out uh shout out to you man raimi is a hell of a show bro thank you to be so like i i couldn't
00:25:15.020 like i'm already proud of you stand up wise but to see you wow on such critically acclaimed shows
00:25:20.940 shows like that like artistically production-wise like it and and just the voice it makes me super
00:25:28.440 proud to be like that's my little brother yeah man congratulations bro congratulations shout
00:25:33.340 out to you man so some of the people that we've worked with we meet the goods we bads you know
00:25:38.060 you were talking about you went and did it yourself and i'm not here to dog people be like 0.99
00:25:41.900 oh jay's podcast you know dave mirage said that this guy's a jerk but you have we have jerks in 0.98
00:25:47.940 business yeah i don't need you to say names but give me some times where these people were just 0.98
00:25:55.140 uncool to deal with i don't need names i'm not putting you out there like that dave but you
00:26:00.020 have had interactions where you had someone that was just being a prick i think it was like i think
00:26:04.980 it was unintentionally i look back at it now i think it was friends of ours right i think it was
00:26:10.580 people we like you know like you know and i don't think they were being necessary like i could
00:26:15.540 understand now because i happen to me where i look at something because i'm just much older
00:26:20.980 i'll look at it and if it was a style i didn't understand my brain was like what's happening
00:26:25.060 here i do it so i think and i realized i was doing what they did to me and i was going to
00:26:29.380 have to stop that quickly but i remember like no peers i don't know you know who was in if
00:26:35.300 if you were part of them or just people part of the mix of like he was just doing premises but
00:26:40.820 then i look back i go yeah probably if it looked optically it looked like there was like no joke
00:26:46.900 there so i think like you know when you're younger and comedy and people you kind of look up to and
00:26:53.140 people you were inspired by are jamming up against you back then it was a lot of yuck yucks comics
00:26:59.380 you i kind of harbored unlike not an angst but i was on um my back was against the wall of like
00:27:05.540 okay but i think as i grew and became friends with everybody i'm like oh yeah you know
00:27:12.820 they maybe didn't understand what i was doing that's completely uh understandable now so and
00:27:17.860 but also there are i'm not not gonna say their names you know i mean there are people who just
00:27:22.900 kind of come with hate and like yep it's funny i ran into someone who treated me awful and then
00:27:28.980 they treated me nice recently and i was like you know well i didn't forget but i was like
00:27:36.180 who knows what this person was going through back i try to see it more of like a try to find
00:27:42.100 forgiveness there's some people i don't yes there's a couple people i'm like i don't think i could
00:27:46.100 forgive you right now yeah i'm not in that place even though i'm trying to be in that place right
00:27:50.180 but for the most part is like i don't know what traumas you were going through and that's how i
00:27:54.820 see it too like my perspective my like my perspective is is in the moment back then it
00:28:02.260 you you take it personally and then i learned to take a step back and realize ah this isn't about
00:28:08.420 me this is about you and once i realized that and that again not to sound all hokey and and hippy
00:28:14.660 dippy but like when i started to get into like meditation and yoga and kind of like settling
00:28:20.420 myself and understanding who i was i started to realize that none of it had to do with me
00:28:26.020 as and not just in comedy just just in life generally speaking when people are being 0.69
00:28:30.260 you know 99.9 percent of the times when people are being assholes to you it's it's something
00:28:34.660 that they're going through absolutely you know what i mean i i second that so i kind of i kind 0.75
00:28:39.700 of step back from it and i'll absorb it unless you're being like insanely disrespectful in my
00:28:44.660 face at the time then you know i think but i don't take any of that personal and i and oddly enough
00:28:49.460 ironically enough i almost feel sorry for that person because they haven't been able to fix
00:28:55.300 whatever's broken inside and yeah it's just a sad thing because you know it is the two i've
00:29:01.060 encountered and i'm going to say it uh not because it's my show but i can uh was that dan ninen
00:29:06.580 situation oh my god when i opened for russell peters and we switched the order around and he
00:29:12.100 was like i go on before russ and they were like jay are you gonna do the indian bit and and i
00:29:17.300 I remember you telling him,
00:29:18.880 it's not that Jay's the best comedian in this group.
00:29:21.640 It's just that that bit, this Russell crowd
00:29:24.240 is gonna go nuts when they see it.
00:29:26.620 And it was funny because he was like,
00:29:27.920 no, I go on before Russ.
00:29:29.460 And then Russell came last minute
00:29:31.140 and Russell was like, Jay, you doing the bit?
00:29:32.820 Yeah.
00:29:33.660 And he switched us.
00:29:34.500 And all of these guys said like, eat this guy.
00:29:36.940 But it wasn't about eating him.
00:29:38.280 It was just about me doing it.
00:29:39.540 I was new at the time.
00:29:41.120 We had, Russell took us out for dinner.
00:29:42.740 We went to a Greek spot.
00:29:44.120 It's just how we were sitting.
00:29:45.120 I was sitting beside him.
00:29:45.960 like hey enjoy and he was like don't talk to me synonymously a week later russell's performing in
00:29:51.320 new york uh at the world famous apollo theater yeah and he's like do you want to come in i'm
00:29:57.320 like yeah get out there and dan ninon's opening act and he doesn't let me in like he locks the
00:30:02.920 green room door let him in the building in the building and then i see him out front he's got
00:30:07.240 a camera taping and i'm like dad i get it you think i murdered you last week be a comic and
00:30:13.400 And he was like, do I know you?
00:30:14.900 And I was like, wow.
00:30:17.020 I had to call this guy to call me from jumping off
00:30:20.100 at that time, the Empire State Building
00:30:21.500 because I couldn't believe it.
00:30:22.600 And I'm not blaming Russell
00:30:24.400 because they booked him on the phone. 1.00
00:30:26.840 But I'm just saying, jerks are out there, jerks are out there. 1.00
00:30:31.620 The same thing happened with Steve Harvey. 1.00
00:30:33.620 It was like these two guys really gauged
00:30:36.580 how I wanted to think.
00:30:37.720 So those moments, I do relate with you
00:30:41.200 with whatever Dan was going through,
00:30:43.040 whatever Steve Harvey was going through that day.
00:30:46.080 I just thought I had found the dude and well,
00:30:50.700 he killed me that day.
00:30:51.920 They both killed me those days.
00:30:53.580 And those are things I will never forget.
00:30:56.000 You know what I mean?
00:30:56.840 And I sit back and I take your mantra on that.
00:30:58.960 They must've been going through something
00:31:00.340 because they didn't know me from a whole amount.
00:31:02.000 I just did what I normally do.
00:31:03.560 And it's that experience.
00:31:04.560 And the other thing too, is like,
00:31:05.880 I feel like things like money and let's say fame
00:31:10.600 or notoriety just kind of amplify 1.00
00:31:13.020 who you are inside right so if you were if you become famous or rich and you're an asshole you 1.00
00:31:19.360 were you were an asshole before that you know i mean you are who you were before you got here 0.99
00:31:23.880 straight yeah i mean and i remember hearing that line from jay-z and i was like oh man this is so 0.99
00:31:27.800 classic you know what i mean and so again i that that's a you problem and i i try not to absorb
00:31:33.180 that energy and one of the big things for me is i try to curate curate my energy and what you always
00:31:38.760 tell me all the time he's like yo man what's you what's your what's your repellent how come people
00:31:43.060 don't you know i mean that's what you i i try i don't put that energy out there and i and i don't
00:31:48.180 my energy and i don't say that i put out a shitty energy but i i don't put an energy out that looks 0.56
00:31:54.080 like the door is wide open right like i need you to knock yeah so you gotta knock you gotta knock
00:31:59.740 and then i gotta look through the peephole and make sure you can come in i'm not home all right
00:32:04.180 so this is my favorite this is my favorite question you're not prepared for this both of
00:32:07.900 are not prepared for this no i'm not into booty play listen being this guy we go so far back i'm
00:32:17.260 going to need another episode for just me and him because we have so much to talk about with our
00:32:21.740 stuff i'm honored that i got you in the building that just worked out perfectly that dave merhaj
00:32:29.900 is in from los angeles and he has a couple of minutes to spare with us so i had to make sure
00:32:34.620 sure that this question was there i moved this mic for a second and open up a shirt that someone
00:32:39.680 gave me okay that's bad boy i don't know any of those legends and they might not be everyone's
00:32:48.280 legend because he got prior there uh who else we got bernie mac robin harris robin harris and red
00:32:55.220 fox i'm here to talk to you guys about some of your goats man not curry goats for the west indians
00:33:01.560 that they're watching i'm talking comedy goats uh i want your list of guys i did this you know
00:33:07.600 it was hard i was doing this with a couple of comedians before and it was like so hard because 0.97
00:33:11.400 mount rushmore is what four right about rushmore is four all right let's for fun for shits and
00:33:15.940 giggles let's see your mount rushmore dave yeah go first yeah let's go first that's a tough one i
00:33:21.140 guess it's people like i mean it alternates but like i would say richard pryor was the first
00:33:28.580 I mean my uncle back in the day my Kenny uncle showed me Dice Clay Eddie Murphy
00:33:34.880 Richard Pryor and Carlin but I kind of gravitated yeah to Pryor because I just kind of found the
00:33:43.420 vulnerability was something I was like then I realized then I was like I'm gonna chase that
00:33:49.760 vulnerability on stage oh dope when I started how old were you when you figured that out that's yeah
00:33:54.440 when you uh i think i saw he was doing this bit where he was he was he was a heroin junkie and
00:34:00.600 a wino in the wall i know he's trying to get the wino to help strap up yeah and then the lights
00:34:05.240 went out i remember i was in the living room with my mom i don't know why she let me watch it but
00:34:10.920 and then kind of the lights went on i was like i don't even know what that was he came back and
00:34:15.320 started doing stand-up i was like yeah characters i've never seen anything like it so i was like
00:34:20.680 gravitated my 20 early even maybe 17 18 and then i saw this comedy central thing i ain't dead yet
00:34:29.000 yeah and then jamie fox said some like prior put all his business on the stage and i just thought
00:34:35.800 that was another interesting thing that i wanted to try to chase for the rest of time if i had with
00:34:41.080 stand-ups that so he kind of the thing about prior to i'd put prior on even i wouldn't laugh at some
00:34:48.120 points it was more of like a musician it was like more therapeutic correct listening to jazz or
00:34:52.760 something yeah yeah and i don't really find didn't really do that with any other comedian i'd put it
00:34:57.400 on and be like that you know to the you know i remember hit the mafia bit he had where he was
00:35:03.000 like um the time guy so yes yeah that's right yeah but then when he had he does the whole
00:35:12.600 imitation where he goes now you know i was hitting the guy with the ice pick and then the ice pick
00:35:17.800 broke and then with the punch i think some was like uh you know do you want to ride or something
00:35:22.840 like and then i'm like it was just the way he i delivered it delivered it that was so i would say
00:35:27.640 he kind of takes up a lot of the amount rushes in my head because it's just something that i
00:35:34.920 constantly try to imitate or emulate emulate sorry emulate like so many times and i still
00:35:42.360 do i was like how do i get to here i think it's it's here now right it's a masterpiece of like
00:35:48.680 you know when he lit himself on fire and he came back and so it's just it's on i don't know i i
00:35:53.880 mean it's it's quite a list though yeah it's like and i know there's others on it that had my gaps
00:35:58.920 is on it because just how purely funny mike actually yeah and you take like talking about
00:36:05.400 a tree in this room and extend this bit um i can't even like there was when he said uh
00:36:12.920 what's his name uh brown what's the singer's name james james brown yeah he was man they 0.89
00:36:19.080 called james brown looking like a thundercat i was like i couldn't he just is so he's silly 1.00
00:36:30.760 the pureness of just the foolish it's just foolish like stupid makes me laugh 0.99
00:36:35.400 and then like eddie like these are people like you know eddie murphy that like oh come on set the uh 1.00
00:36:41.000 tone press dude you know like and then you have like carlin obviously if you even look back now
00:36:45.880 because like carlin's clips will pop up on tick tock or wherever and you're like still relevant
00:36:49.880 super relevant maybe even more relevant now and you're just watching this so yeah it was like
00:36:56.840 they pat they created areas for everyone to kind of come after and cheaps your list so for me um
00:37:03.720 Um, and, and, and it's hard to say, they kind of, they kind of mirror what, what Dave's
00:37:08.640 looks like.
00:37:09.080 So my prior experience, and I mean, Richard prior, not, not priors and past, um, you know,
00:37:15.840 homonyms.
00:37:18.080 Uh, so I grew up in the LP era of record players.
00:37:22.340 So I, I remember I was nine years old and we were living in Trinidad at the time and
00:37:27.880 my parents would go out and, you know, being the seventies, they would just leave me in
00:37:32.720 the house.
00:37:33.040 and my dad still to this day is like a big music guy as well as comedy like i'm so thankful that
00:37:39.380 my parents had a great comedy iq so prior was huge and i remember listening to uh to wanted 0.95
00:37:46.400 i think that's the one where it looks like it's a sketch sketch face and and uh that nigga crazy 0.94
00:37:51.940 um i remember listening to those albums you know and and just like you you can hear everything in 0.91
00:37:59.020 there like you could feel the the energy that was in that room kind of thing and it was so
00:38:03.020 captivating because it was great storytelling the vulnerability of the storytelling and even at that
00:38:07.120 age I didn't know you know a good chunk of that stuff um and I'm I'm still pissed that he sullied
00:38:16.240 not not prior but that he sullied his his uh his legacy in in Bill Cosby I knew it yeah still one
00:38:24.380 of the greatest storytellers and the fact that he destroyed the legacy that allows me to comfortably
00:38:32.540 yes speak on his greatness love what he did facts is unfortunate um and uh so then then came the
00:38:40.960 supernova that was eddie murphy right when i was 12 and i saw and heard eddie murphy for the first
00:38:47.160 time that is what made me want to do this to be a comedian right and and and by extension carlin
00:38:54.160 but there's so many for me like like i enjoy pieces of every person like i love not only do
00:39:01.420 i love chapelle i love chapelle's comedy arc and growth you know and growth like from where it
00:39:07.640 started to where it like you didn't even foresee any of that no you know and and uh and the
00:39:13.820 tactician expertise the the breath the hitman heart um writing of of chris rock and the performance
00:39:20.360 you know and speaking of being honest special yeah you know what i mean and and it's and i
00:39:25.840 consider myself a student of the game and even they're like a lot of people aren't ever really
00:39:30.140 aware of the backstory like you know bring the pain people didn't realize that if that wasn't
00:39:35.280 successful there'd be no more chris rock like if that had bombed and didn't do anything yeah he was
00:39:40.260 out the game yeah you know what i mean he put out like i feel like he they weren't just comedy
00:39:44.660 albums they put out like they felt like classic hip-hop albums yeah correct so i just felt like
00:39:49.240 when you think about those two you're like oh man those are like back to back like one of the best
00:39:53.480 before we wrap up you guys are incredible i'm still happy to have it still not at the booty
00:39:58.700 place i'm on our show here but all jokes aside who's on the come up who maybe two people that
00:40:05.940 you guys have encountered that you're like they're good now but they have the the gumption to be able
00:40:12.220 to what are we talking about like canadian or just in general general general i know dave you're in
00:40:16.660 la you see a lot of them coming up like you're like that guy's gonna have it this guy might have
00:40:20.500 it i'm going to like this new comic that does this so i mean he's already kind of established
00:40:26.360 but one of my favorite dudes to watch just because i find it incredible what he does is josh johnson
00:40:30.940 okay um like just just because it's it's unheard of to be able to shoot a comedy special every
00:40:36.680 week right that's just nuts like you know um he just takes whatever's going on in the news and
00:40:42.580 what's going on in society and it goes up and it and again i don't know what the process is 0.97
00:40:46.900 i don't know if he just just shows up and just shoots i think he shoots three of them and shoots
00:40:51.500 one right or just goes up into but josh johnson for me i think is is probably the the next and
00:40:57.600 and he's already there but i think to me i think he's the next blow up because he's especially
00:41:03.080 with what's going on in the world yeah to be able to yes to um synthesize all of that information
00:41:09.360 and turn that into comedy, I think, is a beautiful thing to watch.
00:41:13.180 How about you, Dave?
00:41:14.140 There's multiple.
00:41:15.340 Malik El-Assad, Emil Joaquin.
00:41:19.440 Malik's hilarious.
00:41:20.400 Yeah, they're just kind of like, I mean, they're not really on the come up.
00:41:23.880 Yeah, it's hard to say.
00:41:25.480 They're more established, but they're just not.
00:41:27.320 They're there, yeah.
00:41:28.160 Yeah, they just have like a person or who they are,
00:41:33.100 and you just have a really good, they've gotten their point of view,
00:41:37.660 and it clearly comes across in their stand-up it's funny i mean he's not he's there but like i
00:41:43.420 like when you said who i love watching i love watching nathan mackintosh i love nick and
00:41:48.260 deborah giovanni both those two watching not they've already they're very established and
00:41:53.520 i'm not thinking they're on the come up at all uh it's more of like when you it because you said
00:41:58.940 who i love to watch i was like oh those are two i was like they're just like a i can't even like
00:42:04.420 they just kind of like it's funny nate uh we ended up doing the the hubcap festival and again it was
00:42:10.300 like like average temperature every day we would walk to sobeys in the morning and then like hit
00:42:15.440 the gym and then like we would follow each other to each other's shows and uh it was minus 30 or
00:42:20.440 something ridiculous i had in moncton and some like tiny bar where like you know they still had
00:42:24.540 the hockey game on and yeah and the mic wasn't working and he told and and he told this bit so
00:42:30.840 passionately about um him and his brother running up porn charges on when they had super channel
00:42:37.720 back in the day on first choice or whatever yeah yeah yeah and his mom getting the the bill uh and
00:42:44.840 to watch him tell that with the conviction that only nate mcintosh can was literally yeah it's
00:42:53.020 a beautiful work of art man i think the three of us and i'm gonna keep it just canadian uh i'm
00:42:59.740 gonna say uh same with nate i love nate nate will do a subway bit and i will watch it like clapping
00:43:05.680 so proud on nate mcintosh and mike rita oh yeah mike rita is my guy because i'm just like i i see
00:43:13.260 him walk into rooms where he looks nervous and just destroys it so you do like i think like um i've
00:43:19.820 i'll mention jared campbell as well because he's just like very but uh with mike i remember we're
00:43:25.240 windsor on a just for laughs roadshow and windsor is like that's where i grew up but they're like
00:43:30.120 it could be a problem sometimes even at a just for laughs theater show i'm like these guys are
00:43:35.000 they just like on one even if it's like a theater it doesn't even matter and i think rita um he was
00:43:41.400 doing well he was hosting but i think he came back he goes man what's wrong not what's wrong
00:43:45.080 with these people i forgot what he said i was like i was like bro these windsor this is like
00:43:49.080 savages out there yes like you know what i mean they don't even care if it's a theater show right
00:43:53.400 and then he the way he adjusted in the second half was just too professional it was like you
00:43:58.520 know that's that's yeah not that he was he was doing great it's just that he made the adjustment
00:44:03.160 he made like this uh minor adjustment and it just brought it like yes um because it's like a rowdy
00:44:09.560 because you know those jfl road shows most of them like they're like theater people love going to
00:44:13.160 theater so there was no issues until windsor yeah border towns are completely different
00:44:20.920 completely different vibe yeah yeah you gotta the views of windsor uh expressed by dave merhaj
00:44:25.960 are not necessarily those of john paul well you guys have heard it right here i i could talk to
00:44:31.920 these guys all day i got the island hipster here dave merhaj in town uh yours truly jay martin we
00:44:38.060 are here at true patriot love for everyone you knock on tplmedia.ca make sure you check out all
00:44:45.520 the stuff we have there keep it locked here for some of the best comedians in the world
00:44:48.680 This is All Jokes Aside, I'm your host, Mr. J. Martin.
00:44:51.940 Who's Red Fox?
00:44:53.160 That's that older guy, Sanford and Son.
00:44:56.000 We'll see you next time.