Encarta | Hasan Minhaj - Comedy, Netflix, Haters, & Money

00:01

Netflix was like, where do you wanna do the special? LA Chicago, New York. I was like, nah, son Davis, California.

00:18

What's

00:19

a

00:20

day

00:21

for

00:21

you,

00:22

like?

00:24

Because

00:25

your

00:26

your

00:27

completely free now. Right? I'm completely free. Well, you're never really free. He also, I, you know, you build a prison of your own making now.

00:34

Yeah. So, you know, two little kids. Today starts with morning shift, dad, duty. Yeah. So I take the mornings. I got a two year old and a eight month old. Yeah. And so We're, like, we're the same. Like Yeah. When you were talking about it yesterday, I was like, I feel you. Yeah.

00:47

And we so I do the morning shift. That's just straight dad time. Then I basically pick between

00:53

I got three kind of major projects. Yeah. So I got,

00:57

investing. So sometimes we'll be looking at deals, then it's

01:02

could be content, but content is really kind of on a a specific niche schedule. It's like

01:07

Monday, Wednesday, for an hour, we sit down, we do the show, and then that's kind of it. Don't do too much more than that. I write sometimes,

01:13

like, Twitter, emails, or whatever. And then, I have a business. So me and my wife started an e commerce business. Oh, cool. And so that that's scaled up. So, basically, in the last year, that went from zero,

01:24

like, just an idea Yeah. To now we do, like, over a million dollars a month of revenue on that business. I was looking for something new Yeah. That I could do as a side hustle, something that wasn't like Yeah. Gonna take up all my time. Yeah. It could still be a valuable business that was, you know, like some part part time, basically. Yeah. And so that's what Have you always been like that? Multiple hustles? Have you always been that guy?

01:46

I was always that guy. They weren't working before. So I was Really? I was trying to do that, and I was failing at it. And Like, since high school. You were that too? So, no. So so a lot of people have this story. A lot of entrepreneurs have this, like, oh, back in I was my lemonade stand, what I was selling. I was doing newspaper routes and I hired all these kids. Yeah. Baseball car, was do the lights were off in my head until, like, twenty one. So, like, I was like, I'm gonna be pre med. I was gonna be I wanted to be a team doctor for an NBA team. Okay. What do what do I do to I wanted to be on the NBA team. Alright. Genetics not working. Yeah. Team doctor. That that seems like my genetics and, like, my interest. Yeah. And only when I met a team doctor, I was like, wow. This is boring as shit. Like, you're just like, you know, these are just joints that are in pain, and there's only so much you could do. I was like, wow. It's not as exciting. I need a plan b. So I was twenty one when I figured that out. Wow. And I was like,

02:32

what's what else?

02:37

I had this random business idea with a couple buddies that sounded kinda silly. It was so silly that it was almost like not dangerous. You know how that is? Like Yeah. Sometimes

02:46

A very serious sounding idea is almost too intimidating to do. But this almost seems so goofy. It was harmless. I was like, I'm just gonna go try I'm just gonna do this, but obviously, I'll eventually go to mid Obviously, I was like, I'm not gonna, you know, I just And you're doing this for a couple of months. Also,

02:59

you're at a point in your life college is so unique in the sense that you you're leaning on this thing where if people ask you, Hey, what are you doing? I'm a student. Yeah. Exactly. I got my cover. Yeah. I got my cover story. Yeah. You're so similar. Right? Because you totally.

03:12

Yeah. Freshman in college. Exactly. And so those how long did you have the, like okay. So let's take that When did you decide, or I'm gonna do this for real? This will be the job. Was it right away? Or did you kinda play with it first and then decide a year later to you? So it's really interesting. So for me, I was It's so funny. You were at the show last night. And so you could tell, especially in the Bay, there's just this level of connection I have in this city, New York, certain cities, where I'm like, I know you guys. We're we're all kumon kids. And they're like, yah. That's okay. We're like, we're like type a. We're like, we're good. We gotta do that. You know, I I know you. Like, I know you. I know what your house smells like. I know the way your mom talks to you. Right. I know you. I've seen you at family parties. Right. I know you. Like, I really know you. And there's a level of,

03:56

intimacy there with that material.

03:58

The point of the story is is that I was part of that camp. Where there was a clear track.

04:06

Relatively speaking in the community, I wasn't the brightest kid. Every community has, like, the Stanford kid

04:12

I'm always like, I go up to, like, people in Dallas. I'm like, yeah, you grew up in Dallas. Right? Who's the standard? Which one? Yeah. Which one goes?

04:18

Manos nikhil. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. So you're not in a kill, what was your path?

04:23

Right? Everybody has one. It's like Brunov, man. Brunov went to MIT. It's like, he's the star.

04:28

Who's the star of your community? There's Right? I had a kid. Yeah. Yeah. You're not gonna name him, but it's fine. So every kid. He won the spelling bee. Yeah.

04:35

And you're like, you're like, okay. The this person is the shining star of the community. What what's my path.

04:42

And so I was speech at a big kid. I go to college, and the first open mic that I did

04:48

a a friend of mine funny enough,

04:51

who I knew in college was illegally downloading a ton of stand up comedy. Yep. I I went to college during, like, the Kazaa Yeah. Limewire. Limewire era. I think we're the same age. I'm thirty six. Yeah. I'm thirty three, I think. Yeah. So we're, like, we're we're that same era.

05:04

And, you said thirty three, I think. Yeah. I was like, I haven't been thinking about my age in a while. Yeah. I think I'm thirty I think I have thirty three. Yeah. I've made a thirty three or thirty four. I think I'm thirty three. Yeah. Of thirty six. And, So I I went to college during that era. He downloads a Chris Rock special, never scared. I remember that special. He's in the purple suit.

05:24

And I remember being like, oh, this is funny speech and debate.

05:27

This is Connected the dots. Yeah. This is forensics, but funny. Right. Oh, I I I see the matrix.

05:33

And then I come to find out, oh, like, a lot of the comics that I really loved,

05:37

there were certain comics that really thought critically like that Greg Geraldo, rest in peace, one of the all time greats, he was a former attorney. Right. And then he became a comic Dimitri Martin who was really big at the time in the early two thousands, early aunts, also was an attorney. Worked at the White House for a while. And then, like, got in the comedy, and he had a big run-in in comedy. Anyways, all these people that I like, Carl,

05:57

they were these critical thinkers that kinda were doing speech and debate, presenting my argument or a take. And it just was a light bulb moment. And I had this thing inside of

06:07

me I'm like, oh, this is one of the first things in my life where

06:11

I have an alacrity and speed at which I do this. That I never had at Kumar Yep. Or at the SAT or at the MCats or at the lsats. Like, I can pick this up really fast.

06:23

And

06:24

I don't know if you felt this. I think a lot of, you know, Daisy kids have this, or whatever, kids in general,

06:30

your parents will push you in soccer.

06:32

Or basketball

06:33

or swimming. And you're like, ah, there's always that kid Yeah. From just the first drill picks it up fast.

06:40

And so much of adult life is figuring out what's my thing that I pick up fast like that? And that was that. That was my mom.

06:48

I had the same moment, twenty one years old,

06:51

when we started that way, it had this business idea. Yeah. And it was like, we didn't even know what the fuck we were doing. Right? As in nobody does from the beginning. Yeah. And I remember thinking, oh, man, my parents probably not gonna be cool with this if I because especially this our idea was to create the Chipotle for sushi. So it wasn't, like, even, like, a big idea, like, oh,

07:06

bioengineering, blah, blah, blah, like, you know, some new microbial, whatever. Yeah. Why does it sound like you were high when you said that? The way you said totally for sushi is like such a, like, wish I was. That that would be a better excuse. Uh-huh. We just, I just tried sushi for the first time. And all before that, I was eating subway and chipotle a lot. And I was like, why don't I just Why isn't sushi served like that the way I'm used to? Yeah. There's just simple as that. Yeah. So I was like, alright. I'm gonna Did you always have so this this moment this problem solving thing. Yo, why don't they do this like this? Have you always That was the start of it. That's what I'm saying. I didn't always have it. Yeah. I started to realize When I do. I've done I've seen interviews with the vols. Like, I was always like, why doesn't that pizza place do this? Yeah. I wasn't like that. And I I say this because I remember I used to watch those of all. He's like a hero to me. Right? He's like a mentor in many ways. Yeah. Yeah. And when I hear him and, you know, you hear these people talk about how they they just had it from day one, you know, early age. Makes you think if you don't have that your thing, which most people don't by then, it's like, I guess I'm just not that type. I guess I'm just not cut out that way. Yeah. I guess they're different than me. Yeah. And so I'm always very, like, upfront about it, which is like, nah. I there was no signs of anything. I didn't know what the heck I wanted to do. I didn't know what I was good at until I did. And that just let light bulb comes on when it came on. Yeah. And I remember going to my debt. I remember when we started working on it, and like you said, I had this alacrity of I was good at pitching. It was a pitch contest that we were working on first business plan pitch.

08:27

And Were you a great student?

08:28

Mediaocre. And that's why I called my dad. I said, you know, hey.

08:33

You know, I'm thinking about doing this thing. I was kind of expecting the Indian parent thing, which is, like, no. Stay focused, med school. Remember? The whole thing you just worked on for four years? Why I paid for this expensive college. Yeah. Like, do that thing. Yeah. And he was, like, he was, like, I think you should run with this. Like, oh, you think it's a good idea because I think it's a terrible idea. I think food business is awful. I think, restaurants are terrible idea. I don't understand what you mean, you know, but you don't know anything about sushi. So I think it's a terrible idea in, like, ten different ways. Yeah. He's like, but what time did you wake up this morning? I was like, I don't know, like, eight thirty. He's like, and what'd you do right away? I'll say I start working on this. He goes, that's why I know you should do this because the light obviously yeah. He was like, stuff. We've been trying to get you to, like, study and, like, just care about anything. Yeah. Care and, like, wake up with your own

09:15

light bulb on and be able to go do that thing. What is your what is that do? You know what I'm asking? He's, he he kinda had a career where he was in, like, he was engineer, research, like, worked at a big company, worked at a big oil company, And then he he realized, like, it was, like, thirty something. He looked around and he saw in his office. He's, like, my office is the same office seven for ten years. Yeah. I got all these patents on the wall. Said, but these are just, like, certificates they give me to, like, pat me on the head and keep me, you know, just to keep me doing my thing, sitting here, like, a scientist, like, doing my thing. He's like, the guy I hand the the idea to, he gets promoted, he gets to go to London, and he gets to like Yeah. He takes my idea, makes it sound like it's his idea. Yeah. He's like, I should do the business guy thing because it's like those guys just take my ideas and, like, run with it. Yeah. So then he switched into the business side. And so that's why he he kind of, you know, most parents had this where, like, the thing they regret they kinda push their kids like, no. Do it. And I'm like, so for my dad, those two things was like social. Yeah. He's like, I didn't I didn't didn't I didn't know anything about socializing till it was almost too late. So, like, go to that party. He would drop me off at a party. Wow. Like, you know, he would be like, you need to go.

10:16

And I'd be like, I, you know, I'm a scared. I was just socially scared as a high schooler, right? What type was going on. And Did they let you have girlfriends and stuff? Yeah. They were cool. They were like whatever. Awesome. Yeah. So they were pushing me to again fill the gaps that they didn't have. Yeah. And one of your mom was supposed to do. My mom was my mom, because are you the oldest sibling or the oldest? Yeah. So the oldest paves the way. So my sister had already done it. And so my mom, like, she had to talk with me. She went to Vietnam with them and all that. Yeah. She was she was like, alright, look, your sister didn't tell us anything and did everything anyways. Everything we told her not to do, she did. And then she didn't tell us which made it worse, and then we found out later as we do, and it's like bad. She's either way, I know that listeners sometimes get mad at this. They're just like, get to talking about Bitcoin. The reason why this is no. The reason why this is important to me is, like,

10:58

understanding someone's drive shaft is so imperative to,

11:03

why they are where they are.

11:05

Yeah. You look under the surface. Yeah. Like, sometimes people are like, ah, that's stupid, but I'm like, no. Because

11:11

all of your

11:12

I'll just speak on my, like, my field, which is not big. It's relatively narrow. If you take a hundred comics,

11:20

and you're all in the green room. You'll quickly see the ones that are talking shit. You'll see the ones that don't like to write. You'll see the ones that use

11:29

sometimes comedy in the comedy club is a crutch Right. To give them a place to go to just socialize,

11:34

the ones that love it, the ones that are sociopathic sick offense, all of those things. But if you start to find out more about them, which is why, you know, sometimes you come up in a comedy scene. I came up here in San Francisco in the Bay, you quickly find out, oh, this person's running from something. Right. This person do you know what I mean? And and And that informs

11:54

the next fifteen Domino's Right. Of their career and their life. And what when you did that, because comedy, I think, is kinda known for that. Like, companies like this,

12:03

torturous field where it's like, you know, nobody makes it. Then even if you do make it, it's like just continue you have to come up with new material, reinvent it every year, every two years. Yes. It's just this brutal field. Yeah. And then even the the better you are at it, it's you're a truth teller. Yes. Right? And often these truths are kind of ugly or they're kind of painful or like about yourself or about society or about whatever. Yeah. So there's this like darkness. That's with like a lot of great comedian. Sure. It lives with them. Yeah. You seem like a well adjusted,

12:30

you know, good looking guy. Happy person. You saw the show last you saw the show last night. Did it did I come off as unhinged or No. You came off. You came off, like, you came off, like, I'll tell you exactly. You came off.

12:41

To me, and I don't mean this, this might sound No. No. Like, back in a compliment. Yeah.

12:46

You seem to me, like, somebody who isn't the naturalist

12:49

nat naturally isn't the funniest guy. Like, some comedians you just see it, you're like, dude, they could just be doing this at their dinner room dinner table. Yeah. And they're just probably slang whatever room they're in. They just happen to be in a big auditorium. Yeah. Yeah. Yours, I could tell, and my sister even said that she goes, he works on his craft. Like, you I could see that the stories you were telling, the beats, the, like, the pun signs, it just felt like

13:11

Everything was put together. It was thought through the lighting, the sound, the, like, position with your body language on the on the stage. It seemed like you had worked this set. Not like

13:22

this guy's just funny. He had two drinks. He gets up here and he starts spitballing. Yeah. Which is, like, you know, divide that some comedians give up. Yeah. Totally. And so to me, that was what I got was like, you're it's like, it's ironic. It's like, this is kind of like the Indian kid who, like, does, like, hard work and practice. And he's, like, really good at the thing that he put his he set his mind to. Yeah. That's the vibe I got. Is that accurate or is that, like, my projection of shit? I think I think that is definitely accurate. Like, I I really do care. Like, I I love it. I love this thing.

13:52

Do you agree with my first start thing, which is amongst a hundred comedians that are, like, at the same Yeah. I'm are you naturally are you the average, above average, below average, where would you say? Yeah. So what you're talking about is just, like, natural.

14:05

There's people that look funny, talk funny, say things in a funny way. Right. So their voice sounds funny.

14:12

They look funny.

14:14

You're already in the top heap. Think about those guys, Chris Farley. Yes. Another comic, I love Felipe Esparsa. Felipe Esparsa just looks funny. Hannibal Burrows has an has an amazing voice. Chapelle has an amazing voice. Right. You know what I mean? Yes. Exactly. He just, like, sounds funny. He's brilliant. He also sounds really funny. Chris Rock has a great voice. Right? Right. He sounds funny.

14:35

I look like a news anchor. You know what I mean? Like, I look I look like I should be doing, like, a five day forecast or whatever.

14:41

But I also have, like,

14:44

I have a genuine love and I have something that I wanna say. Like, a Right. Like, there's Yeah. I just wanna say something. I have there's something inside of me that I wanna say. And,

14:53

Yeah. One of the things that I I definitely

14:56

feel is, like, when I put together a show, like, on tour, I wanna give you a show. Right. Like, I want it to be a show. And,

15:05

for me,

15:06

putting together mixing stand up comedy, storytelling, and theater.

15:11

That to me was my elixir. Yeah. Yeah. It was my elixir. Like,

15:14

we were at the show. I wanted to I was thinking about, I was like, what do I ask him? I was like, I had a bunch of questions, but the one that I truly wanted to know, which I don't even know if there's a good answer for this. Yeah. But the question I was like, at the end,

15:26

so you went up there for an hour. And, like, by the end, it was, like,

15:30

You know, in tetherball when one person gets the momentum, and it's just swinging. The other the person, the other person is just like flailing their helpless. Like, the ball is just out of reach. Yeah. But the one person knows they're like, I'm about to you haven't won yet. Uh-huh. But the momentum is so strong. Yeah. From about halfway through the show to the end of the show, that's what I felt like it was tetherball. You were dominating and the crowd was just in the palm of your hands. It was so good. And at the end, you know, Mike drop, crowd goes wild.

15:55

What is that feeling like, because most human beings are never gonna experience that. But it seems sitting there, I'm like, that must feel fucking amazing. Even though you've done this many times, Oh, interesting. It must feel fucking amazing. Does that what does that feel like? You know what it feels like? Like the end of the set. Every artist, and I think every human being,

16:13

Whether it's intimate relationships,

16:15

personal relationships,

16:17

collaborating and business,

16:19

family dynamics,

16:21

and hopefully your career.

16:24

Everybody wants to feel seen.

16:26

And there's this moment

16:28

and act two of the show where I basically go, man. I wanna give you guys all of me. Yeah. I wanna close the gap between who I am on Instagram and who I am on imessage. Right. And when I look in people's eyes, I could tell everybody that's in, like, the Bay Area work from home crowd. They're like, fuck. I can't be me. Yeah. And there's part of me. And how are you laid down? Yeah. When I laid down, I'm sharing all these secrets with you guys. Yeah. And I'm like, there's this moment of do you see me?

16:53

I wanna be seen. Right. Like, when I'm with, you know, when I'm with my spouse, she's like, hey, when we're disagreeing on something, it's like, you don't see me. Like, you actually don't see me for who I am. Right. And the most,

17:06

enriching thing about that last moment when I say good night,

17:10

and I see people in their reaction,

17:12

I feel seen. Mhmm. I'm like, oh, I think y'all you guys get me. Right. And to me, laughter,

17:17

and that exchange in that live experience is an expression of love.

17:22

You know what I mean? Because I can't make you laugh. I can't, like, force you to laugh.

17:27

Much like lovemaking, it's an intimate act. Right. And that release of laughter is like Oh, you get me. Right. You feel me. It was the journey from the beginning of the show. So that's the end. That's the climax. Yeah.

17:39

Before the show. Yeah. And again, we're sitting there. And the openers went on, and we said, okay. He's about to come on. And my sister goes, oh, man, like, What would you feel if you were about to go on? Uh-huh. And I said, well, you know, he's a I was just thinking in my head, I was like, I know he's done this many times. So now he's figured out a system. Yeah. How to how to deal with that combination of excitement and nerves. Gotcha.

18:00

What's the what's the feeling like for you now and what's the system you've developed

18:04

to get on stage and have that switch flipped. Okay. When you came on within two seconds, it's like this guy's in a state of mind. He's in a state as we say. Of, like, he's here to perform. He he knows what he's here to do. Yeah. There's no, like, tiptoeing into it. Yeah. So I was wondering, what do you do the five, ten minutes before or an hour before. I don't know what what's your kind of like warm up routine? Yeah.

18:27

Yeah. I think you're ready. You the listeners wanna know this? I'm sure. I don't really. I my This is your personal curiosity. I wanna know it. And I've

18:35

my my trainer has this great phrase. He goes, who are my customers? The people that love what I do.

18:40

Because he's he's like, people always ask, oh, who your customers is some demographic.

18:44

Right. So I'm like some, like, marketing intellectual answer. He's like, easiest way in the world is. The people who love who who your customers are the people who love what you do. Yeah. So just do what you do. Yeah. And you will naturally attract the people who love You will repel the people who aren't interested. Yeah. You will never have to guess what the heck people want because you'll just do what you want. That's the approach I take to the pot. Yeah.

19:05

No. I love it, man. I love I love talking shop like this. For me, it's actually it's a it's the three hours before.

19:11

So

19:13

What I try to do before any show,

19:16

I try to make sure that, like, I exercise in some capacity,

19:20

because

19:22

and I don't know if you feel this way. Maybe it's within our community. It's so funny to go back to what you're talking about where you're like, oh, it seems like a guy who works really funny. I was doing Mark Marant's podcast and Marant said the same thing about me. He's like, yeah, you seem like really put together and he's like, why aren't you unraveling? Like, the way other comics are. Right? And I'm like, yeah. I I'm just philosophically not from that camp. I'm not from the tortured artist camp. I'm more from the place of, like, I'm creating from a place of passion and love. Right. And actually, real talk, it's about emptying the tank.

19:50

I just wanna put it all out on the court. Right. You know, and this court happens to be the stage. Right?

19:55

And I wanna do my best. I wanna be, like,

19:59

I put everything into picking out this outfit. I put everything into picking out these jokes, these tags, stage design, the lighting design. Like,

20:07

this is it. And I wanna know when I go to sleep here at night, when I put my head down on the pillow,

20:12

I did everything I could. Right. Like, living a life without regret, and only you can answer that is the best. Right. Everybody's talking about chasing happiness to me. It's about chasing satisfaction like that self satisfaction, and you know what it is. Right. You know what it is. Right. And you know when you sold out you got a good result, but you kind of didn't do it the right way. Yeah. That that sticks with you.

20:33

And some people just, like, let that stick with them. Yeah. Other people say, alright. Even if I won, I'm not gonna win on those terms again. Yeah. If if I lost, I can lose on these terms and be good at night. Yep. And and I'm sure there's listeners to the pod that spend their time retweeting the right things and quote tweeting and dunking on VC people.

20:51

And, you know, they they say the right things. They'll regurgitate the right opinions, but they know when they put their head down at night, hey, you were supposed to train, you jerked off instead. You were supposed to do this. You didn't, but only you can answer that. Right. So you can signal all you want.

21:04

For me, what that stage represents is like, no.

21:07

I'm putting myself in a high level of accountability in front of thirty four hundred people. Right. I'm putting it all out here. Right. Even and if you don't think I'm good, if you think I'm corny, if you think I'm whatever, hey, it is what it is, but I stood here. Right. And I did it. I did me. And on my terms, and I did my you're saying so you're saying three hours before you three hours before what I do is I like to do the the,

21:26

some form of exercise. And I try to get out of Like, it's a workout workout, or you're just trying to break a sweat? What do you what's the Yeah. Trying to do

21:33

on tour. It's just about body maintenance. So I'll do running,

21:38

I'll do some pull ups, some core stuff,

21:40

just stuff to get my body going Right. And and start breaking a sweat. And what I love about, like, right around minute thirty to forty five,

21:49

is I'll get out of my head and into my body.

21:52

And so much of life right now Getting out of your head.

21:56

And it's funny. I I called you randomly. I was I appreciate you picking up the phone the other day. We had a long conversation. We can get into that later. But so much of

22:04

I think what you do and what you put out in the world, and I call it like tech, Twitter talk. It's all in your head. Individual. It's all just

22:12

heady.

22:13

Anxiety inducing stuff. Right. Oh, Ethereum's up. Oh, just in a salon as this. It's like, it's all head shit. Right. It's not a body feeling thing. Right. Like grounding yourself two feet on the ground. I'm here in this moment. What do I do? And so much of performance,

22:29

and to be great at it,

22:31

The best Chapel,

22:33

the best performers,

22:34

they're not in their head. They're in their body. They're really there. Right. Somebody screams. Somebody says something. Somebody heckles. They're in their body. When you watch Steph Curry play, when I watch Devin Booker play, these guys are so in their body. Right. Luca's the best at this. He's in his body. He's in the he's in flow. Right. And so Luca's like a kid and kids do this well. Yeah. Kids do this pretty naturally. I love that. The older you get, the more heavy you get, which is you gotta Yeah. You gotta fight that. Right? And so that's a great way to get out of my head, get into my body. Then I'll probably I eat something. Yep.

23:07

I take a shower, and then I put I put on the outfit. And for me, it's like,

23:11

being on stage, and putting on that, it feels like a uniform. Yep. And, like, for me, it feels like I want it to feel like a show, like, from the watch to the jacket to the pants. I'm like,

23:20

there's a level of confidence that you have when you move into a room and you're like, hey, from

23:26

from my heels all the way up to my head,

23:30

I'm wearing my armor. Right. Like, I'm coming correct. Right. And you just you carry yourself with a little bop. You're like, no. I feel better about myself.

23:37

My shit isn't slouching. There's no stains on my stuff. You know what I mean? Like, the moment I saw you today, you walked in, you're wearing your tech pants. I could tell you washed them a few times. Yeah. But there's some stains on the backside. You know what I'm saying? But that feeling of like, no, man. When I'm coming in here, I'm gonna be fresher than Sean. Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm just gonna be fresh.

23:54

That already gives me a feeling of, like, confidence. I know what I'm doing. You know? And and by the way, the opener Marcella, like, Marcella was just, like, dressed to the nines. You know, it's it's a feeling.

24:05

Then I get to the show,

24:07

I finish eating. I'll meditate.

24:10

So meditation for ten to fifteen minutes allow me to just, again, get out of my head and drop into my body. And something simple, just head space. Right. Like, I'm not getting too crazy about it.

24:20

And what I love about headspace specifically is so much of it is just basic breathing

24:26

establishing a level of intention.

24:29

I'll meditate, then I'll pray.

24:31

And for me, like, prayer is really important because be about something bigger than just myself and my corporal being. I'm like, what am I doing this for?

24:38

And just in establishing an intention. And for me, the intention is, like, love.

24:42

Let me give joy to people. Right. And

24:46

I I want the seed of everything that I'm doing to come from that, not be, like, not be petty energy,

24:52

angry energy.

24:54

I'm gonna prove you wrong energy. Like,

24:58

I'm in the laughter business. Right. Like, I'm here to make you feel joy, right,

25:03

in that warm feeling. So establishing an intention there, I get to the I get to the venue about an hour before.

25:10

I have a double shot of espresso.

25:13

I'll let my bowels do what they do. You always get those jitters. Like, you you gotta pee, you gotta do what you gotta do.

25:19

And then about, like, thirty to forty five minutes before, I like to be loose just with the with the staff. Right. Let them know, like, hey. What's up? How are you?

25:27

Door guy, security guy, openers. Right. You know what I mean? Another way to get out of your head, by the way Yeah. Is to be the be with others, be there. Yeah. Serving others in a way. And then,

25:38

about a half an hour before,

25:40

I'll go to my green room. I usually write it down.

25:45

I'll write down. It'll just be on hotel notepad paper.

25:49

Hey. What are a couple new tags that I'm working on tonight? Right. Just move the ball forward a little bit, remind myself, y'all I'm gonna do this.

25:59

For example, last night, one of the things I talk about and act one of the show is fertility. And a new joke that I did was, like, you know what it's like being infertile as a man? I felt like woody and toy story when his arm got ripped off. Right. Oh, that was the that was just one line. And I was like, hey, make sure you do the woody toy story line. Right. You know?

26:16

And,

26:17

every show, I try to add a few of these extra moments.

26:21

And you add that up over the course of, like, a year, two years, three years, you start to see what works and what doesn't work. And I'll I'll I'll have a thousand, three thousand different variations of that. Right?

26:31

And then I get on stage. And by the time I get on stage, there's just this feeling of, like,

26:35

Now it's just pure play.

26:37

Whatever happens happens. Right. And,

26:40

when I'm on stage, what I try to do is I try to remember

26:44

when

26:45

When it I'm opening in front of my crowd, they're, like, really hot.

26:49

And one of the things I tried to remember is,

26:52

don't yell, don't scream.

26:55

Try to actually bring them to you.

26:57

Like, set the tempo of the game. Right. Don't get, like, too excited or too hot. Like, you can whip them up, But then, like, sit down at the stool, bring them to you,

27:06

and, like, make the room feel like it's

27:09

coming to you.

27:11

You know what I'm saying? Did you ever watch a film of yourself, basically? Yeah. Well, I watch tape all the time. Yeah. And so I see bad habits. It's kinda brutal. Yeah. It's watchers. Yeah. But it's cool, though, actually, like, those moments where you, like, is very painful for your ego and but there's a lot of growth in that. The only way to break through and get to, like, the next part is is that part? I've done that even in the business world, and I I'm gonna keep bringing it back. This That was embarrassing. Yeah. That's where a lot of the audience lives. Yeah. The things you're talking about of how to get ready for the for your performance, your day, what you do.

27:44

That's I mean, I athletes do this before they get on the field. You do the performers do this before they get on the stage. Yeah. I do this before I get on my laptop. And it sounds lame. It sounds like dorky, but it's like, I'm trying to be my be the best version of myself. Yeah. I'm trying to set an intention before I go out here. I'm trying to get out of my head so I could do my best. Yeah. I do all the same things. I just apply it into this world. And it doesn't matter if it's a call with a supplier or it's a podcast episode or whatever before you came here. Yeah. Got it. I got through my routine Yeah. To make sure that Is your routine similar ish? Very similar. Obviously compressed, not because, you know, a longer day. So I'll I'll try I practiced it where I can do it in ten minutes now. I can get that state in ten minutes. That's my goal. Really? That has three three components, breath work, So this first three minutes of breath. Yeah. And so I can use breath to change my physiological

28:33

state right away. It'll be push ups and breath work. So I'll just do fifteen twenty push ups. I'll do breath. Next three minutes. Again, how do you get out of your head? It's not about you, gratitude, and think about others. I have this little exercise I do. Again, sounds a little bit cheesy, but I'll say it out loud. People won't try this. Just try it. I just let

28:50

I've I rotate through almost, like, in my head. So I'll visualize, like, let's say, my mom, my sister, whoever, people I love, people in my life, I just visualize them laughing. So I just visualize them laughing, which is them in their joyful state. Yeah. There's no, like, I don't have to think about why lap nothing. I just I've seen them laugh a thousand times. I just see them all laugh in succession in my head. Yeah. Now I'm not thinking about me and my problems and my needs and my desires. My I'm just thinking about them. Yeah. And I'm just it's a good energy that I like. Yeah. And the last bit, you you do establish an intention. I do establish it. And then the last bit is I remember why I'm here. And so the thing you were saying was I'm, you were saying, I wanna bring joy. Love to the audience. Wanna make them laugh, make them have a great time. Same thing. I used to think what am I gonna say? Whether it's a meeting, a presentation,

29:34

a podcast, what am I gonna say? What am I supposed to be gonna show up? What am I gonna say?

29:39

Alright. That used to paralyze me. Just thinking, what am I gonna say? I wanna get the right words. I I wanna fuck up. So then as soon as I start talking, there's a little editor in my head being like, that sounded dumb.

29:48

Oh, yeah.

29:50

You walked up and you said that thing is super

29:53

and then I'm in my head while I'm doing the thing. And you're on your body and your And I wanted to just be clear.

29:59

And, okay, how did I do that? So then I stopped stopping about I just I imagined the end. So I already imagined after the I already imagined us same by to each other at the end of this. Yeah. And if that happens, that means this all went well. Yeah. And I remember, okay, the people listening to this, what are they gonna be thinking? They're gonna be thinking blah blah blah. They're gonna be saying these things. Dude, that that episode was amazing.

30:17

Dude, I love Hassan. And they I you have him on again. He was so good. Right. So now I don't have to think about what questions do I ask. I'm already remembering what I'm trying to deliver. And then it's I'm not gonna learn a new skill in the next five minutes. Like, the performance is gonna be based all the hard work I've done over a decade about whatever I'm doing. Yeah. So I don't try to, like, cram for the exam.

30:37

I just try to put myself in the right state of mind, so I just performed the way that The things I already know how to do. Yeah. So that's my routine for for, you know, my How just not my day. How do you get over?

30:47

You're part of this thing. Again, I call it, like, the business internet world. Yeah. Which can be filled with people that are sincere in their intentions. It's filled with grifters.

30:57

It's filled with sometimes people that are trying to do get rich quick schemes.

31:01

You're part of this really it it it's actually quite similar to Hollywood and politics in that way. Yeah. Because if you work in show business, you'll quickly see that too. Yeah. You know, like, shit can run from people that are, like, really about it, artists, artists,

31:14

Nazz, Kendrick Lamar, all the way to logan Paul and Jake Paul, like, that are just about, like, the WWF circus show up at all. Right?

31:22

This world that you

31:24

running, and people are now talking about money in business in a in a really interesting way. When people come out and they comment about you, your businesses, and they quote, tweet you and they're dunking on you. And that's a part of now the social currency. This is all this is a social currency that you're part of. Oh, the more subscribers I get, then I and do me on these commercials and we can sell the pod. And you're a business guy. Right? How do you deal with those,

31:47

negative critiques? Does it bother you? Does it What's?

31:51

So the honest answer is, yeah, every negative comment Yes. Is like ten times ten for every positive comment, you know. And so that is the initial reaction.

32:02

But there's also a difference in response and reaction. So the the initial if I'm not in the right state of mind, that initial reaction

32:08

I'm cut I'm gonna clap back. Uh-huh. Or they're so dumb because of this and this. I'll go look at their profile. Oh, you think that eleven followers you're saying this shit. Maybe Yeah. Maybe this is why you have eleven followers because you think this way, you know, I'm right. You're wrong blah blah blah. Yeah.

32:22

And realize pretty quickly that doesn't get me anywhere. In fact, it would like, almost like half a day or a whole day of mine. Just checking the mentions.

32:29

For good and bad, like, this happened if I go viral, good. You know, I I go check all them. I'm just addicted to refreshing that that you did an amazing bit about this. That was the most, for me, the most relatable.

32:39

Yeah. You just you played it up. It was amazing. Yeah. People aren't gonna notice, go see the show. You'll see this part about the the the the social media comments likes. Yeah. Social media. That cocaine cloud. That cocaine cloud. Exactly.

32:51

But with that comes the the kind of the the negativity and that also is fun and exciting. It's this it's this thing in its own way. Yeah.

32:58

And so what are kind of like where did I land with all that? Yeah.

33:02

Okay. So, you know,

33:04

the good they think I'm like a genius guru. I'm not, like, you know, my wife remind me of that real quick. And, you know, the other people who think I'm an idiot,

33:12

scammer or whatever are people who think I'm an idiot who doesn't know anything about anything. Yeah. Or I'm wrong or whatever. Yeah. Or they'll point out that I've stumbled and said this said this the wrong way or whatever.

33:24

Okay. Where is my focus gonna go? Like, focus on why I'm so great or why I'm so terrible really does nothing for me. Right.

33:31

So I said, okay. I do need a sounding board. So I'll say. So so I get a reaction from people good or bad about,

33:38

let me just get curious.

33:41

Why are people reacting this in this way? I'll take a minute to observe that. Yeah. Then I'll go internal and I'll say, what's my what's my judgment? Because guess my rule that I created for myself was that I want my own opinion of myself

33:52

to be higher than anybody else's opinion of me. You mean positive opinion? Any anything. If I think something sucks that I did. Yeah. I don't care what anybody else says. I think it is. So I basically want my opinion of myself to be the trump card. Right. And so that works,

34:07

for self respect. Like Yeah. I stop seeking the respect of others because I'm like, well, if I don't have the main respect with my respect, then

34:14

What is all this other stuff worth? But then how did you get that wisdom? Because that's because we are social creatures. My trainer. So my my trainer's kinda my my brought my my trainer running for my first grader. He's also like a kind of like a He's like me. He's like, dude, it's all in the mind. This is a solar player solar player game. Yeah. And we gotta train this just as much as we train the rest. So he he said something at the very beginning. He's like, why do you want to work out? And I was like, oh, I just wanna get fib, got real fat doing my last company. I just wanna lose weight.

34:38

Okay. He wanted, like, you he wanted to know the drive shaft. What's driving you to do this? Yeah. What's making you think that? What's making you think you're fat? What's making you Why'd you call me today? Why today? Why don't you call me six months ago? What changed? Yeah. And eventually, it got down to I had this experience. I went with my two best friends who are business kinda like mentors, but all over the May, all the things I do, they've done a little bit more. Yeah. And we all win on a Spartan race together.

35:02

And

35:03

I thought, oh, I'm a little bit out of shape. Oh, we're all out a little out of shape. It's no big deal. Yeah. We went on the Spartan race, and I was way behind.

35:09

And I was just huffing and puffing, and I was dying on this thing. And they were like, trying to help me. And every time they helped me, I just felt like a bitch. I was like, oh, man. Wow. I like, this is embarrassing. I'd rather they just ran and finished the race Right. And left me to, like, you know, dial on my own on this mouth here. The worst thing you could do is, like, push from me from behind because I'm, like, it's like, shit. Don't give me the pep talk, though, anything but the pep talk. Yeah. So I told him I said, I I was pretty embarrassed. I had this this situation. I said, I just wanna, like, have the respect of the people I respect. I thought that sounded like a good thing to say. Yeah. And he goes, he goes, okay. Respect. He goes, respects one of those things.

35:44

He goes, you wanna give it, not he goes, so he goes, two things. He goes,

35:48

we're not gonna do this. We're not gonna start this program from a place where you're trying to get the respect to others. He goes,

35:54

whenever you feel you lack, it's time to give. So, like, let's not worry about who you're who what respect you're trying to get from others and who you're trying to prove yourself to and all that. Let's become a giver of respect to yourself and to others. So who and so we started flipping the script and this became one of my philosophies, which is whatever you feel like you lack in the moment That's a signal. It's time to give that exact thing.

36:15

And when you give it, you realize I got it. I have it in a blended. So it's kind of like a Yeah. Circular way of thinking about it. Yeah. But that was the the thought process me at least, on this on this topic, I guess. That's cool. Yeah.

36:27

That's really interesting, man. I don't know. You know,

36:32

I know I called you

36:34

about

36:36

one of your tweets that went viral again, and it was about

36:40

how

36:40

it was specifically about the metaverse and how the digital world will matter more than the physical world.

36:45

And I think the reason why it so deeply philosophically

36:49

rubbed me the wrong way

36:51

was because

36:52

the pseudonymous digital world has commodified cowardice

36:56

in such a way that the real world in the game checks you. And what do I mean by that?

37:01

You know, I grew up. I was a, you know, Daisy kid who'd play at twenty four hour fitness. You play ball at twenty four fitness first to twelve straight up or win by two.

37:08

But if you lose, get the fuck off the court. Right. I remember there'd be these

37:12

guys that were nice, it'd be eleven eleven straight up. This dude would step back, hit it. And as he's about to hit it, you go get the fuck off the court. Right. And you would respect it. Because he stood there. And he's like, I beat you twelve to eleven. It's over. This is a There's no argument. Yeah. This is not subjective as objective reality. Next, Yeah. And you gotta sit there and you gotta run it back. You gotta wait another one game or two games or three games and then run it back.

37:37

But for the first time in history,

37:39

There are people that stand on stage

37:42

that stand on the stage of business or life or comedy or art, and they use their actual government name

37:48

and then pseudonymous trolls

37:51

who don't use their government name can launch digital drone strikes Right. Attacking you, your character, your family

37:59

that can then potentially impose economic sanctions upon your future. Yep.

38:04

And they do it pseudonomously?

38:07

Yeah. Philosophically,

38:08

I don't rock with that. Say that shit with your chest. Right.

38:12

Get get on the court with me at twenty four hour fitness. Let's cook. Like, let's play each other.

38:17

That's what I it's that feeling that fundamentally

38:20

bothers me. This is a dishonorable

38:23

craft.

38:23

Right. It's not honorable.

38:25

It's not a fair fight. The way I look How do you think I should unpack that? That's the problem. I was like, why does this bother me? Yeah. Well, that's the first good that that's the right question Yeah. Which is Not why are they doing this? Why is this why it's Why does this bother me? Right? The curiosity

38:40

is what will set you free. Because you gotta say, do I enjoy Yeah. Focusing on this? Do I enjoy this, like, trap? This, like, uncontrollable stuff? You're not gonna stop it. We all agree on that. You're not gonna turn them all off. Right? It says, so that's not gonna happen. This is the world.

38:54

And I'm also thinking about my children too, because I'm trying to prepare I got a three year old and a one year. How do I prepare them for this new world order? Right. And in a weird way, let's I'll I'll keep I'll keep riffing this out with you. Let's figure this out. In a weird way, there's times where I'm like, yo, I wish you punched me in the face, actually. So I would prefer that. How many fights have you gotten in your life? Okay. I've got another three. I've lost all of them. Yes.

39:15

One time, some kid was trying to steal my shoes. I didn't let him, and then he just beat the shit out of me. But I'm proud of the guy. I kept my shoes. He'd be one of my Jordan thirteens, but I kept But I but I remember I remember being like, I like the the IRL nature of this. There is some level of virtue even in this fight Right. That it that it ends. And it ends today. We've resolved this here. Right. Which is why you see when people fight?

39:40

It it's gone. The beef is usually gone. It's gone. As long as the fight was unfair terms. Yeah. Both people are, like, sort of mutual respect by the end of the day. Yeah. It's over. And

39:49

That doesn't happen on me. Yeah. This is the first time where

39:53

we don't really have that.

39:55

And,

39:57

The reason why I'm saying say say it with your government name,

40:00

if someone says Sean is corny or Hassan is corny,

40:04

Anytime any

40:06

comedian or contemporary says that, I go cool. Put up your hour against my hour. Right. Oh, I'm corny. I'll do ten. You do ten. Right. Let's see what it is. Let's play to twelve. Right. Let's play to twelve.

40:17

Like, I love the dance of it. Straight up or win by two. Oh, it's a merit based thing. Yeah. But when ball trades a merit based thing, again, you said you can get get up on stage. Yeah. You no matter what your name is,

40:28

you can't make them laugh. Yeah. You can't just force them to laugh. Yeah. It is merit based. You must earn that laugh. It's why my favorite thing right now and pop culture is the verses. Right. I don't know if you saw dipset versus the locks. Yeah. But you could see Jada kiss

40:42

go up against

40:43

Right. Dip set. And I thought Dippet was gonna win, but Jada kiss was so nice.

40:47

He just buried them. And it was it was let's play to twelve. Right. You play your records. I'll play my records. And I and There's something so honorable in that. And this new digital world order is so not honorable.

40:59

Right. Because there's no reconciliation at the end either.

41:03

So I quote tweet you. And by the way, shit posting is now incentivized.

41:07

So, actually, being a negative Nancy Right. And being an absolutist in your position,

41:13

is now commodified and incentivized

41:16

so that you can't even recognize, yo, you won. I lost a good good game, and there's no shake on it. Well, it it even gets worse because what you say online,

41:23

what you display online, the photo you take online is so easily faked. So it's not even like twenty

41:30

it's so I could instead of going and playing at twenty four hour fitness, we each submitted a mix tape. Yeah. And so, here's my mix tape versus mix tape. It's like, well, how much editing really is going into your lifestyle, your opinion, your persona,

41:41

your face, all of it is filtered.

41:44

Yeah. He's edited, is curated,

41:46

leaving out the bad shit. And the more real you are. So the way I look at this And by the way, I'm not by the way, I'm not shitting on digital skills. So if two people are competing against each other in video games, I still like that. Like, there's NPA two k tournaments, but it's are you better at two k than me. Right. So I think about, like, the way in which I wanna live my life and I want my kids to live honorable lives too. Hey, compete. And there's no there's no there's nothing wrong with losing,

42:11

but, like, be a good competitor, be an honorable competitor, say good game. Right. But when I'm using my government name and Baldwin seventy nine is risking nothing,

42:20

I'm like, this is whack. This game is whack.

42:23

And in Baldwin, even you can't deny that. But I I don't know if the people on the other side recognize that. Go ahead. I I just love your analysis on this. So I guess the way I look at it is

42:35

with the the pendulum has swung. So,

42:38

before, and they, you know, sort of, like, in the past,

42:41

When everybody was online, everybody was in real life, real name, merit based,

42:46

you had still had people's opinions in their heads. I just couldn't broadcast it.

42:50

People, if somebody if somebody thought you were corny before, they were thinking that they weren't saying it, they they couldn't get amplified from each other. Or or they would say it. Okay. Cool. So you think I'm corny. And let's It took a it took a buy in. It had to ante up if they were gonna Yeah. And let's square off in the lunchroom.

43:03

So you think I'm corny. Now I can make fun of your shoes. I can make fun of your hat. I can make fun of you know what I mean? Who you're dating? I can make fun of your mom. There's no cost to enter. There's a So they just know the cost of the barrier to enter is so low now. Right? Fake name, fake handle, whatever. You can just go on there and say what you want.

43:20

You know what we're analyzing right now? This is Kevin Durant syndrome. Kevin Durant is one of the greatest basketball players on planet earth, and there are people on the internet that get Kevin Durant and his feelings. Wild up. Yeah. He says he doesn't care, but Yeah. You know? So this actually but because to me, I was like, yo, if and I talk about it in the show, I'm like, yo, these memes hurt my feelings. I'm a person. Right. But I'm like, yo, if KD is getting in his feelings,

43:43

seven foot two wingspan can cross people over, like, built like a velociraptor

43:48

but can move like a point guard and like Yeah. Then just, like, shoot and sledgehammer on you. Like, and he's getting in his feelings about these, like, layman's at home.

43:57

We're in a big fundamental shift in society and culture in a way that it never was like that before. Yeah. So I I think basically

44:05

the reason you get the rewards you get

44:09

are because of all these things as well. So by you going out there under real name with your real face with authenticity telling your real life stories, which is what you do. Right? You're talking about fertility issues. You're talking about stuff like that. Yeah. You're getting like, big, big, big, big, big, the the score, the meter is just running up. Right? Because it's in such scarcity today. We don't get that from most people in most situations. So when somebody does it, you're running up the score real quick. Right. Right. You get the benefits of being

44:36

the counter to all of high level you're running counter to it. You're putting it on the line. So you're getting all of the benefits and you're getting the scale of those benefits before

44:44

without technology. Right? You'd be doing local shows and

44:48

Oh, I saw this guy in North Carolina. He was amazing. The guy, you know, in Texas. Like, who I don't I'm not a fan of that person. I've never seen them. Yeah. You do the Netflix show. You do Twitter. You do stuff like that. You're reaching everybody everywhere all at once. Yeah. And so you're getting the benefits of that leverage. Yeah. And so you're running up the score because That is what society lacks today. This this real, like, honor code Yeah. Of, like, look, I'm gonna go try to earn it under my real name. I'm gonna put myself out there. I'll let you judge me And if I'm good, I'm good, if I lose, I lose. Yeah. And I'm willing to play at those stakes. Yeah. Because you're willing to play, you're getting all this benefit. And people are not willing to play. They're not gonna get any of the benefit. Gonna get a so they get this proportional, like,

45:27

you know, small bit of success if they just, like, kinda shit on you. Yeah. They get a little idiot dopamine hit. Ultimately, they sort of don't ever really their score never really goes up. So you're talking about the capital markets. It's efficient. It will reward. You will get

45:41

or whatever. Yeah. Or You are getting rewarded for

45:44

being authentic and being accountable.

45:46

And you're getting and with that power comes the trade off. Which is, are would you like this giant prize?

45:54

Yeah. And here's the here's what the the hair on the deal. Yeah. Here's the cost of that big reward. Yeah. Where you blew up in, like, I don't know, five years or something like that. Yeah. The last five years, you had this like meteor meteor Yeah. Rise. Yeah. Awesome. It's because

46:06

you had the right answer when society was going one, what you were awesome counterpoint.

46:11

Yeah. You're willing to say what you what was on your mind. You're willing to say what was right. And you use technology to go viral as hell because you had something good. It went viral to spread like crazy.

46:19

So you're gonna have to pay this this tax, this vig along the way. And you gotta recognize they're two sides of the same coin. And so that's where it's,

46:27

like,

46:28

the the

46:29

the twenty four hour fitness scale where it was everybody was being accountable.

46:34

Yeah. Cool.

46:35

But it was only operating at this, like, small scale. It's not it's not scaled up. Yeah. You're getting the benefits of this thing Right. And with that comes certain trade offs. And that that's why I think that's just like the way I look at it. And I think that that's a good framing. The society's going in that direction. And so you're already on the right side of history here where

46:52

you're willing to play a different game. And because of that, you're gonna win a very different prize. Yeah. And you're you're seeing that your career basically is an example of that. So so just so the listeners know, I called you on the phone when that thread went viral. And I said, hey, Sean, like and I'm so glad you picked up. Very few people pick up these days. Like, real talk, pick up the phone. And I go, hey, man, like, This actually irks me here. And and, you know, I'm such like,

47:15

I'm an artist, man, so I operate from a feeling thing. And then I start questioning, why do I feel the, like Talk me through. Yeah. And I was like, I'm an IRL guy. When you're telling me everything is gonna be on the metaverse,

47:24

I don't wanna be a pseudonymous drone. Right. I don't wanna I don't wanna

47:30

throw drone strikes at people that I can't see.

47:32

I wanna talk about what's real. And if you watch the show, like, I'm talking about what's real. I'm talking about me and being on my kids. Right. What I went through going at dictators and and governments, and it's real. This is real life. I talk about lawsuits and this, just crazy shit, but I'm like, Hey, it's real. It's my experience. Right. I'm being sincere and authentic in that experience. And I got the receipts.

47:53

And

47:54

I don't wanna live in a world where I'm a Reddit commentator

47:57

and you're a Reddit commentator. And let's just, like, argue at infinum.

48:00

That's a zero value add to society to me. Right.

48:04

But I guess I guess what you're saying is right, you're like, well, the more you double down on that. So so the capital markets will perhaps reward you. So you're being ordered right now for that accountability. Right? So comedian who gets up there and just tells Dick jokes is not gonna have the same emotional resonance as you're going up there and talking about fertility issues and then you're dealing with what that was like and the the tension that's loaded in that. Because anybody I just had two kids. Anybody's been through anything with kids and that whole process Yeah. The uncertainty. Like, we didn't even have any issues, but my wife was worried that we might have issues. It loaded the relationship with tension. I'm sure you have friends that went through it. Let's get started earlier because it might have, you know, like,

48:39

it's it's a connection. So you put yourself the real you out there Yeah. You get the reward. Right. To meet you who just makes the dick joke, I laugh. I move on with my life. I don't feel like I'm gonna back this guy the way that I felt like. By the end of your show, I was like, I'm about what this dude's about. Oh, wow. Right? Because that's you that's what you did. You drew a line in the stand. You said this is what I'm about. Yeah. You've told you you built your case. Yeah. And at the end of how could you not be like Right. Right. I'm on and if you walk up with this cool, if you don't. And so it was a very different thing. It wasn't just laughing. Mhmm. It was like, laughing, but also

49:13

this is this person just put their balls on the table and said, this is what I'm about. Yeah. And you gotta respect that, and then you gotta react to that. You gotta pick a side. You're either about or you're not. And that's okay. You can go either way. Yeah. But he made it very clear. And then I'm like, that guy's gonna build an army. Because he's gonna build but there's a lot of people who are gonna hear that, be like, Mhmm. I rock with that. Yeah.

49:31

Whereas if you just did a bunch if you just did a bunch of impressions of, like, what Indiananti sound like, I would have laughed. Yeah. And then I would have been like, next time you have something, I'm not lining up for it. I'm not camping out for it. Right. Right. Because I don't I didn't connect in that way. Right. But you did it. So I I think you get paid for for doing that. So you're saying just

49:49

be aware of that. Be aware of that and and, like, recognize what you're just remember what's already working for you. And why

49:56

why that bothers you is because you're the opposite of that. Yeah. There's also a piece of it that could be you, but you've intentionally driven the other way. So when you see it, you're like, I built my brand being the opposite of that. So, yeah, it's like when Apple sees a poorly designed product, Steve Jobs was disgusted

50:11

when he saw other products that were not thought well thought through. He was annoyed with it in a way that no other CEO was. Because he built himself

50:19

as we care about the inside of the fucking design of the inside the case, what that looks like. These motherfuckers don't even care side of it looks like. Right. You know, so, like, it disgusted him in a way that it discussed you, somebody who has no accountability

50:31

sort of stands for nothing. Just trying to dunk on people on the outside. Right? So I think that's that's that part of it. To go to the metaverse side of it, I think it's not as different as you think. So let's say the world does move to where

50:43

with these online identities.

50:45

And that that digital identity matters a lot. Yeah. You know, given the screen name and, you know, my first screen name was mister Gubappel, you know, so, like, whatever. That's That's what that's whatever I pick up. I don't even know what that is. Yeah. But let's say that let's say that stuck with me. Right? Yeah. It's so funny. You know, you know, my first screening was Hassan Minhajwon.

51:02

I've always been this way. Yeah. It's always yes. It was taken. And then I remember on AIM, hustle Manage went online. Do you remember the door? You see it in the sound of the door, but course. Right? And then I'm like Yeah. And I messaged him and then itched immediately the door closed.

51:16

So I think that Yeah. Whatever your screen name is, it'll be the same, like, This name you have Hassan Manage, that's what was given to you. It's your it's for better words, it's your stage name for the world. Sure. And you're building up a you're building up a reputation. Accountability. Yeah. It doesn't matter if that name was mister Gubappel or it was it's Hassan. It doesn't really matter what's the real name. It's wherever you're whatever you're gonna make accountable,

51:40

you're gonna say, hey, if you like me, if you trust me, put my reputation on this name. Yeah. And then if I fuck up, that name has, like, lost its value. Yes.

51:49

Well, the metaverse, you might be able to pick a second name, but, like, it it's still gonna work the same way Yeah. Where people are still gonna have to put up or shut up under some handle. It doesn't matter if it matches your Social Security number. It's kind of like my my take on that. But I don't know. It's a it's a wild world of how that's gonna turn out. I think we're still, like

52:09

it's just we're still a ways away from that. Where do you where do you get the points of, like, the things that you do that you're doing right now? Like, the fact that you take time to train and think you're you are preparing your mind as a physical corporal being with two feet on planet earth Yeah. Rather than being just like this guy with, like, the headset.

52:28

And you're just like in the matrix. You know what I mean? And your body is literally just being used as heat to fucking

52:33

be a part of this. Yeah. Ready player one world. Yeah. What You know what I mean? And I'm just like, yeah. I'm not gonna say I'm above that. Like, maybe when that's here, maybe I will. Like, I remember afraid my kids are gonna like tackle me and they're just gonna put it on my head and be like, just join us. Yeah. Join us dad. I'm like, I don't wanna do this. Well, it's like, I don't know if you remember before the phone. I remember thinking it was like, bat shit crazy that people were gonna watch movies on this tiny screen. Why would you do that? That's like, I don't wanna do that. That's no fun. I wanna I love going to the theater. I love the feel of the newspaper. Yeah. If you had told me, hey, you're gonna check your phone, like, a hundred and seventy times a day. Yeah. Would've been like, why would I do I'm not a hamster. Like, I don't wanna live that rat lifestyle. Just constantly checking for my email. Yeah. Why would I need to do that? I can just check my email once a day or whatever. You know, like, Yeah. The things I do normally today would have seemed

53:19

really abnormal. And I could've I would've been kinda disgusted by some of the things. Yeah. And then other things that would have been like, there's no way that, you know, like, how would I be able to do that? It's not plugged in. Where would the internet come from? Like How do you now? So now you've embraced that, but then how do you eliminate noise from your life? One of the things I'm genuinely curious about is, like, Trung, your friend Trung, who's hilarious online. Shit. Yeah. Fucking hilarious. Right?

53:43

My question is is I was like, how much just internet garbage is going in that guy's head every day? I wanna meet him. Where is he in, like, Vancouver's there. He's in Vancouver.

53:52

I should've invited him to the show. We are just in Vancouver. But I'm like, how much just fecal matter of garbage

53:59

is going in your head for him to be like, this is the meme. Right. He has to sift. Right. That's his job. It's filtering through shit. And thank you. Here's a good one. Yeah. Just just more shit. Yeah.

54:09

And how does that affect your just your, like, your body and mind? So what I'm asking you, and I would love to ask strong is, like, for you guys, how do you eliminate just, like, this is just sheer garbage. And if eighty percent of your day is just sifting through that, which is so much of what internet discourse is. And again, the algorithm is incentivized. That just people

54:26

yelling at each other, not solutions oriented thinking, and conversation and dialogue.

54:31

How do you then

54:33

have, like, a high efficacy rate? Because I feel like we live in an era now where you're busy, but you're just you're doing absolute horse shit. Yeah. This is where I've heard this great quote,

54:44

from this guy It's an entrepreneur. I don't remember his name, but he told me something he goes. He was he was talking about, like, I was like, so what are you doing outside of building your startup? Like, I was if I'm gonna invest, I first get to know, like, do you do when you're not coding this thing? Yeah. And he was like, I said, oh, I got some friends. Here's what we do. And I go, I he's he's like, yeah. We're making music. I was like, so you're trying to, like, make a band? Like, no. We just, like, we make music together because it's more fun than listening to music. I go, what? And he goes, he goes, yeah. We make videos. I'm like, you're trying to be a youtuber? He's like, no. It's just better than sitting there and watching YouTube. He goes, I have this rule, which is

55:16

good friends consume together,

55:18

great friends create together.

55:20

The stuff. He goes. So, you know, you can look at all your relationships and say, what percentage of the time are we just consuming? We go to a restaurant which consume shit. Versus cooking something together. Yeah. When we go to the movies, we just consume something or binge watch a show versus, like, try to make something together, make some art, do a project together, build build of gingerbread. It doesn't matter. Yeah. What the thing is. Yeah. He goes, my the great relationships in my life, I I recognize they're great because we create and the ones I want to be great, I create more than we consume. Right. So similarly, whether it's even with work,

55:49

I try to create I think most people are consuming, like, ninety nine percent of the time. I think they're literally just

55:55

mouth open ingesting,

55:56

like, whatever the hell everybody else is, you know, the few contact creators are creating. Just taking it all in. And then they're hoping that their brain doesn't get, like, you know, turned into, like, peanut butter. Yeah. And what I do is, like, I know it's very addictive to just sit there and scroll to feeds. Yeah. I do it some time to time, but I try to say, alright. I need to be creating eighty percent of the content. I've consumed twenty percent. Yeah. But of my time that I'm thinking about content, that like that's like doing this inter I'm not with my family. I'm not in the gym or not whatever. Yeah. I'm gonna be creating. Yeah. And so I can only consume the extent it helps me create. How do you build community?

56:30

In the startup world, it was not hard because Really? Entrepreneurship, it's like comics probably where all trying to do something really hard, which build a business from scratch and, like, you know, works, you know, and,

56:41

so, like, you know, there's a misery loves company type of thing where it's, like,

56:44

It is this there's this report that's built amongst people. You know, like, we'll help each other out. We'll get along with each other because we're all going through the same shit. So my community became other people who were startup founders when I was doing that. And now that I'm kind of more creating content and, you know, building an audience and a brand, It's people who are trying to do that and trying to figure out, like, like, we have one friend, pomp, who Yeah. Is amazing content. Like, he's great. He's building his brand. He's like, the Bitcoin guy. He's the Bitcoin guy. Yeah.

57:13

But when I look at it, I say, wow. There's a lot of things I admire about what he did, but I also gotta learn that, like, I would never wanna do what doing. He does this thing. He does a daily business show on YouTube now. Every day, he wakes up five in the morning or whatever. And he's creating like a three hour live show.

57:27

He's doing his squawk box every day. Every day. And I'm like, I get it. That worked. I would never wanna do that. I never wanna go that path. So I'm like Yeah. Trying to triangulate and learn from he did these other three things that thought were fucking dope that I'm like, oh, that's a great idea. I should add that to my game. Yeah. It's just like any athlete It's like anybody trying to get good at anything. You surround yourself with people who are in the game, trying to do the same thing as you. That's your peer group, and you commiserate and you share strategies with each other. And then you have some people who already, like, have done it. They're kinda your mentors. You go to them, you know, from time to time and ask them for stuff. I'm sure you had the same thing. Totally. Yeah. I asked the jedi. Yeah. Yeah. There's a bunch of jedi. And then there's other padawan that are are part of my, like, contemporary class that you all the time. Yeah. And how did you get good? Like, when did you go from suck to non Like, because everybody starts, I believe, that suck. That's like the Pixar way. I don't know if you heard this before. Pixar is a philosophy, which is all movies start at suck. Our job is to, like, remove the suck Yeah. So there's none suck left at the end. Yeah. Yeah. So I took that approach. Man, the daily show changed my life, man, seeing the way John Stewart worked, and especially that institution,

58:29

Both Daily Show and S and L love them hate them. They're part of their comedy institutions.

58:34

S and L for fifty years now daily show a twenty five.

58:39

You know, that,

58:42

are these pedigree boot camps for understanding the process about how to think about comedy Right. And one of the things that I realized is what John taught me and Trevor showed me,

58:52

you know, John really unlocked the code, but it's like it's all about your take.

58:55

What is your take and being able to back it up? So it's not even being funny first. It's what is the take? What am I trying to what is the take? What am I philosophically

59:04

artistically trying to say.

59:06

And,

59:07

let's give an example who you had in the show last night. You're like, you met this guy who's a private equity guy. You're like, what the fuck is that? Yeah. He's like, oh, yeah. We do like LBS. You're like Yeah. What is lever buy? We'll use that. As you get as you get to the bottom of your, like, so you use other people's money to buy other people's companies and then you ruin the people's lives in them by firing them and gutting them, making them profitable and then you flip it to somebody else. Yeah. You're like, Yeah. I'm not cool with that. Like, I think that's a little bit of a fucked up way to win is to, like, this kind of like vulture. Just legal stealing?

59:37

You that was never your money to be yeah.

59:40

Also, it's it's it's stealing. Well, it's legal. Oh, just just because legal doesn't mean it's Right. You know, Bill Cosby got off legally. Right. But we all know what it is. And so, like, that is what the joke I would start with. That's my take around leverage buyouts and Vulture funds. Right?

59:55

Then you start tagging it. You can do the that bill cosby tag. He got off legally. It's not we don't we all know. So I don't think, oh, whatever. What he did or whatever. The Gloved in fit OJ. Yeah.

01:00:02

Right.

01:00:03

Right. So you must have go ahead. Okay.

01:00:06

And then you start tagging. And then the funny just starts flowing from there. And then you go, that's like this. And then you can just And what are you doing? You're sitting in a room with like a few people you just spitballing? Riffing, bantering just like that. Yeah. And then eventually, you gotta put pen to paper. Right. You gotta start writing the act one. And you start to see when I watch weekend update or when I see an act one on the daily show or any of those desk segments,

01:00:27

I now see the matrix. I now see, oh, I know how to construct a seven and a half minute piece. Right. Last week tonight, Patriot Act, I know how to do a twenty seven minute piece on it. Right? I know the beats and the flow of that. And what was really cool was it just gave me that,

01:00:41

that central kind of like

01:00:43

philosophy. How do I do this? And so the first ten, eleven, twelve years of my career, I was just trying to be funny. And what John in twenty fourteen really helped me unlock was like, no. No. No. You need to have, like,

01:00:55

There needs to be an actual process and purpose to what you do. Mhmm. Now I'm not saying this as a virtue thing. No. Just you just need to be like, even if you're doing dick jokes or even if you're being silly,

01:01:05

there needs to be you need to understand the game and how to heighten it comedically. Right. Even stupid silly jokes, you know, are are like that. And so,

01:01:14

That was the unlock for me, and then just reps trying to get as good as possible.

01:01:19

Now my my next thing that I'm just working on the most,

01:01:23

is the jazz part of it.

01:01:25

Like, yo, just have fun. That's always been one of my weaknesses. Because I, like, I told you, I'm like, I'm a kumon kid. Yeah. You're structured. And so and so we're so built around fear.

01:01:34

And so there's these moments

01:01:37

that I try to have on stage. I don't know if you saw. I was just like, I'm just kind of unhinged.

01:01:41

Like, the first, like, three or four minutes of the set, well, I'm just I'm literally just riffing. Yeah. I was making fun of the kid's shorts, there was a kid in the front row of this show. Just short shorts. Like, it's not. Yeah. It's the, yeah, his thighs were just like all up on the chair. And then like the seats in the back and, you know, seeing people come in late and then riffing off of that. It's pure jazz. Now Jazz has structure, but there's also play. Right. And then you can go back to it. And, like, it's that organized chaos that I'm trying to, like, start to tap into. Yeah. And you're doing well now.

01:02:13

You

01:02:15

I don't know how you were doing before, but I'll say it. Let's let's say when was, like, the When did things start getting real good? It was about the last four or five years? Yeah. I was probably around like White House correspondence dinner. That was my kinda big

01:02:25

breakthrough Right. National recognition moment of, like,

01:02:28

you don't have to be a fan of the Daily Show or just a fan of comedy.

01:02:32

Like,

01:02:33

I penetrated

01:02:35

you know,

01:02:37

front page of the news feed type fame and cloud and credibility type thing. Yeah. And you, so you start doing well, start making

01:02:44

money. Doing this thing, which is amazing. Yeah. It's so hard to do, so you did it. Yeah. And

01:02:50

what do you do? So let's I'm gonna talk about the breakout, how you broke through, but Now that you're here, you've arrived. You're doing really well now.

01:02:57

Business side of things. Yeah. How you running the show? So what are you just in Like, dude, I'm just fucking touring twenty four seven. I don't even think about the money just goes in an account. I don't think about it yet. Are you like investing? What are you what are you thinking about? Yeah. And so, you know, that's the really interesting thing is now I'm starting to think more

01:03:12

about the business side of things. Not in so much of the

01:03:16

I'm a venture capitalist. I want a hundred x. I want a thousand x. Right.

01:03:21

The way show business works, I think, like, any business, really, but show business specifically

01:03:27

is extremely predatory.

01:03:29

And it's built on this idea that,

01:03:33

we provide the labor.

01:03:34

And

01:03:35

they're kinda banking on you being desperate, right, dumb.

01:03:38

In not owning your IP and Right. Content creation. They they kind of are banking on that. And they meaning, like,

01:03:46

the big studios, the big streamers, the powers that be, the agencies, all those sort of things,

01:03:52

they're banking on you not knowing what it is. And I think for the first time in history, we're starting to see

01:03:59

close groups of collaborators

01:04:01

starting to come together and build things themselves. Right. Can still run them through the big pipes in the studio system, but they're also like, no. No. No. We independently operate. We cook everything. We write everything completely.

01:04:12

Like me and Prashanth, we started a company,

01:04:14

and we write, we produce, we executive produce people's projects, but we do the whole thing kit and caboodle. Right. And hypothetically Sean would come to me and go, hey, listen, man. I'm I'm hosting this fifteen minute event at this thing.

01:04:25

And,

01:04:27

I want it to fucking rip. I want it to kill. I go, cool. Let's what's your take? What do you wanna say? Right. Come sit down with me in PV. Let's break down your act one. Right. And we'll tag it up.

01:04:37

And do all that stuff. And that's a cool opportunity for us to collaborate and for us to brown paper bag amongst each other.

01:04:44

And I love the ethos of that. Like, hey, let's build together. Right. You're an artist and a creative. I'm an artist and a creative. I think lawyers are important. I think agents are important to find. But they're necessary evils. This brown paper bag, this honest relationship that we have as artisans together,

01:04:57

is of, you know, the paramount importance.

01:05:00

And the more artists we can learn about just the business side of things,

01:05:05

I think it's gonna be for the for the better. The other the other part of it, man, is I I'm just I'm

01:05:11

so much of my life was just trying to make it. Yeah. Now I don't even know what to do with money. I'm trying to under what is money, what to do with it. Right. And what's your mindset now? So what have wherever you arrived on that? To me, money represents,

01:05:22

you know,

01:05:23

and capital represents

01:05:25

two things.

01:05:26

Money will not solve all your problems, but money can take care of certain

01:05:30

certain problems. So if there's ten problems, four of them,

01:05:33

say child care, my daughter's braces,

01:05:37

you know, being able to Uber back and forth to the airport, I can take those problems off the table. Right. It will not solve my marriage. It will not make me a loving father or an attentive father. Those are problems I have to solve. It won't make me in shape. It won't help my mind.

01:05:51

But at least taking those pain points off the table means a lot to me. But there's another data point as an artist that money can help solve two things. It gives me the opportunity to say no to things. You have fuck you money. Like, you should host this game show. No. I'm not gonna do that. Right.

01:06:07

It also gives me the opportunity to imprint my worldview upon the world on my terms. Right. So the so the show you saw, I own it outright. Right. I

01:06:17

I'm I'm not just in the comedy business. Set on yourself. I'm in the trucking business. Like, I I own and operate that eighteen wheel truck. You're like, mayweather. Those lights, those, like, the there's the holodeck that I'm standing on that glows. Like, I own it. Like, you know, it's my I don't know what I'm gonna do with it after the special, but there's a sense of empowerment of yo, I wanna say this in the world, and I have the capital to imprint my worldview upon the world. Right. And that there's a deeply empowering feeling in that.

01:06:43

The next thing that

01:06:44

I'm trying to learn, and the reason why

01:06:47

I wanna be on podcasts and meet people like you is

01:06:51

Art, we need to learn more about how money works.

01:06:54

So once you make it

01:06:56

and you wanna buy a house and provide for your family,

01:07:00

and, you know, hopefully have childcare in some capacity. And

01:07:04

how do you not blow it on dumb shit Right. To the point where it gets really sad, man. There's a lot of artists and entertainers.

01:07:10

You'll get hit up and they'll be like, hey, so and so has cancer. We need to do a comedy benefit to pay for their medical bills.

01:07:17

I'm like, this is sad, man. This guy was on S and L. This guy was on blah blah blah. This guy was on a sitcom.

01:07:22

And I'm like,

01:07:23

Yeah. This has to stop. Right. And,

01:07:28

my question to you would be, and this is the thing I'm trying to figure out is If you are an artist and you all of a sudden, we make our money in lump sums. You all of a sudden were given two million dollars, a million dollars, hundred thousand. You just make these lump sums. What would you do with that money?

01:07:44

Yeah. That's the fundamental question that I'm trying to figure out an answer. Well, the first thing is there's gonna be a bunch of people telling you what to do with your money and you gotta avoid them at all costs. Correct. The people that are swooping in with the next great and trying to get you to buy if I can, you know, Kentucky fried chicken franchises and shit like that. Like, you have to sort of say, alright.

01:08:01

How do I get a trusted person who is an expert at this. Yeah. That it's actually good at their job. And how do we align our incentives so that they're not able to just pillage me like, happens to a bunch of athletes. Yeah. They're not just my homeboy, you know, from from high school or whatever. Yeah. Because I trust them, but they do not be the experts. Like, yeah, find that intersect trust and expert. Can I tell you where where it gets really hard? You know, I'm fortunately, like, again, I grew up. I'm I'm kind of just, you know, I'm a nerdy kid. I I was never I don't roll with an on surrage. Right. You know, I I pulled up in an Uber here, like, solo with my backpack.

01:08:32

So I don't have all those pitfalls that other,

01:08:36

artists and entertainers have. Where

01:08:39

there are a couple yeah. Jewelry purchases, a couple car purchases, and a divorce away from just, like, losing it all. Yep. You know?

01:08:47

I'm a pretty, like, level headed, you know, guy. That being said, you know, it's interesting.

01:08:52

You you try to do your research and it's it's crazy. I'm thirty six years old. I'm starting to re read about,

01:09:00

you know,

01:09:01

financial literacy and stuff like that. And I'll read books. I'll read Yale Collins' book, you know.

01:09:07

And, you know, he's an advocate of VTS ax. Right. Just Vanguard funds. Yeah. But when I go on the internet and I start looking through your mentions and I go through your page or Sam's page, nobody trying to fuck with VTS ads. So are you old man?

01:09:22

You're not on the solonitude.

01:09:24

How do I? How do you know that? Big your discern truth,

01:09:28

ontological

01:09:29

truth, reality, and light from just this banter. This this just never ending Yeah. Up and down nature of knowing here's how I would do it. Alright. So here here's how I would break it down. I'd say what do I want? So there's some people who are saying, I'm trying to become pity. I'm trying to become Kevin Hart. I'm trying to do whatever. I'm trying to have this mega mega empire billion dollar status. So some people who say, look, I came from nothing. And I got this thing now. I'm not I need a certain level of security and safety. That's what makes me happy is knowing I can never go down to zero, knowing that I can never fuck up and lose it all. It is it is safety for life for me and for my kids. What is that number? Yeah. So you start to play with these numbers. You start to say, what does life cost? And what do I want? Yeah. Your burden of my goals with this. What's my burn right now? You first gotta take that lay of the landings. I don't need any strategy

01:10:14

without an objective.

01:10:15

So any strategies meant to get you to some objective. And what most people do wrong is they're just picking strategies without really curating the

01:10:23

objective Yeah. And why? Why? Why is that thing? Can I stand and defend? Why I believe that this is what I'm going for? Yeah. This is my strategy.

01:10:31

Like, how do I get to the point where I know what I want and I I can defend what I want to myself, not to, you know, like, I can articulate it. Yeah. Actually, like, why I've decided that? And I said no to these other plausible paths might be right for others, but they're not for me. Yeah. So you set your goal that way. So that's the first most important thing. My goal is two things, and I've identified them. So I think about these a long time, you know, being on tours really good because you just start to planes are great. You just have a lot of time. Take a lot of shower in the air.

01:10:58

One of the things that I thought about was like it's two things. It's like to me being a father and a husband means providing financial safety and security for my kids. You know, I I grew up in a family. I don't wanna give wanna talk about this too much, but money was always a thing that people in my family argued about. And I never wanted that to be a thing here. And it it's a tough thing to do if you're an artist. Are you kidding me? That's Why did you pick that path? But it was it's what's honest to me. But to me, what what money and business represents is, okay, if I can earn enough So that god forbid this goes to shit, but I have enough run rate one runway room. And this is gonna sound crazy, but for ten years. Mhmm. Because I do deep work. Like, it took me two and a half, three years to write this show. Right. It took me a long time to put it together.

01:11:40

And I hope the depth of that resonated with you into the audience. That's my dream. Like, yo, do you do you feel how what this meant to me and what this I hope. I hope you see me. I hope you see it. I hope you feel it too.

01:11:52

But in order to do that, I have to have runway room. Yes. I have to have two years to be able to hole up and write this movie, write this I have a couple projects that are now lined up after we shoot this Netflix special, but they've required a ton of time. Right. Time, unique financial capital to cover your burn. Yep. To cover, like I said, you know, my daughter, baby girl, she has glasses now. Escaladyburg.

01:12:13

Yeah. Yeah. And now there's all these additional things. My mom, her knees are going. She needs knee replacement surgery. You know, I'm the eldest. These are real things.

01:12:22

And I I put it as like, no. I need burned for, you know, ten years. Right. But now we live in a world where we're not even gonna be able to retire. Yeah. So I have to start thinking, no. I gotta be rock. I wanna be Mel Brooks. I wanna be doing this you know, got hopefully, Dick Gregory. I'm doing this until I die. Right. I love that Dick Gregory died with dates on the books. He was gonna do rooster teeth feathers in Sunnyvale, California

01:12:42

Living legend, man. And I'm and I'm like, what an inspired life? Right. So many people are like, well, he wasn't the biggest comedian. I'm like, bro, you lost the plot. Yeah. Exactly. He's still playing the game. What a beautiful thing in his eighties? Right. God, god. Give, please give me life so I can continue to do that. So that's it's that burn. K. What's that number? Ten maybe ten years, five years. And I've told my accountant this. Right?

01:13:03

Then the other thing is is what is the financial capital

01:13:06

that I need

01:13:08

to then continue to imprint my vision upon the world.

01:13:12

So the show that you saw the burn to run it

01:13:17

man is almost forty grand a week just in labor costs, trucking costs,

01:13:23

getting it to venue to venue. It's a lot. Right. Now do that at scale. I'm touring for six months, eight months, nine months to a year. I gotta take it over to Europe, to Asia, it's Australia.

01:13:33

All of those things, it's like,

01:13:35

I wanna be able to count on creating capital. Yeah. Only on myself. I'm not asking for a network. You know, it's so funny. Like, one of the things that artists now complain about is like, the studio said this. And I'm like, hey, man, we gotta shift Yep. To now being like, no. No. No. We have that. Now in order to do that,

01:13:52

I gotta be able to make money, not at a one x. Yes. Two x five x. I have to start making moves. That can potentially ten x it. Yes. Because it can then cover that burn. So those are my two missions. Yep. Do I continue to do king's gestures and take care of my family? I'm not trying to be a billionaire. It's just those two things. Yeah. So that that will give you a number or set of our range. Yeah. Then you say, alright. What are the strategies that could be that get me to that? And you you're not gonna know them yourself because you're like, well, I spent ten years getting fucking amazing at comedy, not

01:14:20

The money game. Right? The money game is its own game. I'm gonna respect that the same way. When I'm like, dude, I wanna do comedy. I know. Comedy means it's a game that I know what it was like to be an absolute beginner in business. Like, I might ask it for eight years straight. Yeah. It's probably gonna feel very similar if I ever wanted to, like, even just, like, have the experience of going and doing a five minute comedy set. I'm probably gonna have to get my ass kicked for like a year or two Yeah. To just be able to go do that. Yeah. So you gotta say, alright. Do I find somebody that's gonna do that? And I need somebody who,

01:14:46

I need them more than they need me. Yeah. That'd be a great thing to have. Right? Because a lot of people who need you, need you for the cloud. They need you for the money. They need you for many things. So you need to find somebody who doesn't really need you. They're happy to help. They're happy to offer that they get something of it has to be a mutual exchange. Yeah.

01:15:02

But they're good already. And so that's why I like hanging out with people who are good already. So when I go to them, they're not trying to dig in. Oh, yeah. Here's the business side. You know, here's what you should do. By the way, can I get some advisor shares? Can I get some equity? It's like, well, you don't they don't need that because they they're already playing the game at a higher level in a money game. So they don't need me for money when it comes to that. So I can trust their advice from that sense because Yeah. Or, you know, they're not looking for that. Then you get a bunch of strategies. You say, alright. Here's my my safety my safety playbook. I want this amount of money that's in something like Vanguard, low cost ETFs, That's expected to grow seven percent. I could chart that out and say, alright. That's what that looks like over ten years. Yeah. Then I need my high risk high reward part of the portfolio. That's that's the Yeah. That's the And I've read those books like Jason Calcanis has a book where he's just like, hey, take a hundred thousand dollars and turn it into a hundred. Right. Let me ask you this. Is that real? That part I do not believe is real. This is what I don't know. Very misguided. And I don't know

01:15:53

you know, my whole thing is, you know,

01:15:57

And you can like it, not like my comedy, whatever.

01:16:00

But I'm trying to meet people where they're at. Right. I love people, bro. Like,

01:16:05

I never wanna lose. I call it the cost of milk energy.

01:16:09

If you ask my dad how much is milk, my dad will be like, in Manhattan,

01:16:12

at the bodega, or at Costco over in New Jersey. If we go over the bridge, he'll tell you the cost of milk. I love that. Like, knowing how much gas is, knowing how much it is to lease or buy a corolla. That's why I drive an odyssey. Right. It's like, man, I wanna fuck with people. I love people.

01:16:27

So for me, one of the biggest things that I'm trying to do it's like, if I can learn, perhaps even through my comedy, through my gift, I can help meet the people where they're at. Mhmm. I'm never gonna run with the a sixteen zs. Right. Maybe. Who knows? They may they want me to they may want me to, like, perform at the birthday party or something with Ray. You know? The kids' twelfth birthday party. They're just oh, they really like Hassan. Come become do ten minutes. But I'm talking about, like,

01:16:50

Man,

01:16:52

that. I'm speaking to that. It's funny. I had this joke that I did on Patriot Act where I made fun of Bitcoin, the the dudes who, like, tell me to invest in Bitcoin. I said, I believe in Bitcoin.

01:17:01

I just don't believe in the people that tell me to get Bitcoin because it's all my homies that told me to take out a sub prime mortgage in two thousand eight. I'm like, Travis. Your property. Yeah. You wanted me to you wanted me to take a second mortgage. Oh, wait. Yeah. And why are you just like all like Yeah. Diamond hands now. You're Diamond hands are me to death or whatever, and they're like, you dumb motherfucker. Look, it's at sixty k now. Yeah. And the comic in me is like, bro, keep it a hundred. Keep it a hundred with me. Use your government. Look me in the eye. Tell me honestly. Right. The reality is is you have ten k in the bank.

01:17:31

The cost of living in Milpitas is too high, and you need that shit to fucking two hundred x. Right. And so you are betting everything on this.

01:17:40

And that's why my jokes are getting to you. Now look me in the eye and use your government name and tell me am I lying?

01:17:47

So I think that Am I being real? Check me. If I'm wrong, check me, Sean.

01:17:52

You're not wrong. You're not wrong. What I would say is

01:17:56

But maybe I'm misguided. Maybe what There's a certain level of skepticism you have that is absolutely needed. Yeah. And your you have to get to the root of Yeah. Why are you saying this? Do you know what you're talking about? What is in it for you if I do this? You know, what, you know, you don't wanna be blind following the blind. Yeah.

01:18:12

What I do, one thing that works for me, that's like a hack that she could. When I was doing that sushi restaurant thing I told you about, we were trying to find the perfect location. They said in restaurants, location is everything. We're like, oh, we can gotta be location experts. We're scouting. We're doing all this real estate shit. We're looking up, and then we just realized, hey, Chipotle puts like you know, billions of dollars and picking the right location, why don't we just go right next to wherever Chipotle is? And we're and that's actually the strategy that's, that quiznos and a whole bunch of other brands had used noodles and company. If you go look next to, Chipotle, there'll be a noodles and company there or there'll be a subway there. They all just they're like, well, they do all the research and they're an attraction. So, like, just go next to them. We could piggyback because they're putting their skin in the game. They're not just telling us this is a good location. They are putting down their roots. They're investing money Yeah. Which means this is probably a good idea. I have a couple buddies who I'm like,

01:18:57

look,

01:18:58

you've been successful in this game. What are you putting your money into now?

01:19:03

And and what ratios are you putting about? How much of your money are you putting into these things? And how do you think about them? I triangulate between four people like that. Said, okay. Now I have a base understanding of, like, where they are putting their skin in the game. They're not telling me to do it because they get something out of it. They are put themselves investing in this They're doing certain amount of diligence that, like, they are in a space that they understand. And so you're able to get there's an intelligent way to copy, and then they'd follow There's an intelligent way to follow, and then there's an unintelligent way to follow as well. Yeah. The unintelligent way to follow is I heard some shit from some guy who's got an incentive to sell me this thing Yeah. And I don't really understand why he's telling me to do this. And I can't really ask him. I don't know what percentage of his portfolio is in this. You know, so I can show some random cryptocurrency. I'm excited about. Yeah. People are, oh, you said that was great. Yeah. I put half a percent of my net worth into it because I understood it in this way, and I thought had this risk reward. You put thirty percent of your net worth into it. I never told you to do that. Yeah. I never told you to do anything. But you interpreted x as y. Yeah. So there's a intelligent and an unintelligent way to do it. But that's kind of my approach of, like, how I would do this. I would say, alright. There's a money game you gotta learn. I'm gonna along the way. Yeah. I'm gonna speed up my learning curve by partnering with people who already are playing this game at a higher level than me that don't need any they don't need the money from me. They're not getting a cut of me. Yeah. But they're happy to do it because it's cool to know a comedian. Yeah. Yeah.

01:20:19

Yeah.

01:20:21

Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's fun. Right? And so, like,

01:20:24

There's that's how I would approach it if I was the other thing you said, which is important, which is the artist have to get leverage. So, like, people were last night when we were leaving the show, I was talking to my sister and I said, oh, it's amazing. This my dad was like, I can't my dad the whole time. I told you I bought the beer. He's like, I can't believe you bought that beer at the show so expensive that beer's a dollar at Costco. I was like, I know. I understand that. I'm having an experience at the show here. I wanted to have a beer and enjoy the show. Yeah. Yeah. That was worth thirteen dollars to me. I know the beer only just crazy thirteen dollars. And so he's like he's like, I can't believe so many people pay to come to the show. How can they afford a show like this? And I said, well, people care like, they're having fun. Like, there's there's their budget. I understand you don't allocate your budget to that. They do.

01:21:02

And he was like, he was like, he was like, you know, this guy must be doing amazing because He did eight shows or whatever in Bay Area. He's got a Netflix show.

01:21:10

I'll say, yeah. He's doing I'm sure he's doing great. I said, but also think about, like, I don't know what your Netflix deal is, but I know that if I was offered a Netflix deal, I'd have to do it for zero, essentially. Right? Like, Netflix kinda knows that I to say yes to have a Netflix show. Yeah. Yeah. So my bargain part is probably very low. Yeah. So even though it's a big deal and it might do well Yeah. My negotiating power in that situation. My leverage is low. Right. Versus this show that you own, your leverage is higher. Right? Yeah. So it's like

01:21:37

I say, you know, just because somebody has certain things you do for distribution and fame. It's totally what you do to monetize. And that was the comedy central deal. Like, you're on the daily show. You're on S and L. Right. To be on a cultural institution. Exactly. They get your name built. They know, like, you can they can pay you whatever. Yeah. And so

01:21:53

how do you get the leverage back? And so that's where there's this idea, by the way, that, like, perhaps who who said that somebody said this. I'm stealing it, but

01:22:00

why wouldn't comedians create, like, oh, so everybody's getting big big checks from Netflix and others to go do a special now? Yeah.

01:22:06

And, okay, here's two, you know, I think Chapel, whatever. This is something like thirty million bucks, twenty million bucks. I don't know what the numbers are. It's on that range. Very big upfront payday.

01:22:14

They know they're making the money on the back end. Otherwise, they wouldn't offer that kind of money. Yeah.

01:22:19

But also a key data point you need to know is it's just like you cannot use Ronaldo's deal, LeBron's deal, Steph Curry's ultramax deal, or Chapelle's of ultramax deal. Yeah. Because the delta between who the Capital Markets is paying number one,

01:22:32

Man, you gotta see

01:22:34

what Buddy healed on the Sacramento Kings is making. Right. No. Because Buddy's solid. But what is he but is he top ten in the league? Right. Is he top fifteen in the league? That's the real again, I talk about the Costco milk thing. That's the real working class artist. If you can't be Kevin Hart, if you can't be Jeff Bezos,

01:22:52

If you can't beat Shamath or whatever and you can't ball out of the bill, then what do you what are the moves you make? Exactly. That's why I'm trying to operate my life. Hey, assume you won't be Will Smith. Right. You won't be the biggest movie star in the world, and the Capital Markets are gonna pay you at a thousand x. Say they they pay you at ten x. What moves do you then do to have a healthy, happy artistic career for the rest of your life. Right. That's my mission. I wanna continue to make art that's honest for the rest of my life. Yeah. So I think I'll I'll answer So, but but but let's But the idea real quick is the idea is

01:23:23

if the artist got together and created the streaming technology now is actually pretty standardized off the shelf. You can you can have a white labeled version of Netflix

01:23:32

in six months. Yes.

01:23:34

The thing is you need draws. And so, like, if somehow. And this is always the coordination problem. Yeah. If you could somehow coordinate the key artists to say, hey, we can own this we can actually create our own platform that's a comedy streaming service Yeah. That people pay for. Yeah. And we're gonna share the the dividends sort of like meritocratic meaning if I come to watch your show, if I subscribe to the service Yeah. Because if Hudson show Yeah. You're gonna get the bounty of my my joining. Yeah. And then if I also watch you know, three other artists. Yeah. They're gonna get some some cut of the subscription. It can be what what crypto and other things are enabling is a basically creator owned platform. Yeah. Somebody's gonna do this. I don't know if it's in comedy or if it's in some other music or something. What's triller? Triller's kinda like that. Right? No. It's the same thing as a company, then then they they cut checks, they get the artist to come on board, and then they they pimp out the artist to go get customers. Yeah. And the artist feels like they're getting a good deal because they're cash rich, but they're equity poor. So they're getting and and, you know, they might cut a deal with Jake Paul or something because the trailer has nothing to lose. So they're like, yeah, you got two percent. Yeah. You know, they'll cut that to one person. What I'm talking about is if Chapel Kevin Hart, if you could somehow coordinate the forces that be Yeah.

01:24:41

To say, let's create a platform. Let's only put our art on this platform. Comedy is one of those things where the fans will pay to jump the fence to get the thing. Yeah. And they're willing to pay to also support their their results.

01:24:52

I have to answer that. So so that would be a platform that would be value. It could eventually be valued, you know,

01:24:58

easily single digit billions of dollars. That would be creator owned. And then as you cycle out and the next comedian comes up, they would just basically join the syndicate. Yeah. They'd be pumping their fan base into it. They would be getting their proportionate share based on how much How much audience they're bringing to the platform? So I'm presenting. So now I love your analysis on this. Again, I don't know. I'm trying to learn. Mhmm. But I'll I'll just share the things that I've learned from just being in the circle.

01:25:20

Know, shout out to my man AZ. AZ was, you know, Chapelle was doing all these summer camps, in in Ohio,

01:25:25

and and one of my comedian friends, AZ. I think he's you've met with him.

01:25:30

He was saying, yass Dave. He goes, and and and I love AZ, AZ is like, he's always been a futurist. He's a writer of Remi. Right? Yeah. And he's but he's always been a futurist. He's always been twenty years ahead, and I tell AZ Diego, AZ. You got the Al Gore problem in two thousand. It's at the Internet.

01:25:44

Yeah. He looked like an idiot in twenty years. You wanna be twenty years ahead. You wanna three three to five years. Four years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You want you want to be that guy with the oculus, and you're like, bro this sucks.

01:25:53

That's always my thing. I was like, I don't wanna be the oculus dude. Yeah. You know what I mean? You don't you don't watch jungle book on hockey with someone who's giving me a headache. Like, cut this shit out.

01:26:02

Anyways, he goes he goes up to Dave and he goes, Dave, man. You come on bro, you're the goat. Your number one, you could just put it up on dave chappelle dot com and everybody would pay you five or ten bucks or fifteen bucks, twenty bucks, maybe a radio head style, a hundred dollars.

01:26:14

Nipsey also, right, proud to pay.

01:26:16

And Louis did that. Yeah. Dave's like this. He goes like this. He goes,

01:26:20

new fans. What about new fans?

01:26:25

What that Netflix billboard gives you is it pumps that tile out in front of you Yep. Whether you like it or not.

01:26:33

I don't know Sam par. Yeah. I slid in Sam's DM. Sam's, I slid in your DMs. You didn't hit me back.

01:26:39

But when he's with his wife, and they open up the. Yep. And they see my tile and they see my, like, my, my raccoon on Adderall face.

01:26:49

Sam now has to reckon with that. Right. Then Sam, he's sitting on the couch. He pulls out his phone. And then he sees you retweet my thing and he's like, man, this Indian dude. What's the Let me see this guy. Boom. I've now picked up Sampar.

01:27:02

I know I'm a convert with you. Your cousins are gonna talk about me. Your your sister's gonna talk about me. Whatever. But I'm talking about new fans. Mhmm. You know what I mean? And the distribution

01:27:11

they do to get new fans on board

01:27:14

That's what this proud to pay movement doesn't have. Right. So everybody's told me, hey, start an online shop. I'm like, cool. I'll do homecoming king, low cal Can get

01:27:22

your Cool.

01:27:24

What about

01:27:25

your three other coworkers, the dude in that room? I want them to know who I am. Right. So that's what you know, Louis put out his last special sincerely, Lucy k. Did you see it? No. No. Why didn't you see it?

01:27:38

Because it was just closed network between him and his direct fans. Right. People couldn't get outraged about it. They couldn't write about it, which would then get you to it would titillate you, and you got, I'm a watch it. Right. Which would then get you to watch it and he'd pick you up as a new fan. Yeah. It had yeah. Exactly. Uh-uh. That's a hundred percent. It's closed. It it have to be paired with it. Pretty aggressive clips strategy. Right? So, like, one of the ways you grew

01:28:01

was not because I watched a hundred sixty minutes of the correspondence, like, speech, forty five minutes. It was long speech. Right? Like, twenty seven minutes. Twenty seven minutes. It's because a couple of those clips get on Instagram, they get shared. They're tick tock. They go viral. Yeah. And Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, that's where you'd have to basically pair it with that. That'd be the only way that you could get the exposure is to say, There's great shit. We're gonna use YouTube. We're gonna use TikTok. We can use whatever, and we're actually gonna pop. They're gonna take the best stuff. Yeah. We're gonna dangle it over there. We're gonna let that be shareable. Yeah. It's still may not work to actually, like, simulate the new fan. It might, like, that's why That's the and there's that and the coordination problem, which is the biggest people you want they're getting overpaid

01:28:40

by the networks. Yeah. Because

01:28:42

they're that's the strategy of the network. Lock them in. Lock them in. And then every other artist has to follow.

01:28:48

At at a almost below market rate because this is where all the headliners are. You wanna be where they are. That's what feels like a first class thing as an artist. I'm in the airport and people are like, what do you do? You're comedian? I go, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I go, yeah. How do I see you? I go. Go download the zone. Yeah. And I'm just like Netflix. I go Netflix.

01:29:05

Because Netflix has that the factor, just like, damn, I man, my kids watch Coco Melant. I watch Netflix. I watch Netflix. I watch blah blah blah. So the thing is Amazon, Disney, and Netflix right now, they're running it. Yeah. And I'm trying to think to me, I'm trying to have a barbell approach to it. If you follow me on Instagram, I put out content, I put out videos, Tyler, my videographer, we put out stuff, but I'm trying to barbell it, and I'm trying to figure out Yeah. How how do we start to monetize those things? Now the most the most the clearest sign of that

01:29:36

that seen, which has a low cost of entry has been podcasting. Mhmm. Commitions podcasting. And people like Tom Sogura, people like Joe rogan, people like Andrew Schultz. Those guys have been able to call me,

01:29:49

call call your daddy, you know,

01:29:51

people in that pocket, Dax Shepherd, people in that space have been able to build up their own independent platforms.

01:29:58

And have more leverage. Here's my issue with it.

01:30:02

I find it very risky

01:30:05

to put up every single thought and idea that I have in real time on the internet.

01:30:10

I'll be candid with everybody listening. I have no hidden thing here. I'm just be transparent.

01:30:14

The reason why I I'm honest with you is I love what you do. I think what you do is honest and sincere. And I think artists need to start to talk to people in your space to be like, you understand business. We understand art. How can we work together? How does this all how do these these two worlds now merge? Right.

01:30:32

Without being part of a a

01:30:35

multinational conglomerate

01:30:37

and then have business affairs and lawyers and all that stuff muck it up. That's the interesting new world that that I'm really excited about. And,

01:30:45

that's what I'm trying to figure out. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. I don't know how much time you got. I got time. I don't wanna be respectful. No. I got time. So the the camera's still rolling. Are they?

01:30:54

Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Let's finish up with a couple things. You, do you listen to the bot? I don't know if you actually listen to it. Listen to the bot. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.

01:31:02

When you listen to it, you there's always the the beautiful part when a guest listens to the show most,

01:31:08

most guests don't, but they if they do, the best part is there's a moment on podcast and when you're at home and you're hearing people talk about stuff and you're screaming either, like, you don't get it.

01:31:17

Talk about this instead or, no, I disagree. And, like, they normally never get the mic. They just have to sit there and sort of punch air as as we just on about whatever the hell we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What are those things that when you're listening, you're like, I would say this or I wanna know about this or I wanna talk about this. What are those things for you as you know, now you you broke through the wall and you're here. Yeah. For me, I'll tell you the moment that I loved.

01:31:41

And by the way, this is this has been my ethos with comedy writing, and I learned it's the Daily Show.

01:31:47

You can only tear something down, and this also works with movie writing and script writing.

01:31:51

If you tear something down, you gotta pitch an alt. Mhmm.

01:31:54

Don't just shit on the idea. Pitch an alt. Right. And what's the alt joke? What's the alt take? Otherwise, sit down, like, sit on the sideline. You're not in the game. So if I'll tell you what I love,

01:32:07

Actually, there's I I don't have a a ton of criticism. I've actually asked those questions. The one that I loved is you guys had this run that you and

01:32:15

Sam did. There was two things that I sincerely loved. You guys had this thing up. If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it today?

01:32:21

Mhmm. I love that. There's another thing that you did that was really cool. It was vulnerable. And, again, the reason why it resonated with me is at a level of honesty and transparency in it.

01:32:31

You guys were candid about your

01:32:33

asset portfolio distributions.

01:32:35

Right. And Sam was, like, I'm a little bit more conservative. Reservative.

01:32:39

And you're, I'm more risky. Right. And there's two moments I love. It was the thing what I do with a million dollars, and there's a moment that you did where you're like, I wanna move through the world in a way. What if I was worth a hundred million dollars? And I wanna build my days around that. Yeah. But where did you get that from? There's two things I love. Those are just two things I love, but I wanna actually just tag that with a question. Where did you get that attitude that, like, that BDE? That's a that's a that's that's a big dick energy. I had a thing, I was talking to the, when I got a when we got acquired, we went to Twitch. Yeah. And they brought in this guy

01:33:12

who became, like, I I've initially reported straight to the CEO, and they brought in this guy who became this the the chief product officer. Yeah. And he was, like, Twitches like this gamer, young, gen z millennial type of product. This guy comes in gray hair,

01:33:26

doesn't play video games,

01:33:28

you know, was like at Google in two thousand three or some shit like that. Yeah. And he's he was obviously smart and accomplished in the tech world, but seemed like so out of touch with the product. Yeah. People were like, oh, why do we have this guy? Like, internally, like, rumblings in the engineering ranks were just sort of like, this guy didn't get it. Like, the people already hate upper management in general, they always think out of touch, making bad bad decisions. Yeah. So there was this, like, skepticism. Is this guy gonna get it? And he would ask questions and meetings that were like, oh, Like, you don't like, you do you know what Fortnite is? Like, wait. Wait. How are you? How do you have this job if you don't know, like He didn't know what my crap was. Discord for exactly But he was just he didn't he was like, I'm asking questions to learn. Why would I ask? I'm obviously, if I'm asking the question, I don't know. I think it's important to know. Yeah. You think I should know this? Some learn it right here, like, instant even care. Yeah. That's a bunch of questions.

01:34:15

When I,

01:34:16

he asked me he sat down with me. He was like, let's do, like, a one on one. He's like, career career planning or whatever. And he's like, so what do you wanna do? And I, basically, when you when you sell your company of this deal, this vesting structure, so it's like, You basically get some cash up front, and then it's like, after one year, you're gonna get your next big check. And after two years, you're gonna get

01:34:33

the next big check. And if you make it to year three, you get the last bit. Didn't make it to your theater. I only got two. But at somewhere Self imposed or you guys kinda Yeah. I was just like, this is enough. I wanna go do other shit. I'm surprised I even got two. Like, one I knew I would do because one locked in my family security. So I was like, I'm gonna suck this up, and I don't care how bad this sucks. I'm gonna get that year. I'm gonna lock in, like, the family is good. Yeah. I'm gonna get the bag. And so I was there and he was like, what is the number if you don't mind me asking? What is that number in the Bay Area? I had always said

01:35:02

six million. I said six million is where your money works for you.

01:35:06

Every up till then, you're working for money. Your money works for you at six million. Why did why did I say? Why six? Because I said, alright. You you work backwards. So I said, alright. My burn rate, I think at the time I calculated it, I was like, we're spending

01:35:18

like, twenty thousand dollars a month. K. Was my, like, monthly expenses. And I said, okay. Well, I don't know if it's gonna go up or down. Sorry. No. It's not gonna go down. It's probably only gonna go up It's very hard to give things up once you have certain services or certain lifestyles or size house, whatever. You don't wanna plan to downsize. I wanted to plan to buffering some growth. I said, okay. So that gets you to two hundred forty thousand dollars a year. Okay. So let's say two hundred how do I make it so that just the interest on the money I own So just the the gains on that money being invested in in the market. And I don't need, like, a home run. Just like, if I'm making an Yeah. If I'm making seven percent or let's call it four or five percent is like four or five percent as a target. Yeah. So then you just do the math. Like, as the rule is, I don't do public math. But take two hundred forty thousand, you divide it by the five percent or whatever, and that gives you some numbers. So I forgot what the calculations were, but I know the number came out to about six million. Let's say, alright. At six million six million dollars invested would yield an amount of money that will pay for our lifestyle

01:36:14

rather than me going in a job or doing something that requires income to pay for our lifestyle. Yeah. So I came up with this number. Yeah. And some people were like, that's too low. Some people were like, dear, why is your monthly expenses so high? I've, look, I like to live a certain way. I'm gonna try to live that way. Like, I'm not telling you you need to spend this money. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna get totally with avocado. I like avocado. Exactly. The guac extra. I said, give me two servings. That's why I wanted to be able to not have any weight on that. Right. And so I was like, alright. Well, that's the I'm trying to live that guac life. And so

01:36:42

So that became a numb a target number. Right? And I said, alright. I wanna hit that number. And I said, okay. So, you know, I was trying to secure that back. So so winding back to this this question of how did I get this this mindset.

01:36:53

So I talked to the guy. He takes me in. He says, what are your career So you got the six, though? I got to the six. Got it. I said, alright. Well, how do I

01:37:00

post tax. Right? It's six sixty. You have to have it. Exactly. Yeah. So I said, alright. Well, he goes, when you when you think about your career, what are you gonna And I knew that the right answers to say, oh, you know, I loved it. Yeah. I love it here at Twitch, and I would love to stay here forever, and I could see myself being used someday. But the reality was I couldn't. I didn't I was having fun because I made it my way, but I was like, this is not where I wanna be forever. Yeah. And I was like, I'm just gonna be honest with this guy. I'm not gonna tell him And it's a weird conversation. You're basically telling your boss I don't plan to be here for very long. Right. Which is in a way saying,

01:37:31

don't invest in me You know, like, don't promote me. Don't give me opportunities. Give it to the next guy because he cares. It's kind of like a weird thing, but I decided I'm gonna be honest. I told him he goes, Arris, what do you wanna do? He's like, then we don't need to talk about this twitch shit. Like, tell me what you wanna do. I said, well, first, I'm doing this. So that then I can go do this thing I wanna do. He goes, I don't believe all that. I go, what? You don't believe I wanna do this? He goes, no. I don't believe that strategy of life. I I don't believe in this life plan of I'm gonna do all the stuff I don't wanna do. So that then I could do all these things I do. You're mortgaging for a future. That may not happen. Exactly. This this is never gonna come. He's like, I've been around the block. People who have that plan

01:38:06

is, like, very rarely do you ever do the thing you wanna do? Is it is it much better just do the thing you wanna start that now. Don't spend five years doing the thing you don't wanna do because it's a means to an end. But then but then what you're talking about is that if you had approached that, you would have never perhaps gotten that six. Exactly. So so he had a different mindset. So I said, alright. Well, what does that look like? And so So he he goes, why don't you just,

01:38:29

like, figure out what you wanna do? Yeah. Figure out what it require, what what amount of money, what skills, what you'd require, and start accumulating those. So that's actually where the six came in. So I said, oh, I wanna be able to wake up every day and do a certain amount do a certain thing, which is basically wake up and just work on whatever I was most interested Right. Like, I told you, dude, I wanna, like, I want to do comedy sometime. I want to do I wanna do I have these other things. I'm like, dude, why don't I make song that, like, just slaps. Like, why was it a catchy ass song? That seems like Yeah. I wanna produce I wanna produce a record. Yeah. Like, I don't know anything about it, but, like,

01:38:59

wouldn't that be fun if I just made a catchy ass song that kinda hit? Yeah. And, like, it's not to I'm not trying to be the best musician, but, like, why not, like, why why not write a book? Why not do all these things? Like, That'd be a fun way to spend a career. That's kinda how I thought about it. Yeah. So I said, alright. Well, if I wanna be able to do that,

01:39:14

I gotta have this you need time. Yeah. Gonna have time. That's a deep look. Look at a few comedy stand up, DJ. Yeah. So that was kind of my mindset. And so along the way,

01:39:24

Again, my I talked to my trainer, and he goes,

01:39:27

if you wanna have a certain thing, carry yourself like the guy who has that

01:39:32

thing. Very simple. Really? Fake it till you make it thing. Not even fake it till you make it.

01:39:37

The you believe you will feel a certain way when you have it. Right. Right. That's why you want say, you want a hundred million dollars.

01:39:44

You want a billion dollars. Whatever your number is five million dollars. One million dollars.

01:39:47

You believe you want that because you think you're gonna feel a certain way when you have it. Yeah.

01:39:52

So let's skip all the middle shit, and let's just

01:39:55

believe that we have. Let's let's believe that we're gonna have that. Let's carry ourselves like that. Let's have that feeling now. Don't pump the feeling.

01:40:01

Until the end when you're sixty. Okay. And maybe you've achieved your goal. So what he's basically saying is a level of confidence. Right? And confidence is security and not playing scared. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Then this this byproduct of that. You know the comedy take I had on this, by the way? This is the way my brain works. The extremely wealthy and the homeless actually operate the same way. Which is what? Delusion. Which is what? Which is what?

01:40:22

Anything I do isn't gonna affect my life anyways.

01:40:25

What are you gonna do?

01:40:27

The incredibly

01:40:28

rich.

01:40:29

That's funny. And people who are like They had the same mindset. Yeah. Are are just like

01:40:35

Hey, what are you gonna do to me? What can you take from me? Right. They both actually operate that same way.

01:40:41

Sometimes as people that are in that vast middle,

01:40:45

that fear either direction

01:40:48

that are like, oh, I cannot fuck this up. Yes. Yeah. So so that's the The mindset is basically don't wait. Waiting is the enemy.

01:40:56

So when you're waiting to feel good until you've achieved certain things,

01:41:01

Anytime you hear the word wait, run, that's not the right strategy. And so it's like anytime you're waiting to do the thing you wanna do, Don't wait. That's kind of became my mindset. I just realized. Got it. You mean, don't put it off. Don't put it off. Right. Don't wait till x in order to have y that you really want. Gotcha. So if I want this feeling of security of of of relaxation of confidence, whatever, I've been waiting. Let me tap into that now.

01:41:24

So that became both,

01:41:26

had two benefits.

01:41:27

There's the benefit, which is you feel better today. That's already already already a win. Yeah. Instead of feeling anxious and stressed and worried, you're already feeling good. But there's also a strategy to it, which is when you carry yourself like that dude You carry yourself that way.

01:41:42

You'd be surprised what kind of doors are sort of open for you, what how people treat you differently. They they treat you with the assumption of what you treat yourself. Why why do you dress the way you dress? Why do you carry yourself the way you carry yourself?

01:41:54

Because people will treat you differently. Life will give to you what you're putting. But I also feel it too. Like, I like being fitted. I like wearing, like,

01:42:03

which is already good. Yeah. And then you get the actual, like, I think this Harvard guy called it the the happiness happiness effect.

01:42:11

He basically said, most people wait till they achieve a thing, then they're gonna feel happy. And then what happens is you achieve that thing and you just move the goal post. Yeah. Well, this is not enough. When I But I really haven't been, I can do it. You know, and so this keep moving the goalposts and every day. He's like, not only is that obviously deferring

01:42:27

the thing you want, which is bad.

01:42:29

Too. He said there's studies that will show that the person who goes into the situation already feeling happy will perform better on the test. Yeah. We'll be better in the professional setting. We'll have a higher likelihood of success. Yeah. We'll have more lucky breaks. That was one of the things they tested. They basically they gave you a test. And, like, you know, the third line of the of the instruction said, like, just go to the end, just type the write the letter five in and you're done. Yeah. And the people who went in with a stress mindset, they were just trying to solve all the problems, and they'd had to do the whole test. The people who went in relaxing confident, they're more likely to observe that little lines. Oh,

01:43:00

another another break that goes my way. Oh, great. You know, like, I'm gonna skip to the end, hand the test in. I'm done. Yeah. And so that's called when I when I started to learn about this sort of like happiness effect, this this idea that You bring the future feeling you're chasing into the now, not only do you feel good now, but you actually have better results. I was like, that's

01:43:19

just the thing I want. But it's also a mindset shift where you're operating different than Sam. Sam's like, I'm not gonna take those crazy Sam's the opposite.

01:43:25

But why?

01:43:27

Why is he the opposite? Yeah. So what I'm what I'm saying is Sam may look objectively

01:43:31

at or it's his subjective experience at your

01:43:34

financial situation and be like, you can't afford that. You can't afford to start this, like, one million dollar fund and just with Randos off the internet and just start betting things. Yeah. Why are you doing that? You could lose it. Yeah.

01:43:47

It served him well. Like, I think the other many ways to win. What I'm trying to do is get you guys to beef. I'm trying to get you I'm a joke. I'm joking. Check. I'm actually curious. I'm actually curious.

01:43:56

Like, there's this great crown of a regular quote where he goes, look, you're gonna feel some kind of way anyway. Right? Hey moment. You're feeling some kind of way. So he's just like he's like, why not feel unstoppable? Why not feel I not feel super confident. Yeah. Yeah.

01:44:08

It's the same sort of thing, which is that there's many

01:44:11

ways to win.

01:44:12

But you do get to choose. And Sam's way to win, and many successful entrepreneurs the same way, which is chips on my shoulder. My dad never loved me. You know, I people doubted me and that drives me, and that's why I'm successful. And they'll tell you this proudly.

01:44:27

And I hear it. I'm just like, man, you sound like you've been suffering for a long ass time. You know, you didn't have to do all that. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm glad it worked for you, but also, like, the toll was high on that highway. Right. You paid a expensive Vig, which was every day you were focusing on like Yeah. The grind. Mindset mindset, and you're you're focusing on proven people wrong and how

01:44:49

how, you know, the doubters and how you had to, like, kill yourself to make this work. I know people who did it the other way. So let's agree that let's agree that both can happen. Yeah. Let's let's help you with quick delineation, though, when you said you're moving like it what you're worth a hundred mil.

01:45:01

So you're not I don't make

01:45:04

size bets. Like, obviously, there's a lot of gravity. No. But there's a way to move to be like, hey, because I'm serious because there's people that may be listening that that are just like, Let me get that. Let me get that Rolex Daytona. Right. Let me feel that way. Right.

01:45:18

If it's a hundred mil, then that it's probably a Rolls Rose phantom. It's probably a you know what I mean? You Moirae, ducati, whatever that thing may be. You're not making those things, are you? Yes and no. So in the things of my life, I hired a personal chef. Okay. That's something that really the only, like, the other true wealthy typically do. Okay. I was like, no. This matters to me. I won't this is the number one want I have. I think it helps me and my family be healthy. We don't have to stress out about making food all the time for our daughter who's really picky and she keeps throwing away. We gotta remake dinner. Right. This will improve the quality of my life. I don't care if we can afford it. I'm gonna get it, and I'm gonna then I'm gonna afford it. Right? Because I'm not, like,

01:45:53

I know I believe in my ability to go get that money. Yeah. So I will not limit myself in the things that I really care about. Yeah. Yeah. It's a true belief. It's something that you really want for you and your family. Truly wanted it. I'm not gonna wait. Again, I was waiting. I said, oh, I identified all the spots in my life. I was waiting. I I gotta rid of waiting. That's the thing I really want, and I'm waiting for it. No more. I'm gonna do it now. Got it.

01:46:15

But do I go and just spend outside of, like,

01:46:18

what I care about or what I have? Like,

01:46:21

no. I I don't. And I I don't because

01:46:24

I also don't wanna be owned by those things. Yeah. Every time you buy something, you know, it now owns you as much as you own it. Yeah. Because that bill owns you in a way, it owns a piece of your time because you gotta pay for it. I'm very selective about do I want this enough where I'm willing to let it own me a little bit? And so then I don't need a lot of those things. And I also have this, like,

01:46:44

This is you're good at these questions, man. The last thing I do is I wanna be able to have as much fun

01:46:51

Whether I'm in a mansion having a feast with celebrities is if I'm stuck in an elevator by myself,

01:46:56

which means

01:46:57

I don't want to have to I don't want to have to have some nice shit in order to feel good.

01:47:03

I don't wanna have to have the circumstances be going my way for me to feel good. Yeah. But that's self satisfaction.

01:47:09

That's you training.

01:47:11

That's you taking my brain. Yeah. But that's you

01:47:14

doing what you're training your brain, you're meditating, you're boxing, whatever that thing is. So you feel a self sense of self sense. That's zero dollars. It's not a hundred million. That's not a hundred million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars. Exactly. Because the ultimate goal, the ultimate way to carry myself isn't that I had the hundred million. Just remind myself of that if I ever start to feel laughing. Because when I heard that, what I what resonate with me as an artist is play big. Yeah. Play big. Why are you playing scared?

01:47:36

Cook. You're on the court. Cook.

01:47:38

Let it fly. Launch. Like, be loose.

01:47:41

Do the impressions. Do characters. That's what my thing is, like, that's my goal. I wanna be loose. I wanna have fun. I wanna be really get on the floor. So use a basketball analogy. Because I know you you love basketball. Yeah. In researching for this, I saw your celebrity game got a nice left hand.

01:47:55

Go with the left. Yeah. Right? You're not lefty. Right? No. I'm left. I'm right. But you were very nice with the left.

01:48:01

The analogy is this.

01:48:03

Steph Curry is not afraid to shoot a shot. Yeah. Anywhere on the court. Once the best staff court, he is willing to let it fly. That doesn't mean every time he steps across half court, he just lets it fly. Cause he knows, like,

01:48:13

o the ultimate goal is to win. Yes.

01:48:16

But he's not afraid to shoot his shot. He's not thinking about missing. He's thinking about making his confidence in that make. Yeah. So I would say a very similar thing on the business side, which is

01:48:24

I don't just spend like a drunken sailor or invest in the most wild shit possible all the time. I'm not trying to take every risk possible. Yeah. I'm not trying to shoot every court, every shot of half court. But I am confident if I pull But you're not afraid to let it fly. If I'm feeling it Yeah. Or if I believe I can make the shot, I'm gonna pull. Yeah. Even if I miss the last three, even if this is not what other people do. This feels right. This feels right. Yeah. I put in the time and I have the confidence himself and I'm not gonna second guess it. Yeah. So that's where I'll make cool. Some take some risks. Cool. That feel right to me in the moment, but the overall objective is to win. It's not to take maximum risk possible. Yeah. Yeah. It's also not to minimize risk. It's to win. And you gotta define what that win is for yourself. Right. My definition of the win for myself is I wanna have the lifestyle

01:49:07

where I'm at the manager with my best friends. We're at the table. We're feasting. We're toasting. That's what I want. Yeah. But I wanna be able to have as much fun if I'm alone stuck in an elevator. That is my ultimate win where my mind has created that situation where can have all those things. Yeah. But I'm

01:49:23

I am impervious to the environment. Right? I will have just so that's my ultimate win. Yeah. I take enough risks along the way to get to that. You know, as I go. That's great. Last question. This is from this is from me to you. So I wanna People can be pissed, by the way. They're like, dude, you had us on. You just talked about your own I'm

01:49:39

gonna say this right now for the listeners and the watchers, people are gonna be like, he interrupted Sean too much. And why is he talking like this about big

01:49:46

Sean, you know you're not the star of this. No. No. No. No. I'm I'm coming from care. I'm I humble myself before all all you. My first million people. So listen. What's

01:49:54

I love this. Again, this is what I love most about IRL experiences about being on stage, doing material in front of people, hearing the applause break, knowing that that joke is right because I've corroborated it with the people.

01:50:08

Sometimes comics, when a joke doesn't work, they'll be like, fuck you. I know better. And sometimes that works. But there's a lot of times where it's like, no, no, no, no, hear them. Listen to them. See them. You wanna be seen, but you gotta see them.

01:50:20

For you as an outsider, you know, we don't know each other well. This is our first time actually meeting. When you watch the show and you see me, what would be

01:50:29

your advice for somebody like me that's at this point in my career, I'm at an inflection point in my career. I represent a certain period of time me, my contemporaries, me, John Malaney, Ali Wong, we're entering that new era that the

01:50:42

Bill Burs and the Chapels are Those are the elder statesmen of the art form. What is your what was your advice to someone like me looking at it from the outside? Cause you have such a great business mind. Yeah.

01:50:56

I think what's what's worked for you is gonna keep working. That's why I said before. I think you have zagged when everybody zigged.

01:51:03

So everybody was going in one direction, which was, which is

01:51:07

low accountability,

01:51:09

low risk.

01:51:11

Doing things under,

01:51:12

you know, worried about cancel cancel culture and things like that. I think you have built a niche where you're not afraid to call out the Saudi prince, you're not afraid to call out the president and but you're calling out not from a place of getting a reaction.

01:51:25

You're calling out when you see a truth, you're putting your finger on it and say, I don't care if this hurts. I don't care if this is a nerve. I'm gonna have my take on this. I'm gonna stand by my take

01:51:34

regardless of what's happening. And that's when all that those are the things that have hit for you. You talked about that in the show. Yeah.

01:51:40

So I think it's not that you have to keep doing that the same exact thing. You have to keep in the mindset that got you to do that in the first place. You gotta self assess

01:51:49

what got me to to to to to observe those things. What made me curious why I observed those things, why I asked the question that got me to that truth. Right. Gave me the guts to do this. Oh, I felt like I had nothing to lose. Trying to make a name for myself. Now I got a name for myself. Now every tweet I'm kinda worried, how are people gonna react? Well, now now you're not playing the game the way you did at that time. Yeah. So I would say, first and foremost, don't lose what got you to the dance. Second is the stuff you talked about, which is you're betting on yourself, which is you're owning your own production, you're owning your IP, you're owning your own as much of that pipeline as you can from a business perspective because it gets you leverage you capture the value you're creating. You create a bunch of value. You gotta capture it. You gotta look at the supply chain and say who's capturing all this value? Who why ticketmaster taking this much of my fees. Yeah. Why is, you know, who when I go put this special online, what do I really make out of this versus what do they make? How do I get their numbers? And how do I understand how to capture value on the distribution side and not just this side. Yeah. I'll try to think about those types of things. It seems like you're building, like, For example, my mom saw you on the morning show. I watched the morning show too else. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, shit. He's getting into these mainstream areas, building the name, building the face there.

01:52:54

And then you're gonna almost like, that's how you go get the new fans and you take them back, you build this funnel. Yes. The bottom of the funnel is people who are gonna know your life story. They're gonna know stand forward with all these things. They know me. Just like any product in Silicon Valley, you create a funnel. Top of funnel is new fans, new eyeballs. How are you gonna go get them in this strategy? Middle of the funnel. How are you gonna get them to get their first piece of you? Their first real experience. Get them to their first show,

01:53:19

get them to watch, you know, the first twenty minute something that's your best work. Yeah. How do I get that? And how do I get them bond with the funnel? Which is how do I get to create maximum value? Like, a bunch of artists are doing NFTs. What does that look like for comedy? Right. You know, let me play with these ideas. I'm not gonna do all of them. Yeah. But I'm gonna have brainstorming sessions with guys like Sean to say,

01:53:37

what would I do with NFT? What could a comedian do with NFTs? Start to think about because that's bottom of the funnel more like totalization. Yeah. Think about that funnel. I would say, alright. I am a product, and I'm gonna build my brand around that product. You know, and it's a long, you know, it's a long series of optimizations. Totally. But that's how I would think about it. That's how I would view my my craft.

01:53:56

Which is, like, you know, it's easy to just get into the art world, which is, like,

01:54:01

you know, I'm trying to I'm trying to build myself and, you know, tell jokes, make people laugh. Yes. Like, ultimately your product and your experience from the mo like, when I showed up at the show yesterday, there was an hour long line. Yeah. We gotta skip it luckily because you hooked it up with with with a nice, like, VIP stuff. But everybody, their experience, end to end, isn't just when you step on the stage. It's like from before the show Totally. The line. Yeah. The rest, and I would playlist when you sit down. That's a friction.

01:54:26

Yeah. We talked about the the interface where you go buy the tickets. How much friction is there? I will go look at that whole funnel and I would say, alright. I'm trying to grease this funnel. I'm trying to get them to these magic moments with me. Yeah. The first magic moment when I first made you laugh on that clip on Instagram. Second magic moment, your friend takes you to a show. You have a great time. Yeah. Third magic moment is the follow-up of that. You know, fourth is when when you buy the merch and the merch stands for something. Totally. You know, whatever. Yeah.

01:54:51

That's cool. I've always,

01:54:55

I appreciate that because

01:54:58

The eye cannot see itself. Sometimes we're so in our, especially as artists. It's what this requires to be do deep, meaningful work.

01:55:06

But we remove ourselves from, like, what you said, the line four blocks down the street from the Masonic theater, how much you had to pay for parking, then what the show experience is like,

01:55:14

all that stuff. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But I think you're doing great, man. Thanks, man. I don't think you need advice for me, to be honest with you. I think you're doing great, man. Hey, this is this is my this is my two cents for the space y'all are working in. I think

01:55:27

just continuing to

01:55:29

try to be a source of light amongst just all this heat that's out there. It's really important, man. There's just a lot of garbage and trying to actually represent ontological truth and reality for what it is. Right.

01:55:42

Because you're playing with people's money. People are listening to my first million for that thing. I just wanna, like, let you know. Yeah. Don't forget. It's that it but it's that titillating feature. Yes. It's like, When you hear that title, you're like, but I wanna It's but it's just like I wanna make a million.

01:55:55

I came to laugh. I came to laugh. You're making fun of our Indian parents and the goofy things that they do. Yeah.

01:56:00

But why did I that's what I that's what I came for. That's not what I what I loved. What I loved was the stuff you're saying at the end, the stories about your daughter, the stories about the the the jerk parent at the at the Yay. The library or whatever.

01:56:14

Those were where I was like, oh, man, I attached. Same thing. We have my first million, and the hook is ideas. I hope you make money and get you get you to your first million. And what do you do with that when you get there?

01:56:25

I know that the people who are really gonna love this, because gonna fade. Like, you get that hit. You get that hit. You get that hit. What are you gonna be here a year from now? You should have already got that million by, you know, by by a couple years in or whatever. Uh-huh. The people are gonna stay because And these are just great conversations. I wanna hang with these guys. Yeah. That's the only thing we do is we create a fun conversation where people wish they were I hope that, like, there's a third seat in the studio.

01:56:48

My goal is that somebody listening to this. I was like, damn, I feel like I was in that third seat. Was listened to a real last conversation between two people. Not you talking to your book and me talking my book, but like, a real conversation by two people, you were curious. And so I answered questions. You a bunch of questions of stuff. I was curious about that. They feel like they got to be a part of a conversation that was a little bit more entertaining than whatever's going on in their world that day. Uh-huh. Like, maybe their their real life conversations that they weren't as interesting. Sure. My hope is that this one is that they feel like they're in that third seat. That's like a win for me with this. And so hope people enjoyed this idea. No. This is super fun. No. Thanks for having me, man. And thanks for doing it in person, because I remember you reached out and you're like, let's do a via Zoom, and I was like, no, we're doing this. Sorry to Samsung. You couldn't join now for him. Yeah. Sam check your DMs, bro.

01:57:30

I'm in your DMs though.

01:57:32

Okay.

01:57:33

Cool. Thank you, man.

00:00 01:57:51