Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - Al Madrigal

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Neal Brennan interviews Al Madrigal ('The Dust Up' podcast, 'Lopez vs. Lopez,' 'Shrimpin' Ain't Easy,' 'The Daily Show') about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is persevering despite these blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to Al Madrigal's podcast 'The Dust Up':  @TheDustUp   Follow 'The Dust Up' on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dust-up/id1707269612 00:00 Intro 2:00 Al’s Wife  5:28 ADHD 11:15 George Clooney + Starting Standup 20:10 Grief 27:51 Alcohol 36:36 Lowlight Reel 40:14 Social Anxiety 56:12 Priorities & Goals ---------------------------------------------------------- Sponsor Blocks: https://public.liveread.io/media-kit/blocks Follow Neal Brennan: https://www.instagram.com/nealbrennan https://twitter.com/nealbrennan https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan Watch Neal Brennan: Crazy Good on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81728557 Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Available right away. Hello. It's me, Neil Brennan. This is the Blocks Podcast. We heal the earth. You remember. My guest today is a buddy of mine who I haven't seen. You see him a lot.

Haven't seen him. We think it's six years. Might be eight. Haven't seen him. We think it's six years. Might be eight. I directed his, what was that for? It was for.

It was for Showtime. It was for Showtime. That's another, like. That was an old cable network. It was called Shrimpin' Ain't Easy. He's a great comedian. He's also the head writer? Writer on Lopez?

No, I just act on Lopez. You're just an actor. I just act on Lopez. He's great he's an act all right great because somebody was saying you're right no i i do other writing stuff i'll tell you i can tell me all about uh he's on the lopez v lopez show correct not a court not a court thing i'm sure george just made that joke and uh a great comedian, Al Magical, ladies and gentlemen. Also the owner of All Things Comedy with Bill Burr, the producers of my new award-winning Netflix special, Crazy Good. Check your local listings. I hear it is fantastic. Thank you very much.

Yeah, no, it turned out pretty good. And I'd take a shot at Bill, which is great. And also, I think, also the bar that you're fucking around with too, like you've set a very high bar for yourself with the specials. So you're not just slapping them out. No, I can't. I can't.

My jokes don't work unless they're perfect. I can't charm them in. Same. I switch things. I'm back doing standup and I actually, and Kristen was watching and she goes, what happened with there? That,

that bit. And I go, I just transposed two lines the whole thing fell apart it really did I'm not saying stand-up I mean stand-ups are some of the most arrogant people on earth but the good news about stand-up comedy it's so fucking hard yeah that how confident can you be? You don't get any credit going forward. Al's great, and Al has one of my favorite wives of all time. I lucked out with the wife, and we're coming up on 23 years of marriage, too. I feel like also— Kristen with a Y.

Yes. You met her. She was in the crowd when I did a gig very early on in San Francisco, and I spotted her. She didn't want anything to do with a stand-up comic. I had to do a little bit of old. Yeah, no, she was right. Yeah, she was right.

And then our mutual friend said, no, this guy's a little different. He's got a car. He has his own place. He's got a condo at a condo in San Francisco. This is 1978. Well, we bought the, I mean,

I'm very old and we bought the condo in 95. Whose way? Well, my family when my grandmother passed away.

So I live there in Telegraph Hill and that's what the buddy says. Like, he's got his own place. He lives by himself because that's his,

you're a struggling comedian in San Francisco. You get sheets for walls. It's so cute when a Mexican family buys a place, a condo for their son. But if a white family does it, forget it. People don't like it. People are mad. No, everyone was thrilled. So I had to do a little courting.

She was then teaching at a school for homeless children in San Francisco. She looks, she's incredibly, she's got the warmest eyes. She's in my top 10 or 5 or 10 warmest eyes I've ever seen. Great, just beautiful. She's a double masters, a former, you remember Benetton in Esprit? Sure. She used to do that and then she um she was a model she was a model yeah i mean and then she got a double masters in education and

she's great she's and also very sarcastic and doesn't like to lose an argument great comic wife yep funnier the thing that happens with comic wives is uh they become as funny as a middle but what was interesting about her starting with me is that we hugged when i got paid 250 for the first time and so when she watches my careers just evolve she's down with oh my god you got to do that our baby was going to be born during montreal new faces she goes you gotta go to New Faces. He's not going to remember. So she's actually supportive. Doesn't begrudge it. Very much so because she's been along for the entire ride. And you see that, I mean, and I'm not, I don't know anything about these relationships, but you think about Tom Papa,

Nate, Bert, like the people that have had wives this entire time when they were not doing well to the point where they are now. They're invested and they don't resent it. And it's not like, what about me? It's like, no, I had this dream when you met me. You got to do it next. You were there. So they're as invested as you are. It's not just this thing that's preventing you from being in a relationship.

I also kind of preach to comedians and actors that I know. One headshot per household. I would like to see you dating a nurse or a chef. I'm dating a therapist. Great. Everyone can fuck off. Betterhelp.com slash Neil. All right.

Block number one. Enough grab ads. Grief. We can maybe start these differently differently but grief i had a hard time with here let's pick take a bit grief adhd low light social anxiety temper addictive personality i think this all starts with adhd okay so that is the thing that's kind of plagued me my entire lifetime. They didn't know what it was before. No one knew what it was. And I have it as bad as you can have it. Because we just got my daughter diagnosed two, three years ago. And the therapist that did the assessment, she said, I've never really seen this before because she has it as bad as anyone can have it. And what she also has is a 4.3 grade point average.

So she's been able to, she said, usually what happens is people give up and they don't, students don't try because they can't do the works. And my daughter fought through it and just stayed up till three o'clock in the morning. It just takes her a long time to do the works. And my daughter fought through it and just stayed up till three o'clock in the morning. It just takes her a long time to do the reading and do the work. You know, she has to, to read something when I was in high school. So I went to high school in San Francisco and it was like Rushmore for me. I was going, I wrote every sketch for the rallies. I was had an art, you know, article and regular column in the newspaper. I was in every single club that you could possibly imagine, the worst possible student, to the point where they just passed guys like me along. I remember going to a professor, we had a Dr. Parker, and I said,

Dr. Parker, I'm going to fail your class. And he goes, Mr. Madrigal, for students like you, I don't believe in Fs. I believe in Bs. Have a great summer. And I just got passed along because they saw me doing all this other stuff and they were really impressed by it. Yeah. It was salutatory. But I had a good personality.

So even I got an NYU with a bad SAT. I got a 1070 on my SATs, but I made a decent film. So they were like that. Let them in film school. And I wonder if they think it was positive. Do you know what I mean? Like I ended up dropping out after a year,

but like shit, were they right to let me in? It was hugely helpful. I went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. I probably had the worst grades. I think I was, I found myself into a, like a, in a, like a diversity fair for the business school for at Cal Poly. Struggled there being on my own. You know, I was also, you know, being Mexican and Sicilian, you know, I never did a load of laundry or cooked a meal for myself in my entire lifetime.

Like, so I just got dropped. Still haven't. But I also got just dropped off and they drove away. And I was left there with some mixed bag suitcases and just walked in. Yeah. And so they didn't know because neither of my parents went to college. And so I just got dropped off. Didn't do well.

I ended up finishing at USF and figured my shit out. And I knew I had to put the time in. So I was barely getting by in high school, barely getting by at Cal Poly. And then at USF, knew I had to do what my daughter did. And I fought through it. And I ended up with like a 3.8 or something like that. It's interesting in that, you know know like in russia they go like they'll take the gymnasts when they're like five yeah they put them in the or they'll take if you

have a thing they'll take you and put you in the in the program could there be like an adhd path for i guess so many kids have it now. Everyone, and they're getting the assessments and they're getting diagnosed and, you know, early action helps take care of a lot of this stuff. So we didn't know what it was. I have it horribly bad. I finally, after my daughter goes through this, start talking to somebody, they're like, clearly you have it. You know, this is where you're, you're where she got it from.

You have it just as bad. I get on 20 milligrams of Vyvanse. I've never fucking been better. I'm telling you. You seem very stable. Not that I was unstable before. You were more hectic. Well, that's what it leads to is like all this impulsive behavior that got me in all the other blocks that we're going to talk

about. So my grief was a bad one for me because I only kind of figured this out and started going to therapy about two years ago. When did your dad die? My dad died on June 6th in 2016. Okay. So that's eight years. Absolute disaster. I'm talking about my mom gave me his medal and I was wearing that and I was convinced it was cursed because of how heavy it felt on me. Like I was just irrational, upset.

Have you had, I'm not sure. My dad died, but it wasn't, we didn't get along. So it wasn't. Didn't hit you hard. No. I got up to do his eulogy. We all couldn't handle it.

And I got up to do his eulogy at a packed St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco. It was like 350 people there. Not a huge room for a comic. And blubbered. That type of crying where snot's coming out of your nose and was trying to read the stuff shaking and could barely get through it and just kept apologizing and it was just a disaster is that adhd this is no that's me just loving my father so much that, you know, our mutual friend, Kevin Christie, whose father passed in a very tragic way, said the guy that you're trying to impress is gone. And the guy that you were doing all of this for, like when I came down to L.A. from San Francisco, I was the eldest son in a family business that was doing really well. Then I went to USF after Cal Poly and I was a business major with an emphasis in human resources

because we had a staffing company. So I went from right into the company. I went straight into the company at 19 years old. So I was going to USF and working at the same time. I fired people for a living. I hired- Yeah. If you've seen the movie Up in the Air- I did that. This will be your last week of employment. And it's unbelievable. That's what you did. Yes. And I was good at it. And because it was very nice, I didn't want them to lose their jobs.

And so I warned them. But unfortunately- People fuck up a lot. um and because it was very nice i didn't want them to lose their jobs and so i but unfortunately people fuck up a lot i was my running joke was like they people say horrible bosses horrible employees there's a reddit thread called anti-work and i almost want to start and i follow it and i agree and it's all about how what dickheads the bosses and and you got to record everything you got to do and i want to do one called anti-employee because it's like look people are no angels no everyone's bad and this idea that bosses are especially bad i don't think bosses are any worse than employees they just have power so

fuck them but it's not like no you'd be any different in order to make a company work you it there's a certain amount of income and there's a certain amount of money i can pay the best way to look now i gotta send you to the dentist that if i was a boss i'd be like i gotta fucking take care of your boo-boos go fuck yourself best way to look at any employee and what an employer and what you should be thinking is a sports team. You look at the Lakers every single year. They try to get better. Every single year they try to get better. And that's how you should look at it.

I think, you know, and this probably came across Instagram, but people have to stop talking about their employees like a family. Well, I always want to yell out, like, I'm from a very fucked up family. Go on. Yeah, exactly. And so you're looking at it like a sports team, but you just want to, I recommend to everybody I know, start your own business. Yep. Work for yourself. Why work for somebody else?

It's crazy. If you can't, well, it's just. Some people just don't have the mentality there's a also there's a conservative uh author named thomas sewell who's a i think he was like a economist but he said and i say it all the time now there are no solutions there's only trade-offs so yeah you work for yourself and you take on all the risk it's just a different kind of stress. You have to worry about getting customers, holding customers, service. There's a list and then

you got to hire employees. And it's just, what kind of stress do you want? There are no shortcuts. I mean, and you're going to have to always have, you know, if you want to earn wealth, you're going to have to try to rise to the ranks of some organization and hopefully there's incentives in place for you to earn a good living at some point or you're just gonna have to go out and do it on your own and hustle your ass off like but if you if you want to just get by there's tons of stuff you can do yeah but also this idea that's a very happy life just like happiness and money it just doesn't there's no correlation between that at all it does alleviate there is some but yes it's over 75 000 now they've upped it oh they have yeah

they upped it it's like 170 now because there's a there's a great book what happy people know or things yeah the happiness yeah yeah anyway it's like economy yeah money and it's like it's it's higher but it's just a matter of it's just different kinds of stress different amounts of stress different time where you're going to be stressed it's it's almost like renting versus owning like sure it's how do you want it how do you want to fuck yourself exactly so what do you more calibrate anyway i'm working at this parents family business and i'm miserable and i've always wanted to be a standup comic. But when I start trying to get into comedy, my dad and mother are not handling it well.

So at one point they tried to call me in and like, we're giving you the company. The company is yours because the standup is starting to take off. They see like I'm doing shows. I'm in a sketch group and we're becoming popular. And then I'm starting to become a little bit more popular. I'm doing shows, I'm in a sketch group, and we're becoming popular. And then I'm starting to become a little bit more popular. I'm working a lot. And they call me into the office and they say, the company is yours. Enjoy.

And I go, I have all the power. It was like a passive aggressive gift. Yes. Yes. Here you go. Because they see that they're kind of losing me to what I, like a passion, my bliss, you know, whatever it is like I'm like so happy to be doing this. And because I've always wanted to be a stand up comic, I loved stand up comedy from forever. It's the best.

And growing up in San Francisco, we had this guy who was like a Howard Stern, Alex Bennett, and you could listen to it on the radio. So all the comedians and it was Durst and it was Proops and it was Larry Bubbles Brown and all these, Michael Meehan, who I grew up across the street from, were all on the radio in the morning. So that's how I knew it was really a thing and I just loved every bit of it. And so they see it starting to take off. The business is yours.

They bought me a house and I really did call them. I go, the business is mine. I go, I got all the power. And they said, yes, you have all the power and i go i want to uh fire laura and they're like you can't fire laura yeah sorry it's like it's so it's not mine and anyway i go to montreal get cast in a nationwide search for this latino comedian and ended up coming down here doing a pilot and went back to work the next day. I went right back to work and went back to San Francisco.

So my dad and mom are now freaking the fuck out because their eldest son, who was their retirement plan, who's going to take over this family business, has now got one foot down in Los Angeles. And being from San Francisco has this crazy rivalry with LA that it doesn't work both ways. No. Who?

Exactly. It's true. Yeah. But San Francisco, I grew up with beat LA, fuck LA. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My daughter's first words were boo Lakers. So we, fuck LA. You're going to go to LA? Yeah.

What are you doing right now? Where are you? I go, I'm in Los Angeles. This is a real conversation. These are quotes. Where are you right now? I'm in Los Angeles. This is when I'm auditioning for the show. I just met with UPN. He goes, what the fuck is upn upn was the you know the network yeah back in the day and i go as a network dad and then i go tonight i have a show with janine

garofalo at the mint and he goes who the fuck is that right and then i said and tomorrow i meet the casting director for curb your enthusiasm curb your enthusiasm and he goes what the fuck is curvy i go it's on after the sopranos and he goes you're gonna be on the sopranos and i go no dad i'm not gonna be on the sopranos and he goes well we're gonna change the locks tomorrow and i don't know who you think is gonna fucking be here but like you better fucking be here man and uh and then i would be driving to sacramento and he goes where are you right now and he goes i go i'm driving to sacramento uh to go do the punch line and he goes what how much they paying you and i go 25 bucks 25 fucking bucks how much is the gas you fucking idiot like that is yelling yeah and then i go he goes who are you working for and i go it's a guy 25 fucking bucks. How much is the gas? You fucking idiot. Like that. And you're yelling.

Yeah. And then I go, he goes, who are you working for? And I go, it's a guy named Louis CK. Who the fuck is Louis CK? Like,

it's hilarious. And that's when Louis. You better not masturbate in front of women. That's when Louis, there was like, I remember Sunday night, there were 38 people

in the audience for Louis at the. I saw Hicks with a one third sold out Carol. It's me and Jamal wentz, he built Hicks. Crazy. Not even close to sold-out.

Bananas. Anyway, so they're freaking the fuck out. So I've eventually come down here and lucky enough to, that show went bye-bye. And it's kind of a lesson in perseverance because lucky enough to be working ever since. I think like between. Did you quit? Did you officially quit the family business oh yeah yeah when i got cast when i'm an alert that she i changed the name oh you're a real lady but it was like uh but she ended up you know the company is doing was doing great they actually just sold it um so now my mom finally got out, but my brother still works there.

Um, it was doing great. It was just a staffing firm and I could have had a fine life as a working for the staffing firm and doing, being a local standup. Summer's here and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can a chicken parmesan delivered a cabana that's a no but a banana that's a yes a nice tan sorry nope but a box fan happily yes a day of sunshine no a box of fine wines yes

uber eats can definitely get you that get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol and select markets product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Okay, let me get back to the grief and the ADHD. What do you think the grief is? The grief has something to do with ADHD? Yes, because, well, I did not grieve properly. I did not talk to anybody. I just was kind of going through it,

and I was unaware of why I was so emotional. I was depressed, you know, even Kristen, your wife, that's her real name. We did not change it. Um, I would talk to her about it, but really not get into it. You know, the, you know, she is, was always there for me and she's, you know, a great, uh, wife partner as we've established, but yeah, it was tough, man. I was sobbing. I was just really, really upset by the entire thing. So it was really difficult for me.

And if you didn't have ADHD, you think it would have been different? No, I think what ADHD does, and again, no therapist can ask this girlfriend of yours. So it really forces, it causes causes you because your mind is racing constantly, constantly, but it takes you to very depressed thoughts. Like the other thing that will come up is I like had this low light reel playing in my head at all times. So I was always thinking of my life's biggest fuck ups and had this, you know, and it should be the opposite. You know, I've learned to just be looking forward at all times and trying to be the best person I possibly can be. But I was like, you know, because of my severe ADHD,

I just have a river of twenty five thousand thoughts. So much trouble. And you think it's in a form of intrusive thoughts kind of. Oh, it just it's all thoughts. I'm thinking of everything. The thing that allows me to think of jokes and weaving stories together and help create TV shows and come up with movie ideas that I'm writing is the same thing that makes me go to a super dark place. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know this. I didn't know any of this shit.

I don't even, because I'm wondering, do I have ADHD? I don't fucking know. It's also to the point i what and what am i going to do about it i could take vimance i could take i don't know if that's the right thing for you but i all i do know is that i've kind of never been happier and at peace with what i have going on, that whole river of negative thought, if any kind of even inkling of a negative thought pops in, I just ignore it, you know, and just... I've taken to calling them squatters. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where it's like, no, you're not. You're not squatting here today. Get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. Yep, I do the same thing. And I think the grief had me lashing out. The grief, like, and the ADHD didn't help, but, like, it's all impulsive behavior. Well, the thing that I remember about you, it's all I remember.

No, the thing I remember about you is did not take well to hecklers. Oh, I was always so mean to hecklers. Kevin Christie always said when you, when I would tell somebody to fuck off, I really meant it. Oh, I've gotten myself in so much trouble with hecklers. Like, I have some heckler stories where I should have died. I remember there was a drug dealer in Coconut Beach that showed up with white contact lenses. Have you ever seen anybody wearing white fucking contact lenses? It's scary as shit. Not live.

Oh, right in my face. White contacts, grill, cornrows. And everybody was doing a ton of blow at that Coconut Grove improv that has since shut down. But it was one of the first clubs that worked me, so I was there all the time. And I show up one day, and they go, hey, man, it was a weird weird shaped club that was like a U.

Yeah, it's shaped like a, yeah, the stage is like a U. So when you walk out a door. And then, yeah, there's tables here, but then there's a gap and then there's tables back there. So it is this U shaped audience and you have a little section in front of you, but for the most part, people split off on the sides. And they said, and this U right right here 40 people at a table and it was uh the drug dealer the local drug dealer this guy had white contacts at grill and cornrows and they said do not speak to him because they know yeah and they go and they're not going to talk they're not going

to enter we're not where they said it we're not going to intervene. They said it. We're not intervening. This is a bad guy. Yeah. But he's loyal to the club. He's going to come in and spend a lot of money. We know who he is. This is a bad person. If you talk to him, it's going to be a problem.

So I'm sitting there doing my set, and I let 25 minutes, a half hour go by of him up at his table, walking around like he's hosting his daughter's wedding. You like this guy? Huh? You like this guy? He's good? Huh?

You having a good time? What's funny is if you don't acknowledge it, you lose credibility with the audience. Yeah. And I'm looking at this guy. And you're like. And then I go, fuck it it i go tito i go you got to shut the fuck literally named tito his name was tito i go tito you got to shut the fuck up i go they told me not to talk to you because they said you're a bad dude and i go but you know what i don't care if i fucking die i go shut the fuck up and sit down right now i can't fucking take it sit down sit down

it's like your dog it's a great dog name it actually is so after the show these assholes just leave me in a small tabletop with my cds i shouldn't have gone out there but i walk out with my cds and he walks up with a goon a guy that is massive he's got this six foot five guy that's with with him and he's a very popular drug dealer we think you gotta have a goon one of the greats and so he says you have insulted me in front of my friends i thought he's fucking pissed and i I go, no, Tito. I go, you insulted me in front of my, this is my work. This is what I do for a living. And you're talking all the way through it. I so, so if anyone owes an apology, it's you owe me an apology for fucking disrupting what I do.

And don't showing me respect. And then I, inside, I remember going, like, what did I just say? But I knew that's all I could say. Yeah. And he took out a huge wad of cash, peeled off like 400 bucks, threw them at me,

grabbed a stack of my CDs and walked away. And he's been your biggest fan ever since. Now he runs your website. I was so dumb with hecklers. I just couldn't stand it. I just couldn't. I mean, so I've gone. I'm with you.

I find it so rude. That's why when you go to a Largo, I remember being next to Blaine Kapach at UCB, and we were at a meltdown. We were at meltdown. And UCB and Largo are like this level yeah and he looked at me and it was like kumail and jonah were like killing with crowd work and premises and he looked at me and he goes if comedy was a video game this would be level one

because it was such a polite well-mannered crowd with no waitress and no alcohol but if you go into like the cellar late at night or a friday night late show when people have been working and people are boozed tired and drunk yeah it's not interested it's tough you have to be really fucking good yeah so anyway i was i was bad with people being disruptive because I was very impulsive. And that's what the ADHD is. It's like no impulse control. But it did manifest as drugs, didn't manifest as alcohol. You know, alcohol was rough with me when I'd go on the road because there was nothing. I had no money.

I wasn't getting home to wife or kids. And I've, you know, in the early years of standup, you know, I was Mitch Hedberg's opener. And I went out, I had my runs. I went out with Dave for a tiny bit. So with Chappelle, I got to be with him right when he came back from Africa. Yep. That's when I'd stop.

That's when I stopped being with him. I started. And so he came back. He saw me at the San Francisco Punchline, sits next to my little brother. And I get the note on stage, Chappelle is here, wrap it up. But I'm doing a headlining weekend. Yeah.

This is, what were the years? It was 2005? 2005, yeah. So in 2005, I'm doing my first big headlining weekend. And on my Saturday night, I get a Chappelle's here, wrap it up. And in my mind, I'm like, I'm going to do my best 20 and then I'll go. And so I had a close super strong. He's next to my little brother Dante.

And he goes, who the fuck is this guy? And Dante goes, this is my brother. And so he loved me for seeing me do well. Then we went down to the store. loved me for seeing me do well. Then we went down to the store and I knew that Mitzi was going to try to put up John Caparulo. So I walked backstage at the store, just having done this weekend with him, walk backstage and I see Jimmy the door guy or whatever, somebody blocking it.

And I go, hey, Jimmy, like that. And I walk right by him and I go sit in the green room and no one was in it. And then Rick Greenstein came in and then a couple of people filtered into that green room. And I knew what Dave was going to say. And Dave walks in and he goes, oh man, you want to do a guest set? Yeah.

And I go, I'd love to. And I went out and did seven, but that was in front of eddie murphy yep bruce willis eddie murphy was sitting next to bruce willis it was crazy and it's like a painting dude leonardo dicaprio yep uh joaquin phoenix it was a ton of people remember seeing kenya paris years later he's like i was at that show. They got fucking killed. So, and that's when I was doing a ton of standup. So when I was really like out and practiced, you know, and hitting those rhythms that we talked about, like it was,

it was all working and it was a great, and I got this little standing ovation and system of the down. It was like, can I get your phone number? Like those guys wanted to like hang out. Like it was great. How can we learn from you um that was when that song yeah like everything was so cool like and i was talking about i had this bit about armenian babies so they thought that was like amazing because they're all armenian

so went out with dave i went out with daniel tosh who I think is a very- Incredible comedian. I hope you, I don't know enough, but David Spade and Daniel Tosh, great comics. Like both very, very funny. David Spade on any podcast. So fucking funny. I would put David Spade on SmartList up against any podcast. Like I think he is- Yeah, I haven't heard it but but wonderful i'm just hilarious yeah he kills me yeah he's so um they had michael keaton on with bad audio the other

day because i love michael keaton as well and uh they had him on with bad audio and he was so fucking funny because he just mumbles he tags some stuff that they just breeze by. I think David Spade is one of the funniest. Daniel Tosh is one of the funniest. And so I went out with Tosh, but spent a lot of time on the road with Mitch, and we were going at it. I mean, everybody was partying it up, you know,

and it was a lot of late nights. Heroin? I didn't see heroin okay but he did he did and he put it in his body yeah it was tricky and i i really you know cared a lot about he was great like yeah it's um it was that was tough uh and then you know again we've seen so many comics do this like giraldo and like go down this path of my uncle when I first started said, hey, watch out for the nightlife. We have free booze everywhere we go. Yeah.

So alcoholism runs rampant because now we got these guys that can sleep till 2 p.m. every single day. And if you don't have any self-control, you're in deep shit. Because I have free liquor and people that want to party with me nonstop. I remember going to the comedy store. Remember that Taiwanese cop, Huck, that used to work there?

Really? I didn't go until 08, really. Okay, so he says, I'd roll up on a Tuesday. He knew I liked Crown Royal. The liquor rep gave him a special bottle of Crown Royal. He'd see me coming through. Like if I was standing in the entranceway, he'd see me through the double doors and start pouring a shot.

And I'd be like, Huck, it's Tuesday. Yeah. It's Tuesday. No, I can't. And so and then you. Yeah. So it's easy to be a drunk. So, okay.

And I was, I drank on the road. Go back to grief. Back to grief. So how did you figure it out? I think when I really started, I identified that as the problem, that I was still not over my dad's death. And this is like, I think I'm going to the doctor. I would did not feel well. And she said, do you think people in your family mask depression with drugs and alcohol? And I said, a Mexican and Sicilian bitch. Yeah. No, I go. Yes. 100%. She goes, does anybody in your family drink and i go 100 of the people

drink i go the kids drink everyone drinks everyone gambles we have such addictive personalities on both sides yeah no i don't fucking doubt it like yes i'd want to see that. I did a Daily Show piece about cockfighting. In Puerto Rico? They used to have it openly in Puerto Rico. I went to, it was in Louisiana, but they were trying to call it chicken boxing. And they were trying to put little tiny boxing gloves on. And I went out to, I had a guy, you know, it was a Latino guy in a suit driving through rural Louisiana, had a guy run after the car, like looked at me, saw who I was and started running after the car. And then I was like, go, go, like you already just run at your vehicle. And then went to a farm deep in the middle of nowhere where they were clearly cockfighting.

And I go, hey, fellas, if these two chickens were to go at it, roosters, whatever they were, cockfighting and i go hey fellas if these two chickens were to go at it roosters whatever they were you know i go who wins and he goes i go if it was real and he goes if it was real like i was like oh it's real these guys are fighting dogs it was horrible but um the addiction on the sicilian and sort of like, you know, family history, like of Mexican Sicilian, I got a bad on both sides. And so it's important for me to keep that shit in check. How did you figure the dad stuff out? You just took the time. I think it's like when she said, are you masking depression with alcohol? And I wasn't like drinking a ton, but do you have a family history of people trying to

master depression? Are you depressed? And I was like, I think I am a little depressed. Yeah. And so that was like the first sign. And that was about three years after he passed that I started to realize that was probably the root of a lot of it. And I think the ADHD had me kind of like spiraling out of control into a negative place and having a lot of like very negative thoughts. And would you, so how do you properly grieve? You like take an hour? I think Jewish people and their tradition of grief, they have it figured out where they do go through an entire process where they're meeting on a regular basis and they really formally say goodbye and they get rid of it. And so, you know, you just can't carry it all with you constantly. And so I think that's what everybody in my family does.

My mom, my dad was passing when as he was dying, grabs my mom's hand and says, never date. Fucking psycho. So just fuck? Don't date. Don't date. Just fuck, dude. Oh, my God. If my mom listens to this.

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negative do you think because i'm i'm thinking positive so i'm thinking negative stuff at the same time like and i just why am i not why do I not have a positive highlight reel? Yeah. I mean, yeah. It's like I've talked about having to write down on an index card like good things I've done. Yeah. Because you want to remind yourself. Yeah.

So like I think, and again, I need to go to more therapy and I didn't go forever. I found this great guy. to more therapy and I didn't go forever. I found this great guy. He gave me like, uh, uh, tools to help me stop doing this. And I think once I got on this five ants, I completely stopped doing it, which is great. Um, so I watch it just be like sugar pills. I'm not on anything, but I, I, I really do feel much better, and I stopped doing that. What was it? Where did it come from? Why did I do it?

Fuck if I know. I was just doing it. I think it's like evolutionary protection with ADHD sprinkles. Like you just want it. We're scanning for threats all the time. So then we're like, you know, time so then we're like you know one time it's all these like one time i fucked up i'm the threat yeah i'm the problem and am i stupid i'm like i'm stupid i'm stupid yeah i gotta not be stupid don't be stupid yeah um yeah and then

you're and then you're just in a loop all the time constantly in the loop it was actually going through covid uh And I know COVID was horrible for a lot of people. I loved it. Honestly. I'm going to say the same thing. So I'm glad you said it because I got a ton of time with the family and we all really became closer. I figured a lot of stuff out for myself. And so that was when things got a lot better for me. It was during COVID. Mental health wisewise? Mental health-wise, yeah. Because you got to spend, you got to slow down. I really got to, there was no pressure.

You know, when you have kids in Hollywood and a family in Hollywood, you know, when I came down here, there's no fucking around. I came down here with the one-year-old. I can't imagine what it must be like because I don't have a kid, but my girl has a kid. And so I can see how it must focus you.

Yeah. And because it kind of focuses me in a weird way. And you have to really divorce yourself from ego as well. Kidding. Well, no. You think about a lot of the comedians that have been super successful, that have been able to just like really focus. But even the ones that are like selfish to the point where they don't have families and they don't have, you know, they're just so career oriented and then they do that later in life. There's no fucking around.

There's a lot of pressure to do well. And then you have, you know, when I would go into auditions and I have so many that I wish I had. I've been lucky enough to act and work for a long time. But I go into auditions like I needed it. I didn't want it. Yeah. I absolutely needed that money. And that led to me being like chatty with the casting director or overly chatty and fucking really weird and bad or good i mean i've gotten enough stuff where i've focused but um i not great no

and those were like a lot of the moments i'd play back i'm like yeah so when i go into a situation like even social anxiety stuff or just so anxious going into a big party, if you go to one of these big Hollywood parties, you seem like you'd be great at all this stuff. You know, a lot of people. I know a lot of people. I like one on one. I don't I don't like parties. I stop. I think I've gone to my last party. I have a tendency to over talk and then walk away going oh you dummy what did you say that to that guy for you know and so it's like then you're thinking about that forever you can't sleep at night awake i was waking up at two three o'clock in the morning every single

night and then going you know like river of,000 thoughts and a lot of them negative. And just like it was difficult for me to go back to sleep. Then you wake up the next day and you've gotten four hours of sleep. You're not great. You know, so luckily all that seems to be pretty much behind me. Thanks to COVID. Thanks to COVID. A lot of people aren't talking about the positives a lot of people died

you've been vocal about how covid you i liked it it was i liked being by myself i like the isolation i like the lack of i like the fact that we could just stop being competitive for a second just like can we just be human beings in business wise like yeah put the sword down let's just like see what we're doing here what is this experience this is great i and i didn't really miss doing stand-up i i like i love doing stand-up do any of that stand-up when out of the trunks i did a few of the a few of the uh cab the back of the pickupunks. I did a few with a cab, the back of the pickup. That's kind of put the nail in the coffin of me.

But I would do like one a week or something, like tops. Yeah. So, and I did a few like on video show. I would just try it and then be like, I don't need,

if you do it long enough, you go, I just need to know if these jokes work. So then I can do them anywhere. But I don't, this thing of like the Attell thing of like, I got to do it every night. I got to do that. And it's like, all right, it turns out you don't. And yeah, and then I was able to stockpile material and put out two specials in a year and a half. Well, the thing for me also that got me away from stand-up was I did a show with an older comic.

And we were talking about kids. And he said he didn't watch his kids grow up. And I was like, yeah, I'm not going to do that. So I completely took myself. Did he regret it or was he just like, eh? I think he didn't mind. I do. So I knew the end was coming i see how quickly these guys are you know gonna be out of the house and so i just

wanted to really maximize my time with my wife and my kids in these kids formative years so i could be there to like help them with an art project or whatever it was just in case or maybe they don't have enough homework and we can watch some you know below deck mediterranean together whatever it is and uh hang out so you're just trying to maximize all that time because i know i know it's fleeting and so you were instantly aware of how fleeting it was well yes because i i saw it happening i was watching my kids get older and older but then talking to you know other kids with other people with kids out of the house and saw some neighbors nearby and just watched that dad kind of putz around i'm like i'm turning into that guy and i know it's i'm going to be him soon so maybe i think i want to be here as much as i possibly

can be and i was right that was a very smart choice on my part. And what you have to do is like sort of divorce yourself from that ego of, you know, it feels great to go out and do standup and I can do it very well. I've been going to the Ice House on a regular basis. I'm actually doing a, I think I'm going to do a spot at the store for the first time this week.

And like, it feels great. Yeah. I'm good at it. I wrote a new 10 minutes that really works. It might be one of the better things I've done. And it feels fantastic. What I find interesting about children, just again, spending time with my girls.

How old? Three and a half. Oh my God, that's a great age. So fun. Yeah. We didn't have a coffee table for years because of the wrestling. Like I would just be like, I would get my son and be like, okay, let's go. Yeah.

Like that. And he'd jump off the couch and grab me like. It's so funny. Because the coffee table really is an impediment to most of what they want to do. Yeah. Yeah. We need to get rid of that coffee table and do some major pillow fighting wrestling is going down it's a ring yes um and what i find interesting is the thing i liked about covet which is there is no status here the only status with a kid is focus, being with them and paying attention to them.

There's no cool way to do it. There's no higher, better. Yeah. It's binary. You're either paying attention to them and engaging with them or you're not. Well, that's why I left The Daily Show. The only reason I left The Daily Show is because John and I had kids the exact same age. And I was commuting back and forth between L.A. and New York.

I didn't bring everybody out with me. Yeah. And I was missing them terribly. So I already lost that chunk, those chunks of time. Like I was on the road nonstop for two and a half years when I was on that show. two and a half years when I was on that show. And finally, when I got cast in a TV show, because Jason Kadams came backstage, like Rory Albanese, who was one of the EPs at the time, would like pawn people off on us. He's like, hey, I got this guy.

Can you turn him around? Turns out to be Jason and Kathy Kadams. And then he- Who were they? I know Jason's a- Jason and Kathy is his wife, but Jason did Friday Night Lights. Oh, right, right, right. Parenthood.

And then the show I was on about a boy. And so he cast me in that. And I went to John. I was like, hey, man, I miss my kids. And I got cast in this TV show. And he's like, dude, I totally get it. Go. And then that's what Shrimpin' Ain ain't easy comes from the special that we did

together like that my shrimp story comes from me acting out because i was commuting uh so much right so that's when i hid shrimp all over my daughter's ballet studio because i was having to fly out to go back to that fucking daily show and he was he had adhd yeah he was impulsive and he irrational and i'm telling old ladies to fuck off yeah he's in sicilian what are you gonna do uh we get a long history of you know yeah it's yeah guys who drink after work yeah it's pretty well and i at work yes um how do i do in terms of like i think it was a pretty cohesive no i'm like we're not done okay social anxiety yeah that was that was tricky but but you say that you think i would be good at socially i think

what makes me be better because people i think i have a i'm i seem severe i seem severe disinterested you seem to know how to navigate hollywood better than most people and i would go to like a caa emmy party and just be terrified terrified like to walk in i was just like because i knew i was really not trying to say anything dumb and so or over talk or again i was just like you know i always saw all of this stuff general meetings pitches and some like maybe a dozen parties lifetime crowd work you're just doing crowd work yeah you're just going what's going on here hey what's it ah you ask them about them and get them talking about we always said you, and this is me and my wife talking, interested, not interesting. I would always talk to them.

Like, how are you? I want to know about you. You can do that mirroring thing where you just ask them. Yeah. Match their breathing. Jesus. I'd hate to think that it would be that calculated, but I was always just being my fun and funny self. And, you know,

hated some things that would result from that. So, um, it was tricky for me to go to some things. I, I luckily got over that completely. Have a great time. COVID?

Man. Vyvanse? I, what, how'd you get over it? This was the therapist checking in with my, doing a little self check in before I'd go into it and just being like, all right. I went to a party a month ago and I've been doing a thing lately and I talked about it, which is a gratitude checklist. Again, gratitude's the corniest.

It seems, all seems lame. It's oprified, self-help pseudo spirit it's the one of the most effective things i've ever done in my life i do it four times a day i just do a gratitude checklist it takes about 40 seconds and i just remind myself that i'm incredibly lucky and that this life that I have is a gift and I don't have real problems. I have preferences and appointments, but I don't have any real problems. And I did it on the way to a party because it was going to be a lot of what we're talking about. Heavy, heavy hitters. And I just wanted to like remind myself, like you are not what you think people's perception of you is you are who you are you are who you know yourself to be but i did it i pulled

over on the way to the party like it's there's no downside to any nope any of this it really fucking helps man so i same thing um just the check-ins is the same sort of shit and it really fucking works i went to this thing um i got named i wrote a comic book and that comic book is doing well and it got me on this council for the comic book this creative council and which sounds like a comic book thing and And it was. A council. I was at a council. Exterior. High back chair. Well. The chair back is way higher than you'd like.

You spin around. Well, now to begin the council. It really was like that Dr. Evil sort of conference room table. So we met and it was, you know, very important people. And it was at a insane Beverly Hills house, you know, right away. I had to do seven minutes in the fireplace. They had me do stand up. It was crazy.

A fireplace hearth so big. That you could do stand up in it. You could do stand up in it. Yes. hearth so big that you could do stand-up you stand up in it yes and so i just i popped up on that didn't need a microphone but spoke to you know did seven minutes of comic book stuff of like i did my the machete story that i did in our awarding special yeah um and that did great so i go you know the gist of that is my grandfather killed somebody with a machete in self-defense and long story short, that's why I'm Beverly Hills doing stand

up in a fireplace. So here we are. Yeah. And told that long version of that story and, um, went great and then talked to a bunch of people, but felt really good about it afterwards. And years past would have been freaking the fuck out the entire time i was there how many people it was probably about 50 people there i mean at one point i walked outside and was met with hi al jerry bruckheimer nice to meet you there's one of those yeah so it was uh it was pretty nuts and you i felt i feel like self check-ins and like before what you're talking about with that gratitude list really helps you get through a lot of shit and it's like okay brain how you doing here we go we are gonna go to this fucking

party you deserve to be there because you are a prolific creator and you're fucking good at this shit yep and people should be lucky to fucking meet you and you're not going to over talk you're going to fucking stick and move throughout conversations the crowd work is a great way to think about it yep you dance throughout the crowd you have a good time and you get the fuck out of there and and the other thing about parties is people want the conversation to end yeah meaning so you think like has it been long enough it's been long enough it's no one wants you there's that's the the thing about parties is there's always i gotta go to the bar i gotta check get my coat i gotta find steve i gotta everyone's gotta grab another drink you want anything i'm

gonna go check out this food yep you gotta have enough of those in your back pocket yep to say what you gotta say and then you pull a i'm gonna go check on my wife i'll be right back correct yep it's all set up to succeed but old me just stayed in it and just over talked really i remember were you over sharing were you oversharing. I would be way too honest. Like somebody's like, hey, we got to get you back on the show. I don't think so. I didn't have a great time on the show. You talking about The Daily Show or any show?

No, another thing. Yeah. And I was like, why would I fucking say that? Just say, yeah, yeah, sounds great. And fucking, I got to go get a drink, you know, and get the fuck out of there. I went to a party over at somebody's house with, and I grabbed Mary Lynn Raskub because we were, it was, I'll just say it was over Taryn Killam's house. Uh-huh. And in Pacific Palisades.

Mm-hmm. He's having this party. And I go to call up Mary Lynn Raskub and I go, I'll only go if you go and don't leave my side the entire fucking time. And she goes, Oh my God, thank God. Like, you know,

please, that sounds great. Okay. So we walked around that party and worked at like a married couple and it was fantastic. We like sort of managed it. And then we lost sight of each other and I got locked in with somebody. And then I was like, Oh fuck.

I just over-talked, kept somebody too long he was they he was doing the same thing so we were in this long conversation i don't want to be in any long conversation at any of these things i just want to like stick and move and make my way around the party so i've gotten much better at that it's speed dating yeah it's speed dating and there's no point in thinking of it that's how I've battled the social anxiety. But again, I think it all comes from ADHD. And if anyone's listening to this and watching this that has a similar issue with a lot of

impulsive thoughts and hasn't been, we're older and we haven't gotten diagnosed for the ADHD. I think that really getting a control of that solves a host of all of these other problems that we're talking about. That's why that shit. Slowing your brain down. Slow it all down. Another big one is don't believe. I literally wrote it in my journal.

Don't believe a word my brain says. It's a liar. Don't believe any of it. Yeah. It doesn't have my best interest. It's on its own. It's got its own thing that it's doing. It's very true. And like, obviously obviously you have to listen to some of it but it's trust but verify by the way it's so funny

coming into this podcast i don't talk to anybody about any of this shit i really don't i i've just started do you think it's weakness? Meaning did you avoid it? Oh, I've told my mom to go to therapy and she's like, yeah, it's not for us. Like we don't do that. You know, we come from. Sebastian is your mom? I go to therapy. My family don't do any of this.

No therapy, no bettering. Since going to therapy made a prior, your prior. So you've you seemed like you always had pretty good priorities you were just like ambitious in a work-oriented way yeah like a blue collar work ethic when it came to hollywood stuff you automatically you're considered like prolific if you work eight hours a day yeah you know like that's the job what do you what do you think we're supposed to i remember hearing that berbiglia and mulaney and all those guys shared a little new york office you remember that and they showed up like kept office hours why wouldn't you it's

not that fucking hard yeah and so i work i have a cbs overall so i work on that and then um i i write quite a bit wrote a movie wrote this comic. I think that ideally the comic book, I think it's happening, is going to get turned into a movie or a show. And so we're, and then being on Lopez and having kids out of the house, I have an office. Did you audition for Lopez? I did. Great.

But George had promised, you know, I did a pilot with George. And I was always like, you know, fifth on the call sheet. You go in and when you're working on a scripted show and you're an actor and it's a comedy i got eight lines and they all need to be home runs yeah so i did this pilot with them that morgan murphy wrote called barlito and i hit eight homers and he was like you're with me so he said next time i this show didn't work out but if i ever get another show, you're going to play my best friend on it. And sure enough, made me his best friend on the show.

And it's like this second season, I think it took a little while to figure out, but we're in the midst of shooting our second season now. And the show comes out on April 2nd. I'm not sure when this podcast- It did good though, right? It did great. They put it on Netflix.

It did really well. But the second season, it takes a long time for these shows to get their footing. Yeah. So I'll be completely honest. The first season, some episodes are better than others, as in all shows. Christmas episode, season one, I would have you watch. I think it's great.

And then this second season, I think they're all great. Great. How many? 10 of them? We're doing 10 because of the strike. but then hopefully we get picked up for season three and we do another 22. I've had really good experiences with George. I golfed with George yesterday morning.

That's another thing that I found. I took up golf during COVID. Great. I golfed in high school and caddied, so I kind of got it out of my system. Long walks in the park with friends. Yeah. And I play with a ton of comedians. I play with Jay Larson, Rory Scoville, Sklars.

Yep. And Scott Armstrong, Rob Hubel. And there's so many very funny people that you're walking along with and just dying laughing the entire time. Mm-hmm. So really enjoy that. But I played golf with George and he's like, he's wonderful. He's in such a great place. And I think what's tricky with Latino comedians is that there were so few parts and it's actually gotten worse. Lopez versus Lopez is the only show, and maybe you can help me think about this, with a Latino ensemble that's on television network or streaming.

And it's fucked up. We're 20% of the population and only 4% of the characters in film and TV. And we might be the only Latino ensemble show. Dana Rodriguez has Dead to Me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's her just as a lead, which is fantastic.

Yeah. She's great. But nothing else. There's acapulco i don't know and that's on apple i don't know if that's coming back and there was that show primo on freebies freebie it's a weird you know i could i'm of course very interested in this and it comes down to cultural stereotypes, good and bad, is kind of define movie casts, meaning terrorists, Middle Eastern, Russian. There's this sort of Norway. There's this sort of Norwegian sort of ice cold guy. You could throw a Yakuza in. It's never going to be an

African. It's never going to be an Australian. But the Narcos It's never going to be. Right. But then like you go Mexican, Latino, Central American. Sure. Look at this latest Mission Impossible with E.C. Morales is playing the big bad in this one so is it out yet the one that came out there they did both back oh right or ozark where they're like we're bad guys it's like what do you see

on the news what do you see but in that define again and it's i used to say like if you're british in a movie you're gay or a villain or a love interest. But this is what I say. Well, with Squid Game, that was compelling, intriguing. It could have been anyone. It could have been Latinos. It could have been black people. Again, it could have been anything.

It just happened to be Korean. But it really could have been in any language and people will watch that shit so it was just how it came out and how intriguing it was and was that a covid thing as well like that the success of it or the shoot i don't know i think the success of it maybe we were all at a time where we're all i think squid game is gonna be i they're i'm i think they're making more i think it's going to be a juggernaut for 10 years yes but it is interesting like why shows just have to be great i don't think like okay sure like we all have like types that we fit into and you see you're a hollywood producer and

you see a lot of maids and gardeners are latino in los angeles and you write parts for maids and gardeners that are latino i get that you see a lot of gangbangers that are Latino. We get those parts as well. We're sick of that. But the shows just have to be great. It doesn't matter. The premise has to be good. They have to be compelling no matter what.

It's also like you need a George. You do need a George. You need literally. And we don't have a lot of Geor just because of that problem in the first place right so we just don't have the talent and in a time where we're going to be building shows around a big juggernaut you know celebrity we don't have a ton of them yeah it's a weird thing establishes himself and now all of a sudden you're doing a TV show you need a Dave or

a Nick Cannon or you need 3B's or Donald Glover or I don't think 3B's does it though you need a like just a Morgan you just need like a guy a guy who can

a woman a Sandra Sandy a guy who can, a woman, a Sandra, Sandy Bullock who can just cut to her again. I still like it. Cut to her. Yep. I'm still somehow compelled by this lady. And I think they've, that Bernie Brillstein of TV makes stars, that you've watched Jury Duty.

And that's a massive hit because people are craving something new, and all the shows seem exactly like the same show. So, I mean, that's what NBC is having a great amount of success with is that they're bringing back, like they're doing a Reba pilot. Meat and potatoes. Yeah. They've got Night Court, George, John Cryer on Extended Family. And so I'm lucky enough to be on this show and it's been, I'm, you know, it's a multicam. If you don't know, if any people don't know about how great multicams are, I get to do all my other shit and, uh, get to, you know, work on other things

because my schedule is the absolute best. We work four hours a day pretty much every single day and then shoot with the exception of our shoot night so it's a pretty wonderful schedule. Yeah, so it's about 25 hours? It's a great gig, yes, if that. And any success, well thank you if you're

on a big bang theory, they don't even work on Fridays, they don't do a network run through. Why would they? They're too precious. Can't have them doing actual work you'll get wrinkles fucking up the merchandise yeah um so you've you've had good values you've continued to work and you've gotten a hold of yourself yes and I think like really preaching myself like most important thing is happiness of those around me and myself and then health. You know, I'm physically I'm trying to like walk as much as I possibly can. I work out like it.

So this happy, healthy, ultra successful is like that mantra that I've got in my head nonstop. So I've just really been like ultra successful. Meaning what? I'm focusing and I'm doing my work. mantra that I've got in my head nonstop. So I've just really been like ultra successful, meaning what I'm focusing and I'm doing my work like I don't want to work at the expense of my health and my happiness. So those that's why those are like priorities because I don't value money. I love money. Money is wonderful. However, happy, healthy way before money. And then I would like to see if I can help out this Latino problem as much as I possibly can. So I'm constantly putting together TV packages and in like my third year of a CBS overall. And trying to write movies. I just wrote a movie with Gloria Calderon Kellett, who's a popular showrunner. She did the One Day at a Time, which I was going to say for Latino cast. But it didn't last more than two.

It didn't last two years. And it actually went to three in a different network. Got it, got it. Co-written by the great Mike Royce. Correct. And it's been tricky, so I'm just trying to do that. So I'd like to help out as many people

along the way as I possibly can, and I'd like to just continue to work at the highest level possible. But I've always kind of had Aaron Spelling dreams of multiple shows on at the same time and movies it's so funny because i i always say that i'm the i'm like the kind of guy who had kids in high school so i got all that out of my system yeah all that like tv shows and i remember it wasn't pleasant it's too much stress for me i like the i still have the old school you know i

started before social media i started stand-up comedy in 1998 so tv that ray romano jingling his keys on letterman that always remained the dream i know it's hard to break because i argue with roy wood about this all the time like stop, stop it. Just get a YouTube channel and make your own shit. No, I've got ATC for that. I can do that. I saw this coming in 2010. I could have had one of the biggest podcasts of all time. I knew I was going to have to nurture social.

I knew social media was going to enable me to start a network of podcasts and put all those together. And that eventually we were going to replace TV because it was called ATC Network because I wanted all things comedy because I wanted to be ranked. And I knew people were going to sort alphabetically. And so I wanted to be up at the top and I wanted to rival, you know, Comedy Central. And I wanted all the comics to come together and own the company that distributed all their specials and all of their, and basically that that company would pay them, but they would pay back into the company. We'd create this billion dollar company together. And eventually even I was thinking health insurance.

I was thinking it was a crazy dream, but it kind of, it's, it's working out, but it was, you know, that, you know,

who knows why we're here. It just works out in a different way than you think. It works out. Like most things in life. It worked out in a different way. We pivoted, but who knows why we're here. And I figure why, why, why we're, you know, while we're here, we'll just might as well fucking go for it.

Why not? Like, so I might as well try to crank out as much shit as I possibly can. I feel like I have good ideas and fuck it. How are your relationship with your kids? Great. How old are they? I got 18 and 21. And 21?

Senior in college and a senior in high school. And the senior in high school just found out she got into UCLA. Great. Which is thrilled to keep her home. And cheaper? Oh, my God. In-state, UCLA is $15,000 a year. Which is nothing compared to most colleges.

Nothing compared to most colleges. We pay three times that. I mean, four times that for my son to go to a private Catholic in the Bay Area. God bless. Yeah. Al Magical, ladies and gentlemen. That's a lot. It's a lot of stuff, you know, but is that a typical Blox?

Yeah, that was a typical box. Yes.