Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - Hasan Minhaj

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Neal Brennan interviews Hasan Minhaj (The Daily Show, Patriot Act, Homecoming King, King's Jester) about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is persevering despite these blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------- Hasan's blocks: 00:00 Intro 14:09 All In His Feelings 43:49 ADHD 49:52 Procrastination 55:26 Fear of Loved Ones Dying ---------------------------------------------------------- https://nealbrennan.com for tickets to Neal's tour Brand New Neal Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle ---------------------------------------------------------- SPONSORS: Manscaped - https://www.manscaped.com promo code Neal for 20% off + Free shipping Factor - https://factormeals.com/neal50 for 50% off your first box Gametime - https://gametime.co/ code BLOCKS for $20 off Honey - https://joinhoney.com/neal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Neil Brennan here. This is a podcast. I have a special on Netflix called Blocks. Jimmy Carr had the idea of wanting to have your friends come on, tell you about their blocks. And by blocks, I mean things that make them feel lonely or that something's wrong with them. And you may notice that my hair is a little better than normal if you're watching on video and that's because my guest's hair is a little better than normal as well. Always.

My guest is Hasan Minhaj. Here he is. I knew you by your maiden name, Hasan Minhaj. Yeah, my rapper name. I've known you, what do we got? 12 years? Yeah, since I first moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco.

From San Francisco. So you started in San Francisco. Sacramento, San Francisco. Oh, you grew up, what, did you grow up in Davis? I grew up in Davis, yeah. Right, all right, I know you. But when I was coming up, the biggest comics were Arj Barker, W. Kumam Bell,

Ali Wong, Louis Katz, Moshe Kasher, Brent Weinbach. Those were like the big San Francisco,nt weinbach those were like the big san francisco and shang wang those were like the big big half of those people share one verizon account friends and family account ali was on there with ali shang yes and moshe had a friends and family account until she they may still have it i don't want to blow their cover all right buddy so you do shows similar you're part of the emo comedy movement cry comedy movement yes the tromedy movement if you will yeah yours aren't really tromedy though i mean it was a whole one-man show about a girl not going to prom with me it's pretty insane no i know but it's not yeah it's

like i mean it's like it's survivable now that i now i'm 37 now and i'm looking back on it and i go i i mean i was 30 when i was doing it but i'm still like that's an yeah so it's no excuse yeah it's still insane for a 30 year old to do it like be hung up on yeah on some like oh my god this happened to me but i mean we live fine yeah mine was about my dad and depression so i was only i was only 41 so isn't it crazy that if you put anything into a elevator pitch it all sounds stupid yeah my daddy died but it's like yes of course those are the building blocks of every yes every ancient i totally agree the type of shows do, somebody told me that it's a 12-step program term, which is, oh, you think you're terminally unique, huh? And when I heard it, it was so devastating, like terminally unique.

So what an indictment of any memoir is like, and then it was like, and I felt bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. is like and then it was like and i felt bad yeah um so while we don't all have cancer we don't all whatever like but pain it's all relative right so maybe we have low tolerances for pain or it's our only way to express ourselves like this is the channel through which we express. Well, is that how you do you feel that there are things in Homecoming King and King Jester that are that's the King Jester? That's a pretty good in terms of like actual trauma. Sure. Maybe getting poisoned by your family. Yeah, sure. Getting poisoned by Saudi Arabia.

Sure. Seems like I don't know. I'll give you that one. Yeah. My impetus for doing it, and we've talked a lot about this, is I'm not, if I just do monologues, like about five subjects, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna be like eighth of people that do that.

Right. So why not do my own sort of unique thing and finish first what was your you're doing this we've talked about this before you do this weird like product market fit where you're like i have phenomenal product market fit in this vertical so i'm going to go to this blue ocean strategy and not everybody's your bit you didn't go to business school but you did yeah kind of yeah sure i have a lot of friends that did yeah yeah yes so i don't even know what you just said so if someone's coming up with a business yeah there's this thing called product market fit you have an idea but does that product meet the market demand a very colloquial

example of this is the way al gore was talking about the internet early right he was early he understood the product the market did not understand right so when he was in debates being like and one day people will buy stuff on people like shut the fuck up what are you talking about you're crazy yeah then there's certain comedians artists that meet the the moment their phenomenal product market fit 50 cents get rich or die trying was it hit at this moment in time where he was this amazing amazing product market fit or drake's kind of his version of cry hip-hop drake is so phenomenal market fit it's breathtaking yes they call him the neil brennan of hip-hop yeah um daily motion was before youtube it was the right product right

but they didn't have the right interface yeah internet speed was not at the did how did you come to want to make the show the way you made it the obviously yeah homecoming king being more clear narrative than than king's jester i think it was similar to what you're talking about where it was uh like i have so many friends that are so good at setup punch right mark norman's one of them shang wang fahim is so good at just premise then then punchline yeah and then i just naturally i was like what what do i naturally have a gift for i i kind of see things visually like i i love um pinterest boards and i love right um shot deck and stuff like that which is a website for um cinematography they use they use it used to be

a free membership oh really yeah it was free that's crazy really well you had to apply and they give it to you for free no it's i mean it's incredible it's it has it's a thing called shot that shot deck.com and you can type in the uh exterior man in rain and it will show you shots from movies of an exterior man in it sounds like ai but they take it from existing movies or you could be you could type in your favorite cinematographer let's say marcel rev let's say you love euphoria and it will just populate it then you can add more to the query and be like mar Marcel Rev, red lighting or green lighting. And then it'll just put all of his like greenish hue-ish shots. And it's incredible. So I was a kid, I grew up, I loved Slam Magazine. We didn't have cable in our house. So I just kind of really loved

visuals. I just loved like the slam of the month, which was like a dunk of the month and like the slam of the month which was like a dunk of the month and like the way they had shoes and i kind of saw like kerning font i just see things visually um so then i started doing this version of the moth meets these kind of well that's the i call it i call it powerpoint comedy yeah my style of it was just like i mean that's a very reductive way of putting it but you tell stories and then you have evidence. And the thing I was kind of trying to chase was, and I'm sure you know this because you've been in so many writers rooms, comedians and writers are so funny via text. Like our iMessages are fucking incredible. Yeah. And the gap you're always trying to traverse is how can I be as funny and as insane as i am on iMessage as i am on stage and the closest version of that was as i was workshopping the show of

telling these crazy stories that i would tell my friends through text or over the phone was that and it had this feeling of like but then this happened no it didn't no i'm telling you it happened right then this happened no no look at what she texted me. Yeah. How do I, how do I transpose that feeling onto. Yeah. Into the visual medium. So that's where then I started reaching out to Mark Janowitz, who's this amazing lighting and stage and kind of LED designer who came from the music space. And I just got more interested in, all right, how can I do this mixed media thing that captures

what's going on inside of my mind so it wasn't like an emo mine was more emo but also the moth I mean the cool thing about the moth is like it's a storytelling yeah podcast um but you it's funny sometimes yeah and there's people that are very talented yeah there's like people that are really so so it can be funny and then it can be touching or profound or whatever probably some of the best people that have done it um david sedaris has sedaris done it oh yeah burbigley obviously well not this american life have they done oh that's interesting they've done this american life sorry i'm like mixing the two yeah bur bigly uh yeah i mean that i once i saw berbiglia's got a special called my girlfriend's boyfriend which is excellent uh it's the one that

made me do three my like okay do you know the comedian paul provenza yeah so paul i'm not super close to paul but i loved he had this show on showtime the green room right but one time i was hanging out with some comics and he he was talking, but he directed some one man shows. He directed Kamel's one man show years ago when Kamel was in Chicago. But he talked about what was really cool. He talked about comedy almost being like these dials. And he's like, and you have so much more experience than I do. But probably you, Ian Edwards, guys that I know that have seen, I call them the parlor tricks.

You've seen every parlor trick. stand up but he was telling me he's like think of it like if there's 10 knobs comedy has like three knobs there is a voice so like chappelle has one of the greatest voices chris rock is one of the greatest voices cat williams amazing voice ellen jerry yeah that's a that's a knob yep then it's like the actual structure of the jokes like the setup punch the jessel nick right of the setup of the joke right that's like one of the knobs then there's compelling storytelling which chapelle does brilliantly in his specials right he kind of will weave these stories and have callbacks and all that stuff but he goes the longer you do comedy you can kind of see there's four knobs and that's it but what makes film the highest there's four now there were three

let's say three whatever i'm i'm being arbitrary yeah yeah let's say wait did i miss a knob let's say five yeah yeah a fine a very finite number yeah but you can kind of see the longer you do stand up you kind of see all the moves granted you can do each of those knobs at a very high level too like a you know a michelin star level but there's still five knobs then take film and cinema or the stage. Then you have art design, stage design, lighting. You've added more cinematography, lens choice, editing style. If you actually, when you look at probabilities, the number of variables you're now dealing with is exponentially larger. Which is why you know this as a director. Directing movies is so fucking hard.

Because there's literally 25 variables that can be modulated to different degrees. And to get that all to be tonally consistent is very difficult. Well, the thing that, while we're talking about this, the thing that Judd, Apatow, and Adam McKay do is they'll do most scenes like four different ways. Wow.

Four different tonal ways. But by the way, the fact that, I was telling Prashant this too, the fact that any of my comedy contemporaries or colleagues have a single classic that they've directed underneath their belt is a modern miracle. Because of the series of variables

you had to have on the board for Chappelle's show. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Modern Miracle. Yeah. No disrespect to stand-up or comedy as an art form, but there are less knobs to hit to get a classic or great out. Yeah. Not to say that it's like if you can take a feeling and then know how to do it like know how to communicate it via video that's that's it yes like if you can take a feeling or a or like a

fucking frequency or like a vibration you can be like no i think and we didn't have a ton of experience with the special we had half-bakedBaked, which was a botched version of a feeling. But totally consistent. Actually rewatched it. I agree. For what it is, from minute zero to... Yes, but there's about 12 minutes in it. There you go.

Oh, these guys, Didge Chappelle's show. Yeah, yes. That I could tell you like this. Back to me, back to me. That scene, the $8 date, there's like, oh these guys did chapelle show yeah yes that i could tell you like that scene the eight dollar date there's like okay these guys are good so whatever yeah so anyways and then the thing that i loved about it was if i those other knobs exist in my mind so if i can put those there it would evoke i would feel more self-actualized on stage. I think a lot of people don't care in the audience.

Yeah. Oh, really? I think we flatter ourselves that people care about... I think they just care about the jokes. Really? Unfortunately, it's like... I don't know. There is an element of it that when people go like,

I love the thing, whatever, Mike is is three mics or blocks or years yeah king sister or homecoming king um some of it is the the overall the total like the mass emotion and feeling and vibe of the thing right but the portable thing the joke is portable yeah that's like what chris revolution has to me it's like made you could do like a quotable book of like one you know what i mean of whether it's one-liners or just ideas or so i but i so i think like the quotability part like no one ever said when people, who's directing your special? And I go, who directed Live on the Sunset Strip? You know, the rich boy. Yeah, I see what you're saying.

Like it kind of does, but I remember jokes from it. Right. I mean, Bo Burnham has a funny observation, which is in a standup special, your shirt is 40% of the production design. That's hilarious. Which is like, he's absolutely right.

Yeah. All right, let's do some blocks real quick sure the this is a big one you're you're all in your feelings you're so you say that yeah it sounds negative yes what in what way is it negative so i would say i think one of my biggest blocks is I'm all up in my feelings, meaning like. Like you're a baby? Minor inconveniences or slights will hurt me a lot. I'll be like. Give me embarrass yourself. Okay, so I'll give you one. Yep.

Sometimes I might be too afraid to text you because I go, if he doesn't text back. You couldn't take it. It would open up all these other doors of possibilities in my head of like maybe he's mad at me maybe he doesn't like me maybe he thinks i'm annoying you ever hear my song nobody's mad at you it's one of the most popular things i've ever posted on instagram nobody's mad at you nobody's mad at you you're having a private experience nobody's mad at you nobody's mad at you nobody really gives a fuck but that's based on thinking everyone's mad at you all the time and you're that important so yeah i'm using this as a... It is the terminally unique thing.

It is like my mind confidence, my struggle. But you think it's about ego. You think it's about sensitivity. You think it's about having thin skin. What do you think the basis of it is? I think the saddest part is I couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle that level of rejection. It would be crushing.

I think even early on when I first moved to New York, I didn't want to go to the table where everyone was passed. At the cellar? At the cellar, because God forbid, if there was a comedian that I really respected that shat on me, it would be crushing. So it was one of those things where I waited a long time. And funny enough, Colin was so nice to me for a long time. Colin Quinn, yeah. And we were sharing the Cherry Lane together and it wasn't until after i finished the run at cherry lane

that i asked him i go would you vouch for me with esty and i remember him being like you idiot why didn't why didn't you ask me earlier and i'm like i just want somebody to shit on me uh here's why yeah can i talk to you for a second had you shat on me i would have well been crushed but i okay but here's the i mean you know what i mean this is like of course so ridiculous such an idiotic horse yeah no no no uh-huh part of aging yeah is getting better at managing your probable emotions so i keenan thompson did this yesterday with me there's something i want to talk to him about okay that i was gonna text him now by the way he mentioned similar thing he gets excited when i tag but then he's afraid he's gonna say something stupid i like yeah it's like fellas it's i'm real regular uh-huh um but but that reality is true i know how i i have people that

i will not we can be of course there are people that i will not text for probability that they will not text me back wow i'll even when someone like has a hot moment in showbiz yeah i'll give it two months so that i don't get caught up in the swell of like them just like oh what's up no no hold on like that yeah so with keenan i decided not to call him to talk about the thing we need that i want to talk to him about right because i was sort of obsessed with it for 12 hours yeah the obsession passed yeah and now i don't want to reopen it because it's not gonna make a difference do you know what i mean yes like so there's here's another anecdote that seth meyer told me one time there was somebody was hosting

snl and i have a non-show biz one for people great yeah that way i'm gonna cut it um go ahead and tell about your aunt um seth my seth meyer told me that one time somebody was hosting sorry live i won't say who a fucking killer comedy actor a killer a killers killers killers killers yeah like top five okay and seth wrote a sketch with an australian accent uh-huh and the person goes i don't do an australian accent and seth was like you're you you've like done sketch shows like do one australian accent he's like no i trust me i've tried it it's not good and in some and seth was like oh that's how people manage their career is you go what am i good at let me just kind of do that right but you're smart to manage your emotion there's a maturity to it

knowing you're a baby yeah okay or whatever you want to call it yeah yeah there's a level of maturity that i actually think it's going to send me into a spiral why would you do this to yourself why do it to yourself i think that's probably why i don't go to many live music concerts i don't go to nightclubs okay because i don't want anyone to look at me and push me. Oh, wow. I don't want to get pushed. Right, right, right. I don't want to get shoved.

I don't want to get. And have to go through that reality of like, now what do I do? Yeah, I don't want to get belittled. I don't want to get like, who? And then I got to text somebody. Right. Like someone goes, are you going to All-Star this week or this year? I was like, nba all-star

right i can think of nothing worse in terms of what i'm talking about in terms of like i'm outside yeah hey no come out i'm to the right like yeah nope is that a bad thing what i think what you're exhibiting is a sign of self-respect, but you're also closing down possibility. I'll give you an anecdote about just an everyday thing. A civilian. Yeah. A normie. A normie who's doing great.

So there's this kid I grew up with who's wildly financially successful. He was one of the smartest kids I went to high school with. Anyways, we got to catching up. So I knew him when we were 15, 16 years old. I'm 37 now, just to give you the amount of time that has passed. His name is Nikhil. I've told him this on the phone, and I think he'll be fine with me saying this. He ended up being in town where we live now, and he texted me.

Hey, I'm around. And I had this thing. Yeah, I'm in Connecticut. Yeah. I'm actually visiting somebody nearby, and I think you live on that road. He said he saw you. So is this true? And I'm like, come by. He I think you live on that road. He said he saw you. So is this true? And I'm like, come by.

He's with this person that he's dating. And I tell, I'm like smiling like a dork. And she's like, why are you smiling over Nikhil? And I go, he was the coolest person I went to high school with. And one of the smartest people I ever met in my life. Went to Stanford, then got into investment banking. And just works in venture capital. He's killing it. And I remember telling him, I go, Nick, I remember you called me when we were 15 and you were like, Hasan, I have a proposition for you. There is the Princeton

Review PSAT class right now. If you do it with me right now, I mean, we could get ahead on the SAT. And I didn't. I didn't take him up on that proposition. I think I did basketball camp instead. And I was like, Nick, I've seen you in what you became. And I cannot tell you how much I regret not doing that class with you. Sure. Because I could have been you. At least that's what I think in my mind. I'm like, oh, that's where like my academic career just kind of.

Sliding doors. Yeah. Sliding doors. Sliding doors. A movie from the 90s. Good premise. Uh-huh. Not.

Not great. It's just kind of boring. But it's like Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't get on a subway she like rushes and gets on and they show one version of her life and then waits oh got it and then they see the other version is like butterfly effect with Ashton same idea yeah so then I go at the end of the story I go and I feel like if I had just said yes I could have ended up like you and everything would have worked out and he looked at me both him and his girlfriend looked at me like are you at are you fucking insane he's rich

this guy yeah but like right what what yeah but it was this like sincere thing of like i feel like you did you you weren't doing it to be cute i wasn't doing it to be cute i mean i mean this sincerely yeah so you'd rather be him than you um the delta of his life between 15 to i'd say 30 yes the past seven years of my life have been pretty awesome but yes but yes well again and also and also he was like are you insane and i was like the game that you're playing also is very cool to me. I don't know if you've felt this before, just as a comic. There's part of me that sometimes I'm like,

the reason why I told you I didn't want to do the podcast is, do you ever have these moments when you're on stage and you're like, this is so stupid that I'm playing this game. My inherent value in this game that I'm playing, like stand-up comedy show business is entirely based upon whether you guys like me or not what an insane torturing thing to do to yourself oh it's a horrible way to back shit insane thing maybe the worst possible way yeah uh yeah off a thing you don't even know if you're going to be able to do in the

future correct in every minor slight that happens to you that could be in your control or out of your control i don't like his voice i don't like his nose i don't like the fact that he buttons his shirts up all the way up his hair the expressions he makes he doesn't smile enough all of these things never been said yeah yeah yeah like shape the amount of tickets you sell at the ryman auditorium yeah so i'm like i chose to play the most idiotic game and i'm kind of at the half halftime point of my life conversely the skill set you have built over the past 20 years you kind of get richer it's it's entirely based on like just your mind yes likability is a part of it you're in corporate america well that's what i was gonna say not so much it's a lot it i would argue well

tall people make a million dollars more in a lifetime than short people right like those dumb intangibles yeah applied to everyone but i was super vulnerable and i was like i wish i could be you and both of them looked at me like i was an idiot i don't like like i when i text you i worry about getting a response me yeah yeah i worry about everyone respond i worry about everyone that's yeah but i don't okay it is partially because you're popular okay do you know what i mean right right because it's not just because the thing that you're talking about in showbiz rejection it's all potentially a harbinger of something right some greater yeah and is this a reflection status thing if you don't text me back what am i mean it's a sad thing to say but i can always tell how well i'm doing in my career by the amount of phonies

that want to text me or talk to me right the amount of like oh this person's a bad person isn't it kind of crazy that even the older we get i thought high school ended at high school but the world is just high school it just began my friend it's just big like it's all still there's an old martin maul said show business is high school with bread and i don't know if he meant bread or actual i don't know he said in the 70s so it could have been like bread man yeah or it could have been actual starch this spring you need nutritious convenient meals to energize you for warmer active days and keep you on track reaching your goals. Factor, America's number one ready-to-eat meal kit,

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and redeem blo cks for 20 off blocks download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed but there's been good moments too where i told a girl that I had a huge crush on in the eighth grade. Funny enough, we got in touch. And I remember there was a big thing called picnic day, which is like they let class out that day and you get to like play in like the yard or whatever. And I remember we were super close and she kicked me. She straight up just like kicked me in the shins.

We were just like talking about something. I was trying to be funny or something. And she kicked me in the shins. And I and she kicked me. She straight up just like kicked me in the shins. We were just like talking about something. I was trying to be funny or something. And she kicked me in the shins. And I thought she hated me. And years later we got in touch or whatever. And we were talking. And I remember I just brought it up. I was like, hey, did you, did you hate me when you kicked me at picnic day in front

of everybody? Cause I, I, I, it made me feel a certain way. And then we stopped hanging out as much, but I really, I kind of liked you. And she was like, I liked you. And I'm like, fuck. Well, yeah. Like there was a vibe. Oh, dude.

And then that opened up this whole door of regret. I'm like, this would have changed ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade. And then I was actually kind of glad that I said it because then we both affirmed what i kind of felt and that was that was an example of like hey being vulnerable and just saying it was yeah i well i think there's a lot not much risk there i mean i the the thing i i want to say on the flip side of this is like and i risk things all the time no

six weeks ago yeah ryan reynolds dms me okay about a joke amazing right this is amazing and i go and i'm like fuck do i try to get him on the podcast uh-huh and i was like okay hey man i'm gonna ruin this right now okay and you really you do the podcast i have this podcast yeah i sent him a link to the letterman yeah i sent him a link to the letterman episode yeah left on a red oh no what are you gonna do what are you gonna do yeah what are you gonna do but you had to shoot the shot yeah it's like i don't want to not ask him right in case he's like of course I'll do it. Okay. Do you know what I mean?

Then did you start going down the rabbit hole of strategy? Should we have texted back and forth a little bit? Maybe met each other once or twice and then asked. But then you're like, the window's gone. I do that too, by the way. I think I didn't want to not. It was worth the getting rejected. Yeah.

It's a weird way to like stay humble. You know what I mean? Who do you have a direct kinship with, friendship with, that you can really tell them what it is? So I have this love and hatred for Ronnie Chang. So if he doesn't text me back, don't worry. Go ahead. But I will fucking go off on Ronnie.

I cannot stand it. And I will go in all caps i go what the fuck like i will literally go you mean it i mean it sincerely on some it's on some weird tribal shit where i'm like don't fucking pull this comedy store bullshit with me me and you were not like the others we are ethically and culturally aligned don't pull this i i i know what your mother's kitchen smells like do not tell do not pull this fucking hollywood nonsense with me and he'll be like dude you're emotionally failing i go shut the fuck up our wives are the same our wedding was this don't pull this fucking nonsense with me don't pull this variety.com hollywood reporter deadline.com article bullshit with me

i have this so often you better cut the fucking bullshit with me r ran in times with caa so often you better cut the fucking bullshit with me ronnie even i have this so often i don't even know who to pick but this is purely tribal this is off some is it this is awesome on some planet of the apes we're not like the others type shit where i go don't pull this nonsense i again he makes me so mad i would start yelling at him in hindi if he could understand categorically he'd understand it if you really if you leaned into it and this is wrong like this is absolutely wrong what I'm doing um but categorically there are so many of these I have so many problems with so many people uh-huh I don't even know who to give me a category. Got it. Like me, like musician, comedian.

Like it's like so many. I'm so sensitive to status. Yeah. And like protecting myself and like, hey, we're or like we started together. I've helped you. Yeah. Hey, we're, or like, we started together. I've helped you.

Yeah, yeah. So there are, I don't even want to say the amount of people, like, it's embarrassing. I wanted to close the loop on, so I was thinking, I was like, I'm all up in my feelings. But then I realized something. Actually, as a society, we, in, I would say, modern American digital digital society we are all up in our feelings and the tell for me is if you go to the new york times.com trending articles out of the five trending articles three of them will be opinion articles like that makes the new york times yeah so one of the most trending articles right now is millennials are hitting middle age and things did not work out the way we wanted them to. Hey, will you send me that? Sixteen hundred comments. OK. Yeah.

Four articles later, this is like in position four or five is like the war in Ukraine, Syria, like the fight for 15, like real populist issues. So what's funny is when we do media critique and analysis, they're always like, why do these politicians lean into culture war issues? Why shouldn't they? They should be leaning into like populist economic things. Unions, the fight for 15, Medicare for all. Right. The New York Times dot com. Because the coastal liberal elite, the hoity toity New Yorker reading.

I watch everything that a 24 makes. Coastal elites that define this. They're up in their feelings. In addition to that, like the the Republican Party fights on culture war issues, the Democratic Party does it on culture war issues. So if you really think about it, they know we're in our feelings. And they're more likely to get a rise out of us vis-a-vis our feelings than actual facts.

Right, well, that's Facebook made its money off anger. But I thought we were smarter than that. And I just realized- We're not, we're not smart. We're not. And even the key critique people, like the head of the New Yorker, the editor-in-chief of every major kind of elite institution,

when they're interviewed, they harbor in culture war issues. Because anything else is just dry. Like I don't, it's all, even cancel culture, any of this shit is just- I thought our bank accounts mattered even cancel culture. Any of this shit. I thought our bank accounts more than anything. I thought if you actually talk about issues that affect the price of eggs, milk, gas prices, employment numbers, savings, retirement, pension, medical bills, college. No, I mean, those are the nine most trending topics.

They incite fear. Yeah yeah but or they inspire fear but those are realer to me than the article that was i'm not kidding was trending about the little mermaid being black and i'm like i cannot believe how stupid we are well there's i think there's another thing at play that you're ignoring, which is people's ego is more like, yeah, but my take is more important. My, like, an example. Wait, help me. I'm not understanding. I'll show it to you. And it's not a normie.

I was doing a comedy show the day after the Oscars when Will Smith slapped Chris. Yes. And a woman's like, you know what I think happened? I think Chris knew about it and did it. And I go, no. I talked to him today. Well, no.

And I go, lady, I spoke to him yeah today she didn't care got it was more important that her opinion of it right was the like it doesn't matter what happened it's what i think happened is more important than what happened how I feel about what happened is more important than what happened but wouldn't her and again help me like help me break this down if you were like instead of calling her lady be like ma'am no what are you by the way she was in her 20s it was fun to call her lady yeah fine if she was in her 20s to be like how much student debt do you have and and what is your current salary vis-a-vis that debt? Oh, you went to Brown.

Okay. So you're a quarter million dollars in debt. Your current salary is 55K. After FICA, probably 30 something. How are you going to 8X that and buy a house and pay for a car? People don't want to think about that. I mean, again, now you're talking about distraction. That is the realist thing.

Yeah. That is realer than anything we're talking about. We're going to be arguing about trans issues as the giant tidal wave from climate change engulfs us. Right. Literally going like, no. Because they're just dumb, petty, nitpicky arguments. And they're tied to ego and all kinds

do you think our obsession with the weaponization of language is has always been there or is this a modern distraction it's a modern distraction got it the social media changed the earth social media i'm old i remember life before anything that's good about me is from before the smartphone anything that's good about me any i used to my vocabulary is all from books it's not none of it's from social media it hasn't made me better i don't think in any ways but i'm also addicted to it so it's all social media and all smartphones so that would be my so would it be my assessment then of me feeling bad that i'm like dude you're all up in your feelings fucking get over yourself and there's a little bit of immigrant uncle in that of like bro you're not number one on the

call sheet like that is one thing that i do think immigrants bring to the table like hey hey you're not number one yeah wake the sense of being just like a little a little a small a little bit yeah just a little bit of understand your place on the call sheet and that it's not all about you and to entertain these things as if you are always number one on the call sheet not only is detrimental to society but it's driving you crazy too so can you please stop it well i mean that's what people like about kids right is that you can't you don't really care about yourself that much yeah the thing i will say about feelings no feelings no meaning in relationships if i don't care if you don't text me back it's like there's no relationship right so i think your stoicism is also bad too right yeah i think

it's a good sign that i'm pissed at someone for not texting me back or it's a good sign that you are afraid i won't text you back or you won't text me but like that has more to do with like status and shit yeah but if my friend doesn't text me like my friend doesn't text me back that's i'm gonna be if ronnie doesn't text you back it has very little to do with your careers very little and if it is it's like who's which one of us is doing better it's pretty it's a pretty tight race like you can't even say i'm doing like but that speaks to a level of care which i think is the point of life correct so like i think certain feelings are worth being pursuing you just have to have the self-awareness to know why you're pursuing

yeah so if it's a thing for status no but if it's a thing of like no no i mean this sincerely like um show business is a very lonely place yes and i feel a kinship with you yes through our ethical cultural and moral compass so why the fuck aren't you texting yeah like or i had it with somebody and we had a very constructive talk about our relationship i literally said like is this are we friends or is this all transactional whoa and he wrote back like i love you and i just assume you're you have in my head you have so many friends i was like i don't have i have like four like you know what i mean like i don't it's ryan reynolds my only friend um all right that was feel that was a blog called feelings that was a good one today's episode is sponsored by PayPal Honey,

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That's 20% off plus free shipping with the code NEAL at manscaped.com. Don't just get your money back this year. Get your swagger back too with manscape man i shave with it all right you have adhd yes when were you diagnosed i've never been diagnosed i'm self oh yeah should i know i don't think you should self-diagnose really because i think it's a thing okay here's this is very interesting think you should self-diagnose really because i think it's a thing okay here's this is very interesting okay why is self-diagnosing bad because everyone does it now like i'm so i it's i have a bunch of jokes about trauma it's like you don't even know what it is

you're just inconvenienced you go oh it's so traumatic now some trauma is legitimate and some is just some for lack of a better term some white girl shit right that's there's no white girls here thank god uh but you know what i mean like classified that i mean that's basically what it is just like trauma that it's that's so i don't want you to have like adhd Here's the story I was going to tell. So I don't know if this probably doesn't happen to you, but whenever I release a special, a lot of psychiatrists and psychologists will DM me. You've told me about this. Yes.

You'll get insane emails. One of them was like, hey, you might be on the spectrum after blocks. He had me on his podcast. Scott Barry Kaufman is his name. He had me on his podcast uh scott barry kaufman is his name he had me on his podcast we talked about being on the spectrum and then he does a test on the air for and i toward the end i go this is for covert narcissism isn't it and he's like sure is so like last week i've started taking the spectrum tests okay and i said to the woman so you have to answer questions honestly and i go it's hard not to lie because i know what the autism answer is and oh because you've read so much i just know enough like it like are you sensitive to fabric

you know it's so funny i'm not sensitive to fabric so but if i wanted to seem autistic i would say i'm super sensitive right wool makes me burlap and fuck this is how you get the weed card you're like i know what to say precisely so i said to her who lies and who doesn't and she said when young teenage boys take the autism test they don't want to have autism when young especially white teenage and young early 20s young white women take it they want to have autism because they they are all privileged and they want something to make them seem not wow they. They're like pursuing it. Got it. So that's why I'm like,

hey, if you have ADHD. There's no cloud ADD. Well, there's not. There isn't. Since the 90s, when I was a kid growing up, they gave Ritalin out like fucking Tic Tacs.

It was crazy. And there's been, you know, my family lives in Sacramento. Sometimes when I turn the TV on, there's straight up class action lawsuits like from like Habes Amendola and associates like were you given Ritalin in the 1990s? Call Habes Amendola and associates for class action loss. Crazy. They were giving it out like crazy. So it's not a there's no clout or cred with ADHD, I think, in this this era i still disagree with i still think

like if a white girl goes like no i'm adc so i need it like if it's i have blanks so therefore i need different it's low on the totem pole it's like i agree it's the uc riverside of like look it's not it's not yeah asperger's which is the usc right um if we're doing what's the Asperger's, which is the USC. Right, right. If we're doing California College. What's the Ivy League? What's the Stanford? Like, what's the gold standard of, like, clear the entire test room, they get their own proctor, like, it's over. Well, then you're into race.

Gotcha. Then you're into racial groups. Let's not get into that. I'm not doing this. Let's not get into that. Yeah. I'm not doing this. Or victims of things.

We don't need to work this out on a podcast. Actual trauma. We don't need to work this out on a podcast. No, no, no, no, no. I want, I'm going to, this is going to go viral. Okay. So don't be self-diagnosed. Don't self-diagnose, which I think I probably shouldn't. You're right.

I should go. But what I will say is. Go on the guy's podcast and let him find out yeah that's how i have to like see my friends and get help i have to by the way this this is the best way to meet people or the best way to spend time we'll never spend we actually do like once a year have a one hour talk yes we'll have long phone calls yeah like hour and a half i cherish them yeah yeah uh you pulled over last time we did it yeah like your whole family was in the car was weird well then that's a good point though my mind will race to like nine different things i i constantly feel like i have 14 tabs open in my

head and um you'll understand this um but let's try to contextualize being autistic i'll understand it no because you've used scripto i have scripto is the program at the daily show and john oliver many late night shows yeah you type the that's what you type it's the formatting it's the microsoft word of um writing it's like it's like final draft or whatever but for late night tv so i'll call it the scripto test I have writer friends that I know where they'll go into scripto and I'll watch them. It's like seeing Neo in the Matrix. And they can just, we'll be right back. They won't have to open up Spotify.

There won't be like a Wikipedia. Like they won't have 17 tabs open. Their brain won't take them to some other island eight minutes later. They're able to just lock in and just dive into the deep well of focus. I cannot do that. And what'll inevitably end up happening is 10 minutes before we have to push the script,

basically turn it in, I'll be like, oh, fuck, and I'll just kind of scramble it'll take me a lot longer and this happened since i was a kid it would take me a long time to do very simple tasks sometimes yeah i'm capable of doing and and i'm envious of people with deep levels well but you also have procrastination on here yes which is there may be the same thing i like when i'm writing something yeah there are times when i'll go like well i should play music and then i'll think about it i'm like it's not you need to be by yourself and it needs to be quiet if you really want to do this right do you have deep focus i

feel like because you're a little bit older i really do feel like i have freedom on this yeah i have to grayscale it right like i can't i don't have discipline i don't have it like i can force myself to have it uh-huh like i'll smile on stage if i shock myself right like i can force myself to do it but i don't naturally so you having two hours to come up with a great take versus 10 minutes will have the same net effect because of that because of your lack of focus well no now i would say i'm better at putting myself in position to work hard got it but i my body doesn't want to do it my body my spirit isn't like it's like well let's fucking we should check out like i have to take instagram like i have to block shit i used to have a blocker on my tv and my computer like i don't have good

habits you can't trust yourself yeah that's surprising me that you have it people say that all the time right it's right it's look it's racist yeah you're so effective you're so intelligent right yeah it's right you got you got far in your career how could you possibly have it yeah so it is surprising but i also get it because there's a a lot of procrastination has to do with ego yeah and like you don't want to fail are we on the procrastination no it's all the same thing it's adhd and procrastination so i i didn't even i texted him this but brian simpson had this great take on brian simpson's great comedian amazing comedian very funny he goes i've never heard this i'm i cannot believe

i have not heard this take you procrastinate because you're avoiding real consequences so if i turn in that act one you can find out it sucks i'm gonna find out real quick that my chat's not going forward in the show and that feeling that i know i'm gonna try to avoid it yep as much as I possibly can until the fear it's like fear overtakes the fear of not of being late or missing the deadline finally overtakes yeah the fear of being yeah it's like I wake up out of this drunken stupor like Denzel Washington in that movie and I'm like fucking land the plane what are you doing you have 10 minutes yeah are you insane absolutely yeah to sleep at the wheel the whole time yeah yes if i could crack this my life would probably be i'm not kidding 25 better get free i mean kayla my assistant is here

there are ways the biggest thing i am notoriously late to everything so am i to fucking you know why part it may be fascination i don't want to be the first one there i don't want to i don't want to give you the power oh wow by by if i waiting for you, it's a form of you not texting me back. That's what I believe. You just have to put yourself in a position to take Instagram off your phone. You quit Twitter. Or like this morning with the gym, this happens all the time in my wife. One of the cool things about having a partner in that way, they know you so intimately well. They know the sub moves of sabotage that are happening in your head when i'm back from tour or i'm back from the road what i'll do is i'll take my kids to school that's my way of being like i it'll it

forces me to have these really beautiful morning moments with them the day just hurdles away so i got to exercise before that and she was noticing me in the bedroom this morning getting up like to go exercise i was like she's like what is taking you so why are you making so much noise and i'm like i gotta put my shit on and she's like it should not take you 30 minutes to put on your gym clothes and i was just avoiding it i didn't want to do it and she's like you're just avoiding yeah just the feeling of like fuck it's cold you get in the car you gotta go you know what i mean yeah yeah like cold i'll give you but i'm just the feeling of you're on the treadmill let me avoid let me see how long i can go i this is an unknown this is a bird in the hand yeah this is what i'm doing right now sitting in bed or that feeling of consequences of like you're not as strong as you used to be you're not as fast as you used to be this is really hard i just don't like this

feeling yes and it's fucking hard but it's yeah you gotta do materials the same thing too you like procrastinate you push that off of like i just don't ah i just don't want to feel this that's the thing where you have to give yourself that's why i do a new material show the one that you did 10 years ago i still do amazing can't i have to do it right and i trick myself into thinking like no they were there last week they weren't there so i have to write new material or like i used to do a thing with dove david up where we would have to write or we'd have to give each other 100 bucks whoa like just fucking great incentivize yourself make it like penalize yourself for being sloppy or the thing you want to be just

make it inconvenient for you or or pain actually painful if you don't do it that's the the best advice like yeah and the best workaround i found with that of writing the new show is just put the dates on the books and you're like oh fuck yeah yeah like that's your push i gotta show up yep the show has to go up yeah this is a good one fear of loved ones dying yeah why i'm kidding larry why have you seen that larry came with dj calip dj calip has this like i just like and then he goes how'd you get me good what did he say what's what is dj calip just good eating or whatever it's the best because it's like wind up yeah it was this long monologue and then he goes how'd you gain the weight um yeah uh what's with this people dying what's with you in the well that must be as a parent yeah unlike anything watching my parents get older is very weird it's very tough you know

watching them um i had i said this to keenan i don't know which one i'm gonna air first but i i had the thought two days ago you don't really remember the first 10 years of your life and the last 10 years are a shit show so really probably with health and all yeah just like so think about how old you are yeah think about how long you're gonna live and then subtract 10 it's like dion's thing about like 21 summers left or whatever right how old are you yeah you got 20 summers left it's which apparently it's an andre harrell thing yeah under her all you say to chris chris so whatever how old are your parents my dad is 72 my mom is 64 my mom 89 whoa yeah so like i was at a wedding have you said all the things that

you needed to say to her all the all the and where were you uh the good the bad and all of it and it's you guys have yeah i think so i mean what's weird is i did with my dad but and like even though we whatever but yeah so i saw my mom the other day and i'm literally like leaving and it's like ah should i just move in you know what i mean like how do you deal with it right because there's my there's like my life and her life i don't know right like by the way your parents are gonna your parents are gonna be around for a while i hope so yeah it's just every time I go back, there's more pill. Pill containers on the nightstand and. It's this weird feeling of like they're on that Adderall. Yeah, they're on that Addy.

It's this weird thing. I'm like, I have to take care of them. And it's just a lot. Yeah. I'm like I have to take care of them and it's just a lot yeah it's weird seeing them forget stuff and need to be taken care of and reminded and we're at that weird thing where they haven't relinquished it yet where I'm like no no you need to listen to me now like I'm oh dude I was talking to somebody the other day it's like it really is that thing of friend of mine his mom's late 70s and he's like it's and she's got early onset or she's got early dementia yeah and he said it's she's like a 13 year old girl where we'll go out she'll be like i don't like this food like

yell i don't like like it like she picked her just and it really is this thing of it's a joke i never wrote of like seven-year-old stories and 77-year-old stories are the same it's just like uh sheila riley fell we were in the park and sheila riley it's like identical and it really is like you went out for lunch it's like real cheese yeah yeah it's like soup yeah we had soup um it really is this thing and it's a why people would rather talk about trans issues right because this talking about mortality yeah what else you got let's talk anything else yeah um and then there's there's parts of it where i've talked about this with my sister is are all the other affairs in order where they're where's their paperwork on stuff like i don't even know trust just all of

that have you talked to ronnie about it ronnie told me like go have your mom and dad write it down on paper yeah like he he kind of lucked out yeah and he told me he had to like he just found it on the table yeah it was out of a movie like that would be yes he opens a manila folder and he's like dad's password yeah what does this mean you know what i mean and then like you cue yeah yeah yeah you know that bridges you to act three yeah yeah yeah his email was open yeah you know all right i'll try right yeah uh and what do you yeah do you have a sister i have a younger sister the good news for you is usually the sister handles it yes she is my interpretative interpreter of what is going on and i have to ask her so i'll be like what does this mean and should i be worried she provides subtext

for everything hey found the this pill bottle on dad's thing this is new what does this mean should i be worried yeah you know like that sort of stuff and selfishly there's there's these moments that i realize i'm like so who do i call now for their wisdom and advice? And sometimes I'll, I'll try talking to my parents about the stuff that I'm dealing with. And they're just like, I, I can't really. What kind of stuff? Career stuff, life stuff. Hey, I'm at a crossroads. Should I turn right or left? And they're just like, hey i'm at a crossroads should i turn right or left and they're just like they really got i really like the kind of the tools they gave me was everything up until probably anywhere between 25 to 30 like just the real kind of fundamentals of so you change a tire this is what this means

this is what that means but like now at this point like no like i have to do it on my own and that's kind of scary immigrant Do you think it's immigrant training? Do you know what I mean? Like do you think it's partially like – I think it's immigrant training. All you need to do is know how to make a living and like the humility and not thinking – It's almost like immigrants are too humble to think about like creating a cushion for themselves to fall on. Oh, dude. It's so funny that you're i was gonna text you this let's just do it right now you know how there's always these news articles where they're

like late night is great but is it changing anything that movie was great did it cause any change right it swept 96 oscars yes but yes prison reform yeah and there's part of me that's like only white bloggers would be egotistical enough to think that their song or tv show could change federal minimum wage like yeah to think that your thread or your medium article would lead the revolution is such a i'm number one on the call sheet yeah in a planet with eight billion people yep whereas the immigrant thing is is hey if you're a good son a good husband and a good brother is just you are so profoundly good in god's eyes and in the world just worry about that if you could do that like with my dad where he's like did you pray today right like did you even do the one of the most basic tenets of islam you didn't please shut the fuck up about

your act one monologue did you i didn't do you ever procrastinate on praying because it's a lot it's a lot um It's a lot. Um, and is there, there's not a lot of wiggle room, right? Depending on the Islamic school of thought, but I,

I will sometimes, and I'll feel bad about it. No, I will have the time. I can't cram. I know five in a row. Some people do, but I know I'm supposed to, like for example,

at the sunset prayer, I'm home. I'm like, I'm at home. We just had dinner or something like that. And I'm supposed to, and I don't, and I feel bad about it. Or the last prayer, the sunset prayer i'm home i'm like i'm at home we just had dinner or something like that and i'm supposed to and i don't and i feel bad about it or the last prayer the night prayer before you go to bed yeah and i know it would be profoundly beneficial to me like it would feel good just on some ancient yeah there this is lindian nature of like there is something about

just reflecting on your day and humbling yourself before something before you lay your head down to rest i don't care what it is and i won't and i in those times where i'm like why are you doing this you're kind of full of shit why are you doing why are you delaying this well yeah it's like who's winning who's winning yeah uh what do you think your but it's no different than sometimes when i don't brush i know i'm with you that. That's what I thought. I'm like, what are you doing? I actually, I, how often do you not brush your teeth? Dude, there'll be some nights where I'll like finish, like a couple of weeks ago, I finished Last of Us two weeks ago. I just ran through the series.

So I ran through episodes seven, eight, and nine. I had three hours in like 20 minutes to dedicate to that. Did not brush my teeth. How old are you? 37 years old. Great. And. You see what I'm saying how often it's so how often do you not brush your teeth it'll happen five to seven days out of the month fuck it is comically bad well it's a real testament to your teeth because you

got good teeth yeah and i hope can you explain to me why i would make such capital i idiotic decisions well it's also like fucking gross yeah and it's like what an eight-year-old would do bingo 100 no judgment uh the thing that you felt with me where you're like this is so stupid i'm not even gonna you just what you just did you're like and moving on that is i don't even i can't it's is what i feel with you got you being an atheist or like not believe i'm not an atheist now you believe right but while you were an atheist i'm like just just submit please right like like my not brushing my teeth you chose to not believe in god and you replaced it with

oprah ayahuasca oprah had you bite your tongue over it not to do with it jordan there was no please go fuck yourself and like it was reclined podcasts it was sam harris i didn't there was no indication that i'm just i don't i'm not trying to no no there was i got no indication that God existed. I'm not trying to. No, no, no. I got no indication that God existed. You've never met a, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody to go, oh, okay. Like literally I was like, I'm not an atheist. I just needed some sign.

Your life is so magical, Neal. And I was given none. Pre you seeing like the chupacabra during your ayahuasca thing. There are photos that you'll upload on Instagram. I can't, again, I cannot explain this to you, but it'll be like you with a bandana in 1993 with like a vest on. And I'll look at you now. And I'm like, the fact that this is the same person and you went, I was like, you're a living miracle. Everything that this is unbelievable. person and you went through, I was like, you're a living miracle. Everything that this is unbelievable.

Which part, which part? Just that you've like the series of events that have transpired in your life. And the way the cookie crumbled is a miracle. It's, it's a beautiful thing. I happen to agree with you. And I cannot,

and I cannot, again, this is a feeling thing. I don't want to argue with people in the comments. It's a feeling thing. I'm just like, this does not feel random. It feels magical, divine, destined, gizmoth, whatever you want to call it. It just feels like that.

One time in Ayahuasca, again, I don't like to talk about Ayahuasca. I had the thought, just complaining, just whatever, just the monologue. just complaining but just whatever yeah just the the monologue yeah and i had the thought if you think you can beat this life spin the wheel and what do you think the odds of you ending up one out of eight billion people spin the wheel buddy see what see where it lands like what are the fucking odds that you will have a better oh that's day-to-day experience powerful oh that's talent yeah looks yeah relationships yeah uh emote like just mind yeah like what are the odds i beat this and then to say nothing you end up at this moment yeah like what are the odds it's it i would i'd be like get that wheel out of here because that's the thing people say uh comparisons is thief of joy not if

you compare down right people just don't compare down enough so the odds of i spend and i end up in like a guantanamo black site you're just like like, yep. No, you'd be Ronnie, of course. Right. The, yeah, but yes. Yeah. For real. Yeah. Yes.

You could end up at a black site. I could end up with a physical, high likely, there's a higher likelihood that if I spun that wheel, I'd end up physically in a wheelchair than i would a better comedian at the kennedy center like yeah what are you talking yes what are the odds yeah what yes thank you so then when you hit that do you hit that do you then land in the next moment with profound gratitude of like i cannot believe when i tell you i started to appreciate life like actual appreciating life in the last 10 days i i swear i know it sounds like i made it up i had the thought it's similar to the spinning the wheel where i had the thought think about all the people that have lived i looked it up because i was like

how many humans have lived on earth yeah and i And I think it was like, I want to say 80 billion people. Right. And how many people are going to live on Earth? At this point, it might not be a lot. It's going to be, you know. 200 million more people. Yeah, exactly. 200 billion more people.

I'm alive right now. Yeah. And it really is like, thanks for the opportunity to just be alive yeah i've never and it's a really good thing to remember i can't always remember it a lot of times it's like should i call keenan and yeah but like i always say to jimmy carr it's like we have ringside seats but sometimes we're the fighter yeah when i'm not fighting i am ringside seat sometimes i'm the trainer sometimes you know what i mean like it's insane greatest show yes it's insane all right here's a couple two things more i want to ask you

yeah how have you improved in life and how did you do it Can you give me an example of something you've done? Setting up a show where I have to do new jokes. Just as an example. Or never, it's another thing that's related to the spin of the wheel. I'm like a Karen for my emotional state. I was in an emotional state and I was like, no, I don't like this. This is not supposed to be my emotional state. Take antidepressants.

Ah, no. Go to therapy ah no emdr shock my brain go to china shock my brain now i think i can i remain kind of curious yeah but being an active architect yes open to it and also going like ah this doesn't feel right then doing ayahuasca then doing dmp and now being in a place where i'm like it's pretty close this is pretty cool like if i'm if i can if i can kind of just switch a remember to be grateful for life right i never was grateful for life do you know what i mean like never so i that's a way that i improved through effort yeah one of the things that i'm glad that i've been able to do is take care of people that i love but not i'm

not talking about immediate family i'm talking also about people that took care of me along the way and to be a facilitator in their lives even is that something that you made an effort to do yes so much of like the climb up is such a zero-sum game but to just be like this isn't even on a survivalist thing please take all the upside and i don't want any of it i don't even need a thanks in return just please like and that was a thing that you found yourself experiencing or something like that feels like a state of grace or something like to be able to do it, to be, to have some generosity of spirit. I don't have that many regrets, thank God. But there were some moments where there were really good moments in my career and I didn't, I did not take the time to enjoy them. I thought they were fleeting.

I thought they would end. And they did. Yeah. They did. I thought they would end. And they did. They did. My fear came true. But the reality is it doesn't matter. You were able to extract me. Hasan was able to extract all the value from that monetarily, career-wise, all of those things. And you didn't even enjoy it. And I'm like, i cannot continue to punish myself this way and it's at a detriment to everybody else at the point of having enough is then to hopefully share in it and like those moments of this is going to sound so corny community joy laughter this sounds so trite and corny but like some of the best some of the best

moments that i've had recently are just kicking it and hanging out with friends that and that was the thing you didn't do did not do realized it yeah and then have made a concerted effort to do it yeah great yeah uh i'm glad i've done it and i hope yeah of course and i hope i do more of it of course there's people that I've noticed that have gotten to that point. I'm sure you've been at parties or you've been at things and you're like, oh, they really are enjoying this. They are not auditioning for anything right now. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Haddish on the dance floor at any party. Right. No, it's rarer. Tiff is loving. And I love that about her. Yeah. She is not there for anything else. She's not trying to be cool.

No, she's on the roller coaster. Hands up. Absolutely. Put your hands up on the roller coaster. We are on the roller coaster. Every picture of Tiffany is the six flags still around. That thing. It's every picture.

Leslie's the same way too. Totally agree. And I cannot wait. I want to actively be a part of doing stuff. That's a good thing to notice and a good thing uh and i'm like what a beautiful quality to have that fucking tell me about it like a thing that i'm the opposite of and in a weird way have gotten closer to by just the all the stuff i've done yeah by like and i'm not i don't i'm not at the party because i'm afraid i'm gonna get rejected but if i did go to the party yeah i i get it like that's a great thing to pursue and i've yelled i yelled at santino on

here about that uh-huh where santino doesn't enjoy any i, dummy, we get four or five specials in our whole life. Enjoy it. You had one thing though, that I was great, that I actually tried to remember. And I thought it was beautiful. It was in a, correct me if I'm wrong, New York times article where you actually talked about because of the speed of media literacy in media engagement. Now, posterity doesn't kind of exist anymore. It's over as much as i want to like go back and watch old mel brooks or even carlin specials yeah i just don't have time like i can't i'm reading um is it am i saying this right sydney lumet's yeah sydney lumet's book making movies because i'm going into pre-production on a movie and he's listing he's this guy has a fucking

catalog yeah i didn't i know this sounds so stupid i didn't know he had a catalog like that yeah like movies that they've now remade murder on the orient express i'm like wait the one in a few years no he made the original and there's part of me that's like oh i'll never see that i'm never gonna have time to see yeah i know you know that when i said he's pontificating about it And so there was a part of me that's like, what does any of my work mean in comparison to Sydney's? So then I but then I realized I read your article. But what's kind of beautiful about that, that means if there's no posterior, then the most meaningful thing kind of is your next piece of work or what you're doing.

And the experience and the experience, the ride you the experience of it. Like that was really cool. Yeah. Yeah yeah it's like that's the point yeah it's like that thing when people say on reality shows like i didn't come here to make friends i actually came here to make friends but even like old neil came here to make friends like the guy in the vest was here to make friends and then that's why i get upset sometimes when i'm like i'm here for connection i'm not here like i people yeah final question yeah the husson movie yeah who what's the character arc and who plays you this is the final question on every podcast yeah i forget to ask it oh really it's probably one of those like kind of

like high school or college coming of age it's just homecoming yeah it's no but there it would it would um have you seen the movie edge of 17 where there's like woody harrelson's the teacher to the young girl oh i never saw it yeah but basically he's there was like a lot of sexuality in that right a little bit but but it was a very good movie it was good it was really good i have an alert for anything 17 sexual oh really great gotcha okay but like woody harrelson kind of what's that i should smack some i should cut myself saying that uh but what's the what is it uh who are you i'd probably be the the kind of uh indian holden caulfield type character of like in his head and you know well you know what i think you sell yourself short on is your neuroses maybe i'm less neurotic but i

do feel things deeply i'm no no but you're also like there's a not you're not angry like holden caulfield but like you don't think everyone's a phony and all the stuff he did no no yeah but the part in in king's jester where you're i didn't realize how hung up on like fame and going viral you were oh yeah like i didn't and that's a cool i found it interesting because i know you right and it never occurred to me that you were like geeking out yeah on it yeah like there's a party like the it's not even the dark side of you it's like the sort of small side of you yeah there to me there's more there than totally you acknowledge or uh address totally in your comedy yeah sure which i which i should which i like because i'm just saying like it is fascinating and yeah it's just like you said to me one time i'm as interesting as i am funny and i would argue like that's there's a lot there in terms of like, it's like the model citizen or the model minority thing.

Right. Like that would be a good title for you because of the hair, but the model minority thing of like who you are supposed to be. Yes. Like the, the, the Indian values versus like the American, like you're fucking American.

Sure. versus like the american like sure you're fucking american sure and then also like ancient islamic values about who you should be as a human being yeah totally yes and those conflicting and being aware of those things and like and you're like and it doesn't the right the good guys doesn't always win totally by the good guy i mean muhammad um but you know he does win well that's the thing a few more trips it's fine yeah no no what i'm saying no but we will find out there will be a day of judgment and that's why islam is for you in your because you love winning and there is a guy named dave you try to get me to become a muslim by going you know it's the thinking man's religion the thinking man's

religion i'd be like well i'm a thinking man where do do I side? But there's more. The conflict in you is more interesting. Totally. Very much so. And it's something that in the movie I would explore. That and the degree to which I care and should you care and all those three things fighting against each other. Yeah. Yeah. That to me is like a thing that you haven't.

Just scraped. Just scraped. Just scraped. Barely. Barely. Let's scrape it. Set. Give me $1,000 cash and I'll give it back to you when you scrape it. Okay.

Thanks, man. Did you enjoy this? This is a blast. This is actually very fun. Yeah, great. All right. Thank you, guys.