Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - RONNY CHIENG Proposed In Vietnam

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Ronny Chieng joins Seth and Josh on the pod this week! Even though he insists his family “didn’t do the trips thing” he had everyone laughing the entire episode about all his travels! From spend...ing his high school years in Singapore, to bringing his mom on tour with him, his wife taking him to Vietnam, and taking a trip back to his father’s hometown…you’re in for a real treat with Ronny’s episode! Plus, he also chats about his upcoming Netflix Special, 'Love To Hate It' Follow Family Trips on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok! Head over to our YouTube channel and hit subscribe so you never miss a new video episode! Support our sponsors:AirbnbVisit airbnb.com and book today IRestoreReverse hair loss with @iRestorelaser and get $625 off with the code trips at https://www.irestorelaser.com/trips! #irestorepod NissanSo thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Adventure calls in the first-ever Nissan Rogue Rock Creek. Learn more at NissanUSA.com DeleteMeTake control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/TRIPS and use promo code TRIPS at checkout. Comedy Bang BangCheck out new episodes of Comedy Bang Bang every Monday wherever you listen to your podcasts. Executive Producers: Rob Holysz & Jeph Porter Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Coordinating Producer: Derek Johnson Mix & Master: Josh Windisch Episode Artwork: Analise Jorgensen

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan. Adventure calls in the first ever Nissan Rogue Rock Creek. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Here we go. Hey Pashi. Hey Sufi. I want to just start off because a lot of people have been reaching out on social media.
Starting point is 00:00:19 You live in California. How have you been holding up? I am embarrassed to say that when the fires started, I was skiing in Mammoth. So everyone was sort of in a real panic back here. And I was not unconcerned, but I was having a lovely sort of time in the mountains. But my wife had gone up to where a lot of her equestrian clients are. She's a trainer and a rider.
Starting point is 00:00:50 And so she was there with her truck and trailer in case she needed to evacuate some horses. We had friends that had to evacuate their house and they came to our house because we weren't here. And then when I was about an hour away from home, we got an evacuation order for our house. So I pivoted and went to where she was and the people who were in our house came out there as well. Everyone was set to come back last night. This is a while ago now from when we're recording this intro, but I came back and then Mackenzie got the word that there
Starting point is 00:01:25 was a new fire and she did indeed have to evacuate those horses. So it's been a lot. We're fine. Our things are fine, but we know plenty of people who've lost their homes and it's just, it's crazy. It's truly apocalyptic and I've got a couple friends in particular, you know, the stuff in the Palisades is gnarly, but I haven't seen any sort of firsthand from a friend video from there, but I have from the Eaton Fire, which is in Pasadena, Altadena,
Starting point is 00:01:53 and it's, you just, I just can't imagine what it would have been like to be out there, and it's, yeah, it's insane. So we're fine, but it's a bad scene. And yeah, I feel terrible for people who have lost things and I know it'll be a bounce back, but it'll be a long bounce back and it's, yeah. Yeah, I have so much empathy because so many of the people
Starting point is 00:02:20 we know who've been affected have young children. And obviously the most important thing is everybody is safe, but I can only imagine the trauma of being a young kid and maybe not having the perspective of how lucky you are just to be okay and safe and losing everything. Yeah. I mean, at some point, one of Mackenzie's, this teenage girl who, she's been teaching for a while, their house is gone. And at some point for her, it'll be a story about this awful thing that happened to her. But in this moment, it's just like, it's everything.
Starting point is 00:03:05 And you're so, I can't imagine how unmoored those people must feel, but yeah, it's. We're in a text chain with our Boom Chicago friends, and these are a lot of people who live in Los Angeles, most of them do, and it's amazing to live in New York City and just see how much you're all sharing information about alerts and evacuation orders and how an hour later when somebody packs up their
Starting point is 00:03:32 whole family, the evacuation order is rescinded. And obviously, I'm not being critical, I think that it's been an incredible job by emergency services and certainly the fire department trying to keep people safe and informed. But it does, you know, people have just been saying to us, like, how hard it is even to go to sleep, because you just are waiting for that ding on your phone. So yeah, it's been, I feel like everyone in LA is pretty exhausted. And it's weird that some regular life stuff still goes on, but obviously it does. But I feel like everyone's playing catch up a bit. Like even at my building right now, someone cleared the roof yesterday, we're not in any immediate fire danger, but they, you know, blew everything off the roof. And today we're going to clean it up in the courtyard just because you don't want loose ember to set the roof on fire and then we scramble.
Starting point is 00:04:26 But I do, personally, I feel like things are things and things can go away and if people get out and animals get out, then yeah, that's enough to rebuild from to have- And horses, McKenzie's horses, safe and sound? Safe and sound, yeah. They're horses. They're good, she moved 15 of them yesterday
Starting point is 00:04:56 and to a new place and she was like, yeah, they got food and they are completely unfazed. But I drove, when she had to evacuate the horses, she had the dogs. And I was like, let me drive and I'll come get the dogs, which I drove through, you know, smoke pouring across the 101 freeway from the Kenneth Fire and bad traffic going up and worse traffic coming back.
Starting point is 00:05:22 And, you know, when I drove into this sequestrian neighborhood, there were fire trucks there. There were so many trailers making their way out. And it's just, yeah, it's very unsettling and very unnerving. And they had a big fire up there in 2018. And so people have not so distant memories of what can happen. And I feel like that's sort of a thing
Starting point is 00:05:52 that's gonna stick with a lot of these people, particularly from the Palisades and Pasadena, Altadena. On the text chain with all our friends, most of who live in LA, I have shown some restraint because I have wanted to text the group. Is no one gonna say anything about how awful it is that I lost the Golden Globe for best standup special? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:15 Good restraint, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I wanna, also this is, and again, I'm not just pointing people over to YouTube, but your face has something going on. It does. I got, now I'm not a big fan of cosmetic surgery, I'll say.
Starting point is 00:06:40 Now, by the way, I want everybody right now, whatever they're picturing, it's not. Keep going. So a couple years ago, you know, I'm a fair skinned gent living out here in LA, pretty outdoorsy. I saw my dermatologist. He says, where are you from?
Starting point is 00:07:00 I said, New Hampshire. He's like, where are you getting all this sun? And I was like, well, I've lived in Los Angeles for 20 years, 22 years or something. And I had this spot of a squamous cell carcinoma on my nose, on the bridge of my nose, which is cancer, but it was, you know, caught it early. I go see the dermatologist twice a year.
Starting point is 00:07:20 And so that's- When they did the surgery, did it make you squamish? I was a little squamish. Not as squamish as mom would have been. Okay, yeah, keep going. Plenty squamish. So when I had that removed, the surgeon was like, like look out in the waiting room of this place.
Starting point is 00:07:39 It's all people older than you and they've all got band-aids on their faces. And maybe you don't want to be one of them so you should maybe get this like laser that knocks out a lot of pre-cancerous stuff. As a side effect it will resurface your skin and so I got this laser done yesterday and it looks like a bad sunburn and it's gonna get a little leathery and then it's gonna peel off. But I've done this to try and prevent myself from getting cancer, but also I might look like
Starting point is 00:08:11 a nice, fresh-faced young fella in about a week. Two things I wanna ask. One, do you think there's a chance, because this is Los Angeles, that that doctor hires extras, old people extras, to sit in the waiting room with Band-Aids on their faces? I mean, they are cheaper than you think, I bet. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:29 Old people to sit in the waiting room with band-aids on their faces. So yeah, it'd be a smart move. That's, I have a second thing, but now I'm doing a tangential thing, which is at the Golden Globes Seat Fillers. If people get up, seat fillers come and sit down. And there was a young woman sat next to me
Starting point is 00:08:52 and leaned over and she was like, can I tell you something? And I would love to receive a compliment. I'm not immune to that. I was like, what's that? She was like, I had your mom as a French teacher. That was pretty nice. Pretty your mom as a French teacher. That was pretty nice. Pretty nice to be that. Yeah. My second thing is this, Posh, you do have
Starting point is 00:09:11 sort of a red face. Yeah. Right now. At a time when your city is on fire. Yeah. I think if there are heroes that walk on the earth right now, they are the Los Angeles Fire Department. And you kind of look like you maybe have been fighting a fire. Is this a case, do you think you're gonna be accused of stolen valor? Perhaps. Yeah. I did, I was walking the dogs this morning
Starting point is 00:09:37 and I saw one of my neighbors and very quick, and I'm embarrassed to even say like, I got a face laser, I got a face laser. He's like, oh, I thought maybe you were like snowboarding. And I was like, oh, I was skiing. So maybe that's a better thing to say is I was skiing and then I came back. But if I was skiing and this happened to my face,
Starting point is 00:09:54 then people would be like, what's wrong with you? Why didn't you put it on sunscreen? But I do, I'm just warning you, like don't do a second thing that makes it look like you're pretending to be a fireman. Like don't like throw your hose over your shoulder and just go like trudging. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:08 Yeah. I'll keep my hose in the closet. This was recorded before all of this happened, today's conversation, but it is a delightful conversation with Ronnie Chang. We talked about it during the interview, but I really highly recommend his new special on Netflix as well. It's really funny. I watched it while I was wrapping Christmas presents, and it was a delight.
Starting point is 00:10:37 Yeah, what a good dude. Pashi, I'm so happy you're safe. And I do want to just say one more time, if anyone's listening and they are living through this natural disaster, we send our love and we pray for your safety. Yeah, pray for LA. All right.
Starting point is 00:11:06 Family trips with the Myers Brothers Family trips with the Myers Brothers Here it goes Ronnie! Hey! How are you? Hey, I'm okay. Morning. It was so exciting when you first came on my show because I was thrilled to talk to somebody
Starting point is 00:11:28 who had lived in Manchester, New Hampshire. And now Josh gets the same thrill. I know, I couldn't believe it. Yeah, let's talk. I'll save it for the podcast. But I can't believe you guys are doing a podcast this morning. Yeah. Well, guess what, Ronnie? The podcast has started. This is it. This is the podcast. We're not going to waste any of this gold right now. No, no, no. Don't hold back.
Starting point is 00:11:51 I'm glad our listeners can finally hear how impressed our guests are at how early we do it. Where are you in the world right now? You're in New York, right? I'm in New York. I'm in New York right now. Yeah. I'm impressed at how early you guys are doing it. I'm impressed that you're doing it. I'm impressed that you guys maintain a great relationship as siblings. I'm impressed at how early you guys are doing it. I'm impressed that you're doing it. I'm impressed that you guys maintain a great relationship as siblings. I'm impressed that you have to go to work after this. I mean, the whole thing is very impressive. What is your sibling situation?
Starting point is 00:12:14 I have a older sister who is in Australia right now. She's like a anesthesiologist. Oh gosh. So I imagine that means you don't see her often. No, unfortunately I don't get to see her that often. But she's a valuable, contributing, hardworking member of society. Not like over here, just talking to microphones.
Starting point is 00:12:38 You're making people happy. Entertaining. That's the highest of value in that. At least that's what I tell myself. But that is true that when people say to her, like, you probably don't see your brother much, she's like, not only that, he's adding nothing to society. Or taking away, taking away from society.
Starting point is 00:12:52 Yeah, maybe even that. It's attractive. So you were born in Malaysia? Yes. And then how many years in Malaysia? I was in Malaysia for... I left Malaysia when I was two and a half, and then actually, no, closer to three. I was about three when I left,
Starting point is 00:13:13 and then we went to the great Manchester, New Hampshire. And then I left Manchester, New Hampshire when I was seven years old. And that is my family trip. Yeah, there you go. That's a big family trip. Yeah. You took a trip to where our family lived
Starting point is 00:13:30 and had no idea. Well, actually I think about my family trip. It's interesting that you think that, you're seeing my family trip as leaving Malaysia. My family trip was, we, my parents moved to Manchester, New Hampshire for college, but they went to college really late in life.
Starting point is 00:13:48 So they had two kids, and then they went to college. So they brought two kids to Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester Community College at the time, which has since merged with the University of Southern New Hampshire. So they put themselves through college while supporting two kids from Malaysia. And when they graduated, they graduated with my mom with her MBA and my dad with his Masters of
Starting point is 00:14:13 Economics. And sorry, they also did their undergraduate there. When they graduated, they told me and my sister, hey, we are going to go to Singapore for just a little bit of a vacation. And I was like, okay, so we're coming back, right? And they're like, yeah, we're coming back. And I was like, so I don't have to pack all these Ninja Turtles, right? And they're like, no, you don't have to pack any. We'll come back. You'll see the Ninja Turtles again.
Starting point is 00:14:39 And then we went, we went with them to Singapore and it took me until like I was 30 years old before I could come back to America. I left when I was seven and for like 23 years I've been trying to come back to America. And that was the longest family trip I could think of. And based on location, we might have been the ones who ended up with those ninja turtles. Yeah, well if you could help me find Michelangelo, that would be great. And based on location, we might have been the ones who ended up with those ninja turtles. Probably in the garage. Yeah, well if you could help me find Michelangelo, that would be... Did they know they weren't coming back or were they just lying to you guys? No, yeah, they knew. They lied.
Starting point is 00:15:15 They straight up lied to our faces that we would come back to Manchester, New Hampshire. And they knew... And looking back, there are all these clues that we want gonna come back because they were they would make us watch like VCR cassette tapes about Singapore and so we were me and my sister you know she's three years older than me so she was like I guess she was 10 and I was 7 and we would be like why are we watching these videos about what Singapore life is like? In a way, they were actually quite modern, right? To prepare your kids for what a country could be, you show them some video, right?
Starting point is 00:15:54 Which I don't think people thought of doing back in the day. So in that sense, they're very modern. But in the sense of lying to their children, they were very old school and not just telling us that we were moving. And I don't know, it just created this chip on my shoulder for like 20 years. It also seems like the amount of time that you were in New Hampshire seems like
Starting point is 00:16:14 it was exactly long enough for people to go to college and graduate. And as soon as they were done, they were like, all right, and we're out. Yeah, yeah. I was there for four years, but my parents actually took my sister to New Hampshire like two years before me.
Starting point is 00:16:30 So they kind of left me behind for like a year because I was just too small, it was just too difficult. And then I joined them when I was like three, three and a half years old. And so, yeah, the whole time in Manchester, New Hampshire, I was like, this place is great. I loved it. You know, the whole world is like, New Hampshire, I was like, this place is great. I loved it.
Starting point is 00:16:45 The whole world is like three places, let's say four places. It was the park, Webster Elementary School, the library. And then on special occasions, we'd go to the back room, which I've since learned is called the Puritan back room. I didn't know, we never called it the Puritan back room. We just called it the back room. That was like our special place. And the whole world was like these four places and it felt so, it felt huge.
Starting point is 00:17:11 You know, and Manchester, New Hampshire was the kind of place where you could, you didn't have to lock your car door, you know, and it would snow, that very iconic New England snow. And I don't know, it was like a dream and then you get pulled into Singapore, where people are yelling at you for not speaking Chinese. And then, yeah, it was quite a family trip that 20 years. Who did you stay with the year your parents and your sister were in New Hampshire? Oh, we stayed in a small apartment.
Starting point is 00:17:39 But at the time I- When they left you behind, who did you live with? Oh, I lived with my, I was living with my grandmother and aunt in Malaysia when they went to Manchester. Do you have any memories of that, or were you just too young? A little bit too young. I got some photos of it.
Starting point is 00:17:57 But all the people I lived with, I always stayed close family with. So it never felt like a memory. It just felt like a continuation of these family with. So it never felt like a memory. It just felt like a continuation of these family relationships. You know, my grandmother, my aunt and all that. It wasn't like they left you with a weird dude and you're like, yeah, I have some memories
Starting point is 00:18:14 of this weird, very weird guy. No, no, they didn't go that far with it. And how was, how did you, did you get used to Singapore pretty quickly? No, it was, that family trip was a rough trip. It was a rough trip. For all its benefits Singapore has, which is many, you know, Singapore is very advanced, first world country, very safe.
Starting point is 00:18:37 It's kind of like the Wakanda of Asia. If you ever get a chance to go. I've been. Oh yeah, then you know. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah, but as a school kid there, the problem was not just culturally a completely different fit. Like imagine an American kid going to
Starting point is 00:18:55 Singapore at eight years old in the public school system, but also the language barrier was just like, like Chinese teachers are very old school and they don't take kindly to Chinese kids who cannot speak Chinese. So they would literally like beat it into me. It was a brutal learning process to learn Chinese from scratch. What did your parents speak at home when you were in Manchester? Yeah, they spoke English. They only spoke English.
Starting point is 00:19:25 And it's, I mean, they're fluent in English, but only as an adult did I realize like they're not actually, I don't think they think in English. Or at least, you know, when they were in America, they were probably, you know, after five, six years and you're doing a master's in economics, you probably start thinking in English, but that's not their first language. Right. You know, they were brought up in their own dialects. And so like, my wife always finds it very interesting that they only spoke English to me, my sister and I, because most immigrant parents, they speak the native language to their kids and then the kid will answer in English.
Starting point is 00:20:05 With my parents, there's always, they spoke to me in English, and I answered in English, and it was just, and I didn't even think about it too much, you know. Do you think they didn't know they were going to take you to Singapore? Because I assume if you knew in advance you were going to go to Singapore, you might have thought to speak Chinese. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I don't know. I actually asked my mom why the hell did that happen, but maybe. I don't know. I actually asked my mom why the hell did that happen? But
Starting point is 00:20:25 maybe, I don't know. Yeah, maybe they were trying to be nice parents and not, I don't know. Maybe they're trying to get us so that we could acclimatize to the U.S. schooling system quicker, you know, with our language barrier. But they, and they did, they just didn't have the time to teach us Chinese formally because they were working and studying the whole time. So yeah, so I think that's probably what happened. Yeah, what did you speak before you moved to the States? Forgive me, I don't know what the language of Malaysians. No, no, no, we, that's on,
Starting point is 00:20:57 I'm, my ethnicity is Chinese, but my nationality is Malaysia, and so Malaysian. And so in Malaysia, they speak, um, the Malay people speak music, speak Bahasa, Malay, Malay, and then the Chinese people will speak Chinese and various dialects like Cantonese, Hockian, um, just Mandarin Chinese. So there's all, there's Indian people that would speak that their mother tongue, you know, Tamil, Hindi, Hindi. But basically to answer your question,
Starting point is 00:21:26 I don't think I was speaking before I got to America. So when I got to America, I was already thinking in English. My first thoughts were in English. So I didn't really, yeah, the language thing never seeped in for some reason. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan.
Starting point is 00:21:47 It's time to fuel your inner adventurer in the award-winning Nissan Rogue, Rock Creek. Hey Seth. Yeah. Tell me about your inner adventurer. Are you a rocky trails guy or more of a snow roads bird? I'm a snow roads bird. Like to go up my snow roads, maybe pull over at one point, pop off a couple snow angels back in the car, keep on rocking.
Starting point is 00:22:08 Yeah, I was going to say, your snow angels are some of the nicest snow angels I've ever seen. They look as though they, an angel fell from heaven and just splatted into the snow. Yeah. One thing I will say, a note on snow angels, you don't have to do them face down. What? This is going to be a game changer.
Starting point is 00:22:28 What about you, Posh, Rocky Trails or Snow Roads, Bird? Well, I mean, I'm a bit of both. I do love when you're in a vehicle that can handle some rocky terrain. I like driving slow and feeling a big old tire sort of creep over a rock and sort of waggle you back and forth. And that's the kind of feeling that you can get with some confidence in the Nissan Rogue Rock Creek.
Starting point is 00:22:52 And I would say a lack of confidence in the car we drove in high school, which was a Renault Le Car. And if it was even a little bit rainy, you wouldn't go outside. Whatever kind of adventure you are, the Nissan Rogue Rock Creek is ready for you. Thanks to its intelligent around view monitor with off-road mode, the Rogue Rock Creek helps brave adventurers like you and also Seth to navigate around narrow obstacles in tough terrain. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Adventure calls in the first ever Nissan Rogue Rock Creek. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Intelligent-around view monitor cannot eliminate blind spots. It may not detect every object. Drivers should always turn and check surroundings before driving. See owner's
Starting point is 00:23:30 manual for safety information. Support for family trips comes from Airbnb. Hi Pashi. Hi Sufi. Airbnbs are exceptional. We've stayed in Airbnbs in Pittsburgh with the family, but also at my wedding, I know we've mentioned that it was at a hotel, but at the same time, we couldn't have everyone stay there, but there were all these fabulous Airbnbs in the area. And one thing that just warmed my heart to no end is I had a group of friends from New Hampshire, childhood friends, who came, and they all stayed in one Airbnb, and I was getting pictures throughout the weekend
Starting point is 00:24:11 texted to me of them getting ready, of my friend Randy Swazo and his West High half-shirt, which is just a classic thing in our childhood, from our youth. And to think that my marriage got that group of people to stay together for a weekend in an Airbnb, something they probably would never have done otherwise, just made me so happy, even though I never went there.
Starting point is 00:24:39 And I know that they had just the best time. And that's the kind of experience you won't get if you're not in an Airbnb. Because you get to have your meals together, you get to get up and you get to have your coffee together, you get to sit around in a living room together. And it was really special.
Starting point is 00:24:55 And even as someone who wasn't there, it is one of my favorite things about my wedding. Well, that's so lovely to hear. Book your next awesome trip today at airbnb.com. Support comes from Delete Me. Well, that's so lovely to hear. Book your next awesome trip today at Airbnb.com. Support comes from Delete Me. Hey, Pashi. Yes, Sufi. I am aware of people in my life who have been doxed. Their information gets published,
Starting point is 00:25:17 and those with ill-intent get ahold of those addresses, get ahold of that contact information, and make their life deeply uncomfortable. That is why I personally use Delete Me. Delete Me is a subscription service that removes your personal info from hundreds of data brokers. Posh, you're not a fan of data brokers. I don't like to use the term hate, but I hate them.
Starting point is 00:25:38 I hate them. They're just bad. There's no redeeming quality in data brokers. You know what they hate? And they have no problem using the word. They hate Delete Me. Because Delete Me isn't just a one-time service. Delete Me is always working for you,
Starting point is 00:25:51 constantly monitoring and removing the personal information you don't want on the internet. Put it simply, Delete Me does all the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal information from the data broker websites. Delete Me isn't just a one-time service. Delete Me is always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information you don't want on the internet.
Starting point is 00:26:10 Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners. Today, get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to join deleteme.com slash trips and use promo code trips at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to join deleteme.com slash trips and enter code trips at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to joindeleteme.com slash trips and enter code trips at checkout. That's joindeleteme.com slash trips code torips. When you were living in Singapore, were you, if you went on vacation, where would you go? Would you go home and visit family? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We go to Malaysia, but Malaysia and Singapore for me is, it's like, um, New Jersey, Manhattan. Got it. Because the part of Malaysia I live is just across the bridge from Singapore. So that's why when, when, when, when I say like, I'm Malaysian and I lived
Starting point is 00:26:56 in Singapore, for me, you know, people think I'm like pandering, I'm trying to claim every single country, but it's like for, for, if you're from Johor Bahru in Malaysia, that's like New Jersey. Like Singapore and Johor Bahru are like, it's just a bridge. You go across and I go across, I used to wake, when I was going to school in Singapore, I used to wake up in Malaysia and take the school bus to Singapore. And then go to school and go back to Malaysia. Yeah, so it took time. I had to wake up at like 4 a.m. but it wasn't like a huge deal. We didn't think too much about it. So this podcast isn't that early. You know, you used to wake up at 4 a.m. No, no, this is a very, very humane 10 a.m. call time. I did in the late 90s, if I'm getting the time right, I performed at the Singapore Comedy Festival. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:47 It was so exciting. It was at the, is it the Raffles Hotel? Is that the? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it for me was, I'm sure something that you've experienced a great deal more than I have in my career as someone on stage, but it was the first time
Starting point is 00:28:03 where I was in front of an audience, it was a majority white, and it was really exciting. Oh, that in front of an audience It was a majority white and it was really exciting It's really fun when you can make people laugh that are a different culture Yeah, yeah for sure you guys you know and I'm sure you killed it like who was the who was else who else was on the show? I was it was a two-person show that we had done at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival So it was like a sketch improv show, but it was a blast. It was just the two of us. Who was it? Oh her name is Jill Benjamin but she's my old comedy partner.
Starting point is 00:28:29 Oh yeah yeah no I used to do Edinburgh as well. What was your first year of Edinburgh? Josh did it too. My first year Edinburgh was 2012. And then I did three years and it was, what a... If you've been to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, you know it's what a marathon. Yeah, it's a marathon. It's 20... A stand-up has to do probably, what, 28 shows in a month. Sure, yeah. And that's your own show. And then there's other spots around town you can do. And then you kind of have to flyer for yourself
Starting point is 00:29:05 because otherwise no one's gonna come. So you have to be on the street like trying to get people to come in. And then you're in the artist bar, like drinking all night. And then you just, it's like Groundhog Day. And you come out just extremely mentally and physically unfit.
Starting point is 00:29:19 And if you, like you can barely make enough money to pay for your drinks. Yeah, yeah, basically. No, but I'm always interested to pay for your drinks. Yeah, basically. No, but I'm always interested to talk to Americans who've been to Edinburgh. I mean, so Josh, you've been to Edinburgh. Yeah, I did three years. I think you did three as well, didn't you say?
Starting point is 00:29:34 Like a prison sentence. Yeah, I did. It was like a three year spot. 99 through 01, I want to say, or 98 to, yeah, something like that. We went because- Overall. Oh, the best the bass loved it but we had a different experience because we did it through the we were working at an improv theater in Amsterdam so we like went over with the troop. Yes sorry to interrupt but I did you know I was in Amsterdam just two months ago doing a show and I
Starting point is 00:30:00 walked past the... Yeah Boom Chicago. Boom, and your face is prominent. Oh yeah. They definitely, you should be suing someone over there because they definitely... No, they're dear friends. They're dear friends. They're friends, yeah. Okay. They gave us our start.
Starting point is 00:30:14 Where did you perform when you were in Amsterdam? Okay, I did this theater that was quite large and we go into the theater and the backstage is like a fake apartment and so I just thought like oh maybe it's a quirky backstage or maybe this was a musical like prop right? A prop for musical and I do two shows in Amsterdam and then afterwards as we're leaving one of my agents tells me like, hey, you know this place is where they do the Anne Frank musical. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:30:52 So they built the set of the Anne Frank, the whole thing is like an Anne Frank musical thing and I was like, wow, I can't believe we just did comedy in this thing and they only do the Anne Frank musical in this venue. I can't remember the name, it's not called the Anne Frank Theater, but... Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. It might as well be because that's the only show they do that. They had a hard time selling tickets for Comedy Night at the end of the year.
Starting point is 00:31:13 Yeah. I can't believe there's an Anne Frank musical. Yeah. I know. It's a play or a musical and they... It's like the... I don't know if... To be honest, I don't know if it's still going, but it definitely was big. And I think the problem was that it was such a big story
Starting point is 00:31:28 that no one else could use that theater because the capacity was, like no other musical play could be put in there for some reason. So they had us in the, you know, us like comics, one of, you know, a show doing shows. And it was like, just trying to do these jokes in Anne Frank's house.
Starting point is 00:31:46 Like, it's tough stuff. The one other thing I want to say about how much I think you had it harder in Edinburgh than we did is stand-ups have to build an entirely new hour in a year, if you want to go back to Amsterdam. And I'm sorry, if you want to go back to Edinburgh. But I do feel like that must have been a helpful tool as far as being stand up the rest of your career if you may if you managed to write four different hours in four years. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I mean, first of all, this is the constant battle between stand ups and improvs, right? Well, like vampires versus werewolves. Yeah. And we and we forget like, we should be like this, because our goal is to kill people.
Starting point is 00:32:26 So we shouldn't be talking about who's better or who has it harder. But everyone has it hard, you know. But I think, yeah, I was trained, because part of my family trip after leaving Manchester, New Hampshire was, I went to Singapore, I was in Singapore for 10 years and then I went to Australia for 10 years. Um, still on my family trip to go to college and in Australia, that's where I
Starting point is 00:32:52 started doing comedy and the Australian comedy, the, uh, uh, the way we do comedy there is we do the one hour show for better or for worse, you know, a lot of people probably shouldn't be doing it at, you know, some early stage of their career. But we're just trained to think in terms of an hour every year. So, you know, it becomes a little bit self-indulgent and a lot of stuff only works in the context of the show. But, uh, yeah, you write out an hour and that was, we took it as that's what you're supposed to do, you know. And which is the Edinburgh model, right? You do it now. Yes.
Starting point is 00:33:26 I do think it's easy, if you start there, I do think it's easier to go the other direction, which is nice that like later in your career, like it just must be, I feel, I don't know, it's like going to like a really intensive musical school where you learn everything and then you... Sure, I mean, there's different things. Like we would go to the Australian guys and I,
Starting point is 00:33:44 we would go to JFL just for laughs and meet the American comics for the first time. And we would be showing all of everyone and everyone would have that super tight 10 minutes. And you know, that New York 10 minutes, people at JFL was just unstoppable. People would have these 10 minutes, but then we would later learn that,
Starting point is 00:34:04 oh, they've been doing that 10 minutes for like six years. You know, and so, and I'm not even trying to take anything away from anyone. I'm just saying like, it was someone's six year old 10 minutes versus our, you know, brand new hour. Brand new 10 minutes that we pulled out of an hour that isn't, so we would always feel like
Starting point is 00:34:23 we were on the back foot there. So I don't know which one is harder to do. I think they're both pretty hard, but I think there is something to say about work ethic and doing one hour and not being daunted by it and not being scared to condense it down a bit. And I think people forget in Edinburgh, I mean, you guys know in Edinburgh,
Starting point is 00:34:42 how much shit is going on. Right. The Edinburgh Fringe is the fringe festival. There's still, at the same time, there's the Edinburgh Festival proper. Right. Which is, you know, ballet, opera, these traditional art forms. And the fringe was like the, in response to that, which was like the magic and burlesque and comics and you know, whatever dumb crap you could do live like piercing your face in front of a crowd. And
Starting point is 00:35:12 then and then in and then the the fringe became to commercialize. So in response to that, they started that number of free fringe. So there was like three different festivals going on and comedy was only this much of it. But comedy was like, you know, it was like everywhere. But it was only this much of the fringe festival. The rest of it was like music. People brought like musicals. You know, these kids would bring like six people musicals.
Starting point is 00:35:37 And I remember watching these guys do a musical with like the six people. But it wasn't like tongue in cheek, you know, they were doing it properly, like a proper musical, just that they only had like six people. So someone was like playing the piano and then other people were singing it. I think it was the Bill Clinton musical that I thought it was great. Yeah. Yeah. I saw, I confirmed it when he was on my show, but I saw Killian Murphy in a two-person play in like 1999 called Disco Pigs. And slowly over his career, I was like,
Starting point is 00:36:08 I know I've seen this guy before. And it was so rewarding to go into the dressing room and be like, Disco Pigs? He's like, get out. Oh wow. But then the question becomes, if you guys liked it so much, and why didn't you guys go back?
Starting point is 00:36:21 I mean, we have dreams of going back, but then Seth has this theory that is fair, I think. Which is? Which is that you'll never be 20 again at the Fringe. Yeah. Like we're older now and sort of to be there and hitting the streets and flyering like at 20, at 21, there was something that was like, we had that energy.
Starting point is 00:36:43 And now if you were out there and if you had to fly or and you were like, oh, do I really? And people would be like, yeah, you do. And it'd be like, well, then I hate this. Then I don't wanna do this. And like going out to the artist bar and drinking to all hours is just getting harder.
Starting point is 00:37:01 Yeah. I guess I know, I mean, now obviously this is a bad idea, but I mean, what made you stop going? You know, you are three years in a row. For me, I started on SNL, and then all of a sudden, Oh, there you go. You got the promotion. I got the and I will say, Ronnie, great. You'll appreciate this greatest summer of my life. I got cast on SNL in July to start in September, and I had already booked Edinburgh. So I went to Edinburgh knowing I had SNL and it was just I think maybe the happiest month of my life.
Starting point is 00:37:31 Yeah you know that's exactly kind of what happened to me because I was in Edinburgh when I got hired on The Daily Show. Wow. So same idea was like I was there I was doing I did two weeks and then I found out I got hired on a Daily Show. So the last two weeks of Fringe, I was like, oh great. I mean, this is just bonus now. And I gotta be honest, I was hating that Edinburgh season. So getting the Daily Show was like, oh, I think I'm, I don't know if I'm gonna come back here.
Starting point is 00:37:57 So to go back to your, so 10 years in Singapore, that was basically all of high school. And did you ever, were you guys a family that ever went on a big trip or were your big trips just like the massive moves? You're still trying to get me out to the, yeah. I'm just trying, Josh likes it. No, no. Everybody likes it.
Starting point is 00:38:16 I'm not trying to be a dick, but we didn't go on vacations. Yeah, I get it. We didn't go. I mean, we went for one vacation as a family, which was a cruise ship. Like we went on a cruise ship from Singapore to like Penang or something, which is like Malaysia. And we just hated it. So my family just does not travel well.
Starting point is 00:38:37 So what wasn't good about the cruise ship? It was like being in a mall. Like you're trapped on the mall for like five days or something. I don't know. My family, we just didn't like to take vacations together. Do you think it was the cruise ship or was it your company? Did you like spending time together? No, we didn't.
Starting point is 00:39:00 We didn't like spending time. My family was like, we were like better, we were better when we were like apart. Like when we were apart, the messages are very loving and the emails are flowing and they talk about the love of each other and how nice it is and dad what lessons can you teach me? When you turned 40, how did you feel when you know anything I should know? When we were in the same room, it's like, oh my god, like what we came in. So we just stopped we didn't travel we just stopped but now as an adult I'm taking my mom to travel with me sometimes so she actually came to I was on tour in um off of Florida this year
Starting point is 00:39:39 and she actually came with me to Florida which my mom lives in Singapore so for her to come over and be on tour is like a, to see my mom in Miami is like, I don't know. It's so jarring to me, because it's like two separate lives. Did you have to convince her, or was she on board right away? She was surprisingly on board,
Starting point is 00:39:57 and she's not someone who gets on board with traveling, mainly because of the costs. And so she doesn't, she never wants me to spend money on her or anything. And so she was very, she's very stubborn with not traveling. But I think, I think my father passing away made her more like, okay, I better come out. Otherwise, you know, time is limited.
Starting point is 00:40:18 So I brought her out to Florida and she came on tour with me. And in my show, I talk about my dad a little bit and then I bring my mama at the end and she's like crying and so like you know like my tour manager had to like push her on stick and I was like calling, mom my mom's here everybody my mom's never in America you want to meet my mom? Hey mom they want to meet you and she's like crying. So yeah our family trips always end in tears. It's basically what the... When your mom hits Miami, does she want to go shopping?
Starting point is 00:40:49 Does she want new outfits? Or does she have... No, no, no. She hates spending money. So she's just like hanging out with me and I'm trying to show her around America and it's weird, you know, like the food is so foreign to her. You know, like Mexican food is so...
Starting point is 00:41:05 Cuban food is such a different world to her. She's not American like that at all. You know, she's so used to like Singaporean food. So even getting her to eat like a quesadilla is like... She's like, what is this? What? Yeah, she's not used to it. Would she like Chinese food in America or would she think it was inauthentic?
Starting point is 00:41:26 She's okay with it. She's okay with it. Yeah, she's not like a... It's the best she could get, I think. So she'd be okay with it. Better than quesadilla. Yeah, better than quesadilla. But she... Yeah, like we lived here for, you know, like I said, we were... She went to school in New Hampshire and we would go to Boston as our local Chinatown. So she's like down, you know what I mean? She's down with it, but she's been, you know, she's been away from America since 1993, so some things just, it's too different. Has she visited you before the Florida trip? She must have come over. Yeah, yeah, she came with my dad. That's the last time I saw my dad actually was when he came to New York City to visit me in 2016, 2017. And
Starting point is 00:42:10 the only thing he wanted to do was, you know, talk about a New Hampshire guy. He just went straight to a Dunkin Donuts. Great. Yeah. And just that was the only thing he craved. He said, I just craved Dunkin Donuts and a donut, like the coffee and donuts. He went straight, that was like his dream. That dream was to have Dunkin' Donuts and walk and go visit Wall Street. That was his thing. Can you imagine this guy? That's so funny.
Starting point is 00:42:35 I always talk about it. I think I've probably talked about it on the podcast. Literally, I remember the day Bedford, New Hampshire got its first Dunkin' Donuts. As one of the like formative moments of my life. Right. Like the idea that we could stop, we would drive to high school, you could stop and get a Dunkin' Donuts on the way. And I was like, this is it. We have everything we'll ever want now.
Starting point is 00:42:54 And now as an adult, do I only realize and appreciate what a random place Manchester, New Hampshire is. Totally. You know, like as an adult in New York City, I'm like, oh, that was, that is a pretty random place to go to and be from and live in, you know. Yeah. Have you gone back and done, you mentioned Southern New Hampshire University,
Starting point is 00:43:15 which is the birds, you know, that's the, that's the big theater there now. Have you done shows there? Yeah, no, I have. I did a college in Manchester, New Hampshire, but not the University of Southern New Hampshire. It was another college. And I took the trip, I took the chance to go visit my old spots.
Starting point is 00:43:33 Because in my head, these spots, they live for like 30 years as memories in my head. Like I said, the park with the cannonballs and the cannon and the library and my old apartment building and Webster Elementary School and they just live, it's like a fog. And so when I got to go to New Hampshire to do a college gig, I took the special trip to go visit my old apartment building and just stand outside it and look at it. And it was like, I can't explain it. Like as someone who was trying to, who left unwillingly. And in my head, I always wanted to go back and then to go back and see like the apartment building and like, oh, it's so much smaller than I remember.
Starting point is 00:44:19 Yeah. Everything is so shockingly small, right? It seems so big at the time and how some, it changed a little bit, but not that much, you know? And the, I guess American elementary school always smells, always has that weird like milk smell and you know, and- Did you go back to the Puritan back room? I did, I did.
Starting point is 00:44:39 I went back to eat. And I discovered it was called the Puritan back room. Cause my family was always, we always called it the back room. Yeah. Was there any, when you moved there, was there a Malaysian, was there a Chinese community in Manchester? No, absolutely not. And yeah, so no, it was us. There was like another family, Asian family, but they weren't from Malaysia. So it's just my sister and
Starting point is 00:45:07 I and Webster Elementary. Now we're going to take a quick break to hear from one of our sponsors. Hey, Bajie. Hey, Sufi. You know what you have that not a lot of people are lucky enough to have? What's that? A great head of hair. Oh, yeah. Thank you.
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Starting point is 00:46:59 which isn't very often, I throw my gear on and I get out in it. And my dog Woody loves to get out there with me. And we'll start on a trail, on sort of a big fire road trail, but then we find those smaller trails where you need to crawl and get your hands dirty. And the wetter you get, the better you get. And yeah, that's what we like. I love it.
Starting point is 00:47:22 What about you? Have you connected with your inner adventurer recently? You know those squirrel suits where people jump off the sides of cliffs? Oh yeah, yeah. I just watched a YouTube video of that. My tummy, it made my tummy feel weird. Yeah, yeah, careful, don't watch too many of those.
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Starting point is 00:48:03 Right? Yeah, we didn't have the rights. We probably can't clear that. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Adventure calls in the first ever Nissan Rogue Rock Creek. Learn more at NissanUSA.com.
Starting point is 00:48:15 Intelligent round view monitor cannot eliminate blind spots and may not detect every object. Drivers should always turn and check surroundings before driving. See owner's manual for safety information. Hey everybody, if you're listening to us, you like podcasts and we want to talk to you about another podcast called Comedy Bang Bang, which has, as podcasts go, maybe maintained a high quality for longer than any other podcast I've ever listened to.
Starting point is 00:48:37 Yeah, a really fun, sort of unique take on a podcast format that lets you hear some of the world's best improvisers appearing on this show as fictional characters sort of folded into an interview show. It's so unique, it's so fun, and the people on it are so good. It's people like Nick Kroll, Lauren Lapkus, Paul F. Tompkins, Ben Schwartz. Classics. it's that great thing, which is it is an expanding universe of a podcast. The longer you listen, the more you feel at home with the in-jokes, with the callbacks. That's not to say you can't jump in anytime, but they have built a world, a world that in my mind laps the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Starting point is 00:49:21 Agreed. And as with all great podcasts, it has a consummate host. Scott Ackerman is a fantastic interviewer, and he is at the helm of this incredible show. So give it a listen. So check out new episodes of Comedy Bang Bang every Monday, wherever you listen to your podcasts. Here we go.
Starting point is 00:49:39 What did your parents think when you presented to them that comedy was the way you were going to trend? Well, I didn't tell them. I just went to do it. I just went to go do it. This was in Australia. I was, you know, we were in separate countries. So I just graduated from law school and then I just went to go do comedy. And I didn't tell them and I felt like I didn't really want to tell anybody I was doing it. I just wanted to go do it. You know what I mean? I didn't tell them and I felt like I didn't really want to tell anybody I was doing it. I just wanted to go do it you know I mean I didn't make a big deal about it at the time I wanted to kind of test to see if I could do it you know. Did they think you were getting a job as a lawyer though or were they
Starting point is 00:50:15 like checking you? Yeah they checked in and the the this is my legal loophole was I was technically studying to pass the bar in Australia. So which was true. I just took I just took my time to study for the bar. That's all. What made you go to Australia? My sister was there at the time doing medicine, studying medicine and Australia offered undergraduate law degrees. So it was kind of like a cheaper easier way to get a law degree. So it was kind of like a cheaper, easier way to get a law degree. And also it was nearer to Singapore than America.
Starting point is 00:50:53 Did you go to the same school as your sister? Yeah, I did. I did end up going to the same college, same university, University of Melbourne. And yeah, studied, did law school there. And that was my chance to go to America after, to go to college, but I didn't take it. I just went to Australia.
Starting point is 00:51:11 Just on the path of like least resistance, really. Would you and your sister hang out at all? Would you grab like lunch once a week when you were there? Or would you see each other? Yeah, we lived together for a bit. Yeah, we lived together for quite a bit. Yeah, and then she graduated, and then she had to move to Sydney, like a different city.
Starting point is 00:51:27 But we lived together when we were first there. That was the idea was that, you know, I should go to Australia because my sister's already there. Do you think your sister, if she was here, would say you were a good roommate? That's a great question. Probably not. I don't think she said I was great. I don't think I was horrible, but I don't think she said I was great. That's a great question. I should ask her. I should ask her that.
Starting point is 00:51:53 Just trying to get on trips, maybe not family, but if you were... I know. If you're going to college in Australia and then there's a break, there's a week break or whatever, would you go somewhere with friends? Would you travel around Australia? Would you just go home? Oh, yeah, I would go visit my parents in Singapore Yeah, okay. That's what that's what happened in Australia. I would in between For for vacation like university vacation. I'll go back to Singapore. Yes Okay, was it relatively inexpensive to fly from Australia to Singapore? It wasn't, it was okay, yeah. It was okay. It wasn't, I mean, who am I kidding?
Starting point is 00:52:30 Like it wasn't cheap, but it was something I could do at least once a year, you know, to go back and visit them because it was a seven hour flight. So, you know, it was international but it was a seven hour flight. And would your parents ever come visit you guys in Australia when you were studying? No, they just never, no, I told you they don't travel. I'm so sorry. I wanted to do this podcast so badly, but I genuinely, we never went on family trips that were interesting. But they wouldn't come for like, there wasn't a parents weekend or something?
Starting point is 00:52:59 No, no, no, they wouldn't come. I think that's uniquely American parents weekend. It seems like such a American idea. Yeah. What about, you met your wife in Australia? Yeah, yeah, they wouldn't come. I think that's uniquely American Parents Weekend. It seems like such an American idea. What about, you met your wife in Australia? Yeah, yeah, I did. And what is her background? Okay, if you want a family trip, yeah, she took me to Vietnam. How about that?
Starting point is 00:53:14 She took me to Vietnam. Is she from there? She's Vietnamese, but she's from Australia. But her family's from Vietnam. So she took me to Vietnam, and it's weird. Vietnam is a Southeast Asian country. I'm from Southeast Asia, but I never once thought of Vietnam as a destination to go to. I can't explain it.
Starting point is 00:53:36 Like it never crossed my mind until I met and married my wife. And she was like, Hey, you should come Vietnam to visit. It's very cool. And so I was like, okay, I'm game. And so we went to Vietnam and she, because she can speak Vietnamese, they were able to show me around. And so we went from North to South and it was incredibly charming and amazing. I'm so glad I went. We went to Hanoi, Hoi An, and amazing. I'm so glad I went. We went to Hanoi, Hoi An, Sapa Valley, Ha Long Bay, and then Saigon. We took a train down and it was beautiful. Everyone's super friendly. The food was great. I proposed to my wife there. Nice. So you knew before the trip obviously you were gonna propose?
Starting point is 00:54:20 Yeah, yeah. Okay, well done. Yeah, yeah. I had to ask for, I asked for permission from my mother-in-law and my father-in-law and they said, Yep, that's great. They were like, are you sure? Are you sure you want to do this? And I was like, yes, yes, I want to do this. And then they freaking immediately, as soon as I left, they immediately called my wife to tell her that I was doing it. And Hannah, my wife was like, I don't think you should have told me that. Like they were telling, she told her mom,
Starting point is 00:54:49 like, I think it was supposed to be a secret. Did she then pretend not to know? Yes. That's a very- Yes, the whole trip, she pretended not to know. That's a great partner. That's a great partner to do that. Yeah, she's like, we're not gonna ruin it. Yeah, she pretended not to know the whole trip,
Starting point is 00:55:02 but then she kept having these stressful moments when she thought I was about to propose, but really I wasn't. I literally said, hey everybody, you guys gotta see this, you gotta see this, and I'd be showing them a YouTube video. And she would tense up because she's like, oh, is it going to be here right now? So the whole trip she had these adrenaline spikes that I didn't even know about. When did she admit to you that she had known? She told me after. She said, yeah, my mom told me like weeks ago.
Starting point is 00:55:37 I was like, oh, man. No, they don't have. Had you met her parents before the Vietnam trip? Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. I met and I hung out with them and we always got along. And they were actually surprisingly okay with, you know, this guy who was trying to do stand-up comedy and had, you know, no money and nothing.
Starting point is 00:55:57 And they were okay with, I don't know, they were just okay with it. I don't know why her parents were so cool with it, to be honest. Your dad, so your dad passed away, but at that point you were successful in this career. Did he, but that's great. Like I'm glad he saw. I don't know. I don't know if I was successful.
Starting point is 00:56:13 I was at the daily show. You know, you're a guy who is doing stand-up. Did he get to see that it worked out? Was he proud of you? I don't know. I don't know. He passed away very suddenly, so I don't know. I'm sorry to hear that.
Starting point is 00:56:23 I actually talk about this in the new special that's coming out in December. But I don't know. Ultimately, I'll never know how he actually felt. But he did come to New York and he saw me at a Daily Show. And there was a crew guy at the Daily Show who actually works at SNL now. And he said, he told my dad like, man, your son is great, man. He's super funny. We all love him here. And that was what kind of convinced my dad that I was doing okay.
Starting point is 00:56:58 That's great. The crew guys just, you know, like vouching for me was the best. And unprompted as well. That's probably, I get that. I think a dad would recognize, like when the blue collar guy says it, they're not the BS, they're not the BS guy. When the agent says it, you're like this guy.
Starting point is 00:57:13 Yeah, yeah, yeah. When your son says it, you don't believe it. Of course not. Your new special is Love to Hate It. It's your third, is this your third Netflix special? Yeah, third Netflix special. Yeah. And you filmed in Honolulu, is that right? Yeah, I filmed in Hawaii, and your name actually came up
Starting point is 00:57:31 because Neil Brennan came afterwards. Oh, yeah. And he was just talking about you. Fantastic. Yeah, he said like, yeah, Neil Brennan, for some reason, living in Hawaii now. Oh, that's right. I missed that connection. Yeah, he is living there. That's great.
Starting point is 00:57:44 Yeah, so I filmed it in Hawaii, and Oh, that's right. I missed that connection. Yeah, he is living there. That's great. Yeah. So I filmed it in Hawaii and he came afterwards. And he, you know, Neil is like, he's such a friendly guy, but he also can't turn off the writer's mind. So he's watching, you know, and I obviously I appreciate it. And so he's like, you know, giving me tips on stuff and all that. But I'm already filming it, you know, at this point.
Starting point is 00:58:04 I know, that's a Neil thing. He can't turn it off. Yeah, but he's great. He went up to somebody else, he told me recently, an hour after, sorry, a month after they'd filmed their special before he came out and he's like, you're gonna hate me, but I just came up with the best tag. I'm like, you don't have to tell him, Neil.
Starting point is 00:58:21 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I appreciated him, him making the trip. And you know, he watches a lot of him, Neil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I appreciated him making the trip. And you know, he watches a lot of comedy. So the fact that like him wanting to watch my set was like, I can't believe you still have energy for this. And he gave me some good tips that we managed to make some adjustments for the second show, which I always appreciate.
Starting point is 00:58:38 Yeah, filmed in Hawaii. Probably my, yeah, I'm pretty happy with this one, you know, so hopefully people get kind of... I'm very excited to see it. I've loved your previous specials. You have one of my favorite jokes that I think about all the time, where you ask the audience...
Starting point is 00:58:53 Oh, thank you, thank you. On the count of three, everybody yell out there, which race is the worst? I think I'm paraphrasing it badly. It's about left-footed you and Ronnie doing it. No, no, that's about right. That would work. That delivery would work. It's such a fucking funny bit.
Starting point is 00:59:07 Oh, thank you. That's very kind. Also, I just had Jimmy on my show last week. Oh, yeah, yeah, you did. The first episode of Interior Chinatown. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:59:18 Yeah, very proud of it. Very sophisticated show and hope people can get behind it a little bit. Yeah, it's so fun. I just watched the trailer this morning and it just looks like wild. It's under the moon. Yeah, well, as storytellers and professional TV people, I mean, I think you guys will appreciate it because it's meta-commentary on television and the nature of storytelling. So the whole thing is a meta narrative.
Starting point is 00:59:48 So it's, you know, it's people in a TV show. I'm very happy anytime I see something that I know AI couldn't have written. You know what I mean? Where you're like, this is great. This is completely unlike anything else. I also feel like I see you so, you're so clean cut on stage and so clean cut on The Daily Show that it was like a full like third scene where I was like, wait, is that Ronnie?
Starting point is 01:00:11 Like in a really good way. Like you sort of, I was like, oh, he's also a really good actor because I didn't know it was him for the first couple of scenes. Oh, that's very kind of you. Yeah, I'm trying to, yeah, trying my best to hold my own with these other actors.
Starting point is 01:00:25 And also, I kind of really enjoy, you know, playing out of type a little bit, playing a character, and them trusting me to do it. So... All right, we did some research. So I feel like we have at least one trip to ask you about, which is that you recently went to your dad's hometown. When was that? Uh-oh, oh yeah, so that was,
Starting point is 01:00:47 wait, who did you talk to about this? We didn't talk to anyone, they just- We do our job here. Damn, okay. I went to his hometown to settle some estate matters after he passed away, and there's some stuff in Malaysia where it's so old school, you have to be present for it in pen and paper. So I had to go back to his hometown,
Starting point is 01:01:11 which I kind of was trying to avoid doing for various reasons. But I got a lot of lovely family there, so that was nice. Seeing my family was nice. But it's a weird... this Sitiao Wan in Malaysia, it's... this very small town Malaysian village and... and it was weird to organize the trip without him because he's usually the guy who picks the whole... the whole... like what hotel we're staying, where we're gonna eat, and he does everything and who we're gonna go visit. And so I actually had to do it this time and it was kind of like jarring to be like, oh yeah, he was the one who planned itinerary.
Starting point is 01:01:55 And so I got to pick the hotel. And so I was like looking for the best hotels in Sitelwan. And Sitelwan is known as a poor town or at least not very wealthy town. So whenever we went with my dad, we either stay at family's house or we stay in like a not so great motel. And when I, and so I just assumed there were no good hotels in the area. So when I Google Sit-Del-Wan hotels myself, organizing this for the first time, I found out there's like a five star resort like in
Starting point is 01:02:25 the same neighborhood like down the street and I was like why do we never fight about this place and it just turns out that this guy yeah he just didn't never wanted to spend the money to stay which I get like you know but but the the narrative I get not wanting to spend a bunch of money on a weekend trip with your family too, but the point is that They told us our whole lives like we're just farmers and we you know Like there's no running water here and this this you know It's it's very like lower your expectations stop being so spoiled and meanwhile there's like this goddamn like international five-star resorts
Starting point is 01:03:02 It's down the street. So is that where you stayed? No, I didn't even stay there. Because I could, in honor of my dad, I was like, I can't stay here. That's like parents telling kids like, there's nothing to do in Orlando. Yeah. Like this is, this is a, yeah. That's exactly what it was. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:18 So shout out, shout out that resort in Sitayawan. If you ever go to Sitayawan, you can go visit this five-star resort. It's like it's kind of, yeah, it looks beautiful. I wish I could go. I just like that the theme is that when your parents had something, they just didn't want to tell you. They just didn't tell you. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:37 Yeah. We're like, what's the easiest way to break it to them? Just never ever tell them. Yeah, relationship of lies. I don't know why they never told me. I think they thought I couldn't handle it. Right. They thought I would kick up a fuss which I probably would not be able to handle to be honest. If they told me I was leaving America forever. Oh man. So you got back together with a bunch of extended family on that trip with your back to your father's hometown. Yeah., we did. I had to handle some legal matters,
Starting point is 01:04:06 which is always more emotional than you think, right? Cause you're kind of like signing off your dad's stuff. You're like closing some loops in his life. And then I got to see Extended Family and my Extended Family always comes out to come and see me. You know, they're literally farmers and they'll come out and we'll go for lunch together. You know, they're literally farmers and they'll come in, they'll come out and we'll just, we'll go for lunch together. You know, we have to, we'll have to rent out like three tables at a restaurant
Starting point is 01:04:29 because everyone will show up. Cause I got like tons of family there. Like literally my, my grandmother had like 150 descendants. So it's like, yeah, she had like 11 kids and her first kid had like nine kids. And yeah, so that everyone is there. It's like a good old Irish family, I guess. They just kept reproducing. And so when I'm there, it's like, man, everyone comes up.
Starting point is 01:04:52 And I always appreciate, you know, they was very nice and they were very helpful. Dude, are they impressed that you're the cousin who sort of made a name for himself? I don't know. I don't know if they are. I mean, that's kind of for them. I do know my aunts and uncles are always very, very, very, always very happy to see me, always very nice to me.
Starting point is 01:05:12 And I think they know I do something in America, but they don't really fully get what it is. And, you know, I'm glad that, you know, they like me. They don't have, so you're saying they don't have Paramount Plus. I'm glad that, you know, they like me. They don't have, so you're saying they don't have Paramount Plus. Hahaha. Once they do, they'll probably say, hey, why don't you get three tables over at this five-star resort?
Starting point is 01:05:32 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Yeah, you gotta keep it quiet. If they find out how well you've done, you're gonna be at that resort next time for sure. Hahaha. No, no. Yeah, they're very nice and I always love to see them. Alright, this has been wonderful, Ronnie. Thank you so much for your time, buddy.
Starting point is 01:05:49 And congratulations on the new special. Love to hate it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, thanks for speaking to me. You guys are comedy legends, so thanks so much. I'll be watching you guys forever. Josh has some questions for you before you go. Oh, please, please. Alright, you can only pick one of these.
Starting point is 01:06:05 Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or educational? Relaxing, adventurous, educational. Relaxing. What's your favorite means of transportation? Walking. Lovely. If you could take a vacation with any family, obviously not your own family, real or fictional? They
Starting point is 01:06:26 could be from history or from now. What family would you like to take a vacation with? Oh, man, that's a good one. Um, man, is it weird to? Is it weird to want to travel with... Yeah, that's a good one. I was going to... Is it weird to say I want to travel with the Kennedys? Nope. Is that weird? No. I mean, the Kennedys.
Starting point is 01:06:54 Yeah, as long as you're not around for one of the tragedies. It's probably nice. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? Oh, can I pick my wife? Okay, totally fair. It's a good safe pick. Although I hate for it to be stranded with me, but yeah.
Starting point is 01:07:16 She's like, don't pick me. Yeah, don't pick me. What do you consider your hometown? Oh man, I feel, man. Yeah, you're all over the map. Yeah, I can't, I feel at home everywhere. I feel at home everywhere. But you were born in Johor Bahru, is that right?
Starting point is 01:07:32 Yes, yeah. Would you recommend Johor Bahru as a vacation destination? No, I love Johor Bahru, not vacation destination. Okay, thank you for your honesty. Yeah, no problem. And Seth has our final questions. Have you been to the Grand Canyon, Ronnie? Yes, I have.
Starting point is 01:07:50 Did you really? Did you like it? Was it worth it? Yeah, I loved it. It was worth it. I didn't go down into it. My wife actually spent a few days going down into the canyon. I just only walked up to the edge and I saw it. It was great. I recommended it. I took a
Starting point is 01:08:05 bus from Vegas, I think. And, and is that right? Yeah. And, and surprisingly no safety guardrails. Yeah. Yeah. So you could just fall in and die. If you. Yeah. Yeah. Too big, too big for guardrails. That's what they say. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a, there's an element of danger, which I think makes it cool, but true, truly beautiful. It'll make you appreciate a, there's an element of danger, which I think makes it cool, but truly, truly beautiful and make you appreciate a desert vista, which sometimes can be a bit underrated and natural beauty. Yeah. It's yeah. Why, why are you asking?
Starting point is 01:08:35 We just, that's how we, that's our closing question to everybody. Okay, cool. Cause that's the most, we feel like it's the most American family trip destination. So we're going to put you, we're going to mark you in the yes column. And on our hundredth show, we're gonna do the score
Starting point is 01:08:49 of what the Grand Canyon. Oh, that's great. Thanks Ronnie. Thank you. Have a great day. Keep it up. Lovely talking to a fellow person who lived in Manchester. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:09:00 Thank you for speaking to me, guys. Bye buddy. See you pal. Bye buddy. See you, pal. Bang got fooled At two years old He moved to the Granite State He loved his life Everything was great He went to Stark Park
Starting point is 01:09:44 The Puritan back room He took a family vacation, was told they'd come back soon Ronnie Chang, Ronnie Chang, Ronnie Chang got fooled Ronnie Chang got fooled Now young Ronnie Chang He loved the library And his Ninja Turtles And Webster Elementary Then one day
Starting point is 01:10:24 His parents said you'll like this some more. Watch some videos on Singapore. Thought it was just for a couple weeks, but they knew that they were coming back and that is how. Ronnie Chang. Ronnie Chang. Ronnie Chang, Ronnie Chang, Ronnie Chang, Ronnie Chang, Ronnie Chang got food.

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