Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 144. Jon Laster Returns: The Throughline Is Habits

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Comedian Jon Laster returns for his third appearance on Working It Out. Longtime friends from the Comedy Cellar, Mike and Jon catch up on Jon’s app Blapp, which highlights black-owned businesses, Jon’s more personal comedy material about his struggles with alcoholism, and why Jon calls his company “Thanks Mom.” Plus, Mike and Jon ponder how it is that Mike, despite working in nightclubs, has never even seen cocaine.Please consider donating to the United Negro College Fund

There was a blizzard one time in Denver, the buses stopped running and my mom's bank job, I don't even, I mean, even now thinking about the distance, it's a hell of a distance and my mom had to walk home. And my mom comes in and you could tell she's kind of stressed out, like, oh, the buses aren't working. And I heard my mom crying.

Yeah. Still hurts. Yeah. But that, that was it. That was the day I was like, I'm going to do something big. That is the voice of the great John Laster. This is John's third appearance on this Working It Out podcast. He's a, he's an old friend of mine. I love talking to him. This is John's third appearance on this Working It Out podcast.

He's an old friend of mine. I love talking to him. He's a great comic and storyteller. In addition to being a comic, he created an amazing app that I highly recommend called Blap. It's sort of a Yelp of sorts for black owned businesses. He's got great stories. He's a fascinating person.

I always love talking to him. Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows at the Count Basie Center in Red Bank, New Jersey. For people who saw the Old Man in the Pool, this is an all new show. It is currently called Please Stop the Ride, and I'm gonna be in Seattle this month, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland,

and then a whole bunch of dates all over the country. Philadelphia, Madison, Milwaukee, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Nashville, Asheville, and Charleston, South Carolina. Check out Burbiggs.com and join the mailing list for all of the tour dates. We're adding more for January and February, and we're about to make a big announcement

about New York City in March. And I love this episode with John Laster. We talk about digging into personal stuff on stage, talk about alcoholism, we talk about his childhood and how his mom inspired his work ethic. We talk about anger and joy. It's a really deep conversation. I always love talking to John.

Enjoy my conversation with the great John Laster. ["Workin' It"] I think that you have this really extraordinary life story because you played serious D1 college basketball, Minnesota, Colorado State. You're a professional comic, which is very hard, very hard to do, to accomplish, to pull off. You work regularly at the biggest comedy club

in the country, if not the world, ComedyZilla. And you created a startup called Blap for black-owned businesses. It's kind of like a Yelp or almost like an Amazon for black-owned businesses. Three different things that you're working at the highest level. And my question is, what do you use from each of them

in the other on a day-to-day basis? What's the through line? The through line is habits. Habits, what do you mean by that? I remember reading somewhere one time, and I do believe this is true, that if you show me, if you wrote down what you do every day,

even if I don't know who you are or whatever, the person was saying that they could almost predict your station in life. Yeah, you are what you eat. Yeah. And it was no different when I was drinking. I was what I drank. Yeah.

Yeah. And that, yeah, if I wrote down how many drinks I was having a day, you'd be like, this guy's probably headed to rehab. Yeah, and you quit drinking years ago. Yeah, so that, down how many drinks I was having a day, you'd be like, this guy's probably headed to rehab. Yeah, and you quit drinking years ago. Yeah, and I went and I was in rehab three, four times. But now, yeah, so I think it's habits. I think from basketball, I learned

that it's just the day to day to day to day. It's not pretty, there's no big, you know? And there are only- Oh my gosh, isn't that the truth's not pretty, there's no big, you know. And there are only. Oh my gosh, isn't that the truth? Yeah, and there's always. It's not pretty. It's day to day to day to day. That's it, it's one brick at a time.

So I think that would probably be the through line. But I remember, like I used to live in Fort Greene, so I would run to Fort Greene Park to the top of the hill. And from there you could see one World Trade being built. Now I couldn't, you know, each day I would run to Fort Green Park to the top of the hill. And from there, you could see One World Trade being built. Now, I couldn't, each day I would run out there, I know their building, because I had Googled it, I'd done all this research, and they said that there was an army of people working on this building every day.

From where I was standing in Fort Green Park, you couldn't see it. And that kind of, to me, is the way that everything works. The change is imperceptible. Now where One World Trade is gorgeous. Yes, and you can see it. Every once in a while I could tell if I got to the top, I'd be like, oh, well, the crane was over there the other day.

Or there was no window on that corner. But that would happen maybe every six weeks. I could see something. But the difference is imperceptible. We get on stage every night, it's imperceptible, the changes that we're making. It's like growing plants in the garden. Yes, exactly.

It's like growing shrubs. You're like, oh yeah, it's a little taller. Yes, and then you look up and there's this tree there. You know what I mean? But it's no different. I mean, the startup, I mean, Mike, you, you know, when we were riding back from Jersey, you said, hey man, I wanna, you know,

I believe in you, I wanna help you out, but there was no app. This is me, there was a prototype. This is a lap years ago. Yeah, this is before there was. This is 2020 or 2021. Yes, and now here we are, years later, we are 2116 downloads away from 100,000 downloads.

Wow. 2116 downloads away from 100,000 downloads. Wow. So, and 100,000 downloads puts us in the top 3% of all apps ever created. Unbelievable. Yeah. What is your, what are, have your most challenging, both in comedy and with Blap, what have been your hardest days?

What's your inner monologue in your hardest days? My toughest days? I don't know. I think my toughest days are always, probably always with white gatekeepers. Oh? Yeah. Am I then?

No, no, you're just the opposite. You know how when black people say, and people are wondering what is an ally, you are the prototypical ally. Aw. Yeah. The guy who really is like, hey man, I got some, first of all, I get what you're saying. I get what you're up to, yeah, yeah.

No, because some people, they're like, ah man, yeah, I know the struggle with black people. But you really do listen. I do say that every day five times a day. It's true, everybody knows. You say that five times a day? I know the struggle. You're like power to the people.

That's my catchphrase. Verbiglia, I know the struggle. I know the struggle. Verbiglia, colon, I know the struggle. Can you imagine if that was the name of my special? I know the struggle. I would just be over, immediately over. Oh yeah, you'd be totally over.

But you really do, like I said, when we were talking about some of the conversations we had, that doesn't mean we agree on everything. You know what I mean? We don't agree on everything. But at least you were like, I do understand. I'm willing to acknowledge. Some people are just very dismissive.

So I think that's it, man. And you think it's a lot, basically what you run up against is typically white gatekeepers. Oh, absolutely. People in the tech world who are like, I don't see it. Not that I don't see it. I didn't own any slaves. What if white people did this?

Oh, that kind of thing. Yes. Okay. You know what I mean? Right. And that was my first investor meeting was that. I hate this. Wait, where, you're right. Where's the white whatever app?

Yes. I don't know what that, I hate Black Lives Matter. That's how we started the meeting. That's fascinating. So that, those, I was able to- That was which meeting? One of your first investor meetings? That was my very first meeting.

Wow. Yeah, for money. And I was like, oh man, is it gonna go like- I hate Black Lives Matter? That was- He didn't say hi, nice to meet you. What? Not, no, not hi, nice to meet you. The very first thing he said to me was, he didn't say hi, nice to meet you. What? Not, not, no, not hi, nice to meet you.

The very first thing he said to me was, just so you know, before we get started, I hate Black Lives Matter. And of course you said I do too. I know, yeah, me too, bro. All lives matter, all lives matter. Exactly, but so yeah, it's some of that. And then, you know, of course I'm constantly getting the,

hey, I think this app is racist. Yeah, wow. Because what if they had white people, and to which my response is always the same. It's like, blap is a response to racism. If there's anybody, anybody in the world that wishes that there was no blap, it's me. I am a smart, funny, intelligent, you know what I mean?

Black guy. What do you need this for? If all things were equal, I'd already be rich. If there's anybody that wishes that we didn't have to do this, it's this guy, because I'd be gone. I would be in Bermuda. I wouldn't be sitting here with your ass, Mike, that's this guy because I'd be gone. Yeah. Yeah, I would be in Bermuda Right. Yeah, I wouldn't be sitting here with your ass Mike. That's for sure

Beyond a boat somewhere. No, I think it's such a smart idea because it's so much of what we talk about with race in America is inherited wealth. Yes, but see, this is what I'm talking about, Mike. But most people don't want it, wouldn't, how many white people would ever say that? I don't know. Not very many. I don't talk to white people.

You know me, I don't talk to white people. Power to the people. Power to the people. Power to the people, baby. You've been working a little bit with Seth Barish, who's my director. You've been doing a solo show workshop. Amazing. Everyone tells me it's great.

It's great. Well yeah, I mean, your life story is completely fascinating. I'm curious, like, your first one was basketball, right? I mean, that was your first kind of, what got you there to that level? Like, what got you, like, psychologically? I mean, like, what?

You know, I mean, I think that one's pretty easy. You know what, the name of my company's Thanks Mom. Thanks Mom, I love that. Yeah, so I think it's all one big thank you to my mother, yeah. I think about my mom like that all the time. Yeah, I heard when I was younger. Are we just a cliche though?

We are. Because isn't that the thing though? Like people are always just like suckers for it's my mom. I don't think so. And our dad didn't do anything at all. You know why I say that is cause we were at my dad's funeral, right? Me and my dad weren't that close.

I remember my dad, right, we're sitting there at the funeral and it's in a church. And there these old black women are cooking this soul food in the back, like they always do it, black funerals in black churches. And I remember my dad was sitting there, he's up there in the casket or whatever. And I remember my dad was sitting there, he's up there in the casket or whatever. And I remember getting quiet and my brother was like,

are you okay, what are you thinking about? And I remember I whispered to my brother, I was like, that food smells good. That's how close me and my dad were. So I, and at that same funeral, my brother and my sister said, after the funeral was over, they come to me and they said, we had a talk, the two of us.

And we were like, if anything ever happens to mom, we would come get you. Meaning they're close to my mom, but they were like, but this guy is a really, really, really would be tragically affected. So I don't think that my brother and my sister, I think they're close to my mom, but I think that I am a mama's boy,

like most people would be like, this guy is really, really. But I remember- So what did your mom say to you that you feel like led to you having that kind of drive and focus? I was home one day, the natural disaster in Denver used to be blizzards. Climate change, now it's fire.

Yes. So there was a blizzard, I'm old enough that climate, I'm old enough to remember different climates. You've done the cycle, you were around in the ice age. I was around in the ice age, bro. And I remember the buses stopped working one night. My mom used to have three jobs. So she had a day job, night job, weekend job.

She worked in a bank during the day. But I remember there was a blizzard one time in Denver, the buses stopped running and my mom's bank job, I don't even, I mean, even now thinking about the distance, it's a hell of a distance. And my mom had to walk home. And my mom comes in and you could tell she's kind of stressed out, like,

oh, the buses aren't working. And I heard my mom crying. Yeah. Still hurts. But that was it. That was the day I was like, I'm gonna do something big. And I started, so then when I started playing ball,

I played with a vengeance. Wow. And yeah, I got- You wouldn't wanna be on the other end of that. You probably wouldn't. Yeah, I was a terror on the basketball court. But that day, like my drive changed. But yeah, but I think that was it for me, man.

And I never, somebody asked me recently, she said, yeah, you know, I'm having trouble with my kid and he's angry and whatever. And she said, I remember you telling me that you were angry at one point in time, you whatever. And she said, what changed that for you? And I said, I don't know that it's changed. I still, I learned to channel the anger.

In other words, you're still angry about certain things. It's still, it's still. You're able to channel it into something positive. Yeah. It's interesting, I heard recently this, I thought a very wise thing that somebody said. They go in a relationship, ask the person how they channel their anger or how their anger manifests.

And if they say they don't have anger, get the hell out of there. Yeah, yeah. Because you'll probably end up dead in the closet. manifest and if they say they don't have anger get the hell out of there. Yeah You'll probably end up dead in the closet It's really smart. But how did you how did you figure out? Let's say someone's listening to this they anger and they don't know how to channel like how do you figure out how to channel it? You know what? I think I was blessed enough to have people around me

Good people around me. Yeah. Yeah my brother, my sister have been there during tough times, my high school coach who's like my dad, Coach Lohman was like, hey, you can't be doing this, you can't be doing that, you gotta take that energy and use it on the court. And then I started seeing the good that it could do, with the scholarships. And then of course I changed careers.

And then since I couldn't use that anger with basketball, it went into drinking. Right. You know what I mean? It found another outlet, the drinking and the drugging. So you think drinking came in between essentially basketball and comedy to fill a void. In between, yes.

Well, it came along with the comedy. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then of course- Because you're working at clubs where they serve alcohol. Or it's open bar. The access is crazy.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, and I was a rock star on the hood circuit before I got onto the mainstream circuit, so. So you're, but you're off, you know, we see each other essentially at a bar. It's a wonderful restaurant as well. But the all the time,

is it affect you seeing people drink? No. No. No. My drinking man, like oftentimes, you know, I mean, it had different bouts, but no. You know, when I feel the urge to drink is victories, any victory that I have, there's almost a, what's the word that I'm looking for? I almost feel entitled.

So I would be more in danger, not at an open bar or at some party where everybody's drinking and doing drugs. I would be more in danger when I check the iOS and the Android store, and we've crossed over 100,000 downloads. I'm not a loser, I'm a nerd. You've become such a nerd. Yeah, that's right.

No, no, I want to drink when I check the iOS. Not at the strip club, but 100,000 downloads. My brain on that day, like in a couple days, I need a treat. Yes. I need a cupcake. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

And I earned it. No, trust me, man. I recently had acid reflux that I got diagnosed with. I've been taking stuff for it and I had to change my whole diet. And the one thing that one time it kills me is when I want a treat. Yeah.

Because it's like, I'm not really supposed to have like pizza and this and cake and whatever. And it's like, but I don't mind on a day to day, but every once in a while I'm like, oh, I finished nine shows in seven days. I want a piece of, it's like, no. Right. And it hurts.

Yes. You know what the good news is though? It only hurts for a couple hours. That's true. It goes away. Once it comes up and I don't do anything, it pretty quickly goes back down. That's interesting.

So you live with it every day. Yeah, it is a day to day. Fortunately, I don't think about it most days. I don't have something so big happening that I feel like I deserve a drink every day. But there's sometimes that things bubble up that it's like, yeah, but it is, yeah, you're arresting it one day at a time for sure.

It's interesting, one of my jokes right now I'm working on is for someone who isn't in AA, I say one day at a time, quite often. I'm like, I'm thinking of starting to drink, just so I can get something out of this. Oh, that's bad. Isn't that good? Yeah, I think about that. I think about AA slogans all the time,

and I've never been to AA. A lot of friends have gone, and so I feel like I have a sense of it. But yeah, I think we're all living with some degree of that. Yeah, and I mean, people have lots of other issues, man. Do you talk about alcoholism ever on stage? Yeah, absolutely. How is it received?

It's received probably better than anything that I talk about on stage. Do you think that, because I know that you were developing like a one person show or you're special, like do you think it'll be in there? Do you think it'll be in that? Absolutely.

Yeah. But I mean, it colored so much of my life also. I mean, at least the middle part, at least the comedy part. Yeah. But I mean, I was, I told a story about a time that I was on stage blackout drunk, still don't remember.

I'm on stage crying. Really? Yeah, and of course, like I said, I turned it into a joke, but I mean, yeah, I mean, so much of that, like it got really dark, but I got tons of DMs from people saying, hey, I think I have a problem. And I always encourage people because I will say this also, the theme song, right?

The song that's playing in your head the whole time when you're in the throes of addiction. And I don't care where you are, what you're doing, whatever. We all have this in common is that you feel like no one understands what I'm going through. No one understands how terrible this situation. That is so true. Yeah, but yeah, my alcohol.

I mean, some of those type of stories would absolutely, because I started telling some more shallow stories, and a friend of mine said, that's not gonna help people. You really have to tell people the depths, the times that you were suicidal, the times that you were crying on stage. That will resonate with people because that level

of darkness, people are like, oh, me too. Yeah, for sure. You know what I mean? Not jokes about drinking out of kegs and the superficial stuff that I was doing, but once I shine the light on the dark, people really, really, really responded. Have you ever talked about your dad on stage? No, I mean, other than, you know.

You think it's too deep? I don't think it's too deep. I just think that it's me making up some relationship that never really existed. You just think he wasn't around? Even when he was dying at the end, so the last two years of his life, I was going up there to try to,

hey, let's chum it up. And I wanted to know about what he was like when he was younger, what him and my mom's relationship, and he just never opened up to me. Was he in like a care home? No, he stayed at home until he died. Yeah? Yeah, in his own home, yeah.

But he knew? Oh, in his own home, yeah. But he knew? Oh yeah, because it was, the cancer was affecting his breathing, so he couldn't move around anymore, and then he had oxygen, and then he had to sleep with oxygen, and it, you know what I mean? Those last couple of months, the trips to the hospital. Yeah. So absolutely, but I had made a concerted effort to go up there and say, let me do my,

I don't want to be at his funeral saying, I just was bitter to, you know, anyone who knows me knows I'm a pretty happy guy. You know what I mean? I'm not, I didn't wanna be bitter to the end, but he just never, he never ever, you know, he still spoke to me like in one sentence, you know, like one word answers kinda, you know, like.

What are you, it's like, when you are bitter, which you're not bitter a lot, what gets you? What makes you jealous, annoyed? You know, I think like watching, like the country right now is in a great place for that. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's one way of putting it. You know what I'm saying? The country is in a place, like if you know what I mean? Yeah, that's one way of putting it. You know what I'm saying?

That country is in a place. Like if you say to me, man, I think that if you are a felon, you know, it's gonna be more difficult to get a job, right? I'm from the hood, I'm from a gang banging, dope dealing, drive by, that's what it was when I was growing up, right? So a lot of my friends over the years, felonies.

If they're felons, they're probably gonna have a hard time getting a job. Yes. We can, you know what? You can go back and forth, because some people will be like, well, some felons, you know, but there's a debate there.

But what you don't get to do is say felony, bad, no job. But 34 felonies still qualifies you for the best job on earth. That to me is the thing that is just like, oh yeah, rape, bad. Rape, highest job, that wasn't real. You know what I mean? It's that old saying, it's like don't steal $1,000,

steal a million dollars. It's just the craziest thing. It's so sad. And knowing that now my nephews and nieces have to also, you know, it's almost like watching your nephews and nieces being like, oh yeah, that's right. You are black. Yeah.

You know what I mean? You would think that by now, and nieces being like, oh yeah, that's right. You are black. Yeah. You know what I mean? You would think that by now, those kids wouldn't have the same awareness that I did. Right. You know what I mean? My nephew was just laughing. Like, could you imagine if a black dude sat there.

Your nephew's like a teenager. Yeah, a teenager. And even he gets it. Oh, I'm black. I can't do that. I can't do with these white dudes. There's no way in the world I could. Barack Obama sat there, or if me,

and my nephew's pretty big now, like me and a thousand black dudes ran up on some cops and beat them to with it, we'd be dead. But the idea that even he understands that now, is so those days are a little tricky. You know what I mean? Where I'm not as upbeat. You feel the personal side.

It's personal. It's not just this abstract, kind of this guy committed a bunch of crimes and he's running for president. It's like, if I did this, I wouldn't get a job. Leading the race. I'd have Kroger. Can you imagine if Barack had 34 felony counts,

adjudicated rapist. No, I could not imagine that. His companies were found fraudulent, put out of business, his charity was put out of, you know what I mean? No, any of that stuff. Giuliani's now been disbarred. Can you imagine if Barack showed up with eight or nine guys that were convicted of felonies on his third baby mama.

And Barack showed up with some woman who barely spoke English. It's a joke. No, I know. Yeah, no, it's fascinating. And then the Supreme Court said after that, it's okay as long as you call it a party or whatever they called it.

Official duties is what they call it. Official president, which means find a way to make it. To say it, to say that that's what it is. And we'll let it ride. So those days, you wake up and you see this in your face as like, damn, y'all just gonna do it out in the open. And that's the ad for Blap. That's why you gotta support black owned businesses.

Download Blap to get to 100,000 downloads. And John's going to go drink some whiskey. It'll be Black-owned whiskey. Shout out to Uncle Nearest. Alright, this is the slow round. What are people's favorite and least favorite thing about you? Making plans has got to be and least favorite thing about you? Making plans has gotta be the least favorite thing. And again, you know, my schedule man is literally blap-centric.

So I had plans, I was supposed to hang out with some friends actually later the other night in Denver. Oh. And I'm headed to the airport. Right. And don't feel any, I feel nothing. Like, it's not like I'm like, oh, sorry guys. I'm like, I think you understand.

Yeah. Yeah. That this is more important. So yeah, making plans, man, is, and I remember watching some startup founders at a fireside chat at this tech summit that I went to out in Silicon Valley. And the host said, in one word, describe your early startup founder experience.

And write it down, slide into the middle table, turned it over, all of them lonely. Yeah, it is a, bro, it is a, and I remember watching that like, well, I've got a life, I'm a comedian, no, it's lonely, you know what I mean? It's really interesting. Yeah, because I'm not a tech fan,

so I'm, you know, it's a constant learning curve, and you are really spending all of your waking hours. How do I improve this, this, there's never a day that it's right. You know what I mean? It's gotta be better tomorrow than it was today. Just like watching the building going up. There's work going on at all times.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I think that's- Do you ever think about giving up? No. No. I'm not a give up kind of guy. It's just not right, it's not what you do. I'm just not really cut from that? No. No. I'm not a give up kind of guy. It's just not what you do. I'm just not really cut from that, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's not an option. Yeah. You know what makes it also easier for it not to be an option, and this is probably one of the things that people like about me, is I've always said that, you know, lots of people have initiative. I would like to think of myself as someone

who has initiative. So I think that is something that people would say that they do like about me. If John says he's going to do it, it's probably going to get done. Did you invent initiative? I did. I love that.

I'm going to use that. I have initiative too. You do, that's right. Yeah, although it's tricky. Sometimes you have to know when to have initiative and then you have to know when to cut it off. Yeah. You gotta be like, nah, this isn't meant to be finished.

Yes, and there's some things, there's relationships, there's stuff like that, but blap is never, that's never fallen into that. You know what I mean? That this is a stay the course situation for sure. One time when you were on this podcast, you were talking about, it's like an unusual skill in yours was to find cocaine. Oh yeah.

What? What was the strangest drug situation you've ever witnessed on the road or at a club? The strangest drug situation. I've been doing a joke lately about how I, I'm such a straight-laced person, like in the way that people perceive me, is like, I've never seen cocaine.

And I'm like, I work in, I work in nightclubs. They're basically cocaine factories. And no one even thought I should view it. It's like working at General Mills, and they're like, we shouldn't show them Cheerios. Dude, I don't know, you know what's crazy though? I don't think it's as bad as it used to be. It seems like Gen Z is a little more straight-laced.

I think that's true. Statistically, it's true, yeah. Yeah. The craziest drug situation. I think, man, maybe, I don't want to give away this guy's, you know what? I don't think he would mind. I'm in Boston one time,

and this is the party version of me. So there's a show at the Comedy Connection downtown, right down the hallway, it's an after party, which was like gold, because everybody just saw you, all the women, you know, it could get pretty interesting. And I leave and it's me and these two girls, that was, yeah, it was one of those nights.

I'm not familiar with that. Say more about that. Say it slowly. I'm sorry about that. Say it slowly, say it slowly. So the promoter, he used to send a limo. So I'm outside in a limo with these two girls, right? We're drinking, we're whatever, frolicking, we're having a good time.

And I said out loud, I said, you know what would go good with this? And they were like, what? And I was like, if we just had some ecstasy. Oh my God. I know. The limo partition comes down. And the driver opens up this box of Altoids.

This is crazy. And reaches over the partition, Mike. We all grab it out to it and now we're high as a kite. And then he rolls the partition back up. That's bananas. Yes, and I rode around with them high as a kite, of course, for like the next four or five hours. But I'll never forget, because I didn't even know,

you're not even thinking this guy's listening. We're in the back of the car doing what we're doing. I said, yo, you know what would go good? I said, man, if we just had some ex-egs. Yeah, but I think that was probably one of the craziest drug stories, man. I think that's the best answer we've had for that one. That's crazy.

We do pretty good with these story things, right? You drag good stories out of me, stuff that I've never talked about. Well, that should be on stage. Yeah. That's a perfect example of a story you should put on stage. Yeah, I've never ever told that story. The visual, yeah, yeah, it's nice.

All right, I'll end this little round of this, which is, do you remember a moment of pure joy in your life? I remember the first time that I got a car, so my high school coach, like I said, who's like my dad, him and my cousins put some money up, get my first car. I think it was like $500, a rabbit, a brown rabbit. And I drove my mom to work.

It's probably the best day of my life. No kidding. Drove her to the bank. Yep, drove her to the bank, sat there and cried. I was crying so long that she probably got off work. I was probably still sitting there crying. That's beautiful. Like, hey, I can drive you home now.

And it was joy because you were able to be helpful to your mom from something that you earned. Yeah, I learned though, years and years ago that I know this is gonna sound kind of cheesy, but if you ask me what my top 10 most joyous moments of them, none of them have much to do with me. I mean, I feel like I witness this with you all the time. You're kind to everybody who we hang out with

at the Comedy Cellar. Can you think of a specific moment of kindness you had with someone where you actually felt a deep connection with a stranger? Yo, I was at, you know, they lock the ATMs now because people are sleeping in there. Oh, interesting, okay. So I go in there, it's late,

and there's this guy and there's freezing. It's freezing outside. Guy says, hey man, you got a couple dollars? No, I'm sorry, man. And my Uber dropped. So now the next Uber's not coming for 10 minutes. And so me and this guy are sitting there talking. He's like, yeah, man, I'm trying to find a job,

whatever, whatever. This hasn't worked out. I've been sleeping out in the streets. It's freezing out here. And then I started asking him, well, what was your last job? Whatever, whatever. And we kind of bonded, right?

I was like, huh, this guy. Yeah. You know, there's probably more to it, but in the moment, you know. He's had some bad bounces. He's had some bad bounces. Relatable person. Yeah, man.

He's had some bad bounces, yeah. Then he just starts bawling. Oh. Yeah, and he says, man, no one ever really listens to anything that I say, you know, thanks, well, thanks for listening. And I was like, oh my God, man. Wasn't that big of a deal.

I didn't tell him my Uber dropped, but. You know? Part of it was, hey, man, I'm just waiting for this goddamn car. So I pulled like $300 out of the ATM, right? And I said, hey man, here's 20 bucks. Most of the time when you give people money, they don't really look down.

They just, they say thank you. And I go outside and I get in the Uber. Yo man, this motherfucker, you saw, you see him looking around, right? He comes running out of the bank, I'm already around, right? He comes running out of the bank, come running in the car. He comes running out of the bank and you see him looking around.

He finally makes eye contact with me. He sees me in the back of the Uber and he chases the Uber up Sixth Avenue. Like, thank you, man. Yeah, right? The guy driving over said, yo man, what the fuck did you do to that guy? Oh my God, it's like that in the trading places.

Yeah, exactly man. But that was, it was so good to see that dude's expression. I try to give people a lot of times, man, when people ask me for money, and I know they're going to be standing there, right? Until they get the $10 or the $7, whatever they need. I always try to give people sometimes, man, enough money that they can just be done.

Yeah. You know, so that they, I wanted to give this guy enough money that he, because he was like, man, I could take $30 and I could get a room tonight. It's cold. So I've paid 300 so I know you can get a room. You know what I mean? And you don't have to stay in this damn AT.

He could just be done for the night. We all know that feeling where you're like, I'm good. I wanted him to have that feeling, but I didn't know he was gonna chase the goddamn car up the street to say thanks. I got a kick out of that. You ever feel, I mean you're such a big guy, it's like, do you ever feel intimidated on the subway? Because I feel intimidated on the subway, but I feel like you couldn't.

You're so big. Yeah. Let me let you know a little secret. Really big black guys are just as scared as little white guys. I didn't say I was little. You just said I was little, and I really take umbrage at that. I think this is over, I think this podcast is over.

Part of never getting, part of never getting hit, let you know a little black, a big black guy secret, is to look like you ain't scared of shit. On the inside, we're a little white men too. Oh, that is so funny. Sit there with your arms folded like you're going to slap the shit out of somebody. People will be like, you know what, I'm not gonna try him. Yeah.

Yeah. I get that. Well, and you always have to be, I mean, it's the reality. You always have to be afraid of the cops. Oh yeah, that's something totally different. Yeah. Yeah, it's a whole different thing.

Oh yeah, it's a whole different thing. And that's on the subway all the time now. Yeah. The cops are on the subway all the time. But it's not, I mean, cops like in a confined space like that is probably not as scary as the situations where I was having interactions with the cops all the time. Because if you're out West, man, you live in Denver,

Dallas, or these places, Little Rock, Arkansas, they're just stopping you in your car. Yeah, there's no one else around. It's you, the cop, the car. Right, and then, oh, let me see your license, and at any point in time, they could say, oh, I thought he was reaching for something. Yeah.

So that's when it's dicey. Well, you know, I had a story recently that, it's funny, I wasn't even going to think to tell you, because then I was just like, we're talking about now. I don't know where exactly the comedy beats are I had a story recently that, it's funny, I wasn't even going to think to tell you, I don't know where exactly the comedy beats are in this story yet, but I feel like it's going to make its way on stage someday, which is I'm driving Jenny and Una to visit my parents in Rhode Island, and all of a sudden there's traffic. Holiday weekend, all of a sudden there's traffic, there's a merge. To not hit the guy in front of me,

I go into the breakdown lane. Yeah. And next thing you know, there's a cop behind me. I'm back in the regular lane, but there's a cop behind me. And I'm thinking, he's not pulling me over. He's probably going to something else. And so I pull to the left and he comes up next to me,

he's furious. And this happened like a month ago. He pulls down his window. And he's like pulling over. He goes, get on the right. It was like a four lane highway. I had to get way across Drafton. And I go over and the guy just balls me out

in front of my wife and daughter. And he doesn't bring a ticket. I explained what happened. I go, I was trying to get out of the harm's way and just be safe. And he goes, no, you were using the breakdown lane to pass people. No, no, I wasn't.

He goes, I have it on video. I go, you have me passing someone in the breakdown lane on video? I would doubt that. And then of course he got angrier and angrier. And that's when I realized cops hate white people too. But that's the only joke I have so far. But he gave me a summons. he didn't even give me a ticket.

Gave me a summons for court in Rhode Island. And I said to him, I don't even live in Rhode Island, it's a summons, can I do a ticket? No, anyway, long story short, I'm driving home from Rhode Island. This is the first interaction my daughter's ever seen, I'm just very obsessed, she's nine, very upset seeing me balled up by this cop.

We're driving back from Rhode Island two days later and we're in the drive-through at McDonald's and there's a cop car behind me and I just get nervous. I'm like, okay, I got to make sure I drive right. Welcome, brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay, I gotta make sure I drive right. Welcome, brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, welcome, welcome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, 10 and two, so we got a break. And now you're an honorary black man. But yeah, so I got a summons. I have a summons in my hand, basically. So if he runs my plates, he's gonna say I have a summons. So I'm like, okay, I gotta make sure I play this, right? I gotta do this real, you know, go to the right side. That's how we feel since we were 16.

Yeah, I have no sympathy for that, but no, I'm just kidding. They, they, they, they. That's your problem. No, no, but in my situation, but in my situation, no, no. But so I'm driving, so I get back on the highway, and the cop pulls up behind me, So I'm driving, so I get back on the highway

and the cop pulls up behind me and his light goes on. I was almost in the verge of tears. I'm like, no, I'm going the right speed limit. Doing it all right. I pull over, he walks up, he goes, you forgot your credit card at McDonald's. He hands it to me and I go, I don't think they do that for black people. So I thought maybe I could put that on stage.

But yeah, that's the feeling that you have about cops your whole life. Yeah. Oh yeah. Your mom teach you that? No, we just learned that from them stopping us all the time. You know what I mean? Cause you know what, we were,

like when I say people always say that, when I say we were poor, my mom didn't drive. Yeah, no, I get it. And we didn't even have a car. So my mom wouldn't have known that, that's not something she'd have thought of. But I mean, they were just stopping us for literally anything, anything.

We were constantly being stopped by the cops. But it only takes one wrong move for them to say. Yeah, of course. And when you see, so when you said stuff that gets me down, like the Supreme Court decision, if you're doing whatever they're calling it now, official whatever works. White House business.

But they're also trying to roll back what you can do after a cop shoots you. Oh God, yeah. A lot of that police reform they're trying to roll back. So it's basically like if this guy shoots you and he says it's in the line of duty, you're just shot. Yeah. Yeah.

But think about this, just stop and think about this. We watched, which is where Blap came from. We watched George Floyd be choked in the street, right? But stop and think about this, just stop and think about this. We watched, which is where Blatt came from. We watched George Floyd be choked in the street, right? But stop and think about this. We watched a guy put a knee on this guy's neck until he died. The cop goes to court. Do you know that on the day prior to the verdict,

they boarded up vendors or restaurateurs and people who had businesses in downtown Minneapolis, boarded up their businesses. In advance, yeah. In advance. But just stop and think about that. We all with our own two eyes watched a man be killed in broad daylight and they were so confident

that he would go to jail that they were like, yeah, that might not be enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We literally watched the modern day lynching and people were still so confident that what we saw was enough that they were like, let me board this shit up. That still might not be enough.

Wow. On those days, it's like, I'm not as happy go lucky as normal. But the idea that these folks would board their shit up was like, they might still get off. Yeah. Cause if, imagine if someone choked a white woman like that to death, no one would have boarded there.

She was like, I'm going to jail. Yeah. You're going to jail. Yeah. But the idea that it was a black dude laying there, I better board my shit up. This has been sponsored by Blap. Blap is the best app for supporting black owned businesses in America.

The last thing we do is working out for a cause. Is there an organization that you think does a good job, a nonprofit, that you like to support and we will contribute to them and link to them in the show notes? I think the United Negro College Fund. Okay. We will contribute to the United Negro College Fund, uncf.org. John Laster, you're a joy to talk to. I can't wait to see your next hour.

I can't wait to see where Blap goes. And I'm just like thrilled to be your friend. I'm thrilled to be your friend. I'm thrilled to be your friend. All right, pal. Working it out, because it's not done. We're working it out, because there's no more. That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. You can follow Jon Laster on Instagram, at hewasfunny. You can catch him at the Comedy Cellar regularly. I think best club in the country or maybe the world.

He'll be hosting a special hour long show on September 22nd at 5pm at the Comedy Sailor called An Hour with John Laster and The Uncommon. You can get tickets at comedysailor.com and of course download Blap on the App Store. You can watch the full video of this episode on our YouTube channel, at Mike Birbiglia, and subscribe

Because we're posting more and more videos Don't miss it check out birbigs.com to sign up for the mailing list to be the first to know about my upcoming shows Our producers of working out are myself along with Peter Salomon Joseph Birbiglia and Mabel Lewis Associate producer Gary Simon sound mix by Ben Cruz Supervising engineer Kate Belinsky, special thanks to Jack Antonoff and Bleachers for their music. There's an upcoming episode with Jack Antonoff we are very, very excited about. Special thanks as always to my wife, the poet J. Hope Stein. Her book Little Astronaut is available as an audiobook now and special thanks as always

to our daughter Una who built the original radio fort made of pillows. Thanks most of all to you who are listening. If you enjoy the show, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. There's almost 4,000 reviews. It's so exciting. If you do write a review, what's actually most helpful is if you write your favorite episode. And that way people know where they can start because we've made almost 150 of these and you can listen to all of them.

There's no paywall. we've had John Mulaney and Jim Gaffigan and Aisling Bee and so many great people. Thanks most of all to you who are listening. Tell your friends, tell your enemies. Let's say you're a limousine driver, and the partition comes down, and the people are asking you for ecstasy,

and you don't really have it. You don't know exactly what to do. You could go, well, I don't have that, but you know what I'd recommend for y'all is there's a podcast where a comedian who I enjoy works out comedic ideas with friends, and I think that you'd really enjoy it. It's just as good as ecstasy.

Thanks everybody, we're working it out. We'll see you next time.