You Be Trippin' - Europe w/ Ronny Chieng | You Be Trippin' with Ari Shaffir

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

Follow Ronny on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/ronnychieng/?hl=en SPONSORS: -Visit https://pensiveapp.com/ari before January 6th and receive a large discount of (50%)! -Go to https://cookunity.com/TRIPPIN or enter code TRIPPIN before checkout for 50% off your first week. -Try VIIA https://viia.co/TRIPPIN and use code TRIPPIN to receive 15% off. On this episode of You Be Trippin, Ronny Chieng hits a bunch of different countries in Europe where he checks out the cafes and record stores of Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Helsinki, Paris, Copenhagen, and more. On the show, they talk about Belgium chocolate, campfire stories, saunas, and hot Swedes. They also discuss Jiu Jitsu, Atlas Obscura, the new King of the Hill, and Tom Hanks bringing Covid to Australia. Enjoy the European Vacation! You Be Trippin' Ep. 46 https://www.instagram.com/arishaffir https://www.instagram.com/youbetrippinpod https://store.ymhstudios.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Paramount Plus exclusive series, The Agency. The CIA sends us out to behave in a dangerous way. Starring Michael Fassbender and Richard Gere. Whatever it takes, make it invisible. The Agency, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. In fact, with this hour, my goal at the start was I just wanna put out 45 minutes, you know?

Dude, me too. I wanna keep it shorter. And then it just grows. It grows. And then you're like, no, this is really as part of it. Yeah, it grows and I took out almost 20 minutes to keep it to an hour, you know what I mean? Because at the end it grew to something else.

It's like unrelated bits, you can just do them later. Yeah, yes, yes, yes. Unfortunately I had to cut some. And sometimes it takes your friend, back to what we were saying earlier, it just takes a friend to watch it and go, this is great in the room, but for video, if you're trying to keep it tight,

you can cut all this thing and just be brutal with it. Yeah, Wolf told me that once. She was like, can you watch my hour? I forget which one. HBO, and I was like, yeah, I was like, what's this? Because, damn, I knew it. Like something about, I don't know, La Croix. And I was like, it's kinda cute.

It's like below your average. Sure, sure. Like B-Material that works live, but no need to put it on the special. Especially if you're trying to find time. Yeah, like musicians have B-sides, right? Yeah. Where they're like, this isn't good enough for the album,

but we're gonna put it on something. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Bill Burr told me never to release the double album. So even your B-sides, use it to grow the next album. So they're unrelated, like if Ali, remember Ali's like pregnancy special? Yeah. So like if she had a bit about like finding out

she got pregnant, like that's gotta go in here. Right, right, right, yes. You know, but if she had a bit about, you know, somebody cutting off in traffic, like I could hold this. Yes. I could hold this. Evergreen, yeah, Evergreen. So I'm at that place where I've actually held stuff

from two specials ago. Really? That I still really love and I wanna put on a special. And I wanna put on this one, but then, you know, the same thing happened again where you're like, oh, this doesn't have to belong here, it just keeps moving. So. Yeah, then it's hard too, cause you're like,

you go back to a city, you're like, oh, you guys have seen this. Yeah, that's what's weird. It's like, I gotta like really put it away. That's what's tough, yeah, yeah. But you know, there's also argument of if you're still. They wanna see some stuff again. Well yeah, see stuff again,

but also if you're truly building it again, then it's okay to do, as long as it's A material, but it's just stuff they heard before, you're just, you know, and you're rebuilding. Where you been and where you going? This is Ari's Travel Show, yeah. We're gonna talk about travel today. You'll be tripping.

Yeah. Thanks for having me on, even though I don't really have a disgusting tour story for you. No, disagree. You won. Hi. Welcome to the UB Trip. And it's a travel podcast. We do it in another different place. You won COVID. I thought I won COVID until I found out how you did it.

I won COVID, yeah, but I wasn't disgusting. No, you don't have to be disgusting. No, but that was the brief to me. Ari wants to get it. Oh damn, they gotta get, what did they say? They said that he wants a disgusting story about a trip you took, something really gross and messed up

that everything got fucked up, man. I was like, dude, I never. I've got to be able to get through to these people to explain this better. I'm like, especially with his comments, like, can I just talk to him? Can I get their number? Like Chris Red wants to come on.

I'm like, just give me his new number. I had his old number. Let me just explain it to him. And they're like, fine, I'll find it myself. Yeah, you have to ask before you get to it. Tim Minchin came and he was like, oh, it's a travel podcast? He goes, I haven't been anywhere.

I'm like, oh. But he's also not American, how can he not? He, of all people, has traveled many places. I know, he came from there and now he's here. And then he used to be there, London, and then he probably did all of Europe. He was like, I don't know, just kind of like. Yeah, he's back in town, Minchin?

He was. Oh, damn, okay. I think he. Because he moved to Australia. Back to Australia? Yeah, I mean, last I heard he was back for a few years and so he's back in New York. I still love his old style,

not kept track of certain people, but man that fucking anti-God stuff was so good. No, he was great. Everything he did was great. Yeah. He was on California occasion. Isn't it weird when somebody's like, when you start going like,

damn everything they touch is fucking amazing. Like they never have a miss. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's fun to see those people. Yeah, yeah, no, great acts are great. Keeps killing, yeah. No, but it's not disgusting stories. It's either fun stories, fell in love stories.

That was not made clear to me. Oh, they're clearly not. I gotta get through to them. Yeah, please tell me, because I came on because I still love you anyways. I'm like, I'll try my best, but I got no... I was like either amazing or even, even nightmarish. They just, they only put it in the even.

Yeah. They led with the, there was nothing. I'm not even joking. It was like what, Ari wants to hear your messed up travel stories. Oh, it's such a fucking publicist way of saying it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's just like, you just got back from vacation. Tell me about it.

Okay, that's way better. Yeah, that's way better. Yeah, I mean, you were talking about COVID. I mean, I think I did win COVID because I was in Sydney, Australia filming a movie at the time when COVID hit because Tom Hanks brought it to Australia. For that reason?

Well, he was like almost patient zero. He was the first like confirmed. Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's when it got real. Yeah, yeah. Wait, what do you mean Tom Hanks? I've heard of him.

He got it? Yeah, yeah. And then because he was filming in Australia as well and so his production shut down. He was filming Elvis at the time. So his production shut down. And so rumors on set was like, hey, you know, we could get shut down,

we could get shut down and nobody knows what's going on at that time. You know, this is March 2020. And then one day I'm in the trailer, full makeup, full costume, five minutes from being called to set and the director went for a COVID test, so we're shutting down production. And I was like, oh man, I came so close

to being in this Marvel movie. I literally thought it was only like, I was literally five minutes from. Oh, that was that one? Yeah, yeah, and then. That sucks, you're like, come on. But I had perspective, I was like, man, there's bigger problems in the world right now.

But it was funny, literally, in costume, in makeup, five minutes from being on set, and then they were like, I don't know. Dude, I remember when I was starting this, I don't wanna say his name, but he was like, had a meeting with Brilstein Gray to get representation. It was like big. I was like, hey, what happened at the meeting?

He goes, it got canceled, it goes to 9-11. And I'm like, bro. Bro. Bro. You're sick. Oh man. Don't make that the worst thing about 9-11. Oh man.

I'm just telling you, just saying it got canceled. Any follow up? There was never any follow up. No, they eventually got it. But don't make it like, woe is me, 9-Eleven happened. I had to delay my meeting real soon. Oh man, that's such a comic. That's such a comic thing, yeah.

And then because they, so I was in Australia. In Australia, to your point, Australia handled it great at the start. So we were in Sydney and you could get all your creature comforts. You could get coffee, you could go for walks, you could get food, you just couldn't eat in the restaurant. But all the restaurants were open.

So yeah, it was great. And I lived in Australia, my wife is from Australia, she was with me. So it was like being at home. Vacation. Yeah, we were just going for walks. And then the second part of my pandemic was after the Australia thing, I got cast in a TV show

in Hawaii, do Kamaloha. So then I spent Hawaii and Hawaii again, I can't think of a better place for a pandemic because first of all, in Hawaii, everyone there culturally knows how to be considerate and put other people before themselves. Like for real, it's palpable. It's not just a, you know, everyone here is friendly thing.

They know how to put community before themselves. And secondly, everything there is open air anyway. Yeah, it's all that, I'll throw stuff to you, what you wanna do. Exactly. God damn. Even the malls are open air. The mall, if you go to the mall in Honolulu,

it's open air. It's open air mall. Oh yeah, all the agencies are like. Alamoana, yeah. Alamoana is it. So it was a perfect place for a pandemic and we were lucky to be there as well. So I spent the whole pandemic in Australia or Hawaii.

God, like dream like vacation spots. I envy those people. The guy like, Paul Morris had told me about a guy who was in Vietnam and like, you know, all those stories about the last flight out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trying to get out, the guy like, Paul Morris had told me about a guy who was in Vietnam and like, you know all those stories about the last flight out, trying to get out, and he missed it. And he goes, fuck, I'm stuck in, but then everyone realized like, home was no better.

Right, you were stuck in Vietnam? Yeah, but he was like, oh, I'm in a place that costs seven bucks a day to live. Yes, yes. This is sick. Yeah, no, my agents, when I was stuck in Australia, they said, Ronnie, like, the production has organized a flight for the crew back to America.

If you don't get on this flight, I can't guarantee that you'll come back to America. And my wife was like, yeah, that's fine. That's fine, yeah, cool, cool. Let's stay here, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember talking to you, we were walking by, maybe the old stand, I don't know,

and it was like, I think I won COVID. And you're like, I had fun. I'm like, what'd you do? You told me like Australia to Hawaii. I'm like, ah, fuck, maybe I came in second. Yeah, but you did have a great pandemic. Yours was very healing. I felt you were very healed.

Not that I know you that well, but like that you were like in Peru, right? Ecuador. Ecuador, sorry, yeah. And you were like just yoga and you were like, you didn't have your shirt on. So fun. Yeah, yeah.

So fun. What a great pandemic. What a great pandemic. I mean, I really like, that's why new specials all about like positives. I'm like, I can't think of a better, I would never have been able to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's been six months in Ecuador just chilling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was great. All right, where do you want to tell them about today? Where do you want to go? You know, I wanted to talk to you about Singapore. Yeah, I don't know anyone who's been there. Yeah, and you're the only one who I know who, well, not the only one,

but you're the comic who travels so much and you've been in Singapore, but then also just did Europe. So I don't know. What was, you did Europe for the first time? First time, yeah. First time doing Europe. Well, that's kind of wild.

It was great. So I booked a show in Paris, Belgium, Stockholm, Sweden, Finland, Helsinki, Belgium, and then I ended up in, damn, where did I end up? One, man, my memory's so short. Oh Germany. Where's your go? Berlin. Yeah, I'm so glad you have this map here guaranteed. You didn't do Germany the way I do I did not do Germany. I heard your bid on it. I heard you bid on the sex party. Yeah, but we I I'm so square. I couldn't find a sex party. I I was looking someone told me where it was I couldn't find it. You'd be like, I don't know Oh, man, I didn't know Finland was that big Wow

Some of this is like is like map is different than globe You know, right should I don't understand sure this is the most surprising one how big that is? Yeah. Yeah It's like as big as China almost. Yeah. Yeah. Oh and then I was, sorry I also did Denmark, yeah, I did. Oh really? Yeah, Copenhagen, yeah. So we go to Paris and you know my wife really wanted to do the show and visit Paris

and I was completely ambivalent about it. I actually thought Paris would be lame because of my British colonial upbringing, I guess. Paris would be lame. I thought Paris would be lame, yeah. With a girl? Yes, I thought, I was like, you know, I've seen a city before, whatever, who cares about Paris.

Dude, I went five days, loved it. It was amazing. You did five days in Paris. Five, six days in Paris, yeah, and it was just before the Olympics, so they cleaned the city up. So the city, the river smelled great, the city was super clean, I had nothing to compare it to.

So on stage I kept saying like how awesome Paris, how clean it is, and people were like laughing at me. And they're like, oh it's just this week. But yeah, but it was truly, they cleaned it up. So I came at, I went at such a great time. And lots of Asian people in France, you know? That's how I am. Really? Africans too, West Africans.

Yeah, yeah, and you know, Asian people showed up for me. And you know? That's how ignorant I am. Really? Africans too, West Africans. Yeah, yeah. And Asian people showed up for me. And you know, France and Europe, I don't know if you felt the same when you were there. Everything feels very classy and quaint in a World War II, like, you know, they have cigarettes, vending machines in the back of a restaurant.

You can push a button, you can smoke. Do you smoke there? I don't, I don't. I started there. Oh yeah, yeah, because it's so fancy. It's so cool, and then roll in. Yeah, yeah. There was some like super hot chick at a restaurant,

I was like watching her technique roll, and I was like, I was by myself too, and I was like this, she was like, ugh, and I went like, oh no, no, no, no, just you're rolling. Right, right, right. I wasn't looking, like, I'm looking in front of your boobs. Right, right, right, right, right, right. You said that? No, I was just, rolling. I wasn't looking, like, I'm looking in front of your boobs. Right, right, right, right, right. You said that?

No, I just felt like that. Yeah, and the other thing about France is the produce, so good. The produce was like, because one of the iconic French things, I think, is having those fruit stalls on the street. You know, not like we do in New York, but they have proper shops,

and so the fruit there, they all grow it in, I don't know, locally and in Europe, and it just, you know, it like we do in New York, but they have proper shops. And so the fruit there, they all grow it in, I don't know, locally and in Europe. And it just, you know, it just tastes better. You think European FDA standards are just way higher than ours? Yeah, I mean, I think they grow fruit, they treat food with more respect there, I think, than America.

They grow it, they grow, they don't grow it the way we grow it in America, where it's like quantity, just get it out. you know? So they're doing something right there. It tastes better. Oh, hi guys. Sorry. I was just eating some of this bread that was made for me by Tom Papa, specifically made for me. Yeah. I don't want to brag, but I've got friends in dope places.

Guys, let me tell you something real quick about Ronnie Chang. He's got a new special out called Love to Hate It. It's on Netflix right now. I think it's his third Netflix special. Ronnie Chang is one of the best comics working today. He is aggressive in his self-deprecation. He is, he's got this weird power on stage while still maintaining a levity and above all he's just very funny. Yeah, he has this great, he had this great bit about all the people weighing in on COVID where you're like, you guys were losing, you were like the back of the classroom.

You can't just suddenly be smart now. That's not the way it works. Let the sun anyway, it was really funny, but, um, right now it's a brand new special called love to hate it on Netflix. Check it out. It's also on a TV show called interior Chinatown that is airing right now as well You should know that I Have it to hit Roddy has no tour starters get to my stuff. By the way guys were so close to 100,000 subscribers. What are we at right now?

99,379 bro 621 more subscribers Come on, get me there before New Year's do what you can just hit subscribe right now on YouTube and also if you're on Spotify or anywhere else are those are only two places to take in podcasts Spotify and YouTube could be My special America's sweetheart should I give you a sneak peek? Should I?

Is this even the color corrected version? I'll give you a sneak peek. Quick, quick, quick, quick sneak peek if you're watching. But like quick. It's pretty fucking ballsy. I went pretty fucking ballsy on the set design. That's your sneak peek. In lieu of jokes, I have set designs. No, for real though, I'm excited about it. I'm

excited to see it. I've been doing press. I'm here in LA at this place doing press for it and set your calendars. January 14th, America's Sweetheart and then Jewel will be airing on Netflix as well sometime in April or May My tour the farewell tour. I Guess you already missed the Tahoe date, but let's start with next year January Pittsburgh Providence both with agent Appaloochee Salt Lake City Brea is with agent Appaloochee Nashville's with Adrian and then San Antonio with Ari

Mati Ari Mati the two ARIs finally together in San Antonio in February Tampa Denver I don't know I'm bringing it Denver yet and then in March we got Schomburg Atlanta Oh agent will be with me in Schomburg Atlanta Portland then San Jose Orlando Fort Lauderdale. Some of these are sold out. And April we got Seattle, Vancouver I think is sold out or close. Calgary and Edmonton I think both of those are almost sold out. And then June Anchorage and that's it you guys and then I'm done till 2027. No more road gigs for Ari for a while. That's it. Subscribe. Do whatever

you want. Enjoy your lives. I got merch on the website AriShaffir.com. Enjoy guys. Let's get back to Ronnie Chang. Oh forgot to say I'm doing a screening in Austin, Texas of my new special America's Sweetheart at the Creek in the Cave. Get tickets right now at AriShaffir.com. That's the add-on. Tickets for screening, a pre-screening of America's Sweetheart by Ari Shaffir at the Creek in the Cave, get tickets right now at Arishafair.com. That's the add-on, tickets for screening, a pre-screening of America's Sweetheart by Arishafair, The Creek in the Cave in Austin, Texas, January 12th. No more details than that I have right now. I'll be doing a little standup before or after,

and a Q and A, and I don't know what else. But come, it's gonna be a party, let's enjoy. Let's get some drinks. Austin, Texas, January 12th, The Creek in the Cave. I went to Cuba with Bobby Kelly for the election to get away. What a trip. Oh my god. It was so funny. Bobby Kelly in Cuba? We were just smoking cigars and we had a hurricane but it was still fun. Oh, it was a hurricane. Yeah. Power went on the whole island for two days.

Damn. But it didn't matter because you were just living it like Cuba. But it was like sundown. Our guy was like, oh, don't be walking. Oh. Don't be walking with the power outage. Oh, really? Yeah, he goes, eh. Okay, okay. But daytime though, we just set our clocks earlier and we just woke up with the sun and then like.

How's the food? Okay, everyone says it's so shitty. It wasn't so shitty. It was just fine. But some was good. But anyway, like shit for five days and I lost weight. Oh. Because there's no like chemicals in that shit

that can't afford it. Yes, yes, yes. I feel like Europe's kind of like that. Yeah, definitely. So that brings me to my next point. So I went to, I don't want to skip over France, which was great. I went to a French open as well.

And also great Vietnamese food in France. Wait, wait, wait, you went to the French open? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I went to the French open, yeah. Very classy, very French open, very classic. Way classier than the US open. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I go to the French Open. Very classy, very French Open, very classic. Way classier than the US Open. Really? Yeah, yeah, way classier than the US.

I talked to Michael Kosta, who used to be a pro tennis player, and he said- Top 1400. Yeah, yeah, and he was like, the US Open is known as the most disrespectful crowd, people dress like shit, it's like in a weird part of town that nobody goes to. Oh yeah. You know, whereas like the French Open is like in Paris,

or you know, the Australian Open in Melbourne, which I also went to, is like, they make it like a music festival. So outside the stadium is a whole event that you could, you know, food and then there's bands playing and everything. The US Open is the only one where it's like, ugh, where are we?

But yeah. And it's also New York where it's like, ugh, where are we? Yeah. And it's also New York, not even the classy city. Yeah, well, you know. The San Francisco Open could have been better. Sure, yeah. And so this is how classy the French Open is, is my wife bought some merch from the French Open. And it's stuff she wears every day,

because it's like classy sweater. Really? The fashion there, truly in Paris Paris was amazing. So it's classy merch that you would wear like day to day. Wait, do you get those, is that where the strawberries and whipped cream is? Yeah, they had that but I know, yeah, they had a special, no you're right, I didn't have that though for some reason. I didn't get any of that but I know they have a special French open thingamajig that they the US open has that thing As well like a special drink. Oh, really? Yeah, there's something every open has like a special

gimmick drink. Yeah, it's like a gimmick drink Yeah, which I appreciate and yeah, friends the subway is clean It's easier get around Paris. I got to see like a... A shipping cocktail. And also in Paris, the buildings are like legislated to be lower, you know what I mean?

So it's not like skyscrapers blocking out the sun. They all have, you know, they have that, you know that inception scene where the building's like, but yeah, so it's all that level of... Did you stay in the like old part of Paris? building's like, yeah, so it's all that level of. Did you stay in the old part of Paris? I think so, yeah. Yeah, old and charmed. Because I think if you go out far enough,

it's just modern. Oh, okay. But there's like 12 neighborhoods. Sure, I think I was just in classical Paris. With your wife. Yeah, with my wife. That's perfect. Yeah, it was awesome, man.

We went to. You just walk around and look at the architecture, right? Totally, totally. Totally. You just walk around and look at the architecture. Totally, totally, totally. And just looking around, I went to one of the palaces, and the old French palaces, and how beautiful it was. So they definitely, the colonial rule, definitely they reap the benefits. It showed in the capital.

They did a good job with the- You know what I was thinking when I was there? What it would have been like to be a German soldier during the occupation. And like you get free baguettes pretty much anywhere, free with respect, you know. Sure, maybe, yeah. Forget about the negatives.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, forget about that. You're just a soldier. You're not like planning. Sure, sure, sure. You're just there. And you're just like, man, what a time it would have been to be there.

Like Yoshi told me about Kabul, and that's like a city that's gone now. That doesn't exist anymore. It's like it was an occupation Kabul with like foreign workers and shit. And like that in Paris must have been like. Yeah, you wonder if you're German in Paris and you're occupying it and your whole mission statement

is that you guys are the best. And you're in Paris and you're like, man I mean maybe we're not the best. And you're in Paris and you're like, man, I mean, maybe we're not the best, you know? These guys, these guys kinda, you know. Pretty fucking cool. Yeah, they have great taste, I know, in France. They have great taste in Paris. And you know what, also the other thing,

everyone was like, you know, another reason why I was dreading going to France was I kept hearing how snobbish people in Paris were. Not true at all. They were super friendly. Way friendlier than New York City, that's for sure. I love when people go like, oh this city's expensive, won't be for me.

Yeah, compared to what we're doing here. Yeah, what is that when people tell you about a place and you're like, I didn't see that at all. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't find them snobbish. Yeah, I did not find them snobbish. Quite the opposite, everyone's very friendly to me. I mean, the Paris Asian community really showed up for me

and they were obviously very gracious hosts and very supportive. They spoke English enough? Everyone can parle Anglais, that's the other thing. So we went to, in France, we went to a champagne house, independent champagne house. What does that mean, champagne house? It's a place where there is like a winery

but they do champagne. And so it's independent as well. So this was in Remis, which I'm not pronouncing correctly, but it's R-E-M-I-S, I think, Rance, France. It's like a little, it's a little village in, just outside of Paris, so you take a train there. And very, very beautiful, R-E-I-M-S, yeah. And anyway, you would think that this could not be

a more snobby place, because it's French champagne house, independent, outside of Paris in the countryside. And I go there and the people who showed me around, the people who owned the champagne house, had no idea who I was, could not be friendlier and more generous. And they showed me around, they explained every little part of the champagne process to me as though, you know,

they've never done it before. You know, they weren't jaded at all, they were like, this is where we do this, this is the history of this house, we took it over, here's some champagne. And at the end, they said like, this is where we do this, this is the history of this house, we took it over, here's some champagne. And at the end, they said like, the most striking thing to me was like, they said like, cause I was telling them how like,

man in France, it's like everyone can speak English. And they're like, oh you know, I think our English in France is not very good, we're a bit lazy with it here. And I was like, that was the attitude was that, our English should be better it's not because we are lazy. That's the least snobbish, you know,

this is from a Champagne House guy. And I don't think he was just being modest, he genuinely felt that way. And he was saying that the EU has made it so that English is the language of business now. So that's why everyone in France kinda speaks English. Yeah, that's kinda lucky and unlucky that like when English. Yeah, that's kind of lucky and unlucky that when you meet people, everyone meets up in English,

like in hostels and stuff, anywhere pretty much, or sometimes German, if Danish people are there, they'll speak German, but generally English, it doesn't behoove you to learn another language. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like it makes it easier and then you don't grow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also- That's crazy.

My language is lazy. Yeah, I, yeah. And also. That's crazy, my language is lazy. Yeah, I mean, look, there's one guy, so my point is that he was a super French guy who makes champagne, you would think, can't be snobby, but the nicest dude on planet. And then the other thing about traveling in Europe in 2024 was, damn, Uber was everywhere. You know what I mean?

So you can just, and not just Uber, but everyone takes Apple Pay or whatever credit card. So like you could go the whole trip without exchanging a single dollar or getting lost and trying to navigate. If you wanna go somewhere, you can go there. How good is just tap and go? Tap and go.

They just come over, you don't even stop your conversation. And no tips. No tips. So there's nothing to figure out. Nothing to figure out in Europe. Yeah, and the maps all work. And if you want to take public transport, you can tap on the public transport to do the whole thing.

Yes, you don't get lost. You just take an Uber to where you're going, you get out right there. Yes, and. Wow, it's way different. Yeah, oh yeah, you haven't been there. No, I have, but it was way different than when you started going places.

You're like, where does this bus go? It might be going the wrong way. It might be going the wrong way, and then there's a language barrier, but now you're totally fine, because worst case, you pull out your phone and then there's the translator app on it. But anyway, I want to get to the point

you were saying earlier, which was that the food is, so I went to Berlin, I was in Berlin, Germany, and I was eating a steak in Berlin, and it came out, and it was like, it came out, I was like, man, this looks so small, and it looks like, it genuinely felt like we were having World War II rationing, because of how small it was.

Yeah, you're not even fat. And I ate it, and I was like, this is what it should be. That was the right serving size. You know what I mean? That is all you needed. So the serving size in America as well, I think they kind of took this old European style of food and then they were like, what do people want?

They want more. And then you just, you know, in America, they would just double, triple the cheese. And that's something in America I don't think we- We do waste a lot. It's almost like give them more than they'll need and then they can chuck it, triple the cheese. And that's something in America I don't think we... We do waste a lot. It's almost like give them more than they'll need and then they can chuck it if they want to, but then we don't chuck it, we just get obese.

Yeah, well, you're screwed it away. Either you're wasting a ton of food or you get obese. But yeah, in America, they never figured out the way to enjoy something is to have less of it. That's something that's kind of the antithesis, right? Yeah, just like, just have enough. Yeah, and having less is more because you either appreciate it more

or if you have too much of a good thing, it fucks up the flavor. What are you, what's your ethnicity? I'm Chinese. Chinese, okay. Well, I'm from Malaysia, but I'm Chinese. In some of those places, in like Cambodia and Vietnam, they do these slow meals,

where it's just like a little grill on the thing and they bring out like five pieces of meat and then you grill it and then you kind of give it to each other. But it's like, and then you're like, another one. But that's like 40 minutes has gone by and then you have another two pieces of meat and it's just like, until you're like, I think I'm good.

Yeah. But it's not like, oh fuck, my stomach hurts now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, oh fuck my stomach hurts now. You know? Yeah, which is very American. Yeah. And so I was in Berlin, Germany. What did you do in Berlin? Also did you go to any cafes in Paris?

I did. That was my favorite thing. Yes, yes. I get why, you know when in New York City when we have all these, during the pandemic we had all these shacks. They just got rid of them. Yeah, they just got rid of them.

And people were like, European style, European style. And I never fully understood what that meant until I got to Paris, I was like, oh, you guys are trying to do this. They do it way better. This is not what, this is not European style. This is definitely New York City style where it's like rats.

Rats, homeless people coming right up to you. Yeah, like cars will run into the shack and kill people. Oh, there's a couple videos of it. Yeah, I know. It's, you know. Pretty fucking wild. Yeah. I put a video in there, one of those, fine one.

Yeah. But like. Yeah, but in Paris they would have these like historic cafes, like what you're saying, right? All these super old cafes. I look them up, I will walk to go to them and just sit outside and have a coffee in one of the places that I guess invented it.

Oh, you're pulling up the video now. Yeah, they just got rid of these things, hey. No, no, I wanna see it. I hate when they do reports of a thing. No, no, no. I see it. I hate when they do reports of a thing. No, no, no. I want to see just the fucking video. Okay, this has got to be it.

Oh, yeah. This is damn. Is he gonna run? He's running. He's running. Oh, no, he's not gonna. Oh, he kept running. Look at that guy running after him. Keep running. Oh, no, he's not gonna He kept running

Look at that guy running after him. Yeah What was he filming what was he hoping to film there maybe he's just the quickest draw in New York City He heard like someone screeching in the tires Did you know that theory that like when you'reuggling drugs into China, if you get caught, you have to shoot your way out because they're going to hang you? Oh, I never heard of this theory. Sorry, I never heard of this theory. I genuinely have not.

It's punishable by death, the traffic. Getting caught, they'll just put you in jail, kick you out. So they're like, your only chance at living is shooting your way out. Okay, yeah. If you do this, you're like, yeah, go. Yeah, yeah, info, info, penny, info, pound. Listen, it's too late. You can't help those people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just save your freedom.

I know, I know. But also like. But anyway, yeah, that's not what they do in Paris. Imagine you're just eating and you're just like, what's this, you know? It's horrible, it's horrible. A lot of, also Paris, a very bike friendly city, lots of bikes.

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as far as I can tell, they don't have the city bike kind of culture where you dock it. So everyone has it and then they have to park it and then you know, the boxes. No, they had them, but there was like areas where you park them. So it's not into a dock, it's just like,

and so you try to park it there and the thing goes, no, it's half a block from here. Or if you're just outside the area. So it's just a bunch, just kind of piled, not piled up but. I didn't see as many city bike equivalents, I just saw the people with their own bicycles. And it'll be, you know,

because bicycles take up space too and so you see like, you know. Yeah, this was less docked, so it was just like, just put it in this little area. Right, right. It'll be between like me and you. I see. And there's like eight bikes there.

Yeah, and then the other thing that's in Europe right now in 2024 is e-scooters. So every country now has Uber and e-scooters like Lime. So everywhere you go is like, oh, it's the same app. And you just, yeah. Just go. Yeah, yeah, so it's become very, in that way, navigating cities, even extremely foreign cities,

has become very universal. You know what I liked about that one's in Paris, I just remembered, they had little rubber clamps. To put your phone? Yeah, so you could use directions. They had that in America, sometimes. Really? Yeah, sometimes. In these?

Sometimes, yes. Well, New York City doesn't have e-scooters, but the cities like you know. But I mean the bikes too, they had them in the bikes, so you could like add your bike and just turn here. The bikes here we don't have that. you don't have to be like this. Yeah, the bikes here we don't have that, yeah. I'll show you something I bought for New York City

if you want one. It's like a rubber thing from Copenhagen. Oh really? To put your phone, it like retrofits onto. Oh great. Super light, it's like a rubber band for your phone, and it sticks it onto your bike. Fucking Denmark dude, they're fucking,

they're like cutting edge of everything. Yeah, and I got to go there too, so yeah. So Berlin was, where'd I go in Berlin? Yeah, what'd you do? So this is your first time in Europe? First time in Europe. I've never gone east of London. That's crazy for someone who's like,

you grew up in Melbourne, you grew up in Singapore. No, I grew up in Malaysia and Singapore. Oh, late, okay. And then I was in Melbourne, Australia for 10 years. And I've done shows in London and Scotland and Canada and America. Never been east of, I mean, I'm sorry, I've been to Japan too, but I've been to China.

I've done shows in China and Hong Kong. But all this, nothing. Yeah, never. So it was really a trip to see the world a bit, which is what's so great about stand-up comedy. How, yeah, we were talking a little about that. It's kinda nuts. I went to Iceland for the, it was one of my first trips.

And I just remember going like, I'm not, I can't afford this. But like, they fly out and like, and it was just like, ah, this is, what a cool like, benefit of this job. Right, yeah. Like, take it to these places where you can't go. You can't make time for it and you can't afford it.

Yeah, it's the best. And then you can afford it but you still can make time for it and you can't afford it. Yeah, it's the best. And then you can afford it, but you still can't make time for it. Yeah, it's the best, it's the best. Were you like wide-eyed when you were going there? When you were like walking around? In Berlin or? Just in Europe in general.

I was, I went, you know, my personality type is pretty cynical and I try to keep it even-key. Yeah, you do cynical well. Yeah, and I don't do, I try not to be too well. Let me tell you why everything sucks. Yeah, basically. But even me, I went there like, oh, this is cool.

I get it. I might not, you know, not necessarily any place I want to live in, but I love and respected the cities. Berlin, I think what was the most striking about Berlin was everyone was telling me what a art center Berlin is. And I saw it but what was like you know the Berlin Wall and then they paint on it you know so a very art-y city which was cool and everything was in English, well, I mean, everyone can understand English. Such a worldly town. Yeah, and they had a lot of Jewish monuments, I think, in Berlin, I think, or at least, I don't know what the term is, but they were a lot of acknowledgements of the past.

They gotta go one of two ways. You know? Right. I guess they could stay in it. But it's either like, it didn't happen, we don't wanna talk about it or like, that's why when the refugees welcome, it's almost like they're hard on that, right?

And it's like, guys, we went so wrong once, we're gonna err on the side of being open-minded. And very, very efficient. So in that sense, it reminded me of Singapore and how efficient and clean it was. Everything was orderly, their systems were great. Traveling in the EU, what a dream.

No, just walk right through. Just walk through. It's like a state to state. Yeah, it's state to state. I couldn't believe how easy it was and you're in a totally different country and culture. Different language, different food. Yes, yeah.

Wow, yeah. And then you're just like, oh, hi. Hi, yeah, come on in, yeah, and you go in and, one thing that struck me about Berlin was how empty it was. That's what I was, like, in terms of crowds, no people. I was walking around, I was making fun of it, because everyone told me how popping Berlin would be, and so I was thinking for us of how like

deserted the Town the city was how empty the nightlife was like I was at a bar someone was on his computer doing an Excel spreadsheet That's how I thought about yeah at night and the bar was like empty and then I was the street outside the bar was empty And I don't like crowds so I love that Berlin Yeah But it was still funny how many people were telling me that you were just sex parties and then this guy with the drinking,

and I was there, like there was no one there, it was empty. Wait, you don't like crowds? I don't appreciate crowds, yeah. I mean, that's so against your racial. That's why we came down to Malaysia. That's why you got out? Yeah, that's why we went down to Malaysia.

I'm from Malaysia, less crowded. And the shows went well, you know. I have to pat myself on the back. Through Berlin is, I mean the shows too, are like, they're down. Yeah, down, they're savvy. They're so smart. They get it.

And they're like. Yeah, I literally played a venue, I think Trevor played the same venue a week before me, Trevor Noah, and so the booker was telling me like, hey Trevor would do Berlin, then he'd do the other cities in Germany I would you do real cities and I'm like, yeah, I guess I just you know, I'm really I I Genuinely was shocked that anyone would want to come and see me in Europe

So I was you know, I just like I'm I didn't try to maximize the tour I was just grateful to be able to go dude. So you'll see this next time you go to everyone like hey Do you want to come here? I'm like I I'm already coming. Oh, I can't I can't just add I have my flights You need to hit me up four months ago In terms of like suggesting cities Yeah, or like you're gonna be playing in Thailand and like oh come to fucking Cambodia while you're here I'm like, bro. I'm I'm not like yeah, it's all covered. Yeah. Yeah, it's all it's all planned. I'm from America Yeah, I can't I'm not winging this. I'm not a all covered. Yeah, yeah. It's all planned, I'm from America. I can't, I'm not winging this.

I'm not a backpacker. Yeah, I didn't just add it. Yeah. But you know what it is in Germany, is in Berlin anyway. I went out first night, like looking to find trouble, and then like 8 p.m. I get out there, and I'm like, fucking, same thing, couldn't find anything.

It starts at 11. Oh, the Weiss. It starts at 11 or 12. The Weiss starts late, okay. I didn't see the Weiss. All I saw was clean streets, very cute German restaurants. I had a beer there because you have to.

I saw the Berlin Wall which was cool. What'd you think of it? It was cool to see this thing that I've only read about and I kept hearing about over the last 30 years and then you see it in person and you're like, oh okay, this thing was, because we went to Checkpoint Charlie. You did and you went to it? There was no one there and you're like, oh okay, this thing was it. Because we were in the, we went to Checkpoint Charlie. You did?

I didn't go into it. There was no one there and everyone's like, oh you gotta line up for four hours at Checkpoint Charlie. There was no one at Checkpoint Charlie. It was completely empty, yeah. And I was surprised because I was in a cool part of town. And it turns out- This is just east to west?

Yeah, yeah. And I was in a cool part of town and only later I found out, I was actually in the East part of Berlin, which was supposed to be the not cool part back in the day, right? East was not cool? Yeah, because East was the non-American side. The West Berlin was where it was popping, right?

Cause it was like American. But East was more Soviet. So East was like people were trying to escape from East. So East- Oh yeah, no, no. East is now the spot. Yeah, East was more Soviet. So East was like people were trying to escape from East. So, so yeah. Yeah. So no, no, East is now the spot. Yeah. East was cool. Yeah. Yeah. Berlin was like, I think it was a, it's so funny. There's a McDonald's there too.

Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Like imagine, you know, you're a soldier there and then you get transported to turn 24. You're like, wow, this really became a different. I mean, same thing. You're an occupying force there. We're like, ah, Berlin's great. I'm here. Yeah Yeah I actually think that McDonald's is actually on the east side of it. I could be wrong. Oh that's the line right there that's on the left. No no that's a street line but I can't don't call me on any, I can't remember what was um uh which side was which side. This was it you would

go through this checkpoint to get to like east or west? Yes yes yes yeah yeah then oh you didn't know about this? Like a little bit. Okay okay yeah yeah. Oh here's the picture. Yeah. Yeah, then oh you didn't know about this like a little bit. Okay. Okay. Yeah Yeah, here's the picture. Yeah, you've seen West Berlin. Damn the city fucking split in half Yeah, do you ever go to these like okay, so Paris and then and then the Berlin Wall sometimes I do these things where I'm like Jerusalem's like this. Oh like or the Great Wall of China where I'm like since this structure is the same Yeah, I can just mentally put myself back to what it was like. Yeah, a little bit. Something's bringing me directly back there.

Yes, yes, definitely more history in these places than America. So yes, you can put yourself back. America's very young, it's like less than 300 years old. And these places, they got stuff stretching back at least 500. But even the Berlin Wall, you see it, you're like, oh, I could see it,

and you're like, oh, I could see how someone would wanna get over this, wanna get to freedom, and then it's not that tall. Yes, well, yeah, there's a lot of guns around, but yes. But no, you're absolutely right, I think that's why it's so good that they left it there, because you can put yourself in that situation, and then it gives you appreciation of it.

And you know, yeah, I definitely appreciate it even though I obviously have not much of a connection to that but yeah, Berlin was awesome. And again, this, you know, Germans too serious, don't know how to laugh, totally bullshit, they're great. Super friendly. I love these stereotypes, London Jews prove shit in London. You're like. I love these stereotypes. London too, food is shit in London. You're like, no, it's not.

Some of the most like Michelin restaurants. What are you talking about? You're saying what they mean is British food sucks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But even that is not really that true. Right, right. I will say that I do think British food does suck, but I think- Yeah, but they don't have Britain,

they have Indian food in Britain. Yes, that part is great. That's the part that's great. And then after Berlin, I went to, let me see. Oh, sorry, I'm not sure how you do this podcast. Do you edit it? Am I supposed to talk over the top so that, am I supposed to pad while you're away

or do we just edit this out? No, you keep going. Oh, okay. Okay. Where'd you go after? After that, I'm pretty sure I went to Belgium. What did you think of that? And-

Because that's the one thing that I'm always like, skip it, just go for one day and move on. Really? Yeah, I like Belgium. Okay, great, what did you like about it? I, it just- Brussels? Yeah, I went to Brussels.

This is, it sounds insulting and I'm not trying to be condescending, but it was very quaint in a cool way. It was quaint and it was, you talk about putting yourself in a situation of historical significance. Dude, Belgium was like castles, you know? So you can't get more historic than that. There's stone built castles everywhere.

What was Belgium in the olden days? Was it like a center of anything? I think it was a weird part of France, and then they became their own country. Oh really? Yeah, they were like a place that France would keep on annexing or something, and then they would split off.

And so Belgium is weirdly, I didn't know this about Belgium, but it's actually half of them are Dutch speaking, and half of them are French speaking, and obviously has overlap, but their country is very much made of these two language bases. And so it's, and what's funny about them is I would, well, what beautiful city first of all,

and not like a metropolis. So Brussels is a cool city, but it's not like a, it's not like a it's not like a like Paris over yeah yeah and so it's a little smaller people they're very friendly but for me they're friendly to you because because they knew you or just no one knows right yeah and the people and they one thing about Belgium that's kind of shitty is that because because they were terrible to Congo, and they would chop people's hands off in Congo. Really?

Yeah, Congo was like a colony. And so kick. God of the Belgians. Yeah, and King Leopold was a real dick in Congo. He would, basically they would get cocoa and other resources from Congo, and they basically enslaved the Congo people in Congo. And if you didn't pick enough cocoa beans, they would chop cocoa and other resources from Congo and they basically enslaved the Congo people in Congo and if you didn't pick enough Cocoa beans they would chop your hand off. They would chop the hands off of kids Like they would chop the hands off of if you didn't pick enough cocoa

They would chop your kids hand off. It was chopping hands off was like a thing and like it's really awful It's not a one-off. It's like that was a very common thing that the Belgian people did to Congo. So when you're in Belgium, it looks beautiful and they have Belgian chocolate, which they're famous for. You're like, oh, the dark history here is very dark. Oh, because they don't grow the cultural beans. The cultural presence of chocolate in Belgium is from Congo, you know?

Whoa. But, you know, look. I mean, old days, whatever. People move on. Yeah, and the shows were good. And what was funny for me was I started filming this. I think you appreciate this. Like, before my first show in Paris,

I got this sense that, before I went to Europe, I was just, I treated these shows as, I'm willing to fall on my sword, I don't think anyone's gonna like me, whatever happens, happens. But before my first show in Paris, I got this sense like, hey, I'm working up material, local material here. I think I should film every city

and put it together as a Euro album, you know, the local material stuff. So I started doing that. I hired locally and I found people to video me in every city. And so it's just like the shit you observed? Yeah, yeah. And so I would do some observational stuff in the city

but then I would do this hacky thing of, eventually I would start asking them who they hate. Because Europe- Which country? Yeah, which they hate. And so I would ask Belgium who they hate and then I would, the fun thing was because I was doing a tour, after they told me who they hate, I would be in that country the next day.

And I'd be like, hey, what do you guys think of Belgium? And they'd be like, oh, we don't care about Belgium. And I'd be like, oh, you know what, they hate you guys. So I think that'd be a fun special to cut together. But- Wait, who does Belgium hate? So that's what's interesting about Belgium is that, according to them anyway,

they're half French and half Dutch. The Dutch side hates the Dutch. I guess it's that same thing with Montreal and France. What's the Dutch, Netherlands? Yeah, Netherlands, yeah, Holland. So I guess Belgium, Dutch, they think that the Dutch Dutch look down on them or something. You know the way like Montreal French and Paris French,

you know, they're like, these aren't real French. I guess there's that. So basically because Belgium's down the middle, they have French, have Dutch, the French side of Belgium hates France and then the Dutch side of Belgium hates Holland. And they're like, we don't give a shit about France. Holland's our bitch.

Yeah, and then the Holland side of Belgium doesn't care about France. So thatands are a bitch. Yeah, and then the Holland side of Belgium doesn't care about France. So that was really funny. That's so great. And I went to another city in Belgium, oh sorry to interrupt. No, it's just reminded me, somewhere I was like, oh I went to play in Florida, right after COVID.

And I was like, hey you know everybody hates you, just so you know. Literally, I travel a lot lot everybody fucking hates you guys I was like, I know it's not you individually, but you guys got a bad rap Yeah, I went to another city in Belgium. What's like another famous city? It's not Brussels. It's Belgium Yeah, it's like the second big city in Belgium. I did not do a show there.

I just went there to visit. So how, Antwerp? Antwerp, yes, yes. Antwerp was beautiful. So the comedy thing they told me was that you either do Brussels or you do like Antwerp. Oh, I've never been to Antwerp. I've been to Brussels a couple times.

Yeah, Brussels is the capital, so I thought it made sense, but apparently it's not necessarily the only choice in Belgium to perform in. Well, it's like Edinburgh and Glasgow. Yeah, somewhere like that. Where it's like, those regions are way more fun as an audience. Sure, sure. Because Edinburgh is like, you know, smart people. Yeah, academics, yeah.

So I don't know if that's the case for Belgium, because I didn't get to perform in Antwerp. Brussels was great to me I really liked it. I think it's a Capital city so a lot of English there, too, you know, but but Belgian people are naturally very Cosmopolitan in that way because they live in a country that has two main languages already So and they all speak English, so they're all very, you know, language in Europe is not a thing. Everyone there can speak multiple languages. They're very smart.

And I didn't know I was wearing a Tintin t-shirt because I love Tintin. And Tintin comes from Belgium. So when I was in Belgium, people kept going like, oh you like Tintin? I'm like, yeah, yeah, Tintin's my guy. And he's a... He's my boy.

Yeah, Tintin. The original Tintin, yeah. Yeah, he's a Belgian creation, so good shout out Belgium, they're creating pop culture, you know? Yeah. Guys, my life is in shambles. I had a woman live in here and I had a traditional lifestyle

and she would prepare meals for me and it was great. I drove her off. I drove her off through my video game playing and through my constant watching of The Wire. I just watched her on repeat, repeat, repeat. I finished the last episode, I started again, watched the wire, watched the wire, watched the wire. One day I looked up and I was all alone.

And then whatever meal she prepared ran out. I started wasting away and I started thinking about, dreaming about, dreaming about spaghetti. I couldn't get it. All the time I'd wake up thinking about the spaghetti and I was wasting away into this slender body you see today. I want spaghetti I couldn't find it and then I found an answer. I found an answer that you guys could benefit from yourselves. It's Cook Unity. They deliver fresh-made meals right to your door. No prepping, no nothing. Stick them in the fridge. When it's time, warm them up in the microwave ready in just seconds like 100 seconds but

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That's 50% off your first week by using code trippin or going to cookunity.com slash trippin. Now let's get back to the episode. As a Fizz member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data roll over to the following month, every month. At Fizz, you always get more for your money. Terms and conditions for our different programs and policies apply. Details at fizz.ca. Wait, how is the food in these different places like that? details at phys.ca. Wait, how is the food in these different places like that? Belgium, what's okay?

I got, you know, I think in Europe and, well, France and Germany and Belgium, they're very, in my mind, if you think of a storybook bakery, that's what they do there. They have that old school, old world baking sensibilities. And you know, so everything that to us is like a gimmick in New York, where it's like,

you have a, it's almost like we do it hipster style bakery with whatever, they do it unironically. So the food that we make, like ironically in America to haken to a older age, that's how they legitimately eat. So that- So great. Yeah. And you're like, uh, I see what they did here.

You're like, no, they didn't do this here. That's where you guys got it from you know, you know, no, I don't okay So like Vale the Vale village and stuff like that is built to be like Alpine Yes, and then you go ski in Zermatt and you're like, oh you guys are trying the same thing. Yeah What do you mean? Hey, this building's been here for like 500 years. Yeah, the OG. Oh, right. They're the OG Yeah, so that that you know that So that being said, this is me personally, there's only so much white food I can eat, white people food before I hit a ceiling, so I have to go eat,

I have to go find the Asian food in the city. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, I just, I physically can't eat. Dude, I finally figured out Chinatown when I was in Shanghai and Beijing. Oh, yeah. And it was like, you know, you get there, and you're like, I wanna try all these crazy foods

and stuff, but then the expats who live there, they're like, oh, we'll take you to this place and eventually like, let's go to this burger place. And you're like, oh, that's China. They're eventually like, I want my version of burgers. Yes, that's what it is. That's what it is. You want something authentic that tastes good.

So yeah, so that's what I found in. How was the Chinese food in these places? Was okay, maybe I didn't get to hit up the best places, but it was okay. Melbourne, I was just there, and Sydney, and god damn, they all look good Chinese. And everything, yeah, they got Burmese, they got everything.

Yes, they got everything there, and they have great produce. So you have great cuisines plus great Australian produce. The meat there, the vegetables in Australia, everything is tip top. So I didn't get to get a great sense of it, but I was only two days in every city. So how'd you do it?

You split up shows every two days, so how'd you do it? Every two days, and in hindsight, I probably should have given myself more, but you know when you're planning the tour versus when you're on it? When you're planning, you're like, yeah, know when you're planning the tour versus when you're on it, when you're planning you're like, yeah I'll do two days, whatever,

when you're on it you're like, fuck I wish I had more time in this. How'd your Jews feel about that? My agents and managers. Oh. About you taking days off. Oh my guy's not Jewish, but sorry. Mine aren't either, but they still thought I was Jewish.

That's how you call them. It's the Jewish arts. No, they actually were okay with me doing it. Because my agent actually had great perspective on this. He said, Ronnie, you should do Europe because you're gonna love it. And they can't offer you life-changing money. So you should do it before you personally feel

like it's not worth your time. Which was a great way to phrase it to me. Because not to be snobbish, but I did make decent money on this trip, but my mindset there wasn't I'm here to make money. My mindset was I'm just having a paid vacation. You'll make more money in Kansas City. Exactly, exactly.

But that's not the point, Kansas City is not Paris. So yeah, yeah. So he had good perspective on that. That's why I like my agents and managers because they're not like, they're never squeezing me for cash. Mine started to be like, dude, if you're there, you gotta work every day or it's not worth it.

And I go Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday I'll work. Other three days is off and then I'll either stay in a town or go early to Nuggetown. Yes, yes. But if anything, my agent actually told me to do less so I go enjoy myself. He was like, hey, don't do, like spread it out a bit. And so, and then-

Did you take trains anywhere from country to country or city to city? No, no. We flew country to country, but we took trains in the, you know, I took a train from Brussels to Antwerp. So, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. Within the city.

How was that? Great. You know how they do trains? It's not like America. It's like- It's so nice. It's way nicer. Sometimes, do you do the first class train?

Yeah. It's like 20 bucks more. Yes. It's really- But so much. And then they come by with nice coffee and like an actual, like a better cup than this and they come by like, what can I get you? It's just so great. Like Japan trains are awesome.

Really? Yeah, you know what I mean, Japan? You will love Japan. You will love it. But my point to bring up Japan is just that I feel like America is the only country that does trains the worst. Yeah, we're like cattle. You know how UK stand-up is like an offshoot of theater? Yes, yes. And ours is an offshoot of campfire storytelling?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, our trains are an offshoot of cattle transport. Wow, that's a very insane story. Maybe, right? No, but even that point about we are campfire storytelling. Oh, yeah. I didn't think about that. I didn't think about that at standup.

That's where it came from. Yeah, I saw some guy, I've quoted for Ragnar Jarlsen, whatever, he's my favorite art piece in the world. It's in the San Fran, maybe MoMA right now. The visitors. It's so fucking, me and Adrian saw it in Phoenix, I think, randomly. We were looking for some Yayoi thing,

and we came across this, and I was just like, I mean, bawling, crying. What? It was just overpowering. Oh yeah. You were in San Francisco any time? I'm not any time soon, but I just did it. But please send it to me.

He's got a residency there, so like, yeah. Please send me what you're talking about. Okay. But he came to speak, he's Icelandic, and the Icelandic art scene is so like, together, because they're all funded by the government. Sure. And so all the comedians know the actors comedians know the visual artists yes so I told my friend Ariel Jarn and he was like oh yeah you know he can and

then his buddy was like he's going to speak at the MoMA here in New York like if you want to go see him he's got a new installation yeah sure so me and Adrian went and he was speaking and he goes and'll apply, he's talking about the arts, but like visual arts, but I'll apply it to stand up, where he goes, he goes in, cause he does music and video and all this weird stuff. He goes, in Europe, the rock stars come from art school. Like the Rolling Stones went to art school.

Yes, that's right. And they come out of that, you act like rock stars. And that's just cause they have money and they act like brats, but like they come out of art school and he goes the United States music is um he goes how do you say this now you like leaned in to ask somebody like it's something that's landing he goes okay music is of the soil whoa yeah wow right that is very cool and that's how our stand-up is it's

of the soil yeah it just grew naturally as its own thing. So when we see like UK comedy, a lot of people are like, what the fuck? It's kind of a different thing, you shouldn't be judging it. No, totally, you're right. You are so right. We don't have the, and that's what I learned,

we don't have that here. Yes, yes. You know? And they look at us as oafs, like what's the message? Like no message, we just had a good time and forgot our woes. And you know some of that comes from, what's the message? Like, no message. We just had a good time and forgot our woes. And you know, some of that comes from, I guess the mission statement of America

was that freedom of speech as part of it. So that, yeah, talk about the government. Talk shit about the government. Talk shit about, you know. So there is that kind of thing. But you can't deny that. I think London was, sorry, British comedy, as much as it came from theater,

I think they were also looking over here and being like, oh, they're doing that? Well, we'll do, and then they did that, because they're connected to theater, they did that version of it. Right, they like to put it under their microscope. That's such a good point. That's a great point, yeah.

I never realized that. Yeah, I think the only thing that's unchanged no matter where is Irish bars. Irish bars. Irish pubs. Are the same kind of anywhere. Yes, yes. Doesn't matter what your influence is. Yes. They just do it the same. Totally, that's totally true.

Everywhere you go, everywhere when you're up, the Irish pub was the Irish pub. Yeah, it's just like, you know what you're getting. It would be the same name as well. It wouldn't be like a Cambodian version of it. Yeah, and at that point also, you reminded me that all these countries also had their own comedy scenes. Virgining, comedy scenes.

Yeah, it was exciting. In their own language. It was exciting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean the Berlin scene was people from all over the world. The Amsterdam scene, so fucking big. The local shows are packed every night. I think also, right, they started on their own,

but then also the internet's here. Yes. So they're now being influenced by you and me and Chris Rock and everybody. They're just influenced by them all. You get them now. Yes yes yes yes yes. And there's definitely you know France I think they have their own style of comedy already you know the French you know whatever that style and then but the other guys I feel like they're more maybe maybe more American focus. More American, yeah. Australia, totally American style.

Yeah, well actually Australia was British when I started. You know, American style was just seeping in because I guess we were kind of pre, you know, I was pre-social media in Australia, doing comedy. So you saw it just coming into the vibe? Yeah, it was just when YouTube was around, but no one knew how to harness it. And so in Australia, people who use YouTube

were YouTube comics, which they were essentially doing sketches, or they weren't doing stand-up on YouTube. Now you know how stand-up is now on TikTok, on Instagram, you know. It's like everything should be pre-Russell Peters or post-Russell Peters. Ah, yeah. He It's like everything should be pre-Russell Peters or post-Russell Peters. Ah, yeah. You know, he really did like PRP or PRP.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, PP, yeah. But yeah, so Australia, I would argue Australia was traditionally more UK style and still is, you know. But yes, I think the Americans are influenced, sometimes in a bad way. I think sometimes the, you know, I think some, if you're unintelligent and untalented, if you look at America, you might think that everyone here

is just trying to be edge lords without the skill set of comedy, you know? As in, you might think that comedy in America is just saying the most controversial thing with no jokes. It's like a cursory glance at it. It's like, that's not really what it is. I can see why you might think that, but there's actually people doing very interesting,

unique stuff and trying to touch on hot button issues. And you're like going for laughs from dark places. And people go, you're just trying to be shocking. All these people are like, no, no. It's more than that, it's more than that. And we appreciate that obviously, but unfortunately there's people in Australia, I'm talking comics yeah they they they market themselves on being too

dangerous for Australian TV but they do it unironically like it's one thing to market yourself as that but they truly believe that they are saying something that's horrible you know and I know I know that it's so dorky and I'm already like your mindset is already wrong you know because I guarantee you the comics that you love who are controversial that's not what they're trying to do They want to get on TV. They want that trying to tell jokes. Guys. I wish come on. I wish I wasn't like this I'm just trying like why don't you like this? Yeah. Yeah, and like there's plenty of audiences that really like it Yes, can't you just be like them? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So anyway, but that's Australia, you know, and then yeah after after Belgium

I went to Amsterdam. Yeah, which was great and everyone's I guess everyone has in America has been to Amsterdam very causal policy so that's the one rule I tell people over this podcast. Don't talk about Amsterdam. I got that rule. Yeah it was just like oh it's the same story okay so like your Paris with your wife and the French Open is gonna be different than my Paris took a writing class there and Tim Dillon's is like all restaurants. Wait you took a writing class there, and Tim Dillon's is like all restaurants. You know? But you took a writing class in Paris? Yeah, uh-huh.

Created like memoir writing by this guy, called Fox. He teaches one there every year. Really? Yeah, he's this great travel writer, wrote like the book on like, well this isn't it, but the Fagamonte. I gotta show my wife, she would love that.

Really? Yeah, right, how long was the class? Either one week or two weeks. Wow. And then like. Obviously in English. In English, yeah. Memoir writing, and like, but also like,

there's a beginning one, and then more advanced. I couldn't line up with the advanced. I was like, you should probably take that just cause of stand up. Oh, okay. But it was so fun, so interesting. This is just like a new, he wrote like the Bible on backpacking. Okay. And then 25 years later, he wrote like the Bible on backpacking.

Okay. And then 25 years later he goes, let me read another one. Tim Ferriss credits him with like, you got me going. Oh, how right. And you, this influenced you. No, I had to travel. This influenced you,

that's why you're such a traveler, because of this? No, I read this, his original book, I can't find it. Okay, but not as in him. In Cambodia. And then on a beach in Cambodia my friend Justin Edbrook just sent me my mind you set me the book he's like hey you're about to go to Southeast Asia I heard about this take it oh that's very cool went through me and more than on King but I'm reading it and then um that's

one they always really liked about you was that you you always traveled more than any American comic right you always You were always the guy, and when you traveled, you traveled, I think, the right way. You always traveled with a very open mind, and you were never like, where's the Burger King? And you were always like, yeah, yeah, yeah. No way. Which, you know, the American guys are like,

do you guys have this over here? You were always very curious and very respectful. I had to yell at people in Chiang Mai. They were like, oh, let's go to Burger King. I'm like, guys, no, no. And they're like, why? I'm like, guys, we're in here. No.

But you know how it is with the American dudes. Sometimes you travel with them and they're like, they just can't get out of their way. They can't. Yeah, but you were always really cool with it and you're always very respectful, even though the act that you did would make it seem like you wouldn't be respectful at that time or whatever.

My memories of your comedy, because I saw your comedy before I met you. It wasn't that you're a bad person, but how open-minded you are to traveling. Yeah, you're doing a stylized version of yourself on stage. Yeah. So if it was you, I'd be like, oh, to stay. He's mad all the time. Yeah. He's not really mad. Yeah.

He's giving a version of himself in the moment. Yeah. Yeah. He's not really mad, he's giving a version of himself in the moment. Yeah, yeah. But so I was always like very, because you would go to like Southeast Asia, you go to Australia, you go to all these places, and you would really go, you'd go deep in. You wouldn't just.

Oh, I had so many flat whites in Melbourne. Yeah, yeah. I was like flat white to work. Yeah, and I know that you hate the surface. You wanna go deeper than the surface. You never wanna do the surface thing. You always wanted to. Yeah, like your first day, you're like, let me see some statues. Yes, yes. And want to go deeper than the surface. You never want to do the surface thing. You always wanted to. Yeah, like your first day you're like, let me see some statues.

Yes. And then you go deeper. Yeah, no, totally. So no, that's great. I got to tell my wife about this because I do. Yeah, it's a fun class. But then also he's like, okay, so now those literary people, Hemingway was there and all these people were in Paris. And you're like inspired. Go walk the streets, do these exercises, describe stuff without using adjectives do do this and you're like, okay

Great like real writing exercises. I love it only once a year. It's in August. Yeah, and then like where's he from? Kansas outside outside like two hours from Kansas City. Oh, can he can we do his class in America? Maybe now I think well first he did it through the University of Paris Yeah, and then eventually he was like, what am I, you guys aren't giving me any, I can just do this, I can just organize it. That's so cool. That's very cool.

Oh, it rules. It was so fun, I wish I could do it all the time. And creatively. God, it would just be like, brah. And then he taught me how to like, I don't wanna make it about me, but he taught me how to like, so I'd write my stories, and a couple of them I like,

worked out on stage, so like you just have a submissions either an essay or whatever yeah and obviously it's gonna be the funniest one yes it's not a bragging it's just like they're not comics sure but then he's like hey so you do these like asides and come back doesn't work on the page you've got to stay in in the geographical place where you are right on stage you want people to forget what you're talking about and come back yeah because it's just confusing. The Shaggy Dog story doesn't work on paper.

That kind of like. Yeah, what's the Shaggy Dog story? Oh, it's a concept of like, like you tell this super long story that goes somewhere then you bring it back to like, oh yeah. And it was all about this all along. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it doesn't quite work.

And just like shortening and tightening and getting right into it. And also it was like, oh, it doesn't quite work. And just like shortening and tightening and getting right into it. And also it was like, oh, you can't use your face so you're like hands on the page. So like I'll accentuate jokes. Like that's not on the page, just like a gassed look. Right, right. You know?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's so fun. Yeah, that's so cool, that's so cool. That's super cool. And then we'd all like, like classes over like, all right, let's go get some wine. Let's all go to like,

Oh, so you just. a cafe and drink wine and be out in Paris. I love how social and positive you are. Ha ha ha ha. Only when I'm gone. Yeah. I'm so much more open when I'm not here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, then. How were you different out here in Europe? In Europe, I guess I was calmer and I also had no expectations of Europe. I genuinely was expecting the worst and so. That helps, low expectations. Yeah, I had very low expectations,

not just of my own, how my comedy would go, but of the cities themselves. Like I didn't hype it up, you know. This wasn't like my lifetime trip, like I say for like five years just to go on this trip, this was me very lucky getting a paid holiday and so I was prepared to hate the whole thing and I didn't, I loved every, I loved all of it.

I loved just being able to walk and have nothing on my agenda and yeah. Isn't that the best? The best. And you're not home, so there's really nothing you can be doing. Yes. That's why Montreal was always fun.

We were all like, let's go to lunch. Yes. We're actually not, we don't have to do anything. There's no podcast to do, there's no fucking meetings. Yeah, yeah. There's nothing. Yeah, but I heard, I wish I remember who told me this, this bit, this comic was like, you know,

you never wanna see your agent in shorts. In Montreal, because you see the agents also do that. Dude, Justin came to Bonnaroo one year, my agent, and he wore like slacks and a button down shirt. I was like, Justin, no. He was like, what do you mean? I mean, you can't, dude, you can't be an Asian here. And so we put on like,

I think he like rolled up his slacks and put my merch shirt on. And it was like not close enough. And I was like, do some drugs. Like I'm not doing drugs, but I will put on shorts. Yeah. You don't want to see them in slacking. So where else do you get into that? So I want to, I'll skip over Amsterdam cause no, that's the, I don't want to break the slacking. So where else do you get into them? So I wanna, I'll skip over Amsterdam because I don't wanna break the rules, but I will say it was a very cosmopolitan city. I had this guy give me a boat ride down Amsterdam and he gave me a history of-

In the canals? In the canals, yeah. And he gave me a history, he was great. He gave me a whole history of the whole city in like an hour and he was like a Dutch man who had lived in Ohio. So he sounded American, but he was like super like, he would be mega Dutch.

Basically he was mega, yeah, he was like, he was, yeah, he would be very proud of Dutch. Not in an obnoxious way, but in a rightfully like, we developed this and this city, the dam system, we were the first to develop this dam system that made Amsterdam what it is. That's why it's called Amsterdam, because of these dams. I know, he was like blowing my mind with all this stuff.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. I know, and then he would show, point out stuff in the city, like there'll be crowns on the lampposts, and he'd be like, that's the crown that was given to us by the king, which was like licensed to open the city of Amsterdam. And was like which king and he was like oh the Roman the Roman king was the one who gave us our license to become do they go up there yeah yeah and so he was very proud of that and then he would give me history and then we were passed by the

zoo I recommend this boat ride by the way because on the canals because you can see the whole city is a tour tour tour? It's a, it's a, Or just some guy you met. It's a guy who was connected to the hotel. So the hotel organized this thing for me. And he would pass by the zoo and then he goes like, that's the zoo, it's a historical zoo. It's obviously a lot, when we first started it,

it was obviously much worse for the animals, now it's a lot better. And he was like, the so-called woke generation now wants to close the zoo. And, yeah, but he was like professional enough to like not like, you know, he say it like that, that's where he left it, he didn't go like, fuck these guys over, you know, he just said, and the so-called woke generation now wants to close the zoo

and, you know and that's something that's up for debate right now. And then, because for me, I guess I don't know whether he expected me to be left or right or whatever because of my face and my eye shape, but I was just like, yeah, I get it, man. I mean, zoos, these animals, it's important for people to see animals in a zoo.

So we respect nature, and some of these animals would have died in nature anyway. So anyway, so I was making an argument for the zoo. Did you do this where you just like, whatever your feelings are about an issue, you're like, I'll just take your side. I don't wanna fight. So no matter what, like, oh yeah, totally.

Yes, yes, I'll do that sometimes to not fight, and also just to explore the person's psyche. Just to be like, oh yeah, totally. Yes, yes, I'll do that sometimes to not fight and also just to explore the person's psyche. You know, just to be like, oh yeah, tell me more about your fucked up thoughts, but you know, I don't judge them, I'm just, I wanna know your fucked up. I tried having a bit about it, like, challenging people is not the way to find out

how deep the crazy well goes. Yes, that's a good point. You wanna find out, you gotta like, yes, like, I was in Egypt, they told me that the Jews planned 9-11, I was like, come on. Yeah, what's going on? Okay, I heard that, what else?

Yeah, also, I'm also not like,? Yeah, also I'm also not like, I don't think I'm left or right, I don't identify, I think I'm pretty center down the road. So I don't know, so he was, but that's a great insight. That's a great thing. Just keep going. It's not your mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Don't challenge anybody. Yeah, yeah, don't challenge. And he... We had a guy driving us back from Dixie, or the Chicks, in like Jacob Rees Park, something like that. And he was like, we're all talking. He goes, you guys can drink back there? I was like, okay, cool. We stopped at 7-Eleven, got beers, cool cab driver.

And just like a five car fleet, you know? And he goes, so where do you guys get your news from? I'm like, oh shit. Oh, here we go! Oh shit! Here we go! That's such a funny, dude, that's such a funny line,

because as soon as they said it, it tells you so much about fucking Pudging. So much, who brings that up? And it's on his mind. Oh my God. I'm not gonna tell you step by step, but it ended with Madonna's actually a man. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah Are you going to tell the story?

I've this first time I've ever told that's the first time I challenged him. He hit me with Michelle Obama's a man. I'm like, okay, sure, sure, sure. Yeah. For whatever. It was the most basic, like, you know, like when your face swap things, it was like four face swaps to get to Madonna. And I'm like, but that was the one I'm like, come on, man. So you so you know way so you did I allowed Michelle Obama's a man. I allowed Nancy Pelosi. No pushback. No pushback. Yeah, I was a little bit like Yeah, like questioning like what would they be a man? Yeah. Yeah, how does that help them? Yeah, and then but at Madonna I was like, come on, dude. I mean I'm jerked off to her when I was 15. No way, no way.

And he was like, I'm telling ya. When are you gonna do this bit? I don't know, I'm just looking on to how ridiculous it is. Yeah, yeah, it's in the cartridge ready to go. I guess so, oh my god. So anyway, what were you saying? No, no, I was just, yeah, anyway,

so this guy, he gave us a good time and then he showed us around, he gave a really good abbreviated history of Amsterdam which I really appreciate it. We could do a tour like that. Yeah on the canals as well and Anyway, I don't want to break the rules. I'll just skip. What rules? Amsterdam rules. Oh No, it's just cuz everyone's stories. I got too high and I had to find my way back. I know I did not get high There you go. That's how square I am. We end up I performed in a yeah, no resorts. No Amsterdam You're gonna tell the same fucking story unless you got taken hostage by terrorists in Amsterdam then bring it Yeah, we I got to see Anne Frank's house and then we I ended up performing in this theater. It was quite large

I did two shows and Anne Frank came in the show? No, we. I only read the first half of the book. Only after I did the shows did I realize that the theater I was doing in was like where they did the Anne Frank musical for the longest time. Oh really? And they didn't tell me beforehand. What? In Amsterdam they did an Anne Frank musical?

Yeah, a play maybe. Maybe it was a play. Maybe musical is musical a play maybe maybe it was a play maybe musicals the wrong term It was a play, but it was definitely an Frank play live theater thing and Backstage I thought it was weird that the green room was like in this apartment building a building Like a fake building like a prop building right so there's like a kitchen as I bedrooms in it so I was like my green room was like in the bench. And afterwards I was like, oh, that was the set. That was the Anne Frank set, the green room.

But it was a massive theater, I'm talking like. How was the green room? Oh, it was good. Pretty nice, right? Anne Frank's house was like actually pretty cool. I didn't think about what it was, it was not, yeah. You're like, well, it's just kind of, it's like a planner.

Yeah, so I guess they built this theater for the Anne Frank play, but very few acts, like, they didn't have any other musicals that could command that attendance, so it became a little bit of a, like, you know, one of those theaters with no acts that. It's like after the Olympics, like, what are you gonna do with a 5,000 seat swimming place?

Exactly. No, I mean, where'd you ever use this again? Exactly, it's kind of like that. I think, I might be ignorant, but that's, I think that's, to the best of my knowledge, that's what happened. That's interesting. And then, yeah, I don't know.

The canals are so beautiful. The canals are beautiful, very clean. Oh, he said that they designed the canals in Amsterdam so that the water's always flowing. That's why the water, you can just drink it, because it's always flowing, yeah. You can drink the canal water? Yeah, he scooped up, he didn't drink it,

he just scooped it, he said it looks dirty, but he scooped it in a cup for us, and he's like, it's clear. It's just optical illusion. And the reason it's clear is because it's always flowing, and they designed the dam so that it would continually flow. And so he said like, you could pee in it, which people did, but it would be flowing away.

But is it river water or is it ocean water? Yeah, I don't know. It was fresh water. It was fresh water coming from somewhere. He said the place and then- Oh, maybe the Rhine or something. Yeah, something, but it went out into the ocean. And so he said like, it was just a,

basically he just said it's like a perfectly designed city. There's no rules for the podcast. Oh, basically he just said it's like a perfectly designed city. And- There's no rules for the podcast. Oh, no, no. It's like- I know how irritated you are, fuckers. I gotta talk to these fucking agents. Yeah, how irritated you are.

I gotta tell them to explain this better. No, no, no. The way it was explained was funny. It was like no answer to that. And I was like, yeah, I get it. No, I get it. You don't wanna, like, how many times do I wanna hear that story?

It's the same story. After the third time, I was like, at first I just said no resorts, cause it's like, I had one and was like, oh, just hung at the beach, it was so relaxing. I'm like, God, that's boring. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And then like, yeah, now I'm no answer. I think your problem with this podcast is gonna be getting Americans who travel. Cause they don't travel well internationally. They don't. They don't travel broadly and they don't travel. A lot of guys have done one trip. That's what I mean.

But like Sam Merrill's like, dude I've been nowhere. I'm like, okay, well that's not for you. But other guys have been to like, like a lot of places so I'll be back a bunch. Norman's just starting to really travel. Yeah, yeah, but they, you know. Santino goes places. You know like Todd Berry won't go,

Dan Natterman won't fly longer than three hours. So he can't Although you should get Todd Barry he did Thailand I think last year. Oh really he travels Yeah, you know Todd Barry gets out there So if it's like you don't to get your hands way dirty for me to be interested in it Yeah, not even for this pop just in general But it's just like like H. Foley went to Greece and he's like never been anywhere. Yeah went to Greece I was like I didn't want to Greece, I was like, I didn't wanna get hustled or anything,

but he goes, you know what, let me just rent a small car, it was like an open air car, and he goes, I was spelled so free, and so like whatever, and I was like, yeah, that's the vibe. He went to like a tourist island, but still like. To be fair, traveling is such a privilege too, so it's a thing that people,

so yes, I agree, not many people experience travel like that. They think travel is going to Orlando, Florida, it's going to Disney World and eating a turkey on a, but sorry, I probably should clarify, I shouldn't malign Todd Berry. I love Todd, he's great, and he has, he actually travels more than most Americans, he does shows everywhere, and he does shows in Australia.

So he'd be a good guy for this part. He had a bit that I never forget that it's just like, he goes, I don't like sushi. People are like, yeah, I don't like sushi. Actually, yeah, I've tried it one time. 1983 at the Cincinnati airport. He goes, you had your chance, sushi. Very Todd, very, I love Todd.

I love you, Todd. I'm sorry, I shouldn't say you don't travel. You do travel. It is fun when you go to these places and you see like a comedian's poster from two months ago. You're like, oh they were here? Yeah, they were here, yeah. And then you message them, you're like,

hey look, I take a photo of you up here. Hey, I'm in here now. And they're like, oh yeah, that place is great. Thailand was a real, like brought people out early on. Oh yeah, you know I've been to Thailand as a kid, but I've never been there as an adult. Never performed there. When I was there, Je. Asher a had been there like a month before You know Tom Agner. Do you remember this guy? Okay, he lives in but he was like an OG New York comic

But yeah, all right, let's get back here. Sorry. So what'd you go after after Amsterdam? I went to Yeah, I went to Copenhagen Copenhagen. Yes Copenhagen Yeah, I went to Copenhagen. Copenhagen, yes. Copenhagen. God, you hit some fucking great spots. You know what I wanted? I never got them to give me one. Sorry. Finland? I did Helsinki. You'll love it. Every fucking floor, I'm like, get me Helsinki. No, you will love it. You will love it. You will love Helsinki. Why? Because it's very you. It's very your kid? It's far away. it's very Finnish,

so meaning you're engrossed in Finnish culture. Which is what? Finnish, it's just Finn, it's the Finnish, so. What's Finnish culture, I mean? Like it's. Hot springs, that's all I can think of. So I didn't know this until I got there, that they are the leader, worldwide leaders in,

what do you call those saunas? Saunas? Yes. Wow. Saunas, so that whole thing is saunas. So everyone's apartment building, they have a sauna in their own apartment. Everyone's house has, they have their own personal saunas.

It's like a cultural thing. What? Even the immigrants who come, it becomes like a cultural thing, like, oh yeah, you own a car, you own your own sauna. Oh, I love that. Oh, maybe that's why Estonia's too, because it's right there.

Yeah, and so it's a sauna space. Really? God, I love that. That's a Jewish thing too. Oh yeah, yeah. Old Jews love a schvitz. We went to the, you brought me there, to the New York one. Ukrainian sauna, under the house.

Anyway, so they love saunas, so you love that. God, I love that place. And they love food. And I only learned the difference between like the Scandinavians and the whatever. Oh man, I already forgot it. But there's like, there's Scandinavians and then there's something else.

That they're not Scandinavian. So I don't think Finland is Scandinavia. It's not? I could be wrong. It's so much rushed. But I know like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, definitely. But then Finland is just outside it. So this is different.

I went for the first time, went to Romania and Slovenia, wherever that is. And for the first, I've never been to Eastern Europe. And I'm like, oh, different vibe. Scandinavia and this regular Europe, did you see a difference in vibe and culture in people? Yes, totally. This is like three Europe's.

Totally, yeah, that's what I really loved about my trip was that France was its own entity unto itself, obviously. Germany was its own entity unto itself. Belgium felt like an offshoot of France culturally. And Holland was its own entity unto itself. So Belgium's in between, which makes sense, because it is in between. And I mean, they have their own thing going, Belgium.

I'm just saying vibe-wise, we'll talk about vibes, right? So all those countries were its own thing, and then I could tell it was very different. Denmark and Sweden had more in common. I didn't get to Norway, unfortunately, but Denmark and Sweden had more in common. And I would say Finland, to me, was very common. We're Sweden. Yeah, Denmark and Sweden's up there common. And I would say Finland to me was very common.

Yeah, Denmark and Sweden's up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those two felt, it felt that started to feel more like you guys have more in common, which they do. So that- Yeah, cause like you talk about like sauna culture up here. Yeah. They're not gonna have that.

No, they don't have that. They don't have to escape the frost all the time. Yes, the freezing cold. And even the cuisine, the most obvious thing was the cuisine you know so those places the Scandinavian countries they they eat a lot of fish yeah but I love fish so it's great for me you know I love the way they do fish. Did you just whale anywhere? No I didn't eat whale. I don't know I feel bad eating whales. I know in Norway they would just served it and I was like really they're like it's not

endangered here but as that's out of my mouth, I'm like, what do you mean it's not endangered here? What does that mean? It's endangered. How was it? Fine. Nothing special. Yeah, it was kind of like I had to, but it wasn't like, it wasn't like, try this crazy food.

It was like, maybe I'll fit first with a whale burger. Sometimes they trick you into eating like whale sperm. They don't call it whale sperm. They just call it something else and then you eat it. What? Yeah. Sometimes I, suddenly before you know it, you're eating like sperm and you're like, oh fuck. What? Yeah, I heard about this.

I've never done it myself, but yeah. Can't remember which country does that, but. That's it. Something, yeah. Japan? Yeah, maybe Japan, yeah. Ugh, anyway. Japan? Yeah, maybe Japan, yeah. Anyway. Anyway. So, they, oh, the other thing culturally that's similar about them that separates them from that part of Europe is design, design aesthetics.

You know, they got this, like, Ikea. Ikea, yeah. Very sensible and very, and very stylish. They have this sense of minimalist style in Denmark and Sweden that I really appreciate. Yeah, me and Bobby went to, when we met that guy from Iceland, Ariel, we went to a Copenhagen comedy festival. And we went to Noma, this restaurant I think just closed.

It was just a super fine restaurant. And they took us on a little tour, the daytime, because we can't get reservations. And then the guy was like, you're cool, I'm gonna bump you to the top of the wait list. Yeah, he just called, he's like, can you get down here right now? I was like, yes.

But, you have very small, and he goes, and he was like, we could probably put in close to twice as many tables in here, but we'd rather your experience be like, have space, be able to move your chair back without hitting someone else. Yeah, yeah, comfortable. They got great design aesthetics in Sweden

and they also very, they have a very chill culture there. So it's less, you know, in Denmark and Sweden it was more like, I could feel like, it's almost like Australia, like you could enjoy your life. Like you could go have a coffee, you could go like, it's almost like Australia, like you could enjoy your life. Like you could go have a coffee, you could go like hang out, and it didn't feel like this oppression of rat race. I met my cousin's husband,

and I was the first one to the restaurant in France, and I was like, hi, you know, whatever. It's like, so what do you do? He goes, fucking Americans, what do you do? Like right out the bank, you guys all ask about jobs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's like what a weird thing to focus on. Yeah, that is interesting. Instead of like what are your hobbies or like.

That's a great perspective, isn't it? Yeah, I was like, oh, you're getting embarrassed to be American. Yeah, yeah, he got pissed, he got pissed at you. Yeah, I was like, oh, I don't know. To be honest, also that's a little French snobbish, but yes, he has a point, he has a point, yeah. But like they chill, they really go out, right?

They chill, they chill. I should be clear though, Denmark and Sweden did feel different, but if you're asking me about how, you know, that part. I'm sure each one, but there's a vibe of area, you know? There was a vibe there, and... I mean like this area has, I'm sure there's differences in countries,

but like they're all... So for people listening, Ari's now pointing to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran. Middle East, pretty much all of it. He's like this part is gonna have a different vibe, yes. So yes, the vibe was different. Also the other thing that's interesting was the languages, again, you know,

cause Denmark, they speak Danish, Sweden they speak Swedish, and Finland they speak Finnish. But I think they all, like, man, I can't remember now, but like there was a thing where everyone could understand Swedish, but not everyone could understand Finnish, or something like that.

It's like an old Mac trying to understand new and it can't, but then the new ones can understand the old ones. So like they said, Icelandic people could understand Norway, but not vice versa. Something like that, yeah, they had something like that going on. And I gotta say, Denmark and Sweden, Sweden, man, I'd say it's a must visit

because it was so beautiful. Where'd you go in Sweden? Stockholm, only Stockholm, which, you know when you see fashion things and it's always like New York, Paris, Stockholm? Yeah, good point. I never understood that until now. I'm like, oh yes, Stockholm, yes. It's legit. Fashionable. It's fashionable, good point. I never understood that until now. I'm like, oh yes, Stockholm, yes.

It's legit. It's fashionable, great design. It's a cool city, very hip city. I think Jackie Onassis Kennedy popularized a Swedish designer that is still around today, a brand. And so she will wear these Swedish things, or maybe it's Finnish. She will wear it in America, and that is what wear these Swedish things, or maybe it's Finnish, she'll wear it in America

and that is what blew up Sweden as a fashion thing. But anyway, so the other thing cool about Sweden is that they have castles, you know they have all the olden shit, the castle stuff. It is cool, we really don't have that here, this connection to feudal times or whatever. Medieval times, yeah. I was trying to get my flatmates to go to see the castle

and they're like, nah, I'm like, really, you're not interested? And he goes, Ari, we have castles where we're from. I was trying to get my flatmates to go to see the castle. And they're like, no, I'm like, really, you're not interested? And he goes, Ari, we have castles where we're from. And I was like, oh, no. Oh, all right. That's right, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Like, it's not that cool. Yeah, and the food is, you know,

the Scandinavian style cooking is very clean. Yeah, didn't they kind of make the farm to table idea? Probably, yeah, probably. Probably, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, the way they eat is very- Like locally sourced and it has to be from here. Yeah, and what's so funny in Stockholm, I go to a random ass produce market,

like a fish market, which is one of the messiest producers you can buy. And in this Swedish fish market, everyone is super good looking, they're wearing like stylish aprons and the fish is beautifully laid out, and I made fun of it on stage, and I took a photo and posted it,

and I was like, look at how stylish the fishmongers are in Sweden. And everyone in Sweden were like, this is just a normal. Dude, how hot are people in Sweden? Look, that stereotype was true. They were truly beautiful, like everyone, men and women, everyone was like, man, you guys got something going on here.

You see like a 7-Eleven employee. I'm like, why aren't you, what are you doing? You should be a model. Yeah, they are very good looking there. So, and the city is beautiful. And you know what, they want like, I don't know, they want like, they didn't seem stuck up to me about it. Although everyone else will argue they are the most stuck up.

What, Stockholm? No, Swedish people are the most stuck up. That was what everyone else was saying. Yeah. But when I was there, I didn't feel it. But that's the funny country rivalry, you know, so. It's also like stuck up compared to you guys. Yes, it is.

It's like, oh. In New York City, you know, I'll. You ever see a Hollywood person try to act not Hollywood And you're like I get that you think you're less Hollywood than those people but you're still super They always say things that like belie their truth they're like I hang out with normal people all the time like What do you mean normal people? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What the fuck you talking about? You mean people? Yeah people. Yeah. Yeah, totally So yeah, that's so funny. Yeah.

Sweden was great, and they have a, and you know what? I relate to the Commodore. I shop by myself when I go. I do my own shopping. Yeah, you should. What? Yeah, you should do your own shopping. What's the alternative?

The Swedish, the Sweden, Stockholm crowd, one of the best comedy crowds I did on the tour. The loudest, most responsive, they got everything, the best. Did they clap a lot? They, I can't remember, they probably did, but they gave the loud responses for when appropriate with the jokes. They got it.

I had to tell, the first time, the last time not as much, the first time I went, they would, after every punchline, they'd do this late night talk to you. And I was like, 20 minutes in, I was like, guys, what are you doing? That's so funny. Laugh, what are you clapping for?

When was this? This was probably 10 years ago. Okay, because I think you fixed that. Maybe, maybe. Because they stopped doing that, yeah, yeah. And then the next joke there was like was like, you're overthinking it. Yeah, yeah. Just let yourself laugh.

That's funny, that's funny. Yeah, no, they were great. Maybe I fixed them, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you fixed Stockholm for comedy because they were a great comedy crowd, man. I can't recommend that place enough. I'm sure they hate a bunch of people, but they didn't hate me, so I don't know.

Yeah. Also, they're pretty hate me, so I don't know. I don't know. Also, they're pretty, all of Europe, I found out, I don't know if you found this, and Australia too, they're thankful that a legit comic is there, or an American comic, where the, you know, where jazz, find that. No, that's totally, I've been saying this, I say it so much, I forgot I said it on this,

I haven't said it on this podcast, because I've been saying this the whole time. One of my big takeaways with comedy in Europe was the gratitude that they feel when you're there. And it's not just me, like who cares about me? I don't think they cared about me or they knew who I was. It was more just that you came and you- They know it's a long trip.

Yeah, they appreciate that you came and especially when you bring a material, they're like, yes, thank you. But they already are grateful before you do the material. But the fact that you can do both, they're like, yes, oh you. But they already are grateful before you do the material. But the fact that you can do both, they're like, yes, oh my God, thank you so much. So. I just commented in Romania, there's someone who was like,

hey, thanks for actually bringing your real stuff and not, in Melbourne too, they were like, a lot of people use this like a workout. And I'm like, what do you mean? It's one of the top 20 biggest cities in the world. Like, that's crazy. But they're like, it's so far away. And then there they go, thanks for not pandering to us

or something like that, thanks for trusting us to get it. And I was like, this is my act, we've seen a few people and they're kind of like, dumb it down or something. Everyone in Europe gets everything. Do not dumb anything down, they get politics, they get everything. They do like it when you talk about their country, but they're not like, just talk about us.

They like it when you bring your thoughts. They appreciate the craft. I think they appreciate the art form of it. Do you do this thing where as you're in a bit, you realize, oh, this is a different, this bit means a different thing here. Yes, yes. Like I was in Salt Lake City,

I was talking about the Jewish temple. I was like, we had like one main, like, oh, this is a different, this bit means a different thing. Yeah. Yes. Like I was in Salt Lake City. I was talking about the Jewish temple. I was like, we had like one like main like, Oh yeah. All right. You guys get this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did. I did have one bit. I can't remember what it was where I said it and I was like, Oh yeah, you guys. Yeah, this is not a thing here. But, um, uh, but it's sweet. It was great. And then Denmark was like a kind of like a greedier version of Sweden in a good way.

You know, because Sweden almost felt not real. It felt like a movie set or something. Because it was castles and cobblestones and everything was clean and beautiful and the food was like perfect and you know, right next to the ocean. And guess what? Stockholm still have limeime scooters,

still have e-scooters, right, in Stockholm that use the same app. And so you can, because they cycle everywhere in Stockholm, like a big cycling culture, so you can get a e-scooter and go on the same bike lanes. You know what I mean? You can transverse the city with e-scooters. Denmark was the biggest bike like bike culture thing

Yeah, they have to lay this fast lane and a stop lane and you have to know when to like go off if you're gonna turn No, I yeah, I didn't know that. I Stalk home. I think we went to a spa in Stockholm. Maybe but I It's kind of a blur a bit of a blur but Rolf talks about psychogeography Yeah, and it's like something that gets you moving around a town. Yes. So like for Henry Rollins, he tries to find record stores. He's in Moscow. He's like, I'm going to find this record store I heard of. Yeah.

And what were you just saying? Something like... Scooters. Yeah, but like something that like gets you like either let me see the castles or let me see whatever and it's different for different people. Yes. So for me it's coffee shops and sometimes it's jujitsu gyms. You do jiu-jitsu? Yeah I know you used to. What do you got? Blue belt. I'm not good at it but I just I love. Blue belt is proficient enough to be like I know what I'm doing. Yeah mental health for me is mental health. Did you did you keep doing it? No I started getting

injuries in ringworm and staff. What? And I was like, you know what? Where the hell were you training? 10th Planet. Oh, okay. Maybe you should go to G- Oh, yeah. Well, so I got back into it. I trained here with, I think, Jean-Jacques' place.

And day one, it was a flip, and I like, like, ah, fuck, and I was like, I'm done. Really? Yeah, you stayed with it. No, but here's, I don't want, you've been doing it longer than I have, but I will say that it sounds like you need to find the gym that's dad jujitsu.

Yeah, you're right. The ones that are like, hey, we need to work tomorrow. That's the gyms I, you know, that's my, you know. Like Eddie at 10th Planet, he kinda didn't train too many heel hooks and stuff, cause it's like, we're not trying to not walk. And he's like, I'll show you how to do it, but we're not doing this when we roll.

We're having a good time here, and you're gonna be out for six months and somebody like fucking cinches this in. Yeah, we're not here to win championships, we're here for mental health and physical health. Worst case, you get choked unconscious, but that's fine, you'll wake up, you're not any worse off.

Yes, yes. So you got- Where do you train here? Don't tell me actually. Oh okay. Tell me afterwards. I'll tell you after, yeah. I don't want anybody showing up there.

But you can go, I think you can find a place to coach. And I don't know, I only do geese. So you go jits places overseas? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. That's fun. Yeah, it's super fun. Is it different other places?

I know teachers- It's surprisingly universal. It's surprisingly universal. It's surprisingly universal. I mean, language barrier a little bit, but usually everyone speaks English a little bit. But do you even have to know English to roll? Roll, no. But when you're doing the class, it will help.

Yeah, but when you're rolling, no. If you do open man, no. But man, I always roll in Japan. I always roll in Singapore. I always roll in Australia. I feel like Japanese Jitsu is the only one different than Brazilian Jitsu. Like they have their own style. You open man, but man, I always roll in Japan, I always roll in Singapore, I always roll in Australia. I feel like Japanese Jets is the only one different than Brazilian Jetsu.

Like they have their own style. You know what's funny about that is that, so Judo came from Japan, which, and then it went to Brazil, right? Judo became Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and then Brazilian Jiu Jitsu went back to Japan. So they learned Brazilian Jiu Jitsu there. It's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, yeah.

I mean, to be fair, judo also had a ground game. They call it, it was a type of judo called Kozen Judo that they still do. So there's this debate that like, they kind of, a lot of the moves in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu they already invented in judo, Kozen Judo, but they never taught it. And so it came back to Japan, and they said,

oh, we already had, so. You know, but. The wrestlers do that, with the Jiu Jitsu, they're like, we have that, we just call it an arm lock. Yeah, but if you don't care about the politics of it, then it's just like, it's fun to train in Japan. They're very stylish there too, in Japan. Damn, that's a cool way to get around the town too.

And then it'll make you see a different part of town. You get out, like where it's called. I wouldn't have been in this neighborhood if not for that. To your point, the thing that, what do you call it? The transversity? He called it psychogeography. Psychogeography, yeah, makes you go around.

Book stores, music, in Southeast Asia, someone's like, I'm gonna go find some live music. And then, just the trip getting places. And they go, no, we only have it on Mondays. Like, fuck, but now I'm like, what town am I? I guess I'll get something to eat and street food here. Totally, totally. So yeah, and Sweden, Finland.

And then the, Where'd you finish? I finished in Finland, I think, yes. I finished in Finland. Finished Helsinki? Yeah, finished in Helsinki. And it felt like a small town. And so Finland is like one of the,

like five years in a row or 20 years in a row, happiest countries in the world. So when you go there, you're like, okay, what's the deal here? And I see it, everyone's, not that they're smiling all the time, but it's a very safe, calm city. They have huge sauna culture,

so the whole thing when you're there is you have to go find saunas. So that's the cycle geography thing, is finding a sauna. So they'll have saunas in the city, and then they'll have saunas where you have to drive through the woods. It's a sauna in the woods. Natural.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, not natural. Some guy will build one, like a wooden, yeah, so you have to go there and you have to book it and it's like an honor system, like people book it and then they towel, and yeah, it's like, yeah, it's self-governing. And then- Yeah, Iceland had like, obviously like the natural

because of the volcanic. And then they had just, in the city, there's like three or four that just the locals go to with like nine different hot tubs. Yes, yes, yes, yeah. So they just love saunas in Finland and food was cool and very- The cool book is to see the difference in saunas, what? Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yeah. So they just love saunas in Finland and food was cool and very... The cool book is to see the difference in saunas.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, see the difference. Because there's way more hot tub based and like one steam room or sauna and then these sound like all steam rooms and so maybe one hot tub. Yeah, they're very sauna, like wooden sauna, Finland is very wooden sauna-ish. And the thing about Finland that struck me was,

at least Helsinki, was it was a very hip, kind of hipster city, but it was, honestly it was like Australia. It felt like Australia because they had trams, just like Melbourne, and even the trams were like yellow and green, which is Australian colors. So when I was in Helsinki, the way it looked with the parks and the trams and then like the building

that's like made of sandstone, I was like, this looks like Australia. And the coffee culture in Australia is very like latte. So the whole thing for me when I was in Finland was, yes, this is Finland, cause all the names are like super long and then there's like a circle above the A. Like what? Yeah, yeah.

What is this? Yeah, the names are so long, but at the same time, it felt very familiar. It felt like Australia, and in a good way. It felt like that kind of more relaxed lifestyle, coffee and food, and very hipster. Very hipster. I went to a bar in Finland that was behind a laundromat.

The most hipster, very hipster. I went to a bar in Finland that was behind a laundry mat, every most hipster thing. Yeah, so, and very clean aesthetics as well, very safe. Did you stay there after you finished? Like you did five days in Paris, so you preloaded it, right? Yeah, I preloaded Paris, but I didn't have time for everyone else. So I just went three days, two days in each one.

Look how close it is to St. Petersburg. Oh yes, it was very near to Russia. And so the whole time I was asking him, like, hey, are you guys worried about this? And they're like, no, no, we're not that worried. Really? I was like, really? They're like-

They were worried, when I was in Romania, they were real worried. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't think it's about that, but they're like, yeah, we don't know if it's about that until it's about that. Yes, exactly, yeah. So Finland's surprisingly not worried, you know?

Wow. Maybe they're like, we're not trying to figure out our borders. Maybe, but they're the happiest place in the world, so you figure, either they have good perspective. We're not talking about that, we're not gonna. Or they, you know, yeah, I don't know, I can't explain why they... But they were very...

I could see that they were more... When you're there, it felt like it was Russians who picked capitalism, in a way. The city was... It was like if the Soviets were happier, they would be Finnish, you know? It was like if the Soviets were happier, they'd be Finnish, you know, because the Finnish, I could see the Russian influence, is what I'm saying, and I think that's also why

they technically want Scandinavian. I might be totally getting this wrong, so I'm sorry to anyone who's getting angry at me right now listening to this, but I could tell when I was there, certain parts look like Russia if they had chosen capitalism instead of communism. You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm interested in also the overlap areas.

Yes, it's definitely overlap. Obviously Norway's gonna be different than this, right? But that close, Mongolia's a great example. Yes. You hear them talking, and they're like, is that a Russian-Chinese hybrid? You can hear either accent when you listen. Totally, totally, totally.

So Finland's a bit like that, yeah. They definitely lean away from Russia, obviously, but yes, when I was there I could tell. And my driver there was this Finnish guy who used to play professional ice hockey, but he was the nicest dude, and he told me he used to play in Russia, and he's from Finland, he's like a Finnish guy who used to play professional ice hockey, but he was the nicest dude and he told me he used to play in Russia and he's from Finland, he's like a Finnish boy

and he was like, it took me going to Russia to realize how good Finland was. And because I was telling him, you know Finland, like why would you ever leave, you know, you're the happiest place in the world and they were like, we don't know that. We don't know how good it is. We don't know how good it is until We don't know how good until I left

and I was like, oh shit, Finland is amazing. There is something about getting away that makes you sort of see good or bad, your own place in a new light. Yes, yes, yes, totally, totally. So he was showing me around Helsinki a little bit. And Helsinki's a very cool city, it's very hipster. You'll like it.

What'd you get into there, what'd you do? I just did what I always do, I just go walk around, have coffee, look at the sights. I just went to look at the clothing, how they, what they wear there. Obviously bookstores was tough, cause you know, it's Finnish. But the music store, I went to like old music record stores

to look at vinyls and stuff like that. You collect records? I do, I do now, yeah, yeah, vinyls, yeah. That's a real good, this is my new thing now, it's at concerts, I'm like, I don't even know the t-shirt. It has to be so cool for me to get it, but a vinyl at a place is like, but when I'm traveling.

It's tough to carry around though, but yeah. It's tough to carry it back with you. So you have to take it in your carry-on bag. But especially if it's a print from a Spanish language print or something like that. I just got a couple from Cuba. It's like, it reminds me of the trip. So I wanted this one Cure album,

but we found it in somewhere, Mexico City. I'm like great, I'm now associating the Cure with this trip to Mexico City. Not to mention sometimes you might find stuff that you actually can't get on the internet. Those are the most interesting ones. I don't like finding them on the internet. You know, and those are the most interesting ones, you know. Oh, I don't like finding them on the internet. Yeah, no, but that's-

I wanna find them in a store. No, no, what I mean is that the vinyl you got, you actually- Is not even available. Like, they never digitalized it. Right. It's just there. Oh, oh, on the internet that way you mean?

Yeah, yeah. It's not on Spotify in that way. It's a special version of it, or it's not even on, it never got digitalized. You know, that's always very interesting when you have those, you know. But yeah, oh, I started collecting comedy albums too, just for, you know, just for kicks, yeah.

I found one of my albums in Indianapolis, $4. And I was like, okay, and I sold it for 200. Oh, shit. At the show. Really? Yeah, I was like, out of print. Damn. Do you want it? I was like, can we just shut up and fucking get it? That's so cool. Only one available at the show. Really? Yeah, I was like out of print. Damn. Do you want it?

I was like, can we just shut up and fucking get it? That's so cool. I'm like, I'll sell only one available at the show. That's also how long you've been doing it, eh? Yeah. Your stuff is out there in the culture and it comes back to you. Just like at the bargain bed.

Wow, no, but it's still cool. Yeah, I found a Howie Mandel one in Charleston. I bought it and gave it to him. Yeah, yeah. I got a Lily Tomlin one and I wanted her to sign it, you know, but yeah, but. Covers of those are pretty fucking interesting. Yes, yes. The artwork has come a long way.

Yeah, and then like you see the old black ones are so fun, like I Eat Ass is like titles and like. Yeah, it's very intense, yeah. Wow. It's very intense, sometimes the covers, the images are intense as well, you know. Yeah. yeah. It's very intense. Sometimes the covers, the images are intense as well. Yeah. But yeah, I think that was all the whole,

I mean I kinda skipped over Copenhagen a bit, but it was great. The cycling culture, great food in Copenhagen. Great food. And not crowded, Copenhagen, not crowded at all. Did you have any touristy problems? Where you're like, where I mean like, Copenhagen, not crowded at all. Not a lot of people. Did you have any touristy problems where you're like,

where I mean like, it's just too touristy here? No, no I didn't, because I don't seek that out. So I was seeking out the non-touristy stuff. Everyone there speaks English. The way I connected to most of Europe was when I was a kid, I played this video game called Football Manager, which is a English soccer management sim. It's a management sim?

Yeah, so you're managing the players. You're like, in America you call it like General Manager, whatever. So because of that, my- What a dork game. Yeah, super dorky game. No murders. No murders, you're playing like,

you're like spying and selling players and then you're like building a team and you have to set the tactics. So anyway, because of that, all my knowledge of Europe and England comes from this game that I played for 10 years. And so when I go to these cities, I'd be like, Denmark, I know your soccer players from the 90s.

Like this guy, Michael, Henrik Larsson, all these guys. So that was a bit that I did in the shows, but be naming their local. Did you get people going like, what? How do you know that? Yeah, some people didn't even know, they forgot about these legends because they're like players from the 90s. And then some people are like, yeah, that's him. And then they didn't even know, they forgot about these legends because they're like play players from the 90s.

But, and then some people were like, yeah, that's him. And then they didn't care. You're like pulling out this crazy thing, like what? They didn't care. I should know. But some people were like, every time,

some cities you would start reciting the national team and they'd be like, yeah, yeah. They start like cheering in rhythm with your reciting. Dude, I was in Iceland, I did that thing, remember they were doing this for a while at the Olympics, and they go faster and faster, I'm like, I'm gonna do it. Because we had intermissions there, and so I was doing it, and everyone started doing it with me,

it was so fucking cool, and I was talking to Ariel Jarn afterwards, and he goes, I mean, that's hacky here. Oh, I'm like, they do it at car dealerships, I'm like, fuck! So, where would you, we can wrap this up, but like, where would you wanna go back to, where would you not need to? You know, I had a great time everywhere.

I don't know if I need to go back to any of those places. Just because I'm just a weirdo who I prefer going to Asia. I prefer going to Japan. I prefer going home. I prefer traveling around America as shitty as America is compared to Scandinavia. So many different countries in one though. It really is. Texas is so much different than Maine.

If you ask me where I would have to go, man, I don't know. Forget that. Here's something I ask everybody two things if you have any travel tips either in general or when you're in a place like so Cuba bring American dollars and don't change them Yeah, but like some people go pack light people bring acid in between your credit cards Yeah, any just general travel tips or specific ones general travel and then also What country that you've never been to is like calling you. Okay, so general travel tips.

Damn. I think we had a couple in this episode already. Did I? Yeah, where it was just like, I always try to do this. Yeah, I mean, that's your tip, which is a great tip, which is what I was doing, I didn't even realize it was a way to spark creativity, but yeah, just find something that seems very ubiquitous

to do, even just getting coffee, and then just go find a local coffee shop, and that will spark so much shit. I use Google Maps a lot to see stuff. I like looking at Atlas Obscura sometimes and they'll tell me something interesting that's happening in that place. So a lot of my psychogeography comes from Atlas Obscura.

Where the fuck is this? It's like this guide, yeah, it's a global guide to very obscure little things, like maybe there'll be a gargoyle in an alleyway that you know Hemingway put up or you know it'll be stuff like that, like little things. Yeah this like if you,

yeah you can, it'll be something like kind of quirky and off the beaten trail that you can go and see. A witch board museum in Baltimore. Stuff like that. You know, witch board museum in Baltimore. Stuff like that. All like witch boards. Yeah, yeah, stuff like that. Sometimes it would be a shop,

sometimes it would just be like a rock. Someone will be like, hey, this rock was put here by this king. Whoa, really? Yeah, yeah, and so it's just a way to have, I love this word, psychogeography, off the beaten trail a little bit. So it'd be a little thing.

So Atlas Obscura is a great way to have that, you know? That like, you don't wanna see something touristy, but you wanna see something interesting or historical or weird, you know? And you learn a little bit about the city. Yeah. There's a couple museums like that where like, it's not on the list, but I guess this is the

Museum of Torture in Amsterdam. Yeah, yeah. It's so fucking cool and interesting. I saw that, I didn't go in there, but I saw that, yeah. And then in Mexico City, this might be traveling, but it was a museum of broken relationships. What was that? It was like two bucks to get in.

It wasn't anything crazy. It was like a remnant of either a past love or a dead relative or something like that. One of them was like a vial of tears. I carried these around. I meant to throw them in your face, but I never saw you, so I just figured I'd donate to this museum. One was like a woman who found out a man

had another family. And he was like, you gave me this ring and said like, you're mine forever. And I didn't realize you would just come from your other family and you were heading back to them. And like this whole long thing, some cancer for dad, cancer for child, a toy, it's like, it makes you cry and then laugh.

Oh shit. Yeah, like a stuffed animal from a child that died at like 10. Yeah. And then it's like, I see this and I couldn't. It's kind of, you're kind of seeing people's secrets. Yeah, it was just so cool but not a tourist stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, stuff like that, yeah, that's very cool.

Oh yeah. That was obscure, I gotta use this more. Yeah, it's kinda cool. Obviously it's all over the world. Like places you wouldn't think would have it have. And so you look it up by place? Yeah, so you can search by, like, you can search by location.

So if you, yeah, you can type like your city, you know what I mean? Like whatever it is, Athens, Greece, yeah, they'll show. But when you use it on your phone, it will show you what's near you, you know what I mean? Like whatever it is, Athens, Greece, yeah, they'll show. But when you use it on your phone, it'll show you what's near you, you know what I mean? Oh really? Yeah, it's like Google Maps, like it'll show you what's near you.

So you can literally just open it up on your phone and you know, they'll show you what's nearby so you don't have to plan it, you know what I mean? You can just be in a place, look at a map, oh this is nearby, walk there, you don't have to like, it's very. That gets you moving. Yes. It's close enough.

Exactly. It's like, hey it's about 15 minutes from here. It's like, all right let's walk, it's a nice day. Exactly, yeah. So that's probably my travel tip. And also, like I said, not so much a tip, but just a heads up that Europe is becoming a lot easier to navigate.

I think, I have nothing to compare it to, but what we were saying earlier now, it's Apple Pay and Uber and e-scooters. And it's the same app everywhere in the world. So you're just... Right, Uber, it's already there. Yeah, yeah. There might not be Uber in Finland, I think,

or Copenhagen, but everywhere else. Word of warning for Uber, if you're in Dominican Republic, they get one and then they call you back. Like you're here, you're on the corner. He goes, hey, that's not the price. Let's pay off the books because they take too much and it's gonna be a little more.

Oh shit. And you're like, no. And they're like, okay, cancel them and get another one and it's them again. They just keep saying, it's like, hey buddy, I can do this all day. You want it this way? Yeah.

Fuck, it's awful. Yeah. It's just like culturally. all day you want it culturally and then in Ecuador Airbnb like hey I want another day like let's let's talk let's not do it on the site yeah very crooked okay well that is actually better than better but think yeah but better because they're like let's not pay Airbnb the extras and where where's calling you where have you not so um, I haven't been to Korea or Taiwan and I'm going there to December both. Yeah, I'm going Japan Korea Taiwan I go to Japan like almost every year so I never Taiwan never been to Taiwan I've been to Korea. Yes, I'm gonna go there. Can you come back if this wasn't too painful?

Thank you over there don't tell me now. But come back after that and then tell me about it. I gotta tell you, everyone asks me to do podcasts is a straight no. Anything Ari asks me to do, I'm always in. Really? Yeah, because you, I don't know, you were just always, you know, you're always super cool to me

and I always loved you as a comic before I met you and I just really appreciate, you know, when I first came to America, you were always very encouraging and supportive and just open for this new guy in town. I really appreciate it. And I love it. Yeah, I forgot you were new here.

Yeah, and I love and respect everything you do and you've always been cool to me and I really appreciate it. So anytime. Well, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. So anytime. Well thanks, thanks for doing this. I know it's not your thing, I was trying to be like, listen, if you don't want to, fine. No, no, no.

You're one of the people who have been places. Sure, yeah. And you know what, I never got a chance to debrief Europe with anybody, so this is good. It's fun kind of, right? It is fun, yeah. You just kind of like relive the times. Yeah, yeah, it is fun, yeah.

Sorry wasn't, unfortunately I'm not, you know, I don't have any crazy drug stories or, I'm a very boring dude, but I got to see a few places, it was nice. I gotta write a one sheet for agents to give to people. I gotta like, not translate, I just gotta be like, here's the PDF, send it to them, something small. Yeah, Taiwan would be cool.

And to see how like. Where are you trying to go? Morocco. It hauls me a lot. Or somewhere. Where is it? I was in France and I saw all these ads for like $80 direct to like four different cities

in Morocco and I'm like, I had to get back here but I'm like fuck. Yeah, Morocco seems cool. Tajikistan okay less now actually when I was in Myanmar the capital I got in my head but less now you have a you're like Costa Rica been great great Jamaica never been okay Jamaica's on my list punky's been there and Lewis Gomez has been there a bunch but Lewis does like like villas okay doesn't get out. Yeah, Jamaica might be my next thing, you know?

Really? After Asia, yeah. You can jerk chicken, it's gotta be so good. Yeah, because I got friends there now, I'm trying to write a script. Friends in there? Yeah, I got friends in Jamaica now, and I'm trying to write a script about it,

so I think I need to go and research it, you know? I heard, what's the Mike Judge show after Beavis' Butthead? King of the Hill. I heard he took his writing staff to really central Texas or western Texas for like two weeks every year. To be like, I want you guys to go into the supermarket,

talking to these people, hearing their accents. Now let's go back to LA and write those. That's great. But like- I'm in the new season. No. Yeah, of King of the Hill Hill yeah dude I'm the oh thanks yeah there's there's like Hawaii five-o suck a dick who cares like congrats for the money but who cares but this is like wow oh okay oh thank you yeah Canada Hill is

great yeah yeah what a new thing to be part of I'm the new voice of Khan yeah what happened old Khan He was, he was not Asian. He wasn't an Asian guy. Oh, he wasn't Asian at all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that's so cool. It's cool. Yeah, it's cool. It's one of the shows I watched as a kid. So, yeah, I didn't know it was still on. It hasn't been on. So there's a new season like that. Like it's like, it's pretty funny. I don't want to spoil it, but it is, it's a continuation. It's not a reboot, it's a continuation.

Yeah. Cool. And Mike Judge is doing it? Yes. Oh, hell yes. Yeah, it's in brand new season, continuation. There's certain things in this business where it's cooler than it's value.

Sure, yes, yes, yes. And it's one of, like I said, I used to watch it when I was a kid. So it's one of those cartoons that got me into like, oh, cartoons don't have to be dumb. You know what I a kid So yeah, it's all those cartoons that got me into like oh cartoons don't have to be like dumb, you know I mean, oh, yeah, it was an adult cartoon It was on at night But also like the cool thing about Jamaica now your friends there is like I call boots on the ground

So like when I was in Hong Kong and Shanghai and Beijing it was like there's local comics here They'll tell me like not the sites to go to but like let's all there's a club on Tuesdays It's cool. And it's like you have people that actually, they'll have that in Jamaica. Like take me to the, let's have some fun. Yeah, take me to the real spots. Oh yeah, definitely go. Buddy, I'll put in all your plugs when I put this out.

Thank you, maybe call it the Todd Berry thing so it doesn't get mad. I think you came around pretty hard on him. I did, but anyway, I don't want him, because I don't know why I said that. I think it's because I know he doesn't like long flights but he freaking went there so I shouldn't be talking shit about him. I mean I could cut it but also like you said all you said was he doesn't go anywhere like a Todd Barry. Actually that's wrong Todd Barry went to Thailand like you and me like just gave it up for him but whatever. Alright brother. Okay you're the best man. Thanks so much.

Well, that was the episode everybody. My time in LA has come to a close. Thank you very much, Ronnie Chang, for sharing your first time in Europe. That surprised me, because he's a great traveler. So that was surprising. That he hadn't been there yet. But he's been a lot through Asia. How come?

How come I've been to Israel and he's been to Asia? Hmm. That's a ponder one. Don't forget to watch the special. Uh, love to hate it on Netflix right now. The place where my Netflix special will be January 14th, but his is there right now, one month ahead of me. Paving, paving, setting the, this setting the table bringing up the pillows to the

to the table so to speak cutting the his inside out and dishonor the table man that's it's too far plus he's not he's not Japanese so it doesn't really work so check him out on interior Chinatown guys today's episode was produced by your mom's house network edited by Alan C Alan, I'm sorry this took so long to get you this footage but I was working on deadlines for my special and now that is done and it should be right now you should be able to put it on Netflix and say set a reminder. So can you guys go do that in addition to subscribing and getting me to a hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube YouTube.com slash at you be tripping pod get me to a

hundred thousand I'm so close ninety nine thousand three hundred and seventy nine inside the first year we started in like March it's pretty great I didn't want to get to a hundred thousand next week there's no podcast so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do a year in review I'm either going to and there's no podcast. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to do a year in review. I'm either going to, and there's an off chance it won't happen, but I'm either going to, and if it doesn't, week one will be me and Paul Morrissey in the trip. Look forward to this. January 6th, the trip that started me traveling, me and Paul Morrissey going to Switzerland

for some festival, making this deal that we gotta keep traveling and everything that everything about this podcast, You Be Trippin' stems from the January 6th episode of this show. So that's an interesting one, for sure, for me. It's a trip I was on too. Come see me on tour. I'm in the following cities. All tickets are available at AriJavere.com Pittsburgh, Providence, Salt Lake City, Brea, Nashville, San Antonio, Tampa, Denver, Schaumburg, Atlanta, Portland, San Jose, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton. These are sold out. Providence is already all sold out.

San Antonio is now with Ari Mati anyway Schomburg Atlanta Portland all with Adrian Pittsburgh with Adrian Brea with Adrian now at the very end of January because that's it as always thank you for your support guys as we come to a close in the new year if I don't do a year in review Which is be a solo pod next week I Just want to wrap this up and say what a what a great year It's so fun. I was worried going into this podcast

I was like is this gonna not only take off when I get to continue to have fun with it, and I really have Ronnie check doesn't do podcasts. He was willing to do it because he likes the idea and he likes me. I think he missed out. I think he feels bad that he missed out on the planning of 9-11 with me. And so he's like, we got to do something. And I think he thought I was going to help him plan another one, but I wasn't because I wasn't involved in that you guys are racist join the weather though you're enjoying the weather though aren't you you enjoy that weather guys that's it until next week when I do my year in review or the week after if I don't do it

sayonara no what's the I mean it's all of Europe. Weird trip though. God, I can't wait for next year. So here's the schedule as I see it. January 6th, me and Paul Morris, a dual trip to Switzerland and a little bit of Amsterdam. January 14th, my special comes out. Bert Kreischer on the podcast, January 20th, Tucker Carlson, January 27th, possibly now we're up in the air. Maybe Jim Gaffigan.

Um, who knows what else? Bye guys.