My Favorite Things: My Favorite Books and Lessons I from them!

Transcript

This isn't your average business podcast, and he's not your average host. This is the James Altiger Show on the choose yourself network. Today on the James Altiger Show. Intelligent people know the greatest thing is laughing. It's not being politically correct. It's not being a millionaire. It's just being able to freaking laugh in the face of all this ridiculousness. Here's how I look at it. You know why computers are so fast? Because binary. Everything is yes or no. Everything is 0 or 1. Everything is white or black. That's it. Comedy. Life. Man has so many freaking leggers in his coconut, and it's no different at a comedy show. Something either makes you laugh or it doesn't make you laugh. And nothing should have to go through a filter when you want to laugh. Let's say that I'm, like, beating my wife and you go, yo, don't hit her. And what am I gonna do? I'm gonna respond like, what are you gonna do? Because violence begets violence. So what do we do in the comedy club? The punch line is laughing at these a*****es. That's a horrible, horrible thing. Yeah. But joking about it allows us to release that tension in a funny way. HelloFresh is the meal kit delivery service that makes cooking more fun so you can focus on the whole experience, not just the final plate. I've tried a bunch of different food delivery services and really feel HelloFresh is the best choice for me. HelloFresh employs 2 full time registered dietitians on staff who review each recipe to ensure it is nutritionally balanced. That's really important to me because I try to eat fresh foods that give me energy to sustain me throughout the day. For $30 off on your 1st week of deliveries, visit hellofresh.com, and enter James Altitude 30 when you subscribe. Delicious ingredients you'll love to eat, simple recipes you'll love to cook. Get cooking. Today's show is brought to you by Princess Cruises. You could take a vacation anywhere in the world. Where would you go? Princess Cruises sails to over 360 destinations worldwide. 360. And there's never been a better time to plan a vacation with Princess Cruises than during their most popular sail of the year, Sip and Sail. Book a balcony or above and get the best all inclusive beverage package at sea for free. Enjoy everything from c**ktails, wine, and beer to sodas, specialty coffee, and smoothies as you explore world famous destinations. Just visit princess.com/james for details. That's princess.com/james. So Gino Boscanti is an amazing stand up comedian. I know. Yes. Don't just just for 5 minutes, don't be humble. Okay. You just released Yep. An album. g*****n right. Yeah, motherf**ker. There you go. No. You could say that. I had Jim Norton on the podcast. I love Jim Norton. So uncle the the album's called Uncle Gino is Amazing, and there's a a bit in there about your nephew, your 11 year old nephew. Hilarious. My my my daughter did laugh at that joke you told your nephew. I won't say it on the on on the, podcast here. But the whole album is genius. I thought I was gonna download an album, and it was gonna be, like, what I always download, which is, okay. I'm gonna listen to a guy who I know is funny telling his set for an hour, and I'm gonna I'm gonna both laugh and learn, which is what I try to do because I'm also trying to go up on stage and and learn a little bit, like, 1 millionth of what you guys do. But, this was so much more than that. I felt like I felt like this album was, in fact, a master class on comedy. And but that's only but then I realized I thought you were gonna say massive waste of time, but master class on comedy. I'll take that. Right. Right. And then well, it's not a massive waste of 8.49 on Amazon. Is that wait. I paid $9 for it. This isn't the time, James. We're not doing this now. It's, so so but, actually, I do wanna ask you about some of the aspects aspects of business, but I wanna talk also about what was great to me in this album because I want people to listen to it. Anyone who's interested, not only in comedy, but in mastery. We're all trying to get better. We all we all feel good when we get better at things we love to do. And I'm gonna describe a little bit what I think that means in your case, but just in general. If someone's interested in golf, they wanna get better at it. You feel better when you hit better than the day before. If you wanna get better at sales Same thing with domestic violence. Oh, look how much better the eggs taste today, b***h. Alright. Well No. No. But okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna bring up your your that's a good segue into some parts of your album. Like rehearsal. Yes. So so what you just did there is what you kind of guide people to in the album, which is that you're in a safe place, and there's free speech, and nothing is actually bad in the sense that, there actually is real domestic violence out there. Yeah. It is bad to hit someone's wife or husband or kid. That's a horrible, horrible thing. Yeah. But joking about it in a safe place allows us to kind of release that tension in a funny way because we're all thinking about these things and to kind of to kinda understand the difference between saying it and and comedy and and in a in a safe place like a a podcast or a club and actually doing it or experiencing it, then people need to act and do whatever. You brought up a great point. We could joke about hitting a man or a woman or a kid all all you want. But, wait, I just wanna finish Please. In and this I don't wanna give away too much of your album, but you bring up the the comparison between joking about it in a comedy club. And everyone's like, oh, I can't believe he said that. I've been through this, this, this. He should never ever say that. Don't anybody laugh about that. And then meanwhile, Chris Brown's got 48,000,000 followers on Twitter, and the guy actually pleads guilty to to all sorts of violence. He threw out of a moving car, and You know what it is for those people to get a ride, James? Okay. And and well, no. You did more. Yeah. And and, I'm gonna get to that because maybe you don't even realize what you did. But but but you you you use that opportunity to say why did he get away with it and somebody just using brief speech in a comedy club where that's kind of I don't wanna say every you expect it from every comedian. You wouldn't like Jerry Seinfeld, for instance, wouldn't say that, but some comedians clearly would, like Louis CK would. Of course. He makes jokes about that all the time. You do, of course. You just did on the podcast. And yet we let often, the the crowd, the the masses don't let a comedian in a safe place, discuss meaningful issues. But Chris Brown, who actually committed the crime and should be in jail And arrogantly walked away from it. Yeah. Arrogantly. And by the way, I don't wanna even say this from a legal perspective. Maybe he shouldn't be in jail. I gotta say that. But, he admitted guilt. He did believe guilty, and suddenly and and he not only did he walk away, but Rihanna they started going out again. Like, Rihanna said, I love you. I I have young female Twitter followers does she have? The the My kids. My 2 daughters. Yeah. Right? So what kind of example does that set? Yep. Meanwhile, I I while preparing for this podcast, I was listening to this with my 15 year old daughter, and she totally got it. She was like, yeah. Why doesn't it happen? Right? Because America has forgotten that the word parent is also a verb, James. And a lot and I will tell you point. Yeah. And and I will tell you that this album have these jokes are based on I I'm I'm a disaster, but I'm very good at being an uncle because I was raised I have one brother who is the father of my niece and nephew. And my parents, like, we are still close friends. And the reason the reason I'm I do comedy and survive doing this and live the way I do is because we all have those voices. The loudest ones in our heads are the ones like, you stink. What are you doing? You know? I I I'm sure you hear them because all the times you've built up a, you know, a financial and lost it all. Love But but I hear it in, like, so many different areas of my life. It's, like, disgusting at this point. Back to the the family. When I show up and see my niece, my nephew, my brother, and they look at me like, you're great. You are doing great. We never worry about you. You're always in a good mood. My niece my my son and daughter can't wait to see you. That's how you know, like, you're doing the right thing, and that's how, like, I can joke. I make jokes about, like, you know, domestic violence in front of my nephew, and he doesn't run away screaming. He's like, he get it, dad? And he's so smart because that's the joke. Like, let's say that I'm, like, beating my wife and you go, yo. Don't hit her. And what am I gonna do? I'm gonna respond like, what are you gonna do? Because violence begets violence. So what do we do in the comedy club? The punch line is laughing at these a*****es. Right. You're right. Thing is like like, we're laughing at the guy's like, yeah. You get it. I hit a woman. Yeah. You were you're you're an a*****e. You you you bring up such a great point. And and, again, I'm not gonna reveal all the jokes, but you have reveal what you want, bud. You you have a you have a a crazy funny set of jokes and and, you know, and and callbacks, meaning, like, you you in later jokes, you call back to this joke, and everyone gets it. They I I there's so many things I wanna discuss with you. But okay. You have a hold the crowd accountable. It's like, you gotta keep up. You gotta you gotta keep pace. Well, so you you have a a a whole set of jokes about the diary of Anne Frank. Oh. And and you call people out if they're not laughing, and you you and you Have you ever you're a well traveled man. Have you ever been No. I haven't been. Here's the thing. But I'm sure if you've been to anything holocaust related It oh, yes. I have been to that. I thought you said Anne Frank's house. No. But that's well, I've been there. That's that was my moment where, like, people that don't laugh or the same people that don't read it, they don't know anything. They're like, well, I'm just not gonna talk about it because, like, when and I'll never forget. I'm backpacking through Europe ages ago, and we're in Amsterdam. So what do I wanna do? I wanna do the tours I go to the Van Gogh Museum. I go get high. And these girls are like, we should go to Anne Frank's house. It's here. I'm like, why would I wanna go there? You go there. And anyone that's been there, there's this moment where all the adjectives are stripped away. And and you don't hate Germans, and you don't hate Jews. You just hate yourself because this was when you strip it all away, people letting people kill other people. And there's this moment where they're like, how do you joke about it? Because as a comedian, you try and make fun of things that you can't understand, and you and you just cannot wrap your brain around what I would call the lowest point in human history just because it's so real. I I know genocides have gone on since beginning, but that's the most it's like, how does that happen? So that is why I have so many jokes about this where other people are just like, oh, he's just going for a cheap laugh. f**k you. Oh my god. It it is it just it it, like, when you're sitting there, and the newest one is is, like, don't even try reading The Diary of Anne Frank on audiobook because you can't hear anything. It's all f**king whispering, and every time he chaps, someone takes a s**t in a bucket. You did a the premier, party, which was great. I'll have a dinner. Can I take a piece of paper with you? Want, my friend. Because you just said a couple things I wanna unpack, and I just wanna, bring it back. The thing. And you were and getting back to what you were saying, like, I do have jokes about that. But that's the thing. People are like, well, he's just going for a cheap laugh. No. You have to experience this to know just how gut wrenching it is. See, here's here's the thing. I actually really hate cheap laugh. Yeah. Wait. What? Is this don't alright. What? But Funny. Why are you nodding and winking? Oh, nothing. Nothing. It's a podcast. Alright. That was fast. So so I I really hate cheap laughs. I like but but okay. We'll get into that in a second because I wanna keep on unpacking the Anne Frank one and what I saw you do both in the album and and and live in your show. And then I kinda wanna get to, I wanna back up a get a bit and get to the reasons why I wanted you specifically on this podcast. Couldn't get anyone else? I'm drunk by 3 PM. I'm just gonna ignore all these comments. Just the audience can laugh or not. I could argue with you. I'm enjoying myself. I mean wait. Key. Are are we recording this? I thought this is just for me and you because I'm having a blast. Why why wouldn't you you should enjoy yourself all the time. My nephew's the same way. But first, let me let me make you some coffee, James. Coffee? My man Danny from the band Carl 2K. I don't know if you know that. Danny owns this podcast studio. Really? Oh, so be nice. Danny. It's a music studio, but but I've been dominating it in the podcast world. And by the way, thank you so much, James. GSI Studios, I wanna give a shout out. We've never mentioned you, but this is a great podcast studio. Thank you very much, Danny. It's a great podcast. Yeah. Yeah. I met Danny in the elevator. That elevator smelled like bourbon and regret this morning. We were we were you weren't smelling I was doing whiskey and this You smelled yourself. I did. I did. I'm like, that's fine. I'm gonna go back and listen. Alright. Last time. And close that door. Thank you, Dan. Thank you. So so Oh, god bless. Said something that was really interesting with the Anne Frank one, which is that what for to I you're I you're either real calling out someone in the audience or fake calling out, which either way doesn't matter to me. But you were basically saying, don't let an event from 80 years ago prevent you from laughing. Like, we wanna enjoy life. This moment, Pam Grout. All we have is this moment, and we give permission away. Right. Like, are you gonna let I mean, you kind of took it to an extreme. Are you gonna let Hitler tell you not to laugh at this right now? Too. Sorry. You're what? I was supposed to See see how professionally But there I'm I'm a pro. Thank you, Danny. Oh, love a podcast owner podcast studio owner. There you go. Alright. I Why did you want it to coffee? Now I'll I'll talk now. Alright. So so so Did you set it to funny? Alright. We're back. So so so you kind of in in a weird way, you're giving this kind of class on what what is comedy, what is laughter, where does it come from, how you make decisions about what's funny. But then I but then I realized something insidious, which I said to my 15 year old daughter, and and she was trying to process it. I could set her up with my nephew, by the way. Alright. Let's, let's do it. But, I think what you were doing was a little craftier, which is you were teaching people how to laugh at your material so that Maybe. So that throughout the set, you it was very easy for you to call people out if they weren't laughing, and you were basically training people throughout the entire album. And then when I've seen you live, you're training people how to laugh at your jokes so that they can't not laugh. So I think there's 3 layers. There's the joke. There's you saying these really insightful, important things about not only society, but comedy. So maybe there's 4 levels. There's the joke. There's society. There's these kind of very specific lowbrow. We know that. So there's 3 lowbrow. Then then there's these insightful things about comedy, which I don't hear in any other comedy album, which you're really breaking down for you. What is humor? What is laughter? What is comedy? And then there's the 4th thing, which I find to be the most ingenious, which is you're forcing the crowd to laugh at your jokes, which is, by the way, an extremely hard challenge for any stand up comedian as you would know. And then I kind of analyzed this weekend. When I got on stage, the guy's like, that was a very aggressive TED Talk, wasn't it? I thought that was so funny. That's that's a good way to put it. Yeah. I like that. It's like in a it's like, what? You're not gonna laugh? I'm gonna tell you why you're gonna laugh at this joke. Yeah. And then they have to. Because, otherwise, you're point you just like you just pointed at me, when you point out at the audience, the rest of the audience is afraid you're gonna point them out if they don't laugh. Yeah. So they have to start laughing. They even have to start clapping. Yeah. And don't get me wrong. You can choose not to laugh, but But you're gonna be in trouble. But but the thing is, I can you want to laugh. Like, it like, this is what I talk about. It's it's so amazing. Like, the the the amazing thing about the human body, and I say this in the set is, like, everything in your body, whether you believe it's God or randomness, you created it. And this actually read in one of Pam's books. Like, it this amazing energy is what creates you. It's what sustains you, and you feel that energy when you laugh. There is no question in my mind and when and this is I say this in the act too. Like and you and this is for you. Enjoy that like, when you first start doing we'll flip this for you because it'll explain both. When you first start doing comedy, it's like riding a unicycle. I would imagine. I've never but you just need to get your balance. The stage is like a unicycle. 1st, you need to get your balance up there. You just need to be remember the first few times you did? You're like, I just wanna get up and get off and survive. It's it's hard. Yeah. And then once you finally get your balance, you can stand up there, and you're you're not even, like, blah blah blah blah. Once you get that balance and you can focus and work on a set and and flesh it out okay. So now you're now you're work now you're working your comedy. Right? And now you've got bits that work. And now you're suddenly engaging the energy of the crowd, which is an amazing thing. But you, and this gets back to what I'm saying, I can see the whole crowd, and it's an amazing feeling because I I get, like, if I do a joke opening the set about hitting women and you see and everyone laughs, it's great. But if you see 2 people not laughing, then then I'm gonna pick them out and be like, why aren't you laughing? But I won't say, why aren't you laughing? Be like, you didn't laugh. You better learn how to cook, b***h. Because it's and they laugh because it's like, look. Don't think not laughing. It's not like when I see the people laughing, I'm like, oh, thank god they laughed. When I see the people not laughing, and this may sound exaggerated, and it is, but it isn't. It's like, oh my god. Why are you not laughing? God forbid. These poor people are here on Earth thinking. And I'm this is overdramatizing it, but it's a fact, oh my god. What do you think not laughing is getting you? This is this is the society we become. The first person not to laugh is smart. You're killing yourself. You're you're giving permit. You're like, I better not laugh because of something that I don't in a comedy club, but I will say part of that is your confidence that your material is funny. I think when people don't laugh That's called delusion, James. No. No. It's not. Because you're very funny. Don't be humble. You're very funny, and you know it. I think a lot of comedians get nervous when people don't laugh that they're not funny anymore. Yeah. Oh, please. I've seen I've seen people and it's not just beginners. Do that. It's like people I've seen people doing it 25 years, punch in a wall after a silent crowd. You it's not just that. Like, I say this all the time because we're comics. And don't get me wrong. Like, if I see people not laughing at that joke, that's one thing because I know when I feel it out, and it's fine. But trust me, you can do I've said this before. You could do a show and we'll make it a 100 people in the room. Right? 99 laugh and lose in their mind. One person, 3rd row, 5th seat in, not laughing. You're looking at that guy. And This Is Us as Comics, you're like looking at him like, you're right. These 99 people are f**king idiots. You're right. I'm not funny. And then you're trying to get him to laugh. And before you know it, you've gotten so angry that one guy who might have just, you know, had a bird s**t on his head or got kicked. You're mad at him, and your energy turns from joy. And then suddenly, the other 99 people are like, this guy's not funny. This guy's mean and angry. And so you're you're you know, it's funny because I've had a, a lot of com comedians. I've always been a fan of comedy. I've been What's funny? Mike Vecchione. That's funny. Comedy. Muscle confusion. Brilliant comedian. He is brilliant. He okay. I wanna tell you something. We're we're we're keeping going. You're an a*****e, James. He's the nicest guy in the No. You've never heard of Mike Vecchione. It's because the business has become so fragmented fragmented. God forgive me. It's awful. The guy's been on The Tonight Show twice. Once with Lennon, once with Fallon, and he's been on Conan. Oh my god. He's brilliant. He's brilliant. But I I wanna I wanna talk about him, actually. Behind his back? Exactly. Yeah. But, we're going off on a lot of tangents. I just wanna outline what I why I wanted you to, Two giant scatterbrin. Where are you? Oh, now we're in Texas. Because I I wanna I wanna tell people the ride that they're in for. A, this is about mastery. You just described, how when you're first getting started in comedy, it's like being on unicycle, finding your balance, but then it's like then you divide it up into micro skills. Like, you gotta figure out what your jokes are. You have to figure out how to manage the audience. For you, I could see you have to figure out how to manage a low energy audience to tie your heels. Even close to finding your voice. Like, you have to go through a world of jokes, and then it's like you shed your skin. I I do that. Enjoy every second of the process. I'm gonna keep interrupting you, but go back to what you said. That's fine. I apologize for talking about the mini microcosms of the unicycle. I think I think for any skill, and maybe you would agree, there you have to sort of identify or or realize if you're gonna get good at something, there's a lot of separate micro skills. Like, you seeing everyone in the audience is a separate skill from, writing your material. It's a separate skill from having the psychology to move around the stage. Right. It's a separate skill from, dealing with a low energy audience, you know, versus a high energy audience or dealing with I I've no here's the latest micro skill I've learned. Dealing with, an audience that is more than 70% men as opposed to 70% women is a different type of audience and different types of jokes and different types of interactions with the crowd at work. 100%. There's there's actually specific jokes that men will not laugh at if they're the if they're the majority of the audience until you call them out. You have to break it down. You have to break them down. Like like But I wouldn't have thought before I started doing this that that was a an actual not just, like, one little feature I had learned. It's an actual skill you have to do. Doing a black joke with no black people in the room? The white people are, like, nervous. Like, you need the because, of course, black people won't laugh because they don't give a f**k. You know? But the white people the white girl, like, oh, what are is this a clit it's like just it's a that's the problem. And I talk about words in my act. Like, adjectives are dividing us more and more. Okay. But tangent. I'm gonna go on a tangent on that. Alright. Let's take a ride. Let's take a ride down Tangent's Y Old Aim, my friend. And and and oh, actually, you know what? I'm gonna hold off on the tangent. I'm gonna out continue on. Gave me bourbon. What? So so we're gonna talk about mastery. We're gonna talk about I wanna talk about your comedy album specifically. By the way, was my breakdown of the 4 layers somewhat accurate for you and how you do your set? What what were the 4 the 4 layers was, your humor, which is, like, the basic layer. Right. Then there was, kind of these societal, truths that you were bringing up that were really wise, which which and and, by the way, that's the difference, I think, between cheap laughs and a good comedian. Right. I really hate cheap laughs. I really love when something's making me laugh, but also is unraveling a hidden truth. So I think that that second layer, you you you had the skill set of humor, which you could apply to anything Sure. But you applied it to societal observations that you had. The 3rd layer is teaching the audience about comedy and laughter and that and making that part of your routine. The 4th layer, which is more insidious, which is kind of showing people exactly how to laugh at your jokes specifically. So that way, you'll keep the energy high in the room. I will say this. I never looked at it that way. I would definitely agree that's part of it, but the one part you left out, and I'm not Tell me. Because I don't want false humility, is there's a dick joke level to it. There's some dumb jokes in there just because and this one of the greatest compliments I ever got was you know Dante Nero? No. Oh, great comedian Dante Nero. He has a podcast called The Beige Phillips Effect. It's hilarious. We got into a huge fight over Colin Kaepernick, but I'm not talking about that freaking piece of garbage right now. I'm talking about my he once said watching Geno's set is like watching Einstein eat paste. And I love that because, like, you know, like, I'll say something really brilliant and really stupid, but this is the thing. Like, it like, you know, when I say you don't hit women and you don't hit them hard because you get them too hard, they black out and lose the lesson. There's so many levels to that. Okay. But let me let me let me address that. Please. So so I think that also is a separate microscale. So so you just talked about the 2 women who, hypothetically, didn't laugh at a joke. Right. So you find a low energy part of the crowd, and you you you do you you can pull. Now you know. I'm gonna pull the easy laugh based out of the crowd from these 2 women, but I'm gonna I'm gonna sandwich it by the 2 truths with all the humor I have. So so I think I think and I've seen this in a couple of comedians. You can't just do a string of of cheap laughs. You have to the the the the the greatest comedian, and I'm I am ranking you in there. You're native. I know I know you were gonna say that, but I'll explain why I'm gonna say that throughout this. You you you didn't do just a bunch of cheap laughs. You sandwiched that one cheap laugh in between 2 truths. And I think you have to sandwich those, and that's how you do it. That's a skill. Would you rather realize you're doing that or not? Maybe you learn that organically? Like, I've seen it as a skill because I've seen now a number of comedians do that who I respect. This and that's how I work like, to work in these and this is the amazing thing. Like, I'm working like, you saw a lot I had a lot of new material at the at the party because well, now I'm trying new bits. And and every bit, it's it starts with the seriousness because I have to, like, just talk serious and and That's where your voice is, I think Yeah. Which is hard to develop. Yeah. And then and then and then the more I do it, the more I can, you know because I because I'm not good at being serious. And then the comedy just develops. You know? Like, I I'm doing a whole bit now on how Ice Cube is saying what word we can and can't say. And and just how, like, for you to tell me not to say that word, that's accusing me immediately of being a racist. And I talk about how, like, anyone that's racist in this day and age it's 2014. Right? Did we tape it? In this day and age, to to even imply like, if I go up to you and say, hey. Don't say the n word, then then obviously, I'm just assuming you use it all the time and you're a racist. And to be a racist, then you must assume, James, in 2017 that the amount of melanin in your skin, that the more you have, the dumber you are. That's what I'm accusing you of. And and everyone knows the more melanin you have, the better your leaping ability. We watch the NBA. But what I'm saying is for you to accuse me of that, that's absolutely ridiculous, and this is what people don't think. They're like, oh, I'm a social justice worry because I'm gonna tell this guy not to say that word. No. You just accused me of being r****ded and thinking that, you know, that's the correlation between, you know, between race and intelligence. And and this is the stuff that starts out serious, and then you have to build the dick jokes on either side and But let me let me let me ask if there's a gray area because, and I don't know the answer. Take the Michael Richards example. Oh. Okay? So where I could explain that to you in a heartbeat. Tell me. Let's pretend that that I'm a great poker player. Right? Mhmm. And this is my opinion on it. I and I'm just throwing it out there, but I love I'm a great poker player. We're hanging out. Right? And then you say, hey, Gino. Can I get in a poker game with you? And we're buddies, James. So I say, yeah. But it's a high stakes poker game, and you lose your house in that game. How am I gonna feel? Like, s**t. I put you in harm's way. I in my opinion, I think I'm wrong. I know Richard used to do stand up, but Richard is a brilliant comedic actor, and there's a difference. He was never a stand up, I don't think. He was on he was always an actor. He was on Fridays with Larry David. Said that too, but somebody told me once he was. Regardless, we definitely know. So he's not as so he's hanging out with Jerry at the at the the laugh what was it? The laugh factory. Yeah. It was laugh factory. And he goes, and Jerry's like, hey. You wanna go to a spot? And he's like, sure. Because they're just 2 guys hanging out. He goes on stage, loses his f**king marbles, And Jerry the next day, Jerry is on, I think Letterman. I like and and he Skypes in or whatever it was back then to help apologize on his behalf. So that's like, Jerry Seinfeld felt bad because he kinda put the it's completely Richards' fault. Richards', yeah, Richards' fault. But but he he shouldn't have been on that stage. Well, what what's interesting is line from A Few Good Men. He got bullied into that courtroom, Jack. So he should he shouldn't Jack? He shouldn't have been on that stage. Correct? Because he didn't know how to deal with Right. He didn't have the skill set to deal with, a a negative part of the audience, a low energy part of the audience, or a heckling part of the audience, or whatever. And With a bunch of negative people. And then the way he the way he did it, because it wasn't comedy Right. Right, could potentially suggest that this is acceptable behavior. Right. I think he I think that's where the gray area is, the between comedy and acceptable behavior. Like, if everybody just walked around saying whatever in the middle of the street, that would be a problem. I mean, the but a comedian has, I think there's poetic license in a weird way. Comedic license. But here's where He didn't have the skill set. Yeah. But getting away from him and just to the gray area, here's here's how I look at it. Like, this is I I was joking around with someone. You know why computers are so fast? Because binary. Everything is yes or no. Everything is 0 or 1. Everything is white or black. That's it. Comedy. Life. Man has so many freaking layers in his coconut and it's no different at a comedy show. Alright. He just did a joke about race. Is there a black person next to me? How do I is it but there's no gray area. And this is the other thing I'm breaking down on stage when I do that. It's yes or no. Because because I'm tired of Comedy Central, trying to teach people what's funny and what's not. Hey. You know what comedy is? It's equal parts white, black, female, Latino, some wild card that's either fat or r****ded or something. That's not comedy. You know what comedy is? It's your gut. Do you wanna laugh or not? And when you take away all the freaking white noise I said white noise. When you take away all the white noise, you know, and just let yourself go. Like, when I do that joke and I point it out my act about Anne Frank and, you know, like, when people laugh and cover their mouth, like, that's that is such a cathartic moment for me on stage, and I'm not. This is now I will be. Why the why the cover of their mouth? Because it's like they don't want to. Because they don't wanna laugh. Right. That's they're laughing because despite all the f**king bulls**t we're desensitized or oversensitized, god forgive me, to out there in life. We're like, you can't laugh at this because of this. Your body's like, no. No. No. I'm gonna laugh at that because he just took something terrible and made me laugh, and it feels so good. And it's coming from inside you. It's coming up from your gut out of your mouth. It never gets a chance to go to that bulls**t circus of a brain that creates that gray area. Because something either makes you laugh or it doesn't make you laugh, and nothing should f**king have to go through a filter when you want to laugh. And that's what happens. You know you know what's interesting? I mean, some of my Dostoevsky, that guy is interesting. That guy is interesting. Okay. Okay. He spells his name 4 different ways. Literally. Lit literally. Do you take every single sentence ever and try to find the funny in it? Dude. It seems like you do that. I That's great. That's a skill. I when I hang out with my brother, everything he says. Have you always had that, or did you build that? I've always been like this. I don't know why. Like, don't get me wrong. I grew up in a Norman Rockwell painting. My mother was a teacher. My dad was a farmer. My brother is a year and a half old is a year and a half older than me, always been my hero. And I've never needed attention. I've just always been, like, I've always been in a good mood. I don't know why. So it seems like it seems like So I'm always trying to, like, just I can't let someone be serious. Because that part is a hard skill. My brother, when I remember everything, I'll interrupt him with a dick joke. He's like, I don't know how you do it, Gene. And, like, it's a curse, Peter. I'm like, what did what did Jesus say? Would that you could take this cup from me. But but but I here's what I've seen. I've seen comedians who have that ability also then kind of skip the learning the skill of writing material. And I don't think you've skipped that. No. Because I think you have, like, very ingenious material. Like, again, let's go through the Anne Frank sequence or the sequence about your nephew. Like, all these things are are clearly written material because I've I've seen you do it on the album, and I've seen you do it live. Like, you are you are ready for that material. I think Plus, I think some of your crowd work even is written material. Oh, yeah. It like, the crowd work I do, and I think it's brilliant where I talk about guns. But, by the way, which is another skill. Right. Crowd work. Right. When I do the bit where people are like, all guns are bad, and then I do the example. I'm like, really? Let's pretend I have a gun, and I pull it out to shoot this person. And this person pulls out a gun. I always pick a black or Latino. I'm like, minorities always have weapons. And suddenly, they shoot me. I'm like, what? Now why is his gun good? You know what I mean? Like, that's kinda crowd work, but it is a very important bit. Like, people get lazy, and they think blankets say, let's get we'll get rid of every gun. You are an idiot. You are an idiot. We we need to get rid of stupid people, you know what I mean, that think it's okay to hurt people. So so so the fact that you know because you've done the joke, let's say, a 100 times or a 1000 times, you know where the groans are gonna come, so you know how to take advantage of it. Groaning is just as much an energy as, laughing. Oh, yeah. So you know how to convert that groaning into saying, how why you know, how can you do this? There's this, there's this. But you even do that with your 11 year old nephew. In your joke to him, he you it's as if you you knew what the reaction was gonna be, and you threw that back that energy back at him. Oh. So that's just him, he's he's hilarious. And I know I'm biased, but there's time it's not it's it's it's like we're doing a bit together. Like, the joke is and I don't mind tell because it's a true story. Yeah. Like, my nephew And my daughter laughed at it this morning. Yeah. But but the I'm talking about the the the the title track is called uncle Gino is amazing. And that's that's the title of the album. Yeah. Yeah. And because everything I do, my niece and nephew, turn into something amazing. Like, so I don't know if you know this, but as me and Danny recollect, I like to have a drink or 2. Right? So I live in New York. Okay? And and I park my car in Brooklyn for street cleaning. And here in New York, like, you have to move your car for street cleaning certain days. So it was a Friday. I had to move my car 8 AM for street cleaning. And I'm living in Brooklyn now, but I leave my car there so I don't move it all week. Excuse me. I'm living in Manhattan. So I go to Brooklyn, hour on the subway. Like, let me go move my car. It's 8 o'clock at night. Walk into this bar that was my neighborhood bar when I lived there. I drink there till 4 in the morning. Now I'm obliterated. I can drink there what in the morning? I drink I drank there till 4 in the morning. Okay. Now I'm obliterated. I'm like, I can't move my car because as a comedian, I'm not getting a DUI. So what do do? I sleep in my car. I pass out my car for 4 hours. Alarm goes off at 8. I move the car to street cleaning. So it's double parked for an hour and a half. Sleep there for an hour and a half. I wake up. I'm sober, and I drive finally to see my nephew and my brother in Jersey. And my and you can imagine I'm disheveled, but my nephew is a smart kid. So when he's like, what'd you do last night, uncle Gino? I literally looked at him like, I slept in my car, Nick. And I say it with his big dumb smile, and he runs with the video. He's like, that's amazing. And then he looks at his dad. We never get to sleep in the car. So it's just like, that's my nephew, like, has a great sense of humor because, again, he was raised by intelligent people. And intelligent people know the greatest thing is laughing. It's not being politically correct. It's not being a millionaire. It's just being able to freaking laugh in the face of all this ridiculousness. And, you know, I know if you know the statistic, but, and I don't know how they figured this out. But, apparently 9 out of 10 battered women just don't pay attention? Okay. How many how many times a day do you think adults how many times a day do you think kids laugh? All day. All day. Everything. So so if you wanna make my nephew laugh when he was 8, we usually that was joke. Just say it's not funny, Nick. So so, apparently, kids laugh on average 300 times a day. Guess how many times the average adult laughs a day? 10, 5. So same order of magnitude. And that's true. So what you're what you're saying can use that, James. And and, you know So the average kid, 300. Yeah. Because yeah. The average And the average adult, 5. And the reason you can use that is because your comedy, as much as it is about society, is also about comedy. It's about that's why your album is multilayered and why people should listen to it. It is a lesson on the importance of laughter in living. Like, we only have this one life. So what are you gonna do? Spend it sad or spend it laughing? Right? And every moment, you have that choice. You even if bad even if bad things are happening to you, I I I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna say the the first time we had a conversation. So you were the and this is how we know each other. You were emceeing I I've been doing on and off stand up for, let's say, a year and a half. I've been doing very off stand up for 15th. Right. For you've been doing it for a long time. So but about 5 months ago, maybe a little more, I decided to take it really seriously, go up 2 or 3 times a week. The very first time I went up, you were the MC. So you had to introduce me, but you had read my stuff before. Stand Up New York Comic Club. I stand up New York. Fantastic Comedy Club. Our friend Candy Clare books that you're doing her they love how to throw a plug show on my friends. You're doing her podcast next week. I I am doing her podcast, the Claire's podcast? Emporia podcast, and I go up at Stand Up New York. She did mine and Aaron Burks podcast in hot water, which you can get on compoundmedia.com, just 2 weeks ago. I'm sorry. What? Do you do it regularly? We do it every week. You gotta come by. Alright. So back to you. So we met. I'm messaging. And you one of the things you said to me we we were talking for a while. You had read some of my stuff before, I guess, or whatever. Power no. Power no. And I still have no power. I'd never say no. I'm an a*****e. I'm like, and I tweeted Pam Graff that and I'm sorry to keep going off topic, but it's more how much energy works. I'm like I'm like, I didn't I was so proud of the author of e squared e cubed. Yeah. We have the same publisher Rich. Yeah. We we have the house. We had the same publisher as The Power of No, so we had the same editor even. She said to mention her new book that is coming out, and I pre ordered it. Days. Yes. I pre and I I pre ordered it. What's that? I'll read it when it comes out. I pre ordered it because I'm gonna be in LA that for 3 weeks, and it's sent there. And we are getting off topic, but I read your book, The Power of No, because I, Pam Growe, I'm looking I'm like, I need a book to read. And sure enough, she it was, like, one of her daily blurbs on our website, and she was plugging your book, The Power of No, and I just randomly read the notebook. I didn't know that. Yeah. I'm gonna have to thank Why don't you thank Pam Growe? Yeah. I know. Then the rest of the day was just bad mouthing you. This total this guy wrote 11 books. Hey. Guess what? One's actually readable. That's what she said. Well, that was probably one of the first one or 2 that was readable because, like anything, writing is a hard craft. People think, oh, they write a book. It should be a bestseller. No. I've written 18 books. Maybe 3 sold enough copies to be considered, like, a bestseller. Now I'm gonna steer you back because I tan I tan Jen Silva. So you met me when I'm hosting it. So so so New York. We were talking because in part, you're the MC, so you're getting to know me, but we you also had read my stuff, so we were talking a little bit. You were saying, some stuff related to some content I had written, how you were, at one point, feeling miserable because here you are, barely paying your bills and telling jokes all day. And then and then you and then you said, but then I flipped it. You said this to me. You said, and then I flipped it. It was a I can't tell the story because it was a moment of clarity, and I'm telling you I referenced Groupe because when because we all when you're open to it. And you're up in New York, and I've always you're up in New York. At this point, I'm up there 13 years, and you're at the Comedy Cellar. When you hang out at the Comedy Cellar, it's not every night, but you'll you'll see Chris Rock and Louis CK, and I work a lot with Artie Lange. And you're with these guys, like, and, obviously, it's common sense to think, like, I'm not successful until I make 1,000,000 of dollars and blah blah blah. And I said to myself, I've been up here 13 years, and I'm barely paying my bills. And then it was like some voice tap some tapped me on the shoulder and said, say that again, but say it without the word barely and say it with gratitude. And I'm like, I've been up here 13 years paying my bills. It's like, what else do you want? It's like you're getting a and then I'm like and from that moment on, the universe is like, oh, you get it now. So you don't need to be rich. You're always gonna have enough money to do what you want. So what is your f**king problem? I think people don't get this because somebody somebody was trying to even, correct me. Like, I was on a podcast a few weeks ago, and they were saying, well, freedom is clearly the same thing as financial freedom. You gotta make enough money to be financially free. And I said to him, listen. Let's just take an extreme. Elon Musk has whatever, $13,000,000,000. That guy, from the minute he wakes up kick his ass, you said. You said if Elon Musk was right here right now, you'd kick his You know, I I wish I had said exactly that word for word. But Why are you waving your hands and shaking your head no, James? What? Here's what I said. Here's what I said. I said from 5 in the morning when he wakes up till he let's say he goes to sleep at midnight till he goes to sleep, he's like a a a slave to everything he has to do. He has to make sure rocket ships don't blow up. He has to get money from the government. He has to please shareholders, family, this, that. The guy is a maniac. I wouldn't I wouldn't you couldn't pay me to have a life like that. Meanwhile, I get to You've been a millionaire 7 times. Right? And broke 8, 10 times? I will. Yeah. I've gone up and I've gone down. And when I finally came to the same realization that you just did, then suddenly it all clicked, and I was able to make money and, at the same time, do what I love and not sacrifice that. Not say, no. I'm gonna stop doing what I love for a while just so I can make money. I put it all together. You just told me you listened. Like, I hope you see my face. Like, when you tell me, like, you listened with your daughter. I'm like, stories like that make me the greatest like like, when I hear stories like that, I'm like, I'm awesome. You know? Like, like, she knows amazing. Like, and then you're like, I'm running late. I have to take my daughter to camp. I'm like, and what did I say to you? And you got because parent's a verb. The word parent is a verb, and people, like, don't get that. They're like, yeah. I I have 2 kids. I'm a parent. You're you're not. You have kids, but you have to parent them. You know what I mean? Like, that's why if I do a joke about hitting women in front of my nephew, it doesn't go, oh my god. And start crying dad, don't hit mom. Like, I'll make jokes about him hitting his mother and about Pete hitting his wife, who is a saint. My sister-in-law. And Nick will laugh because he's like, perfect example. This is how dumb we've become. And I gotta bring this back because it's not on a like, a couple this is how dumb the NFL is and how dumb society is. And don't get me wrong. I love the NFL. Greatest product in the world. We're you said it, greatest. Remember, like, 2 years ago when they had this thing this campaign called no more because all these football players are getting in trouble for domestic violence? And they have football players just come on and go, no more. No more. And this is the thing. Like, all you're doing is introducing it to a*****es because let me tell you something. A guy that beats his wife, you know, and he's doing it during the commercials. He's got his back to this. But my nephew, who was raised in a happy, loving, healthy environment, sees this commercial, and he goes, what's that, uncle Gino? And I'm sitting there watching football with my brother, and he's like and my brother's like, tell him. And I said, Nick, you know how your dad never hits your mother? And he looks at me like, yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like like I said, you know how your father never, like, leaves, for outer space and comes back? He's like, like, you know your dad never hit your mother? Yeah. I'm like, Nick, you know how if your dad ever did hit your your mother, you would call me up crying? Uncle Gino, mommy is killing daddy right now. And he just starts laughing. Like, that's the thing. Like, if you're a good parent, like, the the thought of a man hitting a woman isn't just isn't isn't, like, terrifying. It's laughable in a way. Why would you ever do something that ridiculous? You know what I mean? And I'm not saying it's you should you should laugh when a man is a woman, but you should it's laughable if you raise a child right that a child would ever be like, why would you ever you know what I mean? And so and so that's why I I wanna take it to your album. That's why I thought My album uncle Gino was amazing. Your That debuted at number 2 on iTunes? Number 2 on iTunes. Number 7 on billboard. Buy it for $9 or 9.99 or whatever. To ask you this, and then you can get to my album. Because I don't understand how any of this works. Like, when it debuted at 2 on iTunes, it's, like, obviously, that's exciting. I'll say it again. Number 2 on iTunes debut, that's an amazing thing. It was number 1 on Google Play for, like, a week, but I don't know how this works. And then, like, then you get addicted. Like, that first week, I'm watching it up and down. It's top it's top 10 for a week, then it's, like, tumbling down. Depressing. You're reloading all the time. It's a lot While you're watching, like, okay. So you go from 7 to 3, and then you look at the 3 albums you jumped. One came out in, like, 1997. Another is a dead guy. So you're, like, you're, like, excited. Like, well, I guess I guess I should be excited even though I just passed Don Rickles, you know, and and and Robin Williams I hope you took a screenshot of that. Oh, I did. I did. I got a screenshot. But it's like it has to be somewhere, I guess. So so you're thrilled that it's there, but you're also like, you can't care too much because it's you're passing albums that are just staples. You know what? It's the same thing about what you're saying about laughter. That is a that metric of number 2 or number 1 or number 7, that's a hot potato. Apple threw that to you Yeah. And you feel good Yeah. But that's a replacement, a false replacement, for laughter and enjoying life. You basically outsourced your enjoyment of life to that number. Oh. And then for a day do that with your podcast? You have to wean yourself off that. I don't look. See I don't look with my books. Don't. I don't look for my podcast. People aren't listening. Hey, Steve. Thanks. Thanks. You can hit pause now and go take a dump. I I don't know if people are listening. I do I I I No. That's not. Like, you have to let go because you have to live your life. You can't live it with these numbers. And I can't I can't determine if I think something's quality, I can't let the quality go up or down based on how I think metrics are gonna be. I have to have my own internal I've been doing I've done, like, a 1000 podcasts between this and other podcasts. Yeah. So I'll have culture effect. Yeah. I'll have my own internal measure. Ask Altitude. Ask Altitude. I did question of the day. I've I've been on other people's podcasts. I have my own internal measurement now of what makes it good or bad. Right. So I don't need We just use that to tell me. That that like, whenever people tell me, me and Berg, hey. Your podcast was great. I'm like, I just read back, thanks. We enjoy ourselves, because that's all it can be. Let's stop to take a quick break. We'll be right back. HelloFresh is the meal kit delivery service that makes cooking more fun so you can focus on the whole experience, not just the final plate, and I'll tell you why. 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Enjoy everything from c**ktails, wine, and beer to sodas, specialty coffee, and smoothies as you explore world famous destinations. Just visit princess.com/james for details. That's princess.com/james. So let's talk about Ewan Berg for a second. So Aaron Berg's another good comedian. I wanna say, by the way He's a fantastic He's fantastic. You're a okay. So you released your album, you know, and you had a party. And it was at the New York Comedy Club. And Same place I taped it. Yeah. Yeah. And you you you you you had a party, and you had, a lineup of great comedians. You had a friend audience. That I'm just so lucky to know. And then for some reason, you also asked me to go in the lineup. I felt really bad for you, but I I couldn't say no to that. Because it's all part. I'm like, you gotta stop by. This is what we do, you know. But then I wanted you to meet these guys. But then I really reminded you. Remember, you asked me to to put put me up in the lineup because I I wanted to I wanted to challenge myself. And I was so glad you got back to me. I'm like, oh my god, James. Thank god you got back to me because I like, that week was just crazy. You know? Part of that audience, by the way, I filled up a little too. I had some some fans in there. But, but then, you went up, and, of course, you're doing all your stuff. Like, you're so high energy, and we'll get to that in a second. Then Michael Vecchione, went up. Is it Vecchione or Vecchione? Mike Vecchione. Mike Vecchione went up, and he's the opposite of you in that he is like he Hilarious. He he's he's well, he's equally hilarious, but he's a technician. He's, like, he's, like, carving these dogs out of the phone. Comedy writer out there right now. And he's so quiet and laid back, and everything he does is funny. But he's just soft spoken and quiet, and every joke was genius. The whole crowd was laughing. And then after him, b e c c h I o n e. Yeah. Look. So I'll say it again. B e c c h I o n e. Google his Conan stuff. By the way His album Muscle Confusion is brilliant. Somebody once said, and I love telling this story, somebody once said because they watch my set, and we're hang and we're hanging out afterwards. And I introduced my guest to my buddy, Mike Vecchio. He's a comedian. They're like, is he is he funny like you? I said, he's hilarious, but not funny like me. I'm like, Mike is like a delicate surgeon with his jokes. Yeah. Delicate surgeon. That's what Mike put it. Smash you over the head. Dick joke. Dick joke. Dick joke. That that's why he's on Conan, and you're not. Yeah. And and and he Which, by the way, is fine. That's just his path through comedy. And yours is a different path. He should be on he should have a show. He honestly shouldn't. I'll tell you why. Well well, but I wanna I wanna finish my story first. So then there was him, then there was a couple other people who were who were very good. Then there was Aaron Berg. And Aaron is just he's, like, he's similar to you, but a lot more crowd work. He is steamrolling through that crowd. He is destroying the crowd. So and you could tell some I've now seen enough of his stuff. Some of it's repaired. Some of it isn't. He is he is, destroy you have to see him in action to understand what I mean, but so much energy. All he does is write. He I mean, not write, but he's always working on, like, sitcoms. He's, like, he's working on scripts. He's running on auditions. He he's hosts all over well, he does he does spots too, but he hosts at the stand regularly. Yeah. And also Gotham Comedy Club. Oh, the reason one another one of the I remember all the great the reason I do a podcast with him is we were hanging out at the stand one time years ago, and this is more of how everything just falls into place when it should. Okay? This is 2 Decembers ago, and we're both at the stand, and he he's like, hey. Do you do a podcast? Actually, it's early January because it was right after my birthday. He's like, do you do a Where year? What is it? 2017 to 2,015. Okay. So it's January 2015. Okay? No. It's January 2016. That's when it that's how quickly it happened. So he goes, do you do a podcast? And I do, and I I have to bring it back. But I used to do a podcast, and I do during football season called Geno's Picks, right, but my buddies always like and you know this. The what do you have to do with the podcast? You have to put it out there regularly. You have to. So every football Yes. You have to be consistent. Yeah. So every football season, I'd peter out because I don't wanna talk other sports. So he's like, do you do a podcast? I'm like, yeah. But it always and and I'm like and I go into this long thing. I'm like, why do you ask? He's like, well, someone asked me if I did a podcast today, and I said the only person I'd wanna do a podcast with is Gino Bisconti, and now I bump into you tonight. And I'm like I'm like, why don't we start doing? He's like, what do you wanna do? I'm like I'm like, you know, he goes, how do we do it? I'm like, I walk over with my laptop, I plug in the mic, and we talk for an hour. So we do it for about and, oh, and then I wanna add, by the way, we're in a a super nice studio Yeah. With, like, the most professional mics. We've got an audio engineer out there. I don't even know what that board is, but it could also launch a rocket ship to Mars. And, How many tacos is that guy gonna eat? Alright. Whatever. So Bueno. Bueno. Bueno werco. But but you're absolutely right. All many people say, well, how do I start a podcast? Just start talking. Yeah. You can How do I get how do I do stand up? Go get on stage somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't have to be, like, you know, the it's really, the material is the most important part. Now, you and Aaron are perfect, so I'm gonna finish my story. But wait wait. I'm gonna finish mine first because this is how quickly it happened, and thank you. So Berg because it's all so Berg so I'm like, well, so we start. And he goes, oh, so I turn around after in that same night, and I turn around and, this guy, Jeffrey Gurion, do you know him? No. Does a does a writes to the entire bank. He's like, hey. What are you up to? I'm like, me and Burger's starting a podcast. He writes it up. So we do the podcast, and we called in hot water because he's like, I have a hot tub. We'll sit in my hot tub and do it, which never happened, but the name sucked. We do it for for 8 episodes, and then I do the Anthony Kumiya show. Right? And, of course, I do great because we're great on radio. A week later, Berg does it, and they're like, Berg, I do a podcast with Gina. Like, wow. A week later, I do it again. And they're like, hey. You and Berg do a podcast? And I'm leaving for LA, you know, for a month. And I'm like, yeah. He's like, you ever think of doing it in a studio? I'm like, yeah. We that'd be great. We just do it on laptop. It's so much fun. I I leave. Berg does it the following week, right, as Legion of Skanks, another great podcast that's on cast. Louis j Gomez. Louis j Gomez. Louis j Gomez. Real a*s podcast. Good friend of mine. By the way, he was the MC the next week after you were the MC. Oh. And we've hung out, a couple times since then. Awesome. So and then I'll wrap so Berg goes the next week, and they literally say they're like, do you and Gina wanna do a podcast here and replace Legion of Skanks? This is literally March. From January to March, from me sitting at a table with him saying, let's do a podcast, to March, like, yeah. And and then Berg calls me up and I was like, hey, stupid. Do you know they offered us a podcast last week? That's what he was oh my god. What do you mean what do you mean they off just tell me the business. I'm just saying, so we went from doing it on our laptop in his apartment to doing it every week in the studio. They hired us. We started in June in hot water on compound media. We were we celebrated a year last month. It's a it's a weekly podcast, but it's televised. You know, it's got the video aspect, and then we'll and this will tie back into you. And Ehrenberg is so brilliant. Like, it's it's evolved into with the video aspect. The in hot water name stuck, and whoever gets in trouble that week, Berg comes out dressed up as. And Okay. And and so I'm the host. He's the So, like, who's in trouble this week? Like, Scaramucci? How would he walk? Last week last week, he came on as Chelsea Handler. Because Chelsea Handler said, wouldn't it be great if there was a law against racial jokes? Yeah. The first f**king amen amendment dips**t. Although although the tits that she's posted, her tits are fantastic. So and that's just what it is. And then then we interview them and hold them accountable. It's that's how brilliant Berg is, and it's just him complete improv. So so right. So so Complete, brilliant, hilarious, loud, loud improv. So it's at your party. Yeah. So now we're back to you. So back to everything you want. So we're at your party. The release the release, you know, party for your album, your your great comedy album, which we're talking about. And Uncle Gino is amazing? Uncle Gino is amazing. Which you can you can order on any clap. Number 2 on iTunes. If you Google gino biscanti.comgenobisc0ntedot com, that's g as in Gino, e as in ino, n as in We're linked to it everywhere, so it'll be good. Yeah. I'm sorry. And, and I felt bad. I really didn't wanna disappoint your crowd or you. I wanted this to be a great party. But that that's just say I'm gonna interrupt one more time and take the compliment. No. Stop interrupting. These are my friends. I'm like like they're like, are you gonna headline your party? I'm like, no. No. It's my party. I'm gonna bring up all my friends. No. You were great as an emcee. But then while Arenberg was on, I'm like, oh my god. This there was Gino, Michael, Aaron Andy Fiori, Ali Green. Yeah. She was funny. She was she was good, like, punching up every line. Yeah. Like, she was great. Brought a great energy to it. And so I said to my friend that I was sitting next to, I'm gonna just tell Gino I'm going. I'm I'm gonna leave. Congratulations on the album. I would've brought you up immediately. Right that second right that second, you said you're up next. And I and I just said okay. And 2 minutes later, I was on stage, but I was like, you that that crowd your your lineup of comedians mowed down the crowd, and then there was me. You know, they've all been doing it 20 years, and then there was me. And I was and I think I did on a scale of 0 to 10, I don't think I embarrassed myself, but your Aaron and you and Michael and Ali, and they just mowed down the crowd. Oh, it's a circus. And and I wanted to put you up earlier, but they all had stuff to get to it. So it's like but it's like that's the beauty of it. Like, I didn't care where I put you up and take the compliment. This is like it's like you're on this show, dude. f**king enjoy it, you know? And you met and that's the beauty of it. Like, all those guys, they said hi. They're just good f**king people. Yeah. And, actually, some of the people in the green room, like, said to me afterwards, good set, which I've never really seen that happen before. Like, it was a nice group of comedians. Hanging out. It's Yeah. I'm so lucky. And and Ally Breen, who another great comedian who you probably never heard of because she's funny. Oh my god. And as she was walking off the stage, you you said, what do I gotta do? I have to feed you with an eyedropper? Yeah. Because she's, like, very thin? Yeah. Oh, well, we did a roast battle, and and it was me versus her, and she killed me. Now don't get me wrong. She wrote great jokes. She killed you? She killed me because imagine. It's like me versus her and a crowd of complete strangers. They're like, who is this monster? So So every time she looked me up, they loved it. And every and every time I picked on her, they're like, oh, I'll leave her alone. But don't get me wrong. She it was hilarious. Like, I was cracking up. She's like, Gino looks like Dolce killed dresses like Dolce killed Gabbana. And and she just went on and on, but it was it was a fun roast. But I like that Dolce and Kilgabana. But but it was just but it was just great. Alright. So back to you. I'm sorry. So so so yeah. So then, that was it, basically. It was just that you got you what what a great lineup. Like, huge energy. But then I was really just thinking about it over and over and over again. Like, I obsess in all these details. I try to think about all these micro skills, and, clearly, the the energy you and in particularly Aaron brought to that lineup was and brought to the audience. And then I had to go on right after Aaron. Aaron is like that guy is like a nuclear explosion. I had to go I said to And he sits down sometimes. Like, he sits down Yeah. Yeah. No. I say Aaron was, like, 2 x. And he's, like, just diving immediately into the crowd, and everybody was cracking up. In part, I think you guys got away with the fact that you had an extremely friendly audience to you. Well, that's because I was hosting in, like, nap. And it was a it was a party for you. But the the funny thing is this At a real club, though. Anybody could have walked in. Half of them came for me, and half of them were just barked in for the show, but we won them over. It's like, look. You people all better come on to the side of the people that came to see me because this is my party, and all my friends are gonna have fun. Believe me now. I've walked after that so I went on Tuesday Thursday, of the week after that, and I was thinking At where? At New York Comedy Club? At Stand Up New York. Okay. I'm sorry. So, New York Comedy Club was your party, then I wanted to Stand Up New York At 78th in Broadway, booked by our friend, Candy Clear. You're doing great. Exactly. And, and so I went up there, and I was thinking so much about you guys. I watched every Aaron Berg video I could find. I watched a bunch of your videos. Not everyone I could find. I only did that with Aaron Berg, but, you know and then I watched a whole bunch of Michael Beckillon, videos because I liked his him being in the middle, kinda, between you guys. Watch him. He's writing the craft. Again, I use technician, but I think your word of of, surgical craft surgeon. Yeah. He'll write a joke that the comics will be like, that's so funny. And then, like and we'll be like, that's so funny. And we think that's the joke, the end of it, and he's got 13 more bits on that joke. And we're like, his his, I'm a volunteer firefighter. Like, that over and over again is just amazing. And I let let people Google it. It's just the way he calls back that volunteer firefighter in every possible way. To be a teacher. You know that. Right? Like, I like, I'm such a threat for that. He and he points down in his act. He looks so much like a cop. Plus, you could see as a natural performance ability, he should be a cop on, like, law and order or something. Yeah. So, like, kind of like maybe even the dumb cop who's making all these jokes all the time. So but but I I learned from that energy that you guys brought to the audience because I think that's another skill set is how do you where even when you're feeling low energy or when the audience is low energy, how do you inject energy from, like, the outer space or something? How do you inject that into the crowd and into yourself? You guys did that masterfully, and I watched it, and I learned the way you kind of played with the crowd work. Now let me ask you this. Because the this this happened in my very first set. I made a joke that I knew was funny. The reason I knew it was funny was and you were the MC for this, and and you, me, and and Donnie, the owner of the club, talked about it afterwards. I made a joke that I knew was funny because I tried it out on, like, let's say, 30 of my friends, and, you know, I could tell when they're being honest and when they're laughing hysterically. And the audience didn't really laugh at it. And Donnie even said, maybe that one was a little bit creepy. And you said, no. No. No. That was hilarious. That one joke was hilarious. Yeah. And here's the question I have. I've actually now dropped that joke for my set because I think in a 5 to 10 minute set, I can't build up enough likability with the audience to pull that one off. It's it's a it's a particularly crude joke. And whether it's funny or not doesn't matter. You have to be likable first. Right. Now you thought the joke was funny. You weren't thinking about whether or not I was likable. Because the the MC is kind of your job is to be likable, and then the comedians kinda have to take care of it. Comedy spackle. You smooth it over to the next comic just so they you reset the room. Here we go. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So you I think I think I think Donnie was correct that it was creepy. I think you're correct that it was funny. And I think It can be both. Right. And I think I'm correct that for a 5 minute set, I had to drop it out. I think if I had a 40 minute set, it would be towards the end because I'd have to build up the likability. And you know what? I just I saw Dave Chappelle on Sunday, and he even admitted he had a joke for us, but he wasn't he specifically said, I've gotta build up likability with you guys before I say it. Yeah. He didn't say it till 40 minutes in, and this is to a crowd who loved him and play paid $400 a ticket Right. To see him. So likability is a real important skill when you're on the season. They have to know it's not just for shock value. So how do you you you clearly don't have kind of a a a filter in your brain. How do you build up the likability, or or do you not care about it? It's it's a confidence where and I always say, like, some of these jokes are like a loaded gun. Like, that joke that you shelved for now. Fine. You shelved it for now. But imagine, you know, that you're, you know, that you're playing, you know, baseball, you know, and you're just starting out in single a, and we bring you up to face, you know, like Clayton Kershaw. You're not gonna do well. You're you're gonna f**king miss every time because you have to get from here to double a, to triple a, to the majors to be able to face it. But you're talking about all the skills. I'm just talking about this one skill of likability. But I'm saying the more reps you get in that like, I didn't now when I'm on stage, I have so many reps. I'm like, I know who I am on stage. And I know if I do a joke about whether it's a joke about the cutest thing in the world like my niece and nephew to the darkest thing in the world like the holocaust or domestic violence. I know I'm not doing it for any other reason than to make people laugh. And if you're here and you also know because you've tested out, you know where the laughs are, where the groans are, how to play off the groans Yeah. How to play off the laughs, how to play off the silences. You you have it's like a it's like a you brought up the analogy of poker earlier. I'll bring it up again. When I used to play poker somewhat professionally, I would think in advance of thousands and thousands of situations that it could occur at the table because you have a microsecond to decide what to do. And it's probably even faster on the stage what to do. Yeah. Because the audience will pick up on any invitation. That's the thing. So it's like so when I'm up there, I I it's not it's it's a likability where there's no middle ground with me. It's like, look. I'm gonna tell the joke. And you either laugh or don't. It's not gonna I say I've said it before. I'm like, hey. I get my $8 either way up here. I'm not they they know I'm not gonna like, they seem like, if you don't laugh, I don't care. Like, I'm trying to make you laugh. I'm not trying to upset you. If you get upset, that's not on me. That's on you. Which is what I think is masterful about your album and why I think it's a masterclass in comedy is because it's not It's just a don't page. Here's what you don't do. Don't call the woman in the front row a c**t 3 minutes in. Wait 5. No. No. No. It it's actually the exact opposite is is that you're gonna point out exactly what you're doing, why you're doing it, and why and you're gonna tell them why they need to laugh. You taught them how to laugh, which I don't see I didn't see Dave Chappell teaching people how to laugh. He was just very structured and built up his likability with the with an audience that already loved him. You go right in there, and you basically say, here's why you're laughing. Here's why you're gonna laugh when you leave. And here's why you're gonna laugh when you leave. Here's why when you go out that door back into that mess of s**t where where people can't wait to be offended, you're gonna be like, I'm not getting offended. And so that's why and that's why you're able to amp up the energy so fast, so quickly, which is a skill, and why Aaron does it too. Like, I've seen Aaron go in now to an audience, and within 30 seconds, he's like, uh-oh. You guys are laughing. You guys aren't. We got MSNBC over here, Fox News. Come on, girl. We know what you were doing backstage beforehand. Like, I amped it up a little bit. In the front row one time. You know? And he just good looking. The boat money. Come on. Your boat money got you here. I know the exact one you're referring to. No. This is this is ages ago. This really good looking India guy. Somebody's like, he called him ISIS face. Oh my god. I lost my mind. I'm like, did you call that guy ISIS? And the crowd goes nuts. You know? It's like it's like we got Isis face sitting here. And the guy doesn't I've I've seen him call out people, and they laugh the most Of course. Because, a, they're being called out and looked at, so that's an embarrassing thing for people. So those when you point at someone, that's a skill too. As opposed to talking generally to the audience, when you point someone out, it puts everyone else on an alert, and it puts that guy his mind is going bonkers at that moment because you're pointing at him in an audience, and he might be an introvert or she or whatever. And every it's a skill. All of these things, people think it's, like, kind of organically or you or, you know, the typical advice comics give, is you just have to get on stage a lot. And then you've said that also. Yeah. But I think what also is important is to realize is that there's at least a 100 micro skills that each has to be developed separately, like the likability. Or if you're not gonna worry about the likability, how you deal with that the way you deal with that is you teach people when to laugh. And the way Aaron deals with that is he dives in so ludicrously. Like, you know, he'll say, you know, the first joke, he'll look at some, you know, blonde, obviously, college girl, innocent, whatever. She's like, he hit the first joke is, so do you do anal? And, like and then he just he'll dive into that with her for, literally, for 10 minutes. Yeah. And he'll delve in. And and then, you know, it's so ludicrous. The audience is, a, afraid, but they're also laughing at the jokes. And there's all these different ways of dealing with these issues, and it's I think it's I I I'm just gonna pull it back a second, if you don't mind. Please. It it it's related to any kind of mastery I've ever seen. It's like like whether it's poker or chess or or sports or business. Like, take business as an example. People think, oh, if you make a good product, people will buy it. That's actually the totally wrong Really? Thing. Yeah. It's it's all about there's, like, a 100 people skills involved in building up and selling a business. Because think about all the people you have to deal with. Not just product to customers, it's also your employees, it's your partners, it's your stockholders, it's the person who eventually acquires your company, it's It's the people who might invest in your company. So so there's so much psychology involved, and you have to think second by second how to deal with every not as much as you have to do it on stage. But public speaking also, you have to think second by second. There's lots of skills. So I think anything you're gonna master in, skateboarding. Tony Hawk was describing this to me on on the podcast. There's, like, lots of there's not one trick. You can't just go on a ramp and and be great at it. You have to learn every sub trick along the way. And I also think there's an innate knowledge because I was talking to, god forgive me, the red headed guy, the the flying tomato. Why can't I think of his name? The the Olympian, Sean. I'll think of it when I'm not thinking of it. Sean White. Thank you. The the snowboarder. And I'm like, when you do a jump, like, how do you he's like, I just see it. He's like, when I'm in the air, I see how it's going to go and how it's gonna it's like this muscle that you have that that, like like, Cunningham it's like these guys just see these things. Like like, when I'm on stage and I see, like, just where the next joke has to be, like, f**king directed. Oh my god. And I think I think you and I'm gonna call out Aaron again because I think that's more so Amazing. Than like like you said, Michael Vecchione, he's got his micro skill. Like, everybody like, if you work out in a gym, some muscles, you work out more than others. Right. So it's the same thing with everything. His joke about muscle confusion, which is the title track that you ever relate to that. He's like he's joke about and I'm gonna butcher and it's still funny. I have to get he's like he's like he's like I'm gonna I'm gonna butcher it. Also, so in order to build your muscles, you have to do what's called muscle confusion. So I'm gonna talk like him a little bit. You have to do you have to do muscle confusion. So here's what I do. I went on a treadmill. I smoked a cigarette. Muscles confused. He's brilliant. He's brilliant. He's like he's like, then he's like, then I'll put it on a jog in your suit, and I'll just sit in front of the TV and watch Netflix. Hey. What happened there? He's f**king brilliant. So so but, again, different set of skills that he's relying on to build that likability, to get that energy up. So close. I even during even during your, He's my brother's favorite comedian, Mike Becky. He's he's one of mine now after your after your lineup. He's just so during and he did, by the way, I wanna say during your lineup, during his bit his his set is much better than any of the YouTube videos out there on him because I think he's working on a lot of new material. Better and sharper and sharper. But he had one point where I think it was a legitimate, point where he had to slow down a little bit, and he kinda just leans back. And he's like, you know, this was kinda sudden that I came up here, so I gotta just compile my thoughts for a second. And and the whole crowd starts laughing. Oh, how about and and this how about, like because I'm hosting, and I never hosted near a comedy club, so I didn't know that I was in charge of the light. So the light was on when he's on stage. He's on stage some minutes, and he's like, did I get the light? And what did I do? I walked on stage right next to him. Were you there for that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. I was just standing right next to the stage. He was so nice. He was like, come on, dude. I'm like, did he do his joke yet about the eye about no. About his car getting stolen? He's like, come on, dude. But he's such a nice guy, and it was so fun to to play with him like that. And then and then you called him out on something, and the very last thing he said was, everything nice that I said about Gino's album before, I take it all back. And then he, like, walked off the stage. Yeah. And then I went up, and I'm like, buy his album. And he told me. He's like, dude, I sold, like, 10 people bought my album yesterday on iTunes. I'm like, f**king a 100 people should've bought your album on. It's so funny. So so so here's what I wanna do. You you were the emcee at my very first time I was taking this really seriously. And I wanna I wanna I wanna just tell you how much, a, I learned from you that night, but How much me trying to talk to you out of it didn't work. Right? Well, no. No. No. Your your basic advice was, which still is really the most important advice, is, hey. Go out there and enjoy yourself. Yeah. And that, by the way, is a very difficult micro skill because and that's something, by the way, that works for everything. Because if you if you're let's say you're doing sports and you're not enjoying yourself, your muscles are gonna clench. Something's gonna clench unnaturally that your brain doesn't know how to handle, and you're not gonna perform as well. Never thought of it that way. So and that works for sports. It works for a sales pitch. It works for public speaking. It particularly works for a comedy. It works for poker, by the way. If if if you and I are playing poker and you were nervous and I was a little better than you, I could certainly tell and then raise you out of the hand. Right. So you would be doomed. I'm not a good I I don't have a poker face. Could you imagine me playing poker? Woo hoo. I mean, I'll raise. We'll have to, play sometime. I have to dabble in cards sometime. So but but what I wanna do is I wanna show you my and you might remember. You might not. I wanna show you my set from when you were emceeing, and then I wanna show you my last set just from last Tuesday. Okay. And I wanna because I've been breaking it down and changing it I I change it every week. And and not meaning I rewrite all the material, but I'll change and tweak some jokes. I'll write some new material. But, also, I've learned so many things about navigating the stage, navigating the audience, all these things I've been trying to identify as micro skills. I've, essentially, been trying to hack it a little bit because I think there are some skills that don't require the 15 years and some skills that probably do require the 15 years, and I'm trying to figure out the ones that I can skip the 15 years and learn those as much as possible. Because I think you can if you develop some skills really good, like Michael has that kind of surgical quality and you have that kind of or Aaron, in particular, has that crowd work amped up energy quality, I think if there's some skills you could you could amp up enough and learn enough that it it it drives your set. So I, we're I wanna pause the podcast. I want you to watch the 2 videos. I don't share them on this podcast because I'm still tweaking all the material and everything. But and then I wanna talk about them. Okay. So given and, by the way, the only reason I wanna do that is because your album, uncle Gino is amazing, is is such a masterclass on comedy. I've been learning so I'm gonna listen to this before my next set, which is what day is it today? Thursday? Today is, Thursday. So my next set is in 4 hours or 5 hours. What I'm doing tonight? What? Are you hosting? Better. We're doing Ehrenberg, is about to have a child with his lovely wife, another comedian. Do you know do you know Christine Meehanberg? No. They're having a baby, and they're going to and the joke roast it? Yeah. We're gonna do a baby roast tonight at New York Comedy Club. Stop by if you're around. 6:30. Oh my god. I have to be at, stand up New York at, 9. I'm gonna stop by. Can I bring my kid? Yeah. I'm sure I I guess you can. Right? Yeah. But we're gonna grab coffee after this. Like, I'll like, we'll we'll post what was I gonna say? So let's let's put a joke he does every week, and then we'll pause because every week he does it. Like and you have to know Berg. He's, like, 5 foot 4. He looks like a baby. And he's Jack. And whenever and his wife's a shirt little, girl too. They're I adore those. So and by the way, is he an angry guy? Because, like, when I talk to him, I feel like he doesn't he's angry at me. No. No. That's just his demeanor. But he goes every he he told us he wrote this, like, when she got pregnant, but I ask him every week on the show because it's set up when they're like, he goes on stage. Like, who do you people ask me, who do you think the baby's gonna look like, you or your wife? And Bert goes, me because I look like a baby. So every week, I ask him on the show. I'm like, who do you think the baby's gonna look like? And by and by the way, another microscale. Because many comedians start off, you have to find some way to relate to the audience. So I've heard him refer to himself as, you know, the the Jew Vin Diesel. Now this thing, you always have to figure out what kind of absurdist, what, thing you look like Yeah. Because that's an easy way to be vulnerable and likable, and then you could start getting into your material. Yeah. So that's, in its own kind of micro skill. So I appreciate that. So we're gonna pause. Do you have time? It's 1252. Yeah. Hold on. Hold on. Let me cancel all my spot. Done. Alright. Yeah. I'm good. Alright. So you'll listen to these two things, and then we're gonna come back. Carlos, are you okay with that? We're gonna restart the thing. Just pause it right now. Hey, buddy. So, Gino, welcome back. Oh, gee. Part 2 of this episode. Feel like we didn't even leave. I feel like we've just been sitting here the whole time. There's just a little click. So so what happened was is that Gino was the emcee at the first time I went up at, this club called Stand Up New York. A little bit more about that club in a second. Sure. And then I just showed you and then you saw me, when I was in your lineup at, the New York Comedy Club, which was such an unbelievable lineup, I will say again, that was your party. And like I said, I was go I literally said at one point when when Aaron was up, I'm just gonna leave. I'm gonna tell Gino congrats. I'm gonna shake his hand. I'll I'll tweet out his album, but I am definitely not going up. And then right that second glad you went up? I am. Because right that second, you came up to me and said you're up next. And I just said, okay. And and and then my friend was like, you gotta you can't back out now. And then, like, 2 minutes later, I was up, and that was that was a scarecrow. Because I I also told you 5, and then I apologize. I did 10. Oh, whatever. No one cared. So, I kept going. I try I was just trying out different stuff. Yeah. But I It's a party, dude. That's what we do. Yeah. That's what I figured. It felt like that. Yeah. And I don't think I was obviously, on that New York Comedy Club 1, I wasn't getting as much out of the crowd as, like, you or Aaron, obviously, But I felt good. Like, people on every joke, there were some people Oh, thank god. Something been ticked when my nose just sneezes right in my hair. I I didn't get Sorry about that. It just tickles. I didn't get as much, energy or laughs out of the crowd as you and and Aaron did, but I felt like on each joke, I got something out of the crowd, which made me feel good. Right. Because it was it was difficult moment for me. But whoops. Whoops. Whoops. Whoops. Whoops. Whoops. So now you saw saw my first, and you saw one from a week ago. So it's 5 months apart. Break it down for me. What have I learned? Here's I can't break it down, but I can tell you what I saw. Okay. Like, one, we talked about that one joke that you said nobody liked, and you took that. Like, here's what I liked. In your first set, you went up and, like, here's what we're gonna talk about. You almost did, like, the sidebar that ESPN does on SportsCenter and PPI. And the funny thing is you said, I'm gonna talk about this, this. And when you said, we're gonna talk about child abuse, incest, and rape, they laughed, which was funny. And then Right. Because I think the so so, a, let me ask you this. Because I stopped doing that, that sidebar thing. And I and I it's funny you say that, but yes, ma'am. I I didn't like the ESPN thing. I wanted people to relate to that part of it. I've never seen anything like it, and I thought that was neat. And I start off with, like, some very simple stuff like, we're gonna talk about parenting and maybe economic I forget exactly what I said. And then I go into the child abuse, rape, and then and I laughed at that. And that's the joke we're talking about that that you took it out, but it's funny. It's funny. But you know what would happen? Let me ask you this. So I noticed that exactly half the time, the crowd would go crazy for that joke and would laugh hysterically. And the other half of the time, not only would there be dead silence, but twice I got heckled. And, Like, define heckled. What'd they say? This guy is upsetting me. And then and then and then and then afterwards, Ashley Morris, you know her. She was the MC that night. She's great. Yeah. She's great. I I like her a lot. She said to the guy, like, are you okay, sir? Can we get you a free drink? Like, that's how bad he was upset. Oh. And but see that But but here's what I did, though. That guy's but that's that's people who go to a comedy a let me say it slowly so people understand. A comedy club, and they wanna make it about them. You ready for this? Because I I I wanna tell you where I'm going with with with what I think you, not should do, but, like, I think it's fascinating about comedy. My show, the Gino Bisconti album release party that you were a part of. Yeah. One woman complained that she didn't like the comedian Gino Bisconti. Do you understand? She complained it's like, why are you at a comedy club? Because people want to make it about them. I do a bit about the word f*ggot where I literally break down, like, don't give power to words. And everyone in the club I'm in Chicago this week. Everyone in the club's one guy comes up at the show. He's like, I was offended by that. Gay guy. And I'm like I'm like, yeah. But do you understand how I was actually defending, like, our right to say words and how I showed nothing but respect? No. It wasn't funny. So you're saying and this gets back to the guy that needed you're saying everyone that's laughing is wrong, and when I get upset, I'm it's so f**king off putting these people. But here's what I'm saying about, when you said this is about we're gonna do jokes about child abuse, and and then you said incest rape. And then I and then I laughed. But imagine if you said because this is my thing. Because they're laughing on front. If you said baby vagina. If you said and this is just and I'm not I I don't wanna do this Yeah. And bulletproof fix this, this, and this, because I don't know. Right. But the thing that that that I No. And that's fine. I just I actually just wanna get your raw But here's what. Perfect. But I I I if you said we're gonna and and and part of that incest is baby vagina, like and then when you got to, they'd be like I almost think they'd be like, oh, this is what he's talking about because it's a funny joke. And when and when you say masturbated 5 minutes later, and you can't do it. It's so funny. On the very first set Right. But one more thing, because I don't wanna answer your question. I wanna answer your question. It worked half the time. Didn't and I'm not saying, but a lot of time figured out why, by the way, but go ahead. Oh, was it your confidence? Like, sometimes you'll tell the joke and it's your expression. Like, if you're nervously telling that joke, that's not gonna work. Well But if you're confidently telling that joke, like, because you know it's harmless, innocence, you're this is you be remember, you're being a good parent. That's why you're going into every fold, if I may. You're being a good parent. That's you. You're not being a creep. It just it sounds creepy that you're being a good parent. If that's your mindset, I think it works every I love the joke. I'm laughing out loud at it like an idiot, and I know it's coming Half because I know the joke, and half because I'm like, I remember that. Well, you know okay. So you make it So there you go. You you make With that part. With that part. So we may you make a really good point about the commitment. So I was talking to, John Max. He was, Jay Leno's, monologue writer for 22 years. And, so he was on the podcast, and he said the most important thing is commitment to the joke. Even if it's not going out of the Commit to the bit. You gotta commit to it. And I And half a*s it. I think the problem I would have is is if I felt like any low at that time, I think I'm a little better at it now. I think at that time, if I had any low energy in the room, it was harder for me to commit. And I don't know how to, I don't know how to full do you need to take the No. No. Girlfriend? X. Oh, yeah. Don't don't take that. Why is she calling? What's that? Why do you want me to pick it up? No. Because she's crazy. Let's pick her up. She's on the podcast. We're not no. We're not that's a lure that's the worst thing you could do. What? She's a there's a there's a boundary? Yeah. Well, let me tell you. When a 28 year old's banging a 48 year old, there's father Yeah. And for you as well. Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. Then now he's funny. But so okay. So so, I think, particularly in the beginning, I had a hard time if I felt the audience was turning against me, I would have a hard time committing to later jokes. Right. But you can't do that. How do you how do you get your energy back to commit? And and, by the way, I didn't think of that until you said it, but, I had another reason that I analyzed on that joke. Go on. I I'm curious what you think. I bet it's the same slightly different. So so I watched every video I had done to that joke. So maybe there was You're watching game tape, James. You're in there. You're locked in. You're rewinding it. You're clicking it back through. Completely. And so and I'm trying to think, what is different that half the that half the time, the crowd is not just chuckling. They're guffawing at it and clapping and everything, and the other half the time, dead silence. Because it can't be it can't be the joke. There's gotta be something else going on. And what I figured out was in the times when they were laughing, I knew at least one person beforehand in the audience. So in other words That's confidence. So so That's just it. You understand? You're saying the same thing. You're going back. Okay. No. No. I think I think what's happening is that guy or girl likes me already, so is beyond the is this guy a creep or not? And is able to laugh and then virtue signal to the rest of the crowd it's okay to laugh. But you're looking at it the wrong way, and I think you just precisely proved my point. You just said you had someone in the audience, and everything you just said, yeah, but you're telling the joke knowing that. So you're telling the joke confidently. Maybe. I thought you know what I mean? It's a virtual signal thing that everyone's looking around. Should we laugh at this? No. And and I I honestly believe it's, look. They're not looking And then they see a guy or a girl laughing at it. They're not looking around. They're looking at you, and they're seeing a guy that's confidently telling the story because he believes they're looking around at the one guy laugh. But then he they hear someone laughing, so they figure, oh, it's okay to laugh. Maybe. But but trust me. Are they so you're saying you heard your did okay. Now I'm a shrink. So you heard your friend laugh first and then everyone else did? Yeah. That's what happens. Are you serious? That's what happens to that's life. That's you. Oh oh, it was okay for this guy. My friend did it, so it's okay for me. I I can't imagine that you did that, but I believe it. But I'm telling you, in my you can't convince me otherwise that it wasn't that you knew you had friends. It's it's this it's the confidence. You go in and tell the joke. And I'll tell you something else. The other thing I really garnered from watching the first and and, like, you're Okay. But then let's go back to this one because I wanna ask about commitment, but but go ahead. Okay. So commit to the bit, and and and But I wanna ask about that skill. But but, one, be confident that you're a good parent that that's investigate that's that's going into the polls. Okay. Let me let me unpack both of those things. Okay. So so, a, commitment is important for everything you do. So if you're doing again, I'm gonna always bring it back to if you're if you're bluffing in poker, you've gotta commit to the bid. Yeah. If you're, making a sales pitch, you gotta commit to the bid. If you're, that's open heart surgery, you have to commit to the bid. Yeah. If you're asking a girl out, you have to commit to the bid or or making a having a difficult conversation with an employer or or a parent or whatever. So so this is an important skill, and it's and it's hard to develop. How do you think so I so let's let's assume you're right and I'm wrong on the on the what I say was the virtue signaling. Right, though. But but so let's say I didn't have a friend in the audience, and I'm going that, crude that fast, because this is only a 5 minute set, 6 minute set. How do you commit when you feel like the energy is going against you a little bit? How do you what's a what's a is there a hack? You had the answer the whole time, Dorothy. Just know who you are going into the bit when you're doing it. When you're telling any bit with someone on stage excuse me. When you're telling any bit with a friend of yours in the crowd. Right? When you're telling any bit with a friend of yours in the crowd, you know who you are. You're like, oh, my buddy knows this story because he knows, like, who I was when I did it. So you know Maybe I'm kind of subconsciously thinking, I know I'm not Yes. Creepy because I have my friend here. It shows. Like, somebody told me this age ago, like, if I do the joke and this is why it helps that I'm usually in a good mood. If I do my act with a smile on my face, which I usually do, it works. But if I Because that increases likability too. It's natural. Plus, they know it's a joke. But if I say the same joke with, like, an angry, aggressive look, they're gonna be like, what? You don't hit women, and you don't hit them hard. Woah. What's this guy's problem? Look. You don't hit women, and you don't hit them hard. That's the difference. It's they're looking at you. And when you're telling that joke, like, this is, like, me just I'm I'm a father, and I'm good at what I do, but I'm overwhelmed. They're siding with you. You're not being a creep. You're just a guy in over his head. So there there's a there's a second thing you're saying there, which is really interesting. Here's another thing that's that like, I noticed this. Like, you have a great storyteller vibe. Like, you're not a joke teller. Like, I shouldn't tell you what you are. You don't know what you are. You're you're you're finding your way. But I enjoy watching you tell the story. I enjoy the genuineness of, you know, like like, when you you you you talk you talk you do this, you know, and you you kinda you kinda get a running start. It's f**king you. It's f**king genuine. And they're in the moment when you're telling that story, and you're just telling it like that. You know? Like, and I But I still structure it so there's a punch line. Of course you structure it, but but here's the thing Which is different than just straight storytelling, like, in public speaking. But here's the thing. Don't rush to the punch line. Just take your time getting there because you know where the punches are, and enjoy the story. Like, enjoy telling the story, because you you were enjoying yourself that second set a lot. Like, I saw that. I noticed that. 2nd set. I noticed that. That's 40 sets later. And but is this but this is what we're saying. You said it at, you know, 10 you have to enjoy yourself. Yeah. So if you're up there saying this I gotta make this joke work. I gotta figure out why this joke isn't working. Let's hope it works this time. That's work. See? But when you're just telling the story, it's gonna work. See, what what I'm getting from this, particularly on on this one bit, but but other things, is one way to have confidence. Like, I never I always always think of it as, is this funny or not? So I say that whole initial part of the joke, and then I get extremely crude. But I sort of think that segue itself is funny. That, to me, is funny. And, but you're taking it one level deeper, which is that I I should have confidence of where inside of me the joke is coming from. So the joke is coming from this sort of, you know, yes. I'm a good parent. B, I'm conflicted about parenting because it's a very difficult thing, and that combination is what produces that joke. The thing. It's not like you're making this story up. You know? This really happened to you. It's Well, the cruelest part didn't. Yeah. But, But you know what I mean? Like but but you don't get there unless you're so just tell the story from your point of view, from your perspective. And I feel like we're getting too specific, like, for the listeners right now, and this is more of a workshop thing between me and you. But trust me, if if there's one generic thing when have fun and know who you are up there. Don't back that up. Don't worry about them liking you for when you tell the joke. Worry about the fact that you're like, look. I'm just I'm just sharing my frigging problem, my mania with you of how, you know, I was doing this and and how how this happened and, see, I think that's what you do very well in your album, uncle Gino is amazing. Thank you. Is that when you're when you have to kind of take it a step back, you kind of meta analyze what you're doing and make it funny in the bit itself Yeah. Which I think is really important. Doing that. Yeah. So, okay, continue with any, kind of broader feedback that that Honest to god, without getting too specific, because those are the 2 things I noticed. 1, like, I and this is the specific. In between 1st and last. Yeah. 1, just how how it's amazing the leaps and bounds you make when you're first starting. Like and you really were having so much more fun the second set. You know? Like, the first it's that it's that I almost said unicorn. It's that unicycle analogy where the first I saw you trying to get your balance, and now this much later, you're like, alright. I know what I'm doing. I'm up here. I I know I I know I'm gonna fail with a lot of these when I'm having fun. And it's just you're more comfortable, and you morphed into this guy telling stories. You know? Like, there's 2 different ways to do stuff. You know? Like, well, there's a lot of different ways. Like, you see me, I'm like, boom, boom, boom, and we talked about Becky Young, how he's surgically going through stuff. But there's there's, like, storytelling shows and stuff, and you should explore them. Like, you and I I don't wanna force you too much into a direction, but I just that's the one thing I noticed. Keep doing it because you're having fun, and you're you're you're in that stage, and it's there's a jealousy that, like, you're just this you're just finding yourself, little man. You're just finding your voice, and you're having fun with it. And that's everything else will take care of itself. But the 2 things I will tell you, and I will tell any comedian. Right. Know you're up there because some people aren't, and I wouldn't have mean, know you're up there? While I interrupt my know you're up there because you like making people laugh. You know? You're not up there. Like, look. Like, there are comedians up there. Like, the hot chick syndrome. I'm doing it wrong. Ally Breen's very attractive, but very funny because she doesn't think of herself as attractive. She's Thomas Serban. People are like, oh, I'm funny. People care what I have to say. You ever, like, watch a comedian, be like, who the f**k ever told this guy he was funny? They just want to hear themselves talk. It reminds me of, something Walter Mondale once said. You know, vice president Oh, I quote him all the time. So he How old is he? Probably about 7 80 or something. You're my age. So so but he he once said, everybody laughed at my jokes when I was vice president, and then they stopped. So But that but just know you want to make people laugh. That's why you're up there. So But but then but then but you're saying something else too, which is for each thing you say, know the deeper part of yourself where it's coming from. Yes. Oh, without a doubt. Because then you can know then you could defend. Then you're from up to the fence. They can throw you off balance. Right. Otherwise right. Well, if you can source where your voice is coming from, you know, rather than just be like, oh, I'm just saying like, when I do a joke about hitting women, you can tell, like, I've never laid a hand on a woman. You know? Like, and it's it's ridiculous to me. So that's why when I'm saying it, it's like like, there's a point where if anyone dare gets offended by this and, you know, looks at me like I'm laughing. Like, oh, yeah. That's why I came to a comedy club, to rally all the people that wanna start another holocaust. We'll put you in a group, and then we'll find all the guys that like hitting women so we can hang out. It's like, no. There's a source from inside. Like, all of this is, I'm in such a good mood. How dare anyone not be in a good mood? You need to be as in as good a mood as I'm in right now, and I'm gonna help you do that. I'm gonna help you do that when you leave. And I know that with every joke I say. You know what I mean? Everything that's coming out of my mouth is like, I don't care if I if I say how gorgeous my niece is or how how humorous The Diary of Anne Frank can be. Everything from there there to in between, I'm trying to make you laugh, and that's the greatest thing you can do. And if you think I'm just trying to shock you, well, then I can't help you. But you came to a comedy club. Enjoy it. Take this in and take something when you leave. Like, I don't want people to leave and be like, alright. I'm done. No. I want them to leave and remember this s**t. I tell them to be like, yeah. Why don't I laugh for it? It's interesting because I think I've been doing this a little bit more lately, taking a little bit of the meta approach. Like, if someone doesn't respond, I'm gonna do something a little bit different. Like, I'm gonna say, here's why that was funny or or call it out a little bit. Like like, you know, I'll I'll say, I can't believe you're groaning at that. You know? We you know? Oh, I I have a whole thing now if it depending on what's happened. And and here's one more bit of advice. Mhmm. You can't do anything wrong. You're just starting out. You you can't do anything wrong. You can make mistakes, but that's a let me But I don't agree with that. So, like But but let me clarify. Making mistake on stage isn't doing something wrong. Right. Like, you just said it's like you're like, well, this guy got so mad. He needed a drink. You didn't do something wrong. You learned, like, from getting on stage. So you can't that's what I mean. You can't do anything wrong. That's true. I definitely what I mean. I definitely don't get upset at anything. Right. I never get upset. That's why I go to the video and analyze, and I I totally am aware that I am a beginning student. Right. But what I try to do is and and this is always a technique I recommend to people. You know, there's that saying, you're the average of the 5 people around you. So I won't do open mics or beginner mics. I'm only going in a lineup where everyone else is, like, a 1 hour Netflix special or has done a bunch of shows or has released an album. I wanna know that if I go up, there's a reasonable chance I can do well enough that people in the audience won't realize I'm different than Crude that time, which is hard. So it's an extra challenge for me. And sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. So that's that's that's the challenge. But I think I'm better now than the beginning. Well, yeah, you have to be getting better. What are you doing? You know what I mean? Like, I've and I've seen guys that have been doing a lot longer that stopped improving because, oh, well, I'm booking a club now. You're booking a club? No. No. You just you you get on stage. You know what I mean? It's like you have to, like, always be working on the next show. Like, that's that's a great Sinbad story who I never met. But when I I have, actually. I interviewed him at the Aspen Comedy Festival in 1990s. Isn't he? He is a very good guy. Yeah. I And he was really interested. Like, the Internet was just kinda happening for a lot of people. He was very have an interview with him? Because I listened to his interview with Marc Maron, which was incredible on on that one. I'll I'll find it. It's from 1997, so it was a long time ago. But I'm saying when actually, this 2001, I moved up here, and he he's in Wilmington, Delaware working at the Grand Opera House, and he goes across the street to this bar I used to work at. And all my friends are like, oh my god. You're Sinbad. Our buddy Gino just moved up to New York. He wants to be a comedian. Could you, sign something for him? And he signs it. Gino, good luck. Never met me. Gino, good luck. You're you're one joke away. And I still have that in a frame because you're always one joke away. You're always that's the other thing. You're always writing the next joke. If you write this, like, here's my set. You know? Like like, and you're just doing the same set on the road, like, 15 years later, you're not a comedian. You're doing a job. You're like, alright. Here's my thing. That's a really good point. Yeah. So that that's the thing. Just keep f**king know that you can't do anything wrong. You can make mistakes, but you're not doing something wrong. Mistakes are great. Yeah. You know? If you're not falling, you're not learning, all that s**t. But keep having fun. And I think to add to that, I think you need to take ownership of the mistakes. So Thank you. So Oh, no. No. That crowd sucked. That crowd didn't suck. I never will say that, and I hate anybody who says that. Yeah. So and even even that heckler, I don't blame him. That's why I had to look at all the videos to see what was going on. So I needed to do something so that everybody could have a fun time. Yeah. There was something I was doing wrong that prevented people from having a fun time in that room. Right. So not just him From now on, whenever you do that joke whenever you do that joke, honest guy would be like, Gino thinks this joke is hilarious. Alright. I will. Remember that. But remember now, I don't know if you noticed in the second So so the tagline would be like, Gino's a f**king idiot after it bombs. Who's Gino? What the So I did take the crudest part out in the, in the second time. What? The masturbate part? Yeah. Well well, you gotta get that back in there. Alright, baby. That'll also point. I mean, I'm just ready. As I've said in my opinion because I think the joke's funny. Funny, which probably means it's terrible. I think the joke's funny without it, but I think I'm gonna wait for, like, a 15, 20 minute set to hear that. Here's what I want you to do later. Watch that first set again, and watch. You didn't commit when you did it. You did. Oh, yeah? You didn't. You'll see. Because, like, they didn't go with you, so you're like, be like be like, trust me. Like, you know the joke I do about Anne Frank, and I'm like, because I cry when I'm like, I don't backpedal at all. It's like, you don't like that? You're gonna hate this. And that's what you'd be like, but I you know what I mean? So so And, again, I feel like we're being too cryptic for the listeners. And for that, I apologize, though. That's that's why I'm gonna back it up. So committing and, again, I've talked about this with with John Max and and Jay Leno. Committing to a bit is the same thing as every looking at my reflection. Me and Carlos are both doing coffee at the same time. Like, god. I'm a good looking Mexican. Committing to the bit's important for any activity. If you're like, you know, again, from poker to sales to sports to whatever to learning an instrument Sure. For any kind of performance. But, also, so let me ask you what you do. You're in the middle of something. What? What? Pause? What? You you got that silence coming in, and what do you do to say, okay. You know in that microsecond, I just lost somebody. I don't know who. I can't tell yet. What do you do? It's funny because my first album, which was called this isn't what I do for fun, and we used to joke, like, and it was before I had like, what I do now is I just I I just keep going because I I I and I don't ignore it, but it's like, look. I know that joke was funny. I don't say I know that joke was funny. I'm like, I know that joke was funny, but this crowd, like, look. We're gonna keep doing this. It's it's like my parents just say, I'll give you something to cry about. You know what I mean? Like, well, that's it's like, look. I'm gonna keep going. Like, I get my $8 either way. And you just know that, like, the next joke, alright. If you didn't like that, maybe like this. But trust me, when the crowd doesn't laugh, remember this. Sometimes that's good because they laughed at your other joke. Like, trust me. You watch Comedy Central now. It's like everyone laughs at everything. Why? Because they stopped the tape. Oh, I'm gonna miss at midnight. You ever hear And I did a rant on this on the show. Hey. You ever have some young comic, hey. Did you see at midnight last night? No. I was on stage at midnight. I was hanging out at a club at midnight. I was doing hookers and blow at midnight. I'm living my life at midnight. I'm not freaking on, you know, watching, like, the Internet and tweeting f**king s**t. You know what I mean? I forgot what I was saying right before that. What was my point? Okay. What do you do when there's silence in your acting? Oh, so that's the thing. Oh, thank you. Thank you. So that's the thing. Like, so when people are tweeting on at midnight, and this this trend like, people are typing 140 characters in. Oh, this is funny. Everyone in the world's laughing. Everyone's laughing at my tweet. When people and you watch Comedy Central, that was my point, where they stop the show and say, can you laugh bigger? Get out of your mind. So I didn't know they did that. Imagine if I laughed at every single thing you said. Would would every single thing you said be funny? No. Would you know what was funny and what wasn't? No. So imagine they don't laugh at one of your jokes. Okay. Well, go to the next one because when they laugh at that, they genuinely like that joke. Did you and and don't sit there being, like like, oh, looking over your shoulder at the joke you just missed because you're gonna f**king not be in the moment for the next joke. So so so I read an interview recently with Stephen Colbert where he said when he's bombing, he lean it's not like he learns from it afterwards. He leans into it right then. What do you think he means by that? What do you mean he leans into it? Yeah. He just he he enjoys the bomb. Oh, yeah. Well well, that's the thing. It's it's kinda the same because it's like, well, then enjoy the bomb. Because look, you're gonna tell the joke again. You're gonna get on stage again. It's like when guys blow the light. f**king, what are you doing? You're trying to you're trying to get one more joke in. There'll be other days for the Andrea Gail, to quote the f**king perfect storm. If you know you're gonna get on stage again, why are you trying to get off on a lap? Get just get off and do it again. Lean in. If it's dying, lean into it. Savor it because that's why we're up there. It's a rush. You know what I mean? And then go to the next joke. And if they like that, great. Then you know they really like that next joke because cause they didn't like the one before. And if they don't like that, keep going. But but trust me, you want a genuine audience. You know what I mean? And if that joke bombed because it wasn't funny or because the crowd sucked, you figure that out, like, you figure that out at a later date, or maybe you get to the point where in your mind, you can analyze it while you're but you just keep going and you lean into it. Like, alright. That died. Alright. Let's and and, you know, don't turn on the crowd. Be like, oh, f**k you. You didn't when they go, oh, f**k you. That's funny. Oh, come on, dude. Try harder. Was it funny? Not to them. It's what I said earlier. 1 or 0? Yes or no? Laughter or not laughter? If they didn't laugh, they didn't laugh. On to the next one. You know what I mean? Would you ever take a situation like that and say, okay. This is where I'm gonna do the pace, and then I'm gonna get back to the Einstein. And the pace I don't I don't know. Every every set, every moment is different. Like, that's the one thing to revert back to Pam Groupp. It really helps you be in the moment. Like, when I'm on stage and I'm in the moment, I'm having more fun than anyone in the room. And it translates. And it shows. Like, you're like a maniac on the stage. You're like Well, we were talking about that. Like, the album, like and everything in my life, it works. It's that energy. I draw on the people I need. Like like so I I wanted to I I'm hanging out with my buddy Kevin Dabrowski, who you who was the host on the album, great comedian. And we're we're driving to a gig, and I'm like, I'm like he's like, you need to do a new album. So I literally I'm like, I do. This was, like, last phone. I text Emilio. I'm like, hey. I wanna do an album. He's like, pick a date. So so Emilio, who Savone, who runs New York Comedy Club, great club. So he's like, pick a date. So I pick a date. And then I'm about to do it. I'm like, I need a I need a record label. I I was gonna say Why do you need a record label? You don't. I was gonna self produce. But I'm This is what I would've done. Right. But I'm gonna self produce, and I'm like, well, maybe get but they help with so much stuff. Like what? Like, they help market it to like, trust me. I would not have, like, soared that out. Yes. You would've. Okay. Well, my point is so I go through Comedy Records, right, out of Canada, And they, like, handle all the the producing and all this stuff. They get me the sound guy. They edit it up there. And it's just, like, those people, when they oh, this is my point. When when they hear my tape on, they see my Gotham tape, they're like, oh, that's great. We love your energy. So then I'm like, alright. Well, then when we do the tape, I'm like, how was the tape? I'm like, did you like my energy? I'm like, on the Gotham? They said, yeah. I said, now imagine me in a room sold out twice with people that came to see me and, you know, that just wanna see me do well. And the energy and this was my point. The record label stuff aside, we can talk about that. The energy on this is I have amazing energy to begin with, but you hear the energy on that. It's like Yeah. Oh my god. I am if I'm doing well, I'm having so much fun because I genuinely like making people laugh. I like what people are at me. You know what also I like, and I think I think this is sort of a a last important lesson of what you did with this comedy album, is, you know, I have a book called choose yourself. I think people need to kinda avoid the so called gatekeepers. Like, you didn't you didn't need Netflix to call you. You weren't like, there's 5,000 comics out there right now waiting for Netflix to call them. You and they're only gonna call 50 people this year. And and of those 50, only 25 are gonna make, more than a $100,000. So so you're not waiting for Netflix to call you. Right. You're you you booked a club, got an audience, did an album Yep. Released it all on your own. I don't know how much money you've made from it so far, but it's probably bringing in a stream of income. Yeah. And you could do it again tomorrow. The stand ups on Netflix. Watch the first episode, Nate Bargatze. Absolutely brilliant. Squeaky clean. Good friend of mine. I watched it with my niece and nephew. I'm like, you're gonna like him better than me. Like, no, uncle Gino, but he's really funny. Alright. I'm gonna watch it. I I like, Dan Soder also. Oh, Dan Soder's on the stand ups too. He's he's the last episode. He's great. Love him. But Bargazzi is a good friend of mine too. I I mean, Dan Soder's a good buddy of mine too. But yeah. Alright. What's your what's your what's five favorite books that you would recommend other than the Diary of Anne Frank? Are you I love this question. 1, without a doubt, far and away, The Prophet. I know it's an epic poem. I like it. Khalil Gibran? Yeah. The prophet. People like it it it gives you the cliff notes to every f**king the Quran, the Bible, the Torah, whatever. Just read the prophet. 2, the plague by Albert Camus. I like that. The only thing worse than despair is the habit of despair. That's the same thing as, like, it's it's okay like, where I say you can't do anything wrong, he basically says, it's okay to be upset. It's okay to be sad. But when you wake up every day expecting to be sad, you've lost your mind. Okay? The other one, what's oh, Siddhartha. Hermann Hesse. Hermann Hesse? Oh my god. Did and did you also realize that the what their that time does not exist, Vasudeva? That one's fantastic. Those are the 3 that leap out. Okay. Anything by Dostoevsky. Anything. I mean it. Like like, my favorite Does he really spell his name three different ways? If you Google it, it comes I I I would say I would say The Brothers Karamazov, but I'm telling you, my favorite was actually Crime and Punishment. I really like the writing in that. I thought it was great. Okay? Alright. That's good. And the 5th one? Sure. Oh my god. God forgive me, and I'm not making this up. God forgive me. E squared, Pam Grout, changed my life. I cannot Pam, I'm so sorry if you're listening. That that led me to read EQ. That led me to read her book thank and go rich. I preordered I I can't remember the thing. Led you to my book, The Power of No. It led you to your book? I'm sorry. I didn't put yours on there. The Power of No. But e squared, I swear to god, that just put oh oh, no. No. Okay. And and one more just because, throw it out there. The late oh my god. I can't think of his name. The the guy that wrote all the books, the bold guy. Wayne Dyer. Wayne Dyer. He's been on my podcast. I met him once. He was a I don't get, like, I don't get, shell shocked. You know, we're famous. Like, I don't get tongue tied the only people that I ever got tongue tied when I met, Wayne Dyer, Jonathan Brooke, a chick singer. You ever met her? Yeah. Yeah. You know her? We we, Don't tell. She performed right after me in a conference. I was, like, the last speaker in the She thinks I'm gonna kill her because I met her once, and I'm like, I'm just oh my god. She's great. I'm like, I'm your biggest friend. She's like, this guy is gonna wear my I think I'm Facebook friends with her. Yeah. And Peter Falk. I talked I never met him, but I because I loved Colombo growing up. Oh, the book but I can't think of the title by his book. What is it? Change your thoughts, change your life, which sounds like some stupid Oprah self help book, but it's the Dao De Ching. He read Yeah. Yeah. I remember that one. Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah. So that's the 6. I can't believe I forgot that. I I don't have anymore because I lent it to someone, But his Tao Te it's like a daily Tao Te Ching with his he he, like, reads 900 translations, gives his the his perfect translation, and then just tells you how to apply it. Those are the books. Given this set, I bet you would also like Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Set fits right into this set. Illusions, Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. You know what I just read? The Kite Runner. If you like book if you like child rape, this is a book for you. But it is a brilliant book. Brilliant. And all Wait. Who's it by? Richard Bach. Okay. Go on. Thank you. So all of Kaled Hosseini's books who wrote he wrote The Kite Runner, they're all good. Like, a thousand, many splinters, something like that. I forget the titles. But, okay. And what's, 5 comedy specials other than your album? Uncle Gino. Dull. Uncle Gino is amazing. 5 comedy specials. Any of the I grew up. My parents were older, so I grew up watching the the Dean Martin roast, which is why by the way by the way, here's a comedy special, but it's not. Google Gino Bisconti, Mike Vecchione roast battle. Because back when roast battles were fun, you know, before they became this now it's all about the judges and stuff. The first ever roast battle in New York City at the stand when they brought it here from LA was me and Mike Vecchione, and that's how roast should be. Oh my god. Michael's gonna tear you apart. Right? Because he's so calm. He won, but he won. Watch it. He won because I say like, everyone's like, I did I did great. But Mike pitched a perfect game. Like, you'll see and the judges, Rich Voss, Bonnie McFarland, and Aaron Berg. It's like, it was it's it's a symphony of just and I mean it. Like, watch it. Like, we're having so much fun busting each other's balls. So any of the 5 comedy specials. Any of the Dean Martin roast. Any of those. Okay? I wouldn't have thought that. And and I'll be honest. I don't watch a lot of specials. I don't because, you know, it's like, oh, I'll say it's not a special, but David tells Skankster the Memories album. Because comics are always like covers always like, here's what you do. They're like, they're like, oh, when I was a kid, I couldn't wait to get the prior album. I couldn't I didn't run out and get comedy albums when I was a kid growing up because I was laughing all the time at home. I grew up in a great but I could listen to Skankster the Memories via Tell right now, 300 times in a row, and I will laugh. I I understand. The 3rd time. And his road stories on on Netflix. I'm telling you, like, nothing leaves to mind. Watch the stand ups. Watch the stand ups, Nate. On Netflix? Yeah. Watch Nate Bargatze, episode 1, the stand ups. Oh, I just watched it. Norm Macdonald. There's no middle ground with him. He has a special out now on Netflix. Just came out. Watch that. And the first Chappelle. Watch Chappelle's Netflix special. There you go. Excellent. Well, Geno, I have to highly recommend. Uncle Geno is amazing. The comedy album is not just funny. I I mentioned there was, like, 4 layers, then you threw in a 5th layer Yeah. Which was dick jokes. That was the your Which is Einstein eating paste. It's Einstein eating paste, Nike, Dante Nero. So so I I highly recommend this album. You can get it on iTunes. If you get a Gino not a video special. It's, it's an album. It's an album. But let me say this hilarious. If you Google gino biscanti.com, any way you spell it somebody pointed this out once. Excuse me. If you Google Gino Bisconti comedian, you can spell it with a j. It comes up because it's such a odd name. But go to my website, ginoVisconti.com, and it's got all the links to buy it right there. Not that you can't Google uncle Gino. It's amazing. Can you say how it's going? It it's been, like I said, all I know is because I James, I don't pay attention to this stuff, like sales and stuff, but I know it debuted at number 2 on Itunes. It it was number 1 on Google Play, thank you, Android users, for a full week. And it it, I got a letter from Billboard Magazine, like, we need some information for next week. It debuted at number 7 on comedy charts on Billboard Magazine. That's amazing. I I I I mean, then I'm I'm, like, hanging out this weekend in in Chicago, like, doing some shows, but I'm I'm, like, relaxing one day, and I'm watching the music choice. And it's, like, this album debuted at number 7 on Billboard. I'm, like, oh, I feel so cool. Like, I'm on the Billboard with the Beatles now. And, again, I think the really important thing I mean, this is we discussed this before the podcast because, I was talking to, on the hook. We decided Asian hookers. Because the Korean wait. What did you say, Carlos? Orientals. No. You can't say ory alright. What? So we were talking about somebody. Everybody's just waiting for the Netflix call or the HBO call. Yeah. You gotta just go you can anybody can go out and take a camera and make a special. Yeah. And and you could choose yourself to do it. And and if you have the skills and and you've been doing it and you've got, you know, you have the comedy club, you have the Do me a favor. If you have SiriusXM, request it, request Uncle Gino. It's amazing on the Rawdog channels. Because you you that's where you get a a nice chunk of change. And I'll I'll say this. We talked about serious pays every time there's Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's how you through Soundexchange, you get paid every time there's airplay. And that's Vecchione is doing well with that because and I paid him a comp when we were going to gig because, like, this is a guy that should have so much, but he makes so much on it. And so does because I'm only gonna get played on Rawdog because I say f**k and every track of mine is explicit. Even though if you're a a good parent, you can listen to it with a 15 year old because I'm not saying, you know, f**k the police. I'm just saying, you know, but Vecchione does great on that and so does Nate because they're squeaky clean and smart and hilarious, so they get airplane and all that. And I'm like, it's it's a nice it's a nice little great equalizer for all this s**t that goes on now where, you know, like, people get sitcoms because they have a certain look and a certain edge, and they and Comedy Central can market them. But funny James is f**king funny. And when you're undeniably funny, an act that doesn't fold, like, you know, like Vic or me or Nate, like, it's you're gonna get that money on airplay because people need to play like, when you take away all the visual stimuli and people are driving down the road or just listening on the radio and just need to listen to something funny, well, that's when you take all the play. Like, well, you know what? We need Mike Bacchione. We need Nate Bargatze. We need Gina Boscani. We need Dan Soder here. You know? That's the great equalizer, which is awesome getting back to what you're saying. It's like, you can do whatever you want. You just if you have the content, there are so many platforms to get it out there now. And I always say this. I think that's totally true. Content and and we're not even just talking about humor. There's everything. If you have something internal that you wanna transmit, there's nobody stopping you, and yet everyone gives excuses. And you just went out and did it, and it's a it's a great work of art. People should get it. Gino Bisconti, thanks for coming on. Thanks so much for having me. And if people like this, because I'm always playing around with formats. Here, we did something where Gino kinda helped me analyze my my thing, online here. Just tweet that you you liked what you saw or listened to. Thanks. For more from James, check out the James Altiger Show on the choose yourself network at jamesaltiger.com, and get yourself on the free insider's list today. Hey. Thanks for listening. Listen. I have a big favor to ask you, and it will only take 30 seconds or less, and it would mean a huge amount to me. If you like this podcast, please let me know. Please let the team I work with know. Please let my guests know, and you can do this easily by subscribing to the podcast. It's probably the biggest favor you could do for me right now, and it's really simple. Just go to Itunes, search for the James Altucher show, and click subscribe. Again, it will only take you 30 seconds or less. And if you subscribe now, it will really help me out a lot. Thanks again.