1:24

My guest today is John Fish .

1:25

John's one of only a handful of comedians who have appeared

1:28

on both the Late Show with David Letterman and

1:30

the Late Show with Stephen Colbert . You

1:32

may recognize Jon from Comedy Central or

1:34

NBC's Last Comic Standing , where

1:36

he was the New York City Capital One audience

1:38

favorite . John has performed at multiple

1:40

comedy festivals , including the HBO Comedy

1:42

Arts Festival , the Great American Comedy

1:44

Festival and Montreal's prestigious

1:46

Just for Last Festival . He's a regular

1:49

and favorite performer in New York City

1:51

at Gotham Comedy Club , New York City Comedy

1:53

Club and the world-famous Comedy Seller

1:55

. His latest album and special , Hinged

1:57

, was named a Laugh Button Top 10

1:59

Comedy Special and was nominated for

2:01

Album of the Year by the Interabang

2:04

John Fish . Welcome to Cardi

2:06

. Saves the World , let's save it .

2:08

Let's do it . Thanks for having me , buddy .

2:10

Thanks for being on , man . It's been a long time , quite

2:12

a long time . We know each other from a

2:14

standup in Boston . Yeah , and when did you move to

2:16

New York ?

2:17

I moved in May of

2:19

2001, . You know , just to set up .

2:21

I kind of retired . I didn't quit , I retired in

2:23

2006 .

2:24

Yeah , I used to come back a lot back then those

2:27

first few years . You could get a lot

2:29

of stage time in New York City , but it wasn't good

2:31

stage time . Yeah , I'd come back to Boston

2:33

like once a month or every other month

2:35

and you'd get all the good stage time you needed

2:38

. So it was worth it for me .

2:39

Get a couple of paychecks too .

2:40

Yeah , yeah .

2:42

So for the audience , let's kind of go over

2:44

how standup works . A lot of people

2:46

don't understand the struggles and

2:49

the beginning stages . How did you get into it ? I

2:51

took two different workshops .

2:52

First I took one with the man Rick

2:54

Jenkins yes , yeah , the colony studios

2:57

. It was actually through Brookline Continuing

2:59

Education . I had just graduated college

3:02

, I was living in Brookline and

3:04

then everybody in the class was doing it for

3:06

their job or their bucket list even though bucket

3:08

list I don't think was a thing , pre-bucket list

3:10

, you know and nobody wanted to continue

3:12

with it . So I was just kind of did

3:14

that graduation class that you do , you

3:16

do like five minutes . At the end I was so nervous

3:18

I didn't tell any of my friends . Really it

3:21

almost didn't happen , yeah , but it was still

3:23

in the back of my mind and then I knew I

3:25

wanted to do more . So then I had moved

3:27

to Jamaica Plain and I was going to take an improv

3:29

class and I was the only one that signed

3:32

up .

3:33

Nobody signed up , it was just you .

3:36

Just me . And they were like , yeah , we're not

3:38

, we can't do this , but we have a standup class if you want to

3:40

take that . And I was like , okay , it's a different continuing

3:42

education place . And it happened to be Rick's

3:44

partner , jim DeCrotto . Oh yeah , jim

3:46

Opened the club with him , rip , and

3:49

in that workshop I met two

3:51

people that wanted to do it more . So

3:53

we did . It was the start of us doing

3:55

it more . We started going to open mics together and

3:57

Ann Manicus and Mike Diefenbach and we called ourselves

3:59

the Comedy Trio . Oh yeah , we would go and

4:01

we would infiltrate . You know , we would do the regular things

4:04

that you could find out about in Boston

4:06

, which was at that time like Dick's Comedy

4:08

Vault and there was a Pizzeria

4:10

Uno open mic . Dave Radigan

4:12

had something I think it was called Bel Canto

4:15

, oh yeah . And then in like Ball Fan Master

4:17

or something . And then we found an

4:19

open mic in Walfam Mass . That

4:21

was just everything you could do poetry , you could do music

4:23

. You got like a 45 minute slot

4:26

or something like that . So the three of us would

4:28

split that . Oh , that's nice , and even that splitting

4:30

that 15 minutes when you start

4:32

was a lot Brutal , yeah , brutal , but

4:35

the best thing for us at that time was we would

4:37

meet once a week after we were done with the

4:39

workshop to just go over jokes , which was the best

4:41

thing to be doing at that time .

4:42

Yeah , it's going to be super helpful . Yeah , nothing teaches

4:44

you the value of a minute like

4:46

doing stand-up comedy Right . When someone

4:48

says five minutes , you're like , yeah , five minutes , I got that Right

4:50

. I kind of started the same way . I took a

4:52

class in Rhode Island right after I graduated college

4:55

with Rhode Island comedy hall of famer

4:57

, frank O'Donnell . At the end , again , nobody

4:59

wanted to do it , it was just trying to get out of their comfort

5:01

zone or do it for work or something , and

5:03

I was the only one that wanted to move forward . So Frank

5:05

gave me this booker in Rhode Island . He books

5:07

all kinds of comedy shows John Perrata . Yeah , and

5:10

I worked for everybody's brother , john Perrata

5:12

, who's my first booker . I called him up and he

5:14

was like hey brother , who do you got ? You got to go 15 , 20 minutes

5:16

and I was like , let's take five . He

5:19

was like all right , I got you booked for Big

5:21

Dan's comedy show 20 minutes and

5:23

I was like I can't do 20

5:26

minutes , especially if you're not a storyteller

5:28

.

5:28

Yeah , if you're just telling jokes , jokes , jokes

5:30

. It's hard to come up with a minute , you know

5:32

.

5:32

It was brutal . Big Dan's was

5:34

. I don't know if you remember Jody Foster movie the

5:36

Accused .

5:37

Yeah .

5:38

It was about a rape case . Yeah , this bar

5:40

was the center of no , that

5:42

rape case . So I was literally doing the Big

5:44

Dan's rape case bar . That was awkward

5:47

.

5:49

Yeah , I had to

5:51

remember Jack Lynch . Yeah , jack

5:53

, yep , but funny , funny dude . Yeah , he

5:55

had called me when I was starting out

5:57

to do a show to open for him

5:59

. And he goes , how much

6:02

time do you have ? And I go , when's the show

6:04

, like

6:07

how much will I be able to collect before

6:09

I open for you ? You know I probably had 12

6:11

, but I was like if you need me to do 15 , and it's in April

6:14

and I have six months , we should be good

6:16

. Yeah , you know .

6:17

You know thinking back , you know when you're starting out you're

6:19

like , oh , I got 15 . In reality

6:21

you had like two . The other 13

6:24

sucked .

6:25

Yeah , and also I mean that was

6:27

. The good thing about Boston , though , is you could

6:29

do the kind of cool hip

6:31

like comedy studio or the open mic

6:33

or like there would be young people in the audience

6:36

and but then also , on the weekends

6:38

, go open up in these rooms

6:40

with paying customers that were , you

6:42

know , date night , and when you took that

6:44

five to seven minutes that

6:47

you were doing and having fun with in the open mic

6:49

at the experimental level to those

6:51

real shows , you were like , oh , that doesn't work . Adults

6:55

that just works for these

6:57

college kids .

6:58

Yeah , it was the worst show I ever did , right

7:00

off the bat and I was bombing miserably

7:02

. I remember my mom wanted to go , so

7:04

my mom actually drove me , which is just a no-no

7:06

Trafficking

7:09

to your own comedy show . It's awkward . I

7:11

said the punchline of one joke and it just bombed

7:14

and I just kind of held the mic out as I did . The

7:16

bouncer walk by and put his head on the mic and was like

7:18

dude , you suck .

7:23

Well , speaking of Rhode Island , that

7:25

was the first time I was doing 20

7:27

minutes . I was opening for Dom

7:29

Irerra down at the East

7:32

Providence Comedy Connection and my

7:34

dad loves Dom Irerra and

7:36

so he was going to come with me , but I was too

7:38

nervous to let him see me do

7:40

20 minutes , so he waited

7:42

in the car in that parking lot

7:44

and he was like , if you think

7:46

doing 20 minutes when you first started doing comedy

7:49

is long , waiting for 20 minutes in that parking

7:51

lot as long . He was like I saw two fights in

7:54

20 minutes and that place oh

7:56

my god , that place was so small . That

7:58

was the only place that we had when

8:00

we started that you could do . It felt

8:03

like a road week , yeah , you know , everywhere

8:05

else was like maybe you did a weekend

8:07

. I don't even think there was like a . There might have been Nick's

8:09

, might have been Thursday , friday , saturday when I

8:11

started , but like by the time I got to actually work

8:14

there , it wasn't , it was like just Friday , saturday

8:16

. Yeah , this was like I think you auditioned

8:19

on Tuesday or Wednesday and then there was Wednesday , thursday

8:21

, friday , saturday , sunday or something like that

8:23

. Yeah , and I remember it was so

8:25

disgustingly smoky somehow the

8:27

smoke stayed trapped in that

8:29

room . Yeah , I mean , I worked there probably

8:32

half a dozen times . I remember I would

8:34

just wear the same outfit every night . It was

8:36

so smoky . I was like I can't , I just wear the same

8:38

thing every night . It was crazy . I just want to mess

8:40

up anything else . Yeah , there were two vaults

8:42

like that had a bank vault in it too , like

8:44

something about comedy clubs and Chinese

8:46

restaurants . And comedy clubs and old bank

8:49

vaults have a symbiotic relationship .

8:51

When you're standing on the stage in that place , you could see

8:53

like a smoke atmosphere . You could see

8:55

, yeah , like there was a level of

8:58

just like a cushion of smoke going across . I

9:00

can't believe we did that .

9:01

Yeah , you know it was crazy to

9:03

smoke in some of these places .

9:05

I remember when I started out , I did about a year

9:07

in Rhode Island before I moved to Boston and I remember

9:09

talking to PJ Tavito about it and he was

9:11

like you know , you're going to be so much tougher

9:13

because you did that . And I was like all right , I

9:15

got up , yeah , and yeah , I mean it was like

9:18

crowd work , heckling , and I was like that's just no big deal

9:20

. And there were some folks that had just started out in Boston . They

9:22

were like whoa .

9:23

Yeah , yeah , tavito was

9:25

a beast man , absolutely . I mean I think

9:27

he's still doing it . He would kill , like he

9:29

was one of those comics that like two months in

9:31

because we're talking about how like you need a joke he

9:33

had stories , yeah , and he had confidence

9:35

and he had presence . I mean he was 65

9:38

or something like that , but he , that guy , could

9:40

come out like after two months he was headlining because

9:42

he just had so much .

9:43

And he was from Rhode Island too , like he's actually from my

9:45

hometown , and I went to high school with his

9:47

sister and brother . I had never met him and

9:49

he and I looked so much alike . So when I got up to Boston

9:51

people were like , hey , pj , and I'm like I'm not PJ

9:54

, I'm

9:56

not PJ . I promise . He

9:59

was so great to me when I first started , just kind of helped me

10:01

out and guide me through Me too .

10:03

We met we actually met

10:05

up in Maine at the comedy connection up there

10:07

and I remember we like coming back and

10:09

both were at like the Burger King rest

10:11

stop at the same time on the way back down

10:13

and we just had a chat there and I think we're talking

10:16

shit about someone else there and I was like

10:18

, ah , we're going to be friends . I

10:21

left thinking that guy .

10:22

What was your one year hell gigs in New England before you

10:24

moved ?

10:25

I mean , I think I had something like that

10:27

where I remember out in Worcester

10:29

I had gone out there no excuses

10:31

, but like it wasn't set up well , and I was

10:34

just eating it and I was like , well , there's no

10:36

way for me to get out of this . Like

10:38

they don't think I'm funny and I just have to stand

10:40

up here and do 12 minutes . And I did

10:42

. I probably wouldn't remember that , but

10:44

it was a Dick Doherty room . Rip

10:46

to the room and to Dick . I got

10:48

it . It was one of those like huge stages at like a

10:51

fish restaurant , which a short lived one

10:53

or whatever , and I remember Dick calling me . He was like

10:55

they said you had a hard time and but you know

10:57

, I stood up for you and I was like , oh , thanks , like it

10:59

was nice to have this guy you

11:01

know this like legendary comic and

11:03

the booker of the show tell you like because I

11:05

know I ate it , but like I'm sure he's got

11:07

feedback , but like at least this guy knew

11:09

like yeah , that wasn't necessarily all

11:11

on like this every time . Because I remember , you

11:13

know to jump ahead to like Staten Island

11:16

, which is an abortously rough comedy

11:18

area , and I had some of the war

11:20

. I had like an absolute , just

11:22

frustrating night where this woman in the audience

11:24

was just making sounds and

11:27

she had ruined the entire show , really

11:29

yeah , and I , like you know , it was the same

11:31

thing with me and I like tried it , just it

11:33

took me out of the game but I still have to stand up there for 45

11:35

minutes and I remember I didn't want to go back . I called the booker

11:38

I'm supposed to go back the next day and I told them they're like

11:40

it's fine , it's a new crowd , don't worry . And

11:42

I went back and I remember the bartender said it was

11:44

different bartender and he's like I heard the audience

11:46

got the best of the comics last night . It

11:49

was just so upsetting to me because it was like no

11:51

, no , no , someone here didn't do their

11:54

job . It wasn't us , it was you guys

11:56

like that shouldn't have happened . But you know there

11:58

are still people that think comics

12:00

just go up and they're like shut down , like

12:02

any . That's what comedy is like shut down that

12:04

person or make fun of them or like . No

12:06

, we actually planned material and

12:09

have a show and so used to doing like

12:11

just comedy podcasts . But if people

12:13

out there don't know , like there is an actual

12:15

I don't want to say theater to it , but there's an

12:18

actual like show to stand up

12:20

. There's like a psychology behind having

12:22

an opener , a middleer , a headliner . Like

12:24

the way a show blends into each other and

12:26

everything from lighting to sound

12:29

really matters and all that stuff and the

12:32

stage height or having a stage or something

12:34

like that , it all matters , yeah , and professionals

12:36

are going to nine times out of 10 do a great

12:38

show , no matter what . But you want to set us

12:41

up , have the things right , yeah .

12:43

You know , I remember those shows where you know the booker

12:45

walks in with the app , puts

12:47

the app down .

12:48

Yeah , yeah , great . Well , my buddy

12:50

Moody McCarthy . He does a lot of corporate

12:52

and private shows and stuff where , like you know

12:55

, you can email them till you're blue in the face to

12:57

tell them what you need . And then you show up and they're like

12:59

oh , that guy's not here today that

13:01

you've been talking to , but I'm in charge and there's nothing

13:03

. He travels with lights and

13:05

sound system , just in case If he doesn't

13:08

like what you got , he'll go out and set his up

13:10

in like 15 minutes . Yeah , that's the way to

13:12

go . That's a professional .

13:13

This is bringing back so many memories of getting PTSD for

13:15

a minute .

13:17

Well , even that , you like you know I'll do these shows

13:19

like high paying corporate events

13:21

or something , and you're just like they like really

13:24

don't want you to bring an opener , or really the

13:26

opener for , like these non comedy venues

13:28

is just a time to get everything , all

13:30

those kinks , worked out . I remember

13:32

having one of those shows where these

13:34

people really didn't want me to bring

13:36

an opener and they really fought me on it and I didn't

13:39

, and , sure enough , exactly what

13:41

was going to go wrong . One of that that I was worried about

13:43

went wrong and it was like you got to stick to your

13:45

gum sometimes or just for a link or shit . Just

13:47

be like . This is the way it is . You know it's

13:49

not my fault and hopefully they'll understand

13:51

, but they often don't . They're like you know , you

13:54

sucked , it's like well , you didn't have the mic working

13:56

for the first 20 minutes , so I don't know what to tell

13:58

you . I had another one where I did bring

14:00

an opener and

14:04

I was bringing my friend , so I just needed someone to

14:06

do five minutes and he was about

14:08

to do Conan for the first time . Gary Veter

14:10

, oh yeah .

14:11

Gary .

14:12

Years ago . Yeah , so funny . So

14:14

he was doing five minutes and then I went up so

14:16

it was just this big event space and

14:19

so people were just in lounge chairs like

14:21

far away from each other , sofas like

14:23

not facing us , and we were in like

14:25

the DJ booth stage . It was just not

14:28

conducive for stand up

14:30

, flex a glass . Yeah , it was just awful . And they

14:32

had spent a lot of money and we were doing a favor

14:34

for a book , our friend of ours , and so they got us on

14:36

the cheap . And that was another lesson they

14:38

get you on the cheap , they don't respect you as much , you

14:40

know . Yeah , everything else was to the nines , like

14:42

the food , the tablecloth , like everything

14:44

. But it was so bad that I was

14:46

on and Gary went to get something to

14:48

eat and one of the people said quick , they're

14:50

going . Oh , we're not serving yet . And

14:52

he goes oh , when do you start serving ? And he goes

14:54

oh , well , when your friend is done with

14:57

his speech Speech

14:59

. That's how bad it was . They thought I was giving a speech

15:01

.

15:03

No , they're looking for inspiration from

15:06

you , John .

15:08

That's crazy , you know . And then my friends mad at

15:10

me . It's like no , no , no , no again , not

15:12

our fault . Oh

15:14

, you want to know . The worst bomb though Is that what

15:16

this started ? Yeah , let's go . The worst bomb

15:18

. I can't believe . I didn't remember this so

15:20

long ago , but I postponed

15:22

my move to New York City for

15:25

this gig at a temple in my

15:27

hometown , Newton Massachusetts . The temple

15:29

is gone now because of this . No , because

15:31

of this . No , it was Michigan

15:34

to Fila , I think it was called RIP

15:37

. I was hired

15:39

by this woman who saw

15:41

me at the comedy connection , came back

15:43

with the rabbi and some friends to

15:46

make sure , and then hired me for this

15:48

show and , again , wouldn't let me bring an opener

15:50

. It was , dare I say , probably

15:52

average age , like 75

15:55

. And there was like

15:57

one younger table , and it happened to be a

15:59

relative of mine , and

16:02

then this woman got up and told some

16:04

street jokes which her table of

16:06

friends and young people laughed , and then

16:08

everyone else says what's going on ? Like they didn't even realize

16:11

the show was starting and I was new , I

16:13

was three years in , I was not ready to do

16:15

this without an opener . And I get up and

16:17

I was supposed to do 20 and

16:19

I think I did 13 and I

16:21

ate it . And when you , when I say I mean I ate

16:23

it , they didn't want to pay me . You serious , yeah

16:26

, and I loved the boxers

16:28

I was wearing but wouldn't wear them for a show

16:30

until they deteriorated . That's

16:32

how bad that experience was . And

16:34

Frank RIP a lot of RIP

16:37

today . But Frank from the comedy

16:39

connection ended up getting some of the money

16:41

. I came in and he's like what happened ? I'm like dude , it

16:44

was just brutal . And he's

16:46

like all right , I'll get you . He got me like half the money

16:48

or something . Yeah

16:51

, that was the worst bomb in Boston I had and

16:53

I had postponed my move because it was going to be the most

16:55

I'd ever been paid by . a lot yeah

16:57

.

16:57

Especially when you start getting that money . You're like well , wait

17:00

a minute . 20 minutes , this is all I have to work , oh

17:02

yeah , let's rock .

17:03

Well , that's then . That's what you learn . Like you

17:05

learn All right , if it doesn't go

17:07

well and you don't do your time , they're just

17:09

looking for any way to not pay

17:11

you . So then you learn to bomb for

17:13

30 minutes .

17:14

If you have to do 30 minutes , and then that makes

17:16

you stronger because you know you can do that

17:18

, and then and that helps you , like , figure

17:20

things out- Sometimes

17:22

you get a false sense of security when bomb

17:25

in front of comics because that's what comics love

17:27

to see , it's the funniest thing for a comic to watch

17:29

other comics bomb . So you're out there and you know

17:31

, I remember we did the Dick Doherty's comedy vault

17:33

and that gigantic vault in the back and

17:35

you could just hear the from

17:39

the back . You're like oh okay

17:41

, I'm eating it . That was the part of the thing . I never

17:43

had a problem with eating it Like . I was like and

17:45

I did it quite often . People

17:49

always ask me they're like you did stand up , don't you still

17:51

do it ? And I was like , if I was good at stand up , I would still

17:53

be doing it . That's the whole premise of it .

17:55

Plenty of people that are good . Don't you stop

17:57

. They're magic and die at some point . Yeah , I had a

17:59

tweet . It was really funny . I had recently

18:01

a friend who had stopped doing stand up , but

18:04

it's still like in the creative world . He posted

18:06

a screen grab of myself and

18:08

a friend , julie Rossi , who's now on the

18:10

West Coast . We had like tweeted basically

18:12

the same thing within four hours

18:14

. Oh really , it was essentially mine

18:17

was . People always asked me how

18:19

I got started in comedy and more people asked

18:21

me how I plan on stopping . And

18:24

hers was very similar to the point

18:26

like of like new , new comic . How do you get started

18:29

in old comics ? How do you get out of this ? You

18:31

know something like that . It's true , this

18:33

guy , ben Bailey , one of the New York City

18:35

legendary comic , who was most known for cash

18:37

cab oh yeah , he was the original cash cab

18:39

driver . I remember one night he was talking

18:41

and we spent so much time getting

18:44

into these clubs and then even more time

18:46

trying to get out . Yeah , because it's like you know you

18:48

get in and that's all you ever wanted . But then you're like , oh

18:51

, there's got to be something more .

18:53

Yeah , I remember when I was like slowing down

18:55

, I probably should have pulled the plug maybe six

18:57

, eight months before I actually did . Yeah

19:00

, I think I still got this . I just I just started losing

19:02

interest and I knew I was not meant for

19:05

greener pastures in the standup world and

19:07

I was like , hey , I think I need to take a break

19:09

. So you've got all kinds of new

19:11

stuff going on in the last three , four years

19:13

. You got yeah , got babies

19:15

and kids and

19:18

wife .

19:18

Technically no , but yes

19:21

.

19:22

It's the basis for your comedy special

19:24

hinge . That is on YouTube

19:26

, which is fantastic . I watched it a second

19:28

time last night , thank you , those folks that are

19:30

listening , go out , check John's show out . It's amazing

19:33

. His specials are free on YouTube . It's amazing

19:35

, but that's the whole basis for that .

19:36

Yeah , and well , I remember I was doing a show

19:38

because , like , my show was always about pretty

19:41

much online dating and dating and being

19:43

single and struggling with that and

19:45

I remember doing a show up in Rochester with a

19:47

friend , marianne , and she said , what are you going to do

19:49

if you ever do get married or

19:51

find someone ? And I was like I guess I have to retire , I'll

19:54

have nothing else to talk about

19:56

. But of course you start talking about all this

19:58

crap . But yeah , I met right before the pandemic

20:01

. I met a woman on that dating app , hinge

20:03

, and everything that I had been trying

20:05

to get in my life

20:07

, my personal life , just happened in like a span

20:09

of a couple of years and we just

20:11

added another . So , yeah , we got really pregnant

20:14

really quick . We had the baby , there

20:16

was the pandemic , we had her during

20:18

quarantine and then we moved out

20:20

to the Burbs , to New Jersey

20:22

, and then we had another one and now . So now we have like

20:24

a nine month old and a three year old and we're a little family

20:27

. You know , I joke that we want to have a wedding

20:29

, but fiance wants to have a drink at her wedding

20:31

and I keep knocking her up . So

20:51

I refer to her as my wife . So

20:53

congratulations .

20:54

That's awesome and good for you . That was kind of

20:56

my issue when I was 29 . And

20:58

I was like my friends were all getting married . I

21:00

wasn't getting the plus one to the weddings and

21:02

really hard to balance

21:04

stand up and a new relationship

21:06

right . I mean sure , your weekends are

21:08

pretty much booked with stand up shows .

21:10

Sure , yeah , it is . It's a struggle . Now

21:12

I still get that anxiety because , like now , I do

21:14

have things . You know in

21:16

the books that I have to take the weekend off

21:18

, and there's always a joke in comedy . It's like you want a

21:21

big gig , take a vacation that weekend , you'll

21:23

get the call the next day with a big gig that you can't

21:25

take . But it's better

21:27

. It's a better , well rounded life . You

21:29

know , I remember doing like , even in Boston . I remember

21:31

having a buddy's bachelor party during the day

21:33

and like not being able to pass up opening for Richard

21:35

Lewis that night so I would leave the festivities

21:37

. I can't believe I have to say this again , but you remember

21:40

Mike Baker . Yeah , Mike Baker , Mike Baker

21:42

RIP His wedding . I

21:44

was like in his wedding with my buddy , dave Greenberg

21:46

, and I had to leave that to go do a show and

21:48

stuff . And you know it's like when you're starting

21:50

out . There was so much of that like you can't

21:52

say no to anything and just you know

21:54

, doubling up on everything that I could . And

21:56

now it's like I take Sundays and Mondays

21:59

off , and then more sometimes , but definitely

22:01

Sundays and Mondays for like , family days , weekends

22:03

that I just take off for things that

22:06

I wouldn't have as a single man , for weddings

22:08

and a weekend with family , and it's

22:10

still a little bit of anxiety sometimes when

22:12

I do it , but it's made me a happier , more well

22:14

rounded person .

22:14

Yeah , it must be so tough to . I mean , if I

22:16

go on like work trip or something , I'm like I'm gonna

22:18

miss my kid and this is you know . You

22:21

know you've got to go out and try to make people laugh while

22:23

you're doing it . You know too .

22:25

Well , it's one thing . When I leave for the night , you know

22:27

, and I can still come back , and you know I just miss , like maybe

22:29

bedtime or something which is hard enough . I wake up

22:31

with them .

22:31

If .

22:31

I'm on the road if you're on a work trip . You

22:34

know my wife . When she goes on a work trip she's working

22:36

all the waking hours and thinking

22:38

about it while she's sleeping . Usually she's busy

22:40

. Hopefully I have two shows in

22:42

a night , sometimes just one show , and then I

22:44

got 20 hours to think about

22:46

how I'm not at home with my kids . You

22:49

know , yeah , it's really hard to be on

22:51

the road these days . I really took

22:53

a step back these last couple years

22:55

, easing back in a little bit more , but

22:58

still welcoming more like

23:00

driving gigs that I can end up

23:02

back home .

23:02

A little closer to home .

23:03

Yeah , for sure .

23:04

So how has fatherhood changed your writing

23:07

and your writing style ? I ?

23:08

don't think it's changed my writing

23:10

style as much as

23:12

it's stopped it . I

23:14

mean , I really I

23:16

really put things on

23:19

like I stopped pretty much going

23:21

on stage about a week or two before

23:23

our boy was born and didn't

23:26

go back on stage until I opened for

23:28

Louis and Madison Square Garden . So it would have

23:30

been longer , wow , yeah , but I couldn't

23:32

say no to that , obviously . Yeah , oh , absolutely

23:34

not . So that was about six to seven weeks

23:36

and then after that week of getting

23:39

back in gear and doing it , I think I , you know , didn't

23:41

do stand up for a few more weeks . I remember having

23:43

a cancel shows . I was a little ambitious with getting

23:45

back and I was like I don't think I can

23:47

leave my wife right now , and

23:50

so I sort of became daddy daycare until

23:53

two weeks ago when we put our boy in daycare

23:55

finally , and so I kind of put writing

23:57

on hold Like I wasn't you know , I was very

23:59

diligent about , you know , at least two hours

24:01

a day of writing in my days , and so

24:03

I'm just getting back to that now . Yeah

24:06

, but you know , I still just not

24:08

as methodically or diligently or

24:10

routinely , but as far as I feel

24:12

like it's the same same approach

24:14

and the same , the same lens I'm looking

24:16

through because I've always been since I

24:18

moved to New York more personal than observational

24:21

. And so , yeah , it's now . It's

24:23

a lot about my wife and kids

24:25

and it where it used to be , as about the

24:27

dates , I would go on , or you know the struggles

24:29

of feeling like I was going to be alone forever . Maybe

24:32

what I thought it would have been a happier tone , but

24:34

it's still . There's still worries about everything

24:37

. So now it's just the worries and the

24:39

interesting struggles of this life

24:41

.

24:41

Yeah , I remember when my wife had our daughter , folks

24:43

would be like , hey , you know , now you're going to have all sorts of stuff

24:45

to write about , I don't have time

24:48

to write about it . There's diapers to change

24:50

and noses to wipe , and got a

24:52

time for that stuff . So , yes , you mentioned you

24:55

open for Louis CK in Madison Square Garden

24:57

. I saw it on your all your social media . How does

24:59

that come about and how awesome was

25:01

it ?

25:01

Well , it was pretty funny because the other

25:03

day we went to see Stevie Nicks

25:05

at Madison Square Garden and we were driving

25:08

in and my wife goes when's the last time you were here ? And I go

25:10

, I think when I opened for Louis . She's

25:13

like , yeah , me too , you know . So

25:15

that it was pretty crazy . I've

25:17

been opening for him , you know . He has like a

25:19

stable of us that opened for

25:22

him , you know , and you kind of put in your availability

25:24

when he's about to start a tour . And I

25:26

was actually supposed to go out with him . He was . It

25:28

was actually going to be the first week I was going

25:31

to be back out since our son

25:33

was born . Yeah , about six weeks after he was

25:35

born , the end of January , and

25:37

my wife had thrown me a 50th birthday party

25:40

and got COVID , so I

25:42

couldn't leave and so

25:44

I had to cancel . And so we were texting

25:46

and I had originally I had a like

25:49

a corporate event on that day , so

25:51

I didn't put in for that availability . We

25:53

were just texting and he was just checking in and

25:55

blah , blah , blah , and then he said will

25:58

you be ready to work on January

26:00

27th or whatever it was ? And I was like

26:02

yeah , and I knew what it was . I

26:04

wasn't going to say no if he outright asked me , but I didn't

26:06

say I was available originally , which so

26:08

yeah , so that's that was

26:10

you know . I'll let you know on Monday if I can cancel

26:13

this thing . And that was a week out , basically . Yeah

26:15

, so I had a week to get back on stage

26:17

and I went back in Monday night or

26:19

Tuesday night , the first night , and I only

26:21

had one set that I could get and I

26:24

was rusty , very rusty . And I

26:26

got real nervous . And then , luckily , I had two

26:28

sets lined up for the next night and I got in like

26:30

halfway during the first set I was like , okay

26:32

, I got it . It's only took a set and a half . Okay , all

26:34

right . And then it was just , you know . I

26:36

could just be regular nervous about performing for

26:38

18,000 people .

26:41

Yeah , 18,000 . That's awesome and he's a master

26:44

.

26:44

He's just a master and I know there's all this amazing

26:46

yeah , but you know he's from my hometown too

26:48

. We're from , we're both from the same hometown , Newton Mass

26:51

, and you know people . You know

26:53

what was the best part ? The best part was actually

26:55

the hour or so of soundcheck we did

26:57

. It was Adrian Appaluchee , the other opener

27:00

, and myself and Louie just on

27:02

the stage because we were in the round and he was

27:04

kind of like giving us suggestions and pointers

27:06

on how to do it in the round and you know how

27:08

to perform for 18,000 . And then

27:10

just getting into whatever . It was like an hour

27:13

of just listening to a master talk

27:15

about comedy , yeah , so it was great .

27:17

I remember when I was on a show at the comedy

27:19

studio in Cambridge , he walked in

27:21

and Stephen Wright walked in and they

27:23

both bumped me and I had to follow

27:25

Louie CK and Stephen Wright

27:27

and then Gary

27:29

Goldman closed the show and , needless to say

27:31

, I got lost in the mix

27:34

.

27:34

I always remind Louie of this , because in

27:36

Boston we started and you would have an

27:38

opener and you would have a closer , and you knew what your

27:41

jokes were going to be . And you went up and you said

27:43

keep it going for the hosts . And blah , blah , blah

27:45

. And I saw Louie at the studio

27:47

. I think Rick had him come in to like he must

27:49

have been in town or something he was headlining

27:52

and it was like a huge deal , Like I remember , like

27:54

people were like not a contest , but like

27:56

you know , everyone was trying to get to open

27:58

for him or something and it was a big deal . Whoever got

28:00

to open for him , and we're all watching and he

28:02

came out , he just walked up and he goes

28:05

, keep it going for Rick Jenkins , he's a pig fucker

28:07

. Or

28:09

he goes , keep it going for Rick Jenkins , he's a pig

28:11

fucker , Pig fucker . He's a pig fucker , he likes

28:13

to fuck pigs . He just did like 30 seconds

28:16

about I don't know what that was

28:18

and we were just all done . It just broke

28:20

everything I thought of that

28:22

I had watched and kind of learned , and

28:24

then and he just fucking destroyed

28:27

, destroyed for 30 minutes

28:29

, and then he gets done . And you know Rick

28:31

is maniacal about

28:33

the time Cause I think

28:35

it comes from , you know , not

28:37

owning that space . He was renting that space

28:39

and they probably charged him extra

28:42

if he stayed until 10 , 10 instead of getting

28:44

off at 10 . Louis finished and

28:46

he had like five more minutes and

28:48

Rick got up and was like , do you want to do more ? And

28:51

so Louis did an encore , an

28:53

unplanned encore

28:55

, which totally blew my mind because

28:57

it was like , well , didn't he do his closer

28:59

, Like how is he going to go ? And

29:02

he just went back up and destroyed for another five

29:04

minutes and I mean that just blew . It blew

29:06

my mind . For like weeks I was thinking

29:08

about that . I was still obviously thinking

29:10

about it . It was it was amazing .

29:12

That was a fun part about Boston , but I'm sure

29:14

you know we got to see a lot of Boston

29:16

comics come home and and you randomly pop

29:18

in . But how's New York , like you're special

29:20

, hinged ? You mentioned that Jerry Seinfeld

29:23

literally walked in before , right before you filmed

29:25

.

29:25

Well , I knew he was coming but I couldn't

29:27

say it for a couple reasons . But

29:29

I had , I think

29:32

my folks were in town and

29:34

I remember I was in their hotel room . The owner

29:36

, chris Mozzilli , called me

29:38

and he was like hey , man , jerry

29:41

just called , he wanted to come in on whatever

29:43

. I think it was a Tuesday night or something . Can he go up before

29:45

you ? I just wanted to check and of course that

29:47

was like a formality . I can't say no to that . I

29:51

guess I could . But . But I had actually

29:53

the weekend before , like the Friday before that

29:55

, I had gone up after him at the same club

29:58

. I remember , because I don't get super

30:00

excited about , but I remember calling

30:02

my wife after . I was like , ah , that's that . I

30:04

was like I wish I recorded that that was one

30:06

of the best sets I've had in a long time , and

30:09

so he had just put them in such a good mood , you

30:11

know . So I was like , yeah , sure , that'll actually

30:13

be great . And it worked out twofold

30:16

One because he did

30:18

exactly that . He put them in such a fantastic

30:20

mood . It was like a bonus . It took a lot of pressure off me

30:22

. It was like , well , even if I don't do well , they

30:24

saw a sign , felt tonight I brought them that the

30:28

other is . I also felt like I could

30:30

. A comedian or a self-hating Jew , whatever

30:32

it is , you know , you never think you're worthy

30:34

enough , you know . So it's hard for me to invite

30:37

people to this thing , but it was like , well , now

30:39

I know you can come . Come , it's

30:41

going to be a great night , yeah you've already done that . Yes

30:43

. So I had invited

30:46

my friend Mike . You know I'm not

30:48

going to invite comedians . Some comedians came on their own

30:50

, which I really appreciate , and even sat

30:52

in the audience . I wasn't going to invite one

30:54

but my friend Sam Rubenoff , him

30:57

and his girlfriend . I said , come

30:59

to this show and bring your girlfriend

31:01

, will be a nice night . And he's like why ? I'm like just

31:03

someone's coming , maybe Just I

31:05

can't you know . And he knew he's

31:08

actually the only . He guessed . One night we

31:10

sat down in a coffee shop around the corner

31:12

down in the village . I was talking

31:14

and I go , he goes , are you guys pregnant ? Like he had

31:16

guessed it . I don't know , he knows things , he

31:18

just he senses things . He guessed we

31:20

were pregnant , cut to that night . I get off

31:22

stage and I had actually brought him with me to

31:24

do a couple of shows when I was getting ready

31:27

to do the albums . We had seen the set already and

31:29

then he watched the finished product that night and I get

31:31

off stage and I go over to him . You know , I say

31:33

to his girlfriend are you glad you came because she saw Seinfeld

31:35

? Blah , blah , blah and he goes . You got to call the

31:37

album hinged . Really , he named

31:39

it , he named it right there , that's awesome , so it was very

31:41

helpful .

31:42

Yeah , yeah , that's awesome . When I was doing my podcast information

31:45

sessions cut up stuff on you . I started

31:47

listening to some of your old podcasts and

31:49

Sam was on your spiraling up podcast

31:51

, right .

31:51

Yes , yes , we became really good friends . We went

31:53

to we both went to UVM for like

31:56

10 years or more art but he's a

31:58

younger dude and he's just

32:00

a really good guy and I remember , like he had

32:02

seen that I was at the Vermont Comedy Club

32:04

and when I got back he was like you know , if you go back

32:06

up there , I went to UVM to you know , see

32:09

if you can take me . Yeah , the next time I went up

32:11

, we went up and we just we hit it off and we became

32:13

good friends and we started trying to do

32:15

a couple of different projects together . And then during

32:17

quarantine , we were trying to like , inspire

32:19

each other to keep writing and stuff like that . So we

32:21

started doing some of the podcasts together with

32:24

, like , the caveat of , like we write jokes

32:26

each week for that . So that was

32:28

helpful during . You know , it's hard to stay creative during

32:30

the quarantine .

32:31

I can't even imagine what you guys all went through . Yeah

32:33

, I was listening to spiraling up and I wanted

32:35

to make sure that I pointed out to you that I

32:37

hate you for it , because I can't

32:39

get the damn song out of my head

32:42

.

32:42

That was another read . Like Grant Gordon

32:44

. I remember just putting up like a story like could

32:47

someone write me a jingle ? And he wrote the jingle

32:49

. It was like that's pretty good , that's pretty

32:51

good , it's the catchiest song in the world .

32:52

Like I was . Like I sing it in my car

32:54

. I'm like that's spiraling up .

32:56

Well , listen to my first podcast in

32:58

the tank . Yes , people still

33:01

will do that jingle to me

33:03

. Mark Douglas , who was like a hilarious

33:05

musician comedian , he wrote that

33:07

one and people still will come up to me and

33:09

do that one too .

33:10

Yeah , you were like kind of a groundbreaker

33:12

out there for standup podcasts .

33:14

Yeah , we were on the forefront back in the day

33:16

. We really should have kept that going , man , yeah , I'd

33:19

be in a house right now in the 7th department

33:22

. That was 2009 . In the tank yeah

33:24

, in the tank started in 2009 . Yeah

33:27

, I remember it was Robert Kelly who was

33:29

at like the beginning fitting beginning of all

33:31

the podcasts . He really talked me through that and I

33:34

think he was the one that told Bill Bertha to do a podcast

33:36

. Oh really , they used to just literally just do

33:38

it on their phones .

33:39

Yeah , I was listening to . It was on Apple . There was

33:41

only a few episodes still on Apple that

33:43

I could find .

33:44

Yeah , I threw up some in

33:47

the spiraling up fee . Okay , I'll check it out . And then

33:49

I was talking to the guys who did my

33:52

album , laugh Button , and

33:54

we were going to clean them up and put them up on their

33:56

thing and then they sold their company , oh , okay

33:58

. Yeah .

33:59

I was listening to the San Maril one . That was , I think

34:01

, one of the last ones . That was like 2011

34:03

or something .

34:04

That was before he exploded . He's he

34:06

is exploded .

34:07

Huge . I remember I just he showed up in

34:09

my Instagram feed , maybe about a year , year

34:11

and a half ago , and I started following him .

34:13

I knew right away . That's the thing

34:16

people you know , because I've seen people explode

34:18

and you know . Sometimes you see him and you're like

34:20

, ah , I never saw it , Sam , I

34:23

saw it right away . I did a show , like a random

34:25

little show , with him once and everyone

34:27

was tanking and he just got up with the best jokes

34:30

and I knew , I knew

34:32

right there . Let's see , who else did I see ? You saw

34:34

, I saw Schumer , I saw Aziz , I

34:36

saw Kristen Schall , like all those people

34:39

when you know , before they exploded and I was like , oh

34:41

, these people are .

34:42

Malaney . You could tell Malaney was a

34:44

prodigy you know , when I started the

34:46

podcast , I was like one of the things I started

34:48

realizing because I had kind of lost contact with all of you guys

34:51

and everybody and I didn't do any social

34:53

media . And then when I moved to North Carolina , I wanted

34:55

to get in touch with everybody and that's when

34:57

I started rediscovering , you know , all my Boston

34:59

standup buddies , yeah . So I was like you guys

35:01

are killing it . You and Joe

35:04

List and Dan Levy , obviously

35:06

, gary Dwayne Perkins yeah

35:08

, dwayne , yeah , it makes sense , because none

35:10

of these guys yourself included where anybody

35:13

wasn't going to make it , there

35:15

was a group of us that weren't going to make it and there was a group of you

35:17

that were . So

35:20

it's awesome to see that . Who

35:22

are some of your favorite comics working ? Now ? You mentioned

35:25

Sam . Who else around you know that ? You see

35:27

in New York that you're loving ?

35:29

Let's . I mean sort of came up with them

35:31

, but I'll always watch Mike Beckie-Om . I

35:33

don't know if you know Mike Beckie-Om , he's just

35:35

a machine . Who else do I love to

35:38

watch ? There's this kid I

35:40

wouldn't say coming up because he's established , but

35:42

he's just gets me all the time

35:44

is Daniel Simonson Just

35:46

so funny . I'll always watch Adrian

35:49

Appalucci . I used to get to see her more

35:51

so funny because , like once you kind of get

35:53

Pingenhold into your time

35:55

slots and stuff , like she's more of a late night

35:58

comic . I'm more of like a 730

36:38

PM comic . So I don't get to see her as much as I like , which

36:40

was fun . For us to be able to be together

36:42

when we were opening for Louis Joe

36:45

List is like next level

36:47

. Awesome , it's great , it's . Yeah

36:49

, he's really , you know , and I've known him since he was like

36:51

what it's crazy 19 years old , you know

36:53

, and I'll still watch him all the time . Dina

36:55

Hashem Okay , yep . Just really

36:58

funny . And then some like

37:00

people that you know that are like a

37:02

little more with specials and stuff , like

37:04

I love watching Nate Bargazzi , I love

37:06

watching Jessica Kerson . Judy

37:09

Gold is an all time favorite Her

37:11

, you know . Obviously , robert Kelly

37:13

, like it's gold how he said he

37:16

doesn't do a lot of sets that much anymore

37:18

in the city . This is the last couple of years I think he's

37:20

. You know , obviously he's hosting on fire

37:22

and stuff , but like I always used to say , like the

37:24

comedy seller room was like built

37:27

for Robert Kelly , like nobody

37:29

crushes harder than

37:31

Robert Kelly down in that comedy

37:33

seller room . I mean it's yeah , like walls

37:36

shaking . And

37:38

, of course , like you know , colin Quinn , david

37:41

Tell always a joy to get to see those guys

37:43

. Tom Cotter , rhode Island's own Tom Cotter

37:45

, another Rhode Island Hall of Famer Yep , and

37:48

his wife , oh sorry . Yeah , tolemas

37:50

, amazing . Yeah , of course

37:52

, samarill I'm

37:55

trying to think of like some comics that people might not know

37:57

of . That I love there's such an explosion of really great

37:59

talent . It's fun to watch . There's this kid

38:01

, pat Bercher , b-u-r-t-s-c-h-e-r

38:06

. He's got this bit that

38:08

hits so funny about like time travel

38:10

. It's unbelievable . So

38:12

, yeah , these people , like every week I'll

38:14

see somebody new these days coming up . That

38:16

just kind of blows me away . It's fun .

38:19

At what point , when you were in New York and all

38:22

of these gods of stand-up comedy

38:24

would come in , at what point did you feel comfortable

38:26

and be like , all right , I'm here , as opposed to

38:29

like , holy shit , that's Chris Rock

38:31

, it just walked in .

38:32

Yeah , I guess you never do Really

38:34

. I mean , I've probably

38:36

you mentioned Chris Rock . Like I've probably introduced

38:39

Chris Rock dozens of times on

38:41

stage and never , you know , really feel

38:43

comfortable talking to him . But I remember he was one of the first

38:45

people I saw when I got off stage , when

38:47

I walked into , like the VIP hang

38:49

after opening for Louie and like we

38:51

actually had a moment of like hello , how are you

38:54

? You know , wow , yeah , so

38:56

it was funny that you say that . But

38:58

I guess I mean there's been a few moments . I

39:00

mean , I guess I remember one night when they

39:02

would do these auditions for like a festival

39:05

at Montreal or something you know . You'd have a lineup

39:07

and you'd have an opener and a closer that

39:09

weren't auditioning . And I remember closing

39:12

one night where the last two comics were

39:14

Keith Robinson and Robert Kelly .

39:16

Wow .

39:17

I forget which one was last last or which one was second to last

39:19

, but I had to go up after both of them and

39:22

I was like this is not going to go well . And

39:24

it was fine and I was like , all right

39:26

, I'm in New York City now . Yeah , I can follow those two

39:29

absolute beasts , you

39:31

know . Yeah , stuff like that . I remember when I first

39:33

started working at the cellar back in the

39:35

day . I remember like I don't know if it was like

39:37

a designed thing or deliberate

39:40

, but I remember like going up Friday

39:42

night late show after a

39:44

tell and I remember the manager at the time

39:47

, kim , was like oh , this is like if you can do this

39:49

. This is how you know you're . You're for real , you

39:51

know , going up after the King Dave

39:54

a tellably , and so that

39:56

was probably another moment . You

39:58

know , you know what was enough . Yeah , like

40:01

to feel really confident . After there

40:03

used to be Broadway and New York comedy

40:05

club were booked by the same people

40:08

. It was the Al Martens clubs and

40:10

it was set up for this like I don't know two

40:12

or three year period where basically , you would do the

40:15

nine o'clock show at Broadway , go

40:17

over to New York comedy club , do a show , come

40:19

back for the 11 o'clock show at Broadway . It would

40:21

pretty much be the same comics and

40:23

nobody would want to go last because you'd have to eat the checks

40:25

. So the newest comic would

40:28

go last and have to , like , go up while they're figuring

40:30

out the checks and then be last .

40:32

It's interrupt , which , by the way , for folks

40:34

listening , is the absolute worst thing possible

40:36

. Yeah .

40:38

It's the hardest thing is to go up while they're doing

40:40

the checks at the end of a showcase

40:42

show .

40:43

Server's ass is in your face as they're bending over .

40:45

It can be mayhem .

40:46

Yeah .

40:47

Yeah , it's distracting . So

40:49

you have to keep your composure , wait till people are refocused

40:52

, get them refocused and still

40:54

be doing material at that time and then have enough

40:56

in the tank to bring it on because you're

40:58

last . And I don't remember what order

41:00

it was , although I think it was Roguel

41:02

, greg Roguel , absolute legend

41:04

, new York legend , mitch Faitel , taylor

41:07

and then Gaffigan Wow

41:10

, yeah , and

41:14

I remember it was . You would do three

41:16

shows , friday and Saturday and

41:18

I came out of that unscathed .

41:20

You're like I'm here .

41:21

Yeah . So I was like , okay , yeah

41:24

, that was probably one of those moments . Yeah

41:26

, that's pretty sure .

41:27

That's amazing . I'm so happy for you and

41:30

all the stuff that you've got going on . What

41:32

do you guys think ?

41:33

is next Probably a nap

41:35

Well deserved . No , no

41:39

, we're going to soccer . I'm

41:42

working right now on figuring out which

41:45

direction I would put more efforts into

41:47

, as well as stand up

41:49

put together now at the point where

41:51

I can get back to writing every day and put

41:54

together my next hour and do another album in special

41:56

. Yeah , maybe I might

41:58

resurrect a podcaster or something

42:00

too .

42:01

I loved Spiral Lone Up . It was a great

42:03

concept . Great concept and

42:05

you used your mental health , knowledge and background

42:08

that you went to school for . Yeah , I

42:10

mean , you used that really well . It was fun

42:12

. Thanks , it's just so folks

42:15

also know you worked in a psychiatric

42:17

ward .

42:19

I worked at well for Massachusetts people Westwood

42:21

Lodge , which was in Westwood Mass , and

42:23

then Children's Hospital in Boston . Yeah

42:25

, I worked both those on the psych

42:27

wards with the kids . Yeah , that's when I started

42:30

. Yeah , no

42:32

, I feel like you know I did that because that's what

42:34

I went to school for . Yeah , and

42:36

then it just happened to coincide with me figuring

42:38

out that I wanted to do this and

42:40

figured out a way to do this during

42:43

that time . That's awesome .

42:45

You've got two kids , a girl and a boy . I

42:47

have a girl . She's seven . She's out

42:49

of control . Yeah , how

42:52

is your three-year-old daughter ?

42:54

Well , it's fun . I was listening to one

42:56

of your podcasts and you said how she's just

42:58

so into just being a girl and

43:01

that is the way it is here . Our current

43:03

upcoming dilemma will be

43:06

when the weather shifts

43:08

and she cannot wear summer

43:10

dresses . No , we

43:13

are very nervous . She only will wear like three

43:15

or four of them . She likes her hair a certain way

43:17

. Yeah , she's

43:20

wants to be a princess . She likes dresses . The

43:23

other day we said do you

43:25

think you can wear some sweaters and stuff for

43:27

the winter ? She goes I only like gowns , gowns

43:30

, gowns . But

43:34

yeah , it's great . We thought she

43:36

was easy until we had him . I

43:40

think she is needier because

43:43

of him . She still is having

43:45

a very hard time with him being here . But

43:48

my favorite thing is when I go to Lula

43:50

, I can only and she goes

43:52

do one thing at a time because

43:56

I say it so much . She has to finish

43:58

it for me because she just wants so

44:00

much . He's just sitting

44:02

there like whenever you need me , I'll be here

44:05

. I'm just happy to be here . He's like totally

44:07

chill . He's got like this inflamed

44:09

, like eczema , and he's just

44:11

like it's a little itchy . We're like that needs

44:14

medical attention . He's like don't worry about me . I'm

44:16

fine , I'm just so

44:18

chill . Hey , look , here's my toes . He

44:20

just wants her attention so badly

44:23

. We're just like can you say hi to him

44:25

? She's like hi , it just goes on with it . Once

44:29

in a while she'll do something for him , and

44:31

we're over the moon about it because it's

44:33

like we had him for you . Yeah right

44:35

.

44:37

Daughter . She's an only child . There's no

44:39

way we're having it anymore . We're done . We're shut

44:41

off . We're

44:44

done with that stuff . She's like I really would

44:46

. I'd love a little brother or sister . And they

44:48

say they do , but they really don't Like

44:51

the first couple of years , right .

44:52

She just moved up in daycare to a new class

44:55

and so , with COVID and everything like

44:57

, we've barely been in this place . They let

44:59

me go in with her to drop

45:01

her off to her new class , and I had

45:03

him with me . Her classmates gave

45:05

him more attention in eight minutes

45:07

than she has given him in nine

45:09

months . Did that set her off ? They're all over

45:12

a minute . It didn't phase her , no , she just sat

45:14

in the court . I don't know what's going on

45:16

over there . She has a best bud , she has a couple

45:18

of best buds and they'll have a play date and they'll

45:20

play more with a little Ollie than she will

45:22

. But this is my favorite little thing

45:24

to do with her now , because she gave him a nickname

45:26

just out of nowhere . But

45:29

what's Oliver's nickname ? She goes apple juice . So

45:31

now we all have them . I go . What's your nickname ? She goes

45:33

orange juice . What's daddy's nickname

45:36

? Almond milk . What's mommy's nickname

45:38

? Wine .

45:41

That's what all mommy's names are .

45:46

But yeah , no , I absolutely love it . She's just she's

45:48

, she's personality and a half . She's really

45:50

just funny .

45:51

And then he's just this have you gotten any bad

45:54

reports yet from daycare ?

45:55

No , she's , so she's one . I guess there's the

45:58

daycare owner told us . You know , there's

46:00

like two kinds of kids the ones that like act

46:02

up at daycare or the ones that act up at

46:04

home . She acts up at home .

46:06

She waits for us .

46:07

Yeah , she saves

46:09

it all for mom and dad . Yeah , she's , you know , the only like she got bit

46:11

by someone . That was the worst thing we heard

46:14

, you know . You know , the only thing is

46:16

she was emotional when he

46:18

arrived . They said she could tell . They

46:20

could tell she was having a hard time because she was more

46:22

emotional , she was crying and stuff and she never

46:24

had .

46:25

My daughter went through a phase . We got

46:27

a little note . We picked her up from school and we

46:29

got a note and it was , like you know , finley did not use

46:31

her hands kindly today . Oh God

46:33

, all right , what happened ? Apparently

46:36

, she struck a boy on the top of the head with a plastic hammer

46:38

because

46:42

he closed her hands in the cash register .

46:44

Yeah , and it was like a cool phrase

46:46

to keep if she ever becomes like a professional

46:48

fighter or anything you know . Just like , get in there

46:50

, honey , and do not use your hands , kindly

46:52

, remember . That's why we're here .

46:56

I'm a big mixed martial arts fan and I wanted to get

46:58

her into some sort of martial art

47:00

, just first of all it's cute as hell to see little

47:02

kids and like the little geese and stuff like that

47:04

yeah , but also also just to

47:06

get her some confidence and to make sure that she

47:08

can always defend herself and she wants

47:10

nothing to do with it . Nothing , nothing

47:12

. She's pretty sure she's going to be the next Taylor Swift

47:14

.

47:15

Yeah , we

47:18

literally had that conversation yesterday

47:20

. We had passed a . Obviously

47:22

they keep those windows open for those

47:24

martial arts places so you can see the

47:26

cuteness . And we were driving right

47:28

by a storefront with some kids practicing

47:31

and I had thought about that just recently

47:33

. I go to the library to write during

47:36

the day and it's right across from a school

47:38

, and a school got out and I saw some older kids

47:40

and I was like , ah , it just made me feel like

47:42

, oh yes , there's going to be a time

47:44

where I'm not going to have her with me all the

47:46

time , I'm not going to be able

47:48

to watch over her . I want her to take some

47:50

self-defense or something , and

47:53

so we literally had that conversation yesterday about hoping

47:55

to do that , which is interesting because she's in two

47:57

things right now soccer and ballet

48:00

. Oh nice , ballet , which she wants to , soccer

48:02

, which she doesn't . But she does a great

48:04

job there , she participates , she

48:06

does , and I swear there's it's . You

48:08

know it's two and three year olds . So the practice starts

48:10

with five kids and it just ends with

48:13

her and this other kid every time . Wow , she's

48:15

the only one that stays . And her favorite

48:17

time is like after she scores I'll twirl her around or

48:20

water break , but she does the

48:22

whole 50 minutes and she has

48:25

fun , even though she's like not necessarily

48:27

into it . You know the soccer part . She likes

48:29

the other things .

48:30

We took Fintu to soccer and her

48:32

ultimate goal was to see if she could

48:34

get her fingers caught in the other goal net . She

48:38

would just run to the other one and stick her fingers in and like , yeah

48:40

, and we're like that's not where the action

48:43

is , sweetie .

48:43

It's fun , yeah , cause

48:46

last night we tried a new playground and there was a high school

48:48

soccer game going on and she just didn't

48:50

even look at it . But at her regular playground

48:52

there's cheerleading practice

48:54

once a week or something which she does focus

48:57

in on . Yeah , so it's very interesting , you

48:59

know . She's like I want to do that , you know , and she's like

49:01

barely noticed the soccer .

49:02

My daughter's in gymnastics . She does it , it's a great cartwheel

49:05

, and she also listens to these podcasts . Yes

49:07

, sweetie , you do an excellent cartwheel .

49:08

You do a great one . I've heard , see , she's

49:12

not one of those kids like we'll go in and it's like you can

49:14

get one present or something at a store

49:16

. She's like I want that and like we're out . There's

49:19

no , no , dilly-dally . Yeah , that's amazing

49:21

. We went to the Disney store which we told her

49:23

it was Disney World . We're

49:27

like you can get one dress , and she just picked

49:29

her dress right away and that was it

49:32

and we're like but do you like you want to look at it or the other ? She's

49:34

like no , I want that one . So it's kind

49:36

of helpful for Halloween and stuff like that . It's amazing . Yeah

49:38

, she's just like that's what I want . Yeah , yeah , that's amazing

49:40

.

49:42

I mean the only store we have at Wilmington . We're still a little backwards down here , but the only

49:44

store we literally have is Walmart . So every

49:46

kid has every toy in the three aisles

49:48

that Walmart has . We have to go down every single

49:50

aisle every single time we go there . It's the same damn

49:52

toys she knows .

49:54

Wow , that's amazing , cherish , that that's good

49:56

, because , yeah , her treat of coming with me

49:58

to , like you know , one place has Princess

50:01

Pezzas , she just gets the one she wants

50:03

. There's no Dilly Delling a book at

50:05

Target . She gets the book , oh

50:07

oh , cherish that , that's amazing . That's

50:10

absolutely amazing . Yes , but she'll fight

50:12

us on every other thing .

50:15

Every single thing . My daughter

50:17

is into Taylor Swift to the

50:20

extreme . We have to go to see the movie when

50:22

it comes out . She wants to be Taylor Swift

50:24

for Halloween and you have to be .

50:26

Travis Kelsey .

50:27

Which is super creepy . But I thought about it . Is

50:29

it creepy ? I don't know . Like I could be Travis

50:32

Kelsey , like I could be Ted . Darken up the hair . And

50:34

yeah is it weird , like going against your daughter's

50:37

boyfriend , probably but yeah

50:39

, yeah , yeah . Maybe I'll go with

50:41

Jason Kelsey . That won't be

50:43

so creepy .

50:44

Yeah the brother . Yeah , go

50:47

as the dad . That'd actually be really funny

50:49

if you could find a picture of him and

50:51

dress up as the dad . Mr Kelsey , yeah , yeah .

50:54

But we also get up play dates . Now we

50:56

get , we'll walk into the room and there's pillows under the shirt

50:58

and you know , I have a baby in my belly . And

51:00

you know , oh my gosh , I walked

51:02

into a room to see if the girls wanted to

51:05

drink . There have it a play date . And one girl was

51:07

laying down and my daughter was rubbing

51:09

something across her belly and she said I'm giving

51:11

her an ultrasound . Daddy , oh my gosh

51:13

, what the hell are you watching

51:15

? How do you know about that ? Like

51:18

, you get out of my house , you go , stand in the corner .

51:20

Right now we're in sleepover land

51:23

. All her animals are tucked

51:25

under a blanket , all her stuffies . They're

51:27

all minis , by the way . It's very creepy . There's

51:29

about 800 mini . There's honestly 25

51:32

minis in that room and

51:34

like little figurines are also under little

51:36

washcloths having sleepover

51:38

. Yeah , mini , mini , mini , mini mini Loves

51:40

mini huh . Yeah , yeah , it's on a lot of clothes

51:43

. There

51:45

were three minis in the Halloween period at her daycare out of like

51:47

11 kids .

51:47

Really .

51:48

Yeah , of her class yeah .

51:52

One year she went as for Halloween , she went to go as a cowgirl riding a unicorn

51:54

. We're like what ?

51:55

Yeah , unicorns are huge . She wants to be a unicorn

51:57

princess this year .

51:58

I don't want to burst your bubble , but I'm like they're not real . John

52:04

, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down

52:06

with me and go through and catch up on

52:08

our old Boston comedy days .

52:10

Yeah this was fun .

52:11

And all the cool stuff you got going on . Thanks , man , this

52:13

has been great . Everybody go out and check

52:16

Hinged John Fish on

52:18

YouTube is fantastic , and

52:20

if you're in New York City area , check him out

52:22

. What's all your socials ? My handle , the handles

52:25

, that's what the kids call them . What's all the handles ?

52:27

The handles . There's JD Fish JD FISCH , as

52:31

my grandfather says , you can't have the fish without

52:33

the seed and

52:37

then Johnny Fish . Pretty much everything

52:40

else Johnny Fish , All right

52:42

.

52:42

Well , thanks again , john . I really appreciate it . This has been awesome

52:44

. Everybody go check out his stuff . Thank you . Follow

52:47

John . He's hilarious and

52:49

you're going to absolutely love him . Thanks again , man

52:51

. Thank you , and

52:53

I am eating it . These people hate

52:55

me , they want nothing to do with me , so

52:57

I'm bombing up . And this woman said something and

52:59

I was like that's it . And I just went into the crowd

53:01

work and I said something and the place erupted and I

53:03

was like yeah , and

53:08

I was like , oh , mom , mom , you've got to go , you've got to go

53:10

now . Oh , jesus Christ .

53:12

Oh my God , start

53:15

the car .