Finding The Strength Within To Never Give Up w/ David A. Arnold

💙IN LOVING MEMORY OF DAVID A. ARNOLD So what is “That Thing“ you gotta have about you in order to be successful? To separate from the pack? To make a dream a reality? This week you are gonna hear from someone who knows. BECAUSE HE'S LIVED IT! My guest this week is David A. Arnold. Not only is he a brilliant standup comedian, David channels his life’s observations as a SITCOM WRITER, PRODUCER, and ACTOR as well. After I watched his Netflix special, IT AIN’T FOR THE WEAK, and laughed my ass off, I made it a big priority to get him on the show. When you hear his takes on life, parenting, hard knocks, and more, you’ll understand why. This is a man with a lot of takes you’re going to love hearing about. Part of what I love about him is that David struggled in the backwaters of comedy for a long time before he broke through. He’s used the TRAGEDY and PATHOS in his life to fuel a brand of comedy that is INSPIRATIONAL for everyone going through stuff right now… which is basically all of us. He’s blowing up now after working in the business for more than 25 YEARS, building an impressive resume as one of the MOST SUCCESSFUL people in front of and behind the camera in the entertainment business. When you hear David talk about his WORK ETHIC, you’ll know there were no shortcuts to him earning everything he’s achieved. David’s source of strength through it all has been his connection to his family. Not only are they sources for a lot of his material, they’re also what drives him to keep working at “THAT THING” as he likes to refer to it. David gets into why it’s important to REFUSING TO LIVE WITH EXCUSES or challenges you faced growing up. It’s a fascinating look at someone who’s overcome unusual family dynamics, addiction, and being incarcerated (for a fix-it ticket!). As you’ll hear, BREAKING THROUGH is not for the weak. We’re also going to talk about David’s creative process for generating material, how he deals with imposter syndrome, and having A WILL TO SUCCEED that’s not for sale. The bottom line is that making people laugh is HARD WORK. You can’t talk to David for an hour and not touch on KIDS and MARRIAGE. David’s down-to-earth take on both is filled with spot on insights that will make your life and your family relationships better. We are going to wrap up with advice on other parts of your life David wants you to know about too. You’re gonna LAUGH this week. You’re gonna THINK about what you hear too. David A. Arnold has got the goods. So listen up…This is a FASCINATING hour with a man who has used a lifetime of paying his dues to create a universal WISDOM that’s perfect advice for us all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over $12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig. On October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me. Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:18David A. Arnold?

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25David A. Arnold?

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:36Speaker 01

  This is The Ed Mileage Show.

• 1:41Ed Mylett?

  All right, welcome back, everybody. Today's really something I've been looking forward to. Let me tell you why. I have only done this twice in my entire life, but I'm watching Netflix a few weeks ago, and I just watched this brilliant piece of art that was not only hilarious, but it inspired me. And I'm watching this man communicate and... Perform what he's great at doing and I just see a depth to him and I'm like, I want to talk to this person about his life. I have a feeling this could be one of the most inspiring episodes we've ever done before. And sure enough, I messaged him and about 42 seconds later, he messages me back. And here we are a few weeks later, so.

• 2:13David A. Arnold?

  I'm not busy.

• 2:14Ed Mylett?

  We're both, you are the busiest human beings on earth. He just literally landed at the airport. And we made this thing happen because I think we both had a sense we should do this together. So. His special is called It Ain't For the Week on Netflix right now. It is gold. 10 out of 10. If there was a higher number, I could give it, I would. You will be laughing the entire time, but you will also leave there different. You will leave there inspired and I'm hoping that happens today as well. David A. Arnold, welcome to the show.

• 2:37David A. Arnold?

  Hey, man. I'm so excited to be here, man. I, you know, so funny, literally. Cause I told my sister I was coming and she is so excited. She's like, I can't wait. I listen to it all the time. Like she's like, when she started firing off all your. Guests and everything and then she went, what are you doing on there? Like your family. Your family is always the last people to believe in anything that you're doing, but I do, when I, when I, you know, when you hit me. And you said what you said in the message, cause I get a lot of messages. And, you know, obviously you look at the people who are verified first, because you go, okay, they've been through.

• 3:10Ed Mylett?

  It might be a real person.

• 3:11David A. Arnold?

  Right, exactly.

• 3:13David A. Arnold?

  And I looked at it, you know, of course I went, oh, okay, I know. And then when you get it from somebody who makes a living. Recognizing certain things. It's different than, oh, you're funny. It's a different type of compliment than, oh, you're funny.

• 3:27Ed Mylett?

  I know exactly what you mean.

• 3:29David A. Arnold?

  It hits you in a deeper space.

• 3:32Ed Mylett?

  Well, your stuff hits me that way. I mean, I just mean it. And by the way, all the way back, I watched Fat Ballerina, your previous special and I was. Watching with my wife, like this guy is brilliant. How come I don't know him? Right? And that's the, that's kind of where I want to start. You are right now blowing up. You got the Nickelodeon show.

• 3:47David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 3:48Ed Mylett?

  You got your tour.

• 3:49David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 3:49Ed Mylett?

  You got the Netflix special. You're doing a movie right now. Like you're the dude.

• 3:53David A. Arnold?

  Yeah, it's working.

• 3:54Ed Mylett?

  You're this overnight success that took 27 freaking years.

• 3:58David A. Arnold?

  I know.

• 3:58Ed Mylett?

  So, so take us, just take us back a little bit, because I just think this is one, I think they're inspiring people. But then I think there are people who have lived inspiring lives. You're both.

• 4:06David A. Arnold?

  Wow, thanks.

• 4:09Ed Mylett?

  Did it really take you 20 plus years to actually really make a great living and break through doing this?

• 4:13David A. Arnold?

  No, it did not. It didn't take 20 to make a great living. It's been, I've been making a really good living for about 10 years. You know, because I've been writing and producing television from House of Pain and Meet the Browns for Tyler Perry, The Real Husbands of Hollywood for Kevin Hart, Fuller House on Netflix, the reboot of that. I mean, I've, I've written and produced a lot of television for a long time. And now, you know, with the show that I created, That Girl Lay Lay, that's on Nickelodeon and got picked up on Netflix, which is like the number one show on their network, is killing, you know, creating that show made me only the sixth black man in the history of TV to have a soul created by credit of a TV show, which I didn't even know until it happened.

• 4:52David A. Arnold?

  You know, when Will, Will Packer called me up to do it. So I've been making a living, sure, you know, a good living for a minute, but like now to the point where I'm starting to, people are starting to put my face with the comedy.

• 5:06Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 5:07David A. Arnold?

  That's been in the last couple of years, the pandemic, social media. It's, I tell people this all the time. It's never been one thing. It's been a lot of little things that I've consistently done, but all driven towards the same goal.

• 5:21Ed Mylett?

  Was this the goal? So first off, so about a decade, making a good living.

• 5:25David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 5:25Ed Mylett?

  But public notoriety, that people walk down the street and go, hey, there's David A. Arnold. That's been recent.

• 5:30David A. Arnold?

  Been in the last couple of years.

• 5:31Ed Mylett?

  Last couple of years. And so was this the plan? Did you always want to do stand-up? Did you want to write or did you want to do all of them?

• 5:36David A. Arnold?

  Stand-up and two things I've wanted to, when I came to town that I wanted to do, which was 25 years ago. I wanted to do stand-up. I wanted to be known for doing, I wanted to be respected by the people in the stand-up community and wanted people to know that that's what I did. And I wanted to do, I wanted to play a dad on a sitcom, even before I was a father, before I was married, before I was even old enough to play a father. That's always what I wanted to do.

• 6:00Ed Mylett?

  And you know, that's one of the things about your special, I just want to say to you, I love, I think I love it for a couple of reasons. One, I love, I get emotional, I don't know why I'm saying this. I love how you are open and honest and how you talk about your family.

• 6:11David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 6:12Ed Mylett?

  And yourself as a father.

• 6:13David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 6:13Ed Mylett?

  I also think if I'm being honest with you, I think there's a layer to it that I respect and admire more and that there's a, something beautiful about a black man also doing that on stage, talking about his family and his children. Is that, were you conscious of that? Like, I want to make sure that I've honored my wife and honored my children as I've got this far down the road, or was it just that it's just so damn funny you talk about it?

• 6:33David A. Arnold?

  I think it's probably a combination of both, you know, I've always thought that what is going on in my house is hilarious and ridiculous and painful at times, you know, and I think it was the same way growing up. I knew, you know, I bring my, my wife and children out on stage with me at the end of my special. And I, I decided to do that, like somewhere in between my tour, when I was preparing to film the special, I was like, I was just running on treadmill. And that's where I do a lot of my thinking when I'm working out, right? And it's something just said, you know, people know me already and people who follow my social media, my Instagram and stuff, and Facebook and all that, they, they know me and my family because I've been posting videos for the last couple of years that have just exploded.

• 7:18Ed Mylett?

  Viral videos.

• 7:18David A. Arnold?

  Right? It's just unbelievable. And I was like, they already know this world. I'm about to go out on stage and talk about this world. Why not bring the people out that I'm talking about?

• 7:28Ed Mylett?

  It's beautiful.

• 7:29David A. Arnold?

  And that has resonated with people more, so much that even the documentary that's attached to the end of the special even makes more sense. So I, I think it was, it was a conscious thing, but it was also an organic thing that just made sense.

• 7:43Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. I love the documentary at the end, which we're going to talk about a little bit. It's really cool to hear someone talk about their life and then actually see the actual people at the end. That was brilliant that you did that.

• 7:51David A. Arnold?

  Thank you.

• 7:51Ed Mylett?

  But you said something in the special, so here we go, guys. We're going to get into the stuff that's going to like, you're going to go, okay, this is why I want to share this. This is what I'm going to take away from this interview because this man's story is so inspiring. Having said that, you say this thing in there that like, I stopped it and I made my daughter watch it.

• 8:06David A. Arnold?

  Wow.

• 8:06Ed Mylett?

  There's a couple of things.

• 8:07David A. Arnold?

  How old is your daughter?

• 8:08Ed Mylett?

  Eighteen.

• 8:09David A. Arnold?

  Okay, so I have fifteen and seventeen.

• 8:10Ed Mylett?

  I know, we're right in the same zone. So I relate to the stuff you talk about during COVID and all the other stuff you talk about, right? Believe me, I relate to the frosting being off the cake and from Fat Ballerina. I relate to the cookie the other day where someone ate a half a damn cookie.

• 8:24David A. Arnold?

  And left it on the counter.

• 8:25Ed Mylett?

  All that stuff. Like the reason it's so funny is when you have kids, you relate to this. But the thing I really related to is you say, I got that thing. I got that thing. And I'm like, Bella, watch this. This is what I've been trying to tell you right here, that thing. Your dad's got that thing that sometimes it's like this dog. log in me this relentless thing that it's invisible, but it's tangible. It's it's this thing, right? And I want you to talk to that because I think people watching this like, hey, they try to get these notes. This is what I need to be successful. This is what I gotta, I gotta think this. I gotta read this book. The truth is underneath all that. You gotta have that thing.

• 8:59David A. Arnold?

  You got to have that thing. It's that thing inside of you that it cannot be given to you. You have to find it. You can see it from others and the examples and, you know, that you've seen. My grandfather had that thing. My grandfather put all of us through college with an eighth grade education. You know what I'm saying? He laid asphalt in Cleveland, Ohio. And that was my summers from seven years old till 17. We went out and worked the summers with my grandfather laying 800 degree asphalt in the heat. That that's where I learned to get that thing. My stepfather, who started the OJs and then quit the day before they made a million dollars and went on to watch them become the biggest thing ever, right?

• 9:44David A. Arnold?

  And he went on to try to prove and and and be a producer and never hit that level of success again. But I watched him chase that every day. He had that thing.

• 9:56Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 9:57David A. Arnold?

  And that thing is something that you have to find it. You know what I mean? And and and a lot and it can only be get when I got sober. It was that thing that told me I don't want to live like this no more. And I deserve better because I grew up around greatness.

• 10:15Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 10:15David A. Arnold?

  So like, why would I sell myself short? And that's what I tell my daughters. They play volleyball. When they, when whatever they try to from the volleyball, from making friends, from being better in school. You gotta have that thing inside of you because life is always coming for you.

• 10:33Ed Mylett?

  That's so true.

• 10:34David A. Arnold?

  And that's what I try to give them. I said, you ain't gotta be, I didn't, listen, I woke up at 29 years old. That's when I decided that I wanted to be different.

• 10:43Ed Mylett?

  Is that right? That when you got sober?

• 10:44David A. Arnold?

  Yeah, I got sober at 20 and F permanently. I got sober twice before that. You know what I mean? Once would lasted 18 months, the other lasted nine months. But, you know, this time, I had started doing stand-up and I knew inside that I had it. That I had what it took to be great. And I knew that I needed to drop that habit. I needed to get rid of that.

• 11:07Ed Mylett?

  That's a big lesson, by the way, everyone, just to step back. A lot of things, it's not just always the things that you have to do. It's actually something you gotta drop. That's a habit. By the way, that habit could literally be just like worrying. That habit could be oversleeping. It could be that you drink too much. It could be, but a lot of times like, okay, what do I need to do? You know, what's the thing I gotta do? Well, maybe there's a thing you need to not do. Also in your life, right? You know, by the way, even if you're a guy watching this, there's a lot of you guys watching this. You're young, you're 28, you're 29, you're making a bunch of money. You got 18 different women in your phone right now. And you're successful in spite of the fact that you do that, by the way. And eventually that distraction, that lack of focus, that stress, that holding it all together will steal from your business life also. There's a price to be paid somewhere along the line. So maybe it's things you have to stop doing in your life.

• 11:54Ed Mylett?

  Now, you said 17.

• 11:56David A. Arnold?

  Your life is so...

• 11:57Ed Mylett?

  This could go five hours for me. Like, I know a lot about you, right?

• 12:00David A. Arnold?

  I love that.

• 12:02Ed Mylett?

  At 17, just correct me when I'm wrong all the way along.

• 12:05David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 12:05Ed Mylett?

  But also at 17, because there's, there's, listen, you had this hard-working grandfather. That's an incredible story. And he honors these three men, by the way. He honors Eddie. He honors Joshua, who was the OJs.

• 12:16David A. Arnold?

  No, that was my, Joshua was my grandfather.

• 12:18Ed Mylett?

  Grandfather.

• 12:19David A. Arnold?

  Bobby was my stepfather.

• 12:20Ed Mylett?

  Bobby's the stepfather in the OJs. And like, literally the day before all the money comes in for the OJs. And you'll hear him honor these men in the special. But also, at 17.

• 12:29David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 12:30Ed Mylett?

  You get another giant piece of news. They could, a lot of guys could go, okay, I'm out, man. I'm just, I check out. Like, this is, you know, this is devastating news. I'm gonna use this story as an excuse to be a really average dude the rest of my life.

• 12:40David A. Arnold?

  Exactly.

• 12:41Ed Mylett?

  And tell them what you found out at 17.

• 12:42David A. Arnold?

  Which I talked about in my first Netflix special, Fat Ballerina. I talked about how at 17, I found out who I thought Eddie was my father. I found out was not my biological father, that I was, he actually adopted me when I was six months old. And there was another guy who I actually knew because he was a friend of the family. So he was around and I played with his children as friends, not knowing they were really my half-brother and sister. And my mom told me at this age, like, this is, this is your real, this is who made you. And, you know, yeah, sure, it could have sent me into a tailspin, but it didn't. What it did is, it made me understand in that moment,

• 13:26David A. Arnold?

  the difference between being a father and making a child. Because that's what my dad is. My dad is my, like, that's when I say my dad, my father, that's Eddie Arnold. Mike Payne, who made me, I call him my maker. You know what I mean? But I will never disrespect my father by giving Mike Payne the title of dad, or, and which he's a dad and father to other children that I know. Just not you. You know, he's just not that to me, you know? And so like, here's, and this is what I say to people who have come to me and I've talked to about things that have happened to us in our life, which, everybody gets things that happen that are unfortunate. You find out your dad is this, your parents on drugs, you were abused, this. I, I always say this.

• 14:11David A. Arnold?

  I hear everything you're saying, and I want you to know that you're right, that that was unfortunate and wrong that it happened to you. And it was painful and unfair. Now what? Right, right. We got, nobody, everybody stops there, but you gotta go past that. You gotta go now what? Because there's no line to get in for everybody who was mistreated. So where you can just stand in line and be like, everybody who had a bad childhood, come over here, we're gonna give you a stipend for the rest of your life. It doesn't work like that. So true. You have to figure out how to get around that. And that's when I realized after the third time being in rehab, I was laying in rehab, I went to rehab here at, um,

• 14:52David A. Arnold?

  the VA in Westwood, here in Los Angeles. And I remember my first night there and I was laying in this big, this huge room that had like tons of, you know, racks, beds, you know, bunk beds, just lined up and down like army barracks. And it was only me and one other guy across from me. And he was going through withdrawals in the middle of the night. And I remember I was laying there. And I remember saying to myself, I don't belong in here. And then right behind that was another voice that said, see, this is why you're here. Because you're arrogant. And you think you're better than, but you're not. And then right behind that was a voice that my father, Eddie said to me when I was 19 and I was doing nothing. And I was living with him.

• 15:36David A. Arnold?

  And he said, the only difference between you and the bum outside is that you live with me.

• 15:43David A. Arnold?

  And all of these voices hit me back to back. And then the next voice was you've gotten sober for one time. It was not get kicked out of the Navy. The other time it was for this, so this girl wouldn't break up with you. Now, none of those things, you have none of those things. So what you gonna do? Do you care enough about you? You did, you tried to do it for the Navy. You tried to do it for a girl. Do you care enough about David? To try. And it was in that moment that I realized I did not want to have, that I had something greater to do and I wanted to live a different life.

• 16:11Ed Mylett?

  Brother, that's incredible. You and my dad, by the way, got sober about a quarter of a mile from each other.

• 16:16David A. Arnold?

  Wow.

• 16:17Ed Mylett?

  Which is crazy. And my dad ended up being sober for 35 years. And when my dad got sober, the, because he had tried a bunch of times like you did. He did say, hey, look, I'm gonna give this one more try because I don't want to lose my family. That was his reason when he tried.

• 16:27David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 16:28Ed Mylett?

  But his reason for staying, he told me later, he goes, I'm actually doing this for me.

• 16:31David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 16:32Ed Mylett?

  I'm doing this for me. And it's like really, really telling things. I think sometimes really good people are so unselfish, they're unwilling to give themselves the gift of changing.

• 16:39David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 16:40Ed Mylett?

  And also they love telling that story, that old story. Wouldn't it be a shame if your whole story was just that, hey, I had this upbringing and found out my dad wasn't my dad. And I did some coke and I just partied in my twenties. That's my story, right? Or my story was, ah, alcoholic dad, not things great when I was a kid. I just keep telling the story into my 50s.

• 16:57David A. Arnold?

  No, but yeah.

• 16:57Ed Mylett?

  At some point, you gotta start writing new chapters of your life. You said something, I write your stuff down.

• 17:02David A. Arnold?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 17:02Ed Mylett?

  You said, you said, so many people live their lives making excuses. I refuse to live in the shadows of what if.

• 17:10David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 17:10Ed Mylett?

  And then you talk about your family wanting to be. Because this, here's the thing. This sounds really good now. Like, okay, you got all this stuff going on.

• 17:16David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 17:16Ed Mylett?

  You're the Nickelodeon show, you're blowing up.

• 17:18David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 17:18Ed Mylett?

  But I'm picturing this dude kind of going to comedy stores all those years.

• 17:22David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 17:22Ed Mylett?

  Working on his act.

• 17:23David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 17:23Ed Mylett?

  I picture the guy, I want you to talk about this. Because you tie it together so freaking brilliantly, your work. Where your OJ's dad.

• 17:31David A. Arnold?

  Yes, Bobby.

• 17:32Ed Mylett?

  Bobby. He has this deal where you gotta get juice tickets. You need to tell them this and then I need them to see the special. But, but you fight, so a glass, one glass of juice and then water the rest of the day. But you actually, to make your dream come true.

• 17:47David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 17:48Ed Mylett?

  Kind of become him for a little while through necessity. So just give them this, please. I want them to pick. Cause there's a lot of people right now, they're driving, running on the treadmill or they're listening to this going, I got a dream and there is no evidence I should keep pursuing this. There's no evidence. It's like, I'm not profitable. In fact, I'm losing money. I'm bleeding money. I'm going through my old 401K from when I used to work somewhere else.

• 18:06David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 18:07Ed Mylett?

  And the pressure is caving in. Is this a sign, and maybe it is for some people.

• 18:10David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 18:11Ed Mylett?

  But is this a sign? How I gotta pack it in? So take them through that.

• 18:13David A. Arnold?

  Um, I just remember like coming up as a kid, you know, my, my stepfather, uh, you know, just money was tight. So he had, we broke rules, you know what I mean? Which was, you know what I mean? Like one, one glass of juice per kid per day was what we grew up with. I've never, you know, and of course the comedy is you exaggerated to, he gave us drink to. But you know what I mean? Which, which that's what it felt like, you know what I mean? It felt like when I walked in the room, he was like, uh, I think you had your glass of juice earlier at 11:15 this morning. I'm like, how do you know that? Right? But, but like that's how he was, you know what I mean?

• 18:47Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 18:48David A. Arnold?

  So I, I, I hated it. But then later in life, when I, when I quit my job, where I worked full-time as a nurse during the day and I started pursuing my stand-up. And we were just, we were broke and I just remember starting to have moments where I was like, no more like generic cereal, uh, you know, my children don't even know what Kool-Aid is. Which I feel like as a black man alone, I failed on that alone. Like my kid, my children like looked at Kool-Aid like this. What is this? Like, you know, they, they grew up with real juice. I didn't have real juice till I was 32.

• 19:24David A. Arnold?

  These kids been living a real, real juice their whole life. So like, I literally remember when they were two and four, like they, we lived, we cut quarters. We like, where your sis, but I think Ashlyn, my youngest, wore her oldest sister Anna Grace's clothes for the first four years of her life. Pass them. Down to her, she don't know.

• 19:48Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 19:49David A. Arnold?

  You know what I mean? So it's little things like that. And I just remember what like. I people don't, I used to stand outside one of the clubs called the Comedy Union, which is no longer there. And it was the club that I. I I was an urban club in Los Angeles, Pico and La Brea, where I spent a lot of time honing my act. They're the Comedy Store and Laugh Factory. And I would stand outside that club and sell DVDs of my stand up. Which was from other other places where I recorded different material, ten dollars a DVD. And this is not the town that you stand out in front of the club and sell DVD like this because your peers are here like you do that on the road. When you're doing it in front of the club in town, you really need money. And I would do it. And my wife tells the story of how I came home one night with a hundred and fifty dollars.

• 20:33David A. Arnold?

  Because I sold fifteen DVDs that night. And I she said, the pride that was on your face, I will never forget. And I remember that now. You know, and it's like, so now when our lives are different. It makes me think about those times and realizing that you have to, I had to go through that. To see how much I love it, how much I want it.

• 20:56Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 20:56David A. Arnold?

  If it's in me.

• 20:58Ed Mylett?

  If it's in.

• 20:58David A. Arnold?

  If I got that thing.

• 21:00Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 21:01David A. Arnold?

  You know what I'm saying? Like that's and I do. And that's why I'm still here.

• 21:04Ed Mylett?

  This phrase you use all the time, which is funny, but it ain't for the weak.

• 21:07David A. Arnold?

  No.

• 21:08Ed Mylett?

  And it's not.

• 21:09David A. Arnold?

  Mm hmm.

• 21:09Ed Mylett?

  Like winning, winning, life, breaking through ain't for the weak.

• 21:13David A. Arnold?

  It's not.

• 21:13Ed Mylett?

  It just isn't. And I don't know that I think a lot of people are always looking for techniques instead of this internal fortitude, this strength, this.

• 21:19David A. Arnold?

  Get up and go.

• 21:20Ed Mylett?

  Go, right? There's this, this is a part of people that are successful that. That you gotta dig for that in your life. Don't you also think, I want to ask you this, I don't know how spiritual or religious you are, but. Maybe like this is just the time you were ready for this now?

• 21:32David A. Arnold?

  One hundred percent, I know that.

• 21:35Ed Mylett?

  Elaborate a little bit. I'm thinking, I'm picturing you at thirty one, you're sober a year or two. I'm like, I wonder about a dangerous time.

• 21:40David A. Arnold?

  No, no, I wouldn't be married. I would, you know, none of these things would be what it is. I one hundred percent know in the getting this in my fifties is when I, when I. Needed it, when I should have it. My daughters are at the age where they need me in ways that they didn't need me before. My wife, all of the things, you know what I mean? Like it's not. There is, it's not lost on me that.

• 22:04David A. Arnold?

  The creator, the higher power, whatever works for you,

• 22:10David A. Arnold?

  brought these things into my life at this time in my life. Because I, even the thing, I'm walking through the airport in Atlanta, headed here, and I got stopped maybe four times for pictures and to say hello. And it feels great. It really feels great. I'm not gonna lie. It feels fantastic for people to recognize something that I've been working on every day for 28 years. It feels good. But, there is a, there's a glass ceiling to that feeling. It only goes so far. You know what I mean? Because I can see beyond that.

• 22:42Ed Mylett?

  I do.

• 22:43David A. Arnold?

  And for so many years, I've been in this town, watching people blow up and go away.

• 22:48Ed Mylett?

  Gosh, that's so true.

• 22:49David A. Arnold?

  And I've seen people be famous, but broke.

• 22:52Ed Mylett?

  Me too.

• 22:53David A. Arnold?

  And I don't want to be any of those things.

• 22:56Ed Mylett?

  Anybody ever think you're Maxwell?

• 22:58David A. Arnold?

  No.

• 22:59Ed Mylett?

  I told my wife.

• 23:00David A. Arnold?

  Yes, I've heard that. Yes, I have.

• 23:01Ed Mylett?

  You have got to have heard this. Maybe his older brother, maybe no offense, but come on.

• 23:05David A. Arnold?

  Any light skin.

• 23:08Ed Mylett?

  The bone structure, everything.

• 23:09David A. Arnold?

  Yes, I have heard that.

• 23:10Ed Mylett?

  All you guys, just Google Maxwell and then watch YouTube.

• 23:13David A. Arnold?

  And David A. Arnold, you tell me.

• 23:14Ed Mylett?

  Tell me if there's just a little shred that I'm right about it. Okay, just trust me. All right. You can use it. No, but so, there you go.

• 23:24Ed Mylett?

  So, I'm curious what this process is like. I want them to go through this grind with you. You have an hour act, right?

• 23:30David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 23:30Ed Mylett?

  And I speak, and I know what it's like to even get tired of hearing from myself. What does it look like when you start creating material all the way to the special? How many hours go into this? Are you, when are you writing? When do the concepts come up? How many, how many sets do you have to do to where you're like, this is tight now? I own this, this, this is the creative process to have one special? Because I think the other thing that's underestimated is just the amount of precise grinding and working required to become outstanding at what you do.

• 23:57David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 23:57Ed Mylett?

  That part of the process.

• 23:59David A. Arnold?

  Yeah, that's a great question. You know, every comedian is different. Some people, comedians would like to go, I don't write nothing down. It's all, you know, I'm not that person. I'm not that good. I, my bits come from being in the moment and living and having the experiences. You know.

• 24:14Ed Mylett?

  But are you in the experience of Mr. K? Are you in the experience going, this could be a bit?

• 24:17David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 24:18Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 24:18David A. Arnold?

  I'm all, I'm, comedians are very, uh, you know, introverted people. We, we, we're very on top of everything we're thinking and feeling, like everything, like all the information that comes at us. As it's coming to us, we're evaluating and giving our opinion on it in our head. Like, so any interaction with you, my wife, the, any, like constantly, that's just where I'm at, right? And so like for me, when I started going out and working out for, uh, to do It Ain't For The Week, um, I went, I think we did, um, I, I want to say we did thirty cities, which is comedy clubs and you know, I, I do five shows a weekend. So you take that thirty times five, it's about a hundred and fifty sets, right?

• 25:03David A. Arnold?

  An hour and twenty minutes is normally what I'm on stage doing. And, you know, you do this again and again and again, and I record all of my material. I record every set that I do and I go back and when I'm on the treadmill or I'm in the gym the next day working out, I listen to it. So I can go, oh, that's good. Nope, that's no good. I don't need that. Get that. Like it's work. It's a process and that's, I do it again. It's reps. It's like, you know, it's like how you get tone again, again, again, again, again. Like that's literally it.

• 25:29Ed Mylett?

  I think the tolerance for that is for very few people, brother. I mean, this is everything, like even salespeople that are listening to this right now, like, do you, are you that on your presentation? Are you that on your clothes? Are you that on your nuance? I've been watching where you go huh huh. Even some of your, some of your transfers of your laughing and the rhythm and how you keep it together. Chappelle bumped that mic on his leg, right? Like, these are little things that if you're watching the best of the best, you should be breaking them down and the subtleties of what they do. Sebastian Maniscalco will go, not go very long, me too, won't go that very long until he moves his body a particular way, right? Like he's not a standstill guy.

• 26:04David A. Arnold?

  Right.

• 26:04Ed Mylett?

  So, but in every career, it's the precision. It's, it's, Nick Saban for Alabama says, we don't practice until we get it right. We practice until we can't get it wrong.

• 26:14David A. Arnold?

  That's right.

• 26:14Ed Mylett?

  And it's just a different standard of the best. And, and, and David, you guys is the best. For me right now, it's the best set that I've watched maybe ever, but certainly as long as I can, as, as long as I can recall.

• 26:28David A. Arnold?

  That, that, you know what? I tell, like, cause I teach one of the largest standup comedy classes in the country.

• 26:33Ed Mylett?

  I didn't know that.

• 26:34David A. Arnold?

  And I've been doing it for ten years and I stopped doing it during the pandemic. I have well over 300 plus people on my waiting list. And I'm about to do a seminar, which I haven't done it in two years. I'm about to do it in like next month and we're just doing two days. And I miss it because I love talking about the art of stand up. You know, and one of the things that I tell people when I do my stand up, it's, it's my, it's, it's in my muscle. It's in my muscle memory. Like when I start to do material and I start to tell stories, I'm in a certain place when I hit this joke. When I'm like, there's, it, it becomes that where it's locked in, but there's still enough room for me to be David. There's still enough room for it to be the same, but it's a little different.

• 27:17Ed Mylett?

  Yep, yep.

• 27:18David A. Arnold?

  You know what I mean? And so like even now, like working on, I'm working, like the night I did, it ain't for the week. That night I have not done any of that material since that night.

• 27:26Ed Mylett?

  Is that right?

• 27:26David A. Arnold?

  Not one joke. And the next day, the next week I was on to, and I'm doing a new tour called Pace Yourself now. And I've been out, we're doing 30 more cities.

• 27:35Ed Mylett?

  Go see him.

• 27:35David A. Arnold?

  And I literally have not done one, and I'm doing a whole new hour and 20 minutes. Now, this is the benefit. This comes from having done stand up for 28 years under the radar. Nobody's seen me.

• 27:50Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 27:50David A. Arnold?

  So they don't know that I'm like this, this caged animal that's been working forever. And now I'm finally getting a chance to run out in the wild.

• 28:01Ed Mylett?

  It's amazing to me.

• 28:05David A. Arnold?

  You know?

• 28:06Ed Mylett?

  It's one of the best stories ever because it, you know, although you have had this financial success you were talking about.

• 28:10David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 28:10Ed Mylett?

  This notion of all this time under the radar to be that good. Now let me ask you this, by the way, one little lesson he said there, just want to add everyone, just so that everyone's listening. I think you gotta be obsessed. So like, it's really, comedy's really never off for you. Like you're with your family, you're present.

• 28:23David A. Arnold?

  Right, yes.

• 28:24Ed Mylett?

  But like, you're still looking for your craft in it.

• 28:26David A. Arnold?

  I can't help it.

• 28:27Ed Mylett?

  Right, that's the greats at anything like.

• 28:29David A. Arnold?

  Yeah, I can't help it.

• 28:29Ed Mylett?

  By the way, you entrepreneurs, like there's healthy obsessions in life, right? And like, so no matter what I'm ever doing, when I'm watching someone do something, I'm watching them speak. I'm wa, I'm looking for a business clue. I'm watching a television, like that strategy would work in this business I've got. It's never far from me. I'm always amazed by people say, I want to be the best. Or I want to be great, or I want to be a millionaire.

• 28:50David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 28:50Ed Mylett?

  Yet they're willing to escape their craft for long periods of time.

• 28:54David A. Arnold?

  No, I can't do it.

• 28:54Ed Mylett?

  Me either. And then I'm on vacation. I'm still sort of in my mode. Looking at people, picking up stuff. That would be inspiring. That might be a business I could solve. That problem with this product is always there.

• 29:06David A. Arnold?

  Yes, always. As when you, because it's who you are.

• 29:11Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 29:11David A. Arnold?

  And you can't, when it's, when it, when what you do is who you are, you can't turn it off.

• 29:17Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 29:17David A. Arnold?

  You know what I mean? Like, I can't, like, my, my family knows when they're around me, like, here he goes. Dad, don't start. Like, if I pull out my phone and start texting while they're talking, I'm like, don't, uh-uh, that's not gonna be a bit. Like, they know when it hits me in the moment, like, because I, I see life through a diff- comedians, we see life through a lens that civilians do not.

• 29:39Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:39David A. Arnold?

  That's just how we're wi- I've been wired like that now. Like, the more, so unfortunately, the more tragic it is, the quicker comedy comes to us. Like, we've had friends who have died in the, in the, in the comedy community that passed away. If you're on some of these text threads with us comedians, it's dark.

• 29:59Ed Mylett?

  Right away.

• 30:00David A. Arnold?

  Eme- like, everybody's waiting for, how long before we can, like, how long, well, what, do we just, can you see the funeral home behind you in the rearview mirror? Let's go. Like, we start, like, and they, knowing that the comedian who passed away, if they were here, would be on that thread.

• 30:17Ed Mylett?

  They'd be laughing their ass off with it.

• 30:18David A. Arnold?

  Exactly. It's just who we are.

• 30:20Ed Mylett?

  I remember when Norm died, and like, immediately, good friends of mine, I was on some threads with them, I'm like, wow, this quickly, geez, my god.

• 30:27David A. Arnold?

  No time. No Bob Saget, who I had a chance to work with, same thing.

• 30:32Ed Mylett?

  Like, right away.

• 30:32David A. Arnold?

  Exactly. But it's just because it's in us, it's who we are. And if you are a salesman, if you, whatever you do, if, if you work, if you're a trainer, if you are a nutritionist, you see life through a different lens.

• 30:48David A. Arnold?

  You just like you, you, somebody will bring you a, what could look like a beautiful meal to me. And a nutritionist will look at that and go, all the sodium, look at all like, something I will never see.

• 31:00Ed Mylett?

  Yep, exactly right. Yep, those are people that are great. Those are people that are great. I'm just telling you, this whole thing in personal development right now, it's like you need to be present where you are. I completely believe that. That doesn't mean, like you, you probably have this too, even with my kids, like I do sometimes. I need to consciously put this phone down and just be in their presence.

• 31:18David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 31:18Ed Mylett?

  But at the same time, I'm, I never escape who I am, even in those moments. I might not type at that minute, I'm going, now this would be something inspiring.

• 31:26David A. Arnold?

  And I gotta hold on to it.

• 31:27Ed Mylett?

  Like I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm not, it's not coming off. And I think people take this stuff too literally, where they like escape their business or their craft. Like this is part of, like I don't, when I'm dead, I would like to be remembered for some of these things someday, right?

• 31:39David A. Arnold?

  Nice.

• 31:39Ed Mylett?

  Do you, do you, do you ever think about like, I suffer still, if I'm being honest, from some imposter syndrome. No matter how far down the road I've gone to whatever success there is or isn't that I've had, I still feel like this could go away tomorrow. And I work to keep it away. Now, I don't know if that's an unhealthy thing or a healthy thing, but this idea, I don't have like this notion like I've made it, or this is it, or I'm here. I'm just wondering how you are on that. Like, do you have a little bit of that? I'm running towards something, but I'm also running away from being broke again. I'm running away from being irrelevant again.

• 32:14David A. Arnold?

  Sure. I think I probably, because I'm still not where I wanna be, I'm not where, I don't think as much about it going away yet. You know what I mean? It's like, I think when you maybe hit like, I don't know, a certain pinnacle, you might feel, I don't, I don't feel that as much as I feel like I'm, I have more that I wanna do and I'm continuously looking for ways to accomplish things that I wanna accomplish. You know what I mean?

• 32:42Ed Mylett?

  Are you, is this all it was cracked up to be?

• 32:44David A. Arnold?

  Um.

• 32:45Ed Mylett?

  Really? Answer that real. Like where, when you got here 25 years ago, you had this vision of, hey, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna be writing on all these TV shows. I'm gonna have the number one show on Nickelodeon. I'm gonna have a special that everyone on the planet is talking about. There wasn't any social media, but man, I'm gonna walk through airports, people are gonna know me. I'm gonna buy a Porsche like you did last week when we record this thing, right? Like, all the stuff that, I know, wait, actually, it's sort of sick how much I know about you. It's creepy. But, but is it what it's cracked up to be or not yet?

• 33:17David A. Arnold?

  Not, not yet. This is, this is what it is, and this is what I believe, and I'm, like I said, I, it's not, I'm not done. I know I have so much more to do. But what I can say is that, and I heard Oprah talk about this. And you hear people say it, and you don't believe it until you get there, but it truly is about the journey.

• 33:36Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:37David A. Arnold?

  It really is about the journey. I don't want to be broke again.

• 33:41Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 33:41David A. Arnold?

  But I, and I, and I do want, like, you know, I'm just, like, I'm starting theaters in the next month, right? And going from comedy clubs to theaters, which is, you know, small theaters. Just because I ca- I guess I do have a fear, because every time I, my agents call me with another gig, I always think, "Nobody's coming."

• 33:56Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 33:57David A. Arnold?

  Every time.

• 33:58Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 33:58David A. Arnold?

  Every time. They're like, "I'm doing, I'm doing, I'm doing Pittsburgh, the Carne- Carne- um, Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh." "Nobody's coming." Like, that's all, I'm like, "What?" Like, they call me, and like, that's all I can, like, that thought.

• 34:10Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 34:11David A. Arnold?

  Keeps me up in the middle of the night sometimes.

• 34:13Ed Mylett?

  I love that, though.

• 34:14David A. Arnold?

  But that is also the thing that makes me get up and create.

• 34:18Ed Mylett?

  I think that's one of the elements of that thing.

• 34:21David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 34:21Ed Mylett?

  I think it's one of the little sub-particles of that thing.

• 34:24David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 34:24Ed Mylett?

  Is you're like, "Hey." Yeah, I do. I just feel like it's something that I want to always expose, like, little element. And for, look, everyone's recipe and formula of success, or bliss, or happiness is somewhat different.

• 34:33David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 34:34Ed Mylett?

  But there are, I think if you cut open, you, myself, anybody else that might be achieving beyond what a lot of people thought they would.

• 34:42David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 34:43Ed Mylett?

  There are elements of, if you cut us open, that are very, there's this, this sounds hokey, but there's this, our hearts similar. This heart, I mean, it's corny, but like, this heart of a champion, this will, this will.

• 34:54David A. Arnold?

  Heart of a champion.

• 34:55Ed Mylett?

  My, my new, I might even be writing about this next, I used to have this talk I gave called, "My will to win is not for sale." Meaning, you, I think a lot of people in life, you could have done this. You have this precious, beautiful family, this amazing wife who's stayed by you through difficult times, and

• 35:09David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 35:10Ed Mylett?

  You have these beautiful daughters, and I've got a beautiful family as well. There could have been, people would not have criticized you had at some point, 15 years ago, you just gone, "Look, man, I made a run at it." And it just didn't break through.

• 35:23David A. Arnold?

  Right.

• 35:23Ed Mylett?

  "I'm gonna go back to being nursing, or I'm gonna go sell Mercedes."

• 35:26David A. Arnold?

  Right, right.

• 35:26Ed Mylett?

  Like, and no one probably would have blamed you for that. But there was this thing in you, this is what I'm watching this man perform. I was like, this dude's will is different. He wouldn't sell his family's dreams. He wouldn't sell his dreams. Most men, most women, they can be bought with enough failure. Their will can be bought. There's a price tag. They're unwilling to pay. In other words, the price tag just gets too high.

• 35:49David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 35:50Ed Mylett?

  Right? And that's a poverty mentality, by the way. When I was broke, when I went shopping, I didn't get the thing I wanted. I get the thing I could afford. So I would flip price tags. What's it cost? What's it cost? What's it cost?

• 36:00David A. Arnold?

  Right.

• 36:00Ed Mylett?

  I think in life, if you're obsessed with what something's costing you, you're going to lose. But if you become obsessed with whether it's worth it, then that's different.

• 36:09David A. Arnold?

  That's true.

• 36:09Ed Mylett?

  And for me, I think most people, by the way, winning can buy someone's will to win. You've seen this in sports. Guy wins, fights like crazy to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Gets there, the will has been bought with that belt with a couple bucks.

• 36:21David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 36:22Ed Mylett?

  And that's the people that you described earlier, in my opinion, that go away. That become broke, that aren't famous anymore.

• 36:28David A. Arnold?

  You start to believe the things that people are telling you.

• 36:31Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 36:32David A. Arnold?

  You know what I mean? Like, even like, you've said some fantastic things about me, which I truly not only agree with.

• 36:43David A. Arnold?

  Listen, a part of me is successful is also believing that you deserve to be there.

• 36:48Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 36:49David A. Arnold?

  You know, and I agree with, but it does not fuel me or fool me to believe that there's not more and or that this can go away very quickly. Cause I, eventually it all go, listen, the curtain comes down. Exactly. The curtain comes down on every show.

• 37:06Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:07David A. Arnold?

  Michael Jackson was one of the biggest shows ever.

• 37:11Ed Mylett?

  That's right.

• 37:12David A. Arnold?

  And the curtain comes down. Frank Sinatra, some of the best, Joe Montell, like some of the Mike Tyson, like they're the greatest ever at whatever it is you do. Michael Jordan, the curtain always comes down. And what you have to look at is the things that I did. Did I give it my all? And was I the best that I could possibly be? Listen, I could stop today and I can tell my children that I was successful. When I moved to LA, I had two trash bags of clothes and three addresses to three comedy clubs. That's it. I didn't have any friends, I didn't have anybody to tell me, "Hey, man, you know, you should go." Nothing. And I walked from the rehab, which people did not know, to the Comedy Store,

• 37:57David A. Arnold?

  which is like five miles, to go do open mic. And sometimes I went there and it was the wrong day.

• 38:06Ed Mylett?

  Knew you weren't performing.

• 38:07David A. Arnold?

  And I had to walk back. But I did it every single time that I knew that that microphone was there.

• 38:14Ed Mylett?

  Oh, wow.

• 38:15David A. Arnold?

  And nobody knew. And there was times when I got on, when I showcased for Mitzi at the Comedy Store, one time and I got in because I was ready. I showcased for Jamie at the Laugh Factory one time and I got in because I made sure that I had been doing stand-up in other places, little bars everywhere where I could get up. So when I got a chance to go where I really wanted to go, I was prepared. You know what I mean? So like, I don't, I don't get caught up in a lot of, you know, the hype of a lot of it because there's still so much more I want to do.

• 38:50Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, but you were willing to do things most people weren't willing to do. By the way, this has confirmed something. There's a part of his special, everybody, where he becomes his grandfather. And you're talking about, he gets, you know, I was six years old, I'm eight, you know, I'm forty, I started work when I was forty years old, it's hilarious. But then there's this part, I wondered, I was gonna ask you this, where you talked about, "He's not lazy."

• 39:07David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 39:08Ed Mylett?

  And he walked. So there, you were actually referencing something that was true in that special about your walking. Oh, man, that inspires me so much.

• 39:14David A. Arnold?

  Yeah, that was a true story. I mean, like, that was, I remember walking, there's a distance between the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory on Sunset, which I don't know, maybe it's a mile and a half, maybe two miles, I'm not sure. But I've walked that hundreds of times since I've been here. Like, back and forth, maybe I can get on stage here, no, I can't get on stage here. So, and I remember walking at night, back and forth between these clubs, and I remember thinking about my grandfather. And I knew that he knew that I was not lazy like I was when he like he used to call me when I was a kid. I was nine and didn't want to work and lay asphalt all day. But I just had to find that thing inside of me.

• 39:59David A. Arnold?

  That was worth it for me to walk.

• 40:01Ed Mylett?

  Okay, I want to find out because you're gonna make me cry. So I want to find out what stuff is kind of true and what stuff is stretched a little bit. Okay, so so you first off, I'm just picturing this man walking with his family, little girls at home or whatever. And just rooting for him to make it like I just pictured this dude, right?

• 40:17David A. Arnold?

  Not at all. My children don't even know I have.

• 40:19Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, but I'm rooting for you back then is what I'm saying, right? But maybe.

• 40:23David A. Arnold?

  That's such a great visual.

• 40:25Ed Mylett?

  Maybe it's good for them to hear this, though, like I'm sure they know a lot of it. But I mean, that's just remarkable that you would do that for you and your family. What what?

• 40:32David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 40:32Ed Mylett?

  But this idea that were you really so I'm just picturing this guy like those either sitting there going and it's not going to happen for me. I picture a guy who's using drugs.

• 40:43David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 40:43Ed Mylett?

  He's been arrested multiple times. This is all true, right?

• 40:46David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 40:46Ed Mylett?

  Okay, finds himself many years later. Now he's sober, but he's still walking to even get gigs, right? People don't know. Was it was any of the part about you being incarcerated for nine days or whatever? Is that actually true?

• 40:57David A. Arnold?

  100% true story. Bakersfield. I got I got arrested for a fix it ticket. I was driving a car that did not have blink. No, it didn't have seat belts on it. They wanted me to put seat belts in the car. I found out it costs $600 to put seat belts in a car I paid $600 for. I'm not going to do that. So I was like, I'm gonna drive this car till it falls over and it did. And I left it on the side of the road. And I just walked home and I never thought about that car ever again. And I was somewhere drinking with my friends at Edwards Air Force Base like two years later. And they ran my name and a warrant came up and it was a fix it ticket that had turned into a warrant.

• 41:38David A. Arnold?

  So they took me to Bakersfield and kept me in jail for seven days and I just I realized. That ain't, I, I ain't got it. That ain't, that ain't dying about that life.

• 41:50Ed Mylett?

  One of the funniest things I've ever heard. I'm sure it's stretched, but like, he didn't want to get out of jail.

• 41:53David A. Arnold?

  No, all of that is true. The salt, the story.

• 41:57Ed Mylett?

  Please tell them this, please. This is unreal.

• 42:01David A. Arnold?

  It's so, this is how disconnected I was from this world.

• 42:05Ed Mylett?

  Okay, they need to know this to compare to where you are now. So you get locked up for a car you just left somewhere.

• 42:11David A. Arnold?

  Yes, two years early. Cause it didn't have seatbelts and I just left it.

• 42:15Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 42:15David A. Arnold?

  And then I went to jail, like two years, two years later, I got picked up, partying with my friends. They ran our name. My name came up. They took me up and they could, one's county can only hold you for so long for another county. They're not coming, LA is not coming to get me. They're not, you know what I mean? Like they're getting real criminals. This guy had a, he didn't have seatbelts in a pinto. I'm not, nobody's coming to get you. And they, so, but they could only hold me for seven days. So I knew I was going to have to do seven days. And I sat there for seven days and for seven days, I, the hardest part of being in there was eating that food without any salt.

• 42:54David A. Arnold?

  That is what I, I was like, I can't, I can't live in a world with no seasoning. Like literally, that is who I was. And my mother was like, what is wrong with you? Like, she's like, you're not worried about any of the other things that could happen. They're raping people in there. People are getting shanked and your complaint is that there is no salt. That's who I was. It's the truest story in the world.

• 43:17Ed Mylett?

  Unreal. And just flash that forward to now. It's just, it's like, probably even for you, it's funny, but to hear it from an outside perspective, like, my God, it's a remarkable life. It's remarkable. And it's a testimony to like, just wanting something so bad, isn't it? And working so hard at it.

• 43:32David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 43:33Ed Mylett?

  It's that thing.

• 43:34David A. Arnold?

  And I, and what's crazy is like, and I, and, and, and I don't know, and maybe you can tell me how, sometimes I'm afraid

• 43:45David A. Arnold?

  to say out loud what I really want. Because I'm afraid that I'm going to fail and not get it.

• 43:52Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 43:53David A. Arnold?

  So if I don't say it out loud, it's not out there.

• 43:55Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 43:56David A. Arnold?

  And therefore I didn't fall short.

• 43:58Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 43:58David A. Arnold?

  Like, and, and, and I'm, I'm gonna say this for the first time here. I want.

• 44:07David A. Arnold?

  To play in arenas.

• 44:08Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 44:11David A. Arnold?

  I've never said it out loud.

• 44:13Ed Mylett?

  Okay, we got you. I can see it on your face. Look at you.

• 44:16David A. Arnold?

  I've never said that. I believe

• 44:21David A. Arnold?

  that I have it.

• 44:24David A. Arnold?

  The work ethic that I put into my craft

• 44:31David A. Arnold?

  deserves it and I'm good enough. And so like now as I'm going out to perform in these, you know, these, these thousand, twelve hundred, maybe the biggest is eighteen hundred seat venues. And I'm nervous that I'm like, I'm gonna be performing for three hundred people in a venue that holds eighteen. Like that is my biggest fear, right? That even if, even if that is the case, that still will not stop me. You know what I mean? Like I've, like I, I remember standing in, I remember performing in New York at Danger Fields. I needed to do a half hour to get the hundred and fifty dollars I needed for my rent that night. And it was a room that held three hundred and fifty people and it was two people in the audience.

• 45:18David A. Arnold?

  And I did that, I did that time, the week after my, this last Netflix special, it ain't for the week. I put it in the can. I'm in a theater in Cleveland. The next week I'm in Columbia, South Carolina. Room holds four hundred people. There were nine people in the audience. I did an hour and forty-five minutes that night. I had one of the best sets I've ever had in my life.

• 45:41David A. Arnold?

  Because I knew now that I was in my element.

• 45:46David A. Arnold?

  So I know what I wanna do and I've never said that out loud.

• 45:49Ed Mylett?

  This is why I do what I'm doing. I, I, uh, I'm gonna be there when you do it. I'm gonna be there when you do it and we're gonna, we're gonna help you do it. I see it on your face, like it's really deep in you, that you wanna be there.

• 46:04David A. Arnold?

  I didn't, I didn't, I didn't get into this business to be one of the people that, oh yeah, and he's funny too.

• 46:10Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 46:11David A. Arnold?

  I got into this business to be one of the best storytellers and to be one of the funniest people and to cut across all nationalities.

• 46:21Ed Mylett?

  You do.

• 46:21David A. Arnold?

  All ages of everything because I believe that the stand, I mean, the stuff I do is family and life and to me, that's, that's universal.

• 46:32Ed Mylett?

  Let me say something to you. One, you, I am blessed that I do get to sometimes speak in big arenas.

• 46:36David A. Arnold?

  Right.

• 46:37Ed Mylett?

  So I kinda, when I watch people, it's, man, I just wish I was recording the conversation the night that I watched you because it doesn't even matter, you wouldn't believe me anyway. But I, I literally said, this dude should be in the arenas like Sebastian is.

• 46:51David A. Arnold?

  Right.

• 46:52Ed Mylett?

  For a couple of reasons.

• 46:53David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 46:53Ed Mylett?

  One, you already have the type of, you know, it's a different projection, a different energy to fill a big room than it is a small room.

• 47:00David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 47:00Ed Mylett?

  You already kind of, you, you fit the room.

• 47:03David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 47:03Ed Mylett?

  But you could easily overwhelm a room. Like you have the presence and the charisma and the energy to do 50,000 people if you wanted to.

• 47:11David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 47:11Ed Mylett?

  That's number one. The other thing you do that's really uniquely nuanced, you do crossover, you do meet everybody, yet you do it in a way, and this is really unique, where although you're completely aware of who you are still. So although you do reach all demos, some people do that by sort of a lack of authenticity about who they really are. Still very clear who you are, still very clear where you come from.

• 47:33David A. Arnold?

  Sure.

• 47:33Ed Mylett?

  Still really clear how you were raised, yet you are able to nuance that in such a way that you do reach all different types of people.

• 47:40David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 47:40Ed Mylett?

  Someone could be black, white, Hispanic, Asian, religious, non-religious, 65-year-old laughing their ass off at your content, or 19-years-old laughing about stuff too.

• 47:49David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 47:50Ed Mylett?

  It's, so that's absolutely a fact for you. And we're gonna help you do that. I, I like, I can see how, a big deal. Is that more important to you than even like being on TV, being in a movie, being anything like that?

• 48:01David A. Arnold?

  Um, the, the movie, the movies have never been something that I was like, oh, I wanna be in a movie. Like, I've always wanted to be a dad on TV. Because my grandfather, my dad, those were the funniest people in the world to me.

• 48:14Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 48:15David A. Arnold?

  You know, and the examples that we saw from the TV fathers I grew up with, Bill Cosby was one. Unfortunately, you know, it comes with an asterisk next to it now, but I still.

• 48:26David A. Arnold?

  Connected to that character.

• 48:28Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 48:29David A. Arnold?

  And, you know, that's what I've always wanted to do. I, the two things I've always wanted to do was to, when I put, when my name goes up on a marquee, I want people to see it and wanna come and know that this dude is gonna take us.

• 48:44Ed Mylett?

  He's gonna deliver. It's an experience.

• 48:46David A. Arnold?

  Yes, it's gonna be fun.

• 48:47Ed Mylett?

  Uh, then one other thing, and I'm gonna stop complimenting you. There's no, um, usually when you listen to an album of somebody, I'm talking about a music album. You're like, these two songs play well. These are the six fillers.

• 48:57David A. Arnold?

  Exactly.

• 48:57Ed Mylett?

  A lot of comedy specials, you're like, hey, you gotta hear him say these two bits, right?

• 49:01David A. Arnold?

  These are the jokes, right?

• 49:02Ed Mylett?

  That is not your stuff. Every freaking minute is full. There are no down ones. It's, it's, I'm telling you, it's an experience. And that's why I wanted to communicate, I wanted to see what's he like in person too. Which is exactly the same way. I'm a couple more things I wanna ask you, cuz you're too, too valuable of a brain not to pick it some more. What do you tell your daughters about either life or success? They're watching you, there's some notoriety aspect of yours, but like, I could tell there's a closeness there that's pretty remarkable with your family.

• 49:26David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 49:27Ed Mylett?

  Obviously, your wife is an amazing woman.

• 49:29David A. Arnold?

  She is.

• 49:29Ed Mylett?

  And, and I love what she says even in the documentary about you, maybe the two of you were like soulmates, born to be with each other. You know, she says that, you know, I'm sure on the good days, on the bad days, maybe she's, she questions that. But what do you, what do you do? Do you have those conversations with your daughters about success or life? And what do you tell them?

• 49:47David A. Arnold?

  Sure, I, listen, success, every, and this, and this was something I was gonna start earlier when I was telling you about where I came from and the clothes, the trash bag of clothes. Success is, is relative to everybody's life.

• 50:01Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 50:02David A. Arnold?

  You know what I mean? Like, success does not mean that I have to be in arenas. I started with two trash bags and three comedy clubs. If I never do any more than I did right now, I'm successful. I started with nothing and I have two very good stand-up specials and I can make a great living performing at comedy clubs the rest of my life, if that's what I wanted to do. I'm successful. I think that success is relative to who you are. I tell my daughters that all the time. You have to decide what you deem success to be. Because success for one person could mean,

• 50:35Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 50:36David A. Arnold?

  I'm not successful unless I win six NBA titles. Some people's success could be, I just made a living playing basketball.

• 50:43Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 50:44David A. Arnold?

  And I put my family through college and I did all the things. My grandfather, like I said, owned an asphalt company with an eighth grade education and put all of us through college. Some medical school, we have physicians and all in my family. And this from a man who had an eighth grade education. He was successful.

• 51:02Ed Mylett?

  Big time.

• 51:03David A. Arnold?

  He was so, my grandfather was so successful. That Cadillac that he drove us to Churchill every week. That he was, there was nobody more successful than my grandfather. My dad, an engineer and a race car driver. He's 72 years old right now, my father. He pulls his race car with his pickup trailer all around the country and drives. All of his pit crew and his friends have passed away, but my dad still goes out there and races by himself. He's successful.

• 51:33Ed Mylett?

  He is successful. I have a sister who's a school teacher. She's blind. Pretty much, she's legally blind. She's diabetic. Super successful because she's living her dream. See, I think success is that when you're, the life you're living matches your expectations and vision for it.

• 51:48David A. Arnold?

  That's right.

• 51:48Ed Mylett?

  And for you and I, it's just, we're hard to be married to sometimes too because like, it's gonna keep growing. It's gonna keep expanding. And sometimes you'll have people around you like, hey, wait a minute. I thought this was it. And then we were gonna relax. You're like, that's not, it's the journey. It's not just one place. I wanna see, I want my own expansion as a person.

• 52:06David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 52:06Ed Mylett?

  My reach, you know, what makes me happy. By the way, Eddie, your dad. My dad's name was Eddie also. But my, he reminds me in the way he carries himself in your documentary of my dad. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's a, my dad had a, even though my dad was a drinker, you know, when he was a.

• 52:24David A. Arnold?

  So was my dad. He's sober now too.

• 52:27Ed Mylett?

  Is that right?

• 52:27David A. Arnold?

  Mm-hmm. Eddie?

• 52:28Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm. That's interesting.

• 52:29David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 52:30Ed Mylett?

  I don't know. There's a, my dad had a dignity or an elegance to him that just, I'd like to kinda have.

• 52:36David A. Arnold?

  A pride.

• 52:37Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, pride. And I saw that in your dad, just in the little interactions you had with him.

• 52:41David A. Arnold?

  That's my dad.

• 52:41Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. I wanna ask you a couple more things just because I'm so fascinated by you and your daughters. Is it accurate? Cause you seem to have this great marriage. Was there really a really, in Fat Ballerina, you talk a little bit about a bumpy time in your marriage.

• 52:54David A. Arnold?

  Of course.

• 52:54Ed Mylett?

  What, what really changed it? Like, how have you built a good marriage? Like, people listen to this, they're like, hey, I'm blowing up in my career. And the truth is, every time, most people ask me, how do I get the support at home? In other words. Oftentimes, their career success seems to be creating friction in their relationship.

• 53:13David A. Arnold?

  No.

• 53:14Ed Mylett?

  Not for you?

• 53:15David A. Arnold?

  No, okay, well, my wife is a performer. My wife was the third African-American woman to dance online with the New York Radio City Rockettes. She was a Rockette when I met her. She was, when my wife, my wife also toured and danced with Jimmy Buffett in his band, the Corriffa Band. She was in his band for five years. My wife has done many Broadway tours. She's done hundreds of commercials. She hosted a TV show on ABC called Made in Hollywood. She's, knows this business. She's, she was successful when I met her. She was way above and beyond what I was doing. My wife was flying around on private jets when I met her with Jimmy Buffett. You know, I was like, I remember the first-

• 53:53Ed Mylett?

  You took her all the way to One Juice.

• 53:55David A. Arnold?

  Right, exactly. When I met my wife, I was like, you should come see me, you should come see me perform. I'm at, I'm gonna be at the Comedy Store in the Belly Room. It's about, you know, hold about 80 seats. And my, and my wife for a long time never told me what she did. And then one day she was like, you know, I'm gonna be performing in Vegas. And I went, she's stripping, right? And I went to, I went to Vegas and she had these tickets they left for me. And I'm like, where are you performing? She said MGM Grand. And I said, what? I walk in, heard Jimmy Buffett on stage, you know, they got the Jumbotrons. Camera hits my wife and she winks because she knows I'm out there somewhere. And I said, I gotta have it. Oh, I gotta have it.

• 54:34David A. Arnold?

  So like, when you have a woman who knows, I've never once ever heard anything from my wife, except for, keep going, go do it. Do it. You got it.

• 54:50Ed Mylett?

  I love it.

• 54:51David A. Arnold?

  Now, do we argue? Yes, we argue. We, we, we almost got a divorce, you know, many years back because, you know, of life. I messed, you know, I messed up as men do. I've, I've done all the wrong things. I'm, I, I called her father and told her father that I messed up. I called her parents and told them, I'm, I want, that's the thing that comes with being sober and, you know, I'm, I'm not afraid to be wrong.

• 55:15Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 55:16David A. Arnold?

  I'm not afraid to be wrong. I was like, I, I did these things, but let me explain to you why. And we had our whole, like, we went through a lot of stuff, but I think, and now me and my wife argue. Like, we argue. We'll argue in front of you. You know what I mean? I think I talk about that in the special. Like, that's who we are. Like, we do, we are the most real people, and yes, sometimes I wanna leave and sometimes she wants me to leave. But I don't know where it is, how it is. We, me and my wife can have a drop-down, drag-out, fire of an argument, and then soon it's over. It's like, so what we, what you wanna eat?

• 55:52Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome, though.

• 55:53David A. Arnold?

  I don't know how we got there. I think it's because, I don't know. I don't know, but...

• 55:58Ed Mylett?

  I think people don't take, I don't think people, um, in anything in life, have an appreciation for, like, experience and longevity together, even in anything. Like, one of the reasons you're successful in your comedy career is like, you just got a ton of experience.

• 56:12David A. Arnold?

  Yes.

• 56:13Ed Mylett?

  A ton of experience.

• 56:13David A. Arnold?

  Twenty-eight untapped years.

• 56:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, like, they're, like, that's, that's, there's, that's a really, really big deal. Same in a relationship. Like, if you just got experience together over time.

• 56:22David A. Arnold?

  Yeah.

• 56:23Ed Mylett?

  There's a depth to that.

• 56:23David A. Arnold?

  How long you been married?

• 56:24Ed Mylett?

  Twenty-five years.

• 56:25David A. Arnold?

  Yeah, I've been married nineteen.

• 56:26Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I met my wife when I was five, and we dated in high school. That's no joke.

• 56:31David A. Arnold?

  Wait, what?

• 56:32Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I know.

• 56:32David A. Arnold?

  Wait, wait, what? When you were five?

• 56:34Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, yeah, literally. We didn't, you know, we, with the same school, but she grew up down the street from me. We went to high school together.

• 56:40David A. Arnold?

  Really?

• 56:40Ed Mylett?

  Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy. I know. And by the way-

• 56:43David A. Arnold?

  Where are you from?

• 56:45Ed Mylett?

  Well, we grew up in Southern California. I was born in Boston, but I grew up in Southern California.

• 56:47David A. Arnold?

  Oh, I'm going to Boston. I'm doing a Wilbur Theater in Boston.

• 56:49Ed Mylett?

  Well, you're doing some other things in Massachusetts that are really cool coming up, like, today, as a matter of fact, too. Your life's unbelievable. All right, last thing I wanna ask you, by the way, I wanna, first, first, I wanna have you back when you do your next special.

• 57:00David A. Arnold?

  Oh, my God, yes.

• 57:00Ed Mylett?

  And I wanna have you back when you, uh, when we're doing arenas. I want to make sure that I have you back.

• 57:05David A. Arnold?

  Now I feel pressure.

• 57:07Ed Mylett?

  No.

• 57:07David A. Arnold?

  I said it out loud.

• 57:08Ed Mylett?

  Like, there's been very few people, listen, man, I've done hundreds of shows, I've got, you know, I've got a family and businesses and speaking and all this stuff that I do, and I got my own show out right now, Nosy, Change with Ed, my lead on Nosy. But, um, but I gotta tell you, I'm like, uh, super interested in you, obviously, I feel like I know maybe a creepy amount of information about you at this stage for only knowing who you were for a little window of time, but like, I know a lot, by the way, we got through like 5% of my questions here.

• 57:34David A. Arnold?

  What?

• 57:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, because I know so much about you, but let me ask you this last.

• 57:37David A. Arnold?

  Uh huh.

• 57:38Ed Mylett?

  Someone ran into you at a Starbucks right now, right? They've listened to the show, they're like, I was really inspired by your story, by the type of life you're living, what your breakthroughs, the struggles you've had, your upbringing, all of it, the way you communicate, obviously your heart too, you still you're a good man. It's a guy who was in jail for a week.

• 57:55David A. Arnold?

  And now he's, you know, got the best special on the planet earth, it's unbelievable.

• 57:59Ed Mylett?

  And they said, hey, I want to be successful, and I'm just like, I'm just treading water right now, and could you, what would you say to me that might nudge me forward? It could be any piece of information, anything I should remember, anything I should think or do, I mean, just anything, if I had two minutes with you, what would you say to them?

• 58:16David A. Arnold?

  I would say that what you're feeling is exactly what you're supposed to be feeling, because anything worth anything is not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be hard, it's supposed to make you feel like you feel, which is, maybe I shouldn't do this, maybe this is a mistake, maybe I should quit. Nobody around me believes in you, and the hardest part is sometimes the people that are closest to you will be the ones that will give up on you first. Even your agents, even your, your, like, that's real, you have to want what you want hard enough that cuts through all of that, and you have to find.

• 58:59David A. Arnold?

  That thing and whether or not you have that thing that makes this thing that you want, not having it unacceptable. It has to be, you can't, you have to be able to go, can I live without it? Can I go to bed at night, wake up one day knowing that I was, I said I wanted to do something and I gave up and I'm okay with going, I'd let that one go.

• 59:26Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 59:27David A. Arnold?

  I can't do that.

• 59:28Ed Mylett?

  Me neither.

• 59:29David A. Arnold?

  Not for, not for, not for something, there's some things where I'm going, oh yeah, I'm gonna jump out of plane, yeah, I'm fine.

• 59:36David A. Arnold?

  I'm past that, right, you know what I mean? But like, there's some things that, that, some things are not negotiable and there's some dreams that are not for sale.

• 59:46Ed Mylett?

  Oh boy, that's really, really good. Really, really good, yeah. I don't even want to add to that except for that negotiable part. Negotiate the price in advance.

• 59:53David A. Arnold?

  Yeah, know your worth.

• 59:55Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, know your worth. One of my favorite conversations of all time.

• 59:58David A. Arnold?

  Dude, I, I gotta be honest with you and I've been, cause I've been on like a little tour, doing a lot of media stuff, you know, because, for the special. You know, when you sit and talk to somebody who really has done their homework.

• 1:00:12Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:13David A. Arnold?

  You know, and I did the same, I watched a lot of your work and I was like, this dude is like, is firing on a different frequency.

• 1:00:19Ed Mylett?

  Thank you, brother.

• 1:00:20David A. Arnold?

  And everybody does not do that.

• 1:00:22Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. I know when I meet someone, I'll know the rest of my life and I'm gonna know you the rest of my life.

• 1:00:25David A. Arnold?

  I feel like that, I agree.

• 1:00:26Ed Mylett?

  I just feel like that. I hope I outlive you, but having said that.

• 1:00:29David A. Arnold?

  Well, you look like you're going to. This dude is in shape, I feel like I need to go do some crunches.

• 1:00:34Ed Mylett?

  You're in great shape too. I said you look like Maxwell, one of the best compliments I could ever give you in your life. Trust me, everybody. So where you want to go, where do you want him to go? We want to go get you on the road on this tour so we start filling up arenas.

• 1:00:45David A. Arnold?

  Oh man, DavidAArnold.com right now, the tour is called Pace Yourself. You can see, obviously you can go, you have to put in the A. A lot of people put in David Arnold. If you put it, if you put in David Arnold, you're gonna get the white guy that does the soundtracks with James Bond, that ain't me. You gotta put in David A. Arnold. You can get me on social medias all across the platform and if you go to my website, it'll take you right to the cities where we're going. This is just the first half, like the next, we haven't even announced the, the back, you know, the back.

• 1:01:14Ed Mylett?

  I'm gonna drop an email for you, I told you that.

• 1:01:16David A. Arnold?

  Oh, that would be fantastic.

• 1:01:16Ed Mylett?

  So guys, listen to me, his social media is so damn entertaining, you're gonna be wanting to watch it just because your life will be enriched by it. And by the way, go get It Ain't For The Week on Netflix, and that girl Lele on Nickelodeon is the number one show on there right now. This guy's got a lot going on right now, so I'm really grateful you made the time and snuck in between flights to be here.

• 1:01:32David A. Arnold?

  So glad to see you, man. I'm looking forward to lunch and everything.

• 1:01:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, me too. All right, everybody, God bless you, share this show today, you know this one's gonna be fire, it's gonna be viral, share it with as many people as you can, go get the power of one more, my book, it's still out there, number one book in the world, God bless you, Max out.