I WANT TO BE BABYGIRL Ft. Jake Cornell | Episode 180

The hilarious Jake Cornell is here this week!! Drew and Jake talk about dirty martinis, gay zebras, Sex and the City, being champagne girls, straight culture, and so much more. Jake IG: https://www.instagram.com/jakewcornell/?hl=en Jake Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jakewcornell?lang=en Follow The Comment Section on IG! https://www.instagram.com/thecommentsection/?hl=en Good News for Great Hair: The Best Haircare is at Sephora. www.sephora.com/shop/hair-products Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:32Speaker 01

  Yo, I fucking hate when you're talking shit about yourself and someone's like, "Don't talk to my friend that way." I'm like, "Don't talk to your friend that way."

• 0:38Drew Afualo?

  Shut up.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  "Don't talk to your friend that way. Let me be mean to myself."

• 0:47Drew Afualo?

  Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Comment Section Show. Sorry, me, your fave, everybody knows me, who cares about me. Onto the guests. Today, we have the iconic, the legendary, the unbelievably hilarious Jay Cornell.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me.

• 1:02Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my God. Thank you so much for coming.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  Truly a dream.

• 1:04Drew Afualo?

  We've been passing ships for a while.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  We really have.

• 1:06Drew Afualo?

  So it's nice that we're meeting.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  We've had, we've had dates, and then we've had to do the very, like, thing of like, "Hey, sorry, I actually can't do that date. Can we change that?"

• 1:12Drew Afualo?

  We have. We were playing Cat and Mouse.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. But I knew, I trusted that it wasn't a lie. I knew every time. I was like, "She wants me there. She's not working on this time." And I hope she knows the same, and I'm rescheduling.

• 1:21Drew Afualo?

  And now I got you right where I want you.

• 1:25Drew Afualo?

  Sat and ready.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  There's weapons all over.

• 1:28Drew Afualo?

  I did tell you to hold this for when we started rolling the cameras, but recently you went on a cruise.

• 1:32Speaker 01

  Yes, I did recently go on a cruise with my mother and my sister.

• 1:35Drew Afualo?

  This episode is presented by Sephora. So, look, everyone's hair is doing its own thing. Curls, coils, color damage, frizz that has a mind of its own? Yeah, we've all been there. But Sephora, she gets it. No matter what's going on up top, they've got the products to treat it, tame it, or turn heads. We're talking shampoos, deep treatments, hair tools, masks, the works. And the lineup, chef's kiss. We have Amika, Kerastase, K18, Day, all the heavy hitters. Sephora, good news for great hair. Shop now at Sephora.com. And how was it?

• 2:13Speaker 01

  It was, so here's the thing, this is the second year we've done it.

• 2:16Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  I've found that a cruise, if you want to take, if you want to go on a trip with your family, I think a cruise is like the perfect like situation because it is a container. You know what I mean? And if you think your family is fucked up, it's good to go on a ship with people that will be guaranteed more fucked up than yours. Do you know what I mean?

• 2:36Drew Afualo?

  Makes you feel good.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Like you're saying, it's like my sister's pissing my mom off and then we see someone like, just like absolutely blackout drunk screaming at someone. It's like, we're actually good.

• 2:43Drew Afualo?

  We're actually so good and we're evolved and we love each other.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 2:48Drew Afualo?

  Are you guys making an annual thing?

• 2:50Speaker 01

  I think, so this is the second year and I think at the first year I was like, annual thing. And then this, we did it for a second time and I was like, so we're gonna pivot. I think it's time. I was like, I think for like year three, we like change it up. You know what I mean?

• 3:00Drew Afualo?

  Go somewhere else.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 3:02Drew Afualo?

  Maybe not a ship.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Maybe not a ship, maybe, yeah, maybe not something that can, but like, and I do, like, we do have fun. My mom loves it. Like, my mom gets on the boat and she's like, well, I was born here. This is my home. And I'm like, like, truly.

• 3:13Drew Afualo?

  That's my family. That's my kid.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. She like knows the captain. I'm like, how'd you meet, like, what's going on? She's like texting us, she's like, should we go to this event? I'm like, where'd you find out about that? Like, she's like, it's crazy. She's like so integrated into it and so, but I think, maybe we try something just like a different cruise, because the thing is, we went on the same boat twice.

• 3:32Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  And so you're sort of like, oh, this is the same exact vacation.

• 3:36Drew Afualo?

  You're like reliving it.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 3:37Drew Afualo?

  Okay. What, what cruise did you guys do?

• 3:40Speaker 01

  I don't think, I'm realizing I don't think I can say because it was a brand deal and if I talk disparaging of it.

• 3:43Drew Afualo?

  Right, right, right, right. But it was fun though.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  But it was fun.

• 3:46Drew Afualo?

  Okay, what's your favorite part about a cruise?

• 3:48Speaker 01

  My favorite part? Okay, so I love, like especially when you're with family, it's very nice to like, it's sort of fucked up. It's like a little bit of Munchausen's. It's sort of nice to like not have a choice.

• 3:57Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 3:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like it takes away choice.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Because you know, like when you're like on a group vacation and like, there's just like the three hours of like where we should go for dinner. It's like, we're going there for dinner, unless you want to swim. You know what I mean? So it's like, it creates that.

• 4:10Drew Afualo?

  That's where dinner is. So that's where we'll be.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  It's sort of like when you like hook the car into the car wash and now you're like, we're going. It's like that for like five days.

• 4:17Drew Afualo?

  I like being brainless too on vacay.

• 4:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 4:20Drew Afualo?

  Are you a type A person?

• 4:22Speaker 01

  I'm, um.

• 4:23Drew Afualo?

  Or type B?

• 4:24Speaker 01

  Okay. I, here's my thing. I always say, I want there to be a plan, but I'm down for us to GVA from it at any point.

• 4:29Drew Afualo?

  Okay, you're so me.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's like.

• 4:31Drew Afualo?

  Not committing either way. You're so me.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. But it's sort of like, I don't want to go in with no plan because that means we are gonna sit around and be like, what should we do for like five hours?

• 4:41Drew Afualo?

  And that's the worst.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  And I hate that.

• 4:42Drew Afualo?

  Me too.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  But I also, if it's like, if something more fun comes up, let's go.

• 4:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's true. I love that.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  And I'm also like, um, money I've spent in the past never existed. So it's like, do you know what I mean? So like, we can buy tickets to something and then people are like, well, we should go, we can spend money on that. But I'm like, but I want to do the other thing. Like, the money that I spent, the money I spent on it is not real.

• 5:01Drew Afualo?

  And that wasn't me.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I bought tickets to a concert six months ago, and then I don't want to go to that concert six months later, that's on the artist and they're not seeing you there. Do you know what I mean? You lost me and you have my money, but I'm not coming.

• 5:14Drew Afualo?

  Sorry.

• 5:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:15Drew Afualo?

  I hate to break it to you, I hate to do this last minute, but I will not be coming.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  I'm calling them, they're like, who are you?

• 5:22Speaker 01

  I'm like emailing Laura's representation, I'm like, no, I actually love Laura. But like, I mean, and people will be like, hey, like, um, we had tickets, we're not gonna come, I'm so sorry, we can't make it. They're like, how'd you get this email? You know, it's like...

• 5:32Drew Afualo?

  No, that's actually so real. I like to say I have friends who are much more type A than me.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 5:38Drew Afualo?

  So when they're there, Carrie's one of them, she's right here. When she's there.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  She's got two screens in front of her right now, laptop, she's doing scheduling.

• 5:47Drew Afualo?

  She's literally actively working. Uh, when she's there, I'm like, I'm brainless.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:51Drew Afualo?

  I'm literally Nicole Kidman in Baby Girl.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 5:54Drew Afualo?

  And she's, um, the tall white guy, I don't remember his name.

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm starting to think that's what I need, wait, tall white guy, oh, Harris Dickinson.

• 6:00Drew Afualo?

  Yes, she's him. Like, and I'm, and I'm just Nicole Kidman, I'm just there for the ride.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:04Drew Afualo?

  Uh, I love that kind of thing.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like to be, the thing is like, I do, I think because, maybe you'll relate to this.

• 6:10Drew Afualo?

  Hmm.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Because I'm like loud and like a dominant personality and like will have some, I will like contributed opinion. I think people are just like, oh, we can do that. But I'm like, no, I want to be Baby Girl. I want someone to, I want someone to push back and no one thinks I want to be Baby Girl because I don't shut the fuck up.

• 6:25Drew Afualo?

  Right, born to be Baby Girl, forced to be the center of attention.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  Forced by me, forced by me, forced by me and the voices in my head.

• 6:32Drew Afualo?

  I'm like, no guys, I want to be able to openly complain about the plan, I don't want to make the plan.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  I recently ruined a night out so aggressively for my closest friends, where they wanted to... They... One of my friends like posited a plan. He's like, "I want to go to this party." It was in a group chat. I didn't want to go. And so first mistake, instead of saying, "I don't want to go," I just didn't respond to the text message, which is like, "Cardinal, send, just say what you don't want to do." I then find out that like a conversation happened in real life when I wasn't there that I was like, "Oh yeah, let's go." And through like a series of like me misunderstanding a few text messages or conversations, everyone got a ticket to this party except me, and then it sold out. So now I'm... Now everyone's betrayed me and I hate them. And I'm like, truly, I'm truly, I'm truly being like, I threw like a temper tantrum of like a five-year-old child. I was like, "Oh, so everyone got a ticket?"

• 7:23Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  And everyone, and I was like, "There's a toggle on your number. You could have added numbers and you'd never, no one thought to call." I live with two of you, no one thought to do. I was, they were like, "We sent you a text asking if you wanted to go." And I was like, "Yeah, but no one, you didn't communicate either way." I'm making up excuses either way. Miserable to be around for a week about this. My friend is like, "Hey, I found a ticket for you." And I was like, "Amazing, I'm so glad this worked out."

• 7:46Drew Afualo?

  I knew it would.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  I know it would.

• 7:48Drew Afualo?

  I knew it would. What you speak life into is what comes back.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  Here's the thing, but that brought me back to the original point, which is that even when, before I knew anyone had a ticket, I didn't want to go to this fucking party. Because I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. Because you had to wait outside for like an hour and a half in the New York cold. I was like, "I'm gonna be in a bad mood." And we had already planned to go to a different party that I knew I was going to like beforehand. And we were leaving that party to go to this party. Is there a gun to my head making me go to this party? Absolutely not.

• 8:13Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  We go to the party that, like our friend's party that we're going to before this party with the tickets.

• 8:18Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  We're having a great time. They're like, "Okay, it's time for us to go to the next party." I don't want to leave. I do leave. I then stay with them the entire time, complaining that we're there. Like, I was the most miserable version of myself. And there was part of me that was being like, "You suck to be around right now."

• 8:34Drew Afualo?

  But the parasites inside me.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it's any, there's a demon that is inside me. And then the next morning, I stayed there until, I stayed till 3:00 in the morning. And then I was like, I'm gonna go. And it's like, they were like, thank fucking god.

• 8:46Drew Afualo?

  Oh, really? Oh, okay.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  And then it was one of those things where I apologized the next morning. I was like, hey, guys, I don't really know like what was off in my brain chemistry. But I acknowledged that I was like a miserable to be around last night. Like, I'm really sorry about that. Like, that won't happen again. I should have just like done what I wanted to do and I followed the FOMO and it was a bad idea. And like, sort of expected like the group response to do like, oh no, like you were totally, and everyone was like, you were really bad. Thank you for apologizing.

• 9:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they're like, I forgive you. And you're pushing it.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. And never do it again.

• 9:12Drew Afualo?

  And knock it off.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:14Drew Afualo?

  That's actually so real. I think that's so funny. Even when we go to like Coachella, like when I went to Coachella this year, I'm gonna be 30. So.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:22Drew Afualo?

  Like, I aged out of shit a long time ago. And by that, I mean, a lot of standing, a lot of heat, a lot of kind of just looking in the same general direction. Not my idea of a good time anymore.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 9:34Drew Afualo?

  When I was younger, for sure. Now, not so much. So, when we go to Coachella, I like go with the most open intentions, just like we were talking about Taco Bell, approaching it with good intentions, right?

• 9:45Speaker 01

  So it can't hurt you.

• 9:45Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so it can't hurt me. That's how I approach Coachella. I'm like, good intentions.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 9:49Drew Afualo?

  But I reserve the right to do nothing and go nowhere. Like, I tell my friends all the time, if I don't want to go anymore, or I don't want to go till 6:00 PM, I hope everyone's cool with that. And we all kind of agree on the same level. We're like, yeah, that sounds good. It's nice going with friends who are the same age. Because I feel like if everyone was younger, I'd want to kill myself.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  Every story, I've never gone to Coachella and I can pretty confidently say I never will. Um, I just don't think it will, I will thrive in that space.

• 10:16Drew Afualo?

  And that's fair.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I'm so good at like, I'm so good at like the sort of party where like, we're having like, there's maybe like a small enclosed space with like several rooms that I can bop through and like chat, but then there's like a place to sit down and there's a bar where I can get drinks.

• 10:30Drew Afualo?

  Exactly.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  And everyone will be talking about Coachella and then they'll suddenly throw in a detail like it's normal where they're like, and then we had to do the two hour walk. And I'm like. And people who are like VIPs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 10:39Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, girl. It's it's truly planes, trains and automobiles. Yeah. It it feels like what parents describe when they take their children to the park and they're like, I just gotta burn off the energy. So they go to sleep.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  It's like, yeah.

• 10:51Drew Afualo?

  So they nap, right? At the right time. That's how it feels. It feels like a big like, and I've gone at least three or four times at this point.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:59Drew Afualo?

  And each like, I've gone before I did this. I went again when I did this and then like, whatever. I've had different experiences each time.

• 11:06Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 11:07Drew Afualo?

  This past year, I said, no matter how many times I go, I encounter a new obstacle that I thought I conquered the year before. And I said, it starts to feel like the Hunger Games, the second one, when the the game master guy goes, he spins the fucking island and he goes, let's see him try to tell time now. That's how it fucking feels. Every time I go to Coachella, it's like they're spinning the island and I I can't make sense of anything.

• 11:29Speaker 01

  And everyone's on drugs.

• 11:31Drew Afualo?

  Yes, and unhelpful.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:33Drew Afualo?

  And everybody who's working the event couldn't give a fuck less. So if I asked them for directions, they're like, bitch, I don't.

• 11:39Speaker 01

  They're like, I'm trying to stay alive too. Like, it's sort of like you're asking for help and they're like, hey, did you notice that I'm also in the desert? Like, you know what I mean? And they're like 22 years old. They're being like, hey, I'm not thriving right now.

• 11:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. One of them just tried to sell me drugs and he's like, you think I know where the parking is? I don't. I'm here for a check, bitch. Like.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Parking and that's the other thing is that I really, the idea of like having to, that everyone's driving there is so crazy. Cause like, I live in New York. Like, I forget people have to drive places outside of New York. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I text.

• 12:06Drew Afualo?

  The driving's pretty normal.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  I'm doing another podcast tomorrow, like with my friend's podcast. And I texted him and I was like, do we drink on your podcast? Can I drive? And he was like, we can drink if you want. And I was like, I'm just so nervous about like, I'm so nervous about ending up somewhere and finding out I have to drive that I didn't know I have to drive or something like that. I just feel like this car.

• 12:21Drew Afualo?

  Constantly worried.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  This entire interview, there's my Nissan Sentra that I rented is behind this building and I'm so nervous it got stolen because I'm not used to ever being responsible for a car. I'm like 20% confident I locked it.

• 12:32Drew Afualo?

  Guess you'll find out.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, for sure.

• 12:34Drew Afualo?

  I did have, uh, do you know Terry Jo? From TikTok?

• 12:38Speaker 01

  All right, that's the first disrespect of the episode. Yeah, I know who Terry Jo is.

• 12:41Drew Afualo?

  When she, when her bitch ass was here, her car got towed.

• 12:46Drew Afualo?

  And that's a fun fact.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  That is my nightmare, having to come back inside of it, you guys.

• 12:52Drew Afualo?

  And what's funny, what's absolutely hilarious about it is when I filmed with, with K- K- K- Lon, literally outside, like, he was dressed as Terry Jo. I had, I had a Christmas sweater on and the shit was on the hitch and I was like talking to the guy and I was like, please put it down, like, I'll pay you right now.

• 13:08Speaker 01

  He's talking to the tow guy in Terry Jo?

• 13:11Drew Afualo?

  Yes, I was talking to them and K- Lon was standing next to me in the dress, in the wig, and we're both standing on the sidewalk and I remember someone goes, you know what's crazy is, what if someone drove by and go, is that Terry Jo?

• 13:25Drew Afualo?

  I bet someone fucking did.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  I bet someone did.

• 13:28Drew Afualo?

  I was in the most obnoxious Christmas sweater too.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 13:31Drew Afualo?

  And I convinced the guy to put it down and not tow it and then I had to pay, I paid the tow guy, everything and I told K- Lon, I'm so sorry.

• 13:40Speaker 01

  That...

• 13:41Drew Afualo?

  I'm so sorry.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Is so...

• 13:45Speaker 01

  The fact that you, in the middle of Los Angeles, that no one took a video of that is, is like a profound miracle.

• 13:51Drew Afualo?

  I literally was like, I don't, I'm not even gonna check my tags, I don't wanna see them. I don't wanna know what the fuck people are saying on there, I don't wanna know. So if you did see me, no you didn't.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  I shoot like all my videos outside and it is my, I've said this before, if anyone takes a video of me filming one of my videos and posts it online, you will never see a video from me again. You will never see a video.

• 14:08Drew Afualo?

  You've retired at that point.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  Absolutely. I can't be, I can't see, I can't, I've been doing it for years now and I've just like, I'm like, everyone thinks I'm FaceTiming, like, no one knows I'm filming selfie videos on the, you know, they do. If I see what the outside world sees, like, if I find out what it looks like from the outside world, I won't be able to do it again. It won't even be a choice.

• 14:26Drew Afualo?

  It's pretty, yeah, it's pretty horrifying.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  Every time I go to lift the phone, I'll be like, no.

• 14:29Drew Afualo?

  You'll have the, the flashback of seeing yourself doing it, oh my god. To your point earlier about like... A preference for a party, you're so tea for that of like, I like a nice enclosed space, people I like.

• 14:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:41Drew Afualo?

  Light bites, maybe some drinks, nice music.

• 14:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:45Drew Afualo?

  I'm with that.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  I like that. That's probably my like favorite and I do love a big party, but my thing is I like it to be inside. The direct sun's a lot. I like it to be inside.

• 14:53Drew Afualo?

  You have a big sweater?

• 14:54Speaker 01

  Bath. I'm actually not.

• 14:56Drew Afualo?

  I am.

• 14:57Speaker 01

  That's it's tough.

• 14:58Drew Afualo?

  I'm a humongous sweater. It's fucking awful.

• 15:00Speaker 01

  That's tough. That's tough. And there's no like, it's like, there's no, if there's no escape, like if you're in the middle and there's just no sun, it's like your body's being like, we're asking you to do something. Like we're crying for help. We're crying for help. And you're like, I sweat a lot. And your body's like, for a reason.

• 15:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  Move.

• 15:19Drew Afualo?

  No, I fucking agree. And I, what's funny is one time I got invited to a party after I did, I think it was last, yeah, it was last year I was in New York. I did Met stuff with TikTok. For the Met, but I didn't go to the actual Met and I, after the actual Met, I got invited to a really exclusive party. I'll tell you about it after, like who it was. But I was like, well, I gotta go to that shit. Like obviously they invited me. So then I went, I took my fiance and my sister and I was like, truly I was dreading going because I was like, I don't want to talk. Oh God, I gotta, it's like, it's like one of those, it's, oh, it's such a task to go to a party. But when you're old, it's like, it was old at that point.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  Not that, it's not a party with your friends. So all of the conversation is like, it's like all the conversation is the same conversation over and over again. And sometimes you like.

• 16:04Drew Afualo?

  It feels like a resume pitch, honestly.

• 16:05Speaker 01

  Yes. You had to, that happened to me. The last time I was in LA, I went to a party.

• 16:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 16:09Speaker 01

  Where it was one of those parties where like no one, a lot of people didn't know each other well. And I realized that every conversation was essentially me pitching myself as a comedian, even though I was not trying to do that. But the questions that they ask. Are, they'd be like, so what are you here for? And when is your show? And when do you do your show?

• 16:24Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. It lends towards that regardless.

• 16:26Speaker 01

  I like started to have, and I'm not really, this isn't normally like my vibe, but I did start to have like a minor panic attack. And I was like in the middle of this girl being like, and, and like, so how many stand up shows have you? I was like, um, I actually go to the bathroom and then went in and fully had to like look in the mirror and do breathing exercises to be like, you can pitch, you can do this for another hour. You can get through this. It's like, it's crazy because it's like, all we want to ever do is talk about ourselves, kind of.

• 16:47Drew Afualo?

  To some extent.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  But then they ask the same questions over and over again. And you're like, can you ask me about my dad? I'm like, I want to go trauma. It's like, I'm a Scorpio. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, can we talk? Like, I'm like, my parents are divorced. Do you want to talk about it? Like, you know what I mean? It's like, and that's like sort of the surface. We can go.

• 17:00Drew Afualo?

  I get that. When I went to the, and when I went to this party, I was like, truly like, I was like, trying to hype myself up for it. I was like, you're gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine. Also, mind you, I had taken edibles already before I got.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  You and I are so different for that.

• 17:14Drew Afualo?

  I had already got, I had already taken them. So I was like, fuck, well, whatever happens, happens.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:18Drew Afualo?

  So I go to the party. It actually wasn't like a, a real party. It was, they had rented out like a small Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. Like the entire thing. And there was all, all these tables and you just sat at a table and they just brought you food. And, and, and I said, now this is my kind of fucking party.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, God chose you for that one.

• 17:38Drew Afualo?

  I was like, sitting, don't have to go anywhere. They just keep bringing me pizza and different kinds of pastas. And I was like, yeah.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Hell, yeah.

• 17:45Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'm into that. Also, when I have the, when I'm high as fuck, I was like, this is the greatest night of my life.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  I mean, you were stoned. You were ready to eat all the food.

• 17:51Drew Afualo?

  And I talked to literally nobody, not one person. I should have, but I didn't. I, I should have worked that room. I did not. Um, I did stand there for a while. At one point, my sister was like, oh my God, I think that's, um, the lady from Law Order SVU. And I go, Mariska Hargitay? I'm gonna freak out. I never get starstruck, but I love Law Order SVU and I love Olivia Benson. And I said, are you serious? Cause I have terrible vision, so I can't see. And she goes, oh, no, no, no. She, um, her name's not, that's not Mariska. She's like, she's plays Peter Parker's aunt. I go, oh, Marisa Tomei. And she goes, yeah. And I go, all right.

• 18:29Drew Afualo?

  I do love her. I just was like, I was about to break my rule of not getting up from my chair to go take a picture with Olivia Benson.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Also, if you had gone up stoned after eating like nine slices of pizza to Marisa Tomei, I'm like, I love you on Law Order SVU. She would have been like, police.

• 18:44Drew Afualo?

  I forgot to mention too, this was after I went to like a different party. So, but you know, the Met theme last year was like ethereal, something or other.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 18:52Drew Afualo?

  So I had this very ethereal, long, like Rapunzel like braid with my outfit, but then I had to change for the party, but was too lazy to change the hair.

• 19:00Speaker 01

  The braid?

• 19:01Drew Afualo?

  So I was giving like Rapunzel at Disneyland character. And then I had like a jean tight body con dress on and I was like. Yeah, now's not probably the time.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  Can I ask, when you're wearing, when you're wearing like, for an event like that, like, hot, like, really high-end fashion like that, how stressful are you about, like, staining it, ruining it? Like, what is the, is that?

• 19:20Drew Afualo?

  It depends.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  Because my ass would be, I would, it'd be toast.

• 19:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'm staining regardless. Like, I think, I think everybody's made peace with it. Like, I'm a staining kind of girl, unfortunately. I spill on myself all the time. Plus, sometimes for really big events where I do borrow clothes, like, I get spray tanned. So like, it's natural. It's over.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  It's over.

• 19:39Drew Afualo?

  It's over. It's, it's curtains for me, honestly. Like, make peace with what the dress looks like.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  I guess they have to know that you're gonna, if they're renting it out, that something's gonna happen.

• 19:46Drew Afualo?

  And they dry clean it. You're, and most of the time, like, stylists, I think, will dry clean it for you too, before they return it. So that's one of those things where I'm like, it's fine.

• 19:54Speaker 01

  Okay. Yeah, that's, yeah.

• 19:56Drew Afualo?

  Well, you did mention doing stand-up, which I already knew, and you are a stand-up. I would love to know how you got into it.

• 20:02Speaker 01

  I got into it, so I moved to New York like 11 years ago, and my first thing was improv. I did a ton of improv.

• 20:09Drew Afualo?

  Every great stand-up's origin story. Villain origin story.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. Villain, villain origin story, and also just like, the most like annoying version of yourself origin story.

• 20:18Drew Afualo?

  You have to be annoying to do improv.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  A hundred, oh, 100%, 100%. But I think I'd always been, I think that like, I had always kind of been, I was thinking about this recently. I think that like, I learned at a really young age that I could, I enjoyed like retelling stories that had happened and making them as funny as possible.

• 20:36Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  And like rehearsing them, and sort of being like, oh, like, like, I, I remember, I recently remembered like the first story that I kind of did that with, and I was like, oh yeah, like, I worked that story as a kid. I would like tell it to anyone, and it was like an embarrassing story for my mom, so she'd be like, please stop. And I'd be like, no, it's my material.

• 20:50Drew Afualo?

  You're like, it's my bit.

• 20:50Speaker 01

  I was like, this is my first 10 minutes. Like, you know what I mean?

• 20:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  And I just remember being like, okay, like, if you hit that, like, people always laugh at that. And I think I really always thought about that a lot.

• 20:58Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:59Speaker 01

  And then I moved to New York and started doing improv, and like, got addicted to that. So kind of like stand, I had moved to New York thinking I'll do both, and then just like went all in on improv.

• 21:07Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 21:08Speaker 01

  Um, and then was like really involved at the Upright Citizens Brigade.

• 21:11Drew Afualo?

  Oh, cool.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  Um, and was doing that. And then that closed for a while when the pandemic hit.

• 21:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  So then I started making videos, because we couldn't do anything else, and I missed performing.

• 21:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 21:21Speaker 01

  And then, when the videos, the videos kind of blew up during the pandemic, and so when like, things started to reopen, I just started getting offered more stand-up shows than I had been before, because I had been doing stand-up, but I was like, doing so much improv, and then I would do like, an open mic here or there, so I wasn't really doing, stand-up enough to kind of break from like, the open mic tier into like, getting booked on shows tier. And that, I think the videos like, just kind of helped me push through that.

• 21:45Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  And then, because, and at that point, I was kind of like, I was like, oh, now I'm like, writing my own stuff. And like, because improv, you do a show, you're back to square one at the end. Like, you don't have anything, you know?

• 21:55Drew Afualo?

  Right, yeah.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  And so then I really started to fall in love with like, writing stand-up, doing shows, like figuring out, um, like, like figuring out like, a show and a set, and then it kind of just built over the last, I guess like, now five years.

• 22:06Drew Afualo?

  That's so awesome.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  So it's been, it was, it was like a, the pandemic was like a huge kind of pivot, and I don't know that I would have gone back to it, had that not happened.

• 22:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you're, you're actually so real for that too, because that's kind of how I started making videos, was telling stories. Like, that was kind of the thing, was talking about things that I found funny.

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 22:24Drew Afualo?

  And I've talked, I've talked about that sometimes on like, my other podcast with my sister, where I've said like, my whole thing is like, I, I want you to laugh at my jokes. Uh, but I'm not asking you what's funny, I'm making you watch what I find funny.

• 22:39Speaker 01

  Well, that's, that's exactly what it was, because I feel like, no, because I feel like my feeling about it when I was a kid, was like, was like, something funny happened to me. It'd be like, something funny happened to me, and I wish you were there to see it too.

• 22:50Drew Afualo?

  Exactly.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  So I have to tell it to you as perfectly as possible, so that you laugh as hard when I tell it to you, as if you had been there.

• 22:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 22:56Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 22:57Speaker 01

  And I feel like, that was why, and I think that's why with stand-up now, I lean so much more into like, Trying to talk about things that I think are true, or like doing observational stuff.

• 23:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  I, I have so much respect for comics who do jokes that are like totally absurd and kind of like, um, like, you know, like funny lies or kind of like subversions of things.

• 23:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they're like distant from them.

• 23:18Speaker 01

  Yes, but like I actually am like incapable of writing those because it's like so the opposite avenue I came at it from.

• 23:24Drew Afualo?

  That's actually so true too. I was, I was recently, cause I had, I've done a, I've done stand up twice now.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  I'm sure you're killer at it.

• 23:32Drew Afualo?

  Thank you. I did a five for Caleb and, uh, Chris Fleming, which was like a huge.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  I mean, that's, I mean.

• 23:38Drew Afualo?

  A lineup to even be a part of. I was like, you guys made a big mistake booking me.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  Not at all.

• 23:44Drew Afualo?

  Um, but, um, I did that and then I did a 20 recently, which like, when I did my five, I, I was like telling my team after, like, I felt a little stiff in it because even though I've performed live many times, like, stand up was so different for me and I love stand up. I have so much respect.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 23:58Drew Afualo?

  For the art form. That's why so many of my friends are comics and a lot of you bitches are mean, so that all kind of works out. Like we're all, we are one in the same birds of a feather, you know?

• 24:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:05Drew Afualo?

  And so I felt like when I first wrote my five, I felt almost chained to the material because in my head, I was like, well, I have to memorize this exactly the way I wrote it. Whereas like what is fun for me and telling jokes is kind of like leaving the space a little bit open to kind of divert from it.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  Well, I bet because you sound, I bet you and I are similar in the way where the way you're going to memorize it is by doing it on stage.

• 24:26Drew Afualo?

  Exactly.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Once, once a certain like rhythm or cadence of something gets a big laugh, I'll never forget it.

• 24:32Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 24:32Speaker 01

  Cause then I'm like, cause then I'm like, that worked and like I'm addicted to that. So then it's like, I know if I say this like that, it'll get a laugh and then I never forget it.

• 24:39Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. Cause I wrote them so literally when I wrote my jokes out, I wrote them like as if I was telling them, even with like pauses, breaks, that kind of thing. To kind of practice it. And then I felt like I need to memorize that exactly. But when I tell stories, I always hit the same points that I know make everybody laugh.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:55Drew Afualo?

  But sometimes I divert depending on the room, like depending on who's listening to me. I'll like hit some other points harder than others if I feel like they'll laugh at something.

• 25:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:03Drew Afualo?

  And I think obviously you've been doing stand up forever, way longer than me. So I'm sure you've noticed too. Like, do you have any? Favorite places to do stand up? Like anyone's where you're like, I'm gonna hit every time there.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, New York is home, so New York is always the best.

• 25:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  Chicago is always great.

• 25:17Drew Afualo?

  Oh, nice.

• 25:18Speaker 01

  Chicago's, oh, I've always like loved Chicago shows. I think that like, cause like Chicago's like one of the few cities that still has like a going out to see live comedy like culture.

• 25:27Drew Afualo?

  That's so true.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  It's like part of their thing.

• 25:29Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 25:29Speaker 01

  And also, and like, sorry, problematic, sue me, they're drinking town and I love it. I'm sorry, you know what I mean? Like.

• 25:35Drew Afualo?

  They're more fun when they drink.

• 25:36Speaker 01

  A hundred.

• 25:36Drew Afualo?

  If there's a big risk with it, but there's fun.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  There's a sweet spot, there's a sweet spot. I did, my other favorite place, one of, I'm obsessed with Provincetown, it's like one of my favorite places. And I've done Provincetown three times now.

• 25:47Drew Afualo?

  Is that what they call P-Town?

• 25:48Speaker 01

  P-Town.

• 25:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, okay, yeah.

• 25:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, gays don't have time, we can't say province. It's like, everything has to get shortened. But we, the first time I did P-Town was on, the first time I ever played P-Town was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend at 9:00 PM. And in Provincetown, people start drinking at like noon.

• 26:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  So, I'll never forget this, I'm backstage, it was like, sold out show, I was super excited. I was like nervous also because like, well, let's also be serious, like, this is like a gay vacation town, I had been there for a week, so it's like, I've hooked up with half the audience at this point. Do you know what I mean?

• 26:23Drew Afualo?

  You're looking at a real sister wife situation.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  I've hooked up with like a quarter of the audience, I'm trying to hook up with another quarter, and then half of them are like.

• 26:30Drew Afualo?

  And don't ruin this for me.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Well, I'm sort of like, if I'm, it's like, cause like, anytime, anytime someone is willing to like engage with me romantically after I have performed live comedy in front of them, I'm like, you, I, like, I either must be good, or you have a brain injury, because like, there's no way, like, the most unsexy thing in the world is being bad at comedy. Do you know what I mean?

• 26:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I agree, I agree.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  Like, the most.

• 26:49Drew Afualo?

  I made that joke once where I was like, imagine like, cause one girl told me that her ex used to do, um, what was it? What's the character, Ace Ventura? She said he used to do an Ace Ventura impression at every party they went to. And I said, was it good? She said, no. And I said, damn.

• 27:04Speaker 01

  You got past two parties?

• 27:05Drew Afualo?

  No shit, or one, I would have been like. And you know what's funny? I was like, you know what's worse is like, they tell a joke, it flops, doesn't land, and then you gotta go home with him.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  No.

• 27:14Drew Afualo?

  You shared new carpool there.

• 27:15Speaker 01

  Okay, I did improv in New York City for six years. I would, I watched women sit and watch their men do the most horrific shit on stage you've ever seen, and then come off stage and be like, good show, baby. Like, and I was like, heterosexuality is a sickness. Like, this is crazy, like, crazy.

• 27:31Drew Afualo?

  You bitches are brainwashed.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  You bitches are brainwashed. I'd watch a man tag every person offstage off to do a solo scene where they like gave birth to a rhinoceros. They played the person giving birth and the rhinoceros, thought it was funny. Woman would try to walk on, they'd be like, no, like, you know what I mean? And then their girlfriend would be like, good job, baby. And I was like, I was like, something is happening here. Like, there's a darkness here.

• 27:52Speaker 01

  No, but- Okay, so you're at P-Town. I'm at P- oh, so they're like- In P-Town. And I was like, and I was thinking like, I bet people are wasted. Like, cause I went to, there's like a, there's a party that happens from four to seven every day called Tea. It's like this huge party on the dock. And I had gone to it, um, because my show wasn't till nine. Yeah. And I didn't really drink or anything, but I was there. And I was like, well, people are lit here and my show's in four hours. So like, how's this gonna go? So I was backstage, like, kind of like nervous. I was like, I wonder what the vibe's gonna be. And they're like, welcome to the stage, Jake Cornell. I come around the curtain. I, as I'm walking to the mic, I go, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven people dead asleep.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  Like, sold out crowd. And in the front part, I can see in the light, there are seven people asleep. And so I was like, sick. And so then- Love that. The whole show was playing to, like, half the, like, I would say, half the audience, like, was asleep or falling asleep during it because they were so drunk that they were like, like, I, like, fighting to stay awake. Like, to the point where I was like, do we need a medic? Like, I saw one person who was like-

• 28:51Speaker 03

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• 29:16Speaker 04

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• 29:20Speaker 00

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• 29:54Speaker 01

  At one point-

• 29:55Drew Afualo?

  It's like artists that are like, "Guys, guys, pause the music."

• 29:58Speaker 01

  No, I've written any rap stuff, I'm gonna tell someone, like, literally-

• 30:01Drew Afualo?

  They need someone.

• 30:04Speaker 01

  Me going, "Stop the track, stop the track." It's me, so you stand up alone. "Stop the track, stop the track."

• 30:09Speaker 01

  They're like, I'm like, "It's too hot, like, it's air-conditioned." No. "You're just not funny enough," and they're drunk, sorry. No, but then I would do, and it was like, so then it would be, half the audience was laughing, half was asleep, and then there was like this really demonic situation where there was like four people at the back that were so drunk, like, just drunk enough that they got every joke on like a 30-second delay. So I would tell a joke, audience would laugh, I'd start telling the next joke, and then they'd be like, "Oh, 'cause it was a dog!" Like, they would just yell for it, like, over it.

• 30:34Drew Afualo?

  "Oh, that was a good one."

• 30:35Speaker 01

  And I was like, "Yes."

• 30:38Drew Afualo?

  Playing to drunk people is truly like, it's hit or miss. Because like, sometimes they're way more fun when they're a little loose.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:45Drew Afualo?

  And then sometimes they take that as an opportunity to have their five minutes of fame. Like, they're like, "Now is my chance."

• 30:52Speaker 01

  Have you dealt with, like, hecklers or just like disruptive people before?

• 30:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I have. And they were at like my tour shows, so it wasn't like, it wasn't like a random, which I think is harder, or can be harder, depending on the situation. For me, it would be easier if it was someone who didn't specifically buy a ticket to come watch me.

• 31:10Speaker 01

  Well, I think it is harder when they, because you're like, they like you. You don't want, so it's like, you can't, because you're like, I mean, we both could like, destroy them. Do you know what I mean?

• 31:18Drew Afualo?

  Exactly, exactly. When it's a stranger, it's better for me.

• 31:20Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 31:21Drew Afualo?

  I agree. And so I have had that, have you had that?

• 31:23Speaker 01

  Not, so to answer, to finish answering before, like, those cities were like really, really fun to play, but I have had a couple cities where like, I recently started playing clubs in some cities where, because normally like if I play, it's like, people, most people who are there came, like, bought a ticket to come see me.

• 31:39Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  But I recently played, like, played a club that was in a town that had a ton of conventions in town.

• 31:46Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 31:46Speaker 01

  Like, it's a, like, there's like a ton of big convention hotels around the club.

• 31:51Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  So there were people there to see me, but also there was like a big, like, there was like a large number of people who clearly just like, for like the later show, because I did, I did like a five-show weekend. So it was like, there was later shows on Friday and Saturday. I think that there were people that just kind of had truly been like, "Well, what do we do at 10 o'clock in this town?" Or 11 o'clock, whatever it was, and bought tickets to me not knowing, just like bought tickets to like, the comedy club.

• 32:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 32:12Speaker 01

  So there were a lot of people that don't know me, so I had my first where, in like, the first, I don't know, minute and a half, I mentioned I was gay, and one guy in the front row goes, "Oh." And I was like, sweetie, you're about, you leave now or you're in for a rough hour.

• 32:26Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, lock in.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Cause like, also the fact that it took you 90 seconds is crazy.

• 32:33Drew Afualo?

  Oh, god.

• 32:34Speaker 01

  You can see my shoulders. Like, you know, you're like.

• 32:38Drew Afualo?

  Girl, you know, I know you heard my voice. You do, without me having to tell you.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  I was talking, I made a video yesterday about how I, straight people make, I don't understand them. All love to your culture, but like.

• 32:47Drew Afualo?

  No, it's okay. We'll talk shit on another video.

• 32:49Speaker 01

  I made a video yesterday about how it hurts my feelings when gay flight attendants don't like give me a special little nod of like, hey, gay guy. I just like need like some like gay guy, gay guy moment.

• 32:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, we need like.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  And a bunch of people were commenting like, they probably don't know you're gay. I was like, they know.

• 33:02Drew Afualo?

  Trust me, they know.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  They know.

• 33:03Drew Afualo?

  And they know when you're gay, too.

• 33:05Speaker 01

  And have you ever had, like, sometimes people like will pull you aside, like, straight people be like, like, how do you tell? And it's like, how do you not? I don't know, like.

• 33:12Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, no, I've never in my life had to guess.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  It's lit, it's, to me, it is quite literally like putting a bunch of donkeys in a field and being like, how do you tell which ones are zebras? It's like, cause they have, they're zebras. Cause y'all have a bunch of donkeys out there and then there's the zebras and the zebras are gay.

• 33:30Drew Afualo?

  And there's one fucking zebra.

• 33:33Drew Afualo?

  And he's doing this, so.

• 33:36Speaker 01

  Sometimes I feel like you'll do, like, people will do it about, like, little kids who obviously they're not gonna come out yet cause they're like small children, but maybe they're starting to like show signs of their powers.

• 33:45Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  And like, someone will be like, like, someone will be like, do you think like Teddy might be? And literally, he's like in the living room in an Elsa dress, like, ah, and it's like, yeah.

• 33:55Drew Afualo?

  You know, yes.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  You know what? I think you might be on to something, Donna, like.

• 34:02Drew Afualo?

  You know, that reminds me, I just posted a cut down when I filmed with Joe and Andrew from Good Children.

• 34:09Speaker 01

  My favorite people.

• 34:10Drew Afualo?

  Fucking love them.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  Wait, can I also say, I listened to that episode? And they were like, they were like, they were like, when we go to Pride under some fucking bridge, I invited them to that party. That was my idea to go to that party.

• 34:23Drew Afualo?

  The fucking Brooklyn Bridge.

• 34:24Speaker 01

  It was like, no, it was, oh, you wish it was the Brooklyn Bridge. It was the Kajusko Bridge. Cause if it was under the Brooklyn Bridge, it would have been a boat party. That's fun. We were under an over, like, like, it was

• 34:33Drew Afualo?

  Overpass.

• 34:33Speaker 01

  Like, an overpass, under, on the ground. Concrete.

• 34:37Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, that was concrete, for sure.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. And the party was not fun. And I felt so bad. And then, and it was three years ago, and it was the first thing they brought up when you said, like, they're like, we don't do that. I was like, well, they did when it was my idea.

• 34:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, no, and they said, they were like, we went to VIP, it was just a fence.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  So I will take, I will take, they text me back, I got there, I did not buy VIP, cause I was like, like, and they were like

• 34:59Drew Afualo?

  Once again, you're left out of the ticket buying.

• 35:02Speaker 01

  But that time, no, but it was like the kind of thing where I was like, let's check this out. It's like a $25 ticket, they bought the VIP, it was just like $150. And I showed up and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, we weren't supposed to do that.

• 35:11Drew Afualo?

  And your experience was terrible.

• 35:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:13Drew Afualo?

  Like, your $100 experience was terrible.

• 35:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:16Drew Afualo?

  Should've done 25.

• 35:16Speaker 01

  Should've done 25. And as I, cause as I said, I was like, well, the money's in the past, like, we can leave it up, but I couldn't do that tonight, cause I was like, y'all sent 300 bucks to me here.

• 35:25Drew Afualo?

  And when I was talking to them, I posted a cut down where I'm saying, like, talking to straight people is taxing, it's boring.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 35:32Drew Afualo?

  Right? Cause, and then Joe goes, I just can't talk about Survivor anymore, I just can't. And we're laughing, in the comments, someone wrote a funny ass over, they said, let me just list the restaurants I've been to, too, for the last 25 minutes, which is like, so funny. But, to that same point, um, I got so many comments from people that were like, aren't you straight? Yeah, I am. What does that have to do with me making fun of y'all? Like, what the fuck? Like, what does that have to do with it? I, what the fuck are you talking about? And I was literally

• 36:02Speaker 01

  Also, if you're a straight person, and a gay person, a straight person are making fun of you, we've chosen that straight person, you don't get to say it.

• 36:09Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 36:10Drew Afualo?

  Also, I'm also straight. I can make fun of us. It's fine. It's fucking fine. And honestly, one time I was like, I was making this joke with Caleb and my sister. And I was like, if anything, that's proof that you're straight, because you're fucking annoying.

• 36:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:24Drew Afualo?

  It's proof you're straight. Actually, I know for a fact you're straight, because you're fucking annoying and can't take a joke.

• 36:28Speaker 01

  Straight people and white people, and especially straight white people are obsessed with, are obsessed with doing like a sick comeback by stating a basic fact. And it's like, we all knew that. What?

• 36:41Drew Afualo?

  I got a comment that was like, on that same video, that was like, wow. And imagine if I said this about gay people. I said, they actually say way worse things about gay people, believe it or not. They're actually saying way worse things than you're fucking boring. And also, it would be a lie.

• 36:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:55Drew Afualo?

  If so, if if someone ever said, made a video saying gay people are boring to talk to, you're a liar.

• 37:00Speaker 01

  A hun-

• 37:01Drew Afualo?

  You're a 1,000% liar.

• 37:02Speaker 01

  100%. 100%. And the other thing is, it's like, we are not coming, like, this is what straight people don't understand with that argument. Is like, they're like, wow, you said, like, gay people talking about straight people is so fucked up. And it's like, okay, so you're coming to gay people and talking about how they're bad for being gay?

• 37:19Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 37:20Speaker 01

  We're coming to straight people and talking about how you're bad for everything the fuck else you do.

• 37:25Drew Afualo?

  For like-

• 37:26Speaker 01

  For how you dress, how you eat, how you talk. How you make art.

• 37:30Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly. All of it's bad, so.

• 37:32Speaker 01

  I actually think your sex is fine. I have no issue with you guys having sex with each other. It seems like you actually guys have a problem with that a lot of the time. It actually seems like you guys have like huge problems with that specifically. You have a bigger problem with your sexuality than gay people do. And let's be really clear about that. Do you know what I mean?

• 37:48Drew Afualo?

  Absolutely.

• 37:49Speaker 01

  Like, it actually seems like that's like your number one struggle.

• 37:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I, and I don't give a fuck. Like, I was like, I don't know what about me makes you think I'm gonna give a fuck about joking about how boring straight people are. It's fucking true.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  It's-

• 37:59Drew Afualo?

  That's why I laughed so hard when someone said, let me just list the restaurants I've been to for an hour. Because that does, that is what the fuck they do. Like, we be doing that.

• 38:06Speaker 01

  If you need proof that straight people are boring, go to a straight wedding and see how every straight person is walking up to that event. Like, they're about to have the biggest fucking night of their lives. They're like, we're gonna, we're gonna never forget this night. And I'm like, it ends at 11.

• 38:21Drew Afualo?

  They love a wedding.

• 38:22Speaker 01

  It ends at 11.

• 38:23Drew Afualo?

  Notice how I'm talking about them as if they're a third person, because I don't relate to that.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  No.

• 38:29Drew Afualo?

  In any way, shape or form, and I've said before, all of my friends are gay.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:34Drew Afualo?

  Or part of the community in some form or fashion.

• 38:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:36Drew Afualo?

  Me and my fiance are most, I'd say with the exception of like maybe one or two people, I'm a token straight for most people.

• 38:42Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 38:43Drew Afualo?

  And a lot of times I'll talk to, especially my lesbian friends, I'll talk to them and they'll be like, God, I always forget you're straight. That really pisses me off. Like they get annoyed at me. It's like the realization comes back and they're like, oh, I forgot about that. Fuck.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, but that's, I think that's because you're not, you're not doing it all in my face. You know what I mean? Like you're not.

• 39:00Drew Afualo?

  Whatever you do behind closed doors is none of my business.

• 39:04Drew Afualo?

  I just don't want it shoved in my face.

• 39:06Speaker 01

  You're not make, but you make up for it. You're doing all the right things to kind of fix it. You know what I mean? You're seeing your problem and you're saying, I'm going to be funny.

• 39:12Drew Afualo?

  I appreciate it.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  I'm going to be on. You've read the texts.

• 39:14Drew Afualo?

  Yes, I have. The ancient texts.

• 39:16Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 39:16Drew Afualo?

  When, sometimes it's so funny because sometimes when I look back, I'm like, everything I've ever loved has been universally loved by gay people, like, or women, or both.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 39:26Drew Afualo?

  And I was like, in 2009, when Lady Gaga like had Poker Face and Bad Romance and all that shit. My sister and I were spending hours learning the choreography to Bad Romance and then showing other people. I was like 14 at the time too, so I wasn't a child.

• 39:39Speaker 01

  No.

• 39:39Drew Afualo?

  I was a full-blown teen.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  And that really was, that really was the litmus test was when, when Fame Monster came out. That was really, I think when those Lady Gaga black and white photos dropped, that was really when it was like, so now there's two sides. And it's mostly gay and straight, but then there's some straight people who have said, I can see what's happening over here.

• 39:58Drew Afualo?

  Uh, she's cooking.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's.

• 39:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, she's cooking. Wait on her.

• 40:00Speaker 01

  And I'm the ingredient. It's like, I'm getting cooked. Like, you know what I mean?

• 40:05Drew Afualo?

  Absolutely. I would, I, I'm curious though, like what's the weirdest or like worst experience you've had doing stand-up?

• 40:12Speaker 01

  What's the weirdest or worst experience I've had doing stand-up?

• 40:19Speaker 01

  Oh, I have, I have one. This was bad. This was bad. I once, um, before I wrote the show, before I had the hour that I'm doing now, I had a different idea for a different hour.

• 40:32Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 40:32Speaker 01

  And, um, and it was about like a totally different topic and it was like a totally different like, it was kind of, cause with both of them, it was kind of like, I had these like sort of like collection of jokes where I was like, oh wait, I think I could expand this into this bigger thing and then, and so I had it with a different kind of set of material where I was like, I'm gonna make it into this big thing. And I did, I like announce, so I, I was working on it and with both shows, what I did, I need like a deadline.

• 40:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 40:58Speaker 01

  So I set a deadline where it's like, I book a show that it's like, well, you have to, like I booked a show at a theater.

• 41:03Drew Afualo?

  So you have no choice but to be ready.

• 41:05Speaker 01

  People are buying tickets to this thing, so you have to have it done and written by then.

• 41:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 41:08Speaker 01

  Otherwise, like, what the fuck?

• 41:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  So the first time I did that was with this other show. And I was working on it and I had the pieces and I think because it was my first time putting together a full hour, I thought, kind of similar to what we were talking about earlier, I like, with the kind of like, there's certain stuff I have to figure out on stage.

• 41:27Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  I overestimated how much needed to be figured out on stage. And did not put enough of the pieces together or really look at it as a whole.

• 41:35Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  And so I was like, and I announced it, I, I announced it as a work in progress show, which I'll also never do again, because it's sort of being like, hey, come see this thing that might suck shit. And it's like, just present it as good.

• 41:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you're like, it, it's almost like keeping a backdoor for yourself, but it's, it's handicapping you, almost.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  Well, it gave me a backdoor that I then did fall through.

• 41:54Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  It's like, present it as a full show because I need, I need, I will take the easy way out if I don't take it away from myself, so I should have taken it.

• 42:01Drew Afualo?

  I admire you for that. Yeah. That's a really, a really scary way to work.

• 42:04Speaker 01

  But what happened was, what happened was, I booked the show and didn't really think to like, like, I didn't really think about like who, that like, anyone could buy tickets. And I get there and it's like someone I'm kinda hooking up with, someone I'm wanting to hook up with. Like some comedians I kinda respect, friends I haven't seen in years. And I'm like, no, no, no, this was supposed to all be strangers. Like, you're supposed to come to like the show and it's like, good.

• 42:30Drew Afualo?

  Oh, now you guys wanna support me?

• 42:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:34Speaker 01

  And then I got also something, I have a story to tell you after about what had happened with one of these people.

• 42:41Drew Afualo?

  I would love to hear it.

• 42:42Speaker 01

  Which is also kind of like why my brain was feeling crazy at the time. I get on stage, I start doing, the two openers were good. Like, they did a great job, audience is warm. I get on stage, I like get 15 minutes into the show and all of a sudden, I just, it's like, the audience was laughing, like, I wasn't bombing. But I knew I had to do 45 more minutes. And I just had this moment where like, my whole brain went quiet. And like, I just heard myself go, this doesn't make any fucking sense.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  Like, I realized what like the thesis of the show was.

• 43:15Drew Afualo?

  You're like bailing mid-say.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  But it was like, I was like, don't bail on yourself. But like, it was like this conversation between me and myself where it was like, no, you're not bailing on yourself. This sucks. Like, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like, almost like I hadn't like said enough of it out loud when I was writing it. And as I was saying it, I was like, that doesn't make sense. Like, it wasn't, like, it was like hitting, but not in the right way. And I was like, I can't land this plane because I didn't build a plane. It's over. And so I just pivoted to kinda just doing like looser stand-up for the whole thing and got off stage. And afterwards, I, and like, the show wasn't that bad, but I felt the need to apologize to every person I knew in the audience after. And my friend was like, stop doing that. People just, people were kinda laughing, like, you weren't that bad. And they're walking up to me, like, I'm so sorry about that.

• 44:03Speaker 01

  Like, it was like, you would thought I had like, you would have thought that I had like talked about their mom specifically and said nothing nice. Like, it was like, and they were like, stop doing that.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  Please.

• 44:12Drew Afualo?

  Please, please, guys, please.

• 44:15Speaker 01

  Guys.

• 44:16Drew Afualo?

  That's my friend.

• 44:18Speaker 01

  Yo, I fucking hate when you're talking shit about yourself and someone's like, "Don't talk about my friend that way." I'm like, "Don't talk to your friend that way."

• 44:24Drew Afualo?

  Shut up.

• 44:25Speaker 01

  "Don't talk to your friend that way. Let me be mean to myself."

• 44:28Drew Afualo?

  Do you have any Virgo in your chart? I know you said you're a Scorpio.

• 44:30Speaker 01

  No, Capricorn rising though. It's that.

• 44:32Drew Afualo?

  T.

• 44:33Speaker 01

  It's that. It's like...

• 44:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the workhorse. I was gonna say, you're very, uh, you're... You being able to like leave your body for a sec, watch yourself and critique your set live.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. That's like, that's like my greatest, I feel like that's my greatest skill and my greatest...

• 44:48Drew Afualo?

  Detriment, probably.

• 44:49Speaker 01

  Detriment. Especially when I'm trying to like, write like, something, like an essay or like, write like, writing.

• 44:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 44:55Speaker 01

  I'm like, I will edit so much as I'm writing because I'm criticizing it so much that I'll be like, "Cool, three hours, one paragraph. Sick." And I was typing the whole time, but it's like, "No, no, no, no, no." Like, it's just like, you, because like...

• 45:06Drew Afualo?

  You're self-correcting.

• 45:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, instead of just like letting it be bad on the first and then going back. And I think that's why I've, I think that was the thing that drove me to improv and stand-up is like, I need the audience in front of me to like, make it so that I just have to keep going.

• 45:18Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 45:18Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally. It's like kinda holding your own feet to the fire.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:21Drew Afualo?

  And committing to your work.

• 45:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 45:23Drew Afualo?

  Because it is good and you know it's good.

• 45:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 45:25Drew Afualo?

  But then live, sometimes you're like, "Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it."

• 45:30Speaker 01

  Yeah. "This is actively bad. I wanna get off the stage."

• 45:34Drew Afualo?

  Are there any cities that you're like, "Never good, never fun, not going there again"? Joel Kim Booster told me, he's like, "Oh yeah, Tucson, Arizona, never again." Arizona as a whole. He's like, "They've burned me multiple times."

• 45:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that one, so the club, I wanna be clear, if anyone from the club sees this, I really enjoyed the club I worked at, but Indianapolis and I did not vibe. I was just not connecting with her. It was not like, it was not, the audience, it was the...

• 45:58Drew Afualo?

  The vibes were off.

• 45:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, people in the audience being like, "Ugh, gay guy." And I was like, "Ugh, straight guy." Like, I don't know, like, just like that. And also, it was like, their NBA team was in, their NBA team was in the middle of the NBA finals while I was playing.

• 46:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the Pacers.

• 46:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank, thank you for having me. And, and she is straight. And you saw that?

• 46:16Drew Afualo?

  And you saw it live.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  The Pacers, dang it.

• 46:23Drew Afualo?

  They bleeped that part.

• 46:27Drew Afualo?

  I was like saying it worse over myself.

• 46:28Speaker 01

  That's the other thing, that's the other thing that'll be really jarring about being around, being around, when you are around straight people who aren't around gay people that like often, is you'll casually drop a faggot and they're like, "Oh!"

• 46:41Speaker 01

  Because me and my friends are saying it all the time. You say it in front of like a straight person who's not like around gay people a lot, you literally, it's, oh my god.

• 46:47Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I literally, I was, when I was with Trixie last, she was telling me, she goes, "Do you say it? Come on, do you say it?" And I was like, "Shut the fuck up, no I don't." And I said, "But I'll tell you this, every gay friend I have that I know and love, has always been like, 'You can say it, it's fine.'"

• 47:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:04Drew Afualo?

  I was like, "I'm not gonna do that shit, you weirdo." Every time they said it, I'm like, "That's a test and I'm gonna pass it."

• 47:10Drew Afualo?

  That's how I feel. But you're right, that does jar them.

• 47:13Speaker 01

  It is, yeah.

• 47:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 47:15Speaker 01

  I respect you for not saying it. I think you can say it, but I think it's so chic, but I think it's so chic to not. Because if, if you did, I know part of you would be like, "So she chose to say it." Like, there would be a part of me that would do it.

• 47:27Drew Afualo?

  Oh yeah, I know how you gays are. That's why I was like, "No, you're not getting me, girl."

• 47:31Speaker 01

  It's sort of like, it's sort of like when like, it's sort of like when you're at a restaurant and you offer someone of a bite of something you don't want to share. Do you know what I mean? You're like, "Do you want a bite of this cake?" And they're like, "Yeah," and you're like, "Fine." You know?

• 47:41Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  Sick. Sick. I actually really like the cake. You know what I mean?

• 47:44Drew Afualo?

  And you know that, so.

• 47:47Drew Afualo?

  I think that's fair. I think Indianapolis not vibing with you, kinda makes sense.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, and no offense to the gay people who I saw in Indianapolis, I did really love. Also, something really crazy happened, which was like, I tried to go to a gay bar after every show, to see like local gay bars in like the different, I think it's like,

• 48:03Drew Afualo?

  That's fun.

• 48:04Speaker 01

  Especially because like, you know, in New York and LA and in like in Chicago, like the gay bars are like, very fun, but also like they're in cities where like, it's pretty, kosher to be gay, you know what I mean? Going to like gay bars in like smaller cities where like that gay bar is like actually their like haven,

• 48:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 48:22Speaker 01

  is so magical. Like, it's such a better vibe.

• 48:25Drew Afualo?

  I think that's wonderful.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  Not better, I don't want, because I love, I love my gay bars in New York.

• 48:28Drew Afualo?

  It's just a different experience.

• 48:29Speaker 01

  It's just a different vibe and it has like this thing that's like really special. And so I try to go to like one after every, every show or every time I'm in a city, just like see when I get the vibe.

• 48:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 48:38Speaker 01

  It's like, and it's like something to do, because sometimes you're in these cities like alone, you know what I mean? It's like, it's a fun like activity. But I went, someone, I'm in, um, in Indianapolis, I was like asking at the shows, I was like, "Oh, like what are the fun gay bars?" And everyone was like, "Greg's, you gotta go to Greg's." So I put it in Google Maps. And it turns out someone had just saved their friend's house, Greg, in Google Maps that accidentally has a public location. Just some house, like in the middle of nowhere.

• 49:01Drew Afualo?

  Perfect.

• 49:02Speaker 01

  Really far out of town. And the car, I was like, I like, it was driving and I was like, I think this is wrong. And then I look at the photo and it's just a man's front door. And I was like, turn the car on. No, I was like, I was like, Indianapolis doesn't want me here.

• 49:13Drew Afualo?

  I don't think I'll be going to Greg's.

• 49:14Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, I don't think Greg is expecting me. Cause he's a civilian.

• 49:21Drew Afualo?

  That's honestly a really funny joke. Cause they just got you for that.

• 49:24Speaker 01

  My friend, one of my, one of the most iconic things my friend ever did was one time she was drunk. My friend, shout out Melissa Rich, comedian in New York. She was drunk and she thought it'd be funny to save her apartment as a Kinko's in Google Maps. And then people started calling her, asking her to get shit printed. And she felt bad and she has a printer, so she just started printing shit for people for free. And so like, I'd be at her apartment and stuff would be printing and she'd be like, I got an order.

• 49:49Drew Afualo?

  Sorry, I have.

• 49:50Speaker 01

  People calling her cellphone.

• 49:52Drew Afualo?

  My five to nine after my nine to five.

• 49:54Speaker 01

  She was on the phone and she's like, no, I can't do color.

• 49:59Drew Afualo?

  You're like, you know, you don't have to do this.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  She's like, I put it in the maps and, and whenever I would like go to visit her, she's moved now, but when I would go to her place, I would type in Kinko's in Google Maps. Cause also, the funniest thing, it was only, the, the reason it also worked is the only people that ever called her were old as fuck. Because Kinko's closed like 20 years ago, it's FedEx office.

• 50:15Drew Afualo?

  I was gonna say, what year did she do this?

• 50:17Speaker 01

  Like some like old, lower east side person who was like, I need a form. And this was like, I got you, baby, I got you, baby. You know, and so it was my favorite thing.

• 50:24Drew Afualo?

  Giving back to the community.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 50:26Drew Afualo?

  We love that.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 50:27Drew Afualo?

  To your point about not vibing with Indianapolis, like, do you ever notice when you're touring, especially like if you're going to different cities? Like how some cities love certain jokes, other cities, it doesn't hit as hard?

• 50:37Speaker 01

  The biggest, I would say the biggest litmus test is in my, my hour right now. I have like a, probably like a 10 minute section where I go in pretty hard on marriage, like the concept of marriage.

• 50:47Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 50:47Speaker 01

  And like, that shit hits different in the South and then like, you know, like that really, like I have a, like, I go in on like the concept, like, I don't think most married people are happy. And like up north, people are like, yeah. And like in Raleigh, people were like, what? You know what I mean? It gets like tight fast.

• 51:02Drew Afualo?

  They're like, don't.

• 51:03Speaker 01

  Like, it's like, there's like, there's jokes that you like, I leave full laugh breaks for in certain cities that when that and others, it's like, you actually have to say the punchline so fast, they're gonna get so mad. You know what I mean? Or like the second punchline, you know what I mean? Where you kind of like reveal the other side of the joke.

• 51:17Drew Afualo?

  You gotta kind of speak through it.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  One time, like, I have this line in it where I say, like, have you ever met a happy married person? And it's like, in the context of like, a larger joke, but I say, have you ever met a happy married person? And one time, this woman in the audience went, yes.

• 51:33Drew Afualo?

  Did you laugh?

• 51:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:35Drew Afualo?

  You're like, alright.

• 51:36Speaker 01

  I was like, ooh, seems like you needed that.

• 51:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, tears in her eyes. Yes, of course I have.

• 51:41Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 51:45Drew Afualo?

  Straight person.

• 51:46Speaker 01

  Straight person.

• 51:46Drew Afualo?

  See, can't laugh, that's what I'm saying.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 51:48Drew Afualo?

  That's why I know you're straight.

• 51:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:49Drew Afualo?

  No sense of humor.

• 51:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:52Drew Afualo?

  When I was touring last year, we did like, three shows in Texas. And I remember in Dallas, I, for some reason, I don't even remember, oh, because we watched this movie on the tour, but we watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes on the tour bus. And we love Planet of the Apes, that universe, for some reason, we really enjoy those movies. So like, we watched it, it was kind of on my brain.

• 52:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:13Drew Afualo?

  So I kept making this joke, I made it one time in the beginning, like, in the opener for probably like, the first 20 minutes. I made like, apes together, strong. Right? Like, because I was telling them, that's you guys when I'm up here, you guys, apes together, strong. You just copy what I tell you to do, because you're, because you're good noodles. And it killed, it killed every time I said it, to the point where I kept going back to the well, right? Like, throughout the entire hour. Then, the next night, I think we went to Houston. And in Houston, within the first 20 minutes, again, I'm thinking, not too far from Dallas, right? Obviously, they're loving chimp jokes.

• 52:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:47Drew Afualo?

  So then, the next one, I go, apes together, strong, not one laugh. I said, wow, perfect, put that on the shelf, not gonna touch that again.

• 52:54Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 52:55Drew Afualo?

  Didn't make one more ape joke the rest of the tour.

• 52:57Speaker 01

  I've had a joke bomb so bad that I've never done it again. And it killed for a year. I had a joke that killed for a year, and one time it bombed so bad that I literally went, I've nev- I said the joke, the audience changed so succinctly, so intensely, so suddenly. And I went, I like, stopped and went, I have to be honest with you, an audience has never reacted to me this way.

• 53:17Drew Afualo?

  I'm actually kind of still processing.

• 53:19Speaker 01

  And they all kind of laughed, so I thought, okay, I'm gonna now keep going with the joke, because they're back. Right back, they were like, and we hate you again.

• 53:28Drew Afualo?

  So you're going back to that joke.

• 53:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I've not done it in like two years. And I have a couple of friends, I like, I like that joke, do it again. And I'm like, it's dead. It's locked away.

• 53:34Drew Afualo?

  It's dead. I've never. Never touching her.

• 53:37Speaker 01

  It can't happen again. It can't happen again. No.

• 53:41Drew Afualo?

  Recently, when I did the 20 minutes, I worked in some jokes about Love Island because Love Island is so popular right now. Are you watching it?

• 53:48Speaker 01

  I, so Love Island is one of those shows that I absorb through osmosis.

• 53:52Drew Afualo?

  Me too.

• 53:53Speaker 01

  Twitter and from friends.

• 53:54Drew Afualo?

  Same.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  And then I have one really good friend, Olivia, shout out, who all, sometimes she's really good, sometimes like right before I got on the treadmill, I text her like, can you like explain to me this? And then she'll give me like a 20 minute voice note.

• 54:04Drew Afualo?

  Love.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  Press play.

• 54:05Drew Afualo?

  Love friends like that. That's like all my friends, because I never, I watch the same like three, four things over and over again. Don't diagnose me. I don't know what it is, but that's just what I do.

• 54:13Speaker 01

  Can I, can I ask what they are?

• 54:15Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah. I watch Bob's Burgers is in my rotation right now. Modern Family was in my rotation for a very long time. I think Modern Family is one of the funniest sitcoms ever written for TV.

• 54:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's hard for me to watch now because like sometimes when I've been like a little too excited in a Gen Z personal comment on my videos. Come on, Cam from Modern Family, and that is hard.

• 54:33Drew Afualo?

  And it feels triggering, so.

• 54:34Speaker 01

  That's not good.

• 54:36Drew Afualo?

  Hate that. I had The Office in there for a minute. I know a lot of people hate that show.

• 54:41Speaker 01

  No.

• 54:41Drew Afualo?

  For whatever reason.

• 54:42Speaker 01

  A lot more people like it. It's just that the people who hate it are loud.

• 54:44Drew Afualo?

  And that's true. And you know what I think too? I'm like, I get if, it's almost like the similar to Friends where I'm like, the people who love it are awful sometimes. And I think that clouds people's judgment of it. You know what I'm saying? So those are like kind of my things. What about you? Do you watch new stuff? Or are you more of a?

• 55:01Speaker 01

  I'm not much of a rewatcher, except for Sex and the City. I recently was brought two, I had had a two milligram weed soda. And my friend just casually texted me a TikTok that was like an edit of Carrie Bradshaw and David by Lorde off the new Lorde album.

• 55:20Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 55:21Speaker 01

  Full pressure tears. I've watched it 60 times. I can't stop watching this TikTok.

• 55:27Drew Afualo?

  Can I tell you, I've never actually watched Sex and the City all the way through.

• 55:29Speaker 01

  Because you don't connect with it? You don't like it?

• 55:31Drew Afualo?

  No, I've just never, I think it was like, I was young at the time, it was popping. And then I just haven't like really even ventured towards it.

• 55:38Speaker 01

  Okay, I have a similar, a kind of similar trajectory, which is that I didn't watch it at all because we didn't have HBO when I was a kid.

• 55:43Drew Afualo?

  Right, same.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  So could, and I also, and like I knew that the TBS one was edited, so I was like, I'm not watching the edited one.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  And then, when I moved to New York, I worked my like, I was a bartender until I was able to be a full-time comedian.

• 55:56Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 55:56Speaker 01

  And a lot, like, two of the main restaurants I worked at for like years were really popular brunch restaurants in like lower Manhattan.

• 56:03Drew Afualo?

  See?

• 56:03Speaker 01

  And that was like, like, 2014 to 2018, 19, like, white woman brunch culture.

• 56:12Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:12Speaker 01

  That's my Vietnam. Do you know what I mean? Like, that's me in the trenches.

• 56:16Drew Afualo?

  Absolutely.

• 56:16Speaker 01

  And those, I kind of associated those women with people who had moved to New York City to kind of do their Sex and the City cosplay.

• 56:24Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  Like, do their like-

• 56:24Drew Afualo?

  Live their Carrie Brownshaw fantasies.

• 56:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, we had like, and like, and they would say as much, you know what I mean? And so, I had this, like, profound resentment of the show, and I was like, fuck that show. Like, I hate what it's done to this city. I hate what it's done. And then, my, my ex, when we were still together during the pandemic, he was like, you, I actually, oh, I know what it was. I got a job doing a podcast that was like about New York City restaurant and nightlife culture.

• 56:47Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 56:48Speaker 01

  And it was like, my ex and a couple of their friends were like, it is so influential on that, that you kind of have to watch it if you're gonna have a podcast where you're talking about it.

• 56:54Drew Afualo?

  Research purposes.

• 56:55Speaker 01

  And I was like, yeah, fine, I'll watch it for research. Three episodes in, I was like-

• 56:58Drew Afualo?

  You said, you know what? I judged too quickly.

• 57:01Speaker 01

  Oh, and I was like, and now it's like, I'm, I'm like, I'm like leaving conversations at a party to be like, hey, are you talking shit on Carrie? What's up? Like, I go over, I'm like, I'm like, I have a pain, like, I'm like defending it to, I think it is like, I've met Michael Patrick King twice. I like adore him. I like adore that man.

• 57:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 57:17Speaker 01

  I like love that show so much now.

• 57:19Drew Afualo?

  One of my, one of my besties, she recently watched it for the first time, and she's like, you gotta get into it, bitch.

• 57:25Speaker 01

  It, and I think what's interesting is I feel like, cause it's like six seasons, I feel like there's no, like, I remember like with like Schitt's Creek, everyone was, which I haven't watched, but everyone would be like, everyone would be like, you gotta get to the end of season two, and then it clicks and you're in love with it. Which like is, and then they like love all of it, but I remember, that was like, everyone said like, there's this one specific point where if you get there, you'll fall in love with it.

• 57:43Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 57:44Speaker 01

  I feel like with Sex and the City, it's that click moment is there for everyone, but it's at a different point in the show. Like, when you fall in love with it.

• 57:51Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  Because there's like different aspects of what it does in terms of like talking about relationships and friendships, that I think when it hits the one that hits for you, you're like, oh, fuck.

• 57:59Drew Afualo?

  I saw one of my friends on TikTok recently do- Like, what I thought, she's a comedian, so she was, it was really funny, but it was like, very profound, honestly, where she's, she had that picture of, from Sex and the City, where Carrie's at Mr. Big's store, and she has the top hat on. And so like, yeah, exactly. And it's like, the cringe to end all cringe, right?

• 58:19Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 58:19Drew Afualo?

  But she was saying in the video, she goes, "I love to sit on a high horse and judge Carrie, because she does the most humiliating things in the world." But, she was saying, she said, "But that being said, that's how I used to see her." Now, I think to myself, you have to be like, another level of confident, to do shit like that. Like, anything, now she's got an admirer in me.

• 58:40Speaker 01

  Go, I bet, don't you feel like, I go back and watch a TikTok I posted three years ago, and I'm like, "That's Carrie at the door, babe."

• 58:46Drew Afualo?

  Yes, yes.

• 58:47Speaker 01

  Like, it's, that's what it is.

• 58:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and she was saying, like, maybe she's ahead of people, because she's let go of being cringe, and she's just fully being herself. And maybe that is cringe to some people.

• 58:57Speaker 01

  You have to live like being empathic towards other people and caring about other people, but you also have to live for yourself, and live for your own POV, and not live, like, you have to be kind to other people and be considerate of other people, but you also don't have to live for how they perceive you. Like, you have to live, yeah.

• 59:12Drew Afualo?

  Absolutely. You getting passionate about Carrie?

• 59:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll get hot, right now. Like, it's crazy. I just, I love it so much. Never watch the second movie.

• 59:23Speaker 01

  True. Never watch the second movie.

• 59:26Drew Afualo?

  Noted.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  And here's the thing, you don't fucking need to. It is like inconsequential to the plot of like, the, it's like, you know what I mean?

• 59:31Drew Afualo?

  How many are there? Is there three?

• 59:32Speaker 01

  There's, it's like, there's six seasons of the show, two movies, and then, and just like that.

• 59:37Drew Afualo?

  That's right. That's what I'm thinking of. And that's the spinoff show? Or is it just an extension of the show?

• 59:41Speaker 01

  It's, I, uh, I mean, I guess you can call it either. It's like, it picks, it picks, it, you join in with the characters, minus Samantha, like, 20 years later, or whatever it is.

• 59:51Drew Afualo?

  Gotcha.

• 59:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:52Drew Afualo?

  All right. Well, I might have to lock in. Honestly, I've been seeing a lot of signs lately that I should watch that show.

• 59:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:57Drew Afualo?

  You may have convinced me.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Do you know what I wonder is one of the things that maybe has, because you've been in a healthy relationship for so long. Do you know what I mean? Cause like, so much of the show is about like, dating and how much of a nightmare it is, and you've been over here with this like, wonderful man this entire time.

• 1:00:12Drew Afualo?

  So I'm like, I don't know, I don't really see myself.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  All your friends, like, you're sitting, you're like, cuddled up, and I'm like, I don't really see what people see on that show.

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  It's like, yeah, I wonder why. I wonder why.

• 1:00:23Drew Afualo?

  Honestly, and I saw a lot of people say too, it's different. It's a different experience watching it when you're like in your late twenties, thirties. Like, it's a different experience watching it because it's like, it feels a lot more real when you're watching it. Whereas like, when you watch it when you're younger, you're like, oh, that would be crazy.

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that's also part of it is that I started watching it because I'm like a little older than you. I started watching it when I was, I'm thirty two, so I think I started watching it when I was like thirty, which is like right around the age carry is when it starts. And so I was like, oh, this, even though it's like a completely different New York City.

• 1:00:51Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:00:52Speaker 01

  Like than what I live in now. I was like, oh, like, but this time in your life, I understand.

• 1:00:57Drew Afualo?

  Would you say that's your favorite show of all time? Or do you have a fave?

• 1:01:02Speaker 01

  Well, there's different ones, like Charmed raised me, you have to understand.

• 1:01:07Speaker 01

  Like, I have my-

• 1:01:07Drew Afualo?

  I never watched Charmed, but I do, I've seen it, like, obviously I've watched episodes, but I've never watched it.

• 1:01:11Speaker 01

  Charmed raised me, that's like in my DNA, that's in my like cells.

• 1:01:15Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  Um, and like, there's other shows, like dramas and stuff, but I would say Sex and City is one of them. And it's the one I rewatch the most, it's my most like comfort show.

• 1:01:22Drew Afualo?

  What are other shows you like?

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  Buffy is a classic, that one's huge.

• 1:01:25Drew Afualo?

  When you said Charmed, I was literally thinking you probably love Buffy too.

• 1:01:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, but this is the thing, is that every gig I love is Buffy and Buffy is like the cinema, is more, is the more like scholarly one to like, you know what I mean?

• 1:01:37Drew Afualo?

  Than Charmed?

• 1:01:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I think so, like, because it has, it's a little bit more highbrow, to be honest with you.

• 1:01:42Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  Charmed is a little bit more like CP English, you know what I mean, the honors, you know?

• 1:01:48Drew Afualo?

  That makes sense.

• 1:01:49Speaker 01

  But I, I fuck with both of those, those were like big for me when I was young. Um, I love, um, wait, what's the other show I'm obsessed with right now? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. The Pit.

• 1:02:01Drew Afualo?

  I fucking love The Pit, I love that fucking show.

• 1:02:04Speaker 01

  I'm finna be in The Pit.

• 1:02:07Drew Afualo?

  You and me both.

• 1:02:08Speaker 01

  I, but I'm like, literally, they were like, this one, they were like, the next season takes place on the fourth of July. I was like- Let me play a gay guy that gets hit by a firecracker. Like, like, let me play a gay guy that fly me to. Let me be a gay guy in P-town that gets so fucked up by a firecracker. They medevac me to Pittsburgh. I'm dead serious.

• 1:02:26Drew Afualo?

  The closest hospital is in Pittsburgh.

• 1:02:28Speaker 01

  Please, that show has every, it is my favorite show. I have never, me and my friends, me and my, like, one of my best friends, we sat down to have dinner and just like HB, we had like the Roku TV on and we were like, let's watch something. And it was the week The Pit came out, maybe even the day. I'm like, should we just fucking watch this? And then 20 minutes in, I have not touched my food, I like look over at him, I'm like, is this the best show you've ever seen? And he was like, yes.

• 1:02:50Drew Afualo?

  We're experiencing a moment together.

• 1:02:51Speaker 01

  Then on, I have, I ran into Langdon in the park.

• 1:02:54Drew Afualo?

  Did you really?

• 1:02:55Speaker 01

  Yes, and I've, I've been in the room with, at this point, like, a lot of celebrities. Like, I'm friends with some famous people. I'm, I'm cool around celebrities. I was like, I love The Pit!

• 1:03:06Speaker 01

  He was like, what? I was like, you're, and it was the week where, spoiler alert for The Pit, it was the week the episode came out where you find out that he has the drugs.

• 1:03:12Drew Afualo?

  Girl, gagged me.

• 1:03:14Speaker 01

  And my dumb ass, my dumb ass, so I go, this is so embarrassing.

• 1:03:22Speaker 01

  He's like, my dumb ass thought he was off the show. Like, I thought he was fired, you know, because it was like, they, they kick him out of the hospital, you know what I mean? I was like, he's toast. So he comes, I come up to him, like, I love you on The Pit, The Pit's so great, like, it's really awesome. Um, like, I think you're so great on it, like, it's just such a great show, I'm so happy for you guys. And he was like, I'm so happy, I did not say that, that would have been worse. But I was like, I'm so happy for you. No, I didn't say that. I was like, it's so good. And then he was like, he goes, he goes, oh, did you watch this episode? And I was like, yeah. And he, and then I, I went, I'm sorry. Like, thinking he had lost his job.

• 1:03:53Drew Afualo?

  That's actually him.

• 1:03:54Speaker 01

  And then two episodes later, he was like back, and I was like.

• 1:03:57Drew Afualo?

  Right, right, right.

• 1:03:59Speaker 01

  Sorry about that.

• 1:04:01Drew Afualo?

  I loved that fucking show. I missed a doctor show. I love a doctor show. I was a Grace fan for a minute.

• 1:04:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:08Drew Afualo?

  But then Grace gets to a point where I'm like, oh, just blow up that hospital.

• 1:04:13Speaker 01

  Realistic, like.

• 1:04:13Drew Afualo?

  Oh, just explode it and start over. I don't, I can't do it anymore.

• 1:04:18Speaker 01

  The Pit is so realistic, it's so funny, it's so emotional, like, you'll laugh, cry, and be like, like, scream at the gore. I have a theory about it.

• 1:04:26Drew Afualo?

  Oh, please.

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  I think that, I think one of the reasons it's so good and it's so successful is because there's so much happening at all times and they're jumping so much, it's TikTok brain.

• 1:04:35Drew Afualo?

  That's a, that's actually a really good theory.

• 1:04:37Speaker 01

  It is literally moving at the pace of swiping.

• 1:04:39Drew Afualo?

  Like 2X speed.

• 1:04:40Speaker 01

  Like.

• 1:04:43Drew Afualo?

  My sister jokes all the time. She's like, sometimes, like, we were talking about Love Island. I go, have you locked into it? Are you gonna watch it? Cause she's kind of my source for a lot of things. So I'm like, you watch it and tell me. And she was like, I, I tried, but like, I need to watch it in 2X. Like, I can't, I can't.

• 1:04:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:57Drew Afualo?

  I was like, she's like, my brain is so rotted. I have to speed it up.

• 1:05:00Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:05:01Drew Afualo?

  That's actually such a good point, though, about the bit, because it is so high-paced.

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  That's, I genuinely think that is it. It's so disturbing when you catch yourself watching something on 2X speed with it minimized so you can read a Wikipedia article, why are 2X?

• 1:05:12Drew Afualo?

  And you have music playing at the same time.

• 1:05:14Speaker 01

  Oh, my god. Oh, my god.

• 1:05:16Drew Afualo?

  It's so bad.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  In front of a TV that's playing it. It's literally, it is literally like, what is it gonna look like when I'm 40? Not good.

• 1:05:23Drew Afualo?

  It's not looking great right now.

• 1:05:24Speaker 01

  It's not good. I'm gonna need like the, like the, the chair to vibrate and like the house to be on fire. Just to be like, I feel something. It's so crazy.

• 1:05:31Drew Afualo?

  Dude, even with the pit, with that spoiler, with that Dr. Langdon thing on the pills. When that, the mean, like, what's it, what are they called? The resident, the, the girl that was like-

• 1:05:42Speaker 01

  Santos.

• 1:05:42Drew Afualo?

  Rap, when she was ratting him out. I was like, why is everyone believing this bitch? Like, I was like, hey, fuck that girl.

• 1:05:48Speaker 01

  You know, I was so, I was so, she won me over by the end of the season, but I was so anti-Santos at that time. I literally, like, and everyone in the room turned on me because we started watching it as, like, with a friend group. I was like, if he's good at being a doctor on a couple of pills, let him do it.

• 1:06:03Drew Afualo?

  Oh, oh, oh.

• 1:06:04Speaker 01

  Everyone was like, what the fuck?

• 1:06:07Speaker 01

  He's doing active surgery on Benzos.

• 1:06:08Drew Afualo?

  And I was an apologist too, because I was like, well, clearly he's doing a good job.

• 1:06:11Speaker 01

  Well, that's why I was like, did he fuck up? Did he fuck up? No.

• 1:06:15Drew Afualo?

  Let's think about this.

• 1:06:16Speaker 01

  I was like, I literally was like, he only got caught because she's nosy.

• 1:06:20Drew Afualo?

  You would have never known otherwise.

• 1:06:25Drew Afualo?

  A defender, me too.

• 1:06:26Speaker 01

  Oh, I was, I was, and you know a show's good when it has me in the paint for a straight white man fighting. I'm literally going against a queer woman of color, being like, she's annoying and she's trying too hard.

• 1:06:39Drew Afualo?

  For real. Live long enough to see myself become the villain.

• 1:06:42Speaker 01

  No, literally.

• 1:06:43Drew Afualo?

  For real.

• 1:06:43Speaker 01

  Literally.

• 1:06:45Drew Afualo?

  I was so balls deep in that show, too. I was like, this is the best. I felt like an old man when I was like, now that's television. That's how I felt watching every episode of The Pit.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  I was like, yeah. And then I became the person that was annoying at parties where it's like you could see like, like, someone would bring it up and then I'd sort of come back to you like an hour and a half later and they're in a corner being like, I want to talk to someone else. And I've been talking about The Pit for so long.

• 1:07:07Drew Afualo?

  Are you guys talking about The Pit?

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. I remember when it ended, I said, I can't believe The Pit is over. And my roommate went, I can't wait for you to be normal about it.

• 1:07:16Drew Afualo?

  Well, now you can be normal. It's perfect.

• 1:07:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, now I can be normal until in season two and then I'm back, baby.

• 1:07:21Drew Afualo?

  We're so fucking back.

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, someone, a friend of mine posted, like, tweeted, like, got an audition for The Pit. And I was like, cool.

• 1:07:29Speaker 00

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• 1:08:03Drew Afualo?

  Okay, well, I don't care. I don't care that something good happened to you. It should have happened to me.

• 1:08:07Speaker 01

  Literally.

• 1:08:09Drew Afualo?

  I do have some fun facts about you.

• 1:08:11Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:08:11Drew Afualo?

  Would you like to hear some?

• 1:08:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:13Drew Afualo?

  But hard pivot.

• 1:08:14Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:08:15Drew Afualo?

  Well, this one just says you grew up in rural Vermont, which we already talked about.

• 1:08:18Speaker 01

  I did.

• 1:08:19Drew Afualo?

  And that you used to be a bartender at a restaurant in New York. How did you like being a bartender?

• 1:08:23Speaker 01

  I loved it, so I started.

• 1:08:24Drew Afualo?

  Besides the brunch horrifying part?

• 1:08:27Speaker 01

  So I started bartending my sophomore year of college.

• 1:08:29Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:08:30Speaker 01

  And I did it, I was at a pub in England, because I did my sophomore year in England. And then I moved back and bartended all of college. And in college, I like, loved it. Like, I, it was so fun. And I was like, I will, I would be happy to bartend the rest of my life. And like, when I moved to New York, I was like, completely like, blind, like, like, confidence where I was like, oh, I have the best of both worlds, because if I bartend forever, I'll be fine, but I'm going to try to become a comedian, like, an actor. Like, I was like, I'm going to go for comedy and acting, but I'm going to bartend at the same time. And like, that, it's fine, because like, if I fall back on bartending, I'm still doing a job I love.

• 1:09:03Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:09:04Speaker 01

  And then I realized like how hard actually being like a full-time bartender is and like building a life and like wanting to retire and like moving up to make because like I was making in college, it was like I was making a certain amount of money and then but I would make like 200 bucks a night and I was like in a college town paying cash for beer and I was like one of the richest person in America.

• 1:09:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 1:09:20Speaker 01

  You know what I mean?

• 1:09:21Drew Afualo?

  That's why I felt as a server too.

• 1:09:22Speaker 01

  Yes, it's the same thing. And then I moved to New York and saw like realized that people were like moving up in jobs and would get promotions and make more money and like that and like you might need to build and realizing how expensive the world was.

• 1:09:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the cost of living going up.

• 1:09:36Speaker 01

  Oh, fuck, you know? And so then it pivoted where I liked the act of like doing it. Like I enjoyed being behind a bar, I enjoy making cocktails, I enjoy like socializing. I really enjoyed the rest of the bar staff and the restaurant staff, like being part of like that. But it very much felt like something that I was taking my energy away from like my dreams. So then it was like stressful.

• 1:09:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:59Speaker 01

  So it had like this, it was like a very fraught relationship. And like a lot of my New York friends are restaurant people still.

• 1:10:05Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:05Speaker 01

  So it was really hard right at the end when I was starting to work a lot as a comedian, but not necessarily make a lot of money. And so I still needed to bartend, but I didn't have time where like one of my best friends who was also my manager was like, hey, like you have to work a shift this week. And I'd be like, but I can't. She'd be like, but you kind of have, it's your job. And I was like, and so it was like, there was like a tough transition.

• 1:10:24Drew Afualo?

  The joy is kind of being sucked out of it because it's taking away from your dreams.

• 1:10:27Speaker 01

  Yes, but then once I got out of it, now I look back on it with like a lot of love. And occasionally like my friend will be like, hey, like, can you come bartend tonight? And I'm like, yeah, because like my, like if someone calls out sick or something, I'll go like made or do a restaurant for a night because all my friends work in restaurants.

• 1:10:40Drew Afualo?

  What's your, what's your best drink that you make? Do you have a specialty?

• 1:10:44Speaker 01

  I'm, I would say I can kind of make anything, but um, because I did like a lot of different kinds of bartending. But I would say like I do make like a good martini because I drink them a lot. So I know that's, yeah, I would say.

• 1:10:55Drew Afualo?

  I've never had, I've never had like.

• 1:10:57Speaker 01

  What's your drink?

• 1:10:58Drew Afualo?

  I've, I'm honestly a champagne girl, like I just.

• 1:11:01Speaker 01

  You and I are really aligned.

• 1:11:05Speaker 01

  I, we, I always say if they were like, you can only have one alcohol for the rest of your life, champagne.

• 1:11:08Drew Afualo?

  Yes, because it's, because you, it tastes good, you get, you get drunk, you get fucked up. And then you don't feel that shitty the next day.

• 1:11:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, some people say it does make them feel shitty the next day. I'm like, not the good stuff.

• 1:11:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:20Speaker 01

  I'm not going to tell you.

• 1:11:21Drew Afualo?

  Sorry.

• 1:11:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:11:23Drew Afualo?

  No, I'm like, I recently too, I think within the last like year, I was like way after every, the craze, but like, I was really fucking with Aperol spritz because I fuck with the champagne.

• 1:11:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:11:33Drew Afualo?

  But I did it way after everybody was like, you gotta try this drink. I'm like, yeah, I'll try it when everyone's done. When everyone's gonna sick of it.

• 1:11:40Speaker 01

  They're great though.

• 1:11:41Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:42Speaker 01

  It's also funny where like drinks, I always think it's funny when like drinks get trendy, cause I'm like, it's not like, it's not like fashion where it's like,

• 1:11:50Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:11:50Speaker 01

  part of, you wanna like, you wanna be in line with like the current trends so you don't look out of place or you're like on the trends. I'm like, the drink tastes the same at any time. So like, what do you mean you liked it for the summer when everyone else liked it? And you know what I mean? Like, oh, I'm being so antiquated, I'm getting a spicy margarita. I'm like, if you like that, drink it. I don't really get.

• 1:12:09Drew Afualo?

  I was like, straight white girls were really on to something with that Aperol spritz.

• 1:12:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:12Drew Afualo?

  They were on to that shit. I said, this is, this shit is good.

• 1:12:15Speaker 01

  This is, that shit is good.

• 1:12:17Drew Afualo?

  It's like a grown up Shirley Temple to me.

• 1:12:19Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:12:19Drew Afualo?

  I'm feeling it.

• 1:12:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:20Drew Afualo?

  But I have recently been wanting to try like a dirty martini because I really love vinegary kinda tastes.

• 1:12:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, you would love that.

• 1:12:28Drew Afualo?

  So I figured, I was like, maybe I try that, cause espresso martinis aren't my vibe. We have to.

• 1:12:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:12:33Drew Afualo?

  My espresso martinis are not really my vibe. I've tried them many times. I'm kinda like.

• 1:12:37Speaker 01

  Are you a coffee person though?

• 1:12:39Drew Afualo?

  I do love coffee. I think I just don't love coffee flavored alcohol or anything.

• 1:12:44Speaker 01

  I respect that.

• 1:12:45Drew Afualo?

  It's a little too heavy for me.

• 1:12:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think you would like a martini then because similar, because they are typically, even like the briny ones are like refreshing. They're like bright.

• 1:12:54Drew Afualo?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 1:12:55Speaker 01

  You know what I mean?

• 1:12:55Drew Afualo?

  What, what do you, what can you tell about a certain drink? Are there any drinks when you're like, oh yeah, of course you drink that?

• 1:13:02Speaker 01

  It's more like, I, I would say it's less, it was less like what drink you had and like how you ordered it.

• 1:13:10Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:13:10Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 1:13:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:11Speaker 01

  It's like ordering a, ordering a dirty martini is not like bad.

• 1:13:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:16Speaker 01

  And like, doesn't really say much about you. But someone being like, give me the fucking nastiest martini you've ever fucking made in your life. It's like, what are you trying to prove? There's something like, you could tell when some, cause like dirty martinis, I think, I don't know if it happened over here, but like that, that was like a big thing in New York, like right towards the end of my bartending. And people were obsessed with being like, being like, can you take a fucking shit in my martini? Like just wanting, yeah, like.

• 1:13:37Drew Afualo?

  As many olives as you can give me.

• 1:13:38Speaker 01

  And being like, down girl. Like stop, you know what I mean?

• 1:13:41Drew Afualo?

  Chill.

• 1:13:41Speaker 01

  Or like. Like men be like, just being like old fashioned and it's like that, there's like a certain like performance to it. It was more about like how you would perform the order than it was an actual drink.

• 1:13:51Drew Afualo?

  That's true.

• 1:13:52Speaker 01

  I like was, I would love so hard for like some guy walk up and I'd be like, Pinot Grigio. Like, you know, like that would be so, I'm like, yeah.

• 1:13:59Drew Afualo?

  I love a Pinot.

• 1:14:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:00Drew Afualo?

  I don't mind a Pinot.

• 1:14:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:01Drew Afualo?

  I don't really love red wine. I do, I prefer a white.

• 1:14:04Speaker 01

  I do too, but I, I have like an appreciation for all of it pretty much. Yeah. I feel like.

• 1:14:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. I feel like red wine makes me want to shit myself. So that's.

• 1:14:12Speaker 01

  It's hard on, some people have a hard time digesting it. I don't know what that is.

• 1:14:15Drew Afualo?

  I don't know what that is. That's what I feel about whiskey too. I'm like, I'm not, yeah, I'm not a big fan of pooping myself. So I gotta stay away.

• 1:14:21Speaker 01

  I so respect that.

• 1:14:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. The first time I ever threw up from drinking was from, uh, what was it? It was that Tennessee.

• 1:14:29Speaker 01

  The screwball. Oh no.

• 1:14:30Drew Afualo?

  No, it was like, it was, yeah, Jack, but it was the honey one. Yeah. Specifically. I remember taking that shot and I was already super fucked up. I remember taking that shot and then thinking to myself, yeah, that's gonna fuck me up. I gotta do something about that. I'm probably gonna have to vomit in a couple of minutes. So, and I did.

• 1:14:46Speaker 01

  There's nothing more embarrassing than like vomiting from drinking after the age of like 27.

• 1:14:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:51Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 1:14:52Drew Afualo?

  At the time, thankfully, I was like 20.

• 1:14:56Speaker 01

  It's only.

• 1:14:57Drew Afualo?

  Do as I say, not as I do.

• 1:15:00Speaker 01

  It's only happened to me like one time, but I was like, no one can know about this.

• 1:15:04Drew Afualo?

  No, that's true because.

• 1:15:05Speaker 01

  It's so embarrassing.

• 1:15:06Drew Afualo?

  When I did get like really fucked up after 27 or whatever, I remember it was like a while ago. I don't get drunk like that anymore because again, I pay the price. But I remember I was at my fiance's parents' house. We got so fucked up and then I.

• 1:15:21Speaker 01

  Drinking at home will sneak up on you because you're just like pouring.

• 1:15:24Drew Afualo?

  Girl, I know. And we were having so much fun. I remember most of the night. I, then I remember coming back online and I was laying down in the downstairs half bath. The one that everybody's using. I just locked the door and then his mom was knocking on the door and she's like, hey, are you okay? How you doing? And then I sat up. I was like, yeah, no, I'm good. Me pretending like I've only been in there for a couple of minutes. It had probably been like 30. And then I went offline again. Don't know what happened after that. When I came back online again, both me and my fiance were asleep in the bed, but I was under the covers. He was on top of them. My shoes were on underneath the blanket and his shoes were on too.

• 1:15:58Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:15:58Drew Afualo?

  And I was like in fully in my same clothes, same makeup, same shoes.

• 1:16:01Speaker 01

  I.

• 1:16:03Drew Afualo?

  And I had to leave and I was like, why are my boots on? I'm laying in bed. What the hell happened here?

• 1:16:08Speaker 01

  That's, that's really tough. My, my last time was two or three Christmases ago. I was at my family's Christmas, my, my uncle threw a Christmas party.

• 1:16:16Drew Afualo?

  Love.

• 1:16:16Speaker 01

  And yeah, it was cute, but, and I just like, wasn't paying attention and just like drinking all night. And then like, on, on that side of the family, me and my sister are like older than most of the other cousins. Um, because, and so all this, and so now that like I'm 32, all of the cousins are like 21, 22. But they want, so like, I want to be the cool cousin that like still hangs out with them. So I'm like, yeah, I'll play King's Cup and do shots. And it's like, why, no, you were drinking wine like an adult all night. And now like, they're just now starting to drink at 10 and you've been drinking and now you're going to do the drinking game with them. So I, I like blacked out playing a drinking game with 21 year olds. Like absolutely slay.

• 1:16:54Drew Afualo?

  King's Cup.

• 1:16:54Speaker 01

  You're old enough to be a senator, so maybe sit down, like.

• 1:16:57Drew Afualo?

  You can run for president.

• 1:16:59Speaker 01

  Not yet, 35, down, not yet.

• 1:17:03Drew Afualo?

  It's all the same to them.

• 1:17:04Speaker 01

  But it's like, but I, apparently I fell asleep at the, at the coffee table with a glass of red wine between my legs like this.

• 1:17:12Speaker 01

  And then woke up in the morning and was like, I'm going to vomit, but I don't want anyone to know. And so I quietly went downstairs, like they were making breakfast, like every, it's like also one of those mornings where like, I'm so hungover. I need the hospital and everyone else is like, we're good.

• 1:17:26Speaker 01

  What, like, oh, it was definitely me, you know what I mean?

• 1:17:28Drew Afualo?

  Oh yeah, girl, when I, if I drank like how I did when I was 21, I would have to be in a hospital.

• 1:17:32Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 1:17:33Drew Afualo?

  And the psych ward right after.

• 1:17:35Speaker 01

  And so I quietly like tried to go downstairs, but I was like, I'm going to vomit, but I didn't want anyone to know. And then I go and my sister is in the bathroom and as, so I'm waiting for her, like being like, you need to get out of the bathroom, bitch. You need to get out of the room. And then she comes out and you know how like sometimes like, I think she was slightly hungover. So you know when like you, you and your sister like immediately are in a fight for no reason? I think I was like waiting too close to the door for her. So she, she opens the door and right as she does, I like start to vomit in my mouth and I'm like, and she's like, what? And I can't talk, so I'm like, and she's like, don't, she's like, use your words. And I'm like, and she's like, don't wave your hand at me.

• 1:18:07Drew Afualo?

  I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying.

• 1:18:09Speaker 01

  Then I start pushing her and vomiting and she's like, yeah.

• 1:18:16Speaker 01

  I start going in the bathroom. And then as I'm like, I just hear her go upstairs. And she's like, so Jake's downstairs and he's throwing up.

• 1:18:23Speaker 01

  And I was like, so now everyone knows.

• 1:18:24Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so, oh, perfect. So my whole plan went to shit.

• 1:18:26Speaker 01

  And it is Christmas Day. Cause the party's on Christmas Eve.

• 1:18:29Drew Afualo?

  Mind you, Christmas.

• 1:18:30Speaker 01

  Yeah. Mind you, Jesus is upstairs waiting for me. He's on a-

• 1:18:36Drew Afualo?

  Mind you, my mom wants to take pictures and matching pajamas. Get that.

• 1:18:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:41Drew Afualo?

  Let me see what other fun facts I have.

• 1:18:43Speaker 01

  Oh, I forgot we were going through these.

• 1:18:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it says, you used to perform a live comedy show called Queer Therapy Live.

• 1:18:48Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, that's a blast from the past. Yeah.

• 1:18:51Drew Afualo?

  And how was that?

• 1:18:52Speaker 01

  That was good. There was this, basically, there's this venue, there was this venue that's still there, but I think they've kind of pivoted away from this. But there was this venue in New York that was doing this thing where they wanted to like, have all their shows be a fusion of comedy and science.

• 1:19:07Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:19:08Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:19:09Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:19:10Speaker 01

  Sort of like a pre-pandemic, sort of like, we like, we have like, the margins to be experimental in the modern space.

• 1:19:16Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:19:17Speaker 01

  And so the premise of the show was that I would do, it was all gay performers. And then there'd be like, a gay, I think like, mental health expert, I think it was my show, like gay mental health, that would talk, do like, a presentation on like, queer, like, psychology.

• 1:19:31Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:19:32Speaker 01

  I only did like, I think, four of them before the pandemic hit, which was probably good because most queer psychology is sad. You know what I mean? It's like the effects of like, being oppressed your entire life. And then I'd be like, okay, so that was Dr. Todd. Next up, Drew for 20 minutes of stand up. The comic would come up on the stage like, and I'd be like, bitch, what the fuck am I walking into?

• 1:19:51Drew Afualo?

  Everybody has tears in their eyes.

• 1:19:52Speaker 01

  Like, literally.

• 1:19:53Drew Afualo?

  They're like-

• 1:19:54Speaker 01

  So it was, we were on the cusp of like, a rebrand of the show when the pandemic hit, but yeah, it was, it was me trying some stuff out. That was like, that was like, when I was starting to try to pivot to stand up right before the pandemic hit.

• 1:20:04Drew Afualo?

  Okay. We love that, though. I think it's a very funny concept, I say.

• 1:20:09Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's one of those things where like, I actually now look back on the memories of telling people what the pitch of the show was. And like, now I'm like, oh, that's what that person looks like when they lie. Dude, cause they'd be like, oh, my God, that's so, that's such a fun idea.

• 1:20:23Speaker 01

  And I was like, yeah, it is. And now I'm like, that's what they look like when they lie.

• 1:20:25Drew Afualo?

  You're all I'm surrounded by fake friends. Nobody, nobody told me anything. It says you were in an improv group at UCB called Funky Hard Beats.

• 1:20:34Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. Yes, I was.

• 1:20:36Drew Afualo?

  How was that?

• 1:20:37Speaker 01

  That was good. Those were, those were some of my best friends. I love all those people. We were, that is a, Funky Hard Beats is a Britney Spears quote. She said she loves songs with funky hard beats.

• 1:20:49Speaker 01

  So we called ourselves that and we were like, just doing a bunch of dumb shit on stage. There was like a show called, there's, there's a show at UCB called Cage Match. Which was like, it was on Thursday nights and it was like, two teams would each do a set and then for like 25 minutes. And then the audience votes on who won and then they get to come back the next week and do the show and face off a new team. So you could like, keep doing the show as long as you kept winning.

• 1:21:14Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:21:14Speaker 01

  And that was like how that team became like a UCB team was we like won that a bunch, but like I was.

• 1:21:19Drew Afualo?

  You just kept dominating.

• 1:21:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I was so addicted to improv at the time that I truly thought like, I was like, I'm gonna get recognized on the train. Like, I was like, I'm a New York celebrity. Like I'm winning Cage Match at UCB. Like I literally thought I was God on earth for this shit. Like, like I would be like, we would win and I literally like, like going around the room like, let's go! Like, just like, it's like I won an improv comedy competition. Humiliating.

• 1:21:42Drew Afualo?

  Taking that shit real fucking serious.

• 1:21:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was, oh, I was not, but everyone at UCB did back then, like before the pandemic, because it was kind of like a cult a little bit. It's still, like, it, like improv just like has that quality to it. I think people get so addicted to it.

• 1:21:54Drew Afualo?

  Every one of my comedian friends has been like, yeah, it was a, something I did take way too seriously, but it was, it was that serious.

• 1:22:03Speaker 01

  It was, yeah. I remember one time, I remember one time when I was like really in it at UCB. I was like, we were like hanging out with non-UCB people, it was like my, my like other friends from college and stuff. And we were like at a party, we were like drinking. And I was like talking to someone new, like a new friend I had just made about like theory of improv performance. And my best friend overheard it and just turned and went, shut the fuck up.

• 1:22:26Speaker 01

  Do you think they want to hear that right now? And I look, the person is like drowning.

• 1:22:31Drew Afualo?

  They're like, that's nice.

• 1:22:34Speaker 01

  But I was like, there's no world where someone wouldn't find this fascinating. I was like, there's no world.

• 1:22:39Drew Afualo?

  I, I honestly really love that about you. I love how intensely you absorb things. I think that's a beautiful thing.

• 1:22:46Speaker 01

  It is like when I'm, I think it's like the storyteller thing in me where it's like, if I'm like passionate on something, it's, I have to talk about it.

• 1:22:53Drew Afualo?

  You're telling me you don't care about this?

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never been chill about anything in my entire life. It's, I've never been chill about anything in my entire life. And it's true of like dating, I tried, like if I get like excited about something, I'm like, don't go crazy. And then it's like, I'm like, you went crazy.

• 1:23:08Drew Afualo?

  And then guess what? I went crazy.

• 1:23:10Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then guess what? And Reader, he went crazy.

• 1:23:14Drew Afualo?

  Uh, it says you made Vogue's list of eight funniest accounts on TikTok.

• 1:23:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, and they didn't tell me.

• 1:23:20Drew Afualo?

  Vogue didn't tell you?

• 1:23:21Speaker 01

  Vogue didn't tell me.

• 1:23:22Drew Afualo?

  He said, he'll see it.

• 1:23:22Speaker 01

  And then someone, my mom texted me, my mom, I think at one point got bored one day and so she Googled me. To like, look at what her son had done.

• 1:23:31Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:32Speaker 01

  And she was like, did you know you, that Vogue named you top eight, whatever, like three, like two years ago? Like, it was so long after. I was like, I was like, no one told me. I was shocked that no one told me.

• 1:23:44Drew Afualo?

  No, that's a huge deal, especially in Vogue.

• 1:23:46Speaker 01

  I know, I was like, I was like so excited and I was like, I would have loved to have celebrated this when it happened.

• 1:23:52Drew Afualo?

  Hey, thanks Vogue, too.

• 1:23:53Speaker 01

  It was like, and it was like, thank you for seeing me, but you didn't call me. Like, it was like the most.

• 1:23:56Drew Afualo?

  Thanks Vogue. It's the party all over again with the ticket.

• 1:23:59Speaker 01

  Absolutely, absolutely.

• 1:24:01Drew Afualo?

  All over again.

• 1:24:02Speaker 01

  All over again.

• 1:24:03Drew Afualo?

  And then it says you have a new weekly podcast called Walk With Me Here.

• 1:24:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:06Drew Afualo?

  On Substack.

• 1:24:07Speaker 01

  I do.

• 1:24:08Drew Afualo?

  Tell me about the pod.

• 1:24:09Speaker 01

  Um, I wanted to, I, so I have it on Substack, um, which I've really, really been enjoying. I had, I've done a few podcasts before and they've always been fun, but they've been, I wanted to kind of do something a little bit like smaller. That was just like me talking directly to like people who wanted to hear what I had to say. I was getting, I'm sure you can kind of relate to this, I was getting really frustrated with the algorithm and feeling like, because a lot of my videos tend to be a kind of. Silly stuff.

• 1:24:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:36Speaker 01

  And I was noticing like if I talked to, if I went too far into talking about being gay or too far into being politics, the videos would just get completely suppressed and I would still make them. I guess I wanted to talk about those things.

• 1:24:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:46Speaker 01

  But I was like, oh, if, if I can create, if I can go to like Substack and people can subscribe to this and then like it will be sent directly to them.

• 1:24:53Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 1:24:53Speaker 01

  Non-algorithmically.

• 1:24:54Drew Afualo?

  That makes a lot of, that makes a lot of sense.

• 1:24:56Speaker 01

  I was like, I think I want to just try that.

• 1:24:58Drew Afualo?

  And I think that's cute. What a cute ass name because that's what you always do in your videos.

• 1:25:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:01Drew Afualo?

  It's walking with people.

• 1:25:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was the idea.

• 1:25:03Drew Afualo?

  I love that.

• 1:25:04Speaker 01

  That was the idea and I thought it would be fun and it's been really fun. Like it's really nice to have like, like a group of people that listen to the show and like it's growing and they, and like they're sending messages and you, that people can email into the show and so it's been very fun and it's also very surreal to like, it's kind of extension of the doing the videos and stuff, but it is crazy to like talk for an hour and be like, people want to hear that, but like they do.

• 1:25:26Drew Afualo?

  You're fucking telling me, bitch.

• 1:25:27Speaker 01

  I know. Yeah.

• 1:25:27Drew Afualo?

  I, I told people, I've said before, like, cause one time I got a comment, this was like years ago. Obviously I've been doing this for fucking ever, but like years ago I got a comment that were like, yeah, I've, I've heard that story before. I'm like, you tried talking for 180 episodes, bitch, you're gonna start repeating yourself.

• 1:25:42Speaker 01

  It's like, what do you want me to do? I don't have another life to pull from.

• 1:25:45Drew Afualo?

  And also this person hasn't heard it, so I'm gonna tell them my story.

• 1:25:48Speaker 01

  No, it is true.

• 1:25:49Drew Afualo?

  I'm gonna get the laugh regardless.

• 1:25:52Drew Afualo?

  But I think that's beautiful and is it more of like a serious kind of tone?

• 1:25:56Speaker 01

  No, it's not. It's definitely funny.

• 1:25:57Drew Afualo?

  Or you can expand a little bit more on things.

• 1:26:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, I, so I basically, the way I've been making the show is that I just have a running notes app for every week and then I sit down on Wednesday and go through the notes app of like what's happened to me that week and the thoughts I've had. And I just kind of like structure it like, I'll talk about this versus this versus this, this, and then I, and like if people have commented or emailed in, like I'll figure out the order and then I just kind of like talk about the things I want to talk about. So it's, no, it's very funny. It's, it's definitely comedic. But it's more able just to go long.

• 1:26:25Drew Afualo?

  I feel you.

• 1:26:26Speaker 01

  Talk about whatever I want, not worry about getting censored by the algorithm.

• 1:26:29Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 1:26:30Speaker 01

  And tell, and it's a lot more, because I love telling stories, it's also like getting to tell longer stories and not doing like story time. Like, I don't know. It feels more conversational.

• 1:26:41Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally. That's, well, yeah, you're telling me. That was another reason why I wanted to do the podcast in the first place. Cause I was like, believe it or not, I got a lot more yap in me.

• 1:26:48Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:26:49Drew Afualo?

  Believe it or not.

• 1:26:49Speaker 01

  Well, and it's like, I think when you do TikTok, you know how to make the videos that are gonna do well and there's so much.

• 1:26:57Speaker 01

  That goes into that, that is like not organic to how we actually are.

• 1:27:00Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 1:27:01Speaker 01

  That I was like.

• 1:27:01Drew Afualo?

  I'm sure because when people probably meet you in real life, they're like, oh my god, that's so

• 1:27:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:05Drew Afualo?

  Different from what I thought.

• 1:27:06Speaker 01

  Totally, totally. I also get a lot of people who meet me who don't know who I am or don't know that I'm a comedian are very shocked when they find out because I'm like not as yeah, as I like am online. I was in Provincetown, I was in Provincetown at a dinner party and this guy was, we'd been, we'd been talking for like, at this point like an hour and a half.

• 1:27:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:21Speaker 01

  And this guy was like, and what do you two do? I was sitting with my best friend and he was like, oh, I manage a restaurant. And he goes, and you? And I go, oh, I'm a comedian. He goes, you haven't been funny at all.

• 1:27:30Drew Afualo?

  Oh.

• 1:27:32Speaker 01

  Damn, okay.

• 1:27:33Drew Afualo?

  I said, well, how much time do you got? I got a closing ten.

• 1:27:35Speaker 01

  I said, did you pay me?

• 1:27:37Drew Afualo?

  No shit. What the fuck?

• 1:27:39Speaker 01

  It's crazy.

• 1:27:39Drew Afualo?

  Well, and that's also, I think that speaks to like how people look at comedy, like as a whole, because they're like, well, I could do that. Like the way that they look at it, even I just had Holmes on and Holmes was telling me.

• 1:27:51Speaker 01

  The funniest person ever.

• 1:27:53Drew Afualo?

  If I could be around them 99% of the time, I think my life would be better for it.

• 1:27:59Speaker 01

  Holmes and I will like do FaceTimes where we like, or like for like an hour and a half and I'll just be like walking around. Like it's like, like I'll just be walking around New York and she'll just like be in bed and it like, it is, I get off of it and I'm like, well, my abs hurt from laughing. I've also cried three times. Like it's one of those, like.

• 1:28:13Drew Afualo?

  One of the funniest people who's ever lived. But when I was talking to them, they were saying, I was talking to some jazz musicians and they were saying like, oh, you know, like we both have a lot in common. Like they were just bonding with these jazz musicians at a place. And then they said that, uh, one of the musicians told them that it's funny because when people see me performing jazz, right? Because they were saying it's actually improv of music, which I love improv. And I was like, you dork. Like we were laughing about it. And then they said that it's crazy though, because the jazz musician noticed that nobody would come up to me and say, I could do that. Oh, I, I, I play jazz all the time, but they will do that for comedians, right? Like they'll be like, you know what's funny is like, I've been known to tell a funny joke or two.

• 1:28:55Speaker 01

  Or you get a lot of, I think the one I get even more than that is like, I've been thinking about trying it out, or I've always wanted to try it out. You know what I mean?

• 1:29:02Drew Afualo?

  I told Holmes too, I was like, Serena Breyer said, when men say, I, I think I want to try it. And then she goes, why?

• 1:29:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:10Drew Afualo?

  Why would you want to do that? Why would you ever?

• 1:29:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:12Drew Afualo?

  Don't. Don't.

• 1:29:14Speaker 01

  It is crazy because every once in a while, the least charismatic person I've ever met in my life has been like, I've been meaning to get up on stage.

• 1:29:24Speaker 01

  But then it is crazy, but there is also, I will say, something you learn doing stand up is that there is, I think most stand ups are fun in like, especially like, a lot of like, the ones that we know and hang out with.

• 1:29:34Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 1:29:35Speaker 01

  But like, you will meet actual like, cyborgs backstage who will just be so, there's nothing, like, it is a full persona onstage that does not exist. And when they get, you watch them like, and walk out on stage and then they come off and I'm like, you scare me more than most.

• 1:29:50Drew Afualo?

  Really? That's very true.

• 1:29:53Speaker 01

  And they'll be like, thank you for having me on the show, and they walk out, I'd be like, someone follow them. Like, I don't, where are they going?

• 1:29:57Drew Afualo?

  I don't know what they're gonna do, but it's bad.

• 1:30:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:00Drew Afualo?

  Like, I'm nervous.

• 1:30:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, cuz I'm like, I'm like, I've always liked making people laugh. You at one point decided to get good at it. And you weren't before, and kudos to you at working hard, but I don't think you should work on it if it doesn't come natural to you.

• 1:30:13Drew Afualo?

  For a bad reason.

• 1:30:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, cuz it speaks to evil, do you know what I mean?

• 1:30:17Drew Afualo?

  Totally, I totally know what you mean.

• 1:30:18Speaker 01

  Because I'm like, I'm like, look, I wish that, sometimes I, I don't actually wish this, but it's like, I'm like, my personality is so obnoxious, I kinda had to make it my career.

• 1:30:28Drew Afualo?

  Fucking same.

• 1:30:29Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 1:30:29Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 1:30:30Speaker 01

  And there are days where I'm like, wow, what would it be like to have a career that isn't completely wrapped up in my personality and identity?

• 1:30:38Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 1:30:39Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 1:30:39Speaker 01

  Like, that could be amazing.

• 1:30:41Drew Afualo?

  Yes, absolutely.

• 1:30:42Speaker 01

  But I didn't have a choice.

• 1:30:44Drew Afualo?

  No, me too.

• 1:30:45Speaker 01

  And I'm like, when people have a choice, I'm like, you don't have to make this choice, like, you can just go do the normal thing.

• 1:30:50Drew Afualo?

  Go be a dentist.

• 1:30:51Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:30:51Drew Afualo?

  That's your path, go be a dentist. We need, we need more dentists in the world.

• 1:30:56Speaker 01

  Well, cuz I also think, I think, I think, a thing I'm thinking about so much now is like, so much of when, when we were little kids, is they would, they talk to you about, like, what do you wanna be when you grow up, as like, being a dentist will be your monolithic existence.

• 1:31:08Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:31:08Speaker 01

  Or like, being, like, and it's like, you know.

• 1:31:10Drew Afualo?

  Your profession makes up who you are.

• 1:31:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:12Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  And then you get older and you find out, like, everyone's just trying to make money to go out to eat at the end of the night, get drinks with their friends, and go on vacation.

• 1:31:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:31:20Speaker 01

  And then, when you're a gay guy, it's like, everyone has a job that seems like, kinda fake, but they're all making $200,000 a year and doing it. And I'm like, I'm like, I could have done that. Like now, you know what I mean? It's like, I love my career, I love my job.

• 1:31:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:35Speaker 01

  But it's like, I have to constantly be working at it and I kinda have to constantly like, and if I fail, it's not like, oh, I got fired from this job. It's like Jake Cornell failed. But you know what I mean?

• 1:31:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, literally.

• 1:31:45Speaker 01

  It's like, it's like.

• 1:31:45Drew Afualo?

  It's like a shark swimming thing. If sharks stop swimming, they'll die.

• 1:31:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's sort of like that.

• 1:31:49Drew Afualo?

  Absolutely.

• 1:31:50Speaker 01

  Where, where it's like, wow, like, when people are like, when people, like, when people post like the Instagram story of like, slam's laptop till Monday. I'm like, I don't, it turns off my, my reign till Monday, like turns off my existence.

• 1:32:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I don't have that.

• 1:32:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:03Drew Afualo?

  Unfortunately, I'm plugging away all the time.

• 1:32:05Speaker 01

  I didn't realize that other, it's like, oh, wait, we all go on vacations? Okay.

• 1:32:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, no, for real.

• 1:32:09Speaker 01

  You know?

• 1:32:10Drew Afualo?

  No, constantly. I feel like, and also too, it's like high risk, high reward.

• 1:32:15Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:32:16Drew Afualo?

  Right? So like, the, the greatest things you could ever think of, like dream job, really long way to fall if it doesn't work out.

• 1:32:21Speaker 01

  Well, that's the thing. And it is, and I will never claim my job is harder in terms of the day to day work than like anyone who's a 95. I will never, like, I understand the perks of my job, but the way that it is, exists in every moment of my life.

• 1:32:35Drew Afualo?

  It is, it's an exchange.

• 1:32:37Speaker 01

  Is uniquely hard.

• 1:32:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I've said, I've said that too. I was like, I would never say this is the hardest job in the world.

• 1:32:41Speaker 01

  It's just not.

• 1:32:42Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I would never say this is the hardest job in the world. I've always said this job comes with a very specific set of problems that you would never encounter in any other job you've had.

• 1:32:52Speaker 01

  100%.

• 1:32:52Drew Afualo?

  No matter how many times you've had them, like, you could have had 100 jobs if it wasn't this one. All the problems you come across, you're not gonna know how to deal with, cause there's no one to ask.

• 1:33:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:33:01Drew Afualo?

  And then the only way to get through it is to get through it and then to make friends who are also doing it and talk shit about it. That's the only way.

• 1:33:08Speaker 01

  It's also one of the ones where it's also like, if you were to quit tomorrow, when you went out to the restaurant the next day, you would still be Drew Offwall.

• 1:33:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:17Speaker 01

  You know what I mean?

• 1:33:18Drew Afualo?

  Yes, of course.

• 1:33:18Speaker 01

  And people would recognize you.

• 1:33:19Drew Afualo?

  Absolutely.

• 1:33:20Speaker 01

  And you'd have to deal with that. So it's like, it's also, I'm, I'm, you're, I'm like pushing you into a crisis, but it's like, it's like, it is irrevocable. Like, we also did something that's like a little irrevocable.

• 1:33:27Drew Afualo?

  No, it's true. I made my peace with, I signed that contract with the devil a long time ago. That's why I was like, I made peace with it a while ago.

• 1:33:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:33:34Drew Afualo?

  But that doesn't mean that we can't talk shit about it.

• 1:33:37Speaker 01

  No, absolutely.

• 1:33:38Drew Afualo?

  Even if anything, when you were saying, I'm way too obnoxious to have done anything else, fucking same.

• 1:33:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:33:43Drew Afualo?

  I was telling my friend the other day, this unbelievably ridiculous story that happened to my family. The most insane things happen to me and my family always. My entire life, like, and to the point where, the other day I told my sister, if we didn't have a witness at certain points in our life, people would think I'm just a pathological liar.

• 1:33:59Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 1:34:00Drew Afualo?

  And I was telling my fiance, when I was telling that story, I was like, what's crazy is that I think that cosmic balance gave me this job, because there's nothing else I could fucking do. Like, with all of this, all of this shit happening to me, I needed to put it somewhere. I needed to channel that into something.

• 1:34:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:16Drew Afualo?

  And then turned out it was being hilarious.

• 1:34:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:20Speaker 01

  That's the other thing, is like, it's like, it is like, I'm, I'll, I'll tell myself, like, it's so crazy that I, like, this is the career path I pursued, but then I'm also like, but I did it. It is my job now. Like, it is my job now.

• 1:34:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and it is shocking.

• 1:34:33Speaker 01

  Like, it is like, it's like, oh, I, I did, like, I, I, I'm like dunking on younger version of me for going after this thing, but clearly he was smart because it worked.

• 1:34:41Drew Afualo?

  Same.

• 1:34:41Speaker 01

  Like, I still have more I want to achieve and more I want to grow towards.

• 1:34:43Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 1:34:44Speaker 01

  But like, it's not failing.

• 1:34:45Drew Afualo?

  No, absolutely not. No, absolutely not.

• 1:34:48Speaker 01

  But it's like, you, you're, it's funny to write that off in a certain way.

• 1:34:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I think that, well, first of all, I think that means, it makes it obvious you're a good person, because you're feeling great, grateful for it. Like, you still walk in gratitude about it, which I, I do the same thing, because I would never want to do anything else.

• 1:35:03Speaker 01

  Nothing is more miserable than being around people who are super successful and are not, and are like complaining about it. Have you ever been at those parties?

• 1:35:10Drew Afualo?

  Yes, of course.

• 1:35:11Speaker 01

  That is truly, I would rather be around straight people. Do you know what I mean?

• 1:35:16Drew Afualo?

  My favorite thing to do is when my friends and I, if we were like, can I just bitch? And we bitch about the most ridiculous, like, problems that no one would ever understand. And then at the end, we're always like, this is a fucking made up job, what am I complaining about? It's almost like I talked myself out of it, like, I go around to end up right back where I was. Which is like, I need to shut up.

• 1:35:34Speaker 01

  No, yeah, you get back to it, and you're like, this is actually fine.

• 1:35:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I need to be, I need to be quiet because I'm dumb.

• 1:35:39Speaker 01

  Yes. A hundred percent.

• 1:35:41Drew Afualo?

  But I think you are fucking hilarious. And I'm so grateful that you came on the show.

• 1:35:46Speaker 01

  I'm so happy to be here.

• 1:35:47Drew Afualo?

  I would love to ask you if you have any advice for any, because we just talked about how hard you worked to get to where you are now, and you're doing amazing now, which I'm very grateful for.

• 1:35:55Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:35:55Drew Afualo?

  For the internet to have exposure to you in that way, but, I would love to know if you have any advice for any aspiring comedians, standups, like, anyone who wants to pursue this art form, like, if you have any advice for them.

• 1:36:07Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah, I was thinking about this, I was watching... I was watching Lena Dunham's interview on Girls We Watch Podcast that just came out on the flight over here today. And I was thinking about how like she put out so much work from such a young age and I didn't do that. And I was so afraid of if I put something bad out, people would like write me off and I'd never be able to like recover from the bad thing.

• 1:36:32Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:36:32Speaker 01

  And it's like, the life is long and time moves on and you can, and like, and you, just try, just try, like, just try. It wasn't until, like, when I finally started making stuff, my career started changing, my life started changing, like, it was like, and I waited a little bit longer than I wish I had to do that. So it's like, just make some videos, like, make some videos, go try stand up, like, especially when you're young. And like, and be receptive to like what's actually happening. Don't go in it with like, don't be like the delusional person who's like, fuck them, they didn't laugh, it's not them, like.

• 1:37:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:11Speaker 01

  Be open to being bad at something and then get good at it.

• 1:37:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's like failing faster.

• 1:37:15Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:37:16Drew Afualo?

  It's like fail faster so that you can succeed faster.

• 1:37:18Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:37:19Drew Afualo?

  It's like getting it out of the way.

• 1:37:20Speaker 01

  And also, it should always also kind of be about making friends. Cause that's also gonna lead to your success.

• 1:37:27Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 1:37:28Speaker 01

  If you're, when you're at shows, when you're working on collaborating with people, it's not just about the product, for me at least. It's about like building relationships with people, becoming friends with people because, one, a job is only worth having. In my mind, a career and a job is only worth having if you're enjoying doing it, which is like why I do this. And it's because I get to like, like, we're at work right now, I'm hanging out with you. Do you know what I mean? It's like, so, treat people very well. And, oh, this is a huge piece of advice. I will say this now after doing this for 10 years, you never know where someone's going to end up. Like, the assistant that was like on a shoot when, like, seven years ago, is gonna be a director in 10 years.

• 1:38:05Drew Afualo?

  That's tea.

• 1:38:06Speaker 01

  So you need to be nice to everyone and you shouldn't be nice to them because they might be a director in 10 years.

• 1:38:11Drew Afualo?

  No.

• 1:38:11Speaker 01

  But like, if you're ever catching yourself like being short or get, be like, you need to watch it, cause people fucking remember shit.

• 1:38:17Drew Afualo?

  That's so tea, especially people in this industry that are not talent. Like if they work as a producer, a P A, an assistant.

• 1:38:25Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 1:38:26Drew Afualo?

  Makeup, hair, styling, anyone, anyone that works on these sets, they do remember.

• 1:38:32Speaker 01

  And you know why we know? Because they tell us now.

• 1:38:34Drew Afualo?

  Exactly. That's my favorite question to ask.

• 1:38:37Speaker 01

  So who's, you sit down in the chair, so who sucks?

• 1:38:39Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. My favorite question to ask is literally like, you ever worked with anyone that sucked ass?

• 1:38:44Speaker 01

  I'm like, yeah.

• 1:38:45Drew Afualo?

  They're always like, oh, yeah.

• 1:38:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:38:47Drew Afualo?

  I ask makeup artists, I ask hairstylists, I ask stylists. Like, I literally ask anybody.

• 1:38:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:52Drew Afualo?

  I'm like, and what's your T, girl?

• 1:38:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:54Drew Afualo?

  What's going on? Who do you, who do we hate? Who do we love?

• 1:38:56Speaker 01

  And you're like, oh, they signed an N D A? Well, we can whisper, bitch. Like, I don't like, it's like.

• 1:39:00Drew Afualo?

  And here's mine.

• 1:39:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:02Drew Afualo?

  Signing it for you.

• 1:39:03Speaker 01

  So treat people well, I think is also.

• 1:39:05Drew Afualo?

  I love that. And I think you're incredible and so fucking funny.

• 1:39:08Speaker 01

  I think you are fucking incredible.

• 1:39:10Drew Afualo?

  Thank you. I'm so glad you came out. I'm so glad the crews brought you here.

• 1:39:15Drew Afualo?

  I'm so glad the crews brought you to these shores.

• 1:39:16Speaker 01

  It took so long to get around South America, but we're down here.

• 1:39:19Drew Afualo?

  But you're here. So for those who don't know, for whatever fucking reason, and haven't, haven't know where to find you, where can everybody find you?

• 1:39:27Speaker 01

  Uh, you can follow me on TikTok or Instagram at Jake W. Cornell and on Substack, uh, you can search Jake Cornell or, uh, Walk With Me Here is the name of my show.

• 1:39:34Drew Afualo?

  Beautiful. Thank you so much, the amazing Jake Cornell, for joining us on this episode of the comment section. Thank you so much for coming. You're fucking awesome.

• 1:39:41Speaker 01

  You're fucking awesome.

• 1:39:41Drew Afualo?

  I love you. I'm obsessed with you. And thank you all so much for joining us on this episode. Don't forget, new episodes of the comment section drop every Wednesday. You can stream the audio on all streaming platforms, but the video lives for free and exclusively on our favorite platform, Spotify. Thank you so much to our amazing guest, Jake Cornell. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next week. Bye.

• 1:40:08Speaker 00

  Network freedom and flexibility. That's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals, no kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.