Estee Adoram: The Gatekeeper of Funny

Estee Adoram is a comedy legend. You've never seen her on a stage, but every comedian you love has had to earn her approval. This week, Trevor, Eugene, and Dave sit down with the legendary talent booker of New York City’s famous Comedy Cellar to talk about her four decades discovering comedic talent. Together, they discuss what it takes to spot greatness before anyone else, how the Cellar has maintained its singular reputation, the evolution of stand-up, the line between comedy and a soapbox, and which rising comedians have her attention today.

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

• 0:04Trevor Noah?

  Who's your personal favorite comedian?

• 0:06Speaker 01

  You.

• 0:07Trevor Noah?

  No, don't do that.

• 0:08Speaker 01

  You asked me a reasonable question.

• 0:11Speaker 02

  No, but I like.

• 0:11Speaker 03

  You asked a question.

• 0:13Speaker 01

  No, no, it's.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  I have people I like more than others.

• 0:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 0:20Speaker 01

  But this is like asking a mother that has 15 children. Who is your favorite?

• 0:25Trevor Noah?

  No, which one would you go downstairs to watch more than the other? You, there's got to be one child where you're like, and I only mean this because they, they just happen to like, hit everything that you want from the comedy and the, do you get what I'm saying?

• 0:37Speaker 02

  Let me break it down for SD. Basically, SD, think of it this way.

• 0:40Speaker 01

  Don't break it down for me. I know exactly what he's asking.

• 0:43Trevor Noah?

  I'm, I'm, I'm buying you time.

• 0:47Speaker 01

  I'm trying not to answer.

• 0:54Trevor Noah?

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• 1:02Trevor Noah?

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• 1:36Speaker 04

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• 2:06Trevor Noah?

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• 2:49Trevor Noah?

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• 3:25Speaker 02

  Okay. You're the only person I know who refused to get a cover for your phone.

• 3:29Trevor Noah?

  You know, I think I've made a terrible.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  No, I'm, I'm. But screen protector, you get one.

• 3:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I'm.

• 3:33Speaker 03

  A cover for your phone?

• 3:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I'm, I'm willing to accept that I've, I've made a terrible mistake.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  Of not getting a cover or getting the orange phone?

• 3:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, in fact, I'm going to say this. I'll, I'll say this. Um, phone companies need to just start making the phone in the cover.

• 3:47Speaker 03

  Wait, are you saying you don't have a phone cover?

• 3:49Trevor Noah?

  No, I don't.

• 3:50Speaker 03

  You know, in this world.

• 3:50Speaker 02

  He never has.

• 3:51Speaker 03

  You know, in this world of, um, what's the word? So much consumerism and stuff.

• 3:57Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 3:58Speaker 03

  It's, it's hard to know who's rich and who's not rich. So it's the little things, like they tell you. And then a person is like, I don't have a phone cover. Then you're like, this guy's boring. He doesn't have a phone cover.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:09Speaker 03

  Do you know what I'm saying?

• 4:09Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 4:10Speaker 03

  So you don't have a phone cover?

• 4:11Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 4:13Speaker 03

  But what happens if you drop your phone and it cracks? Isn't your life going to be ruined?

• 4:18Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's like the equivalent of no condom usage because I'm rich. And then if I get it and then I'll, I'll take ARV. I'll be fine, guys. Don't worry about me.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  You took, I was told you were going to have children.

• 4:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but you, you guys went very different directions.

• 4:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, you're inceptioning me.

• 4:33Trevor Noah?

  You went like, those are, those are crazy different directions.

• 4:35Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 4:35Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no. So let me explain, let me explain. First of all, you are right. Like, I don't, I don't, actually don't think, you, one, one element is like how much money you have. But I think the other one is how much pain you're willing to sustain. If your phone, if your phone falls. Because no matter how much money you have, the phone, you still have to now replace it. You still have to get another one. You still have to transfer the things over, then the apps don't work. Now you've got a whole story now. Yeah, you're, you're fully in that world. So.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  You're fully an app person?

• 5:04Trevor Noah?

  No, because he, he updated his phone and then he just gave his other phone to Apple very confidently. He was like, haha, yeah, take the old one. I'm out.

• 5:12Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 5:13Trevor Noah?

  And then.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  As a, gave it as in?

• 5:15Trevor Noah?

  You know, he traded it in.

• 5:16Speaker 03

  Okay, cool, cool.

• 5:17Trevor Noah?

  And then now none of his apps, all his apps are like, new phone, who dis?

• 5:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, all apps and emails are like, no, two-step. Because I think I've got two-step authentication.

• 5:25Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 5:26Speaker 02

  And the second step is.

• 5:27Trevor Noah?

  Your phone number.

• 5:28Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  I have, I have. I don't change my things. So when my apps, sometimes they're like.

• 5:34Speaker 02

  What do you mean you don't change your thing?

• 5:35Trevor Noah?

  He doesn't change anything.

• 5:36Speaker 03

  I don't change like.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  Underwear?

• 5:37Speaker 03

  No, man. I mean, like my technology. I, I still have a phone from like six years ago or something.

• 5:43Trevor Noah?

  We can tell when we phone him.

• 5:44Speaker 02

  210.

• 5:45Trevor Noah?

  When we phone him, you can tell that they've stolen from six years ago.

• 5:47Speaker 03

  So what happens with me is the app stopped being, uh, it's like you should have passed away by now. Do you know what I mean? It's like the app stopped, they're like, this is not for.

• 5:58Trevor Noah?

  Oh yeah, they don't, they don't accept, no.

• 5:59Speaker 02

  Also, even, even, yeah, the apps can't go in on your phone.

• 6:02Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they don't allow it. They don't allow it.

• 6:03Speaker 03

  I can't take my.

• 6:04Speaker 02

  One app space is bigger than your entire phone.

• 6:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, I like.

• 6:08Trevor Noah?

  And the technology of the phone.

• 6:09Speaker 02

  Amazon takes up, takes up like 20 gigs.

• 6:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but it's gotten ridiculous, man.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Actually, okay, sorry, Trev, I interrupted you. You, you were saying.

• 6:17Speaker 02

  You did.

• 6:20Speaker 03

  You were saying.

• 6:20Trevor Noah?

  No, so I, I was saying to Eugene that I, because I feel like I've influenced some people in my life with my decisions, especially my friends. And I've noticed the envy that some of you look at me with when I move through the world without a phone cover.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:35Trevor Noah?

  And I've seen many of you look at me and you'll all be like, wow, you don't, you don't have a phone cover. And I admit that I would flippantly say, yeah, I'm good. I don't need a phone cover.

• 6:47Speaker 02

  You've never dropped your phone?

• 6:48Trevor Noah?

  Then people will say like, well, why do you drop your phone? And I'm like, why drop your phone?

• 6:51Speaker 02

  Hmm, hmm, you've said that to me.

• 6:52Trevor Noah?

  Yes, I've said that.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  Arrogantly as well.

• 6:54Trevor Noah?

  I admit, I completely admit it. And I admit that I was wrong.

• 6:58Speaker 03

  You admit arrogantly that what?

• 7:00Trevor Noah?

  No, I, I would say it arrogantly, but I admit.

• 7:02Speaker 02

  Like what would, like you would say, why would you drop your phone?

• 7:04Speaker 03

  Yes, I, I agree with that.

• 7:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's an accident.

• 7:07Trevor Noah?

  No, no, he's right. He's right. And I apologize. And I want to say to all my friends and all the people I've influenced, if you've ever seen me rolling with a phone without a cover, don't be like me, kids.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  I've tried it.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  I don't think anyone is being like you.

• 7:21Trevor Noah?

  A lot of people, I think, have tried.

• 7:22Speaker 02

  No, they've tried. I think they failed.

• 7:23Trevor Noah?

  Because I've seen people, I've seen how people look at me when I use a phone without a cover. There's, you've got a certain like, because, okay, understand this. Like, having a phone without a cover is like riding a bicycle without training wheels.

• 7:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:35Trevor Noah?

  And most of the world has training wheels now.

• 7:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:37Trevor Noah?

  So when you're riding without, without training wheels, people are like, wow, you're a renegade.

• 7:41Speaker 03

  I don't think so. I think that having a phone without a cover is when, imagine that people made a car, but without a roof.

• 7:49Speaker 02

  John.

• 7:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, like a drop top.

• 7:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I'm saying if, if cars first came.

• 7:53Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 7:54Speaker 03

  You know, and then they didn't put a roof. I'm saying that phones without a cover were missing something. A cover is not a, a cover is.

• 8:01Trevor Noah?

  You're crazy, bro. You, you, you've got a phone from eight years ago. Your opinion in this technology conversation is even irrelevant, actually, now that I think about it.

• 8:07Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 8:08Trevor Noah?

  This is like the opposite of the world you end.

• 8:10Speaker 02

  Have you felt what new phones feel like naked?

• 8:12Trevor Noah?

  He doesn't. He doesn't know what a new phone is.

• 8:14Speaker 03

  Okay, wait. What, okay, wait. I have, I have, I have. Look.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  What have you done?

• 8:21Speaker 03

  Okay, other people have phones, by the way, and I know other people. And I have, I've, I've, you know, when I get the phone the most?

• 8:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 8:29Speaker 03

  Uh, when I get to feel the phone the most is when it's time to take a picture and then like of myself. Then they're like, don't use your phone. Let me use my phone.

• 8:37Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  Oh, you see, so I know people's phones.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  So now what, in a non-crazy way, I'm not trying to be controversial here.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  No, 100%.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  What I'm saying is that it feels to me when they made the phone, the, the phone.

• 8:52Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  The, um, the original phones were maybe not stronger than Nokia, but the Apple.

• 8:58Speaker 02

  They were stronger, actually, right?

• 8:59Trevor Noah?

  Okay, you know what? Once again, I, I agree with you.

• 9:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're right. They were stronger.

• 9:03Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, the figure about a share, I agree with.

• 9:05Speaker 03

  This one too delicate.

• 9:06Trevor Noah?

  Yes, it is brittle.

• 9:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 9:08Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 9:08Speaker 03

  Because they were like, this is going to be for those people in those Apple ads. Those people, you know, when those ads like this, almost like Swedish looking homes and stuff?

• 9:17Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 9:17Speaker 03

  They don't drop the phone.

• 9:18Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 9:18Speaker 03

  There's no.

• 9:19Trevor Noah?

  Their kids, every child in an Apple ad doesn't look like they've broken anything in their lives.

• 9:23Speaker 03

  They're not, those are the kids who, when you offer them ice cream, they say, no, thanks.

• 9:26Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 9:27Speaker 03

  Do you know what I mean? They're just.

• 9:28Trevor Noah?

  I don't want to spike my glycemic index.

• 9:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, that, that's.

• 9:30Trevor Noah?

  Those are those kids.

• 9:31Speaker 03

  That's what Apple imagines. Think of the Apple brand. The Apple brand imagines it as sophisticated and there's no dropping of phones that's happening with Apple brand.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  People are wearing bone and taupe.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  Yes, it's.

• 9:43Speaker 02

  Colors that they have.

• 9:44Speaker 03

  All of that, that's their.

• 9:45Trevor Noah?

  Like you see, you see in all their ads, when they do like the FaceTime calls, they've never done one where like the people are fighting. Which I think would be, would be a good part of the ad is, you know, when you go like, your FaceTimes are clearer than ever.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  Or missed calls.

• 9:57Trevor Noah?

  And just show people like arguing or fighting or just like real.

• 10:01Speaker 02

  Or someone disappointed because someone didn't pick up on the other end.

• 10:03Trevor Noah?

  I like this. This I like.

• 10:04Speaker 03

  That's what I mean.

• 10:05Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 10:05Speaker 03

  So that's their world that they have imagined is their consumer.

• 10:10Trevor Noah?

  The default.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Yes, I'll, I'll tell you, uh, for example, like myself, when I used to do stand-up comedy, at some point I did stand-up comedy, as you know.

• 10:19Trevor Noah?

  Are you saying this because our guest is SD?

• 10:20Speaker 03

  No, I'm not saying that.

• 10:21Trevor Noah?

  I feel like you've never said that before.

• 10:23Speaker 02

  Are you announcing your retirement?

• 10:24Speaker 03

  I am not saying that. I'm literally saying.

• 10:26Trevor Noah?

  That before.

• 10:26Speaker 03

  No, I'm.

• 10:27Trevor Noah?

  And then now.

• 10:28Speaker 02

  Are you announcing your comeback?

• 10:29Trevor Noah?

  Because our guest.

• 10:30Speaker 03

  I'm not announcing my comeback.

• 10:31Trevor Noah?

  Because our guest is responsible for many comedy careers. Now you just conveniently throw in, you know, uh.

• 10:37Speaker 02

  They did try not to be controversial.

• 10:38Trevor Noah?

  I happen to be, uh.

• 10:39Speaker 03

  I used to, so many years ago.

• 10:41Trevor Noah?

  And then you, then SD's going to come in and then you're going to want SD to be like, why don't you do it anymore, Dave? Come to the Comedy Cellar and do comedy.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  I, I won't. I, I, I can't.

• 10:50Trevor Noah?

  I see what you're doing.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  I'm not doing that.

• 10:54Trevor Noah?

  When SD comes, let's make a deal. You cannot mention ever being a comedian.

• 10:59Speaker 03

  I can't make that deal right now.

• 11:02Trevor Noah?

  Wow. Wow, you see what I'm talking about.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  No, because no, things may go to a place where I need to use that as, yes, I have once.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  Yes, because she might get here and be like, Dave, I don't know where to find you, but now that you're here, there's an influx of emails.

• 11:16Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 11:17Speaker 02

  Our inbox is chock a block. People have been asking about you. Funny enough, you've just mentioned that, you know, you gave up the, but.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  But now.

• 11:24Speaker 02

  One night only.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  This is my real thing that I was saying with the Apple ads. So you see the Apple ads, they have an idea of who their, um, who their prospective client is gonna be, or gonna behave. When I did stand up comedy way back when in South Africa, the funny thing was is that my type of fan, the person who loved my comedy, which I thought my comedy was sophisticated and highbrow, but it was like people who were, were like, I think like, almost like crackheads. And I don't even.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  How do you become almost like one?

• 11:56Speaker 03

  No, I, I don't.

• 11:57Speaker 02

  When you're thinking of doing it or you've done it before?

• 11:59Trevor Noah?

  No, because they don't, they don't do crack, but their vibe is crack.

• 12:02Speaker 03

  Yes, their vibe is, I can't tell, but I can, so then I would honestly, I would, I would be like, it's enough people. One is crackheads and then others fans who ask me for money. So like, like, like, do you know what I mean? Cause I don't imagine that Julia Roberts is there and people are taking pictures. And then someone's like, yo, Julia, can you just give me thirty five dollars? Do you know what I'm saying? Something like that.

• 12:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:28Speaker 03

  So I had those two circumstances and then, cause I had to think about it. Then I was like, is it like, where are you seeing me? What is happening here that, that, that, then I, I got to it that maybe they appreciate me more when they're high out of their minds. I don't know. Or, you know, like, I, I couldn't tell why. But when I got into comedy, you know, I was a young man.

• 12:52Trevor Noah?

  You imagined your fan would be a different.

• 12:53Speaker 03

  I thought it was gonna be, you know, like.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  Really?

• 12:55Speaker 03

  I thought it was gonna be Mick Jagger and me were gonna share fans. Do you know what I mean?

• 12:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:59Speaker 03

  And it's most certainly, we were not, we didn't share fans at all.

• 13:03Speaker 02

  It had everything to do with your phone.

• 13:05Speaker 03

  No.

• 13:06Trevor Noah?

  Damn.

• 13:07Speaker 03

  But I'm saying, so.

• 13:08Speaker 02

  They looked at your phone, they were like.

• 13:09Speaker 03

  My point being is that when you make a product, you, you could hope for whatever fan you think you're gonna get. And you can imagine your fan, but then there's the actual fan.

• 13:19Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:19Speaker 03

  You make your phone, you imagine that we never drop our phones because we're sophisticated and stuff.

• 13:25Trevor Noah?

  But we're crackheads.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  We're crackheads.

• 13:27Speaker 02

  But didn't they say?

• 13:28Speaker 03

  So we need a cover. That's what I'm saying. And so what I'm saying about you, who, um, is.

• 13:34Speaker 02

  Rolls naked phone.

• 13:34Speaker 03

  You, you are the people who, you know, when we are like, you need to, someone needs to pay, the world is suffering. Someone needs to pay more taxes. So then, so then, so you are those people. And so.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 13:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, yes. And so you, um, you, or life has afforded you the, the opportunity of experimenting. Literally, this is, some people are like, my child, how come your child didn't go to college? Yeah, because I didn't have a phone cover and then you know how it goes. So now, you see, so now, that's what I'm saying.

• 14:13Trevor Noah?

  We've made a deal, just so you know.

• 14:16Speaker 02

  He didn't promise anything.

• 14:17Trevor Noah?

  He didn't promise anything.

• 14:18Speaker 02

  No, he didn't.

• 14:19Speaker 03

  I didn't, I can't.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  And I'm here to vouch for you.

• 14:21Trevor Noah?

  I knew this, this is, this is what happens when you bring one of the most, cause I mean, if you think about it, SD Adoram is.

• 14:29Trevor Noah?

  I was thinking the other, she's like a fairy godmother and the godfather combined into one person in comedy. So this is what hap- SD, how are you?

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Hey.

• 14:38Trevor Noah?

  Welcome, welcome. Please, please join us. Please, welcome.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  I'm gonna clap. You know why I'm gonna clap? Because I used to be a comedian. So, so I can. I can appreciate.

• 14:54Speaker 01

  Jesus, my, my radar just went up.

• 14:59Speaker 03

  You recognize that?

• 15:00Speaker 02

  Oh, man. Oh, wow.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  You get to recognize it right away.

• 15:07Trevor Noah?

  Do, do you have that though? Like, you, you, you, you, did you ever see those stories of people, um, you know, they'd talk about like, when they were famous and they'd go to restaurants or they'd go to certain, no, no, no, it was food critics would talk about this. Yes, they would say, once they became famous as food critics.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  Their gig was over.

• 15:25Trevor Noah?

  They would go to a restaurant and just by chance, people would come, would come in with like, oh, uh, Mr., you know, Mr. Smith, uh, compliments of the chef, Mr. Smith and, uh, Mr. Smith, we noticed you walked in. But then they said like, as a food critic, the hardest thing to do was actually get the real experience in a restaurant. Because everyone knew that your view of the restaurant could determine whether or not that restaurant succeeds. And I wonder for you as SD, can, do you think any comedian has a normal relationship with you?

• 15:56Speaker 03

  Can't be.

• 15:58Trevor Noah?

  And can you even tell?

• 16:00Speaker 01

  And?

• 16:01Trevor Noah?

  And? Can't be.

• 16:03Speaker 01

  Um, it's, it's custom make. It's not run of the mill relationships. Never.

• 16:11Trevor Noah?

  Wait, what do you mean by that?

• 16:13Speaker 01

  Um, but the nature of what I do.

• 16:18Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  People do take a, um, a different, um, way of communicating with me, having a relationship with me because of what I do, not who I am.

• 16:34Trevor Noah?

  Oh, okay. All right.

• 16:36Speaker 01

  You know what I mean?

• 16:36Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 16:37Speaker 01

  Um, if somebody wants to work and get on stage, they put the best face, the best, best

• 16:46Speaker 01

  representation of themselves.

• 16:48Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 16:48Speaker 02

  Their avatar.

• 16:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:50Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 16:51Speaker 02

  How you would cast them.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 16:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  Avatar, great word.

• 16:55Trevor Noah?

  Hmm.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Um, so yeah, I sort of can see through it.

• 17:00Trevor Noah?

  I'm, I'm glad that I didn't know who you were when I met you.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  I did not know who you were either.

• 17:06Trevor Noah?

  This is a perfect relationship.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  You had no idea?

• 17:08Speaker 01

  It was, no.

• 17:09Speaker 02

  And you had no idea?

• 17:10Trevor Noah?

  None, none, none whatsoever.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  Once we became friends and he told me who he was back home. You told me that you love to go back and race your car and drive.

• 17:21Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, oh, yes. You know, this is the time I was racing. I literally got stuck with him on the freeway because we went racing one of my cars.

• 17:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:29Trevor Noah?

  And then we ran out of gas. But yes, I was telling SD these stories.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  So the stories and the relationship develop and, and the main thing, he got on stage and I saw what and who he was. Yeah. Uh, had nothing to do with fame. Zero.

• 17:46Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  It was the, your charisma, your personality, your, your openness.

• 17:52Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow. Thank you, SD.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  As, as a person at the table when we're sitting.

• 17:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  And then you got on stage and murdered.

• 17:59Trevor Noah?

  Thank you very much.

• 18:00Speaker 01

  You know, um, it doesn't mean that it would develop to what it did.

• 18:05Trevor Noah?

  I, I mean, I didn't expect that, but when I, but when I met you from my side.

• 18:08Speaker 02

  It's not automatic.

• 18:09Trevor Noah?

  You can imagine so from my side. What happened was how I came to be at the Comedy Cellar, if I remember correctly, was I was in New York doing shows at a small theater, right? This was on like Bleecker Street. And, um, some of the comedians I'd met in the world just generally had told me, if you're in New York, you have to go to the Comedy Cellar to perform, like you've just got to try and go to the Comedy Cellar. Then somewhere along the line, I'd met Will Silvins.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:37Trevor Noah?

  So Will is just like the sweetest guy ever. We talked, this is the whole life. Okay, whatever. And then Will would bring people to my show at this like small theater. He didn't even know me. And Will would just, he came once to watch and then he'd come back with people and he'd come back with people and he'd come. I was like, who is this guy and what is he doing? He had no reason. And then one day he said, you gotta come to the Comedy Cellar. You got, everyone said the Comedy Cellar, Comedy Cellar, Comedy Cellar. Anyway, I go to the Comedy Cellar. I don't know how this works. In South Africa, we don't even really have comedy clubs in that way. The Comedy Cellar wasn't famous in South Africa, so I didn't have this idea. I walk in, I sit down, I talk to Will, I hang out. SD is sitting at the table. I thought you were one of the comedians.

• 19:17Speaker 02

  At first?

• 19:18Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. So SD's sitting at a table with a bunch of comedians. So I just thought, oh, okay, she's one of the comedians. SD's also very funny, throwing lines out, people roasting each other, having a good time. And then I think like, maybe on the third time that we hung out together, cause I remember we were eating the borscht. I asked you what I should order and you were like, get the borscht. And I was like, this is the best thing I've ever had in my life.

• 19:39Speaker 02

  What is the borscht?

• 19:40Trevor Noah?

  It's a borscht. It's a.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  Soup.

• 19:42Speaker 02

  It's a bowl, it's a soup bowl?

• 19:43Speaker 01

  It's a, it's a Russian, Russian soup. And it's, most people think that's the beet, that red, the red one is a borscht.

• 19:52Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  But this is, was Manny's, the owner's.

• 19:55Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Mother's recipe and it's the best borscht ever.

• 20:00Speaker 02

  Take me through the ingredients. What is?

• 20:02Speaker 01

  And I'm not gonna give you ingredients.

• 20:04Trevor Noah?

  I didn't say recipe, SD.

• 20:08Speaker 01

  Don't, don't, don't, don't try. Don't even try.

• 20:10Trevor Noah?

  It's amazing.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  Beans?

• 20:11Trevor Noah?

  No, it's amazing.

• 20:11Speaker 02

  Water?

• 20:12Speaker 01

  No beets, no beets, no beets. It's vegetables. It, it's a, a meat, um, like flancon meat.

• 20:21Speaker 01

  And and it just simmers forever.

• 20:24Trevor Noah?

  No, it's phenomenal.

• 20:25Speaker 01

  So delicious.

• 20:26Trevor Noah?

  Okay. It was one of the first things I ate.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  You can stop there. I'm getting hungry.

• 20:30Trevor Noah?

  It's one of the first things that reminded me of home.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  Really?

• 20:32Trevor Noah?

  And so, yeah, and so I ate that SD and then we'd like hang out. And then a random comedian came to me and was like, wow, so how do you know SD? Then I was like, SD? I was like, the, she sits at the table. They're like, yeah. How do you know her? I was like, what do you mean? How do I know her? She sat at the table and one day I sat with her and then we started talking. And it's like, oh, but you guys seem to have a good time. I was like, yeah, the same way with every other comedian. And they're like, no, she's not a comedian. I was like, oh, cool. She just hangs out here. They're like, no. SD decides whether or not you can be a comedian. I was like, what does that even mean?

• 21:12Speaker 01

  That's.

• 21:13Trevor Noah?

  And then by the time I found out, it was it was late, but I was like, this woman sitting here with us is genuinely, that's why I say you are like a fairy godmother and the godfather.

• 21:21Speaker 02

  At the same time.

• 21:22Trevor Noah?

  Of comedy is in like the New York world. It's a weird role to have.

• 21:27Speaker 02

  But I don't think it's a role that you can be given.

• 21:30Trevor Noah?

  How did you even get it? I don't know. How did you get into this?

• 21:32Speaker 02

  No one said, SD, here we go. All right.

• 21:34Trevor Noah?

  How, how, how, how many years?

• 21:35Speaker 01

  It, it develops.

• 21:37Trevor Noah?

  How many years have you been doing it now?

• 21:41Speaker 01

  Hold on. Can you hold on?

• 21:43Trevor Noah?

  I'm ready. I'm ready.

• 21:44Speaker 01

  Forty four years.

• 21:45Trevor Noah?

  No ways.

• 21:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  Since nineteen eighty one.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Uh, I started in nineteen eighty two.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  I first came.

• 21:57Trevor Noah?

  At the Comedy Cellar or?

• 21:58Speaker 01

  At the Comedy Cellar.

• 21:59Trevor Noah?

  Jeez.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  And I started part time as a host at the door downstairs because I just had a newborn. And all the book about babysit, the first three years, you have to be with them. So I couldn't go back to work.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  SD, you didn't have to read the books to know that.

• 22:17Trevor Noah?

  All the books about babies.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  The book said it.

• 22:24Speaker 02

  If it was me, three months in, goodbye, child. But the books, I mean.

• 22:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. So for three years, I was a really good mom.

• 22:33Speaker 02

  You're counting down, SD.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  And you know, that's exactly what I did. That's exactly what I did. Three years to the day.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  And and I started working there and um, I was hosting at the door.

• 22:52Trevor Noah?

  No way.

• 22:52Speaker 01

  So I got, I've never known comedians of comedy or any, no interest.

• 23:00Speaker 01

  I came from a different world altogether. And little by little, I started falling in love with the art of stand up, with comedians. I started recognizing how special comedians are and how different they are from civilians.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  And forty four years later, I can give you a, a, a report.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  It's, it's a very

• 23:35Speaker 01

  interesting uh ingredients that the real comedians have as opposed to wannabe or actors or singers. You speak your own words. You speak your own heart. You speak your own self, not somebody else, not a script. And to be good at it, you be, it's a higher uh level of intelligence than most.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  It's

• 24:06Speaker 01

  courage, brave, because you're exposed. You're naked on that stage.

• 24:11Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  You're naked and you never know if there is a yahoo in the crowd, they'll yell out something. And you have to be fast enough on your feet to respond and respond correctly and to your benefit. So not everybody can do that. Most people can't.

• 24:32Speaker 01

  It takes, if you think of of people that are very successful in comedy, you will see that there is a threat of this characteristic.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  You have it. All the big guys really have it. You don't become famous and big and successful for a long period of time.

• 24:57Trevor Noah?

  Long period.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  That's, that's the key.

• 24:59Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, Eugene and I talk about this all the time.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  It's not the fl, you know, flash and.

• 25:02Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  Consistently. And then there are some people that use comedy in that stage as a stepping stone.

• 25:12Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  To this as opposed

• 25:14Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  of true, real, honest to goodness comedian. And today, when I look back,

• 25:24Speaker 01

  the ones that are really true comedians, you, Chappelle, Chris Rock, they're all famous people. Ray Romano, they still come, they still do stand up, they still create, they still write.

• 25:40Speaker 02

  They still perform.

• 25:41Speaker 01

  As opposed to others that got the TV show or a movie.

• 25:46Trevor Noah?

  And then they're out.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  That's it.

• 25:47Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 25:48Speaker 02

  Stepping stone.

• 25:48Trevor Noah?

  They're out.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  So that's a difference between A and B.

• 25:54Speaker 01

  And to be an A comedian, no matter what level,

• 26:00Speaker 01

  takes something that the others are lacking. They don't have it.

• 26:03Trevor Noah?

  What I want to understand though is like.

• 26:07Speaker 01

  Do you agree with that?

• 26:09Trevor Noah?

  I agree. But there's something deeper in it that, that, that I've never really understood. I've never understood how you're able to achieve it because I love stand up comedy, genuinely.

• 26:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:20Trevor Noah?

  You know, and and even even when I first came to the Comedy Cellar, my favorite part of being at the Comedy Cellar was and still is the fact that I got to watch the show. So I would, I would stand there watching the show from the very beginning until I'm on stage and then I'll stay afterwards to watch the person who came afterwards or what was happening. To me, it felt like it, it was like the greatest dream in the world to just be in this mix. But what I, what I noticed more than anything was

• 26:46Trevor Noah?

  how different the comedians were. But then they were all being booked by the same person. The, the lineups were being chosen by the same person. You know, you go like, oh, SD runs the Comedy Cellar or SD is the person who puts people on stage. It's like, you, you name a name, you can go back, you know, Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, you know, uh, Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, Dave Chappelle, Michelle Wolf, just name a name.

• 27:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:10Trevor Noah?

  Just name a name.

• 27:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:11Trevor Noah?

  At some point, as a young comedian, they came into contact with SD Adoram. And she said, go on to that stage. And she put them in a lineup with a person and then around a person.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  It's like a puzzle.

• 27:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but, but that's what I don't understand is like, I,

• 27:27Trevor Noah?

  I don't understand how you

• 27:31Trevor Noah?

  how are you able to see good comedy beyond the laughs? And what I mean by that is, and I say this with due respect to anyone who may be offended, any idiot can go, ah, that's funny because people are laughing.

• 27:47Trevor Noah?

  I've seen SD put on lineups where there's a comedian who's not necessarily getting a laugh in that show. But then a few years or a few months later, they go on to become one of the biggest comed, they just blow up. And then everyone at the Cellar goes, oh yeah, we always knew them. But I go, yeah, but SD, how did you see beyond where the audience saw them at that time to see that they were going to be an amazing comedian? I don't understand where you get that from.

• 28:08Speaker 02

  You've got that.

• 28:10Trevor Noah?

  No, not like, no, no, no, not, not like, not like SD though, honestly, uh, honestly.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  Uh, thank you. Uh, I don't, I don't want to name drop, but there is somebody

• 28:19Trevor Noah?

  Drop names.

• 28:23Speaker 01

  Jada Apatow told me that, okay? He says, you are booking good shows because you have good taste. And it's the good taste and be able to see beyond the obvious.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  If you get on stage, when I saw the Trevor Noah the first time on stage, I saw the seed that is Trevor Noah now.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  Although you were already polished when I saw you compared to some of the new comics I see now. But you can see the seed, you can see the root of the essence of who you are and how you project it. The bottom line is, it's a comedy show. People get babysitters and travel and put themselves out to come and have a good time and laugh.

• 29:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  That's the bottom line.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  That's the bottom line. And my responsibility is to build a show that will give it, give them that entertainment.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  The thing is, you mix it up. You said, I put X, Y, and Z on the show.

• 29:43Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 29:44Speaker 01

  Um, to create an essence, to create the feeling that not boring, they're all different from each other.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  I cannot, I can book five people that are very much alike. It's gonna be boring. By the fifth people, by the fifth person.

• 30:03Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  You already heard it all.

• 30:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  You gotta interject something different, something new. Um.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  The beginnings, I met Chappelle, he was eighteen years old.

• 30:21Speaker 01

  And another comic came to me at three A M. We used to be open really that late. And there was like maybe ten, fifteen people in the room at that, that, that, that time. And he said to me, you see this guy? I saw him in D C. He's really funny. He was sitting in the booth in the Olive Tree eating. And I went over and introduced myself and I said, can you go up and do a few minutes for me? And he says, yeah. And he went out and destroyed, destroyed.

• 30:52Trevor Noah?

  This is Dave Chappelle at eighteen.

• 30:53Speaker 01

  Eighteen. And so I kept saying nineteen, he corrected me that he was eighteen. And I remember I called Manny, the owner, Manny Dorman, at three A M. I woke him up and I told him, I said, I saw somebody really unique, really special. He said, oh, good for you. Hanged up.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  But you could see then, at three A M.

• 31:21Trevor Noah?

  The seed.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  You could see the essence of that guy.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  And he was funny beyond, I can make it, oh, it's an art, you can, you know.

• 31:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 31:35Speaker 01

  No. You can see it, it's in your face when it's there.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  That's how I can do it. It's in my face. I recognize it.

• 31:46Trevor Noah?

  I, I, I feel like I need to go backwards to try and understand though, how you got the tools, cause, cause here's, here's what I mean. I've seen people who, who, who pick funny or choose it, comedy clubs all over the world. One of their weaknesses I find is that their sense of humor is oftentimes limited. So if I come with a black comedian, they won't find them that funny because you find like that comedian's doing comedy from where they're from and it's got a different vibe. You, you get what I'm saying? If I come with a, with a Middle Eastern comedian, they might not really get it. If I come with, I've met many people who know how to book the comedy for them that they relate to.

• 32:26Speaker 01

  No.

• 32:27Trevor Noah?

  You book, you book, sometimes I see comedians at the Comedy Cellar and then I go, does S T know this person's here? And then they go, S T's the one who put them on, S T's the one who puts everyone on. Then I'm like, yes, but I don't understand. How did S T see this comedy in twenty twenty six? Cause remember comedy constantly evolves. I mean, you've seen every iteration of comedy.

• 32:47Speaker 01

  Very much. And I, I'm, I'm telling you right now, it's such an upswing of new talent that will blow your mind. I, I can't remember a period in those forty four years that I'm there, that it was so rich.

• 33:04Trevor Noah?

  Now?

• 33:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:06Trevor Noah?

  Why do you think that is?

• 33:07Speaker 01

  I have no idea. I, I cannot tell you why, I can just tell you it's there. And I also love international, really international. And the reason I'm saying it is because right now Australia is sending me gifts

• 33:29Speaker 01

  of comics that are fantastic. Aaron Chan, you know Aaron Chan?

• 33:34Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  You've got the, oh, jeez.

• 33:36Trevor Noah?

  Every time, S T, you can't say.

• 33:38Speaker 01

  He is so good.

• 33:39Trevor Noah?

  Yes, I believe you, but you judge me every time, as if you don't work in like the, the factory.

• 33:44Speaker 02

  You all the time.

• 33:45Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 33:46Speaker 02

  And on work at the factory of funny.

• 33:47Trevor Noah?

  But at least you judge me for things that are judgeable. S T will, S T will just randomly put up a comedian and she'll be like, do you know Peter Wongrick? And you're like, who's that? How can you not know Peter Wongrick?

• 33:58Speaker 01

  Because you are in this, in this life, you are in this.

• 34:02Trevor Noah?

  S T, you know every comedian.

• 34:05Speaker 02

  You are basically hanging up the phone on S T at three A M.

• 34:07Trevor Noah?

  I am, because you know every comedian. Wait, okay, so no, no, I, I need to go back. I'm gonna try to figure this out. I, I need to go back. So, so nineteen eighty two, you've got the newborn. So take, take us back in.

• 34:20Speaker 01

  He was born in seventy nine.

• 34:22Trevor Noah?

  Oh, seventy nine, okay.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  Three years, remember I told you?

• 34:24Trevor Noah?

  Okay, so that was the three years. All right, okay, okay, okay.

• 34:27Speaker 01

  The countdown.

• 34:27Speaker 02

  When the countdown ended, S T got the job.

• 34:29Trevor Noah?

  All right. So, so take, take us back to the beginnings. Where were you born? Where were you raised?

• 34:36Speaker 01

  That's another path, guys. I was born in Poland.

• 34:40Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  And when they opened the borders and we could let, leave, because we couldn't leave before, we went to Israel. And I've lived in Israel for ten years, eleven years, then I came here.

• 35:02Speaker 01

  I don't know, oppressive, you know, struggle, all of that thing.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  But that made me what I am now. But I am really, Israel has a very soft spot in my heart, always will. And I went to school there and high, you know, army.

• 35:24Speaker 01

  And I am emotionally connected. But America is a deja vu for me.

• 35:36Speaker 01

  I, I really enjoy being here. So it's a combination between my roots of Eastern Europe to Israel to here.

• 35:50Trevor Noah?

  And so you were, you were drawn, did you feel the deja vu when you got here or did you?

• 35:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 35:54Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. So as soon as you got here, you're like, this place has always been home.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  When I first left Israel, I went to England and Europe, different, different places. And I always felt like a tourist.

• 36:06Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 36:07Speaker 01

  When I got to Kennedy and I got off the plane, I felt I'm home. I can't explain why. I felt comfortable.

• 36:17Speaker 02

  I've told him this before.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. I felt comfortable, I felt like I belong, like I've been here before. I've never been here before.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  But it felt deja vu.

• 36:35Trevor Noah?

  What, what did, what did you study though? What, what had you, you know, like, what were you planning in your life? I mean, I, I, I don't think you woke up and said, I want to be one of the most important people in world comedy.

• 36:46Speaker 01

  No, there was the, never thought of it.

• 36:48Speaker 02

  Didn't exist even.

• 36:48Trevor Noah?

  That's my point.

• 36:50Speaker 01

  I never thought of it. No, I was in the army and then I got a degree in teaching. I was teaching for a while.

• 36:56Trevor Noah?

  Really?

• 36:57Speaker 01

  I was a makeup artist for a long time, for a very long time.

• 37:01Trevor Noah?

  Wait, what were you teaching?

• 37:03Speaker 01

  Um, everything. Because when I came here.

• 37:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 37:08Speaker 01

  I was teaching in the rabbi tights school in New Jersey, in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

• 37:13Speaker 02

  Oh, I thought you said you were wearing rubber tights. I was like, S T.

• 37:20Speaker 02

  When you said rubber tights, I was like, why? I thought you said you were wearing rubber tights, you were teaching, wearing rubber tights.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  I have an accent, you listen with an accent. That's what happens.

• 37:34Speaker 02

  I'm so glad you cleared that up. I was, I was gone with rubber tights.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  I could, I could. But it's, it's, and I was makeup artist for a long time.

• 37:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  And then, then I, I started comedy.

• 37:51Speaker 03

  Question, real one. Do you think the teaching?

• 37:55Speaker 01

  Real one? That was, that was real?

• 37:57Trevor Noah?

  Thank you, S T.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  Hey, watch yourself, Derek.

• 38:02Trevor Noah?

  Thank you, S T.

• 38:04Speaker 01

  Go ahead.

• 38:04Speaker 03

  Do you think the teaching has a role to play? Because the teaching you, you're sort of like examining people's potential. You know, that's like the, the role of a teacher is like, I'm, I'm examining your potential.

• 38:19Speaker 01

  I guide you.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  Yes, exactly. And now in comedy, that's sort of like what you do to some extent, is you exactly, you look at the people and then you, you think of their pretend, you think of them not right now, but a little bit ahead.

• 38:32Speaker 01

  Well, I don't think I was, I was very young and I don't think I ever overthought the teaching, uh, the way you are presenting it, which you, you're correct, but I never thought of it that way. Um.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  I don't know. I always sort of rose to top as a leader in my life. Maybe my personality or maybe, I don't know. But I always sort of took pride in whatever I did and I always did well. Never was fired in my life from anything.

• 39:11Trevor Noah?

  Oh, that is impressive.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. And so it's like a common thing in person, somebody's personality, maybe.

• 39:18Trevor Noah?

  Hundred percent.

• 39:18Speaker 01

  But as a teacher, I never saw myself as a guiding light. I also don't see myself like this in comedy. But people that I form a very close relationship in the world of comedy. I I don't know how to put it. I'll give you my advice, I give you my feelings. I don't do it with comics. That's not my job.

• 39:52Trevor Noah?

  Oh, interesting.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  It's not my job. You have a manager, you have an agent, they're gonna tell you what to do and not to do. I'm not. But if I am friends with you, I say, you know, that joke was great. I pat you on the shoulder on that. I'll encourage that.

• 40:07Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  I, I don't see myself that important. I really don't. Um, I think that because I'm doing it for so long, people look at me as if I know what I'm doing.

• 40:29Trevor Noah?

  You know, as

• 40:30Speaker 01

  Do you know what I mean?

• 40:32Trevor Noah?

  I mean, you do, but it's also a funny thing to say.

• 40:35Speaker 01

  But I don't think of about it that way.

• 40:38Trevor Noah?

  It's, it's, it's a really humble way to approach a situation, you know, because I've been it for long.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  I really don't. And as a teacher, I didn't feel like that I transferred information as a teacher.

• 40:50Trevor Noah?

  Oh, I like that, actually.

• 40:52Speaker 01

  That's what the teacher does. A good teacher will transform information and make sure that you do it in a way that the other side receives it in the right way. But not, not a guiding light at all.

• 41:09Trevor Noah?

  I wish billionaires had that humility.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Who?

• 41:11Trevor Noah?

  Billionaires. Because what you just said is, is something, it's profoundly humble and wise at the same time to say, because I've been doing it for a long time, everybody assumes that I know what I'm doing.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 41:22Trevor Noah?

  And I wish like a lot of billionaires would say, because I have made a lot of money, everyone assumes that I know what I'm doing. But sometimes the two are just happening at the same time. And it's, it's, I don't know how to explain it.

• 41:35Speaker 01

  It's, it's also a lot of luck.

• 41:37Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that's what I mean.

• 41:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, it's luck. With me, it's a little bit, it's not luck, but be- because people wanna work at the Comedy Cellar.

• 41:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 41:49Speaker 01

  They make themselves available. Whether it's through other comics who recommend it.

• 41:57Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 41:57Speaker 01

  Or managers or, or you know, YouTube, I don't.

• 42:04Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 42:05Speaker 01

  And so I get to, to watch a lot. And many said at once, many warned my boss. And this, I think, is a key. If you walk into a comedy club in a different country, that you don't speak the language.

• 42:25Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 42:26Speaker 01

  And you see the reaction of the crowd, you can tell if the comic is good or not. And a lot of comics that struggle and don't do, don't do well, lack the ability to listen to the feedback.

• 42:45Trevor Noah?

  Hmm.

• 42:47Speaker 01

  To the laughter. Yeah, a joke can bum. Yes, you can have a bad set, but on a consistent level, if you don't learn to listen for your feedback, you'll never become a better comic or grow or flourish. And I think this is the biggest mistake the beginning comic do.

• 43:12Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  Because they, they wanna support each other, right? So, oh, that was a great set, whatever. And I can look at the face, I say, mm-mm, it wasn't. Or they say, oh, the crowd is tired or they drunk or, no.

• 43:29Trevor Noah?

  You've heard it all, man.

• 43:30Speaker 01

  No, listen.

• 43:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, she's heard every excuse.

• 43:33Speaker 01

  They're too drunk, they're too tired. Do they even speak English?

• 43:36Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 43:36Speaker 01

  Exactly. Exactly. And, and once you're on that stage, you're privileged to get on that stage. Use it as a privilege and listen and learn and grow from this. Instead of when I started, I saw a comic come on stage and didn't do well and he went like this.

• 44:00Trevor Noah?

  To say it went over their heads.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  I did not know what it means. And so I asked Bill Grandfes, who started the, I said, what is this all about? He says, oh, this is his way of saying, it went over your head, I'm smarter than you. You don't get what I'm talking about. Till today, and that, that person is famous. I, I hold a resentment.

• 44:27Trevor Noah?

  Wow.

• 44:29Speaker 01

  Because you cannot assume that the crowd is dumb. You have lawyers and you have doctors and you have construction workers. You have a mix of society sitting in that room. Who are you to go this way? Maybe you didn't deliver it right. Maybe turned it on yourself. What did I do wrong that they didn't get what I say? And, and I find that the really successful people, whether you know it or not, you listen.

• 45:07Trevor Noah?

  Hmm. I wonder if that applies to the, the Comedy Cellar itself.

• 45:14Speaker 01

  It has to.

• 45:15Trevor Noah?

  No, because

• 45:15Speaker 01

  If I can help it.

• 45:16Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but that's what I mean is like, I think to myself, you know, one of the things I've noticed over the years in, in comedy in particular is comedy clubs have come and they've gone. And at some point, what happens is a comedy club starts to become more famous than many of the comedians in it.

• 45:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 45:33Trevor Noah?

  And in that period, the institution doesn't listen anymore. And they don't listen to the comedians, they don't listen to the audience, they don't.

• 45:42Speaker 01

  Becomes a corporation.

• 45:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it becomes a corporation and you see this thing falling and you see it.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  Not the Comedy Cellar.

• 45:47Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but

• 45:48Speaker 01

  I, I, I, and that's, I have to give a hundred percent credit to Noam, the owner now. He is very involved on that part of it. Customers satisfy. And it's not about the dollar amount. It never was. Never was, not many and not no one. But to make the club successful.

• 46:15Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 46:15Speaker 01

  The customer has to be happy.

• 46:18Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  They have to be happy with the show, with the food.

• 46:22Trevor Noah?

  Treatment.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  With the service, all of it. And if not, it's how to be paid. It is, that's why Comedy Cellar, Nakwud, is successful with opening another room. You know that, right?

• 46:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, the, the, it's gonna be like upstairs. I heard it's like a gorgeous little theater type thing.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 46:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I can't wait.

• 46:44Speaker 01

  Gorgeous, gorgeous. It's gonna probably next month, fingers crossed. So, you know, we have six stages. We started with one, two shows a night. I have eighty-four shows a week. Between Christmas and New Year's, I book a hundred thirty-four shows for one week. I get about three, between three and five hundred emails a week with availability. And you have to sort it out.

• 47:16Trevor Noah?

  You know, SD will still text me when I'm coming to do a gig. Just confirming that you're coming. Then I'm like, SD, aren't you like busy with things?

• 47:25Speaker 01

  No, everybody, it's, it's, some things don't change, some things shouldn't change and can't change. And because it's not changing.

• 47:36Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  We're gonna, hopefully, God willing, stay on top.

• 47:43Trevor Noah?

  We'll be right back after the short break.

• 47:48Trevor Noah?

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• 48:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, one of my favorite YouTube Premium features is smart downloads. Because how many times have you gone somewhere and realized, "Ah, I forgot to download anything." And now you're on the way to the airport and you're like, "Download, download, download, download." You're on the plane, "Download, download, download, download." There's no Wi-Fi. "I wish I downloaded." Now, all of those things that you were gonna watch are just on the internet. Smart downloads basically thinks ahead for you. It automatically downloads recommended videos based on what you like to watch. So even when you forget to prepare, YouTube Premium didn't. I love it. It's like packing for a trip and discovering somebody already remembered the thing you always leave at home. It's always the underwear. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Sign up now for your free trial at youtube.com/premium.

• 49:18Trevor Noah?

  Terms apply. Cancel anytime.

• 49:22Trevor Noah?

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• 50:07Trevor Noah?

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• 50:49Trevor Noah?

  One of my favorite things is their Pima Cotton Lux Touch t-shirts. And it's become one of those pieces I keep reaching for. The cotton has this really smooth, premium feel to it. The fit is great, and it just lays really nicely. And I think that's what you sometimes take for granted with simple clothes. When they're done really well, they become the foundation of an entire outfit. You can throw on a jacket, a sweater, whatever you want, but everything works because you started with the right thing. That's what I like about Quince. It feels premium without feeling like you're trying too hard. It's effortless. So find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com.

• 51:32Trevor Noah?

  Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. Hello over there. Oh, and if Quince asks you where you heard about them, let them know it was What Now with Trevor Noah. It's the best way to support the show.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  I think there's something I'm realizing, because I think as a person, you learn a lot about your friends through their friends. And when you describe how you guys met, it says a lot about how he treats his friends and how you guys became friends. And I think the welcoming nature that you have is the same welcoming nature that you have. When I think back of when we met, like every time you'd go to his house, there'd be a mix of everyone. It would almost be like a comedy show. There'd be his cousins, there'd be these cousins' friends, there'll be your little brother, there'll be me, there'll be a friend, and we'd all get along, and he would know how to curate that all of these people have a good time.

• 52:33Speaker 01

  That answers your question.

• 52:35Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 52:36Speaker 01

  That you posed to me.

• 52:37Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  You do the same thing.

• 52:39Speaker 02

  Hundred percent.

• 52:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I do it for my people. You do it for every people.

• 52:44Speaker 02

  Those are her people.

• 52:45Speaker 01

  But those people are turning to my people.

• 52:47Trevor Noah?

  I hear you.

• 52:48Speaker 02

  SD.

• 52:49Trevor Noah?

  I hear you. I hear you. But what...

• 52:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 52:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but this is... Okay, so this is what I like. What I love about watching your process and having the pleasure of being a part of it is I've also seen, you know, I've also seen you start something in the least obvious place. We had Sam Morril on the podcast, and I remember we were talking to Sam about this, and we were going...

• 53:11Speaker 01

  Sam Morril?

• 53:12Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, Sam Morril. And we're going, "Sam, you're in a moment of blow up now." And everyone can feel it in their career, and you can see it from the outside, right?

• 53:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:20Trevor Noah?

  And Sam Morril now, you know, when now people start texting you, that's how I always feel it, random people. "Have you heard of Sam Morril?" And you're like, "I've known Sam for years, and he's been funny for years."

• 53:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:30Trevor Noah?

  But I'm happy that many of you are discovering him now.

• 53:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:33Trevor Noah?

  But when Sam was at the Comedy Cellar, he was doing Sam and he was building Sam at that time, the audience enjoyed him, but they didn't know that he was gonna be a star.

• 53:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:46Trevor Noah?

  And maybe this is what it is, SD. I'll tell you what it is, actually.

• 53:52Trevor Noah?

  You found this balance, and I'd love to know where it came from. Stars at the Comedy Cellar are treated like comedians, and comedians are treated like stars.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  A hundred percent. And that's absolutely true. Absolutely true. If a star comes in, I'm gonna try to make you as comfortable as possible.

• 54:17Trevor Noah?

  And as normal.

• 54:17Speaker 01

  That you're one of us.

• 54:18Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, as normal as possible.

• 54:20Speaker 01

  Exactly. I remember years and years ago, Seinfeld was doing the comic, the movie. He was shooting it and the seller almost every night. And people would come to the table while he was eating or whatever, and they were bothering him. And I remember Manny always posted somebody by a table, say, if somebody came over to the table, to stop them.

• 54:46Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 54:46Speaker 01

  Let him be.

• 54:47Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 54:48Speaker 01

  And there was a day that he asked Seinfeld, "Tell me, what can we do to make you, you know, comfortable here or whatever?" He said, "Don't worry about it. I can handle it. I... Don't worry about it. You don't need to post anybody."

• 55:09Speaker 01

  He wanted to be a guy, and if he wanted... I remember somebody asked for a picture. He says, "Okay." He stood, and the guy put his arm around him. He goes, "Not that close." You know, very Seinfeld, right?

• 55:23Speaker 01

  But he just was, he was working. He was doing something, and he couldn't care less. And he didn't want the special treatment of posting somebody by a table.

• 55:36Trevor Noah?

  He wanted to handle the interaction himself.

• 55:38Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 55:39Trevor Noah?

  That was his way of being normal.

• 55:40Speaker 01

  That's him. Yeah. So we would go out of our way to do what a big-time celebrity needs.

• 55:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 55:51Speaker 01

  And wants. But if you don't want it, we let you be.

• 55:57Speaker 01

  We let you be. Now, once in a while, people are sitting at a comedian's table and eating, and a customer comes up that just showed, sold a show or no... Aziz is down now.

• 56:08Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 56:09Speaker 01

  That's another one. He flew in from London to work out on stand-up.

• 56:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 56:14Speaker 01

  So don't you go over there, you know? They feel comfortable here doing it.

• 56:19Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 56:20Speaker 01

  And somebody came over, whatever, and my instinct was like protective, you know? "Don't bother him. He's working. He was writing notes. He was eating." Just let them be. And I think that most famous comics that come, they know that they are, that we have their back.

• 56:44Trevor Noah?

  That level of care. Yeah, but I think what's also almost more impressive to me is the comedian who's not a star that walks in, you have their backs even more, I feel.

• 56:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:55Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 56:55Speaker 01

  Except that they're not gonna be bothered by...

• 56:57Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I mean, in comedy, you have their backs. I feel like, you know?

• 57:01Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 57:02Trevor Noah?

  The way the show is designed, the way... Like at the Comedy Cellar, it was one of the first places I'd ever been. Because when I first came to do comedy in the US, I went to Pasadena, because that was the only place I knew a human being, David Meyer, right? So went to Pasadena, now I'm in Los Angeles. And when I go to the comedy clubs, one of the biggest differences I found, not just, you know, East Coast, West Coast, New York versus LA, but also like, let's say, Comedy Cellar and some of the other clubs, was that those clubs really delineated fame and talent.

• 57:33Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 57:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:34Trevor Noah?

  If you were famous, the world would open up for you.

• 57:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:38Trevor Noah?

  And the club would open up for you, but in a way that was dismissive of every other comedian who was in your vicinity.

• 57:45Speaker 02

  Right.

• 57:46Trevor Noah?

  So a famous comedian would walk in, and the club would basically be like, "You, go home. You're not needed anymore. Shut up. Get away. Do your thing. Don't talk to everyone. Clear this table. Get out." And that's just what I thought was normal in America, right?

• 57:59Speaker 01

  No.

• 57:59Trevor Noah?

  And then I remember going to the Comedy Cellar, and one night Louis CK walked in, and he was like, "Hey, can I jump on and do a spot?" And you know, one of the managers was then, I think it was Val, Valerie was there, and she's like, "Okay, let me see what we can do with the..." And then what was interesting was the comedians went... So Louis said, "Who's on?" And then the comedians were sitting at the table, and they went, "Oh, I'm on, and I'm on." And then someone said, "Actually, you know what? You could take my spot, because then I'll jump out and then do this." And then the club was like, "Yeah, we'll still give you the money for your spot, because you've been jumped, you've been bumped off."

• 58:30Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, yeah.

• 58:31Trevor Noah?

  You see, but that...

• 58:32Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 58:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I'd never seen that before.

• 58:34Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 58:35Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 58:35Speaker 01

  Which you still get paid.

• 58:37Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. So the club was like, "Okay, well, here's your money, even though you're not gonna be on, because you've just been bumped off." But then the comedians among themselves were like, one was like, "Ah, I wanna go have dinner. Louis, please take my spot, and we'll shuffle this around." And then Louis... But I had never...

• 58:50Speaker 02

  The management never said, "You're out, you're in."

• 58:53Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 58:53Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 58:54Trevor Noah?

  It didn't feel like that.

• 58:55Speaker 01

  We don't, you don't disrespect a comedian, because this one just showed up.

• 59:04Speaker 01

  There is room for both of you. And if time, because we have so many shows, it's one after the other. And you have a line around the block and it's raining.

• 59:14Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 59:14Speaker 01

  You know, you've got to finish this, the show on time.

• 59:17Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 59:18Speaker 01

  Uh, you have four shows a night, you know? Um, but you still get paid. You can still get paid. If possible, we'll put you on another show.

• 59:30Trevor Noah?

  Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 59:30Speaker 01

  Because now we have more, uh, um, ways of doing it.

• 59:36Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 59:36Speaker 01

  Because we have so many rooms. But it, it is, the main thing is, it's respect.

• 59:44Speaker 01

  I love comedians on a personal level and respect. I don't love them all.

• 59:51Speaker 01

  Some of them are not, not worthy. But I respect what they do. And if, if I think that he's a good comedian, I'm still gonna use him.

• 1:00:01Trevor Noah?

  So you'll book a comedian even if you don't like them?

• 1:00:03Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:03Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:00:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:06Trevor Noah?

  So that's, that's also unique.

• 1:00:07Speaker 01

  I'm talking about personality.

• 1:00:09Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:00:10Speaker 01

  I mean, I've got to, I've got to appreciate the comedy.

• 1:00:12Trevor Noah?

  No, but still, there's, but I, I know people who can't make that.

• 1:00:15Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no, no, no.

• 1:00:15Trevor Noah?

  No, I know a lot of people go like, I don't like that person. I won't, they won't work here. Yeah, but they're a good comedian. I don't care, I don't like them.

• 1:00:22Speaker 02

  That was the rule we use for the podcast.

• 1:00:24Trevor Noah?

  That's different.

• 1:00:25Speaker 02

  Oh, sorry.

• 1:00:25Trevor Noah?

  Cause we're gonna be here. Unless you're talented in podcasts, then I haven't developed that skill yet to know.

• 1:00:33Speaker 02

  But the something that you said, Estee, there's, there's no way you've managed to be part of this successful business for so long because you run it as a business. At some point.

• 1:00:42Speaker 01

  You don't, you can't, you can't, you cannot. Again, Manny, God bless him, he was such a wise guy. Um, money is a happy byproduct of a good product. What we need to do is put the good product.

• 1:00:58Speaker 02

  Oh, man, you said, you said what he?

• 1:01:01Speaker 01

  And this is, this is in my head always. And, and comics, comics that I don't book and they hate me and they don't like me and they badmouth me, whatever. Oh, it's all about the business. Well, it's not, it's never about the business. It's about the product.

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  Um, not only that, I meet with, I used to with Manny and now with Noah. And before I send out the show, after I booked the show,

• 1:01:38Speaker 01

  I want them involved in that because if there are comedians I don't use, I want them to know it.

• 1:01:45Trevor Noah?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:01:47Speaker 01

  Who I use and who I don't use.

• 1:01:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  I don't want it on my conscience and on my back.

• 1:01:53Trevor Noah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  Um, I find it very,

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  it's sort of protecting myself a little bit.

• 1:02:00Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:01Speaker 01

  You know? Um, sometimes it doesn't work out and whatever. By now I get a little bit of credit myself, you know? But people that, that, oh, Estee and she's feared and she's this. There's only people that I don't use.

• 1:02:19Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  I auditioned somebody two weeks ago. It happened a couple of times. I know how nervous they are. I know that I shake the hand and that palm is sweaty or the shake. I auditioned somebody and I said, look, five minutes, I can't really tell. I, I, I don't pass people, you know, the word passing somebody? I don't do that.

• 1:02:46Trevor Noah?

  Oh, you don't do that, okay.

• 1:02:47Speaker 01

  I know, I tell, and I tell them, I don't, unless I fall in love with you on the spot.

• 1:02:53Speaker 02

  Good to go.

• 1:02:53Speaker 01

  You're in, yeah.

• 1:02:56Speaker 01

  But I don't pass because in the five minutes I can see what I'm dealing with. Personality, how you come on the stage, the material. For five minutes, what did you choose to do?

• 1:03:09Trevor Noah?

  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

• 1:03:10Speaker 01

  Don't come with some vulgarity or bathroom thing in the five minutes you got. Uh-uh, it's not gonna work, you know? So, so to see what they chose, how they are on stage. And then I said, I'm gonna give some spots and let's see how it goes.

• 1:03:27Trevor Noah?

  Oh, that's beautiful.

• 1:03:28Speaker 01

  And then maybe if I don't do it now, let's have another audition in six months. Maybe let's try again.

• 1:03:37Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:03:38Speaker 01

  So I told that person, I'll give you a few spots and we'll see how it goes. And I just went like this and burst out crying.

• 1:03:48Trevor Noah?

  Oh, no.

• 1:03:48Speaker 01

  I've never seen anything, I felt so bad, I hugged the person and the whole body was shaking.

• 1:03:54Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:03:55Speaker 01

  And, and that, this kind of a situation reminds me

• 1:04:01Speaker 01

  what it takes for them to audition.

• 1:04:03Trevor Noah?

  Hmm.

• 1:04:04Speaker 01

  What they have to go, that, that, the stepping, the step, the, the step that they have to do and, uh, under the pressure.

• 1:04:15Trevor Noah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  And that's very humbling.

• 1:04:19Speaker 02

  Hmm. Who, who gave you a chance, Estee? When, when I think about it, here you are with a three-year-old in nineteen eighty-two. You've come from Israel, you have this new responsibility. Who gave you a chance?

• 1:04:30Speaker 01

  Manny.

• 1:04:32Speaker 02

  How did you guys meet?

• 1:04:33Speaker 01

  The owner. The owner. My husband was a musician in, in Manny's band.

• 1:04:37Trevor Noah?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:04:40Speaker 01

  And, uh, both of them, rest in peace, you know? But

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  whenever somebody left or died, Manny says, Estee, can you also do this? And before I know my job blew up to, to astronomical proportions.

• 1:05:02Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:05:02Speaker 01

  I mean, I used to do everything, I used to, and manually, reservations manually. I mean, we sell out two weeks in advance, even before I put the lineup now. Uh, uh, we used to struggle. There was a time that we had waitresses take the off, the aprons and sit at the table to make the room look busy.

• 1:05:23Trevor Noah?

  That's how bad it got at some point.

• 1:05:24Speaker 01

  Not got it, that's how we started. And we were downtown, all the good clubs were uptown. Industry didn't wanna come down, down, downtown.

• 1:05:35Speaker 01

  We used to pay cap money to comics to come downtown, bribe them.

• 1:05:40Trevor Noah?

  That's how bad it was?

• 1:05:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, it, it, it, this didn't start like, like this, you know?

• 1:05:47Trevor Noah?

  It seems so obvious now. You, you can't, when you see it now, you can't fathom a world where it wasn't successful.

• 1:05:52Speaker 01

  It wasn't like that at all, yeah.

• 1:05:54Trevor Noah?

  When did you, when did you first notice something shifting in, in the Comedy Cellar?

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  We have to add a show, we have to add another show.

• 1:06:01Speaker 02

  That's a good sign.

• 1:06:02Speaker 01

  That was a good sign, yeah. And I remember when, went on the Friday or Saturday from two shows to three. And I said, Manny, how I'm gonna do it, my God? Packing and I'm packing and I'm, I was, I was really, you know, panicky.

• 1:06:19Trevor Noah?

  Who, who were the first, who were the first comedians in that run when, when the, when the store?

• 1:06:23Speaker 02

  Upstream.

• 1:06:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, when it started like, when you started noticing the seller like picking up and, and, and, they, they must have been like regulars around that time.

• 1:06:30Speaker 01

  Oh, we had regulars from the beginning.

• 1:06:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:32Speaker 01

  Rita Rudner, um, I loved her so much, we were such good friends. You know her?

• 1:06:38Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:06:39Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, she was fantastic. Uh, Rand Darian, um, Carol Lifer. Um, I mean, I remember people from back when.

• 1:06:54Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, this is like a different era completely.

• 1:06:57Speaker 01

  Completely, completely. And it, it was

• 1:07:04Speaker 01

  Paul Provenza.

• 1:07:06Trevor Noah?

  Oh, man, Paul, yeah.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, before he moved out.

• 1:07:10Trevor Noah?

  Uh-huh.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  It, it just, um, a lot of people that Bill Grandfins knew from college. They went to Penn State, you know? And, um, Paul Reiser.

• 1:07:22Trevor Noah?

  Wow.

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  And then, when Paul, Paul Reiser got mad about you.

• 1:07:26Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:27Speaker 01

  He took Bill Grandfins as his head writer. And he, Bill left to L.A. and I took over the booking. That was the turning point.

• 1:07:36Trevor Noah?

  That's when things shifted.

• 1:07:38Speaker 01

  That, that turning point of booking.

• 1:07:40Trevor Noah?

  Were you surprised when the first comedian went away to become a superstar and then came back?

• 1:07:47Speaker 01

  If I was surprised?

• 1:07:48Trevor Noah?

  No, I'm saying, were you surprised? Because I mean, so many people, so many people would go off and become like a movie star and never come back. But then, when someone did come back, did it surprise you?

• 1:07:57Speaker 01

  No, I was happy because a, a lot of those people are my friends now.

• 1:08:01Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:02Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? Um, I remember, um, Mike Sweeney, who was the head writer for Conan. He was, I, and Mike Royce, who became one of the producers of Ray Romano, Everybody's Raymond. Um, I used them, especially Sweeney, as, uh, Adam C. I loved that guy so much.

• 1:08:28Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:29Speaker 01

  I relied on him, he was hilarious, he was funny. He was an attorney, smart, fast.

• 1:08:38Speaker 01

  And when he got the gig with Con, Conan, he says, oh, I'll be coming. Forward fifteen years, see him. He walked in, I said, you were right, you came back.

• 1:08:51Speaker 01

  You came back, I can't believe it. I gave him so much, I don't wanna say the word. Um, so, yeah, I was surprised. Um, he, they, the life, life changed.

• 1:09:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can imagine.

• 1:09:05Speaker 01

  And, and, um, we were super close and so, I had so much affection for him.

• 1:09:12Trevor Noah?

  Hmm.

• 1:09:13Speaker 01

  And it was almost like heartbreaking that he wasn't coming back.

• 1:09:17Speaker 02

  Your friend was gone.

• 1:09:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was gone.

• 1:09:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:21Speaker 01

  Uh, because he got a different opportunity, whatever. But then fifteen, no, eighteen years later, he came in.

• 1:09:28Speaker 03

  Question, has anyone ever been unpassed?

• 1:09:32Speaker 01

  A what?

• 1:09:32Trevor Noah?

  Oh, interesting.

• 1:09:34Speaker 03

  Like, you passed? Okay, cool, you can work at the Comedy Cellar. Has anyone been like, we're taking away your badge?

• 1:09:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:09:42Trevor Noah?

  What was the reason?

• 1:09:44Speaker 01

  Um.

• 1:09:46Trevor Noah?

  Epstein files.

• 1:09:49Trevor Noah?

  I will take you up.

• 1:09:50Speaker 01

  I am trying. No, what what happens is.

• 1:09:55Speaker 01

  What happens is that? People that work and they get better. And they justify being at the cellar and all that stage. Some people. Don't get better.

• 1:10:15Speaker 01

  Or they become indulging to their own opinions as opposed to being a comedian. And um not delivering what I would expect them to deliver. Uh it becomes a soapbox.

• 1:10:35Speaker 01

  There is a place for that, but not under the the the heading of comedy.

• 1:10:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, the tenor of jokes. Yeah. Yeah. Entertainment.

• 1:10:44Speaker 01

  And so either that.

• 1:10:48Speaker 01

  Or. Vulgarity.

• 1:10:53Speaker 01

  As I said before, I don't mind. I don't mind dirty jokes.

• 1:10:57Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:58Speaker 01

  I'll be the first one going, you know? But vulgarity. And it's somebody I really liked on a personal level. So it was very difficult.

• 1:11:10Speaker 01

  And so I had a conversation. I said, please, we cannot have be represented in this kind of.

• 1:11:18Trevor Noah?

  So you pull them to the side?

• 1:11:19Speaker 01

  Yes. Okay. It didn't help. They can't help themselves.

• 1:11:27Speaker 01

  Somebody like this, I would step away from, although I didn't in that that case, they took themselves out. It it's it's very interesting how people, you know, we all see ourselves in a certain in certain way.

• 1:11:41Trevor Noah?

  Definitely.

• 1:11:42Speaker 01

  Certain light.

• 1:11:42Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:43Speaker 01

  And most people think. In Hebrew, there's a saying, every bastard is a king. They actually made a movie with Topol that the title was Every Bastard is a King.

• 1:11:55Trevor Noah?

  It's a great phrase.

• 1:11:56Speaker 01

  Everybody thinks I am the best. I am the smartest. I am the with, you know?

• 1:12:03Speaker 01

  You're not.

• 1:12:06Speaker 01

  You're not. And when you learned what I said before, look at the mirror and be truthful with yourself.

• 1:12:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:14Speaker 01

  It'll it'll serve you much better. It'll serve you better as a person, as an artist.

• 1:12:22Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:22Speaker 01

  As a comedian, if you're truthful with yourself. If you think that you're doing it right. And I get, you know, when people make reservations now, they get a answer. Asking, rate the show. How was the show? How was the service? How was the food?

• 1:12:41Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow, okay.

• 1:12:42Speaker 01

  Automatic. I can't tell you how many how some people take themselves too seriously with those answers. Well, comedian number one, I give him an A, man.

• 1:12:55Speaker 01

  Colin Quinn goes, ah.

• 1:12:58Speaker 01

  But um.

• 1:13:01Speaker 01

  I have to take it under consideration.

• 1:13:03Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you have to listen.

• 1:13:05Speaker 01

  Because your question, what happens when a club goes down? It goes down when you stop listening.

• 1:13:14Speaker 01

  And the way I want comedians to listen to the response of the of the crowd, to the jobs and work. I need to be aware of what the the audience says about us.

• 1:13:27Trevor Noah?

  Hmm, they customize your crowd.

• 1:13:29Speaker 01

  How they view us.

• 1:13:30Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:13:31Speaker 01

  You know, I don't want to be highbrow.

• 1:13:35Speaker 01

  There is room for pa- for ta- politics, but not a soapbox. There's a difference.

• 1:13:40Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:13:41Speaker 01

  If you cannot make funny your opinions, have your opinions. This is there's no censorship whatsoever. I'm not going to tell you. I don't want you talking about that.

• 1:13:52Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, you've never said that.

• 1:13:54Speaker 01

  No, I wouldn't. Why would I? As long as you keep it with the realm of comedy.

• 1:13:59Trevor Noah?

  Uh huh. Yeah.

• 1:14:00Speaker 01

  If you get on a soapbox, what's the park in London that they get on the soapbox?

• 1:14:05Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, there's that famous one where you just go and you literally, they do that. You just go stand and then you shout your opinion in a square.

• 1:14:11Speaker 01

  We used to have the speak easy in the village and this from the sixties yet. Where people come and you just lay it out.

• 1:14:20Trevor Noah?

  But that's not comedy.

• 1:14:21Speaker 01

  But that's not comedy.

• 1:14:23Trevor Noah?

  Do you do you think that?

• 1:14:24Speaker 01

  And so to answer your question, if somebody doesn't listen and offends the customers and look. You know, if you are to the left or the right of politics. But if you get on that stage. F this, this, F all the Republicans, F this, F that. Half the room might be Republicans. You're gonna piss them off. What? How are you gonna have a good time? You wanna voice your opinion, you a hundred percent um entitled to.

• 1:14:59Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:59Speaker 01

  You are entitled to. But if you cannot make it funny, if you make it hateful. If you make it. Um unpleasant.

• 1:15:10Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:11Speaker 01

  You are defeating the purpose of getting on that stage.

• 1:15:15Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, how does it serve comedy? Dave Dave used to say, we we we had a comedy show that Dave actually, I mean, you started it from randomness. Yeah, very random. But it became like one of the most successful rooms in in South Africa. It was called The Blues Room. And Dave used to come and tell us before every show, he'd go, guys, remember. He'd go like, guys, remember, this is not a poetry evening. That's what he'd always say.

• 1:15:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:40Trevor Noah?

  Be like, guys.

• 1:15:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:41Trevor Noah?

  I love poetry, but there's not a poetry evening.

• 1:15:43Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:15:43Trevor Noah?

  Please remember that. We're not doing poetry here.

• 1:15:45Speaker 01

  Then you you're you know exactly what I'm talking about, Dave, right?

• 1:15:49Trevor Noah?

  Yes, I do.

• 1:15:51Speaker 01

  You understand what I'm saying?

• 1:15:52Trevor Noah?

  I completely get it because I I think this is, but this is the thing that, you know. I sometimes wonder where we lost the plot. Like, I go, was it was it was it social media? Was it? You you know, we'd have these conversations. At The Daily Show, we used to have it. Um in comedy clubs, we we used to have it. We'd go. Some people forget that every space is trying to do the thing that it is trying to do for that reasons. And I I mean, that's vague, but what I mean is to your point, comedy. Comedy specifically has told you ahead of time, this is going to be a vehicle that contains funniness in some way, shape or form. And the expectation is embedded in the.

• 1:16:29Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:16:30Trevor Noah?

  And it can deal with anything and everything.

• 1:16:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:33Trevor Noah?

  But the funniness will always be the thing that pops out at the end. It's the same way if you went to a jazz club.

• 1:16:38Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:16:39Trevor Noah?

  If the musician got up and sang a song about anything, uh World War Two, slavery, relationships, bananas, doesn't matter. But it was jazz. You would go, I went to a jazz club. Oh, what did the performer? Oh, yeah, this interesting song about uh about bananas. It was crazy.

• 1:16:57Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 1:16:58Trevor Noah?

  But it's jazz. You came there for the jazz.

• 1:17:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:01Trevor Noah?

  But then in comedy, somewhere along the line, something happened where people started going, no, the the purpose is not for it to be funny. The purpose is for it to be the opinion. Funny doesn't matter. Then I was like, no, but but that's exactly what makes it comedy. I'm not saying your opinion, to your point. I'm not saying your opinion doesn't matter.

• 1:17:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:23Trevor Noah?

  But then just don't call it comedy, then we're fine.

• 1:17:26Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly.

• 1:17:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:27Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 1:17:28Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:29Speaker 03

  The one I personally use, the one I personally use is uh is scaring horror.

• 1:17:35Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:36Speaker 03

  So I go like, if you're making a horror movie or a horror thing, a thing that's supposed to scare you.

• 1:17:42Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:42Speaker 03

  It's very clear. This is supposed to scare me. So I just go, like, even if I'm talking, if I'm thinking of a comedian.

• 1:17:50Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:17:51Speaker 03

  I'm almost going, I'm no offense to you, but I didn't get scared. You know, like, if you, you know.

• 1:17:57Trevor Noah?

  Same with laughing.

• 1:17:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're using the same. The one I use is is is am I scared? So if so I go like, you are attempting to scare me.

• 1:18:07Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:18:08Speaker 03

  Either you scared me or you didn't scare me. And that's that. You know what I mean? It's like, it's very, it's very clear. It's very clear whether I was scared or not.

• 1:18:17Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I but this is what I wonder, though, is I wonder when.

• 1:18:20Speaker 03

  Oh, when it when it changed was.

• 1:18:22Trevor Noah?

  Change and it hasn't changed completely, but there was definitely a moment where it changed in comedy.

• 1:18:26Speaker 01

  Because there are extremes now.

• 1:18:28Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, same.

• 1:18:29Speaker 01

  There's extremes in politics. There's a real extreme.

• 1:18:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:35Speaker 01

  Uh uh in politics, it was.

• 1:18:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I hear you. And it doesn't bother me as much.

• 1:18:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:44Speaker 01

  Now.

• 1:18:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, now you you write a person off.

• 1:18:48Speaker 01

  It bothers you.

• 1:18:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:50Speaker 01

  I was driving through. On uh Washington Square, that's right, before coming in, and somebody put in the window a sign. Huge, huge sign in the window. White sign with black lettering. It says a hundred percent anti-Trump. Why would you do that? You gonna, you ask?

• 1:19:14Trevor Noah?

  Dave, why did you do that?

• 1:19:15Speaker 03

  No, me?

• 1:19:16Trevor Noah?

  Why did you do that, Dave?

• 1:19:17Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:19:18Trevor Noah?

  Why would you?

• 1:19:19Speaker 01

  Aren't you asking for a stone through your window? There's somebody gonna throw, do you know me?

• 1:19:25Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:26Speaker 01

  Why? Okay, so that's your opinion. Good, great. Why would you chance your life and your window?

• 1:19:34Trevor Noah?

  I'll tell you, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what I think. I think there's a few levels to it. I don't think there's one answer. I'll start with that.

• 1:19:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:40Trevor Noah?

  But I have noticed a few things. There's one that I always start with. There's the performative aspect. So I've noticed some people like to perform what they believe everyone, you know, likes or doesn't like. And I'm not saying that person is or isn't, but I've noticed the performative side. Put a sign in your window and then everyone's like, you're this kind of person. You have performed it correctly. You you you with me?

• 1:19:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:59Trevor Noah?

  Right? You saw it a lot around like Black Lives Matter. People started putting signs up. Some people supportive, but some people performative completely. Like the rainbow flag. Yeah, yeah, completely performative, right? Then there's other people where I actually feel bad for them. Because I I the best way I can articulate it is this, I've found, and it's I find it's more severe in America. It's growing in other places in the world, but it's really severe in America.

• 1:20:26Trevor Noah?

  Many people in America now identify themselves by their beliefs first versus like who they are. Does that make sense?

• 1:20:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, they go, I believe in this.

• 1:20:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no. So what I mean is like, not, not even.

• 1:20:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:42Trevor Noah?

  In, in South Africa, for instance, you know, one of my joys of like going back home and spending more time there. I realized very quickly, people don't identify by the decisions or the votes they've made. They still are themselves and then they'll talk about political parties separately.

• 1:20:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:21:00Trevor Noah?

  In America, I've noticed more and more people identifying first as the thing. As a Republican, can I just say that as a Democrat, can I just, and I'm not saying you shouldn't. But what I've found is if you start every interaction with the most contentious or with the most complicated part of who you are. It's almost, you can even do it with religion as well.

• 1:21:23Speaker 01

  You show up in a uniform, basically.

• 1:21:25Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but you, but you, but you started off with the thing.

• 1:21:27Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:21:27Trevor Noah?

  And then I thought it was just an, I thought it was like a unique assumption or a, a, an, uh, an opinion I was having. And then I actually read a book written by a sociologist and they were talking about how small talk serves one of the most important roles in society. Because they said, I know it seems useless, but when someone goes, wow, the weather, huh? And you're like, ah, it was sunny yesterday and it's raining today. I know. I wish it was sunny today. I wish it was sunny. Ah, what are you gonna do about it? Man, this elevator takes long. I know this elevator is so slow. They said that those small statements that we share without us realizing it signal to the other that we both exist in the same reality.

• 1:22:08Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:22:09Trevor Noah?

  And it just, it, it, it, it creates these tiny threads between you as people.

• 1:22:13Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:22:14Trevor Noah?

  And then it gets to, so, um, you work in the building? Yeah, I work in the building. Oh, nice. What floor? Oh, no, I'm on the thirty eighth. Oh, you're on the thirty second. Oh, cool, cool, cool. Ah, you know, and it's, and it's those type, do you have any kids? I've got kids. I've got you. And as that conversation grows, they've actually shown, like a lot of the time when they do studies about discussions or discourse that people have with each other, those conversations make it easier to unlock the hard conversations.

• 1:22:41Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:22:41Trevor Noah?

  But if you start with the hard conversation, you, you can't go the other way.

• 1:22:45Speaker 01

  The fence.

• 1:22:46Trevor Noah?

  You literally, you just, you just can't go the other way.

• 1:22:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:48Speaker 03

  Speaking of, cause I love to say speaking of, cause this is a true thing. Would you say that the potency of your jokes allows you to be more on the soapbox? And the reason I, I say that is because you'll know there's some jokes that it is literally impossible for the crowd not to laugh at.

• 1:23:10Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:23:10Speaker 03

  Do you remember your tacos joke?

• 1:23:11Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:12Speaker 03

  It is, it's like if you understand the language that the person is telling it in.

• 1:23:17Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it's like a physical impossibility.

• 1:23:18Speaker 03

  The joke is like so good that it's like physically impossible for somebody not to find it funny. You know, comedians have that kind of, each, it's like having your hit song.

• 1:23:28Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:23:28Speaker 03

  A comedian has. They'll be like, this song, everybody loves this song of mine. Do you find that, um, depending on, let's say, how many hit songs the comedian has? Those, that gives them room to say whatever they want. Because if, if I have three.

• 1:23:47Speaker 01

  Hundred percent correct.

• 1:23:48Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:23:50Speaker 01

  A hundred percent. Those people get more leeway.

• 1:23:54Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:23:55Trevor Noah?

  But that's because they've earned more leeway, I would argue.

• 1:23:57Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:23:58Trevor Noah?

  Cause I.

• 1:23:58Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:23:59Trevor Noah?

  Cause I, I think, this is what I think it is to your point. I almost feel like it is, it is, um, it's about creating a fair transaction with an audience. Right? And I think this is any human interaction. For you to assume that a room of strangers should just listen to your pontifications or.

• 1:24:20Speaker 01

  Oh my God, I love you forever. That's why you are traveling now. This is exactly the problem.

• 1:24:27Trevor Noah?

  Do you get what I'm saying? I'm like, but why?

• 1:24:28Speaker 01

  He hit it, the nail on the head.

• 1:24:33Speaker 01

  That's what it is. This is the key to unlock

• 1:24:42Speaker 01

  the, the comedy.

• 1:24:46Trevor Noah?

  Secret door.

• 1:24:47Speaker 01

  Sensibility.

• 1:24:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:50Speaker 01

  That's gotta be it. It is

• 1:24:57Speaker 01

  feeling.

• 1:25:00Speaker 01

  A lot of comics cannot do it. They're not capable of doing it.

• 1:25:05Trevor Noah?

  Hmm.

• 1:25:05Speaker 01

  They have so much rage in themselves.

• 1:25:08Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:25:09Speaker 01

  That it's, they just feel, yeah, poisoning the whole, the whole atmosphere.

• 1:25:16Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:25:18Speaker 01

  And the comic that has to follow, haha.

• 1:25:20Trevor Noah?

  Has to deal with that.

• 1:25:22Speaker 01

  I, I get a lot of complaints, right there. And I said, if you are a good comic, you can follow anybody.

• 1:25:28Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 1:25:29Speaker 01

  Unless this sp- sp- spitting, hate.

• 1:25:34Trevor Noah?

  Poison.

• 1:25:35Speaker 01

  And, yeah.

• 1:25:36Trevor Noah?

  You have to, you have to dig, you have to dig a lot more.

• 1:25:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, the whole atmosphere.

• 1:25:40Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:40Speaker 01

  It's much more difficult than following somebody that didn't have a good set.

• 1:25:45Trevor Noah?

  Ah, oh, that's deep. Okay. I see what you mean.

• 1:25:48Speaker 01

  Yes, much harder because you have to neutralize the, the.

• 1:25:53Trevor Noah?

  You have to first start there.

• 1:25:54Speaker 01

  The stink in the room.

• 1:25:55Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:56Speaker 01

  Before they are ready for, for, they, they have to cleanse the palate.

• 1:26:01Trevor Noah?

  So that's, that's the thing that I, I think sometimes people misunderstand with comedy is

• 1:26:09Trevor Noah?

  some people will say, I've seen them say to comedians, some have said it to me, to anyone, they'll be like, you know, I, I, I don't know, why, why did you have to make that funny? Or why, why didn't you, why, I don't, I think you hurt it by turning it into a joke.

• 1:26:23Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:26:24Trevor Noah?

  And then, and then I remember saying to somebody, I went, what you're saying to me is the equivalent of saying to an anesthesiologist, why did you make the person sleep before the surgery?

• 1:26:37Speaker 01

  Why did it not?

• 1:26:38Trevor Noah?

  Then you're like, but that's their, that's why, they said that they're an anesthesiologist. They said that this is their job.

• 1:26:44Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:26:45Trevor Noah?

  If a person says that they are a comedian, you cannot ask them why they have used the tools of humor when approaching anything, tragedy in their family, politics, uh, difficult things in life, benign things in life, anything. We use the tool because we are saying we are the professionals of that. Do you, do you get what I'm saying?

• 1:27:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:27:05Trevor Noah?

  Yes. And so in the same way, funny enough, a referee in a boxing match will go, hey, stop holding.

• 1:27:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:10Trevor Noah?

  You can hold if you go to UFC, then holding is part of it. The ref there won't say, stop holding. You know what I mean? But in boxing, you cannot hold.

• 1:27:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:27:18Trevor Noah?

  We are fighting, but you have to use your fists. Please stop holding. Holding is not for this sport.

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:27:24Trevor Noah?

  There's another sport where you can go hold. And then even in UFC, there'll be other rules where they go like, no, no, no. You've been like this for too long, actually. We're here to fight. This is not a soapbox. You, you get what I'm saying?

• 1:27:35Speaker 01

  That's what I said. The difference between comedy and soapbox.

• 1:27:37Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:38Speaker 01

  That's exactly what it is.

• 1:27:41Trevor Noah?

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• 1:28:27Trevor Noah?

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• 1:29:12Trevor Noah?

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• 1:29:59Trevor Noah?

  How did you handle, or how have you handled over the years, things in the streets spilling over to the comedy club? Because I know there was like a period, I mean, there've been many periods, but let's say like around like Black Lives Matter.

• 1:30:13Speaker 02

  Me Too.

• 1:30:14Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, around the Me Too movement or any, any social movement where there's been an explosion. People have seen it come into their workplaces, they've seen it come into schools, they've seen it. And in comedy clubs, again, the comedy cell I can speak to as a perfect example. No two comedians have the same views on the lineup. You, you may overlap, but you can have completely different views.

• 1:30:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:30:35Trevor Noah?

  Some comedians have your views, but the way they do their comedy will make you think they don't have your views. Those are some of my favorites, you know what I mean?

• 1:30:40Speaker 01

  Attell.

• 1:30:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:30:42Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, he is.

• 1:30:43Speaker 02

  I love David.

• 1:30:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but when you're watching the comedian, you go like, I, I don't even know, I don't know what this person believes, but they're phenomenal.

• 1:30:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:50Trevor Noah?

  I, I would love to know like how you've, how you've fostered a space where comedians can continue to come and still have their comedy alongside comedians who don't share the same comedy, but then not create like an atmosphere of animosity.

• 1:31:05Speaker 01

  As I said, no censorship. You, you wanna talk about,

• 1:31:13Speaker 01

  whatever you wanna talk, you're okay with this, as long as you make it funny.

• 1:31:18Trevor Noah?

  But have you ever had issues where the comedians themselves are like, I don't want that comedian telling those jokes?

• 1:31:24Speaker 01

  Not really. There's some comedians that either resent or don't love others.

• 1:31:30Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I mean, that's comedy. That's every industry.

• 1:31:32Speaker 01

  They, yeah, they don't respect. And, and you get this under the nose.

• 1:31:41Trevor Noah?

  I'm like, how SD did it perfectly.

• 1:31:47Speaker 01

  And, and I would say, why? And sometimes they tell me, sometimes they don't, they're afraid that I'll say something or, you know. But yeah. So between the comics, it sometimes happens. And usually, the A minus comics would do that.

• 1:32:12Trevor Noah?

  Oh, interesting.

• 1:32:15Speaker 01

  They, yeah, the comment, oh, he's a hack. What is a hack? Tell me what a hack is.

• 1:32:23Trevor Noah?

  That's interesting.

• 1:32:24Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? And.

• 1:32:28Speaker 02

  Sorry, A minus is quite a high score.

• 1:32:31Trevor Noah?

  That's why I say it's very interesting.

• 1:32:32Speaker 01

  There's an A and A plus.

• 1:32:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but that's what I'm saying.

• 1:32:34Speaker 01

  You have three, three degrees.

• 1:32:36Speaker 02

  No, I'm saying you didn't say like a C, you know what I mean?

• 1:32:38Speaker 01

  C comics is, doesn't work in Comedy Cellar.

• 1:32:41Trevor Noah?

  Damn.

• 1:32:42Speaker 02

  Wait, so, so the.

• 1:32:51Speaker 02

  Oh, damn, SD.

• 1:32:52Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that was crazy.

• 1:32:53Speaker 02

  Oh, gee.

• 1:32:54Trevor Noah?

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. SD was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

• 1:32:58Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:32:59Trevor Noah?

  C minus. Yo, SD was like, nah, bruh.

• 1:33:02Speaker 02

  We don't do Cs. See you later.

• 1:33:06Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:33:07Trevor Noah?

  SD dropped the bomb hard on that, no, bruh.

• 1:33:10Speaker 02

  The top is A?

• 1:33:11Speaker 01

  There's an A plus.

• 1:33:12Speaker 02

  Or A plus is number one?

• 1:33:13Speaker 01

  There's an A, A minus, B plus. B, B minus, I'm starting to.

• 1:33:21Speaker 02

  Warm up.

• 1:33:22Speaker 01

  See what's hap.

• 1:33:23Trevor Noah?

  Okay, you're not sure.

• 1:33:24Speaker 01

  Let's see what happens.

• 1:33:25Trevor Noah?

  Okay, got it. So, so it's interesting.

• 1:33:27Speaker 01

  C, D, F.

• 1:33:28Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 1:33:29Speaker 01

  I can give you the address of other places.

• 1:33:32Speaker 02

  Uptown.

• 1:33:34Speaker 01

  Go somewhere else.

• 1:33:35Trevor Noah?

  How the tables have turned.

• 1:33:36Speaker 01

  Now, look.

• 1:33:40Speaker 01

  I am saying that there's room for everybody.

• 1:33:43Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:33:44Speaker 01

  But it takes time to become a seasoned comedian.

• 1:33:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:49Speaker 01

  To, to know how to well-crafted set looks or what you need to do or whatever. That takes time and I'll give you the opportunity to do it.

• 1:34:02Speaker 01

  But if I have to book five people and I have A plus, A, I'll go there first. Because my job is not to hold every comedian's hand. It's not. My job is the best, to produce a best show I can.

• 1:34:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:25Speaker 01

  With the availability I have. I've reached out to people to get them in. It's not only that they come to me, although mostly they come now. But

• 1:34:39Speaker 01

  I cannot be your manager or your teacher or you, whatever. But I'll give you the opportunity if you do have the seat, if you, if you show the potential. And, and

• 1:34:59Speaker 01

  those people grow.

• 1:35:00Trevor Noah?

  Is there, is there a comedian?

• 1:35:01Speaker 01

  There's a whole generation, like you said, Sam Morril.

• 1:35:03Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:04Speaker 01

  There's others than Soder, Joe Liz, Mark Norman. They are all in the same thing that they went up.

• 1:35:11Speaker 02

  Gradually.

• 1:35:12Trevor Noah?

  No, but it was at the same, it's like, it's like.

• 1:35:14Speaker 02

  Together.

• 1:35:14Trevor Noah?

  Like, we're in the same generation of comedy, you and I, in South Africa. Like Eugene and I started same time, we're in, with, of that, you know, if you like cut the tree's trunk.

• 1:35:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:35:25Trevor Noah?

  We're that ring.

• 1:35:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:35:26Trevor Noah?

  Basically, we're that ring. But I, I've always wanted, are there, I'm sure there are. Which comedians have blown up that surprised you the most? Because like, not everyone's path is linear, but some people just find something magic and all of a sudden you go, wow, they took it to a whole new level.

• 1:35:44Speaker 01

  I, that's very hard for me to, to say.

• 1:35:49Speaker 01

  Often I'm asked, can you predict when you meet a comedian, who's it gonna become?

• 1:35:54Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:54Speaker 01

  I can't. I can't. There's a lot of people that I think, oh, my God, that guy. And it never happens. And then there is somebody very quiet that's very, that I didn't, and I don't wanna say it because they are big now.

• 1:36:13Speaker 01

  But it's just like, huh? How did that happen?

• 1:36:18Speaker 01

  But it did.

• 1:36:19Trevor Noah?

  And you can't find any common thread, you can't find, it just.

• 1:36:23Speaker 01

  No. I think it's, it's, they're good comedians to begin with.

• 1:36:28Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:29Speaker 01

  Good work ethics.

• 1:36:30Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:31Speaker 01

  The timing is perfect.

• 1:36:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:36Speaker 01

  They, somebody saw them at a certain time.

• 1:36:40Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:36:42Speaker 01

  You know, I have to say, timing is everything.

• 1:36:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, it is.

• 1:36:44Speaker 01

  So as long as you're prepared and you have the good ingredients and you're good to begin with and the opportunity meets, meets you at the right place,

• 1:36:55Speaker 01

  you go out. And there's people that are

• 1:36:59Speaker 01

  just as good, just as prepared, but the timing never worked.

• 1:37:03Trevor Noah?

  That's probably one of the things I appreciated and still appreciate about the Comedy Cellar the most is it's, it's a comedy club where I felt comedians were always reminded of the fact that they're lucky. And what I mean by that is.

• 1:37:20Speaker 01

  Privilege.

• 1:37:21Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, what I mean by that is in, in, when you're walking through the halls or the rooms or the, or the restaurant of, of the Comedy Cellar, there is no comedian I can think of who would lie and say, I don't know comedians who have destroyed as much as I have on many of the nights that I've been there.

• 1:37:38Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:37:39Trevor Noah?

  And so there's a, there's a, I think there's a certain level of humility.

• 1:37:43Speaker 01

  I was about to say humility.

• 1:37:44Trevor Noah?

  In understanding that like, that's why I say when, when people would say a name to me and they go, oh, have you heard of this? They've really blown up. Then I go, I'll be honest with you. From the first time I encountered them, they were amazing. And I guess to your point, timing and luck just hadn't met with their amazing.

• 1:38:02Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:38:02Trevor Noah?

  But they were amazing.

• 1:38:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:04Trevor Noah?

  And, and that's like the, the, the hard and, and humbling aspect of entertainment in general, but especially with comedy, is sometimes it's just about meeting the audience, you know? Like I, like I'll never separate like Louis CK from where America was when he like really like mega blew up. He became like the perfect vessel for what America was going through.

• 1:38:26Speaker 02

  Was feeling.

• 1:38:27Trevor Noah?

  It was the recession, it was, people weren't feeling like things are great, people weren't feeling like. And Louis has this, this way of like being both optimistic and extremely.

• 1:38:37Speaker 02

  Pessimistic.

• 1:38:37Trevor Noah?

  Pessimistic in, in the same container. But I feel like it met him at the perfect time.

• 1:38:42Speaker 01

  It's so funny because I have books, my booking books.

• 1:38:47Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:48Speaker 01

  From the beginning. So I was booked the shows and then on the bottom I have the late night. For a while it was food spots, so the late night. And all those people were on the late night, Chris Rock, Louis CK and Jim Norton. They were all on that thing and look what they are now.

• 1:39:06Trevor Noah?

  In the latest, latest slots. Was that the hottest slot? Jon Stewart used to be on that slot. Jon and I talked about.

• 1:39:13Speaker 01

  Well.

• 1:39:14Trevor Noah?

  He said he was like.

• 1:39:15Speaker 01

  That's not true.

• 1:39:17Speaker 01

  No. Jon used to be a busboy in Panchitos down the street.

• 1:39:22Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:23Speaker 01

  And he used to come.

• 1:39:23Speaker 02

  I might be wrong, but Panchitos?

• 1:39:25Speaker 01

  Panchitos.

• 1:39:26Speaker 02

  That does sound like a comedy club.

• 1:39:28Speaker 01

  It wasn't a comedy club, it was a Mexican restaurant.

• 1:39:31Speaker 02

  I thought it was an accent. I thought I'd get you with the ramasut. I was like, ah, no.

• 1:39:35Speaker 01

  No. Panchito was a, a, a Mexican restaurant.

• 1:39:39Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:39:39Speaker 01

  And he started coming by. I loved him from day one.

• 1:39:45Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:46Speaker 01

  Day one.

• 1:39:47Trevor Noah?

  What did you love about him?

• 1:39:49Speaker 01

  I just liked his humor, his performance, his material. He was just as funny as hell.

• 1:39:55Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:56Speaker 01

  And I started booking him.

• 1:39:59Speaker 01

  There was some, was it Chappelle? I don't know, I think it was the Mark Twain Award that he said.

• 1:40:11Speaker 01

  I wasn't really good, but SD kept booking me.

• 1:40:13Trevor Noah?

  Yes, yes, it was actually, yes.

• 1:40:14Speaker 01

  It was Mark Twain, right?

• 1:40:15Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I think it was the Mark Twain Prize.

• 1:40:17Speaker 01

  I kept booking him because I, I just, I don't know, I believed in him. He was funny, he was, he was great. I loved him from day one.

• 1:40:28Trevor Noah?

  But that's what I mean, you see, that's, that's an example of.

• 1:40:30Speaker 01

  There were some that took time. Attell, Attell took a minute.

• 1:40:34Trevor Noah?

  For you?

• 1:40:35Speaker 01

  Not for me, for the audience to, to find him.

• 1:40:40Speaker 01

  He always went on last, which he still does.

• 1:40:44Speaker 01

  And

• 1:40:47Speaker 01

  people were just, the exits there.

• 1:40:49Speaker 02

  Going to Panchitos.

• 1:40:50Speaker 01

  Going to Panchitos. It, it was, some people took a minute.

• 1:40:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:56Speaker 01

  But they all used to do the late nights.

• 1:40:59Trevor Noah?

  What do you think it was about the late night?

• 1:41:01Speaker 01

  They, they did a documentary once, they wanted to see my book and Chris Rock was in the olive tree.

• 1:41:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:06Speaker 01

  And I showed him the book. I said, do you remember that at all?

• 1:41:13Trevor Noah?

  Was that slot harder?

• 1:41:15Speaker 01

  Huh? Oh, it was like one AM, two AM, and there was like five, seven minutes.

• 1:41:20Trevor Noah?

  No, but you never know.

• 1:41:21Speaker 02

  No, but then.

• 1:41:22Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but that's why I'm asking, was that slot was harder at that time?

• 1:41:26Speaker 01

  It's always hard. Because, I mean, who is in the room at that hour?

• 1:41:33Speaker 02

  And wanting to laugh.

• 1:41:34Speaker 01

  And they wanna laugh, they wanna laugh, but they have a sleep and then.

• 1:41:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they're drunk, they've eaten, they've.

• 1:41:41Speaker 01

  Well, you know that at the Comedy Cellar, we have a rule about drinking.

• 1:41:45Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:46Speaker 01

  You know that?

• 1:41:46Trevor Noah?

  No, I didn't know that.

• 1:41:47Speaker 01

  Okay. Um, it's two drinks minimum.

• 1:41:51Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:41:52Speaker 01

  Which is standard in all the industries, not just comedy club. But we have a three drink maximum.

• 1:41:58Trevor Noah?

  I did not know this.

• 1:42:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. We don't want you to drink. If somebody wants a fourth drink, they have to get the manager's approval.

• 1:42:10Trevor Noah?

  Gotta go and walk, you gotta, they've got a little line they painted.

• 1:42:13Speaker 01

  No, I mean.

• 1:42:14Trevor Noah?

  You do little balance tests at the Comedy Cellar.

• 1:42:16Speaker 02

  Then they bring out Dave Attell.

• 1:42:17Trevor Noah?

  Would a drunk person be able to do this?

• 1:42:20Speaker 01

  No, you don't want them drunk.

• 1:42:22Trevor Noah?

  No, but you see, you know, you know.

• 1:42:24Speaker 01

  We don't do that.

• 1:42:25Trevor Noah?

  We talk about this.

• 1:42:26Speaker 01

  And anybody that says, oh, you are here for the money.

• 1:42:28Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:42:29Speaker 01

  They don't know that we have rules like that.

• 1:42:30Trevor Noah?

  But this is what I mean.

• 1:42:31Speaker 02

  More drinks, yes.

• 1:42:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:42:32Trevor Noah?

  I say this to Dave all the time, I talk to Eugenia, I go, I wish more people were able to run businesses and industries in a way that didn't have to extract all the money all the time.

• 1:42:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:42:45Trevor Noah?

  Because I think you would create something that lasts longer.

• 1:42:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:42:47Trevor Noah?

  And something that everyone can benefit from for longer. Because I've been to establishments where they'll sell as many drinks as they can to the person because they wanna make the money.

• 1:42:55Speaker 01

  Many having a meeting with Lucian. Remember Lucian?

• 1:42:59Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:43:00Speaker 01

  Lucian is who run the comic strip.

• 1:43:03Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:43:04Speaker 01

  He passed. And they were talking and trying to build a business, you hand out, you know, two for one and all covers, whatever. Now, how do you make money? You raise the drink and push the drinks.

• 1:43:19Trevor Noah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:43:20Speaker 01

  We never did it. Never ever did we do that. We always, and we have a very clear room, a rule of three drinks maximum.

• 1:43:30Trevor Noah?

  I didn't know this.

• 1:43:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:43:32Trevor Noah?

  And as comedians, you feel, you also, you know.

• 1:43:35Speaker 01

  So if somebody comes from downstairs and says, oh, they're all drunk. And I say, how they drunk at three drinks?

• 1:43:41Trevor Noah?

  No, but you know, I just noticed, I noticed something as well.

• 1:43:44Speaker 03

  Some of us drank before we came in.

• 1:43:46Speaker 01

  I know, but that's the key. Listen, we have security and if you appear drunk, you're not let in.

• 1:43:53Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:43:54Speaker 01

  And we have the rule about the cell phones.

• 1:43:57Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:57Speaker 01

  Cell phones in the bags. It's all done to protect the comic comics.

• 1:44:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:04Speaker 01

  This is all for the comics.

• 1:44:06Trevor Noah?

  I would even argue it protects comedy as a whole. You know why?

• 1:44:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, but, but.

• 1:44:10Trevor Noah?

  No, because.

• 1:44:10Speaker 01

  You are the vehicle for comedy.

• 1:44:12Trevor Noah?

  No, yes, yes, but what I mean is like, one of the reasons I love the fact that you don't allow people to film the show is because comedy, and I know Chris Rock has spoken about this pretty clearly, but like one of the things people forget with comedy and comedians and clubs in particular is that is where you're going to forge an idea.

• 1:44:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:30Trevor Noah?

  You're not going there because the idea is perfect. You're going there to start creating out of nothing, something, you know? You're going there to try and like chisel it out and hammer it and find the edges and smooth them. And then when someone watches it on a special on Netflix or wherever, they go, oh, wow, that was great, yeah, like, yeah, yeah. But there were many nights when this didn't make sense, or this was warped, or this was, you know? And if people record that and put it out.

• 1:44:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:58Trevor Noah?

  They're doing two things that they don't realize.

• 1:45:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:00Trevor Noah?

  One, they're hurting the comedian because you're not allowing the comedian to put the thing out when they were going to put it out.

• 1:45:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:09Trevor Noah?

  Right? In the way that, so now they can't even sort of stand behind it because you stole it from the lab. And then you're saying that this product is bad for, it's toxic.

• 1:45:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:17Trevor Noah?

  But it was in the lab, you stole it from the lab, it wasn't in the stores.

• 1:45:20Speaker 02

  But I'd even say what technology takes away or the wrong audience watching takes away is the three stages that I think a comic goes through.

• 1:45:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:28Speaker 02

  I think sometimes you're on stage at a club because you're trying to find the funny.

• 1:45:31Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:45:31Speaker 02

  Sometimes you're trying to find yourself and there'll be times where the audience meets you after you found the two.

• 1:45:35Trevor Noah?

  Oh.

• 1:45:36Speaker 02

  When the, when you're in sync with how you're feeling and what you're saying.

• 1:45:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:41Speaker 02

  It all makes sense, but there was a time when the idea was great, but you were not feeling the best.

• 1:45:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:45:47Speaker 02

  But all of those have made people have opinions about comics at the wrong time, at the wrong place. And I think I always make this analogy of thinking, have you watched soccer before?

• 1:45:56Speaker 01

  Soccer?

• 1:45:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:57Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:45:57Speaker 02

  So when soccer plays.

• 1:45:58Speaker 01

  My boyfriend was goalie.

• 1:46:00Speaker 02

  Soccer player?

• 1:46:01Speaker 01

  Goalie, yeah.

• 1:46:01Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow, okay.

• 1:46:03Speaker 02

  Clearly.

• 1:46:03Speaker 01

  Superstar in Israel.

• 1:46:06Trevor Noah?

  Ah, look at that, SD, okay.

• 1:46:08Speaker 02

  You know, when soccer plays, security guards that are looking at the crowd, they almost know instinctually what is happening behind them.

• 1:46:15Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:15Speaker 02

  So that ability to listen is what you had because you were a host. You were listening to comments without watching them and prejudging them. So you were there to find out when they found the funny, when they were finding themselves, and when the audience has found them and the funny at the same time.

• 1:46:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:29Speaker 02

  So I think technology robs people of that because of that snippet.

• 1:46:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:33Speaker 02

  Takes away all of the, and you've said it before, when we're having this chat, you said, you give them time.

• 1:46:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, you have to.

• 1:46:39Speaker 02

  You give them time to find the two and the audience will benefit immensely from it.

• 1:46:43Speaker 01

  But the beginning, the starting line now

• 1:46:47Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:46:47Speaker 01

  is higher than it used to be because of the availability.

• 1:46:52Trevor Noah?

  I can imagine.

• 1:46:53Speaker 03

  Speaking of comedy.

• 1:46:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:46:54Speaker 03

  What do you think of, because that's what we're speaking about, um, what?

• 1:47:00Trevor Noah?

  Your segue is a flawless thing.

• 1:47:02Speaker 01

  Could have fooled me.

• 1:47:06Speaker 01

  A plus. We were talking about everything bad. Everything bad.

• 1:47:14Speaker 03

  It's like, it's actually modern and recording. What do you think about the new movement of like, you know, there's audience participation, that whole thing? Where comedians are, you know, Trev, the one.

• 1:47:28Speaker 01

  I don't mind, I like crowd work, but it's not.

• 1:47:37Speaker 01

  When you're an MC and you do crowd work, you sort of bring them in

• 1:47:44Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:47:44Speaker 01

  into the space, into the state of mind.

• 1:47:48Speaker 02

  Yes, you corral them.

• 1:47:49Speaker 01

  Yes, when MC gets on and he start doing bits, what is that all about? That's wrong. I want the MC to do a crowd work and warm them up where they, where they are

• 1:48:08Speaker 01

  uh, the reception.

• 1:48:10Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they're receptive to, yeah.

• 1:48:11Speaker 02

  You want them to host.

• 1:48:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I am very pro. I know that a lot of people, especially online.

• 1:48:21Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:22Speaker 01

  Uh, the crowd work and all of that, you know, it, there is a little

• 1:48:31Speaker 01

  a Mendoza line for that, you know? It's, it's sometimes too much and not enough substance. But sometimes with crowd work, your bit comes out of it.

• 1:48:46Trevor Noah?

  That's true.

• 1:48:48Speaker 01

  It comes.

• 1:48:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can find the funny there.

• 1:48:51Speaker 01

  Well, yeah. And, and you'll be surprised how entertaining some of the people in the audience can be. They really are. I sometimes watch it and just, you know, like a dog that is peanut butter, what?

• 1:49:07Speaker 01

  I mean, so there is a benefits to it.

• 1:49:11Speaker 02

  What happened to the goalie?

• 1:49:13Speaker 01

  Huh?

• 1:49:13Speaker 02

  What happened to the goalie?

• 1:49:14Speaker 01

  Uh, never mind.

• 1:49:18Speaker 02

  Can't stop thinking.

• 1:49:19Speaker 01

  Noisy, you're nosey.

• 1:49:21Trevor Noah?

  Of course, he started.

• 1:49:24Speaker 01

  You asked me if I know soccer, not only I know soccer, Trump you won.

• 1:49:30Speaker 03

  So my, my crowd work question is, if you book the host.

• 1:49:34Speaker 02

  Crowd work question.

• 1:49:35Speaker 03

  The crowd work, you book the host to do crowd work, obviously.

• 1:49:38Speaker 01

  Yes, as I'm saying.

• 1:49:39Speaker 03

  Yes, then when you book the acts, you're booking them to do a specific set or you know what I mean?

• 1:49:47Speaker 01

  I take under consideration who is the MC with who is on the show.

• 1:49:53Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:49:54Speaker 01

  I take it, that's one of the considerations because the MC contributes to the show. If it's, obviously I would prefer most of the time the MC to be high energy.

• 1:50:08Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 1:50:09Speaker 01

  Somebody that will keep the crowd and, and, you know, and once in a while they throw it, you know, a little bit here, a little bit there. But they include the audience in it where an act just comes out and does his act, once in a while they interact.

• 1:50:25Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:50:27Speaker 01

  But not that much.

• 1:50:28Trevor Noah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:50:29Speaker 01

  With MC, I do like the interaction because it, come on kids, let's play together.

• 1:50:38Speaker 01

  That's what the MC is supposed to do.

• 1:50:40Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:41Speaker 01

  You know what I mean?

• 1:50:42Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, it brings everybody in.

• 1:50:43Speaker 01

  And if an MC gets up and says, starts with bits, he doesn't do, uh, doesn't live up to his role.

• 1:50:52Speaker 03

  So do you ever penalize an act for doing crowd work? In your head, like if an act comes up and then they start doing a lot of crowd work, do you in your head go, no, I don't like that?

• 1:51:04Speaker 01

  It depends who and what they do.

• 1:51:05Speaker 03

  Okay, great.

• 1:51:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, you can't be very dry cut on that, you know?

• 1:51:14Speaker 01

  Some of them

• 1:51:17Speaker 01

  have a bit that they're coming up with, they're about to say it.

• 1:51:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:21Speaker 01

  And it's a lead in.

• 1:51:23Trevor Noah?

  Oh.

• 1:51:24Speaker 01

  They'll turn to the audience and say, did you ever?

• 1:51:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, okay, it's just, it's just a, it's the beginning of a magic trick.

• 1:51:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:51:31Trevor Noah?

  Okay, does anyone have a quarter here?

• 1:51:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:51:33Trevor Noah?

  They were gonna do the trick anyway.

• 1:51:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:51:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 1:51:35Speaker 01

  So, but this is, this is very liquid. This is very fluid.

• 1:51:43Trevor Noah?

  I wanna put you on the spot before we lose you, SD, like, who's your personal favorite comedian?

• 1:51:48Speaker 01

  You.

• 1:51:48Trevor Noah?

  No, don't do that.

• 1:51:50Speaker 01

  You asked me.

• 1:51:50Speaker 03

  You asked a question.

• 1:51:51Trevor Noah?

  No, but like.

• 1:51:53Speaker 03

  You asked a question.

• 1:51:54Speaker 01

  No, no, it's.

• 1:51:58Speaker 01

  I have people I like more than others.

• 1:52:01Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:02Speaker 01

  But this is like asking a mother that has fifteen children.

• 1:52:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:06Speaker 01

  Who is your favorite?

• 1:52:07Trevor Noah?

  No, which one would you go downstairs to watch more than the other? You, there's got to be one child where you're like, and I only mean this because they, they just happen to like, hit everything that you want from the comedy and the, do you get what I'm saying?

• 1:52:19Speaker 02

  Let me break it down for S T. Basically, S T, think of it this way.

• 1:52:21Speaker 01

  Don't break it down for me. I know exactly what he's asking.

• 1:52:24Trevor Noah?

  I'm, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm buying you time.

• 1:52:29Speaker 01

  I'm trying not to answer.

• 1:52:30Speaker 02

  Which child would you take up to three years? And which one would you leave at three months? Did I buy you enough time?

• 1:52:39Speaker 01

  That's an interesting way of putting it.

• 1:52:45Trevor Noah?

  Okay, I won't.

• 1:52:45Speaker 01

  Who do you, who do you want to abort?

• 1:52:47Trevor Noah?

  No, no, I won't put you, no, I won't put you on the spot. No, but I will.

• 1:52:50Speaker 01

  You heard me, right?

• 1:52:53Speaker 01

  I took, I took it further.

• 1:52:54Trevor Noah?

  He lives in a comedy club. Okay, then, no, then, then, now, okay. I'll ask you this then.

• 1:52:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:52:59Trevor Noah?

  In, instead of, instead of making it that, let's, let's go the other way. Cause I think it'll be great for all of us.

• 1:53:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:53:04Trevor Noah?

  I mean, us here and the people listening. Give me, give me a few names of comedians that we should be watching now that, you know, maybe we're not just, you know, name a few where you go like, this person's really getting, this person's.

• 1:53:14Speaker 01

  Aaron Chan.

• 1:53:15Trevor Noah?

  Okay, Aaron Chan from Australia?

• 1:53:16Speaker 01

  He is, yes, he is a Chinese guy from Australia.

• 1:53:20Trevor Noah?

  Okay, cool.

• 1:53:21Speaker 01

  He has a show over there that, uh, it's a small show that's now on Netflix. That's making a lot of waves. He is, I, it's very difficult to, um, describe him.

• 1:53:33Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:53:33Speaker 01

  But he is somebody I would say, if you get a chance, watch him.

• 1:53:37Trevor Noah?

  Okay, great.

• 1:53:37Speaker 01

  He's very quiet. He's very sarcastic. He is wonderful. One, absolutely wonderful.

• 1:53:48Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:53:49Speaker 01

  Um, and I can give you a list for about ten people that are brand new for the seller that I still go down to watch because what else do you have?

• 1:53:59Trevor Noah?

  Give us four. Okay, so we got Aaron Chan. Give us three more.

• 1:54:02Speaker 01

  Um, there is, um,

• 1:54:07Speaker 01

  Winston from DC. A lot of, uh, new, uh, comics are from Chicago now. So there is a whole wave of Chicago comic. It, it goes with.

• 1:54:18Trevor Noah?

  It does go in waves. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:54:20Speaker 01

  Uh, Chicago, and as I said, right now is Australia. There's a new guy at just, uh, Blake,

• 1:54:29Speaker 01

  uh,

• 1:54:32Speaker 01

  Green, what's his last name? I don't know. I just auditioned him. Wonderful. Really funny. Um, um, Brendan Sogorov.

• 1:54:43Speaker 01

  That's somebody that's going right now this way. Very funny. Um.

• 1:54:50Speaker 02

  And with, put a lady as well.

• 1:54:52Speaker 01

  A lady?

• 1:54:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:54:53Speaker 01

  Why?

• 1:54:54Speaker 02

  Because.

• 1:54:56Speaker 01

  What if the four are guys?

• 1:54:59Trevor Noah?

  Then what, Dave?

• 1:55:00Speaker 01

  You see?

• 1:55:00Speaker 02

  Then what?

• 1:55:01Trevor Noah?

  Then what?

• 1:55:02Speaker 01

  No, I, I, I can give you, uh, there's, there's quite a few women now too. That were, Emma Weaver, you know Emma?

• 1:55:12Trevor Noah?

  And it's just become a?

• 1:55:14Speaker 01

  She's, she's, yeah. Um, um, Emmy Blotnik. I love Emmy Blotnik. You asked me once for a writer, remember Michelle Wolf? I got you, Michelle. Michelle, Emmy Blotnik is an incredible writer. And, um, she was the head, head writer for the President Men, the show. The President. Men was?

• 1:55:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, the President's Men, yeah, all the presidents.

• 1:55:39Speaker 01

  And now she's creating, uh, animation. I mean, she's wonderful.

• 1:55:44Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:55:44Speaker 01

  An incredible person. Sweet, quiet, beautiful person. Very funny. Um,

• 1:55:55Speaker 01

  Elle Orlando is one of the new girls I'm using.

• 1:55:58Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:55:59Speaker 01

  I have a lot of faith in her. Let's see how that goes.

• 1:56:02Speaker 02

  You know with your accent when you say new girl I'm using?

• 1:56:06Speaker 01

  That, that, you have such a bad.

• 1:56:08Speaker 02

  I'm so sorry, I can't help it.

• 1:56:10Speaker 01

  I mean, the comics I'm using.

• 1:56:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, thank you.

• 1:56:14Speaker 01

  No, but did you hear his question? He asked me about girls.

• 1:56:19Speaker 02

  I don't expect much from him. You on the other hand, you did your thirty-six months, you raised this child, you got. So much hope in you.

• 1:56:28Trevor Noah?

  Oh, man.

• 1:56:29Speaker 01

  No, there, there, there is, I, I would need my, my paper to, to go through it, but there's, there is a Philip and I cannot pronounce his last name. Colonav, blah, blah, blah. He's Slovakian that worked in England for about ten years.

• 1:56:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:56:44Speaker 01

  Very funny. It's brand new. Those are all new people. Um.

• 1:56:51Trevor Noah?

  I love that you still.

• 1:56:51Speaker 01

  Drew Dunn.

• 1:56:52Trevor Noah?

  I still love that you, you, that you still have this. Like, I'm watching you.

• 1:56:56Speaker 01

  Oh, excitement.

• 1:56:57Trevor Noah?

  But that's what I mean. Like, like, you, you, you don't have a, again, I've met people who've booked comedy their whole lives, whether it's for late night TV or for comedy clubs or, and at some point they have a, I've seen it all.

• 1:57:09Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no.

• 1:57:10Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they remind me of this person. And you're like, oh, oh, oh, oh, and this person, and you, you still, till this day, forty, how many years later?

• 1:57:19Speaker 01

  Peter Ravello.

• 1:57:21Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:21Speaker 01

  Did you get to see him yet?

• 1:57:23Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:57:23Speaker 01

  You've got to.

• 1:57:26Trevor Noah?

  This is, I mean, I now just have a list of comedy that I have to just go and watch.

• 1:57:29Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go, oh, how about Ethan?

• 1:57:33Trevor Noah?

  Ethan's phenomenal. No, I mean, but it, yeah. Ethan is like.

• 1:57:36Speaker 01

  He's my heart.

• 1:57:37Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, Ethan is.

• 1:57:38Speaker 01

  So much. Oh, my God.

• 1:57:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. Will, I think Will told me about Ethan first. He was like, yo, Will.

• 1:57:43Speaker 01

  Oh, Ethan is, and no social media, nothing. And you know what? Not only he's a great comic. I remember we, few years back, we booked, uh, um, this week at the Comedy Cellar, Comedy Central, and that's where I first time saw him.

• 1:57:59Trevor Noah?

  Hmm.

• 1:58:00Speaker 01

  And I, between Ethan, Peter, Aaron Chan, Drew Dunn. It, it'll blow your mind how good they are. It'll blow your mind.

• 1:58:15Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:58:16Speaker 02

  Those four are making it past thirty-six months.

• 1:58:18Speaker 01

  Huh?

• 1:58:18Speaker 02

  I'm down. Those four are making it past thirty-six months.

• 1:58:21Speaker 01

  I'm telling you, they are fantastic. Really fantastic. And, um, yeah, it, it, it's gratifying to, to, to find somebody that you're excited about. You know what I mean?

• 1:58:36Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

• 1:58:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I am not blessed there about it at all.

• 1:58:40Trevor Noah?

  And that's why we appreciate you. That's why we love you. Thank you so much, S T. Thank you for everything you do.

• 1:58:45Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:58:46Trevor Noah?

  You know, I, I was thinking like, two days ago, I was like, why is there not a documentary on you? I was just thinking. And then I was like, people probably try all the time. And then S T's the kind of person who's like, I don't want to. He just.

• 1:58:59Speaker 01

  Unless my hand is like twisted.

• 1:59:00Trevor Noah?

  Do you know who's never tried?

• 1:59:01Speaker 02

  Who?

• 1:59:02Trevor Noah?

  You, Twinkletoes.

• 1:59:06Speaker 01

  Twinkletoes? Okay. It's the one thing that if somebody say, describe Travonow, and I would say Twinkletoes.

• 1:59:14Speaker 02

  You've never seen him dance. You've ne-

• 1:59:18Trevor Noah?

  No, for real, S T, this is, thank you very much. Thank you for, thank you for.

• 1:59:21Speaker 01

  My pleasure.

• 1:59:21Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, the role you've played in my life, the role. You know what's amazing? The role you've played in everyone's lives without them knowing it. So if people loved Louis' show on, on FX or his stand-up, if people loved Aziz's, you know, Master of None, if people loved, there's so many comedians that have affected your life. And S T was part of their journey, getting to, yeah, Jon Stewart's. And then me by extension with the, it's just crazy how many comedians.

• 1:59:49Speaker 01

  You were already, you were cooked already.

• 1:59:52Trevor Noah?

  No, but I mean.

• 1:59:53Speaker 01

  You are not getting ready, you know what I mean?

• 1:59:55Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I mean, in America though.

• 1:59:56Speaker 01

  But I recognize.

• 1:59:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah. And I mean, still, I, I would argue, doing it at the Comedy Cellar and what you gave me was a home away from home.

• 2:00:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:05Trevor Noah?

  And you know, one of the biggest things I really appreciated about it was the comedy club didn't possess an air of, of, of, of like heaviness and, and, no, cause there's, there's a lot of clubs that I would go to where it really, it, it, it felt like you were in the doldrums emotionally. It felt, it, it, there was a, there was a, there was an extreme, um, difference between what was happening on stage and what you were feeling in the building. I would watch people get on stage and they were the funniest human beings I'd ever seen, ever. And then I'd walk off stage or I'd see them come off stage and I'd hang out and I'd go, this is the most depressing environment of, like, it feels.

• 2:00:48Speaker 02

  It was wrong.

• 2:00:49Trevor Noah?

  It feels, yeah, it feels suicidal. It, it feels, uh, it feels negative. It feels like it's not, no, but it, but genuine, and I, I, I don't, I don't say, I don't say it in a judgmental way. I say it in like a scary way.

• 2:01:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:01:01Trevor Noah?

  And I remember comedians would ask me, like, some clubs in America that go, why don't you come? I was like, hey, man, I'll be honest with you. I don't ever want to be in that space again because it didn't feel like anyone there was like, was, it felt like they worked in happiness, but they weren't trying to be living happiness.

• 2:01:18Speaker 01

  That, that, that happens in every environment. You have an office.

• 2:01:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:01:23Speaker 01

  That everybody either dislikes each other or undercuts each other or is negative.

• 2:01:28Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 2:01:28Speaker 01

  Negative, negative.

• 2:01:30Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but what I'm saying is that what I appreciated and still appreciate about the Comedy Cellar is the thing in between, like, the meals that people share, the way we roast each other, you know, whether it's Keith sitting in a corner. And then you're roasting Keith about having a stroke and then he's roasting you. And then he's roasting, you're roasting, and then he's roasting you.

• 2:01:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, he's the first one to do it.

• 2:01:53Trevor Noah?

  The first one to roast you. And then you've got, you know, like someone else walks in and then the roast.

• 2:01:56Speaker 01

  I, I don't know for a fact, but if I tell him, you know what, I did Travonow podcast, you know what he's gonna do?

• 2:02:06Trevor Noah?

  That's key.

• 2:02:07Speaker 01

  Yes, he'll just go. Time's down.

• 2:02:10Speaker 02

  You know, it's funny, five years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to Bill Grundfest.

• 2:02:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:02:14Speaker 02

  And we had a call every week for six months or so. And every time on the call, he would speak about how amazing you were.

• 2:02:21Speaker 01

  Who did?

• 2:02:22Speaker 02

  Bill Grundfest.

• 2:02:22Speaker 01

  Bill? Bill said it?

• 2:02:24Speaker 02

  Yeah. And then the other friend that that that had a lot to say about you, who was not in comedy, but just loves comedy, very young kid at the time, was Josh Pincus. He spoke so highly about you. And then now him, hearing the story for the first time about how you guys met. I have to say, there must be something about you that a lot of people appreciate and love. And most things just have linchpins in life, and it happens that you are one of those. And you are hearing it while you're still alive.

• 2:02:50Speaker 01

  Thank you. I I'm not trying to be it.

• 2:02:53Speaker 02

  No, no, no.

• 2:02:53Speaker 01

  I'm not trying to be that person.

• 2:02:54Trevor Noah?

  Maybe that's why you're good at being it.

• 2:02:56Speaker 01

  You know, I just honestly, honestly, with all my heart, I love comedians. I love what they do. I appreciate them. I know how difficult it is.

• 2:03:08Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:09Speaker 01

  It's not a given.

• 2:03:13Speaker 01

  And I think it comes true. I'm being sincere about it.

• 2:03:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:03:17Speaker 01

  And the people that don't like me is the people I don't book and don't laugh and don't don't feel that they deserve to, yeah. But yeah, there's a lot of comedians out there. There's a lot of love going on.

• 2:03:31Speaker 02

  You are loved.

• 2:03:32Trevor Noah?

  I I hope you know you're loved.

• 2:03:34Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 2:03:34Trevor Noah?

  Genuinely, Estee, thank you very much. This has been amazing. Thank you for for indulging. I know it must be weird for you to have a conversation during the day where there's no comedy club around.

• 2:03:42Speaker 01

  Oh, no, that that.

• 2:03:43Trevor Noah?

  I know this was different for you.

• 2:03:44Speaker 01

  That feels very natural. It feels very natural.

• 2:03:48Trevor Noah?

  Thank you, Estee. This is great.

• 2:03:49Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 2:03:50Trevor Noah?

  This is really wonderful.

• 2:03:51Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:03:51Trevor Noah?

  I loved it. Wow.

• 2:03:54Speaker 02

  You're amazing.

• 2:03:55Speaker 01

  Good.

• 2:03:58Trevor Noah?

  What Now with Trevor Noah is produced by Day Zero Productions in partnership with Sirius XM. The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Sanaz Yamin, and Jess Hackel. Rebecca Chain is our producer. Our development researcher is Marcia Robiu. Music, mixing and mastering by Hannes Brown. Random other stuff by Ryan Harduth. Thank you so much for listening. Join me next week for another episode of What Now.

• 2:04:27Trevor Noah?

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• 2:04:39Trevor Noah?

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• 2:05:01Speaker 05

  Oh, look. You just got added to a meeting about coordinating another meeting to prepare for the pre-meeting ahead of the follow-up meeting, which will, of course, require a recap meeting. And then another meeting. Hit your booking point? Book with Southwest and enter airplane mode.