MATT BUECHELE CAN RUN A MAILROOM (Ft. Matt Buechele) | Episode 232

Matt Buechele is on the show this week!! Matt and Drew unpack the premise of Love Island, discuss the downfall of Twitter, fighting children online, the manosphere, how Matt ended up running a mailroom, his guest appearance on Law & Order, and so much more. Follow Matt on IG: https://www.instagram.com/mattbooshell/ Follow Matt on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattbooshell?lang=en Follow The Comment Section on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/thecommentsection/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hi, it's Danny Pellegrino from Everything Iconic. 12 celebrities, one Don, and cold, hard cash. From the producers of The Traitors comes The Mob, a new Hulu original series. The iconic Parker Posey hosts this unique reality competition show where 12 celebrity contestants shake down in an Italian villa to win a share of up to $250,000. Watch the new Hulu original series, The Mob, premiering October 26th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  Do you get like crazy threats all the, like, at this point still?

• 0:37Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yes.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  Like people, yeah.

• 0:38Drew Afualo?

  Oh, all the time.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:39Drew Afualo?

  All the time. They've died down quite a few now.

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:42Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah. I have like active, open cases with the FBI.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  Really?

• 0:46Drew Afualo?

  Yes, of course I do.

• 0:48Speaker 01

  Cash Patel's FBI is on the case?

• 0:51Drew Afualo?

  Well, see, maybe that's why it's moving slow.

• 0:53Speaker 01

  Nothing's gonna happen.

• 0:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, well, that's why I'm hitting a bit of a stall.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 0:56Drew Afualo?

  Because he's in charge.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  The case has gone cold.

• 1:05Drew Afualo?

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

• 1:18Speaker 01

  Hello. Thank you. It's a thrill to be here.

• 1:20Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my gosh, it's a thrill to have you.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, right. We were talking about the Inland Empire.

• 1:24Drew Afualo?

  We were. We were talking about the Inland Empire, where I'm from.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26Drew Afualo?

  We were also talking about the many different studios I've been in in LA.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  Yes, this is the best. It's very nice.

• 1:30Drew Afualo?

  This is very nice. This is, I would say, our nicest one, one of them. It's top five.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:35Drew Afualo?

  And I've been to five.

• 1:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. What was the worst one?

• 1:39Drew Afualo?

  The worst one was probably the last one. Well, no, actually, the worst one was actually, it wasn't even a studio. It was like a storage unit.

• 1:46Speaker 01

  That's not a show.

• 1:46Drew Afualo?

  And it had no air conditioning.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Oh, great.

• 1:48Drew Afualo?

  And we film in the summer, so.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  How long have you been doing this show?

• 1:52Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I've been doing this for now.

• 1:54Speaker 01

  Five months.

• 1:55Drew Afualo?

  About five days.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  You've been jumping around.

• 1:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, I'm real cold plunging it with you. No, it's been about three years.

• 2:01Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. Congrats. That's amazing.

• 2:03Drew Afualo?

  Four years, four years, technically.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Four years?

• 2:05Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, four years, long time.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Does it feel like a long time? Or are you still having a good time?

• 2:09Drew Afualo?

  It only feels long when I look backwards.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 2:12Drew Afualo?

  You know, like, especially at season one, like, all of season one, I like, almost don't count because it was a real, like, we were just figuring it out.

• 2:19Speaker 01

  Bumpy waters.

• 2:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it was pretty bumpy waters at the time. But like, it was more so because I think I thrive in a medium with not too much structure. So like, I can kind of just talk. There was way too much structure in the beginning.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:30Drew Afualo?

  It was like, let's play a game. And also, who am I, James Corden? I don't need to do this.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Get in the car, sing a song with me.

• 2:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, I'm gonna go outside to the crosswalk and we're gonna do a musical.

• 2:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, what do you think that is about no structure is better? Because I feel the same way, and I don't know what that means about it.

• 2:43Drew Afualo?

  I don't know. I feel like part of it, I think it just depends on what the goal is. Like, for, for me, the goal of this show has always been to just talk and chat and get to know people.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  That's what, yeah.

• 2:53Drew Afualo?

  Right? And I like, especially like when talent, like yourself, like, when you talk to me and you kind of like feel relaxed and you feel like we could talk about anything. It could be things maybe you never talk about, passions you never really talk about or get asked about. So that's kind of the beauty in it. And I feel like it's hard to get there when there's a lot of like bits and shticks.

• 3:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. We're trying to, yeah. We're figuring out our groove with life.

• 3:16Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, because you have a podcast as well.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  A new podcast, yeah. Yeah, no, but we're trying to figure out like, what? Do we want to play games? Do we want to have structure? And I can just like bullshitting for an hour, but I also go like, wow.

• 3:24Drew Afualo?

  Well, that's why we do, I think, like, over the years, we've like evolved too, because obviously it's called the Comment Section in the beginning, because that's what I was known for, was getting tagged in comments.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've seen those.

• 3:34Drew Afualo?

  So that was like, the initial inception of the show was like, oh, let's talk about comments. But like, obviously, as time has gone on and it's evolved, comment sections have become unbearable in a lot of ways. And then also, it scares off talent, because they're like, I don't want to talk about comments. I don't want to look at them.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Really?

• 3:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so it's been, it was working against me in that regard as well.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  It was hurting your career.

• 3:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, me trying to get this shit off the ground, yeah. It was, that was also working against me, but I was pulling in favors, I think, in the beginning especially. I was like, pulling in a lot of, like, people that just loved me from online, and they were just kind of fucking with me. So they were willing to come and sit and bullshit with me through the, the kinks.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  And now you've gotten past the bullshit.

• 4:13Drew Afualo?

  Yes. And now they know it's just a time to key, like, talk, promote whatever it is you would like to promote. And then also, we can, at the end, we do a little bit of fun facts.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Oh, sure.

• 4:24Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I have my own in-house Nardwar. So we do a little bit of fun facts. We will get there with you.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  I did, I have listened. Yeah, yeah, I've seen.

• 4:31Drew Afualo?

  So the fun facts thing, I think, is really fun. It's kind of like, we were talking about Caleb, how much we love Caleb.

• 4:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:36Drew Afualo?

  Like, at the end of his, obviously, he talks about, he does like the, the little trivia game at the end.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  True, false.

• 4:43Drew Afualo?

  So, yeah, him kind of taking my bit, but whatever, I guess, just kidding.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  Before we started, you were, we were asking about stand-up.

• 4:50Drew Afualo?

  Yes, I would love to talk about stand-up. Well, first, before we talk about my experience, I'd love to know how you came to do stand-up, how, if you liked stand-up initially, or if you grew to love it over time.

• 5:00Speaker 01

  It's so love-hate. Like, I don't really do it anymore. I used to do it, when I went to college, I started it.

• 5:05Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  And then, I talk about it like it's a drug or something. I've since been off.

• 5:10Drew Afualo?

  You and me both.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm okay now.

• 5:12Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  No, I was doing it in New York. I moved to New York like the, like 14 years ago. I've been there for a while. And I was doing improv, I was doing stand-up. I was doing anything where I was like, I should be, if I do this, I'll get SNL. If I do this, I'll be in the right room.

• 5:26Drew Afualo?

  Improv is like, which is a comedian's rite of passage.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, have you done that?

• 5:30Drew Afualo?

  I have done improv, but only in college. I haven't done it like outside of college.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, yeah, you're, you're killing it. Unless you really want to explore long form, what it's like to create from nothing.

• 5:43Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's kind of going backwards at this point.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's like, everyone gets something out of it.

• 5:49Drew Afualo?

  That's true.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  I got a lot.

• 5:50Drew Afualo?

  You really have to like let go of perception or being embarrassed if you do improv.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  Have you ever been in a room and been like, these other people are fucking with this way more than me? That's like what it was for me. Like, and it took me like two years to realize that I was not one of the guys.

• 6:03Drew Afualo?

  Right, right, right. You're like, it's not hitting me the way it's hitting you.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was trying all that. I ended up doing more stand-up because I liked that there was something tangible to it. Like, improv, it disappears. You're done, and you're like, that was awesome. And then you can't remember what happened.

• 6:15Drew Afualo?

  For real.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  So, yeah, I don't know. I go back and forth. I might start doing it more again, but right now, I'm just trying to do a pod and writing a lot, but yeah.

• 6:22Drew Afualo?

  Which is great.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:23Drew Afualo?

  What's your dream with writing? What, what would be a dream for you?

• 6:27Speaker 01

  God.

• 6:27Drew Afualo?

  Are you looking at like a, a show? Or are you looking at movies?

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would love to like, I would love to create a TV show, have it run for many seasons.

• 6:35Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  Make money, be critically, you know, like loved. Yeah, it would be the best. Easier said than done.

• 6:42Drew Afualo?

  Right. Turns out that's kind of difficult.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  It's not easy.

• 6:45Drew Afualo?

  Turns out a lot of people want to do that.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot. Well, when I'm here, I also like, I feel it here too. I just like look around, I'm like, every motherfucker here is trying to do this.

• 6:52Drew Afualo?

  Everyone's, everyone's in the cafe writing.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, you kind of get that energy.

• 6:55Drew Afualo?

  Everybody's like, I gotta get out of the office to get inspiration.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  It's a cliche, but it feels like it's true.

• 7:00Drew Afualo?

  It's true, it's very true.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  But yeah, no, that would be like the dream. I would like to write, like, theater, I would like to get a play going at some point.

• 7:07Drew Afualo?

  Theater would be so cool. Do you like drama?

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Anything, really? Yeah, like, I mean, I guess I'd do comedy, but like, I would do anything. I would write like a musical, I would do like.

• 7:15Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my gosh, do you love to sing?

• 7:17Speaker 01

  I do, yeah.

• 7:18Drew Afualo?

  Do you like, do you like Broadway?

• 7:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 7:19Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my God, me too!

• 7:21Speaker 01

  How often do you go to New York?

• 7:22Drew Afualo?

  I go to New York, fucking A at this point. It feels like I go like twice a month, but like, I was just in New York like a week and a half ago. No, I was only there for 12 hours. I literally flew to New York, woke up there, did something, did work, went straight to the airport, flew back to LA.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 7:40Drew Afualo?

  Woke up in LA, went to the airport again, flew to Hawaii, flew back the next day. So I just did.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  That's too much.

• 7:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  That's too much.

• 7:47Drew Afualo?

  That's why I was like, I jumped three time zones in three days.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:50Drew Afualo?

  But I love New York, though, when I was there a week ago. That is the kind of weather that like convinces you to move to New York. I was saying like, in the spring, summer, obviously it's summer now, but like, New York has about a 12-day window where the weather is so awesome that you're like, I could live here.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  Incredible.

• 8:08Drew Afualo?

  I could live here. Then you move there, and then two weeks later, it's Satan's ass. It's so hot.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  It's Satan's ass, it's a lot, it's all Satan now. It's all Satan's down.

• 8:17Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, and you're smelling human shit roasting, and there's not a beach in sight. There's no wind.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  It's charming, you enjoy it.

• 8:24Drew Afualo?

  I'm like, this is that kind of weather that, that tricks you into moving to New York.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  No, yeah, you're right, it's a 12-day window.

• 8:29Drew Afualo?

  It was so beautiful there when I went last week.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  So glad you got to have that.

• 8:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was walking, I was like, oh, this is that window. Ooh, I love when it's like this.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  By the time I go back, it's gonna be hell. I'm gonna be in Satan, I'm gonna be downstairs with Satan.

• 8:39Drew Afualo?

  You're outside the window when you go back.

• 8:40Speaker 01

  No, it's, it's good right now.

• 8:43Drew Afualo?

  What's, what are some Broadway shows you've seen? Have you seen recently that you've been loving?

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Hmm, what have I seen that I love lately? It was a weird year for musicals. I feel like there was nothing like amazing.

• 8:51Drew Afualo?

  Or new.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:53Drew Afualo?

  Like, super, super new.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  This is older, but I saw Buena Vista Social Club recently. I loved it. Do you know anything about this?

• 8:58Drew Afualo?

  I've only seen like the poster and clips. I've never watched it.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  It's just like, the plot barely matters. It's just a Cuban music concert for like two hours. It's amazing.

• 9:07Drew Afualo?

  Period.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  And it's like New York, and so there's a lot of people with family from there or from there themselves. And so they're, they're playing all these songs from the 60s.

• 9:15Drew Afualo?

  Ooh, I love.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  And everyone knows the lyrics, and I'm just sitting there like bumping around like, ooh, how fun.

• 9:19Drew Afualo?

  Just happy to be a part of it.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Happy to be in the room. The energy is phenomenal. Like, oh, it's great, yeah, you should see that.

• 9:24Drew Afualo?

  I think the last musical I saw in New York was Wicked, honestly, but that's only because I'd never seen it in New York.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  I've never seen it either.

• 9:32Drew Afualo?

  Oh, you have to see it.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Do you like the movies?

• 9:34Drew Afualo?

  I loved, I, okay.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  I don't know who your friends are. I don't know like what's going on.

• 9:39Drew Afualo?

  I am friends with Cynthia Revo.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 9:41Drew Afualo?

  But I did love both movies, and that, and that could be my bias showing, because I love the musical itself.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  The music's great.

• 9:47Drew Afualo?

  But I had never seen it on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater, so like, I really wanted.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  Did that deliver?

• 9:51Drew Afualo?

  Yes, it did.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  Okay, cool.

• 9:52Drew Afualo?

  Like, when I went, I was like, okay, I'm buying into this fucking thing.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 9:56Drew Afualo?

  I'm being indoctrinated into the church of Wicked, you know, when I'm actively there.

• 10:00Speaker 01

  No, but it's a good church to be, to be in.

• 10:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'm telling you, I think so.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  It's been running forever.

• 10:05Drew Afualo?

  I mean, for a reason, I would say. But yeah, I think that was the last Broadway show I saw, because I've seen Six as well, which I loved.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  I need to see that.

• 10:13Drew Afualo?

  And I missed Dylan's run. I was so disappointed, I was so bummed.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Dylan was in Six, you're right.

• 10:17Drew Afualo?

  She was recently, and her, her run like just finished, but I, I wasn't in New York when she was in it, which sucks. But I want to see Rocky Horror 2.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  I know, I don't know how I feel about that one.

• 10:26Drew Afualo?

  Or Titanic, what is it?

• 10:28Speaker 01

  Titanic?

• 10:29Drew Afualo?

  Titanic, yeah, I don't know how to pronounce it. I'd love to see that one.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  I need to see that.

• 10:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  That was like legendary when it came out off Broadway. I don't know why I didn't see it then, because I was like, it was this kooky thing in a basement. And now it's like, on Broadway, you know, like, they're performing on the Tonys. It's so cool.

• 10:43Drew Afualo?

  For real.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  I think that's what I love about theater in New York, is like, something can start as like a silly idea and be in a basement, and then.

• 10:49Drew Afualo?

  And become very real.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:51Drew Afualo?

  Very quickly.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  These things are like weird lives. Like, that show's been around for a second, and now it's at the Tonys.

• 10:56Drew Afualo?

  That's such a good point. I'd never thought of it that way.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  I'm sure they'll bring it out here at some point.

• 11:00Drew Afualo?

  I hope so.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  I don't know how touring companies.

• 11:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, well, let's get them on the pod, let's ask.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  Get the whole cast.

• 11:05Drew Afualo?

  The whole cast, with the back office crew. Yeah, let's talk to them. Well, let's pivot back to, I want to talk about stand-up, because we were chatting about stand-up. So what did you love about stand-up, and what did you not really love about it?

• 11:17Speaker 01

  Um, you know.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  I love that it was like, if it went well, you were like, oh, I'm so smart.

• 11:23Drew Afualo?

  I'm killing.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  I came up with this thing and it's, it's all me, but I

• 11:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  On the same side of that coin, I hated that if it was terrible, you were like, I'm the dumbest person. Like, I thought, it's only you.

• 11:34Drew Afualo?

  I'm the most unfunny, ugliest person alive.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, it all falls on you. You're like, I thought this was so fucking funny.

• 11:40Drew Afualo?

  You're a team of one, essentially, yeah.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like, that was the best part of improv. When it went bad, everyone was like, they just didn't get it.

• 11:45Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  Me, you're like the worst shit you've ever done on stage.

• 11:48Drew Afualo?

  You're like, they're, well, clearly they're not open.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  You're right, you were so good.

• 11:52Drew Afualo?

  Some people don't understand art, so, yeah.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Your object work was killing it. It wasn't you. But stand up, you are like, you are a team of one.

• 11:58Drew Afualo?

  It's you.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  So when it's not going well, it's hard not to be like, maybe I was off with that thing. Maybe that's not a relatable observation, but

• 12:05Drew Afualo?

  No, totally. It is, yeah.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  I don't think I'm built for that. I don't love working, so I'm like, I'm trying to like

• 12:11Drew Afualo?

  Sucks.

• 12:12Speaker 01

  I mean, it's not fun. It's not fun to work.

• 12:14Drew Afualo?

  I don't recommend that.

• 12:15Speaker 01

  I have to work up the courage to do, uh, yeah, like a shit ton of work, so I'm like, I don't want to be doing five spots a night, which is kind of what you gotta be doing to be like.

• 12:23Drew Afualo?

  Especially like what time they start. Like, you're, you only get like nine thirty PM and on.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, no.

• 12:28Drew Afualo?

  Which I'm like, oh, Jesus Christ. I'm like, I don't have time for that.

• 12:32Speaker 01

  It's so much easier to film something on your phone.

• 12:34Drew Afualo?

  Right, I agree.

• 12:35Speaker 01

  And get the same validation that my ego needs, and I'll be like, well, I did it.

• 12:38Drew Afualo?

  Well, if I gotta scratch that itch, I can do it way faster.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  I need to take two trains and then be, and then, and then be sitting in a crowd where there's like nine people. I'm like, why?

• 12:45Drew Afualo?

  And they're all, this guy sucks.

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  You're sad that train ride home.

• 12:51Drew Afualo?

  For real, like, real quiet train ride home.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  I could have bombed on TikTok and learned way quicker if this wasn't worth it.

• 12:56Drew Afualo?

  That's a good point.

• 12:57Speaker 01

  Rewrite.

• 12:58Drew Afualo?

  That, that's a really good point. Yeah, I, I think with me, like what we were talking about with structure.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:03Drew Afualo?

  That's, uh, this is kind of how I talked about it with Caleb, because he's like encouraged me to do it for years and I

• 13:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:08Drew Afualo?

  have tried it a couple of times and I, and I enjoyed it. I, I did well. I think by all respects, I did well. Like, nobody booed or anything, so I would assume. I'm, I'm taking, I'm taking my wins.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  The barometer is no one booed.

• 13:19Drew Afualo?

  Well, no one booed and that could have, that could have been because I was holding a gun, but that's besides the point.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  Sure, and you gotta, you gotta remove that from here.

• 13:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  If you want any advice.

• 13:26Drew Afualo?

  Context aside, I think I enjoyed it.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  You gotta leave the gun in the car.

• 13:31Drew Afualo?

  I even told Caleb, because I opened for him, that was like the very first time I ever did it.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  For Caleb? That's so fun.

• 13:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, which is fucking crazy. I was like, you're an idiot for picking me. That's why I was telling Caleb. But it's also because I, I had called him, this is a couple of years ago, I had called him to ask him for advice because a different comic had asked me to open for them.

• 13:48Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:48Drew Afualo?

  And I was like, I've never done this before. I don't really know.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  That's kind of wild, yeah.

• 13:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like, and it was, and it's because

• 13:55Speaker 01

  It's just like, wow.

• 13:55Drew Afualo?

  No, no, it doesn't offend me. Because I too was like, why are you asking me to do that?

• 13:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'd be like, no.

• 14:00Drew Afualo?

  But it's also, it's because they spent a lot of time with me and they were like, watching me perform. And they're like, you could just take this and do it on stage, which I

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Do ten minutes of that energy?

• 14:08Drew Afualo?

  Right, which I was like, if I was a man with hubris.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:11Drew Afualo?

  I would. I'd, I'd have a special by now and it would be dog shit, but I would have it. You know what I'm saying? But I was like

• 14:16Speaker 01

  Hundred percent agree. You know how many bad fucking stand up specials exist?

• 14:19Drew Afualo?

  That's what I'm saying. But I have respect for the craft, so I really, if I was gonna do it, I wanted to do it right. So that's why I called Caleb and I was trying to pick his brain about it. And I was like chatting with him. I was like, well, you know, I just like, I don't really do this. I haven't really written jokes like that. I have like jokes in my head, but they're not like long enough, I don't think. Like, I haven't learned how to do that. And he just listened to me and then he was like, well, if we're gonna do five for her, you should do it for fucking me. I asked you first.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  That's so funny.

• 14:46Drew Afualo?

  And then we started laughing. I'm like, bitch, I'm not even, yeah, I was like, girl, I'm not, I'm asking you for advice. And he was like, yeah, I'll help you if you come do mine.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:53Drew Afualo?

  And he was like, please do mine first, because like his was way sooner than the other one I got asked to do. Um, his was at the Largo.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  Cool, cool. So you did it.

• 15:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 15:01Speaker 01

  You did fine.

• 15:01Drew Afualo?

  That was my opening five, yeah.

• 15:03Speaker 01

  The first time you ever did stand up was opening for me at the Largo.

• 15:05Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  That's pretty cool.

• 15:06Drew Afualo?

  I think so.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 15:07Drew Afualo?

  I told my other buddy who does stand up, he was like, holy fuck, dude. I was like, yeah, I know, huge pressure. But it was him and Chris Fleming, which I did not know Chris was gonna be there.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  These are kind of like powerhouses of the month.

• 15:18Drew Afualo?

  And then my dumbass is first.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  Rushmore of the new, uh

• 15:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and here I am on stage going, you guys download TikTok?

• 15:26Speaker 01

  I don't know how to make these long, but here I go.

• 15:28Drew Afualo?

  So I'm just gonna say a bunch of punchlines and you guys tell me if it hits.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm sure people loved you.

• 15:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it was, it was good.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  I can't think of a room that would have been kinder.

• 15:36Drew Afualo?

  That's what I told him. I was like, well, and he's like, you're gonna be safe with my audience. Like, you know that. And I was like, I guess. And then I told him, I was like, okay. And he asked me to, do you want me to promote it that way? Or do you want to just kind of pop in? And I was like, I'll just pop in, because I told him, if I pop in.

• 15:50Speaker 01

  Oh, that's, that's so smart.

• 15:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, I would rather pop in because I want to find out if I'm for real. Like, I want to find out if I'm funny, if, if there are people in there. I love my fans and I know that they love me and I know they find me funny, but I, I won't hear for real.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:05Drew Afualo?

  Like, if, I think they'll just laugh at anything I say, but I want to hear from people who did not come for me, if they find me funny.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:12Drew Afualo?

  And so, and then that's

• 16:13Speaker 01

  But it still didn't give you the, the bug of like, I need to do this every week?

• 16:16Drew Afualo?

  Not really, because when I did it, I think, well, there was, there was definitely places I could have picked up and improved, which I, which I knew. I was actively, I know, I was like, I was like actively editing as I was like telling the jokes.

• 16:28Speaker 01

  Well, that's what's tough.

• 16:29Drew Afualo?

  Well, and also like memorizing it was like a whole nother thing, even though I was only doing five. Me either. So that's why, I think that's why, and then I did stand up again for a different thing, and that was kind of where I was like, I just don't know if this is my favorite thing to do right now. I have so many irons in the fire of things I'm doing.

• 16:46Speaker 01

  That is also what I tell myself when I'm avoiding something I should be doing.

• 16:49Drew Afualo?

  Literally.

• 16:49Speaker 01

  I just don't think it's right in this moment.

• 16:51Drew Afualo?

  The universe doesn't need that from me right now.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  Emails about it.

• 16:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, for real. I don't know, there's like a gut thing. And I, I think I figured out as I talked through it with Caleb and other people that do stand up too, that I love dearly.

• 17:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:01Drew Afualo?

  Um, I think it was the structure of it, because I was like, I'm an improv girl. More than anything, I like to riff, more than anything. And I don't want to spend the whole set doing crowd work. That's not stand up.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  I don't want to do that either.

• 17:12Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so I was like, well, then at that point, I'm just doing a live podcast. At that point, I'm just interviewing.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  I'm sure you've taken this on the road, right?

• 17:18Drew Afualo?

  Not this one, no. I, I do have another podcast with my sister that I do, do live. I perform live all the time.

• 17:23Speaker 01

  Okay, cool.

• 17:24Drew Afualo?

  This one's a little more difficult to tour because it's guest heavy. So like, it requires talent.

• 17:29Speaker 01

  Someone in the city.

• 17:29Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and it requires logistics and all that, and it's just, and I hate touring. Do you like touring?

• 17:34Speaker 01

  I don't really tour, no. I think I'd like to try it.

• 17:36Drew Afualo?

  I don't recommend it, personally.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  What's so bad about it?

• 17:39Drew Afualo?

  Well, it feels like you're, it feels like you're on the run.

• 17:41Speaker 01

  From?

• 17:42Drew Afualo?

  From who? I don't know. It feels like I'm being chased. Like, when I, because you wake, you go to sleep, you wake up in another city.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  And you gotta, you gotta catch a flight.

• 17:50Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, or, or it depends. If you tour by bus or by plane, plane was awful to me, because I'm like, flying sucks. I'd rather do a bus. So we did bus, like a bus tour, which was great. The bus was honestly the best part. I thought it was maybe the most difficult part.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  Children. The bus was fun.

• 18:05Drew Afualo?

  The bus was awesome.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not performing to hundreds of people.

• 18:08Drew Afualo?

  No, no, no, it was literally

• 18:09Speaker 01

  The bus had this really cool piece of furniture that I

• 18:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I think it's because the bus felt like home. And I'm, I'm like as extroverted as I am, as much as I want to perform.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  To this room and this town.

• 18:18Drew Afualo?

  I like to be at home, like more than anything. And so, living on the road like that, it felt like every morning I woke up and I only had enough time to shower, wipe everything down and get back in the bus.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  Gotta wipe everything down for the bus.

• 18:29Drew Afualo?

  I'm being chased. That's why I said I felt like Jason Bourne. Like, I had to keep changing my last name. I have to keep changing my area code, like

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Kill a few thugs and then

• 18:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, for real, like, yeah, for real. I'm like, go see, go see.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  You're Russian mercenaries, yeah. What a tour.

• 18:42Drew Afualo?

  I know, it was crazy. I was busy.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  I think about that a lot with like the Sabrina Carpenter's of the world and like

• 18:46Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my God, I know.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Chapel Rones and stuff, where I'm like, I would lose my mind. Like, I think, like, I like performing. I like the rush of that. I like seeing other places. But yeah, it's that, but on like crack.

• 18:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it is. It's like theirs.

• 18:58Speaker 01

  There's like people pulling you out of the room to the next thing.

• 19:01Drew Afualo?

  And they're like, we gotta go, we gotta go. And then when they do those tours too, like they do a bunch of press in between, like appearances.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  Anything up here during that, period.

• 19:10Drew Afualo?

  I think that's why a lot of times celebrities end up seeming, they seem like they're lobotomized at a certain point, and it's because you literally can only do so much. Like, you can only be so energetic and have a personality, like, for so long.

• 19:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, it's impossible. You're authentic for like two years.

• 19:26Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, for about.

• 19:27Speaker 01

  And then it's like

• 19:27Drew Afualo?

  After that, you have like your repertoire of shit that you know works, and you just kind of go back to that well.

• 19:32Speaker 01

  When I see an artist announce like a tour.

• 19:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 19:34Speaker 01

  This is like, this is a sign I'm getting older. It's like, I literally look at the dates and I go, that's not a lot of time to get from Cincinnati.

• 19:40Drew Afualo?

  You're mapping it out.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  I literally look at it, I just think like, god damn.

• 19:43Drew Afualo?

  Good luck to you. Hope you don't miss a flight.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  It's three shows in three different, I don't know. She's gonna be okay, I guess. I'm like, fucking dad. I'm like, what am I doing?

• 19:49Drew Afualo?

  I know, and they do like global tours, same thing.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Like, they're going from Frankfurt to Milan, and I was like, that just can't work.

• 19:55Drew Afualo?

  How does that work?

• 19:57Speaker 01

  Not worried about the setlist.

• 19:58Drew Afualo?

  For real, you're like worried about their timeframes. Gotta compress your timeframes. Okay, can we stop settling for hair products that just don't work? I say it's time to shake up your routine and see how much better your hair can feel with Sephora's selection. I've been loving that Sephora has so many prestige hair brands all in one place. So it's actually easy to find products that work for your hair. If your hair needs repair, the K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask is one of those products people genuinely swear by. If you're trying to level up your wash day, the Kerastase Elixir Old Time Hair Oil leaves your hair looking ridiculously shiny without feeling heavy.

• 20:39Drew Afualo?

  And if you're into that glossy, healthy hair vibe, the Gisu Honey Infused Hair Oil is such a staple. I love knowing that Sephora curates the best of prestige hair care. So you're not just guessing, you can shop products that are actually worth the investment because healthier looking hair starts with better products. Plus, Sephora makes it super convenient with free shipping and same day delivery. Shop hair at Sephora and give your hair the upgrade it's been waiting for. Hey y'all, it's me and I want to talk to y'all about something a little bit serious, but something that's very real that I personally experience. Sometimes when I'm having a lot of really intrusive thoughts or things that are interrupting my workflow, for example, I can sometimes associate it with anxiety, which I also have.

• 21:22Drew Afualo?

  But for a lot of people, that feeling is not just anxiety, that's OCD, like me, and most of them have no idea. Not the organizing stereotype, real OCD is persistent unwanted intrusive thoughts that feel totally out of character, along with mental or physical behaviors you feel driven to do to get relief, even when it never actually comes. These thoughts can feel very real, which is what makes them so upsetting. OCD is highly treatable with the right kind of specialized therapy. It needs ERP exposure and response prevention therapy, proven to be the most effective treatment. NoCD is the world's leading provider of OCD treatment, covered by insurance for over 138 million Americans.

• 22:07Drew Afualo?

  Licensed therapists specialize in ERP therapy and live face-to-face virtual sessions with support between sessions. So you're never facing OCD alone. If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NoCD can help. Book a free 15-minute call to get started at nocd.com. Well, what are some pieces of media, like you talked about wanting to write? What are some like shows or movies that you've been loving lately?

• 22:32Speaker 01

  Oh gosh.

• 22:33Drew Afualo?

  Whether it's from a writer's perspective or just generally consumption.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  The worst person, like I don't watch as many things as I should. The last thing I love, I'm just bad about it. I'll watch, I started watching Mad Men this year.

• 22:45Drew Afualo?

  Oh, interesting. I've never watched it before.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  Never watched it before.

• 22:47Drew Afualo?

  I've only watched a few episodes. One of my parents were super into it.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  People, yeah, I watched the first season, didn't finish the first season, but everyone, anytime I talked to them, I was like, oh, I'm loving it. I'm loving it. It's the best thing. And I just stopped. I don't know what that is. And it's been like, it's been a while and I'm like, I need to get back into it. And I'm like, no, I probably never will. But Mad Men was great. Everyone's acting their asses off. Incredible writing.

• 23:09Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  It's great storytelling.

• 23:10Drew Afualo?

  That was me with Stranger Things, like I watched season three. I'm asking my sister.

• 23:16Speaker 01

  Just season three or up to season?

• 23:17Drew Afualo?

  I only watched season three, front to back. I watched season three, front to back, no context, no understanding, no nothing. Yeah, and I finished, I was like, whoa, she has powers. Wow. It was the one where they're in the mall. That was the only one I watched. And then at the end, I was like, wow, that was incredible. And then my sister was like, oh, are you gonna go back and watch one and two? I was like, no, I'm never gonna watch this again.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:39Drew Afualo?

  I loved it though. And then, and then season five just came out, just finished last year.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  That's the end, right?

• 23:45Drew Afualo?

  And then I watched the season finale of season five.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  Now why?

• 23:49Drew Afualo?

  Well, because everyone.

• 23:52Speaker 01

  I can't do it.

• 23:53Drew Afualo?

  Want to be involved? Don't want to be part of community?

• 23:54Speaker 01

  You know what it is? It's also like these fucking like nine-year periods.

• 23:58Drew Afualo?

  That's true.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Like I remember watching the first one. I was like 11. I was literally like a child.

• 24:03Drew Afualo?

  I was a freshman in high school.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  I remember being like, this is awesome.

• 24:05Drew Afualo?

  And now I'm 30.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  And they're like, the finale is three hours in theaters. And I'm like, what?

• 24:09Drew Afualo?

  What? We're not done with that yet?

• 24:10Speaker 01

  No, it needs to be done sooner.

• 24:12Drew Afualo?

  No, I agree. I literally, I watched season five finale because I was in Ireland like for vacation. And like with, we were with my sister, my other friends, and they, they had all been watching the show and they were like, do you care? Yeah, they were like, do you care if we watch it? I was like, I don't care at all. Cause I, yeah, I sat in and I, and I cried.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  You cried?

• 24:32Speaker 01

  You, you know, two people's names.

• 24:34Drew Afualo?

  And I got emotional. I was like, wow, that was like, oh my God, 10 years. Like that's beautiful. Me not being a part of any of it, me getting swept up in the emotion.

• 24:44Speaker 01

  Be in the fun of it, which I do get that. I watched the end of Game of Thrones, never watched an episode in my life.

• 24:48Drew Afualo?

  Really? That one I did watch.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I, and everyone hated it.

• 24:52Drew Afualo?

  That's true. It was terrible.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Sucks. And I was sort of like, I'm having fun.

• 24:55Drew Afualo?

  Well, I had, I had a good time.

• 24:56Speaker 01

  I had a good time. I was like, I should watch this show.

• 24:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I literally, I joked about it with my, my producer Amanda, who's here too. I like about Stranger Things finale, me having no knowledge at all. I was like, I'm gonna enjoy things I don't understand. I'm gonna enjoy them. Like I'm gonna enjoy them.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  Borderline religious way of living.

• 25:12Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'm gonna enjoy them. I don't understand it. I don't know. I don't have the context. I don't need it.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  Well, you know what it is that I've realized in my life is, and this is so pathetic, but it's like TikTok brain.

• 25:21Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  We're like, couldn't tell you what season, what episode, but when that girl was like listening to Running Up That Hill.

• 25:27Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  And being like, like levitated or something.

• 25:30Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 25:30Speaker 01

  I watched that and I was like, this is powerful. I was like, this is incredible. And that was all I needed. And then I was like, and now I can talk about it.

• 25:38Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  At the bar tonight.

• 25:39Drew Afualo?

  And that's exactly what I've done.

• 25:41Speaker 01

  The song, I could talk about it.

• 25:42Drew Afualo?

  Oh, there's so many things I've done that with. Like I even did that with Love Island. Have you ever watched that show?

• 25:47Speaker 01

  I'm getting clips like you wouldn't believe.

• 25:49Drew Afualo?

  Me too. You would think I'm a huge fan, but I'm not. I've never watched it.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  I'm not engaging either. I like, I try to watch like a few, and I'm like, no, and they just keep feeding me.

• 25:57Drew Afualo?

  They keep feeding it to you because they need you to watch it.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  What's the premise of Love Island?

• 26:00Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I'd love to tell you. So basically they bring in men and women.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  Sure. I got that far from the clips. I knew they were all.

• 26:08Drew Afualo?

  And that's about it. And that they're, they're all straight. So that's important too.

• 26:13Speaker 01

  No ambiguity?

• 26:14Drew Afualo?

  No, no, no, no one. There's no ambiguity whatsoever. If there is, it's not being platformed. It's all like, under the assumption everyone is straight.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 26:21Drew Afualo?

  So they bring them in, they introduce them differently every season, but like, like who goes first, like whether it's girls first or boys, it kind of switches off. But essentially they, they make the number uneven or they make it even.

• 26:34Speaker 01

  So you can't all pair up?

• 26:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, essentially. So it's like five and five, you kind of pair up that way. And some people are unhappy, some people are happy.

• 26:42Speaker 01

  But why, why pair up? Like what's the point?

• 26:43Drew Afualo?

  Well, because the point is to make it to the end. You can't make it to the end unless you're in a couple. And they're all pretending that they want to find love, but we all know it's so they can be an Instagram influencer. And that's okay. We all know it. We know what's C. It's okay.

• 26:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:55Drew Afualo?

  So now like then throughout the course of the show, they have them do challenges or games where they're honestly just dry humping each other. Like that's really all they're doing and making out.

• 27:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:06Drew Afualo?

  Um, and then they'll bring in bombshells or new men or women, and then it throws off the numbers. And then people will want to recouple if they like someone else more.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  So it's like musical chairs for?

• 27:15Drew Afualo?

  Essentially, yes. It's sexual, sexual musical chairs.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  Musical chairs.

• 27:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 27:19Speaker 01

  Do they win prize money at the end?

• 27:20Drew Afualo?

  Yes, there's like a hundred grand or something at the end.

• 27:23Speaker 01

  And are they allowed to touch each other or no?

• 27:25Drew Afualo?

  Yes, they are. Yes. They touch each other quite often.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  Isn't there one where you can't touch each other?

• 27:29Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's too hot to handle.

• 27:30Speaker 01

  But that makes sense.

• 27:31Drew Afualo?

  And that one, that one, that one's even funnier to me because that one is like they have a big pot at the end. And if they do touch each other, money gets taken out from all of them.

• 27:39Speaker 01

  And it's based on how lewd, how lewd the act is?

• 27:43Drew Afualo?

  How vulgar the act, yes. And how intense.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  That's, do they know?

• 27:47Drew Afualo?

  Yes, they know. Everybody knows that there's prize money. Everybody knows that.

• 27:50Speaker 01

  But do they announce like, we're taking 10 bucks out because?

• 27:53Drew Afualo?

  And they say, yeah, they, it's literally like a little like Siri on like a radio that goes like, oh, they're taking out, we'll be deducting $2,000 because these two people finger banged each other. And then they're like, you're finger banging, you're finger banging and you know there's money on the line.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  It'd be better if it was anonymous and they have to be like, who did it?

• 28:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. And then it turns into like Lord of the Flies at that point. Cause then they're like, oh my God, I can't do this. I can't do this.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  Question, do you think we've gone too far?

• 28:17Drew Afualo?

  In reality TV, yes.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  Do you think we've got, it feels like, like what?

• 28:21Drew Afualo?

  Well, I think because again, the prize now at this point is to be famous.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:25Drew Afualo?

  So it's not even like, if you think about like old school dating shows, like I'm trying to think like.

• 28:30Speaker 01

  Like early years of like, oh.

• 28:31Drew Afualo?

  Remember Next? Yeah, like.

• 28:33Speaker 01

  Good TV.

• 28:34Drew Afualo?

  Right, that was good TV, but you know how like they went in with it, like with this understanding that they're like, I'm just gonna get to be on TV. So I'm gonna just act however.

• 28:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, they all felt like actors.

• 28:43Drew Afualo?

  Right, exactly. But even like, I've, I've said this before, like a show like Jersey Shore could never again be recreated. Because Jersey Shore, they, they were so themselves. That's why it did well.

• 28:55Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 28:56Drew Afualo?

  Now it's almost like the performance of like, look how fucking awesome I am is killing.

• 29:01Speaker 01

  For social media.

• 29:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's like you're playing to get clipped and stuff and, and get followed as opposed to like, I'm just this insane and I'm young.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:08Drew Afualo?

  Like when I look at Jersey Shore, I'm like, I can't believe, at the time I watched it, I thought they were so much older, but they're literally like in their early twenties.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  And no tax on finger banging. They could do anything.

• 29:16Drew Afualo?

  They could do whatever they wanted. They could do whatever they wanted.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  Why we tuned in week after week, year after year?

• 29:22Drew Afualo?

  I, I love, that was like one of the only reality shows I like really fucking loved.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think like that came out, I don't know how old I was, but like I remember kind of being a little snobby about reality TV show. And that was the show that broke through for me.

• 29:32Drew Afualo?

  Me too, same.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Hanging out with my friends and colleagues, I'm like, yeah, let's watch Jersey Shore.

• 29:36Drew Afualo?

  Me too. They had a fan in me. I was like, this is the funniest thing I've ever seen on television. And it's because they couldn't help but be themselves. And then they just got lucky being recorded.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  And they feel like they've, they've balanced out into like nice adults.

• 29:47Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they've, they've really, they've really carried too. They still have shows on MTV. They're doing like Family Reunion and all that, like.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  You're so right about the social media thing.

• 29:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  That ruins these shows. Do you watch Traitors? Traitors is probably my favorite.

• 29:59Drew Afualo?

  I, I don't watch Traitors, but I, my sister's a huge fan of it and I have seen it.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:03Drew Afualo?

  I have seen, I've seen clips of it and stuff.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  You should pop into a season of that.

• 30:06Drew Afualo?

  I should, they, they've, you know, I was talking to someone, I forget who it was. I was talking to these women once. It was like, kind of like a general, one of those meetings. And I was just talking.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  I love talking about generals.

• 30:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was just like, I was just talking about anything really at that point, but they, they were like, do you watch reality TV? Because this is just like something about me, because I'm like a huge raging bitch on the internet, depending on who you ask.

• 30:27Speaker 01

  I was gonna say, you've, yeah.

• 30:31Drew Afualo?

  They just always kind of assume that I would love to be on reality TV.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  Oh, and just be like popping off on people.

• 30:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I think it's because they think my personality is performance.

• 30:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 30:42Drew Afualo?

  But it's just an aspect of me. Like I, like sometimes when people ask me like, are you just like this all the time? Like you're just like telling people how it is. I'm like, well, no, because that would make me insufferable. And I would have no loved ones around me if I was like that.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:54Drew Afualo?

  But like, I was like, I also don't hang out with people I hate. So they don't pull that out of me ever.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  No, you'd be terrible on a reality show.

• 31:00Drew Afualo?

  Right. That's what, that's why I'm like. I think I would be, I honestly think I would be really fucking boring on a reality show.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  That's the worst part. We wouldn't be bad. We'd be boring.

• 31:07Drew Afualo?

  We'd be boring.

• 31:07Speaker 01

  We'd be forgettable.

• 31:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly. And they, I've been asked to host reality things.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  You're kidding. Like what? Give me an example.

• 31:14Drew Afualo?

  Oh yeah, I'll bleep them out. Um.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Oh my God.

• 31:18Drew Afualo?

  I just got that one recently.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  Why don't you do these things?

• 31:22Drew Afualo?

  Oh, because there's no money. They ask you for about ninety hours a week and then um I run the risk of being attacked for being involved with any of these people. It's like me being like

• 31:33Drew Afualo?

  to people that they're like, she would love to be on reality TV. So every time I'm like, I would love to be in something scripted. I would love to be in a movie or a TV show. They're like

• 31:42Speaker 01

  Be an actor?

• 31:43Drew Afualo?

  I would love to be.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  Do you do that? Sorry, I don't know.

• 31:44Drew Afualo?

  That's what I'm trying.

• 31:45Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah.

• 31:46Drew Afualo?

  I am trying my hardest.

• 31:49Drew Afualo?

  You know.

• 31:50Speaker 01

  Keep going to those generals.

• 31:52Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'm doing this before that takes off.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:54Drew Afualo?

  I over joked, I'm like, well, you could tell I didn't get it yet because I'm still here doing this.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm in the

• 31:58Drew Afualo?

  Cause as soon as I, as soon as I make it, I'm gonna forget everyone. That's my plan.

• 32:01Speaker 01

  You think?

• 32:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 32:02Speaker 01

  You don't strike, you see, you don't see.

• 32:03Drew Afualo?

  No, I would never do that.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  I don't see, I don't see that energy. I think if I got booked in like a big role in something as an actor, I think I would delete all my social media.

• 32:12Drew Afualo?

  You think?

• 32:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:13Drew Afualo?

  That's kinda smart.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Do you enjoy it anymore? I know like

• 32:16Drew Afualo?

  That's a very good question, honestly to ask.

• 32:18Speaker 01

  Well, you said something earlier and I I meant to comment on it, but like the comments are, I think they are a hundred percent worse than they were like even two years.

• 32:25Drew Afualo?

  No, you're right.

• 32:26Speaker 01

  I think something's happening where being online is not.

• 32:28Drew Afualo?

  Fun anymore.

• 32:29Speaker 01

  Community.

• 32:29Drew Afualo?

  No, not at all. Cause how old are you?

• 32:31Speaker 01

  Thirty-six.

• 32:32Drew Afualo?

  Okay, I'm thirty.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  We're gonna have to

• 32:35Speaker 01

  No one budged.

• 32:37Drew Afualo?

  Hey, just make a note.

• 32:38Speaker 01

  How old are you?

• 32:38Drew Afualo?

  I'm thirty.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 32:39Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'm gonna be thirty-one. So like

• 32:42Speaker 01

  Great.

• 32:42Drew Afualo?

  My point being, we've We've known, we've known about the internet, right? So like YouTube came out, YouTube like started when I was in high school. Like it was like, it was on the precipice of becoming something at the time. And so like I I was on MySpace, like I begged my mom for a Facebook, like when I got older, a little bit older in high school.

• 33:02Speaker 01

  Was like, it came when I was like a senior in high school.

• 33:04Drew Afualo?

  Uh, Facebook?

• 33:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:05Drew Afualo?

  Okay, yeah.

• 33:06Speaker 01

  Very like, whoa.

• 33:07Drew Afualo?

  See, I was like a sophomore.

• 33:08Speaker 01

  Stay in touch.

• 33:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, I was like a freshman sophomore.

• 33:10Speaker 01

  You had to navigate being like, like, like the gossip and the politics of being on social media in high school. I didn't really have to do that.

• 33:15Drew Afualo?

  It was more, yeah, I did a little bit, but again, even then it wasn't nearly as big of an impact in our everyday life as it is now. Like, I can't imagine being a teenager now with with TikTok and everything. I can't imagine, but like, my point being that like I've known and interacted with the internet for a very long time before the last like five, six years. So like, it used to be nothing but joy, like nothing but somewhere to, for people to be creative, to be funny.

• 33:42Speaker 01

  I always thought of it too.

• 33:43Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like especially YouTube.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  Comedy or whatever you wanna be doing.

• 33:46Drew Afualo?

  Exactly. And like, and even like before Twitter became X, like Twitter was one of my favorite places to go.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  That was dark.

• 33:53Drew Afualo?

  That's actually where I first found Caleb, like way before Instagram, way before TikTok, like I found Caleb on Twitter because he was so funny on Twitter.

• 34:01Speaker 01

  That's where I started doing comedy on online too.

• 34:04Drew Afualo?

  Exactly. Exactly.

• 34:05Speaker 01

  That was like the first place I actually had any kind of following.

• 34:07Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 34:08Speaker 01

  Cause you like wrote jokes and people chimed in and you found other funny people.

• 34:11Drew Afualo?

  Exactly. That's why it was one of my favorite apps for a very long time was Twitter.

• 34:15Speaker 01

  Tragic.

• 34:15Drew Afualo?

  It's awful and that's why.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  Bought it and it's over.

• 34:18Drew Afualo?

  And now, for real, killed it immediately.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  Immediately.

• 34:21Drew Afualo?

  It became like a breeding ground for bigotry. Me too. I deleted mine, I think like four years ago.

• 34:27Speaker 01

  You still have Facebook?

• 34:28Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I still have a Facebook because I have an Instagram, but that's the only reason I have Facebook. But my Facebook is is private. Because it's old. Yeah.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  The brand, it's not like

• 34:36Drew Afualo?

  No, I have like a page with my brand, but it's like linked to my personal Facebook.

• 34:40Speaker 01

  I'm hanging on by a thread to social media. I've got, I've got Instagram and I've got TikTok and I'm like

• 34:45Drew Afualo?

  You and me both, queen. Like, and that's honestly how I feel too. And I think that's why like I just got asked that the other day. I I get asked a lot from people who did, who have done this job, like through the more traditional side, like going up the other way. Whereas I went up through the internet.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Wait, what's the other way?

• 35:01Drew Afualo?

  Just traditionally like, like doing stand-up, doing

• 35:04Speaker 01

  Performing.

• 35:05Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, performing, like getting in um like short films, small things, music videos, that kind of thing. Um, the more traditional route as opposed to me, obviously because I did it more recently. It's like I went through the internet. And they almost always ask me like, how do I, if I still like doing it, if I still enjoy the internet? And and how I deal with like hate and stuff. And um I, to answer your question, this is a very long-winded way of answering your question. Like, I do still love what I do. Um, I don't love what the internet has turned into though.

• 35:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that's exactly how I feel.

• 35:36Drew Afualo?

  It's become a place where everybody wants to be a fucking cop and like

• 35:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:41Drew Afualo?

  Isn't that the whole point with that we hate cops? Like, isn't that the whole fucking point? Like

• 35:45Speaker 01

  We talked about this.

• 35:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, I thought we, we've gone over this like many times.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  We know we're supposed to think.

• 35:49Drew Afualo?

  It's everyone, I think now, the gift of virality has really poisoned the well in a lot of ways. It's made people feel like if I can go viral even by spreading lies, that's worth it to me. Because at least I get attention, I get likes, I get clicks, even if it's not true, even if it's not based in anything real, or if it's almost like eating ourselves, like the left eats itself a lot. So, in that regard.

• 36:15Speaker 01

  So boring too.

• 36:16Drew Afualo?

  That too, yeah.

• 36:17Speaker 01

  It's like the same recycled arguments and like same weird comments. Like I can open a video on TikTok and know what all the comments are gonna be based on.

• 36:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, literally.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  It's like, everyone's trying to be like the smartest person in the room.

• 36:26Drew Afualo?

  The smartest person or the funniest person in the room.

• 36:28Speaker 01

  Everyone's really stupid and not funny. So you're scrolling through and you're like, oh my God, why am I doing this?

• 36:35Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 36:35Speaker 01

  A minute like forty and you're like, I gotta get this app off my phone.

• 36:38Drew Afualo?

  And when I first came up on TikTok, like initially I was really resistant to joining because I was older. I was like

• 36:44Speaker 01

  You felt too old for TikTok?

• 36:46Drew Afualo?

  When I first joined, yeah, I was like

• 36:47Speaker 01

  A dinosaur.

• 36:48Drew Afualo?

  I know, I was literally like twenty-three, twenty-four, which felt a thousand compared to everyone I saw on TikTok. Everybody was like fifteen, sixteen years old.

• 36:56Speaker 01

  Well, that's tough in general. When you get, when you get teens doing stuff on your feed, you're like, no, no, no, no.

• 36:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, for real. That's why I was like, I don't dance and I'm not going to. So what am I supposed to do on here? You know what I mean? Yeah, it's over. I'm, I'm cooked, like the kids say.

• 37:08Speaker 01

  You're chopped.

• 37:08Drew Afualo?

  And I, I'm so chopped and unc. I'm so chopped and unc.

• 37:11Speaker 01

  Great unc.

• 37:12Drew Afualo?

  You're chopped and great unc.

• 37:13Speaker 01

  I feel very like energetic and and good at my age, but I go on TikTok sometimes. I'm like, I'm the oldest man alive. I'm the oldest man that's ever lived.

• 37:20Drew Afualo?

  I'm the oldest, most unplugged person who's ever lived. Yeah. There are certain, yeah, there's a certain like tier of joke that I, I feel like I can't reach anymore.

• 37:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:29Drew Afualo?

  Like the six, seven stuff was throwing me for a million years. It still will. Like, I still don't understand it.

• 37:34Speaker 01

  I think the kids are just having fun. I feel like we did stupid shit that didn't mean anything.

• 37:38Drew Afualo?

  That's true. Like even um, but even then, sometimes I bring up jokes. I'm like, do you guys remember this? And everyone's like, I was born in two thousand and three and I'm all, forget it. Fucking forget it, then, forget it.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  I used to like get, I I don't really engage with people in the comments that much, but like when I started to like do pretty well online.

• 37:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 37:54Speaker 01

  I would like fight back a little and you can't, like, I don't know, I can't do that without coming off as like really lame. So like, cause then also I would realize like it's like someone with like an anime avatar. I've noticed one in my life. God bless anime, not knocking the the genre, but like then I would

• 38:08Drew Afualo?

  But it's just a weird coincidence.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  It's a weird coincidence. Let's just call it. It's weird that you all have like animated foxes and

• 38:14Drew Afualo?

  It's true, yeah.

• 38:15Speaker 01

  You go to the page and you're like, I'm fighting with a

• 38:17Drew Afualo?

  A child.

• 38:17Speaker 01

  Child.

• 38:18Drew Afualo?

  A literal child.

• 38:18Speaker 01

  Child.

• 38:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I

• 38:19Speaker 01

  I'm paying bills. I have things I have to do.

• 38:22Drew Afualo?

  I can rent a car. I shouldn't be doing this.

• 38:24Speaker 01

  I'm a best man in a wedding this month. And I'm fighting with a child. I'm fighting with a child about leftist policy. And I'm like, and I'm like, what am I doing? It's terrible. So that's why I'm like, I'll post and then I try to close.

• 38:36Drew Afualo?

  I I I feel that.

• 38:37Speaker 01

  Post and close.

• 38:38Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I've been, and I think that's why they ask, a lot of people like yourself ask me that because that's like my whole shtick is like responding to hate, like and like and getting in comments and and fucking with people like in a very real sense, but I feel like on a larger scale, I've like almost, I'm batting a thousand, first of all. With all the people I have fucked up are just like outright known bigots. So that never really, I never really have

• 39:01Speaker 01

  Go after someone where you know you're on the right side.

• 39:03Drew Afualo?

  Exactly, where it's, it's obvious, is my point. Exactly. So there's nothing redeemable about that person. So I think in that regard, I've been totally fine. Although occasionally, yeah, I'll get like men. Um, this was a tip for like the first three years I did this where they would be like, oh, she's a body shamer, like you're body shaming people. And I was like, okay, well, what do you call when they did it to me? What do you call? Would you call that body shaming or would you call it something else?

• 39:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 39:31Drew Afualo?

  And depending on your answer, you might be a misogynist, but let's just answer it first. And that's why it's always like, well, fighting fire with fire is bad. And they're like, you can't fight fire with fire. Technically speaking, that's not true. And this is me being a know-it-all, but it is not, it is true. Ask any person who fights fires in the forest, ask them, they're called controlled burns. Look it up, bitch.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  Look it up, bitch.

• 39:50Drew Afualo?

  That's why I was like, look it up. Actually, you can fight fire with fire. Actually, you can.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 39:54Drew Afualo?

  The whole point of a controlled burn is you burn everything else so it has nowhere to go. And that's exactly what I do.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  You're a controlled burn.

• 40:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, hello.

• 40:00Speaker 01

  People admire you for it.

• 40:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, well, duh, clearly. And that's why I was like, and honestly, that works in my favor because it it is one of those things where where I think I'm just the only one that was brave enough to do it, like to stand up to them in that way, in a way that's not, I'm not worried about decorum, I guess, is the thing.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  I feel that way. I I will say, I do feel that way online. Like, when you know you're right, you're kind of like, well, gloves are off. I know I'm right about this thing.

• 40:24Drew Afualo?

  Right. It just, it's when you get in the more minutia of it that you're like, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die.

• 40:31Speaker 01

  You get, I don't know if you want to even talk about this, but do you get like crazy threats all the, like at this point still, like people, yeah?

• 40:37Drew Afualo?

  Oh, all the time. Yeah, all the time. They've, they've died down quite a few now. Um, like I would say in the last maybe year, they've died down a few, but oh, yeah.

• 40:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:47Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah. I have like active open cases with the FBI.

• 40:50Speaker 01

  Really?

• 40:51Drew Afualo?

  Yes, of course I do.

• 40:52Speaker 01

  Cash Patel's FBI is on the case.

• 40:55Drew Afualo?

  Well, see, maybe that's why it's moving slow.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  Nothing's gonna happen.

• 40:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, well, that's why I'm hitting a bit of a stall.

• 41:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 41:01Drew Afualo?

  Because he's in charge.

• 41:02Speaker 01

  The case has gone cold, detective.

• 41:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, because that fucking nincompoop is in charge. So, yeah, unfortunately, while that dingus is in there, nothing is really gonna get done. Um, but, yeah, I had a guy.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Email at FBI. Any update on the?

• 41:14Drew Afualo?

  Hey, guys. Hey, Cash.

• 41:15Speaker 01

  Circling back on the death threats on this thing.

• 41:18Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 41:19Speaker 01

  You seem very, like, confident and, like, not really shaken by any of that. Is that right, or is that?

• 41:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I would say.

• 41:24Speaker 01

  Some days are bad.

• 41:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it depends. It depends, but I think, like, for the threats kinda deal, um, obviously, I knew it was a possibility. I didn't think it would come in the fervor in which it did. I guess I should have expected as much, but, again, I'm older, so I figure if it's on the internet, it can't be that serious, because you're putting it on the internet. And you're attaching it. I think that was the most shocking thing to me, because we grew up in a time where they would say things like, "Be careful what you put online, because it will last forever."

• 41:53Speaker 01

  Very funny.

• 41:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  Very funny.

• 41:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's hilarious now, to think about it now.

• 41:57Speaker 01

  You can literally do anything you want online.

• 41:58Drew Afualo?

  It's true, and they...

• 42:00Speaker 01

  Nary suffer.

• 42:01Drew Afualo?

  Right, and that was something that we, like, knew growing up. So then, when I started doing this, and I started seeing men say the kind of shit that they have said in a way that I was like, "Your government name is on this profile, your face, your children, if they have them, your wife, if you're married." Like, that was the part that I think was the most shocking to me, because those men were always the most mad. Because I've had men, oh, my god, I've had countless men, email me and be like, "Um, can you take this down? I have a job."

• 42:31Speaker 01

  Damn.

• 42:32Drew Afualo?

  "No, bitch, and fuck you and your job. How's that?" I had one guy say, "I'm a teacher." Well, that sucks.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:38Drew Afualo?

  That sucks.

• 42:39Speaker 01

  You can't be teaching the youth with that attitude.

• 42:40Drew Afualo?

  You probably shouldn't be in charge of kids. And he was like, "I might lose my job." I literally responded, "I don't give a fuck."

• 42:45Speaker 01

  People really do feel brave, especially with, they shouldn't even be messing with someone like you.

• 42:50Drew Afualo?

  You would think.

• 42:50Speaker 01

  It's just crazy.

• 42:51Drew Afualo?

  Well, you would think, at this point. Now, sometimes, like...

• 42:54Speaker 01

  They can mess with me. I'm a coward. I delete requests.

• 42:57Drew Afualo?

  Well, now that you've been on here, that's not true.

• 42:59Speaker 01

  No, no one's...

• 43:00Drew Afualo?

  No, because everyone...

• 43:01Speaker 01

  Am I brave to be here?

• 43:02Drew Afualo?

  No, just everyone on here is under my protection by law.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  Oh, thank god.

• 43:05Drew Afualo?

  So that's...

• 43:07Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 43:07Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you're under my protection now.

• 43:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, I appreciate it.

• 43:10Drew Afualo?

  You've come into my fold.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  I know. I feel very lucky to be invited.

• 43:13Drew Afualo?

  And that is, I think, the case, I think, with a lot of people who find me on the internet, like, that love me. They're like, um, when they, sometimes I'll tell them, like, I'll be like, "And if anyone fucks with you, you just let me know. Send me that ad. I'll take care of it."

• 43:28Speaker 01

  That's so badass.

• 43:29Drew Afualo?

  And they laugh, like, they laugh, but they know it's for real. They know I'm for real.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 43:32Drew Afualo?

  And that's why sometimes I think they don't wanna send it to me, because they're like, "It's okay."

• 43:36Speaker 01

  Is a lot of, like, the, we're talking about, like, the body shaming thing.

• 43:39Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 43:39Speaker 01

  Is a lot of it, like, allies in that way that come and be like, "I love the way you clap back at this person, and like, I deal with this bullshit myself."

• 43:46Drew Afualo?

  Yes, absolutely. Well, yeah, and...

• 43:48Speaker 01

  You're using the internet in such a good way. You're like one of, like, seven people. Like, truly. I don't think anyone should be able, like, very few people should get a key to use the internet.

• 43:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, right, for real. Everyone else has to go through a test.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's amazing.

• 43:59Drew Afualo?

  They have to do a litmus test. Thank you.

• 44:01Speaker 01

  Do you ever at least, like, sit back and go like, "Damn, I'm doing a good thing"? Like, you ever think about that?

• 44:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I think in moments where it feels suffocating, like, the internet feels suffocating, those are the times where I revisit, like, people who really love me, or, like, have sent me. I've gotten so many messages about people over the years, like, how my content has, like, helped them and changed their lives. Like, I've had people tell me, like, you know, they broke up with their partner who was abusive, like, they reported their assault, like, they stood up for themselves. Like, there's so many things, that, so many wonderful things. Like, it's like ninety, ninety-nine to one, like, wonderful.

• 44:35Speaker 01

  I know, but it's so easy to fix it on the wrong.

• 44:37Drew Afualo?

  Especially when it comes from people that you do care about, and you do care. Like, when it comes from communities that are nitpicking as opposed to, like, actually having a problem with something you did, they're just like, well, here's a perfect example.

• 44:50Speaker 01

  We're on the same team.

• 44:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, right. One time, I tweeted, um, "That peanut butter and jelly is the worst sandwich combo of all time, and one day, you guys will be brave enough to have that conversation with me." That's what I tweeted. The tweet went super viral. I had people responding to that and telling me that I was classist, and that was an elitist point of view, because only poor people eat peanut butter and jelly, which I was like, "No, you saying that is classist." You saying that only poor people eat.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  Everyone wants to say something genius about it, and I'm like, "We used to be able, before it became X, we used to be able to just fire off these thoughts."

• 45:25Drew Afualo?

  And that was my favorite part of Twitter. I could put some bullshit like that on the internet, and then we could giggle and laugh about it, and like, and then I enjoy, like, a friendly banter. I love a good, like, discussion. I love a good, like, "Well, actually, this, like, whatever." And then we can make jokes. Yeah, hello?

• 45:40Speaker 01

  We're all joking around. I feel like I've, like, put myself in a corner, because I talk about politics a lot when I'm doing my comedy.

• 45:45Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  And I'll do, like, a video about, like, I don't know, like, just like, the weather in New York.

• 45:50Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  And I'm like, "Wow, you're not gonna talk about the wildfire in this region of..." And I'm like, "Dude, I don't know." I just wanna make a video about french fries. Or whatever. I'm like, like, I feel like I've put myself in this place.

• 46:01Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 46:01Speaker 01

  Like, "Wow, staying silent on the conflict of the..." And I'm like, "What am I?"

• 46:05Drew Afualo?

  Well, yeah, well, I, no.

• 46:07Speaker 01

  Like, "Register to vote. Don't bother me."

• 46:09Drew Afualo?

  Right, well, yes, well, that, yeah, that is another one of those things where it's like, I understand wanting to follow and support people that are aligned with you. That makes sense. When you know they're aligned, what, at what point are you gonna be like, "Okay, maybe this is too much"? And I just talked about this on the last episode I just recorded, where it's like there's no good faith anymore.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  That's exactly what it is.

• 46:32Drew Afualo?

  That's what it is. It's like, it's understanding that in order for you to do a call-in, which is what they love to call that shit, they're like, "This is a call-in, not a call-out." A call-in doesn't involve insults or antagonizing. That's not a call-in. That's just an accusation, not a call-in.

• 46:47Speaker 01

  It's bullying.

• 46:48Drew Afualo?

  Right, it's bullying. At that point, it's bullying.

• 46:50Speaker 01

  It's so funny that we're just talking about all this stuff while knowing that we have to, like, play the game.

• 46:54Drew Afualo?

  Well, and it's because, it is such a, that is the only way I will survive, I think, is what I've come to find out.

• 47:00Speaker 01

  Being able to make fun of the media.

• 47:02Drew Afualo?

  Yes, and be able, will be able to talk about it and process it out loud, and like, on a public platform, because even in therapy, like, I just talked about this with the fucking Rock. I interviewed the Rock for this show, and, uh...

• 47:13Speaker 01

  The way you said that, I thought the Rock was your therapist. I just...

• 47:16Drew Afualo?

  Imagine. Low-key, he was, low-key, he was therapizing me in that episode. Low-key, he was.

• 47:21Speaker 01

  Was he in this chair?

• 47:22Drew Afualo?

  No, no, no, he was not. I filmed it somewhere else.

• 47:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:25Drew Afualo?

  I wish I could've gotten him in the chair. He just didn't have the time, unfortunately, but...

• 47:29Speaker 01

  I bumped the Rock.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  No, sorry, so you were just...

• 47:33Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, "I cleared him for you."

• 47:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, bad move.

• 47:37Speaker 01

  Sorry.

• 47:38Drew Afualo?

  No, it's okay. Even with him, I was talking, I chatted about this with him as well, where it's like, I think the worst part is, uh, knowing that it's not true. Like, when they, when people just say things, they're like, "Are you, aren't you someone who did this once"? And you're like, "No, that wasn't me." And they're like...

• 47:58Speaker 03

  Welcome to 215 Maple Drive. We just put this property on the market.

• 48:03Speaker 04

  Love the crown molding.

• 48:05Speaker 03

  Oh, wait until you see the walk-in closets and the bathroom tile.

• 48:09Speaker 04

  Does it have Verizon FiOS? You know, 100% fiber internet?

• 48:13Speaker 03

  No FiOS, but it looks like it's got cable. Let's check out the kitchen.

• 48:16Speaker 04

  No FiOS? Yeah, no, thank you.

• 48:19Speaker 03

  Don't you wanna see the rest? Okay, bye-bye.

• 48:22Speaker 05

  Get Verizon FiOS, because when you're moving, it's 100% or nothing.

• 48:27Speaker 00

  Hi, it's Danny Pellegrino from Everything Iconic. Twelve celebrities, one Don, and cold, hard Cash. From the producers of The Traitors comes The Mob, the new Hulu original series. The iconic Parker Posey hosts this unique reality competition show where 12 celebrity contestants shake down in an Italian villa to win a share of up to $250,000. Watch the new Hulu original series, The Mob, premiering October 26th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

• 49:02Drew Afualo?

  So you're evading accountability?

• 49:04Speaker 01

  Uh...

• 49:05Drew Afualo?

  What? Um, no, that's just, I didn't do that thing. And they're like, "Right, so you're, okay, so you don't like call-ins." They can't be a call-in if it's not true.

• 49:15Speaker 01

  You're too popular.

• 49:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 49:17Speaker 01

  You're too successful.

• 49:18Drew Afualo?

  Bummer.

• 49:19Speaker 01

  Like, yeah, it is the problem. I get weird shit. I don't get people writing stories about me and coming up with things that I did in my past that don't exist.

• 49:26Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I got one...

• 49:27Speaker 01

  I'm not that deep in the comments.

• 49:28Drew Afualo?

  I know, that's true. And like, and honestly, I think it's just a marker of me being on the internet, like, being so internet, like, facing.

• 49:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:36Drew Afualo?

  I think it's the reason why. That finds me.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  Back to your acting career.

• 49:39Drew Afualo?

  Back to acting.

• 49:40Speaker 01

  You book a big role.

• 49:41Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  You're keeping all this. You're living this way. You're dealing with the call-ins.

• 49:44Drew Afualo?

  I think, yeah, I mean, it depends. Like, I would like...

• 49:47Speaker 01

  Give it to the team.

• 49:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I would, I agree. I would like to get to a point where I can interact with social media in a way that doesn't scare me or make me upset, um, which is just kinda posting and going. Like, there's a lot of people, I think, that do that now, um, purely for the health and safety of their mind. And I, and I understand why. Like, the internet can be as beautiful and amazing and connective as it can be. It can also be extremely, like, magnifying, pointed, and divisive. Like, it's, and it makes it really hard to enjoy yourself, like, to enjoy life, to enjoy, like, um, just general life experience. Like, I was talking about this with my last guest as well. Like, sometimes when people are extremely nitpicky like that...

• 50:30Drew Afualo?

  Um, like we were kind of joking about them. You go and you look and they're so young, like uh, nine times out of ten, they're like born in the two thousand and on.

• 50:38Speaker 01

  It's what bums me out.

• 50:39Drew Afualo?

  Me too.

• 50:39Speaker 01

  People like talking about like body stuff. I feel like so many of the comments are always like. Body's incredible. Your body's deep. How do I get that skinny? I feel like we've gone a complete fucking one eighty culturally.

• 50:50Drew Afualo?

  Right, totally.

• 50:50Speaker 01

  Body positivity, like PC stuff.

• 50:52Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  Obviously with the state of like comedy and stuff.

• 50:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 50:55Speaker 01

  It's like there's been this extreme pushback on like, like woke.

• 50:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 50:59Speaker 01

  Culture, whatever the fuck that means.

• 51:01Drew Afualo?

  Whatever. Yeah, to conservatives, that means something completely different.

• 51:03Speaker 01

  But it's like, I opened my phone this past week and have you seen this challenge where people are doing like accents? Like saying the same phrase in different accents?

• 51:11Drew Afualo?

  No, I saw the same phrase in different like tones, like they're like sarcastic, happy. Yeah.

• 51:16Speaker 01

  No, okay.

• 51:17Drew Afualo?

  Oh.

• 51:18Speaker 01

  Show you some shit.

• 51:18Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my god.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  White people do like Chinese accents, Indian accents. And the comments are like, the comments are like, you killed this or something. Like, they're kind of all joking, but I'm like, this would have gotten like someone like us fired.

• 51:30Drew Afualo?

  No, for real. No, this is racist. So, yeah.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  And I'm like.

• 51:33Drew Afualo?

  Believe it or not, I don't want to hear how you guys do that. So.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  People aren't like famous, but these videos, they're making these videos and they're uploading them.

• 51:39Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 51:40Speaker 01

  You and I would wouldn't be caught dead trying to do this.

• 51:42Drew Afualo?

  No, fuck no. And that's where, that's where I'm saying like, there is no.

• 51:46Speaker 01

  We're in a weird time.

• 51:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, there's no barometer anymore. I feel like it's so, it's been so skewed and I know. I know it's because the world is so awful. Like, I know it's because the government is so fucking terrible. The administration's fucking terrible. It's like. They're making life harder, so it's easier, which is ties back to reality TV. And like, have we gone too far? Yes. And I do think it's because like, especially in reality TV, like. I think people hyperfix it on reality a lot when the government is terrible. And this has got, this is very true over time. If you look at other really popular, Jersey Shore is another great time. So it's another time where it's political turmoil is happening and it's awful. So everybody shifts and looks at something where they're like, I can hate this person.

• 52:26Drew Afualo?

  Because this is reality TV, so this is who they are. And so it gives me almost like an empowering feeling. That I can find community in hating someone that I don't know and I've never met. And like, sure, you can make your assumptions based off reality TV, sure, but we all know reality TV is not real. It's edited so to entertain.

• 52:44Speaker 01

  Pretty produced.

• 52:45Drew Afualo?

  And it's real absurd, like in its nature, it's absurd. But it's one of those things where I think that's how social media has become too. It's now an evergreen thing where you can fling mud at anybody.

• 52:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:55Drew Afualo?

  And it feels good. It feels good because I hate my life and I hate my circumstance and I hate everything that's going on. This makes me feel good, though.

• 53:01Speaker 01

  I don't know. I don't, I don't have any kids. I don't know if you like want to have kids one day, but I'm like, how do you?

• 53:06Drew Afualo?

  I do not.

• 53:06Speaker 01

  How do you? Yeah, okay, cool.

• 53:07Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 53:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't think I do either, but I like, how do you talk to a kid about like?

• 53:12Drew Afualo?

  Like, I've thought about that.

• 53:13Speaker 01

  Like, my friends, like, I'm just a, just only a little older than you.

• 53:17Drew Afualo?

  Well, you're significantly older than me, Matt, so.

• 53:21Speaker 01

  My, my friends are like starting to have kids though, in, in New York and like. They're all, like, I've got friends with like two-year-olds, four-year-olds and like, they're not aware, they don't know who the president is. They don't even know about the concept of a president, really.

• 53:33Drew Afualo?

  No, not at all, yeah.

• 53:34Speaker 01

  But they're gonna learn.

• 53:34Drew Afualo?

  Lucky them, yeah. Lucky them.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  Getting to that age where they're gonna start realizing there's like a government. Here's how people talk to each other. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know how I would talk to, uh, like a seven-year-old right now. Be like, no, it's all good. Don't worry.

• 53:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's like, don't worry, don't worry. The world's burning, but don't worry. Don't worry. No, I, I, I agree with that. I've, I've thought about that, especially with teenagers. I've been like, I, I, in high school right now, holy fuck. I could not imagine being in high school right now, being at that kind of, that age right now is so hard. And I think that's why. Even when I'm so ah about how people have no media literacy whatsoever, they have no discernment whatsoever. Even though that makes me want to. It's so frustrating. I still have a lot of empathy for them because when I see that they're really young. I think to myself, a lot of them are COVID kids, so there's that too.

• 54:20Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 54:20Drew Afualo?

  Now, played a huge role in the development of a lot of them.

• 54:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:23Drew Afualo?

  But I also think, I'm like, you feel this way and you feel so righteous in this because you haven't actually gotten to live life. Like, for real, that where it wasn't in a tumultuous time and it wasn't um, in this extremely tech-driven society either. And I think that's why people are so quick to judge and write people off so quickly. Like, I've never seen such a black and white judgment. Of people that are not being obviously terrible. Like, if someone's being obviously terrible, obviously they're terrible.

• 54:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:51Drew Afualo?

  But it's like, when people do things that you're just maybe not the biggest fan of.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  It could be the end.

• 54:55Drew Afualo?

  It immediately, yeah, immediately it's like, okay, you're a MAGA.

• 54:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:59Drew Afualo?

  And you suck. And you probably hate immigrants. That's probably what you do too.

• 55:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:03Drew Afualo?

  None of which is true and none of which is rooted in anything true, but it, it becomes that, I think, snowball.

• 55:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:08Drew Afualo?

  Because the only life they've lived is through other people on TikTok.

• 55:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:13Drew Afualo?

  So I was like, you've never even gotten to experience life in a way where you like, love your friends through their mistakes. Like, you love. You fall in love with someone that maybe isn't the right person for you. You, you guys have never had those kinds of experiences, so you haven't been able to like. Develop discernment.

• 55:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:29Drew Afualo?

  Or the ability to understand, like, not everybody is a terrible person when they make a mistake.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is.

• 55:36Drew Afualo?

  You know what I'm saying? And that's why they like me, bitch. I'll tell you what.

• 55:40Speaker 01

  No, this is good. You, you've nailed it. You've nailed it. It's the discernment.

• 55:44Drew Afualo?

  I think, and I, and I do think it's, it, it helps me to extend that empathy towards them. So that I don't feel like I'm going fucking insane.

• 55:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I try, that's what I try to do with the stuff I write is like, because it's very like critical of like. The Republican Party and stuff, but it comes from a place of like, it's more of like, can you just be like, normal?

• 56:03Drew Afualo?

  For real.

• 56:04Speaker 01

  Because I think.

• 56:05Drew Afualo?

  It could all be so simple, you know?

• 56:07Speaker 01

  It's like that. That's the kind of energy I try to put behind instead of being like, uh-oh, the cheetos being bad again. It's like, no, I'd, I'd rather like, be like. Hey dude, like maybe lives away from liberal cities, like, is, don't you, don't you realize this is bad?

• 56:20Drew Afualo?

  No, of course they don't.

• 56:21Speaker 01

  Look me in the eye. Tell me, tell me you love what's going on. I don't believe you. I don't believe you love this.

• 56:28Drew Afualo?

  Have you seen that um, Into the Manosphere documentary?

• 56:31Speaker 01

  No.

• 56:31Drew Afualo?

  On Netflix, Louis Theroux. Yeah, it's really good. I highly recommend.

• 56:35Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 56:35Drew Afualo?

  There's some of my main ops in that documentary. Yeah, yeah, like, like some dudes I've actually fucked up for real online. Yeah, and they, and they hate me, like, for real. They've, they've gone on record saying how much they hate me. Um, didn't mention me in this video, though. That's fucked up.

• 56:48Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 56:48Drew Afualo?

  Uh, but in that documentary, it's very interesting to watch, like, how they kind of move because this is not. This is not the, this is not the case for all bigots. Trust me when I say this is not the case. But there are some men in that documentary where he actually asked them after spending like weeks with them. He's like, do you actually believe some of the stuff you say? Because some of the stuff you say, you're not living in, in your private life.

• 57:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:12Drew Afualo?

  You're just saying it online.

• 57:13Speaker 01

  That troll culture.

• 57:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and then, and then some of them will be like, well, that's just something I just say. Which like, because they're a dumb bitch, so that's one. But two, it's also, it's literally because I'm like, so you're. Either an actual terrible person who got lucky and started recording yourself.

• 57:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:29Drew Afualo?

  Or you're pretending to be a terrible person so you can make money. Which one's worse? I can't tell which one's worse because they're both fucking awful in different fonts. And that's, that's where I think. That's where I think that black and white shit should be applied, is there? When you're talking about people who genuinely love others and care about others. And then they do something that maybe feels a little left of center of what you believe they should be doing.

• 57:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:53Drew Afualo?

  Then it turns into a write-off where they're like, no, now you're a bigot.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 57:57Drew Afualo?

  No, now I fucking hate you, so, yeah.

• 58:00Speaker 01

  I, the thing with the Manosphere, I need to watch this documentary.

• 58:02Drew Afualo?

  You should watch it. It's good. I liked it.

• 58:03Speaker 01

  To me, how much power these guys have.

• 58:05Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 58:06Speaker 01

  And they don't really suffer any consequences for anything they do.

• 58:10Drew Afualo?

  No, never.

• 58:11Speaker 01

  It's hard. It's hard to watch.

• 58:13Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 58:14Speaker 01

  How is this possible?

• 58:15Drew Afualo?

  I agree. I think the same thing. And it's, it's also, I think, indicative of the time we're in as well.

• 58:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 58:19Drew Afualo?

  Because it, because it's so tumultuous politically and it's awful. Uh, women, I think more than ever in the last five to 10 years especially, have really, really like pulled away from men in a lot of ways. And they've become extremely independent. They've become even more radically feminist than they already were.

• 58:37Speaker 01

  I think that's good.

• 58:38Drew Afualo?

  That's where that's like, men are experiencing a loneliness issue. Yeah, men are.

• 58:41Speaker 01

  Put in the corner.

• 58:42Drew Afualo?

  Right. And, and it's just like, uh, the same thing where there was like a, a movement in Korea where they just, women just refuse to have kids.

• 58:50Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 58:51Drew Afualo?

  They just refuse to have kids, like, and, and sleep with men at all, but like, just, they're not having kids anymore. And then they had like a, a birth rate shortage for the first time in the history of Korea.

• 58:59Speaker 01

  Have the power, yeah.

• 59:00Drew Afualo?

  Right, I'm telling you. Well, and that's one of those things, that's what I'm doing is like waking everyone up. I'm like telling women like, you don't have to.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  Settle for garbage.

• 59:07Drew Afualo?

  No, and you, and you can live your entire life unpartnered and be happy, fulfilled, successful. You can have sex, you can be desired, you can be sexualized, all of those things. Without any man tied to you, you can, if you would like.

• 59:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:20Drew Afualo?

  If you would like. And then it's like, at that point, then it's just whoever you so choose can be in your life.

• 59:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 59:25Drew Afualo?

  And believe it or not, some men have said, when I say that, because they're stupid, they'll literally watch that and they'll be like. So she's just profiting off women being single? She's telling women to be single?

• 59:36Speaker 01

  Guys are like worried about the women being single that I don't, I've never understood. Where it's like, you're gonna die alone with your cats or whatever. That's like such a thing.

• 59:44Drew Afualo?

  Sounds awesome.

• 59:45Speaker 01

  It sounds cool. Yeah.

• 59:47Drew Afualo?

  Oh, no, don't threaten me with dying alone.

• 59:50Speaker 01

  Write that in a novel.

• 59:51Drew Afualo?

  Oh, no, don't do that. I would hate that.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  Or being harassed and, yeah.

• 59:57Drew Afualo?

  I know, what's my option?

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Ways to die.

• 59:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was gonna say.

• 1:00:00Speaker 01

  With your loved cats.

• 1:00:01Drew Afualo?

  Well, and that's what I've talked about, um, because I've defended fat people very, very, very many times. Um, and I've talked about like fatness as a whole, like the idea, concept, the perception of fatness. And I've talked about how like being fat is not the worst thing that could ever happen to you.

• 1:00:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:16Drew Afualo?

  What if you had cancer?

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:18Drew Afualo?

  That's actually a lot worse than being fat. So it's like, it's one of those where it's when you put it in perspective, you're like, oh, this is not the worst thing that could ever happen to me. This is not the worst thing that anyone could ever say about me. And it's one of those things where I, because I get called fat and ugly constantly by men. And like ugly, lie. Fat, depends on who you ask. Right? Like, because I'm a big fat fatty compared to some people. And then some people I'm not. So it's one of those things where it's really subjective.

• 1:00:41Speaker 01

  Perspective.

• 1:00:41Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's really, it's a, it's a, a reframe. That's what my therapist calls those, reframing.

• 1:00:46Speaker 01

  We gotta get, yeah, might be the rock, might be a famous.

• 1:00:49Drew Afualo?

  Might be the rock, allegedly.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  I think these people, cause I get, when I get into it in my DMs with like Republican dudes, they always have, first of all, they're always private accounts, which is like coward.

• 1:00:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:59Speaker 01

  Then their, then their profile photo is like, it's usually them on a dock with like, like on their knee with like their wife and like six kids and all.

• 1:01:05Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:01:06Speaker 01

  And I think like, part of me really deep down thinks that like they, they are unhappy and they're like, that's why they get so mad that like, single women aren't having kids and having families, cause they're doing it and they're like, no, you gotta do this too.

• 1:01:17Drew Afualo?

  I was forced to do this.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  You gotta do this too, and this is how we live and be good people. And it's like, what? Like, if you're that aggressive, you're not happy at home.

• 1:01:24Drew Afualo?

  For real.

• 1:01:25Speaker 01

  And I'm not saying it's like a closeted thing, but it's like, there might be something else going on if these people are so upset.

• 1:01:29Drew Afualo?

  No, you hate your wife, I guarantee you, dude. Yeah, you hate your wife, I guarantee.

• 1:01:32Speaker 01

  The gender across the board, for example.

• 1:01:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, all, all across the board.

• 1:01:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, anyone.

• 1:01:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I, I, even Caleb has, Caleb's joked about that too, where he's like, if I ever get hard for the money, I'm, I'm just gonna go down a Republican comedy route.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:45Drew Afualo?

  If I wanna buy a yacht or something, if I wanna do some crazy.

• 1:01:47Speaker 01

  He's gotta hurry it. Now's the moment. It's happening now.

• 1:01:50Drew Afualo?

  The window's open right now. Yeah, that Roseanne window is wide open. You know what I'm saying? Jump right through that hole.

• 1:01:55Speaker 01

  Brendan and I always talk about, like, if we had no, if we just lost it all, hard for money, no compass, we would just go on Fox News and we, we were like, I guarantee I could become the most successful Fox News contributor in one year.

• 1:02:06Drew Afualo?

  Oh, hell yeah.

• 1:02:06Speaker 01

  In one year.

• 1:02:07Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:02:07Speaker 01

  They would eat me up if I just started saying whatever dumb shit.

• 1:02:09Drew Afualo?

  No, for real, anything.

• 1:02:10Speaker 01

  Matt's joining us again. I'm like, fuck it, fuck women, like, look at that guy, he's got.

• 1:02:14Drew Afualo?

  Me too. If I, if I got so desperate to be relevant and famous and make money, I could do the same thing, but I would do one of those like, I'm a former feminist.

• 1:02:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:24Drew Afualo?

  And I've learned, I've learned why it's so harmful.

• 1:02:28Speaker 01

  I lived in New York City for 14, I had to leave. It got too crazy.

• 1:02:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's me deprogramming.

• 1:02:33Speaker 01

  They let too many of those people.

• 1:02:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I literally go down the trad wife route.

• 1:02:37Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 1:02:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I just go down that route. And then if I really get hard for the money, I'll start doing that.

• 1:02:41Speaker 01

  Dark, but an option.

• 1:02:45Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, right. Honestly, I'd rather, for real, I'd rather honestly just fuck off into oblivion. I would rather do that than honestly go down the trad wife route.

• 1:02:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, pick up a trade.

• 1:02:54Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah. That's so true. That's such a good point.

• 1:02:57Speaker 01

  Fucking, we need air traffic controllers, don't we? Don't we? Planes aren't always killing.

• 1:03:01Drew Afualo?

  There's a teacher shortage, there's a nurse shortage, there's all kinds of shortages.

• 1:03:05Speaker 01

  I'll do that for a living. I'll save lives every day.

• 1:03:09Drew Afualo?

  Even when I was like, living in fear of the internet in the beginning, like more so just like the magnitude with which I was being like amplified, I was like, this is a, so many eyes like constantly and it was, it's kind of upsetting to me. Uh, but this is my dream job. I was like, I, I love to be, I, in entertainment, I love to entertain, I really wanna act, I wanna write, I wanna do all these things. So this is like a dream for me, but I do have to like make peace with what I am leaving behind. Right.

• 1:03:35Speaker 01

  Commented on it. I've thought about that too, like if I end up getting to whatever that next level looks like.

• 1:03:39Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:03:40Speaker 01

  You can't control the narrative.

• 1:03:41Drew Afualo?

  No, at all. To a certain point you can't. And that's like a big thing for me is control. I have a, a control issue.

• 1:03:47Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:03:48Drew Afualo?

  According to my therapist, yes. According to my therapist, The Rock, yes.

• 1:03:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, getting huge shots. Whatever you're paying them, definitely.

• 1:03:54Drew Afualo?

  Right, for real. Um, yeah, I, I talk about her constantly. Um, but yeah, like working through, uh, what I've had to let go of is, has been probably one of the harder parts of doing it. But when I was first like, you know, doing the, just the internet stuff, I had, I'd maybe just started the comment section and I was getting nervous. Uh, my fiance was like, I was like, well, what if like, what if it all goes away like tomorrow? And then he, he was like, well, then we'll go back to being happy in our lives like we were.

• 1:04:23Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 1:04:23Drew Afualo?

  Because we were, because I was so happy. Yeah, right?

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he got me. Turns out one's good. Alert the church elders, one's good.

• 1:04:32Speaker 01

  We found the one.

• 1:04:33Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, we found, we found the one. So, uh, but yeah, he, he told me, he's like, we'll just go back to living our lives. We were so happy before this happened, which is true.

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  If you don't mind me asking.

• 1:04:41Drew Afualo?

  He's a, a personal trainer.

• 1:04:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, see.

• 1:04:46Speaker 01

  If you said podcast, I'd have been like, I'm done with this shit. We can't all be podcasting.

• 1:04:50Drew Afualo?

  No, I, like, no, for real, there's no more, there's no more space.

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  So every day he like pushes people to be their best selves.

• 1:04:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, him doing that to me, yeah. Him motivating me.

• 1:04:59Speaker 01

  I think I gotta cut this part from the fucking interview.

• 1:05:02Drew Afualo?

  For real. No, he has been, yeah, he's, um, he has been one of those guys. And even like,

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 1:05:08Drew Afualo?

  When I first started making content, like, the first thing men told me were like, oh, you're fucking fat, ugly and most likely single. Wrong. And then they see what he looks like and they're like, oh, he's probably ugly.

• 1:05:19Speaker 01

  I've seen it, no, he's gorgeous, man.

• 1:05:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he is. And he's tall and smart and handsome. It's real bummer.

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:25Drew Afualo?

  It's fucking bummer.

• 1:05:26Speaker 01

  He's off the market.

• 1:05:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he's off the market. Um, it's just a bummer that like, he's, he's handsome and it's a bummer for men who hate me, like when they see him, they're like.

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  That is a great.

• 1:05:34Drew Afualo?

  I've, I've literally had.

• 1:05:36Speaker 01

  It would matter if he was.

• 1:05:37Drew Afualo?

  No, if he wasn't, yeah.

• 1:05:38Speaker 01

  But, but it is, that is an ultimate trump card of like, it's like, shit.

• 1:05:42Drew Afualo?

  I know. Well, especially.

• 1:05:43Speaker 01

  To this and you're.

• 1:05:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, even on a literal scale, him being, um, like, just optics wise, like, the, the picture of masculinity that they like, think is awesome. Like, they think men who look like him feel like he does, feel like they do about, about all stuff, yeah.

• 1:06:00Speaker 01

  Like, yeah, if you didn't talk to him, you wouldn't necessarily assume.

• 1:06:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so like that, I think that's the biggest.

• 1:06:05Speaker 01

  Sneaky progressive men, that's fucked.

• 1:06:07Drew Afualo?

  I know, I've had, I, he's had thousands of men be like, you know, hey, like, I really fucking hate your girl, but like, you look good, dude. Do you have any like tips? Can you imagine a, a more cuck message to send another man? Hey, I think, I think your wife's a bitch, but like, how'd you get the delts, man? Do you have like, do you have a routine or like, what's the deal there?

• 1:06:28Speaker 01

  All, all these sad men just wanna be strong and, and cool.

• 1:06:30Drew Afualo?

  Big and strong. Cause I think they're convinced that, that, that helps with women.

• 1:06:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:35Drew Afualo?

  They're like, oh, well, women love this. And then women are going.

• 1:06:37Speaker 01

  It can't be my personality.

• 1:06:37Drew Afualo?

  That's the funniest part is like.

• 1:06:39Speaker 01

  It's my trust. No, sorry, Danny.

• 1:06:42Drew Afualo?

  It can't be me. Well, and that's funny because I, I always think like, let's just say you didn't have everything that you think women want, right? Like height, hairline, fucking legs, money, you're in shape, you got big Hercules pecs and a six pack, and you're so awesome.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:57Drew Afualo?

  And she still isn't fucking with you. The list is actually really short then of why they don't like you. It's just you. It's like the essence of you.

• 1:07:03Speaker 01

  Pick up a book and start there.

• 1:07:05Drew Afualo?

  Even Caleb, Caleb said on their show, he's like, ask a question and wa, and wait for the answer. If you do that, like, women love that.

• 1:07:12Speaker 01

  Amazed by that. People are amazed by the just, uh, yeah.

• 1:07:15Drew Afualo?

  The ability to listen.

• 1:07:16Speaker 01

  It's crazy. Cause I feel like I've never really thought about that much, but then like, you'll meet new friends and they'll be like, oh, so nice hanging out. You, like, you actually like asked us questions about our lives and you're like, what's going on? Like, is it phone brain? Is it just like, people are like, they're just thinking about like TikTok or they're thinking about like their next thing they're gonna scroll on and they.

• 1:07:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, honestly, probably, but I think, this is like a newer theory. I've, I've been cooking everything, so it's funny you bring that up. I, I think it's, people want to be asked questions, which is not new, but it's almost like they're practicing in their mind, the quippy thing they would say if it got put on TikTok. Yes, like if it got, and I'm like, this is a normal human conversation, like there's no cameras here.

• 1:07:57Speaker 01

  There might be some legs to that.

• 1:07:58Drew Afualo?

  That's what I'm saying. Because of podcasting too becoming so prevalent as well.

• 1:08:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:04Drew Afualo?

  I think that people are, and this happens all the time with me, when they're like, I could like, honestly, if I had the time, I could do that too. Like, I just like, if I had the time, like, I could, but you couldn't, like, not, not everyone can. And I think that's why people like, you know, when, when, that's saying, they say when they're like, people love to talk about themselves. So like, if you ask them questions, they'll, they'll find joy in that.

• 1:08:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:26Drew Afualo?

  But that's like an age old thing, but I think in more recent conversation, if it feels like you're being talked at a lot, cause I've been to a lot of events and stuff, whether they're like all influencers, or it's like all like big celebrities, or it's a mix of the two.

• 1:08:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:40Drew Afualo?

  There have been many times I've had conversations where I'm like, I haven't said anything once. I've been sitting here listening. Yeah, I'm just going.

• 1:08:49Speaker 01

  You've done a lot of, uh, like red carpet stuff, haven't you? What's that experience like? Cause I feel like it's high risk, low reward as far as like, I've seen people get eviscerated for doing these things.

• 1:08:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.

• 1:08:59Speaker 01

  Part of me kinda wants to do it.

• 1:09:01Drew Afualo?

  You should.

• 1:09:02Speaker 01

  I mean, well, you gotta log up there.

• 1:09:05Drew Afualo?

  You should, just like, call them up.

• 1:09:07Speaker 01

  I think, yeah, yeah, that's my mom. Go into SNL and give them the red. Just, mom.

• 1:09:13Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's such a like older generation thing.

• 1:09:15Speaker 01

  But did you, how, like, I'm sure you've done many at this point, right?

• 1:09:18Drew Afualo?

  Right, yeah.

• 1:09:18Speaker 01

  I've definitely seen some clips, I don't know what events, but like, do you enjoy that experience? Cause I feel like I would, I, I feel like I would love getting the gig.

• 1:09:25Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 1:09:26Speaker 01

  And then I feel like being there, cause I, as you know, I don't watch TV to completion. And I think if.

• 1:09:30Drew Afualo?

  Neither do I.

• 1:09:30Speaker 01

  If actors came up to me, I'd be like, oh god, like, what do they do? I don't know.

• 1:09:35Drew Afualo?

  I'm actually on record extensively talking about how much I never watch new things, for the most part.

• 1:09:40Speaker 01

  So how do you cover that? Cause now, give me like a podcasting tip, cause I'm just starting my podcast.

• 1:09:44Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, I would love, yeah.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  How do you handle when someone's like, you don't really know their shit? Whether it's a red carpet or it's like in here?

• 1:09:50Drew Afualo?

  It, I think, yeah, well, yeah, in here, I know, for real. There's like, how does anyone have the time, right, to watch it all? I think for me, and you have this, cause I can, I can tell, cause we've been talking now for a minute.

• 1:10:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:03Drew Afualo?

  Um, it's like, again, it's listening and interpreting. Like, I feel like a lot of times what they like to be asked, and what they always get asked are two very different things. So a lot of times, even like, uh, cause award season I've covered twice now, like extensively, I've done every fucking award show you could possibly fucking think of, I think.

• 1:10:20Speaker 01

  Oscars and stuff?

• 1:10:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I've done the Oscars three, four times, three times.

• 1:10:23Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 1:10:24Drew Afualo?

  One, two, three, no, four times, four times. Yeah, it's a lot. Um, that carpet's fucking insane. And they still to this day have no air conditioning. What's that about? That's crazy. Um, yeah, I've done Globes, I've done Emmys, I've done Actor Awards, which used to be SAG, the SAG Awards, like, that one's my favorite one.

• 1:10:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel like everyone's cutting loose at that one.

• 1:10:42Drew Afualo?

  And I think at that one, I, and I've surmised this now after like having done it a few times, like, that one especially, they're chill, like all talent is in a good mood, because they kinda picked each other. So it's like, they love each other.

• 1:10:54Speaker 01

  It's like the, yeah.

• 1:10:55Drew Afualo?

  They're not the Academy. Yeah, and they're not, and they're not like fighting with the Academy or trying to like perform or, or whatever, like to a certain extent. They don't have to like meet these in crazy invisible standards of the Academy. Whereas at like SAG, the SAG Awards, like they have a good time, they're real loose at that one. Like they have a lot of fun there.

• 1:11:12Speaker 01

  Are you in SAG?

• 1:11:13Drew Afualo?

  No, if you can believe.

• 1:11:14Speaker 01

  This feels crazy.

• 1:11:15Drew Afualo?

  I know, I've done quite a few things. Well, actually, I think recently, I just recently, like, qualified to apply, but I'm not in. I've done, being like, and what were you in?

• 1:11:27Speaker 01

  I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna talk to the president after.

• 1:11:30Drew Afualo?

  I'm gonna have to call up SAG. A cop. Just kidding. Okay, cop. No, um, I've done commercials more than anything.

• 1:11:38Speaker 01

  Well, you're acting like you've never acted in anything. That's why I was like.

• 1:11:40Drew Afualo?

  I've never been in anything like scripted. I've never like.

• 1:11:44Speaker 01

  Gotcha.

• 1:11:45Drew Afualo?

  Like, as far as I can, that's not true, that's not true, actually. Well, I was just recently in something that was scripted.

• 1:11:52Speaker 01

  I'm in Stranger Things.

• 1:11:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it was, I was in Stranger Things finale. I'll tell you, I'll tell you, but this will have to be believed.

• 1:11:59Speaker 01

  Oh, so excited.

• 1:12:00Drew Afualo?

  I was in the [BLEEP] recently.

• 1:12:01Speaker 01

  Oh, my god, congrats.

• 1:12:02Drew Afualo?

  Thank you, but I was like, I was like a background person, so, and I did have lines, I'll say that.

• 1:12:06Speaker 01

  That's so cool.

• 1:12:07Drew Afualo?

  So that was scripted, so that was the first thing. Hopefully, that's my big break.

• 1:12:09Speaker 01

  I, it's, it's not nothing.

• 1:12:11Drew Afualo?

  Here's hoping.

• 1:12:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not nothing. You're doing a comedy role in a show that's like the hottest show of the moment.

• 1:12:16Drew Afualo?

  Hopefully, they don't cut my scene.

• 1:12:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:18Drew Afualo?

  So, I guess we'll see.

• 1:12:20Speaker 01

  We say this now, it comes out, and it just, for some reason, it's black.

• 1:12:23Drew Afualo?

  Redacted.

• 1:12:24Speaker 01

  What happened?

• 1:12:24Drew Afualo?

  I'm redacted out of it.

• 1:12:25Speaker 01

  It's so weird.

• 1:12:26Drew Afualo?

  For real, what would they do? That's so strange. Yeah, for real.

• 1:12:29Speaker 01

  Whoever's influencer one.

• 1:12:32Drew Afualo?

  But going back to your question about carpets, I think, uh, I think just generally understanding why they're there, like, for what piece of art.

• 1:12:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:41Drew Afualo?

  And then, uh, but typically on carpets, the good thing about that is like, this is not me saying, don't do your research, because you should do your research. But the good thing about carpets is you got about fifteen seconds.

• 1:12:52Speaker 01

  Oh, it's that quick?

• 1:12:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so you can't.

• 1:12:54Speaker 01

  It never feels that quick when you're watching it.

• 1:12:55Drew Afualo?

  And you can't, you just can't get into the nitty gritty of anything they're in. So you gotta be real, like, snappy about it, so.

• 1:13:01Speaker 01

  You look great.

• 1:13:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you look great. Yeah, they always wanna talk about who they're wearing, because they're always being sponsored by someone, that's like another, uh, thing I hate asking, but it's one of those where it kinda helps warm them up a little bit. But I like to think of fun, silly questions that, like, are relative to what they're doing and why they're there, but it's also not something they've, they've been asked two billion times. Especially when you get to the Oscars, because the Oscars is their last stop, essentially, like, the of a three-month run. Yeah, and they're feeling a little, uh, at that carpet, but if you talk about it in a way where it's something fun, like, at this year's Oscars, I was like, tonight's the night of best. Uh, if you could give an Oscar to best crafty, who would you give it to?

• 1:13:43Speaker 01

  Oh, that's fun.

• 1:13:44Drew Afualo?

  And they're like, ooh, oh, my gosh, I love, and then, you know. At the Actor Awards, I asked the same thing, I was like, the Actor Awards had a big name change this year, if you could change your actor name to anything, what would it be?

• 1:13:55Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 1:13:55Drew Afualo?

  And then they're all, ooh, so it's like, I, I think questions like that work.

• 1:13:59Speaker 01

  A little silly for fifteen seconds.

• 1:14:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and they work, and then I do like all, the whole snack bit too, which is huge for them, like, they, they love a good snack.

• 1:14:05Speaker 01

  Snacks you're bringing in or whatever.

• 1:14:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I bring snacks, I used to bring a big ugly tote bag.

• 1:14:09Speaker 01

  Oh, you bring snacks?

• 1:14:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I bring snacks.

• 1:14:10Speaker 01

  I think I've seen these clips.

• 1:14:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, maybe you haven't been watching me.

• 1:14:13Speaker 01

  No, I'm sorry.

• 1:14:14Drew Afualo?

  I'm just kidding.

• 1:14:15Speaker 01

  Don't, don't.

• 1:14:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I bring, I bring, I do bring snacks, um, that's part of my bit with them, but it's one of those where I'm like, as someone who has been to carpets, not like at the same way they have been, I'm like, you almost never have time to eat before you get there, because you're, especially, uh, if you're in glam or anything like that, it just takes fucking forever. And so, you're, I always go like, I end on that fun question, so I'm always like, you know, we don't get to always eat before these things, I did bring snacks, would you like one?

• 1:14:44Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:14:45Drew Afualo?

  And they're always like, they're always like, oh, my god, yeah, I would love one.

• 1:14:48Speaker 01

  Do you, do you get nervous doing stuff like that?

• 1:14:51Drew Afualo?

  Honestly, no.

• 1:14:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, what's that about?

• 1:14:53Drew Afualo?

  I don't know.

• 1:14:55Speaker 01

  I don't get the vibe that you, yeah, you get nervous at anything.

• 1:14:57Drew Afualo?

  No, and I think the only time I've ever, like, truly been nervous was when, um, I met Beyonce.

• 1:15:03Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:15:04Drew Afualo?

  For obvious reasons, it's Beyonce.

• 1:15:06Speaker 01

  Well, but like, where'd you meet her?

• 1:15:11Speaker 03

  Welcome to 215 Maple Drive. We just put this property on the market.

• 1:15:17Speaker 04

  Love the crown molding.

• 1:15:18Speaker 03

  Oh, wait until you see the walk-in closets and the bathroom tile.

• 1:15:22Speaker 04

  Does it have Verizon FiOS? You know, one hundred percent fiber internet.

• 1:15:26Speaker 03

  No FiOS, but it looks like it's got cable. Let's check out the kitchen.

• 1:15:30Speaker 04

  No FiOS? Yeah, no, thank you.

• 1:15:33Speaker 03

  Don't you wanna see the rest? Okay, bye-bye.

• 1:15:36Speaker 05

  Get Verizon FiOS, because when you're moving, it's one hundred percent or nothing.

• 1:15:40Speaker 00

  Hi, it's Danny Pellegrino from Everything Iconic. Twelve celebrities, one Don, and cold, hard cash. From the producers of The Traitors comes The Mob, the new Hulu original series. The iconic Parker Posey hosts this unique reality competition show where twelve celebrity contestants shake down in an Italian villa to win a share of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Watch the new Hulu original series, The Mob, premiering October twenty-sixth on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

• 1:16:15Speaker 01

  Context.

• 1:16:16Drew Afualo?

  I just met her privately, I didn't, nobody was recording it, and she's just my everything, she's everything to me, she's the sun.

• 1:16:21Speaker 01

  Dinner? Like, what do you mean?

• 1:16:22Drew Afualo?

  No, no, no, I went to, I went to, I, I went, I meant in the sense it wasn't recorded or anything, it wasn't like for social. Like, she, she threw an event for her hairline sacred.

• 1:16:31Speaker 01

  Oh, cool.

• 1:16:31Drew Afualo?

  And so, I got invited to the event, they said no plus ones, and it was real strict, and I, and I don't.

• 1:16:36Speaker 01

  That's when you had to know.

• 1:16:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I don't go to things that don't have plus ones, because I'm like, I'm not gonna go by my fucking self, unless, unless it's something like that.

• 1:16:43Speaker 01

  Beyonce.

• 1:16:43Drew Afualo?

  And then one of my friends got invited, so we went together, and I just thought she was just gonna be there, I didn't, I was like, she has to be there, because like, there's no fucking way, and they didn't send the address until two hours before the event.

• 1:16:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:54Drew Afualo?

  So, then they sent it to everyone and threw an encrypted fucking link, so it was like all kinds of shit.

• 1:16:59Speaker 01

  At that point, yeah.

• 1:17:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like, she has to be there, so we did see her from afar.

• 1:17:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:03Drew Afualo?

  And that was more than enough for me.

• 1:17:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's great.

• 1:17:05Drew Afualo?

  Because I don't need to, it's, I don't know, it just was freaking me out, I was like, I've.

• 1:17:09Speaker 01

  Just being in the room.

• 1:17:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, just being, I was like, I can't, it's probably for the best I don't see her, and then I don't meet her. And then they ended up taking us to a back room, and, and then my friend who I was with, Brittany, who loves her like I do, and she was like, oh, my god, what do you think's gonna happen? And I was like, I don't know, but lock in.

• 1:17:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, we have, this is the moment.

• 1:17:25Drew Afualo?

  It was funny, because we were standing.

• 1:17:26Speaker 01

  You felt like you were losing.

• 1:17:27Drew Afualo?

  For real.

• 1:17:28Speaker 01

  You're starting to lose the plot.

• 1:17:28Drew Afualo?

  When we were standing, in this back room, we're waiting for the door to open, we were both standing there, and we were kind of making small talk a little bit. But then I was like, honestly, dude, I can't even think straight, I can't talk right now.

• 1:17:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:39Drew Afualo?

  And she was like, me either, so we just stood in silence, like, I'm just like, getting myself together, I was like, okay, I need to make sure I'm cool, and, and chill, and so awesome. Like, I was just like, yeah, I'm gonna be awesome.

• 1:17:50Speaker 01

  Did you have a conversation with her?

• 1:17:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, we did, we chatted for a little bit, like, five, five, five-ish minutes, I would say.

• 1:17:55Speaker 01

  I, uh.

• 1:17:56Drew Afualo?

  That's the only time I've ever been nervous. What about you? Do you get nervous?

• 1:17:58Speaker 01

  I don't, it depends, not really.

• 1:18:01Drew Afualo?

  No?

• 1:18:01Speaker 01

  I don't like to be like, sitting around waiting for the thing for a long time.

• 1:18:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:05Speaker 01

  Like, that always gets me a little like, can we just do the thing? Like, sitting around, I just overthink.

• 1:18:09Drew Afualo?

  It like amps it.

• 1:18:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, especially if you're like, like, [BLEEP], if I was like, sitting around forever waiting for that, I think I'd be like, what is this? What am I doing again?

• 1:18:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you would've hated that then, because I sat the first day for about fourteen hours.

• 1:18:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:18:20Drew Afualo?

  Didn't, didn't put me on camera once. And they said, and I'll see you tomorrow at seven AM, and I said, all right, and I will be here.

• 1:18:26Speaker 01

  I'm better than, yeah.

• 1:18:27Drew Afualo?

  And I will be here.

• 1:18:28Speaker 01

  You're starting to get a little [BLEEP]. No, we got invited, my, my girlfriend and I got invited to an event for a whiskey brand.

• 1:18:35Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:18:35Speaker 01

  And it was like in this really hip bar below Thirty Rock.

• 1:18:38Drew Afualo?

  Nice.

• 1:18:38Speaker 01

  And it was, uh, I don't know, we'll have to cut this, I don't, probably doesn't matter, but like, it was the whiskey brand owned by Paul McCartney's daughter.

• 1:18:46Drew Afualo?

  Oh.

• 1:18:46Speaker 01

  And the invite was like, come enjoy our new blend of Scotch whiskey.

• 1:18:50Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:18:51Speaker 01

  Stick around for a very special musical guest.

• 1:18:54Drew Afualo?

  What the hell?

• 1:18:55Speaker 01

  We were like, Paul McCartney.

• 1:18:56Drew Afualo?

  It's gotta be Paul McCartney.

• 1:18:57Speaker 01

  He's gonna be there, going off, and we're gonna get a private concert.

• 1:19:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:01Speaker 01

  And it was very, it was the same kinda stuff, it was like, they didn't really tell you like, a lot about the invitation, they just said it was like.

• 1:19:05Drew Afualo?

  You're just kind of assuming.

• 1:19:06Speaker 01

  They said it was like near Thirty Rock, it was like in that area, so I was like, Paul McCartney.

• 1:19:10Drew Afualo?

  He's gotta be.

• 1:19:10Speaker 01

  He's probably hanging out with Lauren upstairs.

• 1:19:12Drew Afualo?

  For real, I was gonna say.

• 1:19:13Speaker 01

  And he's gonna come down.

• 1:19:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he's coming straight from the writers' room.

• 1:19:15Speaker 01

  And it's his daughter's thing, so it's like, what a get, it makes so much sense.

• 1:19:18Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:19Speaker 01

  Dude. We got there, we walk in, grand piano on stage, I go, it's Paul McCartney, this is the coolest shit, and we're drinking, and we're getting a little buzz.

• 1:19:28Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:28Speaker 01

  And, uh, God bless this man, love him, John Batiste comes out with that fucking plastic thing, and he's like, and I look at my girlfriend, and I go, I don't think Paul's coming.

• 1:19:41Drew Afualo?

  Me getting edged?

• 1:19:42Speaker 01

  I don't think it's Paul.

• 1:19:42Drew Afualo?

  You're like, I got edged?

• 1:19:43Speaker 01

  When the saints go marching in, and you could feel, like, he, he was good, he's amazing, but like, but you could feel, but you could feel the room being like, huh.

• 1:19:51Drew Afualo?

  Hey, what the hell?

• 1:19:52Speaker 01

  I think we're getting Let It Be tonight.

• 1:19:54Drew Afualo?

  Hey, what the hell?

• 1:19:55Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:19:56Drew Afualo?

  Hey, okay, no, for sure.

• 1:19:58Speaker 01

  Very funny. It was like the funniest entrance I've ever seen, because everyone was kinda like, ooh, looking around, and then when he came out with the thing. You know that plastic thing I'm talking about, right? It's like a plastic keyboard that he blows into.

• 1:20:11Speaker 01

  It sounds insane, he was like,

• 1:20:14Drew Afualo?

  And it'd be funnier if the intro, they were like, and we know you love Paul McCartney, and everyone's like, yes? So get ready for not Paul McCartney.

• 1:20:23Speaker 01

  Have you ever watched the commercial breaks of Colbert? When we have something special.

• 1:20:27Drew Afualo?

  And trust me when I say, you're gonna love it, okay? You're gonna love that.

• 1:20:32Speaker 01

  I don't wanna shit talk that guy too much, because he is really nice, and he's, yeah, the expectation that was set.

• 1:20:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:39Drew Afualo?

  You're all, well, I got edged, thanks for that, um, your girlfriend's like, hey, don't invite me to these things anymore.

• 1:20:43Speaker 01

  I was like, it's our last one, I promise.

• 1:20:47Drew Afualo?

  Well, that that story is actually a perfect pivot to close us out. We're gonna do some fun facts for you.

• 1:20:51Speaker 01

  Deep dive, I'm scared.

• 1:20:52Drew Afualo?

  We do have some, okay. So this first one says, you have had a collection of temp jobs.

• 1:20:58Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:20:58Drew Afualo?

  Including a mailroom assistant at an architecture firm.

• 1:21:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:02Drew Afualo?

  A linen startup company.

• 1:21:04Speaker 01

  That's correct.

• 1:21:05Drew Afualo?

  And a bag resale startup. Well, you're the man, a man of many startups.

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I'll go wherever the temp agency sends me.

• 1:21:12Drew Afualo?

  Okay, entrepreneur.

• 1:21:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, the architecture firm was awesome because I went there, it was supposed to be like three days.

• 1:21:18Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  And this guy's name was Willie, who was the mailroom guy. And he was like, he spoke really quickly, he was like an older guy.

• 1:21:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:25Speaker 01

  And he's like, so you're good for the next three months, right? Like, that was the first thing he said, and I was like, I thought this was three days. He goes, no, I'm about to go into surgery tomorrow. And he's like, you're gonna run the mailroom for three months. And I was like, what?

• 1:21:35Drew Afualo?

  Congratulations.

• 1:21:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, I got like promoted.

• 1:21:37Drew Afualo?

  You've just been promoted.

• 1:21:38Speaker 01

  And I still think about that guy, because when I worked at this mailroom, it was a big architecture firm in Midtown Manhattan, and people would come up to me all the time.

• 1:21:46Drew Afualo?

  Really?

• 1:21:46Speaker 01

  Like, hey, I need to like, I need to ship these things, and I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing, but everyone like, didn't hate me for that, so I just kinda like dicked around.

• 1:21:54Drew Afualo?

  Personality hire?

• 1:21:55Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, oh, a hundred percent.

• 1:21:56Drew Afualo?

  Me too.

• 1:21:57Speaker 01

  I did that for like a whole summer, it was good.

• 1:21:58Drew Afualo?

  Oh, period. That's fun. Every time I think of a mailroom, I think of Elf, when he's like getting drunk in the mailroom.

• 1:22:04Speaker 01

  Not that far off. Like, but it was just me.

• 1:22:06Drew Afualo?

  You're just by yourself.

• 1:22:07Speaker 01

  But it had that look, like, it was kinda dingy.

• 1:22:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and like underground.

• 1:22:11Speaker 01

  When they needed help.

• 1:22:11Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:22:12Speaker 01

  And I was like, I don't know.

• 1:22:13Drew Afualo?

  And you're like, I can tell you a joke, though.

• 1:22:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:15Drew Afualo?

  I can't mail this, but I can give you a joke.

• 1:22:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I remember logging into like Instagram on their desktop computer. And I would just sit there and pray no one came over.

• 1:22:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, for real, you're like, well, my job's pretty much done.

• 1:22:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a good run.

• 1:22:27Drew Afualo?

  This next one says, you attended the 2013 SNL live taping hosted by Paul Rudd and One Direction.

• 1:22:34Speaker 01

  That is correct.

• 1:22:36Drew Afualo?

  That's crazy.

• 1:22:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:38Drew Afualo?

  What a coveted place to be at the time. In 2013, One Direction was that girl.

• 1:22:42Speaker 01

  No, they were that girl.

• 1:22:43Drew Afualo?

  On top of the world.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  Well, have you ever been to SNL?

• 1:22:46Drew Afualo?

  No, I haven't actually. No, in person, no.

• 1:22:49Speaker 01

  It's like, they give a lot of tickets away from people that do standby outside.

• 1:22:52Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:53Speaker 01

  And normally, that's like comedy nerds, blah blah, but when you have a guest like, like, you know, One Direction, or like, if it was like a K-pop band, or anyone that has like a huge fanbase.

• 1:23:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, nothing but young women.

• 1:23:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, and so it was just like loaded with like teenage girls. Which is like, if you're a comedian, that's who you wanna be.

• 1:23:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. Yeah, double dip for them.

• 1:23:11Speaker 01

  The thing I remember most about that was like, it was a pretty loaded episode. They had like, I think Will Ferrell cameo, with, cause Paul Rudd was there.

• 1:23:18Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I bet, because it's probably one of their biggest ones at the time, because One Direction was there.

• 1:23:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was a huge show, but I remember a lot of things just like, not playing, because it was like, everyone was there to see like, if Harry walked into a sketch and it came out, it's like.

• 1:23:31Drew Afualo?

  Like, ah!

• 1:23:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was like.

• 1:23:33Drew Afualo?

  Not laughing at any other joke.

• 1:23:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:35Drew Afualo?

  They're like, okay, yeah, that's funny, show me the boys, bring me the boys.

• 1:23:38Speaker 01

  You know what other SNL I was at that's way crazier?

• 1:23:41Drew Afualo?

  What?

• 1:23:41Speaker 01

  I was at the dress rehearsal for Kanye West and Adam Driver, when Kanye West freaked out on the live one.

• 1:23:49Drew Afualo?

  Oh.

• 1:23:49Speaker 01

  And did his rant, you know what I'm talking about?

• 1:23:50Drew Afualo?

  Yes, of course I do, of course I remember.

• 1:23:53Speaker 01

  He made the cast all stay on stage, and he was like, hey, trying to, like, take my hat from me, and blah blah blah. I saw him at dress rehearsal with my cousin, and we are the biggest Kanye fans, uh, we were.

• 1:24:04Drew Afualo?

  Were, were at one point, yeah.

• 1:24:05Speaker 01

  Dress rehearsal, he fucking crushed. And I'm, I'm on cloud nine, I'm watching it with my cousin, who's like, younger cousin, he just moved to the city, I got him in.

• 1:24:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:14Speaker 01

  And we're like, can you believe that we're watching Kanye?

• 1:24:16Drew Afualo?

  Oh, Jesus Christ.

• 1:24:18Speaker 01

  And like, we're telling everyone, dude, Kanye crushed it, it's so cool, you're gonna love it. And then everyone's like reading tweets, they're like, dude, apparently he's like holding the cast hostage, and we're like, no, that's not, that's not the Kanye.

• 1:24:29Drew Afualo?

  That's, wait, wait, what?

• 1:24:31Speaker 01

  And we still joke, we still joke. He was awesome. We still joke to this day that we saw the last, like, great moment.

• 1:24:36Drew Afualo?

  But, yeah, yeah, you witnessed it.

• 1:24:38Speaker 01

  Something happened during dress and live, where he like, yeah, I was like, damn, we caught, we caught the last moment.

• 1:24:43Drew Afualo?

  Damn, of him being normal.

• 1:24:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:45Drew Afualo?

  And not evil. That's great.

• 1:24:48Speaker 01

  It's so sad.

• 1:24:48Drew Afualo?

  That's you being like, oh, like, that's like, if you were like, yeah, Armie Hammer's my favorite actor of all time.

• 1:24:55Speaker 01

  He was really cool to me.

• 1:24:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he was, what do you mean? He was so awesome. What?

• 1:25:00Speaker 01

  Anything strange?

• 1:25:01Drew Afualo?

  He said, what?

• 1:25:02Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, we looked like crazy people at the bar. So, didn't you say you saw Kanye? They're all pulling up Twitter, and I'm like.

• 1:25:06Drew Afualo?

  They're like, no, no, I, I don't remember saying that.

• 1:25:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was so good, and he's my best friend. Anything he says, I agree with.

• 1:25:15Drew Afualo?

  I'm the biggest fan in the entire world. Meanwhile, he's up there waxing poetic about some evil shit. Oh, man, that's crazy.

• 1:25:23Speaker 01

  Madness.

• 1:25:24Drew Afualo?

  That's, that's crazy, those are the two you've been to?

• 1:25:26Speaker 01

  I've been to like a couple others, but, but nothing that I would even remember too much of that. That's the only thing I remember like so explicitly.

• 1:25:33Drew Afualo?

  Well, yes, of course, I would too, shit. Oh, okay. This one says that you played Officer Donnie Jones on five episodes of Law and Order SVO.

• 1:25:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, false.

• 1:25:43Drew Afualo?

  False? No way, I was gonna say.

• 1:25:46Speaker 01

  If that was that detailed, I was like, your producers are crazy.

• 1:25:49Drew Afualo?

  I fucking love that show.

• 1:25:51Speaker 01

  You do?

• 1:25:51Drew Afualo?

  Law and Order SVO, hell yeah.

• 1:25:52Speaker 01

  That means a lot.

• 1:25:53Drew Afualo?

  Mariska Hargitay?

• 1:25:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's wonderful. She's wonderful. That is, uh, one of my most cherished New York experiences was doing that show.

• 1:26:00Drew Afualo?

  I fucking bet, I was gonna say.

• 1:26:02Speaker 01

  It was really cool, a lot of funny story. I mean, Mariska's really nice, uh, everyone in the cast is super nice.

• 1:26:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:09Speaker 01

  That was my first ever like TV acting thing. First and maybe last, I don't know. I thought about it for a second, I was like, wait.

• 1:26:16Drew Afualo?

  Now that I really think about it, how was Ice T?

• 1:26:18Speaker 01

  Very, very nice.

• 1:26:19Drew Afualo?

  He was nice?

• 1:26:20Speaker 01

  We got makeup together once.

• 1:26:21Drew Afualo?

  Oh, nice.

• 1:26:22Speaker 01

  Unrelated to the show.

• 1:26:24Drew Afualo?

  We just got together. Yeah, went to Ulta.

• 1:26:26Speaker 01

  No, no, we were like in the chairs together, and his, I remember his phone text thing was a Legend of Zelda.

• 1:26:33Drew Afualo?

  Oh, nice.

• 1:26:34Speaker 01

  Opening a treasure box sound effect, and I remember going, huh, interesting. Yeah, dork.

• 1:26:38Drew Afualo?

  Hey, nice nerd.

• 1:26:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:40Drew Afualo?

  That's funny, I interviewed him at the Emmys, um, last year.

• 1:26:43Speaker 01

  With you? He was super nice.

• 1:26:44Drew Afualo?

  He was nice, but I could tell that he was deeply irritated, and I think it's because it was like ninety thousand degrees, like where we were at, at the time, which I understood.

• 1:26:52Speaker 01

  Temperature changes everything.

• 1:26:53Drew Afualo?

  It really does, and I was like, and I remember at the end, he wasn't very, um, he wasn't very fun, like, he didn't really, and honestly, when I read that energy, I don't try to be fun at all, I'm just, I keep it real standard.

• 1:27:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, let me get you out of here.

• 1:27:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly. And then at the end, um, I have another bit that I've been workshopping, but not a lot of award shows like when I do it, not gonna stop me, so.

• 1:27:15Speaker 01

  They don't like you doing stand up.

• 1:27:16Drew Afualo?

  I'm gonna ask for forgiveness. Um, no, I bring this giant jar that says tips on it, so at the very, at the very end, I'm like, I literally go, and so if you have any tips, uh, that'd be great. You're doing well, obviously, you're here, you're here at the Emmys, so you're doing pretty well. And if they say like, if they say like, I don't have cash, I go, well, you could pay me in compliments. What was your favorite thing about talking to me today?

• 1:27:36Speaker 01

  That's funny.

• 1:27:37Drew Afualo?

  What was your favorite?

• 1:27:38Speaker 01

  People don't like that?

• 1:27:39Drew Afualo?

  No, well, I think award shows don't really like it, they're kind of like, and then, and then if they refuse to give me money, or, well, actually, I'll just say, with Ice T, I did it, and he was like, oh, yeah. He pulls out a huge wad of cash, and then he's like flipping off all these hundreds, gets to the center, gives me like five ones, and I was like, you don't wanna give me one of those?

• 1:28:01Speaker 01

  Funny.

• 1:28:01Drew Afualo?

  What, are you hard for the money?

• 1:28:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:28:03Drew Afualo?

  And then, and then he, he didn't laugh, and I went, no worries.

• 1:28:07Drew Afualo?

  Hey, no worries.

• 1:28:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, dumb bit.

• 1:28:09Drew Afualo?

  Hey, you know what? Hey, no worries, have a great time inside, sir.

• 1:28:11Speaker 01

  Next year, I promise.

• 1:28:12Drew Afualo?

  Detective Tutuola? It was, it was an honor.

• 1:28:14Speaker 01

  I don't think I ever had a scene with him.

• 1:28:16Drew Afualo?

  No.

• 1:28:17Speaker 01

  I'm trying to think like, yeah, it's just, it's such a well-oiled machine there.

• 1:28:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I bet.

• 1:28:22Speaker 01

  She kinda like runs the show.

• 1:28:23Drew Afualo?

  Shit, I bet.

• 1:28:25Speaker 01

  I remember doing one scene that I had to report to her what was going on with like a hostage situation.

• 1:28:30Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:28:30Speaker 01

  And I was like, I like come out of the restaurant where the hostage is, and I'm like, they're in there, like, we're, they're holding him down or whatever, and, and she's like, great, and that was all I ever did. I always had like three lines, where I was basically like giving exposition about something.

• 1:28:43Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:43Speaker 01

  And we did the scene once, and the director like was giving notes to Mariska and the other detective, I can't remember her name, and, and I was like, oh, cool, like, that's great. And I thought I was like in the clear, I was like, yeah, crushed it. And the director came up to me, and he goes, he goes, what's your name, what's your name? I go, Matt, Matt. He goes, Matt, just doing way too much.

• 1:29:02Speaker 01

  And all I said, all I said was like, yeah, the hostage is in there.

• 1:29:07Drew Afualo?

  You said, yeah, less you, more Mariska.

• 1:29:09Speaker 01

  Just, just wait.

• 1:29:12Speaker 01

  I was like, I said five words.

• 1:29:13Drew Afualo?

  Oh, got it.

• 1:29:14Speaker 01

  So then I'm sitting there by like my tree where my marquis is, and I'm like, alright, just.

• 1:29:18Drew Afualo?

  How do I give less?

• 1:29:19Speaker 01

  Matt, get it together, Matt.

• 1:29:20Drew Afualo?

  Dial it back, dial it back.

• 1:29:22Speaker 01

  This is a moment, god damn it.

• 1:29:23Drew Afualo?

  Would you go over there with an accent or something?

• 1:29:24Speaker 01

  I don't know, I was like, dude. Yeah.

• 1:29:28Drew Afualo?

  I'm gonna make it count. Whatever it is, I'm gonna make it count.

• 1:29:30Speaker 01

  I did learn.

• 1:29:31Drew Afualo?

  Listen, closed mouths don't get fed. You never know. Sometimes you just gotta throw it out there and see if they pick it up.

• 1:29:36Speaker 01

  Opposite, the hostage.

• 1:29:38Drew Afualo?

  Opposite, he went over there.

• 1:29:39Speaker 01

  He must run in there.

• 1:29:40Drew Afualo?

  You're doing a transatlantic accent?

• 1:29:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, I could not have been more like, I'm sure I just said it like.

• 1:29:46Drew Afualo?

  Just a little too intense?

• 1:29:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, the hostage is in there. But on camera, that probably looked insane. And they were like, yeah, this kid's never done anything.

• 1:29:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he's like, yeah, why don't you calm the fuck down?

• 1:29:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:55Drew Afualo?

  Next take. How's that?

• 1:29:56Speaker 01

  It did make me learn, yeah. Cause I mainly just did like stand up and shit like that.

• 1:30:00Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:30:00Speaker 01

  You kinda have to be like big.

• 1:30:02Drew Afualo?

  Right, for real.

• 1:30:03Speaker 01

  And I was like, no, the camera does pick up like every little like, ah.

• 1:30:06Drew Afualo?

  That's true. That's a good point.

• 1:30:07Speaker 01

  Chill on camera.

• 1:30:08Drew Afualo?

  I know, I've had to like, um, when I did an, I did an NBA commercial a couple of years ago, uh, with Kelly Rowland.

• 1:30:16Speaker 01

  That's cool.

• 1:30:16Drew Afualo?

  Which is very strange, but she was very nice.

• 1:30:18Speaker 01

  It was just for the league, just promoting the league?

• 1:30:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it was for the league. It was to promote the new season, literally, and they had me.

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, season 200's coming up.

• 1:30:25Drew Afualo?

  For real. Another show I have not watched, you know? Uh, but they were wonderful. I really love working with the NBA. They're so great. But they, uh, in the commercial, um, because, and I think it's because like I talk to camera often and like, obviously when you're recording on your phone, that's what you do.

• 1:30:41Speaker 01

  Doing like this thing.

• 1:30:42Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so I, I knew I, my one line was, um, "Follow me, Kelly." That was my one line.

• 1:30:48Speaker 01

  Not easy.

• 1:30:49Drew Afualo?

  And they were, yeah, right, listen. And I was going, "Follow me, Kelly, follow me." And then I was like, they wanted me to close a Surface laptop, cause Surface is a sponsor. They wanted me to close it and then close the end and be like, "Follow me, Kelly."

• 1:31:00Speaker 01

  And you just forget how to close a laptop.

• 1:31:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I was like, okay, perfect, perfect. Like, "Follow me, Kelly." Like, I was like practicing. And then I remember like, one of the takes, and I'm sure, I'm sure you feel the same way I do, like, if I fuck up a take, I feel like the dumbest girl alive.

• 1:31:13Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. You forget how to be a human being sometimes.

• 1:31:15Drew Afualo?

  Everybody wants to kill me and they hate me on this set.

• 1:31:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:18Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, cause I, cause I'm a dumb.

• 1:31:19Speaker 01

  Especially cause you're not the person.

• 1:31:20Drew Afualo?

  Exactly, I'm like.

• 1:31:21Speaker 01

  I know no one wants to ever give me a no.

• 1:31:23Drew Afualo?

  I'm last on the call sheet and I'm being annoying.

• 1:31:25Speaker 01

  I remember I had to take two coffees to my partner in a cop car, and the door is closed. She's like waiting for me. And I go, before we do it, I ask the director.

• 1:31:33Drew Afualo?

  Like, how do I open the door?

• 1:31:35Speaker 01

  I literally go, how do I open the door with the coffees? He goes, "How would you open the door with the coffees?" I was like, noted, got it.

• 1:31:40Drew Afualo?

  Then it feels, then it feels like a trick question.

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  He's like, have you never opened a do, have you ever put a coffee down? I was like, got it, you're right.

• 1:31:45Drew Afualo?

  Well, girl, I don't know. Maybe you have a different creative outlook.

• 1:31:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, they booked me and they were like, is this kid never lived a day?

• 1:31:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you do feel like a sim, like you're like.

• 1:31:53Speaker 01

  What do I do with them? He's like, just figure it out.

• 1:31:55Drew Afualo?

  He's like, no, I'm gonna open the fucking door.

• 1:31:57Speaker 01

  You are so unimportant in this.

• 1:31:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, even with mine too, like when, they would do like a pan thing, like they had a big like arm on the camera and it was moving it across really fast. And so they wanted me to like, be looking forward, look at her, say my line, and then look back. And then one of the takes, I like looked at the camera because it went right here and then I went, and then I was just watching it.

• 1:32:18Speaker 01

  You think you're Jim, but you're obvious?

• 1:32:19Drew Afualo?

  And I did it, yeah, and I didn't, exactly.

• 1:32:21Speaker 01

  NBA, uh, look, I'm.

• 1:32:22Drew Afualo?

  I know, and I, and I, one time, I did it and I didn't think anyone noticed. Don't know why, um, there's about a thousand people on the set.

• 1:32:28Speaker 01

  Everyone at Video Village was like, oh.

• 1:32:30Drew Afualo?

  Oh, Jesus Christ, yeah.

• 1:32:32Speaker 01

  Who is she gonna?

• 1:32:33Drew Afualo?

  And then the director, it was such a big set that the director literally like had a mic that would talk to extras and everything.

• 1:32:38Speaker 01

  That's bad.

• 1:32:39Drew Afualo?

  So he like comes over, he's like, okay, cut. And then he walks over, he goes, and he turns off the little mic, he goes, can't look at the camera.

• 1:32:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:32:45Drew Afualo?

  And I go, oh, yeah. And he goes, you've looked at it twice. You can't look at the camera. Don't look in the camera. Pretend it's not there. And I was like, stupid, stupid, stupid.

• 1:32:50Speaker 01

  Nothing makes you more aware of the camera.

• 1:32:52Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, but it makes me feel very, yeah, it makes me feel very, you know?

• 1:32:56Speaker 01

  That is so funny.

• 1:32:57Drew Afualo?

  But it's all right. We, we live and we learn. We're learning actors.

• 1:33:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, we are just.

• 1:33:01Drew Afualo?

  We're learning on the job.

• 1:33:01Speaker 01

  We're saying eligible slash.

• 1:33:04Drew Afualo?

  Okay, last one. It says that you wrote your own 80's sitcom theme song for Stranger Things. That's crazy. I brought up Stranger Things and I did not know that about you.

• 1:33:12Speaker 01

  Oh my god, yeah, I did do that.

• 1:33:13Drew Afualo?

  You did?

• 1:33:14Speaker 01

  This is back in the Twitter days.

• 1:33:15Drew Afualo?

  Ooh, and did it do well?

• 1:33:18Speaker 01

  I don't think it popped. No, I don't think it popped. That is a deep dive for a film.

• 1:33:24Speaker 01

  I was like trying so hard to do, cause I do like music and I was trying so hard to find a way to bridge the music and the comedy.

• 1:33:29Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 1:33:30Speaker 01

  So whatever was like trending, I'd be like, maybe I'll do like a fake theme song for this and like.

• 1:33:34Drew Afualo?

  Hell, yeah.

• 1:33:34Speaker 01

  I don't even remember how it went, but, uh, that's not a challenge, but like, uh, but yeah, no, I was always doing goofy shit like that.

• 1:33:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:41Speaker 01

  Doing little theme songs.

• 1:33:42Drew Afualo?

  Honestly, that's so funny. I had no idea that you did that and I brought up Stranger Things. Look at us.

• 1:33:46Speaker 01

  I kind of, I forgot about it. That was back when I was throwing shit at the wall, you know?

• 1:33:50Drew Afualo?

  Well, at least you have the music capability to do so. I don't have that. They're lucky I don't have that.

• 1:33:54Speaker 01

  Did you ever play an instrument or no?

• 1:33:56Drew Afualo?

  I played the flute.

• 1:33:57Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that's gonna be a.

• 1:33:57Drew Afualo?

  In like, middle school.

• 1:33:59Speaker 01

  That's hard to do comedy with. I'm sure you could figure it out.

• 1:34:01Drew Afualo?

  Well, Lizzo's got that tip already, so what am I supposed to do? I did play the flute, but I'm not really musically inclined at all. Like, I, I can't really sing or play instruments at all, like. And when I say I can't sing, I mean. No, I'm like.

• 1:34:13Speaker 01

  You strike me as like a musical, like, fan.

• 1:34:16Drew Afualo?

  I, I am a huge fan. That's why I've, I've said before, I love musical theater. I just don't have the chops.

• 1:34:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:34:22Drew Afualo?

  So like, I'm, I'm, I'm a real Rudy situation. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Rudy. You've ever seen the movie?

• 1:34:26Speaker 01

  Been a second.

• 1:34:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the, the sports movie. But that's me with the music industry. Like, I'm just like.

• 1:34:30Speaker 01

  They let the guy play football. Is that Kirby Gooding Jr.?

• 1:34:32Drew Afualo?

  Yes, I have, yes. And I have all the trappings and the will, um, none of the talent.

• 1:34:37Speaker 01

  Oh, tough.

• 1:34:37Drew Afualo?

  Like, that's how I feel about music.

• 1:34:38Speaker 01

  Tough.

• 1:34:39Drew Afualo?

  But honestly, they're lucky, like.

• 1:34:40Speaker 01

  Do you think, hold on, do you think you could get there?

• 1:34:42Drew Afualo?

  I think. I think I could get there.

• 1:34:45Speaker 01

  And we're like, we're hiring a vocal coach, we're like.

• 1:34:48Drew Afualo?

  No, I think I'm gonna undershoot and then if one day I do sing and everyone's like, what is she talking about? She's amazing. I think it's just working in my favor.

• 1:34:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're aiming for the, what is she talking about?

• 1:34:56Drew Afualo?

  The middle. Right, so like, I shoot so low that whatever I land, it'll be more impressive. But it's good I can't sing, I think. If I could sing, I probably would have put out like three albums by now.

• 1:35:04Speaker 01

  You think?

• 1:35:05Drew Afualo?

  And I've only been doing this for a few years, so figure that one out. I think, I think it would make me, I think God hit me with funny and entertaining because like singing would just be too much.

• 1:35:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, you'd be terribly annoying.

• 1:35:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it'd be annoying. It would be me having a MAGA rant at the end of SNL.

• 1:35:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:35:19Drew Afualo?

  That would be me doing that shit.

• 1:35:20Speaker 01

  Drew was so good at dressing. Then she put the hat on and we're like, no, no.

• 1:35:25Drew Afualo?

  And all of a sudden, the, the energy changed almost immediately. But anyways, to wrap us, I would like to ask you, if you have any advice for any aspiring entertainers, whatever medium, you've tried all the mediums in the world and, and you've been.

• 1:35:39Speaker 01

  Let's not act like it's been like throwing darts.

• 1:35:41Drew Afualo?

  No, I'm saying, you're, no, I'm saying you're good at all of them. You've been able to try all of them, like.

• 1:35:46Speaker 01

  Almost overcorrected.

• 1:35:47Drew Afualo?

  That's why I said, well, that's why I said with me, I can't try music, cause I'm bad.

• 1:35:50Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:35:50Drew Afualo?

  You know what I mean? So I'm not even. Oh, well, I am trying DJing. I'm like, they're gonna let me in there one way or another.

• 1:35:55Speaker 01

  It's been nice.

• 1:35:56Drew Afualo?

  If white, if white guys can do it, I can do it too. I feel very confident about that. So I'll figure it out. Hell, yeah. I can YouTube that.

• 1:36:02Speaker 01

  You wanna DJ?

• 1:36:03Drew Afualo?

  Uh, yeah, I would love to.

• 1:36:04Speaker 01

  We should've got to this earlier.

• 1:36:04Drew Afualo?

  I would love to DJ.

• 1:36:05Speaker 01

  Why? What's the?

• 1:36:06Drew Afualo?

  I love to, I love a good cue of music. Like, I love to curate a really nice vibe.

• 1:36:13Speaker 01

  Like a playlist, you know, I can take it to the next level.

• 1:36:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so if there, if DJing could count as just queuing, I think I would kill.

• 1:36:19Speaker 01

  I think nowadays.

• 1:36:19Drew Afualo?

  But right now, I need to learn how to.

• 1:36:21Speaker 01

  I think, I don't think you have to do that.

• 1:36:23Drew Afualo?

  I'm going to, though.

• 1:36:24Speaker 01

  Oh, no, but I, okay, you want really, you wanna be going.

• 1:36:26Drew Afualo?

  No, I mean, like, I will if it mixes the song, but I don't wanna like scratch records for real. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not Run DMC.

• 1:36:33Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:36:34Drew Afualo?

  So I can't do that. I don't have that talent.

• 1:36:36Speaker 01

  DJ, I can see that for you.

• 1:36:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:37Speaker 01

  I can see the headphones one on.

• 1:36:38Drew Afualo?

  Hell, yeah. That's why I was like, at the Boiler Room. Yeah, I said, I'll be at that Dough Lab, yeah, that Coachella.

• 1:36:44Speaker 01

  Behind you, that's the dream.

• 1:36:45Drew Afualo?

  Trix Mattel's doing it. I can fucking do it. I can do whatever that bitch does.

• 1:36:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:36:49Drew Afualo?

  Just kidding.

• 1:36:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, good luck on that journey.

• 1:36:51Drew Afualo?

  Thank you, I appreciate it. But back to my question with you.

• 1:36:54Speaker 01

  Any advice for aspiring entertainer?

• 1:36:55Drew Afualo?

  Any, any entertainer, like whatever creative medium they really wanna explore.

• 1:36:59Speaker 01

  You know, being sincere, I think, get the work out there as quickly as you can.

• 1:37:05Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:05Speaker 01

  Cause then you'll know what you like doing and you'll know how to improve on what's not working. And you can't just sit in your room being like, I know I could write a novel, but not, you gotta just do it.

• 1:37:15Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:37:16Speaker 01

  And a lot of things will suck, but then it'll probably get better. It's hard to keep throwing things at the wall and not get better, so.

• 1:37:21Drew Afualo?

  That's true.

• 1:37:22Speaker 01

  Get the work out there. You can make something on your phone.

• 1:37:25Drew Afualo?

  And there's never, you're never gonna be ready, for real.

• 1:37:27Speaker 01

  Exactly. I never, I still don't feel ready for some of the things I've had to do in the past.

• 1:37:31Drew Afualo?

  You and me both.

• 1:37:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, you just sort of like go into it and, yeah, the chips will fall where they may.

• 1:37:36Drew Afualo?

  Well, that's the, I guess, the, the best thing and the worst thing about, uh, being able to live off of making art.

• 1:37:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:43Drew Afualo?

  It's like sometimes it's gonna hit, sometimes it's not. That is the gamble you run.

• 1:37:46Speaker 01

  And everyone will watch your, your.

• 1:37:47Drew Afualo?

  Either way, they're gonna be tuned in. Yeah, either way, they're gonna see.

• 1:37:51Speaker 01

  What a blessing, yeah.

• 1:37:52Drew Afualo?

  How lucky are we?

• 1:37:53Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 1:37:54Drew Afualo?

  The luckiest people in the world. But thank you so much for coming and hanging out with me today.

• 1:37:57Speaker 01

  Thank you, this was so fun.

• 1:37:58Drew Afualo?

  You're a joy and a delight. I enjoy you. And I am wishing you all the best on your podcast journey.

• 1:38:02Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:38:03Drew Afualo?

  And if you'd like me to be your 13th guest, you let me know.

• 1:38:05Speaker 01

  Please, come to, oh, when you, when you come to New York, you should come do it.

• 1:38:08Drew Afualo?

  I would love to.

• 1:38:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:09Drew Afualo?

  I would love to.

• 1:38:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, you literally might be like guest 13, I think, yeah.

• 1:38:12Drew Afualo?

  Okay, well, lucky me.

• 1:38:15Speaker 01

  We're working out the kinks with Drew.

• 1:38:16Drew Afualo?

  I know, I need to know, I, I don't know the exact number you are, but I'm over 200 at this point.

• 1:38:20Speaker 01

  My lord.

• 1:38:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:21Speaker 01

  You're very good at this. I mean, you don't even tell you that, but yeah, that's 200.

• 1:38:26Drew Afualo?

  That's great.

• 1:38:26Speaker 01

  We got 200?

• 1:38:28Drew Afualo?

  You're gonna, yeah, hello. That's what I'm saying.

• 1:38:31Speaker 01

  The train keeps moving forward.

• 1:38:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, hell, yeah. Hell, yeah, that's why.

• 1:38:35Speaker 01

  It would be a joy to have you in New York.

• 1:38:36Drew Afualo?

  I would love, yeah, I would love. That would be amazing. But thank you so much for coming and hanging out with me. I think you're a delight.

• 1:38:41Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:38:42Drew Afualo?

  So much fun. Thank you all so much for tuning into this episode. For those of you who do not know, where can everybody find you?

• 1:38:47Speaker 01

  Uh, just Matt Bouchelle online, Matt B O O Shell. And then the pod is called That Sounds Like a Lot. It's on Vox Media, uh, episodes every week.

• 1:38:56Drew Afualo?

  Very fun, very cool. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Thank you so much to my amazing guest, Matt. Make sure you guys go check out all of the various projects that he is doing and working on because he is talented. He is an all-around 360 performer.

• 1:39:09Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 1:39:10Drew Afualo?

  That's me plugging you.

• 1:39:10Speaker 01

  No, thank you.

• 1:39:11Drew Afualo?

  This is the manifestation chair.

• 1:39:12Speaker 01

  I wanted to say that. I thought it'd be a little crazy.

• 1:39:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you're like, I thought it'd be a little gauche if I said it. But I, I said it and I mean it. And thank you all so much for tuning in. Don't forget, new episodes of the comment section drop every Wednesday. You can stream audio on all streaming platforms. The video lives exclusively and for free on our favorite platform, YouTube. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Thank you to my amazing guest, Matt, and I'll see you next week. Bye.

• 1:39:44Speaker 00

  Hi, it's Danny Pellegrino from Everything Iconic. 12 celebrities, one Don, and cold, hard cash. From the producers of The Traitors comes The Mob, a new Hulu original series. The iconic Parker Posey hosts this unique reality competition show where 12 celebrity contestants shake down in an Italian villa to win a share of up to $250,000. Watch the new Hulu original series, The Mob, premiering October 26th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

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