Sam Morril: Jokes, Outrage, and the New Rules of Comedy

Comedian Sam Morril joins Trevor and Eugene to talk about comedy in a world addicted to outrage, how algorithms shape our taste, why nuance is disappearing, and what it means to be a comedian when everyone is watching with a scoreboard in their hand.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  He's one of my favorite all time comedians. Give it up for Mr. Sam Morant.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  There's a lot going on with you. You just came out with your sixth stand up special since 2020.

• 0:10Speaker 02

  He's worked with comics like Conan and Colbert. He has a Netflix special same time tomorrow that tackles everything from awkward conversations to America's gun epidemic.

• 0:18Speaker 03

  They'll do morning news just to ruin a segment. I do it all the time.

• 0:22Speaker 04

  You did a good one in Columbus.

• 0:23Speaker 05

  Tell us what we can expect with that.

• 0:25Speaker 03

  I'm going to talk about the human trafficking epidemic in Columbus, Ohio.

• 0:29Speaker 05

  What is going on with the human tra? What are you talking about?

• 0:32Speaker 03

  I just kept making up that they had a human trafficking problem in Columbus and the guy lost it on me.

• 0:37Speaker 05

  Is this a joke? Are you trying to be funny? What are you trying to do? We'll be right back after the break. Wait, I was just trying to explain. The audience just saw the same thing too. Okay, we'll go to break.

• 0:50Trevor Noah?

  This is What Now with Trevor Noah.

• 0:55Trevor Noah?

  This episode is presented by Whole Foods Market. Eat well for less. Earth can be a lot sometimes. Heat waves, gas prices, bad hair days. Why not go where life is good? Escape to Pluto TV. Turn off your problems and turn on your favorite movies and shows. You know, the ones you already love. From Anchorman, the Legend of Ron Burgundy, to Dirty Dancing, to Top Gun Maverick. From Alias to The X-Files. It's all here and all free. Go where the TV is always good. Escape to Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.

• 1:35Trevor Noah?

  This segment is brought to you by Google Pixel. You know what's really frustrating? Knowing the exact information you need is somewhere on your phone, but still ending up wasting your time digging through five different apps just to actually find it. Thankfully, Google Pixel 11 is designed with Gemini intelligence, so it can proactively find the information I need right when I need it. Like my flight info on travel days or my calendar when Eugene texts me to hang out. Oh, sorry Eugene, I'm booked. Learn more about what Google Pixel 11 can do at googlestore.com. These AI features are available in select countries and languages for users 18 and over, and make sure to check responses.

• 2:20Trevor Noah?

  You have booked forever, forever. This episode is brought to you by Verizon.

• 2:27Trevor Noah?

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• 3:12Trevor Noah?

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• 3:40Speaker 03

  Am I visibly sweaty? I was, I was like...

• 3:43Trevor Noah?

  You ran here? Were you running here?

• 3:45Speaker 03

  I walk at a brisk pace.

• 3:46Trevor Noah?

  Oh, New York?

• 3:47Speaker 03

  I hate to be late to anything. And I was like, if I don't walk at a brisk pace, I'm gonna be late. And I was like, you can't cab it at this time either. So it's like, I gotta walk it.

• 3:55Trevor Noah?

  No city bike?

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Oh, dude, I can't ride a bike.

• 3:58Trevor Noah?

  Well, like at all?

• 3:59Speaker 03

  I can, but I'm so bad on a bike. My balance sucks. I'm also scared of the bikers in this city. They're so reckless in the bike lane that I don't wanna get...

• 4:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but you don't need to worry about them when you're one of them.

• 4:10Speaker 03

  I do worry about them because I would do it during COVID, like on the West Side Highway, and they were fucking terrifying.

• 4:17Trevor Noah?

  Also, you can, you just choose not to anymore.

• 4:20Speaker 03

  No, yeah, I can, I'm a bad... Dude, I'm, I'm, my motor skills are terrible.

• 4:25Trevor Noah?

  It's like I can.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  I can drive. I have a driver's license, but I shouldn't have one. I suck. I don't drive. Out of respect for people, I don't drive.

• 4:33Trevor Noah?

  You know what I've always found interesting about driver's licenses? Or anything that requires you to pass a singular test. I always think it's fucking crazy. Like, there's crucial things out there, you know, like doctor, pilot, or like... Pilot's actually big because you have to do like multiple hours. They go prove that you can fly for a bunch. At some point with certain jobs, it's just like, did you pass the test? Yeah, okay, you're good forever.

• 4:57Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  I know.

• 4:59Trevor Noah?

  Did you pass your driving test? Yeah, one time.

• 5:01Speaker 03

  I failed the first two also.

• 5:02Trevor Noah?

  You see, that to me, for me, that means, I think for driving.

• 5:05Speaker 04

  You failed the first two?

• 5:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was, it's kind of hard in the city, honestly.

• 5:08Trevor Noah?

  It's terrible. Have you done a driving test in New York? First of all, they don't do them in the city, like city, city.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  I did two in the Bronx and then one was in like the suburbs, but Bronx was fucking hard, dude.

• 5:17Trevor Noah?

  No, it's terrible.

• 5:18Speaker 03

  It wasn't easy. I mean, I sucked too, but.

• 5:20Speaker 04

  Wait, so there's the first part where they, they let you drive at the traffic department. In South Africa, that's how it works.

• 5:27Speaker 03

  No, we don't have that.

• 5:28Speaker 04

  You drive in the traffic department first?

• 5:30Speaker 03

  No, it was like, uh, it was like, uh, where was it? It was in Bronx, like, no, it was like, it felt like very urban. It was like city for sure.

• 5:40Trevor Noah?

  No, no, there's no, yeah, we, they don't have that, what we have.

• 5:43Speaker 04

  You go straight to the street?

• 5:45Speaker 03

  I really.

• 5:45Speaker 04

  Wait, so you failed the first time?

• 5:46Speaker 03

  My, my, rest of my family couldn't understand it. My brother's like, you failed? I was like, yeah, I'm not good. I don't know.

• 5:52Speaker 04

  What did you do wrong? What did the guy said?

• 5:54Speaker 03

  Everything. I guess it wasn't one thing. They were just like, you're just bad at this. It wasn't like one thing. I wish it was one thing. I suck. I'm terrible.

• 6:01Speaker 04

  So, fun, fun is trying to, like, you're just better this walk.

• 6:07Speaker 03

  That's what it was, dude. I was like, this is, I was embarrassed.

• 6:12Trevor Noah?

  Oh, man.

• 6:13Speaker 04

  Wait, so first time, second, third time?

• 6:17Speaker 03

  Third time, I made the woman laugh out of the gate and she was like, uh, she just liked me. She was like, oh, he's cool, whatever. I shouldn't have been, I suck. I should, I should be.

• 6:25Trevor Noah?

  That's what she thought.

• 6:26Speaker 03

  I should, I should be over three, but she, I made her laugh and she was like, just cool. I don't know. I mean, not a good.

• 6:33Trevor Noah?

  What is that? The laughing jury is not a hanging jury?

• 6:36Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah?

• 6:37Trevor Noah?

  That's the saying.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Is that really a saying?

• 6:39Trevor Noah?

  You don't know that saying?

• 6:40Speaker 03

  No.

• 6:41Speaker 04

  The jury laughed a couple of times and did his try?

• 6:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but they didn't hang him.

• 6:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

• 6:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. A laughing jury?

• 6:47Speaker 03

  It's not a hanging jury.

• 6:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it's not a hanging jury.

• 6:50Speaker 04

  It's not a hanging jury.

• 6:51Trevor Noah?

  That's an old saying.

• 6:52Speaker 03

  I've never heard that.

• 6:53Trevor Noah?

  For real, for real? No, for real. They, they say like, they, I always loved that forced stand-up because I always thought the, the, the art, and it's funny, I don't even say this just because you're here.

• 7:06Trevor Noah?

  The art of being like the best comedian.

• 7:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:10Trevor Noah?

  Is doing what you do where I where you go. You've got the jury to laugh, but you committed the crime.

• 7:17Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  Oh, geez, I never call it art an art stand up. I think it's like entertainment. I think.

• 7:23Trevor Noah?

  You don't call it an art?

• 7:24Speaker 03

  I get like cringy when I cause I feel like we're cause we're it's it's a pretentious way to describe what we and what we do is so unpretentious, you know?

• 7:31Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, and I think you're right about that. It's but it's the same way like a lot of chefs will call themselves cooks.

• 7:36Speaker 03

  Um.

• 7:36Speaker 04

  And a lot of cooks will call themselves chefs.

• 7:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 7:39Speaker 04

  They were like, whoa, whoa, hold on, your diners drives in and dives. Relax, there's no mission in here, just lad.

• 7:45Trevor Noah?

  No, but it's true. If you think about it like.

• 7:47Speaker 03

  We're running like a diner.

• 7:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but that's my point. But I'm going you. I understand why you wouldn't want to call it an art or an art form or any of that. But it has all of the exact same principles. Let me put it this way. If you if you got into a room with like a painter, like, you know, fancy painter.

• 8:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:03Trevor Noah?

  And a musician, anyone else who's in the arts, no one was allowed to tell each other what they do.

• 8:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:09Trevor Noah?

  Right? And then. Each of you has to describe the trials and tribulations of what you do. So you go, man, I I've got to put myself out there and I've got to create these ideas and hope people like it. And then half of the time they don't. And then I feel like shit and then I try it again. And then sometimes they like it, but they didn't used to like it. And then all of a sudden it's popular. And sometimes I'm dead by the time it's popular and then I'm, you know, it's popular. People wouldn't know what you do. They'd be like, are you a painter? Are you a?

• 8:37Speaker 03

  That's true. But instant feedback does. That's what separates us, right? You write a screenplay, you're like, I don't know. You write a book, you don't know. You you don't know till it's maybe an editor is like, this is not good. But I think I think people get older. That's why I always should Tarantino say like, I'm done at ten.

• 8:53Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  Because I think some critics will will praise work of older directors where it's not their best work, but they're kind of grandfathered in.

• 9:00Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 9:00Speaker 03

  Where I was like, no, that wasn't a good movie. But they're like, it's ninety five percent on Rotten Tomatoes. And you're like, but that sucked. But they're just in, you know?

• 9:06Speaker 04

  Explain the grandfathered in.

• 9:08Speaker 03

  Like they they were great. So they're people they're remembering a time when they were great. And now.

• 9:14Trevor Noah?

  Where did grandfathered in come from?

• 9:16Speaker 03

  God, please don't say it has like a racist history.

• 9:18Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 9:21Speaker 03

  I'm like, what is grand? According to Google, it's uh it's from American slavery. I'm like, oh, boy.

• 9:29Speaker 03

  Jeez.

• 9:31Trevor Noah?

  Oh man.

• 9:32Speaker 03

  But I do think like.

• 9:33Trevor Noah?

  No, I hope it is.

• 9:34Speaker 03

  I, I. Stand up, you know if you're slipping because the audience will tell you if you're slipping.

• 9:38Trevor Noah?

  I think grandfathered in, if I guess.

• 9:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:40Trevor Noah?

  It's probably about, I think it's passports, probably.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 9:43Trevor Noah?

  I think there's something, something around, something in the, or maybe before passports even is like, your grandfather was the reason you could get into a college or your grandfather was here. So you can get into this institution.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  Makes sense.

• 9:54Trevor Noah?

  So you get grandfathered in. My grandfather came here.

• 9:57Speaker 03

  Legacy.

• 9:58Trevor Noah?

  That's, and I think that I'm guessing. I'm not gonna look it up because I prefer to guess this shit, which is more fun.

• 10:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:02Speaker 04

  And Sam, what is your theory about?

• 10:04Trevor Noah?

  Slavery.

• 10:05Speaker 03

  Oh, that's slavery. I think it's slavery. I think I just, I, I really upset a lot of listeners. I'm sorry.

• 10:14Trevor Noah?

  But yeah, I, um, okay, that's interesting. So you don't, so that's the part where you think it separates, separates it from us.

• 10:20Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, instant feedback. You kind of know. I mean, that's the thing too, is we focus test our stuff more than anyone else.

• 10:25Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 10:26Speaker 03

  You know, you, you go to the cellar, you go on the road, is this funny? Uh, Scorsese is like, this is the movie. This is it. I don't think those guys fo-, maybe you focus test if you make a comedy movie a little, if, if you see what's seen.

• 10:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 10:39Speaker 03

  I heard that Jordan Peele with Get Out, uh, he had a different ending, a darker ending and people hated it. So he changed the ending. Like originally in the ending, he doesn't get out.

• 10:50Trevor Noah?

  Oh shit.

• 10:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:51Trevor Noah?

  In the original movie.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, uh, Laurel's character in the, the original, he doesn't get out. And people were like, this fucking sucks. We wanted, we don't want him to lose.

• 11:00Speaker 04

  We want him to get out.

• 11:01Speaker 03

  It's, it's like a more artsy ending, but I think like you're just rooting for him so hard at that point that you're just like, nah, he's gotta get out.

• 11:08Trevor Noah?

  You know, so this is something I've, I've struggled with philosophically. I've, I sometimes wonder if Hollywood has made people less resilient in life because it's conditioned us to believe that they are always happy endings.

• 11:22Speaker 03

  Well, there was that movie that just came out and I'm sorry if I'm spoiling it, but, uh, you know, they made, I think it was Danish, the original, Speak No Evil.

• 11:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  Remember that one?

• 11:30Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 11:30Speaker 03

  The, the Danish version, and I'm sorry if it's not Danish, from that part of the world, but, uh.

• 11:34Trevor Noah?

  They don't get offended on that side. You're good. You're good.

• 11:36Speaker 03

  The movie is so fucked up and it's like the darkest ending you'll ever see. And then they made an American version, or maybe it was, it was James McAvoy, maybe it was British, I don't know, but came out in America. And I was like, this is, this is like a happy ending.

• 11:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it's a happy ending.

• 11:50Speaker 03

  I, I enjoyed both, but yeah, I mean, there's something to be said like. I don't know, like, yeah, we were conditioned for that, you're right.

• 11:57Trevor Noah?

  Every single fairy tale. Almost every single, but I think every single fairy tale that we know of from Disney. Was rewritten from a fairy tale. That had a grim ending. I think it was the Brothers Grimm, but it was like, they all, like. And I don't know which one did what, but like apparently like Snow White just dies in the one and then. Cinderella doesn't.

• 12:19Speaker 03

  People still get offended about, people were still mad a couple of years ago about kissing, uh, they, like she, they kiss a past that woman in Snow White. That was like a big thing.

• 12:29Speaker 04

  The same, the same people that are worried about a past that woman being kissed were not worried about a teenage girl going on a voyage. On a catamaran by herself in the Atlantic Ocean.

• 12:38Trevor Noah?

  Who, Moana?

• 12:39Speaker 04

  Yes. Some people were like, chicken, pig, good luck.

• 12:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but she was fine. What do you mean?

• 12:45Speaker 04

  My man. It's hard when you let your child go to school. When you see them walking away.

• 12:50Trevor Noah?

  But why, why are you worried?

• 12:51Speaker 03

  So were people offended by that or no?

• 12:53Speaker 04

  No, I'm saying that people were less offended by that.

• 12:55Speaker 03

  Oh. Yeah, but I feel like they get a, every movie that, every Disney movie, people were like, they've gone, I didn't see the Buzz Lightyear one. I've, I've seen enough of the Toy Story movies. I liked them. I thought they were great, but I was like, I, I'm good. I'm, I'm too old. But then they had like. I didn't see the Snow White one. I tried to joke about this. It did not work at all. I like.

• 13:14Trevor Noah?

  Let's try to fix it. We got it.

• 13:15Speaker 03

  I don't, I don't think it's fixable. I like it. I think it's good, but it doesn't work. But, so I say.

• 13:20Trevor Noah?

  What do you mean doesn't work?

• 13:21Speaker 03

  It doesn't work and it doesn't work like anywhere. I feel like both sides are like, so I say.

• 13:27Speaker 03

  So my angle was how they're like, Snow White, you know, I didn't see the Snow White movie. It, uh. They say, I'm at the Target demo, obviously, but I didn't see it and they say it bombed because it was woke. And I was like, well, let's make some non-woke Disney classics. So my idea was Little Mermaid, but. Instead of, uh, instead of looking for a prince, she just does a bunch of swim meets. And the whole movie is dads who are like, my daughter's got to compete against this shit. She's not a girl. She's a fish. It's not fair.

• 13:51Trevor Noah?

  That's a great premise.

• 13:52Speaker 03

  Yeah. He didn't say joke, he said premise.

• 13:54Trevor Noah?

  No, that's a great premise though.

• 13:55Speaker 04

  It's going somewhere.

• 13:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it's going somewhere.

• 13:57Speaker 03

  It's going somewhere. I like the idea that it's like.

• 13:59Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 14:00Speaker 03

  That it is rational. It does make sense that a doubt. But also, I feel like I'm kinda, is it making fun of both sides? I don't know why it's not working.

• 14:07Trevor Noah?

  Okay, I'll tell you why I think it's not working.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:09Trevor Noah?

  I'll tell you why I think it's not working. Sometimes I find with comedy, the reason a joke won't work is not because the joke doesn't work. It's because the people are still dealing with the current release of the joke. So they can't, the punchline, so oftentimes in comedy, the punchline has to release you from reality. Oftentimes, right? But if the, if the punchline of the joke brings you back to reality and a reality that you haven't resolved, audiences aren't happy. So you didn't let them get out in that joke.

• 14:36Speaker 03

  I, I didn't Jordan Peele it, dude.

• 14:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. Yeah. They're stuck in the house. Because you get what I'm saying. Because think about it, you went, you, it's a joke about the mermaid. She's swimming with other girls. Parents are complaining. She's, oh, and it's like, oh, and it's trans. People are like, oh, fuck, we haven't even figured that out yet. Ah, I don't know how I.

• 14:52Speaker 03

  Right, so I'm reminding them of something that they're like, what do we do?

• 14:54Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  That's interesting. That's a good observation. I never thought of it that way. That's, that's a very good observation.

• 14:59Trevor Noah?

  I used to have a joke, like back in the day, when I first came to America, I had this joke about how, the premise was basically whoever invented Santa Claus was the same person who invented Osama bin Laden. Because I was like, you know, when, I was like, writers run out of ideas and they just thought, you know, people make the same songs, people do the same. So I was like, whoever made Santa Claus made Osama bin Laden. I can tell it's the same. It was a lazy, it's like the same reused premise. Got a beard, got it like a weird little costume. They're like in a cave with their helpers. They like pop out once in a while. You don't know where they really are. It was this whole thing. No one laughed.

• 15:38Speaker 03

  It was in September.

• 15:38Trevor Noah?

  No one laughed. Like, and I could never figure out how to get the joke going, how to get. After they killed bin Laden, that joke murdered everywhere.

• 15:49Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 15:49Trevor Noah?

  People would woo and holler.

• 15:51Speaker 03

  Send Team Six a thank you note for that one.

• 15:52Trevor Noah?

  Can I tell, I'm not even, I, I, I remember, because I remember just trying it.

• 15:55Speaker 03

  Save that joke.

• 15:56Trevor Noah?

  People were like, yeah, people were laughing hard. They're like, I never thought about that. Yeah, he's got the same. Because I even had the same thing. I had Santa Claus. That was the, the one that, that, that started working the hardest was I said, they even had the same catchphrase, you better watch out.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  Oh, that's good.

• 16:11Trevor Noah?

  And then people were like, nah. After bin Laden was dead, joke was amazing.

• 16:16Speaker 03

  I love the idea that you're doing, you better watch out. And you're like, this isn't working on nine twelve. I wonder why, why is this joke hitting? Guys, you better watch out. You don't get it? Jesus.

• 16:28Speaker 04

  How about you get out?

• 16:31Speaker 03

  No, it's funny. I like, I always love jokes where you're like making the weirdest comparison. You're like, where the hell is this going?

• 16:36Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 16:36Speaker 03

  You know, those are, those are fun ones, because it's fun to watch them like, oh, it's fun. That's a fun moment.

• 16:43Trevor Noah?

  That's the best moment. When you can find an audience, when you can take an audience to a place with you that no one should rationally be in, that's the greatest, that's like, you know what I mean?

• 16:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's a sadistic part of being a comic. Want to see how far this can go, where it can go, and when it's going to end.

• 17:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, you, you definitely, when you have a joke, you stretch it as possibly far as you could take it.

• 17:05Speaker 04

  Say what? You're searching for the cul-de-sac?

• 17:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 17:07Speaker 04

  You're gonna drive, drive, drive and go, mm, the road is finished. Shop. See you guys next time.

• 17:11Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:13Trevor Noah?

  So when, when you, one thing I, I want, I wanted to chat through with you is like, I go,

• 17:20Trevor Noah?

  you are, man, how can I put it? Like, you're one of the most honest comedians I know.

• 17:26Speaker 03

  Geez, thank you, man.

• 17:27Trevor Noah?

  And what I mean about that is, like, as a human, I don't know you that well, but what I mean by comedian is as a comedian, you're the, one of the most honest comedians I know.

• 17:36Speaker 03

  I care way more about comedy than I, me as a human, so this is great. Yeah. That's more important. Because one time you described me as like, I remember I did The Daily Show and you're like, this guy's a great guy. And I was like, fuck, does that mean I'm a hack? Jesus. Whenever a comic calls you nice, you're like, ugh.

• 17:49Trevor Noah?

  No, no, but I mean, that was like, great person.

• 17:52Speaker 03

  No, no, I know, I'm fucking with you.

• 17:53Trevor Noah?

  No, but because I mean, I mean, you've got to remember, I have, I had an interesting perspective meeting people. Eugene has had a similar thing, is that like, when you come from random places in the world, and you meet comedians in the biggest places in the world, they don't have to be nice to you. They don't, they don't even have to like acknowledge you in that way. So you'll meet some people who are just dicks because they see no value in you as a person. And then you meet people where you go, oh shit, it's that guy. And you're like some random, because remember, as an, let's say as an African, a lot of the time, when we first get somewhere, we might not even realize how African we are or aren't being in that moment. So we arrive somewhere and we're going like, wow, hello, my friend. And then what they're saying is like, oh, hello, hello. You know what I mean?

• 18:35Speaker 03

  I didn't see that.

• 18:36Trevor Noah?

  But I'm not saying, I'm not trying to trap you, Sam. I'm not trying to trap you.

• 18:39Speaker 03

  You're just trying to call me racist on this podcast. God damn it.

• 18:43Trevor Noah?

  I'm not trying to trap you. No, but what I'm saying is, we we often take for granted how we're perceived versus how we perceive ourselves, right? So you show up as an African in some places. You are so random to the people you show up to. That it becomes way more apparent who is and isn't like just just a nice person in that way. You you one of the instances I I remember was Joseph Opeo, comedian, friend of ours. You might have met him, you might not. He's from Uganda. He's one of the quirkiest human beings you've ever met in your life. Right? He basically did the Daily Show of Uganda by himself, wrote it. Present the whole thing, but he's he's the the most abnormal human being you've ever met, right? Amazing guy. I remember seeing him at the Comedy Cellar.

• 19:27Trevor Noah?

  Nobody knew who he was. I didn't know who he was, right? And he walked up to Louis CK after Louis had just been on stage. And he was like, ah, excuse me, ah, Mr. Louis. Can I offer you a few tags? I noticed that you were that you said there. And I remember thinking, oh, God, this is it's this is not going to end well. And Louis looked at him and he was like, oh, yeah, what? And he talked to him and he's like, oh, shit, yeah, I didn't think of that. And he took the tag and he like engaged. Whether or not Louis was just being nice or taking it actually, I didn't care. I remember just going, man, that's a cool dude. Do you get what I'm saying?

• 20:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I'm I I love that Louis is that way. I think I think most comics at the cellar, like, first off, I I it's always weird. Do people know what tags are, by the way? It's like, you know.

• 20:09Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, a tag.

• 20:10Speaker 03

  People listening even know. It's like the end of a joke. Like one more line at the end of a joke.

• 20:14Trevor Noah?

  But yeah, it's an extra. It's a.

• 20:16Speaker 03

  But Louis gave me a tag once. I remember being like, oh, it took a joke from here to here. It's great. It's a joke that I used to have a joke where I said, you know. I don't even know if I'm I'm going to butcher it, but it was like, I said, uh, I think women look at sex like. Uh, buying a car where they're like, uh, can I see myself in this long term? Is it safe? Is it reliable? You know, and then men look at sex like parking a car, like, there's a spot, there's another spot. Uh, oh, I have to pay? Never mind. And then the line Louis gave me was handicapped. Uh, yeah, what the hell? I hope no one sees this. So Louis took it over the top. I was like, it was already killing. But then he gave me that one extra line. I was like, oh, shit. And I end up doing that joke in the movie Joker. I did like twenty jokes, but he was like, oh, that's perfect. And I was like, all right.

• 20:58Speaker 03

  But Louis gave me that line. I already had a handicapped angle I tried, but hope no one sees this, just. Perfect amount of words. There's certain things you can't substitute word choice for.

• 21:07Trevor Noah?

  No, you can't.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  So, yeah, Louis, uh. I love like pure comics because he'll watch and he'll be like, oh, what if you did that? Like, he's so interested in jokes. I love. So when you say like comics are nice to each other, because that's the language we speak is jokes.

• 21:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but that's, I, I don't think that that's, I don't think that's the case as much as it was before. Partially because I think stand-up comedy became. Stand-up comedy for a long time was the bastard child of entertainment.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:32Trevor Noah?

  Right. It didn't, doesn't matter where you're from in the world. There was always like, oh, and the comedians. Mm-hmm. And then in many countries, comedy started having this ascendency.

• 21:40Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. When porn stars started doing stand-up, I'm like, we're the last stop? The hell? You went from that to this?

• 21:46Trevor Noah?

  Which porn star was this?

• 21:47Speaker 03

  Oh, oh, well, well. Stormy Daniels was one. There's been a few. I don't want to name too many names. Yeah, there was a brief.

• 21:54Trevor Noah?

  I like how you said like, I don't want to embarrass them. I don't want to expose their stand-up.

• 21:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:57Trevor Noah?

  I don't want to spoil their porn careers.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  Well, let's be real, they come off better in the other videos, so, you know. Come on.

• 22:05Speaker 03

  At least they're good at that, you know? Shit.

• 22:08Trevor Noah?

  Oh, but, but this is what I mean is like, stand-up comedy used to be the bastard child of entertainment. Yeah. Then Netflix comes along, you know, the, there's like a boom that you see where all of a sudden it's, it's a gold rush.

• 22:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:21Trevor Noah?

  And now comedy is not like an afterthought. Comedy is the thing. It's, it's. Right. And comedy has waves. Don't get me wrong. Mm-hmm. You know, there's periods where like the comedy clubs die and improvs are doing bad and blah, blah. But then comedy comes up again and then people are back on TV, they're in movies, et cetera. And I'm saying in, in some of those waves, you'll, you'll meet comedians where you go, oh, this comedian doesn't care necessarily about comedy, but he sees comedy as the perfect vehicle to get them into acting, being famous in some other way. And there's comedians who love comedians, and I find those comedians are generally just great people. That's what I meant by you. You just, I've never met somebody who is as good and loves comedy as you do, genuinely.

• 23:01Speaker 03

  Thank you, man. Geez, that means a lot.

• 23:03Trevor Noah?

  You're like a full-on.

• 23:04Speaker 04

  He's a full time comedian.

• 23:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you are.

• 23:06Speaker 03

  Thank you, man. I love stand up, man. I love jokes. So, I mean, I probably spend too much time at the cellar. Like, I've definitely had those moments where I'm like, I gotta do other stuff. I remember Chris Rock once said to me, he's like, you gotta go out and live. Your audience is living. You have to have stuff to talk about. And I was like, oh, yeah, you can't just be like, so I got off stage the other night. That can't be like the setup to jokes. You have to like, go do stuff. I hate vacations. I hate, like, I don't like, it's hard for me to shut off. I went to, I was like, I'll go on a vacation. I want to get in a plane. I'll go to Lake Placid for two days. I'll disappear with three days with my friend. We just went there and just chilled. We're like, we'll paddleboard. I was miserable. The current took me. I could, I had to like, I had to like swim to the side and hitchhike back to the place I was staying at.

• 23:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was, I, I, I came back early. I hate it. I'm like, I need the city. I need the energy of the city. I don't know. I'm bad.

• 23:57Speaker 04

  And then back in the club.

• 23:59Speaker 03

  I, I'll take, I'll take nights off the clubs now. And I'm touring a lot. So like, I do, and I'll spend an extra day in the city. I'm like, let me experience the city too. Cause I did the tour bus the first part of the year.

• 24:10Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, you're one of those, oh, man. I remember you tried to convince me on this and I.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  Did I?

• 24:14Trevor Noah?

  You did. You did.

• 24:16Speaker 04

  So it's a real bus?

• 24:17Trevor Noah?

  Sam loved, I mean, you explain it because you, I'm not gonna sell it well, so I wanted, I wanted you, I want you to.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  Well, I don't need to sell it to be, I mean, I don't want to sell it too hard. People take them. I don't get a bus. You know, they're hard to get. These are hot properties, these buses.

• 24:31Trevor Noah?

  I said to Sam, one day I was, I was complaining, I was, we're not even complaining, I was just like, oh, man, I'm tired because I was flying around. It's like, you know, you gotta get to the airport, and you get to the next airport, and the thing that drops you off, and the, and then Sam went, oh, man, I just ride on the bus. So the first thing I thought was like a Greyhound. And I was like, Cam, this guy loves getting material. That's the first thing I thought. I was like, wow, this guy loves new material.

• 24:53Speaker 03

  No, no, no, I.

• 24:54Trevor Noah?

  And then it turns out you were talking about a tour bus. And he's like, no, I get on the bus after the show, sleep in the bus, get to the next place. And then, if I remember correctly, you would then go to like a, like a place where you could play basketball.

• 25:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, this is every day on the road. So we, we get off stage, usually we'd go to dinner in town or like just get. Dinner and eat on the bus and watch a movie. I bring a ton of DVDs. I still buy DVDs. Love having DVDs. So that way if wifi is an issue, you're like, oh, throw in whatever Criterion edition. And then you watch a movie. They got so mad at me. I made them watch a film noir from the nineteen fifty's once.

• 25:29Trevor Noah?

  On a tour bus?

• 25:29Speaker 03

  And everyone was like, dude, what the fuck?

• 25:31Trevor Noah?

  On a tour bus?

• 25:32Speaker 03

  By the end, they were like, this is the best movie. It's called The Big Heat. Fritz Lang movie from the fifty's, Glenn Ford, fucking incredible revenge movie.

• 25:39Trevor Noah?

  Oh, but they loved it in the end?

• 25:40Speaker 03

  They loved it. It's good.

• 25:41Trevor Noah?

  You should give us before, at the end of this podcast, you must give us like a list of.

• 25:45Speaker 03

  Some old flicks.

• 25:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 25:47Speaker 04

  Or maybe we could find a hat and then you can reconnect some of the scenes. Film noir style. Cause you look like you come from that era.

• 25:52Trevor Noah?

  Who? Oh, you do. I thought you meant me. I was like, if he goes.

• 25:55Speaker 03

  No, you do. Well, Fritz Lang, the director, is one of the German Jews who immigrated to America during World War Two. But right before the Nazis took over. Goebbels was like, you should be, you should make our movies. You're this great director.

• 26:10Trevor Noah?

  Was that the guy?

• 26:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah. And, and no, he wasn't the guy because Fritz Lang goes, but I'm, but I'm a Jew. And Goebbels goes, we decide who's Jewish. And he was like, it was that point that I realized I should leave. So he came to America and made a bunch of movies, a bunch of great movies.

• 26:24Trevor Noah?

  That's insane, man.

• 26:25Speaker 04

  That moment when he stares into Goebbels, yeah?

• 26:29Speaker 03

  You decide? Are you sure? Cause that's not what I've read. But.

• 26:32Speaker 04

  And that time Goebbels was undecided about what to have for dinner. He was like, I don't know, chicken, schnitzel. And then he was like, I decide, you, I'm out.

• 26:42Trevor Noah?

  What a moment.

• 26:43Speaker 03

  Well, we, so the tour bus is great though, because we throw in movies. We sleep, you sleep like a baby when the bus is moving. I love when the bus is moving because you, you forget how. Cause I, I just sleep in the bunks. I like the bunks.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  How many guys are in this bus?

• 26:55Speaker 03

  Four or five.

• 26:56Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 26:57Speaker 03

  And, uh, yeah, I, I rock to sleep. I love it. So I'm a big fan of the bus. And then you wake up in the city and we hit like a YMCA or a rec center, play basketball. Some of these Y's are nice now. You get a little sauna action.

• 27:09Trevor Noah?

  Listen to this guy.

• 27:10Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 27:10Speaker 04

  Is there a toilet in the bus?

• 27:11Trevor Noah?

  Do you see what I mean by selling it?

• 27:12Speaker 03

  You can pee, you can't poop on the bus.

• 27:14Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that's a rule. You can physically, but all tour buses sort of have like an agreed upon rule.

• 27:20Speaker 03

  The guy I had, Jeff, is the man. I love Jeff. He's a, he's a bus driver. And he was like, I said, give me the names who have pooped on the bus. And he was like, Tom Segura. I said, Segura pooped on the bus. He goes, yeah, he hotboxed me. He, he put it in a, and my camera guy also, he did poop on the bus. I was furious at him. I was like, dude, you got, cause we were in Nashville and it's my fault. I was like, let's get hot chicken. It's Nashville.

• 27:43Trevor Noah?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 27:44Speaker 03

  My, my camera guy is like a jacked giant dude who eats like four hot chickens. I was like, dude, I don't care how big you're, you're gonna, hot boxes the bus had to, I made him like, I was like, dude, you gotta go to a gas station. You gotta throw that out. You can't make the driver throw that out.

• 27:57Trevor Noah?

  Damn. Well, he emptied it out himself like physically?

• 27:59Speaker 03

  He put it in garbage bags. They would do it. This is gnarly.

• 28:02Trevor Noah?

  Wait, how does it work?

• 28:04Speaker 03

  I, they would poop in a garbage bag.

• 28:05Trevor Noah?

  Cause on an airplane kind of flies through the sky and it lands on whoever. No, what are you talking about, man? They got a container. Okay.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  Really?

• 28:13Trevor Noah?

  You think planes are just like?

• 28:14Speaker 03

  Honestly, I thought the same thing. I'm gonna be honest.

• 28:16Trevor Noah?

  Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

• 28:17Speaker 03

  Cause I figured it would disintegrate before it came down, right?

• 28:19Trevor Noah?

  You think that they just spray shit? Is when the plane opens underneath and goes. Wait, no, wait, really? No.

• 28:25Speaker 03

  I really thought that.

• 28:27Trevor Noah?

  That my version is real because the way I thought, I thought there was a container. Listen to this sound. Yeah, that's the, like they're using a vacuum to pull it. You think planes are just spraying?

• 28:38Speaker 03

  I, I, I thought the same thing.

• 28:39Trevor Noah?

  We need to find.

• 28:40Speaker 03

  But you seem confident and I don't know.

• 28:41Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, no, no. Now you are both thinking. This confidence. Yeah, no, I'm not confident.

• 28:45Speaker 03

  Oh, okay. Yeah, I think, I think it goes into the air.

• 28:47Trevor Noah?

  It's just spray shit into the air.

• 28:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's our revenge on the birds, dude. We get one right on their heads. Get them back. That's what I thought. I don't know.

• 28:58Trevor Noah?

  You know what? When did the cycle start? Those, those are the types of things, those are the premises that I, like I go, what if we were the ones who first shed on the birds? And the birds are like, okay.

• 29:09Speaker 03

  We're gonna get them.

• 29:10Trevor Noah?

  Okay, we got you for the rest of time.

• 29:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, man, it's a, it's a bad feeling when you go on a plane. It really is.

• 29:16Trevor Noah?

  You don't like being on a plane?

• 29:17Speaker 03

  No, I love, I don't mind flying, but having to poop on a plane is one of the worst feelings. You just feel, you feel dirty. I travel with wipes. I, I, I don't like being dirty. I felt horrible coming in here sweaty. I I don't like it. I don't know.

• 29:29Trevor Noah?

  But dirty sweaty is not dirty.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  I guess not.

• 29:32Trevor Noah?

  You you just don't like the idea of being like in a prim state. You you wanna be as as what is it? Is it?

• 29:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, you just wanna feel clean. I don't know. You wanna feel I wanna if I'm traveling, I wanna feel good. That's why I think that's why I do the the bus. I feel good if I do it that way, you know?

• 29:47Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, I don't. I don't. I don't like the bus thing cuz you I don't like waking up.

• 29:52Speaker 04

  Somewhere else.

• 29:53Trevor Noah?

  Somewhere else. And now I can't just shower. Like I have to get out to then go and shower. It's it's like.

• 30:01Speaker 03

  So you start your day with a shower?

• 30:03Trevor Noah?

  Wait, you don't?

• 30:04Speaker 03

  No.

• 30:08Speaker 04

  That's the airplane toilet.

• 30:11Trevor Noah?

  Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You don't start your day with a shower?

• 30:13Speaker 03

  Usually not, but I I'll usually I'll go to the gym or something or I'll like uh I'll do an afternoon shower, like an afternoon.

• 30:22Trevor Noah?

  Okay, wait, you mean like after activity and okay, I thought you're saying you just like you don't shower until nighttime?

• 30:28Speaker 03

  No, yeah, usually before that.

• 30:29Trevor Noah?

  Oh, no, no, that's fine. That's fine. You do stuff and then you.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I'll what I'll do is I will shower, then maybe go to the gym and everything and then cuz I I don't like going to the gym and not knowing if that smell is coming from my gym like.

• 30:44Speaker 03

  You shower pre-gym?

• 30:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 30:46Speaker 03

  Oh, my god.

• 30:47Trevor Noah?

  No, because I because I don't know if this effort that I'm exerting is causing this smell. I I like to know.

• 30:52Speaker 03

  Do you go to like a public gym?

• 30:54Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 30:54Speaker 03

  What what what gym? You could believe it, right?

• 30:57Trevor Noah?

  No, no, I was it's not even like a name. It's like a public gym. People go to it. It's like a prison gym. No. I don't want them to care. No, I just.

• 31:06Speaker 04

  Why do you care? This is the one place where you're gonna sweat and come out smelly. Why do you wanna go in looking fresh?

• 31:10Trevor Noah?

  Okay, I'll tell I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why.

• 31:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, I also think that's a little strange.

• 31:13Trevor Noah?

  I'll tell you why.

• 31:14Speaker 03

  We're really teaming up on him here this episode. The pooping, this.

• 31:17Trevor Noah?

  I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Number one, I don't like it when people leave any type of stench on the leather of the of the of the seats and you know, the workout equipment.

• 31:26Speaker 04

  Don't you put a towel when don't you come?

• 31:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I don't like that they leave a smell. I don't like that.

• 31:30Speaker 04

  Trevor, what must they leave?

• 31:32Trevor Noah?

  That's my point. I don't like. I'm not saying that they should or shouldn't. I'm saying I don't like that they leave. So for me, I do not wish to be a leaver. Okay? I don't wanna do that. I also don't like it when like people are smelling up a place. So I think to myself, let me not be contributing to the smell of this place. I can shower before I come here. And then I'll shower when I'm done with the workout. And the post-workout shower is a quick one because you've already like washed the bacteria off. All you're really doing is like a quick super rinse with a bit of soap and you're done.

• 31:59Speaker 03

  He's considerate. He's a considerate guy.

• 32:01Speaker 04

  I think if the shower is gonna be shorter, it should be the first one.

• 32:04Trevor Noah?

  No, because you slept the whole night.

• 32:06Speaker 04

  When you've actually worked out.

• 32:07Speaker 03

  So you're getting dirty sleeping.

• 32:09Trevor Noah?

  You don't get dirty sleeping? What are you doing in your sleep?

• 32:11Speaker 04

  Hold on, so you.

• 32:12Speaker 03

  No, you're probably right.

• 32:13Trevor Noah?

  Guys, you're sweating the whole night.

• 32:16Speaker 04

  Wait, so when you wake up, the morning shower is the one where you put the most effort? More soap, more.

• 32:22Trevor Noah?

  Exactly.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  Do you shower again before you go out at night if you're going out somewhere?

• 32:26Trevor Noah?

  Sometimes. It depends on how humid the day was. If it's not humid, then no.

• 32:32Trevor Noah?

  Because I'm just conscious of my sweat, but if I was like brisk walk, hot day, I'll shower.

• 32:36Speaker 04

  Before or after?

• 32:37Trevor Noah?

  Before I go out. It's just like, why are you taking it on to the next thing?

• 32:44Trevor Noah?

  This is not about me. This is about Sam, though. We'll be right back after this short break.

• 32:52Trevor Noah?

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• 33:37Trevor Noah?

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• 34:22Trevor Noah?

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• 35:47Trevor Noah?

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• 36:10Trevor Noah?

  What got you, I want to know, like, what got you into stand-up? And not like, who got you in or, like, what was the thing? Because you kept on, you kept on saying, "I love stand-up, I love stand-up, I love stand-up," and it shows, but like, what do you think is the thing that like, got you into like, stand-up, stand-up? And not being funny, and not funny movies, and not like, stand-up specifically?

• 36:27Speaker 03

  Um, I think like, just, I played some team sports growing up, but our school really sucked at basketball, so everyone was on drugs and they were terrible. And I was like, I was pissed, I took it seriously, and we just always lost, because everyone, and I was like, "This is bullshit." So I was like, "I can't do like improv, I can't do a team sport." So I was like, "I'll do a thing where I rely on myself and stand-up." I was like, it's like, that's like, you know, the tennis or golf of, you know, that's what stand-up is, you're, it's all on, I always respect tennis players, because I remember reading Agassi's book, and he just talks about like, how you're on an island, and it's make or break, it's all you.

• 37:02Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 37:02Speaker 03

  And I kind of like, tennis players kind of just have breakdowns. You know, they'll just snap, like, you'll just see them like, breaking a racket or losing it. I'm like, "Oh, that's like, they're kind of the head cases." Because they're in isolation, you know, I, I don't know, I always, I, I respected that about them, that they have to kind of just live in their head. And that's kind of the life of a, of a comic, but that can be painful. I was just watching the Billy Joel documentary, and uh,

• 37:29Speaker 03

  I, I noticed this about comics too, like, he would disappear to write his new album, and it would make him crazy, and he was like, "I have to get fucking hammered." "I have to just like, get so drunk." Because so many of his songs were coming from just him doing bad behavior, you know, like,

• 37:42Trevor Noah?

  Oh yeah, him just, yeah.

• 37:44Speaker 03

  He drove home drunk on a motorcycle, and his, and his wife was like, "Are you a lunatic?" And that became the song, like, "You may be right, I may be crazy, but I just might be the lunatic you're looking for." That's from driving drunk on a motorcycle. And it's like, it's amazing that he took that and made that something, I don't know. I just think like, I guess I'm giving a really long answer here, but my, I think I like that, I like that it was all,

• 38:07Trevor Noah?

  There's no rush.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  I like that it was all on me, so I like that part of it. And holy shit, my mom at that time was like, "Please just be a writer." And I'm like, "Oh my God, thank God I didn't pursue just being a writer, because it's so much harder to get stuff made."

• 38:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, no.

• 38:21Speaker 03

  She thought writer-producer was the safe route, which maybe at that time it was, but now, stand-up, at least I can make my own career for the most part, and uh, I just liked, yeah, and I, and then I got into stand up, you know, you listen to it and I, I liked albums. I liked, there's something intimate about the jokes like just being in your head. You know, as a, watching is cool, but I always liked, I remember hearing like Pryor, Carlin, Chris Rock albums. Chris Rock albums were very big, David Tell, like those albums where they were just like, wow, rock would, you said something about me before, which I take as a high compliment, where you know, you, you say the wrong thing, but then kind of get them on your side.

• 39:01Trevor Noah?

  Mm hmm, mm hmm.

• 39:02Speaker 03

  Rock is maybe the best ever at that.

• 39:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, every, every premise was wrong.

• 39:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:07Trevor Noah?

  And by the end of it, you were like, oh no, we were wrong to not think that in the first place.

• 39:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was, he had so many bits like that where I was just like, gee, I mean, I, I love so many of his takes. I mean, Bigger and Blacker and Bring the Pain were like fucking crazy. Those are crazy albums, you know, so. Uh, I remember listening to a Chris Rock album as a kid, I probably got like half, I was probably eleven, I probably got half the jokes.

• 39:31Trevor Noah?

  Damn.

• 39:32Speaker 03

  But my mom just saw, she's helping me laughing, she's like, what the hell is he listening to? And she grabbed it and she put the headphones on and I just saw this look of horror on her face. And thirty seconds later, she laughed and I was like, that's fucking beautiful that a joke can do that.

• 39:45Trevor Noah?

  That's amazing that she could.

• 39:47Speaker 03

  She loves him, I mean, she, she respects comedy very much, so that's, that's also influential when you see what makes your, cause when you're a kid, you're, you know, rebelling at first, but then you get to a certain age and you're like, well, what makes my parents laugh? This is kind of cool that they're in on it too, that my mom's not gonna like everything I do, obviously. But, uh, I would see her laugh at stuff and she loved like Mitch Hedberg, she loved dry jokes, she loved sarcasm and.

• 40:10Trevor Noah?

  Do you, do you think that shaped your comedy? Cause I mean, you're, you're on the drier edge of, of the comedy spectrum, I'd say.

• 40:15Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, probably, cause when you, cause it feels good to make your mom laugh, it's like a great, it's a nice sound. You're like, oh shit, that's, this is the person who gave me life and she finds, yeah, my, I made my mom reluctantly laugh at a dick joke. That's kind of cool.

• 40:29Trevor Noah?

  Those are the, can I tell you something?

• 40:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:31Trevor Noah?

  When you make your mom reluctantly laugh.

• 40:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:33Trevor Noah?

  At what? Not at any, I wasn't gonna say anything else. I was just saying reluctantly.

• 40:38Speaker 04

  No, sorry, cuz I thought you were actually finishing off what Sam had.

• 40:42Trevor Noah?

  You wanted me to say that a dick joke.

• 40:44Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 40:44Trevor Noah?

  There's no African who is making their mom laugh at a dick joke. None. But our version, I would say for me of a dick joke in that is I'll make my mom reluctantly laugh at a religious joke.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:56Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 40:56Trevor Noah?

  And she'll, she'll laugh and then she'll go, that's not funny.

• 41:01Speaker 03

  My mom does the same thing.

• 41:02Trevor Noah?

  She does the same thing?

• 41:03Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 41:03Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 41:03Speaker 03

  She, but then you're like, but I got the reaction.

• 41:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, she'll be like, no, my mom, my mom said to me, she's like, no, you, you forced me. I didn't wanna laugh. Too late. Then I said, but you laughed. You found it funny. She's like, I didn't find it funny. You tricked me. I don't like that. Then I'm like, I didn't do anything. I just told you a joke. She's like, no, no, I, there's nothing funny about what you said. I'm like, but you laughed.

• 41:22Speaker 03

  And they get mad when they make the act, but then they're like, I feel like they're kinda also into it a little bit. I had a joke about her cuz she's such, such a warrior dude. I mean, we were talking about this before the pod, but I mean, she worried about every, I was walking in the street with her once and we saw a dead bird and I was like, and she goes, ew, dead bird, don't touch it. And I was like, don't, are you really telling me I'm an adult? Like, you think I'm gonna pick up a dead bird and be like?

• 41:45Trevor Noah?

  I thought this was like a child story.

• 41:46Speaker 03

  No, that's a, I was an adult and my mom saw, I saw a dead bird and I go, ew, and she goes, don't touch it. And I was like, I was in my twenties. I was like, are you kidding me? Like, that's her level of worry. She worried so much. So we were talking about COVID before and like, oh my God, having a mom, having a hypochondriac mom during COVID, it was like, I know, look, I'll never see you again, whatever you want. Like, whatever, whatever makes you feel safe, mom. We'll Zoom forever, you know? You know, it was mental.

• 42:14Trevor Noah?

  That is so beautiful. So ta- take me through some of your stories.

• 42:17Speaker 03

  I'm immune compromised. I'm like, but you're not really. You're, you're, you're pretty good. You're in pretty good shape.

• 42:22Trevor Noah?

  Where was she living at this time?

• 42:23Speaker 03

  Uh, they live in Midtown in Manhattan.

• 42:25Trevor Noah?

  Oh, so they're here?

• 42:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I would still be like, can I see you? I'm getting dinner with them after this.

• 42:30Trevor Noah?

  Yo, man, in her defense?

• 42:32Speaker 03

  Behind glass doors still.

• 42:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but do you remember like in her defense?

• 42:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:37Trevor Noah?

  New York was no joke.

• 42:38Speaker 03

  It was no joke.

• 42:38Trevor Noah?

  Like New York was, I was telling him the other day, walking past, I don't know if you ever went through Central Park when they had like the body bags and stuff.

• 42:46Speaker 04

  I still refuse to believe that.

• 42:47Trevor Noah?

  That was, yo, let me tell you something, depending on where you experienced COVID, I see why everyone has a different feeling about COVID. Because everyone's experience of it was different. For some people, it was completely a theoretical thing. They were at home and then they were told there was a death toll.

• 43:01Speaker 04

  Watched it on the news.

• 43:02Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. And then there were other people, like if you were in New York during that time, you didn't go to Florida, you didn't run away anywhere, you just stayed here. The streets were empty. There was only sirens.

• 43:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:13Trevor Noah?

  Like all day it was just sirens, sirens, sirens. And then when you could go outside, I remember walking around Central Park. And they turned it into like a makeshift, it looked, it literally looked like an apocalypse movie where they had the white tents. And then they had body bags and you're like, what is going on here? I was like, oh, this shit is like, it's like real, real.

• 43:31Speaker 03

  It was, you know what's so weird? This is something about the city is like, just the way you hear a song and it takes you back to a time. I haven't been on this exact block. Since COVID and I used to, I did a show on this block, uh, at some hotel. I don't even know if it's still here, right? But, uh, I did a show three nights a week because they had an outdoor space with.

• 43:48Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 43:49Speaker 03

  So I was able to do a three, I would just do an hour, three nights a week to stay in.

• 43:52Trevor Noah?

  Oh, during COVID, like when we could do the outdoor shows and stuff.

• 43:54Speaker 03

  It was heat lamps, but I was on this block late at night, one night with Phil Hanley. We were just like sitting around waiting, watching. What, like it's one of the things where the night's over, but you're, you're both so happy to be around another human because it was still COVID.

• 44:06Trevor Noah?

  What a time.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  So I remember cabs were going by and some creepy kid just kept riding by us on a bike. And he did it like five times and we're like, I mean, should we move? It was so creepy. It was, I was like, I mean, he's a kid. We shouldn't be scared of him, but like, there's a reason you use kids in horror movies. It was like scary. He just kept circling us and we're like.

• 44:23Speaker 04

  He was happy to see other humans.

• 44:26Speaker 03

  He was happy to be around us too, maybe. I don't know. But yeah, it was, it was a dark time.

• 44:30Trevor Noah?

  That's, you see that, that's when you knew who like loved comedy. They were comedians during COVID. They're like.

• 44:39Trevor Noah?

  They're like, I'm not stopping.

• 44:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:41Trevor Noah?

  You were doing it in parking lots.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  I was, my main thing was roofs, but yeah, I did a lot of parking lots, but roofs were my big thing during covid. Yeah, I was, I loved it. I got really hooked on it because it was like, I mean, I don't know if, I think I got worse at comedy because it was hard to tell what was hitting. Cause you're like, you're like, you're, you're doing the math in your head, like that hit on this roof, but it didn't hit on this roof. Like I'm doing roofs in Bushwick. I'm doing them in the Lower East Side. I'm doing them in Hell's Kitchen.

• 45:05Trevor Noah?

  Only works on the thirty second floor.

• 45:10Speaker 03

  Dude, it was, it was a confusing time. And also, you know, some nights it would be packed and some nights, you know, eighteen people, but people were desperate.

• 45:17Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 45:18Speaker 03

  They were desperate. I remember reading this book, I forgot the title, but it was about these like ancient settlers and they, and it's like how like music just got them through the winters. And I was like, oh shit, people need, this is the same way. Okay. They'd be freezing, but they'd be playing music and they just gather around and it was like, oh, this is keeping us going. And I felt that way about comedy a little bit because I saw people laughing. I was like, holy shit, that guy need, that joke wasn't even that good, but that guy needed to laugh. That's why I had a hard time telling it was good. I think people like wanted, it was the same way.

• 45:45Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:45Speaker 03

  It was the same way people came out right after covid, like.

• 45:48Trevor Noah?

  I was about to say, yeah.

• 45:49Speaker 03

  They were coming to shows like I'd never seen. I was like, this is, and some of them forgot how to behave. Some of them, they'd be in public, they'd be in a movie theater and they'd be like, yeah, I'm just gonna scream drunk. I'm like, no, you can't do that, you know? But they were like, that's what I do at my place, you know? People forgot how to be humans during, it was so, and some people still aren't good, dude. I mean, I go, I mean, you see it around the country. You go and you go to downtowns now in every city and you're like, people are, there's like a real drug problem in this country that they're not addressing. You just go around and you're just like, this is someone's kid. This is crazy, you know?

• 46:21Trevor Noah?

  I think the, the, the worst thing we did around the world, there were two countries I know that did it in some way, but it, it's almost like they, it's almost like they stumbled onto it.

• 46:33Trevor Noah?

  One was intentional, but it wasn't for covid. I think there was a stampede in Korea, stand to be corrected, but I think it was in Korea. So a huge stampede and a bunch of people died. And it was at a party originally, it was a whole thing, but they had a day of mourning. And I remember watching that and I was going, wait, what, what is happening here? And the whole country just had to pause and go, we're gonna collectively mourn this loss. And the second version of it I saw, which wasn't intentional, was when the Queen died in England. And she died just on the other side of Covid, you know what I mean?

• 47:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:10Trevor Noah?

  And people were lined up to go to the church and I remember like one story, David Beckham was standing in line, like didn't like VIP it, didn't skip the line, waited with people for hours, just in the line with them and people were crying and. And I remember looking that, looking that at that and thinking to myself, I know some people are crying for a legacy and a time that's lost and a piece of their country and. But I was like, yeah, but a lot of people here are crying because they didn't get to cry about Covid. Do you know what I mean?

• 47:37Speaker 03

  Oh dude, I told, I cried at Simpsons episodes during a Covid.

• 47:39Trevor Noah?

  See?

• 47:40Speaker 03

  I was like, I don't think it's, I don't think it's the Simpsons that's breaking me right now. I think there's some other shit.

• 47:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but we didn't, we, we never like, we never. Those are, those are like the moments I think of where as.

• 47:50Speaker 03

  We bottled up a lot.

• 47:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I go. Everyone just went back to it never was a thing, whether you. People would love to forget. Forget what you believe or don't believe, forget everything, forget vaccines, forget Covid even as real or not real, just remember a time when we couldn't go outside and a lot of people were dying, okay?

• 48:10Speaker 03

  People from Florida, you can skip this part of the podcast, but uh.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  You lucky bastard. You had a great time. You had a great time during Covid. Remember, I do a weekend once in a while in like Florida or Texas and I'd be like, I'm grateful to be working right now. This is crazy. But I'm like, you guys know what's happening in New York right now? You're like reporting news. You're like, did you hear what happened?

• 48:34Speaker 03

  I felt like a messenger boy.

• 48:35Trevor Noah?

  You know, on the YouTube video and they're like, when they're like, people commonly skip this, yeah, people and they, they, they skip this part. But like, I don't know, man, I, I think that collective thing, it's, you're not wrong. That's why people. Didn't forget just how to act, but we also forgot how to feel in a certain way.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  When's the last time? You're all on the same page about anything as a country like we're not on the same page.

• 48:56Trevor Noah?

  As a world.

• 48:57Speaker 04

  In a human race.

• 48:57Trevor Noah?

  Oh, no, as a world.

• 48:58Speaker 04

  It's a world.

• 48:59Trevor Noah?

  Trust me, it's gotten everywhere now.

• 49:00Speaker 03

  I mean, the Super Bowl used to be a thing where like it's the Super Bowl. This is great. And now it's like, now people are like, fuck Taylor Swift. I'm like, who gives a shit?

• 49:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 49:07Speaker 03

  Or, you know, or or they'll be furious about the, I don't even remember who did the last Super Bowl, what band?

• 49:12Trevor Noah?

  Kendrick?

• 49:12Speaker 03

  Kendrick.

• 49:13Trevor Noah?

  Before Kendrick.

• 49:13Speaker 03

  No, it was Kendrick.

• 49:14Trevor Noah?

  Was it Kendrick the last one?

• 49:15Speaker 03

  Yeah. No one's, I, I, I think Prince is the last time everyone's like, all right, that was a good show. Everyone else, people were like, they either love it or they're like, fuck that.

• 49:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it it always means something. It it's always the end of your like side. It's always. I will say it's become worse in America in that in that way. But it's become pervasive all around the world where everyone has made everything seem like it is a loss or a victory. For them. You you you know what I mean?

• 49:42Speaker 03

  Yeah. What do you, what do you mean by that?

• 49:44Trevor Noah?

  So like.

• 49:47Trevor Noah?

  I remember a time, I was like, I remember a time when like.

• 49:51Speaker 04

  It's gonna go into black and white film, no?

• 49:52Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, right?

• 49:53Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 49:53Trevor Noah?

  Ah, let me tell you about a time when I, when I was young, boy. No, no. I said this to a friend the other day. I said, do you remember when people were allowed? To just not like something, but not say that it was shit?

• 50:08Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 50:09Trevor Noah?

  Like I, when I was younger. People would say, what's your favorite sitcom? And someone would go Friends, and then you would go, oh, no, mine is Family Ties or Family Matters, you know what I mean? Family Matters. And they'd be like, no, mine is, well, well, you know, Full House or mine is. But no one, I don't remember anyone going like. Friends is shit. People just went like, oh, I, I don't like Friends and I don't watch it. And they would move on. And then over time gradually, and I don't know if it was.

• 50:39Speaker 03

  It gets more engagement. They call it rage bait now, right? You get raid, it's rage bait if you're just like. Uh, this, The Sopranos sucked, do something. And you're just like, it didn't suck. You know, but they're just like, I think it sucked. And you're like, well, you could have said that.

• 50:53Trevor Noah?

  But that's what I mean.

• 50:54Speaker 03

  But I think.

• 50:54Trevor Noah?

  That's what I mean about like the loss and the win for your side is like, if Taylor Swift performs. Then the world we now live in tells you that you are losing if you're not a Taylor Swift person.

• 51:05Speaker 04

  How dare you not get it?

• 51:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it's like, I can't believe they chose Taylor Swift as the, or if Kendrick performs, it's like, you've now lost, I can't believe Kendrick is now. But it's like, yo, man, every year someone would just perform at a thing and something would happen and it's not your thing and some, this movie wins an Oscar, that one doesn't, but it, it doesn't mean that you've lost. But now I feel like we've made it in society.

• 51:26Speaker 03

  Tribal.

• 51:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, we've, but we've made it that people have lost.

• 51:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:29Trevor Noah?

  For no reason.

• 51:31Speaker 03

  Also, you're allowed to just be like, for me personally, like, I don't have like a strong opinion on Taylor Swift. I think she has some good songs. I don't really listen to her.

• 51:38Speaker 04

  That's a very strong opinion, Sam.

• 51:39Speaker 03

  My niece loves, my niece is obsessed with her.

• 51:42Speaker 04

  Very strong opinion.

• 51:43Speaker 03

  But it makes my niece happy. So I'm like, oh, good. You know, that's my opinion basically on her, you know?

• 51:47Trevor Noah?

  So I, you see, it's funny, no, it's funny you say that. We, we were chatting yesterday. Obviously, we knew you coming on and we're chatting about this and I said, I feel like Sam, and please don't feel like this is like a lot of pressure. I was like, I feel like you are the, like, one of the final bastions of comedy right now.

• 52:05Speaker 03

  Oh, fuck.

• 52:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I know that. I said, don't feel the pressure. I specifically told you not to feel the pressure. Don't feel the pressure. I'll tell you why. Because your comedy specifically, in my opinion, still exists in a place where everyone feels like it's for them. Do you know what I mean?

• 52:20Speaker 03

  You weren't in my show last night at the Comedy Cellar. Jesus Christ. I still have rough ones there sometimes, dude.

• 52:26Trevor Noah?

  But rough is part of comedy.

• 52:27Speaker 03

  I love it, yeah.

• 52:28Trevor Noah?

  No, no, rough is part of comedy. I mean, like Dave Chappelle taught me, you can go to a show and bomb. It doesn't matter how great you are. That's part of comedy. You're working the craft. I'm not saying that.

• 52:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:37Trevor Noah?

  What I'm saying is your comedy is for everyone. What I mean by this is, I've seen somebody who considers themselves Republican, conservative, whatever, go, I love Sam Morril.

• 52:45Speaker 03

  Oh, thanks.

• 52:46Trevor Noah?

  I've seen somebody who goes like, ah, I'm a full-on liberal Democrat. I love Sam Morril. I've seen someone go, I don't care about politics. I hate both sides. I, I love Sam Morril. And I go, oh, man, this guy is keeping something that society is losing more and more of.

• 53:02Speaker 03

  Well, I said earlier, I, I don't see that. I see myself as like an entertainer. So I, if, I, I'm, my goal is to kill the room. And, you know, be who I am. Like, you're not gonna, you know, compromise yourself and pander, but I think they, the crowd is too smart. They can tell if you're pandering. So, you have to just be you. And if it works, it works. But, you know, some, sometimes, it's not for everybody. I, I see some shows and I'm like, oh, that joke's not for everybody, but I like it, so I'm keeping it. Every once in a while, you get like one or two of those per special, but uh, No, it's hard, man. It's hard to stay true to who you are and still connect because you get older and you're kind of just like, I don't. I want to do this joke. I think this joke is funny. I think there's something here.

• 53:47Speaker 03

  And I'll get stubborn with it and I'll keep hammering it like I have some jokes that I think are, I don't want to call them like crowd pleasers, but they're they're for everybody. They're a little safer. Those are the hits. You need to have those safer jokes to get to the ones. I'm like, this one's a little unsafe. This is this gonna work? I don't, I like this a lot, but you know. It also, it depends on the crowd. Like I have a whole new chunk on going to Amsterdam and not getting into the Anne Frank house. They wouldn't let me in and it was a long story and I was like, I was so mad when they didn't let me in. And then I was like, oh, wait a second, I'm gonna get a bit. Whenever something bad happens to me in any way, even that's not even that bad. What happened to Anne Frank was worse. Let's face it, but uh, I was upset too. But uh, I had a rat in my home last month and I live on the 14th floor of a of a nice building. So I was shocked to see a rat and I was so upset, but then I was like,

• 54:32Speaker 03

  that comedy is the one thing that you're like, I'm gonna get a joke out of this. That's the one thing that like, if I don't get a joke out of this, I suck. If I, I'm telling my mom about it on the phone and she's laughing so hard because I'm making jokes about the rat and stuff and she was like, you'll get a joke out of this. I said, I'll get a joke. So it's, it's exciting to to, you know, write new stuff. Like I hate bombing, but like, I don't know. I still love, I love doing this still. I get, every once in a while I'll do too many shows and I'll get like, I'll be like, oh, I don't. I don't, I don't want to do a show. And I hate when I feel that way. I try to stay very excited about like, so I try to not overdo it so I can stay, oh, I'm so excited to go on tonight.

• 55:13Speaker 04

  Speaking of excitement, why weren't you lent into the Anne Frank house?

• 55:18Speaker 03

  Because it's a hot ticket, apparently. Uh, I booked, I booked the walking tour.

• 55:24Speaker 04

  Wait, wait, wait. There's a stay in tour?

• 55:26Speaker 03

  There's.

• 55:27Speaker 04

  Where you can stay inside the closet?

• 55:29Speaker 03

  They want, they want you to buy, they want, it's like a house and then there's a parent. I didn't know there was a walking tour. Um, but yeah, I, uh, the line I said to the lady was, uh, I was, I was under the impression she was cooped up. I didn't know there was a walking tour.

• 55:43Trevor Noah?

  Damn.

• 55:43Speaker 03

  But, uh, and I was like, oh, this is a bit. I got a bit cooking. So I kept going with it. But, uh, I kept going and I got a long bit out of it, but now I'm, I'm going back to Amsterdam next month and I'm like, I better fini- I, I want another part to this bit. I want part two. I get in. I, I posted like a joke how I, I didn't get in and the Jewish mafia came after me like, like, Amy Schumer, Jessica Seinfeld. They're like, what can we do? I was like, what do you mean? What can you do?

• 56:09Speaker 03

  You have a hookup for the Anne Frank House. They're like trying to help. I'm like, what? I don't know. All these Jews were like hitting me up like, we must do something. I'm like, it's not that big a deal. I'm just making it, I'm going to go to the Van Gogh museum. It's fine. It's not.

• 56:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but you see, okay, so now let's, let's pause in. This is what I mean about you. This is, this is exactly what I mean is like, you have a, man, it's, it's, ah, superpower might be the wrong word, but it's almost like a-

• 56:32Speaker 03

  Let's, let's dial it back here.

• 56:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, no, no. Okay. That's what I'm saying. The wrong, it might be the wrong word. Here's what I think it is. You are

• 56:39Trevor Noah?

  almost less allergic to the things that a lot of people in society are now allergic to. You with me? So what I think a lot of people-

• 56:45Speaker 03

  As a Jew, I never hear that. So we complain about everything.

• 56:48Trevor Noah?

  But this is what I mean is, this is, this is what I mean is you, you go, you don't get into the Anne Frank museum, whatever. Now the people around you are responding like, ah, how could this hap- you, you get, there, there, there's a reaction.

• 56:59Speaker 03

  I get that for a second, but then immediately it's like you have to just-

• 57:01Trevor Noah?

  You have more of a resistance.

• 57:02Speaker 03

  You have to just think like, anytime something bad happens, you think, if I don't make it funny, then I'm worthless. I, I really feel that way as a comic. Like if I can't make a ba- as you said, like that, that trans swimming joke, I, that's not something, that's something, something that happened to me. That's just like an observation, but that's something that hasn't been worked through. So I, I have to work through my stuff.

• 57:22Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 57:23Speaker 03

  So I like a breakup joke. You ever write a breakup joke that's, it's too soon? Where you're like, oh, that's just-

• 57:29Trevor Noah?

  For you or the audience?

• 57:30Speaker 03

  I guess for both, but I'll write the joke and I'm just like, wow, this is funny. And then they're just like really sad. You're like, oh shit, I think that's funny. But like a, I remember I had a joke that never worked about my biological father that I thought was really funny. It never worked. It was about, um, how, well, my dad who adopted me, he was a, I love my dad. He's a great dad. He was talking to my stepdad. I just call him dad, but when that, when you have that adoption, you need to get the signature

• 57:54Trevor Noah?

  Of your biological father.

• 57:55Speaker 03

  Of the biological father. So I said, it's kind of like the opposite of a UPS package. Like here's my signature and I don't want this. Never worked. It just made the crowd sad. To me, I was like, that's a funny joke, but it just, I could, I heard the crowd go, aww. I remember telling my therapist and he was like, well, an aww means they care about you. I'm like, I know, but I'm going for a laugh. You want the laugh.

• 58:14Speaker 04

  If I sign this, it means I don't have to take responsibility.

• 58:17Speaker 03

  Yes, yes.

• 58:20Trevor Noah?

  I'm trying to figure out why that wouldn't connect, though. No, because it is funny. I'm just trying to figure out why.

• 58:25Speaker 03

  It didn't work.

• 58:25Trevor Noah?

  Like, never worked?

• 58:26Speaker 03

  Well, look, it's not a science. Like, sometimes you just, yeah, it just never worked.

• 58:29Trevor Noah?

  I think it is a science.

• 58:30Speaker 03

  Do you think so?

• 58:31Trevor Noah?

  And I think that's how you treat it, yeah.

• 58:32Speaker 03

  Uh, uh, I, I, no, I, if it were science, I think I would know before it was on stage.

• 58:38Trevor Noah?

  No, but, but that's what science is. If you think about it, for the most part, like, science is constantly running an experiment to try and figure out why the thing does or doesn't. And then you're trying to narrow down why one element does, you know what I mean? It's process, it's a process of elimination for the most part. So you're going, this causes this reaction. Is it because of this or is it because of that? And you try to, you try to remove what the correlation is. And then you try and figure out if this is causing this or if this is just happening because this is happening at the same time. And that's why I think it is a science in many ways. It's a social science, you know? So you're going, you might find, like, you change one thing. That's what I love about comedy. You change one word in that whole joke, all of a sudden it worked. You might find changing it from, I felt like a UPS package versus it was like a UPS package. You, you, you never know what happens.

• 59:23Speaker 03

  I feel like I felt personalizes it too much. To me, that makes it sadder. I felt, I, I, I try to remove feelings. I think when I feel in a joke, the joke's not funny. I have to be a little numb to it at this point. Like, that's why breakup jokes, they hit so much harder, like, six months after as opposed to like a week after. Because it's too real. They're just like, oh, that's sad, you know? They, they feel for you. They're like, they feel like they almost shouldn't be laughing sometimes, too, I think. I think they can sense the rawness of it.

• 59:48Trevor Noah?

  No, that's true. Yeah, that, that's true. But what I'm saying is, sometimes, that's, that's what I, I think is magical about comedy is, we sometimes don't even know, like, we have an assumption, right, as comedians? And then we'll do a thing, we've all had that. You tell a joke. And you're you're trying to get to this part of a punchline. And the audience loves like a random thing that you didn't even you don't even realize the words that you're saying are eliciting something. And sometimes you go, why, why, why are they laughing? What are they? I'm sure, have you ever experienced that? And then an audience member goes, man, I loved how you said that. And you're like, oh, I wasn't trying to say that, actually.

• 1:00:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, you stumble backwards into one. That's a gift. That's a when that happens, that'll happen in stories sometimes. Sometimes you have like a story where you're like, I know the ending. I know what the ending is.

• 1:00:36Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:00:37Speaker 03

  And now now that I know of an ending that works, I can now experiment for like two minutes in between and see what's funny because I don't know yet. So, yeah, I had. Yeah, I had a whole thing about the rat and I didn't know what was funny until I just kept saying it, but I had one of the exterminators kept describing the rats as smart. And for some reason that kept hitting. And I was like, why is it? I guess it is funny to be like complimenting the rodent, but I but I just kept using that. I kept being like, oh, the rat. I was like, oh, the glue trap's gonna work. They're like, we don't know. He's smart. And I was just like, oh, my God, was annoying me so much. And for some like little words, you're just like, I guess calling a rat smart is kind of funny. I.

• 1:01:11Trevor Noah?

  Especially the exterminator calling the rat smart. Because for me, it evokes this idea of it's it's like a it's now it's like a trope in a way. It's like they've got this little rivalry amongst them. They've got like a I don't know, like I just think, you know, Sylvester and Tweety, it's a whole like.

• 1:01:27Speaker 04

  They've got an understanding and respect for each other's trade.

• 1:01:29Trevor Noah?

  Exactly.

• 1:01:29Speaker 04

  He's smart. He tried to kill me. Yeah, we do it every day.

• 1:01:31Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, you don't know these rats. They smart, man. They smart. Like, you know what I mean? I gotta respect them.

• 1:01:36Speaker 03

  Well, the annoying thing is I hated the first exterminator because he's like was just putting glue traps everywhere. And I was like, what do you get?

• 1:01:43Trevor Noah?

  How many rats did you have?

• 1:01:44Speaker 03

  Just one, but it was, I mean, just one doesn't even sound good, by the way.

• 1:01:48Speaker 04

  He came with it.

• 1:01:49Speaker 03

  Can't really bring a woman home either way. You're like, I just have one rat. It'll be fine. We'll close the door. But, uh, no, it was disgusting. I can't.

• 1:01:57Trevor Noah?

  Did you see the rat or did you see the droppings?

• 1:01:59Speaker 03

  Both. I saw him. He was a fat dude, too. Oh, he was big.

• 1:02:03Trevor Noah?

  On a high floor.

• 1:02:04Speaker 03

  Fourteenth floor. Yeah. It look, it's New York City, so it doesn't matter. I asked. I was asking the building. They're like, yeah, like every building has has them. You just gotta be nervous. At the walls, if there's a hole anywhere they can find, but uh.

• 1:02:16Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they chew through the drywall in America.

• 1:02:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:02:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, because we use bricks for most of our housing, so there's no. But here the rat can just chew through the wall and then.

• 1:02:26Speaker 04

  Just like in the cartoons.

• 1:02:27Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:29Speaker 03

  Oh, you want to hear the most violating shit the rat did to me? I had one of those Camelback backpacks, you know, with the straw that you sip. He nibbled the straw down to the water and I was like, oh, this is so violating. I'm so upset. Cause I went to, cause I would just drink out of it. I would just like walk around.

• 1:02:44Trevor Noah?

  You did?

• 1:02:45Speaker 03

  No, I didn't drink. After I saw it, I just looked. I was like, oh.

• 1:02:48Trevor Noah?

  Oh shit.

• 1:02:49Speaker 03

  I felt so violated by, I hated the, and my friend had just told me a story. I have a friend in LA and she was telling me um. How she had a rat in her home in LA and how, this is way worse, cause she was so scared of the rat uh. She was just woke up and the rat was starved, trying to nibble her finger and she freaked out in her bed. And she flipped over a dresser, the rat ran behind it and she just fell on the floor and panicked and kicked the dresser into the rat. And smushed the rat. And I was like, that's fucking, yeah. And then she told me she had another rat. There were two. And I was like, what the fuck? Where were you living? You know, she had a nice place. And she uh, there was another one and she got it on a glue trap, which is hard, cause they smell the human scent on the. So they, if they smell human scent, they're like, oh, I'm out of here. I'm not touching that.

• 1:03:34Speaker 03

  But she, she just took the other rat on the glue trap and just dropped it in her pool.

• 1:03:39Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:03:40Speaker 03

  Cause she didn't want to deal with it.

• 1:03:41Trevor Noah?

  It's like a Tarantino movie, but of rats.

• 1:03:44Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oh, it's awful. But dude, I, they got it. The crazy way they got it was I had two exterminators come by and the second one was like. He was even wor-, the first one sucked and the second one, it was Liz from the Comedy Cellar, got me this first exterminator.

• 1:03:59Trevor Noah?

  I thought you were saying Liz was the exterminator.

• 1:04:00Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:04:01Trevor Noah?

  The second one, it was Liz.

• 1:04:02Speaker 03

  I would trust Liz. But, but, but no, the, the, he just leaves glue traps anywhere and he wasn't even like confident.

• 1:04:08Speaker 04

  That's the first one.

• 1:04:08Speaker 03

  Yeah. And I was like, I was like, are these gonna work? He's like, maybe. He's the one who kept calling them smart. So I was so annoyed. And then uh, he's leaving glue traps everywhere and, and I'm like, will they work? He's like, prob-, like probably. He was not confident at all. And then the second guy who came by. I was like, I need a better guy cuz that guy sucked and he was just looking at all of his stuff and he was like, no, the last guy did a really good job. And I was like, I called you cuz I don't think he did a good job. So I got two guys who sucked. So the guys that eventually got him were five days later. And I five nights I had to rat in my apartment and I was devastated going to bed every night cuz you know, like we're night people. So I was just like, this is this sucks. I know he's gonna come out soon. And um, I I on a Sunday morning, I called these guys and they show up with hockey sticks.

• 1:04:53Speaker 03

  Three dudes with hockey sticks and that I was like, what's with the hockey sticks? So like, we usually would use people's like, you know, baseball bats or brooms to kill rats if we were at their place. But we just like got our own things. So the three dudes with hockey sticks, I leave cuz I play in a comics basketball game on Sundays. And he texts me a picture of a dead rat ten minutes later. And they found it and I just and I wrote, you found him dead. And he wrote, I made him dead.

• 1:05:20Trevor Noah?

  Damn.

• 1:05:21Speaker 03

  He they took care of it.

• 1:05:22Trevor Noah?

  It's like the Mighty Ducks of.

• 1:05:24Speaker 03

  Hockey sticks.

• 1:05:26Trevor Noah?

  Just imagine how random it is. You open your door and there's three guys with hockey sticks.

• 1:05:29Speaker 03

  Dude, my doorman hated them. They were like, uh, they were like, these guys are assholes. I was like, how are they assholes? I'm like, I guess they were like cursing when they came in, but I was like, I fucking love these guys. They were cursing and they had.

• 1:05:44Speaker 03

  And they all had and they had weapons, which I was like, he was like, why?

• 1:05:47Trevor Noah?

  Wait, who were they cursing?

• 1:05:49Speaker 03

  I guess it the doorman. They were characters. They were colorful. I mean, look, you need rough around the edges. The the basic exterminators weren't getting the job. Then these guys found the rat in ten fucking minutes. It was incredible. I was so grateful. I I slept like a baby that night, dude.

• 1:06:03Trevor Noah?

  So there hasn't been a rat ever since?

• 1:06:04Speaker 03

  No, this was like a month ago. I hope there's not. I mean, geez, I.

• 1:06:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, that was awful. It was an awful experience. It's just, you know, cuz you just don't, it's your home. You wanna walk around barefoot and feel good, you know?

• 1:06:16Trevor Noah?

  It's weird how rats, they are smart, by the way. Generally.

• 1:06:21Speaker 04

  Do you recognize this guy?

• 1:06:22Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, but they but they are smart. Sometimes I wish we could like just negotiate with like what we consider pests.

• 1:06:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:06:30Trevor Noah?

  Because like rats are really smart. Apparently they make great pets. They're really easy to train.

• 1:06:34Speaker 03

  God, it's weird when people have a rat as a pet.

• 1:06:36Trevor Noah?

  No, it's weird because we think of rats as weird.

• 1:06:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:06:39Trevor Noah?

  I agree with you.

• 1:06:40Speaker 03

  Well, they're filthy. Those are like different types of rats.

• 1:06:41Trevor Noah?

  No, but they're not filthy apparently.

• 1:06:43Speaker 03

  Well, that rat was was really dirty.

• 1:06:45Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, no, but here's the thing, like, humans can also be filthy if you just leave them in the streets.

• 1:06:49Speaker 03

  Hmm. You sound like a rat sympathizer, dude. I don't know.

• 1:06:53Trevor Noah?

  Same guy who showers before going to the gym. Guys, listen, this is what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, the culture, whatever you grew up with, you think that's weird or normal, right?

• 1:07:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:07:02Trevor Noah?

  So if we grew up with rats, we would think that dogs are weird.

• 1:07:07Trevor Noah?

  We would.

• 1:07:07Speaker 03

  I think we're I think we're in too deep with this rat hate, dude. I I see him on this. I can I can appreciate like like celebrity rats, pizza rat, he was great. Ratatouille was great.

• 1:07:18Trevor Noah?

  Celebrity rats, pizza rats.

• 1:07:20Speaker 03

  I saw a rat in the street last night and I was charmed by it. I thought it was funny. He ran, he was like grabbing his food and I was like, good, that you should be in the street.

• 1:07:26Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:07:27Speaker 03

  If you're in the street, I got no problem with you. But i- in my home, no, I I can't do.

• 1:07:31Trevor Noah?

  Not in my backyard.

• 1:07:32Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:07:33Trevor Noah?

  Samaril, the nimby, the rat nimby.

• 1:07:38Speaker 03

  I don't want I don't want a rat in my home.

• 1:07:39Trevor Noah?

  I got no problem with rats in the street. You don't bring that rat around my house, not around my daughter, okay? You can marry who you want to marry.

• 1:07:47Speaker 03

  This is a leaf.

• 1:07:48Trevor Noah?

  You want to marry who you want to marry.

• 1:07:50Speaker 04

  Trevor was the gobbles of rats. He was like, I decide who's around here.

• 1:07:56Speaker 03

  That was the book Mouse, weren't they? They were they were, uh.

• 1:07:59Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yes, that is actually what it was.

• 1:08:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:01Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you're not wrong. You just brought it around because that actually.

• 1:08:03Speaker 03

  Art Spiegelman.

• 1:08:04Trevor Noah?

  That actually was the book. Yeah.

• 1:08:06Speaker 03

  They were mice, so.

• 1:08:07Trevor Noah?

  Look at that, man. You see, you think this is what comedians do. We stumble on some deep shit, man.

• 1:08:10Speaker 03

  You know, by the way, they banned that. It was some Florida school banned that, uh, for nudity.

• 1:08:16Trevor Noah?

  Wow, that's one reason to ban it.

• 1:08:18Speaker 03

  That's why they that's why you ban a book about the Holocaust, uh, is a nude, uh, mouse.

• 1:08:25Trevor Noah?

  Whoever was doing the book banning, like, they went. Cause when you saw some of the books that were banned. It almost felt like an A I that didn't know what the banning. Cause they just went like. No nudity in kids books.

• 1:08:37Speaker 03

  Right.

• 1:08:37Trevor Noah?

  And then this is going back to what you were saying about people. You remember what I was saying, like, everyone wins and losses. I remember someone was like, we shouldn't ban the books. And then I asked, which books are being banned? And someone, the person responded, they're like, it doesn't matter. I was like, well, it might matter. I just, which books are being banned? And then they're like, your book was banned. I was like, alright, that, I think that's weird.

• 1:08:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:57Trevor Noah?

  I was like, I think it's weird.

• 1:08:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:58Trevor Noah?

  I don't know why they banned my book.

• 1:08:59Speaker 04

  Banned your book?

• 1:09:00Trevor Noah?

  No, that's, I was like, I don't know, but I said, which other books have been banned? And then they, there was like a book that, it was like a children's book, but it had like. Dicks out and like boobs and it was like a weird book. I forget what was, what the premise of the book was.

• 1:09:13Speaker 04

  I'm glad you forgot.

• 1:09:15Speaker 03

  They banned Hustler in children's schools. This is crazy.

• 1:09:18Speaker 04

  Three guys in hockey sticks.

• 1:09:19Trevor Noah?

  And I remember, and I remember saying. And I remember saying, I remember saying, I was like, oh, that's a weird book.

• 1:09:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:09:26Trevor Noah?

  That's a weird book.

• 1:09:28Speaker 03

  You know, kids shouldn't read that. I mean.

• 1:09:29Trevor Noah?

  And then a bunch of the other books were not weird. And so I was saying, the thing that I didn't like was that no one was able to have. Like a normal logical conversation about. It was either you, no books should be banned. Or all books should be banned. And I was, and I was going, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Maybe we could just do this on a case by case basis. Maybe we.

• 1:09:51Speaker 03

  But it made these books punk rock, like all those books.

• 1:09:54Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:09:54Speaker 03

  Selling out on Amazon. You go to Barnes and Noble, they have a banned book section and you're like, are they real, they're not really banned. If I can, if I'm going to them like, where, where the banned books? You're like, oh, they're right, right in the front, right here.

• 1:10:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. It just became like a, you know.

• 1:10:07Speaker 04

  So yours was one of those?

• 1:10:08Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it was.

• 1:10:08Speaker 03

  That's crazy. I bet it helped sales though. I bet they're like, you know.

• 1:10:12Trevor Noah?

  I don't know if it did or it didn't, but it just like. I just remember being like, why is my. It was a weird emotional feeling because on the one hand I was angry that my book got banned. On the other hand, I was like, yeah. But then I didn't know what to be yeah about.

• 1:10:24Speaker 03

  You shouldn't have put that whole full penetration chapter in the middle, dude. That's what did it.

• 1:10:28Trevor Noah?

  And the pictures.

• 1:10:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:10:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, the sketches didn't help.

• 1:10:31Speaker 04

  The coloring.

• 1:10:32Trevor Noah?

  Me and my naked rat.

• 1:10:35Trevor Noah?

  Don't press anything. We've got more. What now? After this.

• 1:10:43Trevor Noah?

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• 1:11:28Trevor Noah?

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

• 1:12:13Trevor Noah?

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• 1:12:57Trevor Noah?

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• 1:14:23Trevor Noah?

  I wanted to talk to you about, you know, when you're talking about like being adopted and what do you mean being adopted?

• 1:14:29Speaker 03

  Well, I wasn't adopted. That was just the term was legally adopted because when my mom raised me for the first few years and then she married who is my dad, so uh and then I got a stepbrother and stepsister. I just call my brother and sister.

• 1:14:43Trevor Noah?

  They are?

• 1:14:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:44Trevor Noah?

  I love that you guys have to say this.

• 1:14:46Speaker 04

  Who's you guys?

• 1:14:46Trevor Noah?

  White people.

• 1:14:47Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 1:14:48Trevor Noah?

  Because.

• 1:14:50Speaker 04

  No, because like in.

• 1:14:51Speaker 03

  We're grandfathered in, it's okay.

• 1:14:53Speaker 04

  No, because in if you think about how we grew up.

• 1:14:55Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:14:56Speaker 04

  It can be like.

• 1:14:57Trevor Noah?

  No one gets adopted in our country.

• 1:14:58Speaker 04

  You could just grow up in the same house and you don't have to say I call them my brother and no, this is my brother and sister.

• 1:15:03Speaker 03

  I just say that because people look at my brother when I'm like this is my brother. They're just like, you guys don't look alike. I'm like, just fucking go with it.

• 1:15:09Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, no, no, you moved to Africa. No one will even.

• 1:15:11Speaker 04

  No one cares.

• 1:15:12Trevor Noah?

  You don't, there's no, you just go, this is my brother, this is my sister. No one is even allowed to say, but you don't look this, eh, just, just keep it moving. So wait, so.

• 1:15:21Speaker 03

  So he legally, my dad's a lawyer, so he was like, I want to take you to court. I want to make it official.

• 1:15:26Trevor Noah?

  Okay, so he made it official.

• 1:15:27Speaker 03

  So it was like legal, they called it legal adoption, which is just, it's, yeah, it wasn't Oliver Twist. You know, it's just.

• 1:15:33Trevor Noah?

  Oh, no, I didn't know if it was like a.

• 1:15:35Speaker 03

  No, I had a good childhood, it wasn't, uh, you know.

• 1:15:39Speaker 04

  You're like the rat who got murdered.

• 1:15:42Trevor Noah?

  No, I was just, I was just wondering if it was like, you know, I was like, oh damn, got adopted and it was a whole thing and that to fight for you legally and you know.

• 1:15:48Speaker 04

  Wait, so for the first few years, it was just you and your mom?

• 1:15:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:51Speaker 04

  Then he gets married to your dad?

• 1:15:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:53Speaker 04

  Then it's you, your mom and your dad for a while.

• 1:15:55Speaker 03

  And, and a brother and sister.

• 1:15:57Speaker 04

  So they came immediately after?

• 1:15:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, it was probably, they got married when I was probably six or seven, yeah.

• 1:16:03Speaker 04

  How many good years did you have before?

• 1:16:05Speaker 03

  How many good years?

• 1:16:06Speaker 04

  The steps came in.

• 1:16:07Speaker 03

  Ooh, well, yeah, that is the one thing that's weird, right? You're used to having your mom all to yourself and then, and then she gets married, you're like, hey, you used to watch all my fucking antics a second ago, now I gotta, now I gotta share you with this dad, what the hell?

• 1:16:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, I remember one time, when I was really young, I wanted my mom's attention so much all the time, I was probably like six, I just ran into the room and they clearly were trying to have sex and I was just like doing some like thing and I just, I just remember my dad's face just like, oh gosh, Jesus, like this kid's such a cock block, what the hell?

• 1:16:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, you go, you go for. I didn't know at the time, I just knew he was annoyed, I didn't know.

• 1:16:48Speaker 03

  I was too young to know what sex was. I didn't know what it was. But I was, yeah, I was a kid.

• 1:16:52Trevor Noah?

  The idea of you.

• 1:16:53Speaker 03

  I was just trying, oh dude, I was a real show kid. I did, at their wedding, I sang "Give My Regards to Broadway." I had a top hat on.

• 1:16:59Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:17:00Speaker 04

  I told you.

• 1:17:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:02Speaker 04

  You told me what. At some point has to wear a top, a hat.

• 1:17:04Trevor Noah?

  You did say that about him. You did say this.

• 1:17:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I didn't picture you. I, I know this sounds crazy, but I pictured you as like, also like a dry witty kid.

• 1:17:13Speaker 03

  I was, but I love, but I was a New Yorker, so I love, I was very dry, but then for some reason I was like, they were like, do you want to give a speech at the wedding? And I was like, no, I'll perform, is what I thought.

• 1:17:21Trevor Noah?

  Huh.

• 1:17:22Speaker 03

  For some reason.

• 1:17:23Trevor Noah?

  What did you perform?

• 1:17:24Speaker 03

  Uh, "Give My Regards to Broadway," the song. So I was in a top hat and, uh, and a cane and I sang that. It was like a paper top hat. It was like a fake top hat.

• 1:17:35Trevor Noah?

  You made it?

• 1:17:36Speaker 03

  No, it was like a, from a party store. It wasn't like a fancy top hat. It was like a stupid.

• 1:17:40Trevor Noah?

  Oh man, this is amazing. How old, how old are you when this is happening?

• 1:17:43Speaker 03

  Probably six or seven.

• 1:17:45Trevor Noah?

  Legend.

• 1:17:45Speaker 03

  They killed. They loved it.

• 1:17:46Trevor Noah?

  Please tell me you have video.

• 1:17:47Speaker 03

  I, I, I gotta ask my mom if we have video of this.

• 1:17:50Trevor Noah?

  You gotta put that in like a special, at the end of one of your specials or at the beginning.

• 1:17:53Speaker 03

  Uh, you know what? That's not bad. I'll ask them.

• 1:17:55Trevor Noah?

  That's like an amazing thing to just put in the end or the beginning of one of your specials.

• 1:18:01Speaker 03

  And here's another thing about their wedding, they got married the day of the Puerto Rican parade, so they couldn't get any good pictures. Every picture was just like, they were just like pushed to the side. This is just mayhem in the city.

• 1:18:13Speaker 03

  But, uh, no, it was, it was, uh, no, it was, it was definitely like, you know, no, I definitely wasn't that type of kid. It was weird that I did that, but I just loved.

• 1:18:22Trevor Noah?

  Oh, so that was out of character?

• 1:18:23Speaker 03

  It was a little out of character. I just liked, I had a weird thing where like, I kinda liked musicals, cause I was a kid. And I was never like a song and dance kid, but I just thought, I was like, oh, that's like a cool New York thing. That's a cool New York song. I'm giving, I'm giving like a cool, this is like a cool moment for my parents. Clearly they were like, this is ridiculous, but just let them have the floor.

• 1:18:41Speaker 03

  Yeah. I think I just wanted, I think it was important to be the center of attention. You have that weird comic thing where you're like, I need to like, I need to show off a lot. I need to, because my family was very, uh, quiet at the table. Like my mom and I weren't, but my, my brother, sister and dad were, my dad was a little more talky, but my brother and sister were very quiet. So I was kind of just like, you know, you're just like, you're working stuff out, huh? So you're like, let's, I'm used to noise at dinner. So I'm, I'm making noise. I'm making jokes. And I think, you know, I would see like, let's see the furthest, you want to see the furthest you can possibly go.

• 1:19:14Speaker 04

  Right. Yeah. Yeah. Did they, did they break?

• 1:19:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, sometimes. I would do really stupid stuff. They, I was definitely in my mind, the lowest brow member of the family. Like, you know, my brother and sister were super smart and overachievers and I was horribly behaved in school. So I think I, I was like, I was, how can I get attention? I'm not going to be smarter than them. So I just would be outrageous and I would just say the, the fucked up thing always. And that would break them. And then, um, you know, but you also have that thing. You don't realize you're like, well, maybe I have a low self-esteem because I'm, you know, the, I'm starting to feel like the black sheep of the family.

• 1:19:46Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:19:47Speaker 03

  So I'm, so you know, you start acting out in school and the teacher's like, why is he doing this? And you're like, why just, I'm trying to get attention. So I'm trying to find my lane. I don't know what my lane is. So, um, so you go from being like the bad kid in school to eventually like, how can I turn this? And then eventually I started just getting good grades because they medicated me. And, um, that really helped. Oh, they medicated the shit out of me.

• 1:20:09Speaker 04

  While you had the top hat on?

• 1:20:12Speaker 03

  They saw that hat. They're like, that kid's got to be on drugs. Jazz hand. Jazz.

• 1:20:19Speaker 03

  They, uh, no, they gave me some ADD stuff. I started, I, I was all over the place. So they, I finally started focusing, then getting good grades. And then I was like, okay, let me, um, let me try to get the teachers laughing too. And that kind of went to like, so now my mom got so sad. She, cause she thought I was like, I saw myself as this fuck up. And I was in that, in that point I was, I was, you know, I just, I was like, I'll be the fun guy. I would just get drunk all the time. And, uh,

• 1:20:42Speaker 04

  You want to be that uncle in the family?

• 1:20:44Speaker 03

  Oh, I, I am. They have kids and I don't. I mean, I'm totally that. I mean, I'm not opposed to having kids, but that, that's where I'm at right now. I am like the fun drunk uncle. That's totally what I am.

• 1:20:53Speaker 04

  I was about to say, I spoke to someone who was in a similar situation as you, and they realized when they had half siblings. And they had a stepdad, they saw their mom mothering and they saw their stepdad as a dad. And then they felt, oh, observer of the whole family dynamic and they saw themselves as a little bit of an outsider at times.

• 1:21:14Trevor Noah?

  Oh, that's interesting.

• 1:21:15Speaker 04

  Like it's almost like it's almost like they watched the family.

• 1:21:18Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:21:19Speaker 04

  Oh, that's interesting.

• 1:21:19Trevor Noah?

  And they were here first. You were you were in it, though.

• 1:21:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, I I I feel like they made an effort. If anything, I felt like it got weird for my sister for a minute because my dad would be like, let's go out, we'll do guy stuff. And I'd be like, why does she get to come? She's not a guy, you know, I was more like, I was like, I'm like, I'm gonna make her the outsider, you know? But uh, no, I I didn't feel weird. They were um, they were they were inclusive with me.

• 1:21:40Trevor Noah?

  You were just like a full on, so keeping keeping with that theme, though.

• 1:21:46Trevor Noah?

  Do you do you revel in being the outsider? Because I mean, like, I feel like different comedians have different vibes.

• 1:21:54Trevor Noah?

  In terms of what it seems like they're trying to do, you know? So some comedians seem like they're trying to stay as the outsider in their act. Other comedians are trying to become the insider in the act. You know, it's like, this is all of us. Some comedians are trying to like make the audience feel like they're the outsiders and they're the normal. Everyone has.

• 1:22:12Speaker 03

  But I never I never saw myself as an outsider. I I always saw myself, like I said, entertainer before, like trying to bring the room together, like finding common ground. Like, I always liked comics like that. And I think it probably stemmed from some thing in my family where I was like, let's like, we're we're a family now. Let's let's get on the same page. Let's let's be, let's get a good, if I could get everyone laughing, it felt so good, you know? So um.

• 1:22:33Trevor Noah?

  So then how do you how do you find the balance between? So for instance, uh, one of my favorite things I I I love of yours is your interviews.

• 1:22:40Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:22:41Trevor Noah?

  If you if we'll actually play one for this episode. Sam Morril on a local news station.

• 1:22:48Speaker 03

  Fun.

• 1:22:49Trevor Noah?

  Somewhere is the greatest thing.

• 1:22:53Trevor Noah?

  Because, yeah, but no.

• 1:22:53Speaker 03

  My publicist texts me, you give me nightmares. I have nightmares when I book you on these because I know I'm gonna get an angry email. She she gets so mad at me and she I'm like, well, then don't work with me. You don't have to work with me. She's like, no, it's fun. She admits it's fun, but then she's like, she'll get emails from people where she'll be like. She'll try to book, I'm like, I bet they don't even remember that you represent me when you pitch your other clients to these shows. And she's like, maybe. And then she told me there was some interview I did where I just made up there was a human trafficking problem in Columbus, Ohio.

• 1:23:22Trevor Noah?

  Oh, man.

• 1:23:23Speaker 03

  And I wouldn't let it go for the whole interview. And the guy just got so mad by the end. And then she, uh, she messaged him a month later for another one of her clients. And they were like, we'll have your person on, but just, you know, we had this guy last month. He wouldn't shut up about human trafficking. And she had to pretend like, oh, that's horrible. Ah. I said, I told you, no one knows. No one remembers you. But she'll get really pissed at me. But then she, but then she, like, it's like the reluctant, like, well, your mom, that's not funny, but she laughs.

• 1:23:50Trevor Noah?

  It's not funny, but I found it funny.

• 1:23:51Speaker 03

  She gets so uncomfortable, though. She's come to a couple and she's just like, ugh. She's like, yeah, she's, she's so, I, I don't really get uncomfortable because I, I know it's gonna be funny. So I'm like, yeah, just fake a, just fake that it's fine, you know?

• 1:24:04Trevor Noah?

  What do you make of the schism that we've seen in comedy? Maybe it hasn't even been inside comedy versus how people have seen comedy. I feel like over the past, maybe it's been 10 years, five years, I don't know, I'm bad with time. People have sort of tried to make it, they go like, there's this comedy and there's that comedy. And they try and put comedians in a place.

• 1:24:23Speaker 03

  In a box.

• 1:24:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. And I don't, I remember, like, like for me, because I was on The Daily Show, people automatically just assumed they knew everything about me. Do you know what I mean? They were like, okay, we know who you are. We think we know your politics, your beliefs, your everything, because you're on The Daily Show. It's like presupposed. And if I would tell a joke that didn't line up with what people thought I was thinking, then the people who were like, let's say, on my side, they would go, that was a mistake. And then the people who were not on my side would go, well, I guess every now and again, he can be funny, but the rest of the time, he's shit. You know what I'm saying? And the craziest moment for me was, um, I did the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And

• 1:25:07Trevor Noah?

  It's one of the few places left where everyone is in the same room. Do you know what I mean?

• 1:25:11Speaker 03

  They got rid of it too, right?

• 1:25:12Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I mean now, it'll come back, I think, but it's one of the few places where it's like Fox News is sitting right there next to MSNBC and CNN is sitting right there next to, and by the way, this is something I keep telling people and I wish more Americans knew about their news, about their politics, about all of these forums. They're a lot more friendly with each other than you are with each other. You know what I mean?

• 1:25:36Speaker 03

  Oh, they know it's a game.

• 1:25:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but like, I, I wish people knew this. I remember one of the first times I experienced this. I just during the Daily Show, as a tangent, but still I was, um, we were on the road in New Hampshire. It was for the, for the primaries.

• 1:25:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:25:50Trevor Noah?

  And I remember Hillary Clinton's staff going out for dinner and hanging out with, um, ah, man, Lindsey Graham's staff. And I remember being like, whoa, don't you guys, and they were like, no, no, they get along and people, they go to dinner.

• 1:26:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, we got the night off. Lindsey's in a hotel room with a guy, so we're good.

• 1:26:13Trevor Noah?

  And then we're just like, they went, we, we get along. What do you mean? They, they were like, we get along. And so, but anyway, my point is.

• 1:26:21Speaker 03

  I mean, Trump was friends with, with the Clintons, you know? And, and the lock them up thing, I, I really believe was theatrics. I don't think he gave a shit. I think he was just trying to win.

• 1:26:29Trevor Noah?

  It was wrestling.

• 1:26:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was wrestling.

• 1:26:31Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that's all it was. So anyway, I'm in that room. Everyone's there together. So now you get to make jokes that everyone can laugh at because if I make a joke that goes, that hits Biden, then Republicans will laugh. If I make a joke that hits Trump or Fox or what, then you know what I mean? So I'm telling these jokes.

• 1:26:49Speaker 03

  The Democrats get mad at you when you make too many Biden jokes, right?

• 1:26:52Trevor Noah?

  Completely, completely.

• 1:26:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:26:53Trevor Noah?

  So I did the jokes.

• 1:26:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:26:55Trevor Noah?

  Show went really well. The room, to its credit, had a great time.

• 1:26:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:27:00Trevor Noah?

  That week on Facebook, on Fox News, MSNBC, wherever it was, people only had the portion of the set.

• 1:27:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:27:11Trevor Noah?

  That told that told the jokes that they, you know what I mean? So literally, it was like there was right wing or conservative or, you know, Republican. Each group on this side going, oh, man, this was actually quite funny. And the other side was like, oh, man, this is actually quite funny, but no one was watching the mixed thing. Hmm. And I, like, when I watch your comedy, I go, I think specifically about like some of the jokes you've done where you, you, you always feel like a reluctant hero for me. Cause people, people try to make you a hero, right?

• 1:27:40Speaker 03

  Good name for a special.

• 1:27:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that is a great name for your special, to be honest, because you'll tell a joke. And then I'll see people go, Sam Morril. That's what I like, man. He's here and he's, he's telling jokes that are great for women. And finally, he's standing up to the manosphere. And Sam's like, I was just telling a joke about my perspective on dating.

• 1:28:00Speaker 03

  Oh, I tell this to everyone. I did. I remember I was at the Kelly Clarkson Show and one of the producers was talking to me, trans person, and she was like, oh, my God, you're like, I love your joke about trans swimmers. Like, it's one of my favorite, it's not that joke, it's a different joke, a joke from a Netflix special that went viral about like, and I was, you know, it was pretty, I just saw so many anti-trans jokes and I was like, my mind is trained to go the other way.

• 1:28:22Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:22Speaker 03

  I have no bad feelings towards any group in this country. My, my process is what's funny in my head? And it's to think differently a lot of the time with a joke. And I thought it was a funny take defending trans swimmers. Like, the angle was basically like, who give, you don't give, people getting mad, I'm like, you don't watch women swimming. That was basically the bulk of the angle. But, um, I told the person, I said, just so you know, I have a joke in my new special, making fun of one trans person, not, oh, but one trans person who really hated me. And she goes, oh, great. Like, I was like, I just don't want you to think that I'm like some like savior. I'm literally just making jokes. That was literally, I, I just didn't want to, I don't want to get praise where you think I'm something I'm not.

• 1:29:03Speaker 03

  So as I said, I have no problem with anybody. I'm good with anybody until a person is an asshole on their own basis, just one person. But, uh, yeah, like I'll have a joke defending women and then I'll have a joke making fun of women because that's what jokes are. I think they, they are, they are no one thing. They're whatever pops into my head at that time. If something is sound shitty and not like me, I'm not gonna tell it, but. You know, yeah, I had, I had like eight minutes of me too jokes that were pretty pro women in a special because to me, that's where my mind was at the time. I thought, I heard a lot of guys doing jokes like, you can't do anything with women anymore. And I'm like, really? You're really having a hard time? Like, you just don't rape. That's really the main thing.

• 1:29:47Speaker 03

  You know, that's what they're pissed about. Like, it's not that big a deal. So that was when my mind was with the me too stuff. And I had a story about getting roofied in college. It was like a whole thing about, you know,

• 1:30:00Speaker 03

  to me, it was a hilarious time to be a man because of how low the bar was for men, you know? So that was where my head was with the me too stuff. And then, you know, it's like, you go in phases. I have a joke now that like, I have to, I have to like, cut because I think it's, women feel it's hitting them too hard. And I'm like, damn, I liked it. I just thought it was a funny joke.

• 1:30:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:21Speaker 03

  But sometimes you have jokes where you're like, I like this. I have a joke about the WNBA. That's like pretty pro WNBA. But women get pissed at that one. I'm like, shit, I guess I have to cut this one too. So.

• 1:30:30Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. But how do you, how do you decide? I, I'd love to know how you, how you decide that because you, like I said, you, you, you're an honest comic and you're doing your thing. But I'd love to know like how you, how you choose this, especially in a world where everyone's trying to choose it for you.

• 1:30:43Speaker 03

  It's the batting average has to be high enough that I'm not keeping it just to be stubborn, you know?

• 1:30:47Trevor Noah?

  Okay, okay, got it.

• 1:30:48Speaker 03

  So, so look, if, if I like it and it's funny, that's part of it, but it's gotta work. If it doesn't work, then something's wrong with it. As you just said with that, as you pointed out with the training thing, I think you're right. The, the swimming, the, when I said earlier in the thing, I think you're right. But, you know, I'll have a joke that I think is really funny and something that'll kill. And then you're like, I always said if a joke is getting groaned in Portland, Oregon, you still got like 10 years to tell it in like St. Louis. You know, it's still got some, you still got some legs to go in, in other parts of the country where you're like, it's catching up. So if you want it to live forever, you might, you might want to drop it. I think, uh,

• 1:31:24Speaker 03

  I think, yeah, I think you just go with your gut ultimately. You I have friends who I really trust, who you know, I tour with Gary Vider and Gary's such a great joke writer. And I'll run jokes by him, be like, is this too harsh? Cause I, I don't want to ever, I didn't feel those jokes about women were pandering to women. I felt they were honest how I felt and I felt like I can playfully call out men and women. Cause it's, I'm gonna have more jokes about women because I'm straight and it's, I date women. So my frustration is gonna be more with women I date than just with my guy friends who I don't really fight with that much. But, um, yeah, I mean, some of your relationship jokes are gonna have bite and they're gonna be like, I would think of them like music, like it depends on the musician, like Bob Dylan's,

• 1:32:08Speaker 03

  Colin Quinn has this great joke about how Bob Dylan, all his breakup songs are like, fuck you, like, you know, uh, how does it feel to be on your own? Like they're so angry. But you know, I'll, I listen to Leonard Cohen a lot and his music, his breakup songs are pretty nice. They're pretty much like, I fucked up. That's the tone of it.

• 1:32:25Trevor Noah?

  Yeah. So it's like, it's, it's over now. It's like, this is, you know, this is the journey. This is the, it's a different type of peace.

• 1:32:31Speaker 03

  So it's really like, where's your mind and where's your heart at? Are, are you still broken or are you kind of healed and now it's kind of funny to you? I mean, I have a joke.

• 1:32:39Trevor Noah?

  I like that actually.

• 1:32:40Speaker 03

  I, I have jokes about exes that I wouldn't, I'm like, oh, I'm not really, I was angry in that moment and it hit, but I was angry. And I, and I'm not angry anymore. I'm kind of just like, oh, I'm, I'm at peace with it now and you know, an absence will make the heart grow fonder. So you, you, you don't think of that when you're in it, you're like, oh my God, all we do is fight. And then after a while you're like, ah, she was cool. Well, we both have problems. It was a bad, it was a bad match really. So,

• 1:33:07Speaker 03

  sometimes you're in those relationships where you're just so frustrated because it's just not, and you like the other person. And when it's good, it's great, but you just can't get along and, and you get mad at the other person, but you're like, no, we just weren't, they're not a bad person. We just weren't right for each other.

• 1:33:20Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:21Speaker 03

  And but in the moment you can't articulate that and it just comes out like, ah, fuck you, you know? But after six months, you're just like, yeah, I hope, I hope she's with someone who's better, you know? So that sets the tone. Sometimes you need to give yourself time, you know?

• 1:33:37Trevor Noah?

  Sometimes you need to give yourself time. Do you ever think?

• 1:33:42Speaker 04

  You wish that your ex is with someone better?

• 1:33:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, I do.

• 1:33:45Speaker 04

  For real, for real?

• 1:33:46Speaker 03

  For real, yeah.

• 1:33:47Speaker 04

  For me, I don't.

• 1:33:48Speaker 03

  You hope she suffers forever?

• 1:33:50Speaker 04

  I wish she's just chilling.

• 1:33:51Speaker 03

  You hope she's in a wheelchair somewhere?

• 1:33:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, and then all of a sudden, there's two, there's three guys in jumpsuits and three hockey sticks at the door. The doorman is upset. I'm like, how does it feel? To be on your own, no direction home.

• 1:34:08Speaker 04

  I got rolling.

• 1:34:09Trevor Noah?

  This is a man at peace, man. That's what this is.

• 1:34:11Speaker 04

  I feel, I feel.

• 1:34:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean.

• 1:34:12Speaker 04

  Let's ask the right that. No, this is a man at peace.

• 1:34:14Speaker 03

  I, I think, you know, I, I, I struggle with knowing what the tone for, like, I'll have jokes hit all the way through.

• 1:34:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:34:23Speaker 03

  Like, I was in Oklahoma over the weekend and I had good, pretty good shows, I think. But then I came and I did an hour at the Cellar, one of those like pop-up hours, fat black pussycat. And I was like, man, some of these are getting groans. I don't know why they're getting groans. And, uh.

• 1:34:37Trevor Noah?

  Wait, some of the stuff from Oklahoma?

• 1:34:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, some of the stuff that killed in Oklahoma, I'm like, wow, this really killed. And now I'm like, well, this, what's got it, to me, I, I like, part of the reason I tour is because I want to make it bulletproof. I want it to be really, really strong. But yeah, you do have to make judgment calls at the end of the day and say, is this, is this strong enough?

• 1:34:54Trevor Noah?

  I think that's, that's probably one of the hardest parts and one of the most rewarding aspects of comedy is, there comes a point when you have to decide how many is enough and whether or not you're even trying to go for the majority. Do you, do you get what I'm saying? Because I think comedy a lot of the time is like democracy in that the majority is not always right.

• 1:35:18Speaker 03

  Broken?

• 1:35:19Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's sort of like the majority is not always right.

• 1:35:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure.

• 1:35:22Trevor Noah?

  You know, like, like.

• 1:35:23Speaker 03

  But that's a dangerous way to think.

• 1:35:24Trevor Noah?

  No, but, but I think it's the way we should think.

• 1:35:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:35:27Trevor Noah?

  It is dangerous, but I think it's the way we should think because you go, damn, if, just because the most people are laughing at this joke doesn't necessarily mean that I have to believe that it's the best version of the joke. You know what I mean? And that's what I think is great about it is that it's dangerous and that it's precarious and that is it's it's wrong. And I always think comedy is like, yeah, it's like playing with nitroglycerin.

• 1:35:51Speaker 03

  It's Yeah.

• 1:35:52Trevor Noah?

  Man, one wrong move and boom, boom, you know?

• 1:35:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. Saying the wrong thing is thrilling. So that's that's I get excited. I get excited when something goes hard. Cause also it's we're we're so blessed to get to perform for people that know us at the point like I people ask about like offend. I'm like, my crowd doesn't really ever get offended because they know who I am and they know that the motives aren't bad. They know that the all I'm trying to do is make them laugh. So if I if I missed that trying something new. I tried something over the weekend that fucking bombed. It was a Harvey Weinstein joke. I did joke about it. It's a bad joke. It was about how he how he hit on my friend and then was like a gentleman. He was like, oh, I'm so sorry. And I was like, you never hear that story? And I was like, yeah, because he did the other shit. Like that was the angle of the bit.

• 1:36:35Speaker 03

  But it just didn't really hit and and I was like, all right. And they they're just like, cool, go go to the next one. They they want they want me to throw shit at the wall.

• 1:36:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:43Speaker 03

  They want me to like they and I I find that comedy crowds are so sophisticated now that they like they know the process. They know that we're all trying new stuff and they actually every once in a while they'll be mad. I ran into a guy at a bar recently who goes, I saw you in Dania Beach. You were just reading out of a notepad. And I was like, well, I billed it as a workout show. He goes, well, I didn't read that. And I go, I don't know what to tell you. And he goes, the tickets were forty dollars. I'm like, I it's over. What do you want from me? This is what I had to do to write an hour. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You had a bad night at my show. And my he wouldn't let it go. My friend was like, what the fuck is wrong with the guy? I don't know. Let's go to another bar. He was so mad. I was like, I never that's never happened.

• 1:37:20Trevor Noah?

  I feel for that guy, though.

• 1:37:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:37:22Trevor Noah?

  Just just take a moment to consider it from his perspective, right? You go out on a night. Let's say you bought tickets to like a Taylor Swift show.

• 1:37:31Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:37:32Trevor Noah?

  You go there and then Taylor Swift is like strumming on a guitar, but like getting every

• 1:37:37Speaker 03

  Tuning it.

• 1:37:37Trevor Noah?

  Every note, yeah, tuning.

• 1:37:42Trevor Noah?

  And you're like, what am I doing here? And they go like, oh yeah, that wasn't like a real show. That's like a, you know what I mean? I get it from his perspective.

• 1:37:48Speaker 03

  Taylor Swift's like, fuck John Mayer. And she's like, whoa, too much, too much. I'm working it out.

• 1:37:52Trevor Noah?

  I'm working the bit out.

• 1:37:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:37:53Trevor Noah?

  I'm working the bit out.

• 1:37:54Speaker 03

  Angry.

• 1:37:55Speaker 05

  Yeah, I don't know.

• 1:37:56Speaker 04

  Sam is an MMA fighter who met a gym dummy that can talk. I was like, so you're not punching for real?

• 1:38:01Trevor Noah?

  Oh, that's exactly what I've been.

• 1:38:02Speaker 04

  You are not?

• 1:38:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I.

• 1:38:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, so she did Saturday. So that's what you do?

• 1:38:07Speaker 03

  I, I know, and you feel bad too, but I also like, I thought the crowd was in, like, I remember that gig. I was like, oh no, they were into it. I thought.

• 1:38:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I, I actually think what, what that man said to you is the perfect encapsulation. What I think has gone sort of wrong with society today. And I don't blame society for this. I think the system has put us in a situation where, you know, people love to talk about like cancel culture or one of the big things people still ask me, I've seen them ask you, they go like, can comedians even tell jokes anymore?

• 1:38:33Speaker 03

  Oh, aren't you still bored with that?

• 1:38:34Trevor Noah?

  Can comed- every time they ask me, I'm like, man, come on. They're like, are people, people are so sensitive.

• 1:38:39Speaker 03

  Quit it. You didn't hear? We're retired.

• 1:38:40Trevor Noah?

  People are so sensitive these days. Nobody laughs. Nobody, and I'm like, no.

• 1:38:44Speaker 03

  They want it. They, they're trying to bond with you over that. And I'm like, no, let's bond over something else. Cause I don't care. I, I.

• 1:38:49Trevor Noah?

  That's what it is.

• 1:38:50Speaker 03

  It's, it's pretty much never a problem. The only thing that worries me comedically is these tech companies that only care about ad sales. Muting certain words. That's what worries me.

• 1:39:00Trevor Noah?

  Oh, that's interesting.

• 1:39:00Speaker 03

  When I, when I see things like, you know, Instagram and they just bury, like if you say the word Nazi and you're like.

• 1:39:06Trevor Noah?

  Oh, but they don't know the context.

• 1:39:07Speaker 03

  But they know the context, but some AI thing is being like, bury this post.

• 1:39:10Trevor Noah?

  It's like the book banning.

• 1:39:12Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 1:39:12Trevor Noah?

  Back to the book banning.

• 1:39:13Speaker 03

  But you're like, okay, but that, so I can't make a joke condemning Nazis? And like, well, you, you, I'm like, well, this is like Nazi shit.

• 1:39:19Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:19Speaker 03

  You're not allowed to even say it. So then, um, gay, like I think people like, they'll post jokes where they're like, instead of kill yourself, they'll be like, I unalived myself. And I'm like, so now you're changing speech. And this, it worries me that comics will start writing for the algorithm and stuff. And I, and I also just think like, you know, they keep moving the goalpost and that's what, it doesn't worry me about like, oh, you can't say this. My worry is about like them burying, like you, you build this following a certain way. That's why I, I use this thing called Punch Up a lot now. That's why I post a lot of my videos. Cause YouTube and, and, uh. And it's also nice to have like a free speech thing that isn't like some crazed right wing thing like.

• 1:39:59Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:59Speaker 03

  I don't wanna fucking be on Rumble, you know? I don't wanna, I don't wanna, come follow me on Rumble. No, just Punch Up is cool because it's just like, you know, Instagram or YouTube, a lot of them just bury jokes now that are just like, oh, this isn't aligned with our values.

• 1:40:13Trevor Noah?

  We're not sure what it even means, basically.

• 1:40:15Speaker 03

  It's like, it's like harder than Fallon. Like, you used to put a, a set together for a late night set for like Fallon or one of these late night shows and they're like, you can't say this, you can't. I remember Nick Griffin, who's one of the best late night set comics ever, like his Letterman sets, I think, are like, go watch Nick Griffin on Letterman, you wanna see like a masterclass on just joke writing, but they made him change a joke of his that I loved, where he goes, you know, young women are filled with sugar and spice and everything nice, and I'm filled with anger and semen and shame. And I thought that was such like a poetic line.

• 1:40:42Trevor Noah?

  That's pretty, yeah.

• 1:40:43Speaker 03

  And they made him change it to anger and Prozac and shame. And I was like, semen, first off, it's a clinical term. And secondly, it, the alliteration made it funnier and flow. I hate when they change, but he is, he's like the king of late night where it's like, you gotta open with self-deprecating stuff. I mean, he just knew how to suck you in. It was great stuff.

• 1:41:04Trevor Noah?

  When I was on Letterman, I did a joke and it was, I had a set and there was one part of the joke that had the word, uh, maybe, oh, Hitler, Hitler was in the joke, in one part of the joke. And then there was another part of the joke where I talked about, uh, homeless people, like, you know? And it wasn't, it wasn't slamming homeless people at all. We're just talking about bumping into a homeless person. And they came to me afterwards. And I was like, man, I know the Hitler joke, maybe, you know what I mean? And they came and they were like, hey, listen, we love the set, we just need to change something. And I was like, yeah, I know. And they're like, yeah, man, we don't want you to say homeless.

• 1:41:39Speaker 03

  I knew that was coming.

• 1:41:41Trevor Noah?

  And I was like.

• 1:41:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:41:42Trevor Noah?

  Wait, but the person was homeless. I was like, this is not, the joke doesn't go against the whole, at all.

• 1:41:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:41:48Trevor Noah?

  They're like, yeah, would you rather, can you rather say like crazy person or? And I was like, well, I was like.

• 1:41:53Speaker 03

  It's meaner.

• 1:41:53Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I was like, I don't think the person was crazy.

• 1:41:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:41:57Trevor Noah?

  I think they just.

• 1:41:58Speaker 04

  They're just homeless.

• 1:41:58Trevor Noah?

  They're just homeless.

• 1:41:59Speaker 03

  Although I would rather be crazy than homeless.

• 1:42:02Speaker 04

  Well.

• 1:42:02Trevor Noah?

  Oh, that's interesting.

• 1:42:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:42:03Speaker 04

  Eh, wait, wait, eh, I would choose homeless any day because I can always change my mind.

• 1:42:07Speaker 03

  How do you know it's, how do you know it's your mind, though? You might, you think you're homeless by a choice?

• 1:42:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but you can be temporarily homeless.

• 1:42:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:42:14Speaker 03

  That's true, but temporarily, yeah, that's a big difference.

• 1:42:17Trevor Noah?

  That's the, yeah, but, but you are, you, you're temporarily homeless until you get a home.

• 1:42:20Speaker 03

  But they were weird, I've, you're not the first comic I've heard, they're like, no homeless jokes on Letterman.

• 1:42:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:42:24Speaker 03

  Which is a, it's a weird.

• 1:42:25Trevor Noah?

  The word homeless, though, they were doing a similar thing, they were just going, the word homeless.

• 1:42:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:42:29Trevor Noah?

  We don't want, and you're like, no, I'm not making a joke about a person being homeless.

• 1:42:32Speaker 03

  Did they have homeless sponsors? Like, what, why are you so mad? I don't get it. They had such weird rules on late night, always.

• 1:42:39Trevor Noah?

  But I think this is, this is the, this is, this is what we experience, maybe in the world of, let's say, late night TV back in the day. And now it's becoming more ubiquitous when you look at major tech companies. I think it's because we live in a world where corporations are less concerned about the actual issue and more about the appearance of caring about the actual issue.

• 1:43:03Speaker 03

  Right.

• 1:43:04Trevor Noah?

  Do you know what I'm saying?

• 1:43:04Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 1:43:05Trevor Noah?

  So they don't care about a homeless person.

• 1:43:06Speaker 03

  They conduct studies, they just don't, Facebook, all these like studies, young women are, are suicidal because they can achieve these body types. And they're like, oh, are you gonna change anything? No, but we conducted the studies.

• 1:43:17Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:17Speaker 03

  That's it.

• 1:43:18Trevor Noah?

  Hmm, yeah, but the appearance of it.

• 1:43:19Speaker 03

  Football, they're like, this is really bad for your brain, are you gonna change anything? Nah, it's fucking, it's entertaining.

• 1:43:23Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:43:24Speaker 03

  We know guns are a problem, are we gonna change anything? No.

• 1:43:26Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:43:27Speaker 04

  So it's window dressing.

• 1:43:28Speaker 03

  We just wanna know there's a problem.

• 1:43:29Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow. That's, that's all it is, and so tha- that's why I'm saying what, what I think that guy reveals.

• 1:43:35Speaker 03

  It's like when a woman tells you her problem and you're just like, you're just like, uh, well, how can I fix it? She's like, I just wanted you to listen to the problem, that's basically what we're doing with everything in the country. That's all we're doing.

• 1:43:45Trevor Noah?

  We're just listening to it.

• 1:43:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're just listening. I now know why you have a problem.

• 1:43:48Trevor Noah?

  What I'm saying, that guy revealed, funny enough, the one who complained about the notepad, he actually revealed what the real problem is, context. So when he's saying to you, I didn't read that, I didn't see that. He came to your show, not knowing that you're working material out.

• 1:44:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:44:02Trevor Noah?

  So to him, the promise that was sold to him was incorrect. He didn't have the context. And I actually think that's what's happened to comedy in the world. Is that anyone who's in a comedy club, for the most part, they know that they're in a comedy club, they know Sam Morril, they know Eugene Cozer, they know Trevor, they know that like, okay, you do a thing. But then what the internet does is it strips the context away. And then they'll just throw you up there and being like, the Jewish mafia. And it'll be like, look at this guy and what he said about, you know, and they just take a clip. And no one tells you who Sam Morril is, they don't tell you about his family.

• 1:44:33Speaker 03

  What's with your White House speech?

• 1:44:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:35Speaker 03

  It it's become tribal. So it's like, we're living in an echo chamber. This is, this is what will make me happy. And the algorithm knows you. I mean, it's sad when you realize, when you look at your explore page and you're like, oh, my God, this knows me so well.

• 1:44:47Trevor Noah?

  Oh, it's crazy.

• 1:44:48Speaker 03

  And it's, and it realized how, oh, my God, it's the most mundane shit I've ever seen.

• 1:44:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:52Speaker 03

  Like, my whole algorithm is dudes eating sandwiches. In their car. And then you don't see these? Because I guess I like watching people eat. It's like a Food Network type vibe.

• 1:45:00Trevor Noah?

  I like how you're saying this, like you're, you're not sure about this of yourself. You're like, I guess, I guess I like watching people.

• 1:45:06Speaker 03

  Well, I don't think, I actually enjoy it, but I keep watching.

• 1:45:08Trevor Noah?

  Are they in a drive through? Are they, do they have a tray? What was the first one you watched?

• 1:45:12Speaker 03

  A lot of people who are just like, we're gonna see if this, if this sandwich is, is overrated or underrated, it's a lot of that shit. And you're just like, all right. And then you just watch them eat it. They'll be like, these are the top restaurants in this area. And I'm like, I don't, like, I like food. I don't think of myself as like a insane foodie. But I guess a lot of my algorithm is like, or old basketball stories. So it'd be like that, or it'd be like Kevin Garnett, like, oh, man, I remember the time we busted LeBron's ass. I'm like, oh, this is my whole algorithm, you know?

• 1:45:38Trevor Noah?

  I sometimes think that we should switch algorithms. Like, I wish there was a, a system where you could say for a day, I just want to be in somebody else's algorithm completely.

• 1:45:46Speaker 03

  Like being John Malkovich?

• 1:45:47Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, I just wanna, I just, because I think, to your point, we're living in a world now where. Everything, that's, that is one thing I do miss, even though it was less convenient. One of the things I do miss about like linear television was that you had to sit through so much shit that wasn't for you.

• 1:46:03Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:46:04Trevor Noah?

  To get to the stuff that was for you. So.

• 1:46:06Speaker 03

  And you'd also find stuff that you didn't know you liked.

• 1:46:08Trevor Noah?

  Exactly what I mean. So now I'm sitting through like Murder She Wrote with my mom. Murphy brought in a Sunday night. Because I'm trying to get to the comedy, you know? I, if you asked me as a child, do you like Frasier? Without me knowing, and I was like, what is Frasier? And you're like, well, it's it's New York story and it's this guy in Seattle. Sorry, and he's a therapist and this guy was on a radio station and the dad, I'd be like.

• 1:46:30Speaker 03

  And his brother's just basically him times ten.

• 1:46:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, and I just go like, I don't, I don't think this is for me. I would be like, listen, man, I'm eight years old. I don't think any of this is for me. But when I think of Nile and that whole family, just because I had to sit through it, it became, do you know what I mean? It became like my thing.

• 1:46:46Speaker 03

  It's incredible that he was just like out of his mind, whacked out on drugs the first few seasons and he's still.

• 1:46:52Trevor Noah?

  No way.

• 1:46:52Speaker 03

  And Kelsey Grammer and he's just bringing it still.

• 1:46:54Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wait, I thought you meant the character.

• 1:46:55Speaker 03

  No, no, no. Kelsey Grammer was just on drugs the first few seasons, like, and they had, they gave him interventions and stuff.

• 1:47:01Trevor Noah?

  Oh, he was killing it, though.

• 1:47:02Speaker 03

  Oh, he's unreal. I mean, he's like one of the best sitcom actors ever.

• 1:47:05Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, easily.

• 1:47:05Speaker 03

  But, uh, but yeah, they, they.

• 1:47:07Trevor Noah?

  Tell it again. No, he was killing it. Good for him.

• 1:47:10Speaker 03

  He's a phenom, obviously.

• 1:47:11Trevor Noah?

  But then what? Did he stop? Did he?

• 1:47:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, he got sober. The cast, the cast was like really loyal to him. Yeah, it's, it's crazy.

• 1:47:17Trevor Noah?

  And then the show got canceled.

• 1:47:19Speaker 03

  No, it made it like thirteen years. It's crazy. What was it? Thirteen?

• 1:47:23Trevor Noah?

  You know those stories where it ends like that? And the cast came together like, Kelsey, you can't do this anymore. And then he stopped and it wasn't funny and they got canceled. They're like, all right, Kelsey, I'm gonna need to take some of this shit right here.

• 1:47:33Trevor Noah?

  He brought a bag.

• 1:47:34Speaker 03

  That would be great, though, if he got sober and he just really, yeah, like, wow, you're really, you gotta get back on there.

• 1:47:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, man, you just gotta, yeah, no, this is, this is not working for us. Do you see yourself getting into, um, film, TV?

• 1:47:44Speaker 03

  I've written a bunch of stuff. Yeah, I, uh, I wrote.

• 1:47:47Trevor Noah?

  For yourself to be in?

• 1:47:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I wrote, I'm ma- I'm making a movie with Gary Vider. It's like a mockumentary. I'm filming it now. It's like, uh, it's like Spinal Tap, but about my tour. It's pretty fun. We got, we got a lot of funny cameos in it. I'm, I'm really pleased with it. And then, uh, I wrote a movie with Mark Norman, hopefully gonna film next year.

• 1:48:04Trevor Noah?

  You guys are funny, man.

• 1:48:05Speaker 03

  I love Mark.

• 1:48:05Trevor Noah?

  You guys are like funny, funny.

• 1:48:07Speaker 03

  I love that dude. And he, uh, and then we have, uh. I wrote, dude, it's very hard to make shows. I, you know, I wrote a show that I got Brian Cox, the actor attached to and was, he's to play my dad and we're basically, we're still having a hard time selling it, but I love, I wrote it with Michael Lawrence, who's an incredible writer, just like a phenomenal writer. And we'll see if we can sell it, but it's, uh, I mean, just getting Brian Cox to be like, yeah, I love this script. I'm in. It's crazy to see him on pitch calls too, because his presence is like unmatched.

• 1:48:36Trevor Noah?

  It's the Brian Cox.

• 1:48:38Speaker 03

  He's a legend.

• 1:48:38Trevor Noah?

  Brian Cox, Brian Cox.

• 1:48:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, Succession Brian Cox. Yeah, you think his first project after Succession, we get, would be a slam dunk, but they're, I guess they're looking at my face. They're like, ugh, I don't know. Uh, but I, I think the script is amazing. I think that's how we got him. So, uh, I hope, I hope we figure that out.

• 1:48:54Trevor Noah?

  That's, I mean, that would be amazing.

• 1:48:55Speaker 03

  But I was so angry during pitches, how long, because you know, you, these companies, like, these people don't work. Like you, you're like sitting in a meeting with a company and they're like, cool, can you meet, uh, next month? And you're like, yeah, I guess next month. Sure. And then they're like, oh shit, they're out on vacation this week. And I'm like, all right, uh, next week, like, next week, we're actually closed. And then they're like, okay, well, how about, uh, the day after, like, well, that's MLK day. We take that whole week off. And you're like, all right, how about next year? Can we push next year? So we did that and it was literally, and then on top of that, you take like a month to here after that. So, so, so you, and I'm, I'm so, I'm a doer. I'm not. So that's why I'm making my own thing with Gary. We have, uh, I think that movie's really good. But then, uh, during the time I was so angry that no one was doing this. I was like, I'm going to write another movie. So I just wrote a movie about,

• 1:49:40Speaker 03

  like a basketball comedy. So I think I'm going to try to do something with that next year. I'll just, I'm going to tour a little less next year. I'm burnt out from touring.

• 1:49:47Trevor Noah?

  From being, how many dates do you, did you do?

• 1:49:50Speaker 03

  I don't know how many I did this year. I did like 50 in the first three months.

• 1:49:53Trevor Noah?

  I mean, that's a hell of a lot.

• 1:49:54Speaker 03

  And then I'll do like weekends here and there, just to kind of keep it tight. But yeah, so I'll do like theaters the first half of the year, but I'm, I'm doing some clubs again. I'm doing Europe coming up. Um, so I'm, I'm pumped to go back to Europe. Then like Chicago, New York, just stuff like that to, you know, do like fun shows. But, uh, I do, I do a lot of the, of the road. I, I'm surrounded by comics who are just psychos. So when you come up with Mark Normand and guys like that, who are just like, they never take a night off.

• 1:50:19Trevor Noah?

  Tremendous nonstop.

• 1:50:20Speaker 03

  You're like, oh, if I, if I don't do four sets in a night, am I a piece of shit? I don't, maybe, I don't know. So you're surrounded by these kinds of psychos. It, it, it motivates you for sure.

• 1:50:30Trevor Noah?

  Oh, man, I'm excited. I'm, I'm, I'm excited to see like where it goes, how it goes. Cause it's been fun watching, you, you know, I said this to you the other day when we were talking, I said, something a lot of people don't get about comedy, this is just my opinion, but is a lot of the time, people will go, they'll say to me like, oh, that comic is funny and that comic isn't, is, and I go, no, no, no. Sometimes I think what you're missing is the time is just meeting up with the comic and their talents. Do you know what I mean? Louis CK was funny forever. And then something in and around the recession connected with him and people were like, this is my guy and this feeling connects with me. And then they rolled.

• 1:51:08Speaker 03

  It was him talking about his kids that broke him.

• 1:51:10Trevor Noah?

  Exactly. And then Kevin Hart was funny forever. And then something connected around that time. People like, this is the guy. So I feel like there's so many comedians where people will tell a comedian, I don't know, or no, they're funny now. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Now is just catching up to their funny. And I feel like we're witnessing your now-ness. No.

• 1:51:28Speaker 03

  You're so nice.

• 1:51:29Trevor Noah?

  No, but I mean this genuinely. I love comedy. I'm not, I'll tell you this, it's not even about niceness. I'm just, I love comedy so much.

• 1:51:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I, I love what we do. I mean, I feel very fortunate. Like I, I am excited. I'm almost always excited to work, which is pretty cool.

• 1:51:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:44Speaker 03

  I'm always, and like even writing, I get pretty pumped to look over stuff. I, you know, I don't really feel drained from what I do. And that's why people are like, why don't you take more time off? I enjoy it. I really do like it. I understand I have to do other stuff just to live, to have stories, but I'll do, I'm, so many of my best bits are me making a terrible drunken decision that led to a night of regret. And I'm like, oh, that's a bit, that's a story. So I'll still do that. I just think, you know, it's hard to not work when you love what you're doing.

• 1:52:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you found your purpose.

• 1:52:14Speaker 03

  And I love, I love going up and part of why I'm always at the Comedy Cellar, just like, oh, I just, I, I live walking distance from there. Uh, it's, it's fun to just, you know, go up and just be like, let me try these ideas.

• 1:52:27Trevor Noah?

  Well, you know what's funny is people will often, not like, like the broader, but some people might judge a comedian for that. They'd be like, you're always there. Yeah, I remember once saying this to them. They're like, you're always at the cellar. And I was like, yeah, you're always in your office.

• 1:52:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:52:38Trevor Noah?

  Every day, Monday to Friday, you are at the office from eight until five.

• 1:52:43Speaker 03

  I'm only there for 15 minutes. What the hell are you doing?

• 1:52:45Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I might be here every day for like 45 minutes, an hour, two hours at most. It's like, yeah, you relax. Oh, you know what I mean? This is your office and you love it at the same time.

• 1:52:53Speaker 03

  Yeah. You're touring like crazy, right?

• 1:52:55Trevor Noah?

  I've slowed down now. So I spend more time in South Africa. I've slowed down. I, uh, cause, cause you know what it is, is there's, there's an interesting thing that happens. And it can happen to you anywhere in the world, but America is very good at amplifying this.

• 1:53:12Speaker 03

  Gun violence.

• 1:53:21Trevor Noah?

  Oh, man. Is, America is the land of more.

• 1:53:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:53:26Trevor Noah?

  Alright, so if you can do fifty dates, you wanna do sixty dates?

• 1:53:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:53:30Trevor Noah?

  You wanna do seventy dates? You know, we can add a second show that night.

• 1:53:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:53:34Trevor Noah?

  What do you think about a third show? Have you ever done those? For, how many, for, you know, afternoon shows have gotten real popular. You could do a one P M. And then a five P M. And, and the thing I've learned is, one of the reasons America is the economic powerhouse of the world is because it's the land of more. Like quarterly earnings, get that money up, pump that thing, get it going. But I also think one of the reasons it's, you know, one of the most like depressed, violent and unequal places, despite how much money it has, is because it's the land of more. So the thing I'm trying to search for in life is that balance, like you're saying. I don't ever wanna hate comedy because I chased the money side of comedy and not the comedy side of comedy. Because none of us here got into it for the money originally.

• 1:54:17Speaker 03

  There wasn't the money in it.

• 1:54:18Trevor Noah?

  Remember that time?

• 1:54:19Speaker 03

  I mean, I, I was like, I was so satisfied to be just like a guy who played clubs on the road.

• 1:54:24Trevor Noah?

  It's the best feeling in the world.

• 1:54:25Speaker 03

  I was, I was just like looking at people who had that career and I was like, that would be amazing.

• 1:54:30Trevor Noah?

  It's the best feeling in the world, yeah.

• 1:54:31Speaker 03

  Cause I remember the first time you started Headline, you're like, this is ama- it's my show. I get the, you know, it's so cool. So, yeah. The money is great, but, uh, and obviously, you know, there is that fear that it could, it could go away and, and all that stuff, but, uh, but yeah, no, it's, it's so friggin' fun. That's, I mean, I, I, I think comedy movies are fun. I love movies. So I, I wanna do, there's other stuff I wanna do, but standup's always gonna be number one.

• 1:54:58Trevor Noah?

  Standup will be the base.

• 1:55:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:55:00Trevor Noah?

  Hopefully. If if we leave this earth before seeing you make some sort of noir comedy slash something slash something. Or play Luigi Mangione. It would have been.

• 1:55:10Speaker 03

  Oh dude, I'm not in good enough shape for that. Come on, that kid was ripped.

• 1:55:12Trevor Noah?

  I mean, that's what that's the whole that's the whole point, the transformation.

• 1:55:15Speaker 03

  The transformation? I think I'm too old too.

• 1:55:17Trevor Noah?

  No, that's the transformation. Come on, we got AI. Come on, man.

• 1:55:20Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, but we saw that in The Irishman. That was rough, dude. You don't want to see old ass Sam shooting a guy.

• 1:55:26Trevor Noah?

  All right, uh, before we wrap up, give us a list of movies we gotta watch. Everyone says this about you. They go Samiro, the movie buff.

• 1:55:32Speaker 03

  I just like movies, yeah.

• 1:55:34Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't don't say that.

• 1:55:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:55:36Trevor Noah?

  You are like a like a savant when it comes to you. You don't just like I like movies.

• 1:55:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:55:41Trevor Noah?

  I'm the kind of guy who recommend Leatherheads. I like I just like movies. You know movies. Give us five movies we have to watch.

• 1:55:48Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:55:48Trevor Noah?

  So what's the one you said on the bus that everyone started?

• 1:55:50Speaker 03

  Oh, that was called The Big Heat.

• 1:55:52Trevor Noah?

  Okay, The Big Heat.

• 1:55:52Speaker 03

  It's a cool movie. It's like a copper unhinged cop revenge movie and uh this actress Gloria Graham is in it as well and she was like awesome actress of her era. She's in uh It's a Wonderful Life. She's in um in this great Humphrey Bogart movie called In a Lonely Place and she's famous for banging her stepson and then marrying him.

• 1:56:11Trevor Noah?

  In real life?

• 1:56:12Speaker 03

  In real life. And that got her like basically thrown out of Hollywood, but she's a great actress.

• 1:56:16Trevor Noah?

  Cancel culture.

• 1:56:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:56:17Trevor Noah?

  Damn.

• 1:56:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, dude. She was a she was she was a wild one, but then uh.

• 1:56:22Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that's more than just a wild one.

• 1:56:24Speaker 03

  Big Heat's a good one.

• 1:56:25Trevor Noah?

  Banging your stepson is more than just a wild one.

• 1:56:26Speaker 03

  I'll go I'll go another old noir from the 40s called Double Indemnity. That's like the prototype.

• 1:56:31Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:56:31Speaker 03

  It's like it's perfect. It's like 90 minutes. I love a 90 minute movie, tight script, hard, hard uh killer dialogue.

• 1:56:41Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:56:41Speaker 03

  And uh yeah, it's Fred McMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and and you gotta know Edward G. Robinson. I mean, old school. Like talks like this shit, like that talk. Love that. Yeah, and I'll give you one more noir from those old ones. I just love these movies because the the scripts are airtight and for a movie to stand the test of time like eighty years or whatever. To me, you have to have such a tight script and has to and it has to be relevant, you know, like. It has to hit in the feelings of like, you know. Uh, morality that haven't haven't changed, so. Out of the past is a big one for me, Robert Mitchum. Awesome movie. I now I'll go a little more modern. Let me think, modern, fuck. Should I go all noir? Okay. Okay. Okay.

• 1:57:26Speaker 03

  Here's one from the nineties that not enough people have seen, Sam or Amy movie called A Simple Plan. I love that movie. That's from the nineties. That's an awesome one.

• 1:57:33Trevor Noah?

  Who's on it?

• 1:57:34Speaker 03

  Uh, Bill Paxton, R I P. Great actor. Uh, he was in a lot of movies. Uh, Billy Bob Thornton. Uh, Bridget Fonda. Good cast. Billy Bob's Billy Bob's unreal in it. It gives this monologue in it that you're like, it breaks you. It's so good. Um, I'll go another shit, man. I'll go, this one's kind of obvious, but I love it. Fargo. Killer.

• 1:57:57Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:57:58Speaker 03

  That one. I love that one, too.

• 1:58:00Trevor Noah?

  I've seen one.

• 1:58:01Speaker 03

  You've seen Fargo? Fargo's killer, right?

• 1:58:04Trevor Noah?

  At least I've got one.

• 1:58:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:58:06Trevor Noah?

  This is good.

• 1:58:06Speaker 04

  I've got a fifteen hour flight coming up.

• 1:58:08Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, man, you're gonna do it.

• 1:58:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, hell, yeah. I'll I'll I'll send you some more if you want.

• 1:58:12Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, we'll take them.

• 1:58:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:58:14Trevor Noah?

  Man, come join us again.

• 1:58:15Speaker 03

  I would love to, man. It's great talking to you, guys.

• 1:58:16Trevor Noah?

  Thanks for coming through. Thanks for being sweet with us.

• 1:58:18Speaker 03

  Can I can I can I tell you Carnegie Hall, December fourth?

• 1:58:21Trevor Noah?

  Do you have like a website?

• 1:58:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, samorell.com slash shows, or you could just go to punchup.live slash samorell. Everything's there, but yeah, I'm all over London, Dublin, Paris.

• 1:58:31Trevor Noah?

  Which one of these has a notepad and which one doesn't?

• 1:58:34Speaker 03

  None of them. I'm I'm locked in right now. There's no notepad.

• 1:58:37Trevor Noah?

  I just want I don't want the same thing to happen.

• 1:58:39Speaker 03

  It's a locked in show.

• 1:58:40Trevor Noah?

  All right, no notepad.

• 1:58:41Speaker 03

  I'm I'm I've never been to a lot of these. I've never been to Berlin. I've never been to Milan. I'm doing shows these places, so I'm I'm pumped.

• 1:58:47Trevor Noah?

  Oh, you're gonna love Berlin.

• 1:58:48Speaker 03

  I'm pumped.

• 1:58:48Trevor Noah?

  You're gonna love Berlin. That's one of my favorite places to do comedy.

• 1:58:51Speaker 03

  I'm excited. Yeah, I I'm all over, so.

• 1:58:54Speaker 04

  Do you have any recommendations as to where he could go in Berlin?

• 1:58:57Speaker 03

  There's a sex club I've heard about.

• 1:58:59Speaker 04

  Perhaps a nightlife.

• 1:59:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:59:02Speaker 04

  Kind of excursion where he might go.

• 1:59:03Trevor Noah?

  Oh, Bergheim.

• 1:59:04Speaker 04

  Oh, there.

• 1:59:05Speaker 03

  Is that the sex club?

• 1:59:06Speaker 04

  Oh, have you heard of it?

• 1:59:06Trevor Noah?

  I don't think, I don't think to call it a sex club is to, is to um diminish it. It's like, it's focusing on the aspect of it that is the most shocking to most people.

• 1:59:16Speaker 03

  Gotcha.

• 1:59:17Trevor Noah?

  But Bergheim is also arguably the best nightclub in the world. I think they've won the award for best sound system ten years running, maybe more. Stand to be corrected, yeah, but like easily. It's one of the best sound systems because it's perfectly in phase. So you don't even realize how bad most sound systems are when you go out. Because the sound is just loud. And then the sound system at Bergheim is so perfectly tuned that you can have a conversation like this while the music is like thumping away. Cause the, the sound waves are perfect. Does that make sense? It's like perfectly caribou, the room is measured, everything. Any DJ you talk to in the world who's like a DJ DJ, they go, man, playing at Bergheim. Cause people will go there to dance from Friday night until Monday, Monday night, I think. There's it goes, yeah.

• 2:00:02Speaker 03

  Are you a dancer?

• 2:00:03Trevor Noah?

  Oh, I love it.

• 2:00:04Speaker 03

  I'm not really a dancer.

• 2:00:05Trevor Noah?

  Oh, and the go, it doesn't matter. If you can get into Bergheim, go. Like if you can get in, go, but you might not.

• 2:00:10Speaker 03

  It's a, it's a tough uh.

• 2:00:12Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but it's not a tough door because it's fancy. It's tough door because they're just like, ah, you're not gonna fit the vibe.

• 2:00:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm probably not gonna fit this.

• 2:00:18Speaker 04

  What's the vibe inside there then?

• 2:00:19Trevor Noah?

  The vibe is just whatever. It started as a, it was like a gay club originally. And then like, it was just like very free and non judgmental. And then I just, I think they want to maintain that. They're just like, yo, don't, don't come judgy vibes here. Don't come.

• 2:00:33Speaker 04

  Sam would fit right in there.

• 2:00:34Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you would actually. He's a non judgy guy. He just wants to have a good time.

• 2:00:37Speaker 03

  Not judgy at all.

• 2:00:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, just go in there.

• 2:00:39Speaker 03

  I judge a little, but it's like, it's one of like, I pick apart, but then I'm like, no, but you're good. That's usually where I'm at.

• 2:00:42Trevor Noah?

  That's fine, that's fine.

• 2:00:43Speaker 04

  You know who would also fit in there? A photographer, based on what he did in the past.

• 2:00:49Speaker 03

  Don't remind me. Don't hotbox that bus.

• 2:00:51Trevor Noah?

  When you find out what happens at Bergheim, you'll understand the little nugget this man left you with. All right, Sam Moro, thank you, man. Appreciate it, buddy.

• 2:00:57Speaker 03

  Thank you, guys.

• 2:00:59Trevor Noah?

  This episode is presented by Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods Market is the place to get everything you need for Thanksgiving. With great prices on turkey, quality organic produce, grab and go sides and everyday low prices from three sixty five brand. You can prep for the holiday with big savings. Shop everything you need for Thanksgiving now at Whole Foods Market.

• 2:01:22Trevor Noah?

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

• 2:01:59Speaker 01

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