E98 Alex Kumin pt 2 | Joe Wagner

Can AI ever actually be funny... or is comedy one of the last truly human art forms?
Comedian Alex Kumin joins us to talk stand-up, awkward formative years, cancel culture, social media, and why life's messiest moments often become our funniest stories.
This one will make you laugh... and maybe rethink a few things along the way.

Go With Your Palate: Alex Kumin | Comedy, Chaos & Finding the Funny in Life's Messiest Moments

This week, we're joined by Alex Kumin—comedian, writer, voice actor, and host of the podcast Into The Mud, where she dives headfirst into life's messy, uncertain chapters—the in-between moments where growth, self-discovery, and the age-old question, "What the hell am I doing with my life?" somehow collide. Through honest, hilarious conversations, Alex reminds us that sometimes our darkest detours end up becoming our greatest teachers. A rising force in New York's comedy scene, she's performed everywhere from The Comedy Cellar to Don't Tell Comedy, been featured on Comedy Central and NBC, and was recently named one of Time Out New York's Comics to Watch.

We dive into what it really takes to build a career making people laugh—from grinding it out on stage to finding your own voice in an industry that's constantly evolving. Alex shares her perspective on women in comedy, cancel culture, AI, social media, and why the funniest jokes often come from life's most uncomfortable moments.

And because this is Go With Your Palate, we don't stay serious for too long. We get into awkward formative years, wine and comedy, surviving bad sets, hecklers, and the question everyone seems to be asking these days: Could AI ever actually be funny? We'll let Alex settle that debate.

It's equal parts hilarious, thoughtful, and surprisingly heartfelt—a conversation about resilience, creativity, and why laughter might just be one of life's greatest coping mechanisms.

Grab a glass, laugh a little, and don't take yourself too seriously. 🍷🎤😂

📍 Follow Alex: IG - @Alex.Kumin, TikTok - @Alex_Kumin
🎙️ Listen to: Into The Mud

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:14

I love what you said about humor. It's like it was like this defense not only a defense mechanism, but I also feel like it has uh healing factors to it. And I was gonna get your insight on that because you you have the podcast into the mud. You deal with like a lot, I mean they're deep topics, addiction, um, you know, death. But then also, you know, like maybe uncomfortable things like gooning.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Like it's like my favorite thing to talk about. Well, I'll talk a little bit about the podcasts first. Um, it's into the mud. I I started a couple years ago with my friend Drew King. Um, and we it's not necessarily

Check Out Into The Mud Podcast!

SPEAKER_00 0:46

comedy first. We call it kind of a dark comedy podcast. Um, but we talk to people about areas of their life where they're feeling like stuck or in between, or really just like the the name of the podcast came from um no mud, no lotus, right? Which like lotus flowers need mud to become the sort of beautiful flower that they are. And I think that is with anyone. You need periods of adversity, you need stuff that brings tension to your life to become sort of the the best version of yourself. And on top of that, we all have these moments, whether it's navigating addiction or abuse or or death or whatever, grief, anything like that. But we rarely talk about, we we've especially in America, we kind of skip over that, right? Like someone will be like, How are you? You're like, I'm fine. And it's like you could be dealing with the worst way you're like, ah, my fucking dog died, my wife's leaving me, like whatever it is. And you just we don't spend a lot of time really sitting with that stuff. And when you don't sit with it and you don't let yourself feel this the feelings around it, it manifests in lots of different ways down the line, right? And so um I'm actually performing, I wrote a solo show that I'm performing this Saturday in New York, um, called A Really Bad Time, that is how it's navigate, it kind of goes over how I navigated um uh having cancer three times. So that's a thing. Um I was diagnosed at 21, 26, and 35. And um I'm okay now, which is great, and we love that. But those were definitely pretty shitty, pretty tough moments to go through at that age. And um for me, humor has always been the thing that connects me, right? Like I humor at its most fundamental point is something I am saying is resonating with something in you. So there is inherent connection in laughter, right? Because it means that I've hit something, whether it's a a similar emotion, or I've or I've said something, I've voiced something that you have thought before, or I've voiced an emotion that you have felt before, right? That's what laughter is, that's what connection is. And so I think also because I think laughter also disarms in a way that makes things a lot easier to talk about, right? So, like this, I used to do this at my job in Chicago, right? I'm like talking to kids about heavy stuff. We're talking about like sexual health, we're talking about harassment, we're talking about assault, we're talking about like some really heavy stuff. But if you can kind of wrap that in a light way, it makes it way easier to engage with in conversation. And so on the podcast or in the solo show, like it's not, it's it's not gonna be a stand-up set, right? It's not gonna be an hour of jokes. But what we are gonna do is talk about something heavy,

Using humor to heal

SPEAKER_00 3:45

lighten it up for a second. Talk about something heavy, laugh about XYZ. Um, you know, we've talked to folks who have lost their parents. And, you know, I think on a on a broad scale, when we think about like death, right? Like death itself isn't funny, but like picking out a casket for your parent and and seeing what the price tag is and being like, what the fuck? Like there's humor in the minutiae of these like moments of grief, right? Like the night that I was diagnosed with cancer for the first time, it was thyroid cancer, it was in my throat, and how they operate on that is they make an incision in your neck. And so I was like sitting there totally stunned. I'm 21 years old. I'm like, I can't believe this is where I'm at right now. And my mom was like, Well, you can dress up as a Pez dispenser for Halloween this year, and that like having that.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

So you guys you got your sense of humor from somebody.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

You got it from somewhere, right? But it's like it's this moment of like diffusion, it's this moment of like shoulders down, of laughter, of like there is like that's why that's why I think like we can talk about anything in comedy. I think there's nothing like off limits in terms of like nothing like too dark or or anything like that, because there's we the human experience can go to some pretty deep dark places. And the way the way the reason that I think a lot of us feel very alone all the time is because we think we're the only person feeling that way or the only person navigating that particular thing. But we have all experienced loss, grief, depression, sadness. Like we that's that's built in. That's we have to feel that stuff so that we can feel the other stuff at the same degree. And so the podcast really focuses on that as a concept, and then and then the solo show as well is very like we're gonna talk about some heavy stuff, but we are gonna laugh about it throughout.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Yeah. And isn't it amazing that we all, I mean, as you get older, you start to realize, yeah, everybody's been through some shit, right? And a lot of times there are parallels or very similar things. I mean, even going back to you know, teenage years, I remember thinking, like, I'm the

Puberty is a funny thing...

SPEAKER_04 6:00

first guy ever in history to go through puberty. Like, this is weird. Yeah. And then finally you're like, oh no, my friends are talking about it. Oh, yeah, no, my dad talked to me about it. And you're like, oh, okay, well, this is every man and and woman in history is just about gone through this experience. So you're like, not alone. All right. But yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize going through life. I think by the time I hit like mid-30s, I realized you know, you could talk to anybody about anything, and there's gonna be some sort of like understanding and maybe some like guidance or maybe even like you said, like a joke about it that's gonna like just gonna leave you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Totally. I have a joke right now about puberty where I talk about how it is rough for everyone, right? Like nobody, like it's not like worse for one gender or the other, like wet dreams. Like that's an insane concept to me. You just like a wet, like just have like waking up and you've just come in your pants, like under the cover of darkness. Like that is a crazy concept. Yeah, and it's so funny. And I'll ask the audience, I'm like, do you guys remember your first wet dream? And people are so hesitant to be like, yeah, I remember everyone's so embarrassed about it because we don't talk about it, right? We don't talk about like we haven't normalized conversations about our bodies at all, but it's just such a universal experience, and I know it's universal because the whole crowd is laughing. If people didn't get it, or if it wasn't something that happened to half of the audience, there wouldn't be laughter about it. But because people are laughing, I'm like, oh, I know you have experienced this and you're just feeling uneasy talking about it, which I get. People don't you don't want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

Well, I and I do think that that's becoming more common and people are accepting, like, yeah, it is really fucking weird. You wake up in the middle of the night without any real prompting, and you're like, what just happened? What is what just happened?

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Did I pee myself?

SPEAKER_03 7:48

What is this? Why am I stuck? Why is this stuck to my leg? Do you remember your first time?

SPEAKER_04 7:52

I just remember a lot of them. It wasn't Chris. It's like after a couple, you're kind of like, I forgot about the first one. It was 25. Late blue.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Wait, for real? Naked facial hair too. It's like dirty. I was getting worried. I was concerned. There's a part. We're all the guys like to joke about it, they're like, yeah, man, it doesn't have it. And they're like, it's like kind of like therapy for them, and you're just kind of there pretending. You know, totally me too.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

No, my balls are so drunk. My balls have done and they're so they're like under my knees, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Like, oh man. I mean, could you grandpas are jealous? These are so low.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

But I remember like being all excited to shave, and then like a year into it, like you're shaving a year into it, you're like, I gotta do this shit for the rest of my life. Like, if I want to be clean shaven, and it's so goddamn annoying. So consider yourself lucky.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

No, because I'm just like, you were having that moment like in third grade, and I get it. That would have been like daunting. So you know what's funny?

SPEAKER_04 9:03

I had a I had a mustache as a as a child in elementary school, and so my and I was getting made, I was I was getting made fun of, so my dad brought me to an esthetician to get like get it waxed off instead of having me shave that early.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

I listen, I know this well. Again, Arab Jew. Waxed off, bleached. I used to sit, my mom and I would sit on the outside with bleach on my arm hair, mustache, unibrow, sideburns, and it's like it doesn't get rid of the hair, it just makes the hair blonde, which is like okay, now she has blonde, a blonde mustache. Like, what are we doing? This is her origin story.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

Oh man. Yeah, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of good content just about you know your own individual life that you can go through, and and people will, you know, they'll feel it in one way, shape, or form because we've all been through awkward moments, and hopefully they're open enough to like laugh at it in a club setting, because that just enlivens the crowd and probably makes your job much more enjoyable too.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Totally. And I think uh you I usually start with embarrassing moments or like shameful moments. Nobody wants to hear about like nobody wants to hear comedy from someone who's like I hit puberty at the normal time, I was really cool and attractive and popular, and I never had a zit, and I was captain of every team. Like, that's not funny. Like, I want to hear about the fucking loser. I want to hear from the loser who like had the stuff, right? Because that's where the comedy is.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Yeah, yeah, everyone loves a good underdog story.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

Well, so hey, this this brings up like a good a good point, and this is exactly why I think AI will never overtake comedy because AI is not going to be able to generate that true human emotion. I think it's gonna further instill in the audience's mind, I want to

AI and Comedy

SPEAKER_04 11:00

go see this person live. Because you it's it's all it's all about correlate correlating your own personal experience with what somebody else's experiences are and and laughing about those, right? So totally so AI, are you concerned about AI? I know we we seem to talk about this way too much. I fucking hate AI.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Well, it's an issue. I mean, it's a it's a problem affecting a lot of industries and people, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah, yeah. It is, it is, and I'd be I I'm actually curious to hear how it's how it's affecting your industry. It is definitely of concern uh because of how much it's being adopted by people, I think, without thinking, or that it's being adopted by these major like production houses or like studios that are like, hey, uh this AI program can write a a sitcom. So why do we need a writer's room? Or this we can write a movie script here, or if in my case, voiceover work has gone down over the last couple of years because yeah, like that's been a thing that's really hard. I just saw like REI is under fire. They just uh they just published some ad for a new bike, and they clearly didn't hire an actual model or a photographer or any sort of like because you think about so they they did like an AI like woman on a bike in a park, but the bike seat had like a a break on it. So clearly like they fucked up the met like like it's just there was just this like glaring error in the thing. And then it's like oh, so you you did it like this major company that obviously has a ton of disposable income to use, didn't hire a model or a photographer or the production team that goes beyond that, and so you've cut out how many dozens or hundreds of jobs so that you can save a couple bucks, but now you have this shit photograph that now people, you know, now I'm like now I'm less inclined to that's that's I'm REI, right?

SPEAKER_04 12:59

But like it's everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Good humans want to support humans, and it's great. And I'm loving seeing the pushback. I was loving seeing all these like commencement speeches. Uh, I don't know if you guys saw them, like commencement speakers at these college graduations that were talking about like AI is here and AI is the future, and they just get booed by the student body who is like fully aware that, like, no, this is bad for is bad for our industries, it's uh environmentally, it is destroying the planet.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

And so that's something I'm surprised has not gotten more press.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah, yeah. These data, and I'm I I'm I'm actually I I'll I've got more to say on this, but in your industry, how is it affecting you guys? And then on the environmental piece, because it's such a you know, these data centers, these AI centers, they're the the water consumption of these places has got to be affecting crops and agriculture in a way that I'm just curious about like how your industry is receiving it or pushing back on it.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

I mean on the on the on the environment, like you know, the actual kind of average temperature side of things and water availability, we haven't really seen a big adjustment one way or another, but there are fluctuations, but every year has fluctuations. So we had a really early warm spring this year, but we had a really cold one last year. So it's we're not the like over maybe 10 or 20 years, we'll see a trend, if if anything, which I think we have seen a trend in the last 20 years or so. Um, but that was pre-AI. But AI, like people are starting to use some of it for sales support or ordering for you know uh replenishment of product. And I don't like that because it it's using an algorithm and it's looking in the past, and if you have something that's trending or growth, has growth or maybe has a program attached to it that that it's gonna be you know promoted in in some way, shape, or form, AI is

AI affects on the Wine Industry...

SPEAKER_04 14:55

not gonna read that. And for our industry, because we go through all these tiers, right? So we have our we're the first tier, you have the second tier being distributor, and then third tier being the retailer or restaurant. So to get it to Florida, it might take three weeks to get it into that warehouse at the distributorship and then onto a truck and then out to accounts. It's you know, it's not like an overnight, we're shipping a trinket. Like there's way too many things involved for AI to really uh support us. And so we have we have seen negative effects from that in the sense of like running low on inventories at the point of sale, which is not us. Um, so having our actual human beings on our team monitoring all that shit, uh, there's there's that. Um so it it was there was an adjustment, but I think that's gonna continue to be an issue. The other thing, which actually this just came up uh this morning is as hearing about um a benefit, I will say, which it was an autonomous vehicle, and they're demoing them right now in one of these vineyards in Sonoma. Um and uh so it runs, I think it's 10 hours a night, and it is all AI driven, and so it's it's got two drones and then a uh surface vehicle, and so it's running through all the vineyard and it's analyzing is there any pressure for a disease? And so where typically you might be, I'd say, seven to eight sprays in, which it could be just as simple as sulfur or stylet oil or something of that sort, but uh that's where if you rely upon a chemical company or a pest control advisor to tell you when to do it, they're all selling product. So if you can have a program that's actually analyzing and saying, no, you don't need to use any product, you don't need to do any passes right now. Your vineyard looks great instead of being at seven or eight passes with a tractor spraying you know chemicals, generally benign, but still spraying chemicals, uh, it's at three right now through the season. So it's done a better job than humans have done in in analyzing what is needed in the field, but I will counter that by saying that humans are not going through every row and they're not trying as hard as they should. And so they're gonna they're gonna miss something. And you know, an autonomous vehicle checking every single vine, leaf, grape is is not gonna miss anything.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah, it's I I there's undoubtedly benefits to some of the things we're seeing. Like when I think about um science or medicine or like finding a cure for cancer, like, yeah, put the machines on it. Let's go. Like, let's do it. But I think there hasn't been enough thought about uh creative industries or what all this productivity is gonna do. You know, people are like it's making things so much more productive. So it's like, okay, cool. So what does that mean? Does that mean, does that mean now we all get to transition to a four-day work week? No. Does that mean people get paid higher wages? No. Like there's all these benefits that we're not actually seeing the benefit of. I mean, some people are, they're just right at the top. It's yeah, it's and then um none of us are. And then when I look at, yeah, when none of us are gonna see that. No, it's and then you look at like schools, schools are having a major issue with AI right now with students plugging essay topics into Claude or Chat GPT and spitting out not learning how to write. Kids aren't learning how to write. Like you need to know how to write, even automated email responses. People are like, no, it's so much easier this way. It's like, yeah, but you gotta use your brain, like everything does not need to be optimized. Everything does not need to be easier. Um, and I think that we have it feels a bit to me like this Jurassic Park thing of like, just because we can doesn't mean we should. Like, just because we have the technology doesn't mean that that it needs to be instituted everywhere, right? Like we need to be more thoughtful about the implementation and we haven't, and now it's kind of everywhere, and it feels like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. And what do we do?

SPEAKER_03 19:01

I mean, they first got rid of cursive, and now we're just gonna get rid of the whole fucking alphabet. And I'm that's how it started. That's that word.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

I love cursive.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

I know cursive. It's so fun, it's so breezy. Yeah, I love I love seeing it like by an expert. I was never really good at it.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

So I guess I wasn't really sad about that going, but then I'm gonna miss seeing it.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

It's very, very artistic. But I think it also comes too. I I love your point that you made, and just to kind of piggyback, I think it's like with great power comes great responsibility. And I think that's that's what's happening, right? Is that we have this great power, this tool, and then you're gonna just kind of find people just, you know, just leaning on that. Like it's like, hey, I'm just gonna have you tell me what my medical conditions are and everything like that. I don't need to go to a doctor anymore. Instead of like using it for research to find out the good questions to ask or to seek out the right profess uh uh, you know, person that you need and and be able to to speak more clearly to them and really and get, you know, and work collaboratively with another human.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Um totally. Something like that.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

And it feels I did you ever see the uh it's a Pixar movie called Wally?

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah. Did you ever see that? I I am constantly thinking about the these like hugely overweight people riding along in their little automated carts with screens with several screens around them. And I'm like, that is our future if we don't like that to me is what's 50 years down the line if we don't rein in the automation of everything and the screens and the have a computer do it for me.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

We'll be we'll be the traditionalists living on communes where you actually farm your land and and you know like sustain a community. Um I mean it's what find me a commune.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

I'm in.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

Have you seen uh speaking of movies, Idiocracy? Yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

I mean, it's like crazy how on point that is.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Yeah, that one that one's uh it's obviously different than Wally, but yeah, you like looking at it.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Is that Luke Wilson?

SPEAKER_04 21:10

Uh yes, that was Luke Wilson.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

It was Yeah, Mike Judge, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

Man, it was uh I gotta watch it again, but yeah, you you man, it's it's oddly like it's on point about what is happening right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a little more outlandish.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little embellished, but also not that embellished. Uh I think though, I'm I am generally hopeful about the fact that people, particularly everyone in the creative industry, hates AI. Like I can tell you that for certain. There's comedians, writers, actors, uh, authors, you know, people are really pushing back against it because I I mean, I had a friend who posted something on Instagram the other day where someone had reached out to him to ask him to help with the

Is AI gonna ever be able to write legit jokes?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

This new AI program where they want to train AI on how to write jokes, where they were like, Could you just sit and just sort of like type in like joke principles or like how you do things and then the AI is just gonna do the jokes for you? And my friend was like, Never, absolutely not, never contact me again. Because why do we need AI to tell us joke? Like, who is this for? What do we need this for?

SPEAKER_04 22:26

It's not it's emotionally, it's not gonna work for the audience. No, I that's yeah, that's that's a wild diet.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

It's completely nonsensical, but it's but it's but it's enough of a popular idea where someone is trying to do this. Like there are people that are like, oh, let me make an AI comedian, or maybe a you know, some computer. Let's put all the data, and that's also the problem with creativity with AI, is that they're mining from the entire internet's worth of other people's work and then translating it into other stuff. So it's there's a lot of different layers to why it sucks, and I I do want it to all burn down, but we'll keep it for the crops and we'll keep it for cancer research and do good with that.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

I'd I'd rather I'd rather just not have ever seen it personally, but uh yeah, it's there there is more bad that is that has been coming down on our industry as well from it than there is good, but I tried to highlight one at least good thing that I had heard, and that's the only good thing I've heard.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Well you can't I I don't I don't think you can you can replace art. You know, art needs soul, and that's where like the demons come into play.

SPEAKER_04 23:33

A computer is never gonna create culture. When I just say that, I think that's that's it. No, and that's yeah. Arts, food original thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

I think Ben Affleck said something, he was like, he was like, uh Chat GPT can write a rhyming couplet, but he can never write Shakespeare. Like it's like you can do you can do it. They can write a joke, but it's not going to you can't the soul of it isn't there, the the the reason isn't there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

And the reason is the person receiving that joke in their ears or that script in their eyes, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Connection.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

The reason is connection. I mean, like, there's there's a reason that art is art will never die. It's the thing, it is our like most human thing to come back to is celebrating the ups and downs of our emotional bandwidth with each other and in different ways. And yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

So I'm gonna go out on a limb and I'm gonna I'm gonna guess that you're not going to be asking AI to help you write some jokes.

unknown 24:40

No.

SPEAKER_04 24:41

Well, good. I'm not asking it to help make wine or grow grapes. So that's good.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Good.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

Uh speaking of wine, do you have a a uh a drink of any sort, alcoholic, non-alcoholic, that you like

Wine, Martinis, shrooms...oh my!

SPEAKER_04 24:55

a ritual that you do prior to going onset? Right on on stage?

SPEAKER_00 25:00

I I try not to drink before I go on stage, um, just to stay sharp. But uh, but I love a I love a glass of cab after I love a I'm a vodka martini gal. Dirty vodka martini is my drink. And uh yeah, I uh I love to drink. Quite frankly. Uh quite frankly, I love the party. Um uh still fun for me. Um but I'm not uh I wouldn't say I'm like a wine uh uh connoisseur by any means. I'm I'm definitely in a camp of like intimidated by like when people are like, what's your what kind of I'm just like I don't know, uh red in a cup.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

See that that's our that's our that's our problem as an industry. Exactly. You just nailed it. We we know it, we see it, we're trying to fix it. Um, and I mean uh and it doesn't need to be a wine beverage, like even if it's if it's a dirty, super dirty vodka martini, that's your drink. Or if it's a coffee. Yeah, like it doesn't matter. Yeah, just uh I was curious.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

We love it. What's what are your what are your drinks?

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Uh for me it depends if uh on on the alcohol side. Um if I'm going out espresso martini, I don't do the vodka Red Bull thing, it's too much. Uh I feel like I'm like, you know, on cocaine if I take it or if I if I do the vodka Red Bull. Uh but uh yes, there's that uh lighter whites on the wine side uh for beer, like Porter is really heavy beers. Um and uh God, I guess I guess it's I'm more of a gin martini guy, though, if if I'm going for and that is the drink that my wife is like, uh-oh, what kind of Joe are we gonna get tonight?

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I get that. That's whiskey for me. That's uh we I have retired whiskey for that reason.

SPEAKER_04 26:53

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Uh but uh I want to hear more about this kind of Joe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, you want to ask? Yeah, yeah. You've been around. It's a silly Joe. He goes, he goes back to he goes back to five years old. He's silly and then he clips a card. He ends up in jail. He's no one got fun. We're sending flowers. Oh, fortunately, none of that's happened. No, I don't. Yeah, not yet.

SPEAKER_04 27:34

Not yet.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

Not not yet. I'm glad you got goals. Yeah. We still got time. Hey, this other Joe's got goals too, you know.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

But on the beverage side, I will say a red eye is my my like drink of choice for Okay. I just love the like you gotta have that dark, thick espresso with some coffee. So, you know, the added caffeine's a better thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Man, really. You're a caffeine, you are a caffeine. Wow. I do like it.

SPEAKER_04 28:00

I'd love it. Yeah. Can't have like, you know, a thousand milligrams a day like this guy, but yeah, like a couple hundred.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

Oh man. Are you up there? Uh I mean, not really. I've only had like probably 350 as of right now. But Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Okay. It's still early out there. It's still early out there. It's not even new day.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

I mean, TH his own. If it works for you, it works for you.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

Do you drink? What's your drink? Um, I'm getting I'm actually really into adaptogens, kinda kind of nerdy. So I'm pleased. Okay. Yeah, you know, take yeah. Um so like Hayo, I like Ashwagandha. Uh just been getting into kind of figuring out because I feel like with all these like different kinds of just getting more knowledge on this whole biohacking deal and like, you know, being able to be like, hey, I could get some energy and help my like crazy gut, because it exploded in 2016. You know what I mean? Like these are things that now I'm older. I'm like, hey, but like, is it gonna help my cholesterol? You know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah. Like what kind of benefit? I can't take it like I used to, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

Like Kava. What is the other one that they're saying is like a a it's almost like you know, methamphetamines? What is that called?

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Adderall? No, no, it's way other things.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

She's like, well, that's I mean, yeah, that's what what is the the the adaptogen that's that's getting banned right now?

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Uh Kratom.

SPEAKER_04 29:26

Kratom, thank you. Kratom.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Oh, yes. Yeah. Well, here's the thing with okay, so Kava and Kratom, they work very well together. They're awesome. It's just what's happening is that when there's no regulation, you have a lot of these different people getting into the market just overdosing people. And the thing is, is that you can really too much of anything. Yeah. Of anything. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 29:49

So it's just like people are like, Kratom is the AI of the beverage world.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Yes. You gotta have responsibility with that.

SPEAKER_03 29:57

Yeah. So that's probably what's gonna happen because what you're seeing is there you'll find now like it's not just gas stations. There's more than just horny goat weed now in gas stations. You could get like these, you know, the little bottles, and it's it's some kind of cobra. Like the that you almost died, didn't you?

SPEAKER_04 30:11

Yeah, I didn't. It's recently happened.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Well, it was Okay, casual. Casual.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yeah, I'll just throw that in like a little sprinkle and you almost died.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

It was cast, but quick aside. But the milligrams, I mean, they're like they have these little bottles that basically just look like a five-hour energy bottle. And I think it's just like you see this as a person, you're like, oh, okay, I'm gonna like I'm gonna take this. The writing's so small, but if you really take time to read it, it's like the serving size is a fourth of this little bottle for 24 hours that you're supposed to take because it's got like 300 fill uh 350 milligrams of kava, and then and it's not even regulated. So you're like, maybe could be a little bit more. Who knows, right? Who's measuring these? But then people are like seeing these bottles, right? And they just kind of look like shooters. I mean, I would do it too.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

Of course, if it's this big and it's next to the five-hour energy. Yeah, I've done the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 31:04

Of course, that's what we're gonna do. It is like a it is like a 24 plus hour come down of like just feeling like garbage, anxious, like whatever. And I'm not a naturally anxious person. So I was like, man, I I got yeah, scared of that shit real quick.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

But that's just I mean, but I abused it on accident.

SPEAKER_04 31:21

I abused it.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

Yeah, you abused, yeah, by accident. Hard not to. That's sweet K. All right. Wait, wait, okay, wait, I want I want to ask though too. I mean, do you uh but um what about you with uh drugs? Uh do you have I was gonna throw that out there? But like I know, yeah, you love them. I just want to hear a little bit about like maybe some uh if it's is it shrooms? Do you like shrooms? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

I'm uh uh like psychedelics, um acid and mushrooms are my are my go-to. Um, but I really love um uh you know, I started microdosing

It's about intention and safety...

SPEAKER_00 32:00

several years ago, and that that's been nice, and it's been cool to see people across the board seeing the the mental benefits of of psychedelics. Um, of course, to be done, you know, case by case, and I don't recommend it for everyone. You know, obviously if you have like mental illness or history with that, it's it's not as recommended. But um it's I think that um you know, psilocybin and and the the benefits of it um that you know the government kind of shut down studies years ago. Um, I'm glad to see it kind of resurging. Um I I also am weary of it becoming like a this like, cool, and I microdose mushrooms and I'm like it's like there should also be a little bit of reverence to it, in my opinion. And um I like to do larger doses uh periodically, you know, a couple times a year to just kind of it's a way for me to check in with myself and uh navigate some issues that might not be easier, that might not as be as easy for me to navigate in like talk therapy. Um so it's uh it's a it's something I utilize in addition to therapy and other therapeutic modalities to help me process and level up.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

I was heard you on a podcast recently and you were talking about um going into these uh type of psychedelics with intention. And because I'm one of those people that like I've only I only did mushrooms once because I did an eighth, like on a drive to San Francisco with like a bunch of my friends, and it was like, and I had stayed away from it. They they were doing it in high school, but this was like first year of college. We all got back together, let's go. And it was like right before going in the tunnel of like San Francisco, and then my friend finally got me to do it. I'm like, just eat the whole bag. He's like, Yeah, man, it's just an eighth of gold caps, like that's good. Like I just did it. So then, and I was just like, Oh, okay. I feel like it just takes it. And I'm like, took a second, I'm I just kind of look, I'm like, okay, like, does it take a while? It's like it takes a while to kick in. All of a sudden, boom, my friends, the shock breaks off my friend's car, Aaron's car, starts dragging on the road, sparks flying, cars are saying, pull over, pull over, and then the clouds start moving, and that's where it began. And I was just like, oh, it's about interesting.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Yeah. Oh my god. Was it the worst trade? Like, did you have a bad time? I would have had an awful time. Oh, eighth. I would have now it's a terrible time. I think that's why a lot of people stick because people hear these awful stories, but you know, an eighth, first of all, is a lot if you've never done it before.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

I found that out late. It's like, oh, I didn't know you were really gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Yeah, exactly. That's such a dude. That's such a dude. Just take the whole bag. Oh, you oh you already do like so ridiculous. It was like you were there. Yeah, no, it's like uh all men. Um, but it's it's for me, it's like it's something you need to be really careful with. That's why it's like I don't love like I love that it is I love that it is being more that I'm seeing it legalized in in you know more areas now, but I just am afraid of it being sort of like commodified in in a way that doesn't have uh, you know, people need to understand the power of it. Because a bad trip uh can be very difficult, can be dangerous. Um, and I think going into any larger dosage, you need to like, I'll do like prep the whole week before. I I won't drink for a couple weeks before. I'll think about the stuff I want to get into. Also, if I'm not in like, I remember like going through a breakup several years ago, I was just in a really bad mental state. I was like, I'm not gonna do mushrooms right now. I'm not, I don't need to like heighten, I don't need to heighten this right now. I need to wait till I'm a little bit, you know. So there's I mean, it's different for everyone, but um, yeah, I think intentionality is very important with psychedelics. But I also highly recommend everyone try them safely.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

That's I think that's a great point. Yeah. With the right group of people in Hollywoods, yeah. With the right friends.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

I mean the safety part. Yes, that's an important point. But the with doing it with intention and knowing what the intention is.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

I think that's what not having intention is just not a good idea.

SPEAKER_04 36:11

That's not true. That's where I think a lot of the kids nowadays are they're like, no, I'm microdose because I'm trying to reconnect my blah blah blah. And they're just like getting super high. And like, no, it doesn't just fix your brain to whatever you think it'll be.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

It's like you have to do the work. There is work to be done outside of it.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

Yeah. It's like, yeah, how how you wield that powers perfect.

SPEAKER_03 36:36

Yeah, I don't like, I don't know. Well, I want to maybe I'll try it again with you, actually.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

With me or with Alex.

SPEAKER_03 36:43

Okay, sure, all of us.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

We'll just I've got a great idea. Why don't we go to New York? We'll do a little dose with Alex, and then we'll go to like someplace casual, like the box.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

Oh, you do you know about the box?

SPEAKER_00 36:57

So casual. Okay, I do. Okay, have you been there? Casual. I haven't been there, but I know of it. Okay. And that's actually that's more of an acid adventure thing.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

That's what we need. We need the right hook.

SPEAKER_04 37:11

I I went there, I went there unbeknownst uh what I was getting into. Uh it was absolutely insane. It was wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Mayhem.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

Yeah, I mean Mayhem.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

That's New York, baby. Fun experience.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

You're like, I may never see something like this again. I don't even know if it was legal.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yeah, probably not. Probably not. Don't be the snitch. Yeah, no, I'm not never gonna be the snitch.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

It was just really it was very nice. Kraft cocktails, the servers, everybody was very helpful. The ambiance, it smelled like mahogany.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

That's what like I'm sure a lot of stuff in there.

unknown 37:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:48

All right. Shall we jump into the rapid fire round? We call it rapid fire round. Yeah, yeah, they don't need to be rapid, though. But your your favorite comedy city or the best comedy city. I think your favorite is what I'd like to know.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

I think it's Chicago.

SPEAKER_04 38:01

All right. That by the way, Chicago is my favorite like metropolitan city, like larger city in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

It's unbelievable. It is a perfect city.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

It is a perfect

Rapid Fire (Best comedy city, Overrated Stand-up advice, how to cope with bombing...)

SPEAKER_04 38:15

city. I just love the like even just entering Chicago, like you you land and you're driving in, you're kind of like elevated, and you just see this beautiful cityscape of like amazing architecture. The food there is great, and the people is outrageous.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I love it there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

All right. So that was the favorite comedy city. Now we got uh your favorite comedian working today.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Um favorite comedian working today, uh, Rory Scoville.

SPEAKER_04 38:41

Okay. All right. Yeah. Uh I I bet you have a good answer for this. Most overrated comedy advice.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Oh, um go up every night, grind every night. Oh. No, you gotta you gotta live a life that's worth talking about. So at the beginning, work hard, go up as much as you can, but to me, going up and doing comedy every night prohibits you from experiencing things that you can talk about because the audience is not going to an open mic every night. They're going to concerts, they're going out to dinner, they're spending time with friends, and those are where you find moments to talk about in your set.

SPEAKER_04 39:21

Yeah, I was gonna say you gotta you gotta create content, right? And and and you're set. Um so how many days do you go up, would you say, like in a month? How many how many days are you hitting the stage?

SPEAKER_00 39:34

I mean, like week to week, it's probably anywhere between like I don't know, a couple weeks ago I had like 15, 16 shows in a week, and then this week it's like seven. So anywhere between like seven and like fifteen a week. Oh wow. It's a lot, and I'll do multiple a night. Yeah, yeah. I'll do multiple a night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

Okay. If I just may piggyback on this, like for any rising comics out there that are maybe looking to get in into the business if they haven't already, or maybe the fear of bombing. I I just want to know if you any tips you could just like shout out about when the bomb happens, how to deal.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

It might be situational, but yeah, no, and I love that you phrased it when the bomb happens and not if the bomb happens, because it will. Yeah, the bomb will happen, and it's again, like I said before, comedy is a microcosm of life. Everything will not be perfect all the time, and it's not the bomb that's important, it's what you learned from it and how quickly you get back up the next time. So it will happen, it's gonna feel uncomfortable. That discomfort is important for you to feel as a comedian. You just you have to know what it feels like because also because there's something if you're bombing, you're doing something wrong up there. Whether your jokes aren't written well enough or your stage presence is gone, or you haven't read the room and you've said something that has shut everyone off. So you have to think about when you get off stage, think about what it what it is. How did that bomb happen and how will I change it for next time? Same way with life. You've you've embraced the failure. I mean, like it's we we, you know, we're very afraid to fail because it's a shitty feeling. It doesn't feel good to to not be good at something or to have a room full of people watch you not do well, but it's going to happen. Just like in life, you're gonna fuck up a business deal or a call, or you're gonna get in a fight with a friend, or you're gonna get a divorce. Like stuff is gonna happen to you, and it's your choice whether or not you want to stay in the in the you know, the pit of that afterwards or bounce back.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

Yeah. Nice. Great advice. Um all right, uh roast or crowd work? What is your preference?

SPEAKER_00 41:48

Crowd work.

SPEAKER_04 41:49

All right. Uh comedy clubs or theaters.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Comedy clubs. I mean, theaters are fun, but clubs are a little more intimate.

SPEAKER_04 42:02

Uh your favorite comedy movie. Tommy Boy.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 42:10

What generation are you?

SPEAKER_00 42:13

I'm uh I'm uh I'm 38. I'm a so I'm millennial.

SPEAKER_04 42:17

So you're millennial. You're like, yeah. Yeah. You're you're like SmackDab millennial, right?

unknown 42:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

Right in the middle, yeah. Yeah. That was I that is like a icon, like that is the defining movie. Uh my brothers and I could quote that top to bottom.

SPEAKER_04 42:32

Yeah, I'm just a few years older than you, and that was uh, yeah, that was, man, what a when that came to that was a game changer. Take you to it.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:43

Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 42:45

Uh man.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

I'm gonna rewatch just because it was like I needed that. I needed like so good. Go get Tommy. He's again bringing you up.

SPEAKER_04 42:54

Now I gotta watch the awesome and Tommy Boy again. Yeah, just come to it.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:01

Well, Alex, I want to say thank you again. It was really a pleasure to talk to you. I do hope we get to meet in person at some point. Yes. Can't wait to come to one of your shows. We'll be taking a look online, making sure we know when you're out on the West side of America.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Yeah. Hell yeah. Thank you guys so much. This was so fun. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

You're welcome anytime. All right. Yeah. All right. Yes. We do.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

All right.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Talk to you guys later. Bye.