Episode 48: "How We Got Started"

Grab your pencils and get ready to take notes! This week Dani and Ify delve into their own histories and share some of the moments that got them to where they are today. From sleeping on floors to their first panel, Dani and Ify share the stories and crucial secrets that can help an aspiring talent get started. Learn a little about the voices you love on this episode of Nerdificent!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Everyone, and welcome to another episode of I Am Iffy
wid the Way, And sitting across from me is Danny Fernandez.
Very hurt. I missed my first episode. Oh yeah you did. Yeah.
I I was, Oh my gosh, you don't know how
hard I tried to fight to be there, but like

(00:32):
literally I sat down and he was like, we're staying late.
I was like, I'm gonna do my thing. Missed it, Yeah,
but you know, yeah, it'd be like that sometimes it's true. Um,
but I mean kind of why I missed it funny
enough is kind of what we'll be talking about. And

(00:54):
although I told people you missed it because it was
your birthday, oh man, I was. I'm in a writer's room.
I was in a writer's room. This is my first
week off and I don't even know what to do
with myself. But I was in a writer's room for
six weeks for a interactive platform called Echo. You may know.
You may remember it from a web series that came
out last year called That Moment when that won a

(01:15):
Webby with Milana vine Troupe. And so we're working cooking
up a new series, uh you know, and I think
that's about all I can say, um, but it's it
was super fun. It was it was very interesting. It
was a whole new way to write. You know, I've
written for Late night, written for narrative at this point,
and now this is like, you know, because before this

(01:38):
I did a lot of Late night semi edutainment kind
of like unscripted stuff, and this was the year of
lots of new venture ventures. Uh. I wrote for an
animated narrative show and then this was an interactive one.
So it was like back to back new experiences. Uh.
But the reason I say that's it's it kind of

(01:59):
has to do with today's episode is because you know
that today's episode is how we kind of got to
where we are today, and and you know that I
think we'll touch on everything from like being nerdy host
to being you know, comedians for some people who may
be interested in to TV writing and development and all

(02:19):
that stuff, you know. Uh. And before we even dive
into it, one thing I want to say, which is
something I think a lot of times, uh never gets
to get said because of the conversational nature of a
lot of podcasts when talking about this subject matter, is
there is no one path. There is no wrong path.
There is no right path. You know, the everyone's path

(02:41):
is different, and you can't expect yourself to beat for
beat do the same thing and expect the same things
to happen, because really trying to go down this industry
is pepper preparation, preparation, what's that? Preparation and tim percent
uh seizing the opportunity a k A luck. Oh my gosh, yeah,

(03:04):
I would say, I mean luck, luck and knowing. I mean,
I was just no, I was gonna say, I'm feeling
very lovely today. I think thirty one is like my, my,
my love. Really, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Um,
I don't Yeah, not everyone is going to have the
same trajectory. I think to like, y'all have gotten to

(03:25):
know us pretty well, but we know if you and
I really haven't had a chance to really talk about
how we came to be in our lives and like
the people behind these voices that you listen to, And
I think it's really easy to look at our lives
and say and think that we have it super easy
and that we just fell into this. That's what it

(03:45):
looks like. We just offered a show and offered this
and you see us at premieres and stuff, And I
think we touched on it briefly in the Women in
Gaming one where I talked about how Janelle and I
were in the trenches. I mean we talked about how
I lived in like a windowless droom. Before that, I
was living with two girls in a one bedroom apartment

(04:06):
with their daughter. I mean, when you move to Hollywood,
you are you are in the trenches unless you have
your parents or something pain for your stuff, which we
didn't have that luxury. We worked our way up, and
so I think it's really hard for people to remember
that when they only see our highlights. But something that
we get off we get asked often is like, how

(04:26):
can I start a podcast? How can I start do this?
How can I do that? Um, we started from the bottom,
Like we started with zero followers both on our social
media with like we started at zero as well. So yeah,
today's episode is just going to be us talking about
how we got here. Um, if you're not interested at all,
hopefully it's just a fascinating thing to listen to our story.

(04:48):
It's an origin story. Yeah, you can listen to our
superhero origin story for once. For the people who are
interested in going down this path. This is will be
hopefully a great instructional and informative episode and for the
who are just interested in us, this will be a
great Yes. So let's let's you know, let's start. If
you can I start? Um? Can I start my segment? So?

(05:09):
I wanted to start a segment on this podcast. We
get tweeted at at nerdificent, you know, and when people
are polite about it, I love. We want to make
sure that you know that your voice is heard. So
I want to start a new segment every week called
could you please include so ce y p I is
what I'm calling it. Could you so tweet at us um.

(05:32):
So we covered Captain Marvel last week and at Dead
Recca actually wrote us and said Phi Lavel's partner Moon
Dragon is Drax's daughter, So they were one of the
few lesbian couples in marvel. Um. They also said in
Avengers two hundred, which was in ninety it was a

(05:52):
huge turning point for Carol and women in comics, and
it was a huge problematic thing that the next twenty
plus years of Carol's calm mix would be built around.
So um we didn't mention those two things in the
in our episode, so we're going to include it. So
if we miss something that's super huge again, like what
I like. What I like to give an example of

(06:15):
is when we did twilight Zone, which is like my,
y'all know, it's my personal favorite like show, and we
can't cover all the episodes. So if you're like, you
miss this, yeah, I know I love it too. We
there's entire podcasts on twilight Zone. There's no way we
could have touched on it. But if we miss something
that is extremely integral, it's extremely important to that lore,

(06:42):
that franchise, Like maybe I don't know, they had to
go to Congress to get the rights for such and such,
and that's how it spinned into this and that. Like,
those are the things that I'm okay with people being like, hey,
could you please include this? So that was could you
please include? If he back to you? So let's go
back way back. Where did you grow up? Danny? Oh?

(07:04):
I grew up kind of all over my families from
San Diego. I spent some time in Orange County, and
then I moved to Texas when I was like thirteen.
I lived in Dallas for high school and college. I
went to Austin. I went to UT in Austin, So
off rip you right next to Funimation. Off rip your
body right to Funimation Corps. But you was interesting for

(07:27):
you that was different from me. Is you kind of
like got your feet on the ground and nerdy stuff.
Early you were going to conventions beating your favorite voice
actors at a young age. I remember you were telling
me that, and you were going to like Comic Con, right, yeah,
I was going to Comic Con was like ten or
eleven um. And the thing about me and what I
do now is I always wanted to be a writer.

(07:50):
When I was little, I used to write poems and
short stories and perform them for my family. I was
published in like one of those teen magazines when I
was in high school. I would think I was like
two different ones for writing poems. And then when I
got accepted to UT it was in the journalism program.
I ended up switching that. But I always wanted to

(08:10):
be a writer. So that was kind of how I
got my start at least, and what really kind of
shaped my, uh helped my career, I would say, is
in well, actually in two thousand and eight, I started
my I started a Twitter account, and I would make
fun of my professors, like I wouldn't actually say who

(08:31):
it was, but I would kind of just make fun
of the different types of professors I had. And I
gained a small following from that from from like other
college kids retweeting me. And my boyfriend at the time
was so jealous. He hated the fact that I was
on Twitter, and I completely deleted my Twitter, which is
something I wouldn't do now. Completely deleted it and did

(08:53):
not sign up for a new account until and in
this is gonna come full circle in twelve, I signed
up for my Twitter account, the new one that I
have now that you all follow now, because I wanted
to follow dB Z updates from Funimation. That's how I
went back, and that was all I really used it for.

(09:13):
And then I fell again into comedy and I was
tweeting jokes and I was I was going through I
have I deal with chronic depression, which I'm really open about,
and I was I was dealing with that. I was
going through a separation with my husband. I'm marry I
end up marrying the guy that hated me, But yeah,
it all makes sense, and I I would use Twitter

(09:37):
as an outlet to write really dark jokes about my
life because I needed to. And so I had a
lot of comedians that started following me and they would
be like, have you tried doing some of these jokes
on stage? Um? And at the time, I was not
considering comedy at all, but just from tweeting about the

(09:58):
trauma of my life in a funny manner. I was
living in Denver at the time we got married. I
moved there. UM. I was working a couple of different jobs.
We moved for his his job. So UM, I gave
up my career in life essentially and UM and used
Twitter as an outlet and ended up getting a lot

(10:19):
of people following me. So before I ever moved to
l A, I had about sixteen thousand followers that I
got in like a year just from tweeting about my depression.
UM and other people that related that would retweet it.
So that was a part of my my story. UM.

(10:41):
I met a couple of comics at Denver Comedy Works
when I was in when I was in a Denver
and one of them was Roywood Jr. Who followed me
and I was so honored and I remember him saying,
funny is funny, and it's so funny because He's one
of my biggest men towards now. He's just such a
great guy. Roy with JR is at, He's on the

(11:04):
Daily Show, he has like two shows on Comedy Central.
Very respected comedian. But um, that was kind of what
kick started my career. And so I want to say
I did have a writing background. I didn't just have Twitter. Um.
You still have to have scripts and you know, you
still have to be able to perform, like, you have

(11:25):
to have all of that. There are a lot of
people that got big on Twitter and then they try
to do those other things and kind of fall flat. Um.
So I did always have a writing background, but I
used Twitter as an outlet to build a following. So
I do want people to know before I think people
think that I got my following from being on camera
or from podcasting, and Nope, it was just from tweeting
jokes every single day. Um. Which is funny because I

(11:48):
ended up writing a pilot about um life after my
suicide attempt. So I this is a trigger warning. UM.
I'm been pretty open on other podcasts. I don't know
if I've ever talked about on this podcast, but I
had a suicide attempt in my twenties. I wrote a
half hour dark comedy about that that got me all

(12:11):
my reps. Um. I was able to put my trauma,
I guess, into my writing, and comedy was an outlet.
I don't like saying comedy is therapy, because therapy is therapy.
I've done both. Therapy is therapy. Um. But I was
able to develop a following just from other people who

(12:34):
could who needed to laugh about the things that were
happening in their life. So that is part of my
story of how I got here if he is part
of my story on so many ways. But one of
the ways is that he gave my pilot to his
agents and they signed me, and another comedian who read
my pilot gave it to his manager and she signed me.

(12:56):
So um. That's also why it's super important to me
when people say like, oh, you're not allowed to joke
about this. You're not allowed to joke about that. I
literally got some of my jobs from joking about the
trauma of my life. Yeah, no, it's it is funny.
I'll save this rant for the tail end of this.

(13:17):
But there is just this new trend of like people
being mad that you don't cope or you're not woke
in the same way that there are woke, in that
you do different things than them. They're like, no, this
is the one way and there's no one way to
cope or be an activist. Uh. Yeah, it's it's so
interesting listening to your story because it seems so They're like,

(13:39):
there's such a through line to you. It's like you're
so like it doesn't feel I know, like, yeah, really
follows through because you knew what you wanted to do
and you plan for it. I'm just just so scattered
brain like everyone. Someone repeated this to me. This is

(14:00):
something that since I started comedy has been said, and
someone repeated this to me last week. That was like,
as soon as you can afford can afford an assistant,
you need to get one because I am I really
am the most scatter brained aloof wanderlustie, Like I am
the most pissen pisces ever work. But you said the

(14:21):
clouds you said on our when we talked about all that,
that when you saw Keenan and Kelly, you knew you
wanted to be a performer, so you knew early on
that you wanted to perform. That is true. So we'll
we'll we'll you'll see how it kind of went and
you'll see I kind of had nudges into my wildness.
So yeah, I as a child, I've always wanted to

(14:45):
be an actor. As soon as I saw all that
and shows like that, I I knew I might. The
earliest thing I remember trying to do a quote unquote
performance I can think of is when, uh, I think
if if we want to go super crazy. The earliest
memory I have is when I was like I had
to be a toddler. This is a very early memory,

(15:07):
so I do not remember what how do you remember
when you were toddler? Because it was it stuck out
to me. It was the first time I like tried
hot sauce and I accidentally had a hot sauce and
my mouth was burning and I took like a town
I'm wiping my tongue with it, and my dad had
guessed over and everybody was laughing. And I got something
from that where I was like, oh, this is everyone's

(15:31):
like enjoying themselves, even though like I was kind of hurt.
And I feel like that that could have went two ways,
Like I could have been a Stevo, you know, since
it was like a pain, but it was like, you know,
just spiciness. And so that was like my earliest memory
where I was like, oh, I liked you make people laugh.
And then from then I would watch you know, uh
it was so funny. It took me so long to

(15:52):
even consider stand up because I always thought that it
was they just totally just memorized that whole thing and
would and and just did it once. Like I didn't
realize that it was you know, you just go and
do multiple sets, so like, and my memory has always
been bad, so I was like, there's no way I
could remember an hour of stuff. Smash cut to two

(16:13):
years ago when I came out with an hour album.
But so I always wanted to do it. But my dad,
you know, he's a he's an immigrant from Nigeria. And
I was talking about this earlier today on stream about
the because you know, Kylie Jenner just got as of today,
Kylie Jenner just got this self made billionaire, and then
there was this whole and then we had a discussion

(16:34):
about like, one, she isn't self made. But then I
was like, but no billionaire was self made, because I
was gonna say, like the only self made one I
could think of is like and Elon Musk or Bezos,
but there was a lot of collaboration that happened in
their life to happen that. And then someone who on
the stream was pointing out that even then Elon Musk
parents were well off, and I was like, well, yes,

(16:54):
when you come from a wealthy background, lots of times
your parents are more willing for you to try I
like future forward stuff, to try experimental things that you
don't know paying out. When you come from a poor background,
your family wants you to pick a trade or something
that has like a guaranteed way to make money. Uh So,
so take that into my father who comes from Nigeria

(17:18):
and my mother who comes from you know, Louisiana, the South,
and she grew up you know poor as well. They
you know, the idea of chasing the art. They weren't
against it. My mom was more forward, being you know
American and understanding of the arts. But my dad, he
had no concept of that. But because of that also
they didn't know what to do with it. This artistic
daydream of child. They didn't know like, oh, throw him

(17:38):
in drama and then he can figure it out. So
all my life I wanted to be an actor, but
I never truly pursued it. And then I also really liked, uh,
drawing comics. I love drawing comics, and that's kind of
where and I remember, I'll never forget this because this
was the most blunt truth I've ever heard in my life.
I drew this comic and it was like probably four

(18:00):
or five pages, and I handed it to my friend
Gabriel I still remember his name, and he like reads
and he was like, he was like, yeah, it's like
I don't think you're a great artist, but you'd be
an amazing writer. Like this is another like this was
ninth grade, and I was like, wow, way to be
a duche. But he kind of was right like that
that what I was able to kind of formulate these
dope stories, and so I've nerdy stuff just kind of

(18:24):
was was rough because my dad wanted me to focus
on schooling so much, so like cons and stuff like
I never got to touch it. I went to Catholic school,
so Dungeons and Dragon was especially out of the picture
because that was on that weird list, like my school
had that list of like these are the devil stuff
we were in kay Rock was on that list. For something. Yeah, well,

(18:44):
Harry Potter, we were able to do, but it wasn't
like Dungeons and Dragons and still had that weird connotation
because it really the demonization of it really came from
the nineties. And before you all ask, we are planning
the Dungeons and Dragons episode, I already talked to Matt Mercer.
He's in, yeah, yeah, when they're they're doing you know,
they got that whole animal kidding. Everyone was like, So

(19:11):
I really didn't take strides in my nerd um and
necessarily in my chasing my dreams of you know, performing
and all that until like senior year of high school.
Like in high school, I started to get instride with
that because with the Internet, I was on this site
called Polly Carbon bbs and that I would do art,

(19:33):
uh and they had these things, this thing called fight
clubs where everyone would design a character and then it
would be a collaborative comic that you would make and
everyone writes draws one page of the comic. And I
did a few of those. I wish I can like
go back and find them, but I did a few
of those, and that kind of you know, while I
was trying to pursue art, but I was just so
bad at it. It was actually helping my writer brain

(19:56):
kind of formulate stuff. But then, um, I really hit
my stride in senior year when I joined Comedy Sports
High School League, which Comedy Sports, if you don't know,
it's it's essentially whose line is it? Anyway? It's a
family friendly, competitive quote unquote improv show. And they had
a high school league where you would do these shows
at other high schools and you would know that the

(20:17):
homeschool always won because you know, you win based on cheers.
So that's when I started doing improv. Senior year of
high school. I felt so behind, and that's when I
did my first play. I was in As You Like It.
I played Deuced Duke Senior and that's when I was like, oh, yes,
this is what I want to do, and I'm actually
doing it graduate and I go to community college and

(20:40):
I just totally just you know, fart off for at
least a good to three years. You know, when when
you have this kind of like strict upbringing, the first
taste of freedom, you just go wild. And that that's
and that's the moral of that story. And but I
eventually found myself on Cherry Spits, which was a Orange
County based improv team that performed in UH Fullerton and

(21:03):
sometimes we perform in Long Beach. And then it wasn't
until my buddy Matt Matt Off the docta who I
met in high school, who he was a freshman when
I was a senior, and now we do Candy Dinner together. Uh,
he'sast o other podcast. He showed me the Donald Glover
episode of w TF, and Donald Glover was saying he

(21:26):
was like, oh, there's no not that many black people
doing improv at UCB, and he's naming UCB people but
me not hearing my name. I was like, oh, that's
where I need to be. So then after that, that's
when everything changed because also like being with Cherry Spits,
they were the ones who kind of lars who who
lars who? I was his teacher's assistant in UH in

(21:47):
senior year, I was his teacher's assistant. When I graduated,
he invited me to do Cherry Spitz. He also was
the put me in my first D and D game
and he really helped do that. He kind of introduced
me to Comic On and I went down to Comic
Count and that's when my nerds stuff just it was
kicked in a high gear. But I've always been a
huge video game nerd because that's the one thing I've
been able to play because my dad would let me.

(22:11):
So now I'm performing, I'm at UCB, and eventually I
meet the guys who we eventually become white women, and
through that, I I through just performing and doing stuff.
I meet this guy weird for all Deaf Digital, which
is uh, you know, Deaf comedy is kind of a
web platform. I mean this guy named Zack you Bank

(22:32):
and he uh and he uh. We did like this
video kind of basically pointing out the racism in the
like redskin name and how like, you know, I forgot
what it was. But it was kind of like when
the NBA was making this push to talk about domestic
violence and then it was like, oh it was. It
was kind of like, oh, what about this thing in retrospect,

(22:53):
which could have been a much more salient point, but
it was. It was a fun video. And basically from that,
he used to have these brunches. He'd have a monthly
brunch where he didn'tvite all these creatives to come and
meet each other, and it was cool things like photography.
There was a couple who did photography who was just

(23:14):
taking free headshots of people, and then we were you know,
then you had like it was just a huge CoAP space.
But when I went to his place and at the time,
him and Becca were living like on the East Side,
and they had this big house and Zach just had
all these comic books and so I just was like, oh,
you're a nerd, and we just like gosh about nerds stuff.

(23:36):
So then I I while all this in this short
period of me being in l A pursuing UCB in comedy,
I worked for a social media marketing company and that's
kind of how I started to get my uh my following.
See I I got my Twitter following at first through
straight up social media marketing, and there was tools that

(23:58):
we would use for his client It's that you know,
he also allowed us to use for our accounts, and
that's kind of how I started building it up. And
it wasn't like bots or anything. It was like he
had a I don't want to lay it out because
I don't you know, I don't know if it's public
knowledge or anything, but he he he basically knew the

(24:18):
it was almost like a mix of tech and psychology
on how you would get more real followers and real
people who are interacting with you. Um, and so I
used that same system and then I got a decent amount,
like that's when I've gotten to the thousands, you know,
and uh, but that company ended up launching socialtron Live,

(24:40):
which was a Twitch channel with Greg Grunberg from Heroes
and it originally was like Greg Grunberg would come on,
bring some of his other famous friends and they played
video games and then we were like the other host
when it wasn't them and I and my buddy Los Carlos.
He was like, yeah, if you have any friends, you

(25:01):
can bring him around and hang out. And so the
first person in my mind was Zack. And Zach gets
in there, and you know, he has a production company
called Aren't We Clever, and he just immediately was like, oh,
you guys could be doing this better than this, better
than this, better than this better. So then they bring
him and Lucas on and Zach kind of revamps with
Los in the team their whole Twitch streaming set up,

(25:23):
and then that kind of Peter's out and then Zach
gets hired by Being and Sundry because they were working
on another project and then they started talking twitch. Now
Zack knows all about it. Then that basically is how
Geacan Suntury started. I remember being walked through legendary offices.
There was no there was no set yet, there was

(25:44):
no anything. That was just showing me around. He's like, Yeah,
we're gonna be doing this D and D show with
these voice actors, which eventually turned out to be critical role.
He's like, and I was thinking, you, Becca Hecker Hector
and Stephanie Woodburn will be the host. And we were
the original host. And then a few few weeks from
that it launched with us and Felicia Day doing a

(26:07):
huge uh fundraiser for I don't know if it was
Extra Life or if it was another organization. And I
had Mulligan, which was my Magic the Gathering show, and
that was kind of my first dip into NERD hosting
because now I had these shows under my belt. I
didn't know that we were doing our entire life styme

(26:27):
yours so and I was like, if I just do
the truncated versions. People's like, how did if he end
up there? Oh? That was mine was definitely I have
done so many things to get here, but we have
we have to take a quick break. We're going to
when we get back get into how we started our
first ever podcast together and how you can do that

(26:51):
too a second. Then we're back. How you doing that? Tight? Uh?
You know, before we talk about krilling it, we have
to talk about I want there's one thing that I
want to point out and just not necessarily yeah, I
guess point out and highlight one thing because it does

(27:13):
seem like it does seem like all NERD hosts are
just nerdy and then became host. But really it's essentially
that we were performers first and then because that's that
because you know, I've had people hit me up was
like I wanna, you know, know how to do what
you do because it seems like you just do whatever
you want. It's like, no, it's just having interest in

(27:36):
hobbies outside of just your work. And then when something
touches on that, it just kind of, uh, it just
kind of focuses that. Like, you know, for example, like
I didn't Adida's you know, uh comedy sketch video for
the Adida's channel to promote their um Sound Labs, and

(27:57):
that that that was I wasn't approached as a sneak
your head. I was approached as a comedian, and since
I happen to be a sneaker head, it really drove
home the reason they should have went with me. I
think it's yeah, I would agree if he and I
definitely agree on this because we've talked about it. When
people hit us up and and are like, I want
to host, like you, I want to be a host,
I want to host an UM, I'm like, well, the

(28:18):
difference between us is that's not IFFI and I's goal necessarily,
Like we're hired for our personalities at all of our channels.
And what I mean is like we're unwilling to change
how we are. UM. Truly, if I can't speak my mind,
I don't care about your channel. I I am and
it's helped me. And there are hosts who have to

(28:39):
There are hosts who can't be personalities necessarily. They have
to be kind of like regurgitate the news. They're not
I think of like some if I had stayed in journalism,
that's what I see sometimes, Like my friends that are
anchors that went on to be like anchors on the
nightly news or whatever, like they have to be kind
of like then they can never on their social media
post a type of jokes on posting like stuff like

(29:01):
that they can't post. There's traps like if you and
I do so. I think we are performers first, and
I think that's why we get hired though, is for
our personalities, is because we're not just That's another reason
why there was kind of this growing pains when we
started this podcast of people like just wanting so much
um facts, and we refused to do that. If you

(29:24):
want that type of podcast, that's a different type. We
already knew what we wanted. We wanted our personalities, we
wanted to talk to our funny friends. We didn't want
this to be a borning informational podcast because those already exist.
There are tons of nerve podcasts like that. I mean,
if I can just be just straight up, blunt and
informational about what happened is How Stuff Works is a

(29:44):
amazing network that that had primarily just unbiased, just clear,
you know, information for the people without any sway. And
then How Stuff Works Comedy comes and it's fulls with
It's filled with all these shows that are typically left
laning and and I just have strong voices and have

(30:07):
a bias because they are less about the information at
hand and more about the personalities. And the biggest bamboos
of all was Nerdificent, because we share a format that's
similar to classic house stuff work shows. So if you
were coming from that house stuff work side, you were
expecting a show that was just information about nerdum and

(30:28):
not a show that is nerd um. How it touches
on us and I think this we did, indeed make
clear that is a injury point for people who are
new to it. I I I you know, we've I've
kind of stepped back, mostly because I just have a
thing where I don't like repeating myself. But you know,
as much as we repeat that this is a show
for everyone, there still is that nerd who's like, you

(30:50):
didn't go into the deep etches of the history and
show me something I didn't know. It was like, well,
that's not what we're about. You you listen to this podcast,
you hear how people relate to it. Why I think
this podcast isn't the information about a a certain nerd topic.
I think it's the information about why it's so important

(31:11):
to some people. And I think that's the best way
to describe this and why we have guests who are
so passionate about certain things. Uh, we should talk about
how we met. I was going to say podcast. You
cut me off when I start with that. I'm just kidding. Yeah,
so you know, we both in the nerd world. Danny
was like crushing stand up way harder uh than than

(31:33):
I was, which is funny because I'm not doing it anymore.
But she came from like the roast battle level. I
was big on improv, me doing stuff. Why when we're
doing sketch improv obviously as a nerd. And this this
once again touches on the thing we were lightly touching
about about being performer first. But highlight, I knew about
Tournament of Nerds maybe two years before I actually got

(31:54):
involved with him, uh, which was I was still kind
of like an improv baby taking classes and someone had
a Tournament of Nerds sticker. I didn't know what the
show was, but just on the title, and I was like,
I need to do that show. And uh and and
this is once again we're we're telling you stuff we
did that are oftentimes things you shouldn't do, but like

(32:14):
I um, I like and there and my buddy was like, oh, well,
how Rudnick Hits runs it, so you should do it.
So I just message how Rudnick. I've never seen the
show before. My friend explained it to me, though I
didn't like wasn't completely blind and you just were like, oh,
it's a nerd debate. But I never seen the show before.
And I was like, hey, I'd love to I'm a
huge nerd and I'd love to do Term of Nerds

(32:35):
and he was like okay. And then two years later
he asked me if I wanted to do my first show.
But it's what's but if you ever want to do
for any like stand up or performance, if you ever
want to do a show, please go to the show
the show, show that you're interested, You're you'll you'll show
up and support it before asking to be on it.
That's the number. That's I promise you. You You know, sometimes

(32:57):
people will put you on the shows without being there,
but I promise you get on the show faster if
you just show up an ask in person. Um. But yeah,
I went in there and I and I crushed my first.
So Tournament of Nerds is a it's essentially a debate
show between you pick like fictional. I mean sometimes they'll
have it back because everyone says because I mean, by definition,

(33:21):
by everything, it is a technically a debate show. But
like debates, debates get steamrolled by character bits. It's you
basically are roast battling another character. You pick a character
and your and you don't know who you're going to
go up against. So I was Carmen san Diego and
I was battling Harley Quinn somebody playing Harley Quinn, and

(33:44):
we just roasted each other. Um. And so that's essentially
the show. And that's where Iffie and I met. It's
a show. It's a monthly show at a citizen's brigade. Yeah,
it's it's at Franklin. It's at midnight. It usually goes
still too. Uh. You know, it's a real it's genuinely
a fun show, just like Danks is. It's uh, it's

(34:05):
a tournament. Um, there's usually I think it starts with
six rounds. Uh, No, no, six or four rounds and
it's just a nerd too. But lots of times it's
a lot of character bits, and sometimes people will come
and and right well thought out amazing jokes and lose
to someone doing a impression. I mean, if yeah, that happened,

(34:30):
I mean that's how I want, like my wins, my
belt wins. I was the Uh it was funny. It
was I was the first player in contra which he
had a name, and someone pointed out but my character
bits still in my second win, I was, Oh, my gosh,
who was I? I forget, but it was another bit
that I did not expect to win by like all,

(34:52):
the only time I win is when I do a
dumb character is like, let's see how how how long
I can make this dumb thing go? And it usually
go was all the way. But if he and I
added each other, remember we were friends on Facebook and
we were both like one of the two comedians that
would constantly post DBZ jokes and memes. And so he

(35:15):
hit me up and was like, do you want to
do a DBZ podcast? And I was thinking, like, if
I was going to start a podcast, that's what I
wanted to do. Yeah. I wrote him jokingly and asked
if he wanted to call it krill in It, and
he said yes, and I was like, I was joking,
but that's what we called it. And we bought a
snow globe mic and we did it in my bedroom,

(35:38):
so I don't want to hear from anyone before the bedroom.
We had that dope community room before you moved. Was
it had community room we had wasn't a community I
think we had a community room, yeah, like a guest
room or something we had and then you then you
moved maybe yeah, and then we then we had to
do I mean we were literally having our friends in

(36:00):
my in my bed, in my spare bedroom. I'm about
to I'm about to bring up I'm about to Are
you ready to go down memory lane? We I'm just
going and read it so we might cut it. But
this was November five, two thousand, first message you sent
me on Facebook, which was I remember I felt kind

(36:21):
of crappy after losing my first round in the first
tournament nerds, and you came over to me and said
good job and that I was part of the family now,
which was true. Uh that thank you for that. It's
seriously meant a ton. Congrats and best of luck on
your journey at Comedy Central. They are literally the best.
And I said, thanks so much. Get back in that
ring too. I was serious, You're hilarious and you said thanks,

(36:44):
and I said whoa. We didn't talk again until January twenty,
two thousand and sixteen, where I said, let's do a
DBZ podcast. We rewatched the series from episode one and
talk about it and you said, I so down. I
replied with five k's and an exclamation point. That's a

(37:04):
quel k e w L. Remember you still do that. Yeah,
I'm going to see if I can get some recording
equip equipment. When are you free? And you said I might.
You're this confirmed itself right here. It's like, I might
have some equipment. I have a studio ish room, so
it was in your room from the jump it was not.
And you're like, I think I have a micro two.
Danny had one. Mike. Let's yeah, so we we I

(37:29):
think that we use pod Bean, which is a podcast
thing that you can you can upload your podcast too.
We used Audacity, which is a software that you can get,
I believe for free and you can edit podcast and
that is where we started. We built a fault. We
literally again had nothing. We got a snow globe mic

(37:49):
we we uh brought our friends over. And this brings
me to something that a couple of points I want
to make. If you're trying to start a podcast or
you're trying to start you know, hosting or whatever. Biggest
thing consistency. When you start your podcast, you're gonna start
to get listeners if you're posting about it and your

(38:10):
friends are listening to it, or let's say you're in
a let's say it as a twilight Zone podcast, um,
and you post it in a twilight Zone forum or
a twilight Zone Facebook group. Hey, I started a twilight
Zone podcast. And if people start listening and you're not
putting out episodes every week or whenever, and you're just
kind of like, yeah, I'll do it this week and
then work catches up with you, people are going to
drop off. You need to be consistent. That is one

(38:32):
of the biggest things I would say is that if
if you and I missed a week, people would be like,
what's going on? Where the podcast? Uh? And we were
just we just we didn't have we weren't at it.
We weren't you know. Now we're at how stuff Forward
Slash I Heart Radio. We have bosses that are like,
you have to be here. But at the time we
had nobody, we didn't have sponsors, we didn't have anyone
we had an answer to so we weren't consistent. So
that is the biggest thing I would say is consistency um.

(38:55):
And then people are like, well I can't get big
guests like you guys, we interviewed our friends. Your friends
can be the best to interview because they're passionate. You
just want someone interesting. If you're a funny friend that
is super into I don't know, William Shatner or whatever
can like recite a bunch of those facts and knows
about twice again, I'm just gonna go back to the
Twilight Zone reference. Bring them on. People want to hear

(39:17):
passionate people. We've had guests on that don't have huge
followings on this podcast and they're they're great to listen
to because they're passionate about it. So no, you don't
have to have the director or the show runner of whatever.
It's just that Iffi and I have now been doing
this for several years that we've made friends and you know,
we're writers and performers that we've now worked with these people,

(39:39):
so now there are friends, But we started with just
our friends on our show. Yeah, how do you want
to talk about that? Real quick too? Because there is
the instinct too and It's so funny because it feels
feels like such a weird thing to say, but as
I've seen it, it just happens. There's an instinct to
like reach up and see, you know, people who are

(40:00):
further along in their career or path then you to
get them on your show. And I'm not saying definitely
don't try, but don't let that be your only your
only path, like reach out to people who are you know,
in the trenches with you, because you know, we who
was I saying this way? I think I was talking
to a buddy of my it was on this show,

(40:21):
one of the writers on the show with me, and
we both, you know, we're reminiscing because we both started
at UCB at the same time and now we're writing
a show together and it and it is crazy to think,
you know, back in the day, I looked up at
all these you know, people at UCB who were performing
and further along to me, and it was like so
cool that they're all friends and Aubrey Plaza and all

(40:42):
of them where you CEB people, and now they're on
parks and ranks. And then you look now and as
we are further in the career, all our friends who
kind of have been in the community are also moving
ahead too. And you have to remember that that rising
tide raises all ships. If if everyone, If you surround
yourself with people who are grinding, who are at it
and just in the motion of trying to get it all,

(41:04):
all of y'all will never be jealous of someone's success
because if you, if if your friend, if you like
your friend, like you actually are messing with them, and
y'all are all grinding, they're not gonna forget you because
they got success. It never and never never expect that.
Don't don't don't wait for someone to get on and

(41:25):
give you a hand up, like just to just grind together,
because that that those opportunities will come, those those like
hands up will come. But just focus on your grind
and I promise you before you notice, opportunities are going
to be coming from your peers as y'all all kind
of rise up. Is it's it's just, I mean, it
just seems like a dope dream to have. Like the

(41:47):
person who's like killing it now kind of give you
an opportunity that just shoot your career up. But honestly,
it's never gonna be like this. One thing I forgot
what podcasts or TV show interview I heard, but there's
a there's this idea of like this one thing that's
gonna change your career, change your life, and it's never that.

(42:09):
The one thing that it seems like is uh is
actually putting all the work in the shadow. Like you
may think that, you know, Winston Duke after Black Panther,
that that role got him so much, but he was
doing so many small roles, audition classes, training, all before that.
But that's the one role that kind of made him

(42:31):
recognized by everything the best. The best example is Timothy
Shallow may you know after um call Me by your Name.
It just seemed like he shot into the stratosphere. Even
to me, who's someone who kind of you know, like
I did a short film with him called Spinners, and
that's when we first met. And it was interesting watching
him because I want, you know, knowing him before he

(42:53):
was the Timothy Shallow may this This dude was grinding.
He was doing so many films that you probably haven't
even seen that probably didn't make it out anywhere, and
then it was just the one that did that. Now
it seems like, oh, it just takes one but it's
it really does take a lot of grinding, and don't
don't get discouraged. Honestly, like when you hear things like

(43:15):
oh man, like the big saying which the math kind
of on average does kind of work out, is that
it takes five years from being in l A to
like really fill your stride anywhere. Sometimes it takes longer.
Don't ever use a rule as hard and fast, but
that on average about five years a lot of people
start to see something it doesn't and something can range

(43:38):
from a their for booking your first commercial, to booking
your first series regular to maybe even for some folks
even being like in a movie. I want to say, though,
you don't have to live here to pursue a creative life.
It just depends on what you want to do. I
do know people who have written me and they were like,
am I too old to get into writing? And No,

(43:59):
it's like there's so many there's so many freelance like
opportunities that that there are out there to write for
different sites. Um I if you're following me, I try
to retweet them, like every week I'm involved in different
groups um in different forms or Facebook groups and they'll
share like there's ones that are called like I need
a production assistant, or there's writers groups, but I try

(44:22):
to share. You know, they were looking for animators in
Atlanta and I reposted that, like, so there are so
many freelancing gigs that you can pitch if you want.
I know someone that I they don't even live here,
and they they hit me up and and we're like,
um they Basically this was back when I had my
d M s open and then people abuse them, but

(44:44):
so I had to close them unfortunately. But I used
to answer people's questions and one of them was an
older guy, I think, and he was like, do you
think I'm too old to right? And I was like, no,
I think that you could. You know, you could freelance,
you could pitch an article or something if that's what
you're trying to get into, is like nerd writing or
hosting or whatever. And he did. He wrote me back
and was like I got um, I have articles now

(45:05):
up at Nerdice, thank you, Like I just pitched them.
I pitched them a couple of ideas of articles I
wanted to write. And there's so many sites like that.
There's so many nerds sites specifically that are constantly looking
for reviewers or your take on you know, if Mad
Max should have another reboot or if this and that,
like there's so many of those. Yeah, and and yeah,

(45:25):
I mean honestly, yeah, just know what your industry needs.
If you want to do nerdwork, like just writing articles
and stuff like that, then yeah you can. You can
probably do that from where you are now. If you're
trying to go down the path of comedy or acting
and writing like that, they all take different Acting, you
definitely want to be close to where you're auditioning. That
could be New York or l A. But I will

(45:47):
say there's a lot you can do before you make
that jump. Uh. They But and it's always gonna be
how you feel, and it's always going to be up
to you because you will have a small start over
when you move. That's what it is. Comedy, same thing
you're gonna you can start comedy in your town if
it has a comedy scene, go to open mics, try
that out, get get good, and when you finally feel ready,

(46:10):
and that's when you make the move. Now, when it
comes to like nerd hosting and stuff, there's so much
you can do from home, like Red Letter media is
not in l A. You know, there's so many Our
friend who has like hundreds of like whatever, he's in Florida.
There's so there's so many things you can do when
it comes to geeky hosting that you don't have to

(46:31):
really move until you're ready or until a job is
going to bring you out here. And that's what, you know,
the corny advice that you always hear whenever you're like,
I want to be a comic writer, I want to
be a TV writer. I want to do It's always
like then right, And that's kind of true because you're
not going to get a job just from applying. They're

(46:53):
gonna want to see something. So make sure you do
all the stuff you need to do before you even
worry about moving. Make sure you have it. And you know,
all our younger listeners obviously you can do little cheat
stuff like going to college in l A. You know,
I know I know so many people who who they're like, oh,
I just went to college in l A and then

(47:14):
got your foot starting, And I was like, that is
one way to do it, especially because you know, uh,
that degree, you know, you can kind of get it anywhere,
but definitely don't overextend yourself and make your realistic plan.
Don't think you're gonna come out here and don't A
lot of the biggest trap I think a lot of
people fall into with l A is They're like, I'm

(47:37):
gonna save up this money and I'm gonna come to
l A. Don't get a job and grind until I
book the big thing that will start paying the bills.
Now that's not gonna work. The reason is the this industry,
the freelancer life and acting and writing comes with ebbs
and flows. Until you're like a named working actor or writer.

(48:00):
You you right for a certain amount of weeks, you're
off the job, and then you're just waiting for another one.
It has its own ebb and flow. So you come
here with the job and grind while you work and
then let Like basically the rule I always had when
I had my wake up call, because just so you
know how it happened for me, I had a full

(48:22):
time job. I was working with the l A County
Registered Recorder and that movie that I talked about with
Timmy They Shallamy. I had spinners and and then I
was going to New York for UH for um U
c B, where I was we were doing the Dell
Close Marathon and and I thought I had it. I
booked this short film. It was shooting for a week,

(48:43):
and at the time I was already on the ounce
with my job because I called in six so much
for auditions that they're like they I already was suspended,
and they're like, we're gonna have to fire you. So
I was like, I have to quit this job. And
I was like, oh, well, you know, I got this
short film, I got, you know, And then I'm I'm
I'm I'm doing well and UCB I'm about to go
to New York and perform out there. It's it's it,

(49:06):
I'm about to be working. And I quit the job.
I got my likes, a little bit of severance, flew
to New York, shot that, came back, shot the short,
came back and literally didn't book anything maybe for maybe
another few months, maybe even the year. And then I
finally got real got a job at the Improv and

(49:28):
that that that was the best thing ever because I
met so many comics. And then I started doing other
part time stuff, worked for Press Juicery. Then the geek
and Sundry stuff started taking off, and then shortly I
think while I was doing Geek and Sundry, Gecon Suntriy
was kind of getting to the place where I was
able to do it, almost able to do a full time.
Before all that happened, I booked at midnight and I

(49:49):
was a working writer. We have to take a quick break.
When we come back, I want to talk about etiquette
the dudes and don't yeh. We get back and we're back.
I wanted to say something before we moved on, and
that is um. One of the biggest things I can

(50:10):
say is hitting up writers and showrunners unsolicited with your scripts,
in my opinion, is a big no no. And in
Gloria Calderon Collette, who's the show runner for one day
at a time, she's written on a bunch of shows.
She's fabulous, she's amazing. If you don't follow her, follow
her because she tweets threads every week for actors and

(50:34):
writers of dues and don't and they're super helpful. But
she had an etiquette thread about not sending unsolicited scripts
um that people argued with her about, which is insane
because she's literally above them saying don't do this. But

(50:56):
before we get totally into that, I wanted to say
too that I um. When I first moved here, the
first ever job that I had, same with what If
he was saying, was struggling. The first ever job I
had was at the ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena,
and I got that job by looking at Craigslist. It
was the first week I moved to l A. Don't
be like me. I moved and I didn't have a job.

(51:17):
It was literally just what if he was explaining, I
had only a tiny bit of money saved up. That
money goes really quickly. I thought for sure I could
be a waitress or a bartender, you know whatever. Like
that's really easy where I was to get those jobs.
That is not easy to get those jobs here. Everybody
wants those jobs. This city is packed to the brim

(51:38):
and um, everybody wants to be a waitress because you
can take off when you you know, you can have
your um nights free to to perform if you're trying
to do stand up, or your days free if you're
auditioning as an actor. I mean I I it was
so hard for me to find anything. I found a
Craigslist ad for to work the door were at the

(52:00):
ice House Comedy Club, and I drove my resume like
forty five minutes to get to Pasadena and hand them
my resume because I knew if I just applied online
that I would be just a nameless, faceless person. Um.
And in fact, they had two hundred people I think
that had applied because again so many even to work
the door. People just want jobs, and especially in entertainment

(52:24):
in some way. Um. So so I showed up, I
gave them my resume, and I got that job. And
then I also worked as a nanny. So I was
doing that um for about a year or two. When
I first moved out here, I barely had time to write.
But when I did have time, it was when I
got done nanny, I would well, actually when I got
done nanny, I would then drive to Pasadena and work

(52:46):
the ice house. So I was working my butt off. Etiquette. Etiquette, UM,
I would give you here's wait, I do want to
say so about who will read your scripts? Then there
are countless, countless fellowship programs. You can go to the

(53:09):
w g A website and there are countless programs that
you can submit your your screenplay, your pilot, your play,
your teleplay. You can submit some of them. You will
get feedback some of them like they actually have readers
that will give you feedback. I made it to the
final round this year of the Diverse Voices screenplay. Um.

(53:31):
They you know, people were giving me notes on my thing,
but I made it. It was really cool. It was
really cool that I made it too. Of we we
screenplay and made it to the final round. Um for
a pilot that I wrote. So when you're like, oh,
I'm going to hit up Danny and ask her, don't
hit up strangers because it's rude. It's rude. Um. I
wanted to say with our podcast to something that I've

(53:53):
noticed when we post an episode as someone will be like,
you guys talked about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here's our
episode of Buffy the Vampire or Slayer. Don't do that.
That is the weirdest thing to take the following and
the people that we our fans, are our followers and
then try to capitalize it. I don't do that to you.
Like that is so weird to me to see people

(54:13):
do that to try and take our I think it's
I think it's rude. You don't. We don't do that
in our community. Don't do that. That is a no note,
that is a taboo unless you want me to start
stealing your people. But what I'm saying is that's just
that's rude. That's on our page. That's so weird. Yeah no,
that's that. And that's something that even goes into not

(54:33):
even just with podcasts. I've seen that you know done
on our stuff, but also just even on Twitch. There's
there's been there was like someone who came in and
was like who like tried to be like, oh, this
guy is streaming this on on the channel. Like that
never works. I promise you no one in anyone's community
is going to mess with that. You know, no one,

(54:55):
no one's gonna come to you. If anything, that's gonna
make people like you less and open yourself up. If
some people have the time of day to trolling, so
don't like, just don't test that. Um you know if
if if you're just so because I know some people
are like, but you know, some people say you you
need to talk to the show runers and all this stuff.
Here's the thing is like you if you if you,

(55:17):
if it's burning you up inside that you want to
get your work in front of it, then you need
to start a correspondence with them. Do not say introduce yourself,
Hey this, this, that, and attach your screenplay. You need
to introduce yourself see if they're open to correspondence because
you sometimes you you might find a showrunner who is like, hey,

(55:38):
what's up I I do have the time of day,
or you know, tell them about yourself. Maybe there's something
about you because you know, like like if someone like
for example, you might be like, hey, I'm a Nigerian
woman who you know is trying to get it in,
you know, trying to trying to make their way in it, YadA, YadA, YadA,

(56:02):
then like yeah, you know, if there's a connection there,
I'm this is not an invite for Nigerian women to
uh send me scripts? Not not because I don't want
to read it. I just literally right now don't have time.
Right now is going to be like the busiest time
anyway for a lot of just for any writers, Like
it's it's ramping up into staffing seasons, so lots of

(56:24):
lots of show runners and writers are already reading their
friends scripts right now. So it's kind of hard to
be on the back burner. But you know, when you
do send the script, if someone does allow you, because
sometimes there will be people who's like, I want to
send scripts. I think definitely first send it to your friends.
You want to make sure your your script is pretty

(56:44):
great before you send it to someone of power and authority,
because this is your introduction to them. This is like
if if, for example, if for any reason, a showrunner
was to read your script, you got to know that
this is your their first impression of your one chance. Yea.
If they read it and and they're just not interested,
they're probably not going to read the next draft in

(57:05):
the next Also consider that too. If someone is going
to read your stuff, send it to them, and if
they get back to you, they get back to you.
Don't check up every week every the people are busy
and and I promise you checking up weekly isn't going
to get them to read it faster, because if they're
too busy to do it, having someone bug them to

(57:28):
read it is not going to make them rush to
do it. And if your friends aren't writers, join forums
and just ask. You don't have to ask someone specifically.
You don't have to write a famous writer specifically. You
can join a forum or one of those Facebook groups.
There's a gigantic. Sorry to cut you off, but there's
a gigantic l a TV writers group that I mean

(57:50):
there there are gonna people be people who want to
read on there who you can check or there's like services.
Now you have the black list, but you can just ask, hey, UM,
I have this script that's about this, would anyone want
to read it? That is what I would do if
you need eyes on your script and you want feedback
instead of right, instead of writing someone that who doesn't

(58:12):
know you again you're a stranger, approaching them, just openly
post Oh, I would love for someone to read my
script if if anyone that way, the people that want
to will volunteer to um and a lot of those
people do want to read scripts, I think sometimes also
just to see what's what's going around out there. So
um yeah, but I would say, don't cold. In my opinion,

(58:36):
you want That's why it's so great to have a community,
to have a community of other people. Find other people
who are at your level. So if he and I
started at the same time, we're in the what's considered
the same comedy class, your comedy or your writing class
or whatever. Those are people that are coming up at
the same time as you. So people that you have
heard on our podcast, like Danielle Radford, Hector Navarro, we

(59:00):
all started that we were all no one at the
same time. It was great and we all started to
come up at the same time. So it's really important
to develop your community in and if you're like, oh,
I live in you know, this podunk town and I
don't have a community. That is why the Internet exists.
Because I was one of those people in in chat

(59:20):
rooms in forums when I was in middle school. Probably
shouldn't have been, but um, I loved writing fan fiction.
I love talking with other middle schoolers who might have
possibly be grown men. But when I was in the
middle like, but I had this, you know, community of
people that were into anime and fan fiction and we
would trade that. So there are forums out there for

(59:41):
you to get your writing out. Or again, if you're
making a podcast, if you're making a short, that's another thing.
Just go out and make it. Do you know how
many films in the last couple of years have been
made entirely on iPhones. People are trying. Filmmakers are trying
to make a statement. You don't have to have a
bunch of equipment. You can write a four minute sketch.
The example I always bring up is, UM, David F. Sandberg,

(01:00:05):
who you got who is directing in Shazamne. He's directing Shazamne.
He made less than three minutes. His short, Lights Out,
was two and a half minutes. That went completely viral.
If you haven't seen it, it's amazing. Um, if you're
not in a scary stuff, like if he's not in
a scary stuff, don't watch it. It was great, it's
so good. He shot at himself, he used his wife.

(01:00:25):
It's only two and a half minutes. It's terrifying. It
went viral. He got to make the film Lights Out.
He got to do. He worked on what Annabelle creation conjuring.
So make your sketch, make your short, make your whatever,
get your iPhone, get your get your friends. You know,
if you're like my friends, can't act, look on forums,

(01:00:47):
cast people, bring them in, bring people in your town
and you might have to drive forty five minutes or
whatever to get to where you are to get to
you know where other people are. But there are communities
out there for you. And again, because the Internet exists,
you can UM submit your scripts to the Blacklist you
can submit your scripts to fellowships, you can get people
to read it. Um, that is my rant. Yeah. I mean,

(01:01:09):
you know, I will say this industry as many reasons
it's hard. I mean, some of the ones that we've
we've already mentioned. But the one that I think also
that is worth mentioning is yes, this is a dreamer's industry.
And in where you are in life, your community, you
might talk about this and people are going to be like,

(01:01:31):
oh really, oh so how are you going to do it?
So what I've heard that when I when I had
my full time job, people were mocking me for wanting
to do this. You just you just have to push through.
If you really want it, you gotta go out and
get it. And you know, I'm gonna tell I'm gonna
just say it because this is kind of my mantra
and what kind of made me finally make the jump.

(01:01:53):
And if this helps someone, uh, someone else makes the jump,
I'd be happy I got into this industry because I
would rather try it and fail than to live my
whole life wondering what would have happened if I actually tried.
So just remember that when you're on the fence, because

(01:02:14):
at the end of the day, you can always there.
You're you're never too old for anything. You can always
go back to getting a full time job, especially you know,
if you graduate and have a degree, you know you
can you can always find, you know, go back into
your old industry. But why do that? Why? Why there's
so I know so many people who are just straight

(01:02:37):
up dog miserable because they're just doing something because it's convenient.
So just take the jump, but do it safely. Yeah,
because my friend Sarah Benacosta, she has a book out
that's called Real Artists Have Day Jobs, And I think
that that might be really helpful for people who want
to pursue a creative life but need to keep their

(01:02:58):
day job a hundred percent. Um. You know, we like
if he and I were saying we worked other jobs.
He was, you know, working in clerical and I was
working as a nanny um and working the door, so
you can pursue these things. I think we just wanted
people to know that we all we were in the trenches.
We were in the trenches together. Um. I can't speak

(01:03:19):
for Iffy, but I was dirt poor. I was like
dangerously poor, which I don't recommend when you're so poor,
like you can't afford like your medicine, and you're in food.
I would eat like cans of tuna, which is funny
because I think Gloria Caldro and Collette who's now one
of my friends, um that show runner that was talking
about she, I think posted that she used to eat
like cans of tuna because that was all she could afford.

(01:03:41):
So we've definitely been in the trenches to get to
where we are. And I know when you see on
social media it's like, oh, they're doing so much, but
we started from nothing. It is really important to have
a community and have friends who are going to be
there for you. Um So, if you can't find them
person annally, hopefully you can find them online. That is

(01:04:03):
where a lot of our friendships have come from, is
online and from these communities. Whatever you're most passionate about,
that's the easiest thing. And that's why our first podcast
together was about DBZ because it was easy for us
to talk about that was an easy thing. And uh
so we started our podcast without having any again, any sponsorship,
any studio, any anything. We built it up and then

(01:04:27):
Zach at Hyper invited us to do our podcast like
live on his Twitch channel at hyper RPG, and from
that we had really great chemistry that when how Stuff
Works was trying to open up their l a division.
Jack O'Brien, who knew both of us, he knew if
he and I both from writing and comedy, hit us

(01:04:49):
up and we're like, yeah, you two are so good together.
Do you want to do Do you want to do
a show here? Maybe not about anime? Can you make
it more about something broader for us? And then found
Jack by his car and HELLI my gunpoint, give me
a Danny this show where you gonna have to go? Oh,
I want to say one more thing. My first comic con.

(01:05:10):
I slept in my car. I want my first comic con.
Um when I was working it, I couldn't afford a hotel.
They're so expensive. I got changed in my car and
I told the Marriott I was staying there so that
they would keep my my luggage like behind their desk,
and my friends who did have a room would let

(01:05:33):
me shower in their shower. Um. But I slept in
my car, and then I think the second year, I
slept on the floor of somebody's place. And if you
and I have slept on the floor of people's places
many times. And now we're here. So we started from
the actual the bottom. We started from the floor, started
from the floor. Sky Bound paid for rooms. Oh yeah,

(01:05:58):
I got Disney this year's um that was a subtle flexible. No,
I think we earned it at this point. Oh so,
what do you want to tell people about Danny oh Man?
That wasn't even my whole life. I was on I
was on Culture Kings last week. And if you want
to hear more about the struggles that I've been through,

(01:06:19):
um the struggle. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of
things people don't know about me. I'm obviously divorced from
that guy that I was with and just did so
much like when I think of when I think of
my life, of everything that I it took to get
even here, it's a lot. Um, what do I want
people to know? We love you if you and I

(01:06:40):
are also hustling. I mean, if you see us, we're
working like so many different jobs, we have families, we
have like different things that we that we have to do.
So we do love everyone. We want everyone to you know,
do well. We might not be able to answer everyone's
questions just because we ourselves are auditioning. We ourselves are
submitting packets and submitting grips and getting rejected and rejected

(01:07:01):
and rejected, and then one, you know, maybe we hear
a yes here, yes there, and that keeps us going.
But I just want everyone to know that we do
love you a lot, and just because we can't read
anything right now doesn't mean that we're not rooting for you. Yes,
I actually like that a lot. That is very true.
I plus one that statement to the max. Uh yeah.

(01:07:25):
And I think the one last thing I want you
to do before you do anything is to really think
about what you want to do, why you want to
do it, and if it's if in that batt will
get you a long way, if you want to get
into this life because you truly are passionate about it.
I mean me, I could not work a desk job.

(01:07:48):
I just couldn't. I was getting in trouble literally every
day from going around and talking to people because that's
what I like to do. I like to talk, I
like to make people laugh. So then I made it
my job. Uh. There there was no other option for me. Uh.
If if you're doing this because you know you want
the perks or you want, you know, yeah, I guess

(01:08:08):
I say the perks because that is the perks. Like
sometimes you're famous, sometimes you get lots of followers, sometimes
you get to go to cool events. Don't like the
perks are a bonus, but it really is only worth
it if you truly because the perks are so few
and far between. And it is a grind. It is
a lot, and it may seem like like lots of times,

(01:08:30):
you know, you think one thing is gonna make everything better,
but it's just like it really is like puff Daddy
and Bigie said, more money, more problems. Uh, just consider
that that it is a grind. It isn't like, you know,
you are always grinding. You don't have the same stability.

(01:08:50):
You know, you can be like if you look at
you know, some of these shows that got canceled. You know,
if you if you were writing on a show, you
got a season two, You're like, here we go, and
then at the end of season two it's canceled. That's
all that stability that you thought was coming. Or like
you work a show for a year and you don't
get brought back home for the next season. Uh, there's

(01:09:14):
even in pilots there if you pay attention to closely
to pilots. There are some people who are in a
pilot and then they get recast when it goes to series.
So you booked this pilot, You're like, oh, I got
a TV show I'm on and the TV show gets
picked up, but you don't. So it's a lot of it.
It really is a lot of let downs. But when

(01:09:35):
you're really passionate about it, the winds are just so
good it's worth it. With that note, make sure you
go to my twitch. It's uh twitch dot tv slash
if d s if you if you are an Amazon
Prime member, you can connect it with your twitch and
you can give me a free sub A few a

(01:09:56):
lot of y'all have been coming in and doing that.
A lot of y'all are active in the discord. The
discord is popping. I I can't I cannot be more hyped,
proud and excited about my community when I go in.
When I was writing in the room and I couldn't
you know, stream in the day and I would see
everyone just having a conversation amongst themselves, having a gaming

(01:10:21):
amongst themselves. That's what I want to build. It's more
about like it's it's less about a place for people
who are fans of me and Danny or fans of
my stream to hang out. It's more of like minded
individuals to find their people online. And you know, I
love you know, I love the amount of you know,
just there's it's just well rounded, so represented. We have

(01:10:44):
lgbt Q people in the discord. We have you know,
black people, people of all races, and I like that
that's there because, you know, not throwing shade to anyone,
but I've been in some people's communities, some people's discord
and it's just a whole bunch of white dudes. And then,
you know, I like the diversity in mind. I like,

(01:11:04):
you know, they're you know, they're they're look in my
discord there are people who are racially, ethnically, sexuality wise,
gender and even politically diverse. And that's that's wild to
me because I was like, you know, this is left
leaning discord and they're like, well, you know, I'm open minded.

(01:11:24):
I was like, all right, Uh, the basic rules of
the discord as long as you respect people, use the
proper pronouns, treat everyone with love and respect. You can
hang haters, douchebags, you get kicked. But yeah, definitely go
to my Twitch. Drop that drop that, drop that free

(01:11:45):
sub there if if you widway on Twitter and Instagram,
that's I f Y n W A d I w E.
As far as shows go, I got some shows creeping up. Also,
I got my older brothers bachelor party that still need
to be planning that's supposed to be on the twenty
and I still got time. It's a really random thing too. Yeah,
it's been. It's been haunting me as as someone as

(01:12:07):
just a scatter brained is me trying to plan a
whole it's just rough. Um but yeah, no, it's uh yeah,
no shows coming up yet until the end of the month,
and I'll just save it to a podcast closer to that.
Um but yet, just stick stay tuned to the to
the Insta and then you insta. We have lots of

(01:12:27):
stuff going onf um. I am at MS Danny Fernandez
and I will be at wonder Con. I have a
panel on Friday and Saturday. So if you follow me
on Twitter, I will be posting about those where you
can catch me. So the w g a website you
can type in fellowship and it gives a list of

(01:12:48):
writing programs some of them are looking for diverse candidates.
Some of them aren't. UM it will say that on
there and it's just a full list. I'm looking at
the Box Writer's Lab, NBC Writers on the Verge. They
have Sundance Episodic Story Lab. I mean, y'all, you can
submit from anywhere, wherever you live. You can submit to

(01:13:10):
these some some of them will give you, Like I said,
some of the ones that I applied for give you
feedback on your scripts. You can make it too. If
you make it to the final round, you get in it,
I mean great. Some of them you have cash prizes
that they'll give you so that you can get your
script funded. Really do your research, though, if this is
a community that you want to be a part of.
I mean, the internet is so vast, we can't answer

(01:13:32):
all of your questions. You know, show runners don't always
have time to answer all your questions online. So definitely
do your homework, like you know, start looking into it
of places of how can I submit my comic that
I made? How can I submit my short you know,
the short film that I want to do. UM because
the information is out there, that is all I have.

(01:13:53):
And as we say, every episode stay nerdy