September 22, 2025 • 49 mins
Comedy Saved Me Podcast - Episode Show Notes
Guest: Thom Tran
Episode Description
In this powerful episode of Comedy Saved Me, host Lynn Hoffman sits down with multi-talented veteran, comedian, musician, and activist Thom Tran for an inspiring conversation about resilience, healing, and finding purpose through laughter.
Thom’s journey from combat soldier to comedy stage is nothing short of remarkable. After enlisting in the U.S. Army at just 18 years old, Thom served as a Communications and Civil Affairs Sergeant within the Army’s Special Operations Community. His military career came to an abrupt end in 2003 when a sniper’s bullet struck the back of his skull during combat operations in Iraq, just four days after crossing the border. Despite his injuries, Thom bandaged himself up and completed his 12-month tour—a testament to his incredible strength and dedication.
Following his medical retirement in 2005, Thom discovered that comedy didn’t just change his life—it saved it. He channeled his experiences into stand-up comedy, eventually creating The GIs of Comedy Tour in 2010, a groundbreaking comedic troupe that has performed across the United States and in nearly two dozen countries, bringing healing laughter to military and civilian audiences alike.
Lynn and Thom dive deep into how humor became his lifeline, the challenges of transitioning from military to civilian life, and his mission to help other veterans through the transformative power of comedy. Special thanks to Dr. Ron Hirshberg and General Jack Hammond from Home Base for their support of our podcasts and for introducing us to Thom. For information on their amazing work go to https://homebase.org
This episode is a testament to the healing power of laughter and the resilience of the human spirit—a must-listen for anyone who believes in the transformative power of comedy.
Show Notes
Guest: Thom Tran - Veteran, Comedian, Musician, Actor & Activist
Key Topics Discussed:
• Thom’s early military enlistment at 18 and service in Army Special Operations
• Combat injury in Iraq in 2003 and the long road to medical retirement
• How comedy became a lifesaving force in his post-military life
• Creating The GIs of Comedy Tour and its impact on military communities
• Performing for audiences around the world and raising over $50,000 for military families
• The healing power of laughter for trauma survivors
• Transitioning from soldier to entertainer
• Building a career in LA comedy clubs and broadcast radio
• Recent recognition at comedy festivals and future projects
About Thom Tran:
Thom Tran is a Los Angeles-based comedian, musician, and U.S. military veteran who transformed personal trauma into purpose through comedy. After a combat injury ended his Army Special Operations career in 2005, Thom discovered stand-up comedy and never looked back. In 2010, he founded The GIs of Comedy Tour, which has performed internationally and raised significant funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. His work has been featured on Netflix’s “Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy,” and he recently completed a decade-long career as a radio traffic anchor for KNX News. In 2025, he was named to the SLO Comedy Festival “Best of The Fest” and selected as a “Next Wave Top 5 Comics to Watch” at the Blue Whale Comedy Festival.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Comedy saved me.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Can we just talk really quick about stretching before we
get started, because.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
That is the number one thing.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Like, you can work out all you want, but if
you don't stretch as you get older, you need I
mean you're gonna fall.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yeah, I mean I'm gonna seize up at some point.
I used to tell people at the gym that I
used to go to. I just had a gym, put
it here in my house, nice like a pull setup.
But I would tell like these younger kids, you know,
like I see younger kids who are like the reserves
are National Guard, and they come in their pet uniforms
and they're.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Like, hey, big Sarage, why are you stretching so long?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I was like, cause the moment you guys hit thirty
and you don't stretch correctly, you pull a muscle, You're done.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
You're done.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So like, I spend a significant amount of time stretching
like full body, regardless of what I'm doing that day.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
It's like, you got to stretch every muscle.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I used to tell, you know, I used to tell
my soldiers the bad guys don't care if it was
leg day or strength day. You gotta be ready whole
body to fight with everything you got. So every day
it's like, I have a very specific stretching regimen that
hits every muscle group because you know, I don't know
(01:17):
if after I do my strength training stuff, if I'm
going to literally have to you know, a friend will
call me and hey, can you can you work on
my movie?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
I need somebody to run up a hill wearing a rucksack.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So, you know, full body training every day, even though
not in the army anymore, it's just what you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's built in.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But it's just so huge for everybody in their everyday life,
Like you can't even stress it enough. And it's always
the last thing anyone thinks of. And you know, my mom,
she's eighty, she walks every day and I'm like, ma,
do you stretch?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I'm like, oh my god, do you know that
all you just just fall once and it's all over.
It's because it really is like your rubber bands or
your muscles in your tendons and all the ligaments and stuff.
And if it all gets tightened up, how are you
going to be able to catch yourself if you trip
on something?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Yeah, it's not cool and it's not sexy.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
But no, being laid up with a cast on or
a whatever for three weeks is even less cool and
even less sexy. Yeah, when you're just sitting there just
eating garbage because you can't do stuff. So it's been
a big part of my mental health journey, you know,
now that I'm not in the arm anymore. It's like
one of the few things that just keeps me.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Going, Wow, Well, I'm so glad we have this discussion
because I just want to say I told you so to.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
My mom and all of my friends.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
You give me a hard time, but when I yell
at them for not stretching.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
One last question.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
About this, because I know it's not really even a
part of this, but do you stretch before and after
or just after.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Or just before before, before and after, okay, before stretching.
I do like a lot of dynamic stretching because you
want to you want to loosen up and warm up
the muscles, but you don't want to overwork them before
you start lifting a weight.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
So just like I do it.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I'm a star trek nerd and I call it the
seven to nine seven of nine stretching and do everything
for seven to nine reps. Just to get the muscles loose,
just ready to go, and then post workout a lot
of static stretching, so a lot like holding, pulling, holding
for like seven to nine seconds usually, and it's literally
(03:32):
those numbers are literally because of Star Trek.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
There's no scientific reason behind seven to nine seconds.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's really important and I'm grateful that I just got
to pick your brain about it because you definitely know
what you're talking about. And by the way, if you
just just checking us out right now, Tom Tran is
with me in studio via zoom, and I probably should
give him a proper introduction, but I also feel like
(04:00):
we need to take a quick break first before we
get started.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
So would you mind.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
After this great stretch talk that, I mean, take a minute, gho, stretch,
do what you gotta do, and come back and join us,
because Tom Tran is here on Comedy Saved Me, and
you're not going to want to miss.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
This Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Welcome to the Comedy Save Me Podcast, the show where
we dive into the power of laughter, the struggles behind
the punchlines, and the stories of how comedy can heal,
uplift and even save lives. If you like this podcast,
thank you so much for listening. It really means a
lot to all of us. You may also enjoy a
couple of other podcasts produced by the buzz Night Media
(04:44):
production company called Music Saved Me, which I also host,
and another podcast called Taken a Walk, which is hosted
by the amazing buzz Night himself, who is an incredible
music historian. You will be blown away at his conversations
with people in the industry.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I am your host, Lynn Hoffman, and today I'm so excited.
I'm joined by the hilarious and inspiring Tom Tran. Tom
is not just someone who brings the jokes. He is
proof that comedy can be a lifeline, a coping mechanism,
and a bridge to a connection. We're going to talk
about his journey as a military vet, the moments where
(05:23):
humor pulled him through tough times, and hopefully share some
laughs along the way. No pressure, Tom Tran, Welcome to
Comedy Saved Me. Now, I just want to make sure
I get this correct. You are a military vet. You
are a Purple Heart recipient who transition from a communications
and Civil affairs sergeant in the Special operations community two
(05:45):
of all things, a stand up comedian and a really
good one. I think that's kind of a rather unique
journey and one that I'm really looking forward to finding
out about talking to you. So, first of all, did
I get that correct? And can you give us a
little bit of a glimpse into that sort of beginning
part of your life where you entered into the military.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
You did miss one part I did. We can talk
about music too, because, of course the guitars, some of
which I have a severe case of gas uh.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Guitar because I was wondering.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yeah, guitar acquisition syndrome. Yeah, I have so many guitars.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
But no, I actually wanted music was a big part
of my life too. It's always been a big part
of my life. And actually, when I left the Army
and I went back home, I wanted to be a musician,
like I wanted to be a musician before the Army,
and I started a band I was playing out The
Googoo Dolls are friends of mine from my hometown of Buffalo,
(06:42):
New York. And uh, and then just I think post combat,
I really had a tough time working with other people
who weren't military, people like I spent a career in
the Army and spent you know, a combat deployment in Iraq,
sofering some of the worst tragedies a soldier can, and
(07:02):
I came home and I wanted music to be the
thing that saved me. But as much as I love it,
the business part of music and having to deal with
other band members, producers and things like that, when I
found comedy. It's not that I found comedy like it
came out of nowhere, but when comedy became a viable
(07:23):
option in my life as a tool for therapy but
also as a career, that's when I went, Okay, I
don't have to spend the thousands of dollars I have
spent on guitar equipment and pedals and apps, and I
can just I mean, it was the late early two thousands,
so I was buying a lot of hoodies and jackets
(07:46):
because that was the comedian uniform at the time, Like.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
A sports coat and a hoodie and a T shirt.
That's what I.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
But yeah, comedy became the thing that I turned to
after my career in the army.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah I read.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
First of all, to everyone listening, I want to thank
you for your service to our country, and also for
your continued service now through your craft of comedy, because
you're creating healing laughter for all of us to tap
into when we need it. So I'm grateful that you
found your niche. But I also read that while you
were deployed, as you were describing that you were hurt
(08:21):
only like four days into your deployment, but you continued
through to the end, and I was curious you described
comedy saved your life. Can you share when you realized
that laughter was helping you to heal and cope with
what happened? And was it during the time while you
were still serving or was it after?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It wasn't until well after I got home, because you know,
so what happens.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
I deployed to Iraq two thousand.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And three OIF one, the first the first deployment across
the border on a Sunday, shortly after the war officially
began in March. And then on when I was in
my first gunfight and I got shot in the back
of the head. So that's how my war started. It
literally started with like across the border, established an op
(09:11):
observation point and then observation position, and then went out
on a mission. Got shot fourth day, and I didn't
realize that at the time, but even then, comedy was
the thing that was keeping me going literally moments after
I got shot, because I was the combat life saver
(09:33):
in the truck, so I was the one with the
medical training.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
At the time, I was a.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Communication sergeant, but I was also cross trained in like
combat life saver. So I literally bandaged my own head.
We continued that mission, and you helped you. Wow. Yeah,
if you watch the video, because there's a video of it,
I'm bandaging my own head and I remember, you know,
the combat life saving training kicking in. Just going, keep talking,
(09:59):
keep talking, do not lose consciousness. Because I was the
guy with the medical training in the truck. Not only
what was I the comm sergeant, I was the medical sergeant.
So I remember thinking, just keep talking, just keep talking,
just keep talking. And on the outside. Because we videoed
the entire mission from before I got shot, me getting shot,
(10:21):
we have that on tape, and then us running a
second mission as I'm bleeding for my skull, and then
on our way back to the combat hospital, and the
entire time I'm trying to stay awake by making myself laugh.
Making the major laugh, making the colonel laugh, making our
interpreter laugh, And it was just me going, all right,
(10:42):
keep talking because if you lose consciousness and wearing this
convoy ten clicks from the base, Yeah, well yeah, I'm
the medical guy, so how am I?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
How is anyone going to be helped if you don't
if you don't make it? Yeah? Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
So even then, like you know, I watched the video
once in a while. I have the whole thing several
hours long. But you know, I'm just talking to keep
myself going, and I'm telling jokes like I'm looking right
in the camera and telling jokes.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
That are that were not good. They were not good jokes.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Wow, And they really were just like to make me
and the major laugh so that I could.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Make yourself feel comfortable. Maybe.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Well really it was just to keep conscious until we
got me to the combat hospital. And the story I
used to tell on stage was we called back to
our op center after the missions that we ran, and
I'm the comms guy and I had to get on
the radio and say, hey, listen, we're coming back, and
(11:50):
I said we have to stop at the hospital. I
kind of got shot and the person back in my
operations center, my talk tactor operations. They said, what do
you mean you kind of got shot? And I said, well,
I kind of got shot. And before I could give
them the details, the radio signal gets broken.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Up because we're kind of far out.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And then the retrans communication sergeant at the hospital rings
up and he goes, hey, sergeant, I can hear you.
I can hear your talk. You tell me what's going on.
I'll relay it to them. And I said, yeah, I
sort of got shot, and he goes, I heard that part.
Where did you get shot? And again, just try to
make myself laugh. I said, this is going to sound
way worse than it is. I got shot in the head.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
And he's like what I said, yeah, yeah, I'm good.
I'm good. We're on our way back. We're about, you know,
twenty minutes out.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
And then he said how long is it gonna take
for you to get it back here?
Speaker 4 (12:45):
And I said, we're about.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Twenty minutes out, but I'm going to stop get some
donuts from the guys at one two three Infantry because
they was like, no, you come right back.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I was like, relax, I'm joking.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh my god, I thought you were serious.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Are you kidding me, and that was just to keep
me from, wow, literally passing out because I'm losing blood.
There's a lot of blood vessels in your head. I
am your scalp particularly, and I'm like, I was bleeding
just NonStop. So it's really just like, stay awake, keep talking,
get back to the cash combat support hospital, and let
(13:20):
the real doctors take care of you, because I have
just minimal combat lifesaver training.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
But that's I did it with comedy and I didn't
really realize it. It was just the thing that I
was doing at the time to keep the mission going.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's incredible that you say that.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Did you even know that you were funny or that
you knew how to be funny in it? Or was
it just do you think it was just a reaction
within you that you couldn't control. That you just knew
that you had to keep talking. Keeping talking is one thing,
but being funny and joking with the fact that you
were shot in the head, I mean, that's that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Sometimes I question now if I'm funny. I have sets.
I have sets. Sometimes I'll get in the car afterwards,
I'll call my friends and I'm.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Like, what am I doing? With my life. What is that?
I just tanked so hard? So did I think I
was funny? I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I remember the first time I did stand up comedy
in college. It was part of a class that I
was taking because I was a radio guy. I was
communications sergeant, I was a radio broadcaster. I just retired
from a real career in broadcast radio in Los Angeles.
So I was in college before the deployment to Iraq.
(14:36):
I was back in the reserves, back home, and I
was taking a class I'll never forget. It was called
Voice and Diction, and the teacher's name was Jerry Trentam
and I quote his name all the time because I
blame him and Robin Williams my career choices. But the
idea of the class was to mind your voice in radio,
(14:57):
in broadcasting, television, whatever it was. Everybody in the class
was a broadcast major somewhere theater majors. And the final
project was to take a scene from your favorite movie
and do it in your own voice. So, for instance,
my friend Sean, he did a scene from boiler Room.
It was his favorite movie, and I said to Jerry, hey,
I've always liked stand up comedy. It's not a thing
(15:20):
that I thought I'd ever do, but I liked it.
Can I do stand up as my final project?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And he said, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Have four months and three days, which is the beginning
of the semester to the end of the semester. So
you get four months and three days to write a
five minute set. And it took me four months, three
days and like twenty five minutes right up to the
moment I walked into the class to do this five
minutes of material, and I remember blacking out, like I
(15:48):
got up there, I opened my mouth, everything went blank.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
I don't remember what happened.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
But my friend Sean, who is in the class, who
lives out here in Los Angeles now, he said to me,
he goes, you killed and I was like, I don't
remember that, Like everything just went blank. I just opened
my mouth and just whatever nonsense I'd written down came out.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
But I assumed I.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Did well because there was a really hot girl in
the class who like immediately gave me your phone number.
I've been trying to get it all semester. Look, and
she was like, you deserve to take me out.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
On a date, and I was like, I do, and then.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
That was November of two thousand and two, and then
I got deployment orders to go back on active duty
shortly thereafter, and like weeks later, weeks later, like I think,
I mobilized down a Fort Brag where a command is
(16:45):
mid December for train up. Came home for Christmas for
a couple of days to see our families one last time,
and then we you know, we're on a plane right
before the New year or right after the New year
to Kuwait.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
So it was like I did stand up for the
first time.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I think I did it one more time at a
club in town and then got my orders to go
to Araq. So did I ever know I was funny?
Not really, because I blacked out. I blanked out. I
don't remember if iPhones weren't a thing at the time,
so nobody recorded it, thank god, because I found the
notes from that set and A are terrible. I was
(17:24):
really awful.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You've been involved with home Base, which is a program
near and dear to our hearts here at Comedy Save
Me supporting veterans' mental health, and I wondered how that
work influenced your approach to comedy.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
There are three things in my life for sure that
I know and anybody close to me knows that if
I do not do them for any extended amount of time,
I'm a terrible person to be around.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
One of them is working out.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I hate it. I don't like it. I don't go
to the gym because I want to. I'm not a
gym rat. I do it because if I don't, my
physical and mental health are so tied together that if
I don't do it, I cannot function in a normal
society with normal people.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I can't. The other is comedy.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
If I don't do stand up comedy for any significant
amount of time, you know, I can go a day
or two just hanging out with my cats, hang out
with my girlfriend, whatever. But if I go any longer
than that without doing stand up comedy, I am again
a miserable person to be around. And if I don't
(18:40):
pick up one of my I think it's forty two
guitars now, and I don't write or play or create
something musical, I get very depressed. It's not as bad
as when I don't work out, when I don't do
stand up because then I'm just like aggravated, because those
(19:01):
are very much my therapy.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
But music like I do.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Get genuinely sad if I like, I mean I have
literally a guitar or two in every room in this house.
I think I have two in my bathroom. It's I
have no excuse to not pick them up.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
But wait a minute, I'm getting a visual of you
spending a length of time in the bathroom the guitar.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
I write some of my best stuff in the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Eddie van Halen recorded some of the greatest stuff with
a Marshall four to twelve and is Saldano head in
his bathroom because the acoustics in a bathroom are fantastic.
I don't know if people know that a lot of
great solos have been recorded in bathrooms.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
No, you're right.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Richie Sambora and John bon Jovi told me they recorded
an album in his mother's bathroom.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, because the acoustics were so good. Yep, it was
the New Jersey album. I'm a huge bond joke. Ban
I have three Richie sambor guitars right over there.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Wow, this is like a combo show. This is a
music save me in comedy save me at the same time.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I love it. Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Well, how do you see comedy playing a role in
sort of breaking the stigma around.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I do a one man show called Laugh After Death,
and it is a culmination of the last twenty years
of my comedy performing to civilians, military audiences, veterans Stateside
in active combat zones the Arctic, and it is me
(20:36):
taking my stories and my jokes from my life as
a soldier and as a comedian now, and as somebody
who's been struggling with mental health and addiction for a
very long time and putting them together in a cohesive
story that one people hear it, they leave understanding a
(21:00):
little bit better what veterans in combat soldiers go through
without feeling bad for us. They can laugh at you know,
I tell a story about me getting shot in the head.
I show the video of me getting shot in the head,
and it's a great joke. You normally wouldn't think that.
And when people people don't want to be uncomfortable. Nobody
(21:22):
wants to be uncomfortable. They don't want to feel uncomfortable.
They don't want to feel bad. They'll say thank you
for your service or whatever, but they don't want to
feel bad about listening to the things we go through.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
And if you don't listen you're not going to know.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
And if you if you can't make that information digestible
through comedy, then people aren't gonna.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Listen, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
So I do this show and even like, I do
a joke now it's a brand new joke and I
love it.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Oh, it's my one of my favorite jokes, and it's
about PTSD. It is literally like I.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Start off by saying, I'm going to be vulnerable with
you right now because my therapist at the VA says
I have to be. Like that's the opening line of
the joke, and it starts kind of sad, just for
a few seconds. Uh, and then it becomes a joke
about Coldplay, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
It's one of my favorite needs.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Wait a minute, you start off with that and you
end up with Coldplay?
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a it's a fantastic joke.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Are you going to tell them to me? Or is it? So?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
So basically, people ask me if I have PTSD, which
is it's it's an honest question, and the honest answer
is yes. I mean I got shot in a rack,
my roommate got killed, I know, bought three alcoholism. So
things do trigger me? Ours backfiring things in the roadway
that shouldn't be there, and that's that's what I suffer through.
(22:46):
And I used to feel really bad about that until
about a month and a half ago when I found
out that there are two people on this planet who
feel the same way. Listening to Coldplay music because you know,
makes sense. These two here, you know, these two got
caught having an a fair on the JumboTron, and now
every time they hear yellow, they want to turn into
oncoming traffic.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
So it's a.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
It's a but that way, I get to talk about
what I went through, my trauma, and it's a real thing,
and then people hear that and they go, oh, okay,
I get it. Something traumatic happened. It's not necessarily you know,
veterans don't. We don't own PTSD as a stigma. It's
anybody who goes through any kind of trauma, car accident,
(23:33):
you know, divorce, getting caught having an a fair on
a JumboTron, becoming the laughing stock of the entire internet
for you know, a month, and that way people can
make that connection people who have what is it the
numbers are, I think it's point five point zero four
percent of the US population are serving in the military.
(23:56):
Less than seven percent are veterans as opposed to like
World War Two, whereas twelve percent. So seven percent of
the American population can understand what I'm talking about. They've
gone through what I'm talking about. So what about the
other ninety three percent? Well, I turned my comedy into
a thing that the other ninety three percent can understand. Yes,
(24:18):
I got shot, I went through these things. When I
came home. I deal with trauma. Now how does the
other ninety three percent relate to that? Hey, everybody watched
this video of these two idiots getting caught having an
a fair. That's pretty traumatic. And then they can go, oh, wait,
this other thing might happen in my life. I got
a car act blah blah blah. And hopefully it brings
(24:42):
people a little closer together, because there's such a divide
in the world right now, not just our nation, in
the world between everybody, not just military, not just civilians,
not just Red Blue Packers fans whatever other fans. I
don't I'm not a football person, but there is so
(25:02):
much division along so many different lines that if I
want my message of hey, this is what I came
home to deal with. This is what my friends deal with.
This is how we get through it. Well, let me
explain using comedy, So the other ninety three percent of
the American population go, I get it. I get it,
(25:23):
and I can laugh at it, and then I can
leave understanding that because you're more likely to remember a
thing that you laughed at than you will if you
tuned out during some boring talk or PowerPoint presentation about
PTSD or whatever.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I know I do. Yeah, yeah, if I tell people
all the.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Time, new soldiers, young soldiers, I wish i'd paid attention
during my outprocessing.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I don't know if I was drunk or.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Just not paying attention, But when I got out of
the army, I wish I listen to all the things
they had told me about my benefits. Who can help
me the things like because I didn't I was twenty five,
I was getting out of the army, I just got
back from a war. I'm like, I don't care. I
just want to be out of this uniform and go
do things. So when people come hear my keynote or
(26:21):
they listen to the one man show, they don't want
to listen to just the sadness of which there is
a lot but if they can remember it through the comedy,
they'll feel that they'll take that with them. I still
remember Eddie Murphy jokes from nineteen eighty three that I
definitely should not have been watching. But like, would you
hear good comedy, emotional, good comedy that hits you in
(26:44):
your soul?
Speaker 4 (26:46):
You take that, you remember that.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Like sometimes people just sit in the car and they'll
just remember a joke in a comic said and they'll
just start laughing to themselves. And that laughter is the
thing that I used to heal me after war, because
every day is a struggle. Every day I am just
I'm waking up there, I'll be vulnerable. Every day I
wake up and I think I don't want to wake up.
(27:11):
Every day of my life for the last twenty some
odd years, I open my eyes and go, I don't
want to do this.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
I get up.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
I go to the gym because I know that's the
thing that I have to do, and that gives me
the energy to go write comedy or write music.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
And then.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
If I write a joke that makes me laugh and
then it makes an audience laugh, that's the best feeling
in the world. Because I've healed myself for a little bit,
and then I heal these people for a little bit.
Who you know, I don't know, who was at the
laugh Factory last night, who had a really bad day
and just needed to laugh for the whatever fifteen minutes
(27:53):
I was on stage. And if I can do that
and then bring it to that audience or this audience
or whatever wherever, that's that's what I'm meant to do.
That's my job as a soldier now, even though I'm
not in uniform anymore, it's just what I do.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
You're a life soldier now, really, I mean I sold
you for life.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
That's what they called retired soldiers now.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
So well, I so.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Many things you just said that I would like to unpack,
but we just don't have, you know, a week to talk.
Plus you need to eat because you're intermittent fasting and
I can see like you're looking at like that eraser
on your desk.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
You want to know protein shake.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
You will be right back with more of the Comedy
Saved Me Podcast. Welcome back to the Comedy Save Me Podcast.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
All right, three things.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
One you just brought to my mind from earlier in
this conversation. My grandfather, who was on his deathbed, cracking
jokes with the nurses. So this now makes me realize
why he did it because of how you described.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Your experience in the military.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Second, my father suffered from horrific PTSD and he didn't
listen like you, and it took twenty one years before
my mom realized light bulb. We got to show him
all the things he has access to that he didn't
know he had.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
And it was until he.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Knocked on the door of my apartment when I was
twenty six and said, I think I need help, you know,
And it was from that service, so wow. And when thunderstorms,
forget it, you know, lightning and all of that stuff.
So as from the military perspective, I understand that more
than most. But like you said again as well, it
(29:50):
doesn't even mean that you have to have PTSD from
being in the military. It could be from any traumatic
experience in your life. And so many of us suffer
from that and have had that happen. And whatever it
looks like to you, it is what it is. I mean,
no one's going to tell you, well that problem wasn't
bad enough to be considered you know it is.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
And something you just said today being vulnerable and.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I was going to ask a lot of the questions
I had for you you've already answered because and it's
I could listen to you talk so much longer about
this subject because it's so important for so many people
to hear, and the fact that you just do it,
not only with your comedy, but with this discussion with me,
to just say how you felt when you wake up
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I wake up like that sometimes.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
It's every day of my life for the last twenty
plus years, every day.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And you're so blessed where you're at, and you think
to yourself, you know, why do I feel this way?
And so how do you change that channel? First thing
in the morning when when that happens to you.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
It's muscle memory.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
So like they taught us at airborne school, like when
you jump out of an airplane, you don't think about it.
You go through, we go through three weeks, two weeks
of training before the first time we step out of
an airplane, and it's muscle memory. You know, you hop
out that plane, you grab your you grab your reserve,
you count the four and the shoot opens. It's for
(31:20):
me that muscle memory is get up, feed the cats,
turn on the sauna, start working out. Literally the first
three hours of my day is physically getting to the
point where I have to I have to get those
endorphins going. I have to get the physical part of
it ye ready so that mentally I can deal with
(31:46):
the world. That's genuinely one of the reasons I put
a gym in my house. The ten minutes it takes
me to drive to my gym, find a parking spot,
go through the stuff of like go on the locker,
put my stuff, wait dealing with people. I don't want
to deal with talking to people at five o'clock in
the morning. I don't want to talk with waiting for
people to like finish on their phone or get off
(32:07):
the whatever. That takes me out of the space that
I need to be in, which is focus, do the thing,
get this two and a half three hours of PT done.
If I add any additional stress to that morning routine,
(32:27):
the rest of the day is shot for everyone, because
if I'm having a bad day, everyone is having a
bad day.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
So it's muscle memory.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I get up, I go to the gym, I work out,
I do what I gotta do, and then I have
the energy to sit down and write or edit or
answer emails or whatever it is the day has in
store for me.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
But that's that's it. That's it. It's muscle memory.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I can only imagine how many people listening right now
are like that. I feel the exact same way. So
thank you for being so open and so vulnerable, because
that's sort of what this podcast is all about, is
to let people know, even if it's just one, that
they're not alone and that it's not so bad and
that you you can pull yourself out of it and
(33:12):
have somewhat of a life existence and it doesn't have
to ruin everything for you.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I do comedy, like,
not specifically for veterans, but I do focus it, you know,
because you never the percentage of vets is so low,
and I never know when someone's in the audience and
just goes, oh, that.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Guy was like me.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
We wore the same uniform, wore the same boots, and
now he's you know, I don't know what kid gets
out of the army or the Marines or whatever and goes,
I don't know what to do with my life. And
they go, oh, there's a dude with a microphone telling
jokes that jumped out of planes and like trudge through
the desert.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
So I want to be that.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I hate the word inspiration because I don't feel like I.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Inspire anyone to do anything.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
And if I do, I'm sorry, but I don't apologize.
I want people to go, oh, there's a there's a
guy that was like me, you know, and now he's
doing this thing that I didn't comedy? What was you know,
how disappointing I am to like the Asian community, like
my parents wanted a doctor or a lawyer or whatever,
(34:27):
and I'm like, I tell fart jokes for a living,
so you know, and even that, like the Asian people
to come up to me all the time, They're like, I.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Didn't think this was a thing you could do. It's like,
neither did I.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Can you give a little piece of advice before I
let you go to any aspiring comedians, whether they came
from a background similar to yours or wanting to get
into the industry, as it's definitely an interesting entertainment field
to be involved in.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
It's a terrible way career, all right, Joyce, No, No,
that's that's my go to dumb joke about that I
will give you the advice I tell every new aspiring comedian,
whether they're military veterans or not, get up on stage
(35:19):
as much as possible. Find an open mic, find a cafe,
find a you know, find a coffee shop that does it,
and just do it.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
The only way you're going to do it is do it.
The second thing I will say is, and this is
like a personal observation that I came to in my
career about comedy.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Record everything. Every time you go on stage, record it.
You don't know when lightning is going to strike. And
the way comedy works, you could say something amazing, and
unless you're John Mulaney, who has like an incredible comedy mind,
(36:01):
you're going to forget. You are going to forget. Nothing
is ever so funny that you will not forget it.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I've lost jokes and bits to the ether because I
thought to myself, that's so funny.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I'm never gonna forget that. And then I go grab
a pizza and I'm like, what is that thing?
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I said?
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Just record?
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Yeah, record everything, any funny thought you have, write it
down if you're in your car, like tell your phone
to to.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Create a note.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
I cannot emphasize how much I take my own advice,
even to this day.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
I'm like, that joke's so great.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
And then go on, write everything down, Record everything, every
funny thought you have, even if it makes you laugh,
just for a second, write it down, because it could
turn into something amazing, it could.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
I have a note in my phone now that says
monkey condoms. I have no idea what it meant. It
could be funny later. It justus funny.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
It just it was just some dumb thing apparently I
wrote down. I was at a comedy club one night.
I was like, monkey condoms. I'm sure the thought was
in there, but yeah, just write it all down.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
That's like a song that gets started and shelved and
then you can pull it back out later and add
to it if you or remember it.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Oh and I say this as a former Apple employee.
Back up your phone. From the love of God, back
it up. Kirk Hammett from Metallica told a heartbreaking story
about like he had hundreds of riffs recorded into his phone,
like in his voice memo, and then he lost the
phone and then he and he didn't back it up,
(37:43):
and we lost hundreds of hours of Metallica music because
Kirk didn't back up his iPhone. So as a nerd,
as a former Apple guy, for the love of God,
as an Asian, back up your phone.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Just plug it into.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Your computer, back it up. That's it's like the Cloud's fine.
Back up your phone. But yeah, write everything down, Write
all your jokes and write every thought you have down.
It could be something great, could be nothing. But if
you forget it, you'll never know.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
All Right, one last thing, as you're telling me this,
have you ever bombed? And if you have?
Speaker 4 (38:19):
H have I ever bombed? Tuesday? I bothered?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
How do you deal with that? Because that, I mean,
that's sort of the dance you play, right. You want
to give the laughter to the people to make them
feel better and to know that they're not alone. You're
helping yourself by making them laugh. And then one night
you go out and then they're not laughing. How do
you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (38:38):
It's about experience and like, you never want to bomb
to the point that you can't recover, Like the moment
I feel like I'm starting to lose them. And this
is this is a military analogy. It's it's the one
I use as a paratrooper. No matter how many times
I've jumped out of a plane or gone on stage
(39:00):
as a comedian, as a professional, something can go wrong,
just like jumping out of a plane. Sometimes your parachute
doesn't open, Sometimes it does a cigarette roll.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Sometimes the rigor didn't pack it correctly.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
If you don't have the experience to know, hey, this
is where you pull the pin on your reserve choote
and start slapping away, then you're just gonna going to
slam into the ground two hundred miles an hour. As
a comedian, you have to realize when things are going
wrong and have the experience to go in your head
very quickly. What joke can pull me out of this
(39:38):
dead spin? Like, what joke is going to be my
reserve parachute? What can I say or do right now
to turn this back around? Sometimes sometimes you just hit
the ground at three hundred miles an hour. It just happens.
But you know, just like JUMPIN'I airplanes, it's muscle memory.
(39:59):
You have a split second to decide what's going on,
and you can hurt for a minute, or you can
hurt a lot later.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
But it's it's really.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
About having the experience and the knowledge to go all right,
this didn't work. Do I need a breaching around? Do
I need a clay more? Do I need a grenade?
Do I need small arms fire? Do I need to
call in clos air support?
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Like?
Speaker 4 (40:20):
And that's those are you know?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
You have these jokes and these bits after years of
working as a comedian and to understand, all right, this
is I don't want to call them the enemy, but.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Sometimes you know the audience is hostile.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
And then yeah, you can either use the tools at
your disposal, which are your career and your job and
your experience to write that ship, or as I saw
comic recently, do just nuke the place. Just it just
(40:54):
things weren't.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Going right, Just go down in flames.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Yeah, things weren't I saw comic very recently. It wasn't
me who was not having a good set, was not
dealing with the audience correctly, or well, I don't know
what this person's thought process was on the day or
at the time, but just nuked it. It was just
(41:17):
like calling the B two, just nuke this place, and
just like the set went up in flames. It just
that's I don't know what was going on in that
person's mind. At the time, but it's it's weird here
in Hollywood because you have like these shows where they're
like last night, there were six or seven comics on
the show, and you don't want to do that in
(41:41):
a situation where comics got to go up after you.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
That's what I was going to ask you, Like, what
if you're following that?
Speaker 3 (41:46):
That's horrible because because I had to follow that person.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Oh no, yeah, Luckily I'm really good at my job.
So I watched it go down and I was like,
oh my god, what I have to.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
So, like in my head as I'm walking on stage,
because this comic nuked the place and then was like bye.
So literally, as I'm walking on stage, what I had
planned in my head and what I wanted to do
that went out the window because now I'm going, how
do I get this back? Because I don't want to
fight this audience. I don't have time for this. I
had a thing that I was going to do. I
(42:20):
have new jokes that I want to work on, and
I need them in a headspace where I can do that.
So what do I have to do now to fix that?
It's different if you're like headlining and there's three comics
and you're the headliner and the room just bombs. Sure
nukem doesn't matter. You're in Iowa. Boom, drop that bomb,
Get on a plane and leave, doesn't matter after that,
(42:42):
you don't want to do that. But I can understand
why some comics do that. But for me, it is,
you know, what's in my bag of tricks? What's in
my bandolier of like Ammo? What can I do to
fix this situation, to do the thing that I need
to do.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
It just dawned on me too.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
You you worked in radio, and that is it's very
helpful for being having to be quick because you're on
the air live, so you got to come up with
something if something happens, and you have to learn how
to be very quick.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
So I mean, I was a traffic reporter in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
I was a traffic reporter in Boston. Oh really, okay
did you work Did you work for Metro Networks?
Speaker 4 (43:17):
Yes, me too. That's where I started. That's where I
started my career.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Shut the front door? Are you wait?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
We could put this work because it's a podcast? Are
you serious? That's where I started?
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Yeah, I started Metro in Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Oh my god, I Metro traffic.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Did you have like Metro and then Shadow or it
was a shadow first. I think of Shadow and then
it was Metro.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
The Metro networks because they started doing news traffic.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Do you know when that happened?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
I was doing traffic and then the og Simpson thing
happened the next thing, you know, I was not just
doing traffic.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I was doing news hits in the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
Yep about it?
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Yeah, I mean as a traffic reporter in Los Angeles,
like if there's a car chase, then you're a news
reporter because now you're following a crime.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Yes, do you have to know how to do like
fifteen twenty things while you're talking to the fixed wing
or the helicopter getting a report of something to go
on the air and you get ten stations waiting for you.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Yeah? Wow Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Did they just you know, is there another precinct taken over?
Is there another you know?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
Did they go into somebody else's jurisdiction? Who's police cars
or those are those? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (44:23):
I knew we had some type of connection. I just
didn't know what it was. And that nailed it right there,
Tom Tran. It was so wonderful getting to catch up
with you and hear about your journey and all of
the incredible things that you shared with us. And I
really hope that it helps someone, because I know it
helped me just hearing you talk. And thank you for
(44:44):
your selfless service to our country and to our veterans
and to all of us with your humor, it's so
much appreciated.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
And thank you for coming on Comedy Save Me.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Maybe next time I'll do music Save Me because I
have things to say about me.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I would love to what's the name of your band?
The Tom Tran Band? Correct, the Tom Tran Band.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I also have a Star Trek themed Motley Crue cover
band called the Bridge Crew.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Oh, whoa, whoa, we need to buzz. Can we have
him on Music Save Me too?
Speaker 3 (45:16):
We've played a nice we played uh William Shatner's ninety
third birth No.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
You didn't, Are you serious? How was that? Did you
get a chance to chat with him?
Speaker 3 (45:26):
And so his The movie I Just did with Morgan
Freeman was produced by the same studio that did Shatner's
documentary and long story short, the producer found out I
had this band, and he's like, do you want to
play his birthday and is Bill Shatner's birthday is the
same day as James T. Kirk's birthday, which is March
twenty second, twenty two thirty three, not really twenty two
(45:47):
thirty three.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
But whatever.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
So they premiered the movie in la on March twenty first,
and they did it at the studio where they shot
the original Star Trek, the original series.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
God.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
So my band and played and like he was turning
ninety three?
Speaker 1 (46:04):
You were in heaven, weren't you?
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Second?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Yeah, well, it was like ten thirty at night, and
Shatner is giving a speech that just kept going on
and on, and I looked at the sant Age manager.
I'm like, hey man, I'm fifty years younger than and
I am tired right now. Can we heard this up?
Because the band has another hour to play. I'm like,
thank you, mister Shatner. And then I think about a
(46:31):
year later, Yeah, just over the spring. Here's a weird
sentence I get to say. Jay Leno called me and
he asks me to present an award to William Shatner.
And the first question I had for Jay Leno was
how did you get my phone number?
Speaker 4 (46:45):
I never gave you my phone number.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
But then yeah, I said I'd give Shatner this award
because they're buddies, and I like my I had a
twenty minute set about why Jay Leno wasn't there. It
was a last minute thing he asked me to cover
for him. Shatner missed the entire twenty minutes about why
I'm there. He shows up right before we give him
the award, and I did the announcement and I hand
(47:10):
him the award. There's a photo of me handing Bill
Shatner an award and as a Star trek nerd falling
all over myself. And then he again he doesn't know
why Jay's not there, and he doesn't know who I am,
and he says, Jay you look you age really well,
like a young Asian woman. And I'm like, WHOA, How
(47:33):
am I taking straight from Bill Shatner because I'm doing
a favor for Jay Leno.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Well, did Jay leto know that you were a huge
Star trek fan in that why that's why he.
Speaker 5 (47:43):
Called Or.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
The joke is that he called me after he called
every other comedian.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
In which I think you were last on the list.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
I think the event was actually on a Jewish holiday
and he called like Seinfeld and a bunch of people
are like, no, we're Jewish, right, and like it's Rashashana
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It's like the highest holiday.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
Okay, yeah, it was one of the high high holy holidays.
And then like he finally called me because I think
in his head he went, Tom's a heathen and he
likes Star Trek. So I got that call after literally
everybody in town because I called my friends. I was like, hey,
(48:25):
Leno just called me, and every single one of my
friends went, yeah, he called me to I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Oh come on, no he didn't.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
You're just saying that to You're so incredibly talented and
you're just you shouldn't belittle yourself like that.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
One of the things Jay said to me was, Hey,
I need you to do this thing. The LAPD is
giving Bill Shatner an award. He goes, if you do it,
you'll never get a ticket again. And I said to Jay,
I have purple heart plates on my I haven't had
tickets since I was twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
Take that.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Keep doing everything that you're doing, and don't change and
just please come back and see us again on maybe
another podcast so we can talk about your incredible music career.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
We'll talk to you again soon. Good luck with everything. Thanks,
Comedy saved me.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Can we just talk really quick about stretching before we
get started, because.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
That is the number one thing.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Like, you can work out all you want, but if
you don't stretch as you get older, you need I
mean you're gonna fall.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yeah, I mean I'm gonna seize up at some point.
I used to tell people at the gym that I
used to go to. I just had a gym, put
it here in my house, nice like a pull setup.
But I would tell like these younger kids, you know,
like I see younger kids who are like the reserves
are National Guard, and they come in their pet uniforms
and they're.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Like, hey, big Sarage, why are you stretching so long?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I was like, cause the moment you guys hit thirty
and you don't stretch correctly, you pull a muscle, You're done.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
You're done.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So like, I spend a significant amount of time stretching
like full body, regardless of what I'm doing that day.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
It's like, you got to stretch every muscle.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I used to tell, you know, I used to tell
my soldiers the bad guys don't care if it was
leg day or strength day. You gotta be ready whole
body to fight with everything you got. So every day
it's like, I have a very specific stretching regimen that
hits every muscle group because you know, I don't know
(01:17):
if after I do my strength training stuff, if I'm
going to literally have to you know, a friend will
call me and hey, can you can you work on
my movie?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
I need somebody to run up a hill wearing a rucksack.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So, you know, full body training every day, even though
not in the army anymore, it's just what you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's built in.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But it's just so huge for everybody in their everyday life,
Like you can't even stress it enough. And it's always
the last thing anyone thinks of. And you know, my mom,
she's eighty, she walks every day and I'm like, ma,
do you stretch?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I'm like, oh my god, do you know that
all you just just fall once and it's all over.
It's because it really is like your rubber bands or
your muscles in your tendons and all the ligaments and stuff.
And if it all gets tightened up, how are you
going to be able to catch yourself if you trip
on something?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Yeah, it's not cool and it's not sexy.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
But no, being laid up with a cast on or
a whatever for three weeks is even less cool and
even less sexy. Yeah, when you're just sitting there just
eating garbage because you can't do stuff. So it's been
a big part of my mental health journey, you know,
now that I'm not in the arm anymore. It's like
one of the few things that just keeps me.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Going, Wow, Well, I'm so glad we have this discussion
because I just want to say I told you so to.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
My mom and all of my friends.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
You give me a hard time, but when I yell
at them for not stretching.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
One last question.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
About this, because I know it's not really even a
part of this, but do you stretch before and after
or just after.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Or just before before, before and after, okay, before stretching.
I do like a lot of dynamic stretching because you
want to you want to loosen up and warm up
the muscles, but you don't want to overwork them before
you start lifting a weight.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
So just like I do it.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I'm a star trek nerd and I call it the
seven to nine seven of nine stretching and do everything
for seven to nine reps. Just to get the muscles loose,
just ready to go, and then post workout a lot
of static stretching, so a lot like holding, pulling, holding
for like seven to nine seconds usually, and it's literally
(03:32):
those numbers are literally because of Star Trek.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
There's no scientific reason behind seven to nine seconds.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's really important and I'm grateful that I just got
to pick your brain about it because you definitely know
what you're talking about. And by the way, if you
just just checking us out right now, Tom Tran is
with me in studio via zoom, and I probably should
give him a proper introduction, but I also feel like
(04:00):
we need to take a quick break first before we
get started.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
So would you mind.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
After this great stretch talk that, I mean, take a minute, gho, stretch,
do what you gotta do, and come back and join us,
because Tom Tran is here on Comedy Saved Me, and
you're not going to want to miss.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
This Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Welcome to the Comedy Save Me Podcast, the show where
we dive into the power of laughter, the struggles behind
the punchlines, and the stories of how comedy can heal,
uplift and even save lives. If you like this podcast,
thank you so much for listening. It really means a
lot to all of us. You may also enjoy a
couple of other podcasts produced by the buzz Night Media
(04:44):
production company called Music Saved Me, which I also host,
and another podcast called Taken a Walk, which is hosted
by the amazing buzz Night himself, who is an incredible
music historian. You will be blown away at his conversations
with people in the industry.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I am your host, Lynn Hoffman, and today I'm so excited.
I'm joined by the hilarious and inspiring Tom Tran. Tom
is not just someone who brings the jokes. He is
proof that comedy can be a lifeline, a coping mechanism,
and a bridge to a connection. We're going to talk
about his journey as a military vet, the moments where
(05:23):
humor pulled him through tough times, and hopefully share some
laughs along the way. No pressure, Tom Tran, Welcome to
Comedy Saved Me. Now, I just want to make sure
I get this correct. You are a military vet. You
are a Purple Heart recipient who transition from a communications
and Civil affairs sergeant in the Special operations community two
(05:45):
of all things, a stand up comedian and a really
good one. I think that's kind of a rather unique
journey and one that I'm really looking forward to finding
out about talking to you. So, first of all, did
I get that correct? And can you give us a
little bit of a glimpse into that sort of beginning
part of your life where you entered into the military.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
You did miss one part I did. We can talk
about music too, because, of course the guitars, some of
which I have a severe case of gas uh.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Guitar because I was wondering.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yeah, guitar acquisition syndrome. Yeah, I have so many guitars.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
But no, I actually wanted music was a big part
of my life too. It's always been a big part
of my life. And actually, when I left the Army
and I went back home, I wanted to be a musician,
like I wanted to be a musician before the Army,
and I started a band I was playing out The
Googoo Dolls are friends of mine from my hometown of Buffalo,
(06:42):
New York. And uh, and then just I think post combat,
I really had a tough time working with other people
who weren't military, people like I spent a career in
the Army and spent you know, a combat deployment in Iraq,
sofering some of the worst tragedies a soldier can, and
(07:02):
I came home and I wanted music to be the
thing that saved me. But as much as I love it,
the business part of music and having to deal with
other band members, producers and things like that, when I
found comedy. It's not that I found comedy like it
came out of nowhere, but when comedy became a viable
(07:23):
option in my life as a tool for therapy but
also as a career, that's when I went, Okay, I
don't have to spend the thousands of dollars I have
spent on guitar equipment and pedals and apps, and I
can just I mean, it was the late early two thousands,
so I was buying a lot of hoodies and jackets
(07:46):
because that was the comedian uniform at the time, Like.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
A sports coat and a hoodie and a T shirt.
That's what I.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
But yeah, comedy became the thing that I turned to
after my career in the army.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah I read.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
First of all, to everyone listening, I want to thank
you for your service to our country, and also for
your continued service now through your craft of comedy, because
you're creating healing laughter for all of us to tap
into when we need it. So I'm grateful that you
found your niche. But I also read that while you
were deployed, as you were describing that you were hurt
(08:21):
only like four days into your deployment, but you continued
through to the end, and I was curious you described
comedy saved your life. Can you share when you realized
that laughter was helping you to heal and cope with
what happened? And was it during the time while you
were still serving or was it after?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It wasn't until well after I got home, because you know,
so what happens.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
I deployed to Iraq two thousand.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And three OIF one, the first the first deployment across
the border on a Sunday, shortly after the war officially
began in March. And then on when I was in
my first gunfight and I got shot in the back
of the head. So that's how my war started. It
literally started with like across the border, established an op
(09:11):
observation point and then observation position, and then went out
on a mission. Got shot fourth day, and I didn't
realize that at the time, but even then, comedy was
the thing that was keeping me going literally moments after
I got shot, because I was the combat life saver
(09:33):
in the truck, so I was the one with the
medical training.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
At the time, I was a.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Communication sergeant, but I was also cross trained in like
combat life saver. So I literally bandaged my own head.
We continued that mission, and you helped you. Wow. Yeah,
if you watch the video, because there's a video of it,
I'm bandaging my own head and I remember, you know,
the combat life saving training kicking in. Just going, keep talking,
(09:59):
keep talking, do not lose consciousness. Because I was the
guy with the medical training in the truck. Not only
what was I the comm sergeant, I was the medical sergeant.
So I remember thinking, just keep talking, just keep talking,
just keep talking. And on the outside. Because we videoed
the entire mission from before I got shot, me getting shot,
(10:21):
we have that on tape, and then us running a
second mission as I'm bleeding for my skull, and then
on our way back to the combat hospital, and the
entire time I'm trying to stay awake by making myself laugh.
Making the major laugh, making the colonel laugh, making our
interpreter laugh, And it was just me going, all right,
(10:42):
keep talking because if you lose consciousness and wearing this
convoy ten clicks from the base, Yeah, well yeah, I'm
the medical guy, so how am I?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
How is anyone going to be helped if you don't
if you don't make it? Yeah? Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
So even then, like you know, I watched the video
once in a while. I have the whole thing several
hours long. But you know, I'm just talking to keep
myself going, and I'm telling jokes like I'm looking right
in the camera and telling jokes.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
That are that were not good. They were not good jokes.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Wow, And they really were just like to make me
and the major laugh so that I could.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Make yourself feel comfortable. Maybe.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Well really it was just to keep conscious until we
got me to the combat hospital. And the story I
used to tell on stage was we called back to
our op center after the missions that we ran, and
I'm the comms guy and I had to get on
the radio and say, hey, listen, we're coming back, and
(11:50):
I said we have to stop at the hospital. I
kind of got shot and the person back in my
operations center, my talk tactor operations. They said, what do
you mean you kind of got shot? And I said, well,
I kind of got shot. And before I could give
them the details, the radio signal gets broken.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Up because we're kind of far out.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And then the retrans communication sergeant at the hospital rings
up and he goes, hey, sergeant, I can hear you.
I can hear your talk. You tell me what's going on.
I'll relay it to them. And I said, yeah, I
sort of got shot, and he goes, I heard that part.
Where did you get shot? And again, just try to
make myself laugh. I said, this is going to sound
way worse than it is. I got shot in the head.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
And he's like what I said, yeah, yeah, I'm good.
I'm good. We're on our way back. We're about, you know,
twenty minutes out.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
And then he said how long is it gonna take
for you to get it back here?
Speaker 4 (12:45):
And I said, we're about.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Twenty minutes out, but I'm going to stop get some
donuts from the guys at one two three Infantry because
they was like, no, you come right back.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I was like, relax, I'm joking.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh my god, I thought you were serious.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Are you kidding me, and that was just to keep
me from, wow, literally passing out because I'm losing blood.
There's a lot of blood vessels in your head. I
am your scalp particularly, and I'm like, I was bleeding
just NonStop. So it's really just like, stay awake, keep talking,
get back to the cash combat support hospital, and let
(13:20):
the real doctors take care of you, because I have
just minimal combat lifesaver training.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
But that's I did it with comedy and I didn't
really realize it. It was just the thing that I
was doing at the time to keep the mission going.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's incredible that you say that.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Did you even know that you were funny or that
you knew how to be funny in it? Or was
it just do you think it was just a reaction
within you that you couldn't control. That you just knew
that you had to keep talking. Keeping talking is one thing,
but being funny and joking with the fact that you
were shot in the head, I mean, that's that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Sometimes I question now if I'm funny. I have sets.
I have sets. Sometimes I'll get in the car afterwards,
I'll call my friends and I'm.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Like, what am I doing? With my life. What is that?
I just tanked so hard? So did I think I
was funny? I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I remember the first time I did stand up comedy
in college. It was part of a class that I
was taking because I was a radio guy. I was
communications sergeant, I was a radio broadcaster. I just retired
from a real career in broadcast radio in Los Angeles.
So I was in college before the deployment to Iraq.
(14:36):
I was back in the reserves, back home, and I
was taking a class I'll never forget. It was called
Voice and Diction, and the teacher's name was Jerry Trentam
and I quote his name all the time because I
blame him and Robin Williams my career choices. But the
idea of the class was to mind your voice in radio,
(14:57):
in broadcasting, television, whatever it was. Everybody in the class
was a broadcast major somewhere theater majors. And the final
project was to take a scene from your favorite movie
and do it in your own voice. So, for instance,
my friend Sean, he did a scene from boiler Room.
It was his favorite movie, and I said to Jerry, hey,
I've always liked stand up comedy. It's not a thing
(15:20):
that I thought I'd ever do, but I liked it.
Can I do stand up as my final project?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And he said, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Have four months and three days, which is the beginning
of the semester to the end of the semester. So
you get four months and three days to write a
five minute set. And it took me four months, three
days and like twenty five minutes right up to the
moment I walked into the class to do this five
minutes of material, and I remember blacking out, like I
(15:48):
got up there, I opened my mouth, everything went blank.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
I don't remember what happened.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
But my friend Sean, who is in the class, who
lives out here in Los Angeles now, he said to me,
he goes, you killed and I was like, I don't
remember that, Like everything just went blank. I just opened
my mouth and just whatever nonsense I'd written down came out.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
But I assumed I.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Did well because there was a really hot girl in
the class who like immediately gave me your phone number.
I've been trying to get it all semester. Look, and
she was like, you deserve to take me out.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
On a date, and I was like, I do, and then.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
That was November of two thousand and two, and then
I got deployment orders to go back on active duty
shortly thereafter, and like weeks later, weeks later, like I think,
I mobilized down a Fort Brag where a command is
(16:45):
mid December for train up. Came home for Christmas for
a couple of days to see our families one last time,
and then we you know, we're on a plane right
before the New year or right after the New year
to Kuwait.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
So it was like I did stand up for the
first time.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I think I did it one more time at a
club in town and then got my orders to go
to Araq. So did I ever know I was funny?
Not really, because I blacked out. I blanked out. I
don't remember if iPhones weren't a thing at the time,
so nobody recorded it, thank god, because I found the
notes from that set and A are terrible. I was
(17:24):
really awful.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You've been involved with home Base, which is a program
near and dear to our hearts here at Comedy Save
Me supporting veterans' mental health, and I wondered how that
work influenced your approach to comedy.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
There are three things in my life for sure that
I know and anybody close to me knows that if
I do not do them for any extended amount of time,
I'm a terrible person to be around.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
One of them is working out.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I hate it. I don't like it. I don't go
to the gym because I want to. I'm not a
gym rat. I do it because if I don't, my
physical and mental health are so tied together that if
I don't do it, I cannot function in a normal
society with normal people.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I can't. The other is comedy.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
If I don't do stand up comedy for any significant
amount of time, you know, I can go a day
or two just hanging out with my cats, hang out
with my girlfriend, whatever. But if I go any longer
than that without doing stand up comedy, I am again
a miserable person to be around. And if I don't
(18:40):
pick up one of my I think it's forty two
guitars now, and I don't write or play or create
something musical, I get very depressed. It's not as bad
as when I don't work out, when I don't do
stand up because then I'm just like aggravated, because those
(19:01):
are very much my therapy.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
But music like I do.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Get genuinely sad if I like, I mean I have
literally a guitar or two in every room in this house.
I think I have two in my bathroom. It's I
have no excuse to not pick them up.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
But wait a minute, I'm getting a visual of you
spending a length of time in the bathroom the guitar.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
I write some of my best stuff in the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Eddie van Halen recorded some of the greatest stuff with
a Marshall four to twelve and is Saldano head in
his bathroom because the acoustics in a bathroom are fantastic.
I don't know if people know that a lot of
great solos have been recorded in bathrooms.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
No, you're right.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Richie Sambora and John bon Jovi told me they recorded
an album in his mother's bathroom.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, because the acoustics were so good. Yep, it was
the New Jersey album. I'm a huge bond joke. Ban
I have three Richie sambor guitars right over there.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Wow, this is like a combo show. This is a
music save me in comedy save me at the same time.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I love it. Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Well, how do you see comedy playing a role in
sort of breaking the stigma around.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I do a one man show called Laugh After Death,
and it is a culmination of the last twenty years
of my comedy performing to civilians, military audiences, veterans Stateside
in active combat zones the Arctic, and it is me
(20:36):
taking my stories and my jokes from my life as
a soldier and as a comedian now, and as somebody
who's been struggling with mental health and addiction for a
very long time and putting them together in a cohesive
story that one people hear it, they leave understanding a
(21:00):
little bit better what veterans in combat soldiers go through
without feeling bad for us. They can laugh at you know,
I tell a story about me getting shot in the head.
I show the video of me getting shot in the head,
and it's a great joke. You normally wouldn't think that.
And when people people don't want to be uncomfortable. Nobody
(21:22):
wants to be uncomfortable. They don't want to feel uncomfortable.
They don't want to feel bad. They'll say thank you
for your service or whatever, but they don't want to
feel bad about listening to the things we go through.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
And if you don't listen you're not going to know.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
And if you if you can't make that information digestible
through comedy, then people aren't gonna.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Listen, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
So I do this show and even like, I do
a joke now it's a brand new joke and I
love it.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Oh, it's my one of my favorite jokes, and it's
about PTSD. It is literally like I.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Start off by saying, I'm going to be vulnerable with
you right now because my therapist at the VA says
I have to be. Like that's the opening line of
the joke, and it starts kind of sad, just for
a few seconds. Uh, and then it becomes a joke
about Coldplay, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
It's one of my favorite needs.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Wait a minute, you start off with that and you
end up with Coldplay?
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a it's a fantastic joke.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Are you going to tell them to me? Or is it? So?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
So basically, people ask me if I have PTSD, which
is it's it's an honest question, and the honest answer
is yes. I mean I got shot in a rack,
my roommate got killed, I know, bought three alcoholism. So
things do trigger me? Ours backfiring things in the roadway
that shouldn't be there, and that's that's what I suffer through.
(22:46):
And I used to feel really bad about that until
about a month and a half ago when I found
out that there are two people on this planet who
feel the same way. Listening to Coldplay music because you know,
makes sense. These two here, you know, these two got
caught having an a fair on the JumboTron, and now
every time they hear yellow, they want to turn into
oncoming traffic.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
So it's a.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
It's a but that way, I get to talk about
what I went through, my trauma, and it's a real thing,
and then people hear that and they go, oh, okay,
I get it. Something traumatic happened. It's not necessarily you know,
veterans don't. We don't own PTSD as a stigma. It's
anybody who goes through any kind of trauma, car accident,
(23:33):
you know, divorce, getting caught having an a fair on
a JumboTron, becoming the laughing stock of the entire internet
for you know, a month, and that way people can
make that connection people who have what is it the
numbers are, I think it's point five point zero four
percent of the US population are serving in the military.
(23:56):
Less than seven percent are veterans as opposed to like
World War Two, whereas twelve percent. So seven percent of
the American population can understand what I'm talking about. They've
gone through what I'm talking about. So what about the
other ninety three percent? Well, I turned my comedy into
a thing that the other ninety three percent can understand. Yes,
(24:18):
I got shot, I went through these things. When I
came home. I deal with trauma. Now how does the
other ninety three percent relate to that? Hey, everybody watched
this video of these two idiots getting caught having an
a fair. That's pretty traumatic. And then they can go, oh, wait,
this other thing might happen in my life. I got
a car act blah blah blah. And hopefully it brings
(24:42):
people a little closer together, because there's such a divide
in the world right now, not just our nation, in
the world between everybody, not just military, not just civilians,
not just Red Blue Packers fans whatever other fans. I
don't I'm not a football person, but there is so
(25:02):
much division along so many different lines that if I
want my message of hey, this is what I came
home to deal with. This is what my friends deal with.
This is how we get through it. Well, let me
explain using comedy, So the other ninety three percent of
the American population go, I get it. I get it,
(25:23):
and I can laugh at it, and then I can
leave understanding that because you're more likely to remember a
thing that you laughed at than you will if you
tuned out during some boring talk or PowerPoint presentation about
PTSD or whatever.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I know I do. Yeah, yeah, if I tell people
all the.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Time, new soldiers, young soldiers, I wish i'd paid attention
during my outprocessing.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I don't know if I was drunk or.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Just not paying attention, But when I got out of
the army, I wish I listen to all the things
they had told me about my benefits. Who can help
me the things like because I didn't I was twenty five,
I was getting out of the army, I just got
back from a war. I'm like, I don't care. I
just want to be out of this uniform and go
do things. So when people come hear my keynote or
(26:21):
they listen to the one man show, they don't want
to listen to just the sadness of which there is
a lot but if they can remember it through the comedy,
they'll feel that they'll take that with them. I still
remember Eddie Murphy jokes from nineteen eighty three that I
definitely should not have been watching. But like, would you
hear good comedy, emotional, good comedy that hits you in
(26:44):
your soul?
Speaker 4 (26:46):
You take that, you remember that.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Like sometimes people just sit in the car and they'll
just remember a joke in a comic said and they'll
just start laughing to themselves. And that laughter is the
thing that I used to heal me after war, because
every day is a struggle. Every day I am just
I'm waking up there, I'll be vulnerable. Every day I
wake up and I think I don't want to wake up.
(27:11):
Every day of my life for the last twenty some
odd years, I open my eyes and go, I don't
want to do this.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
I get up.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
I go to the gym because I know that's the
thing that I have to do, and that gives me
the energy to go write comedy or write music.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
And then.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
If I write a joke that makes me laugh and
then it makes an audience laugh, that's the best feeling
in the world. Because I've healed myself for a little bit,
and then I heal these people for a little bit.
Who you know, I don't know, who was at the
laugh Factory last night, who had a really bad day
and just needed to laugh for the whatever fifteen minutes
(27:53):
I was on stage. And if I can do that
and then bring it to that audience or this audience
or whatever wherever, that's that's what I'm meant to do.
That's my job as a soldier now, even though I'm
not in uniform anymore, it's just what I do.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
You're a life soldier now, really, I mean I sold
you for life.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
That's what they called retired soldiers now.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
So well, I so.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Many things you just said that I would like to unpack,
but we just don't have, you know, a week to talk.
Plus you need to eat because you're intermittent fasting and
I can see like you're looking at like that eraser
on your desk.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
You want to know protein shake.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
You will be right back with more of the Comedy
Saved Me Podcast. Welcome back to the Comedy Save Me Podcast.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
All right, three things.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
One you just brought to my mind from earlier in
this conversation. My grandfather, who was on his deathbed, cracking
jokes with the nurses. So this now makes me realize
why he did it because of how you described.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Your experience in the military.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Second, my father suffered from horrific PTSD and he didn't
listen like you, and it took twenty one years before
my mom realized light bulb. We got to show him
all the things he has access to that he didn't
know he had.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
And it was until he.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Knocked on the door of my apartment when I was
twenty six and said, I think I need help, you know,
And it was from that service, so wow. And when thunderstorms,
forget it, you know, lightning and all of that stuff.
So as from the military perspective, I understand that more
than most. But like you said again as well, it
(29:50):
doesn't even mean that you have to have PTSD from
being in the military. It could be from any traumatic
experience in your life. And so many of us suffer
from that and have had that happen. And whatever it
looks like to you, it is what it is. I mean,
no one's going to tell you, well that problem wasn't
bad enough to be considered you know it is.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
And something you just said today being vulnerable and.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I was going to ask a lot of the questions
I had for you you've already answered because and it's
I could listen to you talk so much longer about
this subject because it's so important for so many people
to hear, and the fact that you just do it,
not only with your comedy, but with this discussion with me,
to just say how you felt when you wake up
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I wake up like that sometimes.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
It's every day of my life for the last twenty
plus years, every day.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And you're so blessed where you're at, and you think
to yourself, you know, why do I feel this way?
And so how do you change that channel? First thing
in the morning when when that happens to you.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
It's muscle memory.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
So like they taught us at airborne school, like when
you jump out of an airplane, you don't think about it.
You go through, we go through three weeks, two weeks
of training before the first time we step out of
an airplane, and it's muscle memory. You know, you hop
out that plane, you grab your you grab your reserve,
you count the four and the shoot opens. It's for
(31:20):
me that muscle memory is get up, feed the cats,
turn on the sauna, start working out. Literally the first
three hours of my day is physically getting to the
point where I have to I have to get those
endorphins going. I have to get the physical part of
it ye ready so that mentally I can deal with
(31:46):
the world. That's genuinely one of the reasons I put
a gym in my house. The ten minutes it takes
me to drive to my gym, find a parking spot,
go through the stuff of like go on the locker,
put my stuff, wait dealing with people. I don't want
to deal with talking to people at five o'clock in
the morning. I don't want to talk with waiting for
people to like finish on their phone or get off
(32:07):
the whatever. That takes me out of the space that
I need to be in, which is focus, do the thing,
get this two and a half three hours of PT done.
If I add any additional stress to that morning routine,
(32:27):
the rest of the day is shot for everyone, because
if I'm having a bad day, everyone is having a
bad day.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
So it's muscle memory.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I get up, I go to the gym, I work out,
I do what I gotta do, and then I have
the energy to sit down and write or edit or
answer emails or whatever it is the day has in
store for me.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
But that's that's it. That's it. It's muscle memory.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I can only imagine how many people listening right now
are like that. I feel the exact same way. So
thank you for being so open and so vulnerable, because
that's sort of what this podcast is all about, is
to let people know, even if it's just one, that
they're not alone and that it's not so bad and
that you you can pull yourself out of it and
(33:12):
have somewhat of a life existence and it doesn't have
to ruin everything for you.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I do comedy, like,
not specifically for veterans, but I do focus it, you know,
because you never the percentage of vets is so low,
and I never know when someone's in the audience and
just goes, oh, that.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Guy was like me.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
We wore the same uniform, wore the same boots, and
now he's you know, I don't know what kid gets
out of the army or the Marines or whatever and goes,
I don't know what to do with my life. And
they go, oh, there's a dude with a microphone telling
jokes that jumped out of planes and like trudge through
the desert.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
So I want to be that.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I hate the word inspiration because I don't feel like I.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Inspire anyone to do anything.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
And if I do, I'm sorry, but I don't apologize.
I want people to go, oh, there's a there's a
guy that was like me, you know, and now he's
doing this thing that I didn't comedy? What was you know,
how disappointing I am to like the Asian community, like
my parents wanted a doctor or a lawyer or whatever,
(34:27):
and I'm like, I tell fart jokes for a living,
so you know, and even that, like the Asian people
to come up to me all the time, They're like, I.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Didn't think this was a thing you could do. It's like,
neither did I.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Can you give a little piece of advice before I
let you go to any aspiring comedians, whether they came
from a background similar to yours or wanting to get
into the industry, as it's definitely an interesting entertainment field
to be involved in.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
It's a terrible way career, all right, Joyce, No, No,
that's that's my go to dumb joke about that I
will give you the advice I tell every new aspiring comedian,
whether they're military veterans or not, get up on stage
(35:19):
as much as possible. Find an open mic, find a cafe,
find a you know, find a coffee shop that does it,
and just do it.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
The only way you're going to do it is do it.
The second thing I will say is, and this is
like a personal observation that I came to in my
career about comedy.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Record everything. Every time you go on stage, record it.
You don't know when lightning is going to strike. And
the way comedy works, you could say something amazing, and
unless you're John Mulaney, who has like an incredible comedy mind,
(36:01):
you're going to forget. You are going to forget. Nothing
is ever so funny that you will not forget it.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I've lost jokes and bits to the ether because I
thought to myself, that's so funny.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I'm never gonna forget that. And then I go grab
a pizza and I'm like, what is that thing?
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I said?
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Just record?
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Yeah, record everything, any funny thought you have, write it
down if you're in your car, like tell your phone
to to.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Create a note.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
I cannot emphasize how much I take my own advice,
even to this day.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
I'm like, that joke's so great.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
And then go on, write everything down, Record everything, every
funny thought you have, even if it makes you laugh,
just for a second, write it down, because it could
turn into something amazing, it could.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
I have a note in my phone now that says
monkey condoms. I have no idea what it meant. It
could be funny later. It justus funny.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
It just it was just some dumb thing apparently I
wrote down. I was at a comedy club one night.
I was like, monkey condoms. I'm sure the thought was
in there, but yeah, just write it all down.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
That's like a song that gets started and shelved and
then you can pull it back out later and add
to it if you or remember it.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Oh and I say this as a former Apple employee.
Back up your phone. From the love of God, back
it up. Kirk Hammett from Metallica told a heartbreaking story
about like he had hundreds of riffs recorded into his phone,
like in his voice memo, and then he lost the
phone and then he and he didn't back it up,
(37:43):
and we lost hundreds of hours of Metallica music because
Kirk didn't back up his iPhone. So as a nerd,
as a former Apple guy, for the love of God,
as an Asian, back up your phone.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Just plug it into.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Your computer, back it up. That's it's like the Cloud's fine.
Back up your phone. But yeah, write everything down, Write
all your jokes and write every thought you have down.
It could be something great, could be nothing. But if
you forget it, you'll never know.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
All Right, one last thing, as you're telling me this,
have you ever bombed? And if you have?
Speaker 4 (38:19):
H have I ever bombed? Tuesday? I bothered?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
How do you deal with that? Because that, I mean,
that's sort of the dance you play, right. You want
to give the laughter to the people to make them
feel better and to know that they're not alone. You're
helping yourself by making them laugh. And then one night
you go out and then they're not laughing. How do
you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (38:38):
It's about experience and like, you never want to bomb
to the point that you can't recover, Like the moment
I feel like I'm starting to lose them. And this
is this is a military analogy. It's it's the one
I use as a paratrooper. No matter how many times
I've jumped out of a plane or gone on stage
(39:00):
as a comedian, as a professional, something can go wrong,
just like jumping out of a plane. Sometimes your parachute
doesn't open, Sometimes it does a cigarette roll.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Sometimes the rigor didn't pack it correctly.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
If you don't have the experience to know, hey, this
is where you pull the pin on your reserve choote
and start slapping away, then you're just gonna going to
slam into the ground two hundred miles an hour. As
a comedian, you have to realize when things are going
wrong and have the experience to go in your head
very quickly. What joke can pull me out of this
(39:38):
dead spin? Like, what joke is going to be my
reserve parachute? What can I say or do right now
to turn this back around? Sometimes sometimes you just hit
the ground at three hundred miles an hour. It just happens.
But you know, just like JUMPIN'I airplanes, it's muscle memory.
(39:59):
You have a split second to decide what's going on,
and you can hurt for a minute, or you can
hurt a lot later.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
But it's it's really.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
About having the experience and the knowledge to go all right,
this didn't work. Do I need a breaching around? Do
I need a clay more? Do I need a grenade?
Do I need small arms fire? Do I need to
call in clos air support?
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Like?
Speaker 4 (40:20):
And that's those are you know?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
You have these jokes and these bits after years of
working as a comedian and to understand, all right, this
is I don't want to call them the enemy, but.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Sometimes you know the audience is hostile.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
And then yeah, you can either use the tools at
your disposal, which are your career and your job and
your experience to write that ship, or as I saw
comic recently, do just nuke the place. Just it just
(40:54):
things weren't.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Going right, Just go down in flames.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Yeah, things weren't I saw comic very recently. It wasn't
me who was not having a good set, was not
dealing with the audience correctly, or well, I don't know
what this person's thought process was on the day or
at the time, but just nuked it. It was just
(41:17):
like calling the B two, just nuke this place, and
just like the set went up in flames. It just
that's I don't know what was going on in that
person's mind. At the time, but it's it's weird here
in Hollywood because you have like these shows where they're
like last night, there were six or seven comics on
the show, and you don't want to do that in
(41:41):
a situation where comics got to go up after you.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
That's what I was going to ask you, Like, what
if you're following that?
Speaker 3 (41:46):
That's horrible because because I had to follow that person.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Oh no, yeah, Luckily I'm really good at my job.
So I watched it go down and I was like,
oh my god, what I have to.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
So, like in my head as I'm walking on stage,
because this comic nuked the place and then was like bye.
So literally, as I'm walking on stage, what I had
planned in my head and what I wanted to do
that went out the window because now I'm going, how
do I get this back? Because I don't want to
fight this audience. I don't have time for this. I
had a thing that I was going to do. I
(42:20):
have new jokes that I want to work on, and
I need them in a headspace where I can do that.
So what do I have to do now to fix that?
It's different if you're like headlining and there's three comics
and you're the headliner and the room just bombs. Sure
nukem doesn't matter. You're in Iowa. Boom, drop that bomb,
Get on a plane and leave, doesn't matter after that,
(42:42):
you don't want to do that. But I can understand
why some comics do that. But for me, it is,
you know, what's in my bag of tricks? What's in
my bandolier of like Ammo? What can I do to
fix this situation, to do the thing that I need
to do.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
It just dawned on me too.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
You you worked in radio, and that is it's very
helpful for being having to be quick because you're on
the air live, so you got to come up with
something if something happens, and you have to learn how
to be very quick.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
So I mean, I was a traffic reporter in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
I was a traffic reporter in Boston. Oh really, okay
did you work Did you work for Metro Networks?
Speaker 4 (43:17):
Yes, me too. That's where I started. That's where I
started my career.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Shut the front door? Are you wait?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
We could put this work because it's a podcast? Are
you serious? That's where I started?
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Yeah, I started Metro in Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Oh my god, I Metro traffic.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Did you have like Metro and then Shadow or it
was a shadow first. I think of Shadow and then
it was Metro.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
The Metro networks because they started doing news traffic.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Do you know when that happened?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
I was doing traffic and then the og Simpson thing
happened the next thing, you know, I was not just
doing traffic.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I was doing news hits in the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
Yep about it?
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Yeah, I mean as a traffic reporter in Los Angeles,
like if there's a car chase, then you're a news
reporter because now you're following a crime.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Yes, do you have to know how to do like
fifteen twenty things while you're talking to the fixed wing
or the helicopter getting a report of something to go
on the air and you get ten stations waiting for you.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Yeah? Wow Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Did they just you know, is there another precinct taken over?
Is there another you know?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
Did they go into somebody else's jurisdiction? Who's police cars
or those are those? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (44:23):
I knew we had some type of connection. I just
didn't know what it was. And that nailed it right there,
Tom Tran. It was so wonderful getting to catch up
with you and hear about your journey and all of
the incredible things that you shared with us. And I
really hope that it helps someone, because I know it
helped me just hearing you talk. And thank you for
(44:44):
your selfless service to our country and to our veterans
and to all of us with your humor, it's so
much appreciated.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
And thank you for coming on Comedy Save Me.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Maybe next time I'll do music Save Me because I
have things to say about me.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I would love to what's the name of your band?
The Tom Tran Band? Correct, the Tom Tran Band.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I also have a Star Trek themed Motley Crue cover
band called the Bridge Crew.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Oh, whoa, whoa, we need to buzz. Can we have
him on Music Save Me too?
Speaker 3 (45:16):
We've played a nice we played uh William Shatner's ninety
third birth No.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
You didn't, Are you serious? How was that? Did you
get a chance to chat with him?
Speaker 3 (45:26):
And so his The movie I Just did with Morgan
Freeman was produced by the same studio that did Shatner's
documentary and long story short, the producer found out I
had this band, and he's like, do you want to
play his birthday and is Bill Shatner's birthday is the
same day as James T. Kirk's birthday, which is March
twenty second, twenty two thirty three, not really twenty two
(45:47):
thirty three.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
But whatever.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
So they premiered the movie in la on March twenty first,
and they did it at the studio where they shot
the original Star Trek, the original series.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
God.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
So my band and played and like he was turning
ninety three?
Speaker 1 (46:04):
You were in heaven, weren't you?
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Second?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Yeah, well, it was like ten thirty at night, and
Shatner is giving a speech that just kept going on
and on, and I looked at the sant Age manager.
I'm like, hey man, I'm fifty years younger than and
I am tired right now. Can we heard this up?
Because the band has another hour to play. I'm like,
thank you, mister Shatner. And then I think about a
(46:31):
year later, Yeah, just over the spring. Here's a weird
sentence I get to say. Jay Leno called me and
he asks me to present an award to William Shatner.
And the first question I had for Jay Leno was
how did you get my phone number?
Speaker 4 (46:45):
I never gave you my phone number.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
But then yeah, I said I'd give Shatner this award
because they're buddies, and I like my I had a
twenty minute set about why Jay Leno wasn't there. It
was a last minute thing he asked me to cover
for him. Shatner missed the entire twenty minutes about why
I'm there. He shows up right before we give him
the award, and I did the announcement and I hand
(47:10):
him the award. There's a photo of me handing Bill
Shatner an award and as a Star trek nerd falling
all over myself. And then he again he doesn't know
why Jay's not there, and he doesn't know who I am,
and he says, Jay you look you age really well,
like a young Asian woman. And I'm like, WHOA, How
(47:33):
am I taking straight from Bill Shatner because I'm doing
a favor for Jay Leno.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Well, did Jay leto know that you were a huge
Star trek fan in that why that's why he.
Speaker 5 (47:43):
Called Or.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
The joke is that he called me after he called
every other comedian.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
In which I think you were last on the list.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
I think the event was actually on a Jewish holiday
and he called like Seinfeld and a bunch of people
are like, no, we're Jewish, right, and like it's Rashashana
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It's like the highest holiday.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
Okay, yeah, it was one of the high high holy holidays.
And then like he finally called me because I think
in his head he went, Tom's a heathen and he
likes Star Trek. So I got that call after literally
everybody in town because I called my friends. I was like, hey,
(48:25):
Leno just called me, and every single one of my
friends went, yeah, he called me to I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Oh come on, no he didn't.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
You're just saying that to You're so incredibly talented and
you're just you shouldn't belittle yourself like that.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
One of the things Jay said to me was, Hey,
I need you to do this thing. The LAPD is
giving Bill Shatner an award. He goes, if you do it,
you'll never get a ticket again. And I said to Jay,
I have purple heart plates on my I haven't had
tickets since I was twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
Take that.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Keep doing everything that you're doing, and don't change and
just please come back and see us again on maybe
another podcast so we can talk about your incredible music career.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
We'll talk to you again soon. Good luck with everything. Thanks,
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