Buitoni Ravioli w/ Gianmarco Soresi

Host Bryan Ford is joined by comedian Gianmarco Soresi. Gianmarco Soresi is a NY based stand-up comedian, actor and occasional Jeff Goldblum impressionist (you’ll hear in this episode). His stand-up has been featured on Comedy Central, Netflix’s Bonding, PBS’s Stories from the Stage, and Real Housewives of New York (really). His first comedy special “Shelf Life” was nominated for 3 New York Emmy Awards and was cited by NPR as a “historical document”. 

Gianmarco tells Bryan stories of growing up with a wannabe Italian father, and gives a demonstration of how many Buitoni Raviolis he can swallow whole at one time— just like when he was a kid! 

Watch Bryan make his version and Subscribe: Youtube

Recipe from today's episode can be found at Shondaland.com

Join The Flaky Biscuit Community: Discord

Gianmarco IG: @gianmarcosoresi

Bryan Ford IG: @artisanbryan

Don’t forget to check out Jewish Queer Youth at jqyouth.org.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Flakey Biscuit is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. All right, welcome to Flakey Biscuit. Were each
episode we are cooking up delicious morsels of nostalgia. I
hope we like to make meals and recipes that have
comforted and guided our guests to success. Each episode, I'm

(00:21):
creating a recipe from scratch, as you all already know,
sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully. But I hope that
you guys make these recipes along with me at home.
I'm Brian Ford and today very very special and funny
guests stand up comedian, actor and fellow podcast host Here Today,

(00:43):
Who's told jokes on The Late Show with James Cordon
Comedy Central, Amazon, acted in Billy Crystal's Here Today. Was
also in Hustlers with Jennifer Lopez. Oh man, I'm one
degree away from j Lo. His podcast is called The
Downside with Jian Marcos Soresi, where he interviews people about
all the downsides to their life and complaining is encouraged

(01:03):
and negativity is celebrated. Please welcome the amazing, the spectacular
Jan Marco.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Hello, you say it so sexily. It's great. No One
says it like that, it's a wonderful.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Wow, not even your girlfriend. Damn, I need to calm down.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
She goes, Johnny, Yeah, is that your nickname? Only my dad?
And then I let her into that club.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
No, I'll stick with the gian Marco.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I love Italy. We actually just got engaged in Italy.
We took a family trip to.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
You got engaged, like you proposed.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
I proposed to her on the Amalfi coast.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, and did she know it was coming?

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I think that she probably figured we were going to
unite our bond at some point, but she wasn't ready
for it at that moment. I don't think Oh yeah, no.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Now was a family there. Did you do it in private?

Speaker 1 (01:49):
The whole family was there watching from the bluff down
onto the beach of the villa.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
You have to have felt confident that, I mean, you're
not gonna risk that.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I did it like a disaster. To be honest, it
was wild. But anyway, I do love the Italian language.
I've studied it. My brother also speaks lots of languages.
My dad used to speak a lot of languages.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
You speak Itali because I don't speak Italian.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
I don't. I mean, I don't speak Italian anymore than
like someone who pretends to speak Italian. I could I
speak Spanish? So okay, I can say a few sentences.
I can get around, I can order food. I can
say people's names.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
That's more than me because Italians come up to me.
They hear my name and they're like baba bah, and
I have to be like, oh, no, no, I don't
speak to Italians.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Oh damn, So that's real. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I did Rosetta stone twice, so you learn how to
say egg. But the only thing I remember is rosetta rosetta.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
So how do you pronounce what I made for you today?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Ooh, you're really at the R.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I don't know. I have a lot of Italian friends.
I've worked with Italians, and I've never like, every time
I do that, people seem to think it's okay, Like
I'm not trying to do it in jess. I genuinely
I just want to like be Italian sometimes. Yea, yeah,
I want to. Yeah, I mean you kind of got it. Yeah,
naturally I.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Faked the accent for a couple of voiceover jobs in
my life.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
You do a lot of vio no.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I auditioned for a lot of vo though, and that's
the only accent. I can do a kind of gravio.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, when they see your name and they see you
pull up to an addition, I'm assuming that's what they want.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Sure, and I say, I'm more Jewish. I'd rather do
like kind of this thing, you know, so you could
let a stutter. I think, if there's a real Italian there,
I'm losing that job real fast. I don't even know
how Italian I am. My dad pretended, he exaggerated.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Oh so your dad was Italian, your mom is Jewish?
Got it?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And my dad raised me before I could understand fractions.
He told me I was one hundred percent Italian and
I would watch The Godfather. That's my whole like Italian
knowledge was The Godfather, and I loved it so much.
I went through a phase where I wrote on my
spelling tests. I wrote Jamericos SORESI corleone.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
I added corleone and my mom was livid and she
said he's a murderer. You can't do this. And then
one day I went to Italy after college and I
wanted to meet like this extended family. My dad was
always talking about and when I got to Italy, I said, Okay,
where are they? And my dad was like, ah, I
exaggerated a little. I'm not sure they're there somewhere. So

(04:18):
raizy on Instagram some people reach out sometimes, so ray related.
There was a street, there was a pasta, Sazi pasta,
have a picture of that's the only proof. That's my
DNA test.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Damn, that's amazing. I'll tell you what though, man cling
on to that I am.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I have no choice. I'm not even taking a DNA
test because if I'm not Italian and my name is
jeh Mariko Vincent Soreisi.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Oh wow. So let's just see how Italian you truly are,
because oh my, don't worry. I'm not coming at you.
But I would like you to let our listeners know
the specifics of what your nostalgic meal is. What did
you have me cook for you today?

Speaker 2 (04:53):
So I had you cook al And again, I don't
know if this is because it's Italian or just my
parents are divorced and I was with a single dad
for a lot of the time, but ravioli was the
meal that he was making for lunch, for dinner, for breakfast.
If it was a Saturday. It was easy. You boil
the water, you throw it in. Even I could do it.

(05:16):
And then he'd put on tomato sauce and he would
say it's son as he used to say, we had
a secret sarasi sauce. I learned later it was just
ragu with some sugar added. But at the time I
was like, oh, the ancient sarasi sauce. And when you
know you need to pass this down generation to generation
and Ragu has it covered.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
So was there a specific brand of ravioli? Was made fresh?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Was not made fresh? There was nothing made fresh at
my dad's house. Dear God, I sing you the.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Name of ben right, yes, the beef, yes Vili.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
I texted my mom to be like, is this the one?
But the moment I saw the picture, I was like,
that's the one. That's all we had in our fridge
and he packed it for me for school. He put
it in this like awful container. And the smell something
about tomato sauce. It's just it's stinky. Yeah, if it's
not fresh right out the thing, it's awful, awful, mealtya

(06:07):
and it like stains the container, stains the container. It's
so gross. And you can't get into the nitty gritty
of the thing. And I would have the little the
tool that you opened it. It was like a fork
and a spoon and it was really revolting. I think
it's one of the reasons I didn't have a lot
of friends in middle.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
School, damn, because of the Sarrazi secret sauce.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, yeah, it sucks. Yeah, kids don't appreciate it, no
legacy at that age.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
They don't know what's going on truly. Yeah, I will
say my sister and I who's who's actually right here?
We see be Tony quite a bit. I'm not gonna Yeah.
So we are from New Orleans, you know, and in
New Orleans, there's not the greatest Italian food in New Orleans.
They did some spots, Yeah we had some spots, but
you know, we Hispanic and stuff like that, so we
didn't really know, like what is ravioli supposed to really taste? Like,

(06:52):
so we have when we have but Toni. That was
like we have but Tony tonight, Like were gonna have
some you know what I wos the little the five
cheese family pack. Yeah, those are absolutely fire. That was
a big night for your friend that was a big
night man. Put a little white sauce on there, or
sometimes just put olive oil, salt and pepper on it. Oh,
you'd add stuff and parmesan cheese. Okay, maybe that's the

(07:15):
Ford Secret sauce.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's advanced. We did none of that.
I was eating out of the pot.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Hey, when it's cold, out of the pot. When it's cold,
out of the pot is no way. So when's the
first time you like or just like, the most memorable
time you had this? It obviously wasn't at school when
you was getting ribbed on the wool. When was the
moment you had this and you knew that you probably
would want to eat this again like later in life.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
I think it's just I would eat it with my dad.
We'd watch Seinfeld. That was a big tradition for us.
This is probably the beginnings of what made me a comedian,
was watching Seinfeld with my father and a very Jewish show.
Having a very Italian meal felt like that's who I
was at the end of the day. And I went

(08:00):
a phase with my dad where I would brag about
how many pieces I could swallow at once without chewing.
I don't know what you know this is a couple
of years ago, thirty one. No, but I went through
this phase where like dad wash me able to swallow six.
I swallowed six and I remember that being a big
accomplishment for.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Me without chewing them, without.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Chewing them, truly, not enjoying any of the car or
the meats. But I thought it was cool. And that's
I wasn't good at sports, but I could do that.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
How was your stomach affter? Like what happened to your
body after you?

Speaker 2 (08:34):
I think my body was used to it. My body
needed ravioli if I didn't get thirty pieces.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
A day, just like Inhale, like not even chewed. Your
body just thrives on. Yeah, yeah, you know, no mastication.
All right, Well I made There's a couple of things
that need to happen right now because we learned some
pretty interesting facts about but Toni as a company. So
I will say that that it's a pretty Italian company.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I would hope.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
So your family's pretty Italian. You guys were eating Buttoni
because this started in Tuscany. Man, This is some real
Italian stuff. This was like founded in Italy with the
fresh sauces and the fresh you know what I'm saying,
and you know, they just started packaging it up and
it's doing a lot. You know, they opened up in
Times Square in the thirties. Was more Italian than that.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, what was it?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
It was? It was a spaghetti store, like a spaghetti store.
I mean, it's the nice.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
New York was Italian. Yeah, I was run by the MOB.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Records are shallow there. Who knows what you were really
getting in the BUTTONI spaghetti store. I mean, I can't
really speak for that, but I would assume some foremost.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
And that's part of what my great grandpa, my great
grandpa Luigi, my great crab Lugi, my great granma Donkey Kong,
and that's probably they were living in New York. His
name is Luigi. I don't even know what her name is,
to be honest.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
No, but he was.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
He was the real Italian. I have pictures. He was
like a boxing manager. Oh, definitely Mob time.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
He managed a boxing club or something.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Like boxers Like he he was like whatever the like,
you know, setting up the bets, setting up the wow that.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
I mean, Okay, so you are you might not speak
Italian perfectly, but you have some og Italian roots.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, he definitely went to this store. He went to
the spaghetti store, and when when they asked him to pay,
he took out his gun and he said absolutely enough.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
All right. So okay, so I made pasta for an
Italian on this show before and it didn't go very well.
All right, it happened to shoot you. He's a good
friend of mine, Daniel lu and I made the mistake
of re cooking the pasta. Okay, so today I am
going to if you look over there, I have my

(10:40):
fresh cut I don't know if you can see it
actually hiding. So I've got freshly made fasta freshly cut
filled ravioli. I'm going to get up and boil him
in a second. All right.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
That's you could feed me. You could feed me anything.
And you could see the spaghettios, and I go, wow,
what authentic? What an authentic meal. I went to my
dad's for Thanksgiving this year. He thought the turkey, what
does it say on the turkey like oven ready? Is
that oven ready? So he thought that meant ready to eat.
That's a lot. But we basically we had an hour

(11:13):
and a half before I had to go to a show.
You're supposed to cook it for three hours so my
father he cooked it for one hour. Then he pulled
it out and he said, you know, it's still moving
at this point. And my dad was like, the outsides
are fine, the outsides are fine. So he started slice ofing.
He served it to us at ways. That's absolutely not
my point being. You will get no criticism from me
on this show as long as long as it's.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Not raw, as long as it's not completely you can
eat the outsides though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow, I gotta
say to the listeners at home, I think I'll pass today. Yeah,
all right, So I'm going to get up. I'm gonna
get these ravioli into the pot. It shouldn't take long.
Feel free to give us your best Jeff Goldblum impression
while I'm cooking. Sure has Jeff Goldblum ever narrated pasta cooking?

Speaker 2 (11:57):
I'm sure he'd do it. He seems to be. He
says yes to everything, it would seem I don't think so,
but now now he will, well today he will. Let's
do it all right, Uh, we are cooking a ravioli meal.
Oh the pasta looks fresh. It looks chewy. O HEAs.

(12:20):
I didn't see him wash his hands before he picked
it up. But but that's okay, that's okay. Bacteria finds
a way. All right, we're washing it now. I can't
wait to have a nice little little bit of soap
to go along with the ravioli. That should be delicious.
All right, Well, it looks it looks they're they're quite big,

(12:43):
they're quite large, they're sumptuous. All right, here we go.
We're putting two more in. Ooh, yes, very good, very good. Yes,
we got some saisi sauce. This is delicious, it's amazing.
I'm wafting it. Ooh, yes, that tomato feeling rather nice.
I could take a take a bath in that tomato sauce.

(13:03):
Probably good. Good for the skin, keeps it nice and fresh.
Ah yes, on the pasta bowls ah yes, authentic Italian
pasta bols. All right, I hope we're coming out soon.
This is quite a long improvisation to do. But no, no, no, no, no,
no no no, we gotta keep going. You know, Billy

(13:25):
Crystal paid me money to do this, but I'll do
it for free. Here for some ravioli. This is where
acting rates are today. Just a couple pieces of ravioli.
I'll tell you a story about how bad of a
cook I am. I went viral for some cooking. I
basically cooked some chicken and peppers, and I cut up
the peppers and I noticed after I cooked it that

(13:46):
the sticker. I left the sticker on the pepper, so
I took a picture. I thought it would be funny.
Oh look at look at me, silly man. And then
everyone started dragging me for the way that the chicken looked,
for the way that I cut the pepper, for the
way that the stove was dirty. They dragged me for
everything except for the sticker itself. So they were like,
that chicken looks dry as hell. And the pepper, they

(14:08):
said they noticed it was chopped up in a way that,
if I'm being honest with your listeners, this meal was
just for me. Instead of using a knife I used,
I used my mouth to cut the pepper. I took
bites and then I let it fall from my mouth
into the bulk because I was about to put it
in my mouth. Anyway, it's not that gross if it's
just for me. But people sure noticed, and yes, it

(14:33):
was very embarrassing for me, for my family, and I
hope that's not how you made the riches of the ravioli.
You took a little nibble off the side. Yes, oh yes, yes, yes, yes,
that looks delicious.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
All right, so I would love for you to have
a bite of this and let my listeners know where
is this bringing you back to? What does it taste like?
All right, he's taken a very intricate little right. I'm
gonna do it with you.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Because it's gonna be hot. It's one of these dishes
where you it's you think it's fine, and then you
get to that middle and you're like, oh my.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
God, all right, I'm taking a bite as well.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, I guess anna being taken back. I can hear
my dad on the phone fighting with my mom. No,
I get him from Martin Luther King's day. Oh he's screaming.
I see my dog Ringer Seinfeld's on Delicious. Cheers, cheers.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
So what are you tasting? Let me talk to me
about some textures. I know it's not like the chewed
up pepper thing that you did, and it's not that fast.
What are you tasting?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Oh man, I'm gonna try. So you got the you
got the thickness of the dough, You feel the real
mixed with just the softness of the meat. It's like
the pasta's warm, but the meat is even warmer. And
then the tomato sauce, it's got a nice little sweetness
to it, you know, the same way you'd have like
frosting on a cake cake battery. You have the sweetest

(16:01):
of the pasta. Oh yeah, on the density of the pasta.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
I can tell you're Italian because you're speaking with your
hands too. I like the little tickle motion that you
just did there when you said sweetness.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
About the meats the beat made.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
So I'm gonna you know, this recipe will be on
Shondaland dot com, of course, so that our listeners can
cook this along with me. And you know in the recipe,
you know, you mentioned it was a thick pasta. I,
you know, have a rolling pin and I don't have
a pasta roller machine here, So that's about as thin
as my frail arms could do. So I made a
simple egg yolk dough. One egg for everye hundred grams

(16:37):
of flour. That's a typical ratio if you're making pasta.
So so I made the dough, I rolled it out
with a rolling pin, and I filled it with They
made so I looked up you Tony's meat ravioli. I
looked up what was in it, and it said ground
beef and ricotta ricotta. That's it, so true. I did
a ground beef saute, you know, trade Fair's finest eighty

(16:59):
twenty chuck roast, two dollars a pound, added some oregano,
some salt, some pepper, you know, a little bit of
smoke pepper kat just to kind of you know, you
know what I'm saying. And then I mixed it with ricotta,
and then I filled it, and then I crimped it.
I mean, you know it. It wasn't as bad as
I thought it was gonna be. It was a relatively
quick process. And the sauce I typically buy whole peeled

(17:20):
tomatoes in a can, crush them up and add some
salt to them, and then I heat it up. That's
pretty much it, Man delicious.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Add some cheese on his way, yes.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Add some cheese on your last bite with your hands, yes,
although I didn't see you wash them. All right, we're
getting a little cheese bite here. So Jan Marco is
choosing to potentially clean his plate, all right, that would
be I feel like quite a success. Oh you would
ask me it's delicious. Don't go anywhere if you're right

(17:54):
back after this, all right, all right, let's just jump
back in. So it sounded like and we're gonna get
you to reconfirm, but it definitely sounded like you went

(18:16):
back a little bit, you were rekindled a little bit,
and I don't know, maybe you're inspired to make a
video making your SODESI sauce.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Sure, I'm gonna have to ask my dad because I
know it's sugar. I feel like he may have added
some butter. Like he made it the most unhealthy sauce
you can possibly in the world.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Butter sugar. So that's a very I mean, I know
in New York pizzerias there's a lot of debate about
like sauce right in New York. And I'm not to
everyone at home, to any New York pizza fanatic person,
I'm not trying to profess any sort of authority in
the New York pizza sauce game, all right. I'm just
a humble baker from New Orleans with Latin American roots.

(18:55):
But I will say that it's hotly contested about sugar
and butter being add added into sauces. And what is
the true New York way to make a sauce. So
you're probably not far off with the sugar in the
butter situation because a lot of people do it. I
wouldn't be surprised.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, do pizza people get they get angry?

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Oh yeah, oh pizza people. Pizza people are pretty cutthroat
in this. And bagel people, yeah, we can circle back
to bagels. But pizza people and sauce people are very
very intense about the knowledge and that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
So, I mean, it's pretty incredible that I travel a
lot for stand up and you go places and they
all have their New York.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Pizza place, New York Pizza, New York Best.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
And that's a pretty incredible brand that somehow no one
goes like, oh this is you have North Dakota pizza.
I know, Chicago Style. They got Chicago Style.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
You got to add style style. It's Chicago's style pizza.
Because there's like this debate about is it even pizza
and like that kind of thing. Sure, Chicago style pizza
is a cracker thin is to cast role. I mean,
what's even happening? There's too many question marks involved for
Chicago to become an international conglomerate in the pizza world.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
I guess to Italians, do they have the authority there
still with pizza or is it pretty Did Marco Polo
steal it from China?

Speaker 1 (20:15):
I think listen, pizza is a flatbread. That's my hot
take that I get a lot of hate mail on.
But pizza is a flat bread. Tomatoes were not Italian,
so I.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Mean, at the end of the tomatoes aren't Italian?

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Tomatoes originally were brought to Italy at a certain point
in time.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Are you saying that white people acted like they invented
something when they just took it from someone else?

Speaker 1 (20:37):
I am going to do, what does it plead the
fifth I'm not going to comment on the things that
white people may or may not do, but I am
going to say that this bowl that is very Italian,
that says tomato and basil, you know, the tomato may
or may not really be Italian. Oh that's a fucked
up take. I'm gonna get you better promote this episode

(20:58):
high and wide so that people can just attack me
about my tomato gate.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. I never thought of vegetables or
fruits as as Italian or not. But I don't know,
what would you say it is?

Speaker 1 (21:12):
What's your guts about tomatoes? Yeah, man, came from the Americas,
like a lot of things. When colonizers pulled up and
you know, murdered indigenous tribes and did all that kind
of thing that they did, they would go back to
Europe and like bring things vanilla bean from Mexico or
you know, any number of things. They just bring it back.
Me up, look at this dope shit. So but you know,

(21:34):
there's a lot of different types of tomatoes out there,
and I think as it stands now, Italians seem to
have like an affinity to like growing tomatoes on volcanic soil.
And you know, I do think Italians have the authority
on pizza because pizza is a distinct type of flatbread
that they made.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
I ain't gonna take that away from them, you heard me.
But I will say that New York style pizza is
the best style pizza in the world.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
You know, I'll be honest, I'm very carbs conscious. I
haven't eaten a lot of New York pizza in my
in my lifetime.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Hmm.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
So, like I'll have to ask you, like the best
place to go, Let's do.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
It there's a couple of places. Man. I am a
big fan of Scars and Lindustry. Okay, Scars and Industry
both have really excellent doughmaking techniques and skills. They ferment
their dough properly. They're two of my favorite slices. You
can't go wrong, you don't feel heavy after you eat it,
the ingredients are fresh, it's not sponsored. Is just really
I really love those two slices.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Do you think once they hear what you've said about
tomatoes not being Italian they'll even let you into.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
The I doubt they'll ever hear this, but if they did,
Scar wouldn't give a shit. And the guys at Industry,
I don't know them really, but I don't think they'd
carry either. Let me reel us back in. I just
want to do a quick double check. Did this meal
bring you back to a moment that is special to you?

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Sure it did? It did? Because I truly rarely get
ravioli since you know, going to college and being like,
oh I want to be fit. My my girlfriend gets
on my case all the top because she's like, you'll
eat ramen, but you won't eat this. And I think
because I was like a chubby kid. I associate because
my dad would let me eat this every single day.
So I think in my mind there's an association between

(23:16):
like this and like like this is a big slice
of cake as far as I'm consern so I don't
have it very often. So having it here absolutely brought
me back to my dad's kitchen. I open the fridge.
It's empty except for regu, a plastic, plastic container of
this shit. It's very nice, just the texture alone. The

(23:38):
texture alone, you don't get too often, that chewy chewy
with that real soft center.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
That's what I'm talking about. Watch out, but Tony. I'm
about to have a spaghetti shop of my own come
into Times Square in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
I wish there was more because I want to show
you how many I can swallow. All it was, Yeah, do.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
You have what it takes? Do you think you can
swallow one of these?

Speaker 2 (23:57):
I mean, sure you're gonna try.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
It feels like a waste, but I'll do it for
the podcast.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Okay, do you want to try one without sauce or
one from my ball? I am, well, holy shit, that
one's really big, man. There's no way.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
We'll see, don't worry. I'll be off. I'm gonna die.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
That is a big Can you sign a death waiver
real quick in casey joke? Oh shit, oh shit, No,
you got to chew a little. You at least shoved
it all in your mouth, and I will give you
credit for trying at least to do that. Wow, you

(24:38):
need some water. You have water? You got beer? Okay, Yeah,
so we brought you back again for the listeners, shannaland
dot com. Keep the recipe, make sure you tag us,
make it. Check out the social content, the video content,
the recipe, video content, all that kind of thing. Make
sure you'll peep in the so you know we're pivoting
here at Flaky Biscuit to talk about. You've got stand ups,

(25:01):
You've got all this content online, you're in movies, you're
you know, you're doing the thing. How did this meal
get you into a period of like acceptance of who
you are?

Speaker 2 (25:11):
I think my dad's with ravioli and with with like
cup of noodles made me able to survive on the
same food over and over and over again. And there
are periods of my life when I was a struggling
actor and a struggle stand up comedian, and I'm sure

(25:32):
I will return to those spaces at some point in
my career where I had to just eat whatever I
had in front of me, whether it be something boiled
water or something simple, and so in a weird way,
it made me kind of a survivor in terms of food.
My girlfriend, if she sees some of the meals I cook,
she's like, where's where's the But I go, we don't
have time for that, we don't have the money for salt.

(25:55):
Were just eating what was in the can, and so
listen as first was delicious. I loved ravioli. But I
think my dad's cooking style made me go like I
can survive on anything, and I think that made me
able to do this profession.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
I love that. Yeah, I love that mentality. You know,
there's only one way in life to succeed, and as
to like get it done what you got and try
to keep getting a little more pizza of the pie.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
And I think the smell make kids not like me.
And you know you need to be unpopular to be
a comedian. You gotta go through that at some point.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
That's a real take. Oh yeah, you grew up in
Potomac marrit You saw my eyes struggle to pronounce Potomac.
I guess is that a food town? Like what's y'all
eating the crab cakes type thing?

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Just like deeper in Maryland, Like Maryland, there's parts of
Maryland for crabs, but Potomac is boring, is no culture.
Potomac has zero culture. If we got pizza, it was
ship pizza. If we got if we got Rali, it
was out of the box, almost awful.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
How long did you live in Potomac my whole life? Man?
You just bro, you just done shit all over where
you're from.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Potomac sucks, man. Everyone's getting divorced because they can't even
enjoy their food. It's a miserable, miserable place. Now.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
I feel like you could take this and get like
an ambassador role with Potomac and like revive it. Like
you know, there's Italian towns that pay people to move there.
You could be the start of a movement where you
just like get people to go to Potomac and make
it poppin.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Sure, I'll try. That'll be in my life's gol. It's
very expensive. It's a lot of it's like the kind
of rich people who you're like, you shouldn't have money
because you don't even know how to enjoy it. You
don't enjoy it. You just got money to give it
to your lawyer. You suck my dad and stepdad's to
live there.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
But oh, man, let me tell you something right now.
So not only is it there's no food, it's just
a bunch of rich people, just.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
A bunch of rich people with so much property so
they can isolate themselves from any kind of community or culture.
It's a thirty minute drive. Just get out of the driveway.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
It is terrible place, man, all right, Potomac, so we
ain't getting no sponsorship deals.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
And they'd be lucrative too, so you're really messing out.
Potomac would eat this meal and they'd be like, so
spicy that tomato sauce was kind of spicy. Why didn't
you tell me?

Speaker 1 (28:08):
I feel like that I could thrive in Potomac. I'd
be like a foreign entity. They might be in awe
of me. They'd be like, yo, look at this.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah they love foreign entities.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah you know what, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a
foreign entity to them. I might I might have to
do a ravioli shop up in Potomac because but you
so you went to college in Miami, which is a
change of definitely definitely in Miami.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
For more cocaine in Miami and the Potomac. I'll tell you.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
That, really, I think that thoughts more prescribed medication xanax
damn zero redeeming qualities like zero. We don't want anyone
ever to go there. Yeah, besides if you're visiting your.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Dad, yeah, I don't ever want to go there. Exactly
to your earlier point.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Savagery. Today the has really brought something out in Jean Marco.
We're we're going off the rails.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, I'm back in my childhood.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
You're right, but tell me you better watch out. We're coming.
How was the Miami experience like? Was that culinarily?

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, I need to go back and have more because
I ate a lot of the cafeteria food. I was
trying to learn how to cook badly. I remember I
tried cooking chicken once. Thank god I had a girlfriend
at the time. I didn't have time to cook the
whole chicken, so I said okay, and I put it
in the fridge and I was like, I'll cook the
rest later.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well, hold on, you par cooked it.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
What you think is what happened? Yes, I cooked it,
and I said, oh shit, I don't have enough time.
It's still really pink in the middle. As I said,
I know what I'll do. It made sense to me.
It still makes sense to me. But I put it
back in the fridge. And then later I went to
cook it, you know, finish the job. And my girlfriend
was like, no, no, no, that's not how you do it. Damn,
that's what I had instead of like glorious Caribbean.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
How long y'all been together? No?

Speaker 2 (29:51):
No, no, that was the last relationship.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
That was my bad. I must have spaced out because
I was hearing the row chicken and going back.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Once she took a bite, she said, we're over over real,
like legit. No, there were other horrible to It wasn't
just that it was my neediness by oct oh, God,
the chicken was not as big a problem.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
But I don't think.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
No, but it was a problem for sure. I feel
like if the chicken had been better, it would have
made up for all the other flaws I have as
a human being.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
I can say right now with one hundred percent confidence
that if you could put a few good meals in
front of your lady, you might be able to get
away with some you know what I'm saying, being.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
A piece of shit. That's especially what you're saying. You
cook a few good meals. You could combine the Anniversary's
mount Then's stay, birthday, and Christmas soul into one.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah. Yeah, we're talking about more simple things. We're not
talking about like overall behavioral flaws like you know, We're
talking about the more simple things like oh damn, like
it's your birthday. I just made the reservation, like you
know what I mean, the little things.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
That's all though, I know, I know that's the best
motivation I've ever had to cook in my entire life.
When I forget the reservation.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah yeah, let me tell you right now, because then
you get to whip up something from the soul and
on a budget or.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Whatever opening that can I'll be like, this is from
the soul.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Baby. What are you doing stand up comedy in Miami?
When were you like, oh shit, I'm actually funny.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Well, I went to college for musical theater, which is embarrassing.
It's like having a degree and imagination. And I think
I realized why I was getting the degree, that I
was wasting my life, and so I started comedy I
did a summer camp in New York after junior year
of college, and I took a class where you know,
it's a scam, you pay money, and the bottom line

(31:31):
is at the end you have to perform five minutes
in front of people. I think, of all the things
I've ever done, that was what I was most naturally
good at. But I didn't do it for a while.
It's a very different lifestyle. You have to give up
nights for the rest of your life, and so I
didn't do it. I moved it to New York. I
did a lot of theater. I did theater for years.
I mean, I've shared the stage with some people who

(31:52):
have gone on to become huge real estate agents. I failed,
you know. I did a little commercial stuff here and there.
But then I wrote a play and in the play
I talked to the audience a bunch and people were like,
we like that part, the rest not so much. And
I said, okay, I'll focus on that. And then so,
like eight years ago now, just started doing stand up

(32:14):
at a garbage comedy club called Lol Garbage where it
used to be in Times Square, then it moved. The
owner had a gay bar. He said it was a
gay bar. I'd never seen it. Once he lost the lease,
he moved LOL to the gay bar, and I went there,
and I thought it would be like, oh, gaybar may
be able to be nicer, higher quality. I don't know
a gay man alive who had stepped foot in this

(32:34):
bar that I saw. It was the same decor as
the comedy club. It's just lol nas X was playing
on the TV from time to time, and that's what
made it a gay bar. And now it's a comedy club.
And I stopped working there a couple of months ago.
I said no more. Now that I'm on the flaky biscuit, I.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Think, I, oh, man, yeah, can.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
I get moved past this unpaid work you made.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
It's a flaky biscuit. You've made it all the way
in your career. That's what every single guest has been
telling us.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
So that's that's where I really got my legs. It
was it was performing for terrible shows, but they were
packed with tourists who had just been scammed, who was
told Chappelle might show up, and instead of Chappelle, it's me.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Is that that's legit? What happened?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, they're sold on like a celebrity stuff if Roseanne,
if Roseanne passed the club in the sixties, they'd be like,
she's she could be here tonight. There's a chance. That's
how I learned comedy.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Nice. We watched shelf Life last night and it was
to be honest, the funniest thing that happened in shelf
Life was the two old men that you said were
on the Titanic or something that that killed me. I
was absolutely dead. But something that was really interesting to
me that I wanted to ask you about. You made
a disclaimer about being Jewish before making a Jewish joke.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Sure, what was your question?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
How was that played like in your comedic life? I mean,
you know, the first thing you said to me was like,
I'm not I don't really speak Italian and you know this,
and they're like, I feel like my work evolves as
I evolved, And I'm like, is that do you find
that to happen as well?

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Absolutely? I think again. I was raised with this perception
of being like very Italian, and my mom didn't practice
much of Judaism. Her parents told her she could either
have Abot Mitzvah or sweet sixteen when she was twelve,
and she was like, oh wait, for the Sweet sixteen
and that was kind of like the end. So we
went to temple once a year, all that stuff. And

(34:27):
then I think, like becoming a comedian, there's a Jewish
heritage in comedy and a look at the comedians that
I like, like Seinfeld of course many years ago, Woody
Allen at the time. Things have changed, but I think
like that's part of the embracing of the Jewishness. My
girlfriend is grew up in New Orleans in a Kabad community.
Oh so she's she's no longer practicing, but it's a

(34:49):
big part of her life. So being with her has
made me feel closer to like my Judaism and understanding it.
And then I also think there's a weird strain because
there's been feels like more anti Semitism recently. There's something
about when when a group of people hate you for
who you are, that does make, at least for me,

(35:09):
make me kind of identify with it more or understand
it more, or feel unified in a sad way with
my people. I was in I was in Houston. This
happened three times now, I said. I was on stage,
I said I'm Jewish, and that's all I said. And
someone in the audience went yuh, and I was like,
joke's on you. That's Hebrew for a great job. That

(35:29):
was a joke. That's okay, Yeah, you thought it was
really You're gonna go up for Jews all the time,
and you're like, yuh, saying.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
A great job.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
No, no, no, That's why I had to tell you.
I think, like all all that stuff has just made
me think about it more, Like I have a bit
now of like you know, people say to I've had
people say to my face this, say the Jews run Hollywood,
and I'm like, well, then how about a thank you? Okay,
we're doing pretty well. I would think if you ever
seen a Christian movie, they're terrible. Oh well, let me
guess the main character is Jesus Christ. Wow, he died,

(36:00):
I wonderful, come back to life again, your fucking hack.
So it's a weird thing where it's like obviously gives
you a lot of comedic mileage, you know, like when
you're able to talk about culture, everyone has some knowledge
of that culture that you can then play off of.
And that's it's made me identify with it more. And
I have more Jewish jokes and I have Italian jokes

(36:21):
because I think I just have more experiences related to
my Judaism now than I do.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
It's a time right now where there is suffering within
your community, and there are people will get inspired even
if you're making jokes, but they're inspired by your willingness
to kind of stand up and talk about these things
that have happened. Right Like, it's you know, getting called
names to your face is shitty. We all know what
that feels like, and it's not great. So but when

(36:47):
you're able to kind of overcome that and thrive in
your profession and inspire people while doing so, I think
I think that's the most important takeaway that at least
keeps me going. Obviously seems to be keep you going.
Full seat my head.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, listen, I'm no fan of religion in general. There's
certain aspects of Judaism I do not do not enjoy.
But I think it's also as you get older, it's
like you want some community in your life, and it
can feel it could just feel nice to like know
that if I, you know, if I run to a
stranger and they happen to be Jewish, there's some interesting
things to talk about, and it's something that my girlfriend

(37:23):
just really had from her about upbringing that I admire.
And then we go to temple and I go, I
don't admire this anymore. I'm Italian again.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Let's go watch The Godfather one, two, or three.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Oh, it's gotta be It's gotta be one. But then
Sonny getting shot in that second one, that's a really
visceral scene in my mind. There's so much dread too,
is when he like that guy gets stuck in the
the revolving door. They kill like all the mob bosses.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
So that was good to Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Great. I saw three when I was so young that
I didn't know it was bad, I guess, And I
haven't seen it again as an.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Adult because everyone says it's so bad.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
I think I've seen it maybe one or two times.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
And a director put his daughter in it, and like,
you know, that's always going to rub people through.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, and al Pacino was pretty good though.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, but that's what he was. That's when he was
starting to get a little too al Pacino. We've for people, Oh,
like Jesus Christ, let's get some colors here, let's get
some soft tones.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Look, thanks for you know, opening up and sharing about
your culture. Your heritage and how that kind of it's
tough to talk about. I get put into positions where
I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm Afro Honduran, or
like what does that mean? Where's Honduras? Is it in Mexico?
Why are you black? What do you speak spanis? Why
do you speak English so good? And you know the
whole My sister and I I was about to act
dealt with that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Why do you speak English so good? I've been waiting
to ask that. I didn't want to like interrupt the flow.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yeah, I was kind of saving that explanation. I had
to help you understand where Honduras was first America. I
had to teach you about colonization and how ingredients had
then take it away and all that kind of thing.
Then I was gonna explain.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
You should you should have a show where you bring
on guests and you have like food that's important to
their culture. Then you explain to them how they actually
stole that share someone else's culture.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
It would be dope, it would be dope.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
And then you make them do the dishes. After he said,
that's what you get for stealing us?

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Oh, John Marco hungry for more Flaky Biscuit. They tuned,

(39:42):
welcome back to Flaky Biscuit. You blessed us with this
beautiful Jeff Global impression. When and how do you think
the shift from being that guy doing that impression to
kind of being one of the funniest comedians in New York?
Like when did that happen? When did you feel like, oh,

(40:02):
I'm like crushing it And it's not just because of
this one thing.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Just be clear. I think my my PR person told
you to say the funniest comedian in New York, not
one of the funniest comedians.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
And let me rephrase that. Let me rephrase that on
to being considered the hands down, absolute funniest comedians in
New York right now, Thank you, thank.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
You very much. It was a thought I think once
I did it in that Billy Crystal movie. M I said, Okay,
it can't go much better than this, Like anything after
that is going to be a disappointment. What am I
gonna get asked to do like a Jeff goldbum impression
on like a cooking podcast. So I decided, like I'm
gonna retire that for good. And you know it's hard.

(40:43):
I think with comedy first of all, I'm not a
great impression. It's I can do like two. And I
think like, if you lean on impressions too much, you're
not finding the really funny thing because they're partially just
laughing at the voice you're doing. So I said, at
least on stage, I was like, nah, put it to bed.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Interesting, So you kind of made a choice to not
let it define you as a comedian before.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
It bled into me though. I did that impression for
so long that when I talk, it changed the way
that I pause and go in and out. And so
they're like, if you listen to me on stage, you
can see little flavors of Jeff Goldblum. I feel it
right now that came through. I can you know, I
open every set with you know, real subtle So yeah,

(41:29):
if you listen to me, you can. I think if
you are familiar with John Mulaney, Anthony Jesslinic or Jeff Goldblum,
you can hear notes from all three.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Got some heavy inspiration though, and it's it's interesting to
hear you kind of break that down and how it's
maybe molded you.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
No, I think, so, I mean I have to be
careful how much I listened to any of those those guys,
because it just starts happening naturally. But I like, I
like the idea that you want to you want to
borrow from people in the right way.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Listen. I like impressions as well.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
You guys.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
I got a couple I got They just looked at
each other because they hear it all the time, and
it's all I've got. Well, all this talk about racism, Uh,
it's something very special. I might be hispanic. Well, actually
I'm not what.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
That's the best Donald Trump I've ever seen in my
entire life. That was really good at that incredible.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
That's all I got.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
That was very good. Yeah, yeah, let's see.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
You got to give you some breathing room on this one.
All right. Okay, so we're talking about songs. Huh, we're
talking about ravial. Isn't that what you told me the
other day? Huh. We have something called the Flaky Game
that we're going to get into before we move on
into the close of our beautiful show. But I do

(42:52):
want to know, and I'm sure my listeners are curious,
what's next for you? What is on? What is in
the pipeline that you can talk about?

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah? I could talk about all of it. I'm touring.
I'm just on the road pretty much every weekend, going
around America. Gonna be in Canada just for laps this year.
I'll be in London in November. So I'm just expanding
going around. My podcast is called The Downside, and then
I'll film a special this year and I'll probably go
on YouTube. All right, is that's what we do these days?

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Moving into the flaky game, as I promised, the longest
ravioli measured so far was blank and was achieved by
Amway Russia in Saint Petersburg on August third, twenty thirteen.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
I was literally reading about this yesterday.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
So essentially, how long was the longest ravioli that was
made in Russia?

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Okay, let me think.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Oh, I'm supposed to give you three options?

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Oh? Thank you?

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Okay, good? This man, this man was straight up like,
all right, well fuck it. Let me try to introduce
option one, six hundred feet, Option two thirty five point
five feet, Option three ninety six feet and one inch
thirty five point five and wrong. Why did you pick that?

(44:14):
You were very confident.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Because ninety six is that's too much of.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
A ninety swallow? That sae no no, you couldn't. Ninety
six feet and one inch is our longest ever ravioli.
It was filled with chicken and onion. Were they making parochis?
Was that a ravioli?

Speaker 2 (44:35):
But did they put it on like a football field
or was it on a plate.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
I've seen these things where like Domino's will make like
the biggest pizza in the world, and it's literally just
a bunch of pizzas next to each other, and then
they like dump sauce on it with mops. Oh God,
I don't know there are in the world right now. No,
they donate it, great donation.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Hey, you want the pizza scrubbed with the mop? It's
been sitting out ten hours from a photo shooting.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
A football field. All right, a couple more questions for you.
The most ravioli made in two minutes is blank and
this was accomplished by Gino da Campo on the set
of Let's Do Lunch with Gino and Mel talk about
random all right, So in two minutes, how many ravioli
were made? Was it thirty three? Was it one thousand?

(45:21):
Was it nine and eighty two?

Speaker 2 (45:24):
In two minutes and two minutes? It's going to be
the small number thirty five, thirty three, thirty thirty three.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
I love it that that honestly.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Pretty easy one? Was it thirty or nine billions?

Speaker 1 (45:39):
All right? I just got a couple more for you.
Jewish cuisine has a similar dish called blank, a pocket
of meat or other filling covered by egg pasta. Is
it a kniche or is it a kreplac?

Speaker 2 (45:53):
I feel like it's not a kniche, so a couplac.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
A Jewish ravioli is a corplac, I guess, so, well,
there we go.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
I'm glad. My girlfriend would be mad if I didn't
get that one.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
So you've never had it before? No, definitely, Well you
have some homework. Yeah, even flaky biscuit was a homework.
I want to see you get on Instagram, make some croplaque,
and I want to see it. Last one is true
or false. The largest raviolo. See how I used a
singular version because it's just one.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
I didn't I didn't even know that ravioli is plural.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
The largest raviola ways so true or false seventy nine
point five pounds and was made by the tet Talagen
Company in Central Malta on May fourth, twenty thirteen.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I'm trying to think of it was twenty twelve or
twenty thirteen. I mean that's big. That's that's a little
lighter than may. That's a big Ravioli.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
Yeah, it is. And can I also say that the
three they're all in twenty so in twenty thirteen something
in the world must have been happening where people were
trying to like break the record with Ravioli because all
three of these true or false? Though one hundred and
seven five pounds. What's your take, It's.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Gotta be true. It's absolutely true.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah, we have an expert. All right. This has been phenomenal.
We love to end our episodes talking about, you know,
the things that you like to do to help improve
our communities and let our listeners know about something that
you hold near and dear to your heart. I believe
the Jewish Queer Youth Organization is something that you believe in.
So I would love for you to tell me and

(47:27):
my listeners what can we do to support this cause
and why is it important to you?

Speaker 2 (47:33):
I'll start with why is it important to me? I
think this has always been like one of my hang
ups with all religion is lgbt Q rights and just
the way it's viewed. And when I went on my
birthright trip, the rabbi who was a tour guide, he
did this game. He was like, we're going to all
play a game called stump the Rabbi. You can ask
me anything you want. He wanted, like, what do you

(47:55):
call Jewish RAVIOLI thought it'd be fun. Yeah, And I
asked how Toews feel about homosexuality? Right out the gate?
You went right out the gate? I said, I'm gonna
stump him. I'm gonna win this game. And he gave
some bullshit answer about like, oh, life is hard. If
someone said they were gay, I'd give them a hug

(48:16):
and I'd say life is hard. And I was like, okay,
follow up question, What the fuck what did you just say?
And I think we live in a time where we're
all trying to in the liberal side of things, the
left side of things, be more accepting and welcoming, and
there's always this conflict with like religious freedom and then
certain religious beliefs that are antithetical to gave people existing

(48:39):
you're living a fulfilled life. I don't know how you
square away the issue. And it's easy for me because
I wasn't raised in this Jewish tradition. But if you
are raised in a Hasidic family, more orthodox gsing a
big part of your life, it's got to be a struggle.
It's got to be a real struggle, whether you just
support LGBTQ rights or you are a member of the community.
And so as I closer to the Jewish world, I

(49:02):
just think like resources that help help people psychologically square
away these two worlds, even if they sometimes feel it conflict,
but also makes it more accepted and hopefully, I think
hopefully in the long run, brings more and more of
Judaism to a place where it's you can be open
about being kay and you're accepted and it's not even
considered like a light sin or whatever that it's just fine.

(49:25):
So this just an organization that that my my girlfriend
has been telling me about that. I mean a big
part is just resources for queer Jewish youth to just
feel like they have a home.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
That's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. And you know,
is this something that's based in New York or is
this or their volunteer opportunities are their you know, donation opportunities.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
There's definitely donation opportunities and I'm sure there's volunteer opportunities.
I believe it's started in New York, but I think
it's all around, and it's it's growing.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Yeah, it's it's a really important one. Honestly, I think
the more people I talk to and the more you
go on the news or whatever, I mean, the more
this issue has taken center stage because there's a lot
of communities right now that are struggling with going about
things the right way. There's black and brown communities like this.
There's you know, I hate to say, but I mean
Hispanic communities, you know in Latin America, where maybe being

(50:14):
queer is not something you want to tell your family.
It's you know, it's you want to be proud to
be Hispanic and proud to be all this kind of thing.
But then if you you know, say that you're gay
or queer or whatever it is that how you identify,
there's going to be backlash, and then it becomes terrifying
for them, and then they just never talk about it.
You are, you know.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
And also I despise the like it's okay to be gay.
It's not right, but it's okay like it to me.
The people who spouse that will quickly latch onto the
hateful person if they think gay people have existed forever. Yeah,
they're responsible for as much of humanity's progress as anything else.
And Yeah, I think what's been shocking is because when

(50:55):
I was in middle school, that was high school, college,
when gay marriage was legalized, I always assumed the world
would become more progressive, especially in that sense, and there's
been this like horrifying rebound where suddenly we're talking about
drag queens as an issue, and people are like talking
about trans rights in this negative way, and it's like,

(51:18):
all of a sudden, it's become everyone's main target and
it's strange.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
It's quite strange.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
It's being exploited by the people who just want the votes,
and it's such a hateful, horrible rebound. That's shocking to me.
I'm just shocked to see like things move backwards. And
that's that's partly because of the privilege as a straight
man to not to not recognize that these movements don't
just move propel themselves forward forever.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Yeah, this particular issue, I feel like it is prominent,
it's prevalent because we it's up to us to stand
up also and say some things as well. I might
identify as straight, but what's happening is horrendous, and you know,
I think finding ways to help youth specifically get these issues.
And you know, if we can get our listeners to
just hey, like made this donation might make a huge

(52:04):
difference in someone's life or that you know, maybe there's
a volunteer opportunity where we can become mentors and help
these youth grow. So I think it's up to us
also to stand up say specifically and loudly and clearly
how wrong the atrocities are that are happening. This is
a food podcast. You know, we're having fun, we're talking
about recipes, but it is we feel like it's really

(52:24):
important to always just kind of end with like, hey,
like by the way that real stuff that's going on, Like,
we want to make sure that we're gonna make as
much noise as we can about it and try to
actually make a small difference where we can.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
So, tomatoes are gay. We all know it.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
You heard it here first on Flake You biscuit tomatoes
are gay, and you love tomatoes, so join the rest
of the world. Thank you, Jan Marco. This has been
an absolute pleasure. I really really appreciate everything that you
brought to the table today. It was an honor to
get to know you, and I hope to see you
again soon.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
That's it. Oh, pray go.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Thank y'all for listening. Fam. If you want to make
my version of you Tony Ravioli for yourself, which I
know you do, find that recipe on shannaland dot com.
And you know my doe game is vicious, so come
on now, and I want to know how it goes
when y'all make it. Tag me I'm artist and Brian
tag Gian Marico at Gion, Marco Soreesi and post your photos,

(53:22):
post your videos, and you should probably post some jokes
because I think Jim Modica like jokes pretty funny. Skuy,
and don't forget to check out jqy Jewish Queer Youth
at jqouth dot org. You can find my handle and
all the links I mentioned in the show notes for
this episode. So if you like Flakey Biscuit, you know
what to do. Leave us a rating or review, share,

(53:44):
subscribe like all of that. Lakey Biscuit is executive produced
by Sandy Bailey, alex Alja, Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang and
Gabrielle Collins, our creative producers Bridget Kenna, and our editor
and producers Nicholas harder By. Crucial recipes from Flaky Biscuit
can be found each week on shondaland dot Com. Subscribe

(54:06):
to the Shondaland YouTube channel for more Flaky Biscuit content.
Flaky Biscuit is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.