Simon King (comedian)

Episode Transcript
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Chuck Shute (00:00):
I'm very excited to have Simon king as my guest

(00:03):
today. And if you've never heardof him, you're probably not
alone, because I just discoveredhim a week ago, but I've been
binging his standup. And it'sgreat stuff very funny and very
smart. And I watched a lot ofstand up, and a lot of it is
somewhat recycled andregurgitated. But I feel like
Simon King stands out to me atleast. I love that he does
impressions too. They're verygood. And we have a great chat

(00:26):
in this episode about stand upcomedy, the entertainment
business, people's purpose inlife, poverty, wealth, and so
much more buckle up because it'sa crazy ride

Simon King (00:48):
I had a poster behind me it's like a frame
thing. And it was likereflecting really harshly. So I
was like, I'm gonna take itdown. Otherwise, it just looks
like and now just looks like I'min a prison cell.
Just it just looks like he'slike first 48 or something. It's
like,

like a like a mental hospital with a white
padded walls or whatever. Yeah,

Simon King (01:07):
exactly appropriate for who I am. And my cell
accommodate. So

yeah, no, I love you. I just watched the one of
your specials. And you you had agreat line in there. You said
the only difference between meand a homeless man is that I
have a microphone.

Simon King (01:20):
Oh, yeah. That was furious. Yeah. And actually that
I wrote that joke.
Because I recorded that in 2015.
Actually, I had originallyrecorded in 2013. And then the
audio was screwed up in theentire special, absolutely
nightmare. We had a theater wehad like, I'm so glad it didn't
work out because I prefer theway it looks now. But we had
like, on the Early Show, we hadlike 400 people or something
like if the boats that ever soldtickets in my entire life. And I

(01:41):
was like, so excited. And theyforgot to turn on the audience
mics. So I had no audienceresponse off the early show very
little. And then on the LateShow, which was a better show,
they left the house musicplaying through the master feed.
SoI was livid. And so I kind of I

(02:03):
threw away that material. I waslike, I'm not going to do it.
And then right before I flew toEngland, I was just about I was
like three weeks before I movedto England two weeks before I
moved to England. Anda guy I know was a music video
director. And he's like, I'llshoot if you want, I got
cameras, you want to just do it.
And I was like, well, we'redoing a show anyway, might as
well shoot it. So we just addeda second show. And it came out

(02:24):
great. I'm really happy with it.
Butyou know, I had to learn to edit
to do it because I didn't knowhow to edit. So I just moved to
England like immediatelyafterwards, didn't know anybody
and edit it. It was I shot onred, and I edited it all on like
a MacBook Air from 2014

to edit it yourself.

Simon King (02:41):
I edited it I did the sound editing I did all of
it myself because I didn't knowanybody and I was broke. So

it looks professional to me. I mean the
same with this one. Both of themare great. I mean, I guess well
for for me like a comedyspecial. I mean yeah, I guess
that does kind of make adifference. Because if it's
really shitty it's noticeablebut as long as it's like pretty
good like you don't reallynotice a problem.

Simon King (03:05):
Well with the first one so with furious what we
wanted to do, which is the onewith the symbols on the wall. So
if we wanted it to look like apunk rock, like bootleg thing,
that's what we wanted it to looklike really hard. Yeah, just
that had that feel of like, Oh,we're just which is kind of what
it was like we paid for thatspecial off the door off the
door tickets. So even it costnothing to shoot because we got
free cameras and people helpedout. The last one we did that

(03:29):
one we threw some money outbecause that we did with a live
like the furious city by myself.
No label, this last one we didwith a label called comedy here
often up in Canada here. Andthey were like, What do you
want? And they came to me andasked me what I wanted to do.
And they want to do like a webseries or something. And I was
like, Well, I have a specialready to go. I just don't, I
want to throw some money at thisone. And I wanted to bring on my
friend Rory to direct it. And afew other things like that. And

(03:53):
so it just all worked out. Andthey gave me they gave me
complete creative control. Theyjust left me alone. They're
like, here's some money away yougo. And so you can't ask for a
better deal than that.
Especially as a nobody incomedies.
It was a pretty good deal.

Yeah, explain that to me. Because I'm just so
confused. I found a couple clipsof your comedy on Instagram. I
think it was I was like, holyshit. This guy's good. I was
like, Oh, he probably won't domy podcast and then you said
yes. And I was like, Oh my God.
I was so excited. And then Ibecause comedians are hard to
get as podcast guests becauseyeah, they usually typically do
so many freaking podcasts. AndI'm trying to fight you haven't
done a lot of podcasts likeyou're kind of like a hidden

(04:29):
secret like what's what's goingon here? Why are you not more
well known because your yourspecials are brilliant.

Simon King (04:35):
Thank you. I really appreciate it and thank you I
think I think part of it isbecause Canada is this weird
wasteland of like so it's it'sso I've worked in the states and
I've had experience in theStates but it's extremely
expensive for Canadians to comedown there and we have to get oh
one visa some things and they'requite expensive. They take a
long time to get you needsponsorship to bring it down so

(04:55):
you need like an American rapperor some sort and so I had visas
and everything and right beforeAre COVID My visa is expired,
but there was no point in reupping my visa during COVID. It
didn't make sense because Ididn't know how long you know, I
couldn't even get to the states.
And I got rid of my managementand stuff. But it was like just
ended up being transitional forme, I got rid of that stuff. And
so I just really didn't focus onit. I mean, I come back and

(05:17):
forth to the States, but thekind of comedy I do specifically
and I know that like someonewants described me as a high
degree of difficulty comedianlike, I'm not, I don't play
clubs very much. I'm not thatkind of comic because I'm the
kind of comic where like, if, ifI want to do what I do, the way
I do it, unleashing me on a stagparty on a Friday nights,

(05:38):
probably not the best. So I'vecultivated this little fan base
up here, and I've been able to,you know, like I said, at
essentially haven't playedcomedy clubs in you know, 13
years, really, maybe 1112 years,because I just kind of started
doing this thing where I buildthis fan base slowly. But I do
realize now and that's one ofthe reasons we we licensed this

(05:59):
to release on 800 pound gorillawas because the American market
is really where it needs to be.
And the response has beenfantastic. So it has made me
think, okay, I need to go backdown there. So that's one of the
reasons I don't appear on toomany podcasts and stuff like
that. It's because I've just nottoo connected to that seemed
like I'm, I think I'm well knownenough by quite a few comedians

(06:21):
in the States. And I think if Ipushed to, I could probably go
on some of those podcasts. Butup until now, I haven't had
anything really that I wanted topush. I mean, this one, I might
start doing it because like, youknow, I think this is something
I really want to get out there.
It's a good I think it's I thinkit's I'm really proud of the
work, I'm really proud of thespecial, the response has been
insane. I was not expecting it.

(06:42):
I mean, we got more, becausewhen we released in Canada, it
went out to basically my fanbase, which was you know, about
20,000 views, that's about whatwe got, and maybe a little bit
less a little in about a year.
And then we've had I think36,000 Since last Tuesday now.
So the response has beenremarkable. Yeah, it's

an honor. It's on American market now or something
or

Simon King (07:03):
Yeah, so the America so 800 pound gorilla media is an
incredible label. And they theytake a lot of interesting
chances with comedians, and theydo a lot of great stuff. And
they, they approached us andthey were like, really like this
special and and, you know, wouldyou be interested in us
releasing it? And, you know, atfirst I was like, Well, I mean,
I don't know what what's, whatdifference is it going to make,

(07:24):
and they're like we believe init, we will push it, we want
people to see it. And 100%They've come through I mean,
it's it's a I really cannotbelieve the level of support.
It's just, Canada is great forcomedy, it's great for talent,
it's great for becoming acomedian. But in terms of
exposure in terms of just theceilings real low. I mean, I've

(07:45):
done as much as you can do inthis country, I've done national
television a dozen times in thiscountry, and even then you go to
places that people don't knowyou are anything about you.
Whereas if I had the sameresume,

so like LA or New York or I mean, really, you
could move anywhere in theStates. Or you say you don't
want to tour because you don'tthink that your comedy fits well
for doing like a Friday orSaturday night club shot?

Simon King (08:07):
Well, I don't mind.
I mean, I don't. So it's like,it's not that I don't want to
talk, it's just that I, youknow, it's as a comedian, you
can only kind of get as big asyour fish tank. So your audience
has to get to a point where theylike right now I'm working in
new hour. And I'm well known,I'm in Vancouver, and I'm well
known in this city, I can dropin and do what I want. But even
then, I like I did a Mondaynight mic. And you know, there
was a lot of comics doingregular things was great. And

(08:29):
then I dropped in and I openedup with this huge rant about
late stage capitalism, and it'slike, quite dark. So it's like,
you can do it. But when you'redrafting and doing a five minute
spot, and you know, you open itup with good Good evening drones
and

Unknown (08:45):
because they

kind of warm up to you, you're not the one liners
and just like okay,

Simon King (08:52):
now I'm not I'm not easy. And the thing is that you
can do that. And I do have thatstuff, obviously. But for me to
create the way I want to do whatI want, I really am relying on
having, you know, people in theaudience that I don't have to
explain who I am to before Istart. And so I don't mind
touring to the States, I don'tmind that we thought that, you

(09:13):
know, because I did live in LosAngeles in in the mid 2000s.
And, and I have had arelationship with the United
States. But it just seemed to meto be like, everything is more
decentralized now than it everwas, you know, I mean, even
this, like, you know, you foundme through Instagram. This is
kind of I think the way to do itfor me, I think I'm a very
grassroots, kinda like, kind ofpunk rock II sort of comic and I

(09:34):
think the people that find me, Imean, the people that find me
hanging on, which is great, butI just am also I'm not going to
be one of those guys. That'sgoing to be like, you know, I
don't think I'm going to have aviral video that's gonna go off
with me, you know, gettingattacked by Heckler or I'm not
that sort of dude. I'm the kindof person where like the people
that like it like it, andthey'll share it with other
people like it but it's a slowgrowth,

but you're impersonations the bill burr one
I think the bill burr one won'tbe the first one that I saw. And
then you had like a you did likea Marty McFly and you did Bernie
Sanders like Yeah, and it's notonly that you do an
impersonation and that it'saccurate. It's that you, you
actually mix in a funny jokewith which I feel like is a lot
of impersonators problems isthey can do the impersonation,

(10:15):
but they're just doing animpersonation. There's no joke
that goes along with it. We'remissing in a joke with it, like
putting them in funny situationsand things. Like what was the
Bill Burr was like, you know, hetells why the chicken cross the
road like, yeah,

Simon King (10:29):
I would like to think is I think so to me, like,
I've always done impressions andstuff I was able to do. I don't
do that much in my accents,because I sometimes I'll do
there was an encore piece likeif the greater I think I'll do
it because it's fun and silly,because I've already got through
what I want. But I was alwaysthe mind of like, it has to be
the joke first. Like, I rememberone of the first impressions
that I ever did on stage. Thisis like 2001 was because I wrote

(10:49):
a joke I couldn't even do atthat time. It was an Arnold
Schwarzenegger impression. And Icouldn't do it the time I
couldn't do it. But now I can doit.

Unknown (10:57):
The whole time and traitor to this joke, and I
didn't hear it. Wait until Icome up with it. Like it's
great. So

it's almost like a whisper like, you've got like,
yeah,

Unknown (11:09):
yeah, he's old. Now.
It's why

Simon King (11:13):
that's still a fun one to do. Oh.
And the funny thing is, so Iwrote this joke about it. And I
was like, oh, it'd be so muchfunnier with the impression and
then I had to get them and thenso I just kind of, I just do
that, right? Like, it's like so,to me, my voice is similar
enough to Beliebers because Iwas born in England and raised
in Canada. So I have an Englishaccent underneath a Canadian
accent, which means I pronouncecertain words at speed, or

(11:38):
whatever could sound almostBoston. And so it wasn't that
hard to do. Like, it's

Unknown (11:42):
really pretty easy to do just go like two steps over.
Like, right there.

Has he heard that?
Or do a lot of people do suffer?
I don't know.

Simon King (11:54):
I don't think so.
Nia. I haven't heard

too many Dober.
Like, I feel like if he saw thathe would think it's funny. I
don't know. So many comedy, too.
I feel like that's I think so.
Is that a thing where you couldlike if Bill Burr sees us and
says, Hey, that was reallyfunny. Then you could get like
an opening spot on it? Becausehe's playing big places?

Simon King (12:14):
Oh, yeah. Well, the thing is, I think that I think
with comedy too, is it's like,so much of stand up. Stand up
comedy, like all of showbiz,this is not a meritocracy, is
you do the best you can, andhope that things work out. I
mean, the dumb thing about,particularly comedies were all
two or three viral videos awayfrom selling theaters, it's just
the way it works. I mean, and sothe best you can do is keep

(12:35):
pulling the slot machine, butjust work on the craft get as
good as you can do do it for theright reasons, which is I do it
because I want to be a stand upcomic, I'm lucky enough that I
haven't had to have a real grownup job in nearly over 20 years.
So I'm lucky that I've been ableto survive doing this. It can be
exhausting. It can be tiring.
And yes, you definitely do wantto get to the next level,
because there's more security,you can reach more people, I

(12:57):
wonder about what I could do ifI had the freedom to just play
everywhere I go play people whokind of knew what they were
getting before they came in. Andthen you know, it would I would
be able to do something. It'slike having a conversation with
a friend as opposed to astranger. Right? Like when you
have a conversation with astranger, they don't know you,
you don't know them, you can'tmake the same jokes, you can't
talk about the same things youdon't know. And then, you know,
if you put people togetherwho've known each other for 20

(13:20):
years, it's just it, you know,you can be so much more free and
so much more relaxed. And Ithink for comedians, that is the
next step. And I'm on theprecipice of that. So the hope
is that, yeah, I mean, anybodywho can, you know, help out
getting exposure and it's alwaysgood. I mean, I, to a lesser
extent, because I'm obviouslynot a famous person, but I do it
for people, you know, sort of mycontemporaries and people below

(13:42):
me, I help them out when I can,because I believe that you know,
what's good for comedy is goodfor comedians. So if it can be
if it's the good comedian getssuccessful, or a comedian who
does good things or doesinteresting things get that's
just good for all of us. I neverunderstood this whole being
angry that comedian or upset atsomeone else in the industry for
getting something you can be madat the industry, you can be mad

(14:03):
at the way the industryoperates, because they're,
they're usually pencil pushingaccountants, they have no soul.
But the actual talent how theygo.

They tell their parents are both accounts.

Simon King (14:15):
Funny. But are they Hollywood accounts? Are they?
Are they? Because I've had thisconversation when you go in and
pitch a show and they're like,oh, it's such a great show.
How many Tik Tok followers doyou have? And you're like, Okay,
here we go.
This is literally

this conversation with a musician yesterday is the
same kind of thing where they gothrough the same thing. Okay,
how many Tik Tok followers doyou have? And it's like, yeah,
but can't you see talent like,that's the thing for me is like,
I when I saw you right away, Iwas like, Oh, this guy's fucking
good. And maybe that may be partof your problem, too, is that
you're not. It's not dumbeddown. Like this is a comedian
for people who watch a lot ofcomedy like, Okay, this is

(14:52):
smart, whereas other people, Imean, I don't want to name
names, but there's somecomedians that are more
mainstream that it's like if youdon't watch a lot of calm You're
like, Oh, that's funny. Butlike, Dude, I've heard a joke
like this 1000 times I don'tneed to hear the same joke
recycled. So

Simon King (15:08):
yeah, that's what I said like high degree of
difficulty, like, I'm not anentry level comedian, and I
never had. And, and the funnything is, is like over time,
I've slowed down a bit. And I'vetried to try to not make the
leaps that in it, because Ialways just look at the audience
as though they are as smart orsmarter than me, I just always
assume I'm talking to someonewho knows everything I'm about
to say. And you don't have toexplain things. But the thing

(15:30):
is, is it's not that audiencesnecessarily aren't smart they
are, they can be very smart.
It's just that they don't havethe time to spend thinking about
the minutiae of all these littlebits and pieces, they're
thinking about snow tires, andget the kids to school and
mortgage, but whatever the hellelse they've got to do in their
life, they got work in themorning. And, you know, I get to
sit here all day and be like,what if I said this, about this,

(15:50):
and what if I made this spinthis way and, and to me, it's
like a logical jump. But ifyou're just, you know, if you've
had a few beers, and you're in aclub, and everything, I gotta
remember that I'm like, You'renot thinking that way. I'm
trying to the bigger, heavier,harder points I try to push, the
more I have to work on figuringout how to adapt that to and
that's why sometimes voices andcharacters and weird stuff does

(16:12):
come in, because it's a reallygreat way to kind of like,
present the big, heavy point,but also be like, and there's
some goofiness in here. So ifyou didn't catch that, you're
still going to enjoy this. Butthen maybe that you'll kind of
laugh about it. And that'll kindof seep into your head that
Spoonful of Sugar theory, right.
And I think that, that you'reright, that is something that's

(16:33):
for people who watch a lot ofcomedy, I think, are people who
understand comedy, or at leastpeople who are kind of their
brains work that way. But it'slike styles of music, right?
Like, not every style of musicis right for every person. And
even if you love, you know,country music and you go out to
see music and you get punk rockor whatever, it's not going to
be what you want. It doesn'tmatter how good the musicians

(16:54):
are just not going to work foryou. And so that's what comedy
is to we just don't see it as asgenre specific. And we should.

Yeah, no, it's just interesting to like, because no
one clicked on your Instagram.
Usually, when I'm looking at acomedian, like I have, like a
bunch of mutual followers andstuff. I'm like, How do I not
have anybody in common? And itmay be just because all your
comedian friends are Canadian,then more. So you don't have a
lot of American comedian friendsor?

Simon King (17:17):
I have a few. Yeah, I mean, it's also like, I mean,
I'm very, like I said, I'm kindof an underground dude. Like, I
mean, I've been really pushingInstagram and social media since
before the special report cameout. But in in January, I think
I had 2000 Instagram followers,and I'm just old to like, I'm
45. So for me, it's like, I'mnot really a, like, I think I
had 3000 Tiktok followers untilFebruary until end of February.

(17:39):
And then I started to finallycatch, but even then stuff that
sometimes you put something outand you think, well, this is the
one that's going to catch, andit gets to like 800 grand, and
it stops, or, you know, orwhatever it is. And I go what is
it that stopping me from makingthat next step? And I think some
of it is, is I require a bit ofwork? You know, like, I mean, I
have a clip right now onInstagram. That's the most views

(18:01):
I've ever had on a standardclip. And it's something like
1.2 million. It's not a lot, butthat's Well, which one is that?
It's the one about slavery stillhappening. They're just, you
know, the numbers. Yeah, yeah.
So that's, that's one of thoseones where people watch it. And
they're just like, oh, okay, Igot to think about that.

Because I think that's the thing about your
comedy way I relate to because,like, it's the same things that
a lot of the things that I thinkabout, like that one, and then
the, the I swear even like,thought of like, I don't do
stand up, or you know, but Iwrite stuff down. So I'm like,
if I ever do this would be agood bit. And it's the same
thing about like, your fear ofbeing around black people, and
it's not, you're afraid they'regonna hurt you more that you're

(18:41):
afraid that you're gonna saysomething stupid. Yeah, it's
like thinking the same. It iskind of like, as a white guy,
like you just go. Things are alittle tense right now. Like,
why? Okay, like, it's like,probably five years ago, what
something we wouldn't thinkabout as much. But now, there's
a lot of stuff going on theworld and you're kind of like,
okay, I don't want to, like saysomething stupid. was really

(19:01):
brilliant.

Simon King (19:02):
So that's, that's one of the things that actually
came from a conversation with ablack comic friend of mine, and
we were talking this is a fewyears ago, and we were talking
I'm like, you know, the wholetime, you know, the whole time
my brain is telling me not toscrew up and he's like, that's
the whole time. And he's like,that's he's like, that's how you
know you're not you're not adickhead is that you think that
he goes because, yeah, racistand stuff. Don't think that it
goes, but people who think thatare people who actually care the

(19:26):
whole time, because my brain islike, Oh, my God, don't say and
it goes both. you've screwed upso much. Stupid. It's just my
neuroses.

I know. It's like the same thing. Like Were you
ever like worry? Like, oh mygod, like, what? Like, even
watch the murder shows? Andyou're like, I'm a murderer.
What if I What if I kill myfamily? And then you worry like,
you're gonna be a murderer,which is like ridiculous, but
it's the same. That's like theneuroses. I think, yeah. Like,

Simon King (19:50):
I have a joke about that. And I go, this is how I
know I could never be either aCEO or a serial killer is
sometimes before I go to sleepat night, I think about an email
I sent 20 years ago and I getreal sad and like, oh, screwed
up. I was 20 years ago, I sentthis email. I like killers are
like he's under the bed rightnow. I got feet on a necklace.

(20:10):
Like, Oh no, what if I bumpedsomeone's car? Like I'm just I
would never be like, you don'twant to hurt people. Yeah, I'm
terrible at it. I'm terrible.
I'm just so insecure, I wouldn'thave such impostor syndrome as a
murderer, you know, or serialkiller. I'd be like, I bet other
serial killers are better. I'mnot even really good at I mean,
I'm gonna kill you. Like, Idon't know what I'm doing. You
know? Like, I mean, I do watchYouTube and like public
scrutiny. So yeah, I'm not veryconfident murderer.

You know, exactly.
No, it's, it's one of thosethings. That's, yeah, that's to
me. I related to that part.
Like, there's a lot of thatstuff in your comedy that I
think would probably berelatable to a lot of people
really. So that's what so I hopeso rising that I think maybe
this podcast will help but Ihope people see your stuff. Like
I think it's great.

Simon King (20:54):
I when it comes to podcasts and stuff, too. It's
like, it's like my schedule is abit weird. And it was like, you
message me and I saw what youdo. And I was like, this looks
fine. This looks like it'll be agood time. And then also, it's
like, because I enjoy thisstuff. And and I have some time.
And I was like, because becausethe last couple of weeks have
been just nuts. Because youknow, you're doing all this
press, you're doing all thethings you're doing. And then we
finally got this kind of likelittle bit of downtime, and

(21:16):
like, oh, I can enjoy the factthat this thing is out now,
because we shot this in 2019,the end of 2019 right before
COVID. And so what happened was,we shoot it right before COVID
December 2019. We start going topost in February, because we had
some time. And then I couldn'teven go because my editor
melancholy Sharples, who also COproduced and executive producer

(21:38):
and executive producer. He's inToronto, I couldn't get to him.
So then the editing processbecause he couldn't fly because
he couldn't go. So the editingprocess turned into, I was going
back and forth with notes. Andwe had six cameras over two
shows. So we had a lot offootage to go through. And he
and I are both perfectionist tothe point where we used mostly
the Late Show, but there aresome times where like halfway

(22:00):
through I flubbed the secondpart of a word. And I'm like,
that's gotta go. That's gotta beThe Early Show. We got to switch
it. He's like, really? Yep,that's got to be. So it's like,
it's got to be right. Andbecause of that, once it was
done, we had some issues,technical issues that we ended
up getting solved. Once it wasdone, then we're like, Okay,
well, now let's look todistribute it. And when the
distribution came around, it waslike, a lot of people like, oh,

(22:22):
Netflix, or Amazon or whatever.
And some people said, No, andthen the people that said, Yes,
it was like one of those thingswhere like, if you hand this to
Netflix, or Amazon or somethinglike that, they own it, then and
they can do what they want withit, and you can't cut it up or
put clips out or anything. Andyeah, that's it unless you like
you can't do anything with it.
So if they if they take it, andthen they go, Okay, well, we own
this now. Maybe they will pushit really hard. And you might,

(22:46):
it might be their golden ticket.
what will probably happen,particularly with some of these
unknown, is that they'll takeit, they'll air it for maybe a
month, it'll fall down theroster and disappear, and then
it's gone forever. I can't doanything with it. I can't I can.
If I license the audioseparately, or whatever it may
be, I can do that. But when itcomes to the actual video, I
couldn't cut up clips like thisand put it out. And so I'm
talking because I

thought I had a comedian on for him. And he his
special was on seeso, which islike it was it was like there
for like a year, you know? Yeah.
So he had a special on sees. Andthen And then he's I think he's
somehow got it on Amazon. Buthe's posted tons of clips. So
you maybe that's as a part ofthe deal where like, it

Simon King (23:23):
depends on the deal.
It depends on the deal and howyou do it. And I think maybe in
that case, because it was onseeso. And there might be some
sort of difference. But I thinkpeople like Netflix and stuff
are particularly picky about it.
And

promotes the special,

Simon King (23:38):
right? And case, the clip has done more. I think
clipping it out and promote andusing it as promotion pieces has
done far more for me. Because Iam the kind of comic I am. Yeah.
And because of the kind of comicI am because I am that sort of
grassroots guy.

Turn on a special of a comedian. I don't know the
only way. Comedians is usuallythrough clips.

Simon King (23:59):
Exactly. So you'll see like a minute clip and you'd
be like, I'll give this guyanother. And what I found

you watch the other clips. That's what I did with
yours. I watched a bunch ofthem. I was like, Oh, I binged
it. I was like, This ishilarious. And yeah.

Simon King (24:10):
And then he find this special. And I think that's
what's happened with me. WhatI've noticed is that, so I was
talking to a friend of mine whodoes social media, and he's
trying to help me figure outthis because I'm like, so
analog, it's not even funny. Andthen he's like, he's like,
looking at my numbers. He goes,he goes, Yeah, he goes, your
numbers aren't crazy high. Hegoes, they're growing slowly he
goes, but if you look at it, hegoes, people go through and they
watch like 10 1215 clips and hegoes and then they share and he

(24:32):
goes in so he goes, you'regetting actual people who care
about your work and you're notSo case in point like I'm not
losing you know how your numbersfluctuate, particularly in Tik
Tok. They go up and down quiterapidly. Mine don't they seem to
slowly you know, I'll only addmaybe 1000 fans a day or 800
fans a day but those people seemto stick around and so not a ton

(24:53):
though.

Comedians are big on tick tock and stuff.

Simon King (24:59):
Yeah. And that's the thing, too, is like, and I look
at what like, and one of thehardest parts and one of the
pitfalls in this, and I thinkany industry, particularly
comedies really bad for I canonly speak to what I know. But
is that you see what otherpeople do that successful? And
you you don't understand why andyou can't see what like, Why is
that guy got 2 millionfollowers, what has he done and
you look at his clips and yougo, I don't understand it

(25:20):
because they are different fromyou. So the whole idea of Santa
comedy is to be individual andto be different. And yet
somehow, the business part kindof pushes into trying to be the
same thing. And I think that'sdangerous. I think that that,
you know, kind of waters downthe art form. And then
hopefully, if you get successfulenough, you can then be
yourself. Again, I want to skipthat part where you've got to

(25:41):
kind of be homogenized, I wantto just get better as I mean,
I've been doing comedy for 23years, I'm probably about 10,000
shows, and I'm 45 years old, Iam at If I'm lucky, the midpoint
of my career, I probably gotanother 20 years left, or
whatever it may be, and maybemore who knows, but I want to
continue growing, I don't wantto take steps back, it took me a
long time to get where I am. Andto learn how to do what I do.

(26:04):
And to be confident in sayingthe things I'm saying and
pushing the way I'm pushing andI don't want to take steps back
just for numbers on a computerscreen. I'd rather leave good
work than leave a followercount. You know what I mean?
Yeah, you know, that's kind ofis like, as long as the bills
are paid, which you know, he'shard in Canada too, because we
just don't have the population,right, like so for me, the next

(26:25):
nearest town to me, for me todrive to that has a decent
population is four and a halfhours away from Vancouver for
hours. And so that's the nextknow that in Canada, I mean, if
I stayed in BC, and so the wholepopulation of Canada fits in
California and Texas, morepeople in California than
Canada. And so you got to thinkabout just the simple lack of
numbers of how to get and it's amassive country to its to yours.

You go to Seattle a lot though, because I used to
live in Seattle, and I used todrive to Vancouver isn't like
two hours like the thing again,

Simon King (26:56):
yeah, Seattle's great Bonanza visa, you can't
even do really free shows. Aslong as someone paid to get in,
you're breaking the law if youdo the show. So it's
unfortunate, because the viewsare expensive. It's about five
grand. But that's not the thingthat's so hard that the thing
that's hard about it is findingrepresentation. So like I don't
have an American manager agentright now, for various reasons.
And also, because managers andagents, they have to also kind

(27:18):
of be on but they have tobelieve in you, they have to
believe what you do. You know,if they're going to push you in
the right direction, and makethe right decisions for you and
help you get where you need toget. They need to really
understand who you are and whatyou do. And so I've had some
managers and agents that didn'tquite get that and nothing
against them. I'm just, I'm aunique guy, I'm that weird. And
so they didn't quite know whatto do with me. And then the

(27:39):
industry kind of pushed awayfrom dudes like me for a while,
which is fine, understandable.
It has to equalize, I get thatthat's, I'm not upset about that
at all. But it also means thatit's harder and harder to find
the right people that match. Andso you talk earlier, we talked
about something like Bill Burror something. Anyone who reps
someone like Bill Burr orsomething that's probably going
to see someone like me and belike, Oh, that's the kind of
thing I like. So you just lookfor the comedians that have that
whose you look for comedians whoare similar to you who have

(28:03):
similar styles to you havesimilar kind of appeal to you.
And then you look at who grabsthem and you go, Well, that
might be a better fit. And sothat's the next step is to start
approaching. Once I find thatI'll get I'll go get my papers
again. And then I'm back in theStates. But I don't know if I'll
ever live there again. I have achild. He's six and you know, my
wife up here and everything. Idon't want to relocate them.

I don't think they need to, but I think touring,
especially I'd love to have youcome down to Arizona here where
I am now.

Simon King (28:35):
Oh, yeah, I'd love to go to Arizona man. I was just
actually speaking Arizona justjust saw Doug Stanhope on
Saturday he spent down fromBisbee. Yeah.

I've heard people just show up at his house in
Bisbee. And he's like, yeah,come on in like,

Simon King (28:50):
yeah, I guess if you make the trip to Visby, because
it's not like you can fly in.

So it's a fun town.
If you've ever been there. I'venever

Simon King (28:58):
been I want to go. I listened to his podcast, and I
was just talking to him. And Iwas like, you know, yeah, I got
it. I got it. Because I realizedtoo is like, I'm missing out
these opportunities to seepeople who have right friends
and that I like and stuff. Like,I have to go to LA soon to do
some promo for this. And I justrealized I'm like, Oh, these are
all these comics I'm gonna seethat hadn't seen in years, you
know, because like, I used tolive down there, and they've all

(29:19):
gone on ahead their careers andstuff and everything and but
it's still you miss them, right?
It's like, oh, man, because theynever come up here. Because why
would you? I'm so stoked. It'slike, you know, I guess it's
just sort of a thing where youlike, I can go down do the stuff
I need to do and come back. ButI definitely definitely want to
start working the Americanmarket. Well, because I think
that if, you know if there's inCanada, if there's 36 million
people and if I don't know like,you know, 10% of them like what

(29:43):
I do, that's three and a halfmillion people if 10% of people
in the states like what I do,that's 35 36 million people 32
million, you know, so thedifference for me and being able
to get my point across because Iknow that the UK like I do well
in the UK and that translateswell to when I did live there
for a while. And things wentwell for me there. But I think
ultimately, unfortunately, theway our business works, it all

(30:05):
just comes down to numbers. Soif we were having this
conversation, and I had 400,000Instagram followers, it will
probably be differentconversation because it would
be,

we wouldn't be having it with me, it would
probably be

Simon King (30:16):
100% Would I 100% Because I have a podcast too.
And I used to never have guestson, it used to be just me. And
then I started booking guests tothe beginning of last year,
because I was just got bored ofdoing it by myself. And I know
how hard it is to book and howhard is like, and when you get
someone on, you're like, I'vebeen lucky. I've had people who
were like really cool. Um, butevery time I booked someone were
like, Oh, I don't know, likeit's. So I always feel like

(30:38):
whenever someone approaches me,I'm like, I will do my best to
make it as good as possible.
Because I know how hard it is todo that.

Yeah, didn't you say I was listening to one of
your episodes? podcast calledWhat's wrong with Simon king?
And you're seeing that you havesome some bigger name friends
that you could have on the show?
Yeah. And so are you kind ofsaving that though? Or if you
kind of have some of that? Well,

Simon King (30:59):
no, I haven't had them yet. And I think part of it
was to is like, I think I reallywanted to get kind of a bunch of
episodes on him, you want thatback catalogue, it's always
important. And then also until Ihad, because I think that the
mistake sometimes people do isespecially if they have people
with profile they can put ontheir podcast, I think sometimes
they they do it all at once inthe beginning and try and kind

(31:19):
of get everyone on. And I thinkthat's a dangerous thing to do.
Because I think you're going toyou may get listeners for that
one episode, but then you don'tget them for anything else.
Whereas I think what youprobably should do is if you
have guests that have a goodprofile, everything, maybe every
other episode, you put one ofthose people on, so that it
helps continue with that. And Imean, I know that a lot of them

(31:39):
are like more than willing to doit and more than happy to do it.
And I also, you know, I want togo down to where they are. And I
want to kind of you know, makeit easy as easy as possible for
them. And like I said, these arepeople I want to hang out with
anyway. So it's a good excuse togo visiting. So I think I'm
going to try and work on that inthe next few months. And then
we'll start putting, puttingsome more guests. I mean, we're
going into studio next. And wehad studio problems too. And

(32:01):
that was the other problem Ididn't have my studio went and
then I didn't have any studioand I can't kind of be like,
hey, come tomy living. So now I can I can
kind of like I'm more mobilenow. And I can do that. So I
think I'm going to start doingthat and focus more on my
podcasts. Now the specials out.
I can focus more on the podcast.
And that's another one of thethings slow growing, you know,
we have, we have a good amountof listeners very, they don't

(32:24):
watch it on YouTube, do they?
Listen, I don't know how to getthem. I feel like they're old.

Because I feel like it's the opposite YouTube.
Because well, you'll have somethat on YouTube won't get
anything and then you'll havesome that get 1000s. Like, it's
just like it's all over? Thatdepends for me. It depends on
the guest. And it's not alwaysthe big names. It's sometimes
it's people, it's people thathaven't done an interview in a
while. Hungry for but sometimesthe bigger names do so many
podcasts that like nobody cares.

Simon King (32:56):
Yeah, it does get to a point that too. And I think
that's the other thing, too islike, what did they say that?
What is it? What What's thatexpression? It's scarcity is
value, right? So it's like, theless the less you're around, the
more people want to see you.
Right. So like if you know case,case in point, if someone like
Jim Carrey does an interview,you're probably like, I wonder
what he's up to? I haven't heardfrom him in like, eight years.

(33:17):
And so you watch that. But Ithink you're right, I think if
someone's on every and that'sthe other thing about, I think
putting out like because withthis when you when you release
something like this, and thenit's always like, Well, how do
you keep the momentum going? Ithink if you do it all too much
at once you just kind of burnpeople out. They're like, Oh,
this guy's on another podcast.
This guy's doing another thing.
It's like, there's only so manytimes you can talk about a
project. There's only so manytimes you can say the same

(33:38):
thing. I actually have a joke inmy act about how like, you know,
you'll do 15 interviews in arow. And they'll all they don't
they haven't seen it. I mean,great because you've actually
watched what I do, which isawesome.

Yeah, well, I tried to watch like more interviews
and things. I couldn't findstuff. So I definitely don't
know. Like, I don't know yourstory other than you're born in
England, Canada, I guess you'vebeen doing comedy for 23 years.
So yeah, yeah. So you started inCanada?

Simon King (34:04):
Yeah. So I was so I come from a showbusiness family.
So my parents weren't abandonedin the 60s and 70s. And what
band was it? They weren't? Yeah,no, they were bankfull the
silhouettes and it was inEngland, and then in Europe, in
like all through Europe. Sothese to Toy the American bases
during the Vietnam War and stufflike that, as the USO type
stuff. And then my mom had asolo career in the late 70s,

(34:27):
early 80s in England, and shegot tired of it. And England was
a real rough place at thatpoint, like I was about five
years old. It was like 1982 andEngland just beat up it was just
burned out. And so they decidedto either move to I think it was
Tasmania or move to Canada andthey chose Canada, which was
probably pretty lucky for mebecause I don't think that
worked for my accent.

I never would have been interesting. Yeah, right.

Simon King (34:51):
Just yelling about the government. So we moved to
Canada and and my mom got backinto acting theater. And my dad
was an optician, he got out ofthe show business basically. And
then kind of came back into ithere and there. But I started I
did my first ever performance onstage when I was seven, I was
gonna play and then I kind ofdabbled in live theater and

(35:14):
stuff and did all that here andthere. And then when I was in my
late teens, I did some sketchcomedy, and I really loved it.
And then I went, I didn't knowmuch about standup at all,
because it was the late 90s.
Like, wasn't, there's no socialmedia. And so I went to a comedy
club, and I was like, that iswhat I want to do. And then I
did my first set. And I waslike, that is what I do. Now. I
don't care why it was so good.
It was so like,

the first time here's the first time you people
bomb. I loved it. I

Simon King (35:38):
loved I had a great time. And I was I go to school
people said they like, oh, youhad a good first set, you're
gonna bug for a month, I waslike, I don't know. I just
enjoy. It was really fun. And Iloved it. And, and then it's
just been. And then I did it forlike six months or so. And I had
to take a bit of a break becauseI had a real grown up job. And
so I would only do comedy once amonth. And then it got to a
point where with the support ofmy lovely lady friend, she was

(35:59):
like you need to you need tofocus on this. And I was like, I
need to focus on this. And thenI just became a full time comic.
And

it was so hard.
What was the job that you didwhat was the grown up,

Simon King (36:09):
I worked in, in basically cable technical cable
services and technicalmanagement for a cable company
up here for like a short cable.
So like a Verizon type idea. AndI was like a phone technician.
So I would help people workthrough which based on the way
my brain works is ridiculousbecause I just do voices and be
silly the whole time. But theylike talking to me the text like
talking because I just didn't.

(36:30):
But then then I just focused onbeing a full time comic. And in
2004, the end of 2004 I did theSan Francisco and then the
Seattle comedy competitions andat the San Francisco comedy
competition. I made it to thesemis I didn't get out of that.
But I got seen by the scout forthe HBO, Aspen US Comedy Arts
Festival, which I didn't knowwhat it was. Because I'm

(36:52):
Canadian. No. And I also hadbeen seen by Scott wood Just For
Laughs which I knew what it was.
And I thought Just For Laughswas the thing I wanted. And then
HBO called me in the Decemberoffered me the festival. And
they offered me like six orseven shows including opening
for Dane Cook and a bunch ofstuff. And I was like this is
great. It's a trip to America.
And Just For Laughs I thinkoffered me like a one show. And

(37:13):
I was like, Well, I didn't knowyou had to choose. But I was
like I'm definitely going to dothe HBO one. Little did I know
at the time that not only isthat a credit that I think only
two or three other Canadianshave Dave Nystrom, who I went
with who's an amazing comic aswell. He's very few Canadians
have it. And it's a festivalthat's now defunct, but was also
the hub for industry becauseeveryone wanted to go to Aspen

(37:34):
to snowboard and you know, skion the on the studio is done.
And so I got picked up by somereps there. And then it was kind
of surreal I was I had been acomic for about five years, I'd
only been a headliner for like,two and a half, three years, I
was very new to comedy. And thenall of a sudden I was in this
Hollywood machine. And you know,like you were in meetings, and

(37:55):
you're doing this stuff. And Ihad no idea of my place in the
world. And they just kind of gotI got really exhausted with the
industry. After about threeyears, I was just like, this is
brutal. Like I was living in LA.
Yeah, this is when I was livingin LA. So I got so I didn't have
papers at first, and then my myagents paid for my papers, which
was huge. They did that becauselike there's no way I could
afford because I was a brokecomic. And they did that. And

(38:16):
then once I got my papers, as Igot my papers, the financial
crisis in the states happenedwhere you know, the huge
economic crash, there werewriters strikes, there's
everything. So everything justthe wheels fell off. It was the
worst timing possible. So thereI am sitting in the States with
these papers with no work, nonothing going on, no books
working or not. They just likedoing nothing. And and I would
come back to Canada. And, and Iwould do work I would do stand

(38:41):
up and it would just be brutal.
It would just I would just dostand up just to make money to
go back and feed my Los Angeleshabit. And I got to a point
after a few I had a really closecall I almost got when they
rebooted mad TV, I was down tome and one other actor for that.
And he got it well deserved.
Very, very funny guy, but I didnot. And I remember thinking at
that point, I'm like, that's agood place to put a bookmark in

(39:03):
this. Let's go back to Canada.
Let's see a comedian, I recordedan album at the end of 2009,
which I had never done before. Irecorded it. And then I was
like, You know what, I think I'mdone with standup like, it's
just beat the hell out of me. Ihated myself. I hated what I was
doing. I did a show. And so Ihad all these dates to finish
out. And I was like, I justdon't want to be a comic

(39:25):
anymore. I hated how I just, Ijust needed it to make money.
And even you know, killing isjust killing for the wrong
reasons is bad. Like when you'redoing jokes, and you're getting
lashed for the wrong reasons.
And I was doing a show up here,this little tiny bar run by a
buddy of mine. And it was one ofthose nights where like, the
comments were amazing. And theaudience sucked. They just hated
everybody. And I was closing up.

(39:48):
And I went up and I starteddoing the set that I was doing
at the time. And I was killingit was murdering and about 10
minutes in I stopped and I waslike I don't want to do this
anymore. I don't want to do thisfor you. I hate it. I just like,
I hate me for doing it, I hateyou for laughing at it. And then
I spent the next 2530 minutes,just talking, like, just being

(40:09):
honest, who I was, for the firsttime really fully. I mean, I was
kind of

what was the material you were doing that you
didn't like, it was probably amaterial?

Simon King (40:17):
Well, no, it was just it was I put on an album
called unfairness back in like2010, beginning of 2010. And
that was basically theculmination of that style, which
was like a lot of like, muchgoofier much silly, I still had
political stuff and everything,but not like I do. Now I just
didn't have the confidence inwho I was. So you know, it's
like, it's almost like, insteadof comedy, you have to get

(40:38):
really, really good. So you canstart getting good, like, you
have to be able to control theroom and do everything, you have
to be able to kill all the time,have that confidence, all that
material before you can starttaking risks and getting good at
it. And so I was at the pointwhere I was gonna quit because I
was like, just exhausted withcomedy. And then I did that set
and, and it went well, and itwent poorly, like, people were
happy and not and it was good,it was bad. And I left to this

(41:01):
kind of applause and thisfeeling of like, oh, I don't
have to do. I don't have todance like a monkey to get
through this. I can do what Iwant. And I came offstage and my
buddy who ran the place, and Isaid to him, I was like, I'm so
sorry, like, I was not veryprofessional. I mean, he goes,
if you do that every time, youmight be a good comic one day.
And that was what kicked off thenext phase of my career that
threw away every bit every jokeI had, I stopped doing voices,

(41:24):
characters and impressions andput them away, didn't touch him
for years, to the point where alot of comments didn't even know
I could do, it didn't touch him.
I went straight into everything,like that special, furious, it
was all like that it was an Iwrote hours and threw them away.
And I just didn't, I just didn'tdo anything other than just be a
comic. And luckily, I hadestablished a reputation for
myself where I could continue toget work, even though I had

(41:47):
drastically changed styles. AndI found that like if I wanted to
learn, so I knew that I wantedto do that kind of comedy. But
in order to do that, I had toforget what I already knew.
Like, it's like learning a newmartial art, you have to forget
all the muscle memory, learnagain. And then when you put
them all together, you'll haveeverything. And so I did that
for 567 years, develop thisstyle got this material became,

(42:10):
you know what I consider a muchbetter writer much more
confident. Then I startedputting everything together,
which is what you can see and asgood as or better than, which is
the last special I put out. I'mstarting to combine all the
things. So you've got a littlebit of goofy, you've got a
little bit. So I'm confidentenough in how to say what I
want. But I'm also I'm alsogonna get people silly as well.

(42:31):
So

you drop in the impressions. Like that's funny.

Simon King (42:36):
Yeah. So that's the thing is like, so you could do
that. Because you can do that.
It means that you can say theseincredibly, you know, hard
things, like, for instance, is agood example of like, there's a
bit I talk about how we lie toourselves about who we are, we
don't live genuine lives becausewe compare ourselves all the
time and we manufactureexistence. So people pretend
they're, you know, they the I'mnot normal, I'm different, but

(42:56):
they don't actually do things tochange their lives, they do
things to appear to change theirlives. But then that ends with a
goose noise because

Unknown (43:05):
I find the perfect goose. Goose knows it's

Simon King (43:09):
funny. And it's also like, it's also a great so you
hit people with these heavythings, right? It's like a
roller coaster, a roller coasteralways growing up, we're always
going down is no fun. It has todo this. If it doesn't do this.
It's no fun. So I'm going tobackfoot you with all this stuff
about like the end joke about isanybody stupid, and do all that.
And then they do StephenHawking, we change the arms
because it's like, okay, that'sthe, that's the release.

(43:32):
But isn't it so funny when Isaid, Thank God, Stephen Hawking
was a bundle of sticks in awheelchair. The amount of times
people go, Oh, I'm lucky. Itdoesn't know it isn't gay would
have liked it. Yeah,

that's a joke.
That's

Simon King (43:45):
that. I like that. I like makeup people just a little
bit back footed and weird. Andwhen someone comes up to me, and
it goes, I liked almost all ofit. I'm like, that's perfect.
Because if you like, you knowwhat I mean? Like if one or two
things throws you off, I'm like,I feel good about that. Because
like, you know, and youdefinitely define your fan base.
Like with Tik Tok and Twitterand Instagram stuff. You get
people who are like, most peoplehave been super complimentary.

(44:07):
It's been remarkable, like thespecial the comments on the
special Nevermind the views, theactual comments are so
flattering and so wonderful. AndI'm so grateful. But every so
often you get someone who'slike, another white guy
apologizing for being white, andI just put a noose and like, I'm
just like, if I appeal to you,I'd be doing my job wrong. So
off you go. Like, I don't wantthose fans, you know? So it's,

(44:28):
it's good. It's like, I feellike I'm doing the right thing.
As long as I'm upsetting themonsters and making the smarts
happy. I feel like I'm doingokay.
I feel you know,

no, I think you're doing great. Yeah, that's what
I'm just like, kind of surprisedthat you're not bigger, but
maybe you're gonna be I mean,when you look at like Bill Burr,
I mean, he really didn't blow upuntil he was in his what? 40s or
50s?

Simon King (44:48):
Oh, yeah, he was in his mid mid to late 40s. About
the same age as I think he putout because he had had some
success. That's the other thingtoo about the American system
that is different from ours. Alot of the comics that you see
now in America that aresuccessful are big are people
who have already had one good goat it? Like, Bill is a good
example. He's an incrediblecomedian. There's no I remember

(45:08):
seeing

him on Conan for years. Like he was a both those
guys. And then they both didn'tblow up until like way later,
but I remember Yeah, yes spotsrepeatedly.

Simon King (45:18):
I think Louis was like 41 or 42, when chewed up
and shameless came out. And he'dbeen in the system a long time
Bill, I think was in his 40s. SoI think that also I think that's
a good thing for stand up to isbecause comedians, mostly we're
not, we're not pretty boys, or,you know, we're not here for our
looks, or whatever, we're herefor the material. And it doesn't
really matter what you looklike. So age doesn't really work

(45:40):
as manufacturers, it's a benefitto be older, I can sell material
now. I can say things now withmore gravitas and more reality
to them than when I was like ababy face. 25 year old because I
mean, I'm 45 Now don't quitelook 45 You can imagine without
a beard. what I looked like whenI was 25 years old. I just
looked like I was like ateenager. So I couldn't say the

(46:03):
things I want to say now, evenif I wrote them, because people,
someone said to me once like youcan't complain about the word
unless you look like you spentthe night in the Mexican prison.
Like that's the plan.
I have to have a little bit ofsadness to me, and
it works well. And I think thosecomics too, I think you look at
Louis look, I mean, DougStanhope is a great time flux
Thanos a genius. He's a geniuscomic. He was on the man show

(46:24):
and everything in the late 90s,early 2000s. He put out No
refunds, which I think was hisfirst and really incredible work
when he was 40 years old. Andthen since then, I think his 40s
and 50s. I saw him on Saturday,and I think it's his best work
yet. And Carlin is a goodexample. Carlin. Really? I mean,
yeah, he put out great stuff andeverything, but he was in his

(46:44):
50s before, you know, playingwith your head back in town, you
know, those things came out. AndI'm like when those came out,
you're like, Okay, this is a guywho's found his feet. And so I
think that you thought

he was totally different. Like a weatherman.
Did you watch that Carlindocumentary about him?

Simon King (47:02):
I haven't seen it yet. No, I keep forgetting to
watch it. I gotta watch it. Ilove it.

So that's a perfect example of what you're talking
about. He, he was very straightlaced. And then he realized one
day is like, I gotta be myself.
And he totally changed the styleand everything. Because you
still, if you look at like theblack and white, he's wearing
like a suit and stuff and yeah,totally different. So

Simon King (47:20):
I think a lot of that I think a lot of comics
make that step. And I thinkthat's the what you're talking
about the you know, you'regetting good stuff, you can get
good. Like, I think Carlin had agreat career. He was like guest
hosting. I think it's tonightshow but either way, he was like
making a lot of money forseniors. He was had this clean
cut comedy. And then he justkind of snapped one day when he
was like in his mid 30s. Andhe's like, I'm just gonna do

(47:42):
what I do. And then he releasedam FM, which is like, this is
the old stuff. This is the newstuff. And then he was like, I'm
making a very clear point. Now Iam George Carlin who I want to
do same with Richard Pryor.
Richard Pryor was essentially,like Bill Cosby rip off when he
was young. He just would show upin a suit. It was really like
friendly stuff. And then oneday, just snapped. And then
Richard Pryor showed up. And Ithink that this happens with

(48:02):
communities. I mean, you know,even if you look at like, look
at Louis C, KS early stuff, likehis live in Houston album, a lot
of it's much more so like, Ihave a peach have a peach, it's
all absurd stuff. It's nowherenear what he came out with. When
chewed up and shameless cameout. I think he had been through
the wringer enough that he waslike, I am pissed, and I need to
express it. And I think thatreal emotion, if you're going to

(48:25):
be that kind of comedian, or ifthat kind of comedian is who you
are, I think you sometimes needthat push to get over the edge.
And for me, it was, I think I'mnot putting myself in that
category, obviously. But I'msaying my evolution came from
when I was just, I was like, I'meither going to, I'm either
going to quit, or I'm going todo it my way until I have to
quit. So I'm just going to do itmy way till I have to quit and

(48:45):
then talk to me or

Yeah, no, I think that's it. Also, I think it's
kind of like what you're sayingearlier, where when you give the
creative control to someoneelse, like if you look at Louis,
I don't know if people know, buthe did a sitcom. That was like,
terrible. I think I ever saw Idon't think anybody saw it. And
it was like something that youknow, the network said all you
got to be like a family man. Andthen he did a show Louis, which
I think is brilliant, becauseit's exactly what you were

(49:10):
saying earlier about the rollercoaster. And that's kind of how
I tried to do my podcast. I'mlike, I want to do a podcast
where I'm talking about like,super serious, like sad,
depressing things. And then thenext minute we're like laughing
our asses off like that show. Ilove that. I

Simon King (49:24):
love that that's that's that's what I do with
mine. I think that like youknow, we'll get into like even I
actually did my first yesterdayI did a I did. So mostly in the
studio had guests I couldn't getinto this week. So I did one
just by myself like old schoolstyle, because it used to be
like a diary of like a workingroad comic and it got a bit deep
there because life was reallyrough before I moved to England
and kind of got myself sortedout. And so I went back to doing

(49:47):
I did one yesterday, but I did alive stream on tick tock while I
was doing it. So I recorded thepodcast and did a live stream.
And it was funny because we werehaving a fun time. It's just
basically doing a podcast to saythanks to everyone it was so
special and you know talk aboutsome stuff and then some I want
to mention something on Tiktok.
And I got into this discussionabout, like one person
discussion, which is reallyweird. This sort of monologue
about what like, what can't whatit means to comedians, when you

(50:10):
see things like heckler videosand stuff become the norm and
crowd work stuff become thenorm. And what it means to us to
see that like, you know, theactual art form, that work of
comedy is maybe not being asappreciated and everything and
what and not necessarilynegative against the comments
that do that. I'm just sayingthat like, from how we feel
about it, and it turned intothis kind of thing about comedy
as an art form. So it startedout with like, me asking, you

(50:32):
know, which kind of insect ifyou have to punch an insect,
which would be the mostreflective like most most
comforting, like, can you get ifyou punch the murder Hornet, you
get some real feedback on it,you feel good, you know, but if
you punch a fly, you're notgoing to notice. So that's how
it started. And it ended up withthis big deep thing about this.
So I think following where yourbrain is going, I think being as
unscripted as possible andallowing it to happen is one of

(50:54):
the most refreshing enjoyablethings to see. Because you get a
real insight into how someone'sbrain works as opposed to the
regimented these, like wheneverI go on a podcast, like I love
stuff like this, where we justchat. Whenever I go on a
podcast, and it has, we're doingthis section, and then we're
doing this section that would dothis. It just like okay, but
then the whole time we think,Well, this is coming up now and
I gotta do oh, what's myfavorite hot wing sauce? Yeah.

No, you're right.
That's how I used to do my PAwas very chronological. Yeah.
And I would tell people story,which I think sometimes is
interesting. But also, I'velearned to just try to listen a
little bit more to the guestsand follow because sometimes the
guests gives you somethingyou're like, if I don't go down
this rabbit hole, like I'mmissing out.

Simon King (51:35):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that's the thing, I think,
especially when you're dealingwith creatives, as well, because
I think a lot of creativepeople, you know, they get into
the fields, because their brainsdon't necessarily work in
exactly the same way. Like, Ihave some friends who are who
are like scientists, and likedoctors and stuff like that. And
the way they think isincredible. They think like A
plus B equals C, which equalsthis, which does this and their

(51:58):
process is remarkable. They'reable to stay on task focused and
everything. I'm all over theplace, like I have, like, it
just, it's just and this is howI write like, I don't even sit
down and write comedy. I go onstage with an idea. Yell about
it. Remember it. I don't recordmy sets. I don't write stuff
down very much. I rarely everwrite anything down. Everything
you see that I do, has come fromme riffing on stage and ranting,

(52:22):
and then just somehowremembering the feelings of
where it's supposed to go. So I,you know, I got asked to teach a
comedy course once, which Iwon't do. I mean, I'm happy to
give tell people, whatever Iknow, but I'm not gonna, I don't
even know how it works. And thenI realized I'm like, How can I,
if I can explain that toanybody? What how I write, I
can't explain that. Like, itdoesn't make sense. Like, it's
just kind of like, I go up. AndI like, had this, like, I went

(52:44):
up to talk about the monarchy,incarnation of King Charles on
Monday, I had one joke in myhead, I want to say, and then I
ended up ranting for threeminutes about it.

What is your thoughts on that? I see. I don't
really follow that mygirlfriend's kind of didn't do
it, though. But I'm curious whatyou thought about that?

Simon King (53:02):
Well, to me, monarchy is antithetical to
equality, like you cannot haveequality when you have the head
of a class system. When you havesomeone spending 230 million
pounds on getting a funny hat onand there's people starving in
the streets. I'm like, if that'sif the if every problem solved,
and you want to wear a funnyhat, and you want to spend money
on that, that's fine. But it'salso like, to me the idea that,

(53:23):
you know, some group of peopleare more superior based on who
their mother was, seemsridiculous to me, the idea of a
class system like that, and so Iam very, I'm, I'm a Democratic
socialist, I'm, you know,anarcho syndicalist. Like, I'm
this kind of person where Ilike, I really believe that
people can we, if we don't learnto rule ourselves, we're not

(53:45):
going to be able to it's alwaysgoing to be people pulling us
around. And so the monarchy isthe last vestige to me of
people. I mean, I said on stage,I'm like, Look, if he killed his
mom with a broadsword and tookthe crown, I'd be like, Well,
fair, you know what I mean? Likethat's how they used to do it.

Thing is like, you're they're rewarding. Like
you said, who their father islike the blood there's no
achievement there. I mean, it'snot like he didn't even run it's
all just this like weird systemthat's like and and typically
they don't even really doanything isn't at all symbolic.
They have a real they have areal people who run the country
anyways.

Simon King (54:17):
They that's the thing. So it basically it's
just, they're essentiallywelfare queens who live in, you
know, state housing, and they'respending millions and millions
of pounds. And the funny thingabout it, too, is like, it's
like to me, I think that like,because someone said to me,
because I'm very like, I have areal problem. I look, I don't
have any problem with wealth. Idon't have any problem with
people having money that neverbothers me. I have a problem

(54:38):
with greed. I have a hugeproblem with greed. I think
greed is a mental illness ifyou're willing to harm other
people knowingly to enrichyourself, if you're okay with
other people's suffering, so youhave more? No. If you have more
and you do what you can to help,I don't care if you want to have
$150 billion, but you helppeople and you got that
ethically if it's possible, gogo down. I don't care, do what

(55:00):
you want. Um, whereas to me,it's like, suppose people like
you shouldn't you be antibillionaire? I'm like, it
depends on the billionaire. Imean, the general idea that
someone would have that much isa bit ridiculous in such an
uneven society. But there's, youknow,

what are some, you know, some of the times people
are just really good at doingsomething and they created a
product. And it's like, yeah,yeah, and give away their their
money. But what are theysupposed to? They're bringing
in, like, these billionairesthat are like, I love Amazon. I
love I love the products thatthey're creating. But yeah, you

(55:33):
look to like, then kind of feellike a hypocrite, because it's
kind of like what you said, withthe child slavery, you're like,
well, we all on iPhones. Andit's like, we don't really want
to talk about how the iPhoneswas made. But

Simon King (55:44):
well, our our society is a society of
convenient remembering, like, wetry to forget the things that
are terrible, because it's notour thing is to is like, I don't
blame consumers. And I don'tblame people for living in this
you are in the society you'rein, you have to adapt and live
in this society you're in, it'snot like you not getting an
iPhone is going to stop it. Whatyou can do, is you can like with

(56:05):
billionaires, you can say, Maybewe should elect governments
that, you know, attacks themappropriately. That's the first
step. And maybe that tax moneycan go to helping people who are
in the sweatshops or whatever,that's the next step. And so,
you know, you can kind of triagethese things and move it along,
no one's expecting you to builda guillotine and solve the
problem everyone's expecting,you know, we need to kind of

(56:25):
move in the right way. But whatbothers me the most, is that,
it's sorry, let's just go. Andwhat bothers me the most is that
is that, you know, people willsay things like, you know, like,
somehow like, like, billionairesnot paying their fair share is
somehow like, oh, well, theyjust achieved it. No, no. Most
people who have that level ofwealth, most people, there are

(56:46):
some people who invent things.
But most people have that levelof wealth come from privilege
and come from where we're giventhat generational wealth or debt
ability, because the systemdoesn't tax them properly, and
everything. So if we imposedappropriate regulation on these
people, that would probably bethat billionaires would be
slightly less wealthy. Do youneed 190 billion can you have
110 doesn't really make thatdifference. But the one thing

(57:07):
is, at least, there is still achance to become a billionaire.
No one's saying you can't, youcan never become a royal family
member, unless you marry one ofthem. You know what I mean? So
it's like, so it's like, eventhe billionaire class, however
much, it's perverse, and it'sweird, and all this other crap
that's going on, on the majorityof billionaires, you know, take
advantage of a system and it'santisocial and all the other
shit it is, at least there isstill technically an open door

(57:30):
to get into it. You could inventsomething, you could do
something you can never, ever bein England, you can never be a
royal quiet. So you would see itas people in England who are
broke, who were high class, andthey think they're better than
everyone just because of theirdad was a Baronet or something.
It's insane. It's insane to me,that you would take any value of

(57:51):
merit and effort out of thesystem and just basically give
people preferential treatment bybirthright. That's just nuts. I
just don't see why. In 2023, weallow that to happen. Unless
like I said, it's trial bycombat. If Prince Charles is
like anyone wants to fight mecan be king, and he just
defeated people if he did that.

(58:11):
You know what, fair enough manis fight.

You people think that that's so great, and to be
in the royal family. But what'sthe girl Kate Middleton or
whatever, like she's like, thisis so terrible. I think it'd be
a little dramatic. But also it'slike, I don't know that I'd want
to be in the spotlight. But thatdoesn't seem like that. Great.
That sounds like you're kind ofbeing exploited in my opinion.
Yeah,

Simon King (58:34):
I don't think I don't think anyone boy. Wow, it
is because

they like it.
There's people that are fans ofthis that? Again, I'm not I
think it's silly and ridiculous.
But some people are really intothat stuff. Yeah. And I think
that's why we allow it.

Simon King (58:48):
I think it's also like people want this is weird
thing in humans, where theyalways think that it used to be
better. There's this weird thingwhere it used to be better?
Well, I mean, it used to bebetter because you were younger,
that's part of it. And it alsodidn't necessarily used to be
better. Hindsight is is, is youknow, 20 not 2020 Hindsight is
5050 for me, because I drank buthindsight. Hindsight always

(59:09):
paints things rosier than it isin those situations. And when in
reality, this idea of whatEngland for instance, was like
with the monarchy, it's like,well, if you look at the people
that are pro monarchy, there arealso a lot of them pro Brexit,
and they destroyed their owncountry, they just they just
flattened their country into theground. So they do these things
where they think that it's makesBritain stronger or more

(59:29):
traditional or whatever. And italmost always people don't
realize that the reason progressis progress is because things
used to be a certain way and weand we move on we get better we,
you know, we you know this wholeyou see it a lot with a lot, a
lot of right wing conservativeRaticate at rhetoric where they
say stuff like going back to theway things used to be the good
old days, the good old dayssucked for 99% of people. You

(59:52):
know what I mean? Like Good OldDays weren't good old days,
because how far back you want togo, like you want to go 60 years
back when kids were dying topolio how far back You want to
go and so we're seven yearsback. And so I think that people
have this thing where changescares them. And so holding on
to something that reminds themof a dream they had about what
might be the royal family inthis case, gives them comfort.

(01:00:15):
So if you took away the royalfamily, a bunch of people would
think it affected theiridentity, they wouldn't know who
they are. The Next Generationwouldn't care. You know, the
French did it. They I mean, theFrench, they pulled it, I can't
believe the English let theFrench beat him in that. Come
on.

Chuck Shute (01:00:27):
Let's get the French used to have that thing
today. When did they get rid ofit?

Simon King (01:00:31):
They got rid of the French Revolution in the late
18, late 18th century, they gotrid of

it a long time ago, not in my lifetime. Yeah.

They were way ahead of the curve. They were like,
you know, what? When did?

When did Britain make it? So they still had it?
Obviously, they've had itforever. But when did they make
it so that the king reallydidn't have any power was
awesome power? What year wasthat? Similarly?

So that kind of Yeah, that kind of passed. So
there was a Yeah, there was kindof like a series of events. So
England had temporarily arepublic, it didn't have a royal
family in in 17th century for alittle while, Oliver Cromwell
and all that. But the Kingspower the King of Queens power
was diminished. Before thatthere was there's been
parliament in England sincedon't quote me on this, my mum

(01:01:15):
would know this. It's believed12, something 1213 has been
polarized. The King and theroyal family still maintain
massive amounts of power overthe last sort of like, well, I
would say, Queen Victoria wasprobably the last really
powerful monarch they had. Buthers was more cult of
personality than anything else.
She still had power, she stillmade decisions. I think when you

(01:01:38):
get into the 20th century,Edward and onward, I think
you're starting to look at like,that's when it diminished. I
think the world wars made a bigdifference in that too. You
know, I mean, if you look at howdrastically different the 20th
century, even the latter half ofthe 20th century, compared to
the first half, the first halfof the 20th century to the
latter half of the 19th century,things changed so drastically in

(01:01:59):
Britain. And, you know, becausethey were the top of the world
globally, I think that it reallyjust became something that, you
know, a royal family can't run acountry like that it's too big
and too powerful. There's toomuch going on, you're relying on
someone who didn't get electedand doesn't know that job to
make decisions regardingmillions of people's lives, you
know, and in state of the world,billions of people's lives. So I

(01:02:22):
think the only logical thing todo is move away. And so what I
don't understand is we made thatfar of a leap. Let's just count
it all together, keep thebuildings everyone can go visit,
you know, get get Prince KingCharles or Java subway, people
go see.

Well, they would have a wealth or whatever, I'm
sure, right. So

he's got he's got half a billion pounds, and yet
the people of England paid forhis carnation. So he spent
230 20 40 million pounds, whichis why that $350 million on
getting a hat put on and yetthey're happy.

Do you think he's he's a happy person? No,

I don't think I don't think any of them are
happy. I honestly don't think Ithink Harry and Megan, I think
escaping probably was the bestpossible thing. I think that. I
mean, if you look at just howscrewed up that entire thing, I
think that when Queen Elizabethdied, she was the longest
serving monarch. She was belovedthat should have been they
should have been like, Alright,we're done here. We did a great
thing. Everyone's happy. She wasthe last vestige of the old

(01:03:21):
Royals. She was the last vestigeof the 20th century Royals.
She's done. I think in 2020 Ithink in the 21st century, you
have a royal family and ifsomething's really screwed up
with your, you know, and alsoI'm an atheist, so define right?
If Divine Right of Kings makesno sense to me. My goodwill,
none of it makes any sense. AndI'm like, Okay, we're gonna do
this. Why can't Why don't have apharaoh bring a pharaoh back.

(01:03:44):
They were fun. You know, plaguescrazy shit. chariot races, and
Emperor Come on.
Pyramids were cool. How greatwould that be? If they're like,
look, we're building a pyramidever. Like you know what?

Lux? Are you ever been to Vegas? That's pretty
cool. Yeah,

that's it was pretty cool. They got that light on the
topic and blind aliens.

No, but so do you think? I cuz I don't want to
disagree with you that I thinkthat they're the greed is an
issue. You're right, like peoplemaking money. Okay, that's fine.
But like the greed. That's fine.
But the greed is an issue. Butwhat about the people that are
not achieving their potential?
Because to me, I feel likethat's a bigger issue. I think
that's how you knock down allthese billionaires. You create

(01:04:22):
competition there. Yeah. Who'scompeting with the iPhone who's
competing with Amazon like, andgranted, I'm sure some of that
is, again, like you said, thesystem is kind of, you know, set
up for some of these people thatonce they get on the top, it's
like, it's hard to compete. Butyeah, like there should be more.
We used to have more innovationin this country. I just feel
like there's no, there's so manyissues I have with my computer

(01:04:43):
and my phone. I'm like, Whycan't someone come along and
create some competition that'sbetter than this shit?

Well, there's a couple of reasons for this. And
this is a reason I'm a bigproponent of universal basic
income because one of theproblems is that people are so
pushed to their limits mostpeople, most people, the average
middle class person, and theworking poor, can only just get
by, they're exhausted, we workridiculous, you know, work days,
4050 6070 hours a week, you go,you get two days off, when you

(01:05:12):
can maybe spend time with yourfamily or do whatever the hell
it is, if you have, you don'thave time to do these things,
you don't have time to innovateand create you don't use
exhausted, it's just, and alsothe ideas, it seems there's so
many roadblocks in the way ofcreating these things, that we
lose so much potential inindividuals, because they can't
go to the schools they need,they can't do the things I mean,
education in the United Statesis, is a disaster. Higher

(01:05:33):
education is cost so much money,and it's so exclusionary, and
it's exclusionary for a reason,right. I mean, it makes the
competition to top lower andlower, lower every single hurdle
you put in the way if someone onthe bottom and wants to get up,
makes it easier for the peopleon the top to stay on top, and
their families and their peoplearound them. And that's what it
is. So I think that if youintroduce something like
universal basic income, what youallow people to do is you allow

(01:05:56):
people to, I'm going to take achance to start a business
because if that business fails,I don't lose my house, you know,
I mean, or I'm going to go toschool, because I know the
school is paid for, or, youknow, if you get people out of
medical debt out of out ofschool debt, if you start giving
people some money in theirpockets, two things are going to
happen. One, they're going tospend that money. Most people
who don't have a lot of moneydon't have a lot of money,

(01:06:17):
because they spend a lot ofmoney. So that money is going to
go back in the economy, it'sgoing to fund its own system.
But there are going to be peoplewho are going to be able to use
those opportunities to take thenext step and the step after
step after. And so, you know,like, even in my case, people
go, Well, why aren't you playingmore theaters? Well, it costs a
lot of money, I gotta, you know,it cost me $3,000. to rent it,
it cost me $2,000. To promoteit, I've got to come up with a

(01:06:39):
grant to do one of these, like,I'm a working comic, and I'm
doing fine. But I can't do thatlike two or three times a year.
If I fail, I gotta move, youknow what I mean? So like, you
can't take those chances, youcan't make those steps, unless
you have some sort of safety netthat allows you and I'm not
talking for people who arealready wealthy, I'm talking to
people who are like, trying toclimb out, you know, it has many

(01:07:00):
benefits. If you look at thingslike safe to take like someone
in an abusive relationship, itgives them the ability to get
out someone who's raising achild by themselves or a couple
of children by themselves. Itgives them the ability to
provide those children with thechance to get education get
after school, but maybe you'vegot a kid who could be a piano
prodigy, but you can't affordpiano lessons, because you're
just getting by, we lose a pianoprodigy. And so I think we have

(01:07:23):
to as a species, we have to getour emotional intelligence and
evolution up to where to nexttechnological evolution is
capitalism the way we're doing.
It doesn't work. It works for afew people. It destroys
everything around it. I mean,look what's happened in the last
200 years. We don't have to livelike this, we don't, we could be
a lot better. And I'm not sayingpeople can't be wealthy, of

(01:07:43):
course, they can be wealthy, butthey need to do it inside a
system that allows opportunityfor others. And so that's the
part that frustrates me. And Iknow that Canada, you know, I
know that a lot of Americanmedia says Canada is the
socialist paradise. It's not atall there's very little, we're
quasi socialist, we have somesocialist programs, but even
things like I don't pay formedical insurance. So if I get
sick, I go to the doctor, whichmeans if I if I need medical

(01:08:06):
care I can get it means I'llprobably live longer, I'll be
healthier, I can contributemore. The money, I don't spend,
I go to the doctor, I buy a car,I buy a TV, I do these things.
Those are little tiny things. Soimagine if every doctor that
came out of university or everylawyer, everyone didn't have a
student debt, what are theygoing to do with that money?
They're going to buy thingsright back into the economy,

(01:08:28):
that money gets filtered down.
People who maybe, oh, if I couldjust get this, if I had a little
extra money, I can build thisnew computer, they can do it,
they can do it. So that's Ithink the step who's gonna make
the

cars if if I have a universal income, I don't want
to go and make cars. Well, thething is, it's not. That's my
fear with something like that.
It's like, we're just goes,well, fuck it. I'm just gonna
watch tick tock in smoke weed.

Well, the thing is, is that the thing is, it's it's
true, they've done pilot work,and some people are going to do
that. But those people areprobably already in a system
where they're, what what it is,is if you do a job you want, you
want to do it. People, peopledon't want to work the jobs,
they don't want to work. Notevery but look, I have friends
who love cooking or love beingchefs and everything. Like I

(01:09:11):
can't, I couldn't imagine doingit twice. couldn't imagine doing
it. It's insane to me. Peoplecan't imagine doing the job I
do. So I think everyone justneeds to find and I'm not and
people in these pilot programsfor this, which we've had a few
up here and in other countries,it actually increases
employment. People go todifferent jobs that they never
thought they could do beforethey take a chance. They try
things they tried forpromotions. It actually yeah,

(01:09:34):
and automation is coming to takeaway the harder jobs anyway.
Yeah. And so it's going I meanlook look at the job the cashier
job someone doesn't want to gothat's pretty much gone now.
That's that's and it's only afew years before we are those
jobs are replaced anyway. A lotof jobs that people don't know I
think

electric or self automated cars. Yeah. Hard time
I think I can't be doing thatmuch longer. I hope the podcast
takes off. Good luck. Justdriving cars here. Have you seen
those? Yeah, yeah, it's there'snobody behind the wheel

freaked me out. It's a little bit like, Ghostbusters
or something like who's drivingthe car, like,

totally Terminator, like, like sci fi things where
the machines take over. It'skind of freaky.

Well, and that's the thing, too, is as we as we move
towards this technologicalrevolution, where we're about to
undergo a medical revolution,where people's lifespans will
change drastically, probably thewealthy but their lifetimes
lifespans will change, peoplewill live longer. So having 234
I mean, when I was young, havingtwo or three different careers
in your life was unheard of. Andnow people do it all the time.
They change careers all thetime. I mean, you know, your

(01:10:39):
productivity changes, you can domore things with your life, as
robots and as automation comesin and take away the jobs that I
mean, you don't need humans tobuild cars, you don't need
humans, this specialty cars, thestuff that you know, the
Ferraris, whatever. But to buildit, you don't need humans, we
already don't have humans doingmost of it. As soon as those
jobs are replaced. Those peoplewho have to put headlights in a

(01:11:01):
Ford Focus, that's their job,and they hate it. All of a
sudden, they're like, maybe I'lljust, maybe I'll do this for
different and then create it thepeople take chances and create
more jobs. I think ultimately,there's always going to be
people who don't want to work.
There's always going to bepeople who don't want to do
things. But there's people whohave jobs, you don't want to
work, they just show up and theydo nothing. Well, that's

a problem to hear.
We're a lot there's a lot ofpeople that just I'm noticing
that we're the people that justdon't give a shit. Like, in so
many jobs, like everything, likeI'm gonna get my car fixed. That
guy doesn't go to a restaurant,the waitress doesn't give a
shit. Or they do give a shit. Ifyou ever been to Mexico, holy. I
mean, you get treated likeroyalty down there like, yeah,
come on in like they just like,Yeah, awesome. Like, this is

(01:11:44):
great. Like, I wish we could bemore like in America, like, have
more pride in our work, nomatter what you do. I just think
you know, yeah.

Well, that's the point. I mean, I think if you do
what you love, or if you do whatyou do, there'll be I mean, and
this, like I said, there'salways going to be people who I
mean, anytime you have apopulation, you have groups of
people where the accountabilitygoes down, when there's when you
have the anonymity that comeswith massive population. You
know, if you've got 50 people ina room, they're all accountable
to each other, if you're notpulling your weight, the other

(01:12:14):
49 people, like do your job. Butwhen you've got, you know, 50
million people, no one knows,and no one can tell. So what
happens is, workers and peopleare in are told that they are
expendable, that they can bereplaced, that what they do is
not that they're treated withoutvalue by the companies a lot of
the time. And so what happensis, the series of resentment

(01:12:37):
sets in and discouragement setsin and I think that's a portion
of those people. I'm not sayingit's right, I'm saying that
people just have had enough,they're exhausted. And I think
that, you know, when you getpeople saying, well, you know, I
mean, I know it's your weekend,you should still be working for
the company. I mean, there'sabsolute madness going out there
like that, then there's acertain group of people who just
don't want to work and aren'tinterested, those people will
always exist. But in a lot ofpeople, it's just like, they

(01:13:00):
have to separate their livesinto this is the robot part of
my life where I do the jobthing. And then this is where I
get to have my own life. And Ithink that that's the problem, I
think, I mean, you know, there'sbeen studies where they go down
to four day workweeks, and it'sbeen so much better for not only
men, I think, Oh, brilliant.

I don't know why they haven't done. And in fact,
like, I mean, you could almostdo like three, if it was just
you're working all day. Yeah,you're gonna put in about the
same amount hours, I think. Andall the studies say that you'd
be more productive and happier.

Looking after COVID COVID showed is really briefly
links up here in Canada, forpeople whose whose job was
directly affected by COVID, theywere given $2,000 a month, which
is essentially a universal basicincome cipher. And it allowed
people to continue to becauseotherwise those people would
have not been able to stay intheir apartments, they would
have been able to so all of asudden, those landlords aren't

(01:13:51):
getting money, the government'snot getting money for that. It
just helps the system to pay.
It's not like much of money. Butthe

inflation thing that we had here, though,
because we're still feeling theinflation for matters global,

right, like, I mean, we got that. I mean, that's,
that's just a general, I thinkthat there's a lot of lack of,
there's just people who twistthe numbers for their own
agendas on both sides left andright. But there's also a
general lack of understanding ofthe system of economics and how
it works. And, you know, peoplego on and on about, oh, we're in
debt. Well, that's how countriesoperate. They operate in debt
and who they owe that money to,they owe it to themselves and

(01:14:21):
they bought you know, it's, it'sa big, long, complicated thing.
What we did do here was we ahuge amount of people started
working from home like they dideverywhere else. productivity
went up when people were allowedto not be in this regimented. So
so many companies up here, have,including government, like
departments have started lettingpeople work from home because
they're more productive. Nowimagine if we took it one step

(01:14:43):
further and be like, oh, youknow how you've exhausted all
the time? What if we gave youone extra day, so you were a
little bit well rested, yourmental health will be better,
which means you're not takingmental health days and it's not
a tax on the system. That's theother thing about UBI or
something like that. For us uphere with socialized medicine.
Um, it's, it's expensive. It'snot as expensive as everyone
says, but it is expensive, it'sour most expensive program. A

(01:15:06):
lot of that is mental healthstuff, a lot of that is people
are, you know, they need help,because they're exhausted and
worn out. And money is thenumber one stressor in most
people's lives. You take thatout of the equation, you release
that pressure, you can savemoney on policing, you can save
money on mental health, you cansave money on health care, I
mean, these are things that canhappen. If we take the chances.

(01:15:26):
It's just that it's such a bigthing, because a lot of people
don't really understand how itworks. And it doesn't matter how
many studies you do practicalapplications, the there needs to
be a country of a decent sizethat steps forward and goes
okay. And I think it's going tobe one of I think it's going to
be like Denmark, or Norway, orSweden gonna be one of them,
it's going to be one of them,because they're essentially
democratic socialists, thataccepts word and go, Okay, let's

(01:15:47):
try this. Let's try this forthree years, let's see what
happens to the country in threeyears, I'd be very curious to
see I want to I want to becauseI know that in the small because
we did test it in Canada, in asmall in one of our provinces in
Manitoba. And the results werefantastic. And this was in the
70s. And then they changegovernments and the government
came in and took the took, youknow, shut it down. And, and so,

(01:16:09):
I think that if we were able toimplement, you know, I mean,
we've got to try something,because people are people are
miserable. You know, you see itwhen you go to shows people are
tired, people are our

you know, they have the you have the homeless issue
up there to our homeless isgetting really bad in the
States, especially where I'mfrom Seattle. I mean, I'd never
assumed that 10 or 15 years ago,I remember driving in and seeing
these blue tarps everywhere. Iwas like, What is going on?
Like, it was just out

here. It's bad here.
And that's the other thing too,is I had a joke about that. And
I was like, I was like, cuz Ihave this thing about homeless
veterans. And I go, and I talkabout homeless veterans a bit
and the audience getsuncomfortable. I go, you know,
what's great about this, youdidn't think about homeless
veterans until the big bagcomedian brought it up, you're
gonna go home to your apartmentwith no homeless veterans and
don't write a letter to yourpolitician about homeless
veterans you weren't going towrite because until I mentioned
it, you didn't think about it,and it's not your fault. It's

(01:16:57):
because you can't think becauseit's too heavy. It's too much.
You drive by a food bank. Canadais one of the richest countries
in the world, the United Statesis, is the richest country in
the world. There are lines forfood, what are we doing?
Children are are starving todeath in the richest countries
in the history of the world?
What the hell are we doingwrong. And so we need to really

(01:17:20):
examine and that's why I saidabout emotional evolution, we
need to as a species, evolveenough emotionally, that all of
a sudden, altruism isn't rare,it is the default, that all of a
sudden, empathy isn't rare, it'sthe default, that instead of get
yours, it's get everyone's geteverything for everyone, let's
the American Dream is a greatidea. But it turned into a dream

(01:17:42):
of collecting things, what itshould be as a dream of
community and individualachievement, and growth as a
person. And you know, as as acountry becoming better because
each part is good. But youcannot have a successful country
when the foundations arestarving children and broken
people who are you can't youcan't, it's an artificial, it's

(01:18:04):
a balloon on a string, and thepeople holding the string are
running out of energy, and thatballoon is gonna fly away. And
so I really think that, I reallyhope because like I said, my son
is six, I really hope that hisworld is going to be so very
different than the world. And Ithink social media will help
with that. It's terrible rightnow. But it will help because I

(01:18:25):
think all of a sudden,accountability is coming back.
All of a sudden, the sea ofanonymous people has changed.
It's like, oh, no, I, I may havenever been to Iran. But I've
seen what people live like inIran now in because I have a
friend who's a streamer there.
And I see. And I'm like, oh,that changes the way I perceive
things. Those small incrementalchanges, and the way we educate
ourselves, will slowly butsurely, I think move us to the

(01:18:48):
next step. That's my hope.
That's my Yeah,

I agree. I think that for my in my philosophy,
it's that I feel like everyonehas a purpose. And you're right
at the top. When you get to thatlevel, when you're very
successful. I don't think it'sto collect a bunch of things and
be greedy. I think it's okay, Ifigured out my purpose, I'm good
at something I'm doing. I'msuccessful. Okay. Now, the next
step is to, you know, the growthof a human being would be to

(01:19:12):
help other people do doing thatas myself, and a couple 1000
subscribers as a podcaster.
podcasters only have a couple100 subscribers. Yeah. And you
actually make you feel better. Iknow.

And that's the thing that I don't understand. It's
like, it's like, if you said tome tomorrow, you could have $100
million, but you can't ever docomedy again, I would have to
say no, because the 100 milliondollars, great at first love. I
mean, I would give that moneyaway as much as I could. I mean,
obviously you provide for yourfamily and everything, but then
you go, Well, I got this money,I can help people. But then
ultimately, at the end of it,I'd be like, Well, I've done
some good with this money. Butnow I'm empty because I can't do

(01:19:50):
the thing I do. I can't. This ismy purpose. This is what I do.
I'm way

more important.
Exactly. I'm sure you've donethis too, but I've eaten it.
really nice restaurants. I'veeaten at restaurants. I've
stayed in fancy hotels. I'vestayed in shitty hotels, you
know, I've been in really nicecars have been a shitty cars.
There's not that big of adifference. It's the hotel, and
you're like, oh my god, this islike, I mean, yeah, the only
thing that I think would bedifferent would be if I was

(01:20:16):
rich, I would want a private jetbecause I hate flying
commercial.

Well, you know, I mean, that's the thing. And
that's the thing, too, is like Ialways said, this is like, it's
like, if you were a very wealthyperson, and you want to have the
trappings of being very wealthy,no one's gonna look it. Elon
Musk does a lot of weird shitand says a lot of strange
things. And he's got a bit odd,

but doesn't he live in like a tiny like, trailer or
something? Who knows? I mean, hedoesn't live in a mansion. All
little.

He's a strange man.
But the thing Oh, totally. Butthe thing about this is like, so
say you had someone who has $100billion. And everyone's like,
billionaires are the worst andeverything. But every year that
person like because Elon Musk,they said this, like Elon Musk,
you know, cure world hunger. Andhe's like, give me the numbers.
I'll do it. He's actually abunch of money. He but he didn't

(01:21:01):
actually he could have solvedthe problem with the stroke of a
pen. But imagine if he did. Soall of a sudden, you're going
like Elon Musk's a real dick.
Did you see what he said? You'relike, Yeah, but like, he also
cured world, like, youknow what I mean, it's such a
Get Out of Jail Free card, whereyou can be like, I am a maniac.
And I say crazy things. Butthink of all the people who
aren't dead. And you have to dolike, he's got five private
jets, but also he cured malaria.

(01:21:24):
Whenever you know what I'm gonnado the good thing, so you can do
way worse things. You know whatI mean? It's like, everyone's
gonna be like, I don't care thatyou have $100 billion, and
you're not paying as much taxbecause you spent $6 billion on
wiping out all the all themedical debt. So I mean, go go
go get it. You know what I mean?
Fair enough. I don't understandwhat they don't do. And I think
that's the that's why I'll neverbe a crazy billionaire. Because

(01:21:46):
I don't understand why youwouldn't just give it away. Just
to have like, just becauseimagine being mentioned the shit
talking you could do at a bar.
If you're sitting there, andeveryone's asleep. Good. You
think you're so tough. It'slike, oh, I'm not tough. But you
know what, it's tough. All thepeople who now have good
nutrition because I paid fortheir food for 20 years, and no

(01:22:07):
one can

talk shit. Imagine how we need to change it.
Society is, is instead ofshaming people for other dumb
stuff that we do. Let's shamethe people who are selfish
pricks. You know?

It's like, it's like, if you've got I used to
joke and I go, we should treatgreed like we treat every other
mental illness. We shouldn't weshould we should throw people in
jail because we don't understandit. Like if you see someone if
someone's got a $30,000 watchon, I'm like, No way you go. To
a cop shows?

Exactly. Well, um, well, one thing I always do on
my podcast always in promoting acharity or cause it's something
that is near and dear to yourheart. I mean, clearly a lot of
things. But is there one thatyou want to shout out here that
after people watch your specialthey can go maybe donate a few
bucks if they haven't?

Yeah, absolutely.
Um, there's a place calledCovenant House. And yeah,
Covenant House. Yeah, helpshomeless, street youth and
people who get opportunities,not just people who are unhoused
children around the house. Butit also gives them an
opportunity for programs andeverything to and so we do some
fundraisers for them, which Ithink is, you know, I just think
that that's how it starts, yougot to help because, you know,

(01:23:11):
some people end up on thestreets because of mistakes. But
most people end up on thestreets because they don't have
a choice. And they and they getstuck. And we hear like we
talked about the homelessproblem, we have a really bad
homeless problem in Vancouver inthe Downtown Eastside and stuff
like that. And it just makes meso sad to think of all the
people that should have got achance. And so Covenant House,
they started when, you know,especially when people are

(01:23:33):
young, and they're the mostvulnerable, and they help them
climb out and get the resourcesthey need. And they have a great
track record. And we actually,they just put up a brand new
facility just down the streetfrom us, and it's fantastic. And
you can see, you can see everyday that you because I walked by
on my way home, and you can seethe changes on people's faces
every day. And so I think thatto me, you know, that that's

(01:23:54):
just something that reallyresonates with me is like that's
how we change things. We changethings for the next generation,
the generation after we teachthem that you're not going to be
forgotten about and caring makesa difference because maybe they
go on to do because those peopledo they you know, give people a
chance. You know, and that'sthat's you give people a chance
to make a change and they'llsurprise you hopefully,

I agree I think like I said before everyone has
a purpose everyone's gotsomething to do and we just need
to help people find that sothat's a perfect start to you
know, if you're homeless youcan't eat then you're just
worried about trying to get youknow figure out what your next
meal or whatever so yeah, yeah,definitely a huge issue here
that we can help out so peoplecould donate to that and then
special it's free on YouTubewatch last night make sure as as

(01:24:41):
good or better than as what it'scalled

as good as or better than

Yeah, that's great.
On social media, you got greatclips in your YouTube
everything.

And I'm there and yeah, and if you follow me on
Instagram at this is Simon kingor tick tock. This is pretty
much this is Simon King acrossthe board. There's links to
everything and then And yeah,come say hi. So I'm always glad.
And thank you so much.

I really, thank you. And if you ever come to
Arizona, let me know. Definitelycome see or if I'm in Seattle, I
have to make the drive toVancouver.

100% 100% Absolutely. Yeah, I do. I do.
Yeah.

I'll probably be in Seattle this summer at some
point. So I'll try to find Yeah.
Yeah. All right. So Simon, thevery funny and very smart Simon
King, definitely check out hisstand up on all social media and
YouTube. There's lots of clipson there. Just watch a few of
those clips and you'll behooked. And of course, as always
liking sharing, commenting onsocial media and YouTube for the

(01:25:36):
guest and for this episode canhelp us both out and I
appreciate that. I appreciateall your support for my guests
and the show. Have a great restof your day and shoot for the
moon.

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