January 19, 2024 • 41 mins
Join Eitan Levine, a comedian and master storyteller, as he navigates life's challenges with humor. From battling cancer to crafting award-winning adult film parodies, Eitan finds light in the darkest moments. Dive into the New York comedy scene, where rejection inspired his iconic Apartment Fest. Explore the unconventional paths to comedic success and enjoy a hilarious escape from jury duty in New Jersey. This episode isn't just about laughter; it's a lesson in transforming adversity into unforgettable stories. Get ready for a comedic journey that entertains and leaves you with a few tricks up your sleeve.
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Your hosts: @lynnhazan_ and @tonydoesknow
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, welcome to the Lynn and Tony Know podcast.
I'm your host, lynn.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And I'm Tony.
We are both wellness coachesand married with kids.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Join us as we talk about all things health,
wellness, relationships, lifehacks, parenting and everything
in between unfiltered.
Thanks for listening and let'sget into it.
Welcome back.
I'm very excited.
Today we have a very specialguest.
I'm a huge fan.
A little background.
So about a week after October7th I think it was about a week
(00:31):
Tony and I were like kind ofdepressed and we're like okay,
what can we do to like get outof this funk?
And we like to go to comedyclubs, Like that's our thing,
that's like our perfect date,and I we like to go to a comedy
club dinner, et cetera.
So Tony bought tickets.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I bought tickets to go see somebody I
know, mike Cannon, and this isalso several days after you sent
me his reel, because hereferenced it was a real estate
thing right.
And you referenced Corcoran andyou sent it to me.
Ha ha ha.
And then I messaged Tim and,like I don't remember the
specific context around it now,but that was my first
(01:07):
introduction was you sent me areel of him like making some
real estate jokes, and thenthat's how I became aware.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And then, next thing you know, we're at the comedy
show and I remember like sittingin the chair and being like
fuck, like I hope nobody sayssomething, because it's like
really fresh, it just like themassacre just happened, it's
like really like triggering, andI'm Israeli and I'm like fuck,
like I hope nobody's going tosay something.
That's going to be crazy, thatI have to like walk out of here.
You know, but, and like everytime somebody was like Israel,
(01:36):
palestine, I was like you know,just like waiting but it was
really good.
And our guest tonight, Aitan.
He did a set and it washilarious and it like got us out
of the funk and I started likeI guess the algorithm was
algorithming and I saw a lot ofhis content relevant to anti,
the rise of anti-Semitism andthe war and he just has a really
(01:58):
good way of like making thesereally heavy topics funny, you
know, and relatable.
So we have Aitan Levine.
He's a New York based writerand comedian, human theme park.
His work has been featured onJimmy Kimmel Live, late night
with Stephen Colbert, the DailyShow extra and more.
He's also written for the NewYork Times Not sure about that
(02:19):
one, We'll talk about it.
New York magazine.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
No, no, no, no, she's not saying you didn't, she was,
she was raising the suspicionaround where we've all turned
against the New York Times now.
Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I will say it was.
It was after October 7th.
I was doing a.
I did a comedy festival in myapartment that was called
apartment fest and it was like afive day comedy thing and it
got covered by the New YorkTimes and I remember that, like,
I did a show in a synagoguelike two weeks after the October
7th and I got brought up withthat credit and I was like, all
(02:56):
right, you don't normally bevery proud of this credit.
I don't know if this room isexactly.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, it's a little, it's a it's definitely a sticky
subject when it comes to the NewYork Times.
Wait, you're still not supposedto be.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
hold on, I still need to talk about it.
Oh, you're still in the greenroom.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And then, around October 22, aitan went viral
with his Jewish man on thestreet videos, especially a
series called Jewish oranti-Semitic.
To date, the video series hasover 28 million views and 5
million likes.
Since October 7th at, aitan hasbeen posting some amazing
content relevant to the war andthe rise in anti-Semitism.
I honestly don't know how hemakes these things funny, but he
does, and today we are going tohopefully get inside his brain.
(03:30):
Aitan, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I'm here now definitely wasn't here.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
We're not here.
Oh yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Um, yeah, welcome to the show.
I don't.
We'll start with your name onInstagram.
I don't know how many of ourfollowers will get the reference
, but it's a very good mightydocs reference, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
No, it's not I.
It's actually very simple.
Where I my name is, it's atonthe goalie.
Um, and my name is aton and Iplay goalie, and uh, that's the
extent of the name.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I went so much further with with my explanation
aton the goalie Goldberg.
The goalie Goldberg is Jewishgoalie and the mighty docs Aton
lifted that and made it hisInstagram name.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
No, this is what happens if you make your email
when you're in like sixth gradeand it just sticks.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
That's hilarious, like this was a.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It was my first email and then it kind of just like
stuck all the way through.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
That is way different than the story I told myself.
That's just for sure.
This was a mighty docsreference.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
This is more sophisticated.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, we can do that.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So let's start from the beginning before we get into
the like, like relevant stuff,Like can you tell us more about
your journey into the world ofcomedy and how you got started
as a comedian and writer?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
You know, I actually think that we can.
Um, okay, I'll give you a broadcareer breakdown and then I I
think that just my comedyjourney and my life journey and
to why I've been able, why Ithink that I've been able to
like joke about October,everything after October 7th has
been I've been able to do, andthat's just because I'm from a
(05:11):
Holocaust survivor'sgrandparents.
I had cancer when I was a kid,you know, and my family was
always very, very funny.
So you know the Levines areinherent way that we parse
information and we parse traumais usually through comedy.
So I do think that growing upin you know, an environment
where my mom is making thefunniest jokes I've ever heard
(05:32):
in my entire life about theHolocaust.
You know, like that's just likethe way it is.
I remember my grandmother iswas always like very like well
to do, very dressed.
You know makeup.
You know always like dressed tothe nines.
And I remember one time I wason the phone with my mom and she
, very off hand it, just madesome comment Like you know, when
Bobby was in the Holocaust, shewas in barric 13, but she would
always be caught in barric 14because they had the better
(05:55):
mirror, you know.
So, like growing up with stufflike that, or like my dad going
like you know how they punishthe Jews in the Holocaust they
had your grandmother cook forher.
You know, it's just like therewas this like inherent, like
just dark comedy that I wasraised with and then when I was
10, I got cancer and you know itvery much transferred over
(06:16):
there where like it's the worstthing that can happen, you know.
But it was a lot of, you know,laughing.
It was a lot of acknowledgingthe awful stuff that is
happening and then at certainpoints, you know, you just have
to laugh at it and say, likethis is so uncontrollable and so
terrible.
Um, I think that that's givenme a basis.
I think that's why so many Jewshave been able to make I think.
(06:39):
I think, like Jewish comedyafter October 7th has been like
pretty decent and it's beenbecause, you know, we've been
forced to deal with trauma anddeal with this stuff for years
and years and years.
Um, my background, you know, isthat I was a I do stand up
comedy since I was 15.
I won Israel's last comicstanding in 2008.
(07:03):
I don't think it ever airedanywhere, but I came back to
America.
In college I was touring as astandup.
I did a lot of like Hill Hall,habbahs and colleges and stuff
like that.
After college I worked as ajournalist and I was a writer
for this place, heavycom, whichwas like a bro website that I
(07:26):
thankfully was able to get outof.
I went over to Mashable where Iwas a fellow at Mashable for a
while.
After Mashable I was given myfirst full-time writing job at
Elite Daily where I was coveringinternet and celebrity gossip.
I used to write like five orsix articles about the
Kardashians every day.
Absolutely loved it and thevideos took off and they did
(07:48):
this like three-partmini-documentary series on me
where I did a bunch of weirdjobs.
I was in the paparazzi in LAfor a week.
I was in Brighamley BrothersCircus for a couple of days and
then what I always like to pointout is you guys know the
musical Hamilton.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Of course yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Got all I wrote the adult cinema version of it.
That got made called Hamiltonand won two AVN awards for it.
Eight, stop it.
Yeah, here we go.
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I swear to God, wait, can I tell you something?
You're real, so I've been tothe AVN.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
You're not ready.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So I've been to the AVN awards twice.
I used to work.
Fun Fact, I used to work for anadult movie production company.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Not as H-Thor which one.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
In Montreal.
It's guys years, it's like inthe year 2005 or something like
that.
I was like 22 years old and itwas a job like while I was in
college and I just got the joband it was kind of awesome
because it was like female ownedand so they sent me two years
in a row to the AVN conventionand it was like the best and it
(08:52):
was in it's in Vegas.
So it's like the best time,yeah, and it was the funniest
thing.
It's so, so funny.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It was, it was I got.
So I dressed up as likeAlexander Hamilton.
It got to like walk down thered carpet and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Were you in it, were you in the film.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
No, no, no, no.
You know it's funny.
I the whole thing that happenedwas that I got to pitch.
I got to pitch the porn.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Can I say porn on this?
I don't know how to use thisthing.
You can swear, you can do allthe things.
I got to pitch the porn.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I got to pitch the porn to Wood Rocket Studios.
Wood Rocket Studios is famousfor doing parody porn like
Stroke Aemon and Fap to theFuture and Sponge Knop, square
Balls and all of that stuff.
And I pitched to them Hamilton,and it got made, and the
funniest story from this is thatso like it got caught in like
development hell.
(09:42):
After it got written I wrotelike 10% of the script that they
ended up using.
I came up with the name.
Someone else like wrote themusic and everything and I
remember.
So it gets delayed.
And then at some point the Iget a call, sorry, and then
Elite Daily shuts down, eliteDaily gets sold or something, so
(10:03):
we all get fired.
So like six months after we allget fired, I get a call from a
friend of mine who goes like hey, aiton, I just want to say like
they're making the porn.
Like they are like I got hiredto do the music for it and I was
like oh, that's crazy.
I thought that they canceled, Ithought that they weren't making
it in the end.
So I call the guy in charge ofthe studio and I go like hey,
(10:23):
are you guys making the porn?
He's like yeah, we've beentrying to email you and I'm like
oh, you know, they shut off myemail cause.
Everyone got fired and he waslike oh, we've also been
tweeting at you, but I never gotthe tweets and my name is Aiton
Levine.
So that just means thatsomewhere there's a dude named
Aiton Levine who's getting abunch of tweets from Wood
Rockets Studio on his Twitter,just being like hey, dude, we're
making your porno and it's likethe most Jewish name of all
(10:46):
time, so there's gotta besomeone that's like Maryam, I
don't know what porno they'retalking about.
You know, I put the Twitter,leave me.
Anyway, that's all we're hereto talk about, but that is one
of the many credits.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Wait, this is great.
I did not anticipate thisconversation to lead to porn,
but it's all good.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
We are off the rails.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
You got two.
I love it.
I'm gonna.
I need to see this now.
I need to see this.
We're gonna have to.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Do you have a good picture of you holding both of
the awards that we can use topromo this?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, I just want to throw everybody off the scent of
what we're really gonna talkabout.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
They have no idea what this conversation is.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You know, the thing is why I think I was able to do
stuff at the ABNs was because,you know, like it wasn't like I
was there, like oh, this is cool, I'm porn guy, you know, it was
so fish out of water, like Iwent to Jewish day school.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So, speaking of what did your mom say about you know
Jewish moms, like, how did shefeel about it?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
My mom, the opening scene.
I can send you the doc stuffthat we never released yet.
There's a larger story here.
But like I called my mom and Igo mommy, I'm going to write the
porn.
I've got to go to Vegas towrite this porn.
And she just goes no, you'renot.
We're an Orthodox Jewish family.
Your sisters will never getmarried.
(12:08):
I would rather you join ISISthan do this to me.
And then I just like what?
And it was what.
And then when I got, my momhates it.
And you know what's funny, wegot the trophies, and trophies
are like two people embracingeach other.
So I, when we got them, I waslike.
I was like mommy, like youdon't have to worry, in honor of
(12:29):
you guys, I named the misterand Mrs Wayne will be in the end
.
My mom was like stop bringingthis on our family.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'm sure she's very proud of you, though it's just
tough, you know.
Jewish mothers, you know you'renot a doctor, you're not a
lawyer, you're not an accountantyou know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So it's kind of like what did your mom say about you
working at the studio?
Or just how she's gonna findout.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So she was kind of like no, she knew Actually.
Well, when I was in Vegas forthe AVNs like my parents were
also in Vegas at the same timeand my dad kept.
And my parents are Israeli, soI think Israelis are a little
bit more like laid back when itcomes to stuff like that.
So my dad's like get me Tiki,it's new Yala, let's go together
.
I'm like dad, I'm not taking youto the porn convention.
(13:16):
He's like come on, let's get meTiki and I took a bunch of
photos that day.
He's like let me see the photosand it's like me with like
Jenna Jamieson and like theselike huge porn stars, like
hugging me and like it was funny.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
He was cool.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
He was like I'm next.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
The thing about the AVNs?
First of all, I bet like thetop 100 porn stars Like and it
was also crazy because it wasright before.
Like only fans happened, so nowthey're all billionaires, which
is hilarious.
The thing about the AVNs isthat if you have like a porn
addiction, if you go to the AVNsbecause it's overload, like
(13:51):
you'll never look at porn again,like it is plastered on the
walls.
It's like just so much all atonce.
It's like if you like cake,like this is like being baked
into a cake and then you have toeat your way out.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's kind of true, like the expo, it's like
exposure therapy.
Like when I worked at thecompany I was working for, like
one of my jobs when I walkedinto the office every day was to
choose a porn and to put it inthe DVD and like.
So every day I was like with mycoworker.
I'm like, do we want, like youknow, like these weird names
that I don't even want to say?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
like on air.
Just put that like, do you?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
want this one or this one Like what are we feeling
today?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You know background music, what, what?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Well, yeah, cause we put it in like the waiting room.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Like it rips off.
Yeah, so we, yeah, you know,yeah, you don't like how you go
into, like you don't like howwhen you go to a hospital, they
have CNBC playing.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So we're playing porn .
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's like, and it's like, 9 am.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I'm like with my Tim Horton's coffee, cause we're in
Canada, right, and like, likeand you just get so desensitized
by it, because it's like yousee it every day, that it's just
like not a big deal.
Anyway, enough with the porn.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
We do have a lot of questions I have to like stop it
there.
And now we move to theIsrael-Palestine War For the
worst time in our people's lives.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So you're.
I want to talk about yourJewish man on the street.
Videos, which is before October7th, gain tremendous popularity
.
What inspired you to createthis series and how do you
navigate humor when addressingsensitive topics like Jewish
identity and antisemitism?
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Okay.
So the idea for the thing camefrom, and it's interesting that
the original idea for it wasbecause I listen Jews.
Occasionally we use the termantisemitic very loosely, very
freely.
That being said, I say that allpre-October 7th, I think.
Like October 7th, the metricson this have very much changed.
(15:44):
I do think, though, that, as apeople I think we all
acknowledge that we occasionallyhave made ourselves gatekeepers
of what trauma is and stufflike that, and we've used the
term antisemitic occasionallyjust like a little bit too
loosely.
You know, it's almost like howwe are being labeled as Zionists
.
Now, you know what I mean, when, if you just like use the term
just because it's a term thatyou hear all the time, then
(16:06):
occasionally it loses meaning.
So the concept of antisemitismwhen I came up with the Jewish
or antisemitic, it was just likean idea that like listen,
either things are Jewish orthey're not Jewish and they hate
Judaism.
So that was what the idea forit was was to kind of play off
that idea, and the Jewish orantisemitic game was like, if I
(16:26):
would just say a regular wordlike the Pope, you know the Pope
Jewish or antisemitic.
Like the Pope said Jewish, he'sold Jewish guy, you know, like
he's vibes Jewish.
You know Christianity, though,is antisemitic, you know.
So the idea was just to play onconcepts of like if something
is Jewish, then it is not reallyJewish.
If something isn't Jewish, thenit is inherently not just not
(16:47):
Jewish, it is inherentlyantisemitic.
That being said, so that videoseries did very, very well.
You know, I still do it.
I release like new videos of itevery like week or so.
Then October 7th kind ofhappened, and October 7th, after
the response after October 7th,has been one of the most
(17:09):
surreal experiences on apersonal and like an internet
level.
Like I get called kike all thetime, like if I put up a video
that is about bagels, it getsfree Gaza.
You know, palestinian flagsover all of it, which is very
frustrating because, like Isympathize, I hated Netanyahu.
(17:32):
I'm a fucking liberal Jew.
I, if you're acting like I'msome sort of like Israel is
without rebuke, israel's withoutretribution, like I'm not the
devil for it.
So it was always very shockingthat I would have people use
that language against me, and itwas almost like they were
co-opting the concept of likePalestinian suffering to just
attack me in my common thread.
(17:54):
So it was very personal.
That's the thing that I've beengetting like a lot on the
internet.
The personal side of it has beenseeing how, like the global
response has been denying thatstuff has happened.
You know it's very closefriends, people that like I see
on a frequent basis, you know inthe comedy community and stuff
(18:15):
like that, have said things thatare like full on, like a just
hatred towards Jews and Jewsspecifically, denying atrocities
that happened to us, justbecause it is Jewish or just
because it goes against thething that they believe in.
Because that would involve themacknowledging that it's a gray
(18:38):
area.
A friend of mine named Amy,who's a comic in the city I'll
say Amy Shanker, she's openabout this, but like she had a
post where she was.
Like if I had been in Israel,like I go to those kinds of
raids, like I go to the beachesthere, if I had been killed, the
(18:59):
response from people in thecomedy community in New York and
people that I know would bevery much like, hey, she
deserved it, or there would beno caring.
Like I know that.
Like if something had happenedto me or my family who lives
there I family that lives therethe response wouldn't have been
like oh, aeton, I'm very sorry.
(19:19):
Here is sympathy, here is, youknow, like what can I do?
I know the response now wouldbe to attack me and my family
and, to you know, deny the awfulstuff that has happened.
So it's, it's the worst time.
All of that being said, thestuff I was saying about the
(19:40):
cancer, the stuff I was sayingabout the Holocaust earlier I
have no other way to parse thisinformation.
It is what it is.
So whenever I make these videosthat talk about anti-Semitism,
that talk about the riseanti-Semitic hate crimes that
have happened, it gets filteredthrough a very comedic way and
there's a very frustrating tone.
I think I've taken a lot of myvideos because so much of it is
(20:04):
from a place of throwing myhands up in the air and going
like, what do you want me tofucking say?
It is what it is.
Does that answer any questions?
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You actually answered a few of my questions because I
think, as a comedian, it mustbe really hard to take something
that's really so tragic and sopainful.
I consider myself a funny-ishlike.
I'm not a comedian, but I'm afunny-ish person.
I keep things light andlighthearted and even through my
own social media I've channeledthis anger towards.
(20:40):
I'm a liberal Jew too, but I'mIsraeli and my whole family
lives in Israel.
And seeing people that I'veworked with my peers go against
Israel and not even message meand say, hey, how are you doing?
Or hey, I would love to learnmore what happens, listening and
learning what happened to whenit directly affects me I'm
(21:00):
talking about people who are notJewish, not Palestinian, who
have no skin in the game, whodon't even know where it is on
the map, putting in their twocents and not even acknowledging
the pain of the people who areactually involved, it's hard for
me to be just like fuck all youanti-Semites.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I think what you're speaking to, about the fact that
it's so often as people thatare not involved, is so
frustrating the people.
I don't know why.
I know Jews failed.
We failed the marketing test.
I don't think that we did agood job of explaining what is
happening there.
I think it's bullshit when theADL and the ACLU and fucking Jew
belong and stuff like that,they're the ones in charge of
(21:42):
the messaging and brandingbehind this and that is why you
have fucking people in theMidwest who think that Israel is
exactly the same thing as NaziGermany and it's because we lost
the branding argument there.
I think that when I see people,it's also weird because I don't
fucking trust the Nittanyahucontrolling the war there.
(22:05):
I agree, I feel awful.
I have nothing but horror forwhat is happening to
Palestinians and at the sametime, I'm like whoa.
The response has been justfactually inaccurate in a way
that rings every singleanti-Jewish dog whistle
throughout history this pastweek and the fucking blood libel
(22:28):
went trending because of theKhabad stuff.
Clearly there's biggerrepercussions.
We talk about what has happenedon college campuses, which is
weirdly a thing that I've hadsome exposure to because they
performed in Hillel houses andstuff the messaging that was
(22:49):
going out to kids who thoughtthat they could act this way
against Jews, against the Hillelhouses, because of their sense
of Israel, without acknowledgingthat if you want a kosher meal
on campus, then you have to goto the Hillel.
Why was that nuance nevertaught to these kids?
There's just so many thingsthat we failed to explain an
entire situation over there andit left the door open to get the
(23:13):
entire Palestinian cause takenunder by BLM and by other
minority.
Very rightful and very just Idon't know how to say it protest
or causes in America.
I do police brutality very real,very awful.
I have marched anti-abortionvery real, very.
(23:35):
I've marched, I've donated,I've done all those things.
It is so fucking crazy that thePalestinian cause, in a very
specific way, has been co-optedby these.
It's like, oh, there's no spacefor us at the anti-abortion
rally because I think that thereshould be a two-state solution.
That is what it has become.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, it's a mind fuck, especially as a liberal
Jew.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
I think you nailed it with the.
There seems to have developedthis blueprint for mobilizing
and protesting, starting duringthe pandemic.
That has just.
It's almost like aone-size-fits-all thing where
you pick your team.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Pick your side, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But the interesting thing that came to me when you
were talking about it is Iremember so specifically during
BLM, when the conversationstarted happening and the
movement to educate became partof the equation, where it was
very clear early on it is notyour African American friends
(24:39):
responsibility to educate onwhat is happening.
During this time that wassomething that was front and
center Don't ask them to educateyou on this.
Go out and do it.
Then it's almost the reversenow during this, where the vocal
minority is like you guys needto educate yourselves.
(25:02):
As if we would have told theBLM activists during that time
if we went to the other side andwere like no, you guys need to
educate yourselves on why you'rewrong.
It's like this crazy reversalof what has happened where not.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
People are telling me in my DMs what is and what
isn't anti-Semitic.
Are you kidding me?
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Absolutely crazy.
It is absolutely insane.
Another major thing that hashappened I don't think people
acknowledge enough and we'regoing to put on a little bit of
a conspiracy theory had here.
We love it 2016, when we weretalking about the Facebook ad
issues, where Russia was usinginternet misinformation, and
(25:46):
then we're using them to turnthe right wing extreme and they
used Facebook ads and Instagramads and all of those platforms
correctly.
They were able to fuck with thealgorithm and that was how
there was so much anger.
It was how Trump ended upwinning.
I don't doubt that there isforeign involvement in how so
(26:07):
much of this information isbeing pushed out there and how
the algorithm is handing it, butit's proven, it's proven,
though I just saw an articletoday.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Qatar is sponsoring this school program in Brooklyn,
this public school program.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
No, no, no, no.
I'm not even talking about that.
I'm talking about the algorithmspecifically.
I'm saying that I was on theinternet, I worked, I was a
journalist.
I was specifically a digitalmedia journalist in 2016.
I was working in this field in2016.
And the thing that you wouldlike the thing one of the
reasons why Hillary lost theelection was because there was
(26:43):
all that Russia misinformationthat was getting pushed out very
effectively onto differentsocial media platforms Years
later.
It was that Sheryl Sandberg, Ithink, was the one that had to
resign because of it, becauseshe was accepting foreign ad
revenue and stuff like thatDuring those elections, knowing
that it was misinformation,knowing that it was like making
the situation worse.
(27:03):
I don't doubt that right now,so much of the information and
the tone of the information, thelack of nuance and the
tribalism on both sides gettinghit each other, I don't doubt
that there is some sort of otherentity out there.
I don't doubt that the Qatarisare out there.
I don't doubt that there issomeone else that is kind of
making this worse.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
A hundred percent Like TikTok, like TikTok is.
I can't even go on TikTok.
Oh my God, tiktok is absolutelyfucking crazy.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
And also I see a dead person on TikTok every day.
That is like it's just, it'swild.
Now I see a lot of hooftrimming and a lot of people, a
lot of what Hoof trimming.
I don't go to bed without threehours of hoof talk every day.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
We're just going to be that, no context.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
You know, hoof talk, hoof talk.
No, I've never.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I didn't hear about that, oh, let me tell you right
now, what is hoof talk?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
It's the elevator pitch on hoof talk.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
It's just, you're watching dudes trim hooves and
you think it's nothing and youjust I'm telling you, go to the
hoof.
Gp, it's just the way that theytreat cow.
I'm not crazy.
I've said this on stage andI've had large chunks of the
audience go.
Okay, this is a.
He has millions of followers ofGP.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Okay, we're gonna have to go down the rabbit ball.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
This is road tested.
We are the weirdos for notknowing what it is.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
You know you're a New York based Comedian.
Like, let's talk about New Yorka little bit.
A little love to the New YorkCity.
What do you think sets thecomedy scene in New York apart
from other places, and how hasit shaped your comedic style?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Okay.
So I think back in the day Iwill say that there's like a
little bit of a shift now whereit used to be the only way to
get to rise the ranks was to bein, you know, la, new York,
chicago for a while.
You know I I Thankfully, likethe pandemic has made it so that
you can really really reallyhave like career traction and
(29:04):
live in other, in other States.
Now I will say a very not acontroversial thing amongst the
comedy community, but New Yorkis honestly the worst audience
city in the world.
If you want to do Shows forbetter audiences, longer sets in
bigger rooms, you have to goout of New York to kind of get
(29:26):
that.
If there's one thing that Ikind of like regret you know I
kind of started in New York itis that I didn't get like the
years of smaller like a city.
You know feet, you know I10,000 hours in like a smaller
city In New York though Forcesyou because of who you're going
up against and who you'refollowing and stuff like that.
(29:48):
You have to have like top-notchmaterial like I think that the
in other cities what I've talkedto people have come up in other
cities, the thing that theycomment on the most is that,
like you know, at open micsyou'll give a joke in other
cities, the joke that peoplelaugh at more stuff.
You know people will give jokesa little bit more of a leash.
I love a little more like yeah,I'm like a leeway with it in
(30:12):
New York.
I think people are so likeexpecting the best, especially
like in the open mics whereyou're seeing the best comedy.
People will cut jokes earlierbecause you're like oh no, this
is bullshit.
You know, this is a.
This is crazy.
So I think it forces you tolike really hone material and
like just Get better at comingup with material quicker.
That is like good.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Love that.
What so what's?
Do you have any like upcomingprojects that you want to
promote or talk about?
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Let me also ask you real quick before you answer,
that is, do you ever perform incomedy clubs?
Because I feel like every showthat you promote is in a deli,
is in your apartment, yeah, thesynagogue.
Like you do comedy in so manyDifferent, like very different
places, is it?
And obviously that'sintentional, but like it, it's
(31:01):
so funny to me that, like everyshow I see promoted is some
random ass place.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
No, you know what you're actually.
That's a good question becauseyou know I, first of all, I do
perform in a lot of clubs.
In New York comedy club, whereyou guys saw me, I perform at
your stand in New York.
You know Caroline's was aBroadway renaissance.
You know I perform at all thelast stop in a sorry, the last
tour in Jersey City.
I have a bunch of shows comingup on during the pandemic when
(31:30):
all of the the comedy club shutdown.
You know all the regular waysthat people were performing.
They shut down.
So it forced the comedycommunity in you know to kind of
like figure out ways to maketheir own shows.
You know there was a wholemovement of outdoor park shows
that happened, you know, in 2020through like 2021, 2022, I that
(31:51):
you know, all of a sudden, likeyou just had to learn how to
make your own show and doingthat, it forced a lot of
comedians to learn a couplethings, like you need a
spotlight that was the thing wedidn't know about.
You know how do you have amicrophone outside?
You know, like what are all ofthese things that it forced you
know, the comedy community tolearn just how to kind of just
make pop-up shows in randomspaces and those pop-up shows
(32:13):
became very big.
Those pop-up shows have led tomajor juggernauts like comedy
you up or the sorry don't tell.
Comedy is massive.
Now don't tell.
Comedy you can make theargument At this point is at is
bigger than comedy central in alot of respects.
So you know the scene ingeneral.
We learned how to put up thesepop-up shows.
(32:33):
I love these pop-up showsbecause you could control the
space a lot more and I've beenfortunate enough to do a lot of
pop-up shows in Very randomplaces PJ Bernstein's, by the
way.
On January 25th we're gonna begoing out there and doing
another PJ Bernstein show.
I Apartment fest happened.
You know it was in my apartment.
Now I that the idea for apertinent fest is the second one
(32:58):
that we did.
The first one was in 2019, formy best is a weekend of shows
that are in my living room.
In 2019 I came up with the ideabecause I had gotten rejected
from a comedy festival in Bostonthat I never applied to.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
They just rejected what they just say Don't even
think about it.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, they were like just letting you know you didn't
get in here.
I was like I, who are you guys?
So so that was like festivalsare a joke.
Like I can just make my ownfestival.
So I could just make a jokingfestival.
So I, as a joke, I made a logoand I made a submission form for
comics and I was planning onjust doing one kind of show,
(33:37):
which was gonna be 10 people inmy apartment and 137 comics
apply.
Because we're all desperate andwhen they all applied I had to
like expand it.
So I made like four shows, soit's gonna be like a weekend of
shows.
And then all of a sudden,because I had a weekend of shows
, I was able to go out againstsponsors.
So we got like sticky sphingerjoint gave a bunch of like
(33:58):
chicken fingers and fries andNew Belgium brewery gave us like
10 cases of beer and stuff likethat and turned into like a big
thing.
You know, we ended up havinglike 50 comics perform over the
four shows.
Over the weekend.
We had an industry panel whichI thought was hilarious.
Two people got representationout of the festival.
My favorite story with it,though, is that I, when we got
(34:21):
the first day of the festival, Igot jury duty, so I had to go
to New Jersey to serve jury duty.
So I get there and I make itpast the first round and I get
into, like the, the actualcourtroom, and they tell us, you
know, they give us the wholelike spiel, and then they hand
us a pamphlet and they go we'regonna break for lunch, but in
(34:41):
this pamphlet are the dates forthe trial.
If you can't do these dates,you have to let us know.
So I see one of the dates isthat started the festival.
So I, during lunch, I get blade, I get so high like so, so so,
stoned outside of the courthouse.
I then walk back into thecourthouse, reeking of me
perfect.
I walk up to the judge and I goyour honor, which is the look.
(35:04):
I actually said that I saidyour honor.
I go to the judge and I go yourhonor.
I am in charge of a comedyfestival in my apartment that is
happening this weekend, and Ineed I'm getting chicken, that
is being I have to pick up thechicken.
I have to get the chicken fromthe store to the, to the to the
(35:25):
apartment and so I can't bethere for that day.
But what I could do, your honor, is you could record the trial
and then I could listen to theaudio and let you guys know how
I am, as I'm saying that he goes, stop talking and I go, okay,
and then I start walking.
Oh yeah, I could go.
It's like you walk that way fora second.
So I start walking and as I'mwalking I hear the other four
(35:49):
lawyers in unison.
Just go, you can dismiss him.
That's how you get out of juryduty noted we're in New Jersey.
We're in New.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Jersey.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
This was I was registered at.
It says is newer Okay, yeah, Iwas registered to vote in Jersey
, interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
So so, yeah, they tell us, like, what you have
going on, so people can checkout and all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah, totally so apartment fest which got New
York Times coverage is we'redoing shows here occasionally
and.
We've also partnered up with.
You know, bregg don't tellcomedy, who has like a million
and a half YouTube followers.
They're absolutely massive.
So they're doing we have twoshows here in February.
(36:39):
On February 17th I'm doing PJBernstein's the deli.
We did a show there onChristmas and the show crushed
and they're having us back.
So we're gonna do it again onJanuary 25th.
The YouTube I started the, thetick tock, the Instagram follow
me on all of that stuff.
You know I do try to cover theanti-semitic stuff with a little
(37:00):
bit of humor.
You know.
Hopefully you guys all like itout there.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You're doing an amazing job.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
We love you.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Okay, last question.
I'm trying, yes, yes, yes,hopefully they're right too much
.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
No, you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I like we could talk to you for hours, but I know
you're on a time crunch.
I have one last question.
Top three favorite places toeat in New York City go oh.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Oh, okay, p, I said the first one.
The number one, like there's nonumber two, is the straw me
queen on the upper.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
East, wow, okay.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I'm a queen on the upper East side, has the best
for straw me in New York betterthan the other straw me is
Mm-hmm, it's different, is a bigthing about it?
Cat's is.
Is Cat's is, you're eating apile of cow and it's awesome.
It's like truly, truly awesome.
P J Pistroma, queen's, a littlebit of a different, a little
bit of a different.
Five, it's like a sandwich, youknow.
(37:52):
Um, that's number one.
Number two Is at fay da bakery.
Um, which is a Japanese bakery.
The mochi at fay da bakery is,I think, one of my favorite like
single bite things in New York.
Uh, the mango mochi isabsolutely unreal.
There's one that what used tobe my grandmother's house, it's
(38:14):
not kosher.
Uh, so I would.
On the way out, it was what Iused to get on the subway home.
Uh, but uh, that would.
So that's number two.
Number three is um, my god,wait, this is normally an easy
question.
I had, you know, I recently hadthe tuna melt at uh, at s and p
, and that was like phenomenal.
(38:35):
Um, I mean.
But yeah, I would say that tunamelt at s and p was really
freaking.
Good, yeah, that's what I'llsay.
I think we can look at that.
Okay, yeah, we'll lock that inthere.
I love it, thank you.
So what's your favorite?
Oh my god, here we go.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, we can't do this now.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
No, I can't if you had to give me your number one.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Just give me your number one in New York City, or
just in general.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
No, in New York I'm thinking of New.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
York specifically um, off the top of my head, uh,
probably, uh, qval in brooklyn,which is a really good israeli
restaurant, all the israelirestaurants like bala busta
isn't like amazing?
Like I don't know, I'm thinking19 cleveland 19, cleveland.
(39:20):
Like I don't know, I thinkevery israeli restaurant is like
my favorite.
Like tony and I have a goal ofeating at every israeli
restaurant in New york city.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Good luck.
There's a lot of jews.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Way more than I thought actually.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I mean, you know, last year I was, I was I hosted
a show on amazon.
Uh, for about a year, uh, I hita daily sport show and uh, the
kairi thing would happen while Iwas on the daily sport show on
amazon and I remember, uh,during a moment when I talk
about like how there's like thisfrustrated comedy thing where
you just say a crazy fact andit's like very funny, I remember
(39:57):
that I was debating withsomeone about the kairi thing
and I just was like there's somany jews in brooklyn and that
was my entire thesis behind thehatred for for kairi.
I was like what are you?
I was like why are we evenbringing him here?
He's a flat earther.
The kairi thing was always veryfunny to me because the
pipeline between flat earthersand anti semi, it's like right
(40:19):
size of an elbow.
It's the same, you know, it'sliterally the same so bottom to
the most jewy population of alltime, and they're like uh, a
little, work out sports.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
You know sports on that note a time.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Thank you so much for being on the show.
It was a pleasure.
We could talk to you foreverand we'll tell everybody to
follow you and we'll follow youand we'll probably come to your
One of your shows pretty soon.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
So yeah, we would love to come out.
Uh, you got to come to theapartment show at february 17th.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Okay, we'll be there.
We'll be there.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Sick.
Are there gonna be chickenfingers and do you need help
picking them up?
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Oh yeah, you gotta get me these shoes.
I am during juridine that day.
I gotta get out of my way there.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Hey, welcome to the Lynn and Tony Know podcast.
I'm your host, lynn.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And I'm Tony.
We are both wellness coachesand married with kids.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Join us as we talk about all things health,
wellness, relationships, lifehacks, parenting and everything
in between unfiltered.
Thanks for listening and let'sget into it.
Welcome back.
I'm very excited.
Today we have a very specialguest.
I'm a huge fan.
A little background.
So about a week after October7th I think it was about a week
(00:31):
Tony and I were like kind ofdepressed and we're like okay,
what can we do to like get outof this funk?
And we like to go to comedyclubs, Like that's our thing,
that's like our perfect date,and I we like to go to a comedy
club dinner, et cetera.
So Tony bought tickets.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I bought tickets to go see somebody I
know, mike Cannon, and this isalso several days after you sent
me his reel, because hereferenced it was a real estate
thing right.
And you referenced Corcoran andyou sent it to me.
Ha ha ha.
And then I messaged Tim and,like I don't remember the
specific context around it now,but that was my first
(01:07):
introduction was you sent me areel of him like making some
real estate jokes, and thenthat's how I became aware.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And then, next thing you know, we're at the comedy
show and I remember like sittingin the chair and being like
fuck, like I hope nobody sayssomething, because it's like
really fresh, it just like themassacre just happened, it's
like really like triggering, andI'm Israeli and I'm like fuck,
like I hope nobody's going tosay something.
That's going to be crazy, thatI have to like walk out of here.
You know, but, and like everytime somebody was like Israel,
(01:36):
palestine, I was like you know,just like waiting but it was
really good.
And our guest tonight, Aitan.
He did a set and it washilarious and it like got us out
of the funk and I started likeI guess the algorithm was
algorithming and I saw a lot ofhis content relevant to anti,
the rise of anti-Semitism andthe war and he just has a really
(01:58):
good way of like making thesereally heavy topics funny, you
know, and relatable.
So we have Aitan Levine.
He's a New York based writerand comedian, human theme park.
His work has been featured onJimmy Kimmel Live, late night
with Stephen Colbert, the DailyShow extra and more.
He's also written for the NewYork Times Not sure about that
(02:19):
one, We'll talk about it.
New York magazine.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
No, no, no, no, she's not saying you didn't, she was,
she was raising the suspicionaround where we've all turned
against the New York Times now.
Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I will say it was.
It was after October 7th.
I was doing a.
I did a comedy festival in myapartment that was called
apartment fest and it was like afive day comedy thing and it
got covered by the New YorkTimes and I remember that, like,
I did a show in a synagoguelike two weeks after the October
7th and I got brought up withthat credit and I was like, all
(02:56):
right, you don't normally bevery proud of this credit.
I don't know if this room isexactly.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, it's a little, it's a it's definitely a sticky
subject when it comes to the NewYork Times.
Wait, you're still not supposedto be.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
hold on, I still need to talk about it.
Oh, you're still in the greenroom.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And then, around October 22, aitan went viral
with his Jewish man on thestreet videos, especially a
series called Jewish oranti-Semitic.
To date, the video series hasover 28 million views and 5
million likes.
Since October 7th at, aitan hasbeen posting some amazing
content relevant to the war andthe rise in anti-Semitism.
I honestly don't know how hemakes these things funny, but he
does, and today we are going tohopefully get inside his brain.
(03:30):
Aitan, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I'm here now definitely wasn't here.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
We're not here.
Oh yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Um, yeah, welcome to the show.
I don't.
We'll start with your name onInstagram.
I don't know how many of ourfollowers will get the reference
, but it's a very good mightydocs reference, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
No, it's not I.
It's actually very simple.
Where I my name is, it's atonthe goalie.
Um, and my name is aton and Iplay goalie, and uh, that's the
extent of the name.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I went so much further with with my explanation
aton the goalie Goldberg.
The goalie Goldberg is Jewishgoalie and the mighty docs Aton
lifted that and made it hisInstagram name.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
No, this is what happens if you make your email
when you're in like sixth gradeand it just sticks.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
That's hilarious, like this was a.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It was my first email and then it kind of just like
stuck all the way through.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
That is way different than the story I told myself.
That's just for sure.
This was a mighty docsreference.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
This is more sophisticated.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, we can do that.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So let's start from the beginning before we get into
the like, like relevant stuff,Like can you tell us more about
your journey into the world ofcomedy and how you got started
as a comedian and writer?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
You know, I actually think that we can.
Um, okay, I'll give you a broadcareer breakdown and then I I
think that just my comedyjourney and my life journey and
to why I've been able, why Ithink that I've been able to
like joke about October,everything after October 7th has
been I've been able to do, andthat's just because I'm from a
(05:11):
Holocaust survivor'sgrandparents.
I had cancer when I was a kid,you know, and my family was
always very, very funny.
So you know the Levines areinherent way that we parse
information and we parse traumais usually through comedy.
So I do think that growing upin you know, an environment
where my mom is making thefunniest jokes I've ever heard
(05:32):
in my entire life about theHolocaust.
You know, like that's just likethe way it is.
I remember my grandmother iswas always like very like well
to do, very dressed.
You know makeup.
You know always like dressed tothe nines.
And I remember one time I wason the phone with my mom and she
, very off hand it, just madesome comment Like you know, when
Bobby was in the Holocaust, shewas in barric 13, but she would
always be caught in barric 14because they had the better
(05:55):
mirror, you know.
So, like growing up with stufflike that, or like my dad going
like you know how they punishthe Jews in the Holocaust they
had your grandmother cook forher.
You know, it's just like therewas this like inherent, like
just dark comedy that I wasraised with and then when I was
10, I got cancer and you know itvery much transferred over
(06:16):
there where like it's the worstthing that can happen, you know.
But it was a lot of, you know,laughing.
It was a lot of acknowledgingthe awful stuff that is
happening and then at certainpoints, you know, you just have
to laugh at it and say, likethis is so uncontrollable and so
terrible.
Um, I think that that's givenme a basis.
I think that's why so many Jewshave been able to make I think.
(06:39):
I think, like Jewish comedyafter October 7th has been like
pretty decent and it's beenbecause, you know, we've been
forced to deal with trauma anddeal with this stuff for years
and years and years.
Um, my background, you know, isthat I was a I do stand up
comedy since I was 15.
I won Israel's last comicstanding in 2008.
(07:03):
I don't think it ever airedanywhere, but I came back to
America.
In college I was touring as astandup.
I did a lot of like Hill Hall,habbahs and colleges and stuff
like that.
After college I worked as ajournalist and I was a writer
for this place, heavycom, whichwas like a bro website that I
(07:26):
thankfully was able to get outof.
I went over to Mashable where Iwas a fellow at Mashable for a
while.
After Mashable I was given myfirst full-time writing job at
Elite Daily where I was coveringinternet and celebrity gossip.
I used to write like five orsix articles about the
Kardashians every day.
Absolutely loved it and thevideos took off and they did
(07:48):
this like three-partmini-documentary series on me
where I did a bunch of weirdjobs.
I was in the paparazzi in LAfor a week.
I was in Brighamley BrothersCircus for a couple of days and
then what I always like to pointout is you guys know the
musical Hamilton.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Of course yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Got all I wrote the adult cinema version of it.
That got made called Hamiltonand won two AVN awards for it.
Eight, stop it.
Yeah, here we go.
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I swear to God, wait, can I tell you something?
You're real, so I've been tothe AVN.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
You're not ready.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So I've been to the AVN awards twice.
I used to work.
Fun Fact, I used to work for anadult movie production company.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Not as H-Thor which one.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
In Montreal.
It's guys years, it's like inthe year 2005 or something like
that.
I was like 22 years old and itwas a job like while I was in
college and I just got the joband it was kind of awesome
because it was like female ownedand so they sent me two years
in a row to the AVN conventionand it was like the best and it
(08:52):
was in it's in Vegas.
So it's like the best time,yeah, and it was the funniest
thing.
It's so, so funny.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It was, it was I got.
So I dressed up as likeAlexander Hamilton.
It got to like walk down thered carpet and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Were you in it, were you in the film.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
No, no, no, no.
You know it's funny.
I the whole thing that happenedwas that I got to pitch.
I got to pitch the porn.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Can I say porn on this?
I don't know how to use thisthing.
You can swear, you can do allthe things.
I got to pitch the porn.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I got to pitch the porn to Wood Rocket Studios.
Wood Rocket Studios is famousfor doing parody porn like
Stroke Aemon and Fap to theFuture and Sponge Knop, square
Balls and all of that stuff.
And I pitched to them Hamilton,and it got made, and the
funniest story from this is thatso like it got caught in like
development hell.
(09:42):
After it got written I wrotelike 10% of the script that they
ended up using.
I came up with the name.
Someone else like wrote themusic and everything and I
remember.
So it gets delayed.
And then at some point the Iget a call, sorry, and then
Elite Daily shuts down, eliteDaily gets sold or something, so
(10:03):
we all get fired.
So like six months after we allget fired, I get a call from a
friend of mine who goes like hey, aiton, I just want to say like
they're making the porn.
Like they are like I got hiredto do the music for it and I was
like oh, that's crazy.
I thought that they canceled, Ithought that they weren't making
it in the end.
So I call the guy in charge ofthe studio and I go like hey,
(10:23):
are you guys making the porn?
He's like yeah, we've beentrying to email you and I'm like
oh, you know, they shut off myemail cause.
Everyone got fired and he waslike oh, we've also been
tweeting at you, but I never gotthe tweets and my name is Aiton
Levine.
So that just means thatsomewhere there's a dude named
Aiton Levine who's getting abunch of tweets from Wood
Rockets Studio on his Twitter,just being like hey, dude, we're
making your porno and it's likethe most Jewish name of all
(10:46):
time, so there's gotta besomeone that's like Maryam, I
don't know what porno they'retalking about.
You know, I put the Twitter,leave me.
Anyway, that's all we're hereto talk about, but that is one
of the many credits.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Wait, this is great.
I did not anticipate thisconversation to lead to porn,
but it's all good.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
We are off the rails.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
You got two.
I love it.
I'm gonna.
I need to see this now.
I need to see this.
We're gonna have to.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Do you have a good picture of you holding both of
the awards that we can use topromo this?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, I just want to throw everybody off the scent of
what we're really gonna talkabout.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
They have no idea what this conversation is.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You know, the thing is why I think I was able to do
stuff at the ABNs was because,you know, like it wasn't like I
was there, like oh, this is cool, I'm porn guy, you know, it was
so fish out of water, like Iwent to Jewish day school.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So, speaking of what did your mom say about you know
Jewish moms, like, how did shefeel about it?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
My mom, the opening scene.
I can send you the doc stuffthat we never released yet.
There's a larger story here.
But like I called my mom and Igo mommy, I'm going to write the
porn.
I've got to go to Vegas towrite this porn.
And she just goes no, you'renot.
We're an Orthodox Jewish family.
Your sisters will never getmarried.
(12:08):
I would rather you join ISISthan do this to me.
And then I just like what?
And it was what.
And then when I got, my momhates it.
And you know what's funny, wegot the trophies, and trophies
are like two people embracingeach other.
So I, when we got them, I waslike.
I was like mommy, like youdon't have to worry, in honor of
(12:29):
you guys, I named the misterand Mrs Wayne will be in the end
.
My mom was like stop bringingthis on our family.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'm sure she's very proud of you, though it's just
tough, you know.
Jewish mothers, you know you'renot a doctor, you're not a
lawyer, you're not an accountantyou know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So it's kind of like what did your mom say about you
working at the studio?
Or just how she's gonna findout.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So she was kind of like no, she knew Actually.
Well, when I was in Vegas forthe AVNs like my parents were
also in Vegas at the same timeand my dad kept.
And my parents are Israeli, soI think Israelis are a little
bit more like laid back when itcomes to stuff like that.
So my dad's like get me Tiki,it's new Yala, let's go together
.
I'm like dad, I'm not taking youto the porn convention.
(13:16):
He's like come on, let's get meTiki and I took a bunch of
photos that day.
He's like let me see the photosand it's like me with like
Jenna Jamieson and like theselike huge porn stars, like
hugging me and like it was funny.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
He was cool.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
He was like I'm next.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
The thing about the AVNs?
First of all, I bet like thetop 100 porn stars Like and it
was also crazy because it wasright before.
Like only fans happened, so nowthey're all billionaires, which
is hilarious.
The thing about the AVNs isthat if you have like a porn
addiction, if you go to the AVNsbecause it's overload, like
(13:51):
you'll never look at porn again,like it is plastered on the
walls.
It's like just so much all atonce.
It's like if you like cake,like this is like being baked
into a cake and then you have toeat your way out.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's kind of true, like the expo, it's like
exposure therapy.
Like when I worked at thecompany I was working for, like
one of my jobs when I walkedinto the office every day was to
choose a porn and to put it inthe DVD and like.
So every day I was like with mycoworker.
I'm like, do we want, like youknow, like these weird names
that I don't even want to say?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
like on air.
Just put that like, do you?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
want this one or this one Like what are we feeling
today?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You know background music, what, what?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Well, yeah, cause we put it in like the waiting room.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Like it rips off.
Yeah, so we, yeah, you know,yeah, you don't like how you go
into, like you don't like howwhen you go to a hospital, they
have CNBC playing.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So we're playing porn .
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's like, and it's like, 9 am.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I'm like with my Tim Horton's coffee, cause we're in
Canada, right, and like, likeand you just get so desensitized
by it, because it's like yousee it every day, that it's just
like not a big deal.
Anyway, enough with the porn.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
We do have a lot of questions I have to like stop it
there.
And now we move to theIsrael-Palestine War For the
worst time in our people's lives.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So you're.
I want to talk about yourJewish man on the street.
Videos, which is before October7th, gain tremendous popularity
.
What inspired you to createthis series and how do you
navigate humor when addressingsensitive topics like Jewish
identity and antisemitism?
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Okay.
So the idea for the thing camefrom, and it's interesting that
the original idea for it wasbecause I listen Jews.
Occasionally we use the termantisemitic very loosely, very
freely.
That being said, I say that allpre-October 7th, I think.
Like October 7th, the metricson this have very much changed.
(15:44):
I do think, though, that, as apeople I think we all
acknowledge that we occasionallyhave made ourselves gatekeepers
of what trauma is and stufflike that, and we've used the
term antisemitic occasionallyjust like a little bit too
loosely.
You know, it's almost like howwe are being labeled as Zionists
.
Now, you know what I mean, when, if you just like use the term
just because it's a term thatyou hear all the time, then
(16:06):
occasionally it loses meaning.
So the concept of antisemitismwhen I came up with the Jewish
or antisemitic, it was just likean idea that like listen,
either things are Jewish orthey're not Jewish and they hate
Judaism.
So that was what the idea forit was was to kind of play off
that idea, and the Jewish orantisemitic game was like, if I
(16:26):
would just say a regular wordlike the Pope, you know the Pope
Jewish or antisemitic.
Like the Pope said Jewish, he'sold Jewish guy, you know, like
he's vibes Jewish.
You know Christianity, though,is antisemitic, you know.
So the idea was just to play onconcepts of like if something
is Jewish, then it is not reallyJewish.
If something isn't Jewish, thenit is inherently not just not
(16:47):
Jewish, it is inherentlyantisemitic.
That being said, so that videoseries did very, very well.
You know, I still do it.
I release like new videos of itevery like week or so.
Then October 7th kind ofhappened, and October 7th, after
the response after October 7th,has been one of the most
(17:09):
surreal experiences on apersonal and like an internet
level.
Like I get called kike all thetime, like if I put up a video
that is about bagels, it getsfree Gaza.
You know, palestinian flagsover all of it, which is very
frustrating because, like Isympathize, I hated Netanyahu.
(17:32):
I'm a fucking liberal Jew.
I, if you're acting like I'msome sort of like Israel is
without rebuke, israel's withoutretribution, like I'm not the
devil for it.
So it was always very shockingthat I would have people use
that language against me, and itwas almost like they were
co-opting the concept of likePalestinian suffering to just
attack me in my common thread.
(17:54):
So it was very personal.
That's the thing that I've beengetting like a lot on the
internet.
The personal side of it has beenseeing how, like the global
response has been denying thatstuff has happened.
You know it's very closefriends, people that like I see
on a frequent basis, you know inthe comedy community and stuff
(18:15):
like that, have said things thatare like full on, like a just
hatred towards Jews and Jewsspecifically, denying atrocities
that happened to us, justbecause it is Jewish or just
because it goes against thething that they believe in.
Because that would involve themacknowledging that it's a gray
(18:38):
area.
A friend of mine named Amy,who's a comic in the city I'll
say Amy Shanker, she's openabout this, but like she had a
post where she was.
Like if I had been in Israel,like I go to those kinds of
raids, like I go to the beachesthere, if I had been killed, the
(18:59):
response from people in thecomedy community in New York and
people that I know would bevery much like, hey, she
deserved it, or there would beno caring.
Like I know that.
Like if something had happenedto me or my family who lives
there I family that lives therethe response wouldn't have been
like oh, aeton, I'm very sorry.
(19:19):
Here is sympathy, here is, youknow, like what can I do?
I know the response now wouldbe to attack me and my family
and, to you know, deny the awfulstuff that has happened.
So it's, it's the worst time.
All of that being said, thestuff I was saying about the
(19:40):
cancer, the stuff I was sayingabout the Holocaust earlier I
have no other way to parse thisinformation.
It is what it is.
So whenever I make these videosthat talk about anti-Semitism,
that talk about the riseanti-Semitic hate crimes that
have happened, it gets filteredthrough a very comedic way and
there's a very frustrating tone.
I think I've taken a lot of myvideos because so much of it is
(20:04):
from a place of throwing myhands up in the air and going
like, what do you want me tofucking say?
It is what it is.
Does that answer any questions?
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You actually answered a few of my questions because I
think, as a comedian, it mustbe really hard to take something
that's really so tragic and sopainful.
I consider myself a funny-ishlike.
I'm not a comedian, but I'm afunny-ish person.
I keep things light andlighthearted and even through my
own social media I've channeledthis anger towards.
(20:40):
I'm a liberal Jew too, but I'mIsraeli and my whole family
lives in Israel.
And seeing people that I'veworked with my peers go against
Israel and not even message meand say, hey, how are you doing?
Or hey, I would love to learnmore what happens, listening and
learning what happened to whenit directly affects me I'm
(21:00):
talking about people who are notJewish, not Palestinian, who
have no skin in the game, whodon't even know where it is on
the map, putting in their twocents and not even acknowledging
the pain of the people who areactually involved, it's hard for
me to be just like fuck all youanti-Semites.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I think what you're speaking to, about the fact that
it's so often as people thatare not involved, is so
frustrating the people.
I don't know why.
I know Jews failed.
We failed the marketing test.
I don't think that we did agood job of explaining what is
happening there.
I think it's bullshit when theADL and the ACLU and fucking Jew
belong and stuff like that,they're the ones in charge of
(21:42):
the messaging and brandingbehind this and that is why you
have fucking people in theMidwest who think that Israel is
exactly the same thing as NaziGermany and it's because we lost
the branding argument there.
I think that when I see people,it's also weird because I don't
fucking trust the Nittanyahucontrolling the war there.
(22:05):
I agree, I feel awful.
I have nothing but horror forwhat is happening to
Palestinians and at the sametime, I'm like whoa.
The response has been justfactually inaccurate in a way
that rings every singleanti-Jewish dog whistle
throughout history this pastweek and the fucking blood libel
(22:28):
went trending because of theKhabad stuff.
Clearly there's biggerrepercussions.
We talk about what has happenedon college campuses, which is
weirdly a thing that I've hadsome exposure to because they
performed in Hillel houses andstuff the messaging that was
(22:49):
going out to kids who thoughtthat they could act this way
against Jews, against the Hillelhouses, because of their sense
of Israel, without acknowledgingthat if you want a kosher meal
on campus, then you have to goto the Hillel.
Why was that nuance nevertaught to these kids?
There's just so many thingsthat we failed to explain an
entire situation over there andit left the door open to get the
(23:13):
entire Palestinian cause takenunder by BLM and by other
minority.
Very rightful and very just Idon't know how to say it protest
or causes in America.
I do police brutality very real,very awful.
I have marched anti-abortionvery real, very.
(23:35):
I've marched, I've donated,I've done all those things.
It is so fucking crazy that thePalestinian cause, in a very
specific way, has been co-optedby these.
It's like, oh, there's no spacefor us at the anti-abortion
rally because I think that thereshould be a two-state solution.
That is what it has become.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, it's a mind fuck, especially as a liberal
Jew.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
I think you nailed it with the.
There seems to have developedthis blueprint for mobilizing
and protesting, starting duringthe pandemic.
That has just.
It's almost like aone-size-fits-all thing where
you pick your team.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Pick your side, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But the interesting thing that came to me when you
were talking about it is Iremember so specifically during
BLM, when the conversationstarted happening and the
movement to educate became partof the equation, where it was
very clear early on it is notyour African American friends
(24:39):
responsibility to educate onwhat is happening.
During this time that wassomething that was front and
center Don't ask them to educateyou on this.
Go out and do it.
Then it's almost the reversenow during this, where the vocal
minority is like you guys needto educate yourselves.
(25:02):
As if we would have told theBLM activists during that time
if we went to the other side andwere like no, you guys need to
educate yourselves on why you'rewrong.
It's like this crazy reversalof what has happened where not.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
People are telling me in my DMs what is and what
isn't anti-Semitic.
Are you kidding me?
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Absolutely crazy.
It is absolutely insane.
Another major thing that hashappened I don't think people
acknowledge enough and we'regoing to put on a little bit of
a conspiracy theory had here.
We love it 2016, when we weretalking about the Facebook ad
issues, where Russia was usinginternet misinformation, and
(25:46):
then we're using them to turnthe right wing extreme and they
used Facebook ads and Instagramads and all of those platforms
correctly.
They were able to fuck with thealgorithm and that was how
there was so much anger.
It was how Trump ended upwinning.
I don't doubt that there isforeign involvement in how so
(26:07):
much of this information isbeing pushed out there and how
the algorithm is handing it, butit's proven, it's proven,
though I just saw an articletoday.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Qatar is sponsoring this school program in Brooklyn,
this public school program.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
No, no, no, no.
I'm not even talking about that.
I'm talking about the algorithmspecifically.
I'm saying that I was on theinternet, I worked, I was a
journalist.
I was specifically a digitalmedia journalist in 2016.
I was working in this field in2016.
And the thing that you wouldlike the thing one of the
reasons why Hillary lost theelection was because there was
(26:43):
all that Russia misinformationthat was getting pushed out very
effectively onto differentsocial media platforms Years
later.
It was that Sheryl Sandberg, Ithink, was the one that had to
resign because of it, becauseshe was accepting foreign ad
revenue and stuff like thatDuring those elections, knowing
that it was misinformation,knowing that it was like making
the situation worse.
(27:03):
I don't doubt that right now,so much of the information and
the tone of the information, thelack of nuance and the
tribalism on both sides gettinghit each other, I don't doubt
that there is some sort of otherentity out there.
I don't doubt that the Qatarisare out there.
I don't doubt that there issomeone else that is kind of
making this worse.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
A hundred percent Like TikTok, like TikTok is.
I can't even go on TikTok.
Oh my God, tiktok is absolutelyfucking crazy.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
And also I see a dead person on TikTok every day.
That is like it's just, it'swild.
Now I see a lot of hooftrimming and a lot of people, a
lot of what Hoof trimming.
I don't go to bed without threehours of hoof talk every day.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
We're just going to be that, no context.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
You know, hoof talk, hoof talk.
No, I've never.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I didn't hear about that, oh, let me tell you right
now, what is hoof talk?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
It's the elevator pitch on hoof talk.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
It's just, you're watching dudes trim hooves and
you think it's nothing and youjust I'm telling you, go to the
hoof.
Gp, it's just the way that theytreat cow.
I'm not crazy.
I've said this on stage andI've had large chunks of the
audience go.
Okay, this is a.
He has millions of followers ofGP.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Okay, we're gonna have to go down the rabbit ball.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
This is road tested.
We are the weirdos for notknowing what it is.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
You know you're a New York based Comedian.
Like, let's talk about New Yorka little bit.
A little love to the New YorkCity.
What do you think sets thecomedy scene in New York apart
from other places, and how hasit shaped your comedic style?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Okay.
So I think back in the day Iwill say that there's like a
little bit of a shift now whereit used to be the only way to
get to rise the ranks was to bein, you know, la, new York,
chicago for a while.
You know I I Thankfully, likethe pandemic has made it so that
you can really really reallyhave like career traction and
(29:04):
live in other, in other States.
Now I will say a very not acontroversial thing amongst the
comedy community, but New Yorkis honestly the worst audience
city in the world.
If you want to do Shows forbetter audiences, longer sets in
bigger rooms, you have to goout of New York to kind of get
(29:26):
that.
If there's one thing that Ikind of like regret you know I
kind of started in New York itis that I didn't get like the
years of smaller like a city.
You know feet, you know I10,000 hours in like a smaller
city In New York though Forcesyou because of who you're going
up against and who you'refollowing and stuff like that.
(29:48):
You have to have like top-notchmaterial like I think that the
in other cities what I've talkedto people have come up in other
cities, the thing that theycomment on the most is that,
like you know, at open micsyou'll give a joke in other
cities, the joke that peoplelaugh at more stuff.
You know people will give jokesa little bit more of a leash.
I love a little more like yeah,I'm like a leeway with it in
(30:12):
New York.
I think people are so likeexpecting the best, especially
like in the open mics whereyou're seeing the best comedy.
People will cut jokes earlierbecause you're like oh no, this
is bullshit.
You know, this is a.
This is crazy.
So I think it forces you tolike really hone material and
like just Get better at comingup with material quicker.
That is like good.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Love that.
What so what's?
Do you have any like upcomingprojects that you want to
promote or talk about?
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Let me also ask you real quick before you answer,
that is, do you ever perform incomedy clubs?
Because I feel like every showthat you promote is in a deli,
is in your apartment, yeah, thesynagogue.
Like you do comedy in so manyDifferent, like very different
places, is it?
And obviously that'sintentional, but like it, it's
(31:01):
so funny to me that, like everyshow I see promoted is some
random ass place.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
No, you know what you're actually.
That's a good question becauseyou know I, first of all, I do
perform in a lot of clubs.
In New York comedy club, whereyou guys saw me, I perform at
your stand in New York.
You know Caroline's was aBroadway renaissance.
You know I perform at all thelast stop in a sorry, the last
tour in Jersey City.
I have a bunch of shows comingup on during the pandemic when
(31:30):
all of the the comedy club shutdown.
You know all the regular waysthat people were performing.
They shut down.
So it forced the comedycommunity in you know to kind of
like figure out ways to maketheir own shows.
You know there was a wholemovement of outdoor park shows
that happened, you know, in 2020through like 2021, 2022, I that
(31:51):
you know, all of a sudden, likeyou just had to learn how to
make your own show and doingthat, it forced a lot of
comedians to learn a couplethings, like you need a
spotlight that was the thing wedidn't know about.
You know how do you have amicrophone outside?
You know, like what are all ofthese things that it forced you
know, the comedy community tolearn just how to kind of just
make pop-up shows in randomspaces and those pop-up shows
(32:13):
became very big.
Those pop-up shows have led tomajor juggernauts like comedy
you up or the sorry don't tell.
Comedy is massive.
Now don't tell.
Comedy you can make theargument At this point is at is
bigger than comedy central in alot of respects.
So you know the scene ingeneral.
We learned how to put up thesepop-up shows.
(32:33):
I love these pop-up showsbecause you could control the
space a lot more and I've beenfortunate enough to do a lot of
pop-up shows in Very randomplaces PJ Bernstein's, by the
way.
On January 25th we're gonna begoing out there and doing
another PJ Bernstein show.
I Apartment fest happened.
You know it was in my apartment.
Now I that the idea for apertinent fest is the second one
(32:58):
that we did.
The first one was in 2019, formy best is a weekend of shows
that are in my living room.
In 2019 I came up with the ideabecause I had gotten rejected
from a comedy festival in Bostonthat I never applied to.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
They just rejected what they just say Don't even
think about it.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, they were like just letting you know you didn't
get in here.
I was like I, who are you guys?
So so that was like festivalsare a joke.
Like I can just make my ownfestival.
So I could just make a jokingfestival.
So I, as a joke, I made a logoand I made a submission form for
comics and I was planning onjust doing one kind of show,
(33:37):
which was gonna be 10 people inmy apartment and 137 comics
apply.
Because we're all desperate andwhen they all applied I had to
like expand it.
So I made like four shows, soit's gonna be like a weekend of
shows.
And then all of a sudden,because I had a weekend of shows
, I was able to go out againstsponsors.
So we got like sticky sphingerjoint gave a bunch of like
(33:58):
chicken fingers and fries andNew Belgium brewery gave us like
10 cases of beer and stuff likethat and turned into like a big
thing.
You know, we ended up havinglike 50 comics perform over the
four shows.
Over the weekend.
We had an industry panel whichI thought was hilarious.
Two people got representationout of the festival.
My favorite story with it,though, is that I, when we got
(34:21):
the first day of the festival, Igot jury duty, so I had to go
to New Jersey to serve jury duty.
So I get there and I make itpast the first round and I get
into, like the, the actualcourtroom, and they tell us, you
know, they give us the wholelike spiel, and then they hand
us a pamphlet and they go we'regonna break for lunch, but in
(34:41):
this pamphlet are the dates forthe trial.
If you can't do these dates,you have to let us know.
So I see one of the dates isthat started the festival.
So I, during lunch, I get blade, I get so high like so, so so,
stoned outside of the courthouse.
I then walk back into thecourthouse, reeking of me
perfect.
I walk up to the judge and I goyour honor, which is the look.
(35:04):
I actually said that I saidyour honor.
I go to the judge and I go yourhonor.
I am in charge of a comedyfestival in my apartment that is
happening this weekend, and Ineed I'm getting chicken, that
is being I have to pick up thechicken.
I have to get the chicken fromthe store to the, to the to the
(35:25):
apartment and so I can't bethere for that day.
But what I could do, your honor, is you could record the trial
and then I could listen to theaudio and let you guys know how
I am, as I'm saying that he goes, stop talking and I go, okay,
and then I start walking.
Oh yeah, I could go.
It's like you walk that way fora second.
So I start walking and as I'mwalking I hear the other four
(35:49):
lawyers in unison.
Just go, you can dismiss him.
That's how you get out of juryduty noted we're in New Jersey.
We're in New.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Jersey.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
This was I was registered at.
It says is newer Okay, yeah, Iwas registered to vote in Jersey
, interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
So so, yeah, they tell us, like, what you have
going on, so people can checkout and all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah, totally so apartment fest which got New
York Times coverage is we'redoing shows here occasionally
and.
We've also partnered up with.
You know, bregg don't tellcomedy, who has like a million
and a half YouTube followers.
They're absolutely massive.
So they're doing we have twoshows here in February.
(36:39):
On February 17th I'm doing PJBernstein's the deli.
We did a show there onChristmas and the show crushed
and they're having us back.
So we're gonna do it again onJanuary 25th.
The YouTube I started the, thetick tock, the Instagram follow
me on all of that stuff.
You know I do try to cover theanti-semitic stuff with a little
(37:00):
bit of humor.
You know.
Hopefully you guys all like itout there.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You're doing an amazing job.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
We love you.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Okay, last question.
I'm trying, yes, yes, yes,hopefully they're right too much
.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
No, you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I like we could talk to you for hours, but I know
you're on a time crunch.
I have one last question.
Top three favorite places toeat in New York City go oh.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Oh, okay, p, I said the first one.
The number one, like there's nonumber two, is the straw me
queen on the upper.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
East, wow, okay.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I'm a queen on the upper East side, has the best
for straw me in New York betterthan the other straw me is
Mm-hmm, it's different, is a bigthing about it?
Cat's is.
Is Cat's is, you're eating apile of cow and it's awesome.
It's like truly, truly awesome.
P J Pistroma, queen's, a littlebit of a different, a little
bit of a different.
Five, it's like a sandwich, youknow.
(37:52):
Um, that's number one.
Number two Is at fay da bakery.
Um, which is a Japanese bakery.
The mochi at fay da bakery is,I think, one of my favorite like
single bite things in New York.
Uh, the mango mochi isabsolutely unreal.
There's one that what used tobe my grandmother's house, it's
(38:14):
not kosher.
Uh, so I would.
On the way out, it was what Iused to get on the subway home.
Uh, but uh, that would.
So that's number two.
Number three is um, my god,wait, this is normally an easy
question.
I had, you know, I recently hadthe tuna melt at uh, at s and p
, and that was like phenomenal.
(38:35):
Um, I mean.
But yeah, I would say that tunamelt at s and p was really
freaking.
Good, yeah, that's what I'llsay.
I think we can look at that.
Okay, yeah, we'll lock that inthere.
I love it, thank you.
So what's your favorite?
Oh my god, here we go.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, we can't do this now.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
No, I can't if you had to give me your number one.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Just give me your number one in New York City, or
just in general.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
No, in New York I'm thinking of New.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
York specifically um, off the top of my head, uh,
probably, uh, qval in brooklyn,which is a really good israeli
restaurant, all the israelirestaurants like bala busta
isn't like amazing?
Like I don't know, I'm thinking19 cleveland 19, cleveland.
(39:20):
Like I don't know, I thinkevery israeli restaurant is like
my favorite.
Like tony and I have a goal ofeating at every israeli
restaurant in New york city.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Good luck.
There's a lot of jews.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Way more than I thought actually.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I mean, you know, last year I was, I was I hosted
a show on amazon.
Uh, for about a year, uh, I hita daily sport show and uh, the
kairi thing would happen while Iwas on the daily sport show on
amazon and I remember, uh,during a moment when I talk
about like how there's like thisfrustrated comedy thing where
you just say a crazy fact andit's like very funny, I remember
(39:57):
that I was debating withsomeone about the kairi thing
and I just was like there's somany jews in brooklyn and that
was my entire thesis behind thehatred for for kairi.
I was like what are you?
I was like why are we evenbringing him here?
He's a flat earther.
The kairi thing was always veryfunny to me because the
pipeline between flat earthersand anti semi, it's like right
(40:19):
size of an elbow.
It's the same, you know, it'sliterally the same so bottom to
the most jewy population of alltime, and they're like uh, a
little, work out sports.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
You know sports on that note a time.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Thank you so much for being on the show.
It was a pleasure.
We could talk to you foreverand we'll tell everybody to
follow you and we'll follow youand we'll probably come to your
One of your shows pretty soon.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
So yeah, we would love to come out.
Uh, you got to come to theapartment show at february 17th.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Okay, we'll be there.
We'll be there.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Sick.
Are there gonna be chickenfingers and do you need help
picking them up?
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Oh yeah, you gotta get me these shoes.
I am during juridine that day.
I gotta get out of my way there.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
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