#222- Zara Mizrahi: Loop Group to Big Soup with a Stand-Up Comic and "Family Guy" Contributor

In this week’s episode, we sit down with Zara Mizrahi, a dynamic stand-up comedian, writer, and voice actor who’s making waves in the entertainment industry. With rapid-fire questions, plenty of laughs, and behind-the-scenes stories from the world of comedy and voice acting, this conversation is as entertaining as it is enlightening.

Here are several things we had discussed:

• Zara’s unique upbringing in a Mexican Jewish household, debunking common assumptions about her cultural background and exploring her perspectives on migration and identity.
• Zara’s fascinating insights into her career, from her stand-up performances at top comedy clubs to her voice work on shows like ‘Family Guy’’.
• Insights into the comedy and voice-over industries.
• Funny anecdotes and reflections on her career.
• Zara also dishes on her personal projects, including her quirky podcast inspired by her hilariously serious take on soup conspiracies.

And many more! Whether you’re a fan of Zara’s work or curious about the comedy scene, you won’t want to miss this episode!

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Zara's Website: https://www.zaramizrahi.com/

Zara's Socials:

https://www.instagram.com/zaramizrahi

https://linktr.ee/zaramizrahi?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZG6D_QCvAIL-IqliN7UHdnM8Gx_rR9wexA154MTmyZpHncXx4SE6e5x1Y_aem_5cMuimtsUEUTsM0qifD6Lw

https://www.tiktok.com/@zaramizrahi?lang=en

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Link to all things Not in a Huff Podcast: https://linktr.ee/notinahuffpodcast

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I was very intimidated when I first got asked.

(00:03):
I was like, I don't, I'm not good enough.
I don't know how to, I'm terrified of bombing.
I don't know how to hold my own with these people.
You know, the only way to get good at it is just to do it.
If you continue growing in anything,
then you're always gonna kind of feel inferior
because you're upping the level of quality.

(00:24):
If you continue rising,
it doesn't mean that you're like failing or doing badly.
It just means that now you're in another level of caliber.
Welcome to Not in a Huff with Jackson Huff,
where we interview newsmakers,
storytellers and all around interesting people.
Sit back, relax, unless you're driving

(00:46):
and enjoy the show.
Here's Jackson.
Hello, hello, hello.
I am Jackson Huff.
This is Not in a Huff.
Thanks so much for joining me.
As always, really appreciate it.
This week, speaking with another comic,
amazing conversation, speaking with Zara Mizrahi.
Now Zara, we have a really fun conversation
just about growing up.
She grew up in an interesting household,

(01:09):
one that is a Mexican Jewish household.
And when I first heard that, I mistakenly thought,
oh, she's half Jewish and half Mexican.
Not the case.
We're gonna talk about that.
And it kind of gets deep for a second
when we talk about just the migration of religions
around the world.
But I promise we don't stay there very long.

(01:31):
Because what we're mostly gonna talk about
is just her amazing career in standup
and then also her career in voiceover work.
She's actually somebody who does the voiceover work
in Family Guy.
And the work that she does is very interesting.
It's a world that I didn't even know existed.
She's part of the LUP Group,

(01:51):
which we're gonna talk about what that means.
If you didn't know,
I certainly didn't know before researching her a bit.
So it's really, really interesting.
We're gonna talk about some of the other voiceover work
she's done.
We're gonna talk about her own podcast
and her extreme distaste.
Well, that's putting it mildly,
but her feeling that there's conspiracy theories

(02:14):
around soup.
And part of it obviously is a little bit of a joke,
but part of it's very serious to her.
And she's created a podcast around that,
which makes it seem kind of funny,
which of course is a funny conversation.
I'm speaking with a comic,
but I think this is really a cool conversation too,
just about all kinds of really amazing things.

(02:36):
I threw in kind of a quick rapid fire game question
answer thing.
I'd like to do that definitely with comics
and people aware it's a more light interview,
but I think you're gonna really, really enjoy this one.
I learned so much just about the world of comedy,
about the world of voiceover work,
even though I've had comedians and voiceover people on before,

(02:57):
I learned a ton from Zara as well.
And then I learned a ton in the early part,
just about the Mexican Jewish heritage,
which there is a large group of Jewish people in Mexico,
which I had no idea.
So this is a really fun conversation.
Here is Zara Mizrahi.
How are you, Mizrahi?
I'm good.

(03:18):
I like the last name intro.
Yeah, I almost wasn't able to say Ms.
and Mizrahi together, but I made it work.
So just do the heavy lifting yourself
and introduce yourself.
I'm Zara Mizrahi.
It's so nice to be here.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Well, thanks for going to join me.
I appreciate that.
I wanna kind of just jump right into things

(03:39):
and let's talk about you as an LA native.
That's uncommon.
A lot of people are in LA
and they're transplants from all over the place.
I just talked to a comedian, was it last week?
She lives in LA now, but she is from Arkansas.
So quite different.
What was it like kind of growing up in LA
and then a little bit, I guess more specific.

(03:59):
We just talked before we started about how
you have a Jewish heritage and a Mexican heritage.
I thought it was kind of a half and half situation,
but it's not.
It is just, apparently, I don't know whether
they've got synagogues in the middle of Mexico,
but you guys are fully Jewish, but also Mexican.
So a lot packed in there, but talk about childhood, I guess,

(04:20):
unless it's not gonna make you cry.
It won't make me cry, fortunately.
I've grown out of that phase.
It's hard to think about the objective reality
of your childhood, because when I grew up,
I was just like, this is life.

(04:43):
But I obviously did not know that growing up
in one of the biggest cities in the world is really unusual.
But I did grow up in the industry,
so I did a lot of childhood acting and modeling.
And my mom was a writer.
She was a journalist, and my dad was a clothing manufacturer.
So it was sort of creative, entertainment adjacent, kind of.

(05:08):
And it wasn't until I grew up that I was like,
oh, that was actually really unusual.
But I think the answer for what is the childhood like in LA
is it's actually not very childhood-y.
It's not very play in the streets.
And sorry, my AC just turned on.
Let me turn it up.
It's not really ride your bikes around in the street

(05:29):
and then go get a hot dog somewhere.
It's very much like, if you walk to school,
look around you, there could be weirdos anywhere.
But what's weird about that is that I was like,
okay, cool, this is life.
I didn't really think that that's a scary way to grow up.
But the 90s in LA were a particularly kind of stressful,

(05:52):
rageful time in LA.
But the music was awesome.
And I loved the music talking about LA,
like Dr. Dre and Snoop and Tupac.
And I mean, there are just so many things
that I grew up with that I didn't really
have perspective on, I guess.
So it was like, I guess it's like kind of a long answer

(06:14):
to your question.
It was interesting to get like right into the heart
of the city.
I felt like I was kind of right in the middle
of what America is about, I guess, in the 90s,
early 90s is when I was born.
And then, but at the same time,
like having your family around you kind of softens
any of the toughness of the city.

(06:35):
So my family is really tight and it's a really big family.
It's a Jewish family.
So there's like a weekly Friday night hangout.
There's like a dinner that's been in a tradition,
been a tradition in my family for decades and decades.
I mean, obviously for Jews, like forever.
But my family was really big on doing the Friday night
dinner and I think that that really grounded me.

(06:57):
Still do it today.
I just, there's something about it.
It's not even religious.
It's just like, there's something about being
in a crazy world and then knowing that you're going
to a family thing on Friday that really centered me.
And even when things were really crazy in the city,
like the riots, the Rodney King riots happened
when I was insanely young.
I don't remember, but like there was always stuff

(07:19):
like that happening.
And then it was like, okay, but then you go to dinner
and then you kind of speak Spanish over dinner
and then disconnect from the rest of the world.
So the Mexican Jewish thing is interesting.
Just to answer that part of what you asked.
My family's originally from the Middle East.
They fled in the early 1900s because Jews were no longer

(07:41):
allowed to be in the Middle East.
And so they left, they ended up in Mexico,
which is so random, but there's a big Jewish community
in Mexico now.
There's like 50,000 of them had to go.
They had to go somewhere.
So that's where my family ended up.
And they've been there for now, like a hundred years.
We go down, most of my family is still there.

(08:03):
I have very, my family here, like it's big compared
to other people's families, but my family
in Mexico is insane.
It's like hundreds and hundreds of cousins.
And then they all have kids.
And then it's like, you know, Mexicans, dude,
my Mexican family.
I love it.
They love it.

(08:23):
There's a lot to unpack there.
The first question that just sprung to my mind is,
do you guys have a Torah that's in Spanish?
I know that even here, like a lot of people have it
in Hebrew, do you have one in Spanish?
No, the Torah is in Hebrew.
It's like the scripture,
but there are obviously translations in Spanish.
And then there are services.

(08:45):
If you were to go to temple in Mexico
or probably even certain parts of LA,
they're Mexican or Latin rabbis.
And then they'll do the service in Spanish
and then read the prayers in Hebrew.
I just went to a family wedding in Peru
and the whole thing was in Spanish,
except for the prayers.
It's really, really awesome.

(09:06):
That's really cool.
And yeah, that's one benefit of not being able
to be anywhere for long is you get a whole scope
of just random world influence
that you never would have thought,
oh, Jews went there, whoa, they were influenced by that,
or they influenced those people.
It's kind of wild.

(09:27):
It's definitely a long history.
So there was a lot of time to get enmeshed in a lot of ways.
For sure, I mean, is your family still, I guess,
more culturally Jewish or religiously Jewish?
And the only reason I ask that is just because
I've talked to a lot of people
in a lot of different religions.
I've talked to people from the Hasidic Jewish community

(09:48):
from New York, which was more Hasidic Jews in New York
than it sounds like all Jews in Mexico.
It's like 200,000, but we wouldn't be talking right now,
I think, if you are super Orthodox,
because it's Saturday and it's not sundown yet.
That's true.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not really religious.

(10:09):
My family, I guess, I mean, some people are more religious
than others in my family.
It definitely feels like the cultural thing
is the foundation of all of it.
Yeah, some people are really hardcore
about going to temple on Saturday or something like that.
I'm not, obviously, but being culturally Jewish

(10:30):
and connected to the traditions really matters to me.
I didn't think it did or would as much.
It's the kind of thing you take for granted
until it's threatened or until you get old enough
to realize that those things actually are really
instrumental to who you are.
And there's just, for me personally,

(10:50):
obviously everyone has their thing.
For other people, it's like Christianity,
which is beautiful.
There's just something about knowing
that there's a familiar foundation for,
I guess, what brought me a lot of peace growing up maybe.
So it's like being able to just plug into something
that was really grounding,
even if it's just literally having dinner.

(11:12):
I just went to a cousin's house for dinner last night,
not religious at all, but just being around family
on Friday night is just really nice.
So in that way, it's like, I guess,
a cultural thing for me.
I think that's really awesome.
I love that.
At this point, people are clicking like,
did he say he's having a comedian on?
They're getting real serious, real fast.
Let's kind of shift back to your childhood

(11:35):
where you said that you grew up in the industry.
What was the, I guess, what was your first foray
into entertainment?
Were you in a commercial or what was going on?
Yeah, so I did a lot of modeling,
like mom-daughter modeling.
My mom did modeling in her 20s,
and she was like, do you wanna try this?

(11:57):
I was really young.
I was like, I mean, I'll do it if I'm with you.
And at the time, there were a lot of cute mother-daughter
articles that were coming out, I don't know why, 90s.
So we did a lot of that stuff together.
And then I got an agent for commercial stuff.
And then I did a Western dental commercial.
I did some work for Disney.

(12:18):
And I remember, I just didn't enjoy it,
which was really strange because I ended up right back
in the industry in my later years.
But as a kid, I was like, this is stressful, man.
I don't really like going into rooms
and having to impress people on the spot
and compete with other girls.

(12:38):
I just didn't like it.
And that's still my least favorite part of the industry,
which is why I love doing social media actually,
because it just takes me out of the competition thing
for one job.
But that's a separate thing, we'll talk about that later.
When I was a kid, I did work and I was booking.
And there was just one point during the Disney thing,

(12:59):
I just saw the sass from the other girls.
I remember this one girl in the bathroom was like,
you should probably go home
because I heard they're looking for a blonde.
We were like five.
I was just like, this is gross.
Even as a five-year-old, I was like,
you should be more of a five-year-old, kind of.
There was just this jadedness, I guess, that happens.

(13:22):
It just happens to you.
How do you not?
It's such a crazy industry.
It's very competitive and doggy dog kind of thing.
So that's just not my vibe.
So I was just like, I don't think I wanna do this anymore.
I don't like auditioning even.
And if you don't like auditioning,
especially in the 90s, there's no way to not do this

(13:43):
if you don't like auditioning.
So my mom, to her credit, was like,
great, you don't need to do it anymore.
No reason to keep doing something that you don't like.
So I retired.
I took my M&Ms and I put it in my safety deposit box
and I stopped for a long time.
And then when I was a teenager,

(14:04):
I was really struggling in school.
And I was like, this doesn't feel like it's my thing.
I'm creative.
I think differently.
I'm having a hard time learning in a conventional way.
And I don't think I wanna go to college
because I wanna do something creative
and I'd rather start right out of high school.
And again, my mom, to her credit, was like, great.
If you can get your high school diploma somehow,
and if you wanna be able to go to college

(14:26):
at some other point, great.
So I took the California High School Proficiency Exam,
which some people call the GED,
but it's actually called the ChESPE.
I mean, that's a really bad acronym.
But I took that and passed.
So I got my high school diploma from the state,
not from the school I was going to.
And so I could go to college whenever,

(14:48):
but I ended up leaving high school when I was 16
and just kind of went right back into acting
and really studied and trained.
And I did voiceover training.
And then one thing led to another.
And before I knew it, I was doing standup.
And I started standup when I was about 20.
And the rest is history.
Yeah, so I guess how did you realize that you were funny?

(15:13):
Was it something that throughout your childhood
that you've always kind of been a funny person?
Was it something that you had to really develop
because that was a passion of yours?
Or when did kind of that come to the forefront
that you wanted to get into entertainment
and you wanted to kind of do it in a comedic way?
Yeah, that's a good question.

(15:34):
I feel like humor was always a really big part of my spirit.
I was always very goofy.
I remember before being able to really talk
and form sentences, I was doing jokes.
I remember doing impressions of my mom reading the TV guide
with her glasses on.
TV guide is definitely dating me.

(15:55):
But it was the book where you could see everything
that was on TV.
I have to say, I don't know how old your audience is,
but I feel like I have to.
It's a wide variety, but it really skews older than I am.
I'm actually, normally I always say, I'm around your age.
I'm actually exactly your age almost to the day.

(16:17):
I'm born June 22nd, 1991.
Aren't you like- No way.
Yeah, so we're very, very close.
That's so funny.
Okay, so you remember.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah, I mean, that was the Bible for moms
in the 80s and 90s.
So I just remember my mom religiously like highlighting
or circling the things that she wanted to watch that week.

(16:38):
And I remember putting on her glasses
being like, I'm mom now.
Doing bits as a kid.
And my dad is a really funny, goofy guy
and he loves doing voices.
And he showed me, I Love Lucy from a really young age,
Three Stooges, Looney Tunes.
I was really, really influenced by over-the-top, goofy,

(17:00):
physical, expressive comedy.
And I'm so grateful for that
because I found it to be so helpful as an outlet.
I would always turn to laughter
when I was struggling with something.
And growing up in LA, as we talked about, is like difficult
and I was bullied a lot in school.
And there's just a lot of adversity

(17:21):
that I think I dealt with really early on.
And I think to be able to turn to those funny things
was naturally something that I was geared towards
and that I felt comfortable with.
So humor, and I was always able to somehow
make something funny, but I didn't,
and do impressions and stuff.
But I didn't really think of it
as something that I wanted to pursue.

(17:41):
Until I was acting, didn't really feel comfortable
saying other people's words.
It felt weird to me.
And then I played around with the idea
of doing music for a long time.
And then I played a couple shows
because I play some music.
I'm not that good.
I'm kind of basic, but that felt weird to me

(18:04):
because I was like, nobody's laughing.
Something about it just felt like it was missing.
I'm like, this is too serious and awkward.
And everyone's just staring at me
while I'm trying to get through this song.
And I was like, I would die.
So I felt that way.
I was like, this is so awkward.
I need to leave if I can't joke.
Or I just felt very confined.
Anyway, so I had a friend who started doing standup

(18:25):
and she was like, do you wanna just try standup ones?
Maybe it'll help with your music.
I was like, great, I'll try it.
And then immediately I was like, this is it.
This is the answer.
This is what I'm supposed to do.
I love it.
And I wanna get into you as an adult
between standup and voiceover work.
But before we get there,
let's learn a little bit more about you.
In a little game I like to do called rapid fire,

(18:48):
generally no follow-up questions.
Are you ready for some weird questions?
Absolutely.
All right, so normally I ask you
what your favorite fast food is,
but we'll get to it later.
But instead I'm gonna ask you,
what's your Chipotle order?
Oh, I like it.
We're jumping right through.
Yeah.
So my Chipotle order, you might not approve,

(19:10):
but I'm a big fan of the sofritas that they have.
I really like it.
I'm not a big meat person.
So when they had that, I was like, it's done.
So I go brown rice, sofritas, half black beans,
half pinto beans, mild salsa, which is like the pico de gallo

(19:34):
and then guacamole, lettuce, tight fold on the burrito.
That's absolutely necessary.
If it's a soft fold, I have to be like, I'm so sorry.
You know, we need this to be a little more packed tight.
You know?
You make them refold these burritos?
If it's spilling out, I'm gonna go with the soft fold.

(19:57):
If it's spilling out, I'll be like, hey,
if it's just kind of loose, let it go.
You know what I mean?
Some things are just like not gonna be perfect.
But if it's falling, if there are like tomatoes falling
out of it or like, you know, when they're folding it up
and then the water drains out of it and you're like,
when I open this up, it's just gonna be soft, chewy mush.

(20:19):
Like it needs, sorry, I'm getting really into it.
Yeah, you've thought a lot about this.
It's a huge part of my life.
We're gonna get to Chipotle.
So we've got that, that's everything in your burrito, right?
That's my burrito.
I like it, I like it.
Let's go to the next one.
I said no follow-ups, so I'm gonna leave it there for now.

(20:41):
If you only have $3 to spend, which I realize in LA,
that's totally different than the Midwest here,
but what are you spending your $3 on?
Parking.
Is that gonna get, what's that gonna get you?
Three minutes?
About maybe 20.
There you go.
Are you a dog?
You're lucky.
Are you a dog or cat person?

(21:03):
Dog.
Socks and sandals, yes or no?
What's the context?
I'm not supposed to do all of that.
Shouldn't need any context.
You shouldn't ever wear them together to me.
But what if you're going down to do laundry or something?
I don't know.
Or is it, I feel like this is something that you do then,

(21:26):
which is disappointing, but.
No, I don't.
I just wanna make sure that I'm thinking
of all the possibilities before I write something off.
Then let's take it to heading to Chipotle.
Is that allowed?
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
No.
No, you can't make your feet open burritos.

(21:47):
I like that.
The burritos have to be burritos, you know?
I like it.
If you weren't named Zara, what's another name for you?
And I am gonna give you some context here.
I have two signs.
This one, I had to break this one out in my closet
to be able to make your name
because my other sign is actually sitting here.

(22:07):
I only have one Z.
You've ruined me with your two Zs.
So, if you-
Sorry about that.
Maybe take the Z out of your first name.
What would be another name?
Would you have such a cool name?
I hate this question for you, but.
What would be, like, what would my runner-up name be?
Yeah, what do you feel, what else connects with you?

(22:29):
What other name?
Oh, geez, I've never been asked that before.
I mean, my middle name is Rose.
People called me Rosie growing up.
I, I.
But that never felt right.
But you like that, though.
Now that I'm talking about it,
it actually doesn't feel like a good answer.

(22:51):
Geez, I really, I honestly don't know.
If it was, like, Burrito Fan 25, I would be, like, great.
All right, well, let's go with it.
Burrito Fan 25, Mizrahi, it works for me.
Earlier, you talked about music.
What's one song that when it comes on,
it's, you know, it's got you dancing,
it's got you singing, and then conversely,

(23:13):
what's one song that immediately makes you,
you know, roll your eyes and turn the station?
Turn the station, I also really appreciate
the kind of 90s signal, too.
You know, this just feels really good
to hear somebody else just mention.
I said TV Guide, you're talking about changing the station.
This is really good.

(23:34):
And I thought about that when I wrote that question
a long time ago, like, I'm gonna talk to young people
that are gonna be like, turn the station.
What are you talking about?
This is my Spotify playlist, but I kept it that way.
So I appreciate it.
You're gonna appreciate it.
I'm gonna talk to young people that are gonna be like,
turn the station.
What are you talking about?
And you're the first person that appreciates it,
so I love it.
Yeah.
How do you adjust your antennas to make sure
that you're getting the proper signal without much static?

(23:57):
I, let's see, I mean, right now,
I'm getting re-obsessed with Bo Burnham's whole catalog.
So they're like, one of, what's that?
What's the, oh, can't handle this,
is one that like, when I hear it,

(24:18):
I'm like, it speaks to my brain.
I don't know, like something in my brain turns on
and then I like walk a little faster
or more aggressively maybe,
but then it also makes me really sad.
And then I slow down.
There's like, a lot of his songs take me through
like a whole spectrum of emotions.
And I've, I guess I've kind of felt like that recently.

(24:40):
Like everything that's going on in the world
is like so extreme.
So to hear music that kind of exercises
my emotional brain a little bit,
that's what's been scratching that itch for me recently.
And then when it comes to like, changing the station,

(25:00):
I really, I'm like, I'm really over Kendrick Lamar
right now.
It's just, it's like, okay, I get it.
Like you don't like Drake, I understand.
I guess that's the one where I'm, yeah,
the most recent song where I hear and I'm like, okay,
it's, there are more songs out there, you know.

(25:22):
I like it.
I like, let's move back into where I can actually
ask you follow-ups afterwards.
And let's talk about, about voiceover.
How did that start for you?
That I've talked to people who,
I've talked to a lot of voiceover actors
and whether they're at the end of their career
that have been doing it since the sixties.
And I talked to somebody who used to do the voiceover

(25:44):
for the Academy Awards.
So what got you into it?
Cause I know I've heard you talk in other podcasts
and you recognize that that's a hard world to break into
and it's only getting harder.
So how did you break in?
Complete accident, honestly,
like nothing that I've successfully done
has been on purpose.
And that kind of freaks me out

(26:05):
because I've put so much effort into things
that don't really go anywhere.
I mean, I don't know if that's entirely true.
I mean, standup was a complete accident
but obviously you put a lot of,
one puts a lot of work into it to continue.
So obviously I'm like, that's working.
But like the way I got into it was a complete accident,
very similar to voiceover.
So, so when I started doing,

(26:29):
I always knew I was good with voices.
I loved doing impressions and accents
and I had a lot of fun experimenting with expressions
and sounds and I'm a very auditory person.
So I, for some reason I'm able to have more control
over my voice than I thought I did or something.
And I think playing music also honed that a little bit.

(26:51):
And I was working at an advertising company
doing copywriting for their commercials.
So I wrote commercials for years
for people to read for the radio or TV.
And one day one of the actors fell out
and my boss was like, would you,
do you think you can read this?

(27:12):
And I was like, I mean, I'll try.
Ended up being exactly what I wanted to do.
So I ended up doing commercial voiceover for several years.
And a lot of the time I had to record elsewhere.
There were times where I couldn't record in our office.
So I have a friend whose booth I would use from time to time.
And then I would also use it when I was auditioning

(27:33):
for random animated shows or parts or whatever.
And I think over time, he kind of saw,
he kind of saw that I was maybe getting a little better,
getting more comfortable,
knowing how to experiment a little more.
And my range was kind of growing.
And he happened to do a lot of work

(27:54):
with Family Guy and American Dad.
And again, one morning one of their actors fell through
and they called me at 9.45 in the morning and were like,
and he was like, dude, can you be here in 30 minutes?
And I was like, yeah, sure.
I just need a shower and then I was like, wait,
what am I talking about?

(28:14):
This is voiceover.
I do not need to get ready.
I just get out the door and get there.
And I did.
And fortunately got invited back a bunch.
And now that's like a semi-regular thing that I do.
I mean, knock on wood.
It's been like over 30 episodes now
that I've done for both of those shows.

(28:35):
And I feel incredibly, insanely lucky
to just have been there right moment, right time available.
Just the other day I was out of town
and they called me again,
like the night before I was supposed to be there,
it was like, damn, I wasn't able to go, you know?
But that's freaking Hollywood, man.

(28:55):
Like just people falling out and just like happened,
like if you happen to be there, then like amazing.
But literally everything that I've done has been by accident,
which is kind of wild when I think about it.
Cause I'm like, wait,
should I just like stop trying to do things on purpose
and like see what happens?
Yeah, that is an existential crisis for sure.

(29:17):
If you think about, oh, everything is,
everything has been a mistake.
Maybe I don't need to keep trying, but no.
I think about it a lot.
Yeah.
Do you ever have that experience
or is everything like pretty, does everything come back?
Is the ROI normal on like everything that you try to do?
Well, I mean, I do live a slightly different life than you.

(29:40):
I work actually in higher education.
So a lot of stuff is planned,
but I will tell you that a lot of times that,
you know, the things that we spend so much time
on making sure is correct,
but the things that never work out
and the things that we just,
I still remember an email we sent out to corporations.
I'm not gonna get in the weeds about it,

(30:00):
but we just couldn't think of anything to put as the title.
And I just randomly said,
let's just put this, our most successful email ever.
When we spent weeks and weeks thinking about things
in the past and just in 20 seconds,
it was the best thing we've ever done.
So, I mean, that happens all the time, I feel like.

(30:22):
I love that.
Yeah, that's so nice.
We're just like, oh, thank you.
Whatever source that came from,
dropping that idea right through my brain.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I want to ask you more about voiceover,
but I wanna do a little bit of an aside
and that is kind of behind the scenes.
It took us a little while to find a time
that we were both available.

(30:43):
I canceled on you, you had to cancel on me.
We're both busy people, which is not a bad thing.
But I say that to say, I wrote a set of questions
like a month ago and a couple of days ago,
I was like, I'm just gonna,
I've done what, 250 interviews now.
I'm just gonna use those questions.
I'll be fine.
I'll know what it all meant.

(31:05):
I read those questions.
Like, I have no idea what any of this means.
I'm gonna have to go research again.
And the question that made me realize
I needed to research again was I wrote something
that just said, loop group, wah, wah.
Like, I have no idea what loop group, wah, wah means.
I know exactly what that is.
Yeah, and I know you do.
So I remember now, I've done my research again,

(31:27):
and I can tell you what loop group and wah, wah is,
but for those who would be just as lost as I was
when I read that question again,
talk about, because that's what you do with family guy.
You're in the loop group and you do the wah, wah,
which I feel like I'm starting to speak another language.
So talk about those things.
Yeah, so it's called wah-la actually.

(31:47):
It's, yeah.
I put wah-la and I'm like,
I think I might have spelled that wrong.
Wah-la is exactly what I put.
I should just believe my writing.
Yeah, no, that's okay.
It's better.
It's why not sound like a baby sometimes.
You just wanna go when you want your water, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah, so it was new to me too

(32:09):
when I first landed in that room.
So obviously in animated shows,
there are the actors who do the dialogue for the characters.
And then there are also groups of actors
that like four or five people,
I'll just speak for family guy in American dad's case,
cause I've never done loop for anybody else,
but it's a group of five people

(32:32):
and they do the wah-la,
which is the ambient chatter that in the background
that you probably wouldn't notice
if you are watching the show.
So if Brian and Peter walk into the clam
and or an airport or a grocery store,
anything like that, when they walk in,
in the background, it's super, super vague

(32:53):
or like quiet, I guess.
But you'll hear the like,
do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do.
Just so it sounds like they're walking into a real place.
That's wah-la.
That's one of the things a loop group does.
And also there are like different kinds of wah-la.
If it's just like airport,
like do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do.
Sometimes though, it's at like a really rowdy bar.

(33:14):
So it'll be like, do do do do do do do do do do do do do do.
Like in the background,
just to give it the energy of the real place.
So it sounds more legit.
And then also they do what's called efforts
for the characters.
So efforts are anything that isn't explicit dialogue.
So screams, grunts, coughs, moans, breaths,

(33:38):
landing down.
So if a character like jumps and goes,
when they land back on the floor,
or for example, if like Meg gets thrown down the stairs
12 times, then you count the amount of steps and you go,
okay, she falls this many times.
And then you match the effort to the mouth.

(34:05):
So if the mouth is open, you go,
ah, ah, ah, like down the stairs.
If her mouth is closed, you go,
mm, mm, mm, like all the way down the stairs.
And it's that we have to watch the clip,
see exactly who you're doing the voice for,
and then match the lips and match the whole expression.

(34:26):
If someone gets hit by a car and they go like,
whoa, and then like exit the screen,
then you have to like know how long
and then end right when they leave.
So that's, it's a simple job, but it's not an easy job.
It's, and it's interesting because the people
who are in that group have been doing it for decades
at this point, they're really insular.

(34:47):
It's hard to break in.
I'm like the new kid here and I'm just trying to learn.
I was trying to learn from them.
It literally took me five years to get comfortable in there.
And it's a interesting job
because you can't really practice it
when you're not in the room.
So the sessions are pretty short,

(35:08):
but I try to learn as much as possible
and get better as much as possible when I'm in there,
cause it's not something I can get better at
outside of the work.
Are they, are they willing to teach you that like,
that is not the sound someone makes when they get back car.
I mean, there's definitely direction, you know, like there,
yeah, like there's, I mean, I remember one session

(35:28):
where they had somebody do like 50 different kinds of coughs.
Like it's like, cool, can you go long?
Can you make it longer?
Can you make it drier?
Can you make it more sickly?
Can you make it more, more like from fee?
Can you make it more?
I mean, it's, there are like 12 million different ways
to cough.
So yeah, they, that's literally what the work is like.

(35:54):
Yeah.
It's an interesting job.
It's so weird.
It's very bizarre.
And it's something I'm sure a lot of people
don't even consider that that is something
that needs to be done.
But of course it is.
What, why, I guess the question I have too,
cause you mentioned, you know, if they're going to a bar,
they're going to the airport, they need that background
noise.
And I assume the answer is just so it doesn't take away

(36:16):
from what's actually happening.
But why does it need to be just a bunch of like mumbles
that know actual words?
And does anyone ever sneak words in?
Is there ever like, oh, hi mom.
So I think the answer to that is so that no words stick out
so that it doesn't compete with the scene or the dialogue,

(36:37):
but you can sort of make sounds out of non words
or make, make word sounding things out of non words.
So if you're at a party or something, go like,
yeah, yeah.
It's like, you're kind of, you're hearing that someone's
going like, yeah, all right, let's like, but like,

(36:59):
you can't, you don't really hear it.
It's just the energy of it.
That's what I like about voiceover actually.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's sort of, there, there are a lot of ways to like
give something energy without explicitly saying like,
this is what I am doing.
Or it's, it's kind of fun to be able to just make a sound

(37:19):
that delivers the exact emphasis that you need
without having to explicitly say or do something,
which is so different from like writing, for example,
where everything needs to be like decided and deliberate.
Yeah. No, I love that.
And it makes, it makes sense to me, you know,
that the background noise,
somebody needs to be able to do that.

(37:41):
The characters that, you know, aren't a large part, they,
you know, they get hit by a car.
I don't like using that example, but it makes sense that
these, these characters, you know, need,
need that type of thing.
They need, you need the loop group for that kind of thing.
The effort is what doesn't make sense to me.
Like are the main actors, you know, who is it?

(38:02):
Mila Kunis, is she too cool to, to make sounds
like she's falling down the stairs?
Why does it need to be a separate person
just to make her grunts?
Why can't she grunt herself?
Yeah, it's a good question.
I mean, a lot of shows I think do,
they do have the actors do their own efforts.
I don't exactly know.
I, I, if I had to guess,

(38:22):
I would think that Family Guy and American Dad
need to have a separate group
because there are simply so many.
Like there, it's such a technical show that,
and I didn't really know until I started working on it
cause I was just a fan and you don't really notice
those things before you actually like are in the room.
But the cue sheets are pages long.

(38:44):
I mean, it's like in, in American Dad,
the amount of outdoor scenes that need Wala are so long.
They're like minutes at a time.
There's so many exterior scenes.
And then, and with Family Guy, there's so many cutaways,
so many, and that like the loop group takes care of all

(39:06):
the cut, all the random cutaway stuff.
Like you're more lame than a chicken on a stick, whatever.
And then it like turns and goes to the chicken on a stick.
And then we have there,
it's like every two seconds in that show.
So it's just like, it's a whole,
it's a whole job in and of itself for sure.

(39:27):
And it's a different contract.
And I don't, I mean, that's getting really technical for me,
but it's a completely different job.
But some shows do do their own,
but I think just the simple volume of what we have to do
requires its own job.
That makes sense.
What are some of the,
because you talk about how you've had to do
so many different sounds.
What are some of the, I guess,

(39:48):
the coolest opportunities you've had when it comes to just
the, we're going to talk just a minute about your actual,
when you, you know, another show that,
that you do voiceover work for,
but just in the sounds that you've had to make,
what are some of the coolest or strangest things that
you've had to come up with a sound for?
Yeah. So I think in one that sticks out in Family Guy,

(40:11):
there was like a demon ornament or something that it was,
it was like, something was cursed.
I can't remember exactly, but it was like,
it was one of those like cursed skulls or something
that was in a creepy shop.
And we, and it sort of like panned to this creepy skull

(40:32):
and hung on it for a few minutes.
And it was supposed to, like the scary music came on.
And then we had to do the sound of like a demonic
possessed item.
And that, like, that was kind of strangely hard.
Like everyone had a different idea of what devils sound
like or what demons, it ended up being something like,

(40:55):
you know, just that,
but everyone has a different flavor of that.
Even, even breath, even like,
this one's like so boring,
but it stuck out to me for some reason.
There was one thing where like,
someone goes to like a haunted house or something,
and they wanted us to just have a breath,

(41:16):
like do breathing in the background to give this like
scary hallway some character when it showed the characters,
when it showed the hallway.
So they literally had us all just go,
just to give the impression that there are like ghouls

(41:37):
around or that like there's a ghost behind any corner
and like that, that was interesting to me.
I never thought of just simple breathing like that,
actually being the personality of a hallway.
And that, that stuck out to me.
That was actually a recent session.
So it's almost like not a character or not an outright thing,

(42:00):
but that's almost what was interesting to me about it.
It's like really just breathing over and over again
can give something life.
And it did.
Yeah, just a hallway.
And all of a sudden, and then when they played it back,
and then you could see this like creepy hallway
with like breath in the back,
then you're like, oh shit, this thing is scary,
and it just did that to it.
And that's kind of what I,

(42:21):
that's my favorite part of voiceover actually,
just simple, simple sound, changing everything.
I love that.
That's really, really awesome.
Something that you would have,
people would never even think about.
And you've got to remember too,
we're talking about kind of a quote unquote,
silly type show that has so much depth behind it.
I think that's really, really awesome for sure.

(42:41):
I want to talk now about some of your other voiceover work.
You're in another show not doing the loop group, correct?
That's right, yeah.
Well, what's the show?
I've forgotten that.
I can't remember everything.
No, that's okay.
That's okay.
It's a Marvel show called Modoc,
which stars Patton Oswalt, Ben Schwartz,

(43:06):
Bill Hader was on it, John Hamm was on it,
Whoopi Goldberg, I mean, so many incredible people.
And that was another accident.
This is what's so weird is that like,
I love doing voiceover and I'd be thrilled to do it
for the rest of my life,
but I have never booked anything
I've auditioned for legitimately.
I'm not, either I'm not a good auditioner
or like the competition is just that crazy

(43:30):
that yeah, it's nuts.
So the Marvel thing was another, yeah, pure accident.
I was in the writer's room for that show actually.
And cause I write also,
and I wanted to get into a writer's room
by any means necessary and finally landed a job in one.
And it happened to be a first season show.

(43:53):
So a lot of the characters were not cast yet.
And because it was something between Patton
and also being a standup comic
and seeing me do a show just coincidentally,
like while we were in the room,
combined with the show runner,
Jordan Bloom being an absolute wonderful human being,

(44:13):
the writers and EPs were just,
it was just a lucky, lucky combination of folks.
And the execs were great people.
They all, I ended up reading the stage direction
for the table reads, which should I explain what that is?
I wanna, I just, so when shows are getting made

(44:38):
before they actually shoot the episode,
they do what's called a table read
where all the actors come to read at a table their part.
So it's kind of the first time the executives,
the writers, the director,
everybody hears the episode out loud for the first time
and then they can make adjustments before it's finalized.
And somebody has to read the stage direction,

(45:00):
which is everything except the dialogue saying like,
the location, like inside the bar at blah, blah, blah,
he slams his fist onto the table and whatever.
So that's, so that was me for Modoc
because I had done it before
and because they knew I did voiceover
and it was just the right, I was happy to help.

(45:21):
They just needed somebody to do it.
And then it just so happened that there was a character
that totally fit my voice and Patton and the show runner.
And I mean, they all sort of like rallied for me
to get this one role and I did.
And I was just incredibly grateful to be able to do it.
And when I had to read the table reads
for the episodes that I was in,

(45:42):
I had to like jump back and forth
between doing the stage direction voice
and then going into my character.
And I was like talking to myself
for a couple of pages in the episodes.
But that's how the Marvel thing happened.
It didn't get renewed for season two,
but I still loved, loved working on it

(46:02):
and I'm so proud of it.
And to have been in the writer's room the whole time
and see it being made from the ground up
was an experience that I'll never, ever take for granted.
You know, it's a unique lens
that I was very fortunate to have.
Yeah, I love that too.
And do you, should you wanna continue to,

(46:23):
are you continuing to audition for voiceover work?
I haven't been auditioning for voiceover work.
It's really, it's odd.
I mean, like, I'm sure I will at some point.
I just, it's, if you're not like,
it feels, it almost seems like you need
to have a direct connection to that.
This is not 100% true just for me and my experience.

(46:44):
Like, unless I have a direct connection to the show
or the people making the show,
the chances of my booking it just from pure audition
is like pretty low.
So everyone goes with someone they know usually.
And voiceover is almost even more like that
because you can play so many different characters
and one wouldn't know.
Whereas when it's like a live action show, it's like, okay,

(47:06):
how many times can we see the same face over and over again?
Whereas voiceover, you can be a million people.
So I think that also incentivizes people
to keep working with the same folks
without it really being detected.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I'll tell you something
that I'm sure that you already know.
And this isn't gonna, I guess this isn't a morale boost

(47:29):
when it comes to voiceover,
but the guy I talked to that used to do the Academy Awards
that's been doing voiceover for 50 plus years,
we were talking about the changes
and how things have adapted in the voiceover world.
And he said he was talking to his agent
and he was asking like,
how many people are doing voiceover these days?

(47:50):
And he said, maybe it wasn't an agent.
It was the person who books him for his voiceover work
said that back in the 70s, when he first started,
he had a lot of people that wanna do voiceover,
but his A-list, the group of people
that he always wanted to send out, his A-list was 60 people.

(48:11):
His A-list now is 2000 people.
Whoa.
So that shows you just how many people
are in the voiceover world.
Totally, and there's so many amazing, amazing people.
And even when I was working on Modoc,
like the people who are auditioning were A-list celebrities

(48:32):
and they're still just doing reads.
Like, I didn't know that.
I thought when you were like very famous at that point,
you got offered those roles.
Like, I really didn't understand that.
And that's a good transition to your standup
because when looking at some of the standup

(48:52):
that you're doing, definitely when you're performing
at the Hollywood Improv,
the slate on the nights you're performing,
you're there with some pretty big names,
some who's who's of standups.
So what's that been like?
I mean, especially when it comes to the Hollywood Improv.
I mean, I'm seeing, you talked about Patton Oswalt,

(49:12):
I'm seeing David Spade, a lot of really big people.
So what's it like to not just be doing standup
at Jim's Bar and Grill,
but doing it at a really high level
with some really big names in the world?
Yeah, that was really special
to be part of those shows after so long.

(49:33):
I've been doing standup for like 10 plus years now.
And that's obviously the goal is to make it
not just into the big clubs,
but on those shows at the clubs.
So I was very intimidated when I first got asked.
I was like, I'm not good enough.
I don't know how to, I'm terrified of bombing.

(49:54):
I don't know how to hold my own with these people.
The only way to get good at it is just to do it.
And it really took a lot of personal work to be okay
with not being the funniest person on the lineup.
Like there's, it's really interesting,
because growth, if you continue growing in anything,

(50:15):
then you're always gonna kind of feel inferior, right?
Because, or I'll just speak for myself,
because you're upping the level of quality
if you continue rising.
And you'll be at the, let's say you're the funniest person
on all of your shows,
and then you get invited to be on a really good show,
you're probably gonna be one of the least funny people

(50:37):
on that show, but that doesn't mean that you're like failing
or doing badly.
It just means that now you're in another level of caliber.
And that's an uncomfortable,
it's uncomfortable to feel that way, I think.
I had to like adjust my perspective
and not make it feel bad that I wasn't like a huge celebrity,

(51:02):
but I took it as an inspiring challenge, I guess.
And that took, that just took some work, some personal work.
Because I mean, there's no way to do standup
without it being really exposed, obviously.
There's no way to, yeah, to get better without,
or to bomb or to whatever, without people looking at you.

(51:23):
So it's very scary, but then it's just,
what I'm really learning too is it's about the attitude.
It's how you hold yourself, how I hold myself,
I'll just speak for myself.
I can feel in my gut when I'm centered

(51:45):
and I feel like I belong there.
And then there are times where I'll do those shows
and be like, I'm a fraud, I don't belong here.
But then it's like, okay, but it went okay.
So just cause you feel that way doesn't mean
that it's not supposed to happen.
But that's the only way to really get better
and test yourself.
And that's really the most I could hope for, I guess.

(52:06):
And yeah, being at that club is such a joy.
It's probably where I feel most comfortable now in LA,
because I've done so many of those shows there.
And I just love the management.
I love the space.
I just love it, yeah.
Yeah, I don't think I've ever spoken to a comedian
that doesn't say a form of what you just said
about how they get on stage and they think,

(52:27):
I am not any good, why am I doing this?
I've wasted all this time.
I think that's just like a normal dialogue people have.
I talked to one that said, same thing,
they had been doing it for about 10 years.
And they say exactly what you said.
Did I waste, have I wasted 10 years?
I'm not funny, why am I doing this?
Then they said, you know what, I just decided
I've not been doing this for 10 years,

(52:48):
I've been doing this for two years.
I'm just gonna tell myself I've been doing it for two years.
And for two years, I'm doing really good.
Maybe not 10 years, but for two years,
I'm doing really good.
So I think that's normal.
But my question, I guess, based on what you just said,
this is not something I would have even thought about.
Do you think that that's the whole,

(53:08):
wanting to be the funniest person in the lineup
and being uncomfortable with maybe not being,
but that's kind of what it takes to continue to rise,
to get on those better bills, better bookings,
to not be the funniest person.
Do you think that's what potentially holds some people back,
that they're just not comfortable with that uncomfortableness?

(53:33):
I feel like I could see that there's definitely
in Los Angeles and probably New York,
a lot of places that there's probably people
that just like, man, where I am right now,
I'm the funniest person, I'm headlining these smaller shows,
and they're just afraid to do that next step.
Do you think that that's a thing
or do you think I've just made that up in my head?

(53:53):
Oh no, I'm sure that happens, yeah.
I'm super sure that happens.
I mean, why would you give up being the king of the castle?
If you're from Canada or if you're from not California
or New York, there are so many ways to be one of the big fish.

(54:15):
If that's the goal, then hell yeah,
there are so many ways to do this.
I just have so much respect and love for comedy
and I wanna be so good at it that I want that challenge.
I wanna know how much better I can be.
And there are some people who like,
they're just like, no, I just wanna do my thing

(54:36):
and I wanna stay here and this is where I'm happy
and I can get spots whenever I want.
And it's like, if that was my goal,
then it would be perfect.
I like being on shows with David Spade.
I like being on shows with whoever,
Arsenio or any of these people
who are just amazing performers.
And it just reminds me of what's possible.

(54:57):
I mean, what better way than just to see
like some of the best comics in the country,
like doing their thing regularly.
And it's a special thing.
It's really cool to see people so much later in their career
really hold up and see what it took for them to continue

(55:17):
doing not just what they love, but what feels true to them.
And that's inspiring to me too,
now that I've been doing comedy for a long time.
I really enjoy seeing people in,
I guess, deep into their career continue to make art
that reflects where they are in their life now,

(55:38):
as opposed to like when they were just young.
Like I think that's really interesting.
And for me, that's what's really inspiring.
So yeah, to be on those shows just reminds me
of all the things that I could be,
or it just makes me think about different kinds
of punch lines or different areas to talk about.
And it's been a hard time to be funny, at least for me.
So just the world's very serious right now.

(56:00):
So it's like, it's really cool to see some
of the best performers in the world doing it.
And then I'm like, okay, it's possible.
They talk about this thing and that's a really cool area
where they do this kind of punch line.
I never thought about that.
So it's an amazing way to continue being inspired
and reminded of this beautiful art that we do
and all the ways to do it.
Yeah.

(56:21):
No, what you said is certainly true.
It's definitely a very, very serious time at the moment.
And the people that you would never think has to be drawn
into that world, I just read not too long ago
that I'm sure an inspiration to you in a lot of comics
and for more reasons than one,
I'm sure it's an inspiration for you

(56:42):
that Jerry Seinfeld recently had to come out and say,
I'm sorry for something that I said,
which I feel like he's pretty much the most person
that should probably never have any kind of issues
because he's not really somebody who is very controversial.
But recently he had to do that.
So it's just so serious.
And it was about something that was just a joke.
So yeah, I definitely see that.

(57:05):
And without you, I mean, you don't have to name any names
in the positive or negative light,
but given that you do work on a lot of these billings
with some big names,
do you find that the world of comedy is a supportive one
for people who are trying to continue to get better?

(57:27):
Is it more like watch and learn
and that's all you're gonna get?
Or do you find people, these comics being supportive
of people who want to break out as well?
Yeah, I think it's both.
I think it's both.
I think people look at people,
like at newer people who they might not have known yet.
And they kind of, I think all the established comics

(57:49):
more or less want to know if someone's getting booked a lot
on certain types of shows,
they want to see what this person's about.
And even if it's not like, let me help you,
there's a cool like, oh, I liked that joke.
Or I've gotten wonderful support from people.
And then other times it's like, that's not their job.

(58:09):
They'll just watch and be like, cool,
thanks for having me, okay.
And that's great too.
And I'm able to build relationships with them,
even if they're not helping, but it's kind of both.
I mean, it obviously depends on the people,
but it's kind of inherently collaborative comedy
just because people offer tags a lot.

(58:34):
Like they'll help with punch lines or it's easy
to compliment somebody's set if you see it and you like it.
So it's definitely, it's a community feeling,
even though it's kind of like a lone wolf sport.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I want you to tell us the most interesting place
that you've ever had to perform comedy.

(58:55):
I feel like every comedian has a, you know,
a pimp's basement that they had to perform comedy in
or something.
What's your craziest place?
And I say that because I just saw Dane Cook not too long ago
and that was his, a whole bit about that.
So.
I remember having to perform at like a pizza place

(59:18):
that was a family run, family patronized pizza place.
Like there was not a stage.
It was this, so funny.
I haven't thought about that for years,
but it was like in Glendale or something.
And it was, which is like a random little city
and like, it's like an LA suburb.

(59:40):
And it was definitely, it was like a Tuesday night.
People are there with their kids.
It was one of those like red and white checkered
tablecloth places where people like,
that people just wanted to be there and hang with their
family.
And then this show was like, cool,
we're going to interrupt your little family dinner to do
some comedy for you guys.

(01:00:00):
And it was like a little amp and a microphone literally just
like in the middle of tables.
And I was like, I was like, this is everyone's worst nightmare.
Like nobody, nobody wants this.
Like who, whose idea was this?
You know, like to just interrupt everyone's dinner and
their kids there. And there's not even like a state,

(01:00:22):
there's nothing worse than surprising people with comedy.
You know,
surprising people with comedy. Yeah.
If you're going to do comedy,
people should probably know that that's what's happening.
Otherwise it's not a fun way to have to do a show.
Yeah. I can, I can only imagine that for sure.
I want to, I want to, well, no,

(01:00:43):
let me ask you one more question about comedy.
It's a tough question.
If you haven't thought about it, an easy one, if you have, but
what's a topic or a story,
whether it's a topic that's near and dear to your heart or a
story that you feel like you can get something out of,
what's a topic or a story that you wish you could create a joke
for, but you just haven't been able to, to make it all work yet.

(01:01:05):
Oh, that's a good question.
That's a really good question.
I'm sure there is something.
I'll mark that down. I've asked,
I asked one good question so far. Is that right?
You've asked a lot of good questions.
That one's really good.
And I want to give a good answer to it.
I just might, it might take me a second to,

(01:01:27):
to think of that answer and I don't want to keep all your people
waiting, you know,
can we come back to that one?
Cause I feel like it's going to hit me.
I have like my joke book here.
Oh, oh, oh, I know one.
I don't know if that's a joke book.
I know one. I don't know if like, this is like the best example,
but something that I think about a lot is like, is there,

(01:01:49):
is there even such thing as adults?
Like I think about it's like, aren't we just like older and older
and older kids because like, this is not funny.
It's just an interesting observation, but that was your question.
I guess like, like there's,
I think most people feel like they're just older kids.
You know, it's like once in a while you're like, no, I'm an adult.

(01:02:11):
I shouldn't have to do this or that, but more, I mean, every,
every time an emotion comes up, it's pretty childlike.
And the way we get hurt or the way we get excited,
those are all very like childlike experiences.
And, and so I,
I kind of look around and I often think like, oh,

(01:02:31):
these are just a bunch of like big kids walking around on the street
and driving cars.
And then I'm like, oh man, is there just like a big kid flying this
plane right now?
Is there just like a big kid who's in the Oval Office,
like calling the shots on like nuclear war and like, you know,
like all that stuff.
And that's true for any country, for any, you know, any,

(01:02:53):
and so those are things that I think about where I'm like, uh-oh,
like this is a huge playground and we're putting a lot of trust into
these kids, you know, and that's not something that I've, yeah,
like it's a cool idea.
I just don't know exactly what to do with it.
But, but I think about that kind of often, I guess.

(01:03:17):
So even if it's not a joke, it's something that I like that's on my
mind.
I feel like it could be, it could be, uh,
it could be worked into something.
I mean, you had me, you had my head bobbing.
So that's what you're looking for for sure.
So I guess yeah, something relatable.
I like it.
And you know, a lot of people say this, but just when it comes to,
you know, everyone feeling like a big kid, I, you know,

(01:03:40):
we just talked about our, our birthdays are very close.
So we're both 33 years old.
I have no children.
I've, you know, a lot of people have said this in the past.
It's almost a, it's been a joke in the past, but still with me,
you know, I have friends that, you know, are getting pregnant and that
it's still in my mind.
I'm thinking, oh my God, are they, have they told you parents?

(01:04:01):
Like I feel like it's just still like a weird thing, but I'm on the
other end of things, obviously where it's like, you know, almost,
almost at the end of it where, yeah, getting old, but yeah, I feel
like that would be like crazy.
I've, you know, I'm married it, but still I were to start having kids.
I feel like that would be, I don't know.
I feel like I'm a teenager or something and I would have to, I don't know.

(01:04:25):
Yeah.
I do think that that's a thing.
I'm too young.
I, yeah, for sure.
I'm with you, man.
Like the early thirties are an interesting age.
Like it's, it's definitely where you still feel you're like, I'm, I can
relate to people in their twenties, right?
Like we're, we're all kind of in the same thing, but then, but then you
hear someone say that they're 26 and you felt like you were on the same level.

(01:04:47):
And then you're like, Oh, I'm like significantly older than you.
It kind of, I'm starting to feel that a little bit of like, Oh shit.
I'm in this like in between youth and real adulthood thing.
And that it's, it's an interesting in between place to be in like one foot
and one foot out of youth and like.

(01:05:09):
For sure.
I guess thirties are just weird too, just because, and I may be completely
alone in this, I've said to other people and they look at me like I'm crazy,
but for some odd reason in my head, and maybe it's just my crazy head.
Somebody that's 38 or 39 sounds older to me than somebody who is 42.
For some reason, late thirties sound old to me and early forties do not,

(01:05:32):
which I don't know.
It's just something weird in my head.
Somebody says they're 38.
I'm like, Oh yeah.
And then 32 sounds, I don't know.
I feel like you just have a transition in your early forties and people
feel younger to me, which I don't know.
So I might have the answer to that.
Actually, it sort of feels like 38, 39 is really at the end of, of.

(01:05:53):
Youth as we think of it.
Whereas like 40 is a young, like not, not adult, but like young older person.
It's, it's sort of like that tier thing we were talking about where I like,
you're the oldest of the young people at 38, 39, and then you reach your
like early forties and now you're the youngest of the old people.

(01:06:16):
It's, I think that's probably why.
I agree with you.
Yeah.
I like people who are like 38, 39.
You're like, Oh, you're doing it.
You're doing it.
And then 42, you're like, you still got time, baby.
Yeah.
I like, I like that.
It would have been funnier for you just to be like, nah, you're just crazy.
So I like that you, you appeased me.

(01:06:36):
I mean, if I can relate, I relate, you know, I won't leave you hanging.
I like that.
And I, I want to now, I, we talked about it way early in our conversation.
I'm going to, I'm going to put them together just because we're, we're
starting to run out of time.
And that is something you love, which tell us why you love Chipotle so much.

(01:06:56):
And then something you don't love so much, which is two Pandora's boxes.
I know that I'm opening and putting in one question, but you love it.
Chipotle and your hate of soup.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
Two.
Yeah.
Complete opposite.
When I, when I think about Chipotle, I just think about like a big delicious
pillow that I love biting into and even sleeping on if I have to have a burrito

(01:07:20):
thing behind you, don't you?
That's a burrito blanket.
Yeah.
I, I forgot that that was in the frame.
Yes.
I just love burritos.
I'm a huge, I'm very passionate, clearly.
Soup is the opposite of that.
I think soup is one of the most, it's not even a food.
I'm, I'm like, what is this?
Is it a beverage?

(01:07:41):
Is it chewable?
Is it, is it, am I six?
Am I 85?
I don't like that.
I'm 85, I don't like anything about the consistency.
Here's the thing.
Okay.
Sorry.
You're, you opened up a huge soup box just now and I'll try to keep it brief, but

(01:08:02):
you start, you get me going on soup and I will trash it until you tell me to stop.
But there's half of my issue is with soup itself, where I think it's like just
chunky liquid, like this is, it always tastes like it should be something
else or something more.
So that's half of the issue.
And then the other half of my issue with soup is soup people and how obsessed

(01:08:26):
they get with soup.
If you start to question like, oh yeah, no, I'm good on the pozole.
Thank you.
People lose their minds and there's no other food that has people in a chokehold
like that.
Like I've never, if you tell people, no thanks, like I'm not really into
asparagus or mushrooms.
They're like, okay, cool.

(01:08:47):
And they move on.
I do that all the time with people.
There's something about saying that you don't want soup that drives people
fucking crazy.
And there, and, and when that happens, I'm like, okay, you're in a cult, right?
Like that's what this is about because what other, what other explanation is
there?
So then this whole idea started where I was like, okay, some sort of cult or

(01:09:11):
like big soup conspiracy trying to like control people's minds.
So I just decided to do a deep dive and it started as a joke kind of, and then
I started looking into soup history and the, the, the origin of Campbell's
and, and I mean, it goes on and on and I, there's like just enough evidence

(01:09:35):
to actually prove that there is a big soup conspiracy out there.
And, and so I, I just, I've made that like a very big part of my creative
effort out in the world.
I just want to open people's eyes, you know,
and you are opening eyes.
You even created a podcast on it.

(01:09:55):
And when I, you know, when I was trying to figure out questions to, to ask, I
had to figure out, okay, is this like this soup thing kind of a, a bit that I
don't want her to have to go into too much given, you know, that kind of
an, you know, that could be part of her act, which it may be part of, you know,
it may be a little bit of a bit, but I do feel like you're, you're at least mildly

(01:10:16):
serious about all of this.
Yeah.
No, no.
People are like, I love that your character hates soup.
I'm like, no, no, no.
I, excuse me.
I fucking hate soup.
I can, I can, if someone is like serving soup at a dinner or whatever,
I can deal with it.
I'm not going to freak out.
I'm not going to shame anybody for liking it.
But, but it's, it's the reaction to you not liking it.

(01:10:40):
That really drives me up the wall.
I like it.
And you, you have one episode of this, of this soup podcast so far, right?
Is, is, is more to come or have you, have you uncovered everything?
And that's all that needs to be said.
No, no, no, there's more coming.
It's just, it's such a huge project that it cannot be a weekly thing.
I'm doing it myself.

(01:11:01):
It's really hard to, I mean, you know, producing a podcast is so much
work, even when it's not scripted even.
So half of my stuff is scripted because I'm uncovering like real articles
and, uh, and, and interviewing people who are like in and around the soup world.
So it just takes a lot of effort and I'm, you know, editing it myself and everything.
So it just takes, it's going to be kind of like a passion project.

(01:11:25):
When I can do it, I will do it.
And, um, they're just going to come out when they come out until
I have a team around me.
It'll just be when it's when it comes out.
Yeah.
Well, we have to just kind of to wait in, in anticipation for, for that, for sure.
So in wrapping things up, the question I'm sure you get quite frequently,

(01:11:47):
but we've got to ask people that are listening and they want to break into
comedy, they want to break into voiceover.
What, what advice do you have?
With comedy, there's zero barrier to entry.
It's quite easy.
It's most cities have open mics.
Um, and if not fricking start one somewhere, um, open mics are so easy.

(01:12:09):
Any small theater, any little bar, any, um, it can literally be like a laundry mat.
I've done open mics, a laundry mats.
Like it just anything to get on stage in front of people, learn what it feels
like to hold a microphone and have to say things in a way that makes sense.
That's that's huge.
That's like the first step.

(01:12:30):
Just get on stage, just do it.
There's only so much prep or thinking about it.
One can do before they just have to get into standup and try it and they might do it.
And it feels awful.
And then it's like, okay, great.
I'm glad I know, or am I feel amazing?
And then you're like, great.
I need to like, just keep running this mic and seeing what happens.
Um, so that's my advice for comedy, literally just do it.

(01:12:53):
That's what I did.
I didn't think about it very much before I did.
And I just knew that it was what I was supposed to do.
So the answer becomes pretty clear.
And then in terms of voiceover, that one's hard that I don't really know.
Um, the way, the way I started was really taking classes.
Um, obviously I live in LA, so the options are just easier.

(01:13:16):
There's just more out here, but, um, I'm sure there are a lot of like zoom classes
and stuff, and then I just started experimenting and learning what voices I'm, I'm
good at what, what I can really highlight with my range and tone.
So once I learned what that was, I made a reel with my characters, and then I have a

(01:13:38):
reel for my commercial work as well.
And, um, and then that, and then I just went from there.
That's probably like the place to start, just like learn and experiment.
I love it.
Tell us about that.
I love it.
Tell us how, uh, how we can follow along with you, how we can hear that first

(01:13:58):
episode, where we're going to find that, where we're going to find all things.
Uh, all things are.
Absolutely.
So my Instagram is the best place to, to see everything that I'm up to.
That's at Zara Mizrahi.
That's Z A R A M I Z R A H I like the designer and clothing stores are, uh,

(01:14:20):
um, and then the soup podcast is called big soup conspiracy.
It's on every platform wherever one listens to podcasts.
So, uh, if you're ready to open your eyes to the hot bowl of tears and you're
wondering why you feel so left out by society and you want, you want to know

(01:14:40):
that you're not alone and you want to feel like you have a voice for the voice
list, that's me, I will be your anti-soup coalition leader and more
episodes coming soon.
I interviewed one of the writers and producers of Seinfeld to talk
about the soup Nazi episode.
And we uncovered a lot there too.
So that's coming out soon.
I'm editing that right now.
So there's a lot coming.

(01:15:02):
There's really is.
I mean, all the other conspiracies are a distraction as far as I'm concerned.
Anti-vax, flat earth, all these distractions, man, big soup is really
what we need to be worried about.
So that's my mission.
What a way to end our conversation.
I really appreciate your time.
Absolutely, man.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm glad we were finally able to link up and do this.

(01:15:24):
This was great.
Absolutely.
Thanks so much.
How's our Mizrahi?
What an awesome conversation.
Really, really enjoyed speaking with her.
She was able to, to be serious in times and also funny too, which is
that's, that's the best, right?
You know, I talked about her, her distaste for soup in the beginning.
And there certainly is that she has that podcast.

(01:15:46):
It's called Big Soup Conspiracy with Sarah Mizrahi.
I urge you to check that out.
Right now there's just one episode.
So easy to get involved with the, the, the takedown of big soup, as she would say.
I found that really, really funny.
And then what about her love for Chipotle?
That's fun too.

(01:16:07):
Yeah.
I just, I really enjoyed my time with her.
I learned a lot about, you know, voiceover work and, and loop groups and
had no idea that, you know, they needed people for the background noises.
And they needed people apparently to, to make the, the grunts and
groans for the, the main cast as well.
That's something I, I, I had never heard of before researching Zara.

(01:16:29):
So I really appreciate her kind of going into depth about that.
But yeah, I urge you to check out Big Soup Conspiracy.
I urge you to check out her Instagram and TikTok and all that, all the
links to her social media and that podcast will be in the show notes.
Check her out.
If you haven't already, or this is your first time listening to this podcast,

(01:16:51):
please go follow along with, with the podcast as well on Instagram.
Not enough podcasts, TikTok, not enough podcasts.
Go leave a five star review and ranking on Apple and on Spotify.
Leave a written review on Apple.
That helps a ton.
Yeah.
We, I just really, really appreciate you being here.
If you do nothing else, catch us next week.

(01:17:11):
Take it away, Chris.
This has been Not in a Huff with Jackson Huff.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to join us next time where we will interview another amazing guest
who is sure to make you laugh or make you think or hey, maybe even both.
But until then keep being awesome.