March 17, 2024 • 54 mins
Deece always loved comedy, in fact he would fake being asleep in the floor while his parents fell asleep on the couch so that he could stay up and watch comedy on TV. Growing up in a California neighborhood better known for its gangs than anything else made life harder for him and he got swept up in the gang life for a while. Eventually, he turned himself into a successful business consultant and even had two homes -- one in Mexico and one in California. But the comedy dream had never left him and he decided to ditch his comfy life and pursue a career in comedy.
It wasn't easy -- but as Deece speaks about -- change rarely is easy but it's worth it! Fifteen years later, he is a successful comedian and writer, and he just finished his first comendy special.
Dreams do come true, but as Deece reminds us, there is a lot of work involved!
To learn more about Deece and his latest projects, (including his podcast and his new special) go to: www.DeeceComedy.com
Here is a link directly to his special on Youtube: https://youtu.be/fr740QLKF_I
You can also follow him and learn about the latest news on his Intragram: https://www.instagram.com/deece.comedy/
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Original music "Saturday Sway" by Brendan Talian (for all interviews before 2025)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to the Storied Human. I'm Lynne
Thompson. And today my guest isDeece Cassius. He's got a cool
story. It's a story oftransition, a story of a big
career change. And he's going totell us all about it. He's a
comedian. He's a host of thesocial hour, he recently
released his comedy special,which I'm dying to hear about.
(00:25):
He's got a lot of interestingtwists and turns to tell us
about his his story is reallycool. And I think we can learn a
lot about I'm guessingperseverance from him at least
trying new things. So welcome,DESE it's great to have you on
the story. Human. I'm very happyto have you here.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
(00:46):
Really good to talk to you. Youknow, I have a soft spot for
comedians. My ex sister in lawis a comedian, I had a great
interview with her. I just havealways loved comedians, that's
one of the things I do to relaxis I go on Netflix, and I look
up Stand up comedy. So I'm justa real fan. Well,
maybe you could have a chat withmy mother and tell her we're not
(01:07):
so bad.
I don't know. I don't know if mymother would have loved that.
Or, you know, if I had becomeone. Yeah. That's a really good
point. It's not exactly the thething our parents wished for us.
But it turned out okay for you.
You've been one for 15 years,right?
Yes, yes. It did turn out okay.
For me. And it's, you know,there's a bigger contrast
(01:30):
because my My older brother is afundamental Baptist minister. So
there is there's a big contrastbetween my mother's two sons,
and what we do for a living andhow we live our lives. Our lives
like unbelievable. Yes. AndYang, right. Yeah.
(01:50):
Yeah, very much. So. So youknow, not a lot. Yeah. Not a lot
of Christmas cards traded. Butyou know,
you had to balance each otherout, right. Sure.
Sure. We'll go with that. Thatsounds like that sounds like a
diplomatic answer. But I loveit.
So I want to hear the beginning.
I want to hear what you how youstarted out. You know, some of
(02:10):
the troubles you had in youryouth how you found your way to
being a consultant and how youchanged? Because that's an
amazing story in and of itself.
Yeah,yeah. So how far back do we go
like as a zygote? Go back toall. Yeah.
(02:30):
What feels like a naturalstarting point for you? Well,
here's a couple of good, let's,let's see, I'll try to I'll try
to give the Reader's Digestversion on some of it, but not
not skip the good stuff. It'sthe I grew up in Long Beach,
California. I always say notnot. Not the good side, the
(02:53):
Snoop Dogg side is what I alwaystell people is like Long Beach,
he has beach in the game too.
It's nice. Like, yeah, there's apart of it, that's okay. There's
also a part of it, where, duringthe 80s, you had a better chance
of dying than making it home.
So, you know, with 80s, SouthCentral LA height of gang
(03:15):
violence, you know, police, allthat stuff. You know, grew up in
a big Latino family. I had a,you know, kind of had that type
of inner city childhood, Ialways loved comedy in some
aspects. You know, despitejokes, I make up my I do, you
(03:38):
know, my mother and I do stilltalk, although there was a time
we did not the, but you know,even she, she was over that my
house the other day, and shetold me she was even when you're
little you were so young, youjust had a sense of humor, like,
I couldn't believe just inadvance the jokes you'd come up
with as little kid. So I alwaysloved comedy, I always, but you
(04:02):
know, you just never know how toget there. Right? Like, I never
had any model of how that well,you know, I, you know, like my,
I remember my, I pretend to fallasleep on the floor of my living
room. While my parents would siton the sofa and you know, they
drink or they'd pass out just goto sleep on the sofa. And then I
(04:24):
would I pretend to fall asleep.
So then once they'd fall asleep,I could stay up and I would
watch you know, the tonight showor I would watch Saturday Night
Live or they used to have thisstand up spotlight on VH one
back in the day, which was,believe it or not hosted by
Rosie O'Donnell before she wasin angry person. She still had
(04:45):
joy in her life. You know,choose a comedian. It's like,
you know, I that's what I woulddo. I would try to stay up late
so I could watch these shows,you know? And I just You Really
I, you know, it's not like Iwhat I really want to do is be a
writer, I always love writing.
(05:06):
And, you know, I'm able to dothat and have been able to do
that in my career also, which isnice. But yeah, so that's kind
of where how I grew up andwanted always just, I just never
knew how you know, like, sothere's no road.
We're not showing that that'snot one of the pads that were
(05:27):
shown were shown, like the moretraditional pads. I'm wondering
how old were you when used topretend to be asleep and watch
those shows?
Oh, I mean, I remember doingthat as long as far back as I
can remember. So probably, youknow, as early as like, probably
six or seven. amazingto me. Yeah. It's always been in
your DNA. Yeah,yeah. I mean, it was just I
(05:48):
knew, because if I, if I fellasleep, pretend like I was
asleep. And then they would passout. And then I could stay up
until they woke up and decidedto actually go to bed, like get
to bed. That's when they wouldtake me and put me in bed also.
So I could I could, I couldsqueeze a couple hours. Out of
watching TV still, you know, inthis is like when the Tonight
(06:14):
Show is still the Tonight Show?
Like that's when I mean, I'mtalking like Carson, I'm, I'm
41. So, you know, for Carson, Iloved him. Yeah. So I mean that,
you know, or like if I was luckyenough to be able to stay up to
watch, you know, Letterman afterCarson, who really was more for,
you know, as far as stand upcomedy that's more of a comedian
(06:36):
show. The arson even was. Butyeah, so you know, I always
Saturday live was my favorite ifI could stay up and watch that.
And so yeah, it was definitelyalways in my DNA to have to do.
You know, my teachers alwayssaid that I I marched to the
beat of my own drummer is whatmy diplomatic way my teachers
(06:59):
would say I was an asshole innoncomplying.
I don't think they meant that.
But they always know that thestudent who's not, you know, in
the middle of the bell curve?
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, Iwas in the LA Unified School
District where you're talking, Imean, these, there was barely
school, it was just warehousingto try to keep you alive during
(07:21):
the day while your parents wereworking. So that, you know,
education system was pretty,pretty terrible. And, again, I
knew what I wanted to do. Iwanted to write in, in some form
or fashion. So when it wouldcome to like math and stuff like
that, I'm like, I'm notinterested. I'm like, I have
zero interest in that, you know,the I'm like, I got a
(07:45):
calculator. Let me write somemore. Let me create some more,
you know, I don't need I don'tneed that, you know?
Not everybody does. Yeah, we doneed it to a point. But, you
know, it's like, yeah, I'll getthe fundamentals down. And then
beyond that, I'm like, just, I'mgood. Yeah.
(08:05):
Oh, hopefully, they're notteaching it in exactly the same
way as they taught it. Becauseit was a little much. Yeah.
I don't know, I keep hearingabout this common core math and
all these new ways. They'redoing it for easy ways. Yeah. I
don't know. They just lower allthe standards to push people
through those. So they're not Idon't know what their job
(08:26):
anymore. And, you know, your,your situation highlights the
fact that it's not equaleducation for all because it
really does depend on how muchmoney your district has the
neighborhood you live in. Itreally does alter the education
that we get.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, you know,well, you know, it's one of
(08:46):
those things that you as a kid,you just know what you only know
what you know. So there wasn'tlike a contrast, there wasn't an
option where I'm like, I feltlike I wasn't getting something
because I didn't know what theother option
would you right. School, right.
Yeah. Sucks for a lot of kids,you know?
Yeah. The idea, but I mean, youknow, looking back, it's like, I
(09:13):
wouldn't, I wouldn't change it.
I feel like it all made me moreresilient, self resilient, and
got me motivated to in the longrun, you know, I certainly had
some bumps along the way thatprobably could have been avoided
if I lived in a different areaor went through a different
school, but that's, you know,you made it work for
(09:36):
you. Yeah, yeah.
So tell me how you became aconsultant because that doesn't
sound like where you wereheaded.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I certainlylike I said bumps in the road. I
mean, I if to be perfectlycandid, I mean, you know, I was
involved with gangs and youknow, I was just a felon at 13.
(09:57):
So it like you know, Z you justit just kind of, in when you
when you live in there, thatit's almost, I always hate to
say, I don't like the phrase,you don't have a choice because
you have a choice, you alwayshave a choice. But it's
sometimes it's very, verydifficult choice and hard to
(10:18):
avoid those things. So you'resurrounded by it. It's what
everyone's doing. I mean, I canimagine. It's really, especially
at a young age really hard toresist those forces all around
you. Well,yeah. And so, you know,
especially when you don't have alot of home life and, you know,
you're kind of a free range kid,you can kinda kinda, you know,
there's no one there. It's youronly support system at times. So
(10:42):
your influence on you is strong,right? You just, we just don't
have perspective when we're 13.
We don't you can't measuresomething or judge something.
Yeah. Andyou know, so then, in my mid
teens, we my whole family, weactually moved to Western
Montana. That's a big change.
(11:04):
Very big change. And it was achange. I did not want Okay,
God, I hated it. I hated it. Ihate the cold I didn't fit in.
It wasn't you know, I rememberone of my first days in the
school I went to my my principalof the school he just he came up
to me in the hallway. And hesaid, and I didn't even like all
(11:27):
I just was a couple days there.
And it's not like I startedtrouble. Nothing. Anything. I
just was new kid. And he's like,and he just comes up to me. He's
like, you're just a worthlessgangbanger from California and
I'm gonna do everything I can toget you kicked out of my school.
That's a no, this was like, Imean, I wasn't even this was
(11:47):
primary third day, their fourthday. Yes. I'm like that.
apprehensible Yeah. So much fortreating all the kids equally.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it was. Here's thething. This is a small this was
a small school in a small town,like this school had first grade
through seniors in high school,the same school. So I mean, this
(12:10):
was a town without even astoplight in it at the time. It
has one stoplight in the townnow.
I'm wondering who made thisdecision and how they came to
this decision? Yeah.
Well, I think my parents werejust you. They saw how bad the
area was in getting worse. Andthe economy was really bad at
the time in California. My momhad family in Montana. So the
(12:33):
decision was,so there was a connection. Yeah,
that's crazy. What a change.
It's like moving to anothercountry. Oh,
it was for me. It was Yeah. And,you know, my parents were just
gone even more working. And Ifound more ways to get in
trouble and was kind of back andforth between California stayed
with relatives. And yeah, it'slike, I was like, 15, I was I
(12:59):
wasn't 16. Yet, even when Iwould, I just bounced, I moved
out of my parents house. And outon my own, stayed with some
friends who were older, theywere about 2021. And just kind
of figured out, made it and wasbounced around all over between
the Northwest and LA. Eventuallyback to Long Beach permanently,
(13:23):
and kind of was getting, I wasdoing music at the time. It was
doing a hip hop music at thetime. But it was there's there's
a thing with hip hop, whereobviously, like it's it's
inexorably connected to gangs inthe streets. Right, right. So
(13:45):
there, I just found myself backin these situations where you're
kind of tied tied back to that.
And you know, those peoplearound you they're gang related
things happen, your parties,your events, and then a buddy of
mine got shot and killed at aevent we're doing. And I was not
the first time friend of mineyet shot and killed, but it was
(14:07):
it was I just remember thinkingof like, I have a couple of
options here. If I keep goingdown this road, I'm like, I'm
just gonna go back into what Iwas doing before. I don't want
to do that. I have to if I wantto change I have to make the
choice. So I did I quit music. Iremoved myself from friends that
(14:30):
I had and put myself in adifferent area, moved to a
different area. And I started Ijust started I just started
working and I found the A friendof mine. Their sister had a
(14:51):
clothing company knew that theywanted a sales rep for. So I
started doing that forum gettingthey did screen printing and
embroidery. Right. So I've beendoing I started doing that for
(15:11):
work. And but they so they andthen they gave me an office in
their office building downtownLong Beach. But this office
building also had very high end,lot of lawyers, doctors, high
end clients in this and Istarted meeting these people.
And they're like, Hey, you, youknow, can you do this for me?
You know, can you and theystarted wanting to go
(15:32):
approaching me with differentthings they wanted in a lot of
like, I've been in sales before.
So I've done some sales. So Istarted doing like sales
training in March. And then Istarted doing marketing for
people then consulting on it gotto a point where I had my own
company. So cool. It just kindof happened in I was working
(15:57):
with very high end clients, Iwas making, you know, six
figures a year. And it wasgreat. I had a place in Mexico,
I had a place in California, Iwas back and forth. Mexico, I'd
stay there work from there. Itwas great. And then I just
realized one day that I didn'tlike it. You know, I didn't care
(16:21):
about it. It wasn't even themoney wasn't enough for me to be
like to I just realized I waswasting time and selling my
soul. And I won. It wasn'tfulfilling. You know, I wanted
to I wanted to write, I wantedto do comedy. A couple of things
happen. One thing I startedwriting, I started writing a
book that I had this idea for.
And then also, I started doingthis open mic in Long Beach.
(16:48):
This I used to go to watchbecause I just wanted to watch
comedy. So in the guy who ranit, I'd hang out afterwards and
drink and talk to him when he'slike, Hey, we bullshit and he's
like, you're funny. He goes, weshould try this. Ah. And I'm
like, Well, I've always thoughtabout it. He goes, Yeah, come
next week, he goes, you're gonnado a spot. I'm like, okay, so I
came back and I did it. And Ikept doing it. And then I was
(17:12):
doing that for a while I waswriting my book. And then I just
like, You know what I started, Igot a job. writing comedy for a
website of comedy articles Isubmitted, I got a job doing
that. And I'm like, and then assoon as I was making any money,
(17:33):
like getting gigs doing comedy,and finished my book, I quit my
job. And I just went just like,I'm just gonna do creative, and
I just dove in. And, yeah, 15years later, I've toured and
crossed five countries andreleased two albums, one
(17:54):
special, have a productioncompany working with over 40
venues in 20 states. You know,I've I doing comedy. Two years
ago, I did 189 dates in oneyear. That was my, Whoa, that's
a lot. This year, I've scaled itback because I need some time
(18:16):
off. I decided, butso how do you I think I'm just
struck with how you decided youwere going to get out of the
gang life and then you decidedyou're going to get out of the
consulting life? How do you dothat? Because people have a hard
time making those changes. Andthey want to know if there's any
kind of secret or tip that youmight be able to share. How does
(18:39):
that happen? Well,here's, here's what people hate
to hear this. Because it's likea cliche saying that has gone
around and is attached has somestigma attached to a certain
political party, which I don'tidentify with. I'll leave a
(19:00):
libertarian, for the vote foreveryone out there, just so you
know. But the term pullingyourself up by your bootstraps
can do a lot for you. There'smore to it than that. It's not
that secure.
You know, I do hear you you haveto take responsibility for your
(19:22):
actions in your life.
Yeah, you have to take controland you have to understand that
it's frankly, really hard for anunknown amount of time. And
there's gonna be a lot ofobstacles and it might not be as
comfortable actually isdefinitely not going to be as
countable. It's going veryuncomfortable. There's going to
be sacrifices of time, money,friendships or relationships.
(19:48):
But you have to decide what itis you want to do. I wrote this
the book I wrote about 10 yearsago and published now. It's
called insomnia. It's out theresomewhere. But the, that was
kind of the crux of it was thatlike, you have to decide to go
(20:10):
through the door, you know, andit's going to be really shitty
for a while again, nobody knowshow long, but when your make it
through to the other side, therest of your life is now.
infinitely better for the untilyou die. You've you've
successfully made everythingbetter. And you know, you got to
(20:35):
face some things, you got toagain, sacrifice, you know, I've
lost a lot of friends, I lost alot of relationships. I
definitely lost money for yearsnot doing my consulting thing.
But now I live the life I wantto live. You know?
You got it. You got there. Yeah.
And you know, I've been talkingto people recently. It's funny
(20:57):
how things keep coming up. It'scertainly in the zeitgeist,
people keep talking about howyou're going to fail, and you're
gonna fail more than once. Andyou have to accept that as part
of the path to success. And alot of us weren't raised that
way. My overly protective familyalways said, you know, once you
failed something, it was like,it wasn't meant for you. You
know, they backed up, and theymade me all afraid. And the
(21:19):
opposite is true. And I hear itin you and I hear it and other
people I talked to, that youhave to be ready for that, that
there's you're going to fall andyou're going to get you're
you're going to pivot you'regoing to learn from it, you're
going to keep going and you winonce you realize that you start
to view the failures, littlefailures, as you're you're
getting closer. So I think, butI still think there's something
(21:40):
about certain people'spersonalities, you seem to have
that personality thatperseverance, that belief in
yourself, there's a strengththere that I'm trying to
unravel, because it reallyinterests me, some people can do
this. And some people don't.
They can't Yeah,I mean, I'm sure I attribute
part of it to again, my, the wayI grew up and having to be self
(22:01):
resilient. So early on, under,you know, kind of not feeling
like I had a safety net. Andalso like, things don't scare
me, is like, things that youwould traditionally be be viewed
as scary. Yeah, happened to me alot at a very early age. You
(22:24):
know, like, you know, you're alittle tougher than your average
person.
Like, I mean, I I I've been shotat I've had guns pointed out, we
I've been beat up I've been likethose. So those those things
happened. I saw it a lot and alot of violence. So it's like,
those things don't scare me. Ialways tell people like I used
to box, too. I was a boxer and afighter for a long time. And
(22:47):
like, I was good at it because Ialways say like, I I get very
relaxed, high pressuresituations. So things that
there's that cliche of like, oh,like, time slows down. I'm like,
yeah, it actually does. It feelslower. Like I see things and I
get it. Yeah, it really happensthat way you can you can kind of
(23:08):
capture that. The my buddiesalways tell me he goes he's like
these. You're the only personI've ever met that would the the
crazier things get the cooleryou get? Yeah.
That's a response that somepeople have. I'm I'm like that I
get highly. When there's acatastrophe around me. I'm the
one that's focusing. Yeah, Ifeel like I have to write. And
(23:31):
I'm able to, and I'm the onethat saying no, no, don't go out
that door. Let's go this way.
But not everybody's like that.
My dad was like that he was apilot. Yeah, yeah, he could. He
could just stay so calm. I thinkthat it's just a reaction. It's
like a, I've seen it on testswhere they asked like, do you
get more upset? Or, you know, doyou get calmer? And it's, it's a
little bizarre, but some of usare, are made that way. I live
(23:56):
helped you. Yeah. Yeah. Imean, I literally have like, my
resting my doctor actuallythought something was wrong with
me for a long time, because myresting pulse is sometimes as
low as like, 46. Like, it'sgosh, like, my pulse is very
low. And for the longest time,he's like, I think something's
(24:16):
wrong with you. I'm like, I justdon't get excited, you know, the
IQ but in that manner, and, butI mean, it's not just I don't
think it's just the way I grewup. It also, it also is like, I
made a conscious decision tomine. A good buddy of mine. He
says, I'm stubborn as part ofit, which I don't think he's
(24:37):
wrong. But like, I, I like Ismoked cigarettes for 10 years,
you know, pack a day. And thenliterally one day, I was in the
middle of a cigarette and had apack of cigarettes in my pocket.
And I was like, I don't want todo this anymore. I threw a
cigarette crumpled up the packof cigarettes threw away and
(24:58):
I've never smoked again. Andthat was almost 20 years ago.
You know,I thought the usual way that
people quit. Yeah. Youknow, like, I drank every day,
almost from the time I was like,I don't know, probably 1314
until five years ago, and oneday I said, I'm gonna quit, and
I quit. And I haven't touched itsince. And it just, you, it.
(25:20):
It's not a special thing. Idon't think I think it's just
here's what I always say. Okay.
So like, when it comes to like,quitting cigarettes, you know,
they're always like, well, youwhat's the first thing you
think? Well, that's hard. Peoplesay quitting cigarettes is
(25:42):
harder than quitting heroin. Andquitting heroin seems like it's
impossible. So you you'vealready lost, you've already
defeated it before. So why, youknow, you have he's like, No,
it's not that hard. You You haveto choose and you have to stick
to it. You have to make somelifestyle changes. You know,
like, when I changed my entirelife, I changed everything I
(26:05):
started, I'd wake up and I wouldrun five miles a day, when I get
home, I would literally ride mybike until I couldn't ride
anymore. And then I'd have towalk at home. I stopped, you
know, that's when I stoppedsmoking. I stopped hanging out
with people, I started doingyoga, I started reading books
about Taoism. I changed themusic, I changed the music I
(26:27):
listened to for a while becauseI'm like, I need to shift.
Because I was doing all theseother things. And I began where
I wanted to be. So if I believethings, things, it'll be
different. You know, I'm, I'mcreating my environment. That's
so cool. That'salso what they teach us about
how to be successful. It's likechange your mindset, but also
your input, the people that arearound you, you know, there's
(26:50):
when I tried to quit smoking,that's an i, it took me six
times. Okay, I always you alwaystried to, I tell people, I don't
think that's a failure at all.
Each time, I got better at it. Igot better at quitting. I got
better and better and better.
And then the sixth time, I waslike, I got this, you know. And
I think we have to teach that topeople who are in recovery,
(27:12):
because a relapse doesn't mean,it's just again, it's just a
step along the way. We're alldifferent. We're all wired
differently. But that's so coolthat you knew that. Because when
I was trying to quit smoking, itsaid, don't take your regular
way home, because you always aretriggered by what you see to
smoke or don't don't go on thephone in the regular back. Well,
(27:33):
we had phones, right? Yeah,don't go on the phone, in your
house. Because that's when youwhen you light up or don't you
know, don't pull them out whenyou're out to dinner. Don't
don't have an ashtray visible.
You knew that intuitively,though. You were like, I got to
change the whole thing. So thatI change my inside, change my
outside, change my inside. Soyou just knew things kind of
(27:55):
intuitively, I think,yeah, you just all I just knew
that what I was doing wasn'twhat I wanted. And I wasn't, you
know, I always wanted to write,I always wanted to, you know, I
love to all these things. Andit's like, I'm not doing that.
So how do I get to that? And howdo I like you got to align,
however metaphysical you want toget in this. So you have to
(28:18):
align your mind with yourspirit, and make sure they're,
you know, working in conjunctionwith each other. Whether you
believe in a true spirit or not,you know, there is a
metaphorical spirit that youhave to get in line also, and
reels like This couldn't hurt.
(28:39):
This couldn't hurt. Whatexactly,
yeah, that's a great attitude.
It can't hurt. Yeah, it mightnot help but it can't hurt. I
mean, it will help in otherways, right? You got your health
was better, and you were puttingcooler things in your head, you
were reading really cool thingsyou were exercising was much
better for your body. And so Idon't know, I think you just
send a message to yourunconscious like we're changing
this up.
(29:00):
Yeah, you know, it's one of theyou know, it's why people are
afraid of change. And it'sagain, it's hard and what it's
not that hard, but peopleperceive it as hard in the
second year, they defeatthemselves again, before they
even get started. Whereas likeif you just start going down,
you know, it's like I havefriends who in the last couple
(29:21):
years, like a friend, goodfriend of mine a couple of years
ago, she's like, I think I'mgoing to go back to college
finishing and but it's going tobe three years and this and that
and blah, blah, blah. And I go,Hey, do you remember when we
went and did that show? Youknow, in Idaho and this and
that. And I tell her she's like,Yeah, that was great. I go, that
(29:43):
was three years ago. I go you'llgo in three years will go by
like that. And then you'll havethe rest of your life where you
finish college and get a betterjob and you get to do do all the
things you want to do. Or youcan just meander through the
This unhappiness you're in rightnow. But I think it's just
(30:04):
easier for people to externalizein, not internalize and say
because even even when I was akid, and even when I was doing
dumb shit, and I was gettingarrested, or I was getting
coffee, I never, I never blamedanyone. I always was completely
(30:25):
culpable for everything. It'spart of why I had a lot of and
I, for anyone, currently inrecovery or trying to quit
alcohol, this isn't me sayingdon't go to AAA. But it's part
of why I personally didn't likegoing to AAA, because everybody
does. Yeah, I've heard this.
When I quit drinking, I went toa couple meetings and I'm like,
(30:49):
this isn't for me. Because the iEvery, every time, they'd be
like, do you want to saysomething? Or this and that? And
I'm like, no, no. And thenfinally, like, they like, they
finally got me to tell my story.
And I did like what you know,and I would tell them a little
bit out, like, Well, why do youknow? So they kept wanting to
like, a reason me to blamesomething for why I did these
(31:13):
things. And I'm like, No, I'mnot I go, I just chose bad I
chose completely, you know, it'sat the end of the day I chose. I
and I can choose not to. andpowerful. Yeah, yeah, they
there. It seems like they'realways looking for you to blame
something else. I'm like, no,no, that I don't want to pass
(31:35):
the buck. I want to internalizefigure out why and change those
patterns instead of just beinglike, it's always floating above
me. And it could ruin me at anysecond like, no, no, I can. I
can overcome it. AndI hear that. So that's a lot of
changes. So tell me about what'scoming up because it sounds
pretty exciting. First, like, Iwant to know about the show.
(32:01):
Sure. So our the social hour.
Yeah. So that's a podcast I'vebeen doing for actually coming
up on 10 years now. No.
Yeah. Podcasting back then.
Yeah, Iknow, it was June of 2014. I did
my first episode. The show'sevolved over the years, but I
was in the last year. So I'vebeen it's was weakly for
(32:22):
forever, the last year. So Ikind of got off that schedule
because of traveling and moving.
But I've been able to get backon with my weekly schedule,
which is nice. I just lovetalking to people. Again, the
show's evolved a lot over theyears, we used to used to have
like a studio, a producer, anews anchor, and it was more
(32:43):
like a we'd have segments andgames and it was kind of more
like, you know, like radio talkshow, Morning Show type format.
Now it's more one on one justbecause of where I live and how
things are. But I I'd like toget back to the old format at
some point. But it's the socialour new episodes every
(33:06):
Wednesday, at DS, comedy.com,Spotify or wherever you find
your podcasts. So we'll becelebrating our 10 year
anniversary in a couple months.
So cool. Yeah, we I think we'vegot about 460 episodes or
something like that we've donenow a lot. Yeah, I know how
toughit is to start. I mean, that's
(33:27):
pretty cool.
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it wasinteresting. It was just my
buddy and I bullshitting yearsago and then we started getting
guests and you know, now I'veliterally you know, I've I've
interviewed presidentialcandidates now, you know, yeah,
the Libertarian PresidentialCandidate chase all over this
(33:49):
election and last election wasJo Jorgensen so I interviewed
her spent the day with heractually got to go out on the
campaign day with her have lunchwith her did a benefit little
comedy benefit for her campaignand stuff? So yeah. So I mean,
that you know, things haveevolved in a very lucky in, you
(34:14):
know, also not and also, I amlucky but also I've done I've
worked extremely hard.
Funny how that works. Yeah.
So yeah, the podcast I'm I justreleased my special not your cup
of tea. That came out. I guessit's been a couple of months
now. But that is available at mywebsite, also DS comedy.com.
(34:39):
It's all donation so you canpeople can pay whatever you want
as little as $1. And you'll getthe whole hour forever. Recorded
at my favorite club in thecountry. One of my favorite
clubs in the country in Bozeman,Montana, actually, it's this
club. Wow. Yeah, there is agreat comedy club in Bozeman,
(35:01):
Montana called last best comedy.
And I decided to do it there.
They're just been really greatto me over the years. And I
thought it'd be a cool thing todo there. So yeah, check out the
special. I'm also, I'm alsoabout to release my debut comic
book that I wrote. Sooh, what's that about?
(35:27):
It is, I've, I'm a little, I'vebeen a little bum about it until
we figure out where it's home isgoing to land. Because I have
it. We're submitting to somepublishers to see if we can get
a deal on it or if I'm going toindependently publish it. So
(35:48):
until I know for sure, it's ait's say, urban knew our story.
will say you've heard the you'veheard the phrase suicide by cop,
right? Yes. So this is basicallysuicide by vigilante ism.
(36:09):
There's a guy nothing else tolive for. He decides to go out
on the street and tackle thestreets. Here's he'll be taken
out and a couple days, tops, andcraziness ensues.
So it's a light piece. Yeah,it's yeah, it's a fluffy little
piece. So that that I shouldhave more news on where that's
(36:35):
gonna land. By the end of April.
Okay, so we can check yourwebsite, right? These comedy.com
It'll be on there. And yeah,yep. Or in the show notes. Yeah.
Ideally, to listen, I'm sorry,go ahead. Oh, I
just said, Oh, more my instagramat De staat comedy. That's where
(36:57):
I update a lot, too. So great.
Okay, well put that in there,too. I can't wait to listen to
your comedy or your Comedy Hour.
Oh, yeah. I'll send you a linkafter the after the show. Okay.
We'll add that all to the shownotes. Now, is there any other
thing that we didn't mention? Isthere any piece of advice that
you might want to share that Ididn't get to? Oh, boy.
(37:22):
Any nugget.
Man, the let's see. Yeah, drinkmore water, however, was always
a good tip. Odd enough? I don'tknow. I would say I it's,
there's so much but there's sothere's a movie. I say this
(37:46):
sometimes this is so you everseen the movie? The Curious Case
of Benjamin buttons? Yeah. BradPitt, the David Lynch movie.
Great movie. It's one of my, Iwouldn't say one of my
favorites. I like it a lot,though. There's this final one
of the end scenes, as Brad Pittis you know, getting younger and
(38:10):
even more unbelievably handsome.
And the girl is getting older.
So you know, they separate,right? And he's living his life.
And there's this monitor,there's this montage of him, you
know, he's on a motorcycle inTibet, or he's scuba diving in
(38:30):
the you know, Alaska or he'staking taking a space shuttle to
Mars or whatever the hell he'sdoing. And there's this
monologue that he says over thismontage where he's like, just
remember this, like, it's nevertoo late. You can always pivot,
there's always opportunity forchange, and to do something new
(38:51):
and I'm paraphrasing it. Sorry,Brad, I know you're a big fan
and listening, I'm sure. The,you know, in I always that that,
like, idea stuck with me, youknow, like, you can change you
know, you can be you can be 60or for me, like literally I've
(39:13):
done comedy last 15 years andhave a successful comedy career
and I have production company ofcomedy happening everywhere. I
could just keep doing that. Youknow, and I will but also I
always wanted to write comicbooks. I love comic books. So I
and I've been wanting to mywhole life. So this last year,
I'm like, we're gonna do it. AndI just started I you know, fully
(39:38):
scripted this 12 issue seriesand got an artist and a colorist
and a letter and we're it'sfirst issues almost done. And
like that's, we're just gonna doit. The and I mean, just, I
always tell you like bet onyourself. If you've bet on
yourself, you're gonna bet onyourself and put yourself in a
(39:59):
corner Don't bet on yourself,put yourself in a situation
where you have to succeed. And Iguarantee you, you'll succeed
way more often than you realize.
Because people are resilient.
And we find a way to overcome.
And if you're in a positionwhere you have, you know, it's
part of why, like, when I quitmy job and start doing comedy,
I'm like, Well, I guess I gottafind gigs to pay my bills. No, I
(40:21):
did. You know, soit just happened. Because you
had to find a way.
I love that you said it's neverit's never too late. Because if
people say that, but they don'treally mean it. You know, they
(40:41):
get like, stuck in their life,and they get afraid. And if
you're it really isn't your it'snever too late. I went to a
poetry reading an open micpoetry reading. A couple weeks
ago, at a local art museum, Iused to write poetry. I always
wrote it my whole life. But Iused to write it a lot. And I
won an award in college. So Ireally, you know, I'm a poet,
(41:02):
who doesn't write much, or readmuch public. But anyway, and I'm
a tech writer full time, that'show I make my money. I saw this
ad for, for this poetry openmic. And I'm like, You know what
I've been writing again, I havea couple poems, I shared them
with a select bunch of friends,they love them. It was real,
they really love them. I'm gonnago read, it didn't make any
(41:24):
sense. Like I should have beenterrified, right. But it just
felt like the right thing to do.
So I went and I did it. And itwas so such a fun night. And the
weirdest part was that everyoneseemed to have similar imagery
in their poetry. It's almostlike we got together, like in a
dream and said, Let's all meethere, because we could really
appreciate each other's poems, Iwas kind of freaked out. Like
(41:45):
when that kind of thing happens.
It's a little freaky. But mypoint, my real point is that I
met this wonderful woman thatnight. She read her poems. And
it turns out, she recentlypublished a book of poems, and
she, we ended up having dinnerwith my friend and my husband,
we loved her, she was sointeresting. She lives right in
(42:05):
our town, I never would haveknown her if I hadn't gone to
this poetry reading. She's 81years old, I would have never
guessed it. She's vibrant. She'sa fiber artist. She's having a
showing in April. Unbelievableshows up. But the poetry reading
reads Republic has a book thatshe just published. And it just
really, it just sort of lit mybrain up, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
(42:28):
I mean, you seem to be thatperson.
You know, you don't have to bethe person who doubts themselves
and stays home too much. Andwatches TV, whatever people do.
Yeah, you don't have to havethat life. You can have this
other life, but she's just veryfulfilled. And she's really
interesting. And she has a lotto say.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, this isthis a hard thing for people to
(42:50):
swallow. But like, if you'renot, if you don't have the life
that you wish you had, it'sprobably your fault. Like, if
you and not to say like, Hey, ifyou just wished you're a
millionaire, you can make ithappen. No. But you can also
(43:12):
make your life happier, makeyour life better. You can. And
again, it may take time, and itmay not be comfortable at first.
But you know, your prime makingchoices and doing things that
are keeping you in that rut, inthat it's just, I
was thinking that as you'retalking, it's the choices,
(43:34):
you're making those? And youknow, it doesn't have to be huge
changes at first. No, becausethere's there's a, there's a
great book, a self help bookcalled atomic habits. And this
this guy study, I guess, he's apsychologist who studied how we
change our habits. And you justmake tiny tweaks. It's really
that you just make tiny tweaks,and you make another tiny tweak,
(43:55):
and then before you know it,you've changed a big thing. You
know, you've changed theselittle things. It's almost like
you're turning the dials youknow, you're setting the dials a
little differently.
But I don't know if this is ifTony Robbins was the originator
of this kind of idea. But he Iheard him say it and again, I
(44:16):
don't know if it's a it's an oldoriginal from him. But he's
like, if you have two boats inthe ocean, two ships in the
ocean that are sailing parallelto each other, right. And one of
them just changes theirdirection one degrees off, you
know, they have first it stilllooks like they're going the
(44:38):
same direction. But over time,they're going to be in wildly
different destinations.
Yeah. So I love that usual Yeah,I love that. You know what you
just reminded me of two is Iremember hearing how a missile
finds its how it how it keeps onits path.
taxpayer money.
(44:59):
Unfortunate Titleist. But whenthe missiles going towards its
target, it keeps on the path byby noticing when it goes off the
path. So it goes off the pathdetects that it went off and re
corrects to me. I mean, I hatemissiles. But I love that
analogy of you know, if you'vegot that end in sight, you
(45:20):
really do have your goal insight. And you're dedicated to
getting there. You're going tocatch when you're not going
there, you're going to catchwhen you're a little off. And
you can you can pivot you canRican, reconfigure your, your
direction. Yeah. So there's,there's a consistency there.
There's a there's a dedicationthere. And so if you can't find
(45:41):
that, it's hard to get where youwant to be. And I love what you
said before. I always say Ialways say like, how's that
working for you? When somebodysays, you know, I've been doing
this, but I don't want to dothis. It's just basically like,
well, art is what you're doinggetting you where you want to
go. Yeah. Then yeah, change it.
If it's not, you know?
Well, yeah. And I mean, it'slike, you got the sacrifice
(46:03):
thing. And like the just willingto open up doors and do things
like so here's an example. So acouple years, this was two years
ago now. I, when I was startingto ruminate about really feeling
the bite about doing this comicbook. I was on tour, and I was
(46:25):
in I was going to be in LA forthis weekend doing shows. And it
happened to be the same weekendis the LA Comic Con. Well,
there's a guy, his name isFabian neesee. And he's actually
I don't know, Jerry familiarwith comic book character,
Deadpool?
Oh, yes,I am. Hopefully, this is the
writer who wrote co createdDeadpool. So Him and I are kind
(46:46):
of friends. And he he's like,Hey, my Brother owns a small
press comic book company. And heis looking for volunteers to
work at the LA Comic Con, like,just help him work his booth
during the day. And I'm like,he's like, you'll get a free
pass to the convention. And I'mlike, Hey, I'm gonna be in LA.
(47:08):
I'm like, I don't have anythingtill eight o'clock at night. I
got nothing to do all day. Ilike comic books. I'm gonna go
to this convention. And like,I'll help like, I'm like, Yeah,
I'll volunteer. So I work thisconvention and didn't really
talk to his brother much. Hisname is Mario. But then
afterwards, a couple of like, aweek later, Mario called me out
(47:30):
of nowhere. And he's like, Hey,he goes, I just wanted to say,
thanks for helping you talk toyou much. But like he goes, so
you do you do comedy? And I go,Yeah, he goes, have you ever
thought about he's you write allyour material? And I go, Yeah,
he goes, have you ever thoughtabout writing anything else?
Like a comic book or anything?
(47:54):
And I go, Well, now that youmentioned, now that you
mentioned Mario, yeah, myliterally my entire life. I've
thought about it and wanted to.
And I, again, I had this comicbook that I've been writing. And
I didn't, I didn't mention it tohim. And my that wasn't my
intent. When I went in and beinglike, work this guy, and I'm
(48:14):
gonna pitch them on my me andthis thing. I just went and I
helped him. And then I walked,I'm like, I know you, and maybe
down the road, I'll see youagain, whatever. And he called
me. And just to check, and thenthis came up, and then I go, and
he goes, he goes, Why don't yousend it to me? Because you sent
me your script. He goes, I'lltake a look at it. And I'll give
(48:35):
you I'll give you some feedback,because he's an editor and
writer. And I'm like, that'd begreat. That's awesome. And I
sent it to him. And then heemailed me back about a week
later, he goes, Hey, I'm gonnasend this to our head, the
publisher at our, my company, Iwant him to take a look at it,
(48:55):
too. There you go. Okay, great.
Then a couple of weeks later, Iget an email. He goes, Hey, we
want to hop on a call with you.
We love this. We want to do thisbook. And I actually had an
opportunity to publish it withour company and I ended up
(49:16):
walking away from it justbecause it there were some
logistics, it wasn't going tocome out exactly like I wanted
and offer still on the table. IfI want to go to them. We're
still friends. We still talk.
It's fine. But yeah, it was justlike, you know, maybe the timing
isn't right. And I got I'mmoving and and it just didn't
work out the way we wanted to.
And I'm like, Let's pump thebrakes. And now I'm moving
(49:38):
forward with it independently.
But I it really was like, acatalyst moment. And it really
pushed me to keep moving towardsthis project, and who it was.
And, you know, maybe that's allit was, but it just took me
being like, yeah, a volunteerfor this guy. And I didn't push
(49:59):
it. I didn't talk Talk about it.
But again, the kind of your,your magnetic field around you,
you know what you're puttingout, it does pull things in, and
you say, you know, you'rehowever,
I totally get it. But going tothe poetry reading, it was sort
of, I needed to surround myselfwith, I'd forgotten how much I
liked those kinds of people. Ilove creative people. And I
(50:20):
hadn't been in a creative circlein a while, and I just wanted to
be there with them. But I knowthat I'll go to the next one,
you know, in spring and, andI'll know some people there. And
it's funny because my husbandsaid, Oh, I just really liked
these people. And my friendsaid, Oh, I just love hearing
that. We've just like, missedit. We just missed that world.
You just have to step outsometimes and try something. And
(50:43):
I love that. You just said,Yeah, I'll volunteer What the
heck, right. And so that's socrucial that you didn't ask for
anything. Because that's, that'swhat they talk about. Like, I
took a podcasting class withKathy Heller to learn how to
podcast. She's super famous,like multi millionaire. And we
had time with her like live. Wehad a free five day class before
(51:05):
the actual class. Oh, wow. Shetalked a lot about you know,
that mindset stuff. And I neededall that because I was sort of
stuck in that, you know, takingcare of the kids and working and
I really had, you know, adifferent life. And she she
talked so much about peopledon't buy from you describing
what you want to do people buyfrom you your energy people buy
(51:29):
you thereby you So put yourselfout there, it was such a
different, interesting take.
Because I always hated the ideaof sales. A lot of people do.
And they hate, they hate theother kind of sales. There's
nothing wrong with getting outthere and get excited about what
you do. And somebody isattracted to your energy
literally attracted to you. Andthey Hey, have you ever done
(51:49):
that? They know you're reliable,they know you're interested
because you volunteered. Right?
They like that feeling. It'sjust so cool, though, because I
don't think we are often taughtthat when we're young. I think
that you know, there was an oldstyle sales like even guys like
when I was little they used togo door to door. Oh, yeah.
Another would buy like brushesfrom the fuller brush, man and
(52:13):
guycomes around, you know, and my
father but EncyclopediaBritannica. Those days are gone.
Yeah, they're still a littledifferent now. But I really was
educated by her and your storyreminds me of that. Like, just
put your another another way tosay it is just love on people.
Just be positive and love onpeople, you know, like, give of
(52:34):
yourself and have that goodenergy and people will want to
work with you don't. They'llcome to you. And that you're
like a great example of that.
Yeah. Oh, go ahead. I can'tthank you enough, because I just
think this has gone all over theplace to good places. Oh, yeah.
Interview. Yeah. You have a lotto talk about and a lot to
share. More than your story. Youhave a lot of life lessons. And
(52:56):
I hope that's my favorite kindof interview.
Well, I try at least to youknow, been lived a lot of life
and had a lot of experiences. Soit's you have, and I'm with you
about being stubborn. I'm justso stubborn. Sometimes. That's
all that got me through.
Yeah, it's not it's not always abad thing, right?
(53:17):
It's not. Yeah, well, it wasgreat talking to you. Thank you
for sharing so much. Yeah. We'lldefinitely get all that stuff
into the show notes and peoplecan get in touch with you is is
Instagram the good way?
Yeah, yeah, that's the Instagramor Facebook, Instagram. D stalk
me on Instagram. So yeah, hit meup, follow me. I post clips of
(53:40):
my comedy. You can find all mylinks from there to have
everything going on.
I know people are gonna love it.
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.
Hello, and welcome to the Storied Human. I'm Lynne
Thompson. And today my guest isDeece Cassius. He's got a cool
story. It's a story oftransition, a story of a big
career change. And he's going totell us all about it. He's a
comedian. He's a host of thesocial hour, he recently
released his comedy special,which I'm dying to hear about.
(00:25):
He's got a lot of interestingtwists and turns to tell us
about his his story is reallycool. And I think we can learn a
lot about I'm guessingperseverance from him at least
trying new things. So welcome,DESE it's great to have you on
the story. Human. I'm very happyto have you here.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
(00:46):
Really good to talk to you. Youknow, I have a soft spot for
comedians. My ex sister in lawis a comedian, I had a great
interview with her. I just havealways loved comedians, that's
one of the things I do to relaxis I go on Netflix, and I look
up Stand up comedy. So I'm justa real fan. Well,
maybe you could have a chat withmy mother and tell her we're not
(01:07):
so bad.
I don't know. I don't know if mymother would have loved that.
Or, you know, if I had becomeone. Yeah. That's a really good
point. It's not exactly the thething our parents wished for us.
But it turned out okay for you.
You've been one for 15 years,right?
Yes, yes. It did turn out okay.
For me. And it's, you know,there's a bigger contrast
(01:30):
because my My older brother is afundamental Baptist minister. So
there is there's a big contrastbetween my mother's two sons,
and what we do for a living andhow we live our lives. Our lives
like unbelievable. Yes. AndYang, right. Yeah.
(01:50):
Yeah, very much. So. So youknow, not a lot. Yeah. Not a lot
of Christmas cards traded. Butyou know,
you had to balance each otherout, right. Sure.
Sure. We'll go with that. Thatsounds like that sounds like a
diplomatic answer. But I loveit.
So I want to hear the beginning.
I want to hear what you how youstarted out. You know, some of
(02:10):
the troubles you had in youryouth how you found your way to
being a consultant and how youchanged? Because that's an
amazing story in and of itself.
Yeah,yeah. So how far back do we go
like as a zygote? Go back toall. Yeah.
(02:30):
What feels like a naturalstarting point for you? Well,
here's a couple of good, let's,let's see, I'll try to I'll try
to give the Reader's Digestversion on some of it, but not
not skip the good stuff. It'sthe I grew up in Long Beach,
California. I always say notnot. Not the good side, the
(02:53):
Snoop Dogg side is what I alwaystell people is like Long Beach,
he has beach in the game too.
It's nice. Like, yeah, there's apart of it, that's okay. There's
also a part of it, where, duringthe 80s, you had a better chance
of dying than making it home.
So, you know, with 80s, SouthCentral LA height of gang
(03:15):
violence, you know, police, allthat stuff. You know, grew up in
a big Latino family. I had a,you know, kind of had that type
of inner city childhood, Ialways loved comedy in some
aspects. You know, despitejokes, I make up my I do, you
(03:38):
know, my mother and I do stilltalk, although there was a time
we did not the, but you know,even she, she was over that my
house the other day, and shetold me she was even when you're
little you were so young, youjust had a sense of humor, like,
I couldn't believe just inadvance the jokes you'd come up
with as little kid. So I alwaysloved comedy, I always, but you
(04:02):
know, you just never know how toget there. Right? Like, I never
had any model of how that well,you know, I, you know, like my,
I remember my, I pretend to fallasleep on the floor of my living
room. While my parents would siton the sofa and you know, they
drink or they'd pass out just goto sleep on the sofa. And then I
(04:24):
would I pretend to fall asleep.
So then once they'd fall asleep,I could stay up and I would
watch you know, the tonight showor I would watch Saturday Night
Live or they used to have thisstand up spotlight on VH one
back in the day, which was,believe it or not hosted by
Rosie O'Donnell before she wasin angry person. She still had
(04:45):
joy in her life. You know,choose a comedian. It's like,
you know, I that's what I woulddo. I would try to stay up late
so I could watch these shows,you know? And I just You Really
I, you know, it's not like Iwhat I really want to do is be a
writer, I always love writing.
(05:06):
And, you know, I'm able to dothat and have been able to do
that in my career also, which isnice. But yeah, so that's kind
of where how I grew up andwanted always just, I just never
knew how you know, like, sothere's no road.
We're not showing that that'snot one of the pads that were
(05:27):
shown were shown, like the moretraditional pads. I'm wondering
how old were you when used topretend to be asleep and watch
those shows?
Oh, I mean, I remember doingthat as long as far back as I
can remember. So probably, youknow, as early as like, probably
six or seven. amazingto me. Yeah. It's always been in
your DNA. Yeah,yeah. I mean, it was just I
(05:48):
knew, because if I, if I fellasleep, pretend like I was
asleep. And then they would passout. And then I could stay up
until they woke up and decidedto actually go to bed, like get
to bed. That's when they wouldtake me and put me in bed also.
So I could I could, I couldsqueeze a couple hours. Out of
watching TV still, you know, inthis is like when the Tonight
(06:14):
Show is still the Tonight Show?
Like that's when I mean, I'mtalking like Carson, I'm, I'm
41. So, you know, for Carson, Iloved him. Yeah. So I mean that,
you know, or like if I was luckyenough to be able to stay up to
watch, you know, Letterman afterCarson, who really was more for,
you know, as far as stand upcomedy that's more of a comedian
(06:36):
show. The arson even was. Butyeah, so you know, I always
Saturday live was my favorite ifI could stay up and watch that.
And so yeah, it was definitelyalways in my DNA to have to do.
You know, my teachers alwayssaid that I I marched to the
beat of my own drummer is whatmy diplomatic way my teachers
(06:59):
would say I was an asshole innoncomplying.
I don't think they meant that.
But they always know that thestudent who's not, you know, in
the middle of the bell curve?
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, Iwas in the LA Unified School
District where you're talking, Imean, these, there was barely
school, it was just warehousingto try to keep you alive during
(07:21):
the day while your parents wereworking. So that, you know,
education system was pretty,pretty terrible. And, again, I
knew what I wanted to do. Iwanted to write in, in some form
or fashion. So when it wouldcome to like math and stuff like
that, I'm like, I'm notinterested. I'm like, I have
zero interest in that, you know,the I'm like, I got a
(07:45):
calculator. Let me write somemore. Let me create some more,
you know, I don't need I don'tneed that, you know?
Not everybody does. Yeah, we doneed it to a point. But, you
know, it's like, yeah, I'll getthe fundamentals down. And then
beyond that, I'm like, just, I'mgood. Yeah.
(08:05):
Oh, hopefully, they're notteaching it in exactly the same
way as they taught it. Becauseit was a little much. Yeah.
I don't know, I keep hearingabout this common core math and
all these new ways. They'redoing it for easy ways. Yeah. I
don't know. They just lower allthe standards to push people
through those. So they're not Idon't know what their job
(08:26):
anymore. And, you know, your,your situation highlights the
fact that it's not equaleducation for all because it
really does depend on how muchmoney your district has the
neighborhood you live in. Itreally does alter the education
that we get.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, you know,well, you know, it's one of
(08:46):
those things that you as a kid,you just know what you only know
what you know. So there wasn'tlike a contrast, there wasn't an
option where I'm like, I feltlike I wasn't getting something
because I didn't know what theother option
would you right. School, right.
Yeah. Sucks for a lot of kids,you know?
Yeah. The idea, but I mean, youknow, looking back, it's like, I
(09:13):
wouldn't, I wouldn't change it.
I feel like it all made me moreresilient, self resilient, and
got me motivated to in the longrun, you know, I certainly had
some bumps along the way thatprobably could have been avoided
if I lived in a different areaor went through a different
school, but that's, you know,you made it work for
(09:36):
you. Yeah, yeah.
So tell me how you became aconsultant because that doesn't
sound like where you wereheaded.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I certainlylike I said bumps in the road. I
mean, I if to be perfectlycandid, I mean, you know, I was
involved with gangs and youknow, I was just a felon at 13.
(09:57):
So it like you know, Z you justit just kind of, in when you
when you live in there, thatit's almost, I always hate to
say, I don't like the phrase,you don't have a choice because
you have a choice, you alwayshave a choice. But it's
sometimes it's very, verydifficult choice and hard to
(10:18):
avoid those things. So you'resurrounded by it. It's what
everyone's doing. I mean, I canimagine. It's really, especially
at a young age really hard toresist those forces all around
you. Well,yeah. And so, you know,
especially when you don't have alot of home life and, you know,
you're kind of a free range kid,you can kinda kinda, you know,
there's no one there. It's youronly support system at times. So
(10:42):
your influence on you is strong,right? You just, we just don't
have perspective when we're 13.
We don't you can't measuresomething or judge something.
Yeah. Andyou know, so then, in my mid
teens, we my whole family, weactually moved to Western
Montana. That's a big change.
(11:04):
Very big change. And it was achange. I did not want Okay,
God, I hated it. I hated it. Ihate the cold I didn't fit in.
It wasn't you know, I rememberone of my first days in the
school I went to my my principalof the school he just he came up
to me in the hallway. And hesaid, and I didn't even like all
(11:27):
I just was a couple days there.
And it's not like I startedtrouble. Nothing. Anything. I
just was new kid. And he's like,and he just comes up to me. He's
like, you're just a worthlessgangbanger from California and
I'm gonna do everything I can toget you kicked out of my school.
That's a no, this was like, Imean, I wasn't even this was
(11:47):
primary third day, their fourthday. Yes. I'm like that.
apprehensible Yeah. So much fortreating all the kids equally.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it was. Here's thething. This is a small this was
a small school in a small town,like this school had first grade
through seniors in high school,the same school. So I mean, this
(12:10):
was a town without even astoplight in it at the time. It
has one stoplight in the townnow.
I'm wondering who made thisdecision and how they came to
this decision? Yeah.
Well, I think my parents werejust you. They saw how bad the
area was in getting worse. Andthe economy was really bad at
the time in California. My momhad family in Montana. So the
(12:33):
decision was,so there was a connection. Yeah,
that's crazy. What a change.
It's like moving to anothercountry. Oh,
it was for me. It was Yeah. And,you know, my parents were just
gone even more working. And Ifound more ways to get in
trouble and was kind of back andforth between California stayed
with relatives. And yeah, it'slike, I was like, 15, I was I
(12:59):
wasn't 16. Yet, even when Iwould, I just bounced, I moved
out of my parents house. And outon my own, stayed with some
friends who were older, theywere about 2021. And just kind
of figured out, made it and wasbounced around all over between
the Northwest and LA. Eventuallyback to Long Beach permanently,
(13:23):
and kind of was getting, I wasdoing music at the time. It was
doing a hip hop music at thetime. But it was there's there's
a thing with hip hop, whereobviously, like it's it's
inexorably connected to gangs inthe streets. Right, right. So
(13:45):
there, I just found myself backin these situations where you're
kind of tied tied back to that.
And you know, those peoplearound you they're gang related
things happen, your parties,your events, and then a buddy of
mine got shot and killed at aevent we're doing. And I was not
the first time friend of mineyet shot and killed, but it was
(14:07):
it was I just remember thinkingof like, I have a couple of
options here. If I keep goingdown this road, I'm like, I'm
just gonna go back into what Iwas doing before. I don't want
to do that. I have to if I wantto change I have to make the
choice. So I did I quit music. Iremoved myself from friends that
(14:30):
I had and put myself in adifferent area, moved to a
different area. And I started Ijust started I just started
working and I found the A friendof mine. Their sister had a
(14:51):
clothing company knew that theywanted a sales rep for. So I
started doing that forum gettingthey did screen printing and
embroidery. Right. So I've beendoing I started doing that for
(15:11):
work. And but they so they andthen they gave me an office in
their office building downtownLong Beach. But this office
building also had very high end,lot of lawyers, doctors, high
end clients in this and Istarted meeting these people.
And they're like, Hey, you, youknow, can you do this for me?
You know, can you and theystarted wanting to go
(15:32):
approaching me with differentthings they wanted in a lot of
like, I've been in sales before.
So I've done some sales. So Istarted doing like sales
training in March. And then Istarted doing marketing for
people then consulting on it gotto a point where I had my own
company. So cool. It just kindof happened in I was working
(15:57):
with very high end clients, Iwas making, you know, six
figures a year. And it wasgreat. I had a place in Mexico,
I had a place in California, Iwas back and forth. Mexico, I'd
stay there work from there. Itwas great. And then I just
realized one day that I didn'tlike it. You know, I didn't care
(16:21):
about it. It wasn't even themoney wasn't enough for me to be
like to I just realized I waswasting time and selling my
soul. And I won. It wasn'tfulfilling. You know, I wanted
to I wanted to write, I wantedto do comedy. A couple of things
happen. One thing I startedwriting, I started writing a
book that I had this idea for.
And then also, I started doingthis open mic in Long Beach.
(16:48):
This I used to go to watchbecause I just wanted to watch
comedy. So in the guy who ranit, I'd hang out afterwards and
drink and talk to him when he'slike, Hey, we bullshit and he's
like, you're funny. He goes, weshould try this. Ah. And I'm
like, Well, I've always thoughtabout it. He goes, Yeah, come
next week, he goes, you're gonnado a spot. I'm like, okay, so I
came back and I did it. And Ikept doing it. And then I was
(17:12):
doing that for a while I waswriting my book. And then I just
like, You know what I started, Igot a job. writing comedy for a
website of comedy articles Isubmitted, I got a job doing
that. And I'm like, and then assoon as I was making any money,
(17:33):
like getting gigs doing comedy,and finished my book, I quit my
job. And I just went just like,I'm just gonna do creative, and
I just dove in. And, yeah, 15years later, I've toured and
crossed five countries andreleased two albums, one
(17:54):
special, have a productioncompany working with over 40
venues in 20 states. You know,I've I doing comedy. Two years
ago, I did 189 dates in oneyear. That was my, Whoa, that's
a lot. This year, I've scaled itback because I need some time
(18:16):
off. I decided, butso how do you I think I'm just
struck with how you decided youwere going to get out of the
gang life and then you decidedyou're going to get out of the
consulting life? How do you dothat? Because people have a hard
time making those changes. Andthey want to know if there's any
kind of secret or tip that youmight be able to share. How does
(18:39):
that happen? Well,here's, here's what people hate
to hear this. Because it's likea cliche saying that has gone
around and is attached has somestigma attached to a certain
political party, which I don'tidentify with. I'll leave a
(19:00):
libertarian, for the vote foreveryone out there, just so you
know. But the term pullingyourself up by your bootstraps
can do a lot for you. There'smore to it than that. It's not
that secure.
You know, I do hear you you haveto take responsibility for your
(19:22):
actions in your life.
Yeah, you have to take controland you have to understand that
it's frankly, really hard for anunknown amount of time. And
there's gonna be a lot ofobstacles and it might not be as
comfortable actually isdefinitely not going to be as
countable. It's going veryuncomfortable. There's going to
be sacrifices of time, money,friendships or relationships.
(19:48):
But you have to decide what itis you want to do. I wrote this
the book I wrote about 10 yearsago and published now. It's
called insomnia. It's out theresomewhere. But the, that was
kind of the crux of it was thatlike, you have to decide to go
(20:10):
through the door, you know, andit's going to be really shitty
for a while again, nobody knowshow long, but when your make it
through to the other side, therest of your life is now.
infinitely better for the untilyou die. You've you've
successfully made everythingbetter. And you know, you got to
(20:35):
face some things, you got toagain, sacrifice, you know, I've
lost a lot of friends, I lost alot of relationships. I
definitely lost money for yearsnot doing my consulting thing.
But now I live the life I wantto live. You know?
You got it. You got there. Yeah.
And you know, I've been talkingto people recently. It's funny
(20:57):
how things keep coming up. It'scertainly in the zeitgeist,
people keep talking about howyou're going to fail, and you're
gonna fail more than once. Andyou have to accept that as part
of the path to success. And alot of us weren't raised that
way. My overly protective familyalways said, you know, once you
failed something, it was like,it wasn't meant for you. You
know, they backed up, and theymade me all afraid. And the
(21:19):
opposite is true. And I hear itin you and I hear it and other
people I talked to, that youhave to be ready for that, that
there's you're going to fall andyou're going to get you're
you're going to pivot you'regoing to learn from it, you're
going to keep going and you winonce you realize that you start
to view the failures, littlefailures, as you're you're
getting closer. So I think, butI still think there's something
(21:40):
about certain people'spersonalities, you seem to have
that personality thatperseverance, that belief in
yourself, there's a strengththere that I'm trying to
unravel, because it reallyinterests me, some people can do
this. And some people don't.
They can't Yeah,I mean, I'm sure I attribute
part of it to again, my, the wayI grew up and having to be self
(22:01):
resilient. So early on, under,you know, kind of not feeling
like I had a safety net. Andalso like, things don't scare
me, is like, things that youwould traditionally be be viewed
as scary. Yeah, happened to me alot at a very early age. You
(22:24):
know, like, you know, you're alittle tougher than your average
person.
Like, I mean, I I I've been shotat I've had guns pointed out, we
I've been beat up I've been likethose. So those those things
happened. I saw it a lot and alot of violence. So it's like,
those things don't scare me. Ialways tell people like I used
to box, too. I was a boxer and afighter for a long time. And
(22:47):
like, I was good at it because Ialways say like, I I get very
relaxed, high pressuresituations. So things that
there's that cliche of like, oh,like, time slows down. I'm like,
yeah, it actually does. It feelslower. Like I see things and I
get it. Yeah, it really happensthat way you can you can kind of
(23:08):
capture that. The my buddiesalways tell me he goes he's like
these. You're the only personI've ever met that would the the
crazier things get the cooleryou get? Yeah.
That's a response that somepeople have. I'm I'm like that I
get highly. When there's acatastrophe around me. I'm the
one that's focusing. Yeah, Ifeel like I have to write. And
(23:31):
I'm able to, and I'm the onethat saying no, no, don't go out
that door. Let's go this way.
But not everybody's like that.
My dad was like that he was apilot. Yeah, yeah, he could. He
could just stay so calm. I thinkthat it's just a reaction. It's
like a, I've seen it on testswhere they asked like, do you
get more upset? Or, you know, doyou get calmer? And it's, it's a
little bizarre, but some of usare, are made that way. I live
(23:56):
helped you. Yeah. Yeah. Imean, I literally have like, my
resting my doctor actuallythought something was wrong with
me for a long time, because myresting pulse is sometimes as
low as like, 46. Like, it'sgosh, like, my pulse is very
low. And for the longest time,he's like, I think something's
(24:16):
wrong with you. I'm like, I justdon't get excited, you know, the
IQ but in that manner, and, butI mean, it's not just I don't
think it's just the way I grewup. It also, it also is like, I
made a conscious decision tomine. A good buddy of mine. He
says, I'm stubborn as part ofit, which I don't think he's
(24:37):
wrong. But like, I, I like Ismoked cigarettes for 10 years,
you know, pack a day. And thenliterally one day, I was in the
middle of a cigarette and had apack of cigarettes in my pocket.
And I was like, I don't want todo this anymore. I threw a
cigarette crumpled up the packof cigarettes threw away and
(24:58):
I've never smoked again. Andthat was almost 20 years ago.
You know,I thought the usual way that
people quit. Yeah. Youknow, like, I drank every day,
almost from the time I was like,I don't know, probably 1314
until five years ago, and oneday I said, I'm gonna quit, and
I quit. And I haven't touched itsince. And it just, you, it.
(25:20):
It's not a special thing. Idon't think I think it's just
here's what I always say. Okay.
So like, when it comes to like,quitting cigarettes, you know,
they're always like, well, youwhat's the first thing you
think? Well, that's hard. Peoplesay quitting cigarettes is
(25:42):
harder than quitting heroin. Andquitting heroin seems like it's
impossible. So you you'vealready lost, you've already
defeated it before. So why, youknow, you have he's like, No,
it's not that hard. You You haveto choose and you have to stick
to it. You have to make somelifestyle changes. You know,
like, when I changed my entirelife, I changed everything I
(26:05):
started, I'd wake up and I wouldrun five miles a day, when I get
home, I would literally ride mybike until I couldn't ride
anymore. And then I'd have towalk at home. I stopped, you
know, that's when I stoppedsmoking. I stopped hanging out
with people, I started doingyoga, I started reading books
about Taoism. I changed themusic, I changed the music I
(26:27):
listened to for a while becauseI'm like, I need to shift.
Because I was doing all theseother things. And I began where
I wanted to be. So if I believethings, things, it'll be
different. You know, I'm, I'mcreating my environment. That's
so cool. That'salso what they teach us about
how to be successful. It's likechange your mindset, but also
your input, the people that arearound you, you know, there's
(26:50):
when I tried to quit smoking,that's an i, it took me six
times. Okay, I always you alwaystried to, I tell people, I don't
think that's a failure at all.
Each time, I got better at it. Igot better at quitting. I got
better and better and better.
And then the sixth time, I waslike, I got this, you know. And
I think we have to teach that topeople who are in recovery,
(27:12):
because a relapse doesn't mean,it's just again, it's just a
step along the way. We're alldifferent. We're all wired
differently. But that's so coolthat you knew that. Because when
I was trying to quit smoking, itsaid, don't take your regular
way home, because you always aretriggered by what you see to
smoke or don't don't go on thephone in the regular back. Well,
(27:33):
we had phones, right? Yeah,don't go on the phone, in your
house. Because that's when youwhen you light up or don't you
know, don't pull them out whenyou're out to dinner. Don't
don't have an ashtray visible.
You knew that intuitively,though. You were like, I got to
change the whole thing. So thatI change my inside, change my
outside, change my inside. Soyou just knew things kind of
(27:55):
intuitively, I think,yeah, you just all I just knew
that what I was doing wasn'twhat I wanted. And I wasn't, you
know, I always wanted to write,I always wanted to, you know, I
love to all these things. Andit's like, I'm not doing that.
So how do I get to that? And howdo I like you got to align,
however metaphysical you want toget in this. So you have to
(28:18):
align your mind with yourspirit, and make sure they're,
you know, working in conjunctionwith each other. Whether you
believe in a true spirit or not,you know, there is a
metaphorical spirit that youhave to get in line also, and
reels like This couldn't hurt.
(28:39):
This couldn't hurt. Whatexactly,
yeah, that's a great attitude.
It can't hurt. Yeah, it mightnot help but it can't hurt. I
mean, it will help in otherways, right? You got your health
was better, and you were puttingcooler things in your head, you
were reading really cool thingsyou were exercising was much
better for your body. And so Idon't know, I think you just
send a message to yourunconscious like we're changing
this up.
(29:00):
Yeah, you know, it's one of theyou know, it's why people are
afraid of change. And it'sagain, it's hard and what it's
not that hard, but peopleperceive it as hard in the
second year, they defeatthemselves again, before they
even get started. Whereas likeif you just start going down,
you know, it's like I havefriends who in the last couple
(29:21):
years, like a friend, goodfriend of mine a couple of years
ago, she's like, I think I'mgoing to go back to college
finishing and but it's going tobe three years and this and that
and blah, blah, blah. And I go,Hey, do you remember when we
went and did that show? Youknow, in Idaho and this and
that. And I tell her she's like,Yeah, that was great. I go, that
(29:43):
was three years ago. I go you'llgo in three years will go by
like that. And then you'll havethe rest of your life where you
finish college and get a betterjob and you get to do do all the
things you want to do. Or youcan just meander through the
This unhappiness you're in rightnow. But I think it's just
(30:04):
easier for people to externalizein, not internalize and say
because even even when I was akid, and even when I was doing
dumb shit, and I was gettingarrested, or I was getting
coffee, I never, I never blamedanyone. I always was completely
(30:25):
culpable for everything. It'spart of why I had a lot of and
I, for anyone, currently inrecovery or trying to quit
alcohol, this isn't me sayingdon't go to AAA. But it's part
of why I personally didn't likegoing to AAA, because everybody
does. Yeah, I've heard this.
When I quit drinking, I went toa couple meetings and I'm like,
(30:49):
this isn't for me. Because the iEvery, every time, they'd be
like, do you want to saysomething? Or this and that? And
I'm like, no, no. And thenfinally, like, they like, they
finally got me to tell my story.
And I did like what you know,and I would tell them a little
bit out, like, Well, why do youknow? So they kept wanting to
like, a reason me to blamesomething for why I did these
(31:13):
things. And I'm like, No, I'mnot I go, I just chose bad I
chose completely, you know, it'sat the end of the day I chose. I
and I can choose not to. andpowerful. Yeah, yeah, they
there. It seems like they'realways looking for you to blame
something else. I'm like, no,no, that I don't want to pass
(31:35):
the buck. I want to internalizefigure out why and change those
patterns instead of just beinglike, it's always floating above
me. And it could ruin me at anysecond like, no, no, I can. I
can overcome it. AndI hear that. So that's a lot of
changes. So tell me about what'scoming up because it sounds
pretty exciting. First, like, Iwant to know about the show.
(32:01):
Sure. So our the social hour.
Yeah. So that's a podcast I'vebeen doing for actually coming
up on 10 years now. No.
Yeah. Podcasting back then.
Yeah, Iknow, it was June of 2014. I did
my first episode. The show'sevolved over the years, but I
was in the last year. So I'vebeen it's was weakly for
(32:22):
forever, the last year. So Ikind of got off that schedule
because of traveling and moving.
But I've been able to get backon with my weekly schedule,
which is nice. I just lovetalking to people. Again, the
show's evolved a lot over theyears, we used to used to have
like a studio, a producer, anews anchor, and it was more
(32:43):
like a we'd have segments andgames and it was kind of more
like, you know, like radio talkshow, Morning Show type format.
Now it's more one on one justbecause of where I live and how
things are. But I I'd like toget back to the old format at
some point. But it's the socialour new episodes every
(33:06):
Wednesday, at DS, comedy.com,Spotify or wherever you find
your podcasts. So we'll becelebrating our 10 year
anniversary in a couple months.
So cool. Yeah, we I think we'vegot about 460 episodes or
something like that we've donenow a lot. Yeah, I know how
toughit is to start. I mean, that's
(33:27):
pretty cool.
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it wasinteresting. It was just my
buddy and I bullshitting yearsago and then we started getting
guests and you know, now I'veliterally you know, I've I've
interviewed presidentialcandidates now, you know, yeah,
the Libertarian PresidentialCandidate chase all over this
(33:49):
election and last election wasJo Jorgensen so I interviewed
her spent the day with heractually got to go out on the
campaign day with her have lunchwith her did a benefit little
comedy benefit for her campaignand stuff? So yeah. So I mean,
that you know, things haveevolved in a very lucky in, you
(34:14):
know, also not and also, I amlucky but also I've done I've
worked extremely hard.
Funny how that works. Yeah.
So yeah, the podcast I'm I justreleased my special not your cup
of tea. That came out. I guessit's been a couple of months
now. But that is available at mywebsite, also DS comedy.com.
(34:39):
It's all donation so you canpeople can pay whatever you want
as little as $1. And you'll getthe whole hour forever. Recorded
at my favorite club in thecountry. One of my favorite
clubs in the country in Bozeman,Montana, actually, it's this
club. Wow. Yeah, there is agreat comedy club in Bozeman,
(35:01):
Montana called last best comedy.
And I decided to do it there.
They're just been really greatto me over the years. And I
thought it'd be a cool thing todo there. So yeah, check out the
special. I'm also, I'm alsoabout to release my debut comic
book that I wrote. Sooh, what's that about?
(35:27):
It is, I've, I'm a little, I'vebeen a little bum about it until
we figure out where it's home isgoing to land. Because I have
it. We're submitting to somepublishers to see if we can get
a deal on it or if I'm going toindependently publish it. So
(35:48):
until I know for sure, it's ait's say, urban knew our story.
will say you've heard the you'veheard the phrase suicide by cop,
right? Yes. So this is basicallysuicide by vigilante ism.
(36:09):
There's a guy nothing else tolive for. He decides to go out
on the street and tackle thestreets. Here's he'll be taken
out and a couple days, tops, andcraziness ensues.
So it's a light piece. Yeah,it's yeah, it's a fluffy little
piece. So that that I shouldhave more news on where that's
(36:35):
gonna land. By the end of April.
Okay, so we can check yourwebsite, right? These comedy.com
It'll be on there. And yeah,yep. Or in the show notes. Yeah.
Ideally, to listen, I'm sorry,go ahead. Oh, I
just said, Oh, more my instagramat De staat comedy. That's where
(36:57):
I update a lot, too. So great.
Okay, well put that in there,too. I can't wait to listen to
your comedy or your Comedy Hour.
Oh, yeah. I'll send you a linkafter the after the show. Okay.
We'll add that all to the shownotes. Now, is there any other
thing that we didn't mention? Isthere any piece of advice that
you might want to share that Ididn't get to? Oh, boy.
(37:22):
Any nugget.
Man, the let's see. Yeah, drinkmore water, however, was always
a good tip. Odd enough? I don'tknow. I would say I it's,
there's so much but there's sothere's a movie. I say this
(37:46):
sometimes this is so you everseen the movie? The Curious Case
of Benjamin buttons? Yeah. BradPitt, the David Lynch movie.
Great movie. It's one of my, Iwouldn't say one of my
favorites. I like it a lot,though. There's this final one
of the end scenes, as Brad Pittis you know, getting younger and
(38:10):
even more unbelievably handsome.
And the girl is getting older.
So you know, they separate,right? And he's living his life.
And there's this monitor,there's this montage of him, you
know, he's on a motorcycle inTibet, or he's scuba diving in
(38:30):
the you know, Alaska or he'staking taking a space shuttle to
Mars or whatever the hell he'sdoing. And there's this
monologue that he says over thismontage where he's like, just
remember this, like, it's nevertoo late. You can always pivot,
there's always opportunity forchange, and to do something new
(38:51):
and I'm paraphrasing it. Sorry,Brad, I know you're a big fan
and listening, I'm sure. The,you know, in I always that that,
like, idea stuck with me, youknow, like, you can change you
know, you can be you can be 60or for me, like literally I've
(39:13):
done comedy last 15 years andhave a successful comedy career
and I have production company ofcomedy happening everywhere. I
could just keep doing that. Youknow, and I will but also I
always wanted to write comicbooks. I love comic books. So I
and I've been wanting to mywhole life. So this last year,
I'm like, we're gonna do it. AndI just started I you know, fully
(39:38):
scripted this 12 issue seriesand got an artist and a colorist
and a letter and we're it'sfirst issues almost done. And
like that's, we're just gonna doit. The and I mean, just, I
always tell you like bet onyourself. If you've bet on
yourself, you're gonna bet onyourself and put yourself in a
(39:59):
corner Don't bet on yourself,put yourself in a situation
where you have to succeed. And Iguarantee you, you'll succeed
way more often than you realize.
Because people are resilient.
And we find a way to overcome.
And if you're in a positionwhere you have, you know, it's
part of why, like, when I quitmy job and start doing comedy,
I'm like, Well, I guess I gottafind gigs to pay my bills. No, I
(40:21):
did. You know, soit just happened. Because you
had to find a way.
I love that you said it's neverit's never too late. Because if
people say that, but they don'treally mean it. You know, they
(40:41):
get like, stuck in their life,and they get afraid. And if
you're it really isn't your it'snever too late. I went to a
poetry reading an open micpoetry reading. A couple weeks
ago, at a local art museum, Iused to write poetry. I always
wrote it my whole life. But Iused to write it a lot. And I
won an award in college. So Ireally, you know, I'm a poet,
(41:02):
who doesn't write much, or readmuch public. But anyway, and I'm
a tech writer full time, that'show I make my money. I saw this
ad for, for this poetry openmic. And I'm like, You know what
I've been writing again, I havea couple poems, I shared them
with a select bunch of friends,they love them. It was real,
they really love them. I'm gonnago read, it didn't make any
(41:24):
sense. Like I should have beenterrified, right. But it just
felt like the right thing to do.
So I went and I did it. And itwas so such a fun night. And the
weirdest part was that everyoneseemed to have similar imagery
in their poetry. It's almostlike we got together, like in a
dream and said, Let's all meethere, because we could really
appreciate each other's poems, Iwas kind of freaked out. Like
(41:45):
when that kind of thing happens.
It's a little freaky. But mypoint, my real point is that I
met this wonderful woman thatnight. She read her poems. And
it turns out, she recentlypublished a book of poems, and
she, we ended up having dinnerwith my friend and my husband,
we loved her, she was sointeresting. She lives right in
(42:05):
our town, I never would haveknown her if I hadn't gone to
this poetry reading. She's 81years old, I would have never
guessed it. She's vibrant. She'sa fiber artist. She's having a
showing in April. Unbelievableshows up. But the poetry reading
reads Republic has a book thatshe just published. And it just
really, it just sort of lit mybrain up, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
(42:28):
I mean, you seem to be thatperson.
You know, you don't have to bethe person who doubts themselves
and stays home too much. Andwatches TV, whatever people do.
Yeah, you don't have to havethat life. You can have this
other life, but she's just veryfulfilled. And she's really
interesting. And she has a lotto say.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, this isthis a hard thing for people to
(42:50):
swallow. But like, if you'renot, if you don't have the life
that you wish you had, it'sprobably your fault. Like, if
you and not to say like, Hey, ifyou just wished you're a
millionaire, you can make ithappen. No. But you can also
(43:12):
make your life happier, makeyour life better. You can. And
again, it may take time, and itmay not be comfortable at first.
But you know, your prime makingchoices and doing things that
are keeping you in that rut, inthat it's just, I
was thinking that as you'retalking, it's the choices,
(43:34):
you're making those? And youknow, it doesn't have to be huge
changes at first. No, becausethere's there's a, there's a
great book, a self help bookcalled atomic habits. And this
this guy study, I guess, he's apsychologist who studied how we
change our habits. And you justmake tiny tweaks. It's really
that you just make tiny tweaks,and you make another tiny tweak,
(43:55):
and then before you know it,you've changed a big thing. You
know, you've changed theselittle things. It's almost like
you're turning the dials youknow, you're setting the dials a
little differently.
But I don't know if this is ifTony Robbins was the originator
of this kind of idea. But he Iheard him say it and again, I
(44:16):
don't know if it's a it's an oldoriginal from him. But he's
like, if you have two boats inthe ocean, two ships in the
ocean that are sailing parallelto each other, right. And one of
them just changes theirdirection one degrees off, you
know, they have first it stilllooks like they're going the
(44:38):
same direction. But over time,they're going to be in wildly
different destinations.
Yeah. So I love that usual Yeah,I love that. You know what you
just reminded me of two is Iremember hearing how a missile
finds its how it how it keeps onits path.
taxpayer money.
(44:59):
Unfortunate Titleist. But whenthe missiles going towards its
target, it keeps on the path byby noticing when it goes off the
path. So it goes off the pathdetects that it went off and re
corrects to me. I mean, I hatemissiles. But I love that
analogy of you know, if you'vegot that end in sight, you
(45:20):
really do have your goal insight. And you're dedicated to
getting there. You're going tocatch when you're not going
there, you're going to catchwhen you're a little off. And
you can you can pivot you canRican, reconfigure your, your
direction. Yeah. So there's,there's a consistency there.
There's a there's a dedicationthere. And so if you can't find
(45:41):
that, it's hard to get where youwant to be. And I love what you
said before. I always say Ialways say like, how's that
working for you? When somebodysays, you know, I've been doing
this, but I don't want to dothis. It's just basically like,
well, art is what you're doinggetting you where you want to
go. Yeah. Then yeah, change it.
If it's not, you know?
Well, yeah. And I mean, it'slike, you got the sacrifice
(46:03):
thing. And like the just willingto open up doors and do things
like so here's an example. So acouple years, this was two years
ago now. I, when I was startingto ruminate about really feeling
the bite about doing this comicbook. I was on tour, and I was
(46:25):
in I was going to be in LA forthis weekend doing shows. And it
happened to be the same weekendis the LA Comic Con. Well,
there's a guy, his name isFabian neesee. And he's actually
I don't know, Jerry familiarwith comic book character,
Deadpool?
Oh, yes,I am. Hopefully, this is the
writer who wrote co createdDeadpool. So Him and I are kind
(46:46):
of friends. And he he's like,Hey, my Brother owns a small
press comic book company. And heis looking for volunteers to
work at the LA Comic Con, like,just help him work his booth
during the day. And I'm like,he's like, you'll get a free
pass to the convention. And I'mlike, Hey, I'm gonna be in LA.
(47:08):
I'm like, I don't have anythingtill eight o'clock at night. I
got nothing to do all day. Ilike comic books. I'm gonna go
to this convention. And like,I'll help like, I'm like, Yeah,
I'll volunteer. So I work thisconvention and didn't really
talk to his brother much. Hisname is Mario. But then
afterwards, a couple of like, aweek later, Mario called me out
(47:30):
of nowhere. And he's like, Hey,he goes, I just wanted to say,
thanks for helping you talk toyou much. But like he goes, so
you do you do comedy? And I go,Yeah, he goes, have you ever
thought about he's you write allyour material? And I go, Yeah,
he goes, have you ever thoughtabout writing anything else?
Like a comic book or anything?
(47:54):
And I go, Well, now that youmentioned, now that you
mentioned Mario, yeah, myliterally my entire life. I've
thought about it and wanted to.
And I, again, I had this comicbook that I've been writing. And
I didn't, I didn't mention it tohim. And my that wasn't my
intent. When I went in and beinglike, work this guy, and I'm
(48:14):
gonna pitch them on my me andthis thing. I just went and I
helped him. And then I walked,I'm like, I know you, and maybe
down the road, I'll see youagain, whatever. And he called
me. And just to check, and thenthis came up, and then I go, and
he goes, he goes, Why don't yousend it to me? Because you sent
me your script. He goes, I'lltake a look at it. And I'll give
(48:35):
you I'll give you some feedback,because he's an editor and
writer. And I'm like, that'd begreat. That's awesome. And I
sent it to him. And then heemailed me back about a week
later, he goes, Hey, I'm gonnasend this to our head, the
publisher at our, my company, Iwant him to take a look at it,
(48:55):
too. There you go. Okay, great.
Then a couple of weeks later, Iget an email. He goes, Hey, we
want to hop on a call with you.
We love this. We want to do thisbook. And I actually had an
opportunity to publish it withour company and I ended up
(49:16):
walking away from it justbecause it there were some
logistics, it wasn't going tocome out exactly like I wanted
and offer still on the table. IfI want to go to them. We're
still friends. We still talk.
It's fine. But yeah, it was justlike, you know, maybe the timing
isn't right. And I got I'mmoving and and it just didn't
work out the way we wanted to.
And I'm like, Let's pump thebrakes. And now I'm moving
(49:38):
forward with it independently.
But I it really was like, acatalyst moment. And it really
pushed me to keep moving towardsthis project, and who it was.
And, you know, maybe that's allit was, but it just took me
being like, yeah, a volunteerfor this guy. And I didn't push
(49:59):
it. I didn't talk Talk about it.
But again, the kind of your,your magnetic field around you,
you know what you're puttingout, it does pull things in, and
you say, you know, you'rehowever,
I totally get it. But going tothe poetry reading, it was sort
of, I needed to surround myselfwith, I'd forgotten how much I
liked those kinds of people. Ilove creative people. And I
(50:20):
hadn't been in a creative circlein a while, and I just wanted to
be there with them. But I knowthat I'll go to the next one,
you know, in spring and, andI'll know some people there. And
it's funny because my husbandsaid, Oh, I just really liked
these people. And my friendsaid, Oh, I just love hearing
that. We've just like, missedit. We just missed that world.
You just have to step outsometimes and try something. And
(50:43):
I love that. You just said,Yeah, I'll volunteer What the
heck, right. And so that's socrucial that you didn't ask for
anything. Because that's, that'swhat they talk about. Like, I
took a podcasting class withKathy Heller to learn how to
podcast. She's super famous,like multi millionaire. And we
had time with her like live. Wehad a free five day class before
(51:05):
the actual class. Oh, wow. Shetalked a lot about you know,
that mindset stuff. And I neededall that because I was sort of
stuck in that, you know, takingcare of the kids and working and
I really had, you know, adifferent life. And she she
talked so much about peopledon't buy from you describing
what you want to do people buyfrom you your energy people buy
(51:29):
you thereby you So put yourselfout there, it was such a
different, interesting take.
Because I always hated the ideaof sales. A lot of people do.
And they hate, they hate theother kind of sales. There's
nothing wrong with getting outthere and get excited about what
you do. And somebody isattracted to your energy
literally attracted to you. Andthey Hey, have you ever done
(51:49):
that? They know you're reliable,they know you're interested
because you volunteered. Right?
They like that feeling. It'sjust so cool, though, because I
don't think we are often taughtthat when we're young. I think
that you know, there was an oldstyle sales like even guys like
when I was little they used togo door to door. Oh, yeah.
Another would buy like brushesfrom the fuller brush, man and
(52:13):
guycomes around, you know, and my
father but EncyclopediaBritannica. Those days are gone.
Yeah, they're still a littledifferent now. But I really was
educated by her and your storyreminds me of that. Like, just
put your another another way tosay it is just love on people.
Just be positive and love onpeople, you know, like, give of
(52:34):
yourself and have that goodenergy and people will want to
work with you don't. They'llcome to you. And that you're
like a great example of that.
Yeah. Oh, go ahead. I can'tthank you enough, because I just
think this has gone all over theplace to good places. Oh, yeah.
Interview. Yeah. You have a lotto talk about and a lot to
share. More than your story. Youhave a lot of life lessons. And
(52:56):
I hope that's my favorite kindof interview.
Well, I try at least to youknow, been lived a lot of life
and had a lot of experiences. Soit's you have, and I'm with you
about being stubborn. I'm justso stubborn. Sometimes. That's
all that got me through.
Yeah, it's not it's not always abad thing, right?
(53:17):
It's not. Yeah, well, it wasgreat talking to you. Thank you
for sharing so much. Yeah. We'lldefinitely get all that stuff
into the show notes and peoplecan get in touch with you is is
Instagram the good way?
Yeah, yeah, that's the Instagramor Facebook, Instagram. D stalk
me on Instagram. So yeah, hit meup, follow me. I post clips of
(53:40):
my comedy. You can find all mylinks from there to have
everything going on.
I know people are gonna love it.
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.
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