July 2, 2025 • 38 mins
Is it possible to create a new Hollywood? To find the answer, we follow the story of standup veteran Nick Di Paolo, and what he's doing to change the game.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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Red Pilled America dot Com Now on with the show.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
This episode was originally broadcast on May twenty third, twenty nineteen.
We'll be back with a brand new episode next week. Enjoy.
Comedian Nick Apolo has been in the entertainment business for
over three decades. He's seen many changes during that time,
but over the past few years there's been a brand
(00:53):
new development.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
So I started impromptu shaking hands and this guy comes
up to me with like a shaved head, probably my age,
a little younger, probably younger than and he says, he
stands in that can I get a picture with you?
So I go yeah. He stands to my right and
I'm talking to him and he goes. I enjoyed the
show is great, he goes, but my daughter wanted to
punch you in the face. And before he finished the
(01:16):
word face, somebody sucker punches me. Literally, if it was
a guy, I would have been knocked out. I had
a broken eye socket.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm Patrick Carelci.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. Is it possible to form a new Hollywood,
(02:15):
to create an entertainment industry completely outside of Tinseltown's grasp?
That was a question that came to mind while speaking
to Nick Topaulo, a Boston bred comedian that recently released
his hilarious new stand up special A Breath of Fresh Air.
He debuted it in a way that should spook the
gatekeepers of Hollywood. He gave it away for free on YouTube.
(02:37):
Nick has had a thirty plus year career in comedy
over three decades. He's written for HBO's The Chris Rock Show,
acted on FX's Lewis Inside, Amy Schumer, The Sopranos, and
made appearances on The Tonight Show Late Night with David Letterman,
Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Conan O'Brien. But a few years
ago his politics began to pigeonhole them, and Nick faced
(02:59):
a fork in the road, like so many others in Tinseltown.
It's an un avoidable decision for anyone that has traveled
through Movie City. Do what the cult leaders of Hollywood
want you to do, or do what you think is right.
Adrianna and I are going to tell you a little
secret about Hollywood. Many of the big players in Tinseltown
would prefer avoiding politics. They'd rather not cave to the
(03:21):
pressures of the small but vocal leftists of Movie City.
Believe it or not, many would prefer to do the
right thing rather than to do the leftist thing.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
We've seen the sub close with actor Jason Bateman. It
was a normal Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles and we're
perched in front of the performance stage at our daughter's
school fair, waiting for her turn to sing in front
(03:50):
of a crowd that literally creates the majority of the
world's entertainment content. That's when we realized that planning for
the worst case scenario was a smart move. At the time,
in the fall of twenty seventeen, our daughter was attending
a prestigious Hollywood private school populated by the kids of
studio heads and some of Tinseltown's biggest stars, including Melissa McCarthy,
(04:12):
Steep Correll, and Jason Bateman. The school is one of
the most exclusive clubs in America because it's a gateway
to connect with the movers and shakers of Hollywood, also
known as assholes. As we sat there through other kids'
performances waiting for our little girl's turn, we noticed a
(04:33):
previous year trend began to take shape. As a child's
step to the microphone, other families who were friendly with
that particular child would join the performer's parents at the
front of the stage to cheer them on. It was
an unmistakable pattern, but that was not going to be
happening for our daughter, so we came prepared with the
(04:54):
group of outsiders, our closest family and friends to fill
the void. If you've heard the debut episod so of
red pilled America. You know all about our run in
with Hollywood's finest where we confronted a creepy dad for
sharing his bed with other people's kids. Our Tinseltown enclave
initially sided with us, but the spouse of the child
(05:17):
spooner knew something about Tinseltown that our family did not.
The creepy dad married into a billion dollar tribe, and
his wife was schooled in the mechanics of Hollywood's elite.
Missus Creepy was shockingly able to turn the tide in
their favor by spreading the very true rumor that we
were right wingers. We didn't stand a chance, and the
(05:38):
virtue signaling company town that would eventually claim Trump was
Hitler and the drag preteen Desmond is amazing, was well amazing.
Almost overnight, these Hollywood insiders changed their tune and began
to side with the creepy kid cuddler over the family
in bed with Republicans that's us. By the time our
little girl was about to step on stage to perform,
(06:00):
there were only a few parents from the community that
would have any thing to do with us in private,
let alone in the public space of the school fair
as our baby girl grabbed the microphone. Our prediction played
out as parents that have known our little girl for
years since preschool, and one family that knew us for
nearly two decades sat it out. That is all but
(06:23):
one father, Jason Bateman of the Ozarks, fame. As our
daughter began belting the first chorus of Sea's Chandelier through
the sound system, Jason bolted from the food court to
the front of the stage, standing besides us to capture
her singing on his smartphone. That was amazing, he told
(06:44):
me as she finished. Within a few minutes, he sent
the video clip to Sea herself, a friend of his,
and the Australian singer quickly responded, heaping praise on our
daughter's vocals. We were thrilled, He shared the text with me,
as I felt the eyes of our school community burning
holes in my back. Jason was, without a doubt aware
(07:04):
of our confrontation with the creepies. But when push came
to shove and the liberal supremacists from our school sided
with the kid cuddler, the Batemans joined the silence with
everyone else in our community by taking no position publicly.
Jason Bateman is a nice guy, a good dad, and
obviously had no animosity for our family, regardless of our politics.
Perhaps he even wanted to do the right thing and
(07:26):
publicly condemned the bed sharer, But seasoned citizens of Movie
City no better than to go against the group think
of Hollywood, which is why we weren't surprised when, after
being pressured by his Tinseltown overlords, Jason announced hed boycott
Georgia over the Heartbeat Bill. Like Jason Bateman, comedian Nick
Depolo has also been working in the entertainment business for
a very long time, over three decades, and as a result,
(07:49):
he knows exactly what positions he needs to have to
be in Hollywood's good graces. His story highlights the decision
that everyone in the entertainment biz has to make at
some point. But if some succeed in following Nick's path,
defying moved Citi's thought police, it could lead to a
new Hollywood, one that won't threatened to boycott entire states
like Georgia because it doesn't cave to Tinseltown's cult like beliefs.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Nick Depolo was raised about twenty miles north of Boston, Massachusetts,
in a town called Danvers.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Best known for Mark Bavaro. Up, you're a football fan,
tight end for the New York Giants. He played on
my high school football he was on tight end.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
He grew up in a middle class home and was
also the middle child of five siblings.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Fit's the very perfect, doesn't It didn't get the attention,
so I went on stage and said, hey, listen, here
some funny.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
His dad was comical, but Nick wasn't much of a
joker when he was young. He was a serious kid,
kind except when he was around his friends. But Nick
was attracted to comedy at a young age, watching comedians
perform on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and The
MERV Griffin Show. The humor bug was also woven into
the fabric around his.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Hometown, Massachusetts. Boston area is just it's in the DNA.
You can look at who has been become successful as
ours comedy wise, but you know from Louis c. K,
Joe Rogan, Jay Leno, Conan, Stephen Wright, Billy Burr goes
on and on.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Ye I wonder if there's something about the cold weather
because I know Canadian there's a lot of Canadian comedians
as well too. I wonder if that has anything to
do with it, or you know, what is that? What's
in the air, what's in the water that.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Makes that happen? Nobody finally came out of Alaska. You're right,
You're right, Sarah Palin. Yeah, that's funny. You got me there.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Around his senior year in high school, his best friend
called him on a hot summer night.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And he said, let's go in to Stitches Comedy Club
in Boston and see Steve Sweeney and Kevin Meaney.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
At the time, in the late ship and he's in
the early eighties, Boston comedy was in the midst of
a gold rush. The scene was bursting with talent.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
A guy named Steve Sweeney was on stage, who was
the godfather comedy in Boston. And yeah, I remember going,
oh my, I couldn't believe that in Kevin Meane they
were doing a thing together. I bet I couldn't believe
that a guy, a person could go out there without
any props or anything and just with words actually below
(10:29):
the roof off a place I never saw people laughing
so hard my life.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
It was that first visit to Stitches in Boston that
Nick knew stand up comedy was what he wanted to do,
but he couldn't yet work up the nerve to do it.
He went on to college at the University of Maine.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Studying very hard at the University of Maine with a
two point four in.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Business Business Administration.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Is that you said, Yeah, that's funny, That's exactly what
college did. It confirmed I should be a comic, you know.
I really took that degree and ran with it.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
He enjoyed his time in college, became a walk on
on the football team, but when he graduated, business admin
wasn't the route he ended up taking.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
My first job out of college was for Boston Gamet Foods,
knocking doors direct sales, selling frozen steak and seafood out
of the back of a Zuzu pickup truck with a
block of dry ice in the back. And let me
(11:25):
tell you something. It really set the foundation be doing
stand up because I would walk into a real estate
off small businesses, homes, residential. I'd walked into a real
estate office layout thirty boxes of food, and people will
be firing questions at me. And I was as good
a liar as anybody. You know, how pound is that steak?
Well we break it down proportion. There is over four
on the portions. If you break it down, it's two
(11:46):
dollars and thirty two cents a meal. So and that's
a you know, that's a great a steak. Where you
should I pack it in the freezer? Should you? That
was my big clothes. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Nick enjoyed the job, but he kept finding himself drawn
to comedy.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
It was around nineteen eighty seven I got almost gonna
fight with my roommate because by that time I was
going to comedy clubs watching a little bit. I actually
got a job as a bar back at Stitch's Comedy
club in Boston, so I knew I wanted to be
around it. My roommate thought I was the funniest guy
on the planet. This guy who's from Augusta, Manho met
(12:20):
him up at college. He's an eye doctor and I'm
very smart. We almost got in a fight one day.
He said I was a pussy. If you're not going
on stage and trying an open mic. We almost got,
I swear to got. It almost got physical and then
I kind of went to bed then and I going,
you know what, he's right kind of a pussy. And
then I went to a family cookout in Massachusetts at
my parents' house on a Sunday, and I threw my
(12:40):
name in the hat at Stitch's Comedy Club. Sure enough
they called me. After I had eleven beers of me
You're on Sunday night, drove into Stitches Comedy Club. I
pull up in front of the club. I'll never forget it.
The marquee read comedy hell. That's what it said on
the and I'm like, I found my calling.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
He was introduced by a famous Boston comedian, George McDonald,
who told Nick a few years later that he knew
he was going to do well because the first line
out of his mouth was an ad lib that got
a laugh.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I followed some guy in a tuxedo and I was
wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and it's a local reference
in Boston, but the audience might not get it. But
I went on after that guy and I said, yeah,
I didn't know what to wear. I said, I didn't
know I'd be following mister Saunders, which is a tuxedo place.
It's very huge in Boston. It got a nice laugh,
and then I went into my material and bombed for
(13:29):
the next four minutes.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
You'd think after bombing his first time out, Nick would
have quickly dropped the idea, but he got some laughs
at the end of his set, and that's all it took.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
All you need is a taste of it, you know,
and a couple of them worked, And the whole time
you're in your own head up, they going, I can't
believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm You're trying
to stay focused on the task, but you literally when
I came off stage, I was never so high in
my life that I just told it it's you know,
I mean, I couldn't believe at that point. I guess
it was a dream. I couldn't believe I went on
stage at a comedy club in front of strangers and
(14:00):
got a couple of laughs. I couldn't sleep then. I
was so excited.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Nick caught the Boston humor bug. He promptly quit his
job and was about to go on the adventure of
his young life. Life is short. It's important to surround
(14:28):
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(15:34):
So Nick Apolo caught the Boston humor bug and was
ready to become a full time comic. He quickly joined
the stand up circuit and connected with a guy named
Lewis c. K.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
When I met him, he was eighteen. I was twenty five.
He had already been in it a year, and he
was at MC at a lot of the clubs, and yeah,
we hit it off.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
The two started sharing a manager by the name of
Barry Katz.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Barry Katz booked every comedy room, not just in Boston,
in the New England area. So on a Monday night,
I'd be at a Chinese restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island.
On Tuesday, I'd be at the Holiday and at Burlington,
Vermont on Wednesday at Franks and Franklin, a Mexican restaurant.
On Thursday, I might be at Stitches in Boston. On Saturday,
(16:18):
might be the University of Massachusette. There was so much
comedy going on, and me and Louis thought that's how
it was. We thought that was normal, and it was
a blessing because, like I said, stage time is of
the essence. So we got good in a hurry. I mean,
I worked over three hundred nights, you know, after my
first after I quit my day job, I'd worked over
(16:39):
three hundred nights my second night in comedy. It was
that much stage and It made us really good, really fast.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
In no time, Nick and Luis c k felt they
were ready to swim with the big fish.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Both of us thought we were so funny. After two
and a half years, we had the balls to move
down to New York City.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
This was a significant step. Stand up comedians typically worked
for years and years in their local joints before attempting
to hit the stages of New York City. Finding your
voice in honing a set takes an extraordinary amount of
time to craft. At the time in NYC, Jerry Seinfeld
and Rodney Dangerfield were the kings of stand up in
the area.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
But our managers saw Barry Katz saw something at us.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So when Nick was around twenty seven, he headed down
to NYC with Lewis c K and they both settled
in at their manager's place. He had an apartment with
an extra room in a bunk bed. On their arrival,
Nick had an audition at the world famous improv at
the time. In order to get on their stage, you
had to audition and get past the owner's wife.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
The name was Selva. She said, there like a Gilligan's
Island hat in the back, and that you look on
our face and I picture this, picture this pat I
had to drive to New York City, where I'd never
been before. I had a one thirty a m spot
as an audition. So picture all that tension driving down
the trying to find the club member would never have
driven in New York City and having a big audition.
(18:06):
And I did all right twice, but she still didn't.
Then the third time, I did a joke. I still
remembered about dating a woman with a wooden leg, and
we were in bed and she said, you have any protection.
I said, I have some lemon pledge in the kitchen,
and I saw her the flap at that and I passed.
After that.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Nick was stoked that he made it through and arrived
back at his manager's apartment on cloud nine.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
It was all excited. I passed at the improv. I
pick up a Playboy magazine. It's an interview with Jay
Leno and him talking about passing at the improv in
New York City.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
The whole thing seemed meant to be. Nick and Lewis
e K would go three months without a night off,
performing it any club that would have him. But there
was one big prize in the city.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I went into this place Catch a Rising Star, which
was the big club at the time, and I was
hanging out there and at the bar area for probably
six months. Lewis Randa was a manager, and I don't
know if he's a gay guy and not I think so,
but hey, Apollo, Hey, pretty boy. I was sitting there
(19:10):
for six months, wait and going, I'd like to MC.
You know, this weekend I almost fainted, you know, because
when you played did Dennis Larry would come in at
the top of his game, Roddy Danger if he would
come in his bathrobe. Jerry signed Fell Chris Rock and
you know, so you had to the fact that he
was going to put me on. You know, that was
like really exciting. And at that time Louis he didn't
(19:32):
like Louis. The guy running the club for some reason
didn't like Louis at the time, so it was it
was killing Louis that I was getting on, because Louie
was getting on at all the clubs, but he couldn't
get on a catcherizing start. So there was a clipboard.
When you come in, you're supposed to sign your name
or whatever to put your availabilities in and Louis, I
want anything to sign it, and Louie had written Hey Louis.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Nick did the NYC stages for several years, but with
cable TV blossoming all across the country, people didn't need
to go out to the clubs to see stand up anymore,
got it right there in their living rooms. As a result,
the scene plateaued a bit, so Nick decided he needed
to change and moved to California in the early nineties
to be closer to the Hollywood machine.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I went out to LA for a year by myself
and thinking I was I don't know what I was thinking,
but I went out there and it was the most
miserable in the year of my life. I lived in
Venice Beach. I thought I was going to know people,
but I didn't know any of the comics. Just my agent.
I knew who lived on Venice Beach. I had this
(20:35):
basement apartment in Venice Beach. It'll be a nice, beautiful
eighty degree day, and I could only see people's flip
flops walking by my window, and they had feet.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
The area wasn't what he was expecting.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Venice Beach. They would shut it down on Sundays, pick
a ninety five degree day. They shut it down because
a gang activity on the beach.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
He left his girlfriend behind, thinking he was going to
become famous, then quickly regretted it.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I was sitting in that apartment. It was like that
movie Swingers. My friends were trying to get me out
of the few friends they had out there, trying to
get me out of the apartment. It was the best
thing for my looks. I lost literally fourteen pounds. I
was running seven eight miles in the morning every day.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Just had a depression, but Nick did have his moments well.
In California. The Comedy Store is a famous stand up
club in Hollywood, run at the time by comedian Polly
Shore's mom and.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Mitzi loved me. Mitzi show. Polly's mother loved me. She
saw me. I walked into pot Luck night, which is
open mic, and I'm watching guy after guy go up
and bombing. They were no it's open mic night, so
they stunk. And I had a few years of New
York under my belt, so I went on. She was
in the back. She literally her hat fell off to
wear a hat and her hat lily fell off, and
(21:52):
she gave me. She gave me spots in the main room,
the big room at the comedy store in La which
is where you rogue and everybody plays. Now. Of course
she gave me prime spot they like on the weekend,
which was great. That was that was actually the big
get for me for that one year. But I even
got so jaded. I wouldn't show up to some of them.
(22:12):
I was just not happy. And she would call and go,
this is METSI. I thought she's gonna yell at me
and go, you never work on my club again. You know,
I gave you a ten o'clock. It didn't show up.
She would call and go, I'm giving you a ten
thirty next weekend. You better beat, which I would, but nothing.
I was depressed. I was missing my girlfriend and it
was just it was a worst year in my life.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
He did the Arsenio Hall Show a few times while
in Los Angeles, but wasn't feeling the city and decided
to get back to the East Coast. In nineteen ninety seven,
Nick landed a recurring role on the hit sitcom Grace
under Fire, which brought him back to Los Angeles. That's
when he got his first stab at doing the Tonight
Show with Jay Leno.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
You know what, it really influenced me when I would
see Jay Leno as a guest on The Letterman Show
in the eighties. Dave would have him on like three
times a month. It was a thrill for me to
do the Tonight showel he was hosting, and my first
set was kind of mediocre. I got a funny. I
was putting my pants on and put my suit on,
and the green room with Jay comes in. Because I'm
put my pants on, it looks at me goes, what
(23:14):
are you doing? You got the job. I was so nervous.
I didn't even get it. And I pride myself in
getting every joke that anybody else says.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Nick moved back to New York and things started picking
up for him. In nineteen ninety eight, he did The
Late Show with Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show with John Stewart,
and then his big get.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I think I've been in the business almost ten years
before I did let him, and everybody was asking me
for like five years, why haven't you done let him
in yet? Which was my goal when I wanted to.
It was a young guy, I want. Everybody wanted to
do Letterman, so that was a big thrill.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That same year he picked up a writing gig with
The Chris Rock Show on HBO, which was a wildly
popular series. In two thousand and two, things started heating
up again for Nick.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Comedy Central came a knocking from New York City Comedy Central.
Pense follow.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Nick was on the rise. He was about to get
his big break, but that same break would brand him
in a way that doesn't play well in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
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Speaker 1 (24:37):
Welcome back. So Nick was on the verge of getting
his big break, but that same break would brand him
in a way that doesn't play well in Hollywood. Nick
was given a regular gig on the new show Tough
Crowd with Colin Quinn. The Comedy Central show was a
roundtable format discussing the day's news with a comedic perspective.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Welcome to Tough Crowd, And I use the term crowd
loosely as you can say. We had to get off
staff to sit on the left side of the excuse
my language. We're already finished, so we just thought, all right,
The goal of this show is to get people to
talk on TV the way they talk in the privacy
of their own homes, without regard to their physical safety,
their careers, or their cal wind shields. We live in
(25:17):
a country where people are afraid to say how they
really feel.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Ironically, the only.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Place I eive the truth is in comedy clubs. Comedians
may be perverts, lazy, selfish, and bad dresses, but they
don't lie.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So if you can watch.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
People's honest opinions without fighting, boy or boycotting, you can
check out a repeat of The Gilmore Girls on another channel. Step.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It aired weekdays right after The Daily Show with John
Stewart and tackled race politics in any number of hot
button issues that landed on the front pages of the newspapers,
and they did it in a way that likely made
the John Stuart Daily Show crowd clutch their pearls.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
I tried the tvo Lands comic standing and take the
Democratic Convention. Ted Kennedy spoke, it's hard to take him seriously,
that big and from an experience, that big, fat Irish face,
that deep sea driver, that he.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Is major comedian after major comedian made guest appearances on
the show, Sarah Silverman, Dennis Leary, Kevin Hart, Stephen Colbert,
John Stewart, luicy K, Kathy Griffin, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld,
Jim Gaffigan. You named the comic, and he probably made
an appearance on the show. The host Colin Quinn said
in an interview reflecting on the series that they were
(26:23):
discussing topics that quote were suddenly becoming forbidden for the
first time in my life. End quote.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
That was the big thing top crowds. What sprung me?
Speaker 4 (26:34):
I just want to say, I really, I'm a great comedian.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
All right.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Look, so the biggest argument against this, the.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Biggest argument against this FCC ruling is lack of diversity
in the media.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Nick, do you agree or disagree? I mean, can we
stop with a squack of diversity? First of all, I'm conservative.
All I have is Fox News and The Post. Everything
else is liberal horsh by my French. I'm not luck yeah,
I mean, I mean still going to television for their information.
(27:05):
I mean, unless you're a redneck, you know, watching Jerry
Springer every morning to find out how you can get
your first cousin's pants I.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Mean, don't lie. This is kind of a dry topic.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
To this topic is dry.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
I mean, well, Australia, you know they raise the price
on fruit.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Maybe we could kick that around with you tough crowds.
What sprung me in both a good and bad way.
People found out who I was, and they either loved
me for my outspokenness defending white males, God forbid.
Speaker 7 (27:35):
And I got fired.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
But I can give a damn because I can go
to the next R and B station, you know, because
I know I had.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Another job, right, I can go to another radio.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
Station to go to I cursed everybody else.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
He kiss me kiss now the two thousand three.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
You can't do that because you say, look, I'll go
to another station to God.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
No, I own that on the station, so you know
you end up, Yeah, you're on their computer file.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
We just had a breakthrough.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
He a black guy talked about getting fired and didn't
blame it on white people.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
But that's I got sort of pigeonhole the conservative, which
I'm not, and I don't know what I am. And
I'm a comedian who happens politically to lean to the right.
But in show business, if you lean to the right
on two out of one hundred issues, you're a Nazi.
That's the world that we live in. So Tough Crowd
it changed to me on Tough Crowd one episode when
(28:24):
I went off about the commercials and how white guys
are betraying commercials.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
The problem with the media, it's controlled by cultural Marxists.
So hell ben from destroying this white patriarchal society that
we have going.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
You learn the I'm talking about every commercial, the black
guy's a genius, the white hees adult, the woman's strong,
the guy's weak.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I'm second, And I said, these are cultural Marxists making
the up and and you know I was with my
buddy Keith Robinson, who's black. You know we were. He
was even Belly and Louis was on that show. Louis
was like this, looking at me, I don't care what
I'm so angry whether it's fair or not. The fact
is being white is awesome. Look at all right here,
(29:23):
That's what I'm saying. Look, look, let me just make
my case. This is there's four or five comedians on
the show.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
There's only one black guy.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
See, we get benefit of the doubts. Nobody bought.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
The cops are polite to me, it's just really great.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I mean, I'm sorry that it's so great.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Damn, I didn't get wrong that it's so great, but
the fact that this man is.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Awesome here, and you know, they were all kind of
laugh at me like I was in it. But I
just happened to be right on the money and ahead
of the curve.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Way ahead of the curve, I mean. Famed clinical psychologist
Jordan Peterson came into prominence discussing these topics more than
twelve years after Nick tackled them on Tough Crowd. They
ended up doing over two hundred episodes, but the unp
d nature of the show was likely too much for
the Comedy Central brass to handle. The series was canceled
after roughly two years and would eventually be replaced by
(30:12):
the Colbert Rapport, But Tough Crowd retains a cult audience
to this day and foretold the future of what kind
of comedy would be allowed in Hollywood. Nick would go
on to appear in acting roles on The Sopranos Inside
Amy Schumer, and when his buddy Lewis cy Kai got
a TV series on FX, Nick made a bunch of
appearances around this time stand up slowly started to become
(30:34):
hot again thanks to services like Netflix. Nick no doubt
reached a fork in the road. By this time, he'd
been in and around the Hollywood business for roughly twenty
five years. Several Boston bread comedians were benefiting from this revival,
(30:54):
so he clearly understood what worldview would put him in
the good graces of Tinseltown's machine. But instead of aligning
with the politics of Hollywood, he stayed true to his
unpc self.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
It's always been liberal. The business is run by ultraliberal people,
but not now. I've gone down. I don't even know
how to label what's going on today. Somebody does a
rape joke and they drummed out of the business or whatever.
It's sand. The left has no sense of humor. Okay,
Hollywood's run by feminists, you know, and the humorless they're
(31:27):
humorless human beings. I couldn't get on Netflix unless I
was a transgender with a hair lip.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
So Nick started moving in a different direction. He started
going independent. In late twenty sixteen, he started the Nick
Depolo podcast. He released a comedy special in twenty fourteen. Then,
as the results of the twenty sixteen elections, settled in
the Twitter mobs started to set up their attacks on
his form of comedy. By May twenty seventeen, he lined
up his own talk radio show on Sirius Exam, but
(31:56):
a year later it was canceled after Nick posted a
tweet that management considered offensive. Nick thought it was just
poorly worded and felt it should have only earned a
brief suspension. Comedians push boundaries, but in today's climate, any
marginal infringement can get you in hot water. Nevertheless, Nick
took the cancelation in stride and began preparing for his
(32:18):
next venture, live streaming a daily talk show. In the
lead up to its launch, he did a stand up
gig in NYC. At the time, in mid twenty eighteen,
Hollywood and the media had been whipping up the vitriol
against Trump and his supporters for three straight years, and
Nick was about to get a taste of their ire.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I was at Levity Live, a beautiful club. I do
the show. I go into the green room right after
I get off stage to get a drink of something,
come back out, and people were exiting for some reason
near the stage. As an exit, normally they go up
and out the lobby, so I started impromptu shaking hands
and this guy comes up to me with like a
(33:01):
shaved head, probably my age, a little younger, and he says,
he stands in that Can I get a picture with you?
So I go yeah. He stands to my right and
I'm talking to him and he goes, I enjoy the
show is great, he goes, but my daughter wanted to
punch you in the face. And before he finished the
word face, somebody sucker punches me. And you know, literally,
(33:21):
if it was a guy I would I would have
been knocked out. I had a broken eye socket. But
it was a twenty year old bipolar psycho wearing birkenstocks
and her his daughter. Even when I was stunned, I
don't know if you ever been hit like that. You're
in shock a little bit. You don't even know what
almost happened. I looked at him and I go, you
just set me up. When it When it dawned on
(33:43):
me what happened. Oh no, dude, no, no, I wouldn't
do it me. Looking back on it, in hindsight, I
could be wrong, but I think he weaponized his daughter.
He he knows his daughter's politics. He she was bipolar
and and and uh, you know how I the other
thing with the tip off. He didn't jump in when
she did it and go what are you doing? There
was none of that reaction. My eye closed up in
(34:05):
like a minute, and which I'm sure there are a
lot of people feminism loving it online and left. He's
gone got he got my deserve.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
The woman was arrested and briefly put in a psych ward.
The County DA doesn't seem to be taking the attack
seriously and has failed to update Nick on the case.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
These people in the DA's office had no interested in Oh,
they're going to play it down to second degree missed.
I go, I go, what the if I did that
to her? I'd still be in jail right now.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
He vows to make an example of her so that
other triggered people attending his shows might think twice in
the future. In July twenty eighteen, he launched his video podcast,
The Nick Topolo Show. It now airs on Stephen Crowder's
mug Club network on rumble dot com. Nick was looking
for a way to break through and build his audience
in this charged environment. He knew going this standard Hollywood
(34:55):
machine route would be a dead end for his UNPC
comedy special. So he came up with another idea.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I set after my last back, I said to my wife,
I got to get this out there. The best way,
I said, is to put it on YouTube for free.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
So on May sixth, twenty nineteen, Nick did just that,
releasing a special A Breath of Fresh Air, free to
the public through the video hosting Giant YouTube and for
an independent comedian. The response was overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
I put it out and it's three hundred and thirty
thousand views in less than a week and it's still climbing.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Tried and true approach in the stand up comedy business
is to get a Netflix or an HBO to pay
for your special. I asked Nick, how you can flip
that business model on its head and provide a special
for free to the public. How do you make money
from doing that? First of all, and easily?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Actually, I'm surprised even I didn't know people donate. They
were so appreciative. You know, people who vote like me,
and you you know, they work hard. They don't suck
off the government pete. If they have a few bucks,
they'll throw it away because guys like me is so rare.
And I've already you know, they've been so generous. I
(36:05):
can't believe it.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Do you see yourself doing more of that or is
it just kind of want to see you?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah? Anything I could do with a hurt Netflix or
any of the jerk offs at work at those places.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yes, which leads us back to the question, is it
possible to form a new Hollywood, to create an entertainment
industry completely outside of Tinseltown's grasp? I pose that question
to Nick.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
We've been edging that way for a few years now.
You don't need I left New York because I don't
need a New York anymore. Show businesses everywhere. Thanks. It
is technology. All the comics are fined in their own fans,
They have their own niches or whatever. So you don't
need to be in LA anymore, you know what I mean? Yeah,
have YouTube and the Internet, and I think I might
have set a precedent by doing this with this special.
(36:50):
I think you're going to see a lot of comics
follow suit because they're seeing how successful. I wouldn't surprise me,
so answer your question, Yeah, I think I think it's
a new ballgame.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
A new entertainment industry seems to be forming one outside
of the grasp of Tinseltown's group think. As it begins
to grow and blossom, traditional Hollywood will lose its ability
to make boycott threats that attempt to force its morals
on states like Georgia known as the Hollywood of the South.
(37:36):
And as long as entertainers like Nick Apoulo are around
to help build this new entertainment movement, states like Georgia
will be just fine.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Leaving this liberal whole moving to the Great State of Georgia.
That shouldn't surprise you. Somebody has to put a stop
to that, Stacey Abrams that gap too, idiot.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Redkilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned and
produced by Patrick Carrelchi and me Adriana Cortez of Informed Ventures. Now.
You can get ad free access to our entire archive
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, visit
Redpilled America dot com and click join in the top MEENU.
Thanks for listening.
This is Red Pilled America. Why aren't you a Red
Pilled America dot com subscriber? We need your support. You
can listen to all of our episodes ad free by
going to Redpilled America dot com and clicking join in
the top menu.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
If you believe in honesty and value the truth and storytelling,
then join us.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Become a Red Pilled America fanband member by going to
Redpilled America dot com and clicking join in the top menu.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Red Pilled America dot Com Now on with the show.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
This episode was originally broadcast on May twenty third, twenty nineteen.
We'll be back with a brand new episode next week. Enjoy.
Comedian Nick Apolo has been in the entertainment business for
over three decades. He's seen many changes during that time,
but over the past few years there's been a brand
(00:53):
new development.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
So I started impromptu shaking hands and this guy comes
up to me with like a shaved head, probably my age,
a little younger, probably younger than and he says, he
stands in that can I get a picture with you?
So I go yeah. He stands to my right and
I'm talking to him and he goes. I enjoyed the
show is great, he goes, but my daughter wanted to
punch you in the face. And before he finished the
(01:16):
word face, somebody sucker punches me. Literally, if it was
a guy, I would have been knocked out. I had
a broken eye socket.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm Patrick Carelci.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. Is it possible to form a new Hollywood,
(02:15):
to create an entertainment industry completely outside of Tinseltown's grasp?
That was a question that came to mind while speaking
to Nick Topaulo, a Boston bred comedian that recently released
his hilarious new stand up special A Breath of Fresh Air.
He debuted it in a way that should spook the
gatekeepers of Hollywood. He gave it away for free on YouTube.
(02:37):
Nick has had a thirty plus year career in comedy
over three decades. He's written for HBO's The Chris Rock Show,
acted on FX's Lewis Inside, Amy Schumer, The Sopranos, and
made appearances on The Tonight Show Late Night with David Letterman,
Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Conan O'Brien. But a few years
ago his politics began to pigeonhole them, and Nick faced
(02:59):
a fork in the road, like so many others in Tinseltown.
It's an un avoidable decision for anyone that has traveled
through Movie City. Do what the cult leaders of Hollywood
want you to do, or do what you think is right.
Adrianna and I are going to tell you a little
secret about Hollywood. Many of the big players in Tinseltown
would prefer avoiding politics. They'd rather not cave to the
(03:21):
pressures of the small but vocal leftists of Movie City.
Believe it or not, many would prefer to do the
right thing rather than to do the leftist thing.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
We've seen the sub close with actor Jason Bateman. It
was a normal Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles and we're
perched in front of the performance stage at our daughter's
school fair, waiting for her turn to sing in front
(03:50):
of a crowd that literally creates the majority of the
world's entertainment content. That's when we realized that planning for
the worst case scenario was a smart move. At the time,
in the fall of twenty seventeen, our daughter was attending
a prestigious Hollywood private school populated by the kids of
studio heads and some of Tinseltown's biggest stars, including Melissa McCarthy,
(04:12):
Steep Correll, and Jason Bateman. The school is one of
the most exclusive clubs in America because it's a gateway
to connect with the movers and shakers of Hollywood, also
known as assholes. As we sat there through other kids'
performances waiting for our little girl's turn, we noticed a
(04:33):
previous year trend began to take shape. As a child's
step to the microphone, other families who were friendly with
that particular child would join the performer's parents at the
front of the stage to cheer them on. It was
an unmistakable pattern, but that was not going to be
happening for our daughter, so we came prepared with the
(04:54):
group of outsiders, our closest family and friends to fill
the void. If you've heard the debut episod so of
red pilled America. You know all about our run in
with Hollywood's finest where we confronted a creepy dad for
sharing his bed with other people's kids. Our Tinseltown enclave
initially sided with us, but the spouse of the child
(05:17):
spooner knew something about Tinseltown that our family did not.
The creepy dad married into a billion dollar tribe, and
his wife was schooled in the mechanics of Hollywood's elite.
Missus Creepy was shockingly able to turn the tide in
their favor by spreading the very true rumor that we
were right wingers. We didn't stand a chance, and the
(05:38):
virtue signaling company town that would eventually claim Trump was
Hitler and the drag preteen Desmond is amazing, was well amazing.
Almost overnight, these Hollywood insiders changed their tune and began
to side with the creepy kid cuddler over the family
in bed with Republicans that's us. By the time our
little girl was about to step on stage to perform,
(06:00):
there were only a few parents from the community that
would have any thing to do with us in private,
let alone in the public space of the school fair
as our baby girl grabbed the microphone. Our prediction played
out as parents that have known our little girl for
years since preschool, and one family that knew us for
nearly two decades sat it out. That is all but
(06:23):
one father, Jason Bateman of the Ozarks, fame. As our
daughter began belting the first chorus of Sea's Chandelier through
the sound system, Jason bolted from the food court to
the front of the stage, standing besides us to capture
her singing on his smartphone. That was amazing, he told
(06:44):
me as she finished. Within a few minutes, he sent
the video clip to Sea herself, a friend of his,
and the Australian singer quickly responded, heaping praise on our
daughter's vocals. We were thrilled, He shared the text with me,
as I felt the eyes of our school community burning
holes in my back. Jason was, without a doubt aware
(07:04):
of our confrontation with the creepies. But when push came
to shove and the liberal supremacists from our school sided
with the kid cuddler, the Batemans joined the silence with
everyone else in our community by taking no position publicly.
Jason Bateman is a nice guy, a good dad, and
obviously had no animosity for our family, regardless of our politics.
Perhaps he even wanted to do the right thing and
(07:26):
publicly condemned the bed sharer, But seasoned citizens of Movie
City no better than to go against the group think
of Hollywood, which is why we weren't surprised when, after
being pressured by his Tinseltown overlords, Jason announced hed boycott
Georgia over the Heartbeat Bill. Like Jason Bateman, comedian Nick
Depolo has also been working in the entertainment business for
a very long time, over three decades, and as a result,
(07:49):
he knows exactly what positions he needs to have to
be in Hollywood's good graces. His story highlights the decision
that everyone in the entertainment biz has to make at
some point. But if some succeed in following Nick's path,
defying moved Citi's thought police, it could lead to a
new Hollywood, one that won't threatened to boycott entire states
like Georgia because it doesn't cave to Tinseltown's cult like beliefs.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Nick Depolo was raised about twenty miles north of Boston, Massachusetts,
in a town called Danvers.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Best known for Mark Bavaro. Up, you're a football fan,
tight end for the New York Giants. He played on
my high school football he was on tight end.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
He grew up in a middle class home and was
also the middle child of five siblings.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Fit's the very perfect, doesn't It didn't get the attention,
so I went on stage and said, hey, listen, here
some funny.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
His dad was comical, but Nick wasn't much of a
joker when he was young. He was a serious kid,
kind except when he was around his friends. But Nick
was attracted to comedy at a young age, watching comedians
perform on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and The
MERV Griffin Show. The humor bug was also woven into
the fabric around his.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Hometown, Massachusetts. Boston area is just it's in the DNA.
You can look at who has been become successful as
ours comedy wise, but you know from Louis c. K,
Joe Rogan, Jay Leno, Conan, Stephen Wright, Billy Burr goes
on and on.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Ye I wonder if there's something about the cold weather
because I know Canadian there's a lot of Canadian comedians
as well too. I wonder if that has anything to
do with it, or you know, what is that? What's
in the air, what's in the water that.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Makes that happen? Nobody finally came out of Alaska. You're right,
You're right, Sarah Palin. Yeah, that's funny. You got me there.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Around his senior year in high school, his best friend
called him on a hot summer night.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And he said, let's go in to Stitches Comedy Club
in Boston and see Steve Sweeney and Kevin Meaney.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
At the time, in the late ship and he's in
the early eighties, Boston comedy was in the midst of
a gold rush. The scene was bursting with talent.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
A guy named Steve Sweeney was on stage, who was
the godfather comedy in Boston. And yeah, I remember going,
oh my, I couldn't believe that in Kevin Meane they
were doing a thing together. I bet I couldn't believe
that a guy, a person could go out there without
any props or anything and just with words actually below
(10:29):
the roof off a place I never saw people laughing
so hard my life.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
It was that first visit to Stitches in Boston that
Nick knew stand up comedy was what he wanted to do,
but he couldn't yet work up the nerve to do it.
He went on to college at the University of Maine.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Studying very hard at the University of Maine with a
two point four in.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Business Business Administration.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Is that you said, Yeah, that's funny, That's exactly what
college did. It confirmed I should be a comic, you know.
I really took that degree and ran with it.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
He enjoyed his time in college, became a walk on
on the football team, but when he graduated, business admin
wasn't the route he ended up taking.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
My first job out of college was for Boston Gamet Foods,
knocking doors direct sales, selling frozen steak and seafood out
of the back of a Zuzu pickup truck with a
block of dry ice in the back. And let me
(11:25):
tell you something. It really set the foundation be doing
stand up because I would walk into a real estate
off small businesses, homes, residential. I'd walked into a real
estate office layout thirty boxes of food, and people will
be firing questions at me. And I was as good
a liar as anybody. You know, how pound is that steak?
Well we break it down proportion. There is over four
on the portions. If you break it down, it's two
(11:46):
dollars and thirty two cents a meal. So and that's
a you know, that's a great a steak. Where you
should I pack it in the freezer? Should you? That
was my big clothes. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Nick enjoyed the job, but he kept finding himself drawn
to comedy.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
It was around nineteen eighty seven I got almost gonna
fight with my roommate because by that time I was
going to comedy clubs watching a little bit. I actually
got a job as a bar back at Stitch's Comedy
club in Boston, so I knew I wanted to be
around it. My roommate thought I was the funniest guy
on the planet. This guy who's from Augusta, Manho met
(12:20):
him up at college. He's an eye doctor and I'm
very smart. We almost got in a fight one day.
He said I was a pussy. If you're not going
on stage and trying an open mic. We almost got,
I swear to got. It almost got physical and then
I kind of went to bed then and I going,
you know what, he's right kind of a pussy. And
then I went to a family cookout in Massachusetts at
my parents' house on a Sunday, and I threw my
(12:40):
name in the hat at Stitch's Comedy Club. Sure enough
they called me. After I had eleven beers of me
You're on Sunday night, drove into Stitches Comedy Club. I
pull up in front of the club. I'll never forget it.
The marquee read comedy hell. That's what it said on
the and I'm like, I found my calling.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
He was introduced by a famous Boston comedian, George McDonald,
who told Nick a few years later that he knew
he was going to do well because the first line
out of his mouth was an ad lib that got
a laugh.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I followed some guy in a tuxedo and I was
wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and it's a local reference
in Boston, but the audience might not get it. But
I went on after that guy and I said, yeah,
I didn't know what to wear. I said, I didn't
know I'd be following mister Saunders, which is a tuxedo place.
It's very huge in Boston. It got a nice laugh,
and then I went into my material and bombed for
(13:29):
the next four minutes.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
You'd think after bombing his first time out, Nick would
have quickly dropped the idea, but he got some laughs
at the end of his set, and that's all it took.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
All you need is a taste of it, you know,
and a couple of them worked, And the whole time
you're in your own head up, they going, I can't
believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm You're trying
to stay focused on the task, but you literally when
I came off stage, I was never so high in
my life that I just told it it's you know,
I mean, I couldn't believe at that point. I guess
it was a dream. I couldn't believe I went on
stage at a comedy club in front of strangers and
(14:00):
got a couple of laughs. I couldn't sleep then. I
was so excited.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Nick caught the Boston humor bug. He promptly quit his
job and was about to go on the adventure of
his young life. Life is short. It's important to surround
(14:28):
yourself with people you love, do the things that make
you feel happy, and if you're me, eat delicious licorice.
I've got the latter covered thanks to Fresh and Delicious
licorice from The Licorice Guy. If you're an avid listener
of RPA, then you know that licorice is my jam
and that it does not get any better than the
gourmet licorice made by the Licorice Guy. They have a
(14:50):
great selection of flavors to choose from, like red blue, raspberry, black,
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(15:34):
So Nick Apolo caught the Boston humor bug and was
ready to become a full time comic. He quickly joined
the stand up circuit and connected with a guy named
Lewis c. K.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
When I met him, he was eighteen. I was twenty five.
He had already been in it a year, and he
was at MC at a lot of the clubs, and yeah,
we hit it off.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
The two started sharing a manager by the name of
Barry Katz.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Barry Katz booked every comedy room, not just in Boston,
in the New England area. So on a Monday night,
I'd be at a Chinese restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island.
On Tuesday, I'd be at the Holiday and at Burlington,
Vermont on Wednesday at Franks and Franklin, a Mexican restaurant.
On Thursday, I might be at Stitches in Boston. On Saturday,
(16:18):
might be the University of Massachusette. There was so much
comedy going on, and me and Louis thought that's how
it was. We thought that was normal, and it was
a blessing because, like I said, stage time is of
the essence. So we got good in a hurry. I mean,
I worked over three hundred nights, you know, after my
first after I quit my day job, I'd worked over
(16:39):
three hundred nights my second night in comedy. It was
that much stage and It made us really good, really fast.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
In no time, Nick and Luis c k felt they
were ready to swim with the big fish.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Both of us thought we were so funny. After two
and a half years, we had the balls to move
down to New York City.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
This was a significant step. Stand up comedians typically worked
for years and years in their local joints before attempting
to hit the stages of New York City. Finding your
voice in honing a set takes an extraordinary amount of
time to craft. At the time in NYC, Jerry Seinfeld
and Rodney Dangerfield were the kings of stand up in
the area.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
But our managers saw Barry Katz saw something at us.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So when Nick was around twenty seven, he headed down
to NYC with Lewis c K and they both settled
in at their manager's place. He had an apartment with
an extra room in a bunk bed. On their arrival,
Nick had an audition at the world famous improv at
the time. In order to get on their stage, you
had to audition and get past the owner's wife.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
The name was Selva. She said, there like a Gilligan's
Island hat in the back, and that you look on
our face and I picture this, picture this pat I
had to drive to New York City, where I'd never
been before. I had a one thirty a m spot
as an audition. So picture all that tension driving down
the trying to find the club member would never have
driven in New York City and having a big audition.
(18:06):
And I did all right twice, but she still didn't.
Then the third time, I did a joke. I still
remembered about dating a woman with a wooden leg, and
we were in bed and she said, you have any protection.
I said, I have some lemon pledge in the kitchen,
and I saw her the flap at that and I passed.
After that.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Nick was stoked that he made it through and arrived
back at his manager's apartment on cloud nine.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
It was all excited. I passed at the improv. I
pick up a Playboy magazine. It's an interview with Jay
Leno and him talking about passing at the improv in
New York City.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
The whole thing seemed meant to be. Nick and Lewis
e K would go three months without a night off,
performing it any club that would have him. But there
was one big prize in the city.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I went into this place Catch a Rising Star, which
was the big club at the time, and I was
hanging out there and at the bar area for probably
six months. Lewis Randa was a manager, and I don't
know if he's a gay guy and not I think so,
but hey, Apollo, Hey, pretty boy. I was sitting there
(19:10):
for six months, wait and going, I'd like to MC.
You know, this weekend I almost fainted, you know, because
when you played did Dennis Larry would come in at
the top of his game, Roddy Danger if he would
come in his bathrobe. Jerry signed Fell Chris Rock and
you know, so you had to the fact that he
was going to put me on. You know, that was
like really exciting. And at that time Louis he didn't
(19:32):
like Louis. The guy running the club for some reason
didn't like Louis at the time, so it was it
was killing Louis that I was getting on, because Louie
was getting on at all the clubs, but he couldn't
get on a catcherizing start. So there was a clipboard.
When you come in, you're supposed to sign your name
or whatever to put your availabilities in and Louis, I
want anything to sign it, and Louie had written Hey Louis.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Nick did the NYC stages for several years, but with
cable TV blossoming all across the country, people didn't need
to go out to the clubs to see stand up anymore,
got it right there in their living rooms. As a result,
the scene plateaued a bit, so Nick decided he needed
to change and moved to California in the early nineties
to be closer to the Hollywood machine.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I went out to LA for a year by myself
and thinking I was I don't know what I was thinking,
but I went out there and it was the most
miserable in the year of my life. I lived in
Venice Beach. I thought I was going to know people,
but I didn't know any of the comics. Just my agent.
I knew who lived on Venice Beach. I had this
(20:35):
basement apartment in Venice Beach. It'll be a nice, beautiful
eighty degree day, and I could only see people's flip
flops walking by my window, and they had feet.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
The area wasn't what he was expecting.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Venice Beach. They would shut it down on Sundays, pick
a ninety five degree day. They shut it down because
a gang activity on the beach.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
He left his girlfriend behind, thinking he was going to
become famous, then quickly regretted it.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I was sitting in that apartment. It was like that
movie Swingers. My friends were trying to get me out
of the few friends they had out there, trying to
get me out of the apartment. It was the best
thing for my looks. I lost literally fourteen pounds. I
was running seven eight miles in the morning every day.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Just had a depression, but Nick did have his moments well.
In California. The Comedy Store is a famous stand up
club in Hollywood, run at the time by comedian Polly
Shore's mom and.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Mitzi loved me. Mitzi show. Polly's mother loved me. She
saw me. I walked into pot Luck night, which is
open mic, and I'm watching guy after guy go up
and bombing. They were no it's open mic night, so
they stunk. And I had a few years of New
York under my belt, so I went on. She was
in the back. She literally her hat fell off to
wear a hat and her hat lily fell off, and
(21:52):
she gave me. She gave me spots in the main room,
the big room at the comedy store in La which
is where you rogue and everybody plays. Now. Of course
she gave me prime spot they like on the weekend,
which was great. That was that was actually the big
get for me for that one year. But I even
got so jaded. I wouldn't show up to some of them.
(22:12):
I was just not happy. And she would call and go,
this is METSI. I thought she's gonna yell at me
and go, you never work on my club again. You know,
I gave you a ten o'clock. It didn't show up.
She would call and go, I'm giving you a ten
thirty next weekend. You better beat, which I would, but nothing.
I was depressed. I was missing my girlfriend and it
was just it was a worst year in my life.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
He did the Arsenio Hall Show a few times while
in Los Angeles, but wasn't feeling the city and decided
to get back to the East Coast. In nineteen ninety seven,
Nick landed a recurring role on the hit sitcom Grace
under Fire, which brought him back to Los Angeles. That's
when he got his first stab at doing the Tonight
Show with Jay Leno.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
You know what, it really influenced me when I would
see Jay Leno as a guest on The Letterman Show
in the eighties. Dave would have him on like three
times a month. It was a thrill for me to
do the Tonight showel he was hosting, and my first
set was kind of mediocre. I got a funny. I
was putting my pants on and put my suit on,
and the green room with Jay comes in. Because I'm
put my pants on, it looks at me goes, what
(23:14):
are you doing? You got the job. I was so nervous.
I didn't even get it. And I pride myself in
getting every joke that anybody else says.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Nick moved back to New York and things started picking
up for him. In nineteen ninety eight, he did The
Late Show with Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show with John Stewart,
and then his big get.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I think I've been in the business almost ten years
before I did let him, and everybody was asking me
for like five years, why haven't you done let him
in yet? Which was my goal when I wanted to.
It was a young guy, I want. Everybody wanted to
do Letterman, so that was a big thrill.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That same year he picked up a writing gig with
The Chris Rock Show on HBO, which was a wildly
popular series. In two thousand and two, things started heating
up again for Nick.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Comedy Central came a knocking from New York City Comedy Central.
Pense follow.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Nick was on the rise. He was about to get
his big break, but that same break would brand him
in a way that doesn't play well in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
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Speaker 1 (24:37):
Welcome back. So Nick was on the verge of getting
his big break, but that same break would brand him
in a way that doesn't play well in Hollywood. Nick
was given a regular gig on the new show Tough
Crowd with Colin Quinn. The Comedy Central show was a
roundtable format discussing the day's news with a comedic perspective.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Welcome to Tough Crowd, And I use the term crowd
loosely as you can say. We had to get off
staff to sit on the left side of the excuse
my language. We're already finished, so we just thought, all right,
The goal of this show is to get people to
talk on TV the way they talk in the privacy
of their own homes, without regard to their physical safety,
their careers, or their cal wind shields. We live in
(25:17):
a country where people are afraid to say how they
really feel.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Ironically, the only.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Place I eive the truth is in comedy clubs. Comedians
may be perverts, lazy, selfish, and bad dresses, but they
don't lie.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So if you can watch.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
People's honest opinions without fighting, boy or boycotting, you can
check out a repeat of The Gilmore Girls on another channel. Step.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It aired weekdays right after The Daily Show with John
Stewart and tackled race politics in any number of hot
button issues that landed on the front pages of the newspapers,
and they did it in a way that likely made
the John Stuart Daily Show crowd clutch their pearls.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
I tried the tvo Lands comic standing and take the
Democratic Convention. Ted Kennedy spoke, it's hard to take him seriously,
that big and from an experience, that big, fat Irish face,
that deep sea driver, that he.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Is major comedian after major comedian made guest appearances on
the show, Sarah Silverman, Dennis Leary, Kevin Hart, Stephen Colbert,
John Stewart, luicy K, Kathy Griffin, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld,
Jim Gaffigan. You named the comic, and he probably made
an appearance on the show. The host Colin Quinn said
in an interview reflecting on the series that they were
(26:23):
discussing topics that quote were suddenly becoming forbidden for the
first time in my life. End quote.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
That was the big thing top crowds. What sprung me?
Speaker 4 (26:34):
I just want to say, I really, I'm a great comedian.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
All right.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Look, so the biggest argument against this, the.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Biggest argument against this FCC ruling is lack of diversity
in the media.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Nick, do you agree or disagree? I mean, can we
stop with a squack of diversity? First of all, I'm conservative.
All I have is Fox News and The Post. Everything
else is liberal horsh by my French. I'm not luck yeah,
I mean, I mean still going to television for their information.
(27:05):
I mean, unless you're a redneck, you know, watching Jerry
Springer every morning to find out how you can get
your first cousin's pants I.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Mean, don't lie. This is kind of a dry topic.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
To this topic is dry.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
I mean, well, Australia, you know they raise the price
on fruit.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Maybe we could kick that around with you tough crowds.
What sprung me in both a good and bad way.
People found out who I was, and they either loved
me for my outspokenness defending white males, God forbid.
Speaker 7 (27:35):
And I got fired.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
But I can give a damn because I can go
to the next R and B station, you know, because
I know I had.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Another job, right, I can go to another radio.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
Station to go to I cursed everybody else.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
He kiss me kiss now the two thousand three.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
You can't do that because you say, look, I'll go
to another station to God.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
No, I own that on the station, so you know
you end up, Yeah, you're on their computer file.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
We just had a breakthrough.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
He a black guy talked about getting fired and didn't
blame it on white people.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
But that's I got sort of pigeonhole the conservative, which
I'm not, and I don't know what I am. And
I'm a comedian who happens politically to lean to the right.
But in show business, if you lean to the right
on two out of one hundred issues, you're a Nazi.
That's the world that we live in. So Tough Crowd
it changed to me on Tough Crowd one episode when
(28:24):
I went off about the commercials and how white guys
are betraying commercials.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
The problem with the media, it's controlled by cultural Marxists.
So hell ben from destroying this white patriarchal society that
we have going.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
You learn the I'm talking about every commercial, the black
guy's a genius, the white hees adult, the woman's strong,
the guy's weak.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I'm second, And I said, these are cultural Marxists making
the up and and you know I was with my
buddy Keith Robinson, who's black. You know we were. He
was even Belly and Louis was on that show. Louis
was like this, looking at me, I don't care what
I'm so angry whether it's fair or not. The fact
is being white is awesome. Look at all right here,
(29:23):
That's what I'm saying. Look, look, let me just make
my case. This is there's four or five comedians on
the show.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
There's only one black guy.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
See, we get benefit of the doubts. Nobody bought.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
The cops are polite to me, it's just really great.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I mean, I'm sorry that it's so great.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Damn, I didn't get wrong that it's so great, but
the fact that this man is.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Awesome here, and you know, they were all kind of
laugh at me like I was in it. But I
just happened to be right on the money and ahead
of the curve.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Way ahead of the curve, I mean. Famed clinical psychologist
Jordan Peterson came into prominence discussing these topics more than
twelve years after Nick tackled them on Tough Crowd. They
ended up doing over two hundred episodes, but the unp
d nature of the show was likely too much for
the Comedy Central brass to handle. The series was canceled
after roughly two years and would eventually be replaced by
(30:12):
the Colbert Rapport, But Tough Crowd retains a cult audience
to this day and foretold the future of what kind
of comedy would be allowed in Hollywood. Nick would go
on to appear in acting roles on The Sopranos Inside
Amy Schumer, and when his buddy Lewis cy Kai got
a TV series on FX, Nick made a bunch of
appearances around this time stand up slowly started to become
(30:34):
hot again thanks to services like Netflix. Nick no doubt
reached a fork in the road. By this time, he'd
been in and around the Hollywood business for roughly twenty
five years. Several Boston bread comedians were benefiting from this revival,
(30:54):
so he clearly understood what worldview would put him in
the good graces of Tinseltown's machine. But instead of aligning
with the politics of Hollywood, he stayed true to his
unpc self.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
It's always been liberal. The business is run by ultraliberal people,
but not now. I've gone down. I don't even know
how to label what's going on today. Somebody does a
rape joke and they drummed out of the business or whatever.
It's sand. The left has no sense of humor. Okay,
Hollywood's run by feminists, you know, and the humorless they're
(31:27):
humorless human beings. I couldn't get on Netflix unless I
was a transgender with a hair lip.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
So Nick started moving in a different direction. He started
going independent. In late twenty sixteen, he started the Nick
Depolo podcast. He released a comedy special in twenty fourteen. Then,
as the results of the twenty sixteen elections, settled in
the Twitter mobs started to set up their attacks on
his form of comedy. By May twenty seventeen, he lined
up his own talk radio show on Sirius Exam, but
(31:56):
a year later it was canceled after Nick posted a
tweet that management considered offensive. Nick thought it was just
poorly worded and felt it should have only earned a
brief suspension. Comedians push boundaries, but in today's climate, any
marginal infringement can get you in hot water. Nevertheless, Nick
took the cancelation in stride and began preparing for his
(32:18):
next venture, live streaming a daily talk show. In the
lead up to its launch, he did a stand up
gig in NYC. At the time, in mid twenty eighteen,
Hollywood and the media had been whipping up the vitriol
against Trump and his supporters for three straight years, and
Nick was about to get a taste of their ire.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I was at Levity Live, a beautiful club. I do
the show. I go into the green room right after
I get off stage to get a drink of something,
come back out, and people were exiting for some reason
near the stage. As an exit, normally they go up
and out the lobby, so I started impromptu shaking hands
and this guy comes up to me with like a
(33:01):
shaved head, probably my age, a little younger, and he says,
he stands in that Can I get a picture with you?
So I go yeah. He stands to my right and
I'm talking to him and he goes, I enjoy the
show is great, he goes, but my daughter wanted to
punch you in the face. And before he finished the
word face, somebody sucker punches me. And you know, literally,
(33:21):
if it was a guy I would I would have
been knocked out. I had a broken eye socket. But
it was a twenty year old bipolar psycho wearing birkenstocks
and her his daughter. Even when I was stunned, I
don't know if you ever been hit like that. You're
in shock a little bit. You don't even know what
almost happened. I looked at him and I go, you
just set me up. When it When it dawned on
(33:43):
me what happened. Oh no, dude, no, no, I wouldn't
do it me. Looking back on it, in hindsight, I
could be wrong, but I think he weaponized his daughter.
He he knows his daughter's politics. He she was bipolar
and and and uh, you know how I the other
thing with the tip off. He didn't jump in when
she did it and go what are you doing? There
was none of that reaction. My eye closed up in
(34:05):
like a minute, and which I'm sure there are a
lot of people feminism loving it online and left. He's
gone got he got my deserve.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
The woman was arrested and briefly put in a psych ward.
The County DA doesn't seem to be taking the attack
seriously and has failed to update Nick on the case.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
These people in the DA's office had no interested in Oh,
they're going to play it down to second degree missed.
I go, I go, what the if I did that
to her? I'd still be in jail right now.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
He vows to make an example of her so that
other triggered people attending his shows might think twice in
the future. In July twenty eighteen, he launched his video podcast,
The Nick Topolo Show. It now airs on Stephen Crowder's
mug Club network on rumble dot com. Nick was looking
for a way to break through and build his audience
in this charged environment. He knew going this standard Hollywood
(34:55):
machine route would be a dead end for his UNPC
comedy special. So he came up with another idea.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I set after my last back, I said to my wife,
I got to get this out there. The best way,
I said, is to put it on YouTube for free.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
So on May sixth, twenty nineteen, Nick did just that,
releasing a special A Breath of Fresh Air, free to
the public through the video hosting Giant YouTube and for
an independent comedian. The response was overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
I put it out and it's three hundred and thirty
thousand views in less than a week and it's still climbing.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Tried and true approach in the stand up comedy business
is to get a Netflix or an HBO to pay
for your special. I asked Nick, how you can flip
that business model on its head and provide a special
for free to the public. How do you make money
from doing that? First of all, and easily?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Actually, I'm surprised even I didn't know people donate. They
were so appreciative. You know, people who vote like me,
and you you know, they work hard. They don't suck
off the government pete. If they have a few bucks,
they'll throw it away because guys like me is so rare.
And I've already you know, they've been so generous. I
(36:05):
can't believe it.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Do you see yourself doing more of that or is
it just kind of want to see you?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah? Anything I could do with a hurt Netflix or
any of the jerk offs at work at those places.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yes, which leads us back to the question, is it
possible to form a new Hollywood, to create an entertainment
industry completely outside of Tinseltown's grasp? I pose that question
to Nick.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
We've been edging that way for a few years now.
You don't need I left New York because I don't
need a New York anymore. Show businesses everywhere. Thanks. It
is technology. All the comics are fined in their own fans,
They have their own niches or whatever. So you don't
need to be in LA anymore, you know what I mean? Yeah,
have YouTube and the Internet, and I think I might
have set a precedent by doing this with this special.
(36:50):
I think you're going to see a lot of comics
follow suit because they're seeing how successful. I wouldn't surprise me,
so answer your question, Yeah, I think I think it's
a new ballgame.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
A new entertainment industry seems to be forming one outside
of the grasp of Tinseltown's group think. As it begins
to grow and blossom, traditional Hollywood will lose its ability
to make boycott threats that attempt to force its morals
on states like Georgia known as the Hollywood of the South.
(37:36):
And as long as entertainers like Nick Apoulo are around
to help build this new entertainment movement, states like Georgia
will be just fine.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Leaving this liberal whole moving to the Great State of Georgia.
That shouldn't surprise you. Somebody has to put a stop
to that, Stacey Abrams that gap too, idiot.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Redkilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned and
produced by Patrick Carrelchi and me Adriana Cortez of Informed Ventures. Now.
You can get ad free access to our entire archive
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, visit
Redpilled America dot com and click join in the top MEENU.
Thanks for listening.
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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