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. Special Note: Adult language.
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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,
and it includes some adult language. We'll be back with
a brand new episode next week. Enjoy. Comedian Nick Depolo
has been in the entertainment business for over three decades.
He's seen many changes during that time, but over the
(00:53):
past few years there's been a brand new development.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
So I started impromptu shaking hands and this guy comes
up to me with 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
(01:18):
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 (01:30):
I'm Patrick Carelci.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
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,
(02:17):
to create an entertainment industry completely outside of Tinseltown's grasp?
That was a question that came to mind while speaking
to Nick Apoulo, 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.
(02:39):
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
(03:01):
a fork in the road. Like so many many others
in Tinsiltown. It's an unavoidable 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 Tinsiltown would prefer avoiding politics. They'd rather not cave
(03:23):
to the 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 (03:32):
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
(03:52):
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,
(04:14):
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
(04:35):
previous year trend began to take shape. As a child's
stepped 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
(04:56):
group of outsiders, our closest family and friends to fill
the void. If you've heard the debut episode 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 spooner
(05:19):
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 in the virtue
(05:40):
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,
(06:02):
there were only a few parents from the community that
would have anything 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 one father,
(06:26):
Jason Bateman of the Ozarks fame. As our daughter began
belting the first chorus of CIA'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 me as she finished.
(06:47):
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 earning holes in my back.
Jason was, without a doubt aware of our confrontation with
(07:07):
the creepies. But when push came to shove and the
liberal supremacist 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 publicly condemned the
(07:29):
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 he'd boycott Georgia over the
Heartbeat Bill. Like Jason Bateman, comedian Nick Apolo has also
been working in the entertainment business for a very long time,
over three decades, and as a result, he knows exactly
(07:53):
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 success him following Nick's path defying Movie cities 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 (08:33):
Nick Depoulo was raised about twenty miles north of Boston, Massachusetts,
in a town called Danvers.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Best known for Mark Bavaro. Wh Up, you're a football
fan tight end for the New York Giants. He played
on my high school football. He was a tight end.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
He grew up in a middle class home and was
also the middle child of five siblings.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Fits the fairy perfect, doesn't It didn't get the attention,
so I went on stage and said, hey, listen, motherfucker,
I'm funny.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
His dad was comical, but Nick wasn't much of a
joker when he was young. He was a serious kid,
kind of quiet 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 (09:18):
Hometown, Massachusetts. Boston area is just it's in the DNA.
You can look at who's 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 (09:34):
Yeah, 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 makes that happen?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Nobody finally came out of Alaska. You're right, you're right, right,
Sarah Palin. Yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
You got me there. Around his senior year in high school,
his best friend called him on a hot summer night.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
And he said, let's go in to Stitches comedy club
in Boston and see Steve Sweeney Kevin Meane.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
At the time, in the late seventies and early eighties,
Boston comedy was in the midst of a gold rush.
The scene was bursting with talent.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
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
(10:31):
the roof off a place I never saw people laughing
too hard my life.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
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 (10:45):
Studying very hard at the University of Maine with a
two point four in.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Business Business Administration?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
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 (10:58):
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 (11:06):
My first job out of college was for Boston Game 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
(11:28):
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 walk 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 pro portion, there is over four
on the portions. If you break it down is two
(11:48):
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 (11:57):
Nick enjoyed the job, but he kept finding himself drawn
to comedy.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It was around nineteen eighty seven I got almost got
to 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 Stitches
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 man.
(12:21):
And met 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 and open mic. We
almost got I swear to got it. I 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
(12:41):
I threw my 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 (13:00):
He was introduced by a famous Boston comedian, Joorie MacDonald,
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 (13:11):
I followed some guy in a tuxedo and I was
wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and it's a local reference
in Boston. 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 fucking tuxedo place.
It's very huge in Boston. It got a nice laugh,
and then I went into my material and bombed for
(13:31):
the next four minutes.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
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 (13:41):
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 digging. I can't believe
I'm doing this. I can't believe 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 got a
(14:03):
couple laughs. I couldn't sleep that night. I was so excited.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
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
(14:30):
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(15:35):
Welcome back. 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 (15:47):
When I met him, he was eighteen, I was twenty five.
He'd already been in it a year, and he was
in MC at a lot of the clubs, and yeah,
we hit it off.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
The two started sharing a manager by the name of
Barry Katz.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Barry Katz booked every comedy room, not just in Boss
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
Vamont on Wednesday, at Frankston Franklin, a Mexican restaurant. On Thursday,
I might be at Stitches in Boston. On a Saturday,
(16:21):
might be the University of Massachuette. 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 worked
over three hundred nights. My second night in comedy, there
(16:43):
was that much stage, and it made us really good,
really fast.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
In no time, Nick and Luis cy K felt they
were ready to swim with the big fish.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
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 (17:02):
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 and 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 (17:22):
But our managers saw Barry Katz saw something at us.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
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, the.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Name of Silva. She said, there like a Gilligan's Island
hat in the back and a shitty 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 pension driving down and trying to
find the club. Never never have driven in New York
City and having a big audition. And I did all
(18:09):
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 fucking laugh at that, and I passed.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
After that, Nick was stoked that he made it through
and arrived back at his manager's apartment on Cloud nine.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
It's 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 (18:40):
The whole thing seemed meant to be. Nick and lewis
cy 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 (18:50):
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 a
probably six months. Louis Veranda was the 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
(19:12):
sitting there for six months, wait and go on, I'd
like the 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
(19:33):
he didn't like Louis. The guy running the club for
some reason didn't like Louie at the time. So it
was it was killing Louie 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, fucking blow me.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
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.
They got it right there in their living rooms. As
a result, the scene plateaued a bit, so Nick decided
he needed a change and moved to California in the
early nineties to be closer to the Hollywood machine.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
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 fuck 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
(20:37):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Have feet that the area wasn't what he was expecting
Venice Beach.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
They would shut it down on Sundays, pick a ninety
five degree day. They'd shut it down because a gang
activity on the beach.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
He left his girlfriend behind, thinking he was going to
become famous, then quickly regretted it.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I was sitting in that apartment. It was like that
movie Swingers. Friends were trying to get me out. Of
the few friends they had out there were 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.
I just had a depression.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
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 (21:31):
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 lary fell off, and
(21:54):
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.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
She gave me.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Prime spots 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. I was just
nothappy and she would call and go, this is METSI.
I thought she was 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
(22:24):
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 worse year in my life.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
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 (22:55):
You know what, It really influenced me. When I would
see Jay Leno as a guest on The Letterman Show
in the eighties, they would have him on like three
times a month. So it was a thrill for me
to do The Tonight Show while 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 ats
them put my pants on. It looks at me, goes,
(23:16):
what 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 (23:25):
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 (23:35):
I think I've been in the business almost ten years
before I did let him in. 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. Everybody wanted to do Letterman,
so that was a big throw.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
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 (23:57):
Comedy Central came a knocking.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
From New York City Comedy Central Presents.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
The Callow.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
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 (24:24):
Do you want to hear Red Pilled America stories ad free?
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Speaker 1 (24:39):
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 5 (24:59):
Welcome to Tough Crowd, and I use the term crowd
loosely as you can say. We had to get off
sta to sit on the left side of the guard
and belietions. 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.
(25:19):
We live in a country where people are afraid to
say how they really feel. Ironically, the only place I
hear the truth is in comedy clubs. Comedians may be pervots, lazy, selfish,
and bad dresses, but they don't lie. So if you
can watch people's honest opinions without fighting, boy or boycotting,
you can check out a repeat of The Gilmore Girls
on another channel.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Step.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
It aired weekdays right after The Daily Show with John
Stewart and tackled race, politics, and 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 (25:54):
I tried the t b O 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.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
He is major comedian after major comedian made guest appearances
on the show, Sarah Silverman, Dennis Leary, Kevin Hart, Stephen Colbert,
John Stewart, Luisy 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
(26:25):
discussing topics that quote were suddenly becoming forbidden for the
first time in my life. End quote.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
That was the big thing top crowds. What sprung me?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
I just want to say, I really, I'm a great comedian.
All right.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Look, so the biggest argument against this, the biggest argument
against this FCC ruling is lack of diversity in the media.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
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 horshe pon my French I'm not black
leg and say yeah, I mean, I mean people still
going to television for their information. I mean, unless you're
(27:07):
a redneck, you know, watching Jerry Springer every morning to
find out how you can get your first cousin's pants.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
I mean, go to the line. This is kind of
a dry topic. This topic is.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Dry on me.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Well, Australia, you know they raised the price on fruit.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Maybe we could kick that around with.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
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 4 (27:37):
And I got fired.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
But I can give a damn because I can go
to the next R and B station, you know, because
I know I had another job, right, I can go
to another radio station to go to I cursed everybody else.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
He kiss my ass, right, kiss my ass? Now the
two thousand and three.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You can't do that because you say, look, I'll go
to another.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Station to God. No, I own that on the station.
So you know you end up. Yeah, you're on the
computer file. We just had a breakthrough.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
He a black guy talked about getting fired and didn't
blame it on white people.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But but that's where I got sort of pigeonholed 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
(28:25):
episode when I went off about the commercials and how
white guys are betraying commercials.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
The problem with the media, it's controlled by cultural Marxists,
so hell bent for destroying this white patriarchal society that we.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Have, going, what the hell.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
You learn me? And that class, I'm the hell talking
about all the same life with.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Every commercial. The black guy's a genius.
Speaker 6 (28:51):
The white hees adult, the woman's strong, the guy's weak.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
I'm sick of it.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
And I said, these are cultural Marxists making this ship up.
And and you know, I was yguing with my buddy
Keith Robinson, who's black, you know, and he was even
Belly and Louis was on that show. Louis was like
this looking at me.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I don't care. I'm so angry whether it's fair or not.
The fact is being white is awesome. Look at all
right here, That's what I'm saying, let me just make
(29:28):
my case. This is there's four or five comedians on
the show. There's only one black guy. See, we get
benefit of the doubts. Nobody bought.
Speaker 7 (29:34):
The cops are polite to me. It's just really great.
I mean, I'm sorry that it's so great. Dam I
didn't get wrong that it's so great, but the fact
this man, it is awesome.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Here and you know, they were all kind of laughing
at me like I was an asshole. But I just
happen to be right on the money and ahead of
the curve.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
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 unpec
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 the
(30:14):
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 hot again
(30:37):
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 bred comedians were benefiting from this revival, so
he clearly understood what worldview would put him in the
(30:59):
good graces of Tinseltown's machine. But instead of aligning with
the politics of Hollywood, he stayed true to his unpc self.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
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 fucking insane. The left has no sense of humor. Okay,
Hollywood's run by feminists, you know, and the humorless their
(31:28):
fucking humorless human beings. I couldn't get on Netflix unless
I was a transgender with a hair.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Lip, 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
(31:55):
up his own talk radio show on Sirius Exam, but
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
(32:16):
took the cancelation in stride and began preparing for his
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
(32:39):
Nick was about to get a taste of their ire.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
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 a shaved head,
(33:04):
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,
if it was a guy I would I would have
(33:25):
been knocked out. I had a broken eye socket. But
it was a twenty year old bipolar fucking 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 fucking set me up. When it When it
dawned on me what happened? Oh no, dude, no, no,
(33:47):
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. But what are you doing? There was
none of that reaction. My eye closed up in like
a minute, and which I'm sure there are a lot
(34:09):
of people feminism shit loving it online and left. He's
gone got He got my fucking deserve.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
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 (34:24):
These people in the DA's office had no fucking interested in. Oh,
they're going to play it down to second degree missed.
I go, I go, what the fuck? If I did
that to her, I'd still be in jail right now.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
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
and this charged environment. He knew going this standard Hollywood
(34:57):
machine route would be a dead end for his unpc
comedy special, so he came up with another idea.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
I said, after my last special, 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 (35:10):
So on May sixth, twenty nineteen, Nick did just that,
releasing his 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 (35:24):
I put it out and it's three hundred and thirty
thousand butts in less than a week, and it's still climbing.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
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 could 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 (35:46):
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 sore.
And I've already you know, they've been so generous. I
(36:07):
can't believe it.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Do you see yourself doing more of that? Or is
it just kind of want to see you sing?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah? Anything I could do it a hurt fucking Netflix
or any of the jerk offs at work at those places.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
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 (36:30):
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,
on YouTube and the internet. And I think I might
have set a precedent by doing this with this special.
(36:52):
I think you're going to see a lot of comics
follow soon because they're seeing how successful. I wouldn't surprise me,
so I answer your question, Yeah, I think. I think
it's a new ballgame.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
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.
(37:38):
And as long as entertainers like Nicked Apolo are around
to help build this new entertainment movement, states like Georgia
will be just fine.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Leaving this liberal shithol moving to the great State of Georgia.
That shouldn't surprise you. Somebody has to put a stop
to that, Stacy Abrams that gap to fucking idiot.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Redkilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast its own produced
by Patrick Carrelci 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 menu. 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,
and it includes some adult language. We'll be back with
a brand new episode next week. Enjoy. Comedian Nick Depolo
has been in the entertainment business for over three decades.
He's seen many changes during that time, but over the
(00:53):
past few years there's been a brand new development.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
So I started impromptu shaking hands and this guy comes
up to me with 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
(01:18):
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 (01:30):
I'm Patrick Carelci.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
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,
(02:17):
to create an entertainment industry completely outside of Tinseltown's grasp?
That was a question that came to mind while speaking
to Nick Apoulo, 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.
(02:39):
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
(03:01):
a fork in the road. Like so many many others
in Tinsiltown. It's an unavoidable 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 Tinsiltown would prefer avoiding politics. They'd rather not cave
(03:23):
to the 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 (03:32):
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
(03:52):
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,
(04:14):
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
(04:35):
previous year trend began to take shape. As a child's
stepped 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
(04:56):
group of outsiders, our closest family and friends to fill
the void. If you've heard the debut episode 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 spooner
(05:19):
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 in the virtue
(05:40):
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,
(06:02):
there were only a few parents from the community that
would have anything 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 one father,
(06:26):
Jason Bateman of the Ozarks fame. As our daughter began
belting the first chorus of CIA'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 me as she finished.
(06:47):
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 earning holes in my back.
Jason was, without a doubt aware of our confrontation with
(07:07):
the creepies. But when push came to shove and the
liberal supremacist 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 publicly condemned the
(07:29):
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 he'd boycott Georgia over the
Heartbeat Bill. Like Jason Bateman, comedian Nick Apolo has also
been working in the entertainment business for a very long time,
over three decades, and as a result, he knows exactly
(07:53):
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 success him following Nick's path defying Movie cities 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 (08:33):
Nick Depoulo was raised about twenty miles north of Boston, Massachusetts,
in a town called Danvers.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Best known for Mark Bavaro. Wh Up, you're a football
fan tight end for the New York Giants. He played
on my high school football. He was a tight end.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
He grew up in a middle class home and was
also the middle child of five siblings.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Fits the fairy perfect, doesn't It didn't get the attention,
so I went on stage and said, hey, listen, motherfucker,
I'm funny.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
His dad was comical, but Nick wasn't much of a
joker when he was young. He was a serious kid,
kind of quiet 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 (09:18):
Hometown, Massachusetts. Boston area is just it's in the DNA.
You can look at who's 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 (09:34):
Yeah, 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 makes that happen?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Nobody finally came out of Alaska. You're right, you're right, right,
Sarah Palin. Yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
You got me there. Around his senior year in high school,
his best friend called him on a hot summer night.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
And he said, let's go in to Stitches comedy club
in Boston and see Steve Sweeney Kevin Meane.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
At the time, in the late seventies and early eighties,
Boston comedy was in the midst of a gold rush.
The scene was bursting with talent.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
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
(10:31):
the roof off a place I never saw people laughing
too hard my life.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
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 (10:45):
Studying very hard at the University of Maine with a
two point four in.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Business Business Administration?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
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 (10:58):
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 (11:06):
My first job out of college was for Boston Game 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
(11:28):
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 walk 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 pro portion, there is over four
on the portions. If you break it down is two
(11:48):
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 (11:57):
Nick enjoyed the job, but he kept finding himself drawn
to comedy.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It was around nineteen eighty seven I got almost got
to 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 Stitches
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 man.
(12:21):
And met 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 and open mic. We
almost got I swear to got it. I 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
(12:41):
I threw my 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 (13:00):
He was introduced by a famous Boston comedian, Joorie MacDonald,
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 (13:11):
I followed some guy in a tuxedo and I was
wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and it's a local reference
in Boston. 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 fucking tuxedo place.
It's very huge in Boston. It got a nice laugh,
and then I went into my material and bombed for
(13:31):
the next four minutes.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
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 (13:41):
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 digging. I can't believe
I'm doing this. I can't believe 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 got a
(14:03):
couple laughs. I couldn't sleep that night. I was so excited.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
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
(14:30):
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
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(15:35):
Welcome back. 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 (15:47):
When I met him, he was eighteen, I was twenty five.
He'd already been in it a year, and he was
in MC at a lot of the clubs, and yeah,
we hit it off.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
The two started sharing a manager by the name of
Barry Katz.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Barry Katz booked every comedy room, not just in Boss
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
Vamont on Wednesday, at Frankston Franklin, a Mexican restaurant. On Thursday,
I might be at Stitches in Boston. On a Saturday,
(16:21):
might be the University of Massachuette. 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 worked
over three hundred nights. My second night in comedy, there
(16:43):
was that much stage, and it made us really good,
really fast.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
In no time, Nick and Luis cy K felt they
were ready to swim with the big fish.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
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 (17:02):
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 and 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 (17:22):
But our managers saw Barry Katz saw something at us.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
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, the.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Name of Silva. She said, there like a Gilligan's Island
hat in the back and a shitty 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 pension driving down and trying to
find the club. Never never have driven in New York
City and having a big audition. And I did all
(18:09):
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 fucking laugh at that, and I passed.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
After that, Nick was stoked that he made it through
and arrived back at his manager's apartment on Cloud nine.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
It's 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 (18:40):
The whole thing seemed meant to be. Nick and lewis
cy 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 (18:50):
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 a
probably six months. Louis Veranda was the 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
(19:12):
sitting there for six months, wait and go on, I'd
like the 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
(19:33):
he didn't like Louis. The guy running the club for
some reason didn't like Louie at the time. So it
was it was killing Louie 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, fucking blow me.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
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.
They got it right there in their living rooms. As
a result, the scene plateaued a bit, so Nick decided
he needed a change and moved to California in the
early nineties to be closer to the Hollywood machine.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
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 fuck 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
(20:37):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Have feet that the area wasn't what he was expecting
Venice Beach.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
They would shut it down on Sundays, pick a ninety
five degree day. They'd shut it down because a gang
activity on the beach.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
He left his girlfriend behind, thinking he was going to
become famous, then quickly regretted it.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I was sitting in that apartment. It was like that
movie Swingers. Friends were trying to get me out. Of
the few friends they had out there were 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.
I just had a depression.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
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 (21:31):
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 lary fell off, and
(21:54):
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.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
She gave me.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Prime spots 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. I was just
nothappy and she would call and go, this is METSI.
I thought she was 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
(22:24):
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 worse year in my life.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
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 (22:55):
You know what, It really influenced me. When I would
see Jay Leno as a guest on The Letterman Show
in the eighties, they would have him on like three
times a month. So it was a thrill for me
to do The Tonight Show while 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 ats
them put my pants on. It looks at me, goes,
(23:16):
what 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 (23:25):
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 (23:35):
I think I've been in the business almost ten years
before I did let him in. 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. Everybody wanted to do Letterman,
so that was a big throw.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
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 (23:57):
Comedy Central came a knocking.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
From New York City Comedy Central Presents.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
The Callow.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
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 (24:24):
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Speaker 1 (24:39):
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 5 (24:59):
Welcome to Tough Crowd, and I use the term crowd
loosely as you can say. We had to get off
sta to sit on the left side of the guard
and belietions. 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.
(25:19):
We live in a country where people are afraid to
say how they really feel. Ironically, the only place I
hear the truth is in comedy clubs. Comedians may be pervots, lazy, selfish,
and bad dresses, but they don't lie. So if you
can watch people's honest opinions without fighting, boy or boycotting,
you can check out a repeat of The Gilmore Girls
on another channel.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Step.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
It aired weekdays right after The Daily Show with John
Stewart and tackled race, politics, and 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 (25:54):
I tried the t b O 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.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
He is major comedian after major comedian made guest appearances
on the show, Sarah Silverman, Dennis Leary, Kevin Hart, Stephen Colbert,
John Stewart, Luisy 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
(26:25):
discussing topics that quote were suddenly becoming forbidden for the
first time in my life. End quote.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
That was the big thing top crowds. What sprung me?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
I just want to say, I really, I'm a great comedian.
All right.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Look, so the biggest argument against this, the biggest argument
against this FCC ruling is lack of diversity in the media.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
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 horshe pon my French I'm not black
leg and say yeah, I mean, I mean people still
going to television for their information. I mean, unless you're
(27:07):
a redneck, you know, watching Jerry Springer every morning to
find out how you can get your first cousin's pants.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
I mean, go to the line. This is kind of
a dry topic. This topic is.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Dry on me.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Well, Australia, you know they raised the price on fruit.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Maybe we could kick that around with.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
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 4 (27:37):
And I got fired.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
But I can give a damn because I can go
to the next R and B station, you know, because
I know I had another job, right, I can go
to another radio station to go to I cursed everybody else.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
He kiss my ass, right, kiss my ass? Now the
two thousand and three.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You can't do that because you say, look, I'll go
to another.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Station to God. No, I own that on the station.
So you know you end up. Yeah, you're on the
computer file. We just had a breakthrough.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
He a black guy talked about getting fired and didn't
blame it on white people.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But but that's where I got sort of pigeonholed 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
(28:25):
episode when I went off about the commercials and how
white guys are betraying commercials.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
The problem with the media, it's controlled by cultural Marxists,
so hell bent for destroying this white patriarchal society that we.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Have, going, what the hell.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
You learn me? And that class, I'm the hell talking
about all the same life with.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Every commercial. The black guy's a genius.
Speaker 6 (28:51):
The white hees adult, the woman's strong, the guy's weak.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
I'm sick of it.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
And I said, these are cultural Marxists making this ship up.
And and you know, I was yguing with my buddy
Keith Robinson, who's black, you know, and he was even
Belly and Louis was on that show. Louis was like
this looking at me.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I don't care. I'm so angry whether it's fair or not.
The fact is being white is awesome. Look at all
right here, That's what I'm saying, let me just make
(29:28):
my case. This is there's four or five comedians on
the show. There's only one black guy. See, we get
benefit of the doubts. Nobody bought.
Speaker 7 (29:34):
The cops are polite to me. It's just really great.
I mean, I'm sorry that it's so great. Dam I
didn't get wrong that it's so great, but the fact
this man, it is awesome.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Here and you know, they were all kind of laughing
at me like I was an asshole. But I just
happen to be right on the money and ahead of
the curve.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
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 unpec
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 the
(30:14):
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 hot again
(30:37):
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 bred comedians were benefiting from this revival, so
he clearly understood what worldview would put him in the
(30:59):
good graces of Tinseltown's machine. But instead of aligning with
the politics of Hollywood, he stayed true to his unpc self.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
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 fucking insane. The left has no sense of humor. Okay,
Hollywood's run by feminists, you know, and the humorless their
(31:28):
fucking humorless human beings. I couldn't get on Netflix unless
I was a transgender with a hair.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Lip, 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
(31:55):
up his own talk radio show on Sirius Exam, but
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
(32:16):
took the cancelation in stride and began preparing for his
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
(32:39):
Nick was about to get a taste of their ire.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
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 a shaved head,
(33:04):
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,
if it was a guy I would I would have
(33:25):
been knocked out. I had a broken eye socket. But
it was a twenty year old bipolar fucking 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 fucking set me up. When it When it
dawned on me what happened? Oh no, dude, no, no,
(33:47):
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. But what are you doing? There was
none of that reaction. My eye closed up in like
a minute, and which I'm sure there are a lot
(34:09):
of people feminism shit loving it online and left. He's
gone got He got my fucking deserve.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
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 (34:24):
These people in the DA's office had no fucking interested in. Oh,
they're going to play it down to second degree missed.
I go, I go, what the fuck? If I did
that to her, I'd still be in jail right now.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
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
and this charged environment. He knew going this standard Hollywood
(34:57):
machine route would be a dead end for his unpc
comedy special, so he came up with another idea.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
I said, after my last special, 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 (35:10):
So on May sixth, twenty nineteen, Nick did just that,
releasing his 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 (35:24):
I put it out and it's three hundred and thirty
thousand butts in less than a week, and it's still climbing.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
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 could 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 (35:46):
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 sore.
And I've already you know, they've been so generous. I
(36:07):
can't believe it.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Do you see yourself doing more of that? Or is
it just kind of want to see you sing?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah? Anything I could do it a hurt fucking Netflix
or any of the jerk offs at work at those places.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
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 (36:30):
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,
on YouTube and the internet. And I think I might
have set a precedent by doing this with this special.
(36:52):
I think you're going to see a lot of comics
follow soon because they're seeing how successful. I wouldn't surprise me,
so I answer your question, Yeah, I think. I think
it's a new ballgame.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
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.
(37:38):
And as long as entertainers like Nicked Apolo are around
to help build this new entertainment movement, states like Georgia
will be just fine.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Leaving this liberal shithol moving to the great State of Georgia.
That shouldn't surprise you. Somebody has to put a stop
to that, Stacy Abrams that gap to fucking idiot.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Redkilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast its own produced
by Patrick Carrelci 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 menu. Thanks for listening.
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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