Going to the Grove

Went to the Grove with Eliot Chang

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's if everyone Welcome to another editionfound his thoughts when it's there and Chetty,
these are my thoughts. Hope youguys are doing well. It's the
weekend, people, The weekend ishere. You know. I went to
bed at like eight o'clock last night, not even joking. I think I
must be jetlagged and it's tired.I don't know what it is, but

(00:20):
man, I go to bed earlythat I will stay asleep. I know
there's no waking up. And Iactually thought about going out last night,
but I was like, I'm tired. But there's a reason why I think
I was tired, and here's why. So you know, I'm big on
getting coffees with friends and stuff.So I reached out to a comedian friend

(00:44):
of mine named Elliott Chang, whoI've known for twenty five years almost I'm
not even joking, like he's acomedian here in LA and I met him
when I was in New York Citywhen I was I think a freshman at
NYU, when he was like afew years older than me and he was
doing comedy. I was doing comedy. So we would start doing these rooms,

(01:10):
like these black rooms, like theblack rooms where I would just bomb,
but he would do it okay.And Elliott went on to have a,
you know, a good career.He's done some Comedy Central specials.
But he's like me, he's tryingto just grind here in La and figure
it out. So whenever I'm intown, I get coffee with him.

(01:33):
And I reached out to him andI was like, Hey, do you
want to get a coffee today?And he's like, yeah, let's do
it. Normally he comes towards mebecause he lives like a few blocks away.
I go to the place called DialogueCafe. It's like super crowded now
it's like become Influencers Central, soyou can't even get a table there.

(01:53):
It's infuriating. So I just pickedhim up and I was like, let's
just drive somewhere, Jared, Let'sgo somewhere else, and he wanted to
explore. I guess Danny Trejo hasthis taco shop or something. It's got
a bunch of them around town,like taco trucks, and I was like,
Hey, I'm game, let's go. So there was one at the

(02:15):
Grove. Now, for people whodon't know, the Grove is like this
upscale outdoor shopping plaza. It's createdby this huge realistic mogul and Rick Carusos,
this multi billionaire. He's the guythat ran for in governor of California

(02:38):
a few months ago or last year. Anyways, it's just tourists central,
but it's nice. If you haven'tbeen there, I highly suggest you go
because it's just a beautiful landscape.And I mean I'm not trying to sound
sound like a mean person, butthey've done a good job keeping the homeless

(02:59):
people out of there. I meanthere's a there's a lot of homeless people
wandering the streets of la but notin the grove. They've got security there.
I mean it's like a Christine place, so, and there's a place.
So they've got shopping places there togo to shop shopping stores, right,

(03:22):
and then they have like a farmer'smarket, which is all these really
cool, like you know, foodoptions. You can just go buy lunch,
dinner, whatever you want. Sowe went to Danny Treho's taco place
in the Farmer's Market, and I'lltell you it was pretty good. I

(03:46):
mean it was overpriced. I thinkI paid like like twenty five dollars for
a bowl of salmon bowl, andthen I was like, can I get
a water and gave me. Theygave me this water and this metal tin,
and I was like, I don'tI'm not going camping for three weeks.
Thanks. The water was four buckswhatever. It's the experience, so
I was fine with that. Sowe did that, and then we were

(04:10):
like, hey, let's go walkaround the grove. And then we just
went like store to store because Imean, if you can believe this,
I used to be a commercial printmodels. I like, I like seeing
what's out there, so you know, man, these stores have gotten so
expensive, I swear to god.I mean we went to this store called
Alo, which is the hot yogashop. Everyone's wearing Alo now and these

(04:32):
like twenty year old girls. I'mtrying to sell us the product. They're
like, oh my god, thisis all we wear. It's like,
how old are you guys. It'sfunny how they market these stores. They've
got these young people working the storesbecause they don't want some you know,
forty year old retail clerk wearing Alo. Right, that's not the you know,
because Alo's like I think it's acelebrity endorsed product, like Kylie Jenner

(04:56):
and whoever it's wearing the stuff,so just interesting. There's a whole la
scene out here. And of courseeverybody in the grove looks like up a
scale too, So in fact Iwas there. I don't even joking.
I was at the grove the daybefore because I was trying to get something
fixed. It was like a leathershop across the street, so I just

(05:18):
parked there and I see Alan Ruckwho was a cast member of that show
Succession, that show Succession that washuge and HBO, and I see him
walking through the parking garage with hiswife, and he's wearing this nice like
dappers suit with like sunglasses. I'mthinking, what are you doing, dude,

(05:40):
You're gonna get mobbed at the grovelike you're gonna Maybe I don't know
what he was doing, but hewas not disguised in a baseball cap.
He was just walking through the garageon the way to the elevator. And
I thought about stopping him because Iactually used to talk to him when I
was an intern on Spin City.He was a cast member. As an

(06:00):
actor, he wasn't as big,but he was still on the show,
and I said talked him between breaks, and I was like, ah,
should I say something like is heeven gonna remember me from twenty years ago?
He might have, I don't know. I just didn't want to bother
him, so I just let himpass by. I probably never see him
again. Anyways, back to thestory. So we're just walking through the

(06:23):
grove, my friend Elliott and Ijust you know, it was bullshitting and
just trying on random clothes. Ithink I bought like a denim jack at
CSAR for like thirty bucks was onsale, and that was it, and
you know, we just left.We got lunch, hung out and left,
and I felt really grateful that wecould do that. I mean,

(06:46):
it was really remarkable to have afriendship with somebody for over like twenty years
and here we are in Los Angeles, just you know, shooting the ship.
Like I felt really grateful for thatbecause, you know, especially now,
sometimes it's hard for me to findthe bright spots in life. Everything

(07:09):
star depressing, with people dying aroundme. But but these little moments,
man, you gotta just save her. It doesn't have to be all comedy
for me. I mean, comedydoesn't even make me happy. To be
honest with you, like when Ido stand up yeah, but like and
trying to get booked, and andand just that regib a roll of comedy.

(07:29):
It's not fun sometimes. So thatwas my day. It was it's
a good day. Then I again, I came home, I went to
bed at like eight. Then Ijust woke up a few minutes ago.
It's like six thirty in the morningand the day starts. My friends.
I hope you guys have a greatweekend. We'll talk soon. Take care,