March 24, 2024 • 38 mins
His new Album - "They're Gonna Know" drops April 12th https://richardsarvate.bandcamp.com/a... Follow us: IG - @ tarunshetty @shazia.pascal.tx @richardthecomedian Support me and pls order my books! - https://bit.ly/tarunshettybooks Tarun Shetty is comedian/actor/writer born and raised in Laconia, New Hampshire. He graduated from NYU film school where he started his stand-up comedy career. Since then, he has headlined top clubs and venues across America. He is the lead/star in the feature movie, "Bobby Khan's Ticket to Hollywood," and co-created/ starred in the YouTube viral series "Desi OC" with over three million views. He has made countless appearances in film and television and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Shazia Pascal is a world famous model and actress. IMDB her.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi. Yeah, Hi Shazia.Hello Richard, so good to meet you.
Yeah, very nice to meet youas well. Thank you for taking
time out of your Sunday to youknow, talk to me. I appreciate
that. Yeah, look at that. Shazzy is well adepted comedy. Oh
yeah, yeah, I know you'vedone a bunch of acting stuff. Yeah.
(00:27):
I always told Shazi. I waslike, man, if I could
just write an act for Shazia,you know, like and just put her
on stage, like, that'd bemy meal ticket, you know, if
you could just like, yeah,write something for like a character or a
movie, no stand up, likemake her like Whitney Cummings like they see
Whitney Commings or something, you know, and just give her all the lines
you know down there were an earpiece too, for crowd work. Yeah,
(00:54):
yes, exactly. Ask them howlong they've been together. That one
seems to be a favorite. Peoplelove talking about themselves, right, it's
just going to involve them. Ohhow are you doing? That's what it
is. How are you doing?If you see two guys, say why
are you sitting so close to eachother? Oh? Okay, these are
(01:18):
the tricks of the trade. SoI'm taking notes says like, this is
creepy being with two Indian guys whoare just asking. Well, luckily we're
remote, so a good point.Where are you, Richard? Where do
you? Where are you joining usfrom? I'm in West Hollywood, oh
yeah, oh yeah, and whatabout you? I'm in Tixas. Oh
(01:46):
really? Yeah? Wow? Yeah, I have a bunch of friends moving
out to Austin right now. Imean, the the amount of house you
can get is extraordinary. Yeah,just it makes total sense. Yeah,
yeah, I mean, and honestly, I questioned why I'm in LA every
single day. So where were youraised? Where did you grow up in
(02:07):
the Bay Area? Oh? Okay, that's right. I think I saw
that on one ear. Yeah,the Bay Area is a nice hot hotbed
for the Indian folk. We we'vejoined together in Fremont. But then,
you know, but it used tobe cheap, you know. That's why
we all went there. Not anymore, such is not the case. No,
(02:30):
is your family still there? They'respread out. I have family in
Australia and in Canada, so they'vejust absconded from the US. Yeah.
Richards and I ended up a webseries years ago, and she was very
funny in it. And she movedto Texas. But she she works more
(02:53):
than any actors I know out herein LA. Like she works, She's
on TV every other week. It'scrazy. That's awesome. I didn't know
either. I know it's crazy.I just I just got offset. I
just worked this week in Dallas andin Houston, but a lot of the
talent flew in from LA. Ohinteresting. Yeah, but yeah, I
(03:16):
mean you can definitely act outside ofLA. Like I have a friend who
lives in Bali, and he willfly into LA whenever they're filming and then
just goes back to Bali. Yeah, that's the beauty. I think COVID
really helped kind of move that forward. Absolutely. Yeah. So sometimes I
think about going back to San Francisco, you know. So I had debate
(03:38):
on that, but uh, Idon't know. I'm happy in LA right
now. Yeah. Your place lookscute. Oh, thank you. Yeah,
I got some. This is sponsoredby west Elm. My house is
just a west Elm showroom basically atthis point. Yeah, they film all
(03:59):
their commercials they do. Yeah,everything still has price tags on it.
Richard is crushing it in the standup world. He's uh, I first,
you know, I didn't really knowRichard. I actually reached out to
him because I thought he was sofunny. His clips do very well.
He's got a big following. LikeI really consider him as like one of
(04:21):
the guys who's probably gonna pop.You know, he's ALTA. He's doing
really well now, but I feellike it's a matter of time for him.
And uh, he has a newalbum which he just recorded on in
San fran his hometown, and Ilistened to a little bit of it,
and he's got clips on his Instagramand it's really good. So congrats on
(04:44):
that, Richard. You know,just making your own albums, it's awesome.
I appreciate that. Man, inlight of JFL being canceled, if
I can just get the nod ofrecognition from you, that's that's all you
need in the new JFL shots.Disapproval my approval one hundred percent, man.
I mean, I just got toa point now where I'm like,
hey, as long as I knowI'm good at this, that's good enough
(05:06):
for me. Like, and it'sall that matters is if I wrote a
new joke. So yesterday I hada joke about how I love Pakistani women.
Went great, and uh, andI'm so, I'm I'll be buzzing
for the twenty four hour window.Oh my goodness, Why do you love
Pakistani women? What's what is that? They're so attractive? It's crazy.
(05:30):
I don't know what happened in thatpartition. I don't know if they were
just like hot people go this way. Wait, are you Indian or are
you Pakistani? I'm Indian? Yeah, okay, yeah, so I can't
really, you know, tell myfamily about my love for Pakistani women.
Is it reciprocal? Uh? Yeah, because I feel like pakistanis don't feel
(05:55):
any negativity towards Indians. I thinkit's just a one way. I think
it's like I think a lot ofPakistani people identify as Indian. Actually,
yeah, we started right like itall started there. Yeah, I mean,
I think the term dacy I thinkis probably the most accurate. We
(06:17):
are all kind of the same people. But uh, I don't know.
I just I found I don't knowwhy. Is it a higher percentage of
Pakistani women are just super attractive.I don't know what it is, but
it's like every time I get involvedwith the dacy woman, she happens to
be Pakistani. Interesting. What's yourbackground Chauzia and Pakistani. Okay, well
(06:41):
here we go, point proven.Yeah, no, I think I identify
it because my parents were pre partition. They were in New Delhi and in
Punjab, and then they were forcedto be in this they're part that is
now called Pakistan. Yeah. Imean my parents' passports said birthplace India,
(07:08):
not Pakistan. Oh interesting, Wellbecause Pakistan wasn't a country yet. Oh
okay, so they were they wereborn before partition. Yeah yeah, so
yeah. Anyways, it's confusing andpeople when you say you're Pakistani, like
to non they see people they thinkyou're Middle Eastern. Oh yeah, people
(07:31):
have any idea what that region iscalled Afghanistan Pakistan. People are like what
is this? They're like, yeah, it's not South Asia, it's not
really the Middle East. It's notIt's India. Yeah, Richard, do
you have do you have a bigchunk of your I've listened to a lot
of your stuff, but you don'treally focus on Indian content in general.
(07:56):
Is that part of your new album? The Pakistani stuff? You have a
chunk like Indian stuff? You know, I do focus on you know,
the Indian thing is really interesting becauselike I think, like being Indian is
so funny, you know, theaccent is funny, the whole culture is
funny. So sometimes I'll just gohard talking about it. But then every
once in a while I have tomake sure that, like I'm still funny
(08:18):
without using all that as a crutch. So I go I EBB and flow.
I'll do like six months of Indianmaterial, six months of just like
regular comedian material. But it's no. I have a bunch of like Indian
jokes on this album. I havelike a bunch of jokes a boy Hinduism.
I actually got a lot of angerfrom Indian people because I mistakenly said
(08:39):
that in Hinduism there's thirty three milliongods and it's actually three hundred and thirty
million. And so yeah, Ipissed off a lot of people. I
think that's what you're supposed to doas a comedian, is just piss off
a lot of people exactly. It'sall about the engagement. Yeah, anytime
(09:01):
there's a fight in my comment section, I'm like, let's go right.
Yeah, it builds your algorithm,that's all this is. I mean,
it's the days of just being funnyonline are over. Do you find like
you have specific audience for your comedyact. You know what, that's actually
a great point. It's split rightnow. It is daycy people, and
(09:26):
it is like young professionals. I'veactually had a difficult time finding a niche
as a comedian because a lot ofpeople want to see a comedian that's like
this guy likes you know, startedfrom the bottom and you know, he
was sleeping in his car and nowhe's you know, killing it as a
comedian. You know, my storyis completely different. You know, I
(09:46):
was a programmer for many years andthen I was like, I can't do
the corporate life. And now I'vekind of started doing comedy. So I
think it has been like a littlebit of a struggle to find an audience.
But they're percolating slowly. And youstill produced this album, right,
(10:07):
No, this is by a BlondeMedicine. This is from San Francisco.
Yeah, these guys are these guysare really great. They they just did
Best Stelling's album, so uh yeah, they're it's it's a solid production.
How many times how many times?Sorry, how many times do you did
you run it before you actually tapedit? You know? I ran it
(10:28):
like in twenty minute chunks in differentplaces, and then on the day of
the album, I just did thefull hour through because you know, for
me, like spontaneity is a bigthing, like, so I didn't want
to, uh just I find ifa lot of people they'll run their whole
hour like nine times and then they'llgo record it, and then by the
time they recorded it sounds a littletoo structured. And for me, a
(10:54):
lot of stand up is just isthe imperfect nature of it. I love
here like a comedian stumble try tofigure something out, he gets distracted like
that to me is the interesting part. I can agree with that. Yeah,
I mean with your acting, howmuch do you rehearse for a scene?
(11:16):
Well, for me, it's makingsure that I have the lines,
and then I like to be spontaneouson set as well, just open to
whatever feels right in the moment,because if I over rehearse it, like
as far as my marks and allthat, it comes off as unrealistic,
right, So I just make surethe lines are down and then I just
(11:39):
kind of wing it on set forwhat feels right. Nice. Yeah,
I think that that mix of beingrehearsed and then letting go of it,
I think is super important and I'mdefinitely trying to do that with stand up
now. Like I'll if I knowa joke works really well, I'll just
like say it in a different way, like I'll just i'll yell, or
(12:00):
i'll you know, I'll purposely switcha bunch of words around to make it
feel like a little bit rough.I like that process. Yeah, I
kind of lead my shows to gooff the rails a bit. You know.
Those are like when my shows arethe best, when like it's not
a somebod actually gave me great advicewhen I started headlining, first started.
They were like, it's not aperfect diamond, and I think you hit
(12:22):
it right in mad, But whenit goes off the rails a little bit,
then you're forced to be present,You're forced to acknowledge their room,
and there's a different engagement with theaudience. Yeah, I've seen some videos
of you, like getting into theaudience, well, you know, ripping
tablecloths off. You know those aremy favorite onestar own Oh yeah, Non's
(12:46):
shows are like interactive, like youhave to sign a waiver before you go
there. Yeah, Nda and theNDA. Hey, some random liquid may
get on your clothing. Do youI feel like comedians in this day and
age, you guys have had tohold back, like you can't offend people,
(13:09):
and there's certain jokes that you justcan't make or topics that you have
to stay away from, Like howdoes that affect you guys? And like
how do you get around it?Because so much of that is just so
funny? I know, Yeah,I think it's actually pushing us to be
better because the problem is that likepeople only get offended by a joke when
(13:30):
when you miss basically like so youknow, there's plenty of famous comedians that
are you know, saying saying racialmaterial or you know, material about gender,
but it's just so funny that youget away with it. Like if
you if you watch Shane Gillis's SNLmonologue that he did last week, I
(13:50):
mean he's saying stuff on like youshouldn't even be able to stay on TV,
Like, you know, he's makingfun of handicapped people, he's talking
about people of down syndrome, he'stalking about you know, all sorts of
stuff and he's doing this on liveTV and getting away with it. So
it is you just have to havemore nuanced You have to like elevate your
(14:11):
comedy a little bit. The comicsthat are getting in trouble right now are
just the people that are like,oh, I just want to go on
stage and just say something racist,you know, just straight up racist,
Like that's going to get you canceled. That makes sense, Yeah, Like
you just have to be I wouldsay, you have to be funnier than
you are offensive. Yeah. Ifeel like if you're pissing people off,
(14:35):
you're doing the right thing though,because the fact that you're going to have
an audience that people are are takingthe time to comment about your you know,
the Hindu gods or something like,that's a good sign. Even if
you have one percent of the peoplesaying stuff like that's something, especially in
this market where everything's oversaturated. Yeah, I mean that, you know,
Sensationalism I think is uh, youknow what a lot of people do,
(14:58):
Like I think you can like therethere is a little bit of like,
hey, let's offend people just toget them talking. So I definitely think
that is a method. But Itry not to do that too much.
You know, I'm not I'm justout here to have fun, you know,
Like I'm not out here to likekiss a bunch of people off.
Like I don't know. I meanI back in the day, like like
(15:22):
stand up doesn't have to be offensive, Like Mitch Hedberg was one of the
best comedians of all time, andhe has jokes like you know, dogs
are always in the push up position. Yeah, you know. Yeah,
I love Nate is it nategatsy?Oh my god, I'm so glad you.
And it's all clean and it's alljust relatable and it's hilarious, like
(15:45):
him with the the milk that icedtea with milk. Oh my god.
I will listen to that joke withlike at any given time and laugh every
time. Mm hmm. Yeah,that's it to me, that's the best.
Just like I don't know, Imean I think, you know,
being offensive is like I think that'slike low hanging fruit, you know.
(16:07):
Uh yeah. Nate BARGATSI the latestspecial, He's got a joke about how
he slept in a hotel room withall the lights on because he couldn't figure
out how to turn them off.Yes, that's so good. I'm like,
it's like those like because I don'tknow, that's something like you would
never you would never tell that toyour friends. But it's like, but
(16:27):
we've all kind of had trouble turningoff the lights in the hotel and h
dude, that was like so good. Yeah, Richard's called it Indian Nate
Bargatsy because he's so clean and corporate. Oh my god, if I could
get that title, Oh, Iwould love it. No, but honestly,
but that's why I like your comedy, Richard, because you actually you
(16:49):
kind of you're not afraid, LikeI always just text you before this,
Like he's got a great joke aboutgetting road head and he's like, how
can I practice in the parking murderthis? But I love the fact that
that you almost have this I don'tgive a fuck attitude where you're not afraid,
but you also can work very He'sdone a dry bar special too.
(17:11):
If Richard's done a dry bar special, which is not easy to do,
you have to be super clean todo it. But if you know Richard,
he's naturally funny and that reflects likehis personality is really in tune with
who he is, which is reallyhard to do as a stand up.
Yeah. I think what's really interestingis so the dry bar special that was
(17:33):
filmed in front of all Mormons inUtah, so it's completely clean. They
even got mad at me for sayingthe word piss at one point during my
set, so I had to likecut that out. So that was super
clean. And now I did thisnew album. So now this album is
all the dirty stuff that didn't makeit onto the Clean Mormon Special. So
(17:57):
you're getting like this this album isparticularly filthy, uh, just because I've
already used up all my clean material. But somebody gave me a good compliment,
which is that they said that Ihave an ability to make dirty things
feel clean. Like even though I'msaying like stuff that's like pretty graphic and
(18:22):
heinous, it still feels like,you know, like I don't know,
it still feels whimsy. I couldsee that. I feel like I could
you give off that vibe of likeyeah, hey Virtuell, we're just talking
like, hell, you have thatvibe totally thank you? Yeah, use
it? Yeah for sure. Wherecan I see the dry bar? It's
(18:47):
on the and now it's on YouTube. That's on Uh, it's it's gone
on the They've released it to everywhere. But yeah, you just search my
name and uh, okay, itdid really well. I think it's like
almost a two million views right now. So it's I've definitely been the problem
with that though, is that peoplethink I'm very clean. So I'm getting
a lot of like corporate shows andstuff like that where they expect me to
(19:11):
show up and just be like,you know, just like very very nice,
and it's so it's it's it's atough situation to navigate. But hopefully
with this new album, people willnow start seeing that like I'm more of
like a whole comedian. Yeah,like Mormons is showing up at your show
and like buggies and stuff like wegot to see Richard the Mormon comedian and
(19:33):
oh yeah, yeah. No.I've had people get very offended and just
walk out because they thought I waslike a clean family comedian. So it's
been a little tough to navigate that. That RoadHead joke, I can just
talk about it just so people justto give people a little like a yeah,
but basically the joke is, youknow, so I'm very shy and
(19:56):
one time this woman offered to giveme head in the car while I was
and I just told her that soundsdangerous and uh so, and then it's
the whole situation from there. I'mlike, hey, no, like we
can't be doing this right here intraffic, like, you know, we
got to practice first, Let's goyou know, circle the parking lot and
a best Buy you know, putup a student driver placard and stuff like
that. So uh, I thinkthat's kind of the vibe of the album
(20:21):
is that it's like it is likedirty stuff, but it's like like very
you know, very soft. Yeah, thank you. Is that your ultimate
goal? Because I know you're agood actor and you've directed some stuff and
we might have talked this before,but well with this new album, is
(20:44):
that more of a push of whereyou're heading up? Just straight stand up?
Or are you gonna keep doubling downon what you're doing? You know?
I I really like acting. It'sit's just so the opportunities are or
I think it's just yeah, you'remore plugged into what someone else is doing
unless you want to produce the wholething yourself. So stand Up to me
(21:06):
is like the one avenue where it'slike, hey, there's a microphone there.
I'm going to walk to the microphoneand I'm going to say some stuff
and you know, there's just fullcontrol and freedom. So I think stand
Up is just really where I wantto focus because a lot of people use
stand up to get to that nextthing, like, oh, hey,
I'm funny doing stand up, sonow that's going to help me get to,
(21:26):
you know, be an actor.But I just I really, you
know, I just like stand up. I like making people laugh and I
like that just connection with the audience. So for me, stand up is
kind of the end goal. Butwhy not also be writing potentially a series
(21:47):
if you have time? You neverknow? I mean you look at Mo
a mirror, I mean yeah,yeah, and his his friend on the
show, the who plays his autisticbrother. That's my friend lives in Bali.
Oh oh, that's when you spokeabout I see, Yeah, yeah,
yeah, he's in Bali right now. They're gonna film season two.
(22:07):
He's going to go to Texas actuallyto film it, and then he's just
gonna go back to Bali. Butyeah, that's really smart what those guys
are doing. Uh what Mo?Did I think of? Ramy Yusuf did
the same thing, wrote his series. I would definitely do it. It's
just a stand up is the domainwhere I feel like I'm in control.
And uh, I just I likethat feeling of just like having one thing
(22:32):
in my life be under my controlbecause everything else is like so topsy turvy.
But I'm totally happy to sit downand write something. Uh I've I've
done it before, and there's somuch to learn, like when you're collaborating
with somebody else, like managing otherpeople's egos. So it's just like a
lot more to learn. If it'sjust me doing everything, then I can
(22:56):
kind of like, uh, youknow, there's nothing to stop me.
Also, your stand up will takea hit if you start doing other things.
It's so hard to just do standup and write it. Sis,
I guarantee you those guys were actors, like their stand up business as strong
as it should be. Maybe itis, but in my opinion, it
takes so everything is so hard todo it. It is true. I
(23:19):
mean, you know, I performwith many comedians. It's like, Okay,
this guy writes for you know,Colbert or whatever. This guy writes
on this show, and then whenthey go on stage, you can definitely
tell that it's a writer telling writtenjokes. And to me, the best
stand up is you know, whenthe performance aspect comes out. So yeah,
(23:41):
I don't know. I think it'slike I said, the only thing
that makes me happy really is whena new joke works on stage, and
so I just have to keep doingthat, I think, I think in
life, like for me, it'slike I just want to do the thing
that makes me happy. Like Ilove getting coffee with Durron, you know,
like so that's like I just wantto do that all the time,
(24:02):
you know, and RoadHead so wecan combine, and if we can combine,
I would love that road Ahead coffeeand a biscotti apparently. Oh my
god, dude, Shazia, Imean, have you ever been to a
comedy club in terms of like Idon't even the Nate Barghetti, but like
have you experienced like the comedy clubsetting of like uh, like the alcohol
(24:26):
like what it is now? ArnI've been to your shows a lot of
shows. I mean I was atI was also at Groundlings for a while,
so I never missed a Grownling showwhich doesn't stand up comedy, but
still it's a comedy show. Butliving in La yeah, I would go
to the Laugh Factory. I've seena lot of big I mean I've seen
Ricky Gervais, I've seen big acts. I've seen Seinfeld, I've seen h
(24:51):
my husband, and I love goingto comedy shows. But what makes just
want to go is like what youguys said, it's this spontaneity or else
I could just wait for it,right, Like I could just wait for
it, watch it my living room. But what drives me to go is,
oh, I got to see what'sgoing to happen because this is gonna
be there's going to be improv they'renot as rehearsed, so mm hmm.
(25:11):
And I think there's something about justlaughing with a group. There is,
Yes, it's so fun. LikeI'll also find myself like if the person
next to me laughs, I'll justlaugh also. And it's like, oh,
there's some like interesting, there's someweird connection going on. You would
exchange an energy and you create aforce when you're in a room full of
people that are vibing on the samething, and it's it's just it's you
(25:36):
can't describe it or put it intowords, but it is there and you
feel it. Yeah, Like likelast night the show was so good,
like everybody it was like six comedians. Everybody did ten minutes, and like
everybody's set like was so good thatthe next person hadn't even better set.
And because the audience just started gettingthis expectation that like, oh, we're
(25:59):
in a great place, We're allgonna laugh at everything. And so at
a certain point we didn't even haveto try anymore. We were just getting
up there. It was so itwas at a dance studio. They just
had a show with the dance studio, and so at one point during my
set, I just started dancing anduh, and I'm not I'm very awkward,
so uh the way I dance islike really very cringey. But uh
(26:22):
but they like it. They likewere going nuts because it was like so
awkward. I love it. Waitwhat dance studio we're in La Yeah,
it's called Soho Dance. Uh andit's in Sherman Oaks and uh yeah,
so they just cleared out the dancestudio. It was it was like,
you know, it just looked likea normal practice space. Sometimes I hate
(26:45):
those shows when everybody does well becauseI kind of I kind of want there
to be resistance. That's like that'sto me, like I want to prove
myself, you know, in termsof I don't love it when I see
some hat comic like kill I'm mygod, this is like, yeah,
you know what I'm saying, yeah, totally. I had to get over
that because it happens so often,like you go on stage, you do
(27:07):
well, and then the next comicsays some joke you know that super hack
and destroys, and then you youfeel dirty. Yeah you're like, oh,
they were gonna laugh at anything,Like I totally get that feeling.
But it's I don't know, butyou know, live performance is just more
about momentum than it is about anyindividual person, you know, like it's
(27:33):
you could put you know, JerrySeinfelder. You know, you could put
Bill Burr at like a really badshow, like if people didn't know about
him, I don't know that hewould do well. I could see that,
you know why, just whyused towatch Bill Berr when I was a
door guy the Boston Comedy Club liketwenty years ago, and he nobody knew
who he was and he would alwaysdestroy though he would always just get that.
I think that's when your personality andperson which is nothing about your album
(27:56):
that I really liked, Richard.I was listening to it. I texted
you this, like your persona reallyshines because there's no visual like you're forced
to listen to this yeah, thatsnarky thing you do like really resonates,
so you can really hear a standup character persona yeah from the album.
(28:17):
Yeah, totally. I mean it'sa it's it's I guess it's like the
way a blind person sees the world, you know, because when we think
of our senses, we just thinkabout vision mostly, and then as soon
as you take away vision, it'slike whoa, like your brain starts making
the images for you. So it'slike, you know, I mean,
(28:40):
my first experience with listening was listeningto albums, you know, like I
used to just listen to Dane Cookunfortunately and a bunch of a bunch of
others. But like, the visualsare so powerful. I loved it.
I agree, Well, you havea good voice too, so that thank
you. I really appreciate that.Shaus. Yeah, yeah, I try
(29:00):
to. Like a lot of peoplesay, my voice is like I don't
know, like kind of like,well, I don't know, it's very
like it sounds like I'm trying toseduce people all the time. I feel
like it kind of does. You'reright, It's also has a it's like
you trust who if I just hearyour voice, I'm like Oh I trust
this guy. Oh nice. Yeah, you sound like you wouldn't lie.
(29:25):
Let me think about that. DoI lie? I would say I actually,
yeah, tell the truth actually toa fault. Yeah, you sound
like a truth teller. Do soundlike No, I'm kidding. I'm a
liar by nature? You're a liar, You're a cheat. No, you're
(29:47):
assault of the earth. Darn.Yeah, you don't know we well enough,
h Richard. Are you picking upgirls after the show? Like,
I know you're were in the sameage demographic. Are you in that window
of meeting girls after the show?Yeah? Sometimes? You know what's really
interesting is like, uh, itdepends just the bigger the venue, the
(30:08):
like, like, the higher statusof the venue, the more girls will
come up to me after my set. Like I did a set of the
Bourbon Room and three women came upto me and gave me their phone number.
And this doesn't I do hundreds ofshows. That usually doesn't happen,
but the Bourbon Room, like otherbig names were on the show, like
(30:30):
John Mullaney was on the show,and so I think they were like,
Okay, this guy was on theshow that John Mullaney was on, he
must be cool. We're going togive this guy our number. So it
does happen occasionally, but not allthe time. Do these hookups work out?
And have you found anyone you dated? Yeah? I have. I
(30:55):
have dated. Yeah, like oneof them went for like four or five
months. So yeah, it's Ithink it's a good h it is a
good avenue. It's like, youknow, hey, I go on stage.
This is an advertisement for who Iam. Basically, it's like an
in person bumble profile. Yeah,and then yeah, we can you know,
it's like, hey, I feellike this version of me. Then
(31:17):
you know, let's get to knoweach other. But yeah, I definitely
am in my place now where I'mlike, hey, let's it's time to
get a relationship. I want toyou know, find somebody. I'm trying
to get some kids. Like,so I'm and I think it just it's
it took me a while to getto this point and but now I'm like
so ready. So like it's I'mnot trying to do too many more hookups.
(31:40):
I'm trying to really get to thatnext thing. Do you have parents
pushing you to U Yeah, wellmy aunts and uncles are really pushing.
They're just like, you know,they really want to see some they want
to see some progeny pretty soon,and hey, I'm on board, Like
I like, I get like I'mnot saying no, you know, I'll
(32:01):
totally make it work. I justneed to find the right person. But
man, they put me on aon a group. I don't know if
you've heard of that website. It'sa it's a Marat Marati dating site.
And I'm just getting a lot oflike but it's just so interestingly, you
know, like having to talk tolike women that are in India and it's
(32:21):
like, you know, the conversationswe're having, you know, she'll be
like, you know, yeah,I studied this, and they'll like tell
me their GPA and stuff like that, and I'm like, I'm like that's
all well and good, but like, I don't do we like each other?
You know? Well, so areyou do you ideally see yourself with
(32:43):
a Dacy woman or or Pakistani woman. Yeah, I could definitely see it.
Yeah. I think the shared cultureis really really cool. I think
we have like that sensibility that I'mjust not going to get from an American
woman. Yeah, so I definitelywant that, but I'll like, I'm
(33:06):
happy with whatever works out. Like, but I do feel yeah, when
they see women, I definitely amlike, Okay, we're starting from this
like baseline of like understanding, whichI really like. So should we plug
your album, which releases April twelfth, and also catch Richard on the MRAATI
dating sets. Aparently you can catchme on on a roop or you can
catch me on iTunes. I thinkwhat is honor? Roop means like it
(33:31):
means like together or something. Butyeah, so my album is called They're
Gonna Know, and so They're GonnaKnow is a couple of things. It's
like it's a reference to a jokeof mine where it's like my dad named
me Richard in the hopes that Iwould assimilate as an American and it's like
(33:52):
Dad, They're gonna know. Like, so that's where the album was inspired.
Uh, They're Gonna Know. Ifyou look at the album cover,
actually it's a picture of myself lookingat myself and that's actually a reference to
my mom's schizophrenia. So that's likea little secret Easter egg about that I
(34:13):
hid in the in the album cover. So the album is pretty like it
it's it's it spans topics, youknow, starts with identity and then starts
with and then goes into like aI don't know, like I don't know.
I'm trying to be like a bipartisancomic, Like I don't want to
appeal to only liberals or only conservatives. I'm trying to like bridge the gap.
(34:36):
So that's the middle part of thealbum, and then the ending is
about mental illness and the stuff Ihad to deal with growing up. So
I think it's a fun little spreadof silly and serious and uh yeah.
So it's going to come out onApril twelfth, and if people want to
pre order it, that really helpsme on the day of the release because
(34:59):
it's the pre order stack up,and then on the day of release,
like if there's enough pre orders,then it goes to the top of the
charts, and then that'll get morevisibility. So that's kind of the game
plan right now. That's terrific.I really got to watch your set with
a full arc because that's that's reallywhere your skills is. Stand up,
Shine, I could do that fullforty five. It's hard to do a
(35:22):
full forty five is very hard.Yeah, it because holding anyone's attention for
forty five to an hour, likeyou remember in college, like watching a
professor at minute thirty, you're like, that's it, you know, so
you got to do something at thatthirty minute mark to switch up the energy
(35:42):
and then you can close on materialagain. So yeah, I definitely felt
it on the album, so Idid. I did crowd work at a
certain point in the album just toget the energy back up, and then
I went back into my stuff.I can't wait to hear it. Yeah,
that's really goating. I mean also, I think I think it's a
testament to where you are in yourcareer, because I mean, this isn't
(36:05):
your first rodeo, so I meanwith the dry bars from where you came
from stand up sand fran La,it's almost like it's almost like the snapshot
of where you are in your standup journey, which will probably change and
next year, five years from now. So it's great that you record an
album to capture this part of yourlife. That's exactly right. A stand
(36:27):
up is always a snapshot of yourlife because there's always uh you change as
a person, and so you're changing, you're evolving beyond your material, so
you have to very quickly record itall while it's who you are and then
you move on to the next thing. Like if I did this album next
year, it wouldn't be good.So it's like it has to be right
(36:50):
now. Yeah, so's two minutesleft? Do we have to I'm just
I'm just saying, because it's goingto come, we find you. What
are your socials? Okay? Yeah, you can find me on Instagram.
I'm Richard the Comedian and TikTok samething. Those are those are my main
avenues. I post everything on there, all right and single and looking for
(37:15):
the woman. Yes please, I'ma nice man. I will take you
on nice dates. We can goto sushi. Also, we can just
do domestic things like cook at homeand go for hikes. So if you're
into that, also follow me atRichard the Comedian and you can listen to
(37:37):
his album which drops April twelfth,so please pre order it. Check it
out. I listened to it.It's very funny. You won't regret it.
Check it out. Please, thankyou doohn. I really appreciate that.
Yeah, it's a it's nice tojust come on here and just like
hang out with some people. Thisis the perfect start to a Sunday morning.
I appreciate it. Well, I'msure this is the start of your
(37:59):
huge press, so I'm glad wegot to warm you up. Oh yeah,
dude, I mean I need someserious media training because I'm in danger
of saying something like off color thatwill get me canceled. So I think
we did good here. I didn'tsay anything too crazy. I feel like
we're all still friends. Yeah,well we'll see about that, Richard.
(38:21):
We should wrap up. Thanks somuch for joining us. Check our Richard's
album drops April twelve. And yeah, we'll catch you next time right here.
Yes, dude, I appreciate thisvery much. Very nice talking to
you guys. All right, Richard, take care, all right bye,
Thank you,
Hi. Yeah, Hi Shazia.Hello Richard, so good to meet you.
Yeah, very nice to meet youas well. Thank you for taking
time out of your Sunday to youknow, talk to me. I appreciate
that. Yeah, look at that. Shazzy is well adepted comedy. Oh
yeah, yeah, I know you'vedone a bunch of acting stuff. Yeah.
(00:27):
I always told Shazi. I waslike, man, if I could
just write an act for Shazia,you know, like and just put her
on stage, like, that'd bemy meal ticket, you know, if
you could just like, yeah,write something for like a character or a
movie, no stand up, likemake her like Whitney Cummings like they see
Whitney Commings or something, you know, and just give her all the lines
you know down there were an earpiece too, for crowd work. Yeah,
(00:54):
yes, exactly. Ask them howlong they've been together. That one
seems to be a favorite. Peoplelove talking about themselves, right, it's
just going to involve them. Ohhow are you doing? That's what it
is. How are you doing?If you see two guys, say why
are you sitting so close to eachother? Oh? Okay, these are
(01:18):
the tricks of the trade. SoI'm taking notes says like, this is
creepy being with two Indian guys whoare just asking. Well, luckily we're
remote, so a good point.Where are you, Richard? Where do
you? Where are you joining usfrom? I'm in West Hollywood, oh
yeah, oh yeah, and whatabout you? I'm in Tixas. Oh
(01:46):
really? Yeah? Wow? Yeah, I have a bunch of friends moving
out to Austin right now. Imean, the the amount of house you
can get is extraordinary. Yeah,just it makes total sense. Yeah,
yeah, I mean, and honestly, I questioned why I'm in LA every
single day. So where were youraised? Where did you grow up in
(02:07):
the Bay Area? Oh? Okay, that's right. I think I saw
that on one ear. Yeah,the Bay Area is a nice hot hotbed
for the Indian folk. We we'vejoined together in Fremont. But then,
you know, but it used tobe cheap, you know. That's why
we all went there. Not anymore, such is not the case. No,
(02:30):
is your family still there? They'respread out. I have family in
Australia and in Canada, so they'vejust absconded from the US. Yeah.
Richards and I ended up a webseries years ago, and she was very
funny in it. And she movedto Texas. But she she works more
(02:53):
than any actors I know out herein LA. Like she works, She's
on TV every other week. It'scrazy. That's awesome. I didn't know
either. I know it's crazy.I just I just got offset. I
just worked this week in Dallas andin Houston, but a lot of the
talent flew in from LA. Ohinteresting. Yeah, but yeah, I
(03:16):
mean you can definitely act outside ofLA. Like I have a friend who
lives in Bali, and he willfly into LA whenever they're filming and then
just goes back to Bali. Yeah, that's the beauty. I think COVID
really helped kind of move that forward. Absolutely. Yeah. So sometimes I
think about going back to San Francisco, you know. So I had debate
(03:38):
on that, but uh, Idon't know. I'm happy in LA right
now. Yeah. Your place lookscute. Oh, thank you. Yeah,
I got some. This is sponsoredby west Elm. My house is
just a west Elm showroom basically atthis point. Yeah, they film all
(03:59):
their commercials they do. Yeah,everything still has price tags on it.
Richard is crushing it in the standup world. He's uh, I first,
you know, I didn't really knowRichard. I actually reached out to
him because I thought he was sofunny. His clips do very well.
He's got a big following. LikeI really consider him as like one of
(04:21):
the guys who's probably gonna pop.You know, he's ALTA. He's doing
really well now, but I feellike it's a matter of time for him.
And uh, he has a newalbum which he just recorded on in
San fran his hometown, and Ilistened to a little bit of it,
and he's got clips on his Instagramand it's really good. So congrats on
(04:44):
that, Richard. You know,just making your own albums, it's awesome.
I appreciate that. Man, inlight of JFL being canceled, if
I can just get the nod ofrecognition from you, that's that's all you
need in the new JFL shots.Disapproval my approval one hundred percent, man.
I mean, I just got toa point now where I'm like,
hey, as long as I knowI'm good at this, that's good enough
(05:06):
for me. Like, and it'sall that matters is if I wrote a
new joke. So yesterday I hada joke about how I love Pakistani women.
Went great, and uh, andI'm so, I'm I'll be buzzing
for the twenty four hour window.Oh my goodness, Why do you love
Pakistani women? What's what is that? They're so attractive? It's crazy.
(05:30):
I don't know what happened in thatpartition. I don't know if they were
just like hot people go this way. Wait, are you Indian or are
you Pakistani? I'm Indian? Yeah, okay, yeah, so I can't
really, you know, tell myfamily about my love for Pakistani women.
Is it reciprocal? Uh? Yeah, because I feel like pakistanis don't feel
(05:55):
any negativity towards Indians. I thinkit's just a one way. I think
it's like I think a lot ofPakistani people identify as Indian. Actually,
yeah, we started right like itall started there. Yeah, I mean,
I think the term dacy I thinkis probably the most accurate. We
(06:17):
are all kind of the same people. But uh, I don't know.
I just I found I don't knowwhy. Is it a higher percentage of
Pakistani women are just super attractive.I don't know what it is, but
it's like every time I get involvedwith the dacy woman, she happens to
be Pakistani. Interesting. What's yourbackground Chauzia and Pakistani. Okay, well
(06:41):
here we go, point proven.Yeah, no, I think I identify
it because my parents were pre partition. They were in New Delhi and in
Punjab, and then they were forcedto be in this they're part that is
now called Pakistan. Yeah. Imean my parents' passports said birthplace India,
(07:08):
not Pakistan. Oh interesting, Wellbecause Pakistan wasn't a country yet. Oh
okay, so they were they wereborn before partition. Yeah yeah, so
yeah. Anyways, it's confusing andpeople when you say you're Pakistani, like
to non they see people they thinkyou're Middle Eastern. Oh yeah, people
(07:31):
have any idea what that region iscalled Afghanistan Pakistan. People are like what
is this? They're like, yeah, it's not South Asia, it's not
really the Middle East. It's notIt's India. Yeah, Richard, do
you have do you have a bigchunk of your I've listened to a lot
of your stuff, but you don'treally focus on Indian content in general.
(07:56):
Is that part of your new album? The Pakistani stuff? You have a
chunk like Indian stuff? You know, I do focus on you know,
the Indian thing is really interesting becauselike I think, like being Indian is
so funny, you know, theaccent is funny, the whole culture is
funny. So sometimes I'll just gohard talking about it. But then every
once in a while I have tomake sure that, like I'm still funny
(08:18):
without using all that as a crutch. So I go I EBB and flow.
I'll do like six months of Indianmaterial, six months of just like
regular comedian material. But it's no. I have a bunch of like Indian
jokes on this album. I havelike a bunch of jokes a boy Hinduism.
I actually got a lot of angerfrom Indian people because I mistakenly said
(08:39):
that in Hinduism there's thirty three milliongods and it's actually three hundred and thirty
million. And so yeah, Ipissed off a lot of people. I
think that's what you're supposed to doas a comedian, is just piss off
a lot of people exactly. It'sall about the engagement. Yeah, anytime
(09:01):
there's a fight in my comment section, I'm like, let's go right.
Yeah, it builds your algorithm,that's all this is. I mean,
it's the days of just being funnyonline are over. Do you find like
you have specific audience for your comedyact. You know what, that's actually
a great point. It's split rightnow. It is daycy people, and
(09:26):
it is like young professionals. I'veactually had a difficult time finding a niche
as a comedian because a lot ofpeople want to see a comedian that's like
this guy likes you know, startedfrom the bottom and you know, he
was sleeping in his car and nowhe's you know, killing it as a
comedian. You know, my storyis completely different. You know, I
(09:46):
was a programmer for many years andthen I was like, I can't do
the corporate life. And now I'vekind of started doing comedy. So I
think it has been like a littlebit of a struggle to find an audience.
But they're percolating slowly. And youstill produced this album, right,
(10:07):
No, this is by a BlondeMedicine. This is from San Francisco.
Yeah, these guys are these guysare really great. They they just did
Best Stelling's album, so uh yeah, they're it's it's a solid production.
How many times how many times?Sorry, how many times do you did
you run it before you actually tapedit? You know? I ran it
(10:28):
like in twenty minute chunks in differentplaces, and then on the day of
the album, I just did thefull hour through because you know, for
me, like spontaneity is a bigthing, like, so I didn't want
to, uh just I find ifa lot of people they'll run their whole
hour like nine times and then they'llgo record it, and then by the
time they recorded it sounds a littletoo structured. And for me, a
(10:54):
lot of stand up is just isthe imperfect nature of it. I love
here like a comedian stumble try tofigure something out, he gets distracted like
that to me is the interesting part. I can agree with that. Yeah,
I mean with your acting, howmuch do you rehearse for a scene?
(11:16):
Well, for me, it's makingsure that I have the lines,
and then I like to be spontaneouson set as well, just open to
whatever feels right in the moment,because if I over rehearse it, like
as far as my marks and allthat, it comes off as unrealistic,
right, So I just make surethe lines are down and then I just
(11:39):
kind of wing it on set forwhat feels right. Nice. Yeah,
I think that that mix of beingrehearsed and then letting go of it,
I think is super important and I'mdefinitely trying to do that with stand up
now. Like I'll if I knowa joke works really well, I'll just
like say it in a different way, like I'll just i'll yell, or
(12:00):
i'll you know, I'll purposely switcha bunch of words around to make it
feel like a little bit rough.I like that process. Yeah, I
kind of lead my shows to gooff the rails a bit. You know.
Those are like when my shows arethe best, when like it's not
a somebod actually gave me great advicewhen I started headlining, first started.
They were like, it's not aperfect diamond, and I think you hit
(12:22):
it right in mad, But whenit goes off the rails a little bit,
then you're forced to be present,You're forced to acknowledge their room,
and there's a different engagement with theaudience. Yeah, I've seen some videos
of you, like getting into theaudience, well, you know, ripping
tablecloths off. You know those aremy favorite onestar own Oh yeah, Non's
(12:46):
shows are like interactive, like youhave to sign a waiver before you go
there. Yeah, Nda and theNDA. Hey, some random liquid may
get on your clothing. Do youI feel like comedians in this day and
age, you guys have had tohold back, like you can't offend people,
(13:09):
and there's certain jokes that you justcan't make or topics that you have
to stay away from, Like howdoes that affect you guys? And like
how do you get around it?Because so much of that is just so
funny? I know, Yeah,I think it's actually pushing us to be
better because the problem is that likepeople only get offended by a joke when
(13:30):
when you miss basically like so youknow, there's plenty of famous comedians that
are you know, saying saying racialmaterial or you know, material about gender,
but it's just so funny that youget away with it. Like if
you if you watch Shane Gillis's SNLmonologue that he did last week, I
(13:50):
mean he's saying stuff on like youshouldn't even be able to stay on TV,
Like, you know, he's makingfun of handicapped people, he's talking
about people of down syndrome, he'stalking about you know, all sorts of
stuff and he's doing this on liveTV and getting away with it. So
it is you just have to havemore nuanced You have to like elevate your
(14:11):
comedy a little bit. The comicsthat are getting in trouble right now are
just the people that are like,oh, I just want to go on
stage and just say something racist,you know, just straight up racist,
Like that's going to get you canceled. That makes sense, Yeah, Like
you just have to be I wouldsay, you have to be funnier than
you are offensive. Yeah. Ifeel like if you're pissing people off,
(14:35):
you're doing the right thing though,because the fact that you're going to have
an audience that people are are takingthe time to comment about your you know,
the Hindu gods or something like,that's a good sign. Even if
you have one percent of the peoplesaying stuff like that's something, especially in
this market where everything's oversaturated. Yeah, I mean that, you know,
Sensationalism I think is uh, youknow what a lot of people do,
(14:58):
Like I think you can like therethere is a little bit of like,
hey, let's offend people just toget them talking. So I definitely think
that is a method. But Itry not to do that too much.
You know, I'm not I'm justout here to have fun, you know,
Like I'm not out here to likekiss a bunch of people off.
Like I don't know. I meanI back in the day, like like
(15:22):
stand up doesn't have to be offensive, Like Mitch Hedberg was one of the
best comedians of all time, andhe has jokes like you know, dogs
are always in the push up position. Yeah, you know. Yeah,
I love Nate is it nategatsy?Oh my god, I'm so glad you.
And it's all clean and it's alljust relatable and it's hilarious, like
(15:45):
him with the the milk that icedtea with milk. Oh my god.
I will listen to that joke withlike at any given time and laugh every
time. Mm hmm. Yeah,that's it to me, that's the best.
Just like I don't know, Imean I think, you know,
being offensive is like I think that'slike low hanging fruit, you know.
(16:07):
Uh yeah. Nate BARGATSI the latestspecial, He's got a joke about how
he slept in a hotel room withall the lights on because he couldn't figure
out how to turn them off.Yes, that's so good. I'm like,
it's like those like because I don'tknow, that's something like you would
never you would never tell that toyour friends. But it's like, but
(16:27):
we've all kind of had trouble turningoff the lights in the hotel and h
dude, that was like so good. Yeah, Richard's called it Indian Nate
Bargatsy because he's so clean and corporate. Oh my god, if I could
get that title, Oh, Iwould love it. No, but honestly,
but that's why I like your comedy, Richard, because you actually you
(16:49):
kind of you're not afraid, LikeI always just text you before this,
Like he's got a great joke aboutgetting road head and he's like, how
can I practice in the parking murderthis? But I love the fact that
that you almost have this I don'tgive a fuck attitude where you're not afraid,
but you also can work very He'sdone a dry bar special too.
(17:11):
If Richard's done a dry bar special, which is not easy to do,
you have to be super clean todo it. But if you know Richard,
he's naturally funny and that reflects likehis personality is really in tune with
who he is, which is reallyhard to do as a stand up.
Yeah. I think what's really interestingis so the dry bar special that was
(17:33):
filmed in front of all Mormons inUtah, so it's completely clean. They
even got mad at me for sayingthe word piss at one point during my
set, so I had to likecut that out. So that was super
clean. And now I did thisnew album. So now this album is
all the dirty stuff that didn't makeit onto the Clean Mormon Special. So
(17:57):
you're getting like this this album isparticularly filthy, uh, just because I've
already used up all my clean material. But somebody gave me a good compliment,
which is that they said that Ihave an ability to make dirty things
feel clean. Like even though I'msaying like stuff that's like pretty graphic and
(18:22):
heinous, it still feels like,you know, like I don't know,
it still feels whimsy. I couldsee that. I feel like I could
you give off that vibe of likeyeah, hey Virtuell, we're just talking
like, hell, you have thatvibe totally thank you? Yeah, use
it? Yeah for sure. Wherecan I see the dry bar? It's
(18:47):
on the and now it's on YouTube. That's on Uh, it's it's gone
on the They've released it to everywhere. But yeah, you just search my
name and uh, okay, itdid really well. I think it's like
almost a two million views right now. So it's I've definitely been the problem
with that though, is that peoplethink I'm very clean. So I'm getting
a lot of like corporate shows andstuff like that where they expect me to
(19:11):
show up and just be like,you know, just like very very nice,
and it's so it's it's it's atough situation to navigate. But hopefully
with this new album, people willnow start seeing that like I'm more of
like a whole comedian. Yeah,like Mormons is showing up at your show
and like buggies and stuff like wegot to see Richard the Mormon comedian and
(19:33):
oh yeah, yeah. No.I've had people get very offended and just
walk out because they thought I waslike a clean family comedian. So it's
been a little tough to navigate that. That RoadHead joke, I can just
talk about it just so people justto give people a little like a yeah,
but basically the joke is, youknow, so I'm very shy and
(19:56):
one time this woman offered to giveme head in the car while I was
and I just told her that soundsdangerous and uh so, and then it's
the whole situation from there. I'mlike, hey, no, like we
can't be doing this right here intraffic, like, you know, we
got to practice first, Let's goyou know, circle the parking lot and
a best Buy you know, putup a student driver placard and stuff like
that. So uh, I thinkthat's kind of the vibe of the album
(20:21):
is that it's like it is likedirty stuff, but it's like like very
you know, very soft. Yeah, thank you. Is that your ultimate
goal? Because I know you're agood actor and you've directed some stuff and
we might have talked this before,but well with this new album, is
(20:44):
that more of a push of whereyou're heading up? Just straight stand up?
Or are you gonna keep doubling downon what you're doing? You know?
I I really like acting. It'sit's just so the opportunities are or
I think it's just yeah, you'remore plugged into what someone else is doing
unless you want to produce the wholething yourself. So stand Up to me
(21:06):
is like the one avenue where it'slike, hey, there's a microphone there.
I'm going to walk to the microphoneand I'm going to say some stuff
and you know, there's just fullcontrol and freedom. So I think stand
Up is just really where I wantto focus because a lot of people use
stand up to get to that nextthing, like, oh, hey,
I'm funny doing stand up, sonow that's going to help me get to,
(21:26):
you know, be an actor.But I just I really, you
know, I just like stand up. I like making people laugh and I
like that just connection with the audience. So for me, stand up is
kind of the end goal. Butwhy not also be writing potentially a series
(21:47):
if you have time? You neverknow? I mean you look at Mo
a mirror, I mean yeah,yeah, and his his friend on the
show, the who plays his autisticbrother. That's my friend lives in Bali.
Oh oh, that's when you spokeabout I see, Yeah, yeah,
yeah, he's in Bali right now. They're gonna film season two.
(22:07):
He's going to go to Texas actuallyto film it, and then he's just
gonna go back to Bali. Butyeah, that's really smart what those guys
are doing. Uh what Mo?Did I think of? Ramy Yusuf did
the same thing, wrote his series. I would definitely do it. It's
just a stand up is the domainwhere I feel like I'm in control.
And uh, I just I likethat feeling of just like having one thing
(22:32):
in my life be under my controlbecause everything else is like so topsy turvy.
But I'm totally happy to sit downand write something. Uh I've I've
done it before, and there's somuch to learn, like when you're collaborating
with somebody else, like managing otherpeople's egos. So it's just like a
lot more to learn. If it'sjust me doing everything, then I can
(22:56):
kind of like, uh, youknow, there's nothing to stop me.
Also, your stand up will takea hit if you start doing other things.
It's so hard to just do standup and write it. Sis,
I guarantee you those guys were actors, like their stand up business as strong
as it should be. Maybe itis, but in my opinion, it
takes so everything is so hard todo it. It is true. I
(23:19):
mean, you know, I performwith many comedians. It's like, Okay,
this guy writes for you know,Colbert or whatever. This guy writes
on this show, and then whenthey go on stage, you can definitely
tell that it's a writer telling writtenjokes. And to me, the best
stand up is you know, whenthe performance aspect comes out. So yeah,
(23:41):
I don't know. I think it'slike I said, the only thing
that makes me happy really is whena new joke works on stage, and
so I just have to keep doingthat, I think, I think in
life, like for me, it'slike I just want to do the thing
that makes me happy. Like Ilove getting coffee with Durron, you know,
like so that's like I just wantto do that all the time,
(24:02):
you know, and RoadHead so wecan combine, and if we can combine,
I would love that road Ahead coffeeand a biscotti apparently. Oh my
god, dude, Shazia, Imean, have you ever been to a
comedy club in terms of like Idon't even the Nate Barghetti, but like
have you experienced like the comedy clubsetting of like uh, like the alcohol
(24:26):
like what it is now? ArnI've been to your shows a lot of
shows. I mean I was atI was also at Groundlings for a while,
so I never missed a Grownling showwhich doesn't stand up comedy, but
still it's a comedy show. Butliving in La yeah, I would go
to the Laugh Factory. I've seena lot of big I mean I've seen
Ricky Gervais, I've seen big acts. I've seen Seinfeld, I've seen h
(24:51):
my husband, and I love goingto comedy shows. But what makes just
want to go is like what youguys said, it's this spontaneity or else
I could just wait for it,right, Like I could just wait for
it, watch it my living room. But what drives me to go is,
oh, I got to see what'sgoing to happen because this is gonna
be there's going to be improv they'renot as rehearsed, so mm hmm.
(25:11):
And I think there's something about justlaughing with a group. There is,
Yes, it's so fun. LikeI'll also find myself like if the person
next to me laughs, I'll justlaugh also. And it's like, oh,
there's some like interesting, there's someweird connection going on. You would
exchange an energy and you create aforce when you're in a room full of
people that are vibing on the samething, and it's it's just it's you
(25:36):
can't describe it or put it intowords, but it is there and you
feel it. Yeah, Like likelast night the show was so good,
like everybody it was like six comedians. Everybody did ten minutes, and like
everybody's set like was so good thatthe next person hadn't even better set.
And because the audience just started gettingthis expectation that like, oh, we're
(25:59):
in a great place, We're allgonna laugh at everything. And so at
a certain point we didn't even haveto try anymore. We were just getting
up there. It was so itwas at a dance studio. They just
had a show with the dance studio, and so at one point during my
set, I just started dancing anduh, and I'm not I'm very awkward,
so uh the way I dance islike really very cringey. But uh
(26:22):
but they like it. They likewere going nuts because it was like so
awkward. I love it. Waitwhat dance studio we're in La Yeah,
it's called Soho Dance. Uh andit's in Sherman Oaks and uh yeah,
so they just cleared out the dancestudio. It was it was like,
you know, it just looked likea normal practice space. Sometimes I hate
(26:45):
those shows when everybody does well becauseI kind of I kind of want there
to be resistance. That's like that'sto me, like I want to prove
myself, you know, in termsof I don't love it when I see
some hat comic like kill I'm mygod, this is like, yeah,
you know what I'm saying, yeah, totally. I had to get over
that because it happens so often,like you go on stage, you do
(27:07):
well, and then the next comicsays some joke you know that super hack
and destroys, and then you youfeel dirty. Yeah you're like, oh,
they were gonna laugh at anything,Like I totally get that feeling.
But it's I don't know, butyou know, live performance is just more
about momentum than it is about anyindividual person, you know, like it's
(27:33):
you could put you know, JerrySeinfelder. You know, you could put
Bill Burr at like a really badshow, like if people didn't know about
him, I don't know that hewould do well. I could see that,
you know why, just whyused towatch Bill Berr when I was a
door guy the Boston Comedy Club liketwenty years ago, and he nobody knew
who he was and he would alwaysdestroy though he would always just get that.
I think that's when your personality andperson which is nothing about your album
(27:56):
that I really liked, Richard.I was listening to it. I texted
you this, like your persona reallyshines because there's no visual like you're forced
to listen to this yeah, thatsnarky thing you do like really resonates,
so you can really hear a standup character persona yeah from the album.
(28:17):
Yeah, totally. I mean it'sa it's it's I guess it's like the
way a blind person sees the world, you know, because when we think
of our senses, we just thinkabout vision mostly, and then as soon
as you take away vision, it'slike whoa, like your brain starts making
the images for you. So it'slike, you know, I mean,
(28:40):
my first experience with listening was listeningto albums, you know, like I
used to just listen to Dane Cookunfortunately and a bunch of a bunch of
others. But like, the visualsare so powerful. I loved it.
I agree, Well, you havea good voice too, so that thank
you. I really appreciate that.Shaus. Yeah, yeah, I try
(29:00):
to. Like a lot of peoplesay, my voice is like I don't
know, like kind of like,well, I don't know, it's very
like it sounds like I'm trying toseduce people all the time. I feel
like it kind of does. You'reright, It's also has a it's like
you trust who if I just hearyour voice, I'm like Oh I trust
this guy. Oh nice. Yeah, you sound like you wouldn't lie.
(29:25):
Let me think about that. DoI lie? I would say I actually,
yeah, tell the truth actually toa fault. Yeah, you sound
like a truth teller. Do soundlike No, I'm kidding. I'm a
liar by nature? You're a liar, You're a cheat. No, you're
(29:47):
assault of the earth. Darn.Yeah, you don't know we well enough,
h Richard. Are you picking upgirls after the show? Like,
I know you're were in the sameage demographic. Are you in that window
of meeting girls after the show?Yeah? Sometimes? You know what's really
interesting is like, uh, itdepends just the bigger the venue, the
(30:08):
like, like, the higher statusof the venue, the more girls will
come up to me after my set. Like I did a set of the
Bourbon Room and three women came upto me and gave me their phone number.
And this doesn't I do hundreds ofshows. That usually doesn't happen,
but the Bourbon Room, like otherbig names were on the show, like
(30:30):
John Mullaney was on the show,and so I think they were like,
Okay, this guy was on theshow that John Mullaney was on, he
must be cool. We're going togive this guy our number. So it
does happen occasionally, but not allthe time. Do these hookups work out?
And have you found anyone you dated? Yeah? I have. I
(30:55):
have dated. Yeah, like oneof them went for like four or five
months. So yeah, it's Ithink it's a good h it is a
good avenue. It's like, youknow, hey, I go on stage.
This is an advertisement for who Iam. Basically, it's like an
in person bumble profile. Yeah,and then yeah, we can you know,
it's like, hey, I feellike this version of me. Then
(31:17):
you know, let's get to knoweach other. But yeah, I definitely
am in my place now where I'mlike, hey, let's it's time to
get a relationship. I want toyou know, find somebody. I'm trying
to get some kids. Like,so I'm and I think it just it's
it took me a while to getto this point and but now I'm like
so ready. So like it's I'mnot trying to do too many more hookups.
(31:40):
I'm trying to really get to thatnext thing. Do you have parents
pushing you to U Yeah, wellmy aunts and uncles are really pushing.
They're just like, you know,they really want to see some they want
to see some progeny pretty soon,and hey, I'm on board, Like
I like, I get like I'mnot saying no, you know, I'll
(32:01):
totally make it work. I justneed to find the right person. But
man, they put me on aon a group. I don't know if
you've heard of that website. It'sa it's a Marat Marati dating site.
And I'm just getting a lot oflike but it's just so interestingly, you
know, like having to talk tolike women that are in India and it's
(32:21):
like, you know, the conversationswe're having, you know, she'll be
like, you know, yeah,I studied this, and they'll like tell
me their GPA and stuff like that, and I'm like, I'm like that's
all well and good, but like, I don't do we like each other?
You know? Well, so areyou do you ideally see yourself with
(32:43):
a Dacy woman or or Pakistani woman. Yeah, I could definitely see it.
Yeah. I think the shared cultureis really really cool. I think
we have like that sensibility that I'mjust not going to get from an American
woman. Yeah, so I definitelywant that, but I'll like, I'm
(33:06):
happy with whatever works out. Like, but I do feel yeah, when
they see women, I definitely amlike, Okay, we're starting from this
like baseline of like understanding, whichI really like. So should we plug
your album, which releases April twelfth, and also catch Richard on the MRAATI
dating sets. Aparently you can catchme on on a roop or you can
catch me on iTunes. I thinkwhat is honor? Roop means like it
(33:31):
means like together or something. Butyeah, so my album is called They're
Gonna Know, and so They're GonnaKnow is a couple of things. It's
like it's a reference to a jokeof mine where it's like my dad named
me Richard in the hopes that Iwould assimilate as an American and it's like
(33:52):
Dad, They're gonna know. Like, so that's where the album was inspired.
Uh, They're Gonna Know. Ifyou look at the album cover,
actually it's a picture of myself lookingat myself and that's actually a reference to
my mom's schizophrenia. So that's likea little secret Easter egg about that I
(34:13):
hid in the in the album cover. So the album is pretty like it
it's it's it spans topics, youknow, starts with identity and then starts
with and then goes into like aI don't know, like I don't know.
I'm trying to be like a bipartisancomic, Like I don't want to
appeal to only liberals or only conservatives. I'm trying to like bridge the gap.
(34:36):
So that's the middle part of thealbum, and then the ending is
about mental illness and the stuff Ihad to deal with growing up. So
I think it's a fun little spreadof silly and serious and uh yeah.
So it's going to come out onApril twelfth, and if people want to
pre order it, that really helpsme on the day of the release because
(34:59):
it's the pre order stack up,and then on the day of release,
like if there's enough pre orders,then it goes to the top of the
charts, and then that'll get morevisibility. So that's kind of the game
plan right now. That's terrific.I really got to watch your set with
a full arc because that's that's reallywhere your skills is. Stand up,
Shine, I could do that fullforty five. It's hard to do a
(35:22):
full forty five is very hard.Yeah, it because holding anyone's attention for
forty five to an hour, likeyou remember in college, like watching a
professor at minute thirty, you're like, that's it, you know, so
you got to do something at thatthirty minute mark to switch up the energy
(35:42):
and then you can close on materialagain. So yeah, I definitely felt
it on the album, so Idid. I did crowd work at a
certain point in the album just toget the energy back up, and then
I went back into my stuff.I can't wait to hear it. Yeah,
that's really goating. I mean also, I think I think it's a
testament to where you are in yourcareer, because I mean, this isn't
(36:05):
your first rodeo, so I meanwith the dry bars from where you came
from stand up sand fran La,it's almost like it's almost like the snapshot
of where you are in your standup journey, which will probably change and
next year, five years from now. So it's great that you record an
album to capture this part of yourlife. That's exactly right. A stand
(36:27):
up is always a snapshot of yourlife because there's always uh you change as
a person, and so you're changing, you're evolving beyond your material, so
you have to very quickly record itall while it's who you are and then
you move on to the next thing. Like if I did this album next
year, it wouldn't be good.So it's like it has to be right
(36:50):
now. Yeah, so's two minutesleft? Do we have to I'm just
I'm just saying, because it's goingto come, we find you. What
are your socials? Okay? Yeah, you can find me on Instagram.
I'm Richard the Comedian and TikTok samething. Those are those are my main
avenues. I post everything on there, all right and single and looking for
(37:15):
the woman. Yes please, I'ma nice man. I will take you
on nice dates. We can goto sushi. Also, we can just
do domestic things like cook at homeand go for hikes. So if you're
into that, also follow me atRichard the Comedian and you can listen to
(37:37):
his album which drops April twelfth,so please pre order it. Check it
out. I listened to it.It's very funny. You won't regret it.
Check it out. Please, thankyou doohn. I really appreciate that.
Yeah, it's a it's nice tojust come on here and just like
hang out with some people. Thisis the perfect start to a Sunday morning.
I appreciate it. Well, I'msure this is the start of your
(37:59):
huge press, so I'm glad wegot to warm you up. Oh yeah,
dude, I mean I need someserious media training because I'm in danger
of saying something like off color thatwill get me canceled. So I think
we did good here. I didn'tsay anything too crazy. I feel like
we're all still friends. Yeah,well we'll see about that, Richard.
(38:21):
We should wrap up. Thanks somuch for joining us. Check our Richard's
album drops April twelve. And yeah, we'll catch you next time right here.
Yes, dude, I appreciate thisvery much. Very nice talking to
you guys. All right, Richard, take care, all right bye,
Thank you,
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