January 5, 2023 • 47 mins
In this podcast episode we talk with comedian and content creator Neema Naz! We talk about him meeting Gary V and gettting noticed from his impressions. Also, we talk about his journey throught the years of how he started out and became the person that he is today.
Listen and let us know what you think!
Listen and let us know what you think!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back, guys to the TaylorLucie Twins Podcast. Our guest today is
comedian actor Nima nas So, Welcomeon, man, Hey, what's up.
Well, well, we actually wantedto get into I know, you
are probably most known for the GaryV impressions. Yeah, yeah, so
I wanted to so I wanted tokind of touch on that or like,
(00:22):
where did you really start before allof the Gary V impressions and things like
that. M yeah, I meana lot of people don't know this,
but I actually I've been doing standup for about seven and a half years,
even before the content. I meanI started at the same time pretty
much making content as I was doingstand up and acting about seven and a
(00:43):
half years ago. So yeah,I kind of just throughout my life,
I've always been good at, youknow, imitating other people, are mimicking
certain accents and impressions of other peoplejust observationally. My brain is wired that
way, so you know, naturally, I got to the point where I,
(01:04):
you know, found gry V alongthe way obviously about like a couple
of years ago, and I juststarted to just try doing his voice and
people will really love it, andI just kept working on it. And
now it's like probably one of thebest, I guess, yeah, because
even he himself has said as hell, yeah, he gave you a shout
(01:26):
out right yeah, on Andrew Schultz'spodcast Flag or Two, which is crazy
because Andrew Schaltz is also one ofmy favorite comedians right now. So it
was super dope to see that.Yeah, that's amazing and did that ye
did that kind of give you anotherboost, like people start looking you up
a little bit more too? Yeah, I mean it's naturally, you know,
(01:47):
the more the bigger you get,the faster your audience will grow.
If you're if you're sting consistent,if you're not staying consistent to know,
but which I pride myself and beingconsistent. Um, I'm posting as much
as I can every day. Soyeah, I've seen yeah, pretty steady
growth, especially on YouTube. Imy YouTube fucking blew up in the past
(02:07):
like a couple of months, whereas like compared to the first seven years,
why I only got to seven casesubscribers, and then within two months
I jumped to now my one hundredand twenty thousand almost Wow. Yeah,
that's crazy. Yeah, that's ahuge jump. And YouTube is very hard
to be like it's so hard.Yeah, I know, trust me,
(02:28):
man, I know, I know. It's Um, it's been a fucking
long journey for me on YouTube.But yeah, now it's popping off,
which is cool. That's incredible,awesome. So you started the stand up,
like you said, seven years ago, and then, um, how
soon after or what like app didyou start on? Was it just instue
game? You start uploading stand upand then impressions? Um, To be
(02:52):
honest, I don't know. Ialways had had those two sep you know,
separated because I don't know. Ijust thought stand up on his own,
it was its own grind, andI would just I would be.
I would go out like almost everynight for a couple of years, doing
like three four open mics in onenight, and a lot of people don't
know this, but you know I'vebeen doing that for years, and um,
(03:14):
I built up my stand up skillson stage all those years, and
then at the same time I wasdoing just different content online. I never
really posted my stand up though,to be honest, um, over over
these these last few years. Butrecently, you know, I've since I've
been getting better on stage and betteron camera and posting more stuff than I
haven't introduced my stand up clips tothe socials, um, and not by
(03:37):
the point where I want to actuallymake it a regular thing in my content
because now I'm doing to win moreshows, I'm doing more time on stage,
I have more opportunities to film stuff, and I'm just funnier on stage.
So it's just better. Yeah,that's incredible. Like stand up is
a whole other animal too, Likethere's there's some people that like struggle just
doing stand up and that's their onlyfocus, you know, Yeah, and
(03:59):
I know many of them, SoI mean that's just that's another Like,
I mean, I think what itcomes down to is it seems like you've
worked so hard for so long,and you know, a lot of times,
I think when this happens, peoplesee the results, like they're like,
oh, this guy just he justdid this impression and he just blew
up, right, But they don'tsee the years and years that you put
in beforehand and then it finally youknow, popped off. Really yeah,
(04:26):
well that's the thing that is theclassic example of overnight success right or now
for me, Like specifically, Isee I see the other side of it,
and I understand how people can thinkthat, but it's like, wow,
people just don't know you just peoplejust don't know. Um right,
there's just a whole other side ofthis. It's like they don't they don't.
(04:47):
They just don't have full context ofthe person who went viral overnight.
Um like especially you know, likewith with Kevin Hartt for example, like
he he became famous for like twentyyears of doing stand up and everything,
right, so there, Oh,who's this new community. He's like,
he's not new, He's been He'sbeen at this so long. But that's
(05:08):
the thing. People just don't.People don't see the grind. They don't
see the all the ship they haveto go through over there's years, right,
So but you know, it makesit I'm much sweeter though when when
you do actually get the benefits.Yeah, yeah, I would. I
mean I would say there is avery small percent where that does happen.
They post a few videos or somethingin the but that's like, yeah,
(05:30):
I was gonna use that example aswell. He's doing that right, trust
me, I know. And sometimesit's not gonnae it pisses me off,
but I'm like whatever, man,it's is gonna fucking die out. After
a couple of years. I'm andI know myself. I know like what
I have has longevity, and that'swhat matters here. Yeah, and I'm
(05:51):
actually glad after a while of likebeing in this online world and seeing people
blow up so fast and like,I'm not gonna lie, I'm only human.
I've also compared myself to other peopleas well, But now I'm at
a point where I'm way pasts thatbecause I realized that I actually would prefer
to take way longer to get famousor bigger or whatever, because you just
(06:15):
you can you build so much more, you know, strengthen your audience that
way, and I just feel likeyou never lose your integrity and rather than
like and I'm also you also buildreadiness, like you're prepared when it does
happen, right, right, Becausefor me, I've done thousands of videos
online, I've done thousands of setson stage before anyone even knew who the
fuck I was, right, itwas nobody. I'm still nobody, but
(06:38):
I'm just saying it still took thatlong before people start to know my name.
But now it's like that's why ifeel like I'm so comfortable doing so
much every day and everyone's like,oh, How are you posting so much
video? How are you posting somuch content? How are you doing this?
I do that, I'm like,because I've been doing this before any
of you guys even knew I existed. So now I'm just doing it with
more attention on me, and it'sactually fueling me to go even harder because
(07:01):
I know I can get bigger andbigger and make more money to keep investing
back into the brand. That's whatmatters to me. But like a lot
of people, when they blow upinstantly, they don't have anything to show
for, right. So imagine someonekills viral with one video and then that
they think they're killing it, andthey, you know, all of a
sudden, people go to their profileand they see that they only have three
(07:21):
videos in a picture of their cat, They're not gonna be inclined to follow
you, Right. But if Iblow up tomorrow like a massive viral video,
like I'd say, majority of peoplewould go to my profile, would
see that I have thousands of videosand be inclined to follow me. Yeah,
that's how you build an audience.Absolutely. Yeah, I think you're
(07:43):
right. I think it does.There is something to be said for you
build a stronger community, like theslower you grow, and then you also
you also kind of have like whenI mean, you know, you're gonna
have low points of where your videosaren't going to get video views, you're
not gonna get gigs, whatever itmay be. And the more you have
that of like, hey, Ialready worked this hard, like I'm not
(08:07):
gonna quit, I feel like it'sa lot easier for the people on the
other side of that that just blewup. They don't have anything to look
back on and say, oh Idid this, Like they just go into
panic and like what do I do? You know? Yeah, I mean
you have that foundation, and thepeople who blow up really don't know quite
how to handle it or don't haveenough content. So it's like, well,
(08:30):
now what do I do? Andit's not I guess I'm gonna use
this loosely, but it's not aslike organic, right, It was just
like a hype thing, you know, So they just got a bunch of
hype. And yeah, I mean, just taking a longer route is a
lot obviously a lot harder, butit's definitely the better route to go because,
like you said, you have thatlongevity and it's worth it. It's
(08:52):
more worth it because you have moreto show for it, and you don't
have to panic like these people whogo viral overnight and don't have any videos
to back them up, because nowthey're like, oh shit, now I
have to do this one thing peoplelove my video for and they're stuck and
now they're boxed into that one thingas opposed to like, you know,
you know, I like to bringmyself up because I just feel like it's
(09:13):
a good example. But it's likeif I blow up tomorrow with one video,
people will come to my page andsee that I'm you know, I
do maybe more of those similar videos, but also I have all this other
catalog of other shit. You neverknow who's gonna like what right. That's
why I keep just I always preachlike, just do whatever you know and
do what interests you, and that'swhat people follow you for and support you
(09:35):
for, and that's what matters.The more authentic you are, the better
it is. Yeah. Yeah,you bring up in an amazing point too,
because really getting boxed in like thatis like for longevity as well.
It's like it doesn't make you happyif you have to do something and you're
trying to Chase, Like, Iguess the views and the likes over what
you want to do and what youwant to like put out, and just
(09:58):
talking about this makes me want togoing to Gary VMA. But my voice
is still recovering from Yeah. Sometimes, like it's such a such a hard
voice to do and people don't knowthat, but like it's actually one of
the hardest voices for me to dobecause it's such a high pitched and like
so dynamic in that way and mightjust the way my vocal chords work,
(10:18):
I don't I don't really have thatpitch. Yeah, that well, like
I could do a really deep voicefor a long time or you know,
a medium like this, but doingit like high pitch like Gary's is actually
really tough. Um, So whenI do when my voice is fresh,
I'll just like pump out as manyGary v videos before my voice gets fucked
again and I have to wait anotherweek or two whatever. But I don't
(10:39):
know that was here the trigger wordsof like patience and fucking you know,
perspective, and I feel like I'mlike, I'm only inclined to just say
it but in the Gary Vy voice, but I got hold back. Yeah,
yeah, that is I mean,I feel like the first time I
saw I think you were one ofthe first people that I saw that were
(11:00):
impersonating him, and like, man, it was spot on. Like I
think the video that he mentioned youin the biting the nails and stuff like
this spot on you exactly. Yeah, and then you're just like cutting it
off because a lot of people don'tget like the whole like thing down where
it's like that you have like theright tempo and everything too, not thinking
(11:24):
that pay attention, man, That'ssomething I think I'm really good at his
paying attention to the smaller new oncesand people and the you know, just
a little details. It's a littledetails that matter the moment right right,
and people people don't know it andtotally see it. And that's why I
think. I think my strength isn'tdoing that. So that's why I feel
like it works really well. Butum, it comes at a cost.
(11:46):
Yeah, it's those subtle things forsure. And then yeah, I know,
definitely, I think I think thatis such a strong um like that's
such a strong image and stuff.But like getting back to the like getting
Boxton, do you like you?I think I looked at your page and
you had a lot of different videos, So I think you did a good
job with not staying Boxton. Howdifficult is that with Like, I know
(12:11):
this is going to get views,and I know this is going to get
attention, but I still want tostay true to like other parts of my
comedy and things like that. Well, honestly, it's the gay videoway man.
He always talks about you know,being yourself and talking about shit,
you know, and saying things thatyou love and that makes you happy.
And I truly believe in that formyself, you know. So it's like
(12:35):
comedy isn't the only thing I like. I love. I love to dance,
I love what to saying. Obviously, I'm close to my mom.
I have her in my videos.Um you know, I'm a drummer,
like I played basketball, sports andshit, So I like to showcase everything
and anything like I just just trulybecause I actually love it. I'm not
trying to like pay her like showoff or anything. I just I just
I think it's so cool that Iget to just show who I really am
(12:58):
to the online where I'm not whyI feel like people fuck with me heavy,
Like people support my shit, theyreally support because they feel like it's
genuine, and I do my bestto portray you that online because if you're
not, people can read right throughthe screen. They can be like,
Oh, this guy's being bullshit orhe's faking it, which I never do.
I pride myself and being completely myselfin every aspect of my life.
That's my main theme, that's mymain message of my whole like theme and
(13:22):
career is just being yourself. AndI feel like that's why people really resonate
with that, and that's why Ifeel like the things I do also work.
It's like I'm not box like Isaid, I'm not boxing myself into
just Gary V or you know,like fucking Italian videos or this video or
that video. It's like, Ido it all because I genuinely know about
(13:43):
all these different things and I thinkI'm equally good at all them. So
I said, you gotta like Idon't care, Like, yeah, obviously,
there's times where I'm like I'm feelinga certain video. I'm like,
ah, like this will hit,like I'm just gonna do this now and
then I'll post it and whatever.But I'll still continue to do the other
shit that's not as popular Gary popular. Yeah, I'm turning into gary V.
(14:05):
I'm actually had an idea to doa video of Nima Naz turning into
gary V like the day in thelife almost okay, seeing the transformation.
So they'll come out soon, probablyelse on that one day. Yeah.
Yeah, it's like I just liketo, you know, dive into everything.
You know, it could be diverse. Yeah. Right, that's funny
because I was actually gonna ask becauseyou do these impressions. It's like,
(14:28):
how how much of like gary Vis like actually becoming a part of you
every video? Man? Well,I don't know. I mean like every
time I do, like every timeI do videos as as myself, like
I'm just talking to the camera,like just saying funny shit wherever it is
all my stories, people are like, all right, cool, like not
(14:50):
doing in gary V voice, AndI'm like, no, I don't want
to just be right, It's likethis is coming from me and I am
um, but it's cool. Idon't mind, Like it's it's funny.
Um. And I Also I feellike a lot of people just say that
just because they understand that I understandthat the jokes that they're like, they're
joking. I'm joking. So right, um, because I've built that rapport
(15:11):
over the years of like, youknow, it's okay to like banter and
shit whatever, like yeah, Iunderstand, I'm not you know, I'm
aware, self aware as and tobe a good community, I think you
have to be very self aware.So I feel like that's I mean,
yeah, absolutely do you Um doyou do like cameos and stuff based off
like your impressions as well? Ohyeah yeah yeah, people request cameos like
(15:33):
pretty much every week, got geta for you? Um, so yeah,
make sure honestly it's like some GaryV some some other actions I do.
Um, you know my mom askedfrom my mom in the videos like
everything, like yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah,
that's yeah. Yeah. And UM, I wanted to ask you to,
um what I guess first stand up? What did you have as your like
(15:56):
main form of I guess content forthat? Do you stories about you?
Is it like your experiences in actingor you know what? I guess what
exactly do you focus on with yourcomedy in your stand up? That's a
good question. Yeah. It's funnybecause a lot of people might think because
they see me online, they thinkthat's all I do on stage or that's
(16:18):
what I do on stages of impressions, which is not the case. Like,
um, I still incorporate my accentsand whatever my stand up, but
it's not the main focus. It'slike I have like actual stand up bits
or like their jokes, they're theirstories of my life or things I've observed
or the relationships I've had or talkingabout I talked about my parents a lot,
like mom My Dad show like that. Um, just like random shit,
(16:40):
you know anything that thing is funny, I'll just do it on stage.
And I've bombed so many times onstage trying random stories or jokes that
think are funny and just gone terribly. But that's all point. You know,
he's gonna try it, Like you'renot gonna know what's funny until you
do it. Um. But yeah, Like it's it's weird because now I'm
at a point where I have Ihave a big enough following where a lot
of people do know me from justmy online stuff. So when I do
(17:03):
do stand up shows now and peoplecome to watch me, I feel like
there is um an expectation I guessfrom them that I will be doing the
things that they're seeing of me online, but I do my best to incorporate
it into the stories I'm telling orlike, you know, I'm not just
like I feel like stand up isn'tjust going up and just doing an impression.
It's like that's not stand up.Right. Stand up is you know,
(17:26):
like having one liners or having astory or whatever. Right, it's
like you have a flow to theset um. Otherwise it's just hack.
It's you know, it's not traditionalstand up. Yeah. So yeah,
it's just a mixture of everything.Yeah. And what what I've noticed too,
is you mentioned like awareness. Ithink the best comedians are the ones
that make things that are like,you know, they're very aware and they
(17:51):
point out like things that are actuallylike really true, but in a comedy
kind of way. Right, Yeah, I guess what what like has has
like social media kind of helped developyour comedy in a sense of self awareness
and things like that, or haveyou noticed that it hasn't really changed much
or like how how has how hasthat really impacted your comedy? I think
(18:14):
it helps. I mean, it'salways good to be in the know of
what's going on in the world andpeople around you. And that's why I
still consume content like I watch otherpeople ship all the time, just again
inspiration or see what other people aredoing, or I don't know, like
things that happen in the news orin my city or country. And then
you know, if I find certainideas that are funny about that, then
I'll do a video that's relevant tothat time or like you know, I
(18:36):
always taking advantage of, you know, things that could be like topical,
like I don't know, like friends, like for example, like Eastern Easter
just passed? Um, or waitwhere are you guys? By the way,
where do you guys live in Florida? Oh you're in Florida? Okay,
okay, some reason I thought youguys were Canadian, but I'm from
Toronto. I don't know if youknew that. Yeah, because I'm because
(19:00):
I'm from Toronto. I don't knowif you knew that. But okay,
yeah we knew you were. Ithink I saw you're from Canada, but
I didn't know you're from Toronto.Yeah. And then okay, I heard
the hockey player impressions, so itsounded it sounded you know, spot on.
Yeah, thanks, thanks, yea. That's also a big, very
popular character of mine. But yeah, um, so yeah, like you
(19:26):
knows Eastern just passed by. I'mso dumb, like you guys obviously sell
Eastern the States, right, yeah, no fair question though, you know
you never know. I feel Americannow. Usually Mary's the other way around.
Americans don't know about right. Yeah, so Easter East Eastern passed by,
And you know I always use thatto like be like, oh,
(19:48):
what what video could I film forEastern? That could be funny. I
know my audience, I know mypeople who watched my ship, and I'm
like, okay, Easter is celebratedby Christians or Catholics or Orthodox, you
know, Greeks and Serbians and fuckingI don't know, Italians are heavy on
it. Um. And then alsoit's Passover and Ramadan Um. The Jews
celebrate Passover, then the Muslims whereverArabs celebrate Rama, they're doing Ramadan same
(20:14):
same time. So I was like, oh, it would be perfect to
do a video of three different charactersthat I can do in one video.
Um. And that's why I did. I did a Canadian Italian guy that's
pretty really big on my page.Um. And then like I did a
new Jewish character. It's terrible,but I had to put it in and
then fucking an Arab guy that's alsovery popular that I do, and they're
all interacting. It's like really funnyand people love it. And I was
(20:37):
like, yeah, that's that's whatyou make content. It's just I just
think about it that way. Everyevery day i'm living, I'm thinking,
oh, that could be a pieceof content, or this could be material
like that. My mind's always likeracing about some doing something funny. So
um, you know, like itcould be whatever. It could be.
Christmas I've done. I did awhole Christmas series of like seventeen different characters
(20:57):
doing writing under sands. So it'slike I take advantage of things like that,
right, Holidays or you know,things that happen in the news or
whatever. Obviously not maybe like theRussian and Ukraine ship, but you know
that's yeah, that's so yeah,it's sort of us there. Yeah.
I mean it's kind of incredible tothink about because you know, normally,
(21:19):
say, in like a high production, you're gonna have different people playing these
parts. But on social media,it's like you can be a totally different
character and pull it off, youknow, tremendously. So it's like it's
it's kind of awesome to see whenpeople do that as well, Like it's
a different like art form, thankyou. Yeah, it's Um, it's
(21:40):
definitely tough, man, but witha little bit of consistency and effort,
it goes a long way. Yeah. And I wanted to ask too,
Um, because you have so manydifferent things going on, how much I
guess if you had to give percent, like how much of your time
goes to each thing, you know, because it's hard to when you have
so many things going on, It'sreally hard to make time for every thing.
So I wanted to know, howdo you like really structure your time
(22:02):
and make sure that you're not ignoringor you know, neglecting a part of
what you enjoy doing too. Yeah, I'm I have I set aside a
few hours every day in the morningand at nighttime for myself to just like
relax and do like not film oredit or write anything obviously, like other
(22:25):
than sometimes I have shows at night, but that's different. Um. And
Yeah, I just I spend prettymuch the first couple hours of my mornings
when I wake up not looking atmy phone. I just kind of I
save it at that time for myselfand like with my thoughts, and I
either like meditate for a bid orI'll go and write down my thoughts on
you know, just like in mynotes in my computer, or I'll write
(22:48):
jokes or write material or you know, stuff like that. And recently,
well actually will always I'm always interactingwith my fans, like on like because
I have a following on Instagram,TikTok and now on YouTube, and I
have a community which is like it'sit's a text community where like people can
text me, and it's like it'sactually a rare thing. Not a lot
(23:11):
of people have it. But Ithink as a creator, it's like you
have to be eligible after a certainamount of fallowing. So we finally got
that, and you know, Ispend like the first hour or two even
responding to every comment or getting backto everybody and just like just giving back
to the community, you know,because I feel like that's that's the best
way to build your audience and bereally close to them, because those people
(23:33):
are so grateful and appreciative when youget back to them, and you're not
just some fucking like ghost or unreachableentity. Right, It's like I want
to make people feel that they're apart of something, right, Like I
don't want to be just another personwho's like famous or celebrity, Like I
don't feel like that. I don't. I don't want to label myself as
that. So I'm just another personjust like those people are. So um,
(23:57):
Yeah, I spend that time doingthat or you know, and then
I'll go for a walker. Iwork out like two or three times a
week now too, so it's prettygood. And then yeah, I have
lunch, and then pretty much fromlike two to six PM is when I
do my work, so whether that'sfilming something, editing something, writing something
for a sketch or stand up,doing podcasts, you know, whatever,
(24:22):
stuff like that, meetings. Andthen after six roughly is when I'll just
like have dinner and then I'll justchill for us and I'll play videomes like
I love video games, or youknow, I'll hang out with my friends
or my parents or whatever, watchTV. And like the thing is,
I don't really get tired of doingthe stuff I'm doing anyway. So it's
like even if I go a littleextra here and there, I don't mind
(24:44):
because I genuinely love what I'm doingand I'm so happy doing comedy every day,
and it's like a way better thanwork I fucking McDonald's or even an
office. It's like, God,I would fucking hate that shit. Yeah,
I'm just grateful that I get tojust do this shit every day.
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.No, I think I think that's like
a really big part of it too, of not getting burned out, because
a lot of times people like youknow, you enjoy it, but if
(25:07):
it's too much of something, itbecomes overwhelming, I guess you could say,
and then you just want to youjust want to push it as far
as away as you can. AndI think it's very hard, especially when
you know you're working for so long, so many years, you kind of
have to be careful with that asmuch as you want to really work and
catch up or get going. Ifeel like that's very hard. Was that
(25:29):
something that you always kept in mind, like throughout all these years of building
up your social media's and your contentand your stand up and things like that.
No, I actually never thought ofthat until pretty much like two years
ago when the pandemic hit. Becauseso my brother, he's older than me,
he's actually my manager, and he'sthe one you talked yeah, for
(25:51):
me to get on here. ButI he pretty much like started to work
with me as soon as the pandemichit, because I was when my ship
was starting to hit a little bitmore and I was on the verge of
like just you know, having somevideos go a little viral here and there,
and I was starting to getting alot of audience and people try to
(26:11):
like email me a lot, andI have too much for me to handle.
So for like a few months there, I was like hand like everything
on my own, and I waslike completely chaotic, Like my lifestyle was
so chaotic. Where I was onthe road before the pandemic hit, Like
I was on the road doing standup. I was actually in Miami and
Fort Lauderdale, Okay, pretty muchbefore the pandemic hit, doing some stand
(26:32):
up, and like I was allover the States, and I was in
a bunch of cities in Canada,and I was always on my phone,
Like I was spending so much timeon my phone, like pretty much all
day. I was, you know, I kind of lost track of like
what the my real purpose was becauseI got caught up in like the lifestyle
of you know, going from citycity doing shows and like eating shitty foods,
(26:53):
sleeping terribly, waking up whenever Iwant sleeping, whenever I want talking
to girls. You know, it'slike something finally getting some attention, you
know, Yeah, it's like itfeels nice, right. But I let
that shit fucking get to my headearly pretty much at that point, and
then I got to a point whereI was just so I felt something was
off and I was on the vergeof burnout. And that was pretty much
(27:15):
that same week. That's when thepandemic hit, and it was a perfect
opportunity to come back home, andI prettymost told my brother. I was
like, yo, I need yourhelp, Like I asked for help.
Literally, I I never asked forhelp, but I was like, yo,
I just need help to fix thisship, because if I continue like
this, I'm gonna crash and I'mgonna lose what I built so far.
(27:36):
So I need to just change thechange the plan here. And literally I
used that whole month to just goghosts off every social media platform. I
didn't do any shows obviously, youknow, pandemic and then I literally started
from zero, like I learned howto just develop good habits in the morning
and the nighttime. I started toread more. I like put time limits
(27:57):
on my phone on the apps andship like limited hour a day, um,
just to like kind of reset theroutines. Yeah right, And that
was the most fucking crucial month inmy life because if I didn't do that,
then I wouldn't be here now.Because my brother was definitely a big
reason for it, because he helpedme along the way and he was more
(28:18):
organized at the time and just he'sbeen through a lot more than I have
and he kind of guided me.Um, And I'm so grateful for that
because it kind of shaped me intothe percion today. And um, it's
like it's a really testament to youknow, having the right people around you
and um, you know, havingpeople to call you out on your bullshit
and and call your call your blindspots out that because like a lot of
(28:41):
people, just like tunnel vision,right, you don't see your blind spots
right, you know, sometimes youdon't know what you're doing that's wrong.
You think everything doing is like right, or you don't you don't know.
So the fact that I have Ihave and I had someone like that was
super clutch, and yeah, um, that was pretty much how I developed.
I also so The biggest thing wasI learned how to schedule my days
(29:06):
out, my weeks out, mymonth's out, even so we had coaching
sessions every week. We fucking havea planner. It's like, I write
my shit down, like I eventhe smallest things like when I'm going to
sleep, when I'm waking up,when I'm doing this, because I feel
like that's the most important thing tobuild your foundation from. So um,
writing shit down and scheduling thing thingshave saved my fucking life, that's for
(29:26):
sure. And yeah, so it'sstill doing all that stuff to this day.
Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah.No, I mean, like you
said, it's good that you havesomeone that can, like, you know,
tell you how it is, becausea lot of people, especially with
the you know, hype stuff,it's like they have yes men and you
know that's not what people need.Really. Yeah, did you read any
(29:48):
like um time management books or somethingbecause or did you already like have this
and then you just kind of wentfor it. No? Well yeah,
so actually that was pretty much aroundthe time where we both kind of following
Gary V a lot as well,and he actually gay helped us a lot.
Not gonna lie, like his wholemessage about just doing love and taking
her time and having like patience right, Um, it's like microspeed, back
(30:14):
up pay or anything. In thelong term, it helped a lot.
And also the fact that he's like, Yo, you don't have to feel
like you have to fucking do thisshit every day. If you need to
take a time off, like takea day off or whatever. It's like,
don't be afraid to have that humility. So um, that was kind
of initial things that we both learnabout. And then you know, I
started reading David Goggan's book, Um, Can't Hurt Me, which fucking helped
(30:37):
me a lot. And then youknow, just like a lot of other
people who along the way, TomBill, You, Jordan Peterson and show
like that, and yeah, theyjust changed their lives, man, Honestly,
Like I couldn't. I couldn't believeit. Like I don't know,
I don't know how more people aren'twatching her listening to these people, at
least in my industry of like entertainment, Like I think it's so rusual because
(31:00):
also they also talk about how tovalue yourself and your time, which is
so key. Um, Like alot of people just they undervalue themselves so
much. They waste time so much, and that's why they don't become successful.
That's why they don't grow, That'swhy they don't. They plateau like
for years, um, and thatand that was something we were just not
(31:22):
willing to accept, right, sowe're like, we have to make a
change, and so this was it. Yeah, And that's that's very similar
to kind of our thought process.I think, how like, you know,
a lot of things that we wantto do. We want to be
able to hang out with you know, friends and all this, but you
have to stay focused on really thegrind. I guess you could say how
much of that? How much ofyour mentality was like man like, if
(31:47):
I just keep if I take onemore day off and do this, I'm
gonna it's gonna be a pattern.And I just can't do that. I
gotta stay focused. Like how muchof that? Um? What was your
mindset with that? And um,like how do you kind of navig get
that? Um? You mean likebefore I took that whole like breaker,
Yeah, like even after two ofLike how do you kind of measure,
(32:08):
um, when when it's too muchleisure time and when it's when it's kind
of like Okay, I gotta reallystay focused on what I'm saying. You
know, my mission is yeah,just the balance, I guess yeah,
yeah, um. I think itjust has to do with you're feeling.
You have to listen to yourself andyou know, give your time to give
(32:31):
yourself the time to actually just disconnectfor however long you need, like for
an hour or the whole day oreven three days. Like, as long
as you set the intention, Ifeel like that's the most important thing,
is saying the intention. If you'rejust losly just like, I'll see what
happens, Like, that's not gonnawork, you'll lose track. But I
I personally just like, all right, I'm just gonna take this whole after
(32:52):
doonen off, I'll be good byetomorrow. And I say that to my
brother and he's like, all right, cool, yea, we got it,
and we'll get back into it tomorrow. And then that's usually how we
operate. Yeah, Like, I'dnever let outside forces distract me anymore like
I did a couple of years agobefore people like oh, come hang on
here, let's do this, oryou come do this. Now we've we've
prioritized our time way more, waymore efficiently, and you know, now
(33:15):
now we're just very good with knowingwhat's what's you know, what's important to
us and what's not. And that'sthat's how that's how we value it,
all right. Yeah, And itreally seems like you are super super discipline
and super self aware that a lotof people that want to get into this
space may not have that discipline.And I think that's that's kind of where
(33:36):
it takes that those years that youhave to put in to really I guess
see, if you actually want thisright and then you develop that discipline over
time, is that is that kindof how you saw your path go and
that's what brought you to that pointof like I need to be organized in
this, like this organized and figureout how much my time goes in everything.
(33:58):
Yeah. Well, I mean forme, I dropped out of university
to pursue this stuff like comedy andacting and everything. This is my passion
in life. I can't I don'twant to do anything else, and I
can't do anything else. There's theonly thing I'm good at. So if
I don't do well in this,I'm fucked um. But but I'm happy
doing it. I don't go afuck out if I become poor one day
(34:19):
because I just don't make it andthen so be at least I know I
tried, but I'm willing to acceptthat. But I also when I dropped
out at university, I kind ofI have this pride in me. Like
also, I come from an immigrantbackground, like my parents are from Iran
and like you know, our propersionwhere I run in, and like I
was born in Canada, but likeyou know, my parents fucking fled their
(34:43):
country to come to Canada so mybrother and I can have a better life
and just like here, what theyhad to go through just a fucking you
know, let us live our livesthe best that we could. I always
have that in the back of myhead whenever I'm doing my own thing,
because I'm like, man, ifthey worked that hard, bro, I
have no excuse, Like I haveall these resources around you. Um,
there's no excuse for me to justlike sit around and not do and not
(35:04):
go absolutely one hundred percent in whateverI want to do. So um,
I've always had that natural drive inme from even when I was a kid.
I just I'm very competitive. Ihate it losing, whether it's fucking
house league basketball or the fucking cadand I hate getting the I'm like this
guy, I'm gonna get this guynow. I'm gonna go out of my
(35:28):
way in this cod map just tofucking knife this guy. Like just so
hostile. But um, I justhave that competitive nature in me and the
fact that like I just know thevibe and the feeling around like comedians and
this whole industry about oh, onlyone percent of comedians make it. That
kind of it pisses me off becauseI'm like, well, I'm gonna prove
(35:52):
that every every motherfucker who's doubted meor doesn't think I can be the one
percent that I'm gonna be the onepercent of people who does make it right.
And I'll never I'm not gonna backout. I'm not gonna back back
down no way like this. Idon't even have a plan B, right,
because once you start having a planB, you already canceled yourself out.
So this is my plan A.This is all I'm gonna do,
and I'm gonna go as hard asI can, and whatever it is I
(36:13):
have to do along the way,I will do it as long as it
stays within my integrity and I don'tlose my artistic integrity and creative integrity along
the way. Um, and Ihave the right people around me, and
that's the foundation, man. That'sthe only way you can make it to
the top is with having the rightpeople around you and having help. And
I definitely value that a lot soand I value freedom, man. I
value freedom so much. I'm willingto grind it out for years, which
(36:36):
I've done so far, just toget to that point of where I can
just do whatever I I want todo on a higher level. People I
love with comfortable, you know,being comfortable along the way. So,
yeah, you know, so didnot many people are willing to do that.
Not many people are willing to dothat. Nine percent of people in
this world aren't willing to do whatI've been doing and what I'm about to
(36:58):
do. So and I know that, um, but someone's gotta do it
right exactly. So did you Itsounds like because you said you dropped out
of college for it, was thereever this point where you got a like
a normal job or there was thislike procrastination of like going for what you
want to do rather than just youknow, just kind of going through this
(37:21):
systematic life versus like doing the hardpath yeah, man, I'm I've always
been a rebellious of academics and likehaving to listen to someone talk about some
dumbass algebra I don't care about.But you know I knew because you know,
my brother went through school and likemy parents or my dad's an engineer,
(37:43):
and you know, like it's likehardcore and I have to do this
extracurriculators have to study math, science, all this shit. I still did
it just just to kind of likeplease them a little bit. But once
I got out of high school,I was like, man, this sucks.
I actually don't enjoy doing any ofthis, and like there has to
be something I have to do thatthat I love. And I just feel
like I've always been a creative person, like on every aspect of those I
(38:05):
felt like I was being robbed ofthat and my soul by not doing something
that in that field. So whenI found comedy, I was like,
there's no it's a no brainer.Um. You know, like I've done
what I had to do over thepast, you know, my whole life
of working these shitty proctium jobs andpeople shitting on me for not being the
best student and this and that.When I didn't really care and now it's
(38:25):
my time to shine. So um, that's all it is. Yeah.
Yeah, I think that creative passionactually, like is a very important part
too, because it's like, Imean, if you don't have that,
that can like lead to you know, depression, and like you have all
these different emotions and stuff, andit just makes life a million times harder.
Yeah, And I think I thinkjust even for us too, I
(38:49):
feel like you kind of like yourinstinct is to maybe I do need to
go down this system for a littlebit and then but in the back of
your head you're always like, no, this is like what I truly want
to do, right, And likehow much? How hard? Was that
a tough conversation of like, hey, I'm dropping out and I'm pursuing this,
or was that everyone already knew,like you know, you're just gonna
do this and this is like whatyou really want to do. Yeah.
(39:13):
I I sold it to them somuch that they had no choice. But
except that, well, I guesshe's gonna do it. We can't change
his mind. Obviously they're disappointed atthe time because they thought I could do
something that's more traditional that they wouldhave done back home. But I'm like,
this is a new world, bro. There's so many opportunities out here
that no one else in any othergeneration could have done. And I want
(39:35):
to be one of the first onesin my generation to kind of do something
different, especially in my of myuh you know, representing for my culture
and my people, because no oneelse in my fucking culture is doing what
I'm doing. Le mean close becauseof all the the you know, the
judgment and all the you know,all the forcing of oh, you gotta
do this, you got to goto lader, you gotta become a doctor.
(39:57):
It's like fuck that she know,I gotta. I got change the
path to your so um. AndI'm lucky that I have supportive parents enough
that they're just they're cooler than typicalMiddle Eastern parents, where they're not as
strength, and you know, theyactually like to laugh and they're actually funny
themselves. And that's why I feellike I'm funny too, because obviously I
got it from them. Yeah,but um, I think that really helped
me. I'm very lucky to havethem be that support of it. Now.
(40:21):
They're obviously fully behind what I'm doingbecause I've shown to them over the
years what I can do and whatI'm capable of and the you know,
the results I've I've obviously provided.So um, yeah, it's I'm definitely
very grateful for just where I am. And yeah, no, that's that
is that is truly amazing. Waswas there, like, because I know
how hard that can be. Um, Like just from seeing it, I've
(40:45):
seen like you know, there's differentgenerations that are very stuck and like this
is what works, this is safe. You know, was there anything that
you had to show for at thetime of hey, um, this is
what I'm gonna do and they asklike, okay, but you know,
shows something. But sometimes when youjust starting out and you already have this
idea in your head, there's notreally much to show for, but you
(41:06):
know what direction you want to goin. Was there anything that you had
already as far as content that youcould show them and kind of explain or
was it just they had to trustyour your vision? Yeah? I had
these blind trust bro like that hadnothing. I had nothing. I just
I had the vision inside my body. That's it. That's all I had.
(41:27):
Um there was literally nothing else fromthe moment I found out because I
went to school for a comedy likethe first two years of my career was
I learned, um this college nearbyin their city. Um or they taught
comedy for two years. Like there'sactually like people who like were like comedians.
You know they're older now, butthey're now they're teaching like how to
write stand up jokes or their physicalcomedy, acting prov like writing for a
(41:53):
TV actually like that. I learneda lot of that at this program,
you know, for the foundation.And then after that when I was done,
then I was my own officially.But um, yeah, at the
beginning, it was all just blindfaith, man, blind support. Um.
But I had the vision man,like if I always I realized,
I knew from the beginning, ifI don't believe myself one hundred percent,
(42:15):
no one's gonna believe in me aone hundred percent. So I have to
be the one to go above andbeyond and go hard and prove to myself
and to others around me that thisis possible and it's a real career.
It's a real thing I couldn't makehappen, and that's it. And along
the way, obviously there's so manypeople who doubt and like I are gonna
make money, I'm gonna do thisblah blah blah, and I knew that
was coming, right. I neverlet that shit affect man. I never
(42:36):
got this courage once. I justI was so set on my fucking vision
this whole time. I've never lostit up until to this day that I
just knew one day don't work out. I always knew like the more effort
I put into something, the moreconsistency I put into it, one day
I'll be it'll work out of myfavor. And and and another thing is
(42:59):
there's no way, there's no certainpoint where I'll stop because it's for me.
It's just the next thing. Likeif a big milestone happens, it's
cool and I'll celebrate it. ButI always want to keep going because it's
like Drake stopping after he does viewshis Views album, like in twenty sixteen
or something like, he could havestopped and still been the best, but
(43:21):
he he still went because he's like, oh, I could do better,
right, So it's like maybe it'sa bad example, but you know,
you know what I mean, Like, um, I just feel like there's
always more growth to be had,and I truly believe that I could be
one of the greatest. I justneed to keep going. Yeah that's yeah.
No, I can definitely tell youknow, you're a highly driven and
(43:42):
determined person. Is there a formthat like or like a goal that you
have that you want to start doing, like more inspirational stuff like how you've
gotten influenced by these like certain charactersand certain like people. Yeah, yeah,
for sure, I'm gonna start awhole career as a your view,
um, going on stage across theworld doing ted talks. But I do
(44:07):
I do want to do that stufftoo, man, because I feel like
I do have that wisdom, andI have my brothers even more than than
me. Like he I got alot of it from him. He reads
so many fucking books. It's crazy. I don't know anyone else who reads
as many books as this guy.But um, just together, man,
we just we we see it ina different way, Like even though I'm
in comedy, we take it veryseriously. And um, that's it's like
the it's so ironic because you think, like over just clowns, right,
(44:30):
It's like no, man, there'sa whole other serious side to this whole
business operation. Um, and Iwanna I wanna be the voice for the
generation of people who want to getinto this field and and just an entertainment
in general. Are are you knowor anyone who has to pursue their passion?
Um, And I want to tellthem that, you know, it's
possible if you just believe in yourselfand if you have your vision and don't
(44:50):
listen tell other people and what theirjudgments are and you know all that stuff.
I feel like I naturally have agood um point of view with all
these things, and I feel likeyou could definitely inspire and help a lot
of people. So you know,one day and obviously I'll add a touch
of humor right now as I'm doing, but um, that's just who I
am, right at the end ofthe day, That's who I am.
So like a tie back to thebeginning. It's like, um, just
(45:13):
being being yourself. Um, thatcan send the best message to people.
Yeah. Absolutely, And Nima,I don't want to take up too much
of your time, So I guessthe final question here since we do have
to let you go, UM,what you know? What do you what
are you like setting your sights onand what's to come for the future,
(45:34):
Like where do you have your mindset? What kind of content what direction are
you really focusing on. Mum.Definitely meeting Gary V in the near future.
I think it will help you.Um yeah, for sure, for
sure, I has to you know, it already follows me and it's comments
on my ship, so it's downto happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(45:55):
um. But honestly, on abigger level, I want to tour
the world doing stand up. It'smy goal in life is the tour of
the world doing stand up, sellingup stadiums like Russell Peters. Is one
of my main inspirations to even startthis comedy in the first place, because
I feel like I see a lotof myself in him accents and stuff.
Yeah that just in a different way, more modern way. And then also
Andrew Schultz, you know, similarstyle on stage. I just want to
(46:17):
do all that shit. And Iwant to act on my own movies like
Poor Rat style. You know,I have a lot of strong characters.
Yeah, I feel like I canmake my own movies and I want to
do that. I want to havemy own productions, and I just want
to be big in every entertainment platformas possible. Like, I just want
to do it all. Man.I fucking love the ship and I want
to just provide as much value peopleif I can, and that's it,
(46:42):
man, you know, I justwant to inspire the masses and just keep
making people laugh. That's my goal. Yeah, now, and I have
no doubt that you'll accomplish those becauseyou know, you've been at it for
so long and you know you're finallyit seems like on from the outside perspective,
you're really being what you've been sewingthis whole time. So um,
I don't think that's too far downthe road. So we want to wish
(47:06):
you good luck with that. Wereally appreciate you coming on here, Nima
M. Yeah, thank you,thank you for coming on. We really
appreciate it. And that's uh.That's that's all for this podcast episode.
Guys. Thank you guys for watching, thank you for listening, and we'll
see you guys next time. Appreciateit, Take care, guys. Thank you,
Welcome back, guys to the TaylorLucie Twins Podcast. Our guest today is
comedian actor Nima nas So, Welcomeon, man, Hey, what's up.
Well, well, we actually wantedto get into I know, you
are probably most known for the GaryV impressions. Yeah, yeah, so
I wanted to so I wanted tokind of touch on that or like,
(00:22):
where did you really start before allof the Gary V impressions and things like
that. M yeah, I meana lot of people don't know this,
but I actually I've been doing standup for about seven and a half years,
even before the content. I meanI started at the same time pretty
much making content as I was doingstand up and acting about seven and a
(00:43):
half years ago. So yeah,I kind of just throughout my life,
I've always been good at, youknow, imitating other people, are mimicking
certain accents and impressions of other peoplejust observationally. My brain is wired that
way, so you know, naturally, I got to the point where I,
(01:04):
you know, found gry V alongthe way obviously about like a couple
of years ago, and I juststarted to just try doing his voice and
people will really love it, andI just kept working on it. And
now it's like probably one of thebest, I guess, yeah, because
even he himself has said as hell, yeah, he gave you a shout
(01:26):
out right yeah, on Andrew Schultz'spodcast Flag or Two, which is crazy
because Andrew Schaltz is also one ofmy favorite comedians right now. So it
was super dope to see that.Yeah, that's amazing and did that ye
did that kind of give you anotherboost, like people start looking you up
a little bit more too? Yeah, I mean it's naturally, you know,
(01:47):
the more the bigger you get,the faster your audience will grow.
If you're if you're sting consistent,if you're not staying consistent to know,
but which I pride myself and beingconsistent. Um, I'm posting as much
as I can every day. Soyeah, I've seen yeah, pretty steady
growth, especially on YouTube. Imy YouTube fucking blew up in the past
(02:07):
like a couple of months, whereas like compared to the first seven years,
why I only got to seven casesubscribers, and then within two months
I jumped to now my one hundredand twenty thousand almost Wow. Yeah,
that's crazy. Yeah, that's ahuge jump. And YouTube is very hard
to be like it's so hard.Yeah, I know, trust me,
(02:28):
man, I know, I know. It's Um, it's been a fucking
long journey for me on YouTube.But yeah, now it's popping off,
which is cool. That's incredible,awesome. So you started the stand up,
like you said, seven years ago, and then, um, how
soon after or what like app didyou start on? Was it just instue
game? You start uploading stand upand then impressions? Um, To be
(02:52):
honest, I don't know. Ialways had had those two sep you know,
separated because I don't know. Ijust thought stand up on his own,
it was its own grind, andI would just I would be.
I would go out like almost everynight for a couple of years, doing
like three four open mics in onenight, and a lot of people don't
know this, but you know I'vebeen doing that for years, and um,
(03:14):
I built up my stand up skillson stage all those years, and
then at the same time I wasdoing just different content online. I never
really posted my stand up though,to be honest, um, over over
these these last few years. Butrecently, you know, I've since I've
been getting better on stage and betteron camera and posting more stuff than I
haven't introduced my stand up clips tothe socials, um, and not by
(03:37):
the point where I want to actuallymake it a regular thing in my content
because now I'm doing to win moreshows, I'm doing more time on stage,
I have more opportunities to film stuff, and I'm just funnier on stage.
So it's just better. Yeah,that's incredible. Like stand up is
a whole other animal too, Likethere's there's some people that like struggle just
doing stand up and that's their onlyfocus, you know, Yeah, and
(03:59):
I know many of them, SoI mean that's just that's another Like,
I mean, I think what itcomes down to is it seems like you've
worked so hard for so long,and you know, a lot of times,
I think when this happens, peoplesee the results, like they're like,
oh, this guy just he justdid this impression and he just blew
up, right, But they don'tsee the years and years that you put
in beforehand and then it finally youknow, popped off. Really yeah,
(04:26):
well that's the thing that is theclassic example of overnight success right or now
for me, Like specifically, Isee I see the other side of it,
and I understand how people can thinkthat, but it's like, wow,
people just don't know you just peoplejust don't know. Um right,
there's just a whole other side ofthis. It's like they don't they don't.
(04:47):
They just don't have full context ofthe person who went viral overnight.
Um like especially you know, likewith with Kevin Hartt for example, like
he he became famous for like twentyyears of doing stand up and everything,
right, so there, Oh,who's this new community. He's like,
he's not new, He's been He'sbeen at this so long. But that's
(05:08):
the thing. People just don't.People don't see the grind. They don't
see the all the ship they haveto go through over there's years, right,
So but you know, it makesit I'm much sweeter though when when
you do actually get the benefits.Yeah, yeah, I would. I
mean I would say there is avery small percent where that does happen.
They post a few videos or somethingin the but that's like, yeah,
(05:30):
I was gonna use that example aswell. He's doing that right, trust
me, I know. And sometimesit's not gonnae it pisses me off,
but I'm like whatever, man,it's is gonna fucking die out. After
a couple of years. I'm andI know myself. I know like what
I have has longevity, and that'swhat matters here. Yeah, and I'm
(05:51):
actually glad after a while of likebeing in this online world and seeing people
blow up so fast and like,I'm not gonna lie, I'm only human.
I've also compared myself to other peopleas well, But now I'm at
a point where I'm way pasts thatbecause I realized that I actually would prefer
to take way longer to get famousor bigger or whatever, because you just
(06:15):
you can you build so much more, you know, strengthen your audience that
way, and I just feel likeyou never lose your integrity and rather than
like and I'm also you also buildreadiness, like you're prepared when it does
happen, right, right, Becausefor me, I've done thousands of videos
online, I've done thousands of setson stage before anyone even knew who the
fuck I was, right, itwas nobody. I'm still nobody, but
(06:38):
I'm just saying it still took thatlong before people start to know my name.
But now it's like that's why ifeel like I'm so comfortable doing so
much every day and everyone's like,oh, How are you posting so much
video? How are you posting somuch content? How are you doing this?
I do that, I'm like,because I've been doing this before any
of you guys even knew I existed. So now I'm just doing it with
more attention on me, and it'sactually fueling me to go even harder because
(07:01):
I know I can get bigger andbigger and make more money to keep investing
back into the brand. That's whatmatters to me. But like a lot
of people, when they blow upinstantly, they don't have anything to show
for, right. So imagine someonekills viral with one video and then that
they think they're killing it, andthey, you know, all of a
sudden, people go to their profileand they see that they only have three
(07:21):
videos in a picture of their cat, They're not gonna be inclined to follow
you, Right. But if Iblow up tomorrow like a massive viral video,
like I'd say, majority of peoplewould go to my profile, would
see that I have thousands of videosand be inclined to follow me. Yeah,
that's how you build an audience.Absolutely. Yeah, I think you're
(07:43):
right. I think it does.There is something to be said for you
build a stronger community, like theslower you grow, and then you also
you also kind of have like whenI mean, you know, you're gonna
have low points of where your videosaren't going to get video views, you're
not gonna get gigs, whatever itmay be. And the more you have
that of like, hey, Ialready worked this hard, like I'm not
(08:07):
gonna quit, I feel like it'sa lot easier for the people on the
other side of that that just blewup. They don't have anything to look
back on and say, oh Idid this, Like they just go into
panic and like what do I do? You know? Yeah, I mean
you have that foundation, and thepeople who blow up really don't know quite
how to handle it or don't haveenough content. So it's like, well,
(08:30):
now what do I do? Andit's not I guess I'm gonna use
this loosely, but it's not aslike organic, right, It was just
like a hype thing, you know, So they just got a bunch of
hype. And yeah, I mean, just taking a longer route is a
lot obviously a lot harder, butit's definitely the better route to go because,
like you said, you have thatlongevity and it's worth it. It's
(08:52):
more worth it because you have moreto show for it, and you don't
have to panic like these people whogo viral overnight and don't have any videos
to back them up, because nowthey're like, oh shit, now I
have to do this one thing peoplelove my video for and they're stuck and
now they're boxed into that one thingas opposed to like, you know,
you know, I like to bringmyself up because I just feel like it's
(09:13):
a good example. But it's likeif I blow up tomorrow with one video,
people will come to my page andsee that I'm you know, I
do maybe more of those similar videos, but also I have all this other
catalog of other shit. You neverknow who's gonna like what right. That's
why I keep just I always preachlike, just do whatever you know and
do what interests you, and that'swhat people follow you for and support you
(09:35):
for, and that's what matters.The more authentic you are, the better
it is. Yeah. Yeah,you bring up in an amazing point too,
because really getting boxed in like thatis like for longevity as well.
It's like it doesn't make you happyif you have to do something and you're
trying to Chase, Like, Iguess the views and the likes over what
you want to do and what youwant to like put out, and just
(09:58):
talking about this makes me want togoing to Gary VMA. But my voice
is still recovering from Yeah. Sometimes, like it's such a such a hard
voice to do and people don't knowthat, but like it's actually one of
the hardest voices for me to dobecause it's such a high pitched and like
so dynamic in that way and mightjust the way my vocal chords work,
(10:18):
I don't I don't really have thatpitch. Yeah, that well, like
I could do a really deep voicefor a long time or you know,
a medium like this, but doingit like high pitch like Gary's is actually
really tough. Um, So whenI do when my voice is fresh,
I'll just like pump out as manyGary v videos before my voice gets fucked
again and I have to wait anotherweek or two whatever. But I don't
(10:39):
know that was here the trigger wordsof like patience and fucking you know,
perspective, and I feel like I'mlike, I'm only inclined to just say
it but in the Gary Vy voice, but I got hold back. Yeah,
yeah, that is I mean,I feel like the first time I
saw I think you were one ofthe first people that I saw that were
(11:00):
impersonating him, and like, man, it was spot on. Like I
think the video that he mentioned youin the biting the nails and stuff like
this spot on you exactly. Yeah, and then you're just like cutting it
off because a lot of people don'tget like the whole like thing down where
it's like that you have like theright tempo and everything too, not thinking
(11:24):
that pay attention, man, That'ssomething I think I'm really good at his
paying attention to the smaller new oncesand people and the you know, just
a little details. It's a littledetails that matter the moment right right,
and people people don't know it andtotally see it. And that's why I
think. I think my strength isn'tdoing that. So that's why I feel
like it works really well. Butum, it comes at a cost.
(11:46):
Yeah, it's those subtle things forsure. And then yeah, I know,
definitely, I think I think thatis such a strong um like that's
such a strong image and stuff.But like getting back to the like getting
Boxton, do you like you?I think I looked at your page and
you had a lot of different videos, So I think you did a good
job with not staying Boxton. Howdifficult is that with Like, I know
(12:11):
this is going to get views,and I know this is going to get
attention, but I still want tostay true to like other parts of my
comedy and things like that. Well, honestly, it's the gay videoway man.
He always talks about you know,being yourself and talking about shit,
you know, and saying things thatyou love and that makes you happy.
And I truly believe in that formyself, you know. So it's like
(12:35):
comedy isn't the only thing I like. I love. I love to dance,
I love what to saying. Obviously, I'm close to my mom.
I have her in my videos.Um you know, I'm a drummer,
like I played basketball, sports andshit, So I like to showcase everything
and anything like I just just trulybecause I actually love it. I'm not
trying to like pay her like showoff or anything. I just I just
I think it's so cool that Iget to just show who I really am
(12:58):
to the online where I'm not whyI feel like people fuck with me heavy,
Like people support my shit, theyreally support because they feel like it's
genuine, and I do my bestto portray you that online because if you're
not, people can read right throughthe screen. They can be like,
Oh, this guy's being bullshit orhe's faking it, which I never do.
I pride myself and being completely myselfin every aspect of my life.
That's my main theme, that's mymain message of my whole like theme and
(13:22):
career is just being yourself. AndI feel like that's why people really resonate
with that, and that's why Ifeel like the things I do also work.
It's like I'm not box like Isaid, I'm not boxing myself into
just Gary V or you know,like fucking Italian videos or this video or
that video. It's like, Ido it all because I genuinely know about
(13:43):
all these different things and I thinkI'm equally good at all them. So
I said, you gotta like Idon't care, Like, yeah, obviously,
there's times where I'm like I'm feelinga certain video. I'm like,
ah, like this will hit,like I'm just gonna do this now and
then I'll post it and whatever.But I'll still continue to do the other
shit that's not as popular Gary popular. Yeah, I'm turning into gary V.
(14:05):
I'm actually had an idea to doa video of Nima Naz turning into
gary V like the day in thelife almost okay, seeing the transformation.
So they'll come out soon, probablyelse on that one day. Yeah.
Yeah, it's like I just liketo, you know, dive into everything.
You know, it could be diverse. Yeah. Right, that's funny
because I was actually gonna ask becauseyou do these impressions. It's like,
(14:28):
how how much of like gary Vis like actually becoming a part of you
every video? Man? Well,I don't know. I mean like every
time I do, like every timeI do videos as as myself, like
I'm just talking to the camera,like just saying funny shit wherever it is
all my stories, people are like, all right, cool, like not
(14:50):
doing in gary V voice, AndI'm like, no, I don't want
to just be right, It's likethis is coming from me and I am
um, but it's cool. Idon't mind, Like it's it's funny.
Um. And I Also I feellike a lot of people just say that
just because they understand that I understandthat the jokes that they're like, they're
joking. I'm joking. So right, um, because I've built that rapport
(15:11):
over the years of like, youknow, it's okay to like banter and
shit whatever, like yeah, Iunderstand, I'm not you know, I'm
aware, self aware as and tobe a good community, I think you
have to be very self aware.So I feel like that's I mean,
yeah, absolutely do you Um doyou do like cameos and stuff based off
like your impressions as well? Ohyeah yeah yeah, people request cameos like
(15:33):
pretty much every week, got geta for you? Um, so yeah,
make sure honestly it's like some GaryV some some other actions I do.
Um, you know my mom askedfrom my mom in the videos like
everything, like yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah,
that's yeah. Yeah. And UM, I wanted to ask you to,
um what I guess first stand up? What did you have as your like
(15:56):
main form of I guess content forthat? Do you stories about you?
Is it like your experiences in actingor you know what? I guess what
exactly do you focus on with yourcomedy in your stand up? That's a
good question. Yeah. It's funnybecause a lot of people might think because
they see me online, they thinkthat's all I do on stage or that's
(16:18):
what I do on stages of impressions, which is not the case. Like,
um, I still incorporate my accentsand whatever my stand up, but
it's not the main focus. It'slike I have like actual stand up bits
or like their jokes, they're theirstories of my life or things I've observed
or the relationships I've had or talkingabout I talked about my parents a lot,
like mom My Dad show like that. Um, just like random shit,
(16:40):
you know anything that thing is funny, I'll just do it on stage.
And I've bombed so many times onstage trying random stories or jokes that
think are funny and just gone terribly. But that's all point. You know,
he's gonna try it, Like you'renot gonna know what's funny until you
do it. Um. But yeah, Like it's it's weird because now I'm
at a point where I have Ihave a big enough following where a lot
of people do know me from justmy online stuff. So when I do
(17:03):
do stand up shows now and peoplecome to watch me, I feel like
there is um an expectation I guessfrom them that I will be doing the
things that they're seeing of me online, but I do my best to incorporate
it into the stories I'm telling orlike, you know, I'm not just
like I feel like stand up isn'tjust going up and just doing an impression.
It's like that's not stand up.Right. Stand up is you know,
(17:26):
like having one liners or having astory or whatever. Right, it's
like you have a flow to theset um. Otherwise it's just hack.
It's you know, it's not traditionalstand up. Yeah. So yeah,
it's just a mixture of everything.Yeah. And what what I've noticed too,
is you mentioned like awareness. Ithink the best comedians are the ones
that make things that are like,you know, they're very aware and they
(17:51):
point out like things that are actuallylike really true, but in a comedy
kind of way. Right, Yeah, I guess what what like has has
like social media kind of helped developyour comedy in a sense of self awareness
and things like that, or haveyou noticed that it hasn't really changed much
or like how how has how hasthat really impacted your comedy? I think
(18:14):
it helps. I mean, it'salways good to be in the know of
what's going on in the world andpeople around you. And that's why I
still consume content like I watch otherpeople ship all the time, just again
inspiration or see what other people aredoing, or I don't know, like
things that happen in the news orin my city or country. And then
you know, if I find certainideas that are funny about that, then
I'll do a video that's relevant tothat time or like you know, I
(18:36):
always taking advantage of, you know, things that could be like topical,
like I don't know, like friends, like for example, like Eastern Easter
just passed? Um, or waitwhere are you guys? By the way,
where do you guys live in Florida? Oh you're in Florida? Okay,
okay, some reason I thought youguys were Canadian, but I'm from
Toronto. I don't know if youknew that. Yeah, because I'm because
(19:00):
I'm from Toronto. I don't knowif you knew that. But okay,
yeah we knew you were. Ithink I saw you're from Canada, but
I didn't know you're from Toronto.Yeah. And then okay, I heard
the hockey player impressions, so itsounded it sounded you know, spot on.
Yeah, thanks, thanks, yea. That's also a big, very
popular character of mine. But yeah, um, so yeah, like you
(19:26):
knows Eastern just passed by. I'mso dumb, like you guys obviously sell
Eastern the States, right, yeah, no fair question though, you know
you never know. I feel Americannow. Usually Mary's the other way around.
Americans don't know about right. Yeah, so Easter East Eastern passed by,
And you know I always use thatto like be like, oh,
(19:48):
what what video could I film forEastern? That could be funny. I
know my audience, I know mypeople who watched my ship, and I'm
like, okay, Easter is celebratedby Christians or Catholics or Orthodox, you
know, Greeks and Serbians and fuckingI don't know, Italians are heavy on
it. Um. And then alsoit's Passover and Ramadan Um. The Jews
celebrate Passover, then the Muslims whereverArabs celebrate Rama, they're doing Ramadan same
(20:14):
same time. So I was like, oh, it would be perfect to
do a video of three different charactersthat I can do in one video.
Um. And that's why I did. I did a Canadian Italian guy that's
pretty really big on my page.Um. And then like I did a
new Jewish character. It's terrible,but I had to put it in and
then fucking an Arab guy that's alsovery popular that I do, and they're
all interacting. It's like really funnyand people love it. And I was
(20:37):
like, yeah, that's that's whatyou make content. It's just I just
think about it that way. Everyevery day i'm living, I'm thinking,
oh, that could be a pieceof content, or this could be material
like that. My mind's always likeracing about some doing something funny. So
um, you know, like itcould be whatever. It could be.
Christmas I've done. I did awhole Christmas series of like seventeen different characters
(20:57):
doing writing under sands. So it'slike I take advantage of things like that,
right, Holidays or you know,things that happen in the news or
whatever. Obviously not maybe like theRussian and Ukraine ship, but you know
that's yeah, that's so yeah,it's sort of us there. Yeah.
I mean it's kind of incredible tothink about because you know, normally,
(21:19):
say, in like a high production, you're gonna have different people playing these
parts. But on social media,it's like you can be a totally different
character and pull it off, youknow, tremendously. So it's like it's
it's kind of awesome to see whenpeople do that as well, Like it's
a different like art form, thankyou. Yeah, it's Um, it's
(21:40):
definitely tough, man, but witha little bit of consistency and effort,
it goes a long way. Yeah. And I wanted to ask too,
Um, because you have so manydifferent things going on, how much I
guess if you had to give percent, like how much of your time
goes to each thing, you know, because it's hard to when you have
so many things going on, It'sreally hard to make time for every thing.
So I wanted to know, howdo you like really structure your time
(22:02):
and make sure that you're not ignoringor you know, neglecting a part of
what you enjoy doing too. Yeah, I'm I have I set aside a
few hours every day in the morningand at nighttime for myself to just like
relax and do like not film oredit or write anything obviously, like other
(22:25):
than sometimes I have shows at night, but that's different. Um. And
Yeah, I just I spend prettymuch the first couple hours of my mornings
when I wake up not looking atmy phone. I just kind of I
save it at that time for myselfand like with my thoughts, and I
either like meditate for a bid orI'll go and write down my thoughts on
you know, just like in mynotes in my computer, or I'll write
(22:48):
jokes or write material or you know, stuff like that. And recently,
well actually will always I'm always interactingwith my fans, like on like because
I have a following on Instagram,TikTok and now on YouTube, and I
have a community which is like it'sit's a text community where like people can
text me, and it's like it'sactually a rare thing. Not a lot
(23:11):
of people have it. But Ithink as a creator, it's like you
have to be eligible after a certainamount of fallowing. So we finally got
that, and you know, Ispend like the first hour or two even
responding to every comment or getting backto everybody and just like just giving back
to the community, you know,because I feel like that's that's the best
way to build your audience and bereally close to them, because those people
(23:33):
are so grateful and appreciative when youget back to them, and you're not
just some fucking like ghost or unreachableentity. Right, It's like I want
to make people feel that they're apart of something, right, Like I
don't want to be just another personwho's like famous or celebrity, Like I
don't feel like that. I don't. I don't want to label myself as
that. So I'm just another personjust like those people are. So um,
(23:57):
Yeah, I spend that time doingthat or you know, and then
I'll go for a walker. Iwork out like two or three times a
week now too, so it's prettygood. And then yeah, I have
lunch, and then pretty much fromlike two to six PM is when I
do my work, so whether that'sfilming something, editing something, writing something
for a sketch or stand up,doing podcasts, you know, whatever,
(24:22):
stuff like that, meetings. Andthen after six roughly is when I'll just
like have dinner and then I'll justchill for us and I'll play videomes like
I love video games, or youknow, I'll hang out with my friends
or my parents or whatever, watchTV. And like the thing is,
I don't really get tired of doingthe stuff I'm doing anyway. So it's
like even if I go a littleextra here and there, I don't mind
(24:44):
because I genuinely love what I'm doingand I'm so happy doing comedy every day,
and it's like a way better thanwork I fucking McDonald's or even an
office. It's like, God,I would fucking hate that shit. Yeah,
I'm just grateful that I get tojust do this shit every day.
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.No, I think I think that's like
a really big part of it too, of not getting burned out, because
a lot of times people like youknow, you enjoy it, but if
(25:07):
it's too much of something, itbecomes overwhelming, I guess you could say,
and then you just want to youjust want to push it as far
as away as you can. AndI think it's very hard, especially when
you know you're working for so long, so many years, you kind of
have to be careful with that asmuch as you want to really work and
catch up or get going. Ifeel like that's very hard. Was that
(25:29):
something that you always kept in mind, like throughout all these years of building
up your social media's and your contentand your stand up and things like that.
No, I actually never thought ofthat until pretty much like two years
ago when the pandemic hit. Becauseso my brother, he's older than me,
he's actually my manager, and he'sthe one you talked yeah, for
(25:51):
me to get on here. ButI he pretty much like started to work
with me as soon as the pandemichit, because I was when my ship
was starting to hit a little bitmore and I was on the verge of
like just you know, having somevideos go a little viral here and there,
and I was starting to getting alot of audience and people try to
(26:11):
like email me a lot, andI have too much for me to handle.
So for like a few months there, I was like hand like everything
on my own, and I waslike completely chaotic, Like my lifestyle was
so chaotic. Where I was onthe road before the pandemic hit, Like
I was on the road doing standup. I was actually in Miami and
Fort Lauderdale, Okay, pretty muchbefore the pandemic hit, doing some stand
(26:32):
up, and like I was allover the States, and I was in
a bunch of cities in Canada,and I was always on my phone,
Like I was spending so much timeon my phone, like pretty much all
day. I was, you know, I kind of lost track of like
what the my real purpose was becauseI got caught up in like the lifestyle
of you know, going from citycity doing shows and like eating shitty foods,
(26:53):
sleeping terribly, waking up whenever Iwant sleeping, whenever I want talking
to girls. You know, it'slike something finally getting some attention, you
know, Yeah, it's like itfeels nice, right. But I let
that shit fucking get to my headearly pretty much at that point, and
then I got to a point whereI was just so I felt something was
off and I was on the vergeof burnout. And that was pretty much
(27:15):
that same week. That's when thepandemic hit, and it was a perfect
opportunity to come back home, andI prettymost told my brother. I was
like, yo, I need yourhelp, Like I asked for help.
Literally, I I never asked forhelp, but I was like, yo,
I just need help to fix thisship, because if I continue like
this, I'm gonna crash and I'mgonna lose what I built so far.
(27:36):
So I need to just change thechange the plan here. And literally I
used that whole month to just goghosts off every social media platform. I
didn't do any shows obviously, youknow, pandemic and then I literally started
from zero, like I learned howto just develop good habits in the morning
and the nighttime. I started toread more. I like put time limits
(27:57):
on my phone on the apps andship like limited hour a day, um,
just to like kind of reset theroutines. Yeah right, And that
was the most fucking crucial month inmy life because if I didn't do that,
then I wouldn't be here now.Because my brother was definitely a big
reason for it, because he helpedme along the way and he was more
(28:18):
organized at the time and just he'sbeen through a lot more than I have
and he kind of guided me.Um, And I'm so grateful for that
because it kind of shaped me intothe percion today. And um, it's
like it's a really testament to youknow, having the right people around you
and um, you know, havingpeople to call you out on your bullshit
and and call your call your blindspots out that because like a lot of
(28:41):
people, just like tunnel vision,right, you don't see your blind spots
right, you know, sometimes youdon't know what you're doing that's wrong.
You think everything doing is like right, or you don't you don't know.
So the fact that I have Ihave and I had someone like that was
super clutch, and yeah, um, that was pretty much how I developed.
I also so The biggest thing wasI learned how to schedule my days
(29:06):
out, my weeks out, mymonth's out, even so we had coaching
sessions every week. We fucking havea planner. It's like, I write
my shit down, like I eventhe smallest things like when I'm going to
sleep, when I'm waking up,when I'm doing this, because I feel
like that's the most important thing tobuild your foundation from. So um,
writing shit down and scheduling thing thingshave saved my fucking life, that's for
(29:26):
sure. And yeah, so it'sstill doing all that stuff to this day.
Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah.No, I mean, like you
said, it's good that you havesomeone that can, like, you know,
tell you how it is, becausea lot of people, especially with
the you know, hype stuff,it's like they have yes men and you
know that's not what people need.Really. Yeah, did you read any
(29:48):
like um time management books or somethingbecause or did you already like have this
and then you just kind of wentfor it. No? Well yeah,
so actually that was pretty much aroundthe time where we both kind of following
Gary V a lot as well,and he actually gay helped us a lot.
Not gonna lie, like his wholemessage about just doing love and taking
her time and having like patience right, Um, it's like microspeed, back
(30:14):
up pay or anything. In thelong term, it helped a lot.
And also the fact that he's like, Yo, you don't have to feel
like you have to fucking do thisshit every day. If you need to
take a time off, like takea day off or whatever. It's like,
don't be afraid to have that humility. So um, that was kind
of initial things that we both learnabout. And then you know, I
started reading David Goggan's book, Um, Can't Hurt Me, which fucking helped
(30:37):
me a lot. And then youknow, just like a lot of other
people who along the way, TomBill, You, Jordan Peterson and show
like that, and yeah, theyjust changed their lives, man, Honestly,
Like I couldn't. I couldn't believeit. Like I don't know,
I don't know how more people aren'twatching her listening to these people, at
least in my industry of like entertainment, Like I think it's so rusual because
(31:00):
also they also talk about how tovalue yourself and your time, which is
so key. Um, Like alot of people just they undervalue themselves so
much. They waste time so much, and that's why they don't become successful.
That's why they don't grow, That'swhy they don't. They plateau like
for years, um, and thatand that was something we were just not
(31:22):
willing to accept, right, sowe're like, we have to make a
change, and so this was it. Yeah, And that's that's very similar
to kind of our thought process.I think, how like, you know,
a lot of things that we wantto do. We want to be
able to hang out with you know, friends and all this, but you
have to stay focused on really thegrind. I guess you could say how
much of that? How much ofyour mentality was like man like, if
(31:47):
I just keep if I take onemore day off and do this, I'm
gonna it's gonna be a pattern.And I just can't do that. I
gotta stay focused. Like how muchof that? Um? What was your
mindset with that? And um,like how do you kind of navig get
that? Um? You mean likebefore I took that whole like breaker,
Yeah, like even after two ofLike how do you kind of measure,
(32:08):
um, when when it's too muchleisure time and when it's when it's kind
of like Okay, I gotta reallystay focused on what I'm saying. You
know, my mission is yeah,just the balance, I guess yeah,
yeah, um. I think itjust has to do with you're feeling.
You have to listen to yourself andyou know, give your time to give
(32:31):
yourself the time to actually just disconnectfor however long you need, like for
an hour or the whole day oreven three days. Like, as long
as you set the intention, Ifeel like that's the most important thing,
is saying the intention. If you'rejust losly just like, I'll see what
happens, Like, that's not gonnawork, you'll lose track. But I
I personally just like, all right, I'm just gonna take this whole after
(32:52):
doonen off, I'll be good byetomorrow. And I say that to my
brother and he's like, all right, cool, yea, we got it,
and we'll get back into it tomorrow. And then that's usually how we
operate. Yeah, Like, I'dnever let outside forces distract me anymore like
I did a couple of years agobefore people like oh, come hang on
here, let's do this, oryou come do this. Now we've we've
prioritized our time way more, waymore efficiently, and you know, now
(33:15):
now we're just very good with knowingwhat's what's you know, what's important to
us and what's not. And that'sthat's how that's how we value it,
all right. Yeah, And itreally seems like you are super super discipline
and super self aware that a lotof people that want to get into this
space may not have that discipline.And I think that's that's kind of where
(33:36):
it takes that those years that youhave to put in to really I guess
see, if you actually want thisright and then you develop that discipline over
time, is that is that kindof how you saw your path go and
that's what brought you to that pointof like I need to be organized in
this, like this organized and figureout how much my time goes in everything.
(33:58):
Yeah. Well, I mean forme, I dropped out of university
to pursue this stuff like comedy andacting and everything. This is my passion
in life. I can't I don'twant to do anything else, and I
can't do anything else. There's theonly thing I'm good at. So if
I don't do well in this,I'm fucked um. But but I'm happy
doing it. I don't go afuck out if I become poor one day
(34:19):
because I just don't make it andthen so be at least I know I
tried, but I'm willing to acceptthat. But I also when I dropped
out at university, I kind ofI have this pride in me. Like
also, I come from an immigrantbackground, like my parents are from Iran
and like you know, our propersionwhere I run in, and like I
was born in Canada, but likeyou know, my parents fucking fled their
(34:43):
country to come to Canada so mybrother and I can have a better life
and just like here, what theyhad to go through just a fucking you
know, let us live our livesthe best that we could. I always
have that in the back of myhead whenever I'm doing my own thing,
because I'm like, man, ifthey worked that hard, bro, I
have no excuse, Like I haveall these resources around you. Um,
there's no excuse for me to justlike sit around and not do and not
(35:04):
go absolutely one hundred percent in whateverI want to do. So um,
I've always had that natural drive inme from even when I was a kid.
I just I'm very competitive. Ihate it losing, whether it's fucking
house league basketball or the fucking cadand I hate getting the I'm like this
guy, I'm gonna get this guynow. I'm gonna go out of my
(35:28):
way in this cod map just tofucking knife this guy. Like just so
hostile. But um, I justhave that competitive nature in me and the
fact that like I just know thevibe and the feeling around like comedians and
this whole industry about oh, onlyone percent of comedians make it. That
kind of it pisses me off becauseI'm like, well, I'm gonna prove
(35:52):
that every every motherfucker who's doubted meor doesn't think I can be the one
percent that I'm gonna be the onepercent of people who does make it right.
And I'll never I'm not gonna backout. I'm not gonna back back
down no way like this. Idon't even have a plan B, right,
because once you start having a planB, you already canceled yourself out.
So this is my plan A.This is all I'm gonna do,
and I'm gonna go as hard asI can, and whatever it is I
(36:13):
have to do along the way,I will do it as long as it
stays within my integrity and I don'tlose my artistic integrity and creative integrity along
the way. Um, and Ihave the right people around me, and
that's the foundation, man. That'sthe only way you can make it to
the top is with having the rightpeople around you and having help. And
I definitely value that a lot soand I value freedom, man. I
value freedom so much. I'm willingto grind it out for years, which
(36:36):
I've done so far, just toget to that point of where I can
just do whatever I I want todo on a higher level. People I
love with comfortable, you know,being comfortable along the way. So,
yeah, you know, so didnot many people are willing to do that.
Not many people are willing to dothat. Nine percent of people in
this world aren't willing to do whatI've been doing and what I'm about to
(36:58):
do. So and I know that, um, but someone's gotta do it
right exactly. So did you Itsounds like because you said you dropped out
of college for it, was thereever this point where you got a like
a normal job or there was thislike procrastination of like going for what you
want to do rather than just youknow, just kind of going through this
(37:21):
systematic life versus like doing the hardpath yeah, man, I'm I've always
been a rebellious of academics and likehaving to listen to someone talk about some
dumbass algebra I don't care about.But you know I knew because you know,
my brother went through school and likemy parents or my dad's an engineer,
(37:43):
and you know, like it's likehardcore and I have to do this
extracurriculators have to study math, science, all this shit. I still did
it just just to kind of likeplease them a little bit. But once
I got out of high school,I was like, man, this sucks.
I actually don't enjoy doing any ofthis, and like there has to
be something I have to do thatthat I love. And I just feel
like I've always been a creative person, like on every aspect of those I
(38:05):
felt like I was being robbed ofthat and my soul by not doing something
that in that field. So whenI found comedy, I was like,
there's no it's a no brainer.Um. You know, like I've done
what I had to do over thepast, you know, my whole life
of working these shitty proctium jobs andpeople shitting on me for not being the
best student and this and that.When I didn't really care and now it's
(38:25):
my time to shine. So um, that's all it is. Yeah.
Yeah, I think that creative passionactually, like is a very important part
too, because it's like, Imean, if you don't have that,
that can like lead to you know, depression, and like you have all
these different emotions and stuff, andit just makes life a million times harder.
Yeah, And I think I thinkjust even for us too, I
(38:49):
feel like you kind of like yourinstinct is to maybe I do need to
go down this system for a littlebit and then but in the back of
your head you're always like, no, this is like what I truly want
to do, right, And likehow much? How hard? Was that
a tough conversation of like, hey, I'm dropping out and I'm pursuing this,
or was that everyone already knew,like you know, you're just gonna
do this and this is like whatyou really want to do. Yeah.
(39:13):
I I sold it to them somuch that they had no choice. But
except that, well, I guesshe's gonna do it. We can't change
his mind. Obviously they're disappointed atthe time because they thought I could do
something that's more traditional that they wouldhave done back home. But I'm like,
this is a new world, bro. There's so many opportunities out here
that no one else in any othergeneration could have done. And I want
(39:35):
to be one of the first onesin my generation to kind of do something
different, especially in my of myuh you know, representing for my culture
and my people, because no oneelse in my fucking culture is doing what
I'm doing. Le mean close becauseof all the the you know, the
judgment and all the you know,all the forcing of oh, you gotta
do this, you got to goto lader, you gotta become a doctor.
(39:57):
It's like fuck that she know,I gotta. I got change the
path to your so um. AndI'm lucky that I have supportive parents enough
that they're just they're cooler than typicalMiddle Eastern parents, where they're not as
strength, and you know, theyactually like to laugh and they're actually funny
themselves. And that's why I feellike I'm funny too, because obviously I
got it from them. Yeah,but um, I think that really helped
me. I'm very lucky to havethem be that support of it. Now.
(40:21):
They're obviously fully behind what I'm doingbecause I've shown to them over the
years what I can do and whatI'm capable of and the you know,
the results I've I've obviously provided.So um, yeah, it's I'm definitely
very grateful for just where I am. And yeah, no, that's that
is that is truly amazing. Waswas there, like, because I know
how hard that can be. Um, Like just from seeing it, I've
(40:45):
seen like you know, there's differentgenerations that are very stuck and like this
is what works, this is safe. You know, was there anything that
you had to show for at thetime of hey, um, this is
what I'm gonna do and they asklike, okay, but you know,
shows something. But sometimes when youjust starting out and you already have this
idea in your head, there's notreally much to show for, but you
(41:06):
know what direction you want to goin. Was there anything that you had
already as far as content that youcould show them and kind of explain or
was it just they had to trustyour your vision? Yeah? I had
these blind trust bro like that hadnothing. I had nothing. I just
I had the vision inside my body. That's it. That's all I had.
(41:27):
Um there was literally nothing else fromthe moment I found out because I
went to school for a comedy likethe first two years of my career was
I learned, um this college nearbyin their city. Um or they taught
comedy for two years. Like there'sactually like people who like were like comedians.
You know they're older now, butthey're now they're teaching like how to
write stand up jokes or their physicalcomedy, acting prov like writing for a
(41:53):
TV actually like that. I learneda lot of that at this program,
you know, for the foundation.And then after that when I was done,
then I was my own officially.But um, yeah, at the
beginning, it was all just blindfaith, man, blind support. Um.
But I had the vision man,like if I always I realized,
I knew from the beginning, ifI don't believe myself one hundred percent,
(42:15):
no one's gonna believe in me aone hundred percent. So I have to
be the one to go above andbeyond and go hard and prove to myself
and to others around me that thisis possible and it's a real career.
It's a real thing I couldn't makehappen, and that's it. And along
the way, obviously there's so manypeople who doubt and like I are gonna
make money, I'm gonna do thisblah blah blah, and I knew that
was coming, right. I neverlet that shit affect man. I never
(42:36):
got this courage once. I justI was so set on my fucking vision
this whole time. I've never lostit up until to this day that I
just knew one day don't work out. I always knew like the more effort
I put into something, the moreconsistency I put into it, one day
I'll be it'll work out of myfavor. And and and another thing is
(42:59):
there's no way, there's no certainpoint where I'll stop because it's for me.
It's just the next thing. Likeif a big milestone happens, it's
cool and I'll celebrate it. ButI always want to keep going because it's
like Drake stopping after he does viewshis Views album, like in twenty sixteen
or something like, he could havestopped and still been the best, but
(43:21):
he he still went because he's like, oh, I could do better,
right, So it's like maybe it'sa bad example, but you know,
you know what I mean, Like, um, I just feel like there's
always more growth to be had,and I truly believe that I could be
one of the greatest. I justneed to keep going. Yeah that's yeah.
No, I can definitely tell youknow, you're a highly driven and
(43:42):
determined person. Is there a formthat like or like a goal that you
have that you want to start doing, like more inspirational stuff like how you've
gotten influenced by these like certain charactersand certain like people. Yeah, yeah,
for sure, I'm gonna start awhole career as a your view,
um, going on stage across theworld doing ted talks. But I do
(44:07):
I do want to do that stufftoo, man, because I feel like
I do have that wisdom, andI have my brothers even more than than
me. Like he I got alot of it from him. He reads
so many fucking books. It's crazy. I don't know anyone else who reads
as many books as this guy.But um, just together, man,
we just we we see it ina different way, Like even though I'm
in comedy, we take it veryseriously. And um, that's it's like
the it's so ironic because you think, like over just clowns, right,
(44:30):
It's like no, man, there'sa whole other serious side to this whole
business operation. Um, and Iwanna I wanna be the voice for the
generation of people who want to getinto this field and and just an entertainment
in general. Are are you knowor anyone who has to pursue their passion?
Um, And I want to tellthem that, you know, it's
possible if you just believe in yourselfand if you have your vision and don't
(44:50):
listen tell other people and what theirjudgments are and you know all that stuff.
I feel like I naturally have agood um point of view with all
these things, and I feel likeyou could definitely inspire and help a lot
of people. So you know,one day and obviously I'll add a touch
of humor right now as I'm doing, but um, that's just who I
am, right at the end ofthe day, That's who I am.
So like a tie back to thebeginning. It's like, um, just
(45:13):
being being yourself. Um, thatcan send the best message to people.
Yeah. Absolutely, And Nima,I don't want to take up too much
of your time, So I guessthe final question here since we do have
to let you go, UM,what you know? What do you what
are you like setting your sights onand what's to come for the future,
(45:34):
Like where do you have your mindset? What kind of content what direction are
you really focusing on. Mum.Definitely meeting Gary V in the near future.
I think it will help you.Um yeah, for sure, for
sure, I has to you know, it already follows me and it's comments
on my ship, so it's downto happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(45:55):
um. But honestly, on abigger level, I want to tour
the world doing stand up. It'smy goal in life is the tour of
the world doing stand up, sellingup stadiums like Russell Peters. Is one
of my main inspirations to even startthis comedy in the first place, because
I feel like I see a lotof myself in him accents and stuff.
Yeah that just in a different way, more modern way. And then also
Andrew Schultz, you know, similarstyle on stage. I just want to
(46:17):
do all that shit. And Iwant to act on my own movies like
Poor Rat style. You know,I have a lot of strong characters.
Yeah, I feel like I canmake my own movies and I want to
do that. I want to havemy own productions, and I just want
to be big in every entertainment platformas possible. Like, I just want
to do it all. Man.I fucking love the ship and I want
to just provide as much value peopleif I can, and that's it,
(46:42):
man, you know, I justwant to inspire the masses and just keep
making people laugh. That's my goal. Yeah, now, and I have
no doubt that you'll accomplish those becauseyou know, you've been at it for
so long and you know you're finallyit seems like on from the outside perspective,
you're really being what you've been sewingthis whole time. So um,
I don't think that's too far downthe road. So we want to wish
(47:06):
you good luck with that. Wereally appreciate you coming on here, Nima
M. Yeah, thank you,thank you for coming on. We really
appreciate it. And that's uh.That's that's all for this podcast episode.
Guys. Thank you guys for watching, thank you for listening, and we'll
see you guys next time. Appreciateit, Take care, guys. Thank you,
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