May 2, 2023 • 23 mins
With some recent negative comments about Fresno on the Rogan podcast from a comedian, we decided to share our thoughts, and shed some positivity to the city we love.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I know in podcasts, timeline andwhen and how things happen is sort of
irrelevant because podcasts is um you know, usually recorded and people can basically listen
to it whenever they want at yourconvenience exactly. That's kind of like how
podcasts are. It's not live.But I mean, we do have to
mention that we're releasing this episode earlierthan our usual date, which is usually
(00:26):
on Fridays, is because we're bothsort of going on vacation. Yeah.
I'll actually be out on Friday atDisneyland and enjoining Star Wars nights, so
I won't be here and then youwon't be here either. Yeah, mine's
not really a vacation. I'm justtaking some time off to kind of just
not work. Yeah, because wewere talking about you and I just that
we've been working a lot. Aprilwas a super busy month. Yeah.
(00:49):
Yeah, so I'm gonna go outof town too. But I'm excited about
your vacation because, Yeah, I'venever experienced that those specialized Disney nights,
Yeah that after Hours nine they doa handful of least throughout the year.
I know one of the bigger onesis during Halloween season, but they close
down the park early and it's aspecial events for it's a different ticket you
(01:10):
have to get. It's after hours. It goes to like one one am.
And so they're doing a Star WarsNight theme night, and I'll be
there this week and that's because ofthe whole May the Fourth be with you?
Yeah, yeah, So I'll bethere on the fourth, and then
you got Revenge of the Fifth.You know what I'm saying the next day,
Well, what's the plans, Like, what's the things you want to
do on you know, while you'rethere for this after dark of it.
(01:32):
So they got like a lot ofspecial things that they do, like special
foods that they put out, Theyput out different characters than they normally have.
So I think for me it's alwaysfun just mingling with other Star Wars
fans, Like that's the most funpart about it. Plus you can lightly
cost play there too, so therewill be some people dressed up and uh
yeah, definitely a lot of goodphoto ops. So follow me at Young
(01:56):
Jizo on my social media because I'llbe posting a lot like just do you
know if any the foods already thatthat they're just gonna release that day?
Okay, So you know merchandise.So you know that that thing in the
Force awakens, the ray eats andshe cooks it and it kind of like
bubbles up and it looks like something. Yeah. Like so they got something
like that Galaxy's Edge. It sortof looks like that thing that Ray eight
(02:16):
and the Force awaken. So definitelywant to check that out. Um,
I know they dropped some may thefourth merch I've actually already bought it because
I wanted to have it when Igot there. Um, so yeah,
it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm taking my lightsaber out there when
I light up the nights, soit should be a lot of fun.
All right. Yeah, so gofollow a young Jizo on his socials because
(02:37):
yeah, you post some updates andlike what you're up to all the time.
So looking forward to that just cangive me fired podcasts. What up?
I'm Jizo. That is John Magicand we are back. Did you
fall for the clickbait Presto's whack?No? Well, it is more of
(02:58):
a clickbait title. But the reasonwhy we named it that is because recently
Fresno's sort of been in the mainstreamwhere people have been talking about it on
podcasts. Yeah, like not necessaryviral, but some videos of like just
random people talking negative about Fresno andsome were even old, old, older
videos. Yeah. Over the years, every time Fresno has been name dropped
(03:22):
in a show or on TV somehowby you know, pop culture, there's
always like a negative connotation to Fresno. Yeah, and it's something that we've
talked about before in the podcast beforewe even did an episode. Go look
for it. It's the Fresno episodewhere we talk about all our favorite things,
which we might even repeat some stuffhere, but this particular episode stems
(03:43):
from a Joe Rogan episode where recentlyin February, there's a comedian. I'm
not familiar with this guy, andI'm not that's not even I'm not trying
to hate him. I'm just notfamiliar with Chris DiStefano. And hopefully I'm
saying the name right, But Ibelieve he was performing at Tower. He's
doing a stand up routine, right, Yeah, And I don't know how
(04:03):
the show went. But knowing howFresno is, if if you're not really
that known, uh yeah, theticket sales might be might be sketched.
They might have showed up for youbut now it sort of makes sense because
a few days later, he goeson Rogan Yeah, the Joe Rogan Podcast,
and he kind of makes a commentabout Fresno and should we play the
(04:27):
clip. Yeah, let's do it. Then. I just had a show
in Fresno a couple of days ago, and I said if I grew up
here, I'd be a little differentbecause Fresno is one of those places where
I went a great time. ButI mean those just just being there,
just being in that city for twentyfour hours, I was like, I
don't know, if this is justmy every single day, you might turn
to drugs and depressing. It's it'sdepressing. I drove from Fresno to San
(04:49):
Jose and we were passing through Stockton, and I thought I was in Switzerland
because that's what an upgrade it wasfrom Fresno. I was like, what
are we in the fucking Alp?All right, real quick before we comments
on that. It's it's crazy becausea few years ago Joe Rogan showed Fresno
Love. Yeah, he actually talksabout our restaurant that he had out here.
So we play that clips. Let'splay that clip. I found them
(05:10):
on Instagram. It's a soul foodplace in Fresno. Chef Paul, Dude.
You know, sometimes you're in theroad, you find a place that's
just fucking off the charts food.If you're in Fresno, ladies and gentlemen,
Chef Paul's Cafe. I fucking giveit two thumbs five stars. Totally
agree. Shouts out to Chef pauls. Man. I need to go back.
(05:31):
I've only been there one time withyou. Actually, you treated me
to lunch one time, and Ihaven't been back. I need to make
my way back to Chef Pauls.So. I lived near there and I
was going there a lot. Andif you listen to the podcast, you
know I'm on keto. So Ihaven't been there in a while. But
yeah, maybe on a cheat day. I'm definitely down to visit Chef pauls
again. But it's just crazy howthe negative of the positive. Yeah,
(05:56):
of like almost every city, that'sI guess that's my point about this whole
thing. Every city's gonna have itsnegative and positive, and every city is
gonna have its bad area and goodareas. So in this particular situation,
the comedian he was I'm assuming hewas a lot in the batter area of
Fresno. Maybe or he went throughsome neighborhoods. Maybe he probably shouldn't ask.
Yeah, yeah, who knows.But again, I feel like,
(06:19):
again, this is just I'm guessingthat he didn't sell well at his show.
So you think maybe he was justtaking shots that. Yeah, that's
that's my thing. Was he justtaking shots at it? Or you're right,
maybe he was only in a certainarea, and that's not fair to
judge. Would just see one area, Yeah, because you can go to
literally any city and find a badarea where there's just like where it just
(06:43):
looks bad, you know what I'msaying. So my thoughts in the whole
where people talk negative all the time, my personal opinion is good talk shit,
don't don't come here because we don'twant your energy here. Yeah,
Like I feel like that. That'swhat makes Fresno so dope to me is
the people. The people here makesFresno. We have our own identity,
and the people that talk shit,I'd rather not have them here anyways.
(07:05):
Yeah, we don't need that badenergy. On the flip side, though,
there's been times where you know,artists have came through to the radio
station and We've talked to them about, you know, how you like Fresno,
and a lot of times it's it'smostly positive the stuff that a lot
of people have said. But thenyou have people like this who maybe see
a certain side of Fresno and theyjust talk shit about it, or maybe
(07:28):
they've heard about Fresno, or maybethey see it on TV. Because I
know sometimes Fresno is painted as aggand it is, but it's mostly like
the surrounding towns that are very aggBut Fresno itself actually has like a city,
and if you get into that part, there's a lot of good things
that going around here. The storyI always tell people, you know,
I've been living here for over twentyyears, but when I first moved here,
(07:53):
my friends from La wanted to visitme, and they were just talking
shit about the whole driver, wholedrive and like all we see our farms
and cows and the store. Ialways say is they spent a few days
here with me, maybe like fouror five days, yea, and they
didn't want to leave. They hadso much fun with just the people.
Yeah, that's all they were talkingabout. They were talking about how many
(08:16):
cool people they met that they arestill friends to this day actually, that
they keep in touch. That myfriends from LA have met here in Fresno.
Yeah, and they always talk aboutthem wanting to come back. I
have DJ friends who I've invited toDJ here, and this was just a
couple of days ago. Shouts outto dj Z. He was like,
Yo, when could I DJ thereagain? Because they had so much fun
(08:39):
here. Yeah. So my experiencehas been the same, Like I said,
when artists came through, or evenlike friends that we know in the
industry or friends that I know outsideof the city, have always had a
good time in Fresno. And soI don't know, maybe they just the
people they don't like it. They'rejust basing it off of other information they've
heard before, and they're just notgoing to the right places. You are
an interesting situation because you're somebody thatcame from a bigger market like Laye,
(09:03):
and you came here, and thefirst time you came here is when you
moved here, right yep. Andwhat was your first what was your first
like perception of Fresno when you gothere where I mean where you to be
honest, were you one of thoselike, oh, there's number farms out
here or well, so when Ithe first time I came here was on
a plane, so I didn't experiencedriving driving past that. Um, and
(09:26):
you know that our big area riverpark that wasn't that was not existent when
I first moved here. My situationis different, meaning I didn't really care
about where I was going. Yeah, I was just so excited about being
the first one moving out of myhouse and living on my own. That's
what excited me the most. Itcould have been anywhere. It could have
been anywhere, and then I endedup falling in love with this city.
(09:48):
I always say that maybe it fitsmy anxiety of when I've been traffic in
la I get anxiety which a lotof people suffer from that, and being
in traffic and there's no track basicallydon't traffic here. It's you know,
people say it's slower here, whichfits more of like what I like instead
of the fast pace. But likeI said, I ended up falling in
(10:09):
love with the city. Yeah,but you've been here all your life.
Yeah, so I mean Fresnol iswhat I know. And that's not to
say that I've been a homebody.Obviously, I go out of town all
the time, going out of townthis week. But going out of town
and coming back to Fresno, there'sjust like a lot of things that I
do appreciate about the city. Imean, we'll get into a little bit
(10:30):
about that, but yeah, Fresnolhas always felt like home to me,
born and raised here. I've neverbeen one of those people that are negative
about it. I kind of wantto go back to the negative talk.
What bothers me even more than thepeople that come into the city talking shit
is the people that live here andtalk shit about the city. And I
see it all the time, Likeeven people that I follow, like it
(10:52):
makes me even want to unfollow themwhen they talk shit about the city,
like you know, I hate ithere. There's nothing to do. Or
they'll even say shit like, oh, I don't even go out in Fresno.
I'll go to like La and party, or I'll go up to the
Bay like that's where I hanging.Like all right, good, Yeah,
Like, don't act like you're dopeor something like you're someone cool because you
party in a different city. Youcan just go live over there. Oh
(11:13):
wait, you can't afford to golive over there. That's why, right,
that's why you're in Fresno. Soyeah, so shut up with the
nonsense. If you're not if you'renot gonna like contribute to the city or
have a better positive outlook on thecity or make the best of the city,
then maybe you shouldn't even be here. You know what I'm saying.
I like how you just said contributeto the city. Yeah, because our
homie Cutty, who he's been onour podcast before. Yeah, shouts out
to Cutty. Um, he's originallynot from here either. Actually I didn't
(11:37):
know that. Yeah. Remember he'slike somewhere from uh from is it Huron?
Okay? Oh, I mean fromhere on, you're gonna like Fresno
a lot better. But he postedhe posted an old video of someone talking
shit, and then the next postwas him saying his opinion and one of
the lines, I'm don't quote meexactly on this one paraphrasing, but it
(11:58):
was something like, if you ifyou want something here, create it yourself.
And I think a lot of peopledo that here, which that's what
I like, is Okay, wedon't have a certain thing, we'll do
it here, shouts out to Hectic, where he put together Grizzly fests.
Yeah. Man, and we hadour own big festival here that they went
(12:18):
for years. Thousands and thousands ofpeople showed up to this thing. People
out of the city would come outhere. Yeah, that's the Grizzly city.
That was dope, man. Yeah. And of course I can even
go micro and talk small things.You know, everyone's all, oh,
there's day parties here, days dayparties in La Hollywood in the Bay.
And we're slowly creating that thing heretoo, even though it's not a mainstream
(12:39):
thing. Yeah, but some clubsare starting created some of our friends,
our personal friends, we're starting tocreate this day party scene. I mean
Taco truck throw Down, I meanhow big has that thing gotten? Right?
I Mean, that's that's huge.That's a that's a Fresnoe thing.
It's been going on for for overten years, and thousands of people show
up to the park, and it'sbecome our own thing that we do out
(13:03):
here in Fresno. You got theFresno street eat stuff that pops off with
all the food trucks out here.The food trucks scene is huge out here.
You know. Since I've been bornand raised in Fresno, so I've
seen Fresno changed a lot over theyears, and downtown was always a place
there was just like nobody went downtown. It was abandoned. It was like,
(13:24):
yo, no one even goes overthere, no one lives over there,
don't go over there. But thenyou know, they built Chick Chancey
Park years back, and they justhad this vision of we need to bring
you know, downtown Fresno back,and over the years, we've seen it
slowly and steadily build up. Nowa lot of our bigger events in Fresno
take place downtown. There's new newbuildings downtown. You live in one of
(13:46):
them. A lot of new buildingsout there. And that was things that
when I was a kid, Iwas kind of stuck in that of like,
man, Fresno downtown is just nevergonna be a thing. Like it's
no one even goes there. Whenpeople come into the city, they're like,
let's check out your down town.No, don't go there. And
now it's it's it's so cool tosee that it's it's flipped and that we
have a lot that goes on downtown. To be more specific, there's a
(14:09):
once a month thing. You broughtup art Hope. Art Hop is once
a month. Imagine a block partywith thousands of people in downtown where there's
little uh booths where they're selling things, vendors exactly. The bars are open
there, arts we have, yeah, the art exhibit, you know.
And then a few blocks away isthe what is it the brewery the breweries.
(14:33):
Yeah, but what is it called. It's the Brewery District, the
Brewery District, um. And there'sa bunch of dope ass bars there that
people put on shows, people putout day parties there, and we have
our old stuff here. And thisis what I like about living in the
area because, Okay, if youlive down south, a lot of people,
you know, obviously southern California,you drive everywhere to go to certain
(14:58):
things. Sometimes it's an over anhour drive to get to man, oh,
let's go to this event, yea, or let's even totals just to
get there. There's a dope assrestaurant in this city. Let's take that
forty five to drive. What Ilike about Fresno is we have all those
things, but it's so drivable,like it's just right there for us.
And one of the things that Iappreciate that uh, you know, when
(15:20):
I go into another city is likethe struggle to find parking, and then
sometimes you gotta pay a park everywhereyou go. I know, the Bay
is like real heavy with that.Fresno man, there's always a place to
park, and you ain't never gotto pay for that shit unless you're going
to like an event like downtown andyou know you're gonna part in the parking
structure. But for the most part, parking is easy. It's something that
(15:41):
you know, because I have obviouslywe talk about our anxiety. You know,
I'm gonna get that when I godown to La this week of trying
to find where to park and payingtwenty bucks every time I want to park,
and something that we just don't haveto worry about here in Fresno.
But we're also not a small townwhere like everybody knows each other. So
it's it's like it's big enough butnot too big. Speaking of the parking,
(16:03):
I mean, unless you go toa doghouse grill, yeah, that's
that's all another story. I mean, we could actually go to that.
That's what I love about too,is just we've had a restaurant conversation before
on the podcast. But the reasonwhy we could bring bring something up now
is because there's a bunch of newstuff that just opened that is known in
other places, but now we haveit here in town. Um, there's
(16:26):
this a Vietnamese coffee restaurant place calledLee's Sandwiches, and now they're opening your
Fresno state and uh those what isit those Korean core dogs, Korean uh
donut things. We have a bunchof those places now here. The you
know, the fancy pizza place,Anesso just opened up, the chicken spots
(16:48):
that are opening up out here.So all these trendy places in places that
are opening up in cities, we'reactually getting these here in Fresno, which
is dope. So it's Fresno's startingto be a little trendy in the food
area a little bit one. Andthen there's the ones that only Fresno has
and you get you guys can goback a couple episodes back where we do
the top five. Yeah, wherejust we're not talking about top five restaurants
(17:11):
in town. So go listen tothat for our favorites in town. But
yeah, everything is so close tous and you don't have to drive super
far to get to these these foodyspots. Yeah, and not to mention
all the food trucks, like,you know, they got the Fresnel Street
East to pop off every week.We of course I mentioned the taco truck
throw down. Our our baseball teamis like secondary name is the Fresno Tacos.
(17:33):
So we've really built that brand ofyou know that we're big in tacos
and we're really starting to get bigin in the food area. Some if
you know, people are like,what is there to do there? We
this just this past April. We'retalking about us being so busy because there's
so many events that we were doing. From the show I wasn't the smokeout
show that we had with Baby Bashe forty tech nine thousands of people filled
(17:57):
the stadium, the base and thenthe next day was that Spanish show.
Uh yeah, and that ship washuge. Every time these bands, these
Spanish bands come to Fresno, it'swild, Like that's a whole nother like
area than me and you don't reallydip into because it's it's not the music
that we know, but just theSpanish side of the city gets crazy sell
(18:18):
out. We're talking like the wholebaseball field twenty thousand people maybe and yep,
I didn't even realize this too,because you mentioned that we weren't really
like paying attention to you know,the Bonda stuff or Corridos and Peso Pluma.
Apparently he's like the next bad buddy. Yeah, it's this young cat
and he was here performing and he'slike super hused right now. So he
(18:44):
was here at Fresno. Uh wesold well. I was gonna say we
like we had a part of it. But Boots in the Park, Yeah,
we just had one recently, butthey're gonna do another one in the
Country Driven Concert YEP and Kate Brownis the headliner that sold out a few
days sell out. No more ticketsare available. We got another big fest
coming this month, the Tequila Fest, first of its cond out here.
(19:07):
I'm t I Rick Ross Little John. I know that thing's gonna be huge.
Um yeah, man, there's there'sthere's good things out here. People
just choose to hate because it's nota big city and it helps. And
it doesn't help that we were betweenLa and the Bay because that's where people
go to party and hang out,and they are always continuing to compare that
(19:29):
because we're so close to it.But it's like we shouldn't look at it
like that Fresno is its own city. We get influenced from both I get
that we get people that moved fromfrom both cities, but we're our own
city and we're definitely a lot cheaperto live than those cities. That's another
positive about Fresno is we're close tothings, Like we're close enough for the
water, the beach, you know, it's only a couple hours away.
(19:51):
We got mountains, there's a lotof things we can see out here.
We're not far from everything, andit's cheaper to live here. Um.
I mean we we've shouted out yoseventyfor that's that's huge. That's us.
So people from down south or upnorth, they have to come to us
to get to this, you know, uh place to go to um,
(20:11):
which many of my friends have cameand visited for sure. With that,
what I love about us doing theseepisodes is I have friends who listen to
the podcast and their comment these arefrom people that's never came here before.
Their comment to me is the samefrom different people. You guys make Fresno
sound hell of fun and I can'twait to visit. And that's why I
love doing these episodes, because youknow, we got to shed some positive
(20:34):
light with all this like mainstream mediastuff that people it's always a negative.
It's always like we're the laughing stock, and you know, we get put
on these lists of like all thesebad things that happen. But really,
man, there's there's there's a lotof good in Fresno. The people,
the people are good, the foodis good out here. We got some
events and shout out to everybody outthere that you know, puts in the
(20:55):
work to make Fresno a better placeto live in, a better place to
be a part of. And itfeels like we're only getting better, you
know what I'm saying. We couldwrap it up with that because I agree
with me living here for over twentyyears seen that growth, I've seen the
growth. Yeah. And and likeI said, with just the comment that
(21:17):
Cutting made, if you wanted herelike someone created, Yeah, we have
so many people here that are ableto do that, and it's happening.
We see it happening. So Ican't wait for the next five ten years
to see what's gonna be next forus. Maybe a thief park, maybe
maybe a professional team. I'd liketo see that one of these years.
I know we have Fresnel State shoutsout to Fresnol State. We're also a
(21:41):
college town, um, and thatfeels like that's the closest to professional sports
that we get. But I wouldlove to see a real professional team out
here one of these days, youknow what I'm saying, like baseball football.
I mean, it's probably not gonnahappen. We're not big enough,
but you know, that would bedope. There's that rumor that's been happening
for a few years. And ifyou drive on the ninety nine, you
see that side that's his Fresno Aquarium. What is that going to happen?
(22:03):
Because I did they even still havethat sign up. I don't even know
if that still love that that saysit's coming soon or yeah, that was
like decades ago. At the sametime, it was always weird to be
like, wait, at aquarium inFresno. It's kind of far from the
water. Yeah, but you knowwhat we do have. Here's the Fresno
Chaffee Zoo and that. Yeah,that's another good one. You know,
it's funny you brought that up.I was actually the last time I was
(22:25):
at Disneyland and I was having aconversation with one of the cast members.
And that's another thing. Every timeI talk to people outside of Fresno and
they say where I live, theyall know Fresno or at least passed through
it. And I was talking tothis particular cast member and he goes,
yeah, I actually stopped in Fresnoto check out your guys zoo, and
he was like impressed. He waslike, you guys have a really cool
zoo. And I was like,it's actually even gotten better. You know,
(22:48):
they have the like the African areanow, and I think they're they're
they're they're building more onto it.So hey, we have a nice zoo
and I'm not mad at it.I was in I was in Stockton and
m one of the people there werelike, oh, so is your office
here? Sorry now, I waslike, no, I'm I'm based out
of Fresno. And the first thingthey said was like, oh, do
you guys give away tickets to toyour zoo because I want to go,
(23:08):
like, oh nah, but yeah, our zoo's tight. A quick story
about a real quick thing about thezoo, Fresno Chaffe Zoo. The weird
thing about the zoo is it isn'ta sketchy area part of town. Yeah,
it's in one of those areas thatthat comedian was probably that. But
when I go there, yeah,it is like, oh man, I've
(23:30):
been the sketchy part of town.And then you go inside and it's like
in a park, Like you haveto go in the park and it's it's
like, what is those things whereyou just like a movie where you cross
the line of light. Yeah,and the music changes and you're just a
whole new area. That's what theFresno Zoo is. It just comes out
of nowhere and it's amazing. Soyeah, a bunch of cool stuff here.
(23:52):
I enjoy living here and I'm gladwe got to do this episode.
I know in podcasts, timeline andwhen and how things happen is sort of
irrelevant because podcasts is um you know, usually recorded and people can basically listen
to it whenever they want at yourconvenience exactly. That's kind of like how
podcasts are. It's not live.But I mean, we do have to
mention that we're releasing this episode earlierthan our usual date, which is usually
(00:26):
on Fridays, is because we're bothsort of going on vacation. Yeah.
I'll actually be out on Friday atDisneyland and enjoining Star Wars nights, so
I won't be here and then youwon't be here either. Yeah, mine's
not really a vacation. I'm justtaking some time off to kind of just
not work. Yeah, because wewere talking about you and I just that
we've been working a lot. Aprilwas a super busy month. Yeah.
(00:49):
Yeah, so I'm gonna go outof town too. But I'm excited about
your vacation because, Yeah, I'venever experienced that those specialized Disney nights,
Yeah that after Hours nine they doa handful of least throughout the year.
I know one of the bigger onesis during Halloween season, but they close
down the park early and it's aspecial events for it's a different ticket you
(01:10):
have to get. It's after hours. It goes to like one one am.
And so they're doing a Star WarsNight theme night, and I'll be
there this week and that's because ofthe whole May the Fourth be with you?
Yeah, yeah, So I'll bethere on the fourth, and then
you got Revenge of the Fifth.You know what I'm saying the next day,
Well, what's the plans, Like, what's the things you want to
do on you know, while you'rethere for this after dark of it.
(01:32):
So they got like a lot ofspecial things that they do, like special
foods that they put out, Theyput out different characters than they normally have.
So I think for me it's alwaysfun just mingling with other Star Wars
fans, Like that's the most funpart about it. Plus you can lightly
cost play there too, so therewill be some people dressed up and uh
yeah, definitely a lot of goodphoto ops. So follow me at Young
(01:56):
Jizo on my social media because I'llbe posting a lot like just do you
know if any the foods already thatthat they're just gonna release that day?
Okay, So you know merchandise.So you know that that thing in the
Force awakens, the ray eats andshe cooks it and it kind of like
bubbles up and it looks like something. Yeah. Like so they got something
like that Galaxy's Edge. It sortof looks like that thing that Ray eight
(02:16):
and the Force awaken. So definitelywant to check that out. Um,
I know they dropped some may thefourth merch I've actually already bought it because
I wanted to have it when Igot there. Um, so yeah,
it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm taking my lightsaber out there when
I light up the nights, soit should be a lot of fun.
All right. Yeah, so gofollow a young Jizo on his socials because
(02:37):
yeah, you post some updates andlike what you're up to all the time.
So looking forward to that just cangive me fired podcasts. What up?
I'm Jizo. That is John Magicand we are back. Did you
fall for the clickbait Presto's whack?No? Well, it is more of
(02:58):
a clickbait title. But the reasonwhy we named it that is because recently
Fresno's sort of been in the mainstreamwhere people have been talking about it on
podcasts. Yeah, like not necessaryviral, but some videos of like just
random people talking negative about Fresno andsome were even old, old, older
videos. Yeah. Over the years, every time Fresno has been name dropped
(03:22):
in a show or on TV somehowby you know, pop culture, there's
always like a negative connotation to Fresno. Yeah, and it's something that we've
talked about before in the podcast beforewe even did an episode. Go look
for it. It's the Fresno episodewhere we talk about all our favorite things,
which we might even repeat some stuffhere, but this particular episode stems
(03:43):
from a Joe Rogan episode where recentlyin February, there's a comedian. I'm
not familiar with this guy, andI'm not that's not even I'm not trying
to hate him. I'm just notfamiliar with Chris DiStefano. And hopefully I'm
saying the name right, But Ibelieve he was performing at Tower. He's
doing a stand up routine, right, Yeah, And I don't know how
(04:03):
the show went. But knowing howFresno is, if if you're not really
that known, uh yeah, theticket sales might be might be sketched.
They might have showed up for youbut now it sort of makes sense because
a few days later, he goeson Rogan Yeah, the Joe Rogan Podcast,
and he kind of makes a commentabout Fresno and should we play the
(04:27):
clip. Yeah, let's do it. Then. I just had a show
in Fresno a couple of days ago, and I said if I grew up
here, I'd be a little differentbecause Fresno is one of those places where
I went a great time. ButI mean those just just being there,
just being in that city for twentyfour hours, I was like, I
don't know, if this is justmy every single day, you might turn
to drugs and depressing. It's it'sdepressing. I drove from Fresno to San
(04:49):
Jose and we were passing through Stockton, and I thought I was in Switzerland
because that's what an upgrade it wasfrom Fresno. I was like, what
are we in the fucking Alp?All right, real quick before we comments
on that. It's it's crazy becausea few years ago Joe Rogan showed Fresno
Love. Yeah, he actually talksabout our restaurant that he had out here.
So we play that clips. Let'splay that clip. I found them
(05:10):
on Instagram. It's a soul foodplace in Fresno. Chef Paul, Dude.
You know, sometimes you're in theroad, you find a place that's
just fucking off the charts food.If you're in Fresno, ladies and gentlemen,
Chef Paul's Cafe. I fucking giveit two thumbs five stars. Totally
agree. Shouts out to Chef pauls. Man. I need to go back.
(05:31):
I've only been there one time withyou. Actually, you treated me
to lunch one time, and Ihaven't been back. I need to make
my way back to Chef Pauls.So. I lived near there and I
was going there a lot. Andif you listen to the podcast, you
know I'm on keto. So Ihaven't been there in a while. But
yeah, maybe on a cheat day. I'm definitely down to visit Chef pauls
again. But it's just crazy howthe negative of the positive. Yeah,
(05:56):
of like almost every city, that'sI guess that's my point about this whole
thing. Every city's gonna have itsnegative and positive, and every city is
gonna have its bad area and goodareas. So in this particular situation,
the comedian he was I'm assuming hewas a lot in the batter area of
Fresno. Maybe or he went throughsome neighborhoods. Maybe he probably shouldn't ask.
Yeah, yeah, who knows.But again, I feel like,
(06:19):
again, this is just I'm guessingthat he didn't sell well at his show.
So you think maybe he was justtaking shots that. Yeah, that's
that's my thing. Was he justtaking shots at it? Or you're right,
maybe he was only in a certainarea, and that's not fair to
judge. Would just see one area, Yeah, because you can go to
literally any city and find a badarea where there's just like where it just
(06:43):
looks bad, you know what I'msaying. So my thoughts in the whole
where people talk negative all the time, my personal opinion is good talk shit,
don't don't come here because we don'twant your energy here. Yeah,
Like I feel like that. That'swhat makes Fresno so dope to me is
the people. The people here makesFresno. We have our own identity,
and the people that talk shit,I'd rather not have them here anyways.
(07:05):
Yeah, we don't need that badenergy. On the flip side, though,
there's been times where you know,artists have came through to the radio
station and We've talked to them about, you know, how you like Fresno,
and a lot of times it's it'smostly positive the stuff that a lot
of people have said. But thenyou have people like this who maybe see
a certain side of Fresno and theyjust talk shit about it, or maybe
(07:28):
they've heard about Fresno, or maybethey see it on TV. Because I
know sometimes Fresno is painted as aggand it is, but it's mostly like
the surrounding towns that are very aggBut Fresno itself actually has like a city,
and if you get into that part, there's a lot of good things
that going around here. The storyI always tell people, you know,
I've been living here for over twentyyears, but when I first moved here,
(07:53):
my friends from La wanted to visitme, and they were just talking
shit about the whole driver, wholedrive and like all we see our farms
and cows and the store. Ialways say is they spent a few days
here with me, maybe like fouror five days, yea, and they
didn't want to leave. They hadso much fun with just the people.
Yeah, that's all they were talkingabout. They were talking about how many
(08:16):
cool people they met that they arestill friends to this day actually, that
they keep in touch. That myfriends from LA have met here in Fresno.
Yeah, and they always talk aboutthem wanting to come back. I
have DJ friends who I've invited toDJ here, and this was just a
couple of days ago. Shouts outto dj Z. He was like,
Yo, when could I DJ thereagain? Because they had so much fun
(08:39):
here. Yeah. So my experiencehas been the same, Like I said,
when artists came through, or evenlike friends that we know in the
industry or friends that I know outsideof the city, have always had a
good time in Fresno. And soI don't know, maybe they just the
people they don't like it. They'rejust basing it off of other information they've
heard before, and they're just notgoing to the right places. You are
an interesting situation because you're somebody thatcame from a bigger market like Laye,
(09:03):
and you came here, and thefirst time you came here is when you
moved here, right yep. Andwhat was your first what was your first
like perception of Fresno when you gothere where I mean where you to be
honest, were you one of thoselike, oh, there's number farms out
here or well, so when Ithe first time I came here was on
a plane, so I didn't experiencedriving driving past that. Um, and
(09:26):
you know that our big area riverpark that wasn't that was not existent when
I first moved here. My situationis different, meaning I didn't really care
about where I was going. Yeah, I was just so excited about being
the first one moving out of myhouse and living on my own. That's
what excited me the most. Itcould have been anywhere. It could have
been anywhere, and then I endedup falling in love with this city.
(09:48):
I always say that maybe it fitsmy anxiety of when I've been traffic in
la I get anxiety which a lotof people suffer from that, and being
in traffic and there's no track basicallydon't traffic here. It's you know,
people say it's slower here, whichfits more of like what I like instead
of the fast pace. But likeI said, I ended up falling in
(10:09):
love with the city. Yeah,but you've been here all your life.
Yeah, so I mean Fresnol iswhat I know. And that's not to
say that I've been a homebody.Obviously, I go out of town all
the time, going out of townthis week. But going out of town
and coming back to Fresno, there'sjust like a lot of things that I
do appreciate about the city. Imean, we'll get into a little bit
(10:30):
about that, but yeah, Fresnolhas always felt like home to me,
born and raised here. I've neverbeen one of those people that are negative
about it. I kind of wantto go back to the negative talk.
What bothers me even more than thepeople that come into the city talking shit
is the people that live here andtalk shit about the city. And I
see it all the time, Likeeven people that I follow, like it
(10:52):
makes me even want to unfollow themwhen they talk shit about the city,
like you know, I hate ithere. There's nothing to do. Or
they'll even say shit like, oh, I don't even go out in Fresno.
I'll go to like La and party, or I'll go up to the
Bay like that's where I hanging.Like all right, good, Yeah,
Like, don't act like you're dopeor something like you're someone cool because you
party in a different city. Youcan just go live over there. Oh
(11:13):
wait, you can't afford to golive over there. That's why, right,
that's why you're in Fresno. Soyeah, so shut up with the
nonsense. If you're not if you'renot gonna like contribute to the city or
have a better positive outlook on thecity or make the best of the city,
then maybe you shouldn't even be here. You know what I'm saying.
I like how you just said contributeto the city. Yeah, because our
homie Cutty, who he's been onour podcast before. Yeah, shouts out
to Cutty. Um, he's originallynot from here either. Actually I didn't
(11:37):
know that. Yeah. Remember he'slike somewhere from uh from is it Huron?
Okay? Oh, I mean fromhere on, you're gonna like Fresno
a lot better. But he postedhe posted an old video of someone talking
shit, and then the next postwas him saying his opinion and one of
the lines, I'm don't quote meexactly on this one paraphrasing, but it
(11:58):
was something like, if you ifyou want something here, create it yourself.
And I think a lot of peopledo that here, which that's what
I like, is Okay, wedon't have a certain thing, we'll do
it here, shouts out to Hectic, where he put together Grizzly fests.
Yeah. Man, and we hadour own big festival here that they went
(12:18):
for years. Thousands and thousands ofpeople showed up to this thing. People
out of the city would come outhere. Yeah, that's the Grizzly city.
That was dope, man. Yeah. And of course I can even
go micro and talk small things.You know, everyone's all, oh,
there's day parties here, days dayparties in La Hollywood in the Bay.
And we're slowly creating that thing heretoo, even though it's not a mainstream
(12:39):
thing. Yeah, but some clubsare starting created some of our friends,
our personal friends, we're starting tocreate this day party scene. I mean
Taco truck throw Down, I meanhow big has that thing gotten? Right?
I Mean, that's that's huge.That's a that's a Fresnoe thing.
It's been going on for for overten years, and thousands of people show
up to the park, and it'sbecome our own thing that we do out
(13:03):
here in Fresno. You got theFresno street eat stuff that pops off with
all the food trucks out here.The food trucks scene is huge out here.
You know. Since I've been bornand raised in Fresno, so I've
seen Fresno changed a lot over theyears, and downtown was always a place
there was just like nobody went downtown. It was abandoned. It was like,
(13:24):
yo, no one even goes overthere, no one lives over there,
don't go over there. But thenyou know, they built Chick Chancey
Park years back, and they justhad this vision of we need to bring
you know, downtown Fresno back,and over the years, we've seen it
slowly and steadily build up. Nowa lot of our bigger events in Fresno
take place downtown. There's new newbuildings downtown. You live in one of
(13:46):
them. A lot of new buildingsout there. And that was things that
when I was a kid, Iwas kind of stuck in that of like,
man, Fresno downtown is just nevergonna be a thing. Like it's
no one even goes there. Whenpeople come into the city, they're like,
let's check out your down town.No, don't go there. And
now it's it's it's so cool tosee that it's it's flipped and that we
have a lot that goes on downtown. To be more specific, there's a
(14:09):
once a month thing. You broughtup art Hope. Art Hop is once
a month. Imagine a block partywith thousands of people in downtown where there's
little uh booths where they're selling things, vendors exactly. The bars are open
there, arts we have, yeah, the art exhibit, you know.
And then a few blocks away isthe what is it the brewery the breweries.
(14:33):
Yeah, but what is it called. It's the Brewery District, the
Brewery District, um. And there'sa bunch of dope ass bars there that
people put on shows, people putout day parties there, and we have
our old stuff here. And thisis what I like about living in the
area because, Okay, if youlive down south, a lot of people,
you know, obviously southern California,you drive everywhere to go to certain
(14:58):
things. Sometimes it's an over anhour drive to get to man, oh,
let's go to this event, yea, or let's even totals just to
get there. There's a dope assrestaurant in this city. Let's take that
forty five to drive. What Ilike about Fresno is we have all those
things, but it's so drivable,like it's just right there for us.
And one of the things that Iappreciate that uh, you know, when
(15:20):
I go into another city is likethe struggle to find parking, and then
sometimes you gotta pay a park everywhereyou go. I know, the Bay
is like real heavy with that.Fresno man, there's always a place to
park, and you ain't never gotto pay for that shit unless you're going
to like an event like downtown andyou know you're gonna part in the parking
structure. But for the most part, parking is easy. It's something that
(15:41):
you know, because I have obviouslywe talk about our anxiety. You know,
I'm gonna get that when I godown to La this week of trying
to find where to park and payingtwenty bucks every time I want to park,
and something that we just don't haveto worry about here in Fresno.
But we're also not a small townwhere like everybody knows each other. So
it's it's like it's big enough butnot too big. Speaking of the parking,
(16:03):
I mean, unless you go toa doghouse grill, yeah, that's
that's all another story. I mean, we could actually go to that.
That's what I love about too,is just we've had a restaurant conversation before
on the podcast. But the reasonwhy we could bring bring something up now
is because there's a bunch of newstuff that just opened that is known in
other places, but now we haveit here in town. Um, there's
(16:26):
this a Vietnamese coffee restaurant place calledLee's Sandwiches, and now they're opening your
Fresno state and uh those what isit those Korean core dogs, Korean uh
donut things. We have a bunchof those places now here. The you
know, the fancy pizza place,Anesso just opened up, the chicken spots
(16:48):
that are opening up out here.So all these trendy places in places that
are opening up in cities, we'reactually getting these here in Fresno, which
is dope. So it's Fresno's startingto be a little trendy in the food
area a little bit one. Andthen there's the ones that only Fresno has
and you get you guys can goback a couple episodes back where we do
the top five. Yeah, wherejust we're not talking about top five restaurants
(17:11):
in town. So go listen tothat for our favorites in town. But
yeah, everything is so close tous and you don't have to drive super
far to get to these these foodyspots. Yeah, and not to mention
all the food trucks, like,you know, they got the Fresnel Street
East to pop off every week.We of course I mentioned the taco truck
throw down. Our our baseball teamis like secondary name is the Fresno Tacos.
(17:33):
So we've really built that brand ofyou know that we're big in tacos
and we're really starting to get bigin in the food area. Some if
you know, people are like,what is there to do there? We
this just this past April. We'retalking about us being so busy because there's
so many events that we were doing. From the show I wasn't the smokeout
show that we had with Baby Bashe forty tech nine thousands of people filled
(17:57):
the stadium, the base and thenthe next day was that Spanish show.
Uh yeah, and that ship washuge. Every time these bands, these
Spanish bands come to Fresno, it'swild, Like that's a whole nother like
area than me and you don't reallydip into because it's it's not the music
that we know, but just theSpanish side of the city gets crazy sell
(18:18):
out. We're talking like the wholebaseball field twenty thousand people maybe and yep,
I didn't even realize this too,because you mentioned that we weren't really
like paying attention to you know,the Bonda stuff or Corridos and Peso Pluma.
Apparently he's like the next bad buddy. Yeah, it's this young cat
and he was here performing and he'slike super hused right now. So he
(18:44):
was here at Fresno. Uh wesold well. I was gonna say we
like we had a part of it. But Boots in the Park, Yeah,
we just had one recently, butthey're gonna do another one in the
Country Driven Concert YEP and Kate Brownis the headliner that sold out a few
days sell out. No more ticketsare available. We got another big fest
coming this month, the Tequila Fest, first of its cond out here.
(19:07):
I'm t I Rick Ross Little John. I know that thing's gonna be huge.
Um yeah, man, there's there'sthere's good things out here. People
just choose to hate because it's nota big city and it helps. And
it doesn't help that we were betweenLa and the Bay because that's where people
go to party and hang out,and they are always continuing to compare that
(19:29):
because we're so close to it.But it's like we shouldn't look at it
like that Fresno is its own city. We get influenced from both I get
that we get people that moved fromfrom both cities, but we're our own
city and we're definitely a lot cheaperto live than those cities. That's another
positive about Fresno is we're close tothings, Like we're close enough for the
water, the beach, you know, it's only a couple hours away.
(19:51):
We got mountains, there's a lotof things we can see out here.
We're not far from everything, andit's cheaper to live here. Um.
I mean we we've shouted out yoseventyfor that's that's huge. That's us.
So people from down south or upnorth, they have to come to us
to get to this, you know, uh place to go to um,
(20:11):
which many of my friends have cameand visited for sure. With that,
what I love about us doing theseepisodes is I have friends who listen to
the podcast and their comment these arefrom people that's never came here before.
Their comment to me is the samefrom different people. You guys make Fresno
sound hell of fun and I can'twait to visit. And that's why I
love doing these episodes, because youknow, we got to shed some positive
(20:34):
light with all this like mainstream mediastuff that people it's always a negative.
It's always like we're the laughing stock, and you know, we get put
on these lists of like all thesebad things that happen. But really,
man, there's there's there's a lotof good in Fresno. The people,
the people are good, the foodis good out here. We got some
events and shout out to everybody outthere that you know, puts in the
(20:55):
work to make Fresno a better placeto live in, a better place to
be a part of. And itfeels like we're only getting better, you
know what I'm saying. We couldwrap it up with that because I agree
with me living here for over twentyyears seen that growth, I've seen the
growth. Yeah. And and likeI said, with just the comment that
(21:17):
Cutting made, if you wanted herelike someone created, Yeah, we have
so many people here that are ableto do that, and it's happening.
We see it happening. So Ican't wait for the next five ten years
to see what's gonna be next forus. Maybe a thief park, maybe
maybe a professional team. I'd liketo see that one of these years.
I know we have Fresnel State shoutsout to Fresnol State. We're also a
(21:41):
college town, um, and thatfeels like that's the closest to professional sports
that we get. But I wouldlove to see a real professional team out
here one of these days, youknow what I'm saying, like baseball football.
I mean, it's probably not gonnahappen. We're not big enough,
but you know, that would bedope. There's that rumor that's been happening
for a few years. And ifyou drive on the ninety nine, you
see that side that's his Fresno Aquarium. What is that going to happen?
(22:03):
Because I did they even still havethat sign up. I don't even know
if that still love that that saysit's coming soon or yeah, that was
like decades ago. At the sametime, it was always weird to be
like, wait, at aquarium inFresno. It's kind of far from the
water. Yeah, but you knowwhat we do have. Here's the Fresno
Chaffee Zoo and that. Yeah,that's another good one. You know,
it's funny you brought that up.I was actually the last time I was
(22:25):
at Disneyland and I was having aconversation with one of the cast members.
And that's another thing. Every timeI talk to people outside of Fresno and
they say where I live, theyall know Fresno or at least passed through
it. And I was talking tothis particular cast member and he goes,
yeah, I actually stopped in Fresnoto check out your guys zoo, and
he was like impressed. He waslike, you guys have a really cool
zoo. And I was like,it's actually even gotten better. You know,
(22:48):
they have the like the African areanow, and I think they're they're
they're they're building more onto it.So hey, we have a nice zoo
and I'm not mad at it.I was in I was in Stockton and
m one of the people there werelike, oh, so is your office
here? Sorry now, I waslike, no, I'm I'm based out
of Fresno. And the first thingthey said was like, oh, do
you guys give away tickets to toyour zoo because I want to go,
(23:08):
like, oh nah, but yeah, our zoo's tight. A quick story
about a real quick thing about thezoo, Fresno Chaffe Zoo. The weird
thing about the zoo is it isn'ta sketchy area part of town. Yeah,
it's in one of those areas thatthat comedian was probably that. But
when I go there, yeah,it is like, oh man, I've
(23:30):
been the sketchy part of town.And then you go inside and it's like
in a park, Like you haveto go in the park and it's it's
like, what is those things whereyou just like a movie where you cross
the line of light. Yeah,and the music changes and you're just a
whole new area. That's what theFresno Zoo is. It just comes out
of nowhere and it's amazing. Soyeah, a bunch of cool stuff here.
(23:52):
I enjoy living here and I'm gladwe got to do this episode.
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