Yeah, we're recording right now.
Love it.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good night, BFAM Podcast.
Thank you for joining me from wherever you are, and thank you for giving me your time.
Today I have with me, introduce yourself.
Hey, I'm Wayne Federman.
I'm Austin's professor at the University of Southern California.
And he's taking a class that I teach, a GE class, called the history of standup comedy.
So we started in the 1850s.
We've been doing that, and then we're going to slowly make our way till today.
So it's pretty fun.
Yeah, from Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle.
Yeah.
But to start off, can you just give us a little bit of your background?
What got you into comedy?
Why is it important to you?
Just stuff around that area.
Well, I'm a standup comedian as well as a professor, and also an actor and a writer.
I'm on double strike, so I can't promote anything right now as a Screen Actors Guild member.
They don't allow us to promote anything, even though I was just on a television show.
I'm not going to talk about it.
I'm on strike.
Now when I was, how old are you, Austin?
18.
Yeah.
See, before I was even, by the time I was 18, I already knew that I wanted to try to
become a comedian.
I was already like, everything was focused on that.
So I had a two track mind.
I wanted to be a standup comedian in Austin who could also act.
Right.
Like that was it.
I wasn't interested in writing or anything other than my act.
So that's kind of what I did.
And even in high school, I was performing in high school.
I did ventriloquism in high school and then started doing standup in college when I was
in college.
But I always wanted to be on stage.
It was always like, it was funny in class.
You know the way you're in class.
You can get laughs and stuff.
You got to crank the joke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was always the thing.
But let me tell you, I was not disruptive.
I always felt like there was kids who could make other kids laugh and were disruptive.
And then there were kids a little higher level, in my opinion, I might be wrong, that could
make the teacher laugh.
If you made the teacher laugh, you're like, oh, because they are the authority.
Right.
So that was my goal starting in high school when I found out about comedy.
And then I just became a crazy comedy nerd.
It's weird because just today, you saw a little of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, the
ventriloquists from the radio show.
And when I started doing ventriloquism, that's the guy I learned from.
He had an instructional record that I listened to.
It wasn't video.
It was not video.
So how do you learn from a ventriloquist?
Record.
You just listen to him.
Yeah, he'll teach you how to sort of substitute certain letters for ones that move your lips.
So that was it.
That's how I started.
It's weird that we just saw it.
Have you ever heard of Edgar Bergen before then?
No, I haven't.
I've seen ventriloquists on like America's Got Talent, but that's about it.
He was huge.
He was huge on radio.
And it's so funny and his dummy was very...
We're not going to really go over it in class because he's not a stand up and I'm trying
to focus just on that.
But his dummy was incredible.
Charlie McCarthy was really...
You could say things that other people couldn't say because he was like...
He had that latitude.
It was really weird.
But so that's how it started.
Is that clear?
Oh, I'm from Florida.
I'm from Florida.
Okay.
Yeah, I grew up.
Where are you from?
Yeah, we both grew up a long way from home.
Yeah.
But comedy has been a big part of my life as well.
And one of my favorite stand ups would probably be...
You know Rashid Thurman?
No?
Tell me about him.
Oh my God.
Well, I only know one act by him, but it was one of the best ones I ever heard.
I wonder if I can play it without getting copyrighted.
You might get a copyright problem.
But I'll look him up afterwards.
All right.
Tell me about him.
First of all, how did you discover him?
Was it on TikTok?
Was it on...
No, when I was growing up, my dad and my granddad are like the funniest people I know.
So they would always be going back and forth.
And as a kid, I'm growing up, I'm hearing the stuff.
I'm knowing it's funny in some way.
But when I got older, I could start to understand the jokes and what was being said and what
is going on.
And it was still pretty funny.
So my dad would play this clip by Rashid Thurman.
It was a...
Rashid Thurman?
Yeah, it was a clip.
It was a clip and it was...
The skit was like, you can't rob an old Spanish dude.
Oh, really?
Okay.
You can't rob an old Spanish dude.
And it was stand up?
Yeah, it was stand up.
Oh, I can't wait to see.
Okay, guys, we're going to go on this adventure together.
I love you.
And then Richard Pryor got a good one.
The mafia joke is one of my favorite jokes.
I got to get more into it.
Yeah, we'll play that.
We'll probably play that in the class when we get to...
Because it's very interesting to me, I mean, Richard Pryor was the guy.
Yeah.
Like when I was...
He was the guy.
Yeah.
And every time there's a list of the greatest comedians, he's always on the top of it for
a number of reasons.
But that mafia joke is really interesting because we're going to learn about how the
mafia ran these nightclubs all across the United States.
Not just in...
He's from Peoria, Illinois.
Okay.
So it's not just Chicago and New York.
It's like all these little clubs the mafia ran.
So then he ran into those guys who started laughing when he tried to shake them down
for money.
It was so great.
Yeah, that's a big section.
We're not even there yet.
We're just getting out of vaudeville right now on the radio.
The more I sit in class, the more it makes more and more sense.
But when I first got in there, I was so lost.
Really?
Yeah, I was kind of lost.
Tell me.
I'm very curious.
It was interesting at the same time because when you see comedy today, you just see people
standing up telling funny jokes.
When you really go back, you see it was almost kind of rooted in racism at first in some
sort of way, but it grew from that.
And as time went on, people...
I would say it was more rooted...
I wouldn't use...
I use the word rooted in ethnic stereotypes.
Yeah.
That's the way I would say it.
But a lot of people think that.
So that's totally right.
As a matter of fact, remember we were talking about Bob Hope today?
I have an incredible clip of him talking about that.
That's sweet.
Yeah.
But yeah.
We're going to see it on Monday.
It's him talking about how comedy changed and that was a big change that it was all you
were doing in Irish, that black guy.
Yeah, yeah.
But yeah.
And then one thing, I feel like I'm a funny person.
I don't like to call myself a funny person because when you do that, it kind of takes...
Right, it ruins it.
Yeah.
It takes away from it.
But I always wanted to learn how to structure jokes like the comedians do on stage because
I don't think I would know how to or even start.
Why don't you take the history?
There's a stand up class that they teach at Toronto School, which is called Introduction
to Stand Up.
Okay.
I don't teach it.
Yeah.
But this woman teaches it named Judith Shelton and she's great.
Yeah.
And that might be a great way for you to...if you have the time.
I mean, you're busy in business doing whatever you're doing in business here.
But that might be if you have time to do that.
And then I teach a course for the kids that pass that course, then they can study with
me called Becoming a Pro, like how to get open mics, that kind of stuff.
But she's...she'll really...yeah.
It might be if you want to, here's my...if I can give you the tiniest little advice.
Stand up comedy is like swimming.
Whatever I teach you or Judith teaches you or anyone that's like, it's good, but it's
not as good as getting up on stage and doing it.
You gotta do it.
I hate to say it, man.
You have to watch other comedians, watch how they do it and then do it.
That's better than anything I can teach you, anything any other comic can teach you.
So it's risky.
You know, you get up there like, oh, am I funny?
Is this thing?
Am I wasting everyone's time?
But you're a charming guy, you know?
Yeah.
Another question I have is...
Oh, okay.
How do you feel about the...you know how some comics are scared to go to therapy because
they think if they go to therapy, it'll make them unfunny?
I feel the same way.
I feel like I just lose my sense of humor if I were to...
That's a great debate.
That's a great debate with comedians.
Yeah.
Because some are on the other side.
They're like, hey, the more healthy I was, the easier it was to write jokes.
Yeah.
And other people are like, well, the weird neurotic part of this is kind of the juice
that makes me funny.
Yeah.
There is no answer to that.
I would just say, unless you just follow your own heart, I am one who won't take antidepressant
medications for that, partially for that reason.
Also, I'm like, I just like to be alive as I am.
Yeah, that's me.
That's me.
But I don't want to judge anybody.
But I know famous comedians that used to get so nervous on stage before they would go on
that they would take something called a beta blocker.
Do you know what that is?
I've never heard of it.
Slows down your heart rate.
So they don't get too...
Because when you get nervous, your heart rate goes up.
Oh, it starts to spike.
Yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
So I was like, yeah, I'd like to take that too, but I'm not going to affect my heart.
Yeah, you don't want to risk falling out on stage.
I'm not going to do any of that.
But yeah, that's a great question.
I don't really have the answer for that.
But I do know that some comedians are very self-destructive and could use some help.
And I've seen a lot of them with drugs and alcohol.
Obviously, there's a bunch of them that just burn out.
Yeah.
So how does a comedian deal with slowly becoming unfunny?
You don't have to look at me.
That's the worst question I ever got.
No, it's like it's...
Comedy is one of the hardest jobs because you're judged for every joke.
Whatever your last joke is, that's it.
And then they're like, what else you got?
So it's really...
There's a lot of pressure on it.
But you just have to...
It's a grind.
I hate to say it.
It's a grind.
So we are, just so you know what's going on, we're in a break...
What's called a breakout room.
Yeah, in the Marshall Building.
In the Marshall Building at USC, people are walking by and we can see people.
So it's a little distracting.
I feel like I'm in a fish tank.
What does breakout mean?
I guess it's like a little study room.
So people...
Why wouldn't they call it a study room?
I don't know.
I mean, you go from the classroom into the...
Oh, wait a minute.
Isn't on Zoom when you go to smaller rooms, don't they call that breakout rooms?
Yeah, they call those breakout rooms.
Okay.
So maybe it's the same...
Maybe it's a physical manifestation of the Zoom rooms.
Okay.
That does make sense.
Yeah.
Oh, there's video.
These are pretty...
This is an incredibly high tech building.
What is the name of this building?
No.
What happened?
Somebody was trying to call me.
I had to decline the call.
Okay.
But we back on.
We back on.
We're back on?
Are you sure?
Yeah, I'm sure.
Okay.
All right.
A very high tech recording equipment here.
It's also a phone and a flashlight, I assume, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, this is quite...
That's not me.
That's me.
He keeps calling.
All right.
Let's take a break.
No, we're going to keep going.
I'm going to text him.
That's the best thing about technology.
You can't turn off the phone part?
Yeah, I don't know how to mute him.
Oh my.
Who is it?
This is a guy from my math class.
Wait, are you a freshman?
Yeah, I am a freshman.
Oh my God.
So yeah, I'm just...
How's it going?
Well, all right.
No, I'm open to questions.
I don't know.
Yeah.
So you're a freshman?
Yeah.
So your first day of school, you were in my class, right?
Yeah.
That's amazing.
I've never taught freshmen like that before.
Really?
That was the first for me.
Yeah.
Wow.
I'm sorry if it was too confusing at the beginning.
No, it's fine.
That's just anything with anything you learn new.
I've never been exposed to this type of history.
Yeah.
Everything that I'm learning here is almost basically brand new.
Right, right.
Starting over.
Right.
Because in high school, and some schools, it's such a closed off curriculum.
You only learn in the academia.
You never get to step out of these fun classes.
How did you even get here?
Did you apply to a number of schools or did you just always want to go here?
No, but when I was growing up, I always wanted to move to California.
I never knew how I was going to get here, but I guess college was the way here.
But even throughout high school, I never knew where I was going to college.
I didn't want to think about it.
That's too much pressure to...
Really?
Coming here freshman year, thinking about where I'm going to college.
Am I going to make it to next week first?
Okay, okay, okay.
I know you're trying to stop there.
Yeah.
I was taking it one week at a time, one semester at a time.
By the time I got to the 11th grade, something just came to me that I wanted to go to USC.
And no idea?
What do you mean something came to you?
It was like an epiphany.
You ever just get an idea to just do something?
It popped out of me to at least try to get here.
I play football.
I've played a number of sports, but I play football.
So my first ticket out here was to go to the elite football camp here.
So I went to that, performed well.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Slow down because I'm learning.
I'm learning.
This is like you.
I'm super curious.
So what does that mean in elite?
Is that during the summer, kids, high school kids go...
I got you.
For how long is that?
It was two different camp days.
So it was one day camp, you just come out, showcase your skills, do a number of drills,
do one-on-ones.
And then I did so good the first day, the coach pulled me inside and was asking where
was I from?
I'm like, I'm from Detroit.
My time is limited out here.
He asked me if I would come back the next day.
So I came back the next day, performed good again.
But while I was on camp...
Wait, are you a wide out?
Yeah, I'm a wide receiver.
Yeah.
I can tell you're not an interior lineman.
Yeah.
So how fast can you run?
Pretty fast.
It's the same thing with talking about being funny.
I don't really like to talk about myself playing sports, but I feel like I'm above average.
You're above average.
Did you run track and field?
I ran track and field for two years.
I started my junior year.
So you were a jock?
Yeah.
I love it.
I got cut off the basketball team, so I had to find some way to get back.
Can you touch the rim?
I can touch...
Oh my God.
How tall are you?
Five seven.
No.
You can dunk at five seven?
Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Still?
Yeah.
I just did it yesterday.
How old were you when you first...
Attempted?
You were not when you first dunked.
11th grade.
Okay.
All right.
So not that long ago.
Yeah, no.
Okay.
Were you surprised you were able to do it?
Yeah, because I never really attempted.
You can't palm the ball, right?
I can palm some balls.
Oh, weird ones?
Yeah.
I mean...
Okay.
In contact.
Yeah, I got you.
I got you.
Hold on.
We're pausing.
Maybe.
Okay.
I'm really into this.
Oh yeah.
Within context, I can palm basketballs.
I got really strong hands.
I like to work out, but I just don't like to look stocky and buff because I'm short.
So it's like I'd be a stereotype at that point.
So junior year, I began to play football again.
I played when I was younger, but I ended up quitting because the coach was so terrible.
Yeah.
I played...
I couldn't make...
I always say I'm not on the level you did, but I've been playing sports my whole life.
I played full court basketball to this day.
Yeah.
So...
But yeah, coaches can be insane.
Yeah, and they were...
Like really abusive dudes.
Just struck my confidence.
It took it away from me.
One year I was good, the next year I felt like I was shit.
Yeah, yeah.
So it was like I stopped playing football.
I moved on to the basketball track just because I knew I could switch, so I started playing
basketball again.
Right, right.
I get the high school...
Basketball is actually my gateway into the high school that I went to.
I probably would have never even touched.
Private high school?
Yeah, I ended up going to a private high school.
Yeah, that's how they do it.
Is it Catholic?
Yeah, it was.
Yes.
All boys.
What's it called?
UND Jesuit.
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh, that's Jesuit.
Those are good schools.
Yeah.
That's a good academic school.
It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
I don't think I would be here right now.
No, probably not.
I'm talking to you.
I'm talking to Wayne Betterman.
I love it.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
To keep the...
So you had to play basketball for this school and track.
Yeah.
What were your events in track?
In track, I did long jump, but I didn't start track until my 11th grade year after I got
cut from the basketball team.
So I started playing football my junior year before I got cut off the basketball team.
Right.
Because you know the basketball season is right after football season.
So I started playing football again, got cut from the basketball team, and went straight
back into football training.
Because I'm like, if I'm going to do anything, it'd probably be football.
Because in height, football really doesn't matter.
If you can ball, you can ball.
You know who I just did a show for the other day?
Who?
I don't know.
You might be too young.
Julian Edelman.
Julian Edelman?
Yeah.
Just met him last week, a week and a half ago.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
He had an amazing Super Bowl thing.
Yeah.
I grew up watching Julian.
Yeah.
Well, he's an example of not a tall guy.
Super tall guy.
But he played slot receiver.
Yeah.
I played slot too.
You do?
Yeah.
But I know how to do the wide out stuff.
You do?
I can play both.
Because of what?
Those wide out guys, they tend to be tall.
Yeah.
They tend to be.
But that's not true.
They...
Oh.
Okay.
I can't think of that.
They probably have...
Well...
No, no, no.
I guess, yeah.
So, you know what 7-0-7 is for football?
Yeah, sure.
We're starting them...
All right.
So my uncle runs a 7-0-17.
Son of mine, son of body is...
It's pretty big throughout the country and everything.
And then D-Trait as well.
But one day I started playing with them.
Got really good over the off season.
What is your thing?
Are you good running rounds?
Are you good with hands?
All of it.
I'll show you my clips after we get done.
You can tell me what you think.
Love it.
I'm not good, but...
I had no idea.
That's super impressive to me.
Yeah.
Because that was just like a class final in plays and doing ventriloquism.
Yeah.
All my friends were jocks.
Yeah.
Like I really...
I was very athletic until middle school when I grew.
Oh, you couldn't handle...
Yeah.
Some people just grow too fat.
Yeah.
And this is the weird thing is like this is long, my torso, but my legs are short so I'm
not fat.
Like everything is bad.
You want long legs, short legs, the whole thing is like a mess.
Yeah.
But I love playing sports.
Love it.
Yeah, it's so fun and really neat.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So track season came around.
And I was...
Growing up I was always scared to do track because my dad was like a super big track
star.
Oh, he was?
Yeah, for like whenever he was running and stuff.
So I'm like...
Oh, so it's in the family?
Yeah.
With him it's not too many other athletes.
It's him.
But...
So 11th grade year I was like, let me just go out and try it.
And I ended up getting super good at it.
We won a state championship for the first time in about 20 something years.
Almost 30 years.
Right.
And just long jump?
I did long jump.
That was my contribution to the team.
But I was on the fastest team in the state though.
Did you ever do relay?
No, they didn't need me.
So I just got to...
You know how track points work, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I just used to pick up those points that have put us on the edge.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a team thing.
Yeah, so I'll pick up the points and the long jump in.
Did you get a trophy?
Yeah, I got medals.
We got a trophy.
I got a few pictures in my phone.
But yeah, we won the state championship for the first time in 30 years.
And then...
Like a legend.
Yeah, and then we almost back to back...
We almost repeated.
What happened?
How heartbreaking is it?
This is sports.
Sports is the most devastating of all.
It's the worst.
If you can deal with it, it's great.
But if you can't...
You might be in the gutter forever.
It's a heartbreaker.
Yeah, it is.
It's literally the worst.
It's the worst.
It literally breaks your heart and your spirit.
It replays in your brain all the time.
Have you ever seen anything?
Of course.
And then you go back and say, I could have did this different because you start to see
all the...
Of course.
That's the worst.
So my junior year, when we were winning a lot, at the regional, my friend...
Actually, it's crazy.
You can watch Michigan State.
I don't know if you keep up with college football.
Campus interviews, Spartans.
Yeah.
Did you see the catch recently made by the guy at Michigan State?
No, no.
I'll show it to you, but he was at the regionals or whatever.
Uh-huh.
scratched every jump after his first jump.
He had a good first jump, but he scratched every jump after
until his last jump.
So I got first place.
He ended up beating my teammate by like 0.5 inches,
like a centimeter.
It was crazy.
So the following year, I get out and I jump,
I want to say 21 feet, 21 something.
And I was two inches under qualifying for states, period.
You get 21, too, you can qualify.
Other than that, you got to either be first or second place.
I'm in first the whole thing.
We get to the last jump, some random guy comes and jumps
further than me knows.
So that took me out of states.
Look, if you need to cry, you can't understand.
So that took me out of states.
Process it, process it.
Man, don't push it down.
It took so long.
It'll pop up otherwise.
It'll haunt you at night.
Yeah, of course.
You'll be laying down and you'll be like,
I could have jumped too much.
No, I know.
I know.
Yes, of course.
Of course.
Yeah, so my friend Nick Johnson, he runs track at Detroit Mercy.
He was dealing with...
I watched eight to 10 Detroit Mercy basketball games last year.
Well, you know why?
Because Antoine Davis was going to break the all-time record.
Here's something you don't know about me.
I'm listening.
I wrote the official biography of Pete Maravich,
the guy he was going to break the record of.
What?
Yeah.
I'm friends with their family.
Pete Maravich?
Yeah.
I wrote the book of Maravich.
You can look it up.
I used to watch him to get my basketball moves.
He was crazy.
Yeah, that was one of the most insane...
Yeah.
You know who that is?
Yeah, I know Pete.
Yeah, Pistol Pete.
Crazy passes.
Yeah, that's the guy.
So yeah.
When I was a kid, he was still playing.
I watched him not live, but on TV and stuff.
Yeah, so he was like just another basketball player,
like a fancy basketball player.
Yeah, so Nick was dealing with the injuries all season.
And then when we got there, our top runner, Jaden Reed,
he runs at Illinois State right now.
Really?
He got injured at the States.
And I think we needed him to run one more race.
And he got hurt in a race before, which we didn't get the points for.
Hammy?
What happened?
I think he pulled his hamstring.
I just said Hammy.
Yeah.
So I predicted it.
Yeah, you did.
It's usually Hammy.
That's the usual one.
Yeah.
But yeah, so I was at home watching.
It's not that good of a guess.
It was not that good of a guess.
He was like.
He tore his leg from his arm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was OK.
I apologize.
Yeah, that's fine.
It's funny.
That's funny.
Yeah, it's usually Hammy.
But yeah, so we lost the points momentum.
Oh, sorry.
It was.
If you love the sport, again, I can't give you.
I mean, there's sports psychologists now that
deal with all of that stuff.
I think those are like the most important.
Because outside of comedians having poor mental health,
I think sports psychologists are trying to be mad.
They're very similar, because you have to perform
under very intense circumstances.
At the right time, within the right circumstances.
Can't be the day before, can't be the day after.
And with them both, you don't get a second chance.
I mean, once you, it'd be hard.
It's harder to redeem.
And everyone knows.
Yeah, and it's broadcasted everywhere.
And then it's funnier when you fail, because it's broadcasted.
So they can just keep replaying.
And the fact that it's recorded and you can go look at it
is even worse.
It's like something you just can't run from.
Right.
Yeah.
By the way, there's a lot of activity in this hall.
Yeah, I don't know.
Marsha, what is the name of this building again?
Fertitta Hall.
Say it again.
Fertitta Hall.
Fertitta?
Yeah.
I don't know who Fertitta is.
This hall is incredible, guys.
I've never been in it.
But it's this place.
It's like dimly lit, professional.
Oh, yeah.
No, this looks dense there.
I need to get a camera to start recording.
So it can be.
Yeah, of course.
Well, that's very impressive.
That's us.
And that's really cool.
I just went to the clubs.
Can I ask if this is a sidebar thing?
I'm holding a book.
No, no, it's not about you.
Oh, OK.
Would you ever, after class, would we walk over
and play a game of horse or something?
Sure.
You know the Lion Center?
I've been thinking more in the outside,
because I don't have a pass.
Oh, the pass?
OK.
On the tennis courts, they have basketball courts.
All right, I'll go over there.
If you want to, I don't know.
That's fine with me.
Oh, actually, are you into golf?
No.
You don't golf?
Do you know any golfers?
Yeah, that's not my thing.
It's not?
I mean, I have friends that might like golf,
but I don't.
As long as I can play real sports,
I'm not going to play golf.
I'm not going to play a thing where I'm driving around
and I'm holding a horse.
That's not going to be.
And a little goat curve.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I'm not saying those guys aren't amazing athletes.
They are, but I need to play.
I need to play tennis or basketball.
The competition level is right there in front of you.
You always have to be engaged.
Yeah, yeah.
And also, I like the sweat.
I like that I can still do it as a miracle.
Because yeah, yeah, I couldn't even
make the JV high school basketball,
let alone the varsity.
It's really bad.
Really bad.
I mean, I could tell you about making the varsity.
It's just bigger.
Yeah.
We had a really good team.
The way they cut me was so funny.
Brutal?
Yeah, no, it's like they bring you into a room like this,
but it's really like a back room behind the bleachers
or whatever.
And he goes, I made it to the second day of trial,
so I was actually surprised.
I didn't think I was going to make it.
I'll show you how realistic he had to get.
So he goes, he goes, I mean.
What?
They bring you into the room, and there's like five of them.
And they jump you with the bad news.
They go, you know we don't want to do this,
and we're going to have to let you go.
So I told him I was going to go play football,
and then I want to stay chip and track.
So I contributed.
No, I know you did.
Look, you bounced back.
You definitely bounced back.
But it's so funny now that you're saying it,
because in theater, and this is auditioning, and they're like,
we're going to go another way.
We see what you are, and we don't want you.
You know what I mean?
So there are similarities today.
So what's it like in the film world?
I feel like it's like a whole different side of life.
Well, I studied acting in college.
That's what I did at NYU.
And then I tried to get as good as I could,
whatever my limitations are.
And then it took a while, but you
have to kind of learn how to audition.
It's kind of the big thing.
And then once I got that down, I started booking.
And then I've been booking pretty consistently
since I was like, I don't know, 26 or something.
But 20 to 26 was like nothing.
Because from the outside looking in,
I feel like it's really easy to cast imposter syndrome
in the acting world.
So how do you find yourself as an actor?
Because some people act, but it won't be genuine.
It'll just be acting.
Yeah, I don't know.
That's a good question.
All I know is whenever I'm acting,
my number one goal is to be present, be in it.
Just whatever is happening.
Someone's yelling at a thing, she's crying at a thing.
It's usually comedy, so it's usually none of that.
So know my lines, be in it.
So I'm not thinking about am I doing good?
Am I doing bad?
What did they?
Should I do it this way?
I can't be thinking about any of that stuff.
I think it's similar in sports.
Like when you get in a zone, you know about that?
The flow state?
Yes.
I learned.
The flow state.
I went so deep into that one summer.
I was just, yeah, I just wanted to learn to be more present,
because it's so easy to lose yourself in everything that's
going on outside.
And once that chatter gets to going, it's so hard to stop it.
So I really was doing studying on how to immerse yourself
within whatever you were doing.
Now the flow state, that's a great way to put it.
I mean, I had not heard that term until about five years
ago.
Really?
Yeah.
Well, we used to call it the zung one.
Oh, yeah.
We used to call it that.
But it's the same idea.
But it's the same in acting and in sports.
It's like you can't have that chatter going.
Because people can see it in your eyes.
Yeah.
They can see it.
Yeah.
They can see it.
They know.
And the camera is like right here.
And then you're facing.
Oh, man.
How do you deal with that?
The lights, the camera, the people around,
you just got to get into it.
I got to be in it.
I got to be, I can't.
Yeah.
It's hard.
So is there any times you ever just couldn't get into it?
Yes.
Like, what was that like?
It's a nightmare.
Everyone's waiting.
And you're sweating.
And you feel like you're, like you said, an imposter.
You feel like it's terrible.
It's happened a few times.
I would say less than five.
But it's definitely happened.
And usually the best thing is if you have a director who's
running and it kind of recognized and let's you kind
of like spin out and then kind of get back.
So I just feel like it'd be impossible to learn lines.
How do you memorize lines?
How do you memorize lyrics to a song?
Oh, you just keep repeating them over and over.
Do you have anybody read them to you so you can?
I try not.
I mean, sometimes I hire a guy to just run the lines with me
if I have a big audition.
Yeah.
So I will do that.
But for the most part, I have them written down.
And then I write them down.
And then what I try to do is I try to do different things
physically while I'm doing the lines.
Oh, yeah.
So you got like cues so you know what to say.
No, the opposite.
I want the lines to be no matter what I'm doing.
That they...
Yeah, that the lines are locked in.
So I could be writing.
I could be a thing.
I'd be shooting baskets.
I could be shooting, you know, playing piano or something
like that.
So it's not locked into a specific thing.
And then when I get to start rehearsing, then I can root it
to some sort of physical action.
Wow.
So it really seemed like the actor world and the sports world
were closely related.
Of course.
I mean, I would never think because I haven't been on the other side.
In a way, they're both entertainment.
I'm talking about professional sports.
It's entertainment.
Like you're on ESPN.
Somebody else is on TNT.
Yeah.
And Step Brothers.
Like it's like it's click.
I'm going to watch this.
The thing that I love about...
And again, you know, I'm a sports nut.
Yeah.
Unlike drama, a lot of times you can kind of see where it's going.
You're like, oh, I bet Spider-Man wins this fight at the end of the movie.
I guess sports, you don't know.
Yeah.
You don't know what's going to happen.
Sometimes, I mean, nowadays you could pretty much guess.
Why?
Did you think Denver was definitely going to win last year?
No.
Yeah.
So.
Sometimes it just seems so predictable though.
And the way that things fall out because you ever heard they started scripting the sport?
How do you feel about scripting games?
Have you heard of that?
I don't even know what it is.
Teach me.
So now it's like basically like a thing where it's like they feel like all the sports are like scripted.
So you can like tell who's going to win because I don't know.
Sounds like some crazy conspiracy theory.
It's a deep rabbit hole, but it actually kind of check out sometimes.
Give me an example.
Even like the...
Like they want the Lakers to win because it's a big market.
That kind of thing.
Yeah.
And then it was like the Super Bowl last year.
I'm I might have had a fact, so I screwed up, but it was like Andy Reid used to coach for the Eagles.
Right.
Or whatever.
And it was like this crazy coincidence where he's coaching against the team that he used to coach for in one of the biggest Super Bowls that there is.
And it's they come back from losing the first half to.
Oh, I see.
You know what I mean?
You're saying they make good television?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I will look into it.
Sounds like some weird deep state thing.
I will look into it.
It's pretty interesting once you like...
No, of course.
It's like falling down into it.
But now have you ever lost yourself in a character?
Like you had to become this character.
No, not really.
No?
Have you known anybody that has?
Yeah.
Well, there's I'm not super close friends with them, but there's an actor named Jim Carrey.
Yeah.
And he played a comedian named Andy Kaufman in this movie.
Call what?
Man on the Moon.
Man in the Moon, Man on the Moon.
One of those.
And Andy Kaufman is a kind of an alternative comedian.
And he you had to call him Andy during the whole time.
Yeah.
Like when he was eating and it was weird.
It was how do you think people who played a Joker like pan out after playing Joker?
Because the one guy died.
So not good.
Yeah.
So not too great.
Yeah.
I don't know.
You know, those yeah, those super evil.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Those characters are...
You just have to go deep down and like access something.
Yeah.
But like another thing is, you know, some people would be like people are outside of just assume every actor that they see is rich.
Uh-huh.
So how did what was the truth behind that?
Like how does that work?
It all depends on what you're doing.
I was like I've been doing like kind of guest star and, you know, support like little scenes in movies and stuff for a long time.
And I don't know.
I don't like to think of my career like money based.
You're having fun with it.
Yeah.
I feel like this is the life I want to lead.
Yeah.
So sometimes you make a lot of money.
So there's no doubt about it.
You make a lot of money and and sometimes you don't.
Yeah.
So it's like it's I wouldn't say I'm super.
It's not like I live in Bel Air or something like that.
But I do fine.
You know, and I do this teaching job is I don't do this for money.
I do this because I love you know, I'm passionate about stand up.
So how did you even how do you notice much because when you're in class, it seems like it just rolls off the tongue.
You just know it off the top.
You like it.
I'm like a genius.
Yeah, like the sources at the source of.
I'm very here's it.
Here's where it started when I was in high school when you were getting cut from your basketball.
Just to bring it back to you.
Yeah.
I was really into again, I was doing ventriloquism.
I knew about Edgar Bergen.
That's how I learned about all these old radio comedians and when the guy we're talking about today,
Eddie Cantor, you know, Burns and Allen and Benny and stuff.
So I was like a comedy geek even then in the 70s.
So and so that's when it started.
I was just I just fascinated by these guys.
Who are they?
Why?
Where they come from?
How do they do what they do?
Yeah, and then I was like, could I do it?
Right.
Could I do this?
It seemed so ridiculous.
Yeah.
And then I was like, I'm going to give it a try.
I said, I'm going to give it a try.
It's kind of like Mark Twain was.
You see, I've been listening.
But have you ever really studied like the geography of like where comedians come from?
So like, I do know this.
I do know that a lot of comedians, not all.
Definitely not all.
Like Simon found us.
But a lot of comedians tend to be have older brothers and sisters.
So they use.
So they, well, one, they don't get as much attention.
So they're like a little more star for attention.
The parents are like, we can't.
We don't have time.
And two, verbally, because it's a verbal job, your verbal skills are higher at a younger
age because you have to communicate with your older brothers and sisters.
You want to be part of it.
You want to be a play monopoly or whatever you're doing.
So that tends to be a thing that like the younger person in a family tends to like be
funny to get the attention and be verbal, which is the whole thing.
Yeah.
So I think it's easier for people to become funny from scratch or become funny rooted
from trauma.
Because, you know, a lot of people, they make fun of their own trauma and it'll get less
and from there to branch it out.
I mean, there's no real answer.
I do.
That's a great question.
Let me think about it.
Let me think.
I think some people are just naturally funny.
They just see the world.
The way I describe it is like a lens on a camera.
They just see it with a little different angle than everyone else does.
They see this and they're like, oh, I'm going to focus in on that part.
So some people just have that thing and can just see the irony or like the wittiness or
the stupidity of it or whatever.
They're upset about it or they're just, yeah.
Or they draw connections from two different things.
They see this and they're like, how does that go together?
So it's really fun.
So there's those people and then there's other people who are like, you know, whatever.
There's no better example than Richard Pryor.
What happened in his childhood.
No one can compare to that.
Not no one, but the mom, the thing, the prostitution.
Like when you were a kid to see your parents or your mom having sex.
What's going on?
Like just how you would view the world or humanity.
But he did, I mean, he did go to school.
He went to a good school.
Where did he go?
Yeah, in Peoria.
He didn't go to college, but he did.
No, but he went to, not only you, he didn't get to USC, but he did go to high school and
then I think he went into the military for briefly and then wanted to do a standup career.
So yeah, so that kind of trauma, I feel like he was medicating that his whole life.
That's my stupid opinion about it, but you know, he was just a massive drug user.
I did not know that.
I got a lot to learn.
I'm in the classroom.
I'm sorry to laugh at that.
Just because I thought you had seen that whole movie about where the, him with the mafia
guys.
No, I didn't see the whole movie.
I just know the clip that my granddad showed it to me.
What's the movie called?
That one is called Live on the Sunset Strip, but there's another one that we're really
going to talk about called Live in Concert.
And those two movies are incredible.
Here's a couple of things you should know about Richard Pryor.
At one point he was set himself on fire, either to kill himself or just a crazy free base.
I don't know if you know what free base scene is.
It's like, it was a way people did cocaine.
I've never done it, but you light it on fire and throw a pipe.
I don't know.
So anyways, there's a fire involved.
And so it blew up and he almost died from that.
Like he had like third degree burns all over his body.
Yeah.
It was really brutal, very brutal.
And then, you know, multiple wives and you know, there's this, you'll see.
Right.
But then he come out as gay.
Yeah.
This is the thing.
He didn't come out as gay, but he did say that he sucked a guy off without getting too
graphic.
Yeah.
So I guess because of the sexuality around him, I was like, I'll do that.
So when did gay comedians come about?
Like openly, because I know for, it had to be a standard time where people were like
super homo.
Yeah.
Well, you know, moms may believe he was gay.
Yeah.
I did not know that.
Yeah.
But I was like, you know, you're on stage.
You play the old woman who liked young guys.
Yeah.
That was her thing.
Yeah.
So I think, you know, that's a good question.
Like who was the first openly?
Yeah.
It might be like Ellen DeGeneres was one of the, there was another guy.
I can't think of his name.
I read about him in the book.
He was on The Tonight Show in this, I believe in the 90s.
He was openly gay and he came out.
But now it's like, it's not big, now it's still a big deal.
Yeah.
It's still a big deal.
You know, your generation is very cool about that guy.
Yeah.
Where we're like, stay away from the...
Yeah.
No, it's cool.
I mean, I love it.
I love that, you know, people were just so open about it.
Yeah.
But, yeah.
I'm saying Bob Smith.
Yeah, Bob Smith.
Yeah, very good.
I think it was in 94 he did that tonight, Joe said.
So...
Yeah, that's when he came out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that's pretty late.
Yeah.
I mean...
That's a long time.
It was just not...
There was no openly gay...
Yeah.
That I knew of.
Yeah.
That I knew of.
I also think about when people start coming out as openly gay in the sports world, connecting
with the...
There's still nobody in the NFL that's not one guy, right?
That we know of.
No, but...
Well, there was...
I don't know if you know that.
I grew up...
Before I lived in Florida, I lived in D.C.
Okay.
So I followed the Redskins.
They don't even call them that anymore.
Because it was Tuesday.
Yeah.
Stay away from the...
I know, I know.
But there was a...
We had a tight end named Jerry Smith.
Okay.
Who later came out as gay.
After they all came out...
After they all came out after...
That locker room is just...
You've been in football locker room.
Yeah.
That is very masculine.
Yeah.
Energy.
That's very masculine.
And I played tackle football.
Yeah.
Not at high school level, but it's like...
So everyone, I think...
Yeah.
I mean, there's going to be somebody.
It's got to be someone's goal.
It's got to be.
And there's been rumors of that for years.
I just think...
This is my opinion.
Yeah.
It's not like the guys are ashamed that they're gay.
If you're an offensive tackle or something like that.
I don't think they want to be a distraction because it's a team.
To the league.
Yeah.
No, to the team.
To the team as a whole.
To the team.
Oh, because maybe somebody got some...
Whatever.
Yeah.
The team is a team.
Yeah.
You play team sports.
That's a big part of that bond thing.
I don't want to hang out like that.
That's my theory.
Yeah.
That's my theory.
Actually, I couldn't...
Are you coming out right now?
Is this what's happening?
No, there's no...
I'm just gonna stand here.
We're gonna sit down.
Yeah.
I'm just gonna stand here.
Oh, man.
Totally cool.
He's gonna stand here.
Just hold on a second.
Jerry Smith was his name and I remember later there was articles about him and...
Yeah.
And I think his teammates knew.
I think some of the teammates knew.
Yeah.
So, they just...
That's my guess.
Yeah.
That's a pretty good guess.
Because it just makes no sense.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah.
So, that's it.
So, I follow sports.
I try to play sports as much as I can and do stand up and act and now write and teach.
Living the dream.
Living the...
Living your dream.
I do live a dream.
I do.
You know, that is one thing I think that has helped me through all the disappointments.
Yeah.
There's many roles I wanted to get that I didn't get and parts and things and all of
that.
But I've always tried to be grateful for whatever comes my way.
Yeah.
As opposed to focusing on what I didn't get like, what do I have?
Yeah.
Oh, this is pretty good.
Yeah.
I'm living in California.
That's the thing.
I get the house now.
So, that's the way that would...
If there's...
I hate giving advice.
Why?
Because I think people love giving advice and I think advice doesn't apply to some people
just because it applies to you.
Right.
So, instead of giving advice, I wish people would more say, this is what worked for me.
It might work for you.
Yeah.
As opposed to this is how you have to do it.
And they sell it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's like, oh, now I have to listen to you?
It becomes marketing and then you begin to...
You begin to just start to fall into that eight foot...
You feel like you got to fall into that eight foot steps.
Yeah, whatever.
And I like it.
I want to...
All the time I'm reading books on how to improve myself.
Yeah.
I love those books.
You do?
Yeah, I love them.
And what I'm reading right now is...
I got it in my book bag.
Let me see.
It's called a book called Outlier.
You can look at it.
Oh.
But it's like...
What do you mean?
Of course, it's a classic.
This is it.
This is a 10,000 hour one.
Yeah, it's so good.
Yeah.
And it's really good because I read a book contradicting the...
How did you come across this?
I want to say my...
I think my dad told me about that one, but...
Right.
During quarantine, like during COVID, when we were stuck in the house, I got on this
super big binge about just self-improvement.
And I wanted to...
I didn't know who I wanted to become, but I know I wanted to do something.
Right.
I love it.
I'm to the say I do self-improvement.
If I want to get to where I want to be at, I got to start somewhere.
You know, waking up late for...
Even if class is online, you still got to be able to do something before class start.
Don't let that be the excuse you use to...
You're giving me a place.
I love it.
No, this is a word for me.
This is what?
Yeah, yeah.
It made me a word for you.
It might make me a word for you.
But I started doing...
I don't know.
I just started putting things into practice.
So what did I do?
I started watching like, you know, Kobe Bryant.
Everybody knows Kobe Bryant.
Kobe is the best.
I know, right?
He's the best.
I just was watching a clip of his that was so inspiring, talking about the journey and
winning a championship or losing.
And it was like two days later, I had to start the thing all over again.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah, I could hear him talk for hours, but...
Yeah, he was really...
I mean, I know he was sometimes a terrible teammate to some of those guys.
That's because the D level of passion that he had inside of him.
But he was really something else.
Yeah.
He was really something else.
Yeah.
That's a lot of activity happening here in the Marshall.
Yeah.
Fettuccine or whatever, whatever we're at.
Yeah, no, he's a great...
That big book of his, do you know the one?
The big one?
The mama mentality.
Is that what it's called?
Yeah, it's like it's a big...
It's really good.
Yeah.
It's really...
I think he really thought about it quite a bit.
And all of those guys that would come...
The older players are always like, we're going out to the club.
I'm going to shoot around.
Yeah, stuff like that.
They're like, who is this kid?
Guess what?
He's one of the greatest of all time.
Yeah.
Guess what?
He's a great guy.
So yeah, during quarantine, I'm like, all right, I got to start doing something.
So I was like, I always liked reading growing up, but it was like, when you don't read for
a long time, once you start to read again, it's kind of like you get sleepy when you
read because your brain is working overload or whatever.
So I started just looking for books anywhere I can get, anywhere I can start.
I found a...
No, I'm not promoting that.
I found a website where you can get super cheap books or whatever.
Yeah.
So I got those books and then I go to the thrift store, look for books on the shelves,
anything that stood out, I grab it, read it.
Yeah.
And...
You see how you can get a lot of stuff online.
This is one of the things in my course through the Internet Archive and through USC.
Books they don't even print anymore.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You still got access to them.
Yeah.
But I know I like holding the book also.
Yeah.
But I started waking up at like two.
So give me a couple other books you're reading besides Outliers and The Mapa Mentality.
Yeah.
The one I just finished before I started this one was like The Seven Spiritual Laws.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, of course.
Those are classics.
That's so good, The Seven Spiritual Laws.
I like you're saying it like in some obscure book you found.
Because if I go outside and ask anybody out there, they wouldn't really know.
No, no, no.
I'm into it now.
Yeah.
It's a life...
And the first one I had was in high school.
I found one that really helped me.
Yeah.
And to today, I'm always trying to improve myself.
Psycho-Cybernetics.
Yeah, yeah.
That's a good one.
Psycho-Cybernetics.
And then one of my favorite novels had to be A Picture of Dorian Gray.
Oh, really?
You ever read that?
I never.
I only saw the movie.
You saw the movie before you read the book?
The picture?
I'm a movie guy.
Oh, yeah, you are.
I'm a movie.
I love going to the movies.
Sorry, sorry.
No, no.
Actually, I do.
Yeah, I'm like a movie.
I'm going after tonight.
Where are you going to watch?
It's a movie I never heard of.
It's at the New Beverly Theater.
They show old...
Yes, you can tell I'm a history guy.
Yeah.
So I like old movies.
I need to go over there.
I'm trying to find a movie theater out here because at home I used to go by myself a lot.
It's called Dealing.
It's a movie I've never heard about.
Okay.
It's part of a double feature.
All right.
And the first one is Badlands, which is that Terrence Malick movie that I've seen 10 times.
So I've never seen it.
My friend was like, you want to go see Dealing?
I go, I have to do a bucket.
I think it'll work out.
Yeah.
But they show old movies.
You know Quentin Tarantino?
Yes, I do.
The Quentin Tarantino movies.
I don't want to get around mob movies.
He did...
Did he do the mob movies?
Mob?
Mob.
Hold on.
Let me see.
Are you saying MOB?
Yeah.
No, that's not it.
What movies did he do?
He did Pulp Fiction.
Oh yeah.
No, he's super creative with the art.
Django and Trae.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
That's my bad job.
But anyway, he owns that theater, the New Beverly Theater.
Really?
Yeah.
And they only show...
Yeah.
It's incredible.
They only show real movies on film, not video.
That's the type of stuff I like.
I really like to get into movies and I hate being distracted.
Why don't you get to...
There's incredible classes here you can take.
Really?
Where they just show movies.
Yeah.
You should take some.
I'll take some GEs.
Yeah, take some GEs more than this.
But now it's...
I love that you're...
That book is incredible.
That book is really good.
The more I get into it, the more I...
You know, I used to make fun of that book in my acting.
I would say, so this is what Malcolm Gladwell proposed as an outlier.
He said, if you do something for 10,000 hours, you'll get good at it.
I'm like, oh really?
No one ever knew that if you practiced, you would get good before he came up with it.
Okay.
What else you got?
Did if you eat too much food, you'll get bad?
Is that your next book?
You eat too much sweets, you get bad.
Yeah, we get it.
You practice a lot, you're gonna get good.
But no, he really puts it in a very...
He's a great writer, that guy.
I love him.
I love him so much.
Actually, oh, it's not on this computer.
I have a...
I'll bring it...
I'll show you a class when I get my charger to my other computer.
The spreadsheet of books that I've read this year.
I can't wait.
Yeah, so I'll show you.
As soon as I can get into it.
Again, Austin, I'm super curious about how people...
To tell you the truth, this is my honest react, it's surprising to me that you're reading
books.
Really?
Yeah, just because I just feel like you're inundated with so much media.
Yeah.
As a young person and like that you're just like, I just don't know how you would have
time to read books.
Sounded.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't know.
Let me hear a couple.
All right, let's see.
So in January...
I love it.
I love this part of the OCD party.
My favorite book out of there was...
I say Seven Habits of Highly Effective.
Yeah?
That's a classic.
February, one of my favorites out of the few was A Little History on Economics.
And it was like a book and it went through like an order from kind of like the history
class that we're doing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In order from the beginners of economics all the way to...
Talk about Adam Smith and all of that stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You ever...
It's another one called...
In March I read The Fourth Turning.
Have you ever heard of that?
Say it again?
The Fourth Turning.
The Fourth Turn...
Never heard of it.
All right, so basically...
I love it.
Off the top of my head, the idealism of the book is that in America we look at history
as a linear timeline.
So I think nothing has to do with what the past brought before.
But he's explaining that we live in like a cyclical time.
So the lesson to keep repeating itself until we learn from it.
And then we'll move into like a linear straight...
I wish I had a whiteboard.
Okay, okay.
Now I got it.
Now I found it.
And then we'll get a new one.
Literally there's one touching the back of your head.
Yeah.
Yeah, I wish I had a swivel chair.
We all have things we wish for, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Matter of fact.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
How about Atomic Habits?
I have read that one.
I read that one in January as well.
You have?
I'm just getting into it.
Really?
Yeah.
It's so good.
You liked it?
Yeah, that book was given to me actually.
It was?
I forget who gave me that book.
A lot of people like that book.
Yeah.
You read The Art of War?
Yeah, I couldn't get through it.
Really?
It just seemed too manipulative to me.
Yeah, I know what you're saying.
Yeah, he was like...
It's so many like...
It's so hard to understand.
I don't want to be winning.
I just want me to win for myself.
I don't need to destroy somebody.
Yeah.
Never fight with your back to the ring.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
I don't need...
Oh my God.
That's funny.
Yeah.
Tattoos on the Heart is a really good book.
I don't know.
I don't need to.
It's not even like a self-improvement book.
Right.
It's more like...
It's actually centered out of South Central LA.
Correct.
And it's by this guy who runs this company called Homeboy Industries.
Who is that homeboy industries?
Well, yeah, he wrote the book.
Really?
Yeah.
I got to go over there.
I told my mom.
Their food is amazing.
It's good?
I don't know.
Not good.
Very good.
Oh, really?
Very good.
And it's not like, we'll support the guy with the gang members and all of that.
No, the food is really good.
Really?
Oh yeah.
I got to go over there.
One of these weekends, I got to hit it.
Yeah.
They have Homeboy...
They have them in airports now.
Wow.
Yeah, they're really killing it.
Yeah.
And it's all ex-gang members, right?
Yeah.
It's a real art of not giving a fuck.
Yes.
It's interesting you should bring up that book because it was just on a list I read of
the top 15 books you should read.
Yeah.
And it was on that.
It was like, I might try that book.
Yeah, it's really good.
You'd like...
You'd finish that one?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Crucial Conversations is a good book.
It really teaches you how to...
What to think about going into hard conversations.
There's a lot of times we'll go into a conversation thinking only about ourselves.
Yeah.
And we find out that the conversation opens up when we begin to listen to the other person
and to begin to react off of what they're saying instead of having predestined points
that we want to get at.
It sounds like an acting exercise.
Yeah.
That's why I freestyled the podcast because I feel like if I come with you like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pre-fire questions, I'm going to run out and there's going to be an awkward silence for
the next 20 minutes and then...
I think I could fill that out.
I'm a professional.
No, no, no.
That is interesting.
But that is, like I said, that's like an acting exercise.
Yeah.
Like to not have just...
Again, it's...
It's just dialogue.
Yeah.
To be in it.
Yeah.
Fall right into it.
Right now I feel like I'm totally immersed.
Yeah.
We've already been over an hour.
Yeah.
Let's go.
Oh, I'm watching the clock.
No, I'm kidding.
The French art...
So give me some other ones.
The French art and not trying too hard.
What?
Yeah.
I'm not trying too hard.
Yeah, I'm not trying.
It's like the idealism behind that one is basically to succeed at what you want to succeed
at, don't try at all.
So I know it's like...
It's like the opposite of the mama mentality.
Yeah.
It's like...
So you want to...
You can say put the manifestation in the air.
And then...
Set the goal.
Unless you begin to have like, again, predestined goals, stuff that you want to hit.
Right.
It becomes harder to work in.
I know.
I know, guys.
They got to be.
Let me put it this way.
Breakout rooms is what we learn.
Yeah.
Not soundproof.
Yeah, at all.
We need to...
That was going to happen.
Give me another one.
I'm very curious.
I'm dead.
Oh, I'm going to finish the idealism behind it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Probably left some people on cliffhanger.
But you set the goal.
You set the goal.
And then you let life do its job.
You let the universe do its job between point A and point B or Z, whatever letter you want
to use.
But if you come at your goal predestined with every single thing that you want to accomplish,
you're not going to be ready for when you don't complete that goal.
Got it.
And it'll set you off, just like in sports.
Right, right.
It'll set you off the record or whatever.
I don't know how that does make sense.
It'll be hard to get back on.
Yeah, yeah.
To settle back on.
Right, right.
But you know, success through a positive mental attitude.
Yeah, that's one.
That's probably the oldest one on there.
Yeah, probably.
Let's see.
Yeah.
Nausea.
I never got through that.
I didn't get too far through that.
But that's more of a, that's a philosophy book.
Okay, okay.
And that was, let's see, that was written by, I learned about this in philosophy class.
That's probably the funnest class I took in high school.
It was?
Philosophy one and two.
Those were like one of my best classes.
But that book was written by John Paul, who was a great guy.
I don't know if you've heard of him.
He was a great guy.
really great people, really great people around the world.
You look at his notes, you look at what Pourri especially.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
If you look out the window, there's a lot of people looking at his notes, sitting
and reading and thinking together.
in Ryan Mac Tak?
If you look at his notes, you'd see, look, even, because that's so great.
Aaa, this, this guy's got a bunch of stuff.
He would look at his notes.
At the end, if I can think, well, what's system is, or wait, are there
I don't know if you've learned, I learned about even, but I looks at it and even his
Yeah.
I love that you're into philosophy.
Yeah, so interesting.
That's insane.
That was your favorite course?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
��신too.
Because I just really like to see other people's views on things.
And that's one of the part of reasons I started this podcast as well.
I didn't want to just be the one talking about what I learned.
I like to feel like I don't know anything at all.
You know what I'm saying?
And once you get yourself into that mindset, it's not you see yourself as dumb, but you
see yourself as...
Open.
Open to everything around, and that's one thing I really had to learn.
Because I used to be super bad at taking constructive criticism.
I become super defensive at it.
I feel like there's nothing wrong with me.
I'm the most perfect, but the more that I tend to look for it, the more I'm more acceptable
to it.
And you don't always have to take it in.
You know what I mean?
So that was one of the things I really had to learn to get into.
Another book called Self Help Book.
I'm not saying it for you.
It was pretty helpful for me.
One of them backfired once, but called The Four Agreements.
Oh, that's on the list.
It is?
Yeah.
That book's incredible.
It seems so simple.
You're like, what?
I knew that already.
Yeah.
But what did you take from it?
Well, it's exactly what you're talking about.
Don't take things personally.
Yeah.
Okay.
You're giving me criticism.
You're giving me praise.
I'm going to use it.
Don't take it personally.
It's about them.
Yeah.
So it's hard to...
Yeah.
And that's another thing about life.
If you're going to accept one thing, you've got to accept the counterpart.
Yeah.
So you accept the praise.
You've got to accept the criticism.
Yeah.
So you can't have one or the other.
You've got to...
Yeah.
They're both imposters, but it's hard.
It's hard because the praise feels so good.
Yeah.
And you can fall into it.
Oh, of course.
And sometimes I get so scared when I'm doing so good because it's like, I don't want this
to stop.
All right.
I never want this to stop.
But you ever heard of the...
You ever been in a mental state where it's like everything is going so good that you're
like, something has to go bad eventually?
You ever been through that?
No.
What happens when things go really well for me is I...and again, I'm not like a God guy,
but I've always...I always just go, thank you.
Whatever is making this happen, I appreciate it.
You know what I mean?
Just so it's a little out of me as opposed to, oh, crushing it.
Yeah.
I'm the one who's doing this.
I love to do this.
Yeah.
Just like good fortune comes your way for something.
And I just go, thank you.
I don't know what's happening, but this is insane.
Yeah, I'm glad that it's happening.
And I want to acknowledge that I know that this is like a series of good things.
Yeah.
And it's the same thing with me coming from all the way from Detroit to Los Angeles.
I never thought I'd make it back out.
Well, I've never been here, but a part of my family is from out here.
Really?
My dad's side.
My granddad was born here.
Okay.
He was raised here, and then they moved to Detroit.
Growing up, we weren't the wealthiest, so it wasn't like you could just go to California.
So I was always asking to go, asking to go, and...
I love it.
It's like it's already like an success story.
I got myself here.
Yeah.
And you're just a freshman.
Yeah.
I think what you're going to be like is a senior.
That's what I'm saying.
That's another thing I've been thinking about.
It's like... how do I put this?
It's like not everything is going to be right in front of you right now.
And I'm starting to fall in love with the fact that every day I'm getting closer and
closer to who I want to be.
And it's like I'm so eager to... I want to see what it is, but then at the same time,
I don't want to spoil it for myself.
You know what I mean?
I just... I'm trying to watch myself grow and then keep myself in the mindset that it's
okay to grow at a different pace than others.
Because you'll go on the internet and you'll see everybody flourishing and stuff, and now
you got your own preconceived notions about what they may be doing or how successful they
may be.
They may be having the worst day of their life, but if they post...
That's super healthy, of course.
Yeah.
So it's really about staying on track and understanding that everybody grows at a different
pace.
Everybody's timeline... everybody perceives time differently.
You can't compare yourself though.
Yeah.
It's almost... but it's hard... anyway.
Yeah.
That's very healthy.
No, go ahead.
I'm listening.
No, there's nothing to say.
I'm just saying there's no... it's just like... it's hard not to compare yourself, especially
if somebody's doing something exactly that you want to be doing.
Yeah.
You're like, oh, you're living my... man, it's my dream.
So it's hard not to, but...
And then we can't see everybody's road to getting there.
You can't see everything.
Yeah.
So...
Yeah.
Oh, and that's also how I got into reading, when you were asking how I got into it.
So what happened was social media is social media.
I used to be on it a lot, and then a part of me started to take myself away from what
was going on, and actually I started doing these practices and started noticing my feelings
and stuff, meditations or whatever.
And I would notice that when I'm on social media, it's like pulling out of me is draining.
So what I had to do was I had to delete all social media, and I had to figure out how
to reconnect with me and try to figure out who I was and what I was doing.
I can't even imagine somebody your age having to deal with that.
I can't even imagine.
Yeah, people would think I was crazy because I deleted off my phone disabled account because
it's like, we got to remember at the end of the day, this is... it's only as real as
you make it.
It's not just at the end of the day.
You're in the middle of the day.
Sorry.
In the morning.
Yeah, you're right.
Suddenly we don't care about that.
Only at the end of the day.
Okay.
Only 10,000.
Thank you, Malcolm.
Thank you.
Yeah.
No, that's something your generation is just like, it's up to here.
Yeah.
People drowning.
You sort of live your life.
I feel like... this is my perspective.
You tell me if I'm close.
I'm listening.
Is that I feel like your cohort, your generation, kind of live two lives.
You live this life.
And then one on the internet.
Yeah.
I feel like you live another life with likes and things.
And they do cross over.
I mean, you meet, but it's like that person is a little different than this person.
So I don't know what the psychological... maybe that's just the evolution of human beings.
Yeah, I wonder how it's going to go.
Because now the AI is coming out.
I'm not saying get off social media.
I'm just saying that's what it seems to me.
I don't know what you're saying.
I understand what you're saying.
I don't know what the toll is.
And then now that AI is coming out.
Get ready.
How are we going to immerse ourselves in that and be able to... it might be three lives,
you know what I'm saying?
Social media AI.
Yeah.
And in real life, if there's any left, you know what I mean?
So we got to...
I know.
I know, but this is the thing, you still got to go to Taco Bell and get a burrito or something,
right?
No matter what's going on, you still got to... how can I get there?
I don't know.
I mean, they might start to... don't quote me on it.
They might start putting neurotransmitters in our brain to make us think that we ate.
It's possible.
And start feeding us waves or whatever.
It's possible.
Yeah.
Do you know the movie Soylent Green by any chance?
Soylent Green.
I don't think I've ever heard of it.
It's a futuristic movie that came out in 1973.
73.
Yeah.
You're like me.
I love the dates.
But it takes place in the future in 2020.
I believe it's 2020 is when it takes place.
So three years ago, right?
So their view of what had happened will happen because it was 50 years into the future, obviously.
So it's pretty wild.
Yeah.
Check it out.
But they get a lot wrong.
They get a lot wrong.
But if there's some twists, you might like it.
Yeah.
Check it out.
And all right.
Let's wrap it up.
Okay.
Here's my quote.
Quote of the day.
Here's my quote of the day.
I'm listening.
You're asking.
We're listening.
It's from... God, what is the guy's name?
Let me see if I can remember.
He was an author.
He wrote about Abe Lincoln.
What's his thing?
His name escapes me right now.
It's very close, but it doesn't matter.
Here it is.
And it goes back to something we said earlier.
Beware of all advice, even this.
It's like... I don't even know what to think of it.
Oh, Carl Sandberg.
Carl Sandberg.
I believe with a C. Carl Sandberg.
Beware of all advice.
Carl's with K's.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I have never met a Carl with K's.
Really?
Yeah, I've never seen him.
We got to end this.
It reminds me of love.
Well, yeah.
Thank you for coming on, and I appreciate everything.
Oh, cool, man.
I love it.
That was really fun.
Yeah.
I learned a lot about you, Austin.
Thank you.
Bye.