Ground Up 017 - A Comedian Abroad w/ Nathan Jaiyeola

Key Takeaways

eight years ago I found myself at Temple University taking a class called comedy Workshop the the class fell within my broadcast telecommunications degree and in the class uh we were to make sketch comedy videos yes this is the same degree that ended up costing me six figures over the course of four years I never claimed to make the best decisions in life in that class I'd meet another student named Nathan Jola we became really good friends uh he encouraged me to do standup comedy we we hatched plans to make sketch comedy videos he was even the subject of my very first documentary a 15 to 20 minute film uh about stand-up comedy in Philly from that point he took a very unconventional path and he made the 9,000 mile Journey from Philadelphia to Cambodia and later Vietnam uh he started out teaching English to students there but eventually found himself drawn back into comedy and doing stand-up comedy for a very different audience in those two countries um we talk about some of those early days in this episode we we talk about some of the struggles that that he's overcome over those years um it's a really fun conversation I had a really great time catching up with Nate I think you're going to like it this is episode 17 of the groundup [Music] show ah this is great this is good to have one of the founders of the name of the show on the podcast the founders of the name yeah I think that's as far as we could take it right one of the founding creators of the name the creators of the name it's like when you start with that it sounds really it sounds pretty good impressive two good titles found f finding and uh creating creating of the name MH and it was there's a script do you remember that um oh my god dude could we find that uh I gave I gave you the only copy did you you emailed it to me I emailed it to you I'm going to check can you give uh everyone a an idea of what we're talking about here as I look for the script when we when we were both 19 we had the idea for a uh a web series called groundup about a group of people who are trying to what was it to be advertisers I got the script you had the script and Matt read the script I I sent it to you yeah and then you said it wasn't any good oh really yeah and then and then and then we like and then you apologize for saying it wasn't any good it probably wasn't any good my God and then I was like oh it's okay and then we just dropped it that was the end of it that was the end of script oh no we didn't work through any versions but you know what that's the thing I've always been honest no it's good it probably wasn't any good but can you email that to me yeah I'm going to forward it to you right now this is uh December 13th 2012 jez after all these years yeah it's yeah um and does it say ground up uh dude it says ground up but yeah it does but I but I got to say the up is in all capitals so it's ground up okay okay there's a subtle difference there yeah I'll have my shot yourself in the foot you know to be honest legal team look at it that was actually just a type out in the in the the actual the subject of your email yeah and soes so there's which shows your thoroughness it say sexy face oh oh my God I'm like starting to remember this sexy face what does it say um here I'll pull it up oh hold on hold on hold on do you want to read it no I don't want to read it no come on why not because of this is 2012 interior house night ground up sexy face interior house night Pete Peter and Shawn and Michael are standing on a poorly made set in their kitchen there is a small table and two chairs set up there is a large red blanket draped against the wall it is a poor attempt at resembling a table at a restaurant there is a wine glass in front of the woman there's who's this woman and a mug in front of Michael Michael's Michael's sitting in the table and dressed as a man out on a romantic date there is a woman sitting on the table and there is also and she is also dressed up and seems to be waiting on the other three that's a pretty good setup it's a pretty good setup um and it goes on from there so yeah I think that's the thing I think it's supposed to be a group of guys who are trying to make viral videos videos yeah they're they're trying to even partner like I think each episode was going to be another different Independent Business whether it was a jeweler or it was that's right uh I think a jeweler was one that we came up with yeah yeah I think it was they were they were trying to make video commercials for independent businesses like Jewelers yeah or like some gu Car Wash and so they try to make these videos 2012 which is a pretty good concept yeah in 2012 it's pretty good yeah um and for whatever but you know what it's funny cuz this this was the the dream um back then for me to to create a show to do sketch comedy it's sad that dude I didn't even respond to it no I mean we obviously talked about it in person well there's some unresolved issues with that Matthew wait I was ground up cuz I took your name you should you should have responded yeah like s you a script like I've still been waiting for the response it's like we were supposed to film that um but yeah I I'm really curious to I can't believe that you still have that 5 years old yeah yeah but dude I have some stuff in here from 2010 cuz look at if you look up um remember the whole produce Paradise thing yes from way way back when um right here 2007 there's a script there this is uh I think this is like a reporter hey Matt can you get on a call tomorrow 98 Rock FM Orlando and Tampa like this is all this is this is crazy there's there's stuff back here um from when my brother and I got sued oh yeah about produce par you guys went on CNN we went on CNN and even and then you know I remember watching that the CNN video and then you promoted your webs it on CNN did I get fake laugh.com in there you did yeah you said and on my website fak laugh.com look at man cuz you were cuz you're on CNN and you still know to plug your thing yeah like still nervous as hell still nervous but like you're like still getting out there the best part about that was that I didn't have a a like a shirt and tie and dress up pants I didn't have any dressy clothes I was you a beanie no I didn't I didn't wear beanie on on TV I wish I wish I was like that relaxed yeah I know I think you well know why why I'm saying I know what you were wearing it was like a sweater like a sweater with a dress shirt under it so like a colar no and you had like a matching beanie no no that's not what I was wearing I was wearing uh that might have been the Temple University story they did about me where I was wearing a temple hoodie I think I might have worn a beanie beanies were big back then for me cuz my hair was out of control I didn't quite know what to do with it yeah you had a beanie long Beanie stages I think whole whole College hat and beanie stage yeah like it was the beanie when it was warm outside which is like literally just it it I might as well just tell everybody I'm insecure it's an aesthetic Bean purely aesthetic it definitely aesthetic but on that show I was wearing uh a is that mine yeah yeah yeah a blue or a red I think it was a red uh button-up shirt that was two sizes too big cuz it was my brother's and pants I was wearing my brother's literally my brother's outfit and he had bought these clothes I believe at koh's and he bought the same exact kind in blue and red yeah just so you have every color on the Spectrum he he's a man he knows what he likes he likes that style he wants it in different colors yeah exactly right um and so then I wore the the red version he wore the Blue version kind like a kind kind of like a cartoon yeah you know like a cartoon like wee like the same thing yeah but like maybe just like they like Chang the color yeah yeah yeah just swap it in and swap it out um just to save on the programming cost to to change the color or to change the actual shirt I think I was going through like it was like post jenko jeans but I don't know what I was wearing at what in college yeah I remember I at one point I remember cuz I tried to dress like a hipster but I just ended up looking poor so like CU I remember one time I was wearing a forest green sweatpants and a red like kind of like uh flannel like Lumber jacket thing mhm and Greg told me I was dressing like mankind like like you know like U MC Foley yeah oh man so yeah I just I I was trying to seem hipster but like especially if you're chubby you just wearing s pants I think it takes a lot of Kinks at that time to to figure out what is appropriate for you to wear in the world like you look at and I wonder now it's like do I have it figured out now like um I think simple and basic is always good but when I look back at dude I had a fedora stage in college I don't know if you were you were definitely there for that I don't know if I ever had the courage to wear it in front of you cuz I would know make fun I would have made fun of you yeah but I shouldn't have I mean I I was wearing I was wearing green sweatpants you're wearing green sweatpants and not really wearing that much deodorant really why didn't you wear deodorant stage I don't know was it like that didn't shower a lot oh really but I feel like then you should be using more deodorant I just had poor hygiene MH for most my life most of your life yeah you don't know why that is is that a deeper question no no no no no I just start crying just start trembling yeah I never like taking showers yeah yeah a waste of time yeah kids don't like to take showers yeah kids don't like yeah so like I would go and I go in my parents say you have to take a shower and then I would go in the bathroom and turn the shower on oh get out of here yeah cuz I still want to be in the shower yeah and uh but you can only do that for so long you stink smell like yeah yeah and then they're like you haven't been showering have you like are you doing this right I had the same thing with books where a teacher would would give us all books and I just did not like reading but I would look at the pages and just put my fingers yeah you just you act like yeah and you can do that for other things you can do that for like conversation yeah like if somebody's talking I used to do that a lot I still do a little bit of just going yeah yeah and then just doing the Motions of listening but not actually listening not actually doing it you don't really have to do it especially if somebody's talking and they if they're not if they don't care I don't know you and yeah they clearly it it's definitely not going to be a back and forth thing but then sometimes you hear the tone of their voice change in a way that they POS the question yeah like and and I've been caught off guard like that many times and then what I usually go to is oh man that's tough like what do you so what do you think yeah what are you going to do yeah and they say what do you think and then you say uh I don't know I mean tell me again what what what you think about so you weren't listening like like the people that know you the best know that you weren't listening that's right but the there are different things you could do there right because even if because I get in that situation too is like oh what do you think and then you can just really act like it's a really serious Deep thing but I don't know because I mean what are the different things you could do right and then you know and they say oh well I could I could eat pizza or hamburger like what do you think I should eat you're like oh that's easy now we know what it is yeah but if you think it's if you act like it's more difficult than it actually is then you just like why were they just like a really dramatic dude yeah why was Nate so concerned about what I wanted for dinner what I was going to eat for dinner yeah yeah um I'm really excited to read that script uh me too yeah well I I think it'll be the first time you read it I definitely read it I definitely remember I remember envisioning I remember no I remember yeah cuz often at that time I'm like I'm a pretty practical person so I think a lot of times I think about like okay is this possible can we actually make this thing who's going to who's going to be the girl like yeah exactly yeah do we know any girls that we could bring into the show who do we know who it was going to be the 2012 us know any girls I don't I didn't I didn't man I was reading pickup artist books no that's where I was well you know they helped they were good yeah we you didn't did you read pickup artist books no no I never did it worked I was at a party I don't know if you were there and John Ruiz he said this was my roommate at the time in college and he said you GNA say his first and last name you just said his first no I did I made up those are that's a fake name it's let's just call him let's just call him John Ruiz as a placeholder I think it' be fine he's not going to get any hate mail okay I think I think he'll like that he's being reference but in a negative light no he just yells at me cuz we're all drinking and there was a party and then kind of got quiet he's like Matt you read books about how to pick up girls as I was talking to a girl oh no and I'm like John John Ruiz yeah you can't do thatn Ruiz and you know the funniest part about it was and then I I yelled this back at him you gave me the book he was the one that gave me the book you read it but you buy them yeah you bought I read them but you buy them yeah exactly so that was it's funny that even talk like the pickup stuff those books like that for me uh and I think that's kind of how you've always known me is to be the one that like reads the self-development self-improvement books but that was kind of the beginning like I think I read um cuz I was always a skeptic and a sinic I think before that time and then I read Neil strauss's the game about picking up girls which was something that interested me greatly in college not being good with girls and but but it more so more than just kind of teaching me some fundamentals about how to be sociable with with women it taught me it it kind of drove me to self-development improve Improvement and like just kind of reading every book I could on and being more aware of just the situation itself you know and being able to like oh here's this situation if you're in a big group and here's if you're at night or the daytime understanding body language and you're in a meeting with somebody and understanding uh about social awareness like does this person actually want to be talking to me right now or are they face the other direction and heading towards the door um yeah those are those are definitely things that I picked up but that was like that was like the beginning we did stand up together um I didn't do an introduction to you do you think we should give you an introduction no no what you for me to introduce myself I introduce you okay no this is uh I'm sitting down right now with Nathan Jola uh one of my I I don't know why you as soon as you started I started checking my pockets that was like I just got so uncomfortable I start checking for something talk about body language oh God oh God I'm missing I'm late for something yeah sorry sorry go ahead um one of my oldest friends we met in college in a comedy workshop class M the class really one of my favorite classes of college is cuz we had free reign to do whatever we wanted yeah um and as a part of it we ended up working on some sketch comedy videos and then um did you ask me to go out to lunch probably I think you said hey you want to go was it the commons or whatever the the lunch yeah because you you were obviously interested in doing sketch comedy and shooting videos yeah you said the the time the literally the moment we met within that class was you said a joke somewhere yeah we were we were shooting this cuz each group had to write like a sketch and so when the one group was performing their sketch the other groups would help them like film it and so we were in the temple TV studio and my I was doing it was a sketch that I wrote it was some kind of like satire thing but we were shooting it and I was standing there and I said and so there was like this huge you know those TV Camera like crane things like there's like really really long so there's a camera in the front I see the the crane straight ahead and so I I make some kind of joke and then I see your face poke from behind the crane and then you laugh and then you say something else and then we start talking from there like in in the moment of yeah and that's probably the most sketch work that we actually did yeah we literally met in the middle of the sketch in the middle we met in the middle of a sketch and then for the rest of the our friendship we talked about making a sketch some would say we're still making that sketch some might say we're still making that sketch so yeah that's that's how we met film film uh video comedy I think it was comedy Workshop comedy Workshop the name of it yeah I mean cuz that you know that's cool cuz you want it cuz I wanted to take comedy classes and you obviously did too yeah it says a lot about you to take that class it's either I'm really interested in comedy or I want to get an A in a class yeah or like I I don't care cuz like or this is going to be easy yeah yeah cuz there was a lot of people in that class that that weren't that interested in act in comedy they were just like there comedy yeah sure like this would be easy yeah but then there's some people who are really serious about it yeah um so yeah and then you you invited me out like said hey let's go get lunch MH uh we got lunch and and you were it's very proactive of me yeah yeah and then we were talking about uh you doing standup you had done standup I think a couple months prior or I've been doing stand up for about three or four months three or four months at that point and I had been writing J secretly by myself nobody else knew but I was writing jokes for the past year and a half to two years if not longer and then uh you encouraged me to do standup yeah I said you should try yeah you should go and do standup but when did you do it it was it was within a couple weeks I think of that it was very it was very soon after that where did you do it I did it at Helium you were there from my first show well you know the the remember that yeah the the first joke everybody always does in stand-up comedy yes and what is it uh this is my first time doing standup and then everybody starts plotting and then you say how it's going to be like your first time having sex yep right is that what you did because there's there's the play on the length how long it's going to last um yours I like yours I still remember yours yeah it's going to be like my first time having sex I'm not going to need the whole 3 minutes mhm I'm sweating and my shirt's on my shirt's on yeah I think that's a pretty good one I I think the shirt's on is pretty creative yeah but U but then you look at everybody else and they you look at 10 more people and they do that same thing but like this my first time yeah everybody having sex um helium was like one of the the only legit comedy clubs other than that it's like you have the laugh what was it the laugh the laugh house the laugh House on South Street but that closed down oh it did yeah so that was uh there's a well now there's a comedy theater uh called good good comedy MH really it seems like it's doing really well and there's also uh that's and there's helium mhm helium is the main one I mean there're a bunch of other places that have shows like Big Show like big shows but uh for consistent comedy I think helium's the only one I did a documentary about you that this was the first right yes yeah you did the first documentary I ever made and now now my title is documentary filmmaker that's how I introduced people documentary filmmaker that that's how it started was uh we we were you you weren't in the class were was that the comedy workshop class or a class you were you had a class called documentary film making or something like that yeah and then you were you need you were you wanted to to do a documentary so throughout the term it's like you do one documentary yeah and so you asked me could you do it a documentary about me doing comedy and trying to get on the rotation at Helium Comedy club's open mik night yeah right yep because I've been going for months and uh and they they wouldn't put me on and the the parallel there was that there was this successful comedian and this is when you found out that like oh I see my role in this in this documentary um there was the successful Kent Haynes was uh he was on Gotham Comedy on Comedy Central and he'd done like a couple big shows yeah he's a very talented comedian he's he's he was incredibly funny uh and then there was you yeah yeah yeah yeah so I was like oh Matt's making a documentary about me and who else are you doing oh you're also Ken hannes he's like well he's in a much better position comedy wise it's kind of interesting so you think I'm at that level Matt you think you think I'm at Ken Hayes level yeah but then you start to figure figure out no no you draw drawing a parallel so but then yeah you made you made the documentary uh it was about 10 15 minutes long I don't know if there was an ending the ending was probably you kind of walking away like not getting on on the open mic night yeah a lot of the documentary was me walking to the open mic and me walking away from the open mic it that that that showed me actually some some comedic timing and knowing that you can actually edit in a way that brings out the comic M so there was like this one scene where there's like this uplifting music and you're like you know I'm pretty excited about tonight like you know I have a good feeling about it I think I'm going to get on the open mic night um at at Helium and then it's just music you walking upbe up be upy and then just direct harsh cut to you crunching into a slice of pizza and then you slowly put the pizza down looking away and you say well I didn't get on tonight yeah yeah yeah I remember that yeah and that that got a laugh when we showed it to the the rest of the class like probably one of the first times I showed my work like a long piece of content like that to an entire group of people and I was like oh cool like you can actually like even though I'm actually not on stage and doing standup I can still get people to laugh through my work that was cool I mean the just the documentary itself it's kind oh somebody has making a documentary about me yeah especially if you're not even a year in it gives you gives you kind of a drive I think you were you were probably hesitant to do it in the way that when you first start out there's a lot of comedians that that have been doing this [ __ ] for a long long time yeah and then you don't want to see you don't want to show up with somebody who's filming you and say oh somebody's doing a documentary about me being a comedian it's like you you haven't been doing it a year yeah I mean yeah I was worried about how they would see me but I don't think they ever saw me you never got on he I think I don't think that they cared um you got blacklisted from Helium yeah I did but you know I think I think it's cool now I think enough time okay you can go back there and do it enough time has passed cuz I want to stop telling people I got blacklisted cuz I feel like I feel like that is keeping it alive mhm I feel like the more the more I mention The Blacklist Yeah the more maybe I'm just paranoid somebody from hel be like wait a minute he's blacklisted and then maybe they've forgotten about it yeah cuz you're about to move back to reestablish within that scene try and reestablish go back to go back to Philadelphia I think you should talk to I will the owners yeah I I I have a plan you he my plan okay so I'm going to go and I'm going to try for two months to get on oh okay so you get you give them some time and that's more than enough give some time to so if I'm blacklisted I'll know uhu and then once I've established that I'm still blacklisted I'll talk to them yeah but if I get on then it's it would be it's fine but I don't even know if it's that I mean there are other yeah there's other opportunities other opportunities and you can't Bank your success on helium and that's it no but it is a fine establishment yeah we love helium com Philadelphia the leading provider of quality comedy in Philadelphia yeah I haven't been there in years though really I haven't been there in years well uh like even when I I'm back now and then when I went to to Phil pH Adelphia it was just I was just doing mics but not in helium cuz I wasn't there on a Tuesday that's when they have it oh and they're running Philly's funniest and during Philly's funniest they have no mics they have no open mics for the whole summer cuz basically Philly's funniest is a big open mic it kind of is yeah so it's kind of like a huge Open Mic I don't know they've just expanded it now to include the competition um yeah he Philly's funniest that's a competition that we both have been through mhm I did it once I I know if you did it I did it once a couple times yeah um it's like for us and for Philly in general that's like the Big Show that's like the Super Bowl of comedy and in Philadelphia comedy yeah if you if you win that you know and like it's it's for for beginner comedians it's the probably one of the only times you're ever going to get in front of a crowd of 300 people M um and to get a really good video out of it you know what I mean true so if you are in a c if you're in a comedy club and there's 300 people and you're doing really well even if you don't Advance you know you have you have a good video to send and give give to somebody there's there's something so interesting about uh comedy that when there is like it's a small small location like helium I mean still fits about 200 people right uh when it's empty when there's maybe 15 to 20 people and they're scattered throughout comedy's very hard in that yes situation something I will be seeing tonight yeah tonight you're going to be doing some Open Mic nights yeah um and it's it is yeah it's I mean the difference between having 300 people who are excited and came for comedy sure as opposed to eight people who you know let's say they didn't know comedy was happening there or they're comedians themselves waiting to get on or a comedians who are thinking about only themselves I mean which is just what you do I mean you maybe they'll pay attention but people who are think about themselves and their sets I mean the difference between those two moments those two situations it's crazy but also at the same time the like a packed out crowd raises the stakes so much higher because sobody bombing in that crowd is uh it's worse than bombing in a crowd of 15 people yeah yeah it's 300 people have agreed that agree that you should stop doing what you're doing right now right like if there was a popular consensus that we could all just agree that Nathan should never do comedy we pull 300 people in a row and they said please stop imagine that imagine if like you went to 300 job interviews back to back after one after one yeah sorry you should stop doing this yeah but I mean it's if you bomb in front of 300 people it's a I don't know I mean I just think that if it's a big crowd and they're there for a competition comedy there's excitement I think it's hard to bomb in front of hard to entirely B entirely bomb yeah you know cuz there different kinds of bombing you know but if if you get like that sinking Dead Silence where people CU there's a dead silence where people don't like you it's not it's not it's not just that you're not funny it's like they don't like who you are yeah so they're not going to even give you anything it's so you can feel like people aren't even smiling you know so like they continue on with what they were doing before the show but if you do that in front 300 people you should probably take a second look at your you're like you know what cuz you're you're probably at least with your whatever you're doing with your current routine or your your current jokes that you're doing people don't even like you you know there's a difference between that and people being like kind of feeling bad for you giving you like kind of fake laughs there's but if they don't like you then oh it's like punishment that silence is a punishment yeah but there's no way to quicker uh to learn quicker than just bombing and getting that feedback directly and right away mhm that's a very easy way to get rid of half your all your material yeah um at least if it happens repetitively the tough thing is though is that like doing three 300 person crowds is is not an everyday thing it's very rare how many times in your life have you done 200 plus crowds or50 plus less than five yeah less than five and most of those were early on like right like I mean helium rooftop yeah I mean no okay I W say less than five less than 10 but since I've been abroad I've had more chances to be in front of you know pretty big crowds solid crowds yeah like when after I won the um comedy competition in Vietnam there was like a showcase and it was a Gala event and uh I was the opener for the for the uh kind of pro comedians who were going through and so there was about 300 people it was huge oh wow yeah and everybody was it was gas everybody was like wearing suits and stuff like that so it was it was really cool it was one of the my it was one of my top was one my favorite moments in comedy W just just that and the S went really well and it was nice that's amazing yeah um yeah let's talk about that that cuz this is interesting and um I'm going to be speaking with other Comedians and um I did an interview with James hesky who did comedy with us back in Philly um I didn't release it cuz it's Audio Only and then I kind of I'm not good with editing just audio and I was like H when I made the pivot to doing the video stuff I'll probably have him back on the show um it was a great conversation just about comedy and what it's like to try to make it in New York I'd like to talk to him too even if you want to we can talk here you know like sometime to talk to James about yeah man um yeah he's he's a he's a great guy and and just like all the the a lot of the comedians from Philly from back then most of them aren in Philly anymore but most of them kind of either take the trajectory of obviously a certain percentage fall off stop doing it some people go to New York some people become teachers some people go to La couple go to Chicago maybe like Chicago is bigger than Philly but there like there's only so many routes that you can take cuz if you want to do well and standup you have to do lots and lots of standup yes uh your path is different from anybody that I've uh known from that standup world I don't think anybody ever thought that there was this other option where you go to Vietnam and Cambodia to do standup comedy yeah I didn't go to do yeah I went there cuz I I had stopped I was like I'm done you know I just I kind of I didn't kind of I definitely stopped doing comedy in the states and I just decided it was a separate decision to go to Southeast Asia Cambodia didn't know anything about it went there and I saw that there was like a comedy scene you know and I still missed commi standup so I was like let me just do it and then it just kind of picked up it's like the momentum start up again when did you first find out about it you were in Cambodia doing your teaching and you had a bar did you like see a flyer for an open mic night somebody was uh uh just at work there's one of the co-workers there is one of the is you know is a comedian in Cambodia and then somebody said oh you're the comedian he's they were talking to him and my ears kind of poked up and I was like oh you know and so I kind of asked questions around I was oh I want to get in on the comedy in Cambodia and yeah I got put on one of the monthly shows and it was it went well just kept on doing it from there and started touring around Cambodia and then went to Thailand and then moved to vietn and then moved to Vietnam and kept on doing comedy there and in between fell in love the first the first month the first month you were there I didn't well the first month I met my now fiance in Cambodia so it was just it was weird cuz I got there and then it's like you want love boom here you go you you want comedy boom here you you know it's kind of cool yeah yeah so um dude isn't it unbelievable to to think about that you're going to move all the way across the world and you're going to find everything you wanted yeah it's like my the the two big things I wanted just like in the first month yeah and so boom you got yeah boom it was like a genie so then yeah and then so we moved to Vietnam mhm and comedy you know still going on there competi while in Vietnam I went to Hong Kong for comedy and Korea and then did like a little tour around Korea for comedy and yeah so there has to be drastic different is between comedy in Philadelphia versus comedy in C yeah just what's in the states in general like uh there are a couple differences one is I noticed that abroad I've kind of developed more of a this is this is obviously this is like a comedy act you know like I have like a little act that I do and I do that abroad and it's like oh this is an act and people uh just accept it and they they enjoy it but I found that since I've taken it back to the States and then I do my act and people are like hey stop this is an act you know give us a give us a conversation be real in a sense but I kind of like and so that's I I was wondering about what would it be like to bring it back to America and that's what I found is that people respond less to the fact that this is obviously comedy and they kind of want there's a lot of like ironic stuff that people want like to say I don't know like yeah like anti- comedy kind of thing or like alternative comedy is bigger isn't this this is like you see this trend in other places too like advertising and in large companies and social media everybody wants the guise the disguise of being authentic even though it's not actually authenticity it's still that I mean it's still a manufactured thing yeah so yeah it's it's like a commercial and it here in the states people respond less to you know this is obviously a commercial with the catchy jingle you know where abroad particularly in Asia they would respond to that okay you know this is a commercial but in the states it would be more like oh this is a joke like almost ironic about it being a commercial or it's almost so corny that they're that they're acknowledging the fact that it's commercial trying to be funny about it being really corny yeah you know what I mean so like it's like a joke that it's not being authentic it's a joke right so here I've seen some comedians are like hey how about uh men and women ha you know like they're they're they're joking about how comedians are and have acts yeah yeah and people are laughing at that you know but if at what you're trying to do in a in like a more direct way it's more like you're making fun of the idea of stand-up comedy just like a commercial could make a commercial making fun of the idea of a commercial commercial right right but if you did that in Asia you're like oh this like you're making fun of standup people would they wouldn't get that you know what I mean yeah you know so you like it's funny how it doesn't translate both ways though too cuz now because it's not as established if it's not as established standup isn't as established so it's less of a Trope that people do so people you know what I mean so you have to understand the history and kind of how you got to how comedy got to its place in America yeah yeah so you you can't really do like altern you can't do alternative stuff so much you can but it has to be more kind of clearcut I think are you going to change up your act well I mean it's like in the same way that it will change you know yeah and the same way that it changed when I went abroad it will change when I come back it's true you know and I shouldn't resist it but I should just try I don't want to abandon certain things that I kind of learned doing comedy abroad like there might be influences there that will subtly change the way you do comedy yeah yeah I should be willing to change you know that that's how you grow you achieved a lot of success in Vietnam and Cambodia like you you get recognized on the street now well not not like always but yeah sometimes but it's like you uh you get a well the community is smaller that's one thing is that the community is smaller so if so it's more likely that somebody will recognize you from a show but just things like that it's you get you get um you get the you get the signs of success sooner doing comedy abroad um then you would like here in New York like doing comedy in New York like somebody asking you to headline or somebody asking you to do to do 20 minutes I mean I think in New York the takes like years mhm and like nobody ask you to do 20 minutes and nobody's going to recognize you say oh I saw you do stand up nobody going to recognize you there too many people yeah there's too many people so you you get those signs of success sooner mhm it's good for your confidence I remember talking to you about a year ago and you were like man I love it like my family keeps trying to get me moved back but I do love it here what was it that that got you to want to come back to the States well it's it's two things one is family it's like I want to be close to my family I want you know I'm getting married so I want to I want to start a family in like you know in America I don't I don't see I don't think it's I think it' be very difficult to start a family in uh in Vietnam as a foreigner for me and just I think I've reached a point uh doing comedy broad where I just I can get stage time a little bit but but I can't practice I need to practice and get better in New York I can do four or five shows a night mics a night and practice and get better and I can't I can't do that I can't develop that much in Vietnam you know I can do shows and things like that but just that practice that training isn't there it doesn't exist it's going to be a tough transition I that what's your plan what's the the master plan master plan okay I feel like you probably spent a lot of time thinking about this is a master plan the master plan is to I'm saving up for a year and then in one year me and my fiance are going to move back to the States and I'm going to be ComEd back and forth between Philadelphia and New York five nights a week doing as many mics as I can and trying to just to network and get in touch with people in New York and in Philadelphia mhm probably going to be taking a sketch writing class at UCB oh great to try and get in that while I'm doing that I'm also going to be working on like things like packets to submit like trying to to get a packet together just kind of doing everything stand up and sketch and just seeing and just immersing myself in that world for a year without working just doing that just like you're really throwing it all out there throwing it all out there and saying I really want this to work just giving yourself the time giving myself the time to make it work because I can't you know I can't have a job and do that no with the amount of work that it requires you know yeah it's going to take like a lot of self-discipline to to wake up in the morning and write every day and to do comedy every night like I feel like um it takes you jumping completely into it to I honestly think you could probably get like 5 years if not more worth of work done in one year and progress more in five years by having a job and doing it part-time than to take one year and just say this is it I'm actually going to I'm going to go for it yeah I'm going to go for it and that yeah like that one year will be really important for me just to work as hard as I can in every area of Comedy that I want to develop in so it are have you thought of any unconv itional ways to to make it or to progress in comedy yeah it's hard I'm trying to think of ways cuz it seems like I meet a lot of people and they're like yeah I stopped working to pursue comedy fulltime oh you're like that was my thing that was going to be my thing that gave me the edge up over you have you thought about putting your resume on a cake and sending that to who to to Lauren Michaels no I'm just kid that's like what people do like Natalie has had people at her office uh send cake with the resume on the cake and people are like this is creepy this probably goes too far yeah but listen but if your resume doesn't stand alone on a piece of paper yeah if a cake has to bolster it has to your credentials I'd have to send like my reel on a cake yeah that would be something o put an iPad switch a switch and then I like the battery died just like and Cake explodes somebody actually went into an office yeah Somebody went into an office um um they disguise them themselves as like a Postmates which is like a delivery service in New York they disguise themselves as a postmate delivery person and deliver their resume to the person they were applying to and then like snuck out that to me is is borderline legal if not actually ilal is um impersonating what a delivery guy I don't think that's a federal offense yeah I don't think it is you can't yeah what if you couldn't imperson anyone like you just can't pretend to be even like a like one of those singing gram guys that's actually really funny what's like you know those message yeah singing what's it called like a singing gram something like that yeah yeah if you you can't impersonate a license single gram yeah because like they there's the law you can't impersonate an officer an officer I'm Pro you probably can't impersonate a fireman although what about like the strip firemen they they can imagine somebody getting arrested for they get in and they like arrest the firemen and all the bachelorette ladies are like woo you know there's another cop there another cop but he's like fat you know he's he's just like a cop uh so yeah inventive ways I I've been thinking about them like how how am I going to distinguish myself like besides hard work cuz everybody is doing well I don't no I mean um well here's my recipe for success and that as I've kind of crafted it from reading and and learning a lot about people who've who've built something from the ground up and I wonder how it would apply from the ground up I have that's like the fake laugh.com when I inserted it into CNN yeah you've refined your plugging yeah I think it's literally not even refined it's I've burned it into my brain yeah um but so it is one part hard work like first and foremost you got to work hard um two parts luck mhm not actually I'm sorry part two luck not like it's not a recipe I'm making um and then the third part would be changing it up if if things aren't working if you're not getting lucky if you're not getting your foot in the door yeah like you're still working hard but then you need to change something up because it's not working and obviously that that obviously is a very open-ended mhm recipe because it's bound to change and like hard work mean it's different for different people and like it's the change it up that's interesting because it's like cuz I was thinking about all right I'm going to come here I'm going to come to New York and I'm going to go three or four times a night up but how's how's how's it going to it's going to help me get better but what's the next step you know and plus I don't want get too far ahead what's the next step after the next step you know that's I want to get got get the actual work before like cuz then you get distracted and you're like oh maybe I should do this and that instead but so one challenge that I've seen is even in New York you go up three or four times a night but so is everybody else everybody else is doing that too so how do you distinguish yourself I think you start something of your own you create a thing of your own whether it's I think whether it's your own show like you start your own mic uh or it's like you start your own thing online you know podcasts so I'm trying to figure out what that is right now and I wonder cuz I don't want to start another M I kind of want to start another mic uh but it's like but then you're also just starting another mic also just starting another mic and the only audience will be six comedians you know what about um that's the thing is that like I think you have to do something outside of Comedy uh but bringing your comedy experience to it so say if it was a podcast I don't think it should just be another comedian's podcast I don't even think it should even be like Nathan the comedian it should just be like Nathan looks at weird stuff or something like yeah yeah it's like you have to find some something I don't know well that see that's what I'm trying to do cuz I'm starting over in a lot of ways and doing the YouTube channel and like I have to build some cred and um so you know you think about what would you put in your Twitter bio yeah and it does help to say like host of such and such podcasts or it's like it directs people in a certain direction and it gives you like some credibility which credibility is important um you know certainly you could get to a point in your career where you don't need a Twitter bio where you don't need to explain yourself but I think it takes a while to get there um and but I think you have to have something outside of like the standup comedy and the um the traditional routes obviously there's an untraditional uh route that you're taking yeah and I that's the thing is I don't want to be tied down to like this traditional route when there are so many other routes you can go it's just about finding the finding the right one and cuz I definitely want to utilize the scene in New York and Philadelphia for just getting better yeah but in terms of like where to take it uh in like a non-traditional way I don't know there's so many different things you can do mhm so I'm not sure what to do about that I think it's about building relationships too yeah and and also like a lot of people try to build relationship with those who have already achieved like success or have have uh great credentials to their name yeah um but I think more so it's about it's about collaborating with people who are doing similar things to you it's like the people that are going to make it in the next couple years it's like those are people that you can collaborate with to create something plus I think it's just about finding people with similar interest and then you can they can work on stuff with you you know like we met in a comedy class we had similar interest we started working on stuff it's a friendship and it's but it also it's like if our relationship was solely defined on creating sketch comedy and if if that was like the only if we didn't have a friendship beyond that yeah how sad would it be for our Business Partnership that we've like created one sketch that we never released and that's the extent of it or one email that one email that was left unresponded yeah um so I I do think that's funny but it it raises a good point that you if you if you're not like making friends and enjoying your time while you're doing this then it's not worth it to do it and if at the very least you can meet some people that connect with you to create something bigger then that that would be great yeah I think if you just have fun and work I think it's okay I think it's I think something will come of it's hard as say what but yeah something will come of it do you hear my landlord yeah she's upset oh let me ask you a question so do do you know have I talked about this with you do you know my Big Stretch goal for this podcast besides you who I want to have sit down in the chair across from me who the rock okay the rock he's he's the guy who I want as in like my crazy you know I think you have to have crazy goals I think I think especially as adults we stop like kind of pushing ourselves to to do uh something that's crazy and that's out of the box yeah um and the reason everybody as why the rock hard the people talking that's okay yeah I'm going to ask you why the rock why the rock yeah there's a couple reasons why I want to interview The Rock obviously the show is called ground up and he he's somebody who's redefined himself multiple times throughout his career yeah who would ever thought the WWF star WWE it was F at the time okay I think I don't know yes who would have thought who would have thought that this WWE star yeah uh would go on to be one of the most successful uh film stars today and all the while being appearing very humble he he seems like the most humble down to earth guy he always makes time for fans um he also he's somebody who has a work ethic like you rarely see um he like waking up or he's got this this app called The Rock clock MH and and I had it for a bit and you can uh schedule yourself to wake up when the rock wake wakes up you can wake up with The Rock oh my God yeah it's kind of weird I know it's like kind of creepy that's really weird yeah so but but what I would say about that is it shows you his work work ethic he gets up at 4:30 5:30 every morning works out uh works out he has like if you ever seen like his diet his regimen of food that he eats is unreal but it's like the dude has technically in every sense of the word made it but he still works hard it's because I I think it's because that's how he got there was through the hard work and he actually enjoys that part of the journe he likes the process yeah yeah he enjoys the process and he pivoted a lot right so uh he you know when he was in football what what what university was the Rock at University of Miami the rock expert here their resident Rock correspondent like you know a lot about the rock right oh yeah University of Miami and I don't know just from football and it's like all right football to wrestling then wrestling tackling so that's pretty cool it's kind of like Arnold Schwarzenegger yeah it's like Arnold in a lot of ways and Arnold Dwayne The Rock Johnson how do you think I should go about getting in touch with him did you ask your last guest this mhm did you mhm she actually she knows the rock uh Antonia she said she doesn't know the rock but she said that she would help me free of charge yeah uh get a hold of cuz she's like a producer dude this is what she does she goes out and gets the story she touch with but so here everybody that I have on the show is helping me in some way and you know what I hope I hope you get the rock that be cool yeah wouldn't that be really cool um you want to do rapid questions okay rapid questions not rapid answers so I ask you questions no I'm going to ask you questions what drives you seeing Improvement in myself drives me has there been like a moment where you have been uh seen the most Improvement like I guess what decisions have you made what pivotal points in terms of I'm going to go out and do this have been uh a source for the most growth I owe all confidence to my mother who encouraged me to do it so I would say that let's say someone's stuck they just graduated college and they're they're trying to figure out the right path to take the right Next Step to take what can they do today that will set them up for Success down the road I think they can start trying out what they what they like and what they don't like and go from there little by little so identify identify what you actually likey what you enjoy doing yeah how do you face doubt I still have a a lot of Doubt for like how it's going to go on stage but you just kind of go for it and uh then you have less doubt about it what one what what one thing would you say of yours are you most proud of that's that's online that you would send people to uh there's nothing online you don't have much online no no no cuz I I don't want to put stuff online that you know because I feel like I'm still growing and unless it's like a a finished this is going to be the one thing you have online this podcast the one thing I have online yeah that you can send people to in the future no okay so for example the the the variety show that we're doing in in Vietnam will have sketches that will be online those will be finished products that you are ready to show people let's talk about that what's the monthly show the monthly show is a variety show that I'm putting together with a group of people um it's going to be a comedy variety show once a month and it's going to have standup sketches and music and I found different comedians some will be sketch writers some will be monologue joke writers and we working together to put on a show the first show is July 22nd that's exciting is there a place where people can go to to learn more yeah if you thank you for that if you type the monthly show into Facebook it will take oh really yeah you got the monthly show yeah we got the monthly show that's pretty good um all right the monthly the monthly show is Saigon yeah yeah that might help yeah and then if you type the monthly show so I got into YouTube you can see our our first promo video for it when is it going to come out the promo oh the promo is out the promo video is out nice that's great July yeah the promo video is out uh name name one thing I'm going to cut you off there oh name the monthly show the monthly show monthly show name one thing that people uh should watch listen to or read before they go to bed tonight people should read should read a poem oh there you go yeah I think I should read a poem something nice think you used to read poetry yeah a lot I used to write poetry yeah yeah um but they should definitely read poetry and listen to some kind of nature sound oh yeah I'll C them do you do that yeah yeah I'll pick like rainforest or just a sound of water it's nice yeah cuz I don't want I don't think people should like watch the news or anything like that because it's give you all the stuff to think about before you fall asleep you know I don't want to read about the situation in Syria before I go to sleep yeah you know it's like it's going to give me so much to think about so I would rather just kind of mellow out that's a great point you need to and that's what I try to do like with lighting and and everything is like how can I slowly prepare for bed as to where I'm not watching like a standup special or like Breaking Bad before I go to bed yeah with all it's like it's that stuff's really complicated yeah poetry is complicated too but it's kind of it's more abstract and it can calm me down give you any closing thoughts any last words um nothing oh I'm happy I'm happy yeah I'm happy you're happy yeah I'm happy that's good yeah I'm happy I'm happy that you're happy I'm happy that you're happy and I'm happy that you're going to have the rock here and you're going to and good luck in Los Angeles I'm happy that we've been friends for all the after all these years yeah we're still we're still like I don't know it's nice we're still working on stuff still plotting we're still plotting that's how we're going to get the rock cool man thanks for coming on the show thanks for having me is that the poster you when we end the show hey thanks for having me oh man it's been great thanks for being on the show all right great we're going to