Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to Dirty Briefs.
Speaker: And you might be thinking, wow, Alex, you look super healthy.
Speaker: You sound very healthy.
Speaker: Even though your voice still sounds like a cement mixer crushing up pieces of gravel, still, I am energetic.
Speaker: I am illuminated.
Speaker: And that is because...
Speaker: It has been officially one year since I was told that I have stage three Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Speaker: I was on the road this past weekend in Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker: Amazing shows.
Speaker: Sold a couple of them out.
Speaker: Thank you so much to the people that came out to stir crazy comedy club.
Speaker: And I realized, holy shit.
Speaker: I got diagnosed one year ago today.
Speaker: And on this day,
Speaker: I released a YouTube video saying, hey, I have cancer.
Speaker: And I didn't know what else to do other than just tell the world.
Speaker: One of the reasons why I was transparent about my cancer, because I thought about not telling anybody.
Speaker: I thought about, well, I could just kind of keep this one to myself and just push on.
Speaker: Nobody needs to know what I'm going through.
Speaker: But then I thought about,
Speaker: The moments where I wouldn't be feeling my best when I wouldn't be the most Alex Hooper, Alex Hooper can be.
Speaker: And I didn't want people going, Hey, are you feeling all right?
Speaker: You seem a little absent.
Speaker: You seem a little tired, right?
Speaker: I didn't want that to happen because I didn't want to have to explain anything to everyone.
Speaker: So I made this YouTube video basically just putting out all my thoughts about how, please don't worry about me.
Speaker: I'm going to beat this thing and it's going to be great for my career, which I still believe it will be great for my career.
Speaker: As I keep going, you got to be patient and
Speaker: Things are already in motion.
Speaker: The wheels are spinning.
Speaker: This past year has been difficult to say the least.
Speaker: It's been trying.
Speaker: There were parts of me that wanted to give up so many times.
Speaker: I mean, those 33 days in the hospital were awful.
Speaker: There were multiple times when I wanted to pay the check on my life.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: That's not who I am.
Speaker: It's not because it's not about what happens to you.
Speaker: It's about how you react to the situation.
Speaker: And I told myself when I got it, I went back and watched that YouTube video.
Speaker: I say that I'm going to beat this cancer.
Speaker: So I couldn't give up because then I would have been lying to myself.
Speaker: So I kept going.
Speaker: I did everything I could to get myself back to a healthy version.
Speaker: I bounced back.
Speaker: As soon as I could, I started writing every single day.
Speaker: And I mean, morning pages are filled with positive affirmations, goals, sometimes just silly musings.
Speaker: Even if it was just, what did you do the day before?
Speaker: What are you going to do today?
Speaker: How are you going to fill your time?
Speaker: How are you not going to let these terrible negative thoughts control the better part of your brain?
Speaker: I had to get myself into a healthy routine, into a schedule.
Speaker: I mean, when I was doing physical therapy,
Speaker: I woke up every morning because the physical therapists and occupational therapists would come to my house each time twice a week.
Speaker: So I was seeing them a total of four times a week.
Speaker: And that was when I was out of the hospital and back in my apartment.
Speaker: When I was in the hospital, I was seeing both of them total of three hours a day.
Speaker: But back in my apartment, it was a couple hours a week.
Speaker: But on my own, I woke up every morning and the very first thing I did was physical therapy.
Speaker: Longer than they told me to do it for.
Speaker: The way I got through it was I would put on an album.
Speaker: Like I listened to an album front to back and an album that I hadn't heard in a while.
Speaker: A lot of things that I, from my past, things I got nostalgic over.
Speaker: And it was really beautiful to be like, yeah.
Speaker: Let's listen to What's the Story Morning Glory by Oasis because I haven't listened to that full album since I was 16 years old.
Speaker: Sure, let's listen to a Metric album.
Speaker: Let's listen to a Green Day album.
Speaker: Let's listen to an LCD sound system.
Speaker: Whatever it was, I'm listening to albums as they are meant to be listened to.
Speaker: And I would just do my exercises 30 minutes every single morning.
Speaker: On top of that, I never stopped making jokes this whole time.
Speaker: Even when I was at my absolute lowest point, I was still cracking jokes.
Speaker: I made fun of cancer every step of the way, which I was doing that for myself.
Speaker: I was doing that to alleviate my own fears.
Speaker: But in doing so, what it did is it also brought levity to my wife, to my family, to my friends, even my pugs.
Speaker: Loved making cancer jokes.
Speaker: My one of my pugs, Carlton, he had this habit of sleeping on my neck.
Speaker: He would go and just put whenever I crawled into bed, he would go and just lay down on my neck where my lymph nodes were the most swollen.
Speaker: And it's I don't know if he knew or not.
Speaker: I mean, we kind of have dogs have that sixth sense to them that you think they know things that maybe we don't even know.
Speaker: Maybe he knew that that's what I needed.
Speaker: Just a little fur sack, a 20 pound little weight just laying right here on my neck.
Speaker: I made fun of cancer every step of the way.
Speaker: I did comedy with a fucking pick line in my arm.
Speaker: That was insane.
Speaker: I remember one time an audience member was being a little unruly because he was drunk and I held it up to him like I was Spider-Man.
Speaker: I said, sir, I will shoot cancer directly into you if you don't shut the fuck up.
Speaker: Gnarly.
Speaker: That's crazy experience for an audience to watch someone who is actively going through cancer treatments be in front of them, telling jokes about it.
Speaker: I had to learn a lot over this past year.
Speaker: I had to learn how to let people in.
Speaker: Not that I wasn't good at that before, but I never liked when people had to help me.
Speaker: I'm a person who likes to take care of everything themselves.
Speaker: And I knew it was time to really allow people to help me.
Speaker: One of my favorite people in the world, my best friends from forever since high school, Alison Trumbull, she told me when people say,
Speaker: anything I can do for you.
Speaker: They want to do something.
Speaker: So give them anything.
Speaker: Even if it's, Hey, can you Google Airbnbs in Ojai and just see what a weekend rate is like right now?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I will gladly do that.
Speaker: Hey, can you pick up dog food for me?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I will gladly do that.
Speaker: Hey, can you not call me for a few days?
Speaker: Even that is something they'll be glad to do.
Speaker: They want to know that they help because it's also helping them to know that they helped you.
Speaker: I didn't want to do a GoFundMe.
Speaker: I didn't.
Speaker: I was a stand.
Speaker: I was just like staunch.
Speaker: Like, no, don't want to do it.
Speaker: But my wife's sister-in-law told me,
Speaker: that when a member of a community is sick, the others step up and they help that member.
Speaker: And I'm the sick person right now.
Speaker: So I did.
Speaker: It was scary for me.
Speaker: Releasing that YouTube video was scary for me.
Speaker: I remember I shoved my computer away after I made it and uploaded.
Speaker: And I didn't look at it for three hours.
Speaker: And I kept thinking, was that the right move?
Speaker: Why did I just tell everyone that?
Speaker: My wife said, Alex, if it was a bad idea, I wouldn't have let you do it.
Speaker: And she let me do it.
Speaker: So she's pretty smart about that stuff.
Speaker: And sure enough, when I opened my computer a few hours later, I had hundreds of messages wishing me the best, telling me that I'm going to get through this.
Speaker: The GoFundMe really helped a lot because it allowed me to relax a little bit.
Speaker: It paid some of my doctor's expenses and things like that, but mostly it allowed me to not have to rush back to work.
Speaker: I went back slowly.
Speaker: I've said it before.
Speaker: My mantra this year is be the tortoise.
Speaker: Stop and smell the roses.
Speaker: You're still going to win the race.
Speaker: Be methodical.
Speaker: Go at your own pace.
Speaker: And now,
Speaker: I can honestly say I might be the healthiest version of myself I have ever been.
Speaker: I have energy again.
Speaker: I am exercising almost daily.
Speaker: I'm back on the slack line.
Speaker: I'm back on the tennis court, just smashing balls into my opponent's faces.
Speaker: I feel great.
Speaker: And part of that is I haven't drank in four months.
Speaker: I haven't smoked pot in over two months.
Speaker: I got to do an episode about that soon because, whoa, when I hit three months, I mean, that was my goal the whole time was I got to make sure I go at least three months.
Speaker: And I don't know.
Speaker: Have you ever macro dosed reality?
Speaker: Felt everything?
Speaker: It's a lot.
Speaker: It is a lot, but I'm happy to be doing it because I had to make changes while I'm in this transitional period.
Speaker: I'm not afraid that I'm going to fall back into some cancer hole, but I do want to make sure that I treat my body and my mind differently.
Speaker: as well as I can moving forward because I want to be the best version of myself.
Speaker: And I got to tell you this right now, I've been back on the road and shows have been really great.
Speaker: Really great.
Speaker: This material is so challenging.
Speaker: And I tell people, look, I know it's Saturday night.
Speaker: You got a babysitter.
Speaker: You're on a date night.
Speaker: You probably want to fuck later.
Speaker: And now I'm telling you all about the horrors of cancer and sepsis.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Yeah, but I'm doing it because I understand how helpful it can be moving forward.
Speaker: I understand that even if you don't understand why I'm doing this right now, there will be a day.
Speaker: when this really helps guide you through a similar situation.
Speaker: I never hope you're going to find yourself in that one, but I also know you will because cancer is ubiquitous.
Speaker: It happens to everybody.
Speaker: And when I say that, it doesn't mean you're going to get it, but somebody very close to you will get it.
Speaker: No one is immune from a disease like cancer.
Speaker: It does affect everybody.
Speaker: So when I'm back out there,
Speaker: Just know I'm making these shows silly.
Speaker: I'm making them fun.
Speaker: I am going out there with all the gusto that I can to provide you with an hour of fun-filled laughter.
Speaker: Even though we are talking about one of the darkest subjects I have ever encroached in my comedy.
Speaker: But it's healing.
Speaker: I know it is.
Speaker: Because people keep telling me on the road how much it means to them that I'm talking about it.
Speaker: I've had some crazy experiences.
Speaker: People that actively have cancer in the crowd.
Speaker: Me doing crowd work with them.
Speaker: Do you know what that means to myself as well as them?
Speaker: That's the connection we're looking for in stand-up comedy.
Speaker: So please come see me out there.
Speaker: Hoopercomedy.com.
Speaker: this week or this Friday, I'm going to be in Palm Springs at Agua Caliente.
Speaker: And then I'm going to be in New York.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to New York for a week.
Speaker: So I haven't been to New York in a few years.
Speaker: I'm only doing guest spots, no headlining shows.
Speaker: I'm going there for a different reason that I will talk about very soon.
Speaker: I'm excited about it, but I will be doing guest spots.
Speaker: So come see me if you're in New York, look at my schedule at hoopercomedy.com.
Speaker: And of course, follow me on social media at Hooper Hair Puff.
Speaker: I've been going viral on Reddit a bunch.
Speaker: Does it translate to my Instagram or Twitter?
Speaker: No, it does not.
Speaker: But more people are finding out about who I am every single day.
Speaker: And that's the goal.
Speaker: That's why some of these shows are selling out.
Speaker: I doubled my sales at Hyenas in Dallas and Fort Worth from what I did last year.
Speaker: I sold out two out of the four shows in Phoenix.
Speaker: Pretty happy about that because pretty soon I'll be selling out more and adding more shows.
Speaker: That's the goal.
Speaker: One year.
Speaker: One year since I got diagnosed.
Speaker: Still only five months since I got my PET scan that said I don't have cancer anymore.
Speaker: Not a lot of time at all.
Speaker: But look at me, everybody.
Speaker: Look at me.
Speaker: I'll see you all next week.
Speaker: Stay well.
