Transcript
Speaker: Hi, everybody.
Speaker: The eczema is flaring, but boy, do I feel daring.
Speaker: It is another episode of Dirty Briefs, and I cannot thank you enough for being here.
Speaker: Are you having the most wonderful day?
Speaker: Probably not the most wonderful day.
Speaker: But hopefully you're finding little bits of gratitude throughout.
Speaker: Little ways to shine your light upon others while they shine theirs upon yours.
Speaker: Because energy is cyclical.
Speaker: The more you give out, the more you can absorb.
Speaker: Same with love.
Speaker: Isn't that weird that you can just exert as much love as possible and somehow it will keep filling you up again and again with this warm, cuddly feeling?
Speaker: Yikes.
Speaker: Why am I in such a good mood this morning?
Speaker: Well, I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I taped my special, everybody.
Speaker: Yes, I did it.
Speaker: I did another thing.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It was a lot.
Speaker: I mean, I had so much building up to this.
Speaker: Obviously, I talked a lot last week about the anxiety that I had going into it.
Speaker: Because any time you're going to release a major accomplishment, a new project, or just do something that is beyond yourself, those feelings are going to stir up.
Speaker: But I'm here to tell you the good, the okay, and the bad about taping my specials.
Speaker: Now, first of all, great week leading up to it.
Speaker: I sold out the Hollywood Improv Lab, which first time headlining the Hollywood Improv.
Speaker: Awesome show.
Speaker: So many beautiful people came out.
Speaker: It was fantastic.
Speaker: Felt so good.
Speaker: Moving on, went to Baltimore.
Speaker: First time ever at McGooby's Joke House.
Speaker: And big club, Wednesday night, still got 73 people.
Speaker: Out at that show.
Speaker: First time playing the club.
Speaker: They were stoked to have 73 people in there on a Wednesday.
Speaker: I was hoping for 100.
Speaker: But 73 is pretty good.
Speaker: Especially for a brand new club to make an impression.
Speaker: The show was great.
Speaker: So many people from my high school came out.
Speaker: Like my high school from 20 years ago.
Speaker: Not current children that are going there.
Speaker: And that was awesome.
Speaker: And then...
Speaker: Take the train to Connecticut, to Bridgeport.
Speaker: And now a lot of people ask me, Alex, why are you filming a special in Bridgeport?
Speaker: Are you from there?
Speaker: Do you have a deep connection there?
Speaker: Do you just love street crime so much?
Speaker: No, I have no connection to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Speaker: None at all.
Speaker: My director and producer, Mike Furman, he lives in Connecticut.
Speaker: We scouted venues over there, found this beautiful theater, 180 seats.
Speaker: It looks like it's primed to shoot a comedy special.
Speaker: And that's why we chose Bridgeport.
Speaker: And I felt really good going into it.
Speaker: Really good.
Speaker: We did two shows.
Speaker: And so I said it held 180 people.
Speaker: Well, we sold out both shows.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: A lot of the tickets we gave away for free.
Speaker: A lot of them.
Speaker: And what happens when you give away a lot of free tickets?
Speaker: A lot of people are not going to show up.
Speaker: And sure enough, we are planning all day.
Speaker: We're shooting a little behind-the-scenes stuff and little sketches, interstitials.
Speaker: I'm meeting the crew.
Speaker: We have 14 people on this crew.
Speaker: Everything is going great.
Speaker: Six camera setup.
Speaker: So this is...
Speaker: A lot.
Speaker: I've invested in this special because I know that's the only way I'm going to move forward.
Speaker: When I spent all this money to do this, I was terrified.
Speaker: I had regrets.
Speaker: And my wife said, Alex, that money's doing no good just sitting in your bank account with you staring at it.
Speaker: You're putting it towards a greater goal.
Speaker: This is the way you move forward.
Speaker: So I had to go into it with that mentality.
Speaker: And
Speaker: It gets to be seven o'clock time for the first show.
Speaker: And I'm looking around.
Speaker: There's not that many people in there.
Speaker: Not that many.
Speaker: And the people that are coming in a lot of white hairs, a lot of white hairs, a lot of people that don't look necessarily like they would be my fan base.
Speaker: Now look,
Speaker: I will play to anybody.
Speaker: I put me in a senior home and I will do my best to have relatable material and conversations.
Speaker: I will find a way to make you laugh.
Speaker: Same if you put me in an elementary school.
Speaker: Those are my two biggest demographics, elementary schools, senior homes.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: They don't always laugh the loudest.
Speaker: It's kind of hard to get it out of them.
Speaker: And a lot of them were sitting towards the back.
Speaker: We had to push them toward the front.
Speaker: Finally, we had a pretty good crowd in there, probably about 100 people or so.
Speaker: Again, it holds 180.
Speaker: If we have 100 people in there, it's going to be okay.
Speaker: We chose this theater because it was beautiful.
Speaker: The acoustics were wonderful.
Speaker: We know we're going to work with this.
Speaker: I go out there.
Speaker: immediately it's pulling teeth while they're old.
Speaker: So pulling dentures out of them and my jokes, some of them I'm getting big pops, big hits others.
Speaker: I really feel like I'm just like stringing them along.
Speaker: Like, come on guys, give this one to me.
Speaker: I know this is good material.
Speaker: I know it is.
Speaker: And look, some of it is very emotional, very real, vulnerable,
Speaker: It's not supposed to be nonstop, raucous, cacophonous laughter throughout.
Speaker: Oh, I love how I just said that.
Speaker: Raucous, cacophonous, cacophony.
Speaker: Ruckity.
Speaker: Rock your body with the raucous cacophony.
Speaker: I get that.
Speaker: It's not.
Speaker: But I know what these jokes can do, and not all of them were happening.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: So I go out to the lobby after the show.
Speaker: I'm not, I'm feeling okay.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: But I have these thoughts on stage like this is not good enough for my special, not for the money that I have put into this, not for the work, the time that I have thought about this and this material, crafting it ever so delicately to get the perfect wording on all of this.
Speaker: Now, I just use the word perfect.
Speaker: One thing I went into this saying, hey, there is no perfect.
Speaker: It's not going to be perfect.
Speaker: You give them the best parts of you, Alex.
Speaker: Step on that stage and just give it to them.
Speaker: And whatever comes out is what's supposed to come out.
Speaker: When I went into the lobby after the first show, the compliments were insane.
Speaker: It was people were hugging me.
Speaker: People were practically crying on me.
Speaker: It was beautiful.
Speaker: And even though I didn't necessarily feel that energy during the show,
Speaker: I knew I had them.
Speaker: Like I had created some new fans, some people that were there that already knew who I was that loved it.
Speaker: There's certain things happened during the show where I was like, this isn't it.
Speaker: Like someone, I had a weird thing.
Speaker: A guy's cell phone went off right after I mentioned that I had had a stroke.
Speaker: His phone started ringing and I had to pay attention to it because everyone in this theater could hear it.
Speaker: Now, little things like that are going to happen.
Speaker: People are not always going to be respectful enough to turn off their phones.
Speaker: But even still, I walked off that stage and out of it after knowing I had another show to do.
Speaker: And I was like, this is it.
Speaker: This second one I know is going to be the show that I need to put this thing where it's supposed to be, to excel.
Speaker: my own career, my evening, this material.
Speaker: And sure enough,
Speaker: I'm watching a younger crowd come in.
Speaker: They're a little bit more energetic.
Speaker: Now, something you should know, Friday night late shows, most comedians will tell you are the worst one of the entire weekend, a Friday late.
Speaker: And here's why the crowd has probably had gone to work that day.
Speaker: Now they're a little tired.
Speaker: Now they're a little drunk.
Speaker: And the combination of all of those things creates to some weird experiences.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: I like weird experiences.
Speaker: You know me.
Speaker: So I went with it.
Speaker: Yeah, there was some wildness in the audience.
Speaker: There were some, and there were some screaming out and things like that.
Speaker: But man, this crowd, they were in it from the get-go.
Speaker: And I was in a groove.
Speaker: Something clicked in me knowing that I had to step up in this moment and that I had to make sure that this is the one that counted.
Speaker: Get every single second.
Speaker: You can just get out of these people.
Speaker: You can expunge from them.
Speaker: You can get them to react in a certain way, make them make noise.
Speaker: And I did.
Speaker: And I did.
Speaker: And it was really just one of those moments where I felt great about what was happening.
Speaker: And I knew we were capturing something beautiful.
Speaker: You know, the in-between, I was stressed.
Speaker: Oh man, between those shows, I was stressed because I was hoping, nail it on the first one, play and fuck around on the second one so you can have some sillier moments and things like that.
Speaker: That didn't happen.
Speaker: That first crowd...
Speaker: They just weren't going with me as much as I needed them to, which means now I have one more opportunity.
Speaker: You only get one shot.
Speaker: Do not miss your chance to blow.
Speaker: This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.
Speaker: Hey, lose yourself.
Speaker: I did lose myself in that crowd.
Speaker: I enjoyed being up there.
Speaker: And that's part of this is you have to enjoy it.
Speaker: Whatever you're trying to do.
Speaker: If you were going to make a project, if you're going to complete a task and you're not enjoying it, then why are we doing it at all?
Speaker: You have to enjoy it.
Speaker: And I really did.
Speaker: I was able to step off that stage and float.
Speaker: And float.
Speaker: Because I know.
Speaker: That this.
Speaker: Is going to.
Speaker: Transcend.
Speaker: Through many different audiences.
Speaker: I know that this is something different.
Speaker: Than I've ever put out before.
Speaker: This is the most real.
Speaker: I have ever been.
Speaker: Because this material.
Speaker: This hour.
Speaker: It's dealing a lot with my days in the hospital.
Speaker: With the cancer diagnosis.
Speaker: With fertility issues.
Speaker: With the marriage to my wife.
Speaker: All of these things.
Speaker: I found a way to make them relatable and make them funny.
Speaker: And look, you're not going to get crazy fall on the floor laughter at cancer material because people are out there thinking, oh, this is a little scary.
Speaker: I know someone who has cancer.
Speaker: I have cancer right now.
Speaker: But if you can get them with material like this,
Speaker: That is going to permeate through their skin, through their epidermis, down into their dermis, into their bloodstream, and become a part of their soul.
Speaker: And that's what I wanted with this material.
Speaker: I've watched a lot of the footage back.
Speaker: I've picked my moments from each show that I want to keep.
Speaker: I'm proud of it.
Speaker: I'm proud of it because part of being an artist is what is your anthology of work?
Speaker: What is your catalog?
Speaker: When I die, I don't care how many clips went viral on Instagram.
Speaker: I want to look at a bookcase worth of things.
Speaker: I want to look back and go, Oh, look at all these wonderful achievements.
Speaker: There's my self-help book.
Speaker: There's my first album.
Speaker: There's my second album.
Speaker: There's my 30 minute documentary special from London.
Speaker: Here's my first actual special.
Speaker: Here's my pug documentary.
Speaker: yoga calendar.
Speaker: Here's all of the live shows that I ever produced.
Speaker: All of these things.
Speaker: Feels good.
Speaker: It feels good.
Speaker: I'm so excited for you all to see.
Speaker: this material, this special, because we really, we put together something unique, something cool, and it is going to look beautiful, magical.
Speaker: I really hope it makes you feel something because those people in the audience felt something that crew felt something.
Speaker: We knew we were creating something that was bigger than ourselves.
Speaker: And as an artist, what more can you ask for?
Speaker: Create something bigger than yourself.
Speaker: Thank you guys for being here.
Speaker: I mean, this is a trip and I don't know what I'm going to do next.
Speaker: I have some plans, got some plans, got some tour dates coming up.
Speaker: Be in Vegas this weekend with Craig gas, my great friend opening at Jimmy Kimmel's comedy club.
Speaker: Follow me online.
Speaker: You guys know where to find me at Hooper hair puff, hooper comedy.com.
Speaker: And if you're hearing this, just know if you have something big coming up,
Speaker: Believe that you can do it.
Speaker: Step into the role of someone who's going to crush that performance, project, meeting, date, whatever it may be.
Speaker: You got this.
Speaker: You got this.
Speaker: And put a little moisturizer on if your eczema's flaring because it's never comfortable.
Speaker: Came right out of cancer, right back to eczema.
Speaker: Ain't life silly?
Speaker: I love you all.
Speaker: Can't wait for you to see Brace Yourself.
Speaker: And for everyone that came out while I was leading up to it, love you so much.
Speaker: Thank you for helping me build something amazing.
Speaker: Have a beautiful, beautiful day, week, month, 2024.
