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DEBRIEF: SPECIAL TAPING
61 Plays1 year ago
It's a week to celebrate! Filming this hour gave me lots of feelings and I'm here to tell you the good, the bad, and the "are you fucking serious right now, bro?" Listen up to hear how I rose above the challenges to get this puppy n the can.
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Find Alex:
Website: https://www.hoopercomedy.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hooperhairpuff/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/hooperhairpuff
https://www.facebook.com/alex.hooper.334/
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Transcript
Introduction and Gratitude
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, everybody.
00:00:02
Speaker
The eczema is flaring, but boy, do I feel daring.
00:00:08
Speaker
It is another episode of Dirty Briefs, and I cannot thank you enough for being here.
00:00:14
Speaker
Are you having the most wonderful day?
00:00:17
Speaker
Probably not the most wonderful day.
00:00:19
Speaker
But hopefully you're finding little bits of gratitude throughout.
00:00:23
Speaker
Little ways to shine your light upon others while they shine theirs upon yours.
00:00:28
Speaker
Because energy is cyclical.
00:00:30
Speaker
The more you give out, the more you can absorb.
00:00:33
Speaker
Same with love.
00:00:34
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?
Pre-show Jitters and Excitement
00:00:47
Speaker
Yikes.
00:00:47
Speaker
Why am I in such a good mood this morning?
00:00:50
Speaker
Well, I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I taped my special, everybody.
00:00:57
Speaker
Yes, I did it.
00:01:00
Speaker
I did another thing.
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:01:04
Speaker
It was a lot.
00:01:05
Speaker
I mean, I had so much building up to this.
00:01:09
Speaker
Obviously, I talked a lot last week about the anxiety that I had going into it.
00:01:13
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.
00:01:25
Speaker
But I'm here to tell you the good, the okay, and the bad about taping my specials.
Performance Highlights
00:01:34
Speaker
Now, first of all, great week leading up to it.
00:01:38
Speaker
I sold out the Hollywood Improv Lab, which first time headlining the Hollywood Improv.
00:01:44
Speaker
Awesome show.
00:01:45
Speaker
So many beautiful people came out.
00:01:47
Speaker
It was fantastic.
00:01:49
Speaker
Felt so good.
00:01:51
Speaker
Moving on, went to Baltimore.
00:01:53
Speaker
First time ever at McGooby's Joke House.
00:01:56
Speaker
And big club, Wednesday night, still got 73 people.
00:02:02
Speaker
Out at that show.
00:02:03
Speaker
First time playing the club.
00:02:05
Speaker
They were stoked to have 73 people in there on a Wednesday.
00:02:08
Speaker
I was hoping for 100.
00:02:10
Speaker
But 73 is pretty good.
00:02:14
Speaker
Especially for a brand new club to make an impression.
00:02:16
Speaker
The show was great.
00:02:17
Speaker
So many people from my high school came out.
00:02:20
Speaker
Like my high school from 20 years ago.
00:02:23
Speaker
Not current children that are going there.
00:02:25
Speaker
And that was awesome.
00:02:29
Speaker
And then...
Why Bridgeport?
00:02:30
Speaker
Take the train to Connecticut, to Bridgeport.
00:02:33
Speaker
And now a lot of people ask me, Alex, why are you filming a special in Bridgeport?
00:02:37
Speaker
Are you from there?
00:02:38
Speaker
Do you have a deep connection there?
00:02:40
Speaker
Do you just love street crime so much?
00:02:44
Speaker
No, I have no connection to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
00:02:46
Speaker
None at all.
00:02:48
Speaker
My director and producer, Mike Furman, he lives in Connecticut.
00:02:52
Speaker
We scouted venues over there, found this beautiful theater, 180 seats.
00:02:57
Speaker
It looks like it's primed to shoot a comedy special.
00:03:01
Speaker
And that's why we chose Bridgeport.
00:03:04
Speaker
And I felt really good going into it.
Challenges of the First Show
00:03:09
Speaker
Really good.
00:03:10
Speaker
We did two shows.
00:03:12
Speaker
And so I said it held 180 people.
00:03:15
Speaker
Well, we sold out both shows.
00:03:19
Speaker
But...
00:03:20
Speaker
A lot of the tickets we gave away for free.
00:03:22
Speaker
A lot of them.
00:03:24
Speaker
And what happens when you give away a lot of free tickets?
00:03:26
Speaker
A lot of people are not going to show up.
00:03:29
Speaker
And sure enough, we are planning all day.
00:03:31
Speaker
We're shooting a little behind-the-scenes stuff and little sketches, interstitials.
00:03:35
Speaker
I'm meeting the crew.
00:03:36
Speaker
We have 14 people on this crew.
00:03:39
Speaker
Everything is going great.
00:03:40
Speaker
Six camera setup.
00:03:42
Speaker
So this is...
00:03:44
Speaker
A lot.
00:03:45
Speaker
I've invested in this special because I know that's the only way I'm going to move forward.
00:03:50
Speaker
When I spent all this money to do this, I was terrified.
00:03:56
Speaker
I had regrets.
00:03:57
Speaker
And my wife said, Alex, that money's doing no good just sitting in your bank account with you staring at it.
00:04:02
Speaker
You're putting it towards a greater goal.
00:04:04
Speaker
This is the way you move forward.
00:04:07
Speaker
So I had to go into it with that mentality.
00:04:10
Speaker
And
00:04:12
Speaker
It gets to be seven o'clock time for the first show.
00:04:15
Speaker
And I'm looking around.
00:04:18
Speaker
There's not that many people in there.
00:04:20
Speaker
Not that many.
00:04:21
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.
00:04:30
Speaker
Now look,
00:04:32
Speaker
I will play to anybody.
00:04:35
Speaker
I put me in a senior home and I will do my best to have relatable material and conversations.
00:04:42
Speaker
I will find a way to make you laugh.
00:04:44
Speaker
Same if you put me in an elementary school.
00:04:46
Speaker
Those are my two biggest demographics, elementary schools, senior homes.
00:04:52
Speaker
But,
00:04:53
Speaker
They don't always laugh the loudest.
00:04:55
Speaker
It's kind of hard to get it out of them.
00:04:58
Speaker
And a lot of them were sitting towards the back.
00:05:00
Speaker
We had to push them toward the front.
00:05:02
Speaker
Finally, we had a pretty good crowd in there, probably about 100 people or so.
00:05:07
Speaker
Again, it holds 180.
00:05:08
Speaker
If we have 100 people in there, it's going to be okay.
00:05:11
Speaker
We chose this theater because it was beautiful.
00:05:15
Speaker
The acoustics were wonderful.
00:05:17
Speaker
We know we're going to work with this.
Post-show Reflections
00:05:20
Speaker
I go out there.
00:05:24
Speaker
immediately it's pulling teeth while they're old.
00:05:27
Speaker
So pulling dentures out of them and my jokes, some of them I'm getting big pops, big hits others.
00:05:34
Speaker
I really feel like I'm just like stringing them along.
00:05:38
Speaker
Like, come on guys, give this one to me.
00:05:41
Speaker
I know this is good material.
00:05:43
Speaker
I know it is.
00:05:44
Speaker
And look, some of it is very emotional, very real, vulnerable,
00:05:52
Speaker
It's not supposed to be nonstop, raucous, cacophonous laughter throughout.
00:05:56
Speaker
Oh, I love how I just said that.
00:05:58
Speaker
Raucous, cacophonous, cacophony.
00:06:01
Speaker
Ruckity.
00:06:03
Speaker
Rock your body with the raucous cacophony.
00:06:08
Speaker
I get that.
00:06:09
Speaker
It's not.
00:06:09
Speaker
But I know what these jokes can do, and not all of them were happening.
00:06:15
Speaker
And...
00:06:16
Speaker
So I go out to the lobby after the show.
00:06:19
Speaker
I'm not, I'm feeling okay.
00:06:22
Speaker
It's okay.
00:06:23
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.
00:06:42
Speaker
Now, I just use the word perfect.
00:06:45
Speaker
One thing I went into this saying, hey, there is no perfect.
00:06:49
Speaker
It's not going to be perfect.
00:06:51
Speaker
You give them the best parts of you, Alex.
00:06:54
Speaker
Step on that stage and just give it to them.
00:06:57
Speaker
And whatever comes out is what's supposed to come out.
00:07:00
Speaker
When I went into the lobby after the first show, the compliments were insane.
00:07:05
Speaker
It was people were hugging me.
00:07:06
Speaker
People were practically crying on me.
00:07:09
Speaker
It was beautiful.
00:07:10
Speaker
And even though I didn't necessarily feel that energy during the show,
00:07:16
Speaker
I knew I had them.
00:07:17
Speaker
Like I had created some new fans, some people that were there that already knew who I was that loved it.
00:07:23
Speaker
There's certain things happened during the show where I was like, this isn't it.
00:07:28
Speaker
Like someone, I had a weird thing.
00:07:30
Speaker
A guy's cell phone went off right after I mentioned that I had had a stroke.
00:07:35
Speaker
His phone started ringing and I had to pay attention to it because everyone in this theater could hear it.
00:07:42
Speaker
Now, little things like that are going to happen.
00:07:44
Speaker
People are not always going to be respectful enough to turn off their phones.
Triumph of the Second Show
00:07:50
Speaker
But even still, I walked off that stage and out of it after knowing I had another show to do.
00:07:58
Speaker
And I was like, this is it.
00:08:00
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.
00:08:10
Speaker
my own career, my evening, this material.
00:08:15
Speaker
And sure enough,
00:08:16
Speaker
I'm watching a younger crowd come in.
00:08:18
Speaker
They're a little bit more energetic.
00:08:19
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.
00:08:28
Speaker
And here's why the crowd has probably had gone to work that day.
00:08:33
Speaker
Now they're a little tired.
00:08:35
Speaker
Now they're a little drunk.
00:08:36
Speaker
And the combination of all of those things creates to some weird experiences.
00:08:41
Speaker
And you know what?
00:08:42
Speaker
I like weird experiences.
00:08:45
Speaker
You know me.
00:08:46
Speaker
So I went with it.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah, there was some wildness in the audience.
00:08:50
Speaker
There were some, and there were some screaming out and things like that.
00:08:54
Speaker
But man, this crowd, they were in it from the get-go.
00:08:59
Speaker
And I was in a groove.
00:09:01
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.
00:09:09
Speaker
Get every single second.
00:09:12
Speaker
You can just get out of these people.
00:09:15
Speaker
You can expunge from them.
00:09:17
Speaker
You can get them to react in a certain way, make them make noise.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I did.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I did.
00:09:25
Speaker
And it was really just one of those moments where I felt great about what was happening.
00:09:31
Speaker
And I knew we were capturing something beautiful.
00:09:36
Speaker
You know, the in-between, I was stressed.
00:09:40
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.
00:09:51
Speaker
That didn't happen.
00:09:52
Speaker
That first crowd...
00:09:54
Speaker
They just weren't going with me as much as I needed them to, which means now I have one more opportunity.
00:10:00
Speaker
You only get one shot.
00:10:01
Speaker
Do not miss your chance to blow.
00:10:03
Speaker
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.
00:10:05
Speaker
Hey, lose yourself.
00:10:08
Speaker
I did lose myself in that crowd.
00:10:11
Speaker
I enjoyed being up there.
00:10:14
Speaker
And that's part of this is you have to enjoy it.
00:10:18
Speaker
Whatever you're trying to do.
00:10:20
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?
00:10:30
Speaker
You have to enjoy it.
00:10:33
Speaker
And I really did.
00:10:35
Speaker
I was able to step off that stage and float.
00:10:40
Speaker
And float.
00:10:40
Speaker
Because I know.
The Comedy Special's Message
00:10:42
Speaker
That this.
00:10:43
Speaker
Is going to.
00:10:45
Speaker
Transcend.
00:10:46
Speaker
Through many different audiences.
00:10:49
Speaker
I know that this is something different.
00:10:50
Speaker
Than I've ever put out before.
00:10:52
Speaker
This is the most real.
00:10:54
Speaker
I have ever been.
00:10:55
Speaker
Because this material.
00:10:56
Speaker
This hour.
00:10:57
Speaker
It's dealing a lot with my days in the hospital.
00:11:00
Speaker
With the cancer diagnosis.
00:11:02
Speaker
With fertility issues.
00:11:04
Speaker
With the marriage to my wife.
00:11:07
Speaker
All of these things.
00:11:10
Speaker
I found a way to make them relatable and make them funny.
00:11:13
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.
00:11:24
Speaker
I know someone who has cancer.
00:11:25
Speaker
I have cancer right now.
00:11:28
Speaker
But if you can get them with material like this,
00:11:32
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.
00:11:43
Speaker
And that's what I wanted with this material.
00:11:49
Speaker
I've watched a lot of the footage back.
00:11:51
Speaker
I've picked my moments from each show that I want to keep.
00:11:56
Speaker
I'm proud of it.
00:11:58
Speaker
I'm proud of it because part of being an artist is what is your anthology of work?
00:12:04
Speaker
What is your catalog?
00:12:05
Speaker
When I die, I don't care how many clips went viral on Instagram.
Artistic Legacy and Aspirations
00:12:10
Speaker
I want to look at a bookcase worth of things.
00:12:14
Speaker
I want to look back and go, Oh, look at all these wonderful achievements.
00:12:17
Speaker
There's my self-help book.
00:12:19
Speaker
There's my first album.
00:12:20
Speaker
There's my second album.
00:12:21
Speaker
There's my 30 minute documentary special from London.
00:12:24
Speaker
Here's my first actual special.
00:12:26
Speaker
Here's my pug documentary.
00:12:27
Speaker
yoga calendar.
00:12:29
Speaker
Here's all of the live shows that I ever produced.
00:12:32
Speaker
All of these things.
00:12:39
Speaker
Feels good.
00:12:40
Speaker
It feels good.
00:12:42
Speaker
I'm so excited for you all to see.
00:12:45
Speaker
this material, this special, because we really, we put together something unique, something cool, and it is going to look beautiful, magical.
00:12:56
Speaker
I really hope it makes you feel something because those people in the audience felt something that crew felt something.
00:13:01
Speaker
We knew we were creating something that was bigger than ourselves.
00:13:05
Speaker
And as an artist, what more can you ask for?
00:13:08
Speaker
Create something bigger than yourself.
00:13:13
Speaker
Thank you guys for being here.
00:13:14
Speaker
I mean, this is a trip and I don't know what I'm going to do next.
00:13:19
Speaker
I have some plans, got some plans, got some tour dates coming up.
00:13:23
Speaker
Be in Vegas this weekend with Craig gas, my great friend opening at Jimmy Kimmel's comedy club.
00:13:30
Speaker
Follow me online.
00:13:31
Speaker
You guys know where to find me at Hooper hair puff, hooper comedy.com.
00:13:35
Speaker
And if you're hearing this, just know if you have something big coming up,
00:13:40
Speaker
Believe that you can do it.
00:13:42
Speaker
Step into the role of someone who's going to crush that performance, project, meeting, date, whatever it may be.
00:13:53
Speaker
You got this.
00:13:55
Speaker
You got this.
00:13:56
Speaker
And put a little moisturizer on if your eczema's flaring because
Conclusion and Appreciation
00:14:01
Speaker
it's never comfortable.
00:14:03
Speaker
Came right out of cancer, right back to eczema.
00:14:06
Speaker
Ain't life silly?
00:14:11
Speaker
I love you all.
00:14:12
Speaker
Can't wait for you to see Brace Yourself.
00:14:14
Speaker
And for everyone that came out while I was leading up to it, love you so much.
00:14:18
Speaker
Thank you for helping me build something amazing.
00:14:20
Speaker
Have a beautiful, beautiful day, week, month, 2024.