Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host Coley, and today we have very special guests, personal friend of my brothers, so we had to call it a favorite.
Hello, did I fuck it up?
I should have get a number. There's just three on.
It because he keeps me Salma sucker, Dicky.
Hello, it's did I'm not say it right?
Okay, cool, they're gonna use that one problem.
Osama's in the building. I'm really excited.
Actor comedian is in the building, very excited to have you seen you do stand up in la And that was a great time when I got to enjoy l A comics.
A lot of people hate l A comedy for good reason. It's not the it's a lot of people going there to become fans and not good. The currency of LA is let me get famous. The currency of New York is let me get good. So if you go to one place, those ideas will permeate within you and you'll become that type of comic. So that's why I really love when comics go to New York for multiple years because they it gets in their head to be good.
Well, you get to do more reps in New York. So that's what you could do.
I remember I used to come here with Eagle, and Eagle would stay out til four in the morning. He brings me back the Philly cheese, chop cheese and then a snapple and that's when we catch up.
Y'all. Y'all, you and Egle are look so like it's crazy in a good way. Not like I'm talking to Eagle right now, but if it's if he's Ego, then you're like pigeon. You know, You're like, you're right, it's the same okay, you know, same concept. Y'all are like the likable in a very perceptive way. Y'all always observing. Yeah, I always like assessing. I almost feel like I'm being assessed by you.
We love you. That's the one thing we have in common.
But before we get into your story, which I heard from Ego was incredible. I tried not to do the whole million on one questions because that's why you're here. But before we get into it, let's get into the halal bagel.
You got its got a fully Arabic podcast today. She's doing great.
So typically the guest would be introducing the dish, but I want to tell you guys.
A little backstory.
Usama gave me the task of finding a bagel from a halal cart, which is actually impossible, which I told him last night and he assured me, no, no, no, you got this, which by the way, we are not eating halal bagels, but we.
Will go ahead.
What come okay? So okay. So the bigel was trying to get her to get I told her I would get it for her, but she was like, I don't trust you be on time. And here I was at one.
Ten and I was late.
So I respect you that I absolutely could have. I worked my whole day around Colleen and now look at us. So basically, it's a it's like a breakfast cart that's run by an Arab guy. Usually like it's some small thing you'll see like bagel, you'll see like some danishes and muffins on the in the glass case. But it's like a cart. It looks like a lot cart, but really it's a breakfast cart that's like out in the
in the morning. So every day I would basically wait till I couldn't wait anymore, and I would eat one bagel for that day. And it was a bagel, one sided, one half of it and just it was butter on it, and then I would use that until the end of the night when I have one more bagel.
So there was would that be the second half of the first day.
I came back and the guy he's like, yeah, pay up the second half and it was basically two bagels. Excuse me that where I was eat the whole day. And that was like maybe a couple of months of just that, and then one day I woke up and I was like dizzy for a month because I just hadn't had nutrients. I just hadn't had one vegetable. I thought I was dying. I was like, this is all true.
Are you gonna eat?
You gotta take a bite of this for because I know I did not go all around.
I ain't never.
Man, this looks already too expensive. This already looks too bougie for what I was eating. Like wrapping my bagel.
The four dollars, so I don't know what he was paying the bagel.
I got the bagel, he would frisbee it to my mouth. This is like in a wrapping. It's like Christmas.
Let's see, okay, this is just a.
It's like a soft bagel. Yeah, hold hold up, hold on, Oh my god, the struggle bagel.
But I should have done it's got it early this morning and made you eat a cold, top hard bagel.
This is good.
So my eye goes up and down like you.
So take me back too, it's good.
Takes me back?
Probably does it take you back? When was the last time you had this?
Literally since since I was poor. I don't eat this anymore. If I have a bagel, I'm having like all this, you know, I'm cream, cheese and ship.
Fancying it up.
Damn, it's been a while. It's been a while, real talk. I didn't think I was poor, grown in New York, didn't. I didn't really think that I was just like, I was just happy to do comedy four times a day. That was my whole mindset.
So this is during your pursuit of comedy career.
Yeah, so when I would, I mean, it's Eagle time too. When I was when I met Eagle, I was what twenty three in New York give up med school to do comedy, gave up med school.
I'm sure those parents were thrilled.
They were so happy. They were like, are you are you gay too? Please be gay as well. No, they were so angry, so sad I didn't talk to him for like the first two years. Classic you know, immigrant Bengali came here Medigal like the week two we were micers. You know, so micers you just do as many shows
a humanly possible. I didn't get a real job because I was like, then I would miss the five pm micah people who did the temp jobs and the normal job they would always come to mics at like a seven pm and I was like, no, that's two extra mics I could do. So I basically post made it all day, had no money, would eat like two bagels a day, and then I would do comedy from five
to one am every day. And so it was very skinny, very wayfish very like like I looked like this, this is my arm, and even now it's not that much better. But I was very much in that world of like blinders, I think you need a certain ivitate to like do comedy well eventually, like you could be obsessed with it in a way. And I was like very much in that space of just like I don't care what my body, I don't care about my what I put into it. I just want to do as much comedy as humanly possible.
So when you say we're going to take it back a step, when you say you gave up med school, well, does that mean you were a really great student and then you shot your parents'.
Dreams Jesus so violent? Yes, yes?
And then and then did they say, hey, okay, so you got about one year or did they put some parameters on it.
So I didn't tell I lied to them. I basically got into med school. There's the thing you can do for med school where you can defer for a year through an extenuating medical circumstance for your parents, going to help them out. So my mom had like this routine like bunyan appointment or something like that. Something would just
like just get some like acid for feet. And I had made that into like I sent a letter to the medical office of the Admission's office of A and M like you, my mom got polio, shi leg amputated all this shit so I could defer free. I had the doctor's knowne of like a foot appointment, and I sent that over and then the admitions like, oh this you need those guys want one year? Differ because if I just said it was a bunion appointment. They wouldn't
have accepted. They had to be something crazy. So I definitely lied and told them that my mom had like no legs, and they were like, of course, of course, We'll give you a year. And that year I accrued money delivering sandwiches for Jimmy John's, so I could at the end of the year if I needed to make an escape from my parents, I could do it.
Oh, because you knew that they was gonna come.
For you, absolutely right. So I basically was like, just so I have escape money. So I told them I was working at a hospital, which I was not, and I was really just getting money from Jane John's and then doing comedy all night.
Oh they didn't even know about the comedy.
No. So that for that year, after med school up, after undergrad ended, and but before med school was starting, I was just doing comedy and I was making money delivery driving.
Now, now we got to go back a little bit deeper again, we gotta know. Okay, so where when, at what point did you have the epiphany that comedy was definitely something you wanted to do.
You know, I was a funny kid with my friends, right, I was first funny in class doing like you know, popcorn reading when someone like, hey, I'm reading. Then I passed the book two who saw him? And then you read a section from like a play or something from Englis Slash. So we were doing Julius Caesar and I was they gave it to me and it was the
Brutus speech. I think the Friends or the Marc Anthony was the friends Romans country then my ears and I made a massive like British affectation like friends, Romens countryman lending me it is. People were dying and I remember that was the first time I was like, oh, I'm getting a group of people to laugh at something I'm doing. That was the beginning of like the Funny. Then I did the MCAT, which is the medical school Admissions Program test.
That was like so saying that. Once I finished it, I had a year in junior year to find out what I wanted to do. So I was like, let me try comedy. I really want to do it. I was just thinking about it. I went to a Hyenas comedy club in Dallas, which is like I had a Wednesday open mic and I that's where I started doing comedy. I was so bad I was. I just wrote like bin Louden puns, like five minutes have been Lodden puns.
And I was like, oh, let's go. And I did it at like one thirty am with my first mic and then it was like, waited for five hours to do it. Got a couple of laughs, and I was like, Oh, this is this is what I want to do, this is this is my whole thing.
And at what point did you break the news to the parents.
It was the day before I left to New York. I had bought in the ticket I had. They thought I was going to medical school. The day before I left to New York.
I thought you were originally from here.
No, I'm from Dallas.
Oh so you were out there, and so you you break the news along with a plane ticket like boom, I'm going to I know they're gonna kill me and they're gonna need time to I got to.
Escape before they get the weapons. You know, my dad, I told my parents. I was like, da dad, Mom, I'm not going to do medical school. I'm gonna do comedy. My dad, you know, single dad teer, you know that classic like it can't be gay. But I'm also destroyed. My mom took pots and pans started throwing it. She's like, what the fuck are you doing? But started throwing shit?
Did she really?
No, really, it wasn't like it was more like it was an an aiming at me. She's just so fucking angry. She's like, what the fuck are you doing? Bawling, like what are you doing? Because the word comedian in my in Banglah Bamlay is like drunk. You know the town drunk, he said, comedian come in, so like when I want to be a comedian, They're like, you want to be professionally drunk, which is kind of what happens, but that they didn't have no concept of what comedy is. They
have no idea. Immigrant you know, people who are just like get money acchoir and I get it now looking back, I was pretty petulant to them. I was like, I should have given them more time. I should have like been more courteous.
But also coming from immigrants, you also know that the death sentence is real, possible, like you may not live another day.
I didn't die because I was good at dodging.
Yeah, you're right, but you know what I'm saying.
You know, there's like this inherent fear as an immigrant child that you know, like they don't have a problem saying like I brought you in this world and I may be the one that.
Jamaican right, yeah, Jamaican, she is christ some of those intense people on earth. Why do you think that Jamaican is so good at running because their parents are the raising the running. The first danger is mom, the with a sandal and a knife. And I bet your mom she does take no ship, but very dangerous, beautifully sweet sweet. But it's right there my mom too. If you me and my mom, you're like, that's the sweetest lady on earth.
The door closes, She's like, get me a stick, I'm going to kill you and then I'm gonna kill myself to get you in the spirit world and I'm gonna find you and kill you. There again, they're.
Crazy, but come back you You do think that if you had to redo it over, you would have given them a warning?
No, I know, I wouldn't. I feel bad because now I know where they're coming from. The hurt, the pain, the fear that I was a star kid, very smart in school. In their mind, I'm throwing it all away. Yeah, and they're terrified of that it's all love based all their anger and their fear, and they love so much that it comes out in dark ways. Sometimes it's you know, literally like you know, but it's like the idea is like I had, I was also a coward. I was scared.
I didn't know I was gonna do it. I was still like maybe comedy, maybe medicine for the longest time, and then I watched this documentary called Zero Dreams of Sushi. I don't know if you ever saw this, literally, just Japanese sushi chefs who's like talking about the idea of all I want to do is get better at making sushi. That's my whole purpose in life. And as an immigrant kid,
you never understand that concept because everything's very acquisitional. It's like, you gotta get this so you can get this, so you can get this, get this job, get this degree so you can get those jobs. You can get this needs to get the house. It's all get, get, get because immigrants work in that way. That's why they came
to America to get. Whereas the idea that you can live your life inside out, like the idea of the of the journey and the path and the growth and the finding the self as the actual purpose was lost on me. It was such a unique idea that I saw in that documentary, and once I saw that, it shifted immediately. I finished that documentary about to take it that day. Wow, Yeah, it was crazy.
Does your parents know that that one documentary.
In their lives? There? My mom's like, I'm going to read that Japanese guy, go to Tokyo, find him.
How did you end up even watching it? It was just like fate.
It was fay. You know, there's some things a little I like that, you know, some things like that. When I decided to do comedy, I was like, I was like, let me just wait for a year, let me just like sculpe it out in junear you after the m cat. And then I off a whim told this guy who wasn't even a close friend. He was a friend ish, but not a guy I would I would ever tell.
But I didn't tell my best friends. I just told him and he was the guy who was like, I already do comedy in hyenas And I'm like, what it had been? It had gotten real once I asked him, And this is not a guy I would ever tell anything to. He's my boy now, But back then, I was like, why did I tell him? What caused me to tell him? It's a fascinating thing because he was the only guy in that whole school that already did a comedy opened and through his information giving, I was able to find find.
These And how old were you then?
Twenty twenty years twenty twenty?
So then you decide, of all places to go, you're gonna choose the hardest place to pursue comedy and the.
Most expensive place to live. So you come here, who are you staying with? How are you?
I'm staying in a Bushwick apartment. It's this subleasing this one horrific room. It was this guy, the super like gay guy who was also like kind of a drug dealer. I think, so he would like deal drugs, bang dudes. He's small, but he's banging these massive dudes, and you'd always like send him home, and these guys were crying in the kitchen sometimes, scary dude. But I would pay him every month.
And he said, but the dude was small. You said, he's small, but he was scary.
Scary?
How was he scary?
You already know those dudes who like small, but they got the eyes or cream, you know, talking about the guys who were like I kill people. I climb up on them and I kill him. Yeah, so he was kind of a fearsome dude. Stayed there five hundred dollars a month rent, no money. That's where I started getting scared of your parents, definitely, and especially a gay drug dealer. What that that's their that's their fear.
But they were asking where you were staying at all.
No, no, no, I was just saying what I was saying them playing blah bah blah. I was keeping everything very vague just during the time. They didn't like me.
Oh so they weren't even talking to you really.
For a little bit they were talking. Then I at the earrings. My dad was like, you better get the hell out of my life for a little bit anyway. But then one day I realized that he wasn't using my money to pay anybody. He was using his money for his own self. So the sublease I was given him, he was not even using to pay the rent. Then he got like the cops came and basically locked my door.
I couldn't get into it, so I had to go climb up the side of the house to get to my room because he was scared I was gonna confront him or something like that, because he didn't use any of my money, so I was I was also kicked out. So I came up one day the door was locked, couldn't get in, climbed up the side of my house. My knee, Why do I still have the scar?
Hilarious?
Yeah, maybe right? My knee hit this piece of glass. The knee went straight through the glass. But there's a flap of skin where I could see the bone of my knee. My knee, and I got my stoff got out. My knee was flapped, but the whole meat was like this. It was the meat was like I limped to like there wasn't a poor neighborhood. So I went to Like it wasn't even there's no urgin carre. It was like Joe's bodega and er or whatever. And I went there and I got like patched up and I got stitches
on one of these needs. And then I was like homeless for like a couple of days, saying at my front friend's house, who was a dental school in the NYU. And then I was like what do I do? My friend, my boy was a micer and one day he goes up on stage and he's like, I'm gonna kill myself. And after that I asked him. I was like, hey man, I don't know if that was a joke or not, but you should not do that. And he later told me, he's like, bro, you're the only guy in my life
that said don't kill yourself. And he happened to have a really nice place in Williamsburg and he was like, the day after I told him to kill himself, I just mentioned that I have no place, and he's like, hey, just stay with me. So it was like the love I gave him came back around again. You see what him saying, Like these small little things in.
Life, right, My God was aligning all these little moments.
Right. He's like, hey man, you're the only one who ever cared not to say not to kill myself. He had a lot of money just from his family, and so he's like, hey, you can stay here for a little bit. For like three months, stayed there on a couch cushion on the floor, but we gelled so well and it was such a good roommate and we had a great time together. He was like, hey, man, if you want to stay here. He's a single guy. If you want to stay here, you can just stay here,
and like, you know, pay me what you want. I was like two hundred dollars. He's like sure. So for the next four years I lived for you know, and.
This reason you sleep though you still so it was it.
Was the he was a gay thug. Then I lived in a crackhouse after the gay thug for like two years where there's no water supply. It was in Canarsity. It was like foreclosed house in CANARSI stayed there for for two years. You know, no water supply. Had to go to the Planet Fitness to get water back to my place.
Why you didn't just shower planet.
I did shower a planet, but I need water to like teeth and sort of like, oh yeah, you.
Were really tugging this out.
All for comedy, all for comedy, but that but that crackhouse, it was like a room. I stayed in the crackhouse and I paid no rent because there was a foreclosed house. Ciphered electricity illegally from Connad like, so we had electricity and it was it was great.
And during this time, you're eating bagel.
The bagel, the Bagel, so gay thug crack house has one struggle era. Once I got the Williamsburg place with my friend, things started looking up because the crackhouse gave me disposable income because I hadn't I haven't pay any rent. Yeah, so no, rant means every month I'm saving a thousand dollars.
Oh you were saving, but you were good with money.
Oh you were good with money. I was there.
We go, okay, well you actually.
You know? Yeah?
Yeah, so okay, so crackheaded house, now you're moving up. You get to Williamsburg. Yes, and now you have a roommate situation for four years. Yes, okay. Comedy is skyrocketing at this point.
So it's getting better and better, and I finally have some money to like just live. And now I'm past Bagel era at this point. So Bagel's done. Yeah, you seem very happy.
For very heavy, very heavy.
Bagel Ara is done. Now I add the Schmears. You know what I'm saying, Schmeer type life out here.
And what accolades are you achieving a comedy because you've achieved a lot. So are we getting any shout outs to some of those accolades during that period that gave you that reassurance.
Yes, So now this put on like twenty seven, twenty seven, and so I'm getting Americans that talent I'm getting I'm winning those comedy competitions that are like in Albany and New York, and I'm like getting some notoriety. I'm getting past the clubs here. That rise is coming. I'm on all different like huff Po, BuzzFeed, I'm doing all these different.
Videos and I have to do this. What are your parents saying at this era? They see you winning, but they also don't see the money.
Right, so really the reputation is more important than the money first for them or for you for them, right, So for them, it's like they were very like not talking, not talking. Then one of my mom's friends comes to her. She's like, oh I saw him on the TV. And my mom is like, oh, I guess I do love him.
It was like a mom proud moment.
I love you shit. And then once the auntie started validating it, all of a sudden, because brown Coach is very like, what will people say? That's a huge thing. Money's big, but even more than that is what reputation. So all of a sudden, a little honor was restored and the vibe was getting good. And then and now they're almost too supportive. I wanted to say that right now, that my parents are very supportive now. Such thing is it's weird because you know, like immigrant dads, they don't
know how to like be normal. Right, it's either like get out of my house or it's too much. So before it was like I don't want to even see you, and now it's like, you know, I found DNA F his social Security number. I'm like, what, you're going too far? Now use it? Use it. He's like very in it. Now he knows what a pilot season is, like what you love the pilot season. Everybody is pilot season goal.
But now you don't have siblings.
I do.
For the for the younger now, yeah, obviously there was fear that you were going to create this mayhem. Right, so now you have established not only did you break the rule and secure secure the position, but now you've also.
Got their support. So right, the little one is so.
You ok, Hey, I got you, I got you. So it's like older brother was the fuck up for a long time. He was he was so he was a rebellious one, very intense My mom was very strict on me, so she was like, you are.
You remember you're going to.
Oh yeah, fucking liveing like not another one.
And I saw the last dent for my brother at the Dutch so he was the fuck up. He was crazy and now he's cool. He got married. Now he's like a really good Stalwarts energy that helps the family a lot. But before he was cray right, my parents were very invested in me make it because Noel they had to get there. They had three you know, I can't believe three blanks. Basically that I busted, says my dad. And so Noeh was the first blank. I was not
a blank, but I made myself a blank. Jesus arnab my little brother, thank god, he was a tech whiz and so he'd got into coding. He got into and that it makes mad money. He's like, he worked in Amazon, he worked a different AI companies.
He's like a really and they were okay with that, even though it's not the tradition, you know, they.
You know, I was selfish. I just left. I didn't wait to see if NOELH was okay or my mom was okay. Following your dream is a very selfish concept. It's very, very selfish, and you have to accept that that a lot of people don't follow their dreams because they have like sick moms at home. And that's a good thing. But truth is, if you want to really do this, you have to kind of do it for yourself.
Yeah, it's selfish, but at the same time, kind of going back to what you said with Eagle earlier about like people heye and on you, you kind of have to start with that hating.
It's crazy, it sucks. It's at home first right line of rejection.
No one hates more than your own fucking family. Man, Jesus Christ. Funny you what, I never loved it once? And go ahead, go now and knock knock? Who's that? How about that? You know it is? It is like that, and it's again it's a lot of love. But love can gnarl up motivation too, because so much love that
you don't know what's actually best for the person. So the truth is, when you start in art, the ridiculous constant, it's almost you have to almost be literally insane to believe in yourself because first of all, you suck and everyone says you suck, and they're correct because you are not You're not good, but all you have is this belief, and so you have to traverse that belief over and against logic, against the truth of you being bad. It's a wild concept. And to actually get there. And then
of course everyone comes back like I already knew. I always knew it. It was that's from Fred blah blah blah blah. I tat everything everyone knows, and it's like crazy, how insane that beginning is. Because you really have to be delusional.
Yeah, you had to be delusional. Now.
I know you had a lot of accolades on your journey, but were there ever points in that journey where you were like, I think that there's a chance this isn't for me.
Come on. There had to been absolutely.
Every every bagel I had, I was you know what I'm saying. I was like, you were.
Literally bottling up water.
There had to been like, oh, this is imagine. I was like, man, I'm killing it. Then I got two jugs of water and I'm killing it, you know, I was. I was doing that. Planet Fitness had a big.
Juga flush the toilets too.
Yeah, to p a partty take a ship. I would go to the planet fitness.
Were you? I know you're the ladies man.
We gotta go there a virgin?
So how were you that whole thing? Were you a ladies man? During the homeless there?
Yeah? I was out here. I was in the streets.
Did they know?
One time a girl I was trying to never bring it back to my place because I never had a good place. But one time a girl is like, I can't go into my place, and so I'm taking her back to the crackhouse and so and I'm like in the kuber and I'm like, you know, I got no water. I knew I had no water because I had finished the last little water for the yesterday and twenty minutes.
You even consider taking her back? Like what was meant?
But I was like, I was like, you know, you know, you know, no, I.
Don't because if I know that I'm taking you to the crack house, I'm not.
Doing it well.
So I was going back to that and I was like, I got no water. I hope she's not thirsty, Please don't want any water. We go into the house, She's like I need water. I'm like, fuck, what do I do? What do I do? We have no water? She was half Asian half like French.
Yeah, you're like either way, she said, was need water. She didn't notice anything else wrong.
Because the place is not disgusting. It's like a nice because it's like there's like a foreclosed first floor of all the crackheads to hang out, and there was a second floor. I was like, I just gotta have like a nice house. So I had a room in that in that house, and so I take her to the room. She's like, I'm thirsty, and I'm like, fuck, what do I do. I go to the fridge and I'm like,
what the fuck, there's juice. There's juice. So I bring her back some juice and you I don't if you know this, but if we drink juice when you're thirsty, now you're more dehydrated. Yes, so now she's even more thirsty, and we fucked and it was probably you. Actually, it was so dry from the from the thirst, I mean, sparks were flying, and it was it was we both
passed out. I mean we were with young we were like twenty five, so I like, you know, you're crazy on both hens and then we both go to sleep thirsty. I mean it was it was some refugee level fucking. The next day, I wake up early, I go to play Venis. I get the water before she wakes up. She's like, I'm thirsty, and I'm like, boy, do I have some water? Your boy got water for you? Now drink up.
Okay, okay, So you were still making it happen.
I was not an evil. I was like, it was like, I'm always trying to make the girl feel good always. No.
No, I meant like you still had a well rounded life. It wasn't just like straight you had fun during this.
Yes, I didn't see myself a struggle guy. If I had a struggle mindset, like oh no, I'm so poor, then I guess I wouldn't have the confidence to hit on a woman. And I usually had the courtesy not to bring it back to my place. It was just never it was not gonna happen without me going back to my place.
Do you think it helps to be in an industry where, traditionally comics, you have your majority that are struggling in the process, right, So do you think it helped to say, well, I'm in an industry where honestly being broke is the norm for a long period.
It's interesting. I never thought about that. Yeah, the idea that being broke is part of the journey for so many and it's like confirmed by so many stories. WTF. I was linking to a lot of mark my remember that time, and that helped me go through all this because it was every comic had this story of like bombing hard and like I was, And I was bombing hard on those times, so I was like, it made me feel so good to hear them because I was like, oh,
it's analogous to my experience. I never thought about my life as detracting from my journey or my self belief. It was never like I was eating that bagel and I was like, oh, this is gonna not work out. It was more like my own ideas. It was more like the jokes, like am I good enough at comedy? Do this? It's never the life events. I was never concerned with my body or my situation shelter wise. I was always just like, is my comedy good enough?
Now?
I don't recommend this to for a lot of people because to go that extreme, my body fell apart. You know, I was dizzy for a whole month once I was malnourished. You don't want to do that be healthy.
And during all this error, when you're going through this, is there any part of you that's like, let me just call and ask.
They were not gonna give you money. Well, my dad was in debt because he had been swindled by kind of a business move that he's a genius, true identic memory, he's a true genius. Was in the poorest village of India, Bengali's speaking part of India growing up, and he made his way through just pure genius alone. But not a good people person always doesn't really see the snakes in the water, right, So he was kind of thrown out of some money that he put a lot of money into,
like he invested, and it was not good. He was not a businessman, he's not shrewd in that way. So he was he had no money to give me or now my little brother was still in college, Noel was just graduating undergrad because he had just started getting his life together. The whole family was in chaos. There was no money anywhere. And in that time period I left.
Yeah, and you're not telling them also that you're drowning.
Ohay no, no. So it was a weird, turbulent time because there was no money in the family, and even though a good son would have just stayed and helped, I was like, no, I'm out of here. So there's shame there in terms of like what I did at that time. Now not now. Now it's all love this money everywhere. My dad does a good job. It's like it's all good. No arn up banking. You know, there's a time when I had to give my dad some
money for a little bit. But he's he's very very good now and it's like he works and has a government job. It's all good. But that time period was definitely a struggle time.
So but during that point when you chose purpose, there was that bag of shame that.
Was like not sea, but it was. It was, Yeah, it was. It was a bag of shame. It was like purpose was there, but it was like I was so blindered the whole Dad woke up and I was like comedy, comedy, comedy, comedy, comedy, comany.
I also kind of knew you had to make it work because you.
Had no If you didn't make it work, oh my god, you would have been no shade to your older brother, but you would have been like the.
Chapter of he messed up his life, but he then turned it around and he went to medal schools. Whatever.
Damn man, My dad's like, why did we come here? We could have just done this at home, and we gotta have done this at home.
What was like a defining moment where that you could take back where you thought, for sure, okay, that's it, I e f and quit. I'm that AnGR or bitter like? Was there a moment where it was like, for sure a challenging time.
I never thought I was gonna quit in my life, That's one thing. It was never that there were times where I had to steal food from grocery stores. That was a moment where I was like, what's going on here? You know? I since the moment I started comedy, I was like, I'm gonna do this till I die. Regardless of what happens. I just don't care. I'm just when I chose to devote my life to this thing, I was like, that's complete, and that's total, and throw all the ups and downs. I'm going to just do it
with every ounce of my being. The one time I thought it was gonna be over was when I was dizzy for a month and I thought I had some sort of terminal disease, and I was like, dude, I'm gonna die. I didn't get to do all the things I wanted to do. But I was also like, it's weird we has a twenty three year old at the time. I was like accepting too. I was like, well, you know truthfully, because I really I was gonna die because I'd never experience that. It's a wild thing to be dizzy.
I would go to sleep dissy, I'd wake up dizzy, go to sleep again, dizzy, wake up busy. For a month, I was just like, what the heck, and so how.
Did you figure out?
I want a doctor? And he was like, they did an algae test on me. They did I At the end of the month, I finally at the doctor and then they were like, you have nothing. You just need to have one meal and you'll be fine. And then I started eating finally, and this is my other arm, the one the wire was the other arm. I was, oh, my god, I'll send a picture maybe if I find it. It's just on my arms. It was so skinny. And once I went before before I wanted the doctor did before.
I was so depressed and I was like, am I just gonna be dizzy and I'm gonna die of something early like what that was a real moment where it was super sad and I was like, dude, I'm I'm just gonna die before I can do all this stuff. And then I was like, you know what, I found a little light. I was like, Leslie, so the doctor ones just to just to see what's going on. And then he was like, just eat meals. And to me, that wouldn't even occur to me because it was so
comedy coded of it. My life was comedy, I didn't think.
And also when you're young, you kind of like.
Bro Eagle too, eating like dollars license and then like one cinnabun for the whole day. Ah man, Jesus Christ.
I do have one particular question.
It was sometimes most of the time, when you set out on a purpose, you have like these little deals with yourself. Like for me, I think it was like if I have a kid, that is when.
I'll just give up.
Okay, I will stop because I have to choose them before myself, like or or once I hit a certain age, if I don't make it by this point, I quit. Did you have a milestone in mind or deal with yourself that was like, okay, if I don't hit this. Obviously you kept going, but I'm just saying, was there any set path, the deal that you made within yourself that said okay, if this XYZ happens, that's when I will say enough is enough.
U I got you, I got you. Yeah, no way.
You didn't make any little deals with yourself.
I get I made fake deal with my mom. I told her fake shit like if I'm not married by thirty, I'll just do it. I'll just get married for you. And she's like, okay, good good night. Ton thirty, she's like coming to collect. I'm like what, So.
You didn't have any deal. So you were like, you know, get rich or die trying. You were like get this comedy and that's it. There's no backup.
But there was no.
Even like if I have a kid, I will go back to medical school one time.
One time. Oh, you know, you're right, you're right, you're right. I was messing with this Dominican girl in Washington Heights and one day she hits me up and it was April Fool's Day and she's like I'm pregnant and I'm like I was like such a kid. I was like, all right, whatever you need, I'm here for you, blah blah. And she's like she's like happy able Fool's Day. And I'm like, oh my god, I thought you were pregnant Jesus Christ. She's like, no, I still might be. I
was just wishing you we have people fool. And I was like, so for the whole week she's like, come to my house and wit to see if I'm pregnant. And that whole week I was like it could be over because she literally made me believe that she had a kid by me. And I was like I was like imagining like logistics, like maybe I'll quit for a little bit and then we start her grandma lives here. Maybe just we can use as a babysitter while I
go to shows. Maybe I get a couple more than I use them as bringers, you know, I make a couple more kids and I use them for bringer shows. I was thinking all these logistics. That was the closest I ever got to like really being like do I quit for a second to raise this kid? Because I really was like ready to raise this kid. On the way I was on the way on the one train up to Washington Heights. That that stop where the McDonald's is right next to the stop, that's where all the
hoes that, by the way, be safe out there. That one. That one stop in up Upper West or Washington Heights where you get off in the McDonald's right there. Watch out for any woman that's around that area. They're crazy. But she was. She was in that area, and I was like going up there that day, like just ready for a kid. It's so crazy. And I was like, yeah, yeah, was raise this kid. And then I go to a place and then she's like, I'm not pregnant. I think
I cried. I think I cried. And it was so I was so gratitude heavy that she got pissed off. He's like, oh, you don't want to hear you know what if I say you end, we never saw your other gag because you're so offended. How happy I was that I was not having her kid?
Who man, you know what, I think that's what makes you unstoppable. I think the fact that you didn't have a even I don't think there was a material thing or a even though the family scared.
Yeah, you were thinking more logistic.
Yeah you're not quitting like how can I negotiate this life feel where I can still keep this thing? I think that's what makes you unstoppable. Thank you for sending me on this bagel hunt.
This is your struggle day, This is her struggle right here finding one bagel?
Where can everybody keep up with everything?
Is something I just want to say that. Thank you. This is great to Thanks for the last minute trauma. Thank you your.
Story was just as beautiful. I don't think anyone could have told your story quite as beautiful, artistically funny.
As you did. Like I was done all I watched this. I can go back and watch this.
It's crazy man and her brother, Ego, one of my best friends in my life, we had the same kind of come up as well. So it's very special to talk to you about this because your your brother was literally saw this whole thing.
So I just so you know, I would come to New York and Ego would be like, Yo, can I get a dollar? It was just for like some slices of pizza. And he would stay with my dad, and I just remember just being like, yo, he's struggling, and my brothers and sisters they would be like, he's so spoiled, like he has he has all this right, and you go to New York and this bro would be like had Las struggling for a dollar slices of pizza. So he was like, Yo, it's gotta be this hot sauce.
Sama would be like, I get the slice of pizza, poor hot sauce on it, and nests like pepperoni.
And that was the thing I was re is vegetables. You see what I'm saying, Like you figure it out. Follow me at Usama stands up us A m A stands up on TikTok Instagram, and then I do shows all around a tour nationally. Come check me out, and.
Sometimes you do. Come to LA. So if you guys want to actually.
Laugh, there's five good comics there, Okay, a couple.
I think Craig con is pretty good, really funny. Taylor Ron Taylor is not there anymore. He's in Texas.
He's in Texas. Ronto's hilarious. Some of the big guys who go there, who look famous, they stay in LA. They're pretty funny. Obviously, Bill Burr, he's blah blah blah, but is one of my favorites.
Sebastian is my favorite.
Look let me just tell you something. Bill Burr is my ultimate favorite. Yeah, but Sebastian, so.
People think he's like dumb. Now listen, when you got huge and massively famous, some of the dumbest Jersey people kind of glommed on him. And now he's maybe not as smart as he used to be. Fine, anyone who gets famous gets broader. Okay, watch Aren't You Embarrassed? It's the It's the special with his like the V neck, pink sweater. There's no better bit with act out combinations writing on the on a thousand, he was the highest beforegot famous, Right before he got famous, that special Aren't
You Embarrassed? It's so creative and heavy on the bits and so active and character heavy. It's the best special I think on Earth and easy at Usama stands up and follow my podcast, man, go Bay, my boy? Poor enough?
All right, thank you guys for tuning in. Peace Out