Aasif Mandvi

a son. What I am not is calpan. Hello and welcome everybody. That's right. This is a brand new episode of Off the Beat, and I am your host, Brian bamb Gartner, today's guest. Well, he has been a staple of nightly television for close to a decade, and he was once almost arrested in a two headed fish costume. I am talking, of course, about film, TV and daily show icon Asif Monvy. Now, Assif and I have a

lot in common. We both wrote a book, we both love the theater, and we both might start breaking into song. So I loved every minute of diving into Ass's past and his start as an actor. He was a child born in India who moved to England and then to Florida. So Asif calls himself a human to Ducan, and it was fascinating for me to hear how his childhood as an immigrant became later rich material for his career. We even hear a few insider secrets about what's really going

on at Walt Disney World. Intrigued, I am, you're gonna want to miss this one, Ausif monv everyone Bubble and squeak. I love it. Bubble and squeak on Bubble and squeaker, cookie every moment, lift over from the nut before. Hello, how are you? How are you? I'm doing well? How are you good? I don't think we've ever met before.

I don't think we've ever met either, which is weird because I find you so funny and delightful and we have well, I know, I'm just kissing your ass right now, but yeah, I understand that a lot of people kiss mask.

Oh no, that's great. I likewise, I you know, I feel like when they didn't realize it was you when they originally told me about this podcast, and then I and then I googled it and then I was like, oh wait, that's so great, you know, like it's so weird in this business, Like you think that we would run into each other at some point, but you know, yes, I know, I'm sure I saw you like across the Emmys three or four times, but no one was nice

enough to introduce us. I'm guessing. Well, and we've worked with so many of the same people too. Yeah, that's true. So this is fun. You've been doing that. You're doing this podcast. I'm doing this podcast. I'm talking to people that I like about their life and about the sort of unexpected moments that take our careers or your career on different trajectories. I think it's fascinating in this business.

How well, I mean, we'll talk about you. For first of all, you you born in India and then you moved to England very early and then eventually to the United States. How is that for you to uh grow

up kind of in so many different places. Well, it's you know, often have described myself as a human to duck it, which is so you know what to ducan is, it's like a duck stuff and the duck right, So I've often described myself that way, because I feel like there's like an Indian baby with an English schoolboy wrapped

in an American adult. That's kind of what I feel like sometimes, you know, Like, so I was born in India, and of course that was you know, I don't have any really memory of that, but you know, grew up in an Indian southday, you know, Indian family with that cultural peace and that heritage and that thing. And then grew up as in the North of England sort of

like this little English public school kid. So my childhood and all of my formative years and like all the TV shows I watched between like five and sixteen, we're all like English shows. And I was a little British boy. And then came to America and of all places, moved to Tampa, Florida, which is as America as you can get, really, you know, so it is I've been to Tampa. I

know exactly what you mean. Yes, So it's like I come from like the north of England, like a coal mining, textile wool factory, dirty sort of the sguise gray all the time, even in summer town, and moved from there to Florida, which is just like it's not even like Miami. It's like, you know, it doesn't even have like a Florida culture of its you know, like whatever that is. But it's Tampa. I've never even heard of it before. You know, But before Tampa, why the why a cold

mining English town? Was this your parents dream or work or what? My dad was a coal miner? He was, okay, no, it wasn't. He wasn't. My dad's dream was to go to have a coal mine. And no, it was he wanted to. It was like a little Indian boy. He was like one day I was work in the coal mine. That's a great little short film. I can sell that idea to Netflix. Like, okay, there you go. He's an Indian kid, grew up in Bombay. But his dream used

to be a coal miner. No, my dad got a job at Bradford University of all places, because he was a color chemist at the time, which was a thing at the time. This was in the late sixties, and so you know, it was like moving to England, battle life, you know, all that stuff. I don't think my parents realized. They didn't do much recent Like there was no Google. They didn't like Google Bradford then and and go what's

what's the what's the weather like there? You know, so they show up in this like cold, wintry northern English town and uh, and that's where I was I raised. But also it happens that Bradford also has a very large and I think even today has a very large Indian Pakistani population for some reason. So it's one of those cities. It's it's a city that has a lot of there was a precedent to it. Okay, it wasn't quite as random as it seems to me. Yeah, yeah, no,

it it wasn't so randy. It was like there was there was a lot of people who look like us in Bradford, and also Bradford subsequently suffered some of the worst racial riots and stuff in the history of the country later years later. You know, um, yeah, it's it's an interesting, interesting place. It was a it was a kind of a lightning rod for a lot of political immigrant sort of stuff, you know, that got stowed up

by the various political parties in the UK. Interesting. Do you do you feel like some of your work later on where you were were examining some of them, what did that come from there? Do you think or was that more of the United States. No, I think that

was more here. I mean, I definitely experienced racism in England, you know, very early on, Like there was definitely an anti immigrant sort of thing in the politics of the nineties seventies in England, with like the National Front and Enoch Powell and all these people who were very much you're, sort of anti immigrant people. So there was definitely that, and my dad, I think dealt with that because he had a little corner shop look into like a bodega

here in New York. But it was interesting because it was all sort of like you know, today you think about that stuff and you go like that's horrible, but back then it was like it was sort of thought of it was just the price you paid for being an immigrant, you know, you just you just sort of took it as like that's all in a day's work.

So so there was that sense of other nests that I always felt that then probably was in all the work I did in some ways, but then most noticeably in the Daily Show, I think it was like I got to really kind of address that in some ways or like deal with it even those years later, and it was much more about post nine eleven in America and all the racial ship that was going on in

this country at that point. But the probably on some level of America post nine eleven when I was started on the Daily Show, resembled a little bit of There was some memory of like the sort of racial stuff that I dealt with as a kid in Bradford, just getting chased home from the bus stop, you know, just for being brown, right, right? Was that a reason when you were sixteen that you moved to Tampa looking for

something else? I mean I read that your dad said it was because there was brunch in the United States. That's what I heard. So that is part well, part of it is that my dad discovered brunch and was like, this is the greatest thing ever, and actually wrote about it in my book, and it was like it was such a funny thing because I remember him talking about brunch. This was the eighties and there was no brunch in the UK, like we didn't have there was no such

thing as brunch, and he misunderstood it. I think he thought what it was was another meal. So I think he thought, like you have breakfast, like in England, you have breakfast, you have lunch, and then you have dinner. Whereas in America you have breakfast, then you have brunch, then you have bunch, thank you. So he was like, you get a whole extra meal over there, Like did he feel cheated in the end when he realized that he was actually taking two and one and it was

left meal now right right right? I think later in life, later after red, I think he was kind of like, okay, but he still did like the idea that it was seven all you can eat, like it was that back in the eighties. So that was what it was. You know, you go to you go to I help and he's

just playing the buffet is like, you know. I think there was that, And then I think it was also just that we were living in in sort of in England at the time that cheers England, you know statute, and and there was it was a recession the economy. My dad was a small business owner. It wasn't doing that well and he always wanted to get out of England. At some point, his original dream was to move to Canada.

I don't know why. I've never actually asked him about it, Like he was just like, we live in Canada one day, so random one day. We won't always be living here. One day, We're going to live in Canada. Canada, Well it was just another really cold place. Yeah. I don't think he realized that. I don't think Yeah, yeah, I don't think he realized that. I think he was just I think he had a friend who lived in Canada and liked it, so he was like, we'll live there.

But then he found a friend who lived in Tampa, Florida, and this friend was like, Tampa was even better than Canada. It's like it's sunnier. And this was in the eighties of Florida was like a place that you wanted to live, not like now, you know, like it was like back then, it was like it was the fastest growing state in the Union. There were businesses exploit it was. It was just like this really developing place, you know. And so, uh, the idea was, you can you can make a fortune

in Florida, you know. So yes, thank you everyone from Florida just tuned out, by the way, but thank you for that. I'm from Florida, and I and I have a complicated relationship, like like, Florida is where I spent many of my formative years, so I love it, and I also, uh, have a healthy critique of the place. Was it was it more racially diverse than Bradford or

or did you know well it was. The joke I made about it was that, like, this was a difference between being an immigrant in England and being an immigrant in America at that time, and that was that in England, the idea was that no matter how hard you tried, you would never be English. That was the sort of

the message that was sent to you. And I think it's probably even so true today, which is that you can speak like us, dressed like us, talk like us, eat our food, eat fish and chips every day, you can, you can do all that, and you'll never really be English because being English is something. And then I think is a legacy of colonialism and and sort of like that whole relationship that England has with the subcontinent, which

is very specific in America. On the other hand, I got here in the eighties and went to high school, and I felt like most people didn't couldn't tell you what India was on a map. Like it was like this idea of like where are you from Mexico? No, India, what where's that? You know? Is it near Mexico. No, it's not near Mexico. So anything like it was like that sense of like, well, don't worry about that. Wherever you're from, I'm sure it's fine. But now you're in

the greatest country in the world. You're in America, and so just pledge allegiance to the flag and forget all that stuff. You know, you've got, sorry, five thousand years of history, forget that. Now you're an American. And that was the attitude here, right, like, just pledge allegiance and just get on board with the with the American way now. And so then that was it, and it was like nobody really cared. But the racial divide in this country when I got here was between blacks and whites, and

it was very clear. I remember going to high school, like the first week of high school and realizing that all the black students sat on one side of the cafeteria and all the white students sat on the other side of the cafeteria. And that was just the way they decided. Nobody was forcing them to do that. That was just how it went down. This was like self

imposed segregation that was happening. It was kind of an interest sting thing and I was like, it was like, I was like, oh, and I also fit in with like the drama kids. Like I basically I found my tribe in the drama kids who were mostly white because only only white parents were going to be like, you want to drama. Okay, that's fine, even Indian parras drama. No, no, you know, but I managed. I managed to get away with it. And when did that start for you? Your

interest in theater? When did that start for you? Oh? Very young. I actually was in the school play when I was like eight years old or something, and then I fell in love with it and realized like, oh, this is gonna be It was very acting and theater and performing. Once I discovered it at a very young age, it was like that was it. Like I never looked back, like I basically was like, I'm gonna I want to do this. And I didn't know obviously, Like I had no idea if I was going to be successful at

it or anything or make it a career. It didn't seem like a realistic thing to be able to do that as a career. But I just knew that I loved it. And I have to say my parents were smart enough because honestly, I couldn't do anything else. I was terrible at every other subject in school except English and and theater. It was like my parents were smart enough to not discourage it, but also to not encourage it, you know, they were kind of just like neutral about it.

My mother so in my in my school in England, we didn't have theater. We had art, but she knew that I loved theater because I would go to an after school kind of kids theater thing on Wednesday nights when I was in England, and I started going there and it was just like the first time I felt. I mean, I don't know how it was for you, but like it was just like I was like, oh, this is awesome, Like I love doing this, you know what I love. And it was funny because I actually

so it was. I saw the movie bug z Malone. That movie so not not the one with Warren Baby, Oh not that one. No, then, no, No, I'm talking about a movie called bug Z Alone, which was with a very young Scott Bayo and a very young Jodie Foster. Now I don't know that you don't know this movie. I don't know this movie. Check check it out. It's a tree. It's basically a gangster movie, but it's all kids,

and it's done totally straight. But the kids come in with guns and instead of shooting bullets, the shooting pies. But it's done completely straight, like it's not like campy or send out or anything. It's like a straight up gangster movie. But everybody in the movie is like fourteen

years old. And I just remember it was on TV Christmas Eve when I was like about the same age as as the characters in the movie, and I watched it and I just thought that is the greatest thing, Like like wait a minute, they get to do this and like that's what they do and they were the same age as me, and I was like, why am I not doing that? Like it's so fun. And that was like, weirdly when I decided, like I want to

do that. I just want to I want to be in a movie where I get to, like, you shoot pies and people's faces and just pretend to be a gangster. And and that's when I sort of got involved with this after school theater program and uh, and then it just all picked off from there. For people. You went

to the University of South Florida studying theater. Then by then are you thinking because before you said you weren't sure about doing it as a career, But by then were you settled that this is what you wanted to do? Well again, So I went to the University of South Florida because I had shitty grades. Here's like what happened was we came to Florida and there was a big

transition period for me because I was sixty. Even when we got to Florida, it was like I was a junior in high school and I was adapting to this new world and this new country and life and everything was different, and I think my academics just sort of like fell off. And the only saving grace I had was theater class was drama class, and so I like lived for fifth period every day, which was drama class, and that's where I like got to like just you know,

do what I did. So my grades were terrible, but because I sucked on my SA t s and I ended up getting a theater scholarship to the University of South Florida. So the only way they would accept me was if I was a theater major, and they gave me what's called a freshman incentive scholarship, so they would pay for my entire freshman year. But I had to be a theater major. And my parents had just moved

to this new country. They were struggling. They were trying to figure out, like, you know, how to survive in this new place. And so I had this. They basically said, look, look, I didn't get into USF, but I got in. You don't have to pay my tutition, and they'll pay my tuition if I am a theater major. And so sometimes it's just like destiny just fucking leads you down the

path that you're supposed to go on. And this is just one of those moments where my parents were like, Okay, they weren't happy about it, but they were also like if they're going to pay for it, then great. And I was like, they're going to pay for it. So I became a theater major and then just stayed at theater major and that was you know, and I just went that went through the program there, you know, yeah,

and that's what I learned. You know, I did all my checkov and Ibsen did you begin writing then as well? I actually started writing when I was really young. I actually was always writing stuff. I was also always writing, like I wrote a short play when I was like thirteen years old, and then I would write poetry. It was one of those I was that kid who would write poetry, talk about an artsie FARSI kid like I literally like, I would write, write poetry and then people

will come over, like my friends. My parents would have dinner parties and or have their friends over, and then their friends kids will come over. There was like a big South Asian community at Bradford, so they the kids of my parents friends would just become my friends by virtue of the fact that we all our parents were friends. Right. It's the opposite of what happens now, which is like you become friends with people because your kids are friends.

Like the opposite. You know, these kids will be like, hey, you want to go kick a ball around or something that, and I'd be like, no, but let me read you some of my poems and and I would like. They'd be like, why don't you and so and so go and play it together. And they want us to go

to the backyard or whatever and just play. And I'd be like, come in my room and I pull out like my tray of poems that had written from under the bed and just like and I just remember like some poor kids sitting there, like some poor girl who was like like my age, who was the daughter of some friends and my parents, and just having to sit there and listen to me like read my poems to her, you know, like not I like a completely dorky thing. Like I was like, I was like, what do you think?

And then they'd be like I don't. I don't have any thoughts about it at all. Like so anyway, so I was, I was always writing, and then I think when I got to college and stuff that I was writing a little bit more and sort of yeah, writing was always I was always doing it. I was always sort of writing something. Right, So you're doing Absen and Shakespeare and check off in college and then you go work for Disney. Right, you're a performer at Disney. Is

that your first job? Yeah? Yeah? Were you like Mickey? Were you like Mickey Mouse? I'll have you know, Brian that Mickey Mouse is a girl. So really it's always a girl because Mickey Mouse is very short, Mickey. They don't usually find boys not short, so it's often a young girl. Mickey and Mini are both often the young girls because we actually shared a trailer, like, so I was in I was when I got the job at Disney.

It was at the MGM Studios, and I was actually with all these like comedy improv people and then and we would do like comedy improv stuff and it was actually kind of great. It was like a really great It was like because I left school to go do that job. I I I didn't graduate and I left because at the time, we were not we were still not citizens of the United States. So I was still

paying out of state tuition. And my parents because now I was like three or four years in my parents were working, but they weren't making we weren't doing that well. We were very very lower middle class like sort of you know, and so I was paying for like I was taking like one class of semester. So it was taking me a long time to get from school. And then I get this job where Disney MGM Studios is opening up in Orlando and they're hiring actor, comedians, performers,

not like Mickey's and Minis and goofies. They were like looking for like comedy people because they wanted to do this, like they wanted to have a comedy troup. And so me and all of my friends we all went an audition. We all drove to Orlando and we auditioned, and I remember I auditioned with this Eric Pogosian piece that I had been working on in my scene study class, and it was just this piece that I had from his show Drinking in America. And I did this Burgosian monologue

and got this job at Disney MGM Studios. And at the time, they were paying me more money than I had ever seen. You know, I was making four hundred and fifty dollars a week and they were gonna get me my They were like, I was gonna have my own apartment and they put me up, you know, the whole thing. So I was like, I'm going I'm going to do this. I'm gonna go leave school and drop out of school and go make some money. And then at the idea was I was going to come back

and finish my degree, but I never did. I I went to Orlando and started working. So it was like an improv comedy troup. And the people they hired from all over the country, so you know, there were people from like Dudley Riggs and and UCB and in fact, mc collins, who later went on to become a cast member of Mad TV. Her and I were both in the original comedy cast at Disney MGM Studios. That's amazing.

I was in Minneapolis doing theater for a while, so I was never at Dudley Riggs, but newm collins, who yeah, from from Minneapolis and oh yeah, yeah yeah, So she came from there, and what a genius improviser she is and was and continues to be. But I was it

was like a great training ground for me. Like it was just it was kind of like what The Daily Show was much many years later, which is like I just got to work with these incredibly funny people, you know, and and we were all kind of in our early twenties and our careers were all just starting, and you know, it was it was Mo and then there was Peter and Paul Vote. Peter Paul Vote I think also was

a cast member on that TV later. There was just all these great people and I got to work there with them and we would basically just do improv and play these characters at the Disney MGM Studios, and I just learned so much. I just learned so much about

comedy and and improvisation and timing and all. All of it was almost like my grad school because I never went to grad school, and I dropped out of Underground and then I went here and Disney and just and I worked there, and I worked there, and then I worked to Universal Studios down the road. So I was in Orlando for like a couple of years, just doing like the theme park thing and just doing you know, I worked with I don't know, if you're familiar with

Sack Theater. They're like a improv comedy troupe and they would do a lot of the Renaissance fairs, and so a lot of people who worked at MGM also came from the renfair circuit. So I was doing like Renaissance fairs and all that stuff and so deep in that world for a little while. So it was right, it was, but it was a great training ground for just doing funny stuff. You know, When did you decide to move to New York? You were there a couple of years there,

a couple of years. I started dating a girl down in Orlando, and she wanted to move to New York. And I was done with my contract. I was done with my contract at Universal, and I was like, yeah, that's you know. I was like, what am I gonna do? I kind of done. I got my equity card. I kind of was like, maybe it's time to like go drive my luck in New York City and you do a number of shows fairly quickly. Brig a Dune disgraced. Well, that was that was later. That was all later. When

when I first got to New York. Okay, so this was what year was that? And the first show that I get it was like a week after I got to New York was a show called Saddam Oh No. And it was a car. It was a comedy about Saddam was saying. A comedy. Yeah, it was this weird comedy about Saddam was saying. And it was in Baltimore, Maryland. So I get to New York. I have an audition for this regional theater gig in Baltimore. Right in New York.

I auditioned for it and it was like a four character play and I played in Iraqi, an Iraqi soldier who's also a stand up comic and it was so this was the first show that I got in New York. And then I go to Baltimore for like four weeks and we do this play Saddam, a comedy in two acts, and it was like, so we're doing this show and the same guy that owns the cabaret space also owns the nightclub next door, so in the middle of the show,

he would open up the nightclub. So we'd be like in the middle of this play with like cabaret ondien people drinking what I didn't have it, and then suddenly like the wall would just be like to poop boop boop, and we were like, dude, you can't do that, Like we were being drowned out by this noise coming from the club next door. And he was like, no, man, because because he owned both spaces and he didn't want to like lose any money, so he was just like,

I'll just opened the club. That was my It was. It was crazy. It was like and they were competing against this like dance music coming through the walls. And so that was my first gig. So you were really living that New York theater actor life, like you're doing regional theaters and yeah, I was doing the regional theater gig. I was doing Shakespeare. I did the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. I did like you know, Saddam the comedy in two acts in Baltimore. I did, yeah, And I was doing

like off off Broadway stuff, you know. I was really I was getting up like five o'clock in the morning and standing. It used to be back in those days.

You get up and you'd go to actor's Equity and you stand in line outside after exequity at like six o'clock in the morning with your bagel and a cup of coffee, and you get an appointment to just have an audition for some assistant of some casting director, just to get seen for like for pipping in like in Oklahoma or something you know, like and so that was it, and then you know, you do these open calls, and so that's the life I was living for a long time.

I was just like trying to just get like a gig here, a gig there, like maybe get a commercial. I was doing extra work for a while. I was an extra on a bunch of movies, and so like I was just I was making I was literally getting my like my SAG insurance just done, but doing extra work for like a couple of years. You know. I saw I saw brigadoone Oklahoma on your resume. Do you sing? So I don't sing. I mean, okay, let me, let me paraphrase that I sing well enough to like be

an actor who can sing. But I'm not like a singer, Like I don't like have like a Broadway singing voice. So Oklahoma came much later. Oklahoma came in two thousand and two, and by then I've already done my one man show and all this stuff like that. That was, you know, like my big break, right. I did my one man's show and stuff, and and then I got Oklahoma, and it was the weirdest thing. Because I had done my one man show, I've gotten a lot of attention

for it. I did this movie with this smile merchant with merchant Ivory called The Mystic Massure, and I was thinking, like, okay, now my career is I'm gonna do movies. That's what I'm gonna do, because this is gonna be it now. And so I went out to l A and the phone's not ringing. The phone is not ringing. Nobody saw

Mystic Massour. It was like a movie that no, it's just basically nobody saw it, like nobody cared, you know, like you know, and so I'm sitting in l A and I'm thinking like all right, and then the phone rings and my agents are like, you have an audition for Oklahoma on Broadway. And I was like what and they were like, yeah, they want you to read for the Peddler. And it's a non singing comedy role. Right,

there's a song, but it's like a pattern song. It's like, you know, you can talk, you sing, it talks sing. That's that's my that's my forte. That's your fourte Yeah talk singing. Yeah, I'm great at that. You talk in rhythm. You just talk like in a twenty minutes ago. I am free, like a breeze, free like about in the woodland, flee like a gypsy, flee like a child. I am on the touch. It's not it's just that kind of you know. So anyway, Trevor Nunn was directing Oklahoma and

Broadway was the National Theater. Your Shakespeare starts. Yes, I'm great at that. Yeah, there you go. So you're great. Yeah, so that wash. So they were like, you know, they want to read you and they want you to do like a song. So I sent in a tape from New York, I mean from l A and then they said, oh, you have a you have a call back, and they

want to see you. So then I came back to New York and read for Trevor Nunn, who couldn't have been nicer and and it was just great and and and they were bringing the production that had done the National Theater was with Hugh Jackman as as Curly and Sula Hensley, who went went on to win The bath Tub and then the Tony in New York. So then the production in New York was with Patrick Wilson as Curly, and they had sort of lost some of their British cast and so they need to recast it with Americans.

So I auditioned for the peddler and I got the part and I was just it was just it was like I was funny, so like they were like great. I think the problem was that the guy in England was not very funny and they wanted it to be funnier. So they were like, okay, we didn't we don't care if you can stick. And I remember going in from my audition with Susan Stroman, of all people, she was the choreographer, and I was like, oh my god. I was like listen I'm not a dancer, and I told

my agents I'm not a dancer and I'm not. I don't It was a Michael Jackson in personator in high school. But that's about it, you know what I mean, Like not this Oklahoma dancing. I don't do that, Like my body doesn't move that way. And so they were like, don't worry about it, and so like I go, await and I just could ship the bed in the dance audition and I that's it. That's never happening. And then they called me and they were like and they don't

actually care if you can't dance. They just want you to be funny. And so I was like, well that's good, you know. So it was great and I so I ended up doing that for a year. It was the greatest time. You know, I can honestly say like it was. I've been fortunate to have a very diverse career, you know, like I've gotten to do a lot of things that you wouldn't expect, you know, but I never wanted to.

I never expected to be in a musical. No less two because then years later City Center was doing Brig a Dude and Patrick Wilson was starting in it again and he said, oh, there's this comic sidekick character who's like a great part. There's no singing, it's just gotta be funny. And they're like, why don't we get awesome? You know, by then, like people knew who I was, so they got me to do that. Now I'm gonna be honest. I'm gonna be totally honest. Oh here we go.

I'm not a big musical guy, as I displayed. I don't sing that well. I saw you in Oklahoma. I don't remember much. But Schuler, who I don't really know, so I'm not going to pretend. But he went to my high school. He did. He was he was older than me. Yeah, he was older than me. So I didn't even know him in high school. But yes, I saw. I saw the production with Patrick and with you. I didn't know you at the time, but I knew Schuler, and yeah, wow, I was there. I was one of

those you were one of the billion audience members. Yeah, yeah, I just remember we had a rehearsal once and Trevor, you know, we were in the Gerchewin Theater, which is that ginormous theater right there on fifty Street and it's concrete, right, So it's one of the few concrete theaters in Broadway houses.

Like it's not like the Broadway houses for those of you don't know, like they're acoustically beautifully built, so the sound bounces, but the gershwind is not is like a sound black hole, you know, it's just like and so it's just like concrete which just absorbed the sound. So you really got to project. And it's also the biggest Broadway with you on probably it's like two thousand seeds or something, so you really got to hit that back wall, you know, you got and everyone's miked and you know

in those musicals and stuff. So right, I remember Trevor giving a note to the cast. He was like it was like after like I think a first stress rehearsal or something, and he was he was like, he said, you know, in his in his very proper English, and it's like, now, everybody really just needs to just hit that back wall. I know your miked, but really it's

a it's a very large theater. You just really just have to get all the way to the back of the house and everybody, every last seed should hear clearly, crystal clear. So everyone make sure you hit that back wall, except you as if you're fine, you can bring it down a bit. Actually, that sounds like every director that I ever had as well, You and I would have competed.

I think I would have red like it was so much like it was just like I was like, oh, yeah, okay, you might be overacting a little bit, but it was so much fun. It was so much fun to do that. And then getting to work with Patrick again years later, and also Kelly O'Hara went never worked with. But but yeah, it's weird. I'm not a musical theater guy either, you know, full disclosure, I don't even really go to musicals, not much. But I have to say being in a musical was

just a blast. It was just the greatest thing to do.

I'll share with you. I was doing theater in Minneapolis, you know, summer was usually there wasn't a lot going on, and I got offered a an opera in Northern Michigan and I was like, I don't sing, I can't do and they were like, no, no, no. I think it was The Fleet r Mouse And there's like a fifteen minute or something just set piece a drunk jailer that comes in does is like stick for fifteen minutes and then get you know, falls asleep in the cell or whatever,

and then everybody keeps singing again. But there's like fifteen minutes of just one character acting on the stage. And I did that, and I'll tell you it was the most fun job because I could show up like in the middle of act two, going through my little thing and then move along. Yeah. It was Yeah, it was a good time. It was just like a lot of

a lot of fun. So during this time in New York, I saw your resume and I was like, oh, yeah, no, he was doing the New York thing Law and Orders multiple times, right, doing all those shows in New York. So through theater through I assumed commercials, but also film roles, and as you said, you know early on doing extra work. You know, you were making a living as an actor. Yeah. Mostly the good thing was it was steadily I was getting like better parts, and you know, I was also

supplementing my income with kat Waiter ring. But I was getting enough, like I would get a commercial every now and then, or I get like a small theater gig. Later I started getting small parts in movies, and it was just sort of like my resume was slowly just starting to build. And I think it's what kept me going. I think if I had stalled out or felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, you know, I don't know what

I would have done. I might I might have ended up going back to Tampa or whatever, you know, like, but it was enough to keep me. Like I was like and honestly like, I was living in this place in Long Island City, Queens, where I had like one room, and I was sharing this apartment with the South American grad students. And I was basically had one room and I shared the bathroom and the kitchen with these grad students.

And it was in this building that was like right there in Longon City, and I was paying three hundred dollars a month in rent for that one room. And had it not been for the fact that my rent was it was very and even three hundred bucks a month. Sometimes I was like I can't you know. It was that scene with Will Ferrell and the little girl. You know, it was like I was like, I can't afford the rent, you like, you have to pay that, right, you know.

But I managed to survive, you know, I managed to somehow just keep stepping up the ladder a little bit, a little bit, and then I started getting bigger opportunities, and then and then bigger things started to come my way,

you know. I think the first sort of real thing that I got was in nine four, which was a couple of years after years, so after I came to New York, I was an understudy at Lincoln Center in the place Suburbia by Eric Pagoshan, who was like my idol from way back when, and so Begosian had writen this play called Suburbia and it was with Steve Zon and Martha Plimpton and zach or If and Tim Guinea

and all these like New York theater actor. Steve Zon at the time was like the guy Josh Hamilton's you know, they were like all breaking out into movies and stuff. Steve's on had just done reality Bites with Ben Stiller and Ethan Hawk, and it was kind of a cool little gig and I got. I didn't even get in the show. I was. I was the understudy in the show. But you know, it was better than I did anything else that, you know, So it was like it was like suddenly I was getting like stuff where I was

starting to like move up the ladder. And then the year later, I got like an off Broadway gig, an off Broadway play called Depth Defying Acts where I was

actually in the show. It was a three one acts written by Elaine May, David Mammitt, and Woody Allen, and uh, I was in this play with Linda Lavitt, and it was like me and Lynda Lavitt on stage together for like ten minutes in the middle of this little one act where I played her her the delivery guy who was coming to her apartment where she's trying to commit suicide.

And so it was like a funny little play by Elaine May that ran for a year or so and I was on I was doing that, and so it's just like starting to like sort of build stuff and get more and more. Yeah, you mentioned before you were on The Daily Show for almost a decade. Why did you decide to audition for that show or how did that come about? I I ended up on The Daily Show in a very unusual way, which is not the usual trajectory for people on the Daily Show, because I

wasn't doing stand up. I had done stand up, but it wasn't my world and I had done a one man show and all this stuff, but I was an actor doing like theater and they just had written this piece and they needed a Middle East correspondent and they didn't have one, and it was written. I remember it was like Tim Carvel wrote this piece, and you know, Tim Carvel was now head writer for John Oliver and it was all about the Iraq War. And this was

two thousand six, and it was after nine eleven. It was it was really a beautifully written piece of satire and comedy. It was just I think it's still one of my all time favorite pieces that I ever did on the show. But they were looking and so they called my agent. They were like, and I remember that day. It was August nine, two thousand six, and you know, there are those days in your life where your life changes, you know, not not always, but this was a day

when my life changed. And I woke up in that morning and I was writing a letter to my ex girlfriend. It was one of those dear John, like I'm sorry, Like you know, I just found out she gotten engaged, and I was like still holding onto some idea that we were going to get back together. So I write this letter and I'm writing it Longhand and I'm sitting

and the phone rings. Now my manager was like, the Daily Show wants to see you for an audition today, and I remember just being like, yeah, I'm kind of sad today. How about tomorrow? And I was like, I don't feel very I don't feel great today. I'm kind of really in a miserable place. And they're like tomorrow, I don't think so it looks like if they don't,

they're gonna find someone today or not. That's it. And I was this close to not going because I thought it was gonna be like some stupid thing where, you know, like I've done these on letters, on Letterman and other places where I go down and I pretend to then do the voice of some terrorists or something, or on a flying carpet or something, you know, like some weird thing where they put a turban on me or some ship and then they pay you a couple of hundred

bucks and you go home. You know. I thought it's sucking bullshit, like I don't want to, and so I said to my manager, I was like, what's it for. They were like, it's actually for a correspondent. Because I originally I said no, and then they call back and they're like, you know, it's for a correspondent, so just just that fire if that changes your mind. And I didn't know it was like a full time gig or anything like that. So I was like, fucking I'll go.

So I said, what time they've seen people for four o'clock. I was like, I'll be there at three forty five and and and the time I lived on the Eppleworst Side and the Daily Show taped like twenty blocks down from where I lived. So I just literally just walked down to the Daily Show and I walk in. There's Jon Stewart and he's got his you know, his khaki's is now his Cornu roys, and his his sweatshirt baseball cap. And I watched the show, you know, so I was like,

oh cool Jon Stewart, you know, and uh oh. And at first I remember first they gave me the sides and there was all this stuff, and I was like, I was like, oh my god, I gotta memorize all this right now. And I was like sitting there trying to memorize it. And then they came out they were like no, no, no, it's on the teleprop jet. And I was like such a theater snob. I was like teleprop jet, like, this is fucking bullshit. Like so I

literally was just like, alright, fine, funck it whatever. So I just go in there, and honestly, it was one of those moments where I really was like I'm not going to get this, and I was like if I don't get it, who cares? If I do get it, great, you know, And it was one of those moments where

I just didn't care. So I literally just went in and I read the teal prompter and I did the bit with John, and John was super nice and he was like, you know, and I remember him saying to me like, have you ever performed in front of a live audience before? Because you know, the Daily Show tapes in front of a live audience, so he was like, you ever performed in front of a live audience? And I remember just looking at him being like, dude, I've been on Broadway and he was and he was like,

oh okay. He was like. I was like, he's like, let's see you Mr Broadways. And then I did it and I literally just did my best Stephen Colbert impression, like that's all I knew how to do. Like, I was like, I watched the show. I kind of would watch Stephen Colbert, watched the Corral all these guys, you know, and helms and everyone and then and I was like, all right, I'll just do that. I'll just do what

they did. So I just did it. And then John was like after the thing, he looked at me and he stood up and he was like, dude, congratulations, welcome to the Daily Show. He just said it right away. Yeah, he just like said, welcome to the Daily Show. You're gonna be on tonight. And now, to be fair, it was a one off gig, right, it wasn't a contract, so it was like a one off game. And he was like, you're gonna be on the show tonight. And I was like all right. He was at you busy.

I was like, no, of course not. And so that night I'm on the Daily Show. I'm taping at like five o'clock. I go off for rehearsal and they, you know, I don't know if you've ever been to the show, but like basically before they do the taping, there's a rehearsal with the producers and stuff and the writers. So the writers and producers sitting out there, and I see this guy sitting in the audience with a baseball cap on, and I'm looking at him and I'm staring and I'm like,

I know that guy. And it's Bruce Springsteen and yeah, and so Springsteen he's a big fan of the show, Love John John, you know, like Hugh Springsteen fan. So he just came by to see the taping and he just brought his son, and so the two of them were just sitting in the rehearsal because they led him in early so he wouldn't have to deal with the crowds and stuff. So like he's sitting in the audience and I'm like, are you freaking kidding me right now?

And then they go backstage and I'm like and I remember talking to the crew and I was like, guys, do you know the Bruce Springsteens out there? And they were like, yeah, yeah, we know, we you know. And I was like, is that like a normal thing here, Like you just have like mega stars to show up and sit in the rehears and sitting roar And they were like no, they were like a couple of weeks ago. J k Rowling was here, but nobody knows what she looks like so she was totally fine, and so that

night I taped. I taped the show. Then we get done. It was a great piece. It was like a phenomenal I can take no credit for it except for the fact that I performed it and did it and sold it, and John, I think, was really happy with it. I went backstage after the show. John's like, stick around and want you to come into the They have a post mortem room where they go over the show afterwards. John was like, come back. I wanted you know happen. So I'm going to post mortem room. All the writers and

everybody's sitting around like discussing how the show went. And as I'm walking out, spring scene is in the hallway waiting to say hi to John and he sees me and he puts out his hand. He's like, hey, he did a really good job. I heard it was your first time, and I was like, yeah, it was my first time. It was so weird, and that was the day. That was the day because then everybody was just calling me like the funk. It was just a guy that looked like you on the Daily Show, and I'm like,

that was me. It was like because I didn't even have a chance to tell anyone. I didn't tell my parents. I didn't tell anyone. And then there was an article the next day in the l A Times because I was the first non white correspondent on the show. And I remember this article was like the Daily Show has this brown guy on there, Like what the fuck is going on? Like you know, they've gone diverse. And then John just really liked me, and he was like, you know what, I'm just gonna call you back if we

need you again. And then they just kept calling me back, and every couple of weeks I go down and do a taping. I'll just get paid whatever for the day

or whatever. And then after about four months of that, John offered me a contract on the show, and then I and then the rest of history, as they say, like it was just like and that really did at that moment, like there was definitely a switch where my career went from one point to another, you know, maybe like for you probably on the office or something, you know what I mean, Like like it was just suddenly like boom. And the weird thing was that because on

the Daily Show they used my real name. People would call me by my real name, and I just remember like realizing like, oh, the impact that this show is having in terms of like it's zeitgeist. Because I've been on stuff I've done, like you said, Law and Order and all the TV show done, movies have done something, but I've never been on anything that had the level

of like cultural penetration then the Daily Show had. And I remember going to a play and Danny DeVito was standing outside the theater waiting with his family or whatever, and I'm walking into the theater and Danny DeVito turned around and looked at me and went awesome, how are you doing? Put out his hand. That was like a moment where I was like, oh, wow, what the fuss

going on? Like this is like that, you know, I mean like that's when I suddenly was like, oh, there are people in Hollywood watching this show that can change the course of where my career goes. Well, what's interesting is that you didn't just stick in the Daily Show, Lane, I mean the number of projects that you have done and the diversity of projects have been amazing. Drama creating your own work After the Daily Show, you had the

Funnier Die sitcom Hall in the Family. Yeah, and it's been amazing to see you take the platform that you were given by the Daily Show and have done, you know, such a diversity of projects. I think that at the end of the day, I think I am an actor and always had done a lot of dramatic work prior to the Davision. I think what happened with the Daily Show was that it was such a you know, like I said, like a zeitgeist, think that people suddenly thought

of me as a comedian. They were like, Oh, You're the Ly Show comedian guy, when the reality is like, I've done a lot of dramatic work prior to it, and and when I did the Daily Show. Actually, while I was on The Daily Show, I did Disgrace at Lincoln Center, which was the I adopted as poets surprise winning play and I played the lead role in that.

It was an incredibly dramatic thing. And I got to do some movies and stuff and and you know stuff, And I always felt like my career has always been one where I've gotten to go back and forth and the writing. You know, I wrote a movie and I produced and starting it and k and wrote a book. Yeah.

I think I think going all the way back to early in my career, there was never a specific lane for me, you know, like I never felt like I had a lane and because I didn't have that, because there wasn't a space when I first started out, you know, like I went to l A, I remember, and just sat in my apartment and people were like, there's no parts for you. And as a brown actor, the only way for me to work. And that's when I wrote.

When I wrote Sticking His Restaurant, which is my one man show, like it was out of necessity of like writing characters that I So it was always that thing of like I just always had to be kind of entrepreneurial about the whole thing. So so I think it's just you think it's part of that d n A of just like always going Okay, what can I create? And and you know that continues to this day where I feel like I'm always thinking about like, Okay, what can I create? What can I write? Can I do?

And you know, and yeah, well Sechina's Restaurant, by the way, you're one man show, one an obie. Yeah, and got you a lot of attention for that, as I said, Halal and the family as well, and your book No lands Man, that book gave you by the way I wrote a book. Welcome to dunder Mifflin was my book.

Yours talked about your your acting career, your experience on The Daily Show, and your life as an immigrant, and as we talked earlier, a lot of the material about the post nine eleven days, but also your life in

England as well and where you came from. Right yeah, I mean the book was sort of while I was on the Daily Show and had that platform, a publisher approached me and said, you even thought about writing a book at that point, I hadn't, and I thought, well, it would be kind of a fun thing to do. I've written a one man show, and so I thought I could write a bunch of short stories. Little did

I know it's not as easy as you think. It was, like you know, I mean, you know, so it's it's like you think, oh, yeah, yeah, I got ten short stories in me for sure, Right that Bangata and a couple of months got to like two years later, and I'm like, I get writer's block, and I'm sitting there and my my publishers calling me up, going like I really should get something so right, like, you know, but I had an amazing editor and it was definitely a

lot of work. But I'm so proud of it because it was like it was really you know, it was a book that I didn't even know was in me. But once I started excavating, I realized, like, oh, this this dizzy stories. And I want to tell you know, that's great. Well, and your career keeps growing and expanding in new directions. Now Evil just got picked up, right for a third season. Yeah, Paramount Plus. We're on Paramount Plus now, Yeah, third season coming out. We're in the

middle of shooting it right now. Yeah, and that's what we're almost done with the third season and and so it comes out in June. I have to say unfortunate. I mean, when you get to work with like really great creatives, you know, you know this like it makes everything just better, you know, like you just because you feel like you're in good hands and you feel like you're being taken care of and and and the writing

is good, you know. And I felt that way when I was in The Daily Show working with John I felt and now working with Robert and Michelle King, you know, who are just at the top of their game, and you know, and and and it's just such a treat to get to work with them and learn from the way they work, and then also just work with the actors on the show, you know, Katcha and Mike and Christine and Michael Emerson who's delay to work with them. So it's just all everybody on the show just feels

like we're just having a good time. Even though we're making this very dark, sort of weird show, it's so fun and so it's like it's like weirdly absurd and also dark and horror and comedy. It's kind of an amalgam of all of that, which I love, and that's what the Kings do. So well, it's been it's been great, and they've given me a nice um, given me some

nice fun stuff to do, so it's been great. And then I'm also producing What I Lie to You with the Kings, which is also coming out on the c W, which is the panel show Yeah, which will have you on at some point. It's basically we're doing the American version of the British panel show What I Lie to You. It's been on for fourteen years that we're doing it.

It's basically just celebrities coming on and telling wacky stories and other celebrities trying to figure out if they're telling the truth, we're telling a lie and it's just hilarious and super fun and actually I don't know. Do you know Matt Walsh? Do you know Matt? Of course, yeah, of course, Yeah. So Matt is one of our team captains, with Sabrina Jalis as the other team captain, and we just had the best time. And that comes up April

ninth next week. Congratulations. I will definitely check that out. Ye awesome. We hadn't met before, but you are an amazing storyteller, as funny as I expected, and deep and interesting. I appreciate you coming on so much and talking to me. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure spending however long we spent together. Yeah, that was

really fun. Thank you so much. This has been great as although we had never met until today, I feel like I've known you for years and maybe that was because I saw you in Oklahoma, but either way, it was an honor. Thank you so much for stopping and talking to me, and thanks to you for tuning in. Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a follow over. On Instagram at Off the Beat. I can't wait to see you back

right here next week. Have a good one. Everybody. Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr, and Hannah Harris. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Breton, and the episode was mixed by Seth Olandski m