It's Not Smizing, It's Frownzing w/ Natasha Leggero & Moshe Kasher

Comedy power couple Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher, join Eric to talk about their biggest bombing moments. Eric and Natasha poke fun at forgetting people's names and embarrassing Chris Rock stories. Plus, Eric is reminded that he peed on Natasha and Moshe in their hot tub...on camera. Moshe got roasted in Ireland and Natasha was told she would never be in showbiz due to her height. Also, going to rehab as a kid plus and raising a kid who understands sarcasm. Also, is Back to the Future appropriate for 7 year olds?

Follow Natasha Leggero at @natashaleggero and Moshe Kasher at @moshekasher and catch their podcast The Endless Honeymoon.

For all things Eric Andre and Bombing follow @ericfuckingandre (Instagram) and @ericandre (TikTok).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's Up a Sericondre And this is Bombing, the podcast
where I talked to comedians, artists, and other interesting people
about the worst bombs of their career. On today's episode,
we have my friends married comedy legends, the Tasha Laguerrero
and Mosha Kasher. We talked about bombing at Catholic schools,
getting told you're too short by your agent, going to
rehab as a kid, and more.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Enjoy and after you do, make sure you check out
the Endless Honeymoon podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Bombing with Eric Andre.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Tell me the worst bomb of your life. Give me
any couple, say a couple, just worst shows, stand up television,
a commercial, anything.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh you know.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
I was on the writing staff for the Movie Awards
one year. It was right after we had Chris Rock
on the Champs and uh like maybe two months later,
and he was a presenter and he came in and
I made a real like performance of like crossing past
all the other writers to like say hi, And I
was like I kind of like pushed him out of

(01:08):
the way, Like no.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
No, he was really exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I was like trying to. I was like trying to.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
I mean I wanted them to see that I knew him,
you know what I mean. It was like a real ego,
actual and I like crossed, passed, excuse me everybody, and
I was like Rock and you know that look where
someone like zero percent knows who the fuck you are
like and I and I just immediately was like, you

(01:33):
know from from Neil, from Neil's podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I gave Neil the whole podcast. I unco hosted the podcast.
That was a bomb. I think he meets a lot
of people every day.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
But it was the Rock that was the part that
was really pathetic. It wasn't like, hey, Chris, do you
remember it was Rock my old friend you met.

Speaker 6 (01:55):
I would say every day I say that, nice to
meet you, and someone's like, we've met You.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Did that to me for like the first three years.
Is that true? Every time we met?

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, we were doing like show Caroline together.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm pretty fucking that's the one to hurt the most.
I'm like, come on, she se me in bed reason.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Multiple times, met you in New York at Carolines multiple times,
we did shows together. Then you came to La met
you multiple times and you were like, hey, nice to finally,
nice to meet you.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Good. No, no, actually I'm sorry not finally nice to meet you.

Speaker 6 (02:28):
Okay, I have to tell you something because I must.
I'm just older than you, so you were rude. I
was already established. But here's a great bomb.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
Eric was on last commanding.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (02:43):
And Eric did this thing where he said the word
boot cocky in a joke and for some reason that
like was like, I was like, okay, boot hockey, you're out.

Speaker 5 (02:54):
I was just trying to be funny or something.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
And I remember I didn't even believe that was coming
from you. I thought you had your ear wigs in
and what is it.

Speaker 6 (03:01):
The producers were like, you have to let some people
get out, geta I was accepting everyone, so I was like, okay.

Speaker 5 (03:07):
He said, but cocky, he's out. It was the coolest thing.

Speaker 6 (03:11):
And this is how I knew Eric was going to
be so successful because we knew each other.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
I had admitted to know.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
I'd forgotten him every time we met for five years.

Speaker 6 (03:20):
Eric had my number and he texted me and he
goes because I was like, sorry, you're you can't go forward.
And it was me and Greg Geralder and Andy Killer
and Eric texted me and he's like, I just want
you to know that I'm totally cool, and I know
that you've got a thing in your ear and we're
all good and you know, love, and it was like
so mature and so cool and no one else did

(03:40):
anything like that, and I was like, well, it was
just so cool because you were like you were so savvy.

Speaker 5 (03:46):
You're like I already know how this worked.

Speaker 6 (03:49):
So I was like, wow, Eric, is really that's a
that was a class act.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
You don't remember that.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
You don't remember that.

Speaker 6 (04:00):
No, it really touched me because I was like, I
had never done anything that big.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
Because how do you set you must?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
You seemed cool, calm and collected. I thought you had.
I thought everybody was but you.

Speaker 6 (04:11):
But usually your ego gets involved if you're doing an
audition to be on a show in front of people
and someone's like your friend is like sorry, I.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Never like I didn't grow up with Last Comic Standing,
like it came out when we.

Speaker 5 (04:25):
Were like I'm just saying in general.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, but it wasn't like, oh no, like Lauren Michaels
saw me at a show and I bombed and I
won't be on Saturday Night Live, Like there was no
it didn't have like legacy to it, so I didn't.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
I didn't you even care for real?

Speaker 1 (04:41):
No, I wasn't like this is how I get fame.
I didn't believe it. I was skeptical of the show. Oh,
I actually was like, I was like, I think this
show might be a curse.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
What was a scuttle about on Natasha hosting? Do you
remember that where people talking shit? The scuttle?

Speaker 5 (04:54):
No one, he didn't even he didn't even care about.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
This from fucking nineteen fifty six. What does that mean.
I'm from nineteen eighty six. That's That's what it means.
That's my pastor.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
I don't talk about it.

Speaker 6 (05:03):
I just that was something that was very cool and
you I would like to do it the.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
First compliment you've ever given me. You guys have a
weird talking about Is there a weird tension? No, not
at all. For sure here a sexual Dre's definitely a
sexual chemistry. Yeah, you guys are gonna fuck tonight. It's possible.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Do you guys are just schedule? You're fucking my friend
as a kid as a schedule fucking girl.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Well, I will say friend your note to it?

Speaker 3 (05:26):
I won't.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
That's so happy.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
Is it a wife or a girlfriend?

Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's his girlfriend that he's been with for a decade ago,
the mother of the child.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
It's a mother of the job. No, we don't schedule it. No,
I do a lot of you just get your bone off.
It's just it's improved. Mostly. We did have a like
a show at the ground Links. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we
had a show this weekend.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
We went away to Palm Springs because it was her
birthday and birthday thank you. She was in a bathing
suit a lot, so my dick was on rock and
we were staying in the room with with our kid,
and it was just like we thought about maybe trying
to like lock the door to the bathroom. But we
tried that one time and she starts the kids started
knocking like she knew something was up.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
She was like, let me in, let me in.

Speaker 6 (06:13):
It's hard when you're on vacation or traveling or even
doing work and traveling with a kid, because like renting
two hotel rooms is kind of the kinds of places
I want to stay at.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
It's not always affordable.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
It is interesting that you pissed on us at one
point in our careers. That's I didn't pee on you.
You did. Actually I peed on you.

Speaker 5 (06:29):
Yes, in our hot tub and we had.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Durin got on you. Well you let me pee in
the hot tub?

Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, we did, because commitment. What do you mean, Why
you're you drink a gallon of ranch?

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Why that's discussed? Why do that was your personal that's know.

Speaker 5 (06:43):
It was on camera and it was for a laugh,
and it was funny.

Speaker 6 (06:46):
And then the truth is kids, we emptied it and
then filled it back up.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Kids peeing hot tubs all the time. That's what chlorine's for. Disgusting.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
You ever see the sign that said, Oohl, notice there's
no pee in the pool. Let's keep it that way.

Speaker 5 (06:59):
He's not our seven year old.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
I don't, I don't. I don't know what you're talking about.
You didn't grow up with you know.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
What I'll tell you, Sarah sermon is.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
The best diary diary of.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
She goes, I went to a public pool. I saw
jacuzzie that said I had a sign. If you've had
diary in the last two weeks, you're not allowed in
the hot tub. And she goes, how about you just
say no Jews allowed?

Speaker 5 (07:23):
Why did Jews have diarrhea?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
We got stomach We we are neurotic and ancient. We're very anxious. Okay,
we got to talk about bombing.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
I was telling Mosh on the way over here.

Speaker 6 (07:32):
I don't have any like elaborate stories, but I do
remember being heckled in Atlantic City and this.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
Guy was just stood up and was like wrap it
up like this, like Guido type.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know.

Speaker 5 (07:44):
It was like from a.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
There are certain heckles out there that are really difficult to.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Respond to. Wrap it up is in that zone. I
had a guy.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
Well, especially when you're a young comic, you don't really.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Have comeback shop.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, I had a guy in Ireland. Ireland was one
of my most epic bombs ever. I did the Kilkenny
Cat Laughs. Festal you ever do that. It's a festival
in the like hinterlands of Ireland, like like in the
in the in like a medieval kind of country village.
And I remember the.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Like speak Gaelic for real. Well they they it's like.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
A it's like a theme park kind of place, but
it's you think it's going to be charming, but it's
actually you're in the country. You're in the fucking deep road,
you know. And I remember the first night I did
my show, it went well, and that's.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
When the reviewers came.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
They do reviews at at these like UK festivals, and
not that it's part of the UK, but the reviewers came,
so if you'd read the reviews, it would have seemed
like I was having a good time. But after that show,
everything every show went progressively worse and worse.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
I don't know what it was. I mean, first well,
I do know on some level what it was.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
I went and saw, you know, Tim Key, you know
who he is, like a really sort of artsy, like
he's crazy hair, maybe very artistic, does a lot of
poems that he pulls out of his pocket like and
really an inspired performer. I when you saw him the
first night and was like, oh god, this guy the
kind of guy that makes you feel jealous.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
When you see that, you're like, oh fuck, this guy's
baby's doing new shit that I saw that and I
was like, this guy's fucking so good.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Then the by the end of the week, tim Key.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
The rumor was that he was having food thrown at
him at his shows. So that was like my saving grace, Like, okay,
tim Key, my artistic sort of jealousy inspirer is getting
like deep Fried hagis costat in a long country I'm good, right,
But at the last show, and not only were they

(09:47):
mean to me and not laughing at me, they were
making they people would make fun of me on the
way home, like like unrelated people.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Not people at the show, just people just way. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
I'd be walking back to telling people just be like
pointing at me and laughing, Oh my.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
God, like head. May I prove my point that it
was not well?

Speaker 4 (10:07):
First of all, First of all, they the last show
I did. I was on stage and a guy got
up and very similarly, he just screams next.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, next is hard to get.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
It's just I know how to cut back, come back
from Okay, this is an old comeback.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, okay, it's kind of BROI but you suck.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
I would say, if someone goes you suck, I would
go you swallow, go huger dick.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
With your butthole. I'd always like to be guaranteed. But
next is hard to I got.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
I bombed opening up for Griz Rock. I love rock,
and I got I got a big next and I crumbled.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
How can you not cry?

Speaker 5 (10:50):
I remember what was this recently now?

Speaker 2 (10:55):
I want to say eight or nine years ago.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yeah, he screamed next, and I just thought, I thought,
I hope I want you to die. Next, I want
you to I want you crash into a brick wall
with your family in the car, catch on fire.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
And die.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
And when I say I thought that, I mean I
screamed that into the microphone as loud as I could go.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
No, it does it.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
They were on your side there.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
So after that show, that was like the eighth bad
show in a row. Bomb after jo after it was
like a crescendo of bombing. And next was the final one.
And I was walking back to my hotel room and
I'd been being made fun of the whole weekend long
and this is it was like one in the morning
and this old man, this old like eighty year old man,

(11:45):
stop me in the streets and he goes, He's like,
what's your name? And I was like it's Moosha.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
He goes, what do you What are you doing in Ireland?
And I was like comedy, I guess kind of, And
he's like, let me tell.

Speaker 7 (11:59):
You something in motion. We appreciate how far you came,
We know how far you traveled to be here. We
appreciate you coming out this way to entertain. Thank you, lad,
thank you for being here.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
Wow, and I was like basically, I was like thank you.
You know, I'm like this whole in my mind, I'm
like this hole, No, he was just a man in
the street, okay, and I go this. Everything I said
he was the guy said next.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Came in my mind.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
I was like wow this and I go thank you man,
and I'm thinking this re this reinterprets my whole experience here.
I thought that this was a bad place, that these
were bad people, that I was having an alienating and
antagonistic experience. But with this simple little bit of human kindness,
I now realized like I just had some bad luck.

(12:53):
I had a bad set or two, I met some
bad people. Like this human to human interaction made me
reinterpret this whole trip. And I was like thank you,
and I start walking away. I'm like a night sir.
And he calls after me and he goes, hey, mosha,
and I turn around and goes I swear to God, He's.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
Like, I'm giving you a finger, and it's like it was.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Like a fucking it was like you know those huts,
you know those things, fucking rude and true, like it
really happened.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
It was such a psychedelic form of cruelty that I
couldn't even like, I couldn't even like learn a lesson
from it. It was just like a stone that I
put in my backpack full of human experiences.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
So he like gas lit you with this like overly.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Complimentary, gushing thing. I couldn't. He really took the heart
and then followed up with like.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
A fucking play like frozen bar at the World series,
like I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
I was astounded. I was in shock, and I had
so un necessary And.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
This is after the eighth bomb in a row, and
the worst one of all, this is my experience on
the walk home. And here's the worst part I had
to By the way, I do know what was going
wrong for me comedically. I was a new comedian and
I didn't know how to pivot, and there was a
disconnect between what I would say and what I meant,

(14:29):
Like if I said something sarcastically, they would take it
at face value. And maybe it was because they couldn't
translate my extreme like hipster bitch americanism, or maybe it
was because I wasn't a sophisticated enough comedian to like
be able to give it over. But I remember I
used to have this opener where I would often people

(14:50):
would I used to have like a weirder look, and
remember my haircut.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Like the like the gittler. I called it the gay
hitler like it was. It's sort of similar to run
I've got going on, but it was more extreme for
the best twenty five years. That's very nice of you
to say, we don't drink, so you age, will you
look good and you do everything? That's true. It's a
half black part. It's not the Jewish bird, that's right.

Speaker 5 (15:11):
So all the people do take things literally, well, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Would, they would.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
I remember being also iron irony doesn't translate sometimes.

Speaker 6 (15:17):
I was an Amsterdam and I was just like, I
don't think women are funny either, And this woman's like.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
If she don't think women are funny, why was she
on the stud in the front row?

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Wow, well, you're American too, and there's already strikes against you.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
There are.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
I would say the crowds in Ireland were unbelievably forgiving
of Irish hackery and unbelievably stingy of anything American. You
were at such a deficit. But if you had, if
you had an Irish accent, you could be straight up
doing road comedy from eighty one and they build.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
It's not music, music's universal, right, comedy's cultural.

Speaker 6 (15:49):
I remember I was in Albany and this was really bad.
It was like one of my first headlining gigs and
I bombed pretty bad, and I got a call from
my agent and they're like.

Speaker 8 (15:58):
Oh boy, we're gonna switch was the opener, Oh boy, you.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Were the head I'm the host almost.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
My mom's so bad one time at a Catholic college
that the principle of the school wrote an entire apology
for my set and my behavior and my agent, my
college agent fired me.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Like that's how hard I bought.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
I should think it's cool.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
I mean she was like a quacka doo like whatever,
fly by night, Like yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
She emailed me.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
She goes, I'm getting calls from the school blah blah blah,
help like this I don't need We're through. And I
remember being like so heartbroken. This is like I'm not
twenty five six, but it was. I was not prepared
to do an hour clean. I didn't have five minutes
of anything, let alone like an hour of clean. Catholic

(16:57):
school approved. She was also r and Doug great to
play they're very they're very rigid, they're very UPTIGHTND references.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
They don't know who Judy Garland.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Is, like, they have no life experience or if anybody
everything you do.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
A lot of Judy Garland, you guys are doing.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
I thought when I started doing comedy of my colleges, hell, yeah,
it's gonna be a spring break.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (17:22):
Now they're like, I literally shared a stage. I shared
a stage with Jello wrestling at.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
A college from the Dead Kennedy's legend.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
That would be cool. Just like Forty who I saw.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
We saw at the NBA All Star Game in San Francisco,
Yes on Valentine's Day, saw you forty high and guy
fere too shy to say hi to Forty. He was
made a conversation. I was too chickened out, but I
did say hi to Guy Fiery. I said he gave
me tequila out of a plastic very nice. I'm sure
Forty was like a cool ass dude.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
For sure, not you, and I couldn't.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
I was.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
I saw e forty on a flight once and did
say hi. I remember this story. I tell you this.
I actually think I had a story because I'll give
you this. I think I have his cell phone number
because but I remember there was a big scary looking
for me vividly really, and I've told other people this story.
Go ahead.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
I was on a Southwest flight and a really scary
looking guy comes on and reserves an entire row on
Southwest and stands there like, no one can sit here.
And one minute before takeoff, E forty ran on the
flight and I was like, that is Southwest first class
right there. You just hire somebody cool to say no,
you can't sit here. And I said hi to him,
and I was like, I did it again. I go forty.

(18:41):
It's like my rock thing. What's wrong with me? Why
I keep doing this? The famous black Man? I said, forty,
I'm a big fan. And he looked at me very skeptically.
He's like mm hm, cause he had just come up
out with tell Me When to Go, which was like
his big hit, and he thought that I was a
fly by night, you know, yeah, And I said no,
I've been listening to since Federal, which was his his

(19:02):
real his first album. Where I remember I was at
the Seneca Center for Severely emotionally Disturbed Youngsters when the hecker, Yeah,
when the head counselor told me about forty, said there's
this new rapper and he wraps off beat. You should
check him out. And then I was thirteen years old
and I said federal. And I saw the look in
his eyes under his like John Lennon glassation, and he

(19:24):
was like for real and he got I think he
got excited that a guy that looked as dorky as
I that was a deep cut yea that year.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
And he gave me hisself. I believe it's possible. You
still have a cell and you're gonna give it to us.
Now I can put it on camera.

Speaker 5 (19:38):
No, wait, did he give you the right number?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
With Aridre, with Aerdrey.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Okay, so you've told me this a million times. But
you were hasidic or something and then you did drugs.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, that's it, you got you got the bullet points,
that's all. Wait when did you start doing drugs?

Speaker 5 (20:10):
He was not His dad was or but he was
praised by his mom.

Speaker 6 (20:14):
Dad was a part time and the concept spend a
month a year with his dad in like a very
Jewish area, well in the Bay.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
My dad, Wait, where are you from.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
I'm from Oakland, but I was born in New York
and my dad lived in Seagate in Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
And is there's something Whenever white people tell me they're
from Oakland, I don't believe them, even though there are
white people from Oakland.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
Remember you, Shawn Lynch and Mosha goes, I'm from Oakland
because Marshaw's I went to Teck.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
And Marsha High School. Like Oakland. It's where he went
to high school and I went to high school.

Speaker 5 (20:46):
Shawn goes, No, you didn't.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Know you did. What do you mean? Yes, I did,
but it was kind of cool. I kind of liked that.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah. I'm like, whenever I meet white people, you don't
think that they I don't think that they exist there,
but they do and I know they do, but my
brain take it always takes a second.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
You know what I do as I go. If you're white,
why'd you grow up there? Yeah? The world's your oyster.
The world was not my oyster. We were super broke.
Oh yeah, my parents are deaf. They're deaf. Yeah, you
didn't know this.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
My dad was deaf. What he had scarlet fever? My
dad was born in Haiti in the forties.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Did you give me ship for saying scuttle about your
dad had scarlet fever.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Scarlet fever, and they gave him some drops in his ears.
It didn't do shit, and he lost total hearing in
one ear and like.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Had partial hearing.

Speaker 5 (21:35):
Did he ever learn asl American sign?

Speaker 1 (21:37):
No, He was so like, I'm not deaf and never
wear a hearing aid until like the end of his life.
He finally they finally made one small enough and in
his skin color that was hidden enough, and he wore
for a while.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Then he could finally hear us.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
It was like he was finally chiming into conversations. And
then my sister pointed it out. She's like, oh, Dad, awesome,
you're wearing your hearing aid. And then he took it
out and he never it back in. I'm so like
a shame. It's a shame around it.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
My parents were no offense. Your dad really deaf.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
Well you grew up in that culture, but they were.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
But they were actually deaf, like a hearing aid wouldn't
have helped. But my dad was the same way.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Well, I mean one year was there's different levels for
deftness and blindness.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
What I'm not deaf, kidding, he's not. He wasn't asl
or Haitian sl or whatever. I wonder if they what
they use in Haiti. I bet there's no hospitals in Haiti.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
I bet you they use ASL and Haiti. That'd be
my guest. My guess is at the US ASL and Haiti.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
They don't you.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
You're just like on you You're just pointing at stuff.
And I've been there. Those are hearing people and get here.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Wait.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
Wait, so what's the story. Your parents were never married.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
My parents were married. They were when you were one
for a long time. They divorced when I was nine
months old and my mom left. I have one brother,
one brother. I have a half sister, a half brother
and a step sister.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
The brother is a full brother. So you were the
second kid. I was the second and then they called
it quits when once they met me, they were like,
this isn't working. We're out. And I moved to Oakland
from Queen's and when my dad, okay, parents are together.
You're born in Queen's. That's right. They split. You go
with dad to Oakland.

Speaker 4 (23:14):
No, my mom mom, My mom tells my dad were
going on on a summer vacation to see my grandma.
We never came back. And I actually have a calendar.
I found a calendar of my dad crossing off B
and the boys come home and then it just stops.
And that's when his Hasidic life began.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
He like in the he converted. No, he grew up.
I mean this is so called long hard. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
My grand his grandparents were like Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn.
My dad, my grandfather was like a Communist Yiddish novelist,
and my grandmother was like a member of the American
Communist Party.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Like my grandparents were Communist Jews.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Sure they knew my bio grandma.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Great grandmother was like an anarchist Jew, but she was
Hasidic at first, left the Hasidim when to London, shaved
your head and became an anarchist in like eighteen eighty eight, sisters.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
This is my mom's grandmother.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
But my mom's parents were Commie Juice in New York.

Speaker 4 (24:12):
In Yeah, I could almost guarantee they knew my grandparents probably.
I mean it was a very that was a very
small world. I could almost guarantee it.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Okay, Then you moved to Oakland with mom. Dad becomes
super Jewish, super mom, and you grew up in Oakland.
But then you do drugs when you're twelve because you
have a bipolar disorder or something.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
You got it, man, I mean, there's no need to
interview me.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
He doesn't.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
No, I don't have no biblear disorder.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
No.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
I was a twelve year old kid in Oakland, white boy,
trying to be cool, and I found drugs, went to
public school. I went to public school.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, and but why but there was like a depression.
You were coping with a depression. It wasn't drugs to
like explore consciousness.

Speaker 6 (24:49):
Well, how much can you explore consciousness when you're fourteen
doing acid just trying to have fun in art class?

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Right?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Or like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
You're coming of age and you're you're figuring out your
interview as an adult, and you know, well, the way
that that's true.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
The truth is that I was born in uh an
outsider in like five different cultures. I was white in Oakland.
I was hearing in a deaf family. I was a
secular kid in the Hasidic world, and vice versa.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
And mom, your mom was not hissiting, No.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
Just my mom's fully secular and stole us away from
my dad and raised us like regular kids, public school,
just fully secular life. And I would literally fly back
to New York six weeks a year and kind of
like cosplay as Heavy of the Milkman for.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Six weeks a year. Like it was. It was a Yiddish.

Speaker 4 (25:36):
Speaking community in Brooklyn. It wasn't an Orthodox community. It
was an ultra Hasidic community. We used to play dodgeball
between the Hasidic kids and like between the ultra Orthodox
kids that was my team and the actually religious year
you have the oh yeah, I would put them on
at the airport because my dad was.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Oh so you would cosplay yeah as like deeply religious dude,
I just when you were hanging out with dad, yeah
and everything, and the kids.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
Would make fun of you for not knowing.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, so you anywhere anywhere I was.

Speaker 6 (26:11):
And that's part of the fascination of Judaism, right, because
you were never accepted into that way.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Do you mean why I like it now? I think so?

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Really?

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I think I mean I got cousins, dude, for real
that have.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
Eastern European accents that are second generation American in Brooklyn,
born in America, and they sound like a doctor Jivago like.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Their parents.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
Their parents don't have Eastern European accents because their parents
were immigrants kids, and so immigrants will tell your kids, hey,
don't be immigranty don't don't betray or be American. So
they'd send them to they would sound like Americans. But
then by the time they had kids, they would be
like comfortable, they would be comfortable in the in this country,
and they would send them to only Yidish speaking.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh no, no, I can't even read Hebrew. I can't. Yeah,
I mean that was my problem. Yeah, I couldn't even
read Hebrew. Oh yeah, that's big.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
And they I would have these are English Yiddish as
a first language speakers, and I can't even read Hebrew.
It was it was a fucking nightmare. And so when
I found drugs just to answer the question, I found
for the first time, not that I fit in, but
that fitting in didn't matter anymore, like all the differences
that I'd ever experienced, like disintegrated, and I.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
You when you were twelve thirteen, you're coming of age
and you're depressed. I guess I was depressed.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
I was angry. I had oppositional definers, conduct disorders.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Smart and you don't feel like you fit in how
was I was school? Were you good at school?

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Oh? No?

Speaker 1 (27:36):
So school struggling, eighth grade dropout? So when did you
start doing a ton of drugs?

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Twelve? And when did you go to bad kids School? Thirteen?
And when did you stop doing drugs? Fifteen? Almost sixteen?

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Okay, so's twelve to sixteen. It's chaos, pure chaos. But
what drugs were you doing?

Speaker 4 (27:55):
Just a lot of acid and mushrooms and alcohol and
weed and nothing fun.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
I mean, something exciting. Cocain? No, uh uh, meth.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
I feel like I always disappoint people and they ask
me this question heron. No, No, it's a little bit
of math, a.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Little bit of math.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
But I mean you were self anesthetizing. You weren't exploring consciousness.
It wasn't for sure, It wasn't a good part.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
I would take acid and stare at a pylon at
a bart station for eight hours.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
You were going through it.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, you were going through it. But you haven't touched
anything since you were a kid, really, since you were
a teenager? Yeah, since I was FI too long? Did
you do AA and n A? I did a hardcore
for a very.

Speaker 5 (28:30):
Long Are you thirty years sober?

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Well, I'm forty five. So would you do.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
With the support of your sponsor, your therapist, whoever, whatever
support you need, your wife, your kid, blah blah blah.
Would you try in a therapeutic setting, any type of
therapeutic psychedelic I would cry, like the ketamine clinic or
the ayahuasca retrieve.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Now, yeah, I would do coke with you at a bar.
You would shut the fuck just for fun. Okay, let's
do it.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
I thought very seriously about doing psychedelics again, and I
was I had decided, right, tosh I.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Because I don't think you are the same person you
were twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old.

Speaker 5 (29:12):
I don't need them right now.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
The forty five year old Mosha is different than twelve
year old struggling I'm cosplaying as a Hasidic kid.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
I'm the white kid.

Speaker 6 (29:22):
Okay, but can I just say my experience at Oakland
School of Mosha's personality is when he gets into something,
he gets really into it.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
Like when he got into taping. We would have like.

Speaker 6 (29:32):
Sixteen different packages of vapes from England and London and
everything color.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
I'm just saying, like true, but he gets.

Speaker 6 (29:39):
He has a bag of vape that he would travel in.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
I don't think that's really true.

Speaker 5 (29:44):
But as he puts this in in that he no,
it's your journey.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Hold on, I'm gonna do it ones in a one breaker.
But that's the grand I'm just saying, like, that's.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
The grand mind fuck of being sober and getting sober
young in a in a variety based model, which I
think is the best model. Actually, if you're a drug addict,
is to quit completely. But the mind fuck is thirty
years later, it's pretty hard to make a case that
you're not a completely different person. I mean, it's a
little different if you.

Speaker 5 (30:14):
Have the addictive quality.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
But it's a little But it's it's a mind fuck
because it's not. It's obviously true that I'm a completely
different person in every possible set of criteria. But it's
also true that people who have been profoundly transformed by
sobriety decide to take a psychedelic thirty years later, take it,
and then they start drinking, and then their lives fall
apart and then they're all fucked out. Both things are true,

(30:38):
Like I could be fine, I could be fucked I
really don't know, and there's one way to find out,
and it's a kind of third rail, it's a kind
of it's a it's a parachute jump. And that's the
scary part. And I've thought about it, and it's it's difficult.
It's a difficult decision.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
To your daughter's in college and fucking go to the
do DMT would.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
That's a great idea. Wait till she's in college.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Okay, the girls, what if she gets a hot run,
you're out.

Speaker 6 (31:04):
Oh. Most had a colonoscopy recently and he was on
some kind of drug and it was so fun.

Speaker 5 (31:08):
He was just walking through this. I'm like, where's this guy?

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:12):
They call that free lapse, right, free lapse. That was awesome, man.

Speaker 5 (31:16):
But the but it only lasted like fourteen minutes.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
It was so fun, so scientific.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
I wish I had had a kind of incompetent and
Estheti's aologist, because you know, they tied it so perfectly
that by the time I was in the parking lot,
I was already sobering up. Yeah, like, give me a
little give me twenty minutes, dude, let me enjoy this.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
But it wasn't. It was a lightness.

Speaker 6 (31:38):
But I think Mosha decided when we were having a
kid and I was pregnant.

Speaker 5 (31:42):
No, this isn't really worth it. Well to go experiment.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
I was going to do it day you drop her
off a college? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (31:49):
Could?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
That's all right? Fun because then if he goes off
the d bend, you could just be like, later, dude, you.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
Have fun with him or whatever.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Years Well that's so int I mean, if he goes
to like Arowin Downer, I'm no part of me is
worried about that.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
I'm worried about him.

Speaker 6 (32:03):
My biggest worry about Mosh is him going to a
bar where there's like a mixologist and him wanting to
try every single different sweet.

Speaker 5 (32:11):
Cocting, you know, like he'd be like what is gin taste?
Like what is tequilan?

Speaker 4 (32:15):
I don't want to drink. I have no I mean,
I have no desire to drink. Just a person that's
been sober around everybody, every one of our peers and friends.
I will tell you that the people on alcohol, I
know that they're annoying. They're the most annoyed of all
the drunks out of all and they the most like,
they don't look healthy, they aren't fun to talk to.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Drunk is whack.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
They're like screaming in your face. They suck.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
They suck, and they don't notice any social cues except one.
There's one social cue that drunk people notice, which is
you telling them that them being drunk is a little
too much for them. Then they're like, oh, hyper notice,
Like they get really sensitive, like but if you if
you give subtle cues, they won't take it. Coke not fun,
not fun, but orders of magnitude more fun than drinking,

(32:59):
and then it then it becomes the fun drugs. I
love being around people on psychedelics, like couldn't That's my
favorite because they're fun to talk to, They're cool to
be around.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
What do you think about California sober? What did you
just start smoking a little grass?

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (33:11):
You think that's bad too?

Speaker 3 (33:12):
Huh?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
It's weed? You are?

Speaker 4 (33:15):
You would be a great like drug and alcohol counselor.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
I think it would be, yeah, because they think it's
too much.

Speaker 6 (33:22):
Why would the weed not make Why would he not
have his obsessive nature with the weed, all the swivers,
all the different edibles.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
Millionaire dude, I have this memory. Hello, it's so funny.
I haven't thought about this in so many years, but
I have this memory. The first rehab I ever went
to his place called thunder Road in Oakland, which doesn't
exist anymore. I was in this outpatient like like for
first time offenders, like youth youth rehab after school thing,
and this guy was giving a lecture like that. He's

(33:53):
like new drugs, drugs destroy your life, they make you
you'd never be successful. And I remember, I go, what
about Jimmy Hendrix man and he goes, he looks at
me totally sincerely, goes, think about the music he could
have made if he didn't do drugs.

Speaker 5 (34:08):
He could have done it for longer.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
That's true, he did. He made the wrong argumentment. Guess what.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
I went to Willie Nelson's ninetieth birthday show three years ago.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
The guy's still.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Touring and doing more drugs than you could ever imagine.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
Okay, well let me ask you this. Don't you think
some people's brain chemistry.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Absolutely. I think addiction is actually genetic and it runs
in the family. So if your if your dad, grandpa
had any shit, it's.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Probably not worth it.

Speaker 6 (34:38):
And I do think sometimes people can have like one
or two drinks and they just really can't handle alcohol.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
I think that too.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
I also don't think I think there's I think that
alcohol and psychedelics are not equivalent.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
I think they work in but.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
That's not to me.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
But here's the thing. You might not understand it. But
I mean, I mean, I don't loop alcohol in.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
With Here's the thing you might not understand. You're one
hundred percent correct that mushrooms, psychedelics, all of that, they're
qualitatively different than alcohol and every other truly.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Addictive, physically addictive.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Drug in that you know, if you kidnapped your grandma
and and you know, chained her in a basement and
made her drink alcohol all day, every day for a year,
she would she wouldn't be able to detox. About medical intervention,
every single person would become addicted to those things. But
the thing about being sober, it's much it's more of

(35:33):
a like psychic thing. It's like you have a I
call it a I think of it as a membrane.
There's like a super thin membrane between sobriety and non sobriety.
Right once you pierce the membrane, you're on the other
side of the membrane. You're no longer you no longer
have the like decades or years of momentum and stricture

(35:56):
between you in the sober world and you in the
non sober world. So it's a lot easier to go
from from mushrooms and ketamine to drinking a cocktail after
dinner to drinking a cocktail every night to becoming an
alcoholic than it is to go from I don't drink
at all. I don't do any drugs. There's like this,
there's a there's a line, like I said, a third rail,

(36:18):
and you have to get past a third rail, and
it's it's scary in that I don't think I am
genetically I don't believe myself anymore to be a genetic alcoholic.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
I don't think that. I don't know, but I don't
think that that's true.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
You're certainly very lucid from being sober. I like it.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
I don't have a bad life that I need to
improve upon. But I do feel disappointment that I never
got to do psychedelics in the way that I could
have done them, because I do think that they're one
of the like gifts of the universe for the human experience,
like childbirth, which you'll never experience.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
Like me and I don't really experience it.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
They like, I mean having a kid, you want a kid?
I got to be right now, and I'm like, I'm
like looking to get rid of this thing.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
After a week with Aridre, with Aridrey.

Speaker 6 (37:18):
Since Eric's contractually obligated, I'm sure to talk about bombing.

Speaker 5 (37:21):
I have another one.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Give it to me.

Speaker 5 (37:23):
Well this isn't really on stage.

Speaker 6 (37:24):
But when I first moved to LA, I really really
wanted to get.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
A picture on a red carpet. So sad.

Speaker 6 (37:32):
Friend was like, okay, I got a hook up, come
dressed up, because I was like, if I can get
a red carpet picture, I was very ambitious.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
I was like, I need to get a picture. I
think it's before I even started doing stand up.

Speaker 6 (37:43):
Where you from Illinois? So but I no, Rockford, Illinois.
Yeah but it's not a suburb.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
But it's not goin Yeah yeah yeah yeah bipolo y bipolo.

Speaker 6 (37:55):
So my friend's like, okay, come to I think it
was like where did where did River Phoenix? Guy?

Speaker 2 (38:01):
I don't know that the viper room.

Speaker 6 (38:03):
It was like the it was like a rock clack.
It was like solo rent to begin with. It was
like literally like a red carpeting and I get on
this carpet to walk like some no name rock show,
and I do my pose because I can't. One guy
out there. As I do my pose, he looks at
me and gives me a finger wag like like, I like,

(38:25):
won't take your picture?

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Taking your picture? You know you don't belong to me.

Speaker 6 (38:31):
It was so embarrassing and like, I don't know what
my friend was like I thought he would take your picture.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
And dude, fast forward, I'm here, No, fast forward, fast
forward twenty years, Fast forward twenty years. I was nominated
for an Emmy and I brought Natasha to the Emmys
and we were walking the red carpet my nomination. Now, listen,
I'm used.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
To being at events when Natasha is the is the
I'm merry character.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
I'm not upset about that. I love it. I'm proud
of everything she said. But she was just your date.
She's my fucking day. And they were like, get out
of the get out of her way, straight up.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
The talk to them, and I get to the she
you didn't, you were like, no, she loved it.

Speaker 6 (39:21):
Every and Emmy is communal property.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
We get to the end of the of the of
the red carpet and I said to her, go, that's
a little weird, like you know, this is I'm kind
of the one that was nominated. And she goes back
to your credit. She goes back and she goes, okay,
go back, and I walked back.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
It is pathetic.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
I walked back up the line and it was like
I walked back up the line.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
I'm like hey, and the guy goes, we're good.

Speaker 6 (39:48):
But I was like no. I was very adamant because
I was like, this is your Emmy. You have to
get a picture. I didn't realize that was happening.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
Sorry to my credit.

Speaker 6 (39:55):
I was just like going through the line, trying to
get it over with without.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
I wasn't there.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
But then we want and I walked back with a
fucking Emmy and I looked at the guy and I'm
like like this, he didn't.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
He still didn't recognize.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
You can bottom feet get upset about that.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
To the Righteous Gemstones premiere there like a few weeks ago,
and the same kind of thing, like they did pictures
of me. I was in the fucking show and then
they were like, all right, get out of her way,
and then she did solo pictures. She was what the
young camera she was like, what, there's all these pictures
that were like ship, you.

Speaker 6 (40:38):
Know, you'd be good doing like the pissed off look
that just think about.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
That's called smising.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
No, it's not even smiling.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
You're just kind of frowsing your eyes.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Yeah, just kind of look out into the distance like
you're kind of pissed.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
I think she was cute with us at that same event.

Speaker 5 (40:58):
I have to smile.

Speaker 6 (40:59):
It makes me look young, so I'm always like trying
to give my smile.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
Well, you're great on camera. I mean, everybody loves you.
They love you. You're you're a blossom.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
You're a natural treasure. You're a kid at forty three,
ageless beauty. That's hardcore.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
Fifty one. Yeah, she's seven.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Are you fifty one?

Speaker 7 (41:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (41:16):
You're great.

Speaker 5 (41:16):
Thanks. That's why I said I'm fifty one, you know,
to try to get that you know that.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Age really well? Uh, my cousin, Vinnie, what's your name?

Speaker 5 (41:25):
Marissa?

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Your cousin.

Speaker 6 (41:29):
Hey, you know another old hot chick, Another old Italian bag.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
I know, I know an Italian bag that looks straight
mas Italian. I am a bag of bricks. It's still
ain't well.

Speaker 6 (41:44):
I did do twenty three and me and found out
I was Sardinian. Since we've gone down, Moses, I.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Went to Sardinia recently. It's like Sicily, right, I never
been in Sicily.

Speaker 6 (41:52):
Well, Sardinian people are one of the blue zones. So
those are the zones people stay alive the longest, and
and if you study there, it's like they eat beans and.

Speaker 5 (42:02):
A walk everywhere, a drink red wine and hang out with.

Speaker 6 (42:06):
Their family and that's about it. And I'm like, that's
my that's my goal is to live into.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
My user whatever. The opposite thought, is any any other bombs? Well,
I have the other great bomb of my.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
The Irish guy is crazy.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
It was pretty brutal, you know, you know Doug Pound's
bomb besides your podcast where you amiliated him?

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Why didn't humiliate dog? You didn't stick up for him.
I was intimidating. You're his friend, You're right, messed up?

Speaker 5 (42:32):
Motion.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
I was intimidated? Was Chris Rock? What am I going
to do? Chris intimidating? What am I gonna do?

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (42:37):
Leave him? Leave DJ Doug Pound alone.

Speaker 6 (42:39):
Chris Rock, Okay, I'll tell you something. You know who
else is intimidating? While most of thinks of his last bomb.
I remember once I auditioned for Seinfeld for to be
a co host on some show he was producing, and
they told me before I went in the room, They're like, Okay,
don't do any bits for Seinfeld. It's like a thing.
Everybody's always trying to do bits for him. You know,
just talk to him. He's he's really into people, not
to comedians, not doing bits. Oh yeah, I got you.

(43:00):
The second I saw him, I just started rambling. It
couldn't help it. I literally remembering him getting a backpack
because it seemed weird that he had a backpack and
leaving during my interview.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
Because it was with a few people.

Speaker 6 (43:21):
It was for like Tom Papa had a had a
TV show he was hosting and he needed a sidekick,
and Jerry was Love's Tom Papa and he was the producer.

Speaker 5 (43:29):
I forget what it's called, like the marriage ref maybe
it was something.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Oh so he's just producing. But they were like, don't prod,
don't bit it up with him.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
Yah. It was a very small just Tom.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, Tom and Jerry. You went in there like a
cat instant girl.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
No, but people have that, especially like if you're like
a hierarch hierarchical type of person. Especially, I mean, my
values have changed since I moved here, but you know,
I used to be obsessed with becoming successful, and I
was very ambitious. And when you meet someone who is
above you, it comes comes from wanting a career. You know,
when I was little, my parents were divorced very young,

(44:11):
and my dad was abusive to my mom, and I
had no happy place except the theater. And I grew
up as a child actress, and that was, yeah, in
theater in Chicago, and you know, that was kind of
my happy place. And so I think, I mean, if
you're asking where it comes from, this is the very
truncated version, is like, oh, when I'm when I'm in theater,

(44:32):
which translated into comedy, which you know, it's like, this
is where I.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Can tell them the agent story. This is a good bomb.
This is really it's so funny, it's so good.

Speaker 5 (44:41):
You don't have to tell them when I was in
New York. So, you know, my whole life, I'm like,
I have to be an actress.

Speaker 6 (44:46):
I have to be an actress is my only hope
for anything, you know, and also wanting to like be
surpass your family of being poor, and you know, it's
a way out, and but I, you know, I finally
got close. I lived in New York for five years
and I finally got close to getting an agent. And
I had like a third callback and I had to
do this monologue. And I did this monologue of Darlene
from Balming Gilead, and I had watched Laurie Metcalf do it,

(45:10):
and I kind of was doing an impression of her.
But it was good, and like I ended up crying
in the monologue. And I remember I left the agent
interview and I was like, I can't believe I just
killed that so hard, you know, like and he goes,
he was like that was amazing. Call me at three
o'clock and I'll let you know if we're going to
represent you. And it's really hard to get an agent
in New York. It's just like especially for me when

(45:30):
I was starting out. So anyway, I call him at
three o'clock. I'm going to Hunter College. I'm in the payphones.
You know, this is a long time ago. I put
my quarter in.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
And he's like, hey, Natasha.

Speaker 6 (45:39):
You know, I was like waiting for the clock to
dig in like a phone bank, and he's like.

Speaker 8 (45:44):
Hey Natasha. So I talked about it with all the agents,
and we've come to the conclusion that you're too short
to be an actress. He goes, you know, Holly Hunter
did it, but she's the only one we can even
think of, so I'm sorry. We just don't think you'll
ever become an.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
Actress, so it's preposterous.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
I broke down physically. I got on my knees. I
was like heaving because this was.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Like my entire you thought that was your big break life.
I mean, it's over. It was over, I know.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
I mean I was probably twenty, but like I had
had so many.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
It feels more.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
It feels worse then because you're too naive. Just realized,
like who the fuck are.

Speaker 5 (46:21):
These people say it like that? And like I tell me,
it's impossible, and like.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
Like kind of cruel to the kind of casual cruel
to somebody that's that's ruling over a tiny kingdom, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
If that he's just a fucking Wackaoho Jones, like all
these wacked who's In the beginning, you think like the power,
these calm and these open my comics. I thought like,
oh god, this guy just yelled at me because he's
a lunatic. Oh fuck, maybe I fucked up. And then
you're like, who the fuck were those people? They were
a bunch of maniacs, it was like.

Speaker 6 (46:51):
And they're just feeding off of like trying to whip
their you know, be superior over all.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
But then you like, she's on her knees crying in
a pay phone in New York thinking it's over, and
what like five years later you found stand up and like.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
And then twenty years later, I'm still really trying.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Are you kidding?

Speaker 5 (47:10):
No, I'm just saying it never really even the roast.

Speaker 6 (47:13):
Like after I did the roast of Justin Bieber, I
was like, this is it?

Speaker 5 (47:17):
Yeah, And then like I remember the next.

Speaker 6 (47:19):
Day there was this whole like thing where like all
my agents left CIA and went to Uta. There was
like this whole thing that happened, and nothing really happened
from the roast, and I was like I was thinking,
like I'm gonna be in movies like Amy Schumer and
nothing really happened. But then it's like ten years later,
the roasts are viral on TikTok and I sell out
and it's like you just don't know how there was like.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
A re yeah, and you know you can't.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
The Deftones sold out the Key of Forum and the
Death Tones I grew up listening to, but like they're cool,
like like teenagers listened to that. They had some like
they had like a reth they had like a re
they like work on TikTok for like the new Emo Waves.

Speaker 5 (47:59):
Well, my point is you can't. You can never. You
can never like control how something's going to.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Also culture, you never know, like the thing that you
think is some throwaway thing. It's like that with jokes,
Like you think the throwaway joke is like whatever, and
then it gets a big laugh and then like the
thing you're like, dude, I'm the next Richard Prior, and
then you fall flat on your face.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
It feels just like, well, there's no, there's no, there's
no it's unpredictable, there's no there.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
I always think of it like the whole, this whole thing,
and life is like this in general, but Hollywood certainly
is like this ladder and the problem is you're always
looking at the wrong above you going oh, if that's
the wrong, that will make me whole. And then you
work and you work and you work and you work,
and finally you know you grab the wrung and you
pull yourself up to that wrong And the moment you
get up to the wrong, you look up and you're like, oh, ship,

(48:44):
there's another one right there, and that becomes a thing
and like Brad Brad Pitts somewhere up the ladder. Yeah,
you know, looking at Timothy shallow my shoes, going like
how did I get last?

Speaker 2 (48:53):
You know, and that's like, yeah, that's just life. You
never get there the ladder. Yeah, like fashionable, Like those
shoes are cool.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
They're like a cool swing like small shoes too.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
I was a real man Chinese. It says like there
isn't bad.

Speaker 6 (49:13):
Yeah, that's why you should have a children, because I
have children, Because once you have a child, you don't
care about the ladder anymore.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
It is true, No, I mean that's saying that is true.
But there's also a caveat to that too. You have
a child, you're on that ladder, you go, you go,
what's my purpose? What's my purpose?

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Life? Ladder? Then you have a kid, you go, Okay, yeah,
I know.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
My purpose is it's to care for this thing and
teach it to have a good life, and teach it
ethics and values and feed it and protect it, and
you're like, this is the point of my life. But
I think about that. I'm not there yet. I think
about all the time that that. Then they turn eighteen
and you're like, okay, bye, and they do drugs.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Then you die. You do drugs and die. That's good
that it's not too bad. I think of it. It's
not too bad. Yeah, I'm with you on that. And
then I got a dog, you got a cat. That's enough.
It's enough.

Speaker 5 (49:57):
Has always like, stop talking people into having children.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
It's never were successfully, it's never worked. I mean, people
shouldn't have kids that don't want kids because it's they shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
I mean, it's it's not.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
And you might not get a perfect one like I got.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Yeah, yeah, we got it pretty go.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
I know some I have friends with some dud kids.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Well yeah, we actually do.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
They think they're dud in their heart.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
I think, yes, really, dude, we are kid.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
We just like a guy who's oldest kid, I think
broke him.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
I was a adult, but I was a dud. My
mom he was smart. Yeah I was smart.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
I guess we just found out our kid just got
diagnosed with something that's gifted.

Speaker 5 (50:33):
That's not true.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
We just found out.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
I have a friend.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Yeah, we just found out. It was really rough because
you had fucking the bowlers.

Speaker 6 (50:40):
No, my friend was like, our child's been diagnosed as gifted.
This is a funny idea to say, diagnosed.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Diagnosed, Come on the ship. Our kid's cool.

Speaker 4 (50:48):
I'm sure she wouldn't be cool to you, but but
when they're your kid, you're like, oh, this one's awesome.
She's awesome, and she's very aware of that too.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
And won and done. Oh yeah, she's fifty one fifty
one one j Jackson.

Speaker 6 (50:59):
Those are false hopes. That's not real, Like it's real much.

Speaker 5 (51:04):
I would if someone I wouldn't try to adopt.

Speaker 6 (51:07):
But if someone was like, oh, if someone, can you
watch this kid for us forever?

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Could you watch this kid for us? You would just get.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
We were trying to get pregnant.

Speaker 6 (51:17):
I wanted so badly for someone to just give me
a kid at the grocery store, Like I just was like,
any kid, like I can kidd'll do.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Yeah, Like, I don't want a kid that broke your
friend and we turn it around. Yeah, oh no, that
would be brutal.

Speaker 6 (51:30):
And our daughter's only seven, honey, and you have a
history of issues.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
So, oh, you mean she might get sucked up at
some point maybe about.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Our You just see when she turned twelve thirteen comes
a little you.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
I think that kind of destiny fulfillment stuff. I don't
buy it. I'm not into it.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Well, you had a very specific, uh tornado of a childhood.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Yeah, she's got my genetics, but she doesn't have my circumstances,
and I think that that that that that makes a
big difference. She's gonna be wild.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
I know she's gonna be wild, and I have to
resist that temptation with her of when I see a
little bit of like thing that was like me, of
then superimposing my trauma onto her future. It's like she's
her own person and she's got her own destiny and
I'm not. I'm not setting her destiny. She's not on
my road.

Speaker 6 (52:13):
I had Chelsea Handler's book laying out yesterday and it's
like her in a ski outfit with a martini, and
my daughter's like, why is she drinking in a ski outfit?

Speaker 5 (52:22):
And she was like really into this cover and then.

Speaker 6 (52:24):
Like then like an half hour later, she's like, I'm.

Speaker 5 (52:27):
Crazy, I drink alcohol.

Speaker 6 (52:29):
Like she was just like saw this image you know, yes,
like well, because she was like that, and I didn't
even think of I just looked at the thing, like, oh,
there's Chelsea, but like I wasn't really thinking, like my
daughter hadn't seen those images together, and she just thought
it was something funny.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Kids are funny.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
We had this friend over who's like a bit of
a judgmental, like I do everything correct, mom, Like a
lot of references to the level, the reading level, you know,
like a lot and and just like a lot of
there was a lot of perfect parenting going on. And
the kid came in.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
She was outside and the kid came in, this little
like perfect child, and he goes, looks at me, he goes.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
I'm a murderer, goes murder, murder, murder, like that murderer.
I'm a soldier, not bang, bang, I'm a murderer.

Speaker 6 (53:24):
We showed our daughter last night. Mosha is like obsessed
with the idea that like PG. Thirteen is fine for her.
She's seven, and like he shows her, He's like, no,
she loves it.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
She loves it. I'm like, okay, well she is having nightmares.
So finally we show.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Her she loves Jesus James.

Speaker 6 (53:39):
We show her Back to the Future last night, the
first one and Pig it's PG.

Speaker 5 (53:44):
She's loving it.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
And then for Michael J.

Speaker 5 (53:47):
Fox, I didnk that part isn't even that.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Directs the mechas cut.

Speaker 6 (53:51):
When the Libyans come, there's like Libyans. I don't know
if you remember this, but.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Like very racist. I haven't seen that.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
Come to machine gun.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
They're speaking like fake, like it's like fake. It's just like.

Speaker 5 (54:06):
She is so into this movie and then this part
happens and she just starts balling.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
She started crying.

Speaker 5 (54:11):
She had never seen like he's dead, he's dead, but
someone pulling.

Speaker 6 (54:16):
Out a machine gun in an empty parking lot and
blowing someone up.

Speaker 5 (54:19):
And then I go, most you've got to see if
this is this, there's no way this.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
She was mad at me.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
She was like, that was not a PG movie, and
I looked it up. I knew it was PG. I
looked it up. This is the fact that I found
out when Back to the Future came out, PG thirteen
as a rating was like six months old, so it.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Should have been.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
They just invented PG thirty.

Speaker 6 (54:41):
Curists like, I mean, she was bawling and I'm just like,
I've never seen her balld Or.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
She's funny though. She the other showed her Planet of
the Ape. I don't care. I mean, what are you
gonna do?

Speaker 6 (54:50):
I watched fund show her something that's gonna keep her
up at night.

Speaker 5 (54:53):
Look, Eric can't even sleep at night.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
I watched R rated movies when I was a little kid,
and I turned out, fine, you were crazy.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
That's right. I to rehabit twelve. Anyway, she's funny though.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
I watched Planet of the Apes with her the other
day when Natasa's out of town, and the last line
of Planet of the Apes spoiler alert is that he
pulls James franco In and he's.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Like, oh, new Planet of the Apes. New Planet of
the Apes. He pulls James franco In and he's like,
the monkey goes Caesar is home.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
That's the last line. She really loved that, and she
pulled me in the other day. We're at a restaurant
and we were eating Caesar salad and she grabbed my
head and she pulled me and she goes, Caesar.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Salad is home. That's funny. That's a good joke. That's
a good joke.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
That's a good joke.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
There you go, and there's a thing with Jews and Italians.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
They merged along the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Caesar Caesar salad.
Is that what made you do that? No?

Speaker 1 (55:41):
I just think Comedians, Jews, Italians, New York, Chicago, San Francisco.
You're from like comedic town. She's got all that in her. Yeah,
she likes we were got all that juice center.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
Oh, speaking of bombing, we you know, we raise our
kid with a lot of sarcasm. Obviously, that's the way
we communicate. We were at a friend's house, a soft
hippie friend's house, and the that we ordered pizza for
the family. And the pizza came and the little boys
like pizza, and Natasha goes, actually it's all for us,
and the kids starts fucking sobbing, and I'm like.

Speaker 6 (56:13):
Oh, I'm not as an actual adult getting your head
blown off by a machine gun and a parking lot
of like a nice mom.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
It was an example of a kid that wasn't being
raised with sarcasm as the primary communicative form. Our kid
was like, now shut up, mom, give me the pizza.
And this little innocent child.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
He was like, yeah, any other bums. Your bomb story
was like three seconds You're like, I.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Want to do a show. This guy wrap it up.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
The agent told me, I got the agent no, and
then they switched me with the opener that that's happened
to me twice.

Speaker 5 (56:48):
That happened to me in Vegas too. And here's the thing.

Speaker 6 (56:50):
The guy who they switched me with in Vegas, he
was literally doing Bill Hicks material.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
Do you see him do it?

Speaker 3 (56:59):
No?

Speaker 2 (56:59):
What do you mean? Wasn't there that works?

Speaker 3 (57:01):
Though?

Speaker 4 (57:02):
I heard about this Italian comedian who he was the
biggest comedian in Italy every year he who put out
this like searing, amazing hour of social commentary. And then
the Internet hit and they started to see comedians on
YouTube and all of a sudden they were like, wait,
this dude just does George Carlin. And like before the Internet,
it was like a perfect creep. Nobody would know, all right, yeah,

(57:26):
we do gotta go. But okay, here's my other big bomb.
This is really where my career changed. Was I was
young in my career. I was about maybe five or
six years in and I got into laugha Palooza, the
Urban Jamie Fox's Urban Comedy Festival, and I was like,
I still remember the phone call, Mosha cash Er, this

(57:46):
is John Johnson from Laugh of Palooza. We'd like to
welcome you to new Faces laugh of Palooza. And I
was jumping up and down at my job. I was like,
this is it.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
And I flew to.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
Atlanta on my own dime red flag and travel. No
I meet all the other comedians. There's me and one
other white comic everybody else. It doesn't even occur to me.
They were not in the era where it's like inappropriate
for a white comedian to try.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
To squeeze into a black comedy festival. It's just like,
let me make it.

Speaker 4 (58:13):
There's one other comedian called weed Man, and he would
put on the other white the diversity, the DEI, we
were DEI, and he put he would put one hundred
dollars bill on his head and he would do Ben
Franklin's weed jokes.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
That's kind of cool. Well, I was like, weed Man's
not a threat. That was my thought. I'm in You're like,
I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
I go to the first show they did. They failed
to promote. There was no one there. It was like
they would like turn off the braves game and start
the show. So nobody there. But there were executives from
Comedy Central and just for laughs there to watch us
just eat fucking garbage for show after show after show,

(58:52):
and then they would let us go to the like
main tapings, which were hilarious. The main tapings were they
build it as a Cedric the Entertainer Show, but it
was actually Edric doing five minutes, and then they would
start a TV taping with a bunch of comics hadn't
heard of, right, and so that the crowds. The crowds
had paid forty dollars Cedric, but they were getting people.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
They never gone.

Speaker 4 (59:10):
They were mutinous. Bill Burr was on one of those tapings.
Ali Wong was on one of those tapings, and so
we would get to go see what comedy in front
of a crowd would look like, and and it was.
It was so funny. There was a lot, a lot
of funny things happened. But I heard that there was
a Best of the New Faces show happening at the punchline,

(59:32):
and I walked up to John Johnson and I just
I don't know what got into me because I wasn't
like this, but I go, I'm getting on that fucking show.
I go, John, I'm getting on the Best of the
New Faces show, And he's like, he looks at me,
smiles and goes, all right, you're on.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
So I show up. The show's at midnight. It's after
the taping.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
It starts at midnight, and I walk up to the
booker at the Punchline and I go, I'm on the
New Faces show and she goes, I don't have you down,
and I I looked at her again, and I remember
I had a VHS tape in my back pocket, and
I go, if nothing else, I'm gonna get a booking
at the Punchline Atlanta out of this. And I said,
ma'am they John Johnson said I was on this show.

(01:00:12):
I'm on this show. And she's like, I'll put you
on last, and I go all right. So the show
starts at midnight. There's a real crowd there. People are
doing well. People go it's getting later. It's one, it's
two in the morning. Weed Man goes on, he fucking
the Annihilates dude, and I'm like, I'm in the wings.
I'm fucking you know, shadow boxing, and shit, I'm like,
I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
I'm doing it. And then I get on we needed
to have kids.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
We were.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
Two point fifteen in the morning. I get on and
I go, you guys tired as one? The crowd like, yes, yes,
I bombed so hard I could. It was like visceral,
like in my body I did. I walked off stage.
I looked at the booker, I go, not worth the
cost of a VHS tape to give her, and I

(01:00:58):
get on the plane.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
I fly home.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
My body's like I'm coursing with like I thought this
was it, and it was. It was not just not it,
it was the opposite of it. People formed lasting impressions
of me that would that would follow me into my career.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
True.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
I asked her years later, Joanne from Comedy Central now Netflix.
I was like, did you see me? She's like, yeah,
I thought you sucked. So I get to my club,
my home club that night. It's the Sunday after the
Sunday before Halloween, and in my apartment, all I want
to do is like hide under the covers. And at
the punchline San Francisco, the Little Confusing, they're both named

(01:01:33):
the same thing. Also, the booker was named Molly. In
the punchline. In the Atlanta you had to wear a
costume in order to perform, and I'm like, all I
want to do is stay home, quit comedy. I want out.
And I'm staring at this like incandescent lycra astronaut suit
that I have.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Going going is am I going to do it? Am
I gonna?

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
Am?

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
I gonna put that fucking thing on? And the ask
the plush astronaut helmet I have and drive to the
punchline and I'm like, fuck it, like with great dignity,
I pulled the span next suit on. I get in
my car, I drive across the bridge. You had to
wear a costume because it was on the Sunday before
Halloween in order to perform, and so I put this
fucking ridiculous costume on. I drive to the punchline. I

(01:02:13):
got up and I swear to god, I unlocked something
in my performative style that night where I just like
gave up, like I was like yeah, and I shifted
in this profound way. I killed at the punchline in
San Francisco, and I was at that point the comedian
that I am now, not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
The comedian that was like trying to figure out what
who I was.

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
That night that bomb, all those bombs put together like
created who I am. Yeah, And so that's why, like
my biggest flow, and then my career happened after that.
Our bombs creat us comedy is not about my biggest
philosophy in comedy is and all and life is. It's
not about whether you can succeed. It's about whether you
can fail and keep going. And that's what I did.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
What do you do with them?

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
What do you do with failure? Is the greatest teacher.
Failure and success are the same thing. Yeah, yeah, two
sides of the same coin. That's been our show. Thank
you with your name again. Nice to meet you.

Speaker 4 (01:03:11):
It was a pleasure meeting with Eric Condre.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
Fombing with Eric Andre is brought to you by Will
Ferrell's Big Money Players Network and iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Our executive producer is Olivia Aguilar.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Our producer is Bei Wang, Our research assistant is David Carliner.
Our editor and sound designers Andy Harris, and our art
is by Dylan Vanderberg. Go rate us five stars and
drop a review on your podcast app a choice