So I reiterate here, the bill is dead.
The story of this great city is about the years before this
night. Hey everybody, it's a new
episode of Hong Kong. I'm your host, Mohammed Magdi,
sitting with my two beautiful brown best friends.
Oh wow, immediately before even like saying anything but after
Beautiful goes brown 1st and then best friends.
Well, brown first means that I'm not brown.
Yeah, I'm distancing myself from you guys.
It shows your priority in describing people.
Beautiful. First of all, you like I better,
you know, first introduce a little compliment, which
obviously is interested as being guys.
Yes. And then you were brown because
that's the thing you really notice of us.
Yeah, of course. And then the next one was
friends. You said the word.
Friends. Yeah.
Well, that, yeah, that was the actual compliment.
Yeah, that was that was from, that's.
The only insincere 1. That was from one of those
business books of like how to connect with clients.
I mean when you. Think of a compliment sandwich.
How to break the ice in five seconds?
Exactly. Yeah, bring.
Up their race, bring up your skin color, and then call them a
friend. There you go.
Right over there. Even our guest today knows
better than you, MO. Yeah.
He knows better than me about what being brown or being.
About how to how to cover the brownness of your terms that you
use just now. And being a friend and being a.
Friend, Exactly. He's able to do that much better
than you have so far in all these five years of doing this
podcast. Oh yeah, wait, he is a
experienced podcaster as well. Well, that's why he's doing it
so well. Let's introduce him actually.
Yes, OK, well, he can introduce himself.
Wow, a returning guest. He's the laziest horse. 1st 5
seconds. They are my brown friends.
Why don't? You tell them, why don't you
guys? I'm going to just take a nap
now. You said I'm your friend, right?
Can you tell me, why don't you tell the audience something
about me that's not related to my career?
Oh, it's. Not related to your career.
Introduce me as a friend. OK, well, I have my buddy here,
Danny Fernandez. He lives in India.
And the first time we met, actually, that's career stuff.
Yeah, let me, let me think. Yeah, Wow.
I love it most. No, no, I know you.
I know more, but I don't. Know making me money like I why?
Why do I have a connection with you other than the profit?
One, one thing that you said that that is cool, that I like
about you is that you take two days a week of doing absolutely
fucking nothing. Yeah, yes, that's something
that's not public two days a week, two days every single
week. Is it a specific day?
It depends. Usually it's a Monday.
Yeah. And a Tuesday because I returned
from touring. Yeah.
So I prefer to schedule those at the start of the week.
It was the weekend. You know how it gets hectic?
Yeah. But yeah, the rest days.
There you go. That's something about, you
know, about you as a friend. But I like to sleep.
Yeah. You like sleep?
But have you heard Jerry Seinfeld's bit about like the
him not doing anything that they're doing nothing, but where
he's like to be very careful because it sounds very easy to
do? Yeah, yeah.
Anytime. So in during the days of
nothingness, yeah. May I ask, is there any time
that something seeps in and happens?
It could. I mean, it could be a phone
call. It could, you don't know where
it could creep up from a phone call.
You start feeling hungry. And you're like, I got to eat,
but that's that's doing something.
But I'm not, I don't want to do anything.
So that's. Where we hear from our sponsor
today, a food panda. Yeah, exactly.
When you don't want to move, but you want to eat, let's deliver
it right into your gut. Yeah.
Are you spending the day doing nothing?
Yeah, exactly. Let us help you do something.
Yeah, while you continue on with the nothing.
So we could do anything. You're welcome, Food Panda.
This one is. It's free.
Yeah, right over there, but. You guys know the drill, right?
When you're travelling all the time around the planet, it is a
physically demanding career, Yes, which a lot of people don't
really factor in. And then as you get older, you
start feeling it. It's like.
So I think. And also because I'm a fitness
buff, yeah. I understand the importance of
recovery. Yeah.
How important recovery is to being fit.
It's the same with stand up. If you're working hard on the
weekends, make sure you recover. Yeah.
I do not like hustling every single day because then another
side effect of that is time flies really fast.
Yeah. Before you know it, your life
has just passed you by. The only way I find to really
feel like I've lived long enough is to slow down.
So when you slow down and you have nothing for the day, the
day just seems longer. But if you're busy, the day's
gone Like this. So OK.
And then you are actually, you know it, You're 55 and you're
just like, what happened to my teeth?
You know what I'm? Saying you're saying everything
that Vivek does not believe in, it's amazing.
That's. Why?
I'm saying it Because I know him.
He's. Looking at you, he's like, so
let me let me understand the logic behind your activity of
not doing anything. You decided to prolong my life.
So I feel like the day didn't just zoom by.
I'm good now, do nothing, hence accomplishing nothing basically
where? But it's not like I'm not
accomplishing anything. Yeah.
But then you do. I am accomplishing accomplishing
is quality time. What is?
What is your quiet time? Just spend time by yourself,
watch something that you like. Yeah.
Cook some food. Yeah, You know, do a little bit
of herbal. But that is something.
Yeah, you. Know I tried herbal meditation.
Herbal meditation I. Thoroughly recommend it.
Yeah, well, it's, it's available in Thailand, the quick fly, no.
Legal disclaimer, yeah, we are not responsible for that.
Is that our guest? Man, this is definitely not
sponsored by Food Panda. Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah, that's a different kind of
food. Panda man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK Yeah.
So they let's say it's a Monday, right?
You wake up today. When do you establish that
today's a nothing day? The night before, the night
before, or sometimes it could be on the day itself and I wake up
and I don't feel like doing anything.
Yeah. So I'm like, yeah, I'm taking
the. Day, right?
Well, what if you've already, let's say on Monday you don't
feel like you did, you did Tuesday, you didn't feel like
you did. And when is you're like crap?
I don't feel like either. Yeah, I don't.
You let us sleep into the the next this week as well, but.
That's the whole point, right? We were like more, and I were
discussing this yesterday, that the biggest success of all of
our careers right now is not money.
Yeah, it's the freedom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Just be like, I don't feel like doing anything today, so I won't
do it, you know? But in my, my curiosity is OK,
so you have a you seem to have a system of like two days a week.
Yeah. So there's like a rule that you
set for yourself. Yeah.
However, if it passes the two days a week, you're allowed to
be flexible and make it three days a week.
Yeah, I took three weeks at a go once when my depression kicked
in really hard. Yeah, I took three weeks off and
didn't do anything for three weeks.
And it really helped. So when I came back after the
three weeks, I was ready to go. As opposed to, you know, when
you're struggling and then you say, ah, sleep power through,
but then you're prolonging that struggle.
So what took me 3 weeks to recover peacefully, it would
have taken me maybe a couple of months if I was still trying to
get work done. I was still traveling, I was
still doing shows, etcetera, etcetera.
Now during this recent, Oh yeah, let's be a bit more serious now,
during the three weeks, were there things that you you needed
to do, had to do? It was just more like, just go
with the folio gut. It was it, it got to a point
where it was something as simple as, OK, let's just do three
things today. Yeah, Just three things, whether
it was, you know, cooking a meal.
Yeah, that's one. Brushing teeth, that's another
one, you know, making sure you have enough hydration, so you
make sure you finish 2 liters of water.
And that's my three things. And that gives me a sense of
accomplishment. And that's good enough for me to
go to the next day. Yeah, because depression is a
motherfucker. Or or or you can also work
yourself to the ground, which is the Rebecca of a Bunny bottle.
Yeah, and then once you're dead, you're not depressed.
Yeah. Every time you feel that coming
up, you just push it down by taking on so much more work.
Just bury it all at the bottom. No one's going to.
Sleep. And then you come back home at
2:00 AM going. I don't have energy to even be
depressed. Yeah.
That's that's the whole point. Like you see, it's like going in
the gym when you're all upset and everything you're weight
lifting weights so heavy you're. Taking it out in the gym, yeah.
You're taking it out the gym, and the point is that you don't
even have the mental capacity to be upset by that item anymore.
Yeah, So it's the same concept. Like, instead of you going to
the gym and lifting weights and putting back for other people,
strangers, Yeah, I'm just like, OK, life's terrible.
Yeah. But instead of me sitting around
looking the window going like, you know what, dude?
I, I love me. I'm gonna, I decide.
I'm like dude. Hate yourself, OK?
If you really want to succeed in life, kids, you gotta hate
yourself. Yeah, right.
Not take any time. Off I don't allow the capacity
to be depressed and that way not only I'm not depressed.
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't have the option.
The button is broken. It's like.
Vivek is more Indian than I could ever be.
Oh yeah. Dude, I grew up in a Chinese
community, being Indian, surrounded by English speakers
who just wanted the first word I learned was money.
Yeah. But OK, Yeah, yeah.
Let's take a step back now. OK, so now you everything's good
now. And you decided.
OK, what was the point that you said?
All right, the two day a week thing.
What? What was the more like the the
moment of clarity where you're like, all right, you know what?
I think this is the this is the number I need.
It just seemed realistic. 2 days was good enough because then
then spend the remaining the rest of the week, you know,
editing stuff, reshooting stuff I need to post, etcetera, sort
of preparing for any bits that I want to record.
Yeah post next week. So I do a lot of topical
comedies or stuff that's in the news.
Yeah. And we'll get to that stuff
that's in the news if I can write a few minutes on that and
then, you know, workshop it and record it all the weekend and
then on Monday it's out. So I want, for me, the aim is to
strike a balance because if I know how hectic the weeks about
to get, I know how much rest I need at the start of the week.
So as opposed to when you have a nine to five job, you work first
and then you rest. Yeah, I start the week
differently. I'm like, OK, based on the
amount of work that's going to be happened on the weekend, I'm.
Going to rest first Rest. 1st we get you know, you know.
I think that's OK. Some professional athletes do
that when they're like the day of the game or whatever they
don't really like. They conserve for the energy,
yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like warm up and whatever right before, but before that
you're like doing like nothing. Because also what happens is
with the audience, what the fans see is they see you on stage.
You get up on stage, you you kill and you get off and it's
all glam. Yeah.
It's sound and lights and music and jokes.
What they don't see is you packing a bag full of equipment,
putting their bag into the car, driving yourself to the airport,
then taking their bag through security unpack, taking all of
that out and proving to the to the cops that you're not
carrying a bomb. Yeah.
And then putting all of that back in and then, you know,
hauling it to the hotel, then hauling it to the club, setting
it up, setting up the tripod, making sure the frames are
right, the lights good, etcetera, etcetera.
So they do not see what happens before and after and that it is
physically exhausting. And I think 1 one aspect where
you and I are quite alike is how we are so particular about how
every single component of our work fits.
You're going to make sure everything's right.
The sound has to be perfect, light, everything.
So when you do all of that, you know, and then you factor in the
amount of effort it takes, then this becomes easy to just rest
and you don't feel guilty about it because, yeah, I know that
the past weekend was in. It was insane because last week
was crazy. Yeah, right.
I, I wrote a bit, I workshopped it, then flew to another city
with my gear, recorded it, got back, edited the the video, the
audio, all of that stuff, and then posted it all in five days.
And that's a 24 minute video. Wow, a 24 minute stand up.
Yeah, Clip. Well, I'm kind of like getting
some some fragments of what you receive when you post stuff like
this because the back stories that obviously are here in Hong
Kong. You were doing your show last
night. Yeah, we did great.
We had a full house. You, you did amazing.
Thank you. Leading up to the gig, we were
like posting some collaborative videos.
So which means people who comment on the stuff, we get it
as well as promoters. And you posted that video.
When did you post the first like teaser the?
Teaser was probably about three days ago.
Right. And the full video dropped on
YouTube a couple. Of days ago.
A couple of days ago. Just before I flew out to Hong.
Kong just, which was obviously deliberate.
Right. Yeah, of course.
Yeah. So but then just last night,
like right after you got off stage in Hong Kong time, I think
people were catching up to the video and then we started
getting the the hate comment or the crazy comments.
Wait wait wait wait wait. So after all this work the
comments are still majority like hate and all this stuff so.
That's the thing, right? Yeah.
With the algorithm, if you want content to go viral.
Yeah, if, if it's divisive or if, if it if it stores emotions
that are negative. Yeah.
It travels faster, obviously. Yeah.
It's the kind of comedy that I
do. You do political humor in India.
It's always going to be a divided room.
It's never going to be everyone. Yeah.
I I agree with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the people who agree with you agree with you in silence.
There's people who disagree with you, you will very loudly
through fake accounts because obviously they also have jobs
that do not want to get. Fired from when they go Yeah,
you should burn. Exactly.
Whatever. So, so what's happening right
now is people have obviously not understood the intent behind
what I'm saying. They've taken bits and pieces
out of context and saying, OK, this is what he's saying about
us. And again, for some reason, they
become the victims again. And yeah, now that there are
calls for my arrest and stuff like that, so I probably going
to be, I'm probably going to just be just stay back at
Vivek's place. I think I figured out
subconsciously. I think what you're really doing
with the two days a week rest is you're preparing for jail time.
Yeah. You're just doing nothing.
You're training yourself. You're like, it's nice to do
nothing. Yeah, I mean five days if.
I if I get 6 months I'll be like that's just six months of my
Monday. Tuesday.
Exactly. You're like, that's actually
the, yeah, like it's actually just two weeks.
I mean like there is like some also you know, like this is a
real account of a under score girl under score from under
score India and her comment is you fucking kicking loser.
A terrorist supporter. Go to your whores.
No, not even whole. Who's who's?
Oh wow. This is a normal like.
This is like. You know which which which also
underlines the importance of education and and spelling.
Yeah, you know. This is what happens when you
skip school two days a week. Two days a week, Yeah, I think
she took more than three days. More than two days.
She took many days. She took many days off from
school. Another one, you're not bold,
you're just desperate for attention by mocking your own
people. If this respect acting India as
if you are the punch line, your comedy career is already the
biggest joke sell. Out.
Sell out. Hold on, how can people
contribute to this comment again?
What was your handle again? Something anyway.
Absolutely. That's absolutely.
That's yeah. Can go and respond to only one
Akash. AKA Rs.
So I tell you what everybody right over here just to mess
with the algorithm right 'cause clearly right now the algorithm
knows all the haters, everything.
And I wish I reverse it just to mess with Instagram to make them
get confused like if everyone puts nothing but positive
messages, yeah just to see what happened.
It be such a cool experiment like.
Instagram will crash. That's what I mean.
Zuckerberg will have to take two days off.
What happened? Why are people happy?
Why are they getting? Absolutely, Danny, do like pause
the podcast right now, go there right now, quickly random any
clip, any clip and click on it. Yes, leave a comment and just
like, this is hilarious, right? Just do that press.
Comment. Start like Harding.
Random comments of people. Yeah, do all that stuff.
Right, that's actually my way of also just like flaming the fire
sometimes. Just like your heart.
Random comments. Yeah, do that.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
And what the experiment really number is #1 is this to see if
it with your algorithm? Like all of a sudden you're
like, what are the haters? I don't have it right.
That's nothing but people who love my shit.
And secondly, that's a regular way.
You know how Instagram when you go to search and even without
searching for dirty women in bikini?
Shows up. Right with doing this, it might
show up more of your clips, hence hiding all those women in
bikini clips. Hence, if you want to work at
the water cooler and by mistake you'll load it by Instagram.
Danny just saved your ass. Well if my guards in bikini
clips get replaced with Danny videos I'll be very upset.
Oh, no, that's a good experiment.
You can try right now and come and be like where?
The girls in the bikinis? Yeah, yeah.
Damn, you forgot. Let him make my comment.
Change my algorithm. Well, how are you used to this,
by the way? Like this is obviously like just
the last video, but you've had it for a while.
How did you did you ever get used to it?
It means nothing to me. Like, So what I've come to
realize over the years is that when people do this, yes, they
are not actually telling you what they don't like about you.
They're telling you what they don't like about themselves.
Right, Hold on, Hold a load of that woman's who are like,
let's, let's, let's analyze, yeah, let's analyze.
Let's. Analyze her.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Who are The Who are.
So let's get her comments. We did that.
Possibly a girl from India is her account.
Yes, and. A under score Girl under score.
You fucking with many C's? Loser with two O's?
Yeah, the spelling is really all over the place.
When you see the spelling is all over the place.
Loser so. Yeah, it could be weight loss
issues. Yeah, yeah, Loser, loser.
Yeah, I'm. Trying to feel loser.
You are in fact pretty fit so I think maybe she is jealous.
She's jealous. Like how you doing?
If you look at, there you go. There you go.
Yeah. She needs to go to the gym.
She needs to go. He does, yeah.
I mean, I mean, as you can see one of her clips right now, the
only, the only weight she's carrying is her phone.
And her insecurity? Yeah, and exactly right over
there. OK, so she's doing that.
First of all, that's interesting you.
Know. So you fucking so with a lot of
CS which which again, like let's think about like with FUCK
right, would you put the emphasis on the CS or more the
K? It's usually the you fuck yeah.
Yeah, she's like, I was like, yeah.
Yeah, she's it hints at it hints at Constipation as well.
Yeah, exactly. She's.
Kind of get it out, but it's not getting out so.
What's happening right now, you know, like when you when you
have all that weight of your body.
Yeah, pressing against your butt.
Yeah. And like your, your anus is like
just squished in. Yeah, probably what's what's
happening everyday? She's going to the toilet.
She's like, yeah. And she's trying to get out of
it. She's like, I couldn't shit.
So I can't get out. Right.
OK. And then she's got loser, Loser.
Loser. Yeah.
Loser. It's actually a loser.
Loser. Yeah, it's it's LOSER is loser.
Yeah, loser. Loser.
Yeah, it's got loser. Loser than something.
It's tired. Yeah.
So.
What she's saying is, you fucking loser, what's happened?
What she's trying to say is that your Dick is so big that when
you finish fucking everything is loser.
You are actually yes. It's a compliment.
Basically it's an adjective. Jealous, right?
And then the comma she doesn't have see what she's trying to
say with looser and then comma a with no space.
But no space between the. Comma because no time for that
shit man. There's no thick thumbs.
Dude, there's no days off between.
Just get back. Yeah, right over there, right.
And then a terrorism supporter. And then this time though she
has comma and space actually. The day off, yeah.
She was. She was.
Hold on a second. I think my teacher taught me
something. Go to your horse.
Horse horse Is she tried to say whores or like or is that a
racist term for? I have this.
This is just illiteracy. Maybe we should just.
I'll just I'll just file this under illiteracy.
Maybe we should be like, what did you?
What? Yeah.
What do you mean by whores? Yeah.
For those of you wondering, it's spelled H0 0RS.
Yes, yeah, like. Those but H.
Apparently whore is a disreputable or crafty person.
Yeah, hey, that's definitely not what you meant.
The other one. The other one, yeah, is what?
Prostitute. Oh, OK, OK.
So she actually did. I don't.
Think she knows She. Doesn't know that.
Yeah, she doesn't know that. Yeah, she doesn't know.
Yeah, exactly. So right away.
What do you. Yeah, right over here.
What do you mean by who? Are you?
OK. I'm pleasant on difficult thing.
OK, So what? Your comment was real quick
again. She decided to first of all
compliment you on the fact that your Dick is big.
Yeah. Anything you fuck is loose.
Yes. Right.
Yeah, go to your. Horse.
Yeah, and then she said a terrorism supporter.
Yes, terrorism supporter. OK.
And is that because the video, like actually funny enough, they
actually went like this is just the post they're commenting on
the post of him coming to Hong Kong.
What is no video? They're just finding random
posts. To of him to just comment on and
which is now me and the other promoter.
This is what happens when people take two days off a week.
They have time to comment. Yeah.
Do you see me? This is more than two days.
Yes, no, no don't. Don't understand how much time
it took her to put that sentence together.
Yeah, but here's here's the kicker.
OK, all of this outrage because my video says that nuclear war
is not a good idea. Wow, yeah.
Like it's obviously very inflammatory position, yeah.
Wow. It's it's it's an inflammatory
position to say, hey, guys, I understand there's a conflict
going on, but let's try and not go nuclear.
Yeah. And do what we got to do, pull
back when we have to pull back, make a statement.
But let's not go all out because we are dealing with a country
that's unstable. Pakistan is a failed rogue
nation. Let's be really honest.
They've shielded every possible terrorist they could, and no
one's denying that, right? I just, I just watched the Bin
Laden document. Exactly.
That doesn't make you a black boy.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's pretty mental how much they were like,
so he spoiled alert they killed him.
It wasn't. It wasn't the Pakistanis, in
fact, where the last spot he was in where he they killed.
Him. Is right next to a Pakistani
military. Base Wow.
And the Americans had to fly under the radar to go and
because they knew that the Pakistanis would probably tip
them off. They cannot be if.
They work with they cannot be trusted.
Yeah, wow. So my this is just I'm not by
the way, the the your statement in Pakistan.
I don't know enough to support or not but but like that that
that Bin Laden thing is what happened.
Yeah. So I'll give an example.
So even now when India retaliated, right, and they
struck the terror terrorist centers in, in Pakistan, they
killed relatives and family members of a very note, notable
terrorist who we were forced to release when the Kandahar hijack
happened in, in the 90s, right? So that guy is still alive and
we managed to wipe out a bunch of his family members.
And when the funeral was held, there were members of the
Pakistani army who attended the funeral.
So it's, there's, there's no debating that Pakistan is, is a
rogue nation that supports and, and their army and the
government supports terrorists, right?
And I'm with you on that. That point being is they are
terrorists who have nuclear missiles.
Yeah, do you get what? I mean, I don't think it's, I
don't know if a lot of these people who are calling for an
out and out war understand what is going to happen should it get
to a point where there is a nuclear attack.
Yeah, dude. Right.
And Pakistan has second strike capabilities like most nuclear
nations do. So it's not like, oh, we can,
you know, hide the nuclear missile under a cloud.
They won't see it coming. And then before they can react,
no. Yeah, we'll know.
Yeah. So it isn't so much as me being
a sympathizer for Pakistan, it's me being a sympathizer for life
in general. I think we would all like to
live. Because if this goes nuclear,
it's not just India and Pakistan is affected.
It's the whole world. That is why America stepped in.
Yeah. Because America is like, yo,
don't fuck with our tariff stuff that we're doing right now.
You know what? I.
Mean it's also would be like a proxy war, right, Because that's
why like, you know, the West traditionally like the Indian
side and then China and Russia and whatever the other side.
But also the whole concept of of the nuclear arms is mutual
assured destruction, yes. So that's like the Indians.
No, nobody wins. Nobody wins, nobody wins.
And that's why we never do it. Yeah, right.
That's like the whole the Russian missile crisis back
then, yeah, was like, it got that close.
It got that close, Yeah. And one man stopped it.
One man stopped. It.
Yeah, because we're gonna fuck ourselves too, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Use your head.
So you're you're saying stuff that is like such like common
sense. It's.
Common sense, of course, it's peppered with a lot of jokes.
And what what what happens with a lot of people who get angry
with jokes is they mistake the punch line for a belief system.
It's not a belief system. A punch line is like a fart.
It happens in the moment. There's a reaction and then it
dissipates. Yeah, you're not supposed to
hold on to it and be like, that's what he believes.
No that. Punch line like that that people
got upset by in that. Like, for example, OK, one of
the common arguments with people who do not want to go to war
from people who do want to go to war in this context.
And people would say stuff like what if one of your family
members was killed by a terrorist?
Would you still one piece right. So the punch line there is, I
thought about it and who does not have one or two family
members they wouldn't like to see shot to the.
Head right, Yeah, which? They have now assumed to be me
making fun of the victims of the attack.
No, this is a joke about family dynamics where we as much as we
pretend that we all love each other and get along, we don't.
Of course we there's a lot of rivalry within families.
There's a lot of anger and hatred within families.
And that's why why the joke gets to laugh.
It has nothing to do with do victims.
And then I immediately follow it up by saying that that that's a
very valid question. And I think it's a question that
every Indian should ask themselves.
What if one of your family members was killed by that?
So I show a little grace over there.
I show empathy. I show you know then.
You get it, I get it. I'm thinking that too.
I'm not just punching. Punching down.
But The thing is, the writing is obviously layered.
These are these are people they spell losers with two.
OS. You know, so I'm not, I don't
have high expectations on people who spell loser with two OS.
But there was also in the Indian comedy scene, there has been a
few incidents like you, you're still so far getting off quite
easy. There have been incidents of
violence, right? It was one There was one
incident of vandalism. Right.
Which again, was so hilarious. You got to hear this story,
right? So this Kunal Kamra, he's
another comedian, very political, very funny.
And he he's probably like he and he does it in Hindi.
So his reach is far more than mine.
Because with, with my work, it probably stops at Tier 2 cities.
After that the people in the villages or in, in country India
don't don't really get it. And they're like, it's not for
them. Well, but with him, it reaches
every corner of the country. When he speaks, it reaches every
corner of the country. But the video that he dropped
was quiet. It was quiet.
He he he was doing jokes about the chief minister of
Maharashtra, where the club is located, right.
And this is a club where the habitat where a lot of comedy
clips are, are recorded. So if you, you know.
You have a lot of. I have a lot both my specials
were recorded there. So that's a very populism.
Probably the most popular club in the country.
So and everybody knows where that is.
So when he dropped the video and peoples it it, it got it went
viral instantly. Now people from the the, the the
party that were upset like their their hench men, whoever party
workers, they thought that he's at the club right?
Because I saw him on my phone. He's this is where he is.
Let's go there. He lives there.
So he is Habitat. Yeah.
It's. Like this guy has, you know
those corkboards at home with those strings attached?
Video in this place, This place on map.
This man must be there all. Right, let's go.
And then this whole gang of maybe 30-40 people show up and
there's another show going on. There's this.
This video was recorded months ago, right?
He's not there and he show up over there and where is Kunal?
Where is Kunal? Where is he?
And people are like he's not here.
Rubbish. I saw him, he was here an hour
ago, so you got to understand. That's the mentality.
Of the.
People we're dealing with, but at the same time, they do not
represent the entire country. Yeah, of course, they represent
a very small percentage of the people in in India, which is, in
my opinion, a great country where people genuinely just want
to fucking take care of themselves, of course, give
their family a nice life and, you know, a nice life, sorry.
And and, and try and make the most of whatever comes their
way. They're not, they're not
interested in this stuff. Yeah.
These are games played by people in power for wars, etcetera,
etcetera and. Keep them divided.
Yes, keep them divided, keep them angry.
Keep may give them something to, you know, Yeah.
Yeah. So it's like, it's like a, it's
like a game of chess. And all of these people are
pawns. Yeah, yeah, You know, so.
OK, so they showed up like, because I remember the video.
Yeah. And it was just them, like
destroying everything. There's a video of them showing
up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah. Ironically, it's yeah,
ironically does the video. It's only in the in the venue
itself, right, Because it'll be cool.
They shot their own video selfieing themselves.
We're going to go to this place now and could not it's like.
The it's like the Chico January protesters.
Yeah, yeah, integrating themselves.
Yeah. So they recorded the videos
themselves. Yeah.
And then Kunal took the same videos that they.
Posted to them. And what he did in this special
was he had parody songs about how the country is going in a
very different direction than it should.
Right. Basically, you know, instead of
being progressive, we are going into a very regressive space.
Just sure. That's the gist of the song.
Yeah. Except now what he did was
instead of him singing the song on stage, he took the same song.
And then he put use that as a backing track for them
vandalizing the venue and it went even more amazing lost They
should do more. So I think what these people
need to do is take a step back, you know, just just try and just
sit over it for a while, understand what is going on over
here. And I but I don't think they
have the capacity to do that. So it's just get angry, react,
get angry, react, get angry, react.
And if you watch these clips, there are men in those clips
that are easily 6065 plus there's an older gentleman in
there. And I felt really bad.
I mean, imagine. Like taking stuff just smashing
it on the floor is like. Why don't imagine being a 65
year old and that is what you're doing with your Yeah, you should
be getting ready to retire with your grandkids just taking your
feet up. Take more than two days off in a
week. But it generally made me sad to
to see that this is what that person's life is reduced to,
just being a thug. Yeah, the whole, the whole.
But for Also for what? Like because the the comedian
made a joke about the, let's say, the mayor for simplicity.
Yeah, like some political figure like.
Political figure who? Yeah.
That's that's insane.
That's an insane way to think of like, hey here, you attacked my
idol. Yeah, who's not even like, you
know, you're dad or whatever. Yeah, some guy who runs the
city. Yeah.
And now I'm going to go break a place.
Yeah, that's. Yeah, I think.
It's really hard to wrap your head around.
I think actually the two of you have just reinforced my belief
system of keeping yourself busy. Like I wouldn't have time.
I would want to be like dude I have my schedule full, I can't
come and vandalize the place. Dude, I got a meeting at 4:00.
I think like for me, I think I can't think of anyone who I
don't know personally that I would do that for, you know,
exactly like if someone to, you know, talk shit about you guys.
You might be. Yeah, yeah, what the fuck I.
Stand up for it. But then if I like, like who's
we just watch Hans Zimmer, We went, we went on about how
amazing he is. Yeah, if someone is talking shit
about hands or like someone's like, hey, he's a fucking
terrorist, white supremacist. I'm like, OK, I don't think so.
But like, sure, yeah, that's it. Yeah, you know what?
He's on tour. You're not, but OK.
Yeah, I'll be like, hey, you're a fucking idiot.
That's maybe the maximum I will do it.
Like you're an idiot for thinking that.
And also the effort it takes to log in, write a comment,
misspell it, and fuck up the punctuation.
They, they, they know the misspelling because the the red
Quigley thing is underneath. They know.
Yeah, yeah. Exactly to do all of that, it is
so much easier to just scroll up.
Yeah, just not just do that and but and more I discussed
yesterday as well. A lot of this comes from self
worth. This this.
They feel like the entire, I have to say.
You tie you if you tie yourself worth to nationalism.
Patriotism. Yeah, Stuff that.
I'm not saying don't love your country, love your country.
But you you had nothing to do with you being Indian.
Yeah, you didn't. You didn't apply to be Indian.
Yeah, in some previous life. You were just born there.
It happened by chance. India is a great country.
If you want to love the country, great.
But yourself, what needs to come from things that.
Your own. Who have done your own
achievements? Yes, and I find that people who
don't have their own achievements to fall back on
fill that void. Yeah, with stopping other.
People. Yeah, Yeah.
By by saying, you know, I'm proud to be a part of this
religion. I'm proud to be part of this
country, which is great, but what else have you done?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And if if the manifestation of
your pride for your nation or your religion is abusing other
people, attacking them, realizing them that that's not a
yeah, it's not a pretty picture, is it?
Yeah. Right.
And especially if you're talking about religion, whoever like
whatever the religion is, a lot of the, the essence of, of it is
usually something very noble and whoever is peaceful and whoever
is like, you know, the, the leader, let's say Jesus,
simplicity or Buddha or whatever, they would not agree.
Exactly. How you are manifesting that
yeah, your your subscription to that religion and.
How you are using that religion as a weapon, exactly.
Exactly if whichever religion no God is going to be like, yeah,
that's what I've been talking about.
Exactly. I hit him.
Hit him hard. Yeah, no.
Two days off and it's not a son. I built the whole world and took
only one day off. I built the whole fucking world.
I took one day of this. Motherfucker did what?
He put the video on YouTube and he's like, I'm done fuck up.
Yeah, love it. Yeah, but at the same time there
is a lot of you guys in India, like young comedians who have
been touring very excessively and a lot of you not just are
very different, but a lot of you touch on the political stuff.
Is there No Fear? Like how far does it go when it
comes to like your own safety and stuff like this?
I I don't think every comedian touches upon politics the way
Kunal myself. And there's another comedian
called Varun Grover. There's three of us who who talk
vocal. Yeah, one more vocal.
The rest they don't. Not to my knowledge at least.
They don't. It's understandable.
It's not that they don't have the skill to do it, it's just
that they don't want to deal with the hassle.
But I'm curious, for those that don't do it, is it that they did
here and there or they've never been the political type?
They've probably seen what has happened to people who do it,
and they'll be like, yeah, I don't want this.
Oh yeah, fair. They won't play that game,
right? Yeah, It's like watching rugby,
like, yeah, you know, I'll play snooker.
Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, Yeah.
Yeah. And and that's a personal call
for me. That's just the kind of comic
I've always been. And it's not.
I'm just, it's not. I don't see myself as a
political comedian. I just see myself as a social
commentary, commentary, you know, What's this that's
happened? Like, you saw the show last
night. It had not.
There was like, no jokes about politics.
It was such a personal show. Yeah.
So all of us have the capacity
to talk about everything that we find interesting or bizarre.
Yeah. It's just that there's a certain
group of people, and believe me, it's a very small percentage of
the entire population, but it's a very loud.
Percentage. Yeah, that's always the.
Case. So it kind of makes you feel
like it's more people than there.
It's not actually. So for them, it's just not for
them. So what's happening right now,
all the people who are getting offended by comedy, especially,
and not just India, all over the world, it's it's, it's people
who have no business consuming that art form.
That's always the case, right? Yeah.
It's always the not for them. It's the art critic who can't do
the art piece. But they're like, let me tell
you how baroque it is. Like, yeah, you can't even play
the piano. Sure.
But but these guys have not even understood what stand up is.
They think stand up is a speech. It's a statement.
Yeah, that's a. Statement.
He means what he's saying, right?
No, that's not what it is. Man, Yeah, the the education
factor, though. However, I think it's one of
those things that an Asian culture itself, that it's a very
like I need to show that I'm the righteous person versus you.
And on top of that, yeah, the whole like, you know, oh,
there's drama. I know what drama is.
I know what theatre is. Like there's guys talking, I
talk. So that means, you know, my
comedian now is like, no, no, it's not the same thing.
I laugh. Yeah.
So I should I should. Find entitled.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Having a sense of humor is not the same as the ability to
laugh. They're two different things.
But I also stand up. I think it's one of the most
accessible forms of art in terms of starting.
And it's a very working class art.
Form very working class. Is, is right there, Yeah.
Like if you want to like, for example, Hans Zimmer, like you
said, it's not not, not not the average person, Yeah.
Because Hans Zimmer doesn't go that way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can start, a lot of
people can start stand up now and become the best in the world
in excellent number of years if they have what it takes, right.
Yeah. So yeah, because of that, people
feel like. And it's also because of the
simplicity of doing it right. Yeah.
It's just a guy talking even. Like, you can even take away the
mic in certain formats. You can take away the mic and
the light Just, like, have one person in a room talking to
other people and you're doing stand up.
Yeah. Right.
So it's like, it feels like you're just talking to them.
Right? Yeah.
But you don't understand the use of like.
Yeah. Like like manipulating the
language to elicit laughter. Or whatever.
Yes, the layers, yeah, that goes into it.
There's a lot of, there's a lot of psychology behind what we're
saying. Yeah, yeah.
So. Have you ever thought about
taking revenge by simply going to, let's say old folks homes
and performing for their parents and then their parents are
brainwashed by your content and they tell their because I think
it's a good idea because how can you talk like this data atomic
War One of those. Things but it's so hilarious.
I was selling more this yesterday.
Yeah, I was thinking of that as well.
In the last one year, the demographics of my audience in
India has changed, where people are now bringing their parents
to the shows and I have a lot of older fans.
Yeah. What's the reasoning?
Have you ever asked why did you bring your pants?
Are they like we want to hate them and give them a heart
attack or come on? So the reasoning is a lot of my
younger fans, they like my work and they kind of they share
clips now. Yeah, on.
Would you would you say like you're saying certain things
that they wish they could say but they can't, but they bring
their pants possibly. And it was fun, the chest of
friends like he laughed at that. That's that's another.
Angle like where people are like, OK, this is the kind of
show my parents need to watch, so I'll go watch it.
But also now, because people are sharing a lot of videos on
family WhatsApp groups, so I'm guessing they're having a
conversation like, but I also have much older fans who come to
the show by themselves. So I once had a show in Mumbai
last year where there was this older lady with two of her sons
and I could not tell who was the bringer.
You know what? I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm the fan. The sons.
The sons bring her. Yeah.
So I was like. Who?
Because there was no, there was nobody young there.
Like she was easily about 8085 that old.
Her sons were in her 60s, in their 60s.
And I'm just like, I was like, whose idea was this?
And the mother goes, it was mine.
And I'm like what? What was the reasoning?
So I, I I'll. Be funny if the whole family has
Alzheimer's and they have. No idea.
And we're like, Oh yeah. Exactly like Whose idea?
Who are you? Why am I here?
Who will be my day off? Yeah.
It was more like whose idea? So I asked her.
I said, OK, if you don't mind me asking, you follow my work.
She's like, yes. And she's like, I watch a lot of
your stuff on YouTube, and I've always wanted to watch you live.
So when I saw you were coming, I told my sons, listen, we're
going. Let's go.
Yeah. And if you actually think about
it, a lot of our parents spending all their time on the
phones. Yeah, especially if you're
retired, that's how you're doing.
So yeah, they are watching ourselves.
And now what I've seen is that the older audience is like, hang
on. I don't want to just sit on my
couch all day. Yeah, let me go watch.
He's coming to Mumbai. Yeah, I'm going to go watch.
And that also works for you as the artist, because they are the
ones who have the real might have money.
Yeah. And economic like, you know, in
the economy now, the young people have less money.
They have the real money, they don't have the the technical
skills to leave comments. Yes, it's like a perfect
audience, ma'am. Yeah.
Wow, and you won't believe it, Vivek, you would assume.
And you've seen the kind of comedy.
Yeah, So you wouldn't please somebody bringing their mom or?
Yeah, yeah. Are you sure?
Yeah. Talking about some.
So when I was like, let's see how this goes, bro.
They laugh harder than the younger folks, Yeah.
Wow. There was a couple of like,
older ladies last night and she was.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were such good audience.
Yeah. Like there was a lady like even
before you went up, when I was up, she was laughing at like
inappropriate times that it actually threw me off and I had
to address it. But she was having so much fun.
Yeah. It's just like maybe 6570 year
old Indian woman. I'm like, this is definitely not
our usual. Yeah, crap.
Two theories for what happened, right?
Yeah. Theory #1 she was laughing off
time. Yeah, it's either she can see
the future, or she's so slow that the joke had to take 2
seconds to hit the head. Either way, she still got the
joke. Yes #1 I actually thought you're
going to make fun of my accent by going like, oh.
But she by the time it she processed what I was saying,
yeah. Yeah, what was Tutankhamun
saying? I don't get this.
You do. You can build.
The pyramids. Yeah, right.
The the other option is, you know how every generation before
us tells us that we're we're we're soft.
Yeah, made of them. Maybe they're seeing yourself
going like finally some somebody speaking my language where it's
like, this is this is what we should be.
This is kind of talk we should be doing.
And I think this is a mistake on the part of the younger
generations. We tend to infantilize our
parents. Our parents, What do they know?
Yeah, they're old. They don't know, but man,
they've seen some shit that you have not.
I guarantee. They've been through some.
Our life, our generation's life is so much easier in so many
ways. Yeah, exactly.
Like all all, a lot of our struggles is like, you know,
like still within the in in a room, like in a building is
within. The confines of extreme
privileges. Exactly.
And extreme safety, exactly. Like we didn't really have to
deal with a lot of, you know, safety.
Running around, Yeah. Running around carrying like.
Obviously depends where you came from or whatever.
Fleeing a country. Fleeing a country.
A lot of our parents have spent their entire marriages living in
different countries because the husband had to go there for work
and printing the family. I know so many of my friends
dude it. Was mum and dad coming like go
to the Gulf? Go to the Gulf.
Same for us, we also go to the Gulf.
Everyone just goes to where the one.
Is so the house? Of Indians, lots of Middle
Eastern. Yeah, so the so the men are in
the in the Gulf. Yeah.
The families are back home and they spend their entire adult
lives like that. Yeah, they couldn't talk and
most the phone. Call get a phone call once a.
Week. Yeah, sometimes you get a
cassette tape. I have cassette tapes from my my
uncles and my grandpas like when they were sending it from Iraq
from Yes mixtape. My grandpa just dropped the
tape. Was that podcast that was?
Podcast, He sent the episode over.
This part of the podcast brought to you by Fool Panda.
Not around, but I feel in the future it's going to be.
It was brought to you by Iraq Airlines.
They delivered it. Oh man.
Yeah. And then they would come like
twice a year, as you said, for like holiday or whatever.
Now the kids call it long distance relationship.
Yeah, yeah. They call for them, it was life.
It was life, yeah. Yeah, the husband fucked off.
Like you had a couple of kids and then that's it.
Yeah. Figured out he'll come back any
moment now. He has to be ready.
And every time you come back, the key, your kid looks
completely different. Yeah.
He's like every time you deal with a different human.
Yeah. And I could never do imagine
doing something like that. Same.
They've been through stuff. So for me, one of the the
biggest joys at live shows is when I now see older folks in
the audience and they're having a great time, it it makes me so
much more happy. It makes me happier than the
young guy. Yeah, it's not easy to make
somebody from a different time laugh at the stuff that you're
saying based on your experiences today.
Yeah, yeah. So.
If you're still, yeah, if you're still able to connect on some
level and they can still feel that, it means, man, that's
magic right there. Wow.
I genuinely, I'm thinking about it as well.
The number of times people say nice things after shows, a lot
of the times it's actually the older folks than the younger
folk. The younger folk can say
something like nice job, good job, or whatever.
The people who take the time a lot of the times to come and say
something, it's usually the older people.
Now that I'm thinking about it, it's so interesting.
But there is also they are less entitled, right?
Because the younger people have so many options.
And also see when you know you're running out of time, you
you, you kind of more measured with.
Yeah, you're like, I don't want to waste my time bashing shit
down. Shit up, Yeah.
Again my. I want to tell them what do you
think what what I really think because I might not have
another. Chance, right?
This is what I mean. We're back in full circle.
Dude, you're running out of time.
You don't waste your time doing that stupid shit.
What have I done? I know I'm not running out of
time. I have the time, but I'm
creating a scenario where I'm not having enough time so that
way I don't waste my time doing that kind of shit.
I like to end the podcast on this because there's nothing
more to this because I've established the fact that I've
been correct from date, from moment one, number one.
No, I mean, I, I, we still have a few minutes before, before we
go, I would like to bring up something because that's also
something Danny and I were talking about how the idea of
making it in this business. And we had a long discussion
last night about how, you know, it's so easy to get caught into
like the not just the comparison with your peers, but also like
what, what is the definition of making it?
And I had to reflect when I was talking to Danny about how,
like, in a lot of ways, I think I made it already by simply just
opting out of the system that I absolutely hated being part of,
you know, having a job, like, you know, traditional job or
whatever. I like doing a lot of stuff that
I'm don't want to do to the point that now I think I'm
almost at 100% of things that I'm only doing the things I want
to do. Yeah, the whole time.
And the fact that I'm not homeless while doing that is
good enough, is absolutely good enough.
And the reminder you have to keep reminding for me, I have to
keep reminding myself that I might not be, as you know, in
comparison to my peer, who I really want to be, whatever.
But at the same time, like this is a dream for me. 8-9 years ago
when I was so fucking sad of my job and I was just hoping
horrible things happened to me because I don't, I, I don't, I
hate this. What am I doing?
And yeah, you're saying the same thing about how like, you know,
a lot of us, like when we started, if you, you were saying
you can tell your own words if you were told yourself.
Yeah. So basically what the gist of
the conversation was about how stand up has become so
competitive and everyone's, you know, measuring themselves
against other people is like, oh, he's doing a 2000 seat, I'm
not there yet. Oh, he's doing, he's doing
these, he's performing in these countries.
And it's so easy to get lost in that, you know, bark away in
comparison. And you didn't be like, I'm not
good enough. I'm I, you know, my stand up
sucks and this and like that. I'm never going to make it.
And you got to keep reminding yourself that, dude.
Like so if nine years ago, if you were to tell me then you
know nine years from now you're going to do 3 weeks in
Australia. Yeah, you're like hell no you.
Smash it there. You're going to go to Hong Kong,
you're going to smash it there, and after that you're going to
go back to India, smash it there, and then you're going to
go to Europe and smash it. Or they're going to London,
Amsterdam and Berlin and all these places and you're going to
kill. I'd be like, man, that is the.
Dream, dream, dream. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But now that we are here, I'm like, oh man, no, I got to do
this. I got to do this.
So the goal post, that's one of the things, one of the side
effects of being ambitious is that the goal post is constantly
shifting and like, OK, now it's I'm here, but it's not going to
I want to do this. I want to do this.
And it's so easy to get caught in that rat race of, you know, I
got to make it. I got to make it and you're
dead. Whereas so many of us failed to
realize that we're we're already doing it.
Yeah. The for me, I think I like what
Anthony, Justin Link said. If you've not had to go to a day
job, if you don't have to have a day job and you're still able to
take care of yourself, right? You have a roof over your head,
meals on the table, bed to sleep on.
And you can do that through stand up.
You've made it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, yeah. You know, so and we, we we both
agreed when we said this that I think the biggest success for
any performing artist or a producer or somebody who's just
doing something they love is the freedom, not the money.
Yeah. The freedom to be your own boss,
to have that kind of control over your life will be like,
yeah, I'm going to take two days off.
Who's going to stop me? Yeah.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you.
Know or I'm going to walk my ass off to the point where I don't
have friends anymore. Who's going to stop me?
Yeah, yeah, that's the dream, man.
What happened? You're.
Also living your. Dream if I have a girlfriend
have a doorbell anymore, what would be the day Man, if I could
just. Shut the door.
Yeah. Just cement it and like not
have. Every time someone told me shut
the front door, I'm like, that's the dream man.
I'm aiming to do dude. I was just like, I was just
having small talk with his mom outside.
Yeah. And just like, oh, I said, like,
oh, can I help myself with some water?
She's like, oh, yeah. Feel at home.
Yeah. I'm like, I'm the only one.
Guess who was allowed here anyway?
Absolutely. Yeah, regular basis.
For sure, and this is work. If it wasn't for this, no one is
allowed. This is.
The one I think the good thing is that the the the the wrap up
that you just now about like the the real reality that people to
think about life and the meaning and what it is that you really
want and everything. The sad reality that when anyone
else, when a whole bunch of people hear what you said, even
though it's like got a lot of meaning to it, they're going to
probably leave a comment and be like you fucking loser your time
if with your time is terrorizing the peeps.
Like what? What are you even saying?
I mean like you're authorizing me with your grandma.
Exactly. Yeah, Yeah.
You wouldn't say terrorizing. You're terrorizing.
You're rising. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
To write, to write to your who's.
Yeah. Exactly.
All that stuff. Speaking of which, how do people
find you online so they can leave?
Hate hate mail. Oh yeah, I'm available on
Instagram for abuse and trolling.
Yes, at absolutely, Danny. That's right.
And if you want to watch a bunch of longer videos, you go to my
YouTube channel, Daniel Fernandez.
People can also leave comments there.
Leave. Comments yeah abuse me over
there as well yeah protect your insecurities onto me I.
Can take it. And where are you going to be?
We do have like actually listeners in India as well.
Where are you going to be in the next in the next phase of your?
So I'm going to head back to India.
I'm doing a bunch of shows starting June 7th across the
country right up till right until August.
The information is available in the link in my bio.
After that, I'll probably do another tour in India and then
I'm heading to Europe. So that would be in on October,
November. And that's when you claim
asylum. Probably.
Yes, but let's we play a cards, right?
Yeah, but I, I, I'm not sure when I'm returning to India now.
I'm probably going to just hang out outside the.
Yeah, in the periphery. In the in the periphery for a
while and see how things go. With, with your terrorist
friends and yeah, and the Hooters and the.
Hooters. The Hooters?
Absolutely. Always chill with some hoots,
yeah? Exactly.
Thanks. Thanks.
Thanks so much for doing this, man.
Anytime. Always a pleasure.
Nice to have you always. Thanks everyone for coming.
Thanks for coming to the live show, Danny, as well.
Yeah, we have a lot of stuff go coming up, so stay tuned.
We're about to record the Patreon as well.
patreon.com/about $5 a month. You can support the school
stuff. And yeah, we'll see you, Danny,
on the Patreon as well. Done.
All right, see you guys, guys. Bye.
See you.