0:00 [Music] welcome back to another great episode of careful boys today we got Brett over there hey but today we are going to get to know Gucci hey yay so standup comedian yes you've been doing it how long I've been doing stand-up comedy for seven years seven years wow years and you started doing it in New York yes I started in New York I actually F Well my comedy origin story actually happens um when I was really young my mom had us in a mega church I was born in Dallas Texas and then moved to New York at about 8 n years old but in that mega church it was uh Potter's House uh Pastor Bishop DD Jakes and we we had a visitor and it was Steve Harvey
0:51 no way Steve Harvey this is like in the early 2000s and he does like Steve Harvey stuff I can't remember if he did comedy or just there but he was funny and I was like I don't know what he's doing but I want to do that for the rest of my life wow I didn't know like what he was doing I didn't really have any context for it um cuz I went to school for like I went to school for biology to be a nurse or whatever my mom wanted me to to be at the time um but then I found uh through one of my electives I found out about improv comedy and then through improv a girl was like hey you want to come do this Open Mic at the QED in um uh in Queens New York and I was like yeah I'll try it and then that was the first time I ever did stand up and I was like how old were you uh I was 21 or 22 were you not scared to like try
1:42 stand up terrified that's straight into hard mode too Open Mic yep I was terrified and I at after I got off the stage I was like this is what I want to do for the rest of my life do you remember how it went like what you what your material was how people received it I think I talked about this one homeless lady in Brooklyn who she was really entertaining like she'd be like let me get a dollar let me get a dollar like she was really entertaining um I think she made bread too um and then I told like some story yeah like some some ████ up story about my mom saying the nword and that because your mom's Japanese yes because my mom is Japanese it was it was genuine curiosity I don't tell the joke anymore I can't even really remember the Beats of the joke but she it's somewhere along the lines of she's like tchi What's the different between a real ████ and a
2:32 fake one I have the same question need to people want to know that's pretty but it's probably cuz she hears it all the time you're like you're a fake ass like oh there's a real one then a fake one okay yeah what this I need I need to know how do I be a real how do I be a real one I want to be real so yeah like that was told something like that and everyone was like oh that was so funny and I told them it was my first time too so they had a lot of Grace for not having actual written jokes um yeah and so kind of just from there I was like I didn't stop yeah and what was the first few years like like doing it out there uh the first few years were rough um I
3:23 did tell a story earlier about uh uh me being booed for the first time that was that was in tense um doing it every night like like Monday Tuesday Wednesday so at that point I was working full-time at the bank so I was whenever I could yeah so it was mostly like Wednesday through Saturday sun or Wednesday through Friday at that point cuz I would go right from work to either class or right from work to a mic um and that was just non-stop for that first two years of my comedy career nonstop dang and then uh how did you we heard the story about you being booed but like how did you take that and how are your how are your sets like after that um I just kind of brushed it off I'm a little sadistic that way I think you have to be as a comic you have to be like all right on to the next also it doesn't actually like hurt you internally that bad n n
4:15 not that bad like I mean I feel like now I'm good at it so I'm like yeah I got my got back I got my G on this guy so that if that same thing that same guy booed you today how would how would it affect you he would look crazy cuz I'd be ripping like who's this guy yeah I've had like really weird heckles and stuff like I think some my heckles tend to be like somebody thinking they're helping the joke and they're not helping oh they're trying to throw you in assist I see yeah yeah they're like they're enjoying themselves but they think that they're like helping this the show that's a weird thing that happened yeah people are drunk and they're dumb they're giving you add-ons yeah dang what were some of the like did you have any like situations that like were like Breakthrough moments and as you were climbing up that you were like yo I really leveled up because of this like um uh not it wasn't particularly an opportunity but there are moments like
5:05 um like a girl passed out in a show and then I was like ████ I'm funny like it was so she passed out from laughing no she passed out because it was hot in the it was like in a CrossFit gym and I was like oh ████ like what are we do you doing te while people are working out that be hilarious that's crazy I just said up a mic and everyone's ████ doing pull uping and ████ no no it's like one of those shows that um that like they rent out of space and then they open their space to do it yeah it was a CrossFit gym and like the ventilation wasn't good or whatever and I guess the girl was like she was drinking too much I don't know what but you just hear th like hits the ground yeah yeah yeah um and then I have like like I've done like shows at retirement
5:56 homes I I've had you know I've had people I've seen people like walk out on sets but that was the first time I've ever had somebody flag down an aid to wheel them out no like these people are dying and they're like I'd rather be anywhere else than here right now so grumpy that was great I was like oh this is I made it what do you what do you do in that do you like do you address it do you roast do you roast the oh yeah you have to call out the elephant in the room like oh that is crazy he has 990 seconds to live and he wants to leave okay all right like yeah ████ it cuz life is short you know and you have to I think that's what improv has taught me cuz I actually instruct improv in Downtown LA now oh um at the terasaki buddh Kang bu Kong
6:46 what is that that's the temple temple Buddhist comedy they what it's Buddhist comedy Buddhist com we hit a Gong every time we think something's funny you don't laugh you just hit a Gong [Laughter] no it's um the community center the Japanese Community Center in downtown LA yeah so partnered with them we we provide a oh is a new building next to the AA oh that one where they do the basketball EXA yeah I lived across the street they were building it when I was living there oh ████ yeah no it's completely built it's beautiful on Los Angeles is that on Los Angeles by the library yck exactly ump yeah it's really cool we provide like really low cost and so we provide you know the service for the community and give people the opportunity to join an art that they might not have access to that's ████ tight yeah damn what what was the
7:36 different about like I'm so curious about your upbringing having like with with your parents being Japanese and black like how was that yo so real talk like I didn't even know I was black until I was 8 years old when somebody was like hey yo you don't look like your mom and I was like what the ████ are you talking about and they were like look like you're dark and your mom's not dark and then I she picked me up fromo that day and I was like yo you were never going to tell me like that's crazy and like it was I didn't think I had toing you like can't you tell what the heck for real I was so I was shocked like I had a really Asian upbringing my mom didn't realize she was Raising black kids she was thought she was Raising Asian kids and like a lot of my upbringing was very Japanese yeah until I realized later in life I was like oh
8:28 dude that's crazy for that to hit later yeah what kind so what about like your food at home was mainly Japanese food Japanese food like even if my mom wanted to make a different culture of food we always had white rice she would make Southern Fried Chicken but white rice like always rice is a what a combo though yeah facts what about was your pops in the picture or no no no I'm like the second youngest of my dad's seven or eight kids yeah so he forgot about us to be real I'm not going to lie yeah you've been getting it in that long you'd be like same mom or no no no we have um I think me and my brother and then my older brother Lon and Ashley we're the only two kids that have the same parents and everyone else has different parents were they was were they Asian too or no no no no they have a separate mom different Asian I think their mom was white actually yeah yeah
9:19 yeah he got around he was like I'm just going to try a little bit everything he's just building un within his lineage hey what's up guys just in case you have seen some of these lovely pieces on some of our gentlemen here these awesome Jade pendants or you may have seen the recent JK Adventure where we went to J Jewelers just remember that the sale is on now if you want to visit the J jewel. you can even find some of the stuff that our guys have had and way way more the selection is huge so make sure to visit the J Jewelers and check out what they've got check it out let's go what about what was your mom's parenting style like oh my mom was like she was a bit she was stct she was a bit of a hover parent but like she could only do so much because my mom had to work nights she didn't have a green card so she had to work like restaurant jobs or like you know like aid jobs she couldn't
10:09 do anything that was um on the books particularly so um she that means that job took up a lot of her time so she couldn't really I was the ████ parent damn near I was parenting my younger brother like you taking care of him and cooking and stuff yeah exactly um so you know but she was still like really hard on us like very heavy on AC mics you know we weren't allowed to be failures that was not a choice dang yeah did you guys have any family around cuz your mom came here by herself right no we didn't have family around not once we left Texas we really didn't have family around yeah it was literally just the three of us it was the three of us for a long time it must have looked like your mom kidnapped you guys we we literally just looked like the darker versions of her we are spitting images of Lady kidnapped two black kids but then so which did she tap into
11:00 the Japanese community at places where you lived or just the black church in that Community yeah she would raise us in black churches she was she I'm pretty sure she had no idea what was going on like she just her life makes no sense she just like the music maybe yeah and she was always offbeat it was very noral it stood out did you ever ask her like why she didn't connect with the Japanese Community there but she just decided to go to a black church like a little there she's like I'll just go to the black church one time I I remember one time we're eating together and we're just sitting at the table having a regular conversation and she out of nowhere goes she goes yeah you know because I'm black and we're [Laughter] like she say because I'm a
11:50 br what come again she genuinely thought for like a long time she was a black woman believe that wow wow did she do the whole Kat stuff where she tanned and and like got braids and like no no she didn't do that no no she didn't do that that's she looks like a straight up Japanese woman she yeah Bob cut wear's Cardigans she's not she doesn't appropriate in any sense she's just like she just feels it that is did you ask her what she meant by that like she said she she thinks she's a black person what she your mom never went through that I don't know bro but Japanese people look race look at race in a different way that's that's for sure what's different it's not they think it's a choice no like
12:42 okay it's a it's only they were way ahead of that uh transracial stuff before here yeah cuz I don't know if you remember like so like once in a while I'll see a program um on like the Japanese TV of like dancers and stuff and they perm their hair and they that's like0 sty and they would have like cornrows and stuff and I was always so confused how they got that and my mom was like no we when we perm our hair it's to go curly and I'm like that's interesting they all wanted Rick James haircuts that's why yeah they like yeah yeah and they be looking fire yeah they look kind of tight man yeah it be looking real good it's like if you're going to honor the original like get pretty ████ close and they let me tell you when Asian people do anything we do our ████ best yes bro I feel like put all of our they go too
13:32 hard though cuz you know like let's say they get into low riders right there's so much into low riders that they end up like waving the Mexican flag around and like looking like a vato yeah there's like a group of cholos out in in Japan I'm like they can't just do the car now they got to do the taco stand and the Mexican flag that they're waving around how long the rockabilly crew been in the park too dud they've been there since after World War II rock and roll like they're holding rock and roll on their shoulders like that's them that's TI cuz if you're going to do it you might as well do it right they put it longer than it existed as American stuff they preserve I think they preserve Americana better than Americans cuz like you know Levi's jeans right they the last surviving like OG Levis like machines the old school ones it exists in Japan cuz they'll buy it back in the day and
14:22 they just kept good care of it and you can't find those in the states no more we should just send them all of our artifacts he they're the best museum curators dude of like winning the boxing brand old it's going out like they can't make any more like boxing products because they can't train any more guys to make like the best boxing products in the world oh yeah like just like some turtle ass Grandpa sewing it by hand are like they're they're endangered dude he's endangered species for real Generations don't want to do it the swords like they're like going out we must save them dude yeah yeah where did you get like I want ask where you got your personality from though like is your mom like very similar to you like where did you pick up this like humor that you had as like just pre comedy you know yeah my mom my mom is funny but she
15:13 doesn't know she's funny like she will say some offthe cuff hilarious ████ and okay I don't know if I I don't really care no no my mom okay so y'all remember when like Trump uh was like they're eating they're eating the dogs they're eating the pets right and and my brother are like cracking jokes and um we're at my mom's house and my mom she goes she goes you know like it goes dead silent she goes you know dog tastes good what I what what the ████ the timing was impeccable and Weir just shook but it was so funny she didn't know why it was funny so funny this so funny yakii yeah yeah they Yak in in Japan she was like I she went to this place that she didn't realize that they were eating dogs cuz they would go every time they would go there was a cage of
16:03 dogs and they would be different every time and when they got hit to it when they realized what it was they never went back but she was like yeah but it was one of the best places I low key want to try it my said it tastes good too I've never tried it I'm open to it be good to trick me in Beijing I didn't know that they they really had it in Japan maybe in her generation I know they ate cuz like they ate whale and ████ like that pretty commonly like in the 60s ands like my aunt was like yeah like people ate whale like normally they don't e it no more and I was like Peter yeah it's just are your siblings like funny people too hell no my brother is not funny no my brother's funny to me you know what it is too I think what also helped was like my mom um she like
16:54 she was still like growing up even though she wasn't young per se like mean I guess yeah she was young she was like 30 she was like 31 32 when she had me but like mentally my mom is like really young like I'm not going to lie if you were to talk to her now you'd be like huh that's interesting um she's like you know and so I feel like I grew up with her and like it was really hard growing up right she she would come home some nights and like be crying cuz she had such a hard day at work right she's doing she's doing the jobs that nobody wants to do um and so I'm seeing that as an empathetic kid I like just want to make her laugh so I would I just became really observant around of the world so like I would see like like some of the earliest jokes I can literally remember I was like 5 years old and I remember watching people at like recess and how kids run their run is so goofy right and so I would come home and just impersonate other kids from my class and
17:44 my mom would be dying like stomach in pain right laughing cuz I'm just like imitating and that's how I learned how to tell jokes That's So Co that it came from trying to cheer your mom up I didn't have anything else I could make her feel better with so I was like all right well let me see if I can cheer her up and then your brother is probably like man making her laugh she's the favorite I got jokes too damn that's a really cool way of finding that for yourself yeah and then eventually I was like I want to do this for other people cuz really like that's the core I think of my comedy is that I really just talk about stuff that I know it's my experience and and some human way you can relate to it um and we all have some kind of struggle everybody's going through something dude and to me if somebody paid their hard earned money to for a ticket to come to a show they
18:34 came to laugh so end period Point Blank That's My Job for the night yeah yeah so you really actually care genuinely I do I do I like the comedians that lecture me all day long and tell me what an idiot I am yeah you guys are idiot you guys are the reason especially not you guys but Barton Joe Joe are literally the reason that I realized like oh I can make content too these guys can do it I can do it if these freaking losers can do it it's it's going to be hella easy no but like I think you guys gave an example of like people who don't fit in a box who have a story that's not one that you see on TV or movies ever and you're just so different right but there's so many people who can relate to you so you don't you know I think I told you guys
19:24 the night that I met you I was like you guys don't even realize you're touching more people than you even know like the work that I continue to do and everybody I reach are people that you've reached not unknowingly that's cool that's cool that's very nice so nice dog tastes good dog tastes good yeah dude your mom's comedic timing must be really good she's going to have a sick ass book and then on top of that she's going to have an awesome speech yeah you got to write it for her you got to do it she just ends up outdoing me my entire career my entire platform is just for her to sore it's backwards ring board I come to this country to make you successful so I'm successful like okay
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