0:00 [Music] and welcome everybody to JK news out of the closet where today we have Steve talking about moving to California and getting his confidence destroyed yes I was a kid I was like you know whatever 10 11 years old and we moved to we moved from Virginia to uh California San Diego California and I remember being um when I was in Virginia I would I would say I had a good sense of self because of the way that I was interacting with my friends like I was like you know the class clownish kid or whatever and teachers would always tell my mom like um oh but he has good timing like that was always very specific they were like
0:50 he they were like he's not disruptive cuz he has good timing and I was like I swear to God my mom will tell you that to this day so you're fitting in the pocket no I never got in trouble just probably like you a big dick too no no no but no but but that was like a big thing is like I didn't want I couldn't get in trouble for being a clown like because I didn't want to you know have the hammer come down at home so I would pick my shots right balls and Strikes I would try to like go for like a moment where I could tell the teacher was done talking read the room yeah read the room right and then um and then for some reason like so I would say I had a great time and like I would make kids laugh and stuff like that and then I moved to California and like I just didn't know anybody and I didn't really know how to make friends because how old were you I was coming in the middle of the school year I was 101 so and coming in the middle of school year is rough we came in in January and is is San Diego San Diego California yeah and yeah just a
1:42 bunch of ████ Chargers old Chargers decals everywhere and like old Chargers just a just a different environment you know what I mean like you go from like a proud sports town like like Fair Virginia is like you know they got the Washington Redskins back then right and like they actually won ████ proud Sports town right then you move to San Diego they got the Padres and the Chargers and like those got everybody ████ sucks they don't win anything right so then you know I'm trying to make friends I don't know anybody at all and it's the middle of school year everyone's already paired up yeah then also too I had never been at an outdoor school before because oh right that's a California thing I was raised in Indie and then and then in Virginia where like everything's inside everything's inside so and even the hallways are inside so then like you go to a school and you're like what the ████ you leave the classroom and then
2:32 you're outside yeah but then at recess there's like bars around everything like at where I went to elementary school it's called this place called old um place called uh doesn't matter I don't remember but it was like a jail I viewed it as a jail I viewed it as a jail because morning Creek Elementary School I viewed it as a jail because it had it was surrounded by bars and I used to just walk the perimeter so I go from being like Class Clown having a good time and stuff like that class good timing uh to walk in the perimeter and and just not knowing anybody and then coming in the middle of school year and I remember to my first day of school one of the kids had been like you know in some medical thing you had like some medical thing I think you had to get like a colostomy bag or some ████ oh ████ he was in the in the ████ right so maybe he had some gut issues I think something happened right and then um so
3:24 it was my first day in school and and the teacher like would you like to write a letter to Brandon and I'm like I'm like for of all and it's not like I didn't want Brandon to read this letter and be like who the ████ is this guy you know mean I don't even know brand CU you're a midyear entry it's my first day at school and she's like he this happened to Brandon you were all writing him letters and ████ and I'm like I was like I was like I I'm good you know what I mean like cuz I didn't want I decline cuz right move move I want it to be weird like I don't want Brandon to be like why are you why are you writing me letters dud she ask you publicly in the class like yeah in front of everybody well she was ask everybody and she like oh Stephen do you want to do and I was like I'm good what a weird call I know it's really strange and then I think that like I also like I used to think that rainbows were tight this is
4:14 not a bit so day one she had us like color this like I guess the missions or whatever the ████ in California I I don't know ████ California loves to do assignments about the missions yeah and I came in again middle school year so I don't know ████ about missions they were like they wrapping it up so I was just like what what is a mission and then she's like not the last part yeah she's like We're going to color the missions and I was like all right Rainbows are chill I'm going to do red orange rainbow purple yeah yeah yeah and then oh my God I had no idea I had anything to do gay people and then after that I think she thought I was a little gay kid cuz she started being like really sensitive around me after that and I was like teacher doesn't know kids at all yeah and then and then so it's also my first day too cuz you know how you like
5:04 in California schools you get linked up to one teacher and then like they're your teacher for like every every lesson or whatever and um so it was weird cuz like as the day progressed she would she was like she was asking about like who knows math I was like I'm kind of ahead I it was weird in Virginia schools I was ahead of every kid here by two years two years two years just about a year and a half but yeah cuz I was doing like algebra and these these little ████ were doing long division so I was like oh my God cuz I cuz I suck at math notoriously so I was like oh my God I actually can kind of Coast a little bit because I did long division like ████ two years ago and these kids are like struggling with it struggle busting it so I was like okay this is sick I can be more of an academic kid now than I was in Virginia right so West Coast is a little bit behind East Coast you would
5:54 say yeah they're ████ out here I don't know what it is I like they're way behind yeah yeah so then but then I'm ████ so I caught up right I caught up with it years in about 2 years I started failing math again right yeah it's California fail California rough but yeah so so so then um yeah we're doing you know I I just don't know any kids and like it was very awkward and everyone was paired up at lunch and there was no like Hero kid who's like hey Steve you want to hang out with us it was just like complete isolation yeah that sucks yeah and I couldn't get in in anywhere conversationally with anybody's like jump rope you just can't get in anywhere cuz everyone's already paired up and ████ like that so you didn't have good timing out here I had exent timing on here um I found out later no no no no California kids are so stupid it's so easy to make them laugh um but then so
6:46 then I was doing you know I it took me about two years I would say I got into middle school and then that was rough hella rough like like cuz I just started getting made fun of cuz I'm 6' 4 and A2 but I'm not coordinated and then like I I was my teacher wanted me to try out for the basketball team because everybody you were that tall already yeah I was I was like 63 I think by by the time I was 12 years old school oh my God yeah I wasan boy I was always like the tallest kid in my whole school wherever I went right and then um and then yeah but then so then the coaches would always try to recruit me and like oh yeah you want to come play volleyball you always see a potential and then I'm like dude I ████ suck dude I suck so bad like I suck so bad that um my um they used to have me in Little League they used to have me play catcher but like in Little League there's no need for a catcher cuz the coach is underhand
7:37 pitching you the whole time so like the catcher is like you don't want to be catcher D catcher just like shook it back to coach like you're not doing anything during the game you're a ball Bo yeah and then I was in left field cuz every kid's you know or I was in whatever side of the field where nobody hits I was that side of the field so like you know and then one of the questions I remember too from first day of school it was like um oh what's your batting average cuz I was like I played baseball for a while and she's like what's your batting average and I was like oh it's a 735 or whatever and and then she's instantly like basically like yeah right and I'm like it's literally dude the coach is going like that underhanded and so we had these baseball cards made and it had like your average on it or whatever but like she's just basically like on my first day of school dude you you remember ████ like that she's 90s calling cap yeah cuz like exactly but it's like dude like you wish ████ it's
8:29 Lally brother yeah dude hey real good comedians always have ████ up childhood honestly Tu comedian different okay so so then um yeah it's just awkward couldn't really get anywhere with people have my brothers but they still play with toys and I thought toys were kind of getting gay for me so then I started to not that I started to like you know I was already in the girls like early I was what is this in Middle School you said uh yeah I'm well in fifth grade is when I moved oh okay okay so sixth grade middle school but still no friends of no friends made fun of can't play basketball try out for the basketball team made the team because I'm tall and I could rebound the ball I think that was a strategy but then I used to make my mom take me after school every single day to go shoot hoops because I got made fun of so bad on the for making the team this one kid he
9:19 didn't make the team his name is Bryce and he made my life a living hell after that he like every he got to go yeah every day bullying like this guy would do you know what mean clearly um yeah call me ████ all that stuff and all his friends would too and they believe today's video is brought to you by the daily drop so I've been traveling for so many years okay I've been travel vlogging I've been enjoying this and people go how do you afford it well a lot of it is actually for free and it's done through credit card points and I always thought about like how I can kind of share this information with other people because it does take a little bit of learning it's like Extreme Couponing and stuff like that but the daily drop is here to help you out it's absolutely
10:12 free to sign up for the daily drop is a free daily newsletter to learn how to book your next trip for nearly free with Miles and points learn how to fly business class without a business class budget see for yourself why over 1 million readers start their morning with daily drop so subscribe Now using the link in the description to get started on earning towards your next dream travel experience shove me in the in the hallway all that kind of stuff you know but they couldn't fit you in a locker cuz it's too big smaller than you I mean yeah but it's like multiple dudes but that's exactly it his ego was right here though yeah that's exactly it honestly it's cuz I was I'm a big dude so but I wasn't exactly my mom used to say turn the other cheek stepen turn the other cheek and ████ like that bad advice don't ever do that so so then they know that's an opening in your week and then you can
11:02 and you have unlimited cheeks exactly so then you know it took a couple of years I would say for me to get my footing and just like find my Baseline confidence again it was a very specific day for me it was like first week of high school and I remember I was in drama class cuz like I'm going to do drama class we'll see what happens in there and then um I remember we were doing they were like we're going to do improv and I was like I don't know what the ████ that is but I know what Whose Line Is It Anyway is or whatever so I was like okay cool it's like that so then honest to God I remember the exact moment I was like I'm going to just do it cuz I I was sitting there they were all doing improv for like 45 minutes I was like I'm just going to just I'm just going to get up and do it and my legs were freezing like as I got up and it was just so unlike the kid that I knew before but then I don't know man it all
11:52 launched right out of me when I got up there I forgot everything I forgot that I was nervous or scared or anything and like just launched and people laughing and that was it for me that was the spark for me like you just had an instinct to add to the scene you just jumped in that's it and and then after that my teacher kept on asking me to do more improv stuff so then I was like yeah sure and then there was an improv troop at my at my high school and I was like okay I'll try out for that got in there and then started doing improv like a madman like like every chance I could I I got into the school plays I auditioned for the school plays and I got the lead like my sophomore year so like and that was the hot show the reviews were in the hot show waiting for ████ in the back that no I didn't get a ████ I I
12:43 almost got a ████ rejected it which is insane God the amount of sex the amount of sex capades that I could have yeah cuz you were the leading man wanted the leading role dude like dick yeah lead dick so yeah that but that was really you were Leal to her was the like finding finding my confidence again came directly through doing drama in high school and like doing improv and then uh I really you know started doing the plays and lot stuff and it was just about I didn't like like that stuff like like you know what I mean like I don't like Shakespeare right but I was like you know what this is I was like it's a it's like a job it's like a job and then how can I how can I make it more fun you know what I mean and that's what made it interesting for me cuz I don't you could
13:34 ask me to watch the Shakespeare thing right now I'm like I'm out right Nick we don't want to watch that ████ I'm not that deep so then um yeah I'm doing all those plays and stuff like that and it was really fun and then and then uh come out of high school and my um this chick that I was kind of into she she's like hey come try out for this improv Troop that I'm in come do like professional improv like for money and I was like what the ████ that's crazy so I went there and absolutely smoked blew the doors off of my audition not kidding I had a killer audition cuz you know how like how many people are tough right I had those people eating out of the ████ palm of my hand and then I and then and then I made the team and got knocked right back down what right back
14:25 down yeah and this is a very important thing for me very very important um basically I made the team and I was doing like a lot of um tricks I would say I wasn't doing improv I was doing tricks to like get laughs you know what I'm saying I didn't really understand side bit laughs versus really like the laugh from the scene exactly I wasn't building and adding I was so I I nailed my audition because they're focused on you yeah right oh is this person funny okay well yeah we can work with this right and then my this guy named Trenton shine who I love like a brother he is my mentor at this stuff he basically smoked me as soon as we started doing um you know what do you call it rehearsal he would he would just smoke me and I remember getting in my truck
15:16 afterward and like crying my eyes out cuz smoke you like what would he was that wasn't funny you thought that was funny that wasn't funny here's why you said a line or something yeah and it wasn't like you know it was really really important that I went through this because you can do tricks in high school and get so far right but you're not building anything and adding to things and making people most importantly making people want to be in scenes with you're not working with people that's it taking away attention you're being a a me provisor yeah and that's what I call it now I've called it that ever since and no gifts no nothing no gifts exactly no gifts not lobbing the ball to people just taking it away stuff that's really really really important right and and we know this cuz like the worst guest that we'll have in here they basically will just sit here and do a set the whole time toist anyone
16:08 they don't work with you you can ask them a question blank stay back to my set you know what I'm saying so it's not like conducive to the conversation sh like that so you have to that has to be beaten out of you at some point right if you're going to like hopefully mature and stuff like that so so that got beaten out of me very importantly that was really really important for me um to to learn what what I was doing wasn't like going to help anybody else it was just going to help me right so that's that was huge for me and I I like I said I cried every ████ day like for like a month or two until one day cuz I I still went back I carot right I wanted to get better at this and then one day it all just kind of started to click for me and I remember one day they had um they had I remember exactly what it was this this teacher from UCB came
16:59 down to San Diego we paid them to come down to San Diego teach us game right UCB the game theory which is basically just like you introduce um you identify interesting thing and then everybody tags it right heightening everything and I picked up on that right away and I thought it was so ████ like such a great tool and I remember I got this chick named Daniel Schnider she's the one who came down um she I got her rolling because like it was some scene involving a horse or something like that and I basically like had my kid there and I and like I was it a scene about trying to we're trying to kill the horse and eventually like it built to the point where I was like and now I want you to name it and then like she was rolling about that and I was like ████ yeah this is what I'm going to do I'm going to do this professional
17:49 improv ████ I'm going to go to ucbl like this is where I want to be you know what I mean like that that was just like so clear after that and then and uh yes so I ended up I ended up as soon as I could saving up enough money me and my buddy Jason Horton and my you came from San Diego too yeah we both were in the same improv trip back in San Diego that's where we met oh I didn't know you guys were like that we go way back yeah so me and him moved up here with my girlfriend at the time her name was Aaron she we all moved up here together and got a three three bedroom or two-bedroom in um in Korea Town that's where I first moved here in La m off of Kenmore 511 Kenmore Avenue and um that's when that was like my operating base I got a s█████ job working on a high-rise selling ████
18:39 printer toner while I did improv every single ████ night and I I remember interning at upright assistens Brigade La as well so I could pay for classes cuz classes were expensive as ████ and then um that was really the start of everything like but if but I if I didn't meet Trenton shine and have him beat all that out of me I just know that I wouldn't have gone far at all on on tubers with tubers because when I started working with tubers scum specifically they wanted to have me back because I was adding things and not just making it about me and that was pivotal cuz I I really could have blown my shot you know luck is when preparation meets opportunity and I I got you know a lucky shot one day just doing
19:29 scenes with the Fine Brothers and all that stuff like that how are you able to like like Trenton was like going hard on you how are you able to kind of take the criticism constructively and not go man ████ you I'm out of here cuz I agreed with him oh you saw it he just explained it really well teacher he was making good points that I couldn't argue with you know me I love debating people and I and I actually love debate because it amuses me to like explore different things so I already have a pretty open mind about things like that so I was like oh man this is a good you don't think so why why was a fly there was a fly right there uh getting out the way so yeah I I felt like I was I was like man this really um he's making really good points that I couldn't argue with and I I saw how funny he was and I was
20:21 like I want to do what he's doing dude cuz that guy's a funny ████ um so you looked up to him enough to where you're like I don't think this is is coming from a bad place it hurts but I'm going to listen that's it and he had to break me down like almost like military ████ because I was I was pretty sure that I knew what I was doing right so he had to like cut through that he obviously saw some good there CU he wanted me on his team but then he's like okay here's how I can make him more of a team player on my team and not a me provisor which is why I always ████ on me provisors and you guys know that in here like I'm always like I always like I always take shots at people who are just trying to do the me thing cuz the me thing it it doesn't help the room and and I'm more like you I'm more of a team player I like to help the room like to to me helping the room is is an honor because who's an example of like a me provisor guest we've
21:12 had um ████ off top my head I can't say yeah can't say see team player it's not that I don't like them it's not that it's not that it's just like how interesting is this day going to be right are we going to learn about them or like are we going to have like a good flow conversationally or are they just sitting there doing their bits and then they they honestly sort of like get a good like i' say two and a half hours and then they're out of their material cuz like they do stand up or whatever it is and then it's like are you talking to the room right are you engaging with people do you know about Bart's kid do you know right do you know that Joe you know got married do you know like all that stuff is I like that can help you build into other things if you pay attention to it and I and I'm all about that now because I was a meat professor and yeah you learn you learn either you
22:03 are if you are if you get bad news either you push ahead as a productive person or you quit and like I'll never quit so that's cool that's Shakespeare baby ████ sh stay tuned after these yeah and we'll come back that was a great story we'll come back and talk about how he quit tubing on the next episode out I don't think I quit that
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