0:00 Anthony, when your your family had any kind of success, how did you celebrate? >> Oh, uh, like a birthday party. >> I think No, that's a good question. I think it was a matter of having like a bucket of KFC family meal and putting like >> That sounds fire. like newspapers on the carpet at the dry cleaners cuz the KFC in that plaza was right across the street >> and the but I can't I don't know if that was success or if that was just cuz of coupon was in the newspaper might have been the same but I just remember being like that was like something was cool your dad's in a good mood we're going to get some chicken >> that's the best >> would it would it be like you just graduated fifth grade or some ████ or let's say you got into college >> I feel like that stuff was sizzlers I think the >> Sizzlers see that's fancy That's nice. >> Yeah. And you know, salad bar and pizza
0:50 and random stuff and surf and turf and that would be it. >> Did you get a celebration for getting Eagle Scout? >> Or was that so into your dad's like family? He's like, "Yeah, now you're just bare minimum." [laughter] >> You know how like Asian parents are like that? >> Yeah. >> Like I would get a and my mom's like, "Yeah, you're supposed to like what the ████ You're breathing. >> Make it a big deal cuz this is supposed to be the norm." >> Yeah. She'd be like, "What the hell? This maybe has nowhere to go with that, but I'm not fully convinced that my dad believed that I deserved to get Eagle Scout when I was gi when [laughter] it was given to me. >> Damn. >> I think he might have been one of those actually good leaders that understood that some people fill in the role. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. >> You got to coach him hard. >> Yeah. You know what I'm saying,
1:40 >> right? You work to deserve it later. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And like would know that about a kid >> like you get it first and then you grow into it >> if that kid needs it. >> Oh, I see. I see. >> They need to know that they're worth something and maybe can feel it versus just constantly >> maybe that'll activate you. >> And you saw that in you. >> I have a feeling now now it's like a way wiser person than my 15-year-old self who got it >> and was cocky as ████ >> You got 15? >> Yeah. >> Oh ████ >> Cuz I was so young, too. That's cocky. >> What's the normal age to get it? >> Like 17, 18, right? like like right before you have to like stop doing Boy Scouts and join like the ventures and stuff because it's the last rank. >> Did you think your dad voted no? >> My dad voted no for me to get my first rank tenderfoot and he did it in front of everybody and that ████ wrecked me. >> Yeah. >> Holy crap. >> Cuz most 15year-olds are like the first rank like tenderfoot. So to be a 15-year-old Eagle Scout is crazy.
2:30 >> Damn. >> Did Did you fill it in? >> I think I did pretty ████ decent. >> Yeah, tight. He knows how to tie auto ropes. >> I do still know my Morse code. Most of it. Anyways, point to to it though, celebration. I don't fully recall celebrating. That's why it brought me to that. I don't even know if you like that was a celebration moment getting the Eagle Scout. I feel like that was like the beginning of my test >> cuz I was trying to think of like what are what would be major milestones in your upbringing? One would probably be college. >> Eighth grade promotion. I remember I thought it was supposed to be be a big deal. Is there any ever is is there any ever a time to celebrate with the uh dry cleaners if like I don't know you guys had a extra great month? >> Nah. >> It's always it doesn't fluctuate by much? >> Nah. >> Or you mean like celebrating for sales? >> Yeah. Like hey like toast to the freaking we made a ton of money this
3:20 month. >> Nah. >> Cuz if you ran it like Chinese style, if you crushed it one month, oh good, now we have savings for the future. >> Like you know what I mean? Like nothing is like you just scraped everything is scraped off the top. >> Not taking everybody. Chinese people don't like to celebrate cuz they got New Years and ████ >> You got to ████ obliterate standards to like So like >> Yeah. For for like a unique thing cuz they're already celebrating everybody's birthday, auntie's birthday, uncle's birthday. Go fah everything, you know? >> So all the stuff they're already doing on their big ass families. We see each other all the time anyway. What What do you mean celebrate? Go back to work. >> So they don't celebrate like meritbased wins. They celebrate just like events >> or like not guilty. Oh, hell yeah. >> Well, you have to be so meritorious to celebrate the marathon. >> Got the Olympic gold medal and finally get to go to Sizzlers.
4:10 >> Like you stopped the mass shooter. >> You You get You get Olympic gold medal in basketball and you get the same celebration as the other kid who just won one game in his eighth grade threeon-ree tournament. >> Being Chinese sucks. >> I know. What the hell? >> Sucks ████ ass. I thought Chinese people partied all the time. >> ████ no. >> This is why we party all the time. >> That's why you party all the time. cuz you don't have a celebration. >> This is why I celebrate so hard everything. >> That's why you have five things to do on 40-y old birthday. >> All the Chinese parties or whatever when I was invited, it's because it's a holiday event. It's not because like we're celebrating so and so or whatever. >> Is it cuz you have to? >> No. Like if a friend invites me to like their house for whatever and then they're celebrating like a Chinese like >> a Chinese holiday. >> Yeah. A holiday. It's not because a person >> Chinese New Year, somebody's wedding >> or like somebody graduated. Those are things that must be celebrated.
5:00 >> Yeah, they're mandatory. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Culturally, I get that. >> Yeah, you have to. >> It's like trying to go to the ████ post office on Labor Day. It's just going to be closed. It's like that. Oh, it's just part of it. >> What happened with I mean, did you ever celebrate any kind of family dub? >> Nope. I remember like [laughter] it it would almost be like when you did good. Sometimes it's worse cuz like so I did I was really really uh active in kung fu as a kid and then um if I got first place the first thing right after is already like troubleshooting what I could have done better. You could have done this, you could have blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And then I remember one time I was doing like this forms competition and I and I thought it was I thought I ████ absolutely killed it. Like my my seafue was like, "I know you're uh a brown belt, but I think you're good enough to compete with black belts." So he put me in the black
5:50 belt category. >> You're just doing these things like >> just forms, just forms. And then he thought I was good enough to compete with like the black belts. And I remember I got fourth place as a brown belt. I'm not even a black belt. >> Damn. >> And I'm like, "Dude, that means I beat like 20 other black belts and I'm a brown belt." And I thought I was going to get Chuck-e-Cheese or some ████ And my mom's like, "I can't believe you got fourth place." And I'm like, "What the f███?" ████ Like, what do I got to ████ can't believe you got fourth place where you shouldn't even be I shouldn't even be in that category. I'm like, what the hell? >> Yeah, you should be in the category called the podium. First, second, and third place. >> Yep. And then, uh, in Chinese school, I remember uh, so in Chinese school, like you learn Chinese, right? Like they don't just grade on accuracy, they grade on how you do it, too. So, I remember one time I got 100% on a really big test. So, if you get a 100 100% to my
6:41 mama's bare minimum, that's a A+. If you wrote beautifully, that's like A++. If you're the first person to turn it in and be 100% and write beautifully, that's A++. >> I know these rules. >> So, if I didn't get A++, like the first person to turn it in, the most accurate, the most beautiful, if I just got 100% to her, it's almost like an F. Like, what the hell you like? Of course, you're supposed to get it all right. you're telling me you didn't turn in first? And I'm like, what the hell? I'm like, ████ my other buddy Mark get like ████ 83%. [laughter] And they get like a cake. They get ████ pound cake or whatever. I'm like, what the name is Mark? >> Yeah. I'm like, what the hell is this? >> But but but even though you're Vietnamese Chinese, is that the same culture? Like you guys say like similar? Like you guys just don't celebrate? >> No, it's the exact same thing. It's probably my Chinese side. The Vietnamese side say good luck, man. [laughter]
7:33 Just just good job. No money anyway. No celebrate, no fail, no ████ man. >> You don't celebrate good times. Come on, man. >> Did your parents ever celebrate all of the Kinj's milestones by the time you're an adult? >> What milestones? >> You opening a studio, winning a ████ >> They're not celebrating. I'm celebrating inviting them to my party. >> They never did nothing. Like, >> you think they're going to do something special for me? >> Hey, now I understand why you celebrate. [laughter] >> I understand. Now I fully understand. because his childhood sucked ass. >> Yeah, [laughter] >> I see you guys now. >> That's why you got to have 20 birthdays. >> I feel like I had too much celebration for no reason. [laughter] >> My parents make ████ up. It's like steak night. Why? Your brother's coming back home [laughter] or whatever. See, that's that is nice though. That's
8:23 >> What's tight? >> I didn't really have merit based ████ cuz I haven't won a lot of things. It's >> cuz you had no merit. >> Yeah, I have zero merit. But you didn't play no recitals where you killed it or something. >> We did, but like it would it would be small things like like I remember making deals with them like, "Hey, can we have like Korean barbecue if we do if I did this and this?" And then they'll be like, "Oh yeah, that sounds like a good deal." And then like I don't know, like let's say I get a good grade or whatever, right? And then I'll be like, "I got it." And then they'll be like super happy. And then they'll be like, "My dad would just uh go buy meat and then we'll we'll get to do that." Small ████ like that. >> But like Yeah. But I thought that was kind of normal. [laughter] I don't know. >> What about you? >> Yeah, my parents were It was more like um >> Filipinos celebrate for every Filipinos have fun. They be like, "It's Wednesday." >> Bro, it really is like that's not even like a exaggeration. There's just
9:13 because there's so much family activity. Everybody's always trying to do it big. If we're even having two more family members at the house, then my dad will get the best stuff every time. >> That's awesome. >> Yeah, it's it's like a thing where we're just used to that. But then milestone wise, I guess like if because I had recital all the time too every year and if I got if I got first place whatever then we'll we'll have like Pizza Hut or like uh El Poo Loco. But the big the big prize was like we get like Los Pooos. You know what Los Pooos is? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> You know about that in LA? >> Poomanos. >> No, [laughter] it's just called it's just called Los Pooos. >> It's like Los Poo Brasos. >> Yeah. Something. But if my dad it was really just based on my dad being in a good mood. >> That's what I'm saying. That that's all it was. If he's in a good mood, I don't know if we were celebrating or dad was just in a good mood. So, we got a bucket of chicken. >> And if he's in a good mood, like my dad might just give a speech about like how
10:04 proud of you. I'm like, [laughter] that's that's crazy. >> I'm like, we did something crazy. >> Speech about how proud. No, you asked me. I just have to take this moment >> to say very proud. Very good. Okay. Okay. Now, you'll never see me again. [laughter] >> He's like Bilbo. He's like, I'm leaving now. I know. >> But then if I if I did something good in grades, I remember that my prize was always we go to Fedco, I'd get a Nintendo game. >> Oh, that's sick. >> If I if I got like A's. Yeah. If I got A's. >> I I just wanted like regular normal what I thought was normal. So I would see like kids, you know, on the first day of school, they would like for seventh grade they get a new pair of shoes and then eighth grade they get. So I'm like, "Oh, that's so cool. Everyone gets a new pair of shoes every year." And I would ask my mom and she like, "No, just wash your ones from last year." [laughter]
10:56 >> That sucks, man. >> Definitely got new shoes every year. >> And though And then the kids will clown on me like, "Dude, you've been wearing those since the fifth grade." I'M LIKE, "I KNOW I have." >> Dude, I remember [laughter] I remember being able to take >> I know. >> I remember being able to take a pair of shoes that I was not allowed to get new shoes, so I had to wash it, right? But when I could put fat laces in them that were different color and throw like socks underneath >> or something like that and then just being like, "All right, fine. It's different." I got hella good at washing shoes though. I got like with the toothbrush. I got ████ >> When's the last time you washed a shoe? >> Not anymore, but when I was a kid, >> you throw them away when they're creased even a little bit. >> Now I understand why you just buy shoes and never wear them. [laughter] >> HONESTLY, REMEMBER, that's true. >> I get it. >> That's true. >> And we were understanding each other. >> You're filling a hole from your childhood. >> Yeah. Yeah.
11:46 >> But not all f is good. Shut the ████ up. >> You shut the ████ up. Shut the ████ up. You shut the ████ up. >> I can't believe you said that. Alpha is >> That's crazy. >> I'm going to ████ your wife right as a villain. >> What's the normal thing? Like when people go, "Oh, [laughter] it's you you did you you got good grades this year. Let's let's celebrate." Like that's supposed to be a thing. Is that normal or >> I thought like when you do like some elite stuff either like let's say your kid scored 20 points a game or if you got a 4.0. >> Yeah. >> It seemed normal to like have cool stuff. So, what do you do for Taika to celebrate if he does ████ It's usually like a deal, but then I'll set it up where I want him to know what he's earning. I don't want him to just It happens and then it just hap like it coincidentally whatever. So, if I know a big test is coming up, >> so buy him some real estate. [laughter] >> But, you know, when you go to like Albertson's or Ralphs, you you see like
12:38 the congratulations balloon, right? >> And I remember as a kid, I'd be like, >> who ever buys [laughter] those? That's so sad, dude. >> I'm like, dude, people [laughter] I'm like, I guess people get those, but I just never, >> YOU KNOW, I REMEMBER, >> MAN, THAT SUCKS. >> I remember uh celebrations happening around more things like like non-marit based like like someone's having a baby like it's not even a baby shower, but it's like, hey, your ████ you know, cousin so and so, it's like we should go over and like make dinner and whatever. like it it was always things like family or church events and >> church was a big one. >> Yeah. I think that's what probably made it where we had a lot of that community ████ >> And then um someone's doing something. >> Yeah. >> Cuz if you're part of like a church community, you're not just going to church once a week. You're actually
13:28 seeing them several times a week. >> So many times. Yeah. >> And I was like, that's the ████ that I remember the most. And I like those more. >> I used to sandbag, which is a funny thing. So, like if let's say that I'm in fourth grade and in science I got like a B minus. So, my dad would like sit me down and be like, "Is this going to become a C? Like what's going to happen now?" And I'm like, "I don't know, but I'll try really hard." And then my dad's like, >> "Yeah." My dad will be like, "All right, if you get an A this next report card, then we'll go get you DuctTales for Nintendo, whatever." And I'm like, "I'll try my best." [laughter] >> EVEN THOUGH I even though I know it's like mad easy to like get it back today. Imagine he just sabotages his own grade cuz he's like it'll be easier this way. He's like, "Dad, look at my grades." But then like I I'll try extra hard cuz I'm like, "Dude, obviously he's just freaking mad. Just got to read the book." [laughter] >> The guy who still went to community
14:19 college and ████ act like I'm way more stressed and stuff. So my dad's like, "He deserves it. We'll give him something nice." >> That's why I ended up with like I had the most Nintendo games out of all my friends when I was a kid. >> Dude, you remember pretending figuring out how to hide your report card? Oh, bro. I got in trouble for that so much. Like, as if we ████ would ever figure out how to bypass that. They just call eventually, but you would still try every time. >> I If you go to my original Cerrito's house and if you dig in the garden deep enough, you're going to find all my buried report cards. You buried them.
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