0:00 [Music] all right what is one of the coolest that you've ever like felt in your life like one of the coolest moments you've ever had where you actually like as a young person you look you were like looking at yourself like damn I feel really cool like there's a really cool moment for me but then if you look back now it's actually pretty whack as ████ damn interesting all right I think um the coolest I felt was when I started taking up accordion too oh my God like this is there two of them did you guys used to
0:50 have Show and Tell yeah then and then you you you you have when it's your turn you do it and you talk about it right yeah yeah yeah so a kid in my class did an accordion performance and at the end of his performance he gave out like cards of his place and after that I was like that is so ████ sick my goal is to do that and also like promote it uhhuh so I was like indoctrinated to the accordion Mafia like that was you're spreading the gospel of accordion yeah and I and I beg my parents and then they're like cool we'll take you there yeah so I went the full thing I did accordion I was ████ crushing it and then um I was like all right it's time I can play this now so during my show inel I did this at a different grade so it was like a year from that time and then we did we did a I did the performance
1:40 and then I was able to hand out the cards and everyone was like dude that was so cool whatever right but at the time you know Steve urel was like really popping so like whether people were making fun of me or not it didn't matter because everyone kept was was saying like oh it's like Steve urel it's so cool the everyone was saying that but looking back I'm like I think a lot of them were probably making fun of me dude they're definitely making fun of you redo the video restart they're definitely making but I thought it was so cool cuz I was like yo I don't even remember who it was but he inspired me to ████ do it and then I did it and I had so much fun in the class and it even
2:30 Chang the way my parents were teaching children in their music school oh yeah cuz it was like the first time you know like when you learn any instruments from Asians like they make it abusive like you feel like is it so fun it's such a joyous song why you beat my ████ ass to play this song right oh the saint yeah right but then um the the guy here I think he was a genius marketer because if you think about it right all these kids are doing these performances and just getting other kids to join all of his classes were fun as ████ everyone sucked but some of them that passed through these stages they become really good at a young age this ████
3:21 the teacher would come out in like a printed t-shirt tuxedo and he looked like weird out so he had like a Jewish like fro he look like weird out yeah yeah and then he would dance and his daughter would literally come in during lessons and she would go on one of those drum stools and spin and like she would just put her stomach on and just ████ like plank style and just Spin and everyone's like she just keeps spinning and he goes she likes doing that and it was the most like wildest freest class and he goes oh you don't want to play that today what do you want to play and I'm like I want to play this song and he'll be like okay let's play that wow what a cool dude and so he was I guess my parents talked to him and they were like yeah we have a music school like what do you do he goes well at this age you just want them to fall in love with it it doesn't matter if they do it right or wrong or whatever and then she was
4:11 like my mom was like don't you have parents that come in and then they're like how come they suck cuz we deal with that and he's like he doesn't have to deal with Asian parents that's the difference so I was like yeah how come they suck that is Asian parents man how come they're not Beethoven yet yeah they'll be like I've been paying you for like 3 months now how come they can't play ████ you know yeah how come they can't play no Brams and ████ how come they can't like show it off to the relatives yeah damn dude they were definitely making fun of you hell yeah like Steve Merkel I forgot when I stopped though I think I realized maybe it's not that cool to be accordian player yeah I don't think it ever gets cool when did you play accordion you said you played yeah when I was a kid too like uh my uh my
5:05 instrument it's a gay ass instrument my cousin's family like they put them in like piano Chinese uh like ████ martial arts all they had all these extracurriculars but my parents couldn't afford that stuff and uh so they picked up accordion and it wasn't even something me and my sister wanted to do but it just happened to be an available time in the week that my parents would be okay with us going so then and they just like shipped off sh shipped us off and like let us ████ go with my cousins to go to their accordion classes and we just started learning that and so that was the only extracurricular I was doing at that time so I thought it was cool when did you realize it wasn't cool the funny thing is it was during a show in tell uh at my elementary school when uh this Mexican girl came in and she brought an accordion and in my mind
5:56 I was like oh ████ I know how to play I could have done that she comes in she ████ plays it and then when she's playing it for some reason I finally get the vibe I was like this isn't tight at all and was laughing it wasn't that people were just laughing it was just like every other ████ Show and Tell was so so much swaggerer you know you got the meter this this tire at all I was like internally embarrassed I was probably in the kid in the audience that was the only one going that's ████ tight and then everyone else is like dude that was kind of lame and I'm like so inspired from watching that performance did you ever have to take a picture with your accordion did you yeah cuz you remember how like you would go to competition I think I still have a no I don't have a
6:46 trophy anymore but I remember winning a you know I bet you I didn't even win a trophy I bet you everybody who goes gets a participation trophy it's probably that cuz everybody that I everyone that I know that played accordion had a in their house had like a childhood photo of them with the accordion in like a studio like photo with a backdrop and it is the wackest photo in their home low key though if I had that exact photo you're talking about now I think that would be so fresh that would yeah because you turned out cool though yeah yeah yeah thanks man if you killed yourself that's not that fresh oh ████ that is a symptom I feel like accordion like are only cool when they're part of Mariachi that's for really shine they're only cool when they're part of something not not the solo act not not the Italian like when
7:37 you EA spaghetti and they come by and sing and ████ mmy like that weird out no they're actually pretty cool they're cool in Icelandic FS is that like playing that's would you would you call that playing the keys there's some keys on it and there's ████ on the other there like brass buttons cool accordians are one of those things we doing it like half ass like it's like what are you doing like they're to do it all the way don't when you're too close it's weird cuz you could hear it breathing oh yeah if you're not used to yeah you're not hearing the notes you're hearing it breathe you're like DN good be fur away you think Steve URL really ████ it up no I think I think everyone that plays it ████ it up I think it's like they just have a weird connotation that like most people that play it are weird people yeah it's it's just I don't know how that happened cuz it's it's like there there's definitely cool instruments look Jimmy come into my
8:28 white van like playing like a wind flute like that's kind of weird too exactly yeah exactly like that's makes guitar is so much cooler like what about it it's just like when people are shredding you just game too when you go ham on it it looks cool like when you go ham on on drums it looks cool when you go ham on a like a flute it may not look that sick that's why the jazz flute in Anchor Man is really funny cuz he's like like it looks kind of foolish you know oh yeah that's a good point Accord though Going H on accordion is next level what about you Ryan did you have anything cool that you're like man yeah I thought of one just whole life no there's one that's like it's I just thought of it it's really like cringy stupid but um it was when I was 15 and I was in the um or 16 I was in the uh the
9:20 choir in my high school and then we we were like a really good choir we did like a lot of really good concerts and in our in our school system San Gabriel's uh San Gabriel choir was like pretty like prestigious what what makes it good like everyone like meshes well together or like they just were like I guess like out of the Southern California Conference of SE I guess it's like it's really like uh funneled into this one like little Community but in the Southern California Conference of 7eventh Day Adventist schools is probably like the in the top two wow out of like seven so it's not that many but it's um it uh so I got in that year junior year it'd be like getting into varsity football in your high school it's like that level cuz we don't even have football uh and then there was like when I was in there I wanted to like stand out and like be something in there
10:10 and then we were like doing this one uh we would do like the national anthems at like the WNBA games for like the uh for the Sparks and then for like the NHL stuff and then this one day we it was our first concert that we were going to do in the school so then like the people in our school would see like oh this is our this year uh choir setup and who's in it I'm like oh that's tight so for some reason we're going to do this African song and then um in this African piece like each person in the choir which there was like 50 people was going to like dress a different culture and like a different type of African like a different type of culture entirely like you're going to wear kimono or some ████ yeah yeah yeah like like a represent a different culture thing and then I'm just such an idiot I was like how about I just represent like like B Voice or something
11:02 what yeah and then like my my director dude he's like really like just such an understanding guy he's like I don't know it doesn't really like match like what we're trying to go for but I was like so passionate about breaking cuz I just started and I was like come on man like this is all I want to do like let me represent like my culture that I'm like all you see me man I come in here and I practice this and then I start breaking like this is all I want breaking is my life he was like what are you going to wear then man I'm like bro I got these Adidas pants I just got and then maybe like like a a tank top he's like a tank top come on man people are going to come with like African Garb and like kimonos and stuff and I was like yeah but look like that's the fit like I was explaining it to him and he just wasn't like feeling it and then um finally he was like uh he
11:52 was like all right he goes if you have like a little solo thing where you like sing this one bar like maybe and I was like okay fine I'll practice for that and then um I like practiced really hard and then um I was able to sing it so then we did this stupid thing where like uh we we sung this thing it's like the song was called viumbe vot or some ████ it was like some African like song really upbeat really fast and then we're all set up in the gym like the whole school's watching and stuff it's like for assembly it's nothing big at all but for me in my stupid High School mind I think it's like a big moment so then like uh my thing is at the end where like I have to like sing like one little tiny line going to be discovered everyone has like something to sing it's not it's nothing big yeah and then at the end I thought it would be so cool I'm at the bottom front row of like we're all
12:43 standing and it's like risers so I'm on the actual gym floor everyone else is on like risers I thought it' be cool to like step forward and do a backflip during my ████ part and I and I step for I did a backflip and then you sing I did at the same time while you're s yeah so it's like so loud my Landing nobody even reacted everyone was just like oh the ████ was that ████ it's the cringiest ████ and did you feel the cringe immediately yeah yeah and then I just like stepped back and I was like hm like I didn't yet know and then my my director guy was just like he was he was like conducting he was just look at me like what the and then like afterwards afterwards
13:35 afterwards he was like what was that that's breaking I like I don't know I just did a thing just hell embarrassed yeah I was really embarrassed by that how you had this whole Vision planned out my head I thought it would be so cool like it was like you know like in the beginning of like Goofy movie where like he like does this thing in front of the school and it's like so cool yeah you just think it's that but like really like no one gives a ████ like nobody cares ████ funny yeah and I didn't eat ████ or anything it was like totally fine it was just so random and like out of place and I'm in the did did your classmates comment on it they're just like why you do that it's even worse nobody said anything and that's how you thought it was a part of the show that's how you know that people really think it's stupid because no one said said anything to you I would have been that class I would have been like I thought it was cool
14:27 man I think if somebody said that would be like okay then it's not that bad but if if nobody said anything then they know you're already embarrassed and I think that's way worse leave I'm I think that's way worse but I was like 15 I was like dude in my mind I was like this is going to be the sickest ████ thing it has nothing to do with anything everybody looks so nice and I'm in blue Adidas track pants and a white tank top representing representing representing hipop to make yourself stand out that's so tired really stupid did you stop dreaming after that you're like my ████ imaginations get me into ████ trouble I think at that point I really just kind of minded my own business with everything myself a little bit yeah with
15:18 breaking then it was like me and Eddie and everybody that did it we're just like we're just going to do it over here and just not try to inject it in everything else like my science project isn't going to be about fors you know like I just like separated everything I was like that was weird that won't be my identity yeah I mean it just was like I understood I think my choir director do is so nice to like be like yeah you gave it a shot it's weird so we can stop that now you learned by yourself yeah he was a good dude he's so nice yeah I don't know if I could work with teenagers in that capacity yeah I think it takes a special kind of like educator to understand that teens just be try and dumbass ████ all day and then cuz if you wanted to be a b boy for a cultural like dress up I'd be like are you ████ ████ in a religion that that thinks dancing is a sin and they
16:09 don't even listen to hip-hop or anything like that and probably just thought I was like a psycho he was demon possessed yeah something took over his body yeah but he was he was really cool one thing that I thought was um cool but end up being pretty lame was um you guys remember uh when there was those La lights shoes yeah where it's like the back Parts light up LA Gear at pay yeah yeah yeah and I was like I was like ████ I can't wait to get some and the back part at the back those were cool at that time like yeah but I think like not at my age cuz I think that when I got everything that I ever wanted I always got later so my mom would like oh you like that okay cool set of style yeah so like it might be cool third or fourth grade and then people start wearing real clothes fifth and sixth grade then she would buy me the coolest kids clothes at fifth grade
16:59 so I'm always like a year or two behind oh so you're by the time you get it it's not cool anymore yeah cuz by the time you're in fifth and sixth grade they probably had older brothers and sisters that are styling them so they actually look like cool kids but I was still like getting styled by my mom and I'm like asking her for ████ I remember getting uh La lights um the LA Gear ████ yeah like those shoes and I remember like showing up to school like ████ yeah and then even like in the bathroom like turn the lights off and just be like trying to show people like anybody see anything weird in here lights going crazy or a class I'm just like this you know I'm just trying to like and I just I just thought I was so cool it was like the kid that had like some shiny like ████ Hot Wheels car and then when I think about it like if I zoom out of my body I'm like man that was ████
17:49 annoying just trying to like anybody see anything going like this and by that time it's like people already into the real shoes you know like Jordans or whatever no one's like getting that wack ass ████ that is true if you if you really think about it the shelf life for Stuff being cool when you're in high school is really fast you know like when you look at ████ now as an old person you think something's cool to kids you're like is that that's probably not cool anymore by the time it's you're seeing it you know what I mean yeah go quick it's fast trends go so fast you think about it you wouldn't wear the same thing freshman year and sophomore year every year exactly year is it's already gone right yeah that's weird you want to hear something that kind of scarred me yes um so uh when I got with like one of my first girlfriends ever uh this was like
18:39 9 no this is 2002 I also went to like Vietnam that year and uh I was with her so I was just like you know you're just you're just head over heels right and so every I thought I was like oh man I'm on a really really really cool international trip nobody's got internet or cell phones you have to go to PC bonds if you really want to like whatever right and uh so I was like well if there's one way I can stay connected I was like I Journal so like my dad's like old school like laptop type thing that you know I would just like write a little journal and shees I'm like dude I'm in like I'm International like I'm like what did I do today stop by this thing blah blah blah did this and it was like a over two we trip and then you know whenever I got to a computer we jump on AIM like that would be like everything for me I didn't even care that I was in Vietnam I was just trying to like talk to this girl uh that I've been with for ████ like a month month um when I got back I like
19:31 what do I do with these journal entries right cuz I wanted to give it to her so I went and printed them out what you do back you print ████ ended up and stapling it together ended up being like 15 pages oh ████ yeah I know and I thought I was like dude like I'm a I'm a world traveling journalist like romantic Renaissance romantic man you know but dropping 15 pages of like stuff on like a chick that like you barely kind of know like oh my God not the right move sometimes it's too early making her read so much yeah and I remember giving it to her and I remember her like being like thanks and I don't even know if she ever read it but I do know that like a week later she like broke up with me oh so I don't want to be with a ner oh ████ that's yeah that is heavy man what a ████ dude how how
20:22 did that like um it's heavy did you have like a new approach after that or were you like what the ████ like that just broke my heart you didn't go you ungrateful ████ yeah no it wasn't like that it was just like I don't think I uh I thought I was like you know Nice Guys Finish class like be romantic you know you show people express your feelings I just feel like after that I was like nah like no it's good to learn never express how I felt to anybody that's only gone wrong yeah you have to keep that ████ tight no it's good to learn where the where the meter is like you can't do too much real early cuz then girls look at you like different and then when they look at you with like certain disgust you're like oh my God what I girl do that ████ too the guys do it more yeah absolutely and I'm not even like a writer you know what I mean it's not like a good story it's like 15 pages of journal entries and
21:13 always ending with some sort of like thinking about you it's like yeah it's like redundant stuff it's like I got to read 15 pages when you read 15 in a row of like I miss you you're like this guy's obsessed with me that's what she's probably thinking that's crazy she proba told her all her ████ ████ friends about it yeah like look at this look at this no pictures even yeah no Doodles he's like I hate ████ reading he doesn't know me at all no I did I just that same ████ it was the same thing I strong simp ████ ████ all of us did that well no because cuz when you're doing that you're doing it for you you're not really doing it for them so you you think it's like cuz you're going to look cool and ████ yeah you're doing it because you're trying to learn how to like be a man and I think it's you know you ever heard of like guys don't actually build that empathy and like you can't see things from Another point of
22:03 view until you're like like 65 on your death bed I get it now it's like way older for boys compared to two two girls
// end of tape