0:00 [Music] and welcome back everybody to JK news out of the closet where today we are talking about how Steve one of the most impactful times of his life starting out as a tuber and being willing to do anything while swallowing I mean swall what it says ego out uh leave it in thank you please don't okay uh yeah man no starting out as two SC it's hard because did you already have that Vibe like coming in from like a traditionally trained improv like background did you come into the YouTube world going what are these guys doing or I think I I was just so green that I was just green than well yeah but um no like like a rookie you know what I mean like just
0:50 so uh that I didn't think of it like that I thought of it more like um well so I had two I was with two minds right I came in in one s and I was like what the absolute ████ are these guys doing so much of this stuff is so trash and garbage and not funny like it's like a lot of wig comedy wig comedy describe it oh we had 50 wigs and it's a lot of like you know and I didn't even know about you guys I'm not even hitting on you guys but it was just a s███████ of like old jokes from like the 70s and ' 80s like that Richard Brier did and people are just regurgitating and doing his bits and like wearing wigs so I was like okay that's kind of what's going on here doing our ████ now yeah right sure and and it's just a lot of like okay stereotypical comedy got it got it got it okay got it got it got it but then you think you know it right you think oh
1:40 yeah no no no so all you got to do is come on here and do some like new ████ and that'll be so funny everyone no no no no no no you have to you have to swallow your pride a lot I think if you're going to do something like like tubes because you really you can't come in with a plan like you can I guess and people have done that but I'm talking about you you don't know what everyone is going to glum on to yet like you have to like try things and ████ up and fail and especially that early in the game yeah you can't just come in and like think you you have some angle or whatever and so that's you know that my YouTube career really started with um me and my buddy Horton um like I got with I got with this me I went through like a terrible breakup very bad breakup and then um this with that Aaron chick my my chick Aaron at the time she dumped me
2:31 and then um basically I started banging on this other chick real quick and then she was upset about that and then that's when she was like doing the fake fake the glass thing glass thing she cut herself and you came over she started sucking your dick name reference from the other video yep yep yep so then she's like guzzling my my ████ and stuff like that and it was all fun fun times but then it became like okay I don't I don't think we're good for each other moving on and then I was just doing improv I used to work with these guys called the hinges in San Diego so me and Horton and this is truly like um for Love of the Game you don't leave La drive two hours to do an improv show unless you really love it and you like the people that you're doing it with so I joined this improv troop called the hinges who I knew
3:21 Loosely cuz I used to do this this group called San Diego theater Sports where I was with Trenton right in the last video well then so like they kind of started doing prop shows around San Diego and me and Horton were were up in LA but then like it's so hard to get stage time at UCB and at iio West at the time so I like hey dude no problem every Saturday night or or every third Saturday night of the month we'll go to San Diego we'll do a hinges show it'll be ████ sick so um one of the shows that I was doing my ex-girlfriend came into and that's where she knew Mike Gallagher my my blood and then that's like how I got in that like little Pond where she's like oh my my boyfriend's funny you should talk to him and Mike's just like whatever who gives a ████ right and then we actually talked on the phone and and
4:13 we had a great conversation like good back and forth and it was very like um we just hit it off right away it was like really it's always been like that for me and him man like I could me and Gallagher can talk and we have I've that you right with like yeah we he's the guy sold all these movies yeah okay so me and him start we hit off right away and like when I say that like I I I think I've spent more time with him and obviously Nikki than anybody because we spent so many hours like writing and and laughing and um coming up with bits together so we started to do he was he already started this channel called toally sketch at the time and then he immediately was like dude you should come in we'll do some sketches and stuff like that and then I would just like I would I remember I was working downtown LA this highrise selling ████ printer toner and and it was like the worst job ever I worked for this like Korean dude
5:03 who had velcro pants I remember he used to come into the bathroom and you'd hear his his pants un Velcro so he could like take a piss or whatever yeah so and he was just like a really mean guy but his wife was so ████ nice to me always I'll never forget her she was so nice family company it was a family company yeah and they had done really well he was a very good business guy right but like not a fun person to be around and um yeah so I would during my lunch break I'll go outside call Mike and like spend like 35 minutes on the phone just like pitching sketches and bits and whatever the ████ like hey I thought of this what do you think of that he's like yeah yeah let's do that let's tag with this so then we would like okay yeah what are you doing Saturday let's look and go I'm not like and what are you paying me brother what you what the ████ you pay me you have to swallow your ████ Pride you have to do it because you love it it's for All For the Love of the Game right the money
5:53 comes later if you're ever going to start anything like this you have to just like swallow all that ████ to this day I know people who you know they they come out of some acting school or whatever the ████ and then they're or improv place or whatever the ████ and they're like okay but I expect to get paid this certain amount or whatever and it's like dude you are just not going to get far with people people just want at the time especially people just want to like do things see where it goes and then like you know the money comes later much later but you have to like be willing to you know interning used to be a thing a very valuable thing by the way you're building a skill set most importantly you're building a contact list people now are just like I'm too good for the interning thing it's like bro I used to work all day do improv at
6:43 night and work for free on the weekends for tubers scum you think I liked every second of that and like getting having to drive like 3 hours in LA traffic and knowing I have to fill up my gas tank and knowing I I'm living paycheck to paycheck like nobody likes that ████ but I love doing it and I didn't beat anyone up on set I was always a joy to be with on set I made sure that and I know that I was a joy to be with on set because people asked me back there's certain people who I will not mention but I have before sometimes who when they're when they're onet they're making everyone know that like you're wasting their time and ████ cuz they're so popular and then they can't figure out why nobody seems to want to work with them again it's so weird what is their name Ry with Ry schmeck's girl and I'll never forget there was one day
7:33 where I kept getting asked back to do all kinds of stuff and then one day she's like how come how come nobody's asking me man I cann't do stuff and I was like I remember I was sitting in our apartment at the time and I I I specifically remember this told the start before I think but I started walking up to picture frames and I was like straightening them I was like I think I know why I think I I think I might know why maybe it's cuz oh hang on a second this picture is a little crooked I was like every time you're on set you're such a ████ ████ maybe that's why go figure right and that but that has people remember the Echoes of you being a ████ on set you complaining because you're not making money off of this stuff and the director is or whatever it is right she so like lack self-awareness that she doesn't even know that she's doing that a lot of people were like that yeah it's not just one person it's like I think it's like a
8:23 whole I think there's a lot of people who just like you know Nikki's we we both have commiserated about this over the years where there's certain people that we knew who were it's like hey I want to be an actor uh cool yeah come to our tuber set we don't really make any money off this ████ yet we're trying to figure it out and like oh no sorry I I work for money that's sorry and it's like okay dude good luck to you and then to also too you have to remember that like people talk to people you you can actually it's called reputation so like if you um like I'll never forget I was shooting um much later I was shooting a a trolling video at at one of the cons VidCon playlist who the ████ knows and I and I hired this cat I was like hey dude show up here this time this day he hits me up two hours before the shoot and
9:13 he's like hey I didn't realize it's going to be like this far away from me can you kick me up like he basically wanted 3x's salary and I can't do anything about it he's going to be my camera guy that day you're not swimming in it kids I know for people watch me yeah but you're ████ swimming in it and dude I was basically putting every dollar I had back into my YouTube channel right like you just don't people just don't they never start businesses and then just know everything about Beast yeah exactly people well yeah I don't know anything about that so then so then he he is like I was like cool yeah you shake me down you won you got it dude here's your check never working with you again and I didn't have to tell him that I just made sure never worked with him again and then anytime anybody's like you need a camera guy I never brought his ████ name up and that's just how it happens in this town
10:03 right it's called reputation it's called like don't shake people down try to do the right thing if that guy wanted more money we could have had a conversation afterward or anything and I probably would have given him more but that just alone made me go okay so you're the type who will shake people down the day of not good ████ so you know as you do things and one of my favorite people I ever met doing uh Tu tubers scum things was ████ G cuz I remember really cool he's a good dude and I remember ████ very early on when I was was first at maker cuz like I said Mike kind of introduced me to all these people and the these beautiful boys called the Fine Brothers they kept hiring me back cuz they they liked me and they liked what I brought to set and all that stuff well um once I was you know doing stuff for a while with the Fine Brothers and with a bunch of different people I started like getting conversations with the maker boys before it was called maker it was
10:53 just called the station at the time and they kind of were hey dude just come do stuff come do stuff and I was never like how much are you guys going to ████ pay me right I just want people to really understand it really is so important to just be a joy to work with for people and like I don't know I've worked with you guys how long how many conversations have we ever had about money you know what I mean like it's just the it's just not the way I do business um and I and I really think that I really hope that look as we talk to this camera I hope people take away certain things and that's one of the things I want to impart with all of you to swallow your ████ ego right like swallow it down hard and just try to build good relationship with people so that you know you can eventually do your own thing which is what happened to me thankfully maker took a shot at me they're like hey we want to sign you I
11:43 was one of the first channels that they signed um but I remember watching CM G specifically and and so I'm in maker now I'm in the like little system soll around with everybody else and you're all just a minnow trying to catch like little flakes of ████ food as it comes in the thing right like you're just trying to you know get fed and become a bigger fish right but ████ would say yes to everything he wouldn't say no to people and I mean that as a compliment he wouldn't like be too good for something he would say yes like everyone who's shooting that day we're basically all in the same space at the same time like um and and he would just say yes to everything and I remember that was a really important thing for me to see because I was like you know coming in as kind of like a comedy snob like I saw quickly that that wasn't going to help me do anything just being a comedy snob is great for making fun of
12:34 tubers which I've always been pretty good at doing because like it's pretty easy it's like ████ fish in a barrel it's like ████ throwing grenades into a barrel sometimes and especially with dancers it's like ████ like Nuke in a barrel but du but no importantly watching CM I always forget he's a dancer till we did five videos about it I but watching CM just be humble and say yes to everything I was like dude that that's the way to do it that's the how you get it done yeah I really always remembered that and then um yeah I would just beat my head against the wall doing tube stuff and I remember I couldn't really figure out how to do my own how to get my voice on my channel like I remember I remember you could either you could either view things as oh these people hate me or they're being haters or you go okay that's good feedback I'm more of a
13:24 believer in feedback right generally speaking I think like like what you asked me before about my buddy Trenton like he gave me notes I could have seen his hate but I went no no no I think there's I think he's making a good point one of the comments I would always get from people was like it's so weird like Steve's so funny on other people's channels how come his own channel he's not funny and I'm like that's so true like what am I not doing what were you doing on your channel during this time um I was just I was just throwing up the monologue videos half Vlogs no no that was way before that like I was doing like Vlog stuff with like Mike we to the movie theater stuff was really raw really early stuff so this is before you got into the prank space way before way before and and and then I just couldn't
14:14 crack it I would do like some sketch real quick or whatever and it just wasn't it doesn't sound like me it's like it reminds me of when I was doing standup For a very brief time I just couldn't hack my own voice how can I how can I the way that I'm in I am in this room the way I'm talking right now how come I can't replicate this on stage I just can't uh so I just couldn't figure out how to do that and then that's when I remember watching ████ do these man in the street things and I remember very specifically too sitting in a room with Ben Donovan and Lisa Nova and they were all basically like hey like there's this Big Brand deal like this like Captain Morgan or some some ████ like that they want to pay like cast G like 10 grand or something like that to like interview people on the street and cast them passed or whatever it was right I don't
15:05 remember the exact numbers but I was just like that's ████ crazy I could do that ████ and I remember saying I could do that ████ and they only saw me at this point as like a sketch actor guy cuz that's what I was doing with them and they're like you know nobody was like oh I I believe that you could do that I was like haven't seen it yet that's crazy to think of you as someone that they don't know I guess like before you had done it how would you know exactly people you have to show people that for ████ sakes again I could just talk to this camera and tell you about like when I was four I got beat up by a bully or whatever but I want you guys to take away something from this right like truly truly truly so with that right it was just about oh they don't know I can do this and this is something that I've actually helped Nikki with a lot where she is like I can do this thing how come people just don't know I can do this
15:55 thing I'm like cuz they haven't seen you do it just go do it ████ and then they'll see it but like it's such an it's such an easy thing you would think but a lot of people just can't understand that so I remember telling people that and then they just looked at me with this demystified look and I was like okay that's what I'm going to do then I'll prove these ████ cuz I'm very Petty person and by the way I love these human beings Ben Donovan Lisa Nova I love them it's not that they were bad people for that I had to go show them something right so then that's when I took I took a camera crew to Venice Beach and I just I was like man what I love about what ████ does with his California on series is I love the confrontational moments and it wasn't always like that most of the time he's just interviewing people finding out what they think about a certain topic and I was like I my show is going to be that right the confrontational moment I'm just going to zoom all the ████ way in on that and just white hot
16:47 conflict that's what I want white hot conflict and that's what I that's when I started real life trolling and and at the time I called it I'm better than you or something or yeah just like whatever the situation is I'm better than you it so like that's when I went to the word doom gym and I had that guy kick me in the ████ ribs God yeah and I was just telling him I'm better than him at everything the whole time and he was just like ████ putting me in pretzel like so easily and ████ and then just kicks me kicks me with bricks oh and then I thank God I was only like 25 or whatever cuz like dude I felt that ████ for like a week um but God damn but I didn't let anyone know that cuz like that's you you doing the video that's the whole character and ████ like that so then um yeah then I started to do this show with another Gem of a human being I would never say this on camera will of DC
17:37 who's a um a buddy of mine he uh he used to have the show where he would he would talk about the numbies of tuber scum like like hey this tuber scum just just hit a million subscribers like they're the number one tuber right now right it was like the smos days Shane days where they were the kings of the kings of the Kings right um boy Boy kings everywhere left and right with swoopy hair it was like the ████ hair of a generation and I remember watching him and I remember just like I would just talk him talk to him in the hallways about making fun of the tubers because I thought it was very entertaining and they're they did very well they don't like if you're going to do very well people can make fun of you all right so I was doing that and then will was like you should come do my show with me like that would be I would really like to have you on my show with
18:27 me because I like the way that you riff with me in the hallways right so then I started doing his show and that got the attention at the time of of Mr Ray William J Jenkins who who ended up making me the first you know writer of his show which was equals three at the time which was the number one tuber show and then I was like the writer in that room and then we brought in other writers and those people to this day got Brandon Perna who's a tuber scum now he does like a lot of Denver Broncos content one of my good buddies um uh this chick named Aaron who I worked with forever not the one I was ████ on different one never got to ████ on her no I like her terrifi yep yep um you know all these guys all these guys and and and that was my first time being in a riter's room where it's like we're pitching jokes for a show that
19:18 immediately gets a million views so it's like you can sit there and you can write for your voice or you can swallow your ████ Pride realize that you're writing for somebody else and try to just give them good jokes so that was like brand new for me in that way because I was so used to doing the Improv world but thank God Trenton bent me into shape and taught me how to work a room and taught me how to give to the room and that's when I became a very valuable asset they thought and that yeah that like exploded my whole thing especially when we had people on like Bobby Lee came on and I remember pretty early I was pitching jokes and stuff like that and then eventually Bobby in Bobby was like hey is this funny and then and people were saying he's like no no Steve is this funny and
20:08 I was like oh you see me as like you see me as funny right now that's interesting like w that's huge like you're ████ Bobby Lee from Mad TV and all that stuff so I was like okay that's like the sickest thing ever and then he ended up hiring me to do like to write for his he was going to do a sketch um show and this guy Nam Romney Malco came in he was going to do like this sketch show and I started you know getting gigs from people just just by being good in the room being nice to people when you wrote that sketch that yes the best the greatest sketch on Earth that we can't talk about sketch on Earth that I can never talk about and that Nikki shutters every time I tell everybody the greatest sketch on Earth yeah it's the greatest one is that the game show one that's the game show one I love that that's the greatest sketch that one Bobby I Bobby loved that sketch it sucks we never got to do that someday someday someday uh so yeah that but ultimately yeah folks
20:59 again this is not about me this is about you I really hope that if you want to do anything in your life right I I hope that you can you can love it enough to to where you'd show up for it if you're getting five bucks and you'd show up for it if you're getting five grand right because it's the same goddamn thing either way I I really I'm a big believer in that and um it's got me where I am wherever I am and um and then where I'm going next which is to the ████ ████ Moon cuz we're going to talk about you know the movie stuff and all that kind of stuff but and then eventually crypto obviously but yeah that's you know there's your little little but stay tuned after these hey hey hey that's my job oh you okay okay my part stay tuned so we can come back and talk about how Steve's coming in Nikki next are we going to talk about
21:50 are you ever going to talk about how uh Ray William Johnson didn't really have writers
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