Guests this week: Jung-Ho Pak of the Bay Philharmonic, Ronn Vigh, Justin Lockwood & Carlos Alazraqui.
This week's edition of Copeland's Corner, with Jung-Ho Pak of the Bay Philharmonic, and featured Headliners Ronn Vigh, Justin Lockwood & Carlos Alazraqui.
Tune is as Brian and his guests talk about the latest in local events, hot talk topics, and life in general.
For tickets and info on the Bay Philharmonic Holiday Spectacular, visit BayPhil.org.
For more from Ronn through his website: RonnVigh.com
For more from Justin, follow him on Instagram
For more from Carlos, visit his website: CarlosAlazraqui.com
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For more from Brian...
Visit his website: www.BrianCopeland.com
Follow on Social Media: Twitter & Instagram - @BrianCopie
Email: BrianCopelandShow@Gmail.com
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Copeland's Corner is Created, Hosted, & Executive Produced by Brian Copeland.
This Show is Recorded & Mixed by Charlene Goto with Go-To Productions. Visit Go-To Productions for all your Podcast & Media needs.
EP169 - Copeland's Corner with Jung-Ho Pak, Ronn Vigh, Justin Lockwood, & Carlos Alazraqui.
[00:00:00]
Host Brian Copeland: Hello again. This is Brian Copeland talking. Welcome to another edition of Copeland's Corner. If all goes well, a little bit later on, we'll be joined by a distinguished panel of comics. And we'll talk about some of the news of the week. Um, this being the holiday season, we're going to start, uh, today's podcast by doing something a little bit different.
We usually don't have guests. At at the top of the podcast, especially
guests talking about something that is festive So I decided as I said, it's the holiday season. So let's do it. So, uh coming up on december 17th Let me make sure I have this information correct sunday, december 17th If you are here, uh where I am recording in the san francisco bay area at the chippo The cheveau college performing arts center in hayward, california The bay phil harmonic has a special program called a holiday spectacular So [00:01:00] here to talk with us about that is the artistic director and the conductor of the Bayfield Harmonic, Jung Ho Pak.
Welcome to Copeland's Corner. Hi, Brian. How are you? I am great. Happy holidays. It's good to have you. So tell me, what are folks going to see on December 17th? I
Jung Ho Pak: just can't wait. It is going to be the biggest holiday experience you'll ever imagine. I mean, we call it a holiday spectacular, Brian, because it's got to be a spectacle,
Ronn Vigh: right?
Host Brian Copeland: Yes, it's got to be. It's got to be. It's
Jung Ho Pak: better. Truth in advertising. We've got so many performers on stage. We've got two fantastic singers. One of them is a beautiful soprano named Erica Gabriel. Who sings everything from opera to gospel to jazz. I mean, she's just one of the most energetic and gorgeous voices.
I mean, truly worth the price of admission. Then another [00:02:00] wonderful soprano, her name is Deanna Loveland from Nashville, and she sings, she plays piano, and she plays harp as well. And she's got this real kind of Nashville pop sound, it's just really gorgeous, and they're going to sing a lot of songs separately, but they're going to sing a big finale, Oh Holy Night.
Together. Oh, I love a Holy Night. I know
Host Brian Copeland: what my favorite Carol.
Jung Ho Pak: It's not Christmas unless you have a Oh Holy Night. And then we've got two dance companies. Brian one is the Yoko's Academy of the of Dance and the Performing Arts. They performed us every year and they always do a bit of Nutcracker. So if people feel like, oh, you know, I don't know if I wanna see the whole Nutcracker.
You get to see the highlight, the end of Act one snowflakes. Uh oh. I love that. The whole course and, and to sing behind the snowflakes, they're going to, we're going to have the San Francisco girls chorus. Do you know them by
Host Brian Copeland: any chance? Yes. I've seen them perform once. They are, they are
Jung Ho Pak: world class. They perform with some of the biggest, um, opera companies and [00:03:00] performing orchestras, phenomenal organization.
They're going to be singing a beautiful a cappella version of Silent Night and Carol of the Bells. I mean, they're just phenomenal. So they're going to be joining us to dance companies, chorus tubes, and then behind all of this, the fabulous Bay Philharmonic, the Bay Philharmonic is one of the most energetic, most theatrical.
What do I mean by theatrical? Brian, we've got a huge screen on the back that we project images of Christmas and holidays for all of our shows. Um, we use it as a kind of a backdrop, and then we've got two giant monitor screens on either side. And so it's a really multi sensory event. So it's
Host Brian Copeland: a whole multimedia presentation.
You totally,
Jung Ho Pak: you know, we've got to Brian, we're in, we're in an age of Netflix. We're in the age of podcasts. If you're not really entertaining and energetic, uh, immersive and all this other good stuff, then you're behind the
Host Brian Copeland: times. Let me ask you this. You, you talk about us being in the, in the age of Netflix.
Yes. So, I mean, dealing with Netflix [00:04:00] and podcasts and streaming Yes. And internet and everything else. Yes. It is more difficult to get live bodies to come out and put Yes. And put behinds in, in seats. Now, on top of that, we're still dealing with, in, in the performing arts, we're still dealing with the aftermath of the covid shutdown.
Mm-Hmm. . So, so tell me what has Bill, has, has, has Bayfield Harmonic done, uh, in order to, to get audiences out. So what I understand, you guys are doing great. Boy, you
Jung Ho Pak: have hit the nail on the head in terms of that question. What are the live performing arts, whether you're Broadway, whether you're a theater company, even if you're a museum, which is kind of like a live performance, because you got to go to a museum or maybe even Sunday sporting events may be affected as well, because there'll be a day in immersive reality that you'll be able to be on the football field, maybe in the huddle, and you won't have to go and sit.
You know, 100 yards away up in the nosebleed section. I think, Brian, the way out of this is
Carlos Alazraqui: to be more human. What do
Host Brian Copeland: you mean by [00:05:00] more human?
Carlos Alazraqui: AI will
Jung Ho Pak: become so real. AI will become so indistinguishable. The image that you see right now, they'll scan my face in, they'll scan my voice in. It'll be really scary like this.
But the more emotional, the more passionate, the more unpredictable, uh, the more human we can be, then we will outpace the machines. And so that is my goal, Brian, is to present as much passion. Now, you haven't seen me
Host Brian Copeland: conduct. No, I have not.
Jung Ho Pak: front of the orchestra. I use my body and I use my face and I use my hands.
I am one of the most energetic conductors out there because I'm giving a show to the audience as well as to my colleagues in front. I want my colleagues to have a great time. I want them to smile and I want them to play with their heart. So that is really the secret sauce. The Bayfield Harmonic is not only I think the most theatrical orchestra around, but I think we have a mission to really
Carlos Alazraqui: Be the answer [00:06:00] for our humanity.
Host Brian Copeland: Now you have, have conducted orchestras pretty much all around the world. Everybody from, you know, there are so many countries reading your bio that I can't keep up with them and countries and cities are there, not to mention Disney that you worked with Disney as well. And from what I understand, I I've known musicians who have been part of orchestras and they've always got gripes.
Yes. A lot of those drives are directed at the conductor. And from what I understand about the musicians who are in your orchestras, they're happy. They're happy. They're in a good mood. They're excited to be there. So tell me, what do you do differently that other conductors don't do that end up with disgruntled musicians?
Jung Ho Pak: Well, I don't want to presume that I can read their minds and that I know what they're thinking, but I can tell you what I try to do, Brian, which is, you know, inside all of us, there's a 16 year old child who is optimistic and maybe got into music [00:07:00] because you believe that.
Carlos Alazraqui: And that you could change the world,
Jung Ho Pak: my job, aside from moving my hands and giving them the tempo of the piece and the, in the mood of the piece, my
Carlos Alazraqui: job is to make them believe that they're
Jung Ho Pak: 16 again.
So that means I address them as colleagues. We in rehearsal, we, we, we talk together. We work things out. I never order. I never shouted them like a, like an old fashioned maestro. I also, um, we, we do something unusual, Brian, you know how sometimes you go to an orchestra concert and the conductor comes out and then they bow, but the rest of the orchestra is standing there.
Yeah. As if they're, they're not there, we always bow together, we bow together as a family that tells you that my, my attitude that I am not the star, but we are the stars and we're thanking the audience together. Another thing I do is I never have anyone call me maestro. Never. I hate that word because maestro means either a teacher.
[00:08:00] Or a master and I'm a, I'm a student of life. I'm learning things all the time. I, I, if you don't have humility, then you're not going to get very far in this world. So those are just some of the reasons why I think musicians probably enjoy our orchestra. Um, I don't want to say more than others, but a
Host Brian Copeland: lot.
All right, well, if you want to come out and see a fantastic orchestra and a fantastic spectacular for the holiday season, come on out on December 17th. Again, if you're here in the Bay area, it is at the Chabot college performing arts center, uh, in Hayward, California. If you want tickets, go to bay bill, B A Y P H I L.
org, December 17th, Bayville harmonics, a holiday spectacular. Hope out. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being with us. It's a pleasure. Come back to us again.
Jung Ho Pak: My honor. It was a lot of fun. Thank you.[00:09:00]
Host Brian Copeland: This is the part of the podcast that we call Headliners on the Headlines. Our panel of comics this week, Carlos Alos Rocky joins us from Southern California. Uh, Ron Vai, Ron, I never know where you are. You weren't you in Vegas? Are you home in Vegas? Vegas. Yes. Okay. And, uh, and Justin, uh, Justin Longwood is here with us.
Uh, Lockwood for you. I'm seeing a Longwood. That's the Lockwood is here with us as well. Where are you? I'm in Venetia, in beautiful Venetia. I'm
Justin Lockwood: in the most mundane of all of the locations today.
Host Brian Copeland: In beautiful, but I like Venetia. Venetia is next to the water. You know, it's, it's reasonable house prices in the Bay Area.
Like one of the few places where you can reasonably buy a home. Venetia is nice. I wouldn't live there, but Venetia is nice. It's a nice place. All right, let's, let's start with this. Actually some, some sad news in the world of comedy. Uh, yesterday on Tuesday, uh, Norman Lear, the great Norman Lear [00:10:00] passed away at the age of 101.
Wow. I read his autobiography and was. Was, uh, just reading his bio. Um, I'm very fortunate that I, um, I got to be in his presence a handful of times. Uh, he was a major influence on my childhood. You know, we, I grew up, you know, the one time my whole family would get together and watch TV. We would watch all in the family on Saturday nights.
We would watch Maud on Monday nights. We will watch one day at a time. We will on Tuesdays, we watch good times. We watch all, all of his stuff, a major influence on my work. And when I was doing my first solo play, not a genuine black man, I watched, um, all in the family, the first two seasons to get the rhythms down between going between comedy and tragedy and going back and forth.
And so he actually came out and saw me. When I, when I did that show in Los Angeles, he came out and saw me and said, I like what you're doing. And I said, well, I'm ripping you off. Totally ripping you off. And he goes, well, you got me. So, um, it's just, um, it's, [00:11:00] it's, it's a big loss and, and I feel like I've lost someone I grew up with.
Um, Carlos, you and I are close to the same age. I don't know about the youngsters here. I'm
Carlos Alazraqui: interested to, to hear how it, uh, it affects Ron and, and, and Justin, obviously older than we are. I'm 61. And yeah, very instrumental in my black and white TV days on the Sylvania with the UHF and the clicker. And, um, and, and as far out, I talked to a woman today working in the gym, who's in her 90s and worked with him from, for 10 years and said, you know, Fernwood tonight, America tonight, even going beyond, but all in the family instrumental, you know, one of the last probably American shows.
That dared to look at sadness and bleakness in queens and people that weren't handsome like friends You know, they had modest means they were getting pie So very instrumental in my childhood and what shaped my view of the world because I kind of felt similar You you speak about Benicia. I grew up in Concord, California blue collar right next to Crockett My dad worked at the C& [00:12:00] H factory, which is still there He was a chemical engineer quit that became a librarian.
My mom quit Work to become a seminarian and go into the Episcopal Church. So we washed, our dishwasher broke, we washed dishes in the garage, and so all that related to us sitting down and watching All in the Family and kind of feeling like, that was kind of us. We didn't have these super means. I had a paper route.
I was a, you know, I Did dish, I was a dishwasher later on. And so that Norman Lear's comedy and those shows really struck a chord with me growing up in blue collar California in the sixties and seventies.
Host Brian Copeland: I was the son of a single mother who was the legal secretary and a grandmother who worked at a cleaner's.
And so, you know, watching it, watching them just get by on good times. We, we totally got it and totally understood it. And in terms of political stuff, I learned what abortion was when Maude got an abortion. In the seventies, Maude got an abortion. I learned what rape was when Edith got raped, or almost got raped, that they, they did that on the Sunshine Home.
Carlos Alazraqui: [00:13:00] But you also learned within that, that rape was not about sexuality, it was about power. Because obviously, Edith, June, June Stapleton, Gene Stapleton was not somebody that was You know, this was, it was educated you on the Vietnam war about race, uh, about everything. It was just a wonderful show. Uh, we're coming home.
You didn't have
Host Brian Copeland: to watch it today. The issues are the same except, you know, substitute Trump for Nixon. And, and, and, and, you know, the, a lot of the issues and, and, and income inequality, all of a sudden it's, it's, it's all the same. Let me ask the other guys, cause you guys are younger than, than, than we are.
As I said, we grew up watching this stuff as kids. Have you any familiarity with, with, with this body of work we're talking about?
Ronn Vigh: Yeah, I mean, I was born in 79 and I was raised in front of a TV in, in, in the eighties and the nineties. And so at that time, a lot of this stuff from the seventies particularly, uh, all in the family, the Jeffersons, uh, Maude, um, even one day at a time, uh, [00:14:00] these were things that I was familiar with and I actually do think, whether I realized it or not, that it actually, you know, helped me, you know, sort of develop.
Uh, in many ways, one as like a comedian and two as a human, uh, because especially with all in the family and the Jeffersons, I grew up in New Jersey, just outside of New York City. So these very much portrayed the sort of families and people that I, that I was around. And I will say this. To like this day, because I remember one of my first dates that I took home to meet my family at Christmas time in like 2001, they were like, your family seems a little racist, like they are not racist.
They will take in everybody, but it's this East coast attitude that reminded me back of like all in the family and the Jeffersons and things like that. And so, you know, yeah, kind of actually had to have a little discussion with the family and be like, uh, this is how people portray you. And I know this isn't the truth, you know.
Um, but yeah, all of these issues, I mean, I've got, by the way, I've got beat Arthur on my hat right over here.
Host Brian Copeland: Oh yeah. Yeah. Is that a [00:15:00] golden girl's hat?
Ronn Vigh: Yes. Yes. Cause I forgot that we were on camera and I was not fine. So, so yeah, so I definitely, I'm familiar with at least a good portion of Norman Lear's work and, um, and, and, uh, and at 101, I mean, what a career.
What a career that we should be like, you know, celebrating and looking back and, and looking at these shows and thinking how we can move this into the future because the shows are not what they once were on TV.
Host Brian Copeland: And, and, and he worked till, till the bitter end. Last time I saw him was about three years ago.
No, it had to be longer than that. It was right, it was right before the shutdown. Uh, Rita Moreno was a friend of mine and I got invited to Rita's birthday party and Norman was there. She was doing one day at a time because he brought one day at a time back with a Latino cast. They did a reboot of it. And, uh, and Rita was part of that cast.
So the entire cast was there at, at her home and, and Norman was there and he still, you know, at then he was, I don't know, 97, [00:16:00] 98 and going to work every day producing this show. You know, still, I mean, imagine, um, you know, yeah, well, it's like show this is like people talking about retiring, you know, retire from what
I'm going to talk for free,
Justin Lockwood: retire from Ron and I, Ron and I are the same age. And I was, I was just listening and thinking to myself that one of the differences that Ron and I had in our childhood. That is really different today is that I grew up in an era where the only comedy specials were like late night HBO or you if you stayed up late, you got to watch the, you know, Johnny Carson and they were all adults.
So I grew up. My big influence growing up was. Billy Crystal and, and, and, and, and just comedians that were in their late thirties and they're in their forties. But if you're a comedian today and you're 19, you can actually find a lot of 19 year old [00:17:00] comedians. You can find your peers in this way that I don't think was available to, to Ron and I.
So I grew up watching. Kind of my parents generation of comedy So the way that like I got that influence of norman lear was that it raised my parents And it raised the comedians that I ended up watching That I ended up growing
Carlos Alazraqui: up on you bring up a point that relates to television because as when we were kids It was laurel and hardy abbott and costello Little Rascals were kids, but Three Stooges, all of our earliest comedic influences, television, were adults.
Whereas, my 12 year old and 9 year old daughter can go to Bunk'd and could go to, you know, Liv and Maddie and all that, they, they, they, The comedy, to them, was funneled by kids. Two kids. We didn't have that, really. Outside of The Little Rascals, all our earliest comedy on camera references were, Like I said, we'd go to Shakey's Pizza and there'd be Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello.
It was all adult. So all [00:18:00] the stuff that was syndicated that crossed over for your television, you know, or you referencing other comedians. But I
Justin Lockwood: will say,
Host Brian Copeland: Justin, about starting out, because when I started out, I was 18. And, you know, it was the same thing. I grew up watching, you know, basically my parents generation of, of, of comics, you know, watching, you know, the, the Norman Lear shows, these were all adults.
There were no kids on any of these shows. One day at a time had a couple of teenagers, a couple of actresses playing teenagers. I don't even know if Valerie Bertinelli was a teenager then or not, but, but, you know, playing teenager, but it was still, you know, it was still their generation and, and it was like the first comic I ever saw.
Who was close to my age when I was starting out at 18, 19 years old was Eddie Murphy. Cause Eddie Murphy was, was Eddie Murphy was 19, but everybody else, you know, I mean, first standup I ever saw that was like adult standup, you know, that wasn't, you know, mother in law jokes or, you know, you know, a lot of these people we used to see David Brenner would be on TV all the time.
[00:19:00] And, and, you know, folks like this. Um, it was Richard Pryor, but Richard Pryor was still not, you know, Richard Pryor was 20 years older than I was, you know, at, at that point, but that was the first like grownup comedy. I felt like I ever saw, you know, the reason I became a comic was that 1979 special, if you, if you guys have not seen it, you got to see it greatest hour and a half of comedy ever failed is considered.
Yeah, I
Ronn Vigh: would sit in awe in front of the TV, too, and watch things like Bob Hope specials and stuff like that that we don't have now. And I think that's why, as a kid, they never knew what to do with me, because I never wanted to hang out with other kids. Because I was either raised on TV watching all this adult material, and then I wanted to hang out with the adults.
Every Saturday night, I'd go over to my 70 year old Aunt Dahlia's house and play cards with all the adults. Like, no use for children!
Host Brian Copeland: Well, yeah, one of the things that Norman Lear should get credit for or does get credit for is he made television grow up. Cause I was, I was reading about what, you know, what the competition for all in the family was its [00:20:00] first season, you know, what show it was up against, it was Saturday night, what show it was up against.
And this tells you again, how TV shifted. And this is 1971. I guess the show he was up against, uh, he was on CBS and all the family was up against Bewitched. Wow. Now think about the difference between those two shows.
Carlos Alazraqui: Was that the Dick York or the Dick Sargent
Host Brian Copeland: version? It was the Dick Sargent one.
Carlos Alazraqui: It was the second one.
A little bit softer. No chemistry because obviously Dick Sargent was gay. So yeah. Some of us fall in,
Host Brian Copeland: but there was plenty of chemistry. But
Carlos Alazraqui: yeah, the Dick York version is, but yeah, something light. And trite and fun and easy, right? I'm married to a witch, things are goofy. I got this crazy aunt next door and a gossiper and crazy things happen and mm-Hmm, D dogs can talk or whatever.
Versus Vietnam War, racism. Exactly. Sexism, you know, all
Host Brian Copeland: movement. 'cause you look at 60 shows, you look at all the 60 shows, except for like maybe the Smothers Brothers. You look at those sixties shows today and you go, how did you know it was, it was Genie's [00:21:00] witches talking horses, Beverly Hillbillies.
Beverly hillbillies green anchors in cars. It was all back here. Douglas. That was pretty good. It was like that kind of stuff, you know, and how they don't Adam's family's Adam's family and how they did Gomer pile, which took place in the Marine Corps during Vietnam and never mentioned Vietnam. No, you know, he's in the Marine Corps.
Carlos Alazraqui: Frank Sutton. A great dramatic actor in the movie, Marty. But yeah, it was up against comedies that were light and wanted us to continue that feeling of, uh, everything is safe, everything is wonderful, everything is easy. Um, you know, and then, yeah, later on, here comes Norman Lear to say, there's some, there's some comedy in, in real pain.
And thank goodness for that, you know, kind of changed it for us.
Host Brian Copeland: I read a couple of articles recently since the strike that television now, especially looking at streaming. Is [00:22:00] too dark. The TV it's, it's too cutting. It's too biting. It's too dark. And that, that people who are creating television need to remember that folks want to be entertained and that everything has to be breaking bad.
And that everything has to be Ozark or, or some of these shows, do you think that there's validity to that? Do you think it's too dark? I mean, network TV is network TV, but most people aren't watching network TV.
Carlos Alazraqui: I think that's
Justin Lockwood: the same kind of complaint that people had in the seventies coming out of like dog day afternoon being like, that didn't have dogs in it at all.
Like just complaining about whatever kind of great art is going on at the time. I mean, I, I don't know. I mean, I, I have the opposite response of not to sound like an, an old man, but Ron and I had very similar childhoods. And one of the things that we just don't have anymore is I don't feel like we have adult space on [00:23:00] late night TV or, or much of anywhere.
Host Brian Copeland: I
Justin Lockwood: mean, I mean that Carson used to have poets and authors and real people on his show and now it's a collection of tick tock videos and Yeah, I, I, I was the same kind of child as Ron, kind of like hanging out with adults wanting to be like, did you see Joan Didion on late night last night and just like having some sort of sense of adult space and maturity that I don't see on television at all anymore, except for maybe outside of every once in a while we get something like Breaking Bad.
That actually does want to plumb the depths of some kind of human experience,
Ronn Vigh: but I love having to talk about the adult space. And then I, I immediately think to old Carson shows, or even the match game where like, they're all sitting there smoking and drinking.
Justin Lockwood: I missed that.[00:24:00]
There's no sex anymore. There's no drinking anymore. There's, it's like, there's no, I, I, it, it's weird, but those things, I don't know, do kind of hold what I think of as some kind of adult energy, some sort of adult space, and to me, the idea of things being sanitized and clean and being childlike are very similar.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, also to, and this is something that I have fought with my entire career in, in, in television working, you know, as, as a talk show host on, on, you know, I posted a late night show, I posted a morning show, I posted an afternoon show. And it's always the same thing. You can't do anything that what today, some of the stuff, like you mentioned, like Carson did with Joan Didion or having Gore Vidal, you know, or Truman Capote or an author on somebody to tell, um, I had to pull teeth.
Anytime I wanted to have somebody like that on and no matter how famous they were, I had to pull teeth and even then they would [00:25:00] give me three minutes or two and a half minutes because it's boring. Got to keep it going. Got to keep going. It's got to be going faster and they would blame MTV for it because MTV made everything.
It's got to be quick cuts. It's got to be
Carlos Alazraqui: fast. I think Neil deGrasse Tyson has managed to put himself in though. Here's a guy that's a physicist, right? And who's made himself an entertainer. And he has been on the late night talk shows. So he's somebody that does break that mold. That is interesting. That is worldly.
Um, Elon Musk for as controversial and as wacky as he is another. Character that right. He's a mm-Hmm, . A balant, not an inventor. A guy that inve in, invested in things and has become quite successful. So, uh, Anderson Cooper will be guested on late night talk shows. So yeah, the, it does, there are, there are pockets of it, but I, yeah, I agree.
You know, where's the Dean Martin with a cocktail and a cigarette going? Lemme tell you about the real Vegas baby . You know, like there was something wonderful about that. There was something kind of real and gr and there, there, there is a grittiness. I think that's missing.
Host Brian Copeland: Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Ronn Vigh: Oh, no.
I was going to [00:26:00] say one thing that like, sort of what we have now is I like to watch a lot of like UK television and Graham Norton is still kind of doing that. Yeah. Where people are there that are celebrities, but you kind of get sort of the human side to them and you get the conversation. And that has always been a dream of mine.
And I, I don't think it's a very marketable dream, but I've always just been like, Talk show with everyday people, you know, them, but everyday people are fascinating and they're going through the same struggles. I don't need to hear, you know, about, oh, here's the person who has 8 million hits with their dog playing the flute on Tik TOK.
Let's talk about it. Like, you know? Uh, so I wish I I'm fascinated by just, you know, I want every person's story.
Carlos Alazraqui: Yeah, I think that's wonderful. Yeah, a similar idea where you just take somebody on the from San Francisco to LA on the I 5 And it's like Jerry Seinfeld show except you get to find out they're literally like you said They are real people with fascinating stories in my I see my mom twice a week on a memory floor There's a guy that's a World War two that 101 years old.
There's the [00:27:00] second wife of Harry Belafonte in that same bill Wow There are all kinds of stories. There are some with their memories gone. What do they remember? Where did they live? Where did they grow up? What country are they from? So you're right. There is a, there's a plethora of stories just waiting to be told to, to somehow make that palatable for us would be, I think it would be a wonderful thing, but I'm on board with you,
Justin Lockwood: Ron.
I'll plug something just really quick that people can find on Instagram and a couple other places that, that. Kind of gets into that. And it's called, um, it's called hot takes on the subway. And it is just this guy in New York going to random people and say, just tell me something that you're passionate about.
And they're one minute each. And some of those stories are amazing and wonderful.
Carlos Alazraqui: Ah, that's great. Hot takes. Hot takes on the subway. Okay. I'll check it
Host Brian Copeland: out. I collect old radio and I've been a fan of old, you know, the golden age of radio, you know, 40s primarily for, for years. And Fred Allen, who was one of the biggest [00:28:00] comedians in, in early broadcasting.
He's the one who said that television is called a medium because nothing is ever really well done. Oh, that was, that was the Fred Allen one and that, and my, my favorite is that a celebrity, a celebrity is someone who works hard all his life to become famous only to wear dark glasses and hope not to be recognized.
Yeah. That's how brilliant and witty he was. He used to have a segment on his show called people you never expected to meet. And he would bring on like the mailman and he would bring up like the cab driver who dropped them off that night at the studio. Always been there. Yeah. And bring them out for five minutes, just ad lib them for five minutes.
It's
Carlos Alazraqui: almost akin to being a stand up comic and I don't do that much anymore. It's like, I always felt there were people that were way more interesting and funnier than I was. I just had the guts to go up there and do it. You know, I was, I was people that like a cab driver, like a, a pilot on a plane, like, like the guy at the grocery store.
Like, dude, you're way funnier than me.
Host Brian Copeland: Um, do you guys do much crowd work? [00:29:00] Do you do a lot of crowd work?
Ronn Vigh: Yeah, I, I, I mean, I do, I, I'll tell you why though. It's not, and I have a rule for it. My rule is that I have to do double or triple the jokes for the amount of crowd work that I do. It just can't be a crowd work set, but I had to get really good at it because with the ADD and everything, I just, early on, I couldn't remember.
Anything and I would like my choice was to freeze or was to talk with somebody, but I do crabber differently. I don't know. What's your name? Where are you from? What do you do for a
Host Brian Copeland: living?
Ronn Vigh: Yeah. Yeah, so that slows it down. I keep it moving. I point something out. But the way I look at crab work and I don't even know where you're going with this the way I look at it is There's a whole different group of people in the whole world in front of you in that moment, and you do have to acknowledge that.
Sometimes you don't have the stage time or the amount of time to do that, but if it's my own 45 minute show, then I have the whole all time in the world, and you gotta acknowledge that and make it special.
Host Brian Copeland: I'm not going anywhere with this particular, we're just talking about, you know, no, we're just talking about, you know, we're Fred Allen [00:30:00] by talking to, you know, just talking to people and ad libit and that's the regular people.
And it is
Ronn Vigh: fascinating because, oh my God, I did just do crowd work with somebody and it was such a fascinating story. And of course, I can't remember it right now. And it'll come to me when we finish this, but, uh, but you do find those amazing things. And sometimes you find people on opposite ends of the room that have similar stories and similar connections.
And I think that's super. Duper fascinating. Uh, you know, what problem is, is that I love making those connections and finding out about people, but the problem for a comedy standpoint is keep it moving, right? Yeah.
Justin Lockwood: Let me ask you a question, Ron, because I, I would, I, somebody asked me about this, um, last week.
So I don't, I don't do a lot of crowd work. I wish I was looser on stage, but I'm a writer and I want to go up and kind of do my stuff. And, and I, I wish I was better at kind of leaping off this way and coming back. I'm not, I'm not fantastic at it. Um, but somebody was asking me about proud work because I, I did a show was about 100 people.
They were on [00:31:00] the rowdy or side and I did have to break away more just to corral the energy and I was talking to some comments about it after the show. Ron, have you noticed, because you're in clubs a lot in a lot of different capacities, that if I go on to Instagram any of these things, everyone's posting crowd work.
If you were to like land on this plane and be like, what is Stand up comedy, you'd open up TikTok and be like, Oh, it's all crowd work. Nobody's writing jokes anymore. And so what do you think Ron about the message that that sends to audiences? Cause I'm seeing this uptick in this, like people talking to me, almost looking to, I don't think they're being jerks about it.
I think they're like, this is what this is now. Let me help you get your bit.
Ronn Vigh: Well, I have so many thoughts on this. I'll try to, I'll try to reign them in a little bit. Uh, [00:32:00] first of all, the new generation sees stand up. They don't learn it from Carson and television. They learn it from TikTok and social media, and it's a minute or less half the time.
And then they have no attention span to go with longer stuff in the clubs. Uh, I do know firsthand about this crowd work stuff. It's forced. And that is the problem. I am on email chains because of my day job or just through other comics trying to put me in touch with other people where people are like, Hey, I'm coming to the city.
Do you know anybody who can tape in case I get any good crowd work clips? Like, I've seen that multiple times now that people hire local comics and stuff to tape them in each city just to get that social media crowd work clip. And the problem is, it's the chains, right? And a lot of things come to you when you're not looking for them.
So they're forcing this crowd work. And so they're forcing that this is now what stand up is. To me, it's all a balancing act. Like any good story, right? When you open up a book and [00:33:00] there's the beginning, the middle, and the end. And it's got the different characters, different points. I personally do crowd work.
The way, and I've never, I've never set out going, Hey, I'm doing all crowd work today. Hey, I'm doing only material. But whatever happens happens for me. I know my act. I know where I start. I know where I end. And I know the possible jokes in the middle. And then I go back and forth, right? Maybe somebody says something and there's a good joke that I have stored in my brain.
And so I like the balance in between, right? I'm not an A to Z comic. So that's the way that I view, um, uh, view crowd work. But I think that the chase. Because they think this is the in thing. This is the fad. It's a trend basically on Tik TOK, you know, you've got the ice bucket challenge, you've got planking now you've got crowd work, like, I feel like that's the trend and, um, and you know, I'll just throw the name out there.
I have no opinions on Matt. Right. Whatsoever. Matt, right. It was a very nice guy. And I am not going to judge his comedy, but I think he's one of the names [00:34:00] that have been like focal and bringing up this sort of crowd work trend because they're in a pandemic. That's what a lot of his clips were. Uh, but apparently he was also washing his ass off during the pandemic and going and live streaming every day.
So you can't fault anybody. Uh, for anything, but I don't like this crowd work trend where it becomes a thing that you just get up there and talk and see if something happens. That's not comedy. Comedy is last per minute. It's punchlines is I also play comedy with a message, by the way, because so many people can't do a message and it's great that people feel compelled or forced.
They feel compelled to share what they feel, whether it be something simple as like, we hate Trump or something deeper, but you still have to do that with jokes too, we're getting away from like, what comedy is all about, which is, yeah, that's exactly what
Host Brian Copeland: I'm writing material. Well, I will say like when Carlos and I were coming out of college, you can correct me on this if I'm wrong, but the, the, the, the, the rap I'm.
You know, while there were some that who did crowd work, almost like Paula [00:35:00] Palmstone, who did crowd work on like almost extent exclusively. She did so much of it, but she was brilliant at it. But for the most part, people who did crowd work on you and I were coming up, we're just considered people who were too lazy to write.
That's how we looked at is that it was people who are too lazy to write a set. So you're going to walk around the audience and ask anybody what they do for a living. Yeah. And hope that something's funny.
Carlos Alazraqui: Yeah, because I think the person that tried to breach that, uh, coming out of entertaining comedy was, uh, into truth was Rick, Rick, Rick Reynolds, right?
Rick Reynolds. Yeah. Because outside of that, I loved Mike Meehan. I loved Jeremy Kramer. Mm hmm. I loved David Feldman. Uh, I loved, um, I just loved guys that just did weird stuff that had nothing to do with truth or anything. They're just bizarre. Michael Meehan would just, well, he's an odd looking bird and walk across the stage and it was hilarious.
Bob Reuben. And Bob Reuben, the old Reuben's in town. Reached into the innards of an old mountain yak and found my [00:36:00] car keys. Donut figures, always in the last place you look. You know, there were guys, there was Alex Bennett radio. There was nothing sort of really devoted to truth and bearing your soul. That came later after Rick Reynolds, I think, kind of punched a hole in it a little bit.
Even Warren Thomas was like, The first Negro in first class. Can I get some more peanut, please? You know, there were, it was just a wonderful, different, inventive time right there in that late 80s. It to the early nineties, this pocket of weird inventiveness. And so I really know those guys weren't doing crowd work.
They were going, let me show you these strange pieces in my brain museum. It was
Host Brian Copeland: almost, it was almost performance art. It was, it was, it was a lot like what Andy Kaufman used to do. Yeah. You know, that kind
Carlos Alazraqui: of weird stuff. That's the era that I. plugged into coming from Sacramento. I was like, Oh my God, Steven Pearl, Mike Meehan, Warren Thomas, you know, yourself and everybody, you know, Booker and D.
Ellen Moss were a little bit different. You know, Oh, when I talk
Ronn Vigh: to new comedians, I often say that like comedy is like your [00:37:00] resume, right? Like, like if you're going to go to a job interview and sit down, um, and they say, you know, tell me about yourself. Like, do you have to pull up notes and be like, Oh, I am like, you know, like this is you talk to dive deep.
This is your resume, like coming out of you, like you have, there has to be a sense of preparedness and you have to know what you're talking about. You want to share, like, I'll just tell you because, you know, I, I, I auditioned all the comics who work at the punchline and cops now, right. That is like what I do.
Host Brian Copeland: I guess I'm going to be nicer to you then. What? I guess I'm going to be nicer to you then. Well,
Ronn Vigh: I've been doing this for nine years. Yeah, I was going to
Host Brian Copeland: say, it's been a minute, hasn't it? Yes. I didn't know you were auditioning people. I didn't know that was
Ronn Vigh: on you. Anybody who's not, like, a known headliner, I'm the one you have to go through.
Now, I hope Sorry, I do hope people are watching your podcast, Brian, but I hope no No, but you could, you could tell,
Carlos Alazraqui: you could tell those people what you're looking
Ronn Vigh: for. [00:38:00] Yeah. Well, the whole point is this, is that somebody, um, not too long ago, um, asked me to watch them. And I'm like, sure, of course. And I watched them and I was like, and he's like, well, why?
And I'm like, well, first of all, you did 15 minutes of jokes, five minutes set. But more importantly, you opened with something so fascinating, so fascinating. You were, um, You were married and divorced before you were 21. And then you literally did a sentence on that and then abandoned. And then you started talking about transsexuals and all this stuff.
I'm like, nobody wants your hot tape on those items. But everybody has had something like a relationship that has been good that has been bad. So maybe they weren't married and divorced by the time they were 21. But they um, But but they experienced it and they can relate to that. And this is very fascinating.
This makes you you so you should expand on this. And then they argued with me and all the reasons. And I'm like, but [00:39:00] that's the thing, you know, it's coming back to like who you are and portraying that we've gotten to like crowd work and everybody's hot takes. I I avoid religion and politics as much as possible because I already have to put up a little fight in some of these Markets and venues when I go in because they immediately view me as different as soon as they hear my voice or see me, like, come on stage.
So I have to, like, show them how we are alike, whether that be talking about my love of football and my dad owning an auto body shop in the 80s and me going to all these cars at car conventions. Like, there has to be some way that I can bridge the gap, and that's what I try to explain to a lot of the new comics, but all they see is one minute tips.
Clips on tiktok and all the social media and that's what they try to emulate and it just doesn't work out because they're always going for that hot take of the clip and that's what drives me insane. I remember when, um, Tillis Tiller died, Joan Rivers was still alive and she was interviewed and she said, Phyllis Dillard's first joke, and I don't remember that joke, which was like off in three [00:40:00] years, her first joke wasn't a great joke, it was one sentence set up, one sentence punchline, and in that joke it told you everything you need to know about the next 45 minutes and who she was.
Carlos Alazraqui: I'll ask my manager Heidi Robart because she worked with Phyllis at a high school since she was 18 years old, so I'll get the answer for you. And while you're right, you know, who's somebody, even if it is a Mitch Hedberg, who's not telling the truth or an arch Barker, their truth is in their weirdness and weird avant garde punchlines.
They're not trying to be somebody that they're not. And you can tell that from a performer, you can look at a performer and go, Nope, they're trying too hard.
Justin Lockwood: Interesting example, too, because I, I got to see him pretty close to when he, when he died, unfortunately, but, and I had no idea who he was actually at the time, just dragged.
He showed up with a saxophone player and a standup bass and he's like free form poetry for like 45 minutes. I loved it so much. I was a [00:41:00] theater kid at the time. I was like, you can do standup and do this. Like, what is this weird thing that's going on?
Carlos Alazraqui: I
Ronn Vigh: saw Rickles the year before he died. Yeah, Rickles.
Justin Lockwood: And he kept true to what he was. I'm
Ronn Vigh: sorry, say that again, Ron. I'm sorry. He, I saw Rickles the year before he died. And what was fascinating is, I'm not sure a lot of people enjoyed it, but he kept true to who he was. He wasn't trying to do modern day jokes. No, he didn't. He was calling people Polacks and stuff, you know.
But then he, and he would integrate songs in there because that's what, what his style was and what they did, you know, back then. And that was fascinating to see that he just kept shooting who he was and you couldn't like fault him for that. Oh crowd
Host Brian Copeland: work, by the way, too. Almost all crowd work is what he did.
You know,
Justin Lockwood: it all kind of comes, it all kind of comes down to this thing that I think Ron was kind of hinting at that there's a lot of truth to the more specific And fewer people you're for the more universal [00:42:00] you become.
Carlos Alazraqui: Yeah. Yeah, that's it. My better version of my comedy came in my latter years after I got married and had kids.
I was always trying to be a Warren Thomas or a Meehan or a Kramer or a Rubin or a Robin. I was always trying to be that because that's what San Francisco was. And I was good. I could do good things. I won the competition. I was a good performer, but I was never better than after I became vulnerable as a parent and as a husband and even with age, I went, okay, now I can finally be me and tell some stories.
And that's when I hit my stride, I thought,
Host Brian Copeland: so it was when I started doing solo shows when I started doing solo play is that that's when it changed for me because for the first, I had spent 20 years before that and I was doing fine. I was opening for, you know, big people and doing all this stuff, but I was telling people what I thought.
As opposed to who I am. Yeah. And once I started doing solo work, then I was able to, I didn't have to worry so much about laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh. I can actually go into some depth about, about some [00:43:00] things. And, um, while it's not, it's not popular to say now, um, I did a lot of work with Cosby. Never saw anything.
I had nothing to do with it. Yeah. That's my, that's my disclaimer. But he, the thing he said about our generation of comics and younger comics is, is that he said like when he was starting and his, his style up to the end is, was to. Take a kernel of something and then extrapolate it, go as deep into it as you possibly can, where he says, what we do is we get in and out.
We get in and out. We don't go into any depth about anything where you have something like that line you were talking about, about being married and divorced about, uh, by being 21, you know, he could have taken that and made an hour out, you know, and made an hour out of it easily. Cause there's, there's so many facets in so many ways.
I'm thinking of stuff right now that you could do with that premise.
Ronn Vigh: Like something like Phyllis Diller, simple, but there's a video somewhere on the internet where she's doing 45 minutes of mother in law jokes, just that one topic,
Carlos Alazraqui: 45 minutes, boom,
Ronn Vigh: boom, boom, [00:44:00] boom, boom, just exploring every, you know, facet and asset.
So yeah, we go in and out. And, and to me, I actually And of course, because I watch comics that are newer, right? Host features and so forth. I'm watching people usually five years or less, maybe 10 years or less. So you see a lot of that, right? Boom, boom, boom. And you kind of get whiplash. You kind of get, Oh, new premise, new premise, new premise, new premise.
And it's like, Whoa, it's like, you know, it's too much. And the same thing though, I, it's always easier to see other people's acts than it is your own. So like, you know, I, I find like I have the same trouble too, sometimes like making that, like that, that arc and, and trying to get in there, but it's, it's very fascinating how standup is changing.
And I will say this too. Um, When I first started my job, uh, I auditioned a comic and, um, you know, my boss, who's been the head booker at those clubs for a long time. She never likes her name mentioned, but we all know who I'm talking about. Yeah. Um, she
Host Brian Copeland: turned out [00:45:00] when she was a waitress. That's a fun. Yeah.
Carlson. I knew her when she was a waitress. You'll have
Carlos Alazraqui: to tell me off screen. Yeah. She's been
Ronn Vigh: around forever now. She's got the big title and she loves it because nobody locally knows who she is because they all come and bother me. Uh, but, um, she, I, uh, one of the first people I auditioned, uh, in the mid to 2015, 2016 or so, she said, are you going to pass them?
And I go, yeah, she goes, they have nothing to talk about right now. They're so young and green, but you could tell that they're going to be good. And then guess what? That person is headlining all over right now. So, uh, like all across the country and out of the country. So, so you, so yeah, in the beginning you don't have.
Crap to talk about and we, we do like sort of, so we have to look at these things. To see what comedy is all about and say, Oh, there's set up punch or storytelling styles, but then we have to step away. I think we're chasing too much of what we see on Tik TOK, like the crowd work and
Host Brian Copeland: stuff like that. I will tell you that that was what one of the [00:46:00] disadvantages that I had is I started, I started stand up two weeks after I graduated from high school.
That's when I started, I was 18 years old when I started and at 18 years old, you think you know everything and you don't know jack shit. And, and I had no, I had life experience, but I didn't have life experience. You know what I mean? Not enough life experience to have anything interesting to talk about or to, to know how to, to talk about it in a way that it was interesting and revealing and funny at the same time.
So starting that young, I was lucky enough to be able to have the time to learn the craft, to learn. Here's how you craft a joke. Here's how you craft a setup. Uh, you craft a punchline. Here's how you deal with an audience and you control an audience and you keep an audience's focus to the stage, but in terms of.
of actually having life experience when you're 18, 19 years old, you really don't have a whole hell of a lot to say. I mean, you really, you really don't. And so, you know, when I look at comics for that young, I admire their guts in terms of at 18 years old, getting up to do that, but it's like, you know, and you can tell, you can look at someone going, yeah.
[00:47:00] Once you get a little life experience under your belt, once you get married, have a couple of kids, once you write, once you write a couple of alimony checks, you know, then you'll have something to say.
Carlos Alazraqui: They don't have a lot, a lot to say, but I'm not going to be a, what's his name? Viva V stock Ravis for me and say that they can vote.
Did these people that don't have a lot to say might decide our next president, this Gen Z people. So I don't care. Comedically, if you don't know yourself, just know you have to vote blue. That's all. That's all you got to do, kid. Go and vote. We'll get it done. Go, go,
Host Brian Copeland: go. Thank you for the segue. Cause I spent three hours prepping a show that we got nowhere near.
There we go. It's what else comes together. We started talking to comedy at the craft.
Carlos Alazraqui: Well, I did political radio this morning. So I was just seeping. It was just sitting there like a coffee filter.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, let me, let me tell us that. Thank you. Thank you for the segue. Let me, let me throw a couple of topical things in here.
Um, I've been watching Liz Cheney give interviews all week, you know, cause her new book is out and she is taking no prisoners. She's talking about everything that, that, uh, has gone [00:48:00] on in the GOP, uh, in the house, in the Republican conference, everything that happened before, during and around January 6th and, and just some of the stuff, Kevin McCarthy, former speaker who was kicked out has announced today that he is not going to run for reelection, that he's out.
After the end of next year. And what, and I think the final straw is what she wrote in her book about him. That when memory during January six, he came out and said that Trump was responsible for this. And he, you know, just, you need to be held accountable. And then he goes to Mar a Lago two days later and takes a picture with him and comes back and it's all changed.
And she said, Kevin Mar a Lago, what the hell? And he said, well, I heard that Trump wasn't eating. I heard that he was depressed and wasn't eating. So I went to see him. So that was kind of like the last straw. When is Trump ever not eating? Let's look at the man for God's sake. When is Trump ever not eating?
Wait, what? McDonald's was closed. What do you mean? Trump's not eating. But anyway, she says, she says that, [00:49:00] that, um, that the Republicans, this is Liz Cheney, Republican royalty, who I agree with about absolutely nothing. And she's just as conservative and anti abortion and anti choice and everything else she ever was, ever was before, she says that the GOP cannot be in the majority.
In 2025, because if they are, we're in serious trouble. And she says that a vote for Trump is a vote against democracy. And she says, basically, she hasn't actually come out and said it, but she has, as they said, would you vote for Biden? And she said, I'll do whatever I have to do. Yeah, you know, so she's saying that, you know, I mean, so I guess the question to ask is she lost her seat because of the things she said she lost her seat in Congress again, Republican royalty, her father was, you know, vice president architect, some people, you know, the, the epitome of evil for a couple of years.
Carlos Alazraqui: Canceled.
Host Brian Copeland: Basically. Yes. Canceled by that. So, so she actually came out for the constitution and she lost her seat. [00:50:00] Is it fair to say that she is a hero? Is it fair to say, or is that hyperbolic to say that she is a profile in courage because she knew what was going to happen. She was, she was from a state Wyoming where Trump won something like 80 percent of the vote and she knew what was going to happen.
Justin Lockwood: I mean, I'm not willing to go that far. No,
Host Brian Copeland: no, I look and
Justin Lockwood: I'm it's admirable. I'm glad that you did it. Good for you. But it's for me. This is 1 of these things. It's like, we throw around the word genius and hero now with a lot of abandon
Host Brian Copeland: and the bars a lot more. I'm glad she's
Justin Lockwood: doing it. Good for her. Hero, no.
No, not doing that one.
Carlos Alazraqui: I think I did it before on your show, but I always go back to the Chris Rock bit about regarding parenting. Well, I'm a parent to my, that's what you're supposed to do. Yeah. You don't get credit for things that you're supposed to do. So I'm in lockstep there with, with Justin. No. Hero, no.
Courageous, yes. Because given the [00:51:00] parameters and, and the people she's working with, it does take courage to do something ordinary, unfortunately. Yeah,
Justin Lockwood: and she did sacrifice. Look, she gave something up. You put something on the line. Even if I don't agree with you, and even if I don't. appreciate the outcome.
If you're really actually willing to give something up in your life that she clearly loved doing. Clearly she loved being a politician. It's hard to get elected, you know? So if, if you're willing to give anything up, it almost doesn't matter to me what it is. And it really doesn't matter to me what you're talking about.
I at least have respect for the fact that you're willing to do
Host Brian Copeland: that. And if you look at stuff, I mean, if you ever get a chance, if you've never seen the movie, Dick, see it, um, where Christian Bale plays, plays her father and it goes up to her. Vikes,
Justin Lockwood: Dick is a different movie. The movie is called Vikes. No, it's called Dick.
No, it's
Host Brian Copeland: not. I'm almost positive. Dick is a different movie about Nixon. No, there's there's one about Nixon too and about Watergate. That's a that's a spoof, but [00:52:00] this one's called dick too I'm almost looking up somebody. I'm almost positive. Okay,
Carlos Alazraqui: dick versus vice The dick vice whole different thing It's a completely different
Host Brian Copeland: But but it goes up to her running for for that congressional seat.
Let me say his
Justin Lockwood: advice It's Vice, my man. It's all Vice. I'm
Host Brian Copeland: wrong. I'm wrong. I, I stand corrected. It's a good move. Dick is the Nixon, the Nixon Watergate spoof that they did 15 years ago or something. Yeah, I mean, I watched
Ronn Vigh: something called Dick completely different. Yeah. Yeah.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. Yeah. You wish
Justin Lockwood: it starred Christian Bale.
I mean, Sean would leave his job. Santa Fe.
Host Brian Copeland: Dick movie. And that was like a complete digression. That was my very first audition for a television talk show job. I was for a late night show for, for PBS in, in San Francisco. And what they, they had me come in and they said, okay, we're going to show you a short film and then you're going to enter, then you're going to spend five minutes [00:53:00] interviewing the creator of this film.
And the movie was called Dick. And that's all I saw. The, you know, they, they put it up on, on the, uh, on video Dick. And then it was just shot after shot, after shot of penises. That was it for five minutes. Just shot after shot, after shot, after shot, after shot, and then it's okay. Now talk to the filmmaker.
Oh, wow. And I don't remember what the hell I said, I don't remember, I got the job, but I have no idea because it was just so kind of taken aback. I was not expecting, I was not expecting this, but just that, that was the first film called Dick I'd ever, I ever saw. There you go. I don't think the film went anywhere.
I haven't seen anywhere since I don't, I don't think that they, it opened over the Christmas holiday season. Uh, yeah, I could be completely,
Carlos Alazraqui: so
Host Brian Copeland: they are saying that, that there's the, there are several people who were saying Democratic and Republican that, that if Trump wins, this could be the last election.
Again, I'll go back to the word hyperbolic, [00:54:00] hyperbolic is, is this, is this really an existential crisis? In your opinion, or is this overblown? Is, is this, is this chicken little
Justin Lockwood: guys? But it's an existential crisis, but I always, uh, I I'm sure there, there might not be agreement with me here on the, on the panel, but I, I continue to push back on our focus on Trump as a figurehead, whether Trump wins or not.
Everyone that voted for him remains, we are focused. Way too much on the symptoms and not enough on the root cause. Um, and we don't address it as Democrats either. We have a complete moral failing when it comes to our obsession with this buffoon. And instead. Um, spend none of our energy, our time, our intellect, our compassion on addressing everyone else [00:55:00] who is so angry and so disillusioned and so upset that they're willing to elect a person like this.
And until we. Stop focusing on this man and start focusing on the real issue. This is just going to come up again. This isn't going anywhere. But
Carlos Alazraqui: here's where, this is where I jump in and I always jump in on Stephanie Miller. This, we're at the point of the movie of the Night of the Living Dead, where the zombies are breaking into the house.
And so to address the cause, we don't have time for that. We got to board up the windows and kill the zombies. That's what we got to do. So it's a pragmatic choice. It's a binary system. What we want, what we dream about is not going to happen. It never will. All these other things give us the illusion of agency.
We don't have agency. All we can do is vote. And I'm sorry to say that that's reality. I'm going to be Gary Marshall and defending your life or living a loss in America with a casino. We don't give back the money. There is no Santa Claus. So while this seems wonderful that we could address the cause, we can't do that in 2024.
It's all hands on deck for Biden to [00:56:00] stop what is ultimately more evil. Then we'll go from there because we do need to stop Trump because he's demonstrated what he's been able to do without power outside of the White House. So yeah, I don't think it's hyperbolic. All hands on deck, vote for who you don't want to vote for.
But this, uh, idea, this notion that we're going to. Look at the cures of our country and solve it in 2024, not going to happen, not going to happen. We don't have agency. All these tours that these people do these, I, Brian knows me, the Jimmy doors, the Graham Elwoods that come to my tour and I'll change the, you're not going to change the world.
You're, you're the guys in the park with the beekeeper hit suits and the plastic swords saying, I'll teach you self defense. It doesn't work. It just gives you the illusion that you have power. I'm sorry, we don't have power. We have two choices. Trump, who's a fucking asshole and a dick and an evil, or Biden, who's not perfect.
It's pretty easy. Kill the zombies, we'll address the root cause of what caused the infection that made people sick later. But right [00:57:00] now, we gotta kill the zombies, or we're all dead. Does that sum it up? I mean,
Host Brian Copeland: that's I can't disagree with you. I mean, that's, that's the way that I look at it as well. I
Carlos Alazraqui: feel sorry for young people who think they can make a difference.
Yay, yay, yay. And we're like, I got kids, I got fucking bills. You're not there yet, man, you will be there. We are the old guys on the lawn, but I'm fucking telling you the truth. We got to kill the fucking zombies. I
Justin Lockwood: don't agree, but I appreciate your succinctness.
Carlos Alazraqui: I don't know. This is what I see that. But that seems flippant.
What don't you agree
Justin Lockwood: on? It's not flippant. It's it's genuine.
Carlos Alazraqui: But what do you do? Do you disagree that we should not vote for Biden?
Justin Lockwood: Oh, um, I mean, this is again, it's going to get one of the things I haven't voted for the Democratic Party in 20 years. So you're
Carlos Alazraqui: essentially then you're not in a state where it does happen, but that's a vote for Trump.
That's a factual number. This is people when I blame the Democrats who didn't vote for for Al Gore. And I also blame the [00:58:00] third party. People that voted for Ralph Nader, you enabled Bush, which enabled Citizens United, which enabled worst Supreme Court, third party voting or protesting voting. There's no evidence to suggest that it has moved the needle anywhere.
Politically 20 year, 23 years ago, we've given it 23 years to move the needle. It hasn't. It's made it. Worse again, you're young. I get it. There's this notion that there's ideology when you can change the world. Reality doesn't work that way. Money's against you. I'm sorry. I, and people, cause people will attack me.
You're to me, there's no greater white privilege than to pretend that your vote doesn't have a consequence. And if you vote third party in states, electorally where the electoral college is going to decide it, that's a vote for Trump. That's a fact. It's standing up in a lifeboat to say there's a better.
You're going to tip the whole lifeboat over based on principles that you're never going to get to get to. It's a toehold [00:59:00] on a mountain climb that you can't reach. You're going to reach for it. We're all going to slip and fall, and it sounds like doomsday. But again, is there any evidence to suggest that voting for Ralph Nader in 22, 000 helped this country go farther left?
There's none. It made it worse. It made it worse. That's just what we're screaming and trying to say. I, I get it. Political tours and Jimmy Doors and they're all sexy. These, these things are sexy and they sound great. I, I can change the world. It's like, you can't. Look, you said that in 2000. It's 2023 and it's gotten worse.
Host Brian Copeland: I'll show you something scary. I'll tell you something scary. My, my, my daughter is an editor for a, uh, for a news website that, uh, covers stories from the perspective of underrepresented communities, people of color, uh, LGBTQ community, uh, poor people, homeless people, incarcerated people. It covers the [01:00:00] news from their perspective.
And they talk to a lot of young people and a lot of Gen Z ers. There are a lot of Gen Z ers are represented. A lot of Gen Z ers write for this site. And what she says that they're hearing and hearing in large numbers now is because of the situation in Gaza, you have a lot of Gen Zers who are saying, screw Biden, it's not going to issue either.
I'm going to stay home. Or I'm going to vote for, you know, well, they're not going to vote for, for, for, for Kennedy, for Kennedy Jr, but basically they'll stay home or, or, or write somebody in
Carlos Alazraqui: because they're ignoring the fact that you have two choices again, they're pretending that they have a third choice because Trump was completely silent on illegal settlements.
Uh, change the capital of, uh, Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump was worse than Biden. You have two choices. Kids of America that are going to vote. You don't have a third choice. If you don't vote for Biden, you are helping Trump. [01:01:00] Somebody worse than Biden. I know you dream of a third choice, but again, It doesn't exist.
I'm sorry that it doesn't exist. I don't make the rules. I'm just telling you factually, you, you won't be doing anything by not voting for Biden, but helping Trump. That is, that is a direct, and again, there's no greater white privilege than, than to pretend that you're not doing that.
Host Brian Copeland: Okay. Now here's the thing.
Here's the thing. I, and I will, I will tell you this and maybe it's our age. But I, I agree with you, but saying what you're saying, don't you feel like you're peeing in the wind?
Carlos Alazraqui: I, I have, I have kids. I have kids. I'm gonna, I'm desperate. Yeah. I'm peeing a wind, but I got kids. You don't, you don't know what it's like.
You're not a parent. You don't, you don't love something greater than yourself.
Justin Lockwood: First of all, I am a parent. And I do have kids and I'm 45 years old and I appreciate your passion, but you're going on and on and putting words in my mouth and telling me what I'm doing isn't, it really [01:02:00] isn't, isn't, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not going to try to turn this into a drama thing.
Here's the question I'll ask you. Why
Carlos Alazraqui: wouldn't you vote for the best chance to defeat Donald Trump? That's my question. Why won't you vote for the best chance to defeat Donald Trump? And what's logical about that choice? Carlos,
Justin Lockwood: at the end of the day, I understand the quote unquote logic of what you're talking about.
It's not quote unquote,
Carlos Alazraqui: it is logic.
Justin Lockwood: If you want to do it through the prism of We are stuck as rats in a maze with only these two choices, but the fact is there are, we're not actually though there are other candidates and you can say that it's a throwaway vote. But the idea of voting your conscience isn't something for you to just piss on because it [01:03:00] doesn't create the outcome that you don't want.
Carlos Alazraqui: Voting your conscience, to me, is standing up in a lifeboat. Again, can you name me what has gotten better since voting your conscience for Ralph Nader in 2000? What
Justin Lockwood: has gotten better with your system?
Carlos Alazraqui: Uh Before Roe v. Wade collapsed, we had the ACA, Affordable Care Act, which took a hell of a lot of work. We had, for a time, a decent Supreme Court.
We had a student loan forgiveness, where
Justin Lockwood: it's tempting to get that. ACA has been nothing but a windfall for corporations that has kept us in a broken system and will continue to keep us in a broken system for decades to come. What candidate? And I'm not talking about the last election or this. I'm talking about the last four years.
40 years and our slow slide into our current state, but that has better and you're confused. It will, it will get better. It will get better.
Carlos Alazraqui: I'm not saying no, now you're putting words in my mouth. You're putting words in my mouth. I'm not saying
Justin Lockwood: it's going to [01:04:00] get better with the same energy that you're coming at.
Don't dish out what you can't take. I
Carlos Alazraqui: can take it. No, I didn't say it was going to get better. I never said that. I said, this is what we have. I said, I'm not pretending that it's going to get better again. There is no candidate that you can tell me that is going to change the behavior of MAGA and the right and Congress Cornel West Jill Stein.
Have they ever passed legislation? Can they win? Do they have the numbers to win the election? This is when I talk about logic, that's logic.
Justin Lockwood: They don't have the numbers to win those people. And Bernie Sanders didn't get elected because the DNC. Made it so that he couldn't get elected because they are, no.
I was just going to say like, when people like, um, uh, who's the, the, the crazy Democrat that's running now is like an independent JFK, like Kennedy talk about the DNC [01:05:00] being Having a conspiracy against him. It's because they are just like they had a conspiracy to elect Hillary Clinton instead of Bernie some odd years ago.
The DNC has made it unbearable. For people like me who actually believe in the idea of democracy and a vote for a vote to continue to vote for them. Well, they want to get rid of the electoral college. We are by moving the vote wherever it needs to be. I agree with you.
Carlos Alazraqui: But you did mention Bert. I agree with you that the system is corrupt, but
Host Brian Copeland: it is.
And if you look at that superdelegate thing, it
Justin Lockwood: won't even allow us to have the candidate that we want, but you continue to throw your weight behind them. That's fine. That's a choice that you can make, but I'm not going to give my money or time or energy to corruption. Why did,
Carlos Alazraqui: why did Bernie vote for Hillary and why did Bernie vote for Biden then?
Justin Lockwood: Because he's a politician at [01:06:00] the end of the day. Okay,
Carlos Alazraqui: so he's not the man that you said he was then. So why would you vote for him and say that
Justin Lockwood: it was a shame he lost if he's a politician? But he was the man that should have won.
Carlos Alazraqui: But he didn't and he voted for Hillary because he
Justin Lockwood: gets it. Because the DNC
Carlos Alazraqui: made sure.
But he voted for Hillary voluntarily. He voted for Biden voluntarily.
Justin Lockwood: You're skipping over the part that I'm talking about to go straight to the income. The outcome, as if the means completely don't matter. I am agreeing
Carlos Alazraqui: with you. But I am agreeing with you. Bernie got duped. He got tricked. You just don't care.
I do care. He won the nomination. I don't think he would have won in a general election. I don't think middle America, we have to get outside our bubble. It doesn't
Justin Lockwood: matter. Democracy, that's what democracy looks like, but
Carlos Alazraqui: this is what I'm telling you. You think you're going to change it. You're not. I'm sorry.
Justin Lockwood: You want to leave a world where you
Carlos Alazraqui: have agency, but you don't. I hate it. You're, you're looking at me like I'm, I'm [01:07:00] forcing reality on you, but, or that I love this reality. I hate that Bernie got cheated by the DNC. I hate that there's no open primaries on the democratic side. I hate it all. It sucks. I agree with you.
What I'm saying is given all that, we can't change that in one year. All we can do is try to stop somebody that's more evil than the DNC and more evil than Trump. And that's Biden. That's all I'm saying. Again, it's not the weapon of choice. I agree with everything you're saying. I agree with your principles because we both have kids and we want a better world where it's equality and everybody gets taken care of, but it's gotten worse for women under Trump.
It's gotten worse for minorities under Trump. It will get worse for minorities. If we
Justin Lockwood: don't, it got worse for women over under Obama. It's gotten worse for women, period,
Carlos Alazraqui: but there is no third party candidate that has the numbers that can win. A, and that can change Republican behavior. Let
Host Brian Copeland: me, let me give Ron a chance to [01:08:00] step in here for a second.
Carlos Alazraqui: I love this spirited debate. I agree with. Everything you say, it's a, it's a strategy that's all on principle. I agree. Okay.
Host Brian Copeland: Ron. Ron, have you ever voted for a third party candidate? Thank
Ronn Vigh: you. Um, I, I have not, and I have complained about third party candidates, uh, quite a bit. Uh, and it's just because there isn't, in my opinion, a viable, there hasn't ever been a viable third party candidate.
It sucks and don't, and I don't think, and I think the first time that I learned about third party candidates, I wasn't eligible to vote yet, which was like Ross Perot, right. Um. Uh, what was that? Ninety two. Ninety two. Maybe that's when I first started getting interested a little more in politics. Now I won't say this.
I mean, I did the whole thing where I'm going to create change. Like when I was in my mid twenties, I was vegan for four years. So I'm going to create change. And I'm like, well, this isn't realistic, you know, but I did have, I did have a thought recently and I didn't follow through with this because I just couldn't bring myself to do this.
And I don't know if this was a [01:09:00] valid thought or not. Maybe you guys can help me. You know, I am now registered to vote in the state of Nevada, not California. And this will be my first election in Nevada and Nevada is notoriously a gray state. California doesn't typically need my help. Nevada might. Right.
So I had the thought of registering Republican, which I couldn't bring myself to do, but registering for the purposes of the primary, so I could vote somebody other than Trump. Towards the nomination, right? And then when it came time to the general, it doesn't matter what my affiliation is, I can still vote for Biden.
That was my thought and trying to do like a small, tiny part to like keep Trump away and, and, and, and off the ballot, the general, now, a lot of it. I also have this thought saying, Oh, you think that that's actually going to work? No, I actually don't think it's going to work, but yeah, it's the little tiny thing that I can do.
Um, I will always support. If we went [01:10:00] back pretty much before I was eligible to vote, like, let's go back to the eighties and the nineties, uh, cause I think I was eligible to vote in 97. Um, I would look at Republican and other candidates, um, didn't Democrat, but they're not the same anymore. They are not the same anymore.
These two choices and like, we've all been saying, it's dumb that we have only these two choices, but I'm going to go with whoever that. Whatever that blue choice is, uh, at these points. And if we are just doing apples and oranges with Trump and Biden, well, they're definitely going to go to Biden. I don't even know how people can argue that Trump did more in his four years than what Biden has and what the left has done.
Um, but yeah, but that was my thought as far as being a new voter in Nevada is. Should I register a Republican, and I think it's too late now, but for the primary, so that I could vote somebody other than Trump, I couldn't bring myself to do that. Who knows? I [01:11:00] don't want to be famous in 20 years, possibly, and having people do a deep dive and like, hey, I'm a
Host Brian Copeland: Republican.
I'm
Ronn Vigh: like, no! I didn't have to explain that. But, but that was my thought, and if you see that story, I can
Host Brian Copeland: help that is funny. You mentioned being famous. It's one of the years that people come back. I need to be a Republican. Did you see that story that Kelsey Grammer was on the BBC day before yesterday?
And, you know, he's, he's Fraser's back at a reboot. Uh, Paramount plus and, uh, Kelsey Grammer is an interesting guy in that he, he had some serious drug issues, both on, on the sets of, uh, cheers. They had the, the cast had to have an intervention with him and the same thing years later when he was doing Frazier, they had to do it again.
He had some serious drug issues and then he became right wing. Um, I interviewed him once and he was a couple of election cycles ago and he was supporting Michelle Bachmann. Remember her crazy ass
Carlos Alazraqui: either. He was born again or the, or both.
Host Brian Copeland: I think right wing, I don't think born again, [01:12:00] right wing. And, uh, and so, so he was, he was given an interview, the BBC and said he supported shrug and, uh, paramount pluses PR people came in and shut the interview down immediately.
I mean, just ime, because they say he was ready to go on and explain why he was supporting Trump and why we needed to support Trump. And they just, you know. Yeah. Save, they just, they, they put the on show, save the show. They, they put the clines on it. Yeah. But it's, I, I, I understand and I get where you guys are both coming from, and it's, and it's been a fascinating spirit to debate and I appreciate it.
Thank you. And I see where you, where you're I do seriously. I, I know nothing. You're laughing, but it's true. It, it, it, it, it, I, I think it made for, it made for an interesting viewing. Um, but I see where you're both coming from, you know, Justin, I, you don't want to just fall in line for the sake of falling in line and what you're saying, Carlos.
And I will say, I, I tend to agree with Carlos that Bernie
Carlos Alazraqui: is going to vote for Biden that everybody loved. Bernie Sanders, who got cheated. He got
Host Brian Copeland: cheated. Oh, that whole superdelegate thing was [01:13:00] crap. He got
Carlos Alazraqui: railroaded. But in
Justin Lockwood: the end. Getting cheated now. Again, Biden should not just be handed the nomination.
I agree. There's a process. I agree. This whole thing is corrupt.
Carlos Alazraqui: I agree. Who could
Host Brian Copeland: win right now? Do you think that you think Gavin Newsom could win?
Carlos Alazraqui: He's pretty polarizing, but I don't think he could win. Yeah, Justin, I'm 100 percent agree with
Justin Lockwood: you. Do I think you could win? Do I think Gavin Newsom could win?
I actually do think Gavin Newsom could win. I think he's very good at it. He has that kind of dick energy that we just kind of respond to. Yeah. It's true. I mean, Bill Clinton's an asshole. Trump's an asshole. We love
Carlos Alazraqui: assholes.
Justin Lockwood: Liberals like to pretend that we want some sort of peacenik in there. We don't.
We don't. We do not at all. We don't. I wish. We want that swinging dick energy. We've always loved it. I wish there was a candidate that could win. The piece that I will come back to, and again, Carlos, I know we're not going to find, we're not, we're not going to find common ground on this. Um, but. We did find
Carlos Alazraqui: common [01:14:00] ground in the cause.
Justin Lockwood: But. But. All, all respect to you. And I don't say that in a flippant way. I, I understand where you're coming from. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm not, and you too being a parent, but. This same energy, this, we've got to do this because this is the outcome, because this will be the outcome, because this will be the outcome, is the same kind of argument I've heard my entire life from the right.
No, from the right of we can't outlaw this gun. It means that we'll have to outlaw all guns. We can't, we can't allow this drug to be legal. It means all drugs will be slippery slope and they make, it's the slippery slope, but it's also the, if we can't have a perfect outcome, we will have no outcome. If we can't get everything that we want, then we will have none of it.
And it's that same kind of energy and argument that you're making of it. Hey, if you vote for a third party, [01:15:00] which is there, it's part of the system. That is a legitimate thing for you to go and do. But if you do it, it will create this outcome. And because it creates this outcome, it has no value. I reject that argument wholeheartedly.
Carlos Alazraqui: Well, I'm not saying dogmatically. I'm saying numerically, scientifically, and mathematically. A vote that is not for Biden, in the general, in states that are close, will in fact numerically jump over to Trump's side and help Trump the greater evil. That's math. That's science. That's not dogma. It has a value because you stand on your principles.
I can't discount that, but the effect of it, mathematically, did you since Ralph Nader? How has the country gotten since voting for Ralph Nader? Did the Supreme Court get better or worse? Did Citizens United happen after or before voting for Ralph Nader?
Justin Lockwood: Again, that's kind of the argument of if we can't have the outcome that we want, then there's no value in what you're doing.
And I [01:16:00] reject that idea because that robs us of all of our choice. But the saying goes,
Carlos Alazraqui: I use the same argument. You're saying that if I can't have the perfect third party candidate that I, that I don't want, then I will view pragmatism as complicity. And there's two separate things. Pragmatism is, you know, making, we do that as parents.
Your kids, we can't give everything we want
Justin Lockwood: to our kids. Yeah, but the difference is nobody's looking at you on this call, Carlos, and saying you're selling out the country by
Carlos Alazraqui: doing this. Believe me, I get attacked from Jimmy Dore, Graham, Elwood, people call me white privilege, too rich, not famous enough.
Okay, well, I think that's
Justin Lockwood: crap
Carlos Alazraqui: too. I, well, I also, I know that it's crap, but I'm just telling you mathematically, that's all I'm saying, is mathematically, in states, there's what, five states that are gonna decide it? Yeah, yeah. If it's close. And the people who have a chance to vote for Biden to stop Trump, vote third party, that will help Trump.
That's math. [01:17:00] There are places
Host Brian Copeland: where a third party candidate taking two or three percent will make a difference. That's math.
Justin Lockwood: I, I, I hear you, Carlos. And I, I guess I forget who said it, but like the worst words in the English language are you're technically
Carlos Alazraqui: correct. Yeah. Well, no, in terms of, in terms of math, in terms of Gore losing by 500 votes and, and Ralph Nader having the choice to go, you know what?
I have no shot. Bush is an evil piece of shit. I don't love Gore. You should vote for Gore. That's kind of what I would have done as a candidate. I would have said, you guys, I got no shot. I'm not going to stay in this race because I hate Al Gore. The system is evil, but fucking Bush. We don't want that guy.
So vote for Gore. Just do me. 500 of you. Do it. We'll, we'll, we'll regroup. We'll come back because voting third party in this election will get you further away from the goals that you want. It really
Host Brian Copeland: will. We're out. We're out of time. So I'm going to give Justin the last word.
Justin Lockwood: Go ahead, Justin. [01:18:00] There's, there's no, um, there's nothing more than needs to be said on on either side of this.
Instead, what I think would be most useful is Carlos has. Excellent set of points and you're incredibly well spoken and eloquent and passionate and I 100 percent hear where you're coming from. I don't agree with all of your points. I appreciate your voice being out there. I appreciate that. You and I can.
Get a little excited and raise our voices at each other and keep it relatively simple between comics. God knows it could have gone off the rails. So spectacularly easily. Really, there's no group of people that can go from loving each other to. To, uh, quicker than a group of comedians. Um, so thank you for doing that.
Thank you for having push, [01:19:00] uh, back and forth with me. Um, you and I want the same thing at the end of the day, which is a wonderful future for our children. My son just turned 13. It is a weird, scary, I know it's, we can talk about it. We could talk about him and, uh, for, for, for hours. But look, he's an amazing, wonderful young man.
Nobody wants a brighter future and a more positive outcome in the coming years in the coming election than myself, Carlos, people who are raising the next generation. We have slightly different ways of getting there. But at the end of the day, I'm much more interested in the fact that we both want good things.
Host Brian Copeland: And as for me, I'm going to move to Nevada and register Republican because I'm, I'm, I'm with Ron and I, I want to do my part. So that way there'll be two votes. There will be two votes for somebody who's not Trump for the Republican primary.
Carlos Alazraqui: Hey, baby, who knows? God gets involved. One guy goes down, we could all vote [01:20:00] for the same person.
You know what I'm saying? Let's go, God. Do your thing.
Host Brian Copeland: All right. Great. Now to the thigh slapping part. Where are you guys playing?
Carlos Alazraqui: Carlos? You know, I'm not, I'm not doing anything live anymore, but I have a new show on Nickelodeon we'll promote called Rock, Paper, Scissors with Tom Lennon and Ron Funches, uh, that comes out next year.
We can talk all about that. And every Wednesday morning on Stephanie Miller radio show, uh, three 40 fate. 348 on direct tv and or free speech. org. All right, you got a website, right? Yeah Oh, yeah, I got a website or you just follow me on the twitters and watch my arguments with the jimmy door guys
Host Brian Copeland: On the x's not the twitter on the x's whatever it's
Carlos Alazraqui: called ron
Ronn Vigh: Um, you know, my december and january is really slow.
So if anybody is watching this and they book things call me but uh, Well, I have a lot coming up after that I have a new comedy club in manteca called the deaf puppy comedy club and i'm going to be headlining it february 8th and attack So if you all want to take a, um, a trip 40 years east, uh, go to [01:21:00] Manteca.
40 years east. Headlining there, uh, T shirt. 8th to the 10th, yeah. I
Justin Lockwood: hope that's wonderful. That space looks really cool. That could be really neat. Really cool. I
Carlos Alazraqui: think
Ronn Vigh: he's going to be doing good things. His shows were always very good in Manteca. So I think the club and bringing together like, um, A good group of handcrafted comics who have like a lot of opinions the way we do will be good.
You know, for, for Mantica and uh, the space itself was supposed to be open and it hasn't opened yet. So he's been actually doing his shows in nearby venues in Mantica. Well, while it's getting going, but I think in February, it should be all ready to
Host Brian Copeland: go. So I should mention to people, I should mention to people, by the way, who are watching out of state, when Manteca is in the central Valley in California.
So if you're, if you're Northern California, that's where Manteca is located. Go on. You were saying, and if
Ronn Vigh: you're out of state, no reason to go there. Uh, but, but yeah, and then find me online. Ron, why. com R O N N V I G H. com. [01:22:00]
Host Brian Copeland: All right, Justin, where
Justin Lockwood: are you playing? Uh, let's see. Well, I want to start by saying that I did.
Um, last week, Don Reed has a new storytelling series that he's doing. Um, and, um, uh, up, up near like the
Host Brian Copeland: Redwoods, right? It's in the
Justin Lockwood: Redwoods. Yeah. Redwoods. I did it last week. Look, it was cold. We got about 20 people to like show up, but that space. He's like magical. So, um, I'm not sure when he's doing the next one, but just everyone kind of keep your ear to the ground for that one because he was on the
Host Brian Copeland: podcast last week and he talked about a
Justin Lockwood: beautiful full bar heaters everywhere.
They bring blankets you sit in the Redwoods. Wonderful storytellers. It was just a cool show and I want to see it continue. Um. My show coming up here in December is actually sold out. So there's no point in that one, but, um, in the new year, I'll be at three Steve's winery down south on January 5th. That's always a great [01:23:00] show.
Um, come see that. That's that's three, three Steve's winery. That's, um, that's near the, um, kind of like Livermore area. Okay. Again, there's no tickets available for that. And then I'll be at the bank head theater in Santa Rosa on January 17th. That's also going to be a great show. So come see me there.
Host Brian Copeland: All right.
So come and support all of the guests to this podcast. Um, I got a couple of things I want to mention.
Justin Lockwood: Uh, I'm doing it's going to be just Carlos and I yelling at each other for two hours.
Host Brian Copeland: You should have an onsite. I want to do a live version of this actually in front of an audience. I'll do it. Would you do it?
I would love to do a live version of headliners or, you know, just we'll keep it to four on me and three others. I'll moderate and, and do it in front of a live audience at a club somewhere. And
Carlos Alazraqui: we don't lack for
Justin Lockwood: passion. It's going to be all crowd work. Yeah. All right.
Host Brian Copeland: Terrible. I will arrange that. Uh, I just want to mention I, uh, it's, it's [01:24:00] Christmas time and I have a, I have a Christmas solo show that I do every year called the jewelry box, uh, which is a family friendly show.
It's true story about when I was six years old, I want to buy my mom a jewelry box for Christmas and all the things as a six year old, I had to do to earn the money. Uh, and I'm doing five performances of that, uh, here in the Bay Area over the course of the next couple of weeks. This Saturday, I am in Alameda at the All Terrena Playhouse.
Uh, next, uh, next Friday, I'm at the Marsh in Berkeley. Saturday and Sunday, I am in, uh, in San Leandro as part of the Best in San Francisco Solo Series. And then on the 23rd, I will be at the marsh in San Francisco. So, uh, for the information about those dates or anywhere else on play, I just go to briancopeland.
com also something I'm mentioning here for the first time. I don't know if you guys were on what I mentioned last time during the, uh, during the pandemic, I wrote a crime book. I wrote a, I wrote a crime fiction novel and, uh, and it's old. And it's coming out, uh, it's called outraged and it comes out, uh, on April 23rd.[01:25:00]
And right now, if you go on Amazon, pre sales are available. And two days ago, I signed a contract for the sequel, uh, sign out yet and they want a second one. So, uh, so I'm going to be, I'm going to be typing away for the next couple of months until I get a, get a copy, but, uh, Congratulations. All right. So right now, just, uh, you know, go in and, uh, uh, check it out, you know, go and go to, go to Amazon and, and pre order for me.
I'd appreciate it. All right. So, so Ron Carlos, Justin, again, a pleasure to have you always. Thanks so much for doing it. We're going to do this live. We will definitely do this live. Let's
Carlos Alazraqui: do a live.
Host Brian Copeland: All right. Uh, that's going to do it for this week. We'll check out next week. If you want to support the podcast, people always ask, how can we support it?
A couple of ways you can do it. One is by, uh, if you're listening to us, go to whatever platform you were listening on, give us a five star review that helps people to find us. Tell anybody, you know, any way that you possibly can about the podcast. If you're watching us over YouTube, please subscribe. Once we get a thousand subscribers, we can do this [01:26:00] live.
We don't have to record it and drop it the next day. We can do it live. So please subscribe and get your friends to subscribe until next week. Be kind to your neighbor.