The Wildest Jail Story You’ll Ever Hear – Che Durena Tells All | DSH #1230

Security guard sees me and he calls the police because he's like, This guy's like scaling the walls.

I get to the floor, the cops are there.

Um, but what had happened when I left and I was like on the balcony,

I took off my condom, which I was wearing, and I didn't want to just throw it on the balcony, so I shoved it in my pocket.

So when I get to the ground floor, the cops come and they're asking me all these questions.

They're like, Where were you?

And I was like, I was in there.

They're like, What room?

And I'm like, I don't know.

I'm like, still pretty drunk from the night before.

They're like,

They're like, like, where are your shoes?

I'm like, they're in the room.

Like, I had flip-flops on or I left my flip-flops in the room.

And then they're like, okay, we got to search you.

And then the guy searches me and pulls the used condom out of my pocket, dude.

Yeah.

And I remember the guy pulling him out and being like,

and then all the other cops dying laughing.

And then, yeah, then they took me to jail.

All right, guys, we got Che here, my man.

Best afro I've ever seen.

Thank you, dude.

Yeah, I've been rocking this for a long time.

For real.

How much work goes into that?

Not a lot.

It's honestly the easiest of all the hairstyles I've had.

I had cornrows when I was younger.

I had a mohawk when I was younger.

I had dreads for a long time.

Afro is the easiest.

How tough was the mohawk?

The mohawk was kind of a pain just because of my hair texture.

To make it really good, it took a lot of work.

I would literally like, obviously you have to like keep the sides maintained, but then I would

like

blow dry it, then I would put like a hard gel in it, then I would comb the hard gel out, and then I would wax it.

But it was like a Spartan helmet.

Like it had like, it was like feathered almost.

Yeah, it looked sick, but I was like, I don't know, I was like 17 or something like that.

Which hairstyle had the most success with the ladies?

Oh, probably just Afro, because I've had Afro the longest.

Afro has been the best for me.

It gives me, it distinguishes me a little bit more.

Like, I've always found like success with ladies, it's better to go niche.

Like, you, like, I don't know, I guess if you're like the most handsome dude ever, you can just be like a generically hot guy.

But if you, if you're, if I, I, I need to angle a little bit more.

So I'm like, if I get like a mustache, the afro, I have more of a specific look.

Say like 80% of women aren't really into it, but 20% are really into it.

And that's, you just want to work on your niche.

Smart, you're like a sniper with it.

Yeah, yeah.

Just play to your strengths.

I love it.

A lot of people try to attract everyone, but you're like, nah, screw that.

No, I've never been like that.

I've never been attracted to everyone either.

Right.

You're picky.

What's that?

Are you picky with the lady?

I'm not super picky.

I just like, I like,

I like chicks who are specific, who have like a look.

Like, I think my least thing I'm the least attracted to is like,

for lack of a better word, like a bimbo, like a Barbie.

Like if you see a girl.

blonde hair, like skinny, black dressed sorority girl style, that's never been my go-to.

I've never had success.

I don't think they like me either, to be be fair

I've never had success with them, but I've also never been like that's what I'm looking for.

Yeah, yeah, I like if like she's got like I don't know a bunch of tattoos or like a specific look.

She's got a look going.

Is she like an intellectual with a bit of a dark side?

I guess so.

Yeah.

Intellect.

I mean, any,

you can't, it's hard to be in a relationship with someone who doesn't have like some brains.

You want to be able to hang out and have a good time.

You're looking for like your best friend, right?

Like realistically.

But

a bit of a dark side.

She's got to have have a little grime on her she can't be completely squeaky clean there's no that just won't work for me like uh i'm i'm definitely got some mud on my hands for sure uh so i do need a little bit of grime yeah we were just talking about the grime you love the grimy cities man i do i love yeah we were talking about spoken washington which is a sleeper hit i mean i don't think it works for all comics but definitely for my brand of comedy spokane washington is i've been there i've done six shows there so far uh they they've all been incredible they've all been super fun.

Crowds awesome.

Like one dude at a show was like, he was like kind of floating around the merch table.

And I was like, hey, man, do you like want a picture or something?

Or you want some merch?

And he was like, yeah, I'd love a t-shirt.

And I was like, oh, yeah, what size?

And he was like, can I just give you a bag of weed for it?

I was like, yeah.

And he just pulls a bag of weed out of his pocket and hands it to me.

There was another one where this lady, I was crowded.

I would, every time I go to Spokane,

sometimes I'll like prep certain questions to ask the audience.

I always ask, has anyone here been to prison?

Because like the crowd lights up, dude, with people who've been to prison.

This one lady, she had like crazy neck tattoos and she was like, yeah, I've been to prison.

And I was like, oh, I bet you were like running.

You had like chicks, you were running chicks, you were topping them.

And she was like, no, no, I was a pillow princess.

Girls were banging me.

And I was like, for real?

She's like, yeah, they would give me snacks.

And I was like, and she goes, I'm almost like, oh, well, they would like use their hands and stuff.

And she's like, no, we would make dildos.

And I was like, out of what?

And she said, Jolly Ranchers.

Yeah, they would like craft them out of Jolly Ranchers.

People get very handy in prison, very creative.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right.

Shout out to today's sponsor, Specialized Recruiting Group.

Navigating the professional job search is hard.

You know, the perfect job is out there.

You're just not sure how to find it.

The good news is, you don't have to go at it alone.

You need specialized recruiting group.

Connect at srgpros.com, srgpros.com.

They're here to guide you and help you you find a role that fits all without costing a dime.

Meet specialized recruiting group offering a tailored approach to find your next role, go to srgpros.com, srgpros.com and get on the right course.

Your local specialized recruiting group team knows which businesses are hiring and can offer you a path to contract and full-time roles.

If you don't see the role you're looking for on the website, Specialized Recruiting Group also recruits for confidential roles, so give an office near you a call to learn more.

Take the next step in your career by starting at srgpros.com, SRGPros.com.

That doesn't sound pleasant.

I mean, I don't, jail isn't present

pleasant.

So, like, yeah.

So, have you been?

No, I have.

Actually, no, I was in jail once for like a day.

Uh, I got arrested for being wasted in Mexico.

Whoa, yeah, that's scary.

Mexican prison.

I was living out there, so it wasn't too spooky.

They kind of wanted a bribe.

Oh, my my God, this was so like what happened was I was hooking up with this girl, and

she was there with like a university program that basically sent people to Mexico to study in Mexico.

And I was hooking up with her, but you weren't supposed to have guests in your room.

So her roommates got home and she's like, you have to like sneak out through the window.

So I snug out through the window.

I'm like on a balcony and I start like climbing down balconies to get down to the ground floor.

Security guard sees me and he calls the police.

But he's like, this guy's like scaling the walls i get to the floor the cops are there um but what had happened when i left and i was like on the the balcony I took off my condom, which I was wearing, and I didn't want to just throw it on the balcony, so I shoved it in my pocket.

So when I get to the ground floor, the cops come and they're asking me all these questions.

They're like, where were you?

And I was like, I was in there.

They're like, what room?

And I'm like, I don't know.

I'm like still pretty drunk from the night before.

They're like,

they're like, where are your shoes?

I'm like, they're in the room.

Like, I had flip-flops on, or I left my flip-flops in the room.

And then they're like, okay, we got to search you.

And then the guy searches me and pulls the used condom out of my pocket, dude.

Yeah.

And I remember the guy pulling him out and being like,

and then all the other cops dying, laughing.

And then, yeah, then they took me to jail.

And they just like, I had to like call a friend.

And then my friend came and picked me up.

And then they lied about what I did.

They said I was like banging on all the doors and trying to break into places, but they weren't even there to see it.

Sounds like Mexico.

Yeah, they wanted a bribe, and I had no cash on me.

It was basically broke at the time, yeah.

Well, I just, I, I,

yeah, I was kind of broke, yeah.

I was like living like paycheck to paycheck at that point in my life for sure.

That was pre-comedy career, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh, I think maybe I had just started comedy because I started comedy in Mexico.

Wow, my first like year, year and a half of comedy was in Mexico.

So, I, my, I'm the way I kind of got into it, like early on, like grade four, I did public speaking and I did a speech about my family and it was funny.

And so I kind of got a taste of, for something like that.

Never touched anything like that again.

Then in high school, public speaking came back in English class.

And I was like, oh, I remember in grade four, I made a speech and it was funny.

I should like try and do that again.

And I had success with it.

I did really good.

And then.

What ended up happening was

I didn't touch it ever again.

And then, or not, not for a little while.

Then my brother started doing doing stand-up.

And this is when I was living in Mexico.

And that kind of opened the door for me because prior to that, I had was like consuming stand-up like crazy, watching stand-up all the time.

I was, I loved it.

It was like one of my favorite forms of entertainment.

But I thought you had to be famous in order to do stand-up.

And so when my brother was like, oh, I'm doing stand-up, I was like, what do you mean you're doing stand-up?

Like, I thought it was like, you're famous, so people come see you, and it was a byproduct of fame, where it's the other way around.

And he was like, I'm just going to open mics.

And I was like, there's like open open mics for comedy.

What is this?

And so I just started writing jokes with the intention of sending him these jokes.

And then I wrote enough jokes to be like, well, if I wrote enough, I can probably just do it myself.

And then I found an open mic in Mexico in Play-Doh Carmen.

It was like five dudes.

It was like four Canadians and one American that ran this show.

And I called and was like, hey, can I do the show?

And they were like, yeah.

And I came and I did whatever seven minutes and it went went well enough and I was like oh I think if I I could keep doing this that maybe I could be good at it and I just started like really focusing on that it felt like the first time I ever had like a purpose and a goal and something to like uh dedicate myself to that's cool yeah Mexico so did you have to do it in Spanish no we did in English it was all for tourists sometimes the tourists spoke English sometimes they didn't got it uh but uh that was uh yeah that was that was the start and I did that for about yeah a year year and a half and then I moved to Toronto and when I moved to Toronto so I was working as a scuba diving instructor in Mexico.

Then I started bartending and diving at the same time.

Then I was making like okay money.

I had like I kind of had cash to throw around a little bit.

Then I stopped doing both of those, started working at a call center, and that was like more scraping by kind of thing.

Like I wasn't hurting, but I wasn't making a lot of money.

Call center got shut down.

They didn't renew my visa.

So then I was like working illegally in Mexico, selling tours on the street.

And then I was really broke.

I had like no cash.

Well,

then I tried to renew my visa.

They didn't want to, um, uh, through like the

system that you go to renew it, they didn't want to renew my visa.

And then, um,

I got like a letter of like deportation.

Like, they were basically like, you have 20 days to get out of the country

or we're going to deport you.

Yeah.

Um, and so I was like, Okay, I want to do this stand-up thing.

I'm really dedicated to this.

I was like, I have no cash.

Uh, and there was this guy who I worked with at the call centers, this guy, Dave.

Dave, I will remember forever.

He was this older dude.

He made a bunch of money selling timeshares.

He kind of had some demons, like he drank a little bit too much.

He had like a drinking problem that he got over and stuff.

But he was a very like wise person.

He was like the closest thing I ever had to like a mentor.

Like we would stay late at the call center and like shoot the shit.

And he introd me to like health in a way that I hadn't never experienced before.

Like, do you know, have you ever heard of Rob Wolf?

Rob Wolf.

He's like an early health guru guy who is big on like micronutrients, like spirulina and shit.

That was the first time I'd like ever heard of of spirulina um fucking uh Dave are we allowed to swear yeah oh sorry okay cool um Dave introdu me to like coconut oil he's like yeah I put coconut oil in my hair and it took my gray hair away and I was like so then I started eating like maca root and you could get a cacao like fresh cacao by the kilo in Mexico for like nothing you could buy two kilos for like five bucks um

And so I started putting that in smoothies and stuff.

And then I got really into health.

And then when this like

the comedy thing started coming in, I would stay stay late and watch comedy on the computers at the call center.

And I remember one day me and Dave were just like shooting it.

And

he was like, oh, you want to do this comedy thing?

You should go chase it.

And I was like, yeah, you know, I think I'll go.

I'll go to Toronto.

I'll move to Toronto and I'll try it for like three years.

And if it works out, it works out.

If it doesn't, it doesn't.

And then he went home and he watched comedy, a bunch of comedy.

And then he, and then the next day we were the same thing.

We're shooting the shit.

And uh he was like yeah I remember you saying you were gonna go for a few years he's like that's not gonna work he's like these people either are or are not comedians and I didn't understand that at the time but I get that now like it's like being a comic is like your perspective on the world and how you communicate with people hanging out with the comics is a different experience how you open yourself up to people and your willingness to be raw like and exposed it's like it's a whole, I think anyone who like dedicates their life to something will understand.

Like, if you're a fitness person, it's how you eat and how you sleep, and you're thinking about it all the time, and your decision-making all changes because of this thing you are passionate about.

And comedy is the same way.

He saw it right away.

I didn't understand this.

But after the call center got shut down, we were both looking for jobs.

So we were both working the tour thing.

And we used to have a coffee before we would go to the tour thing.

And this was when, like, I got the letter of deportation.

I was like, kind of, I had no time to get out of the country.

And he was like, you should just go.

Like, if I was you, I would sell everything I owned and just go.

And I was like, I don't own anything.

Like, I have a blender.

Like, what am I going to sell, dude?

And I was, and then I remember walking home from work.

It was, or was it late at night?

I remember it being nighttime.

So it must have been late at night.

Maybe I was walking to get food.

And it like clicked in my head.

I was like, oh, I have all this scuba diving gear still.

I'm going to sell all my scuba gear.

And so I just sold all my scuba diving gear and I remember looking up the sky and saying thank you.

Like I was like, I have the answer to how I'm gonna chase this dream.

And so I sold all my scuba diving gear.

I got like 450 bucks.

I got totally ripped off, but I didn't give a shit.

And then I

bought a plane ticket to Toronto.

I knew no one in Toronto, but I knew Toronto had the biggest comedy scene in Canada.

And I could have gone back home to Vancouver and like stayed with my dad and like, but I knew it.

I knew that I was too lazy and that if I went home, I would have just just like it would have taken me forever to do it and I just had to jump into it.

So I flew to Toronto, knew no one.

By the time I got to downtown Toronto, I had like 25 bucks.

Damn.

And I went to a Starbucks.

I took out my laptop and I googled Toronto homeless shelters.

And then I found a youth shelter close by.

And I went there and they were like, oh, we

don't have any beds left.

And so they're like, we can feed you, but we got to like, we'll give you like an address for a men's shelter.

And a men's shelter is like a much rougher environment like the youth shelter honestly like

it could have been the best situation possible it was basically a hotel like it's it's social services in Canada are really good that was one of the reasons why I wasn't afraid of just going and chasing it because I was like I'm I barely have any money in Mexico and I'm surviving I'm gonna be fine in Canada like I just knew it was gonna work out

and so I was sitting there eating and then one of the kids who was staying there showed up but he was drunk and they were like hey we have a zero tolerance policy on any substance use while you're here.

So they're like, he can't stay here tonight.

So you can get a bed.

And so then I was able to stay there.

And then I stayed there for like six months.

I never had to sleep on the streets or anything like that.

Like, I was technically homeless, but

I did

Bobby Kelly's podcast, and I told him that.

And he was like, you weren't fucking homeless.

Because Bobby was actually homeless, like sleeping on benches and shit.

There's levels to homelessness.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And so this was the best case scenario.

Like, you got fed, you got three meals every day.

You got a bed to your.

I was sharing a room and then I got a room to myself.

They like, there was laundry services and everything.

It was for like homeless youth to like get up on their feet.

Like, and some kids there had like, it really opened my eyes to how people end up homeless and on drugs and these different things.

Like some of these kids, they were like, yeah, I've been homeless since I was like 12.

Or like one girl was like, she was so smart.

I know she's doing well because I saw her working somewhere later, but she's so smart going to school, but her mom was super abusive.

And so she had just, she had to like run away.

Wow.

And so I was like, man, it really starts for a lot of these people super young before they ever have a chance to get up on their feet that things fall apart for them

and so I was so grateful for that place so I stayed there for about six months and then I went to this intermediate housing thing where there was like no curfew or anything like that and the whole time I was staying at the youth shelter,

I told them that like I was like, yeah, I just moved here from Mexico, blah, blah, blah, the whole story.

And I was like, I moved here to do comedy.

And they trusted me and let me stay out and break break curfew and go do open mics and then come back later.

And I never drank, I never, no substance use, nothing like that.

Uh, and then, yeah, stayed there for six months, stayed in the intermediate housing that had no curfew or anything like that, but it was a place you could stay and like have your own room and like buy your own stuff and like get a little bit more of like I'm living on my own kind of thing.

And then after that, I moved into my first like uh comic house.

There's like very,

this is a very common thing in different comedy scenes.

It'll be a house of like four or five comics all just living in like some shitty apartment, all sharing rent.

And so there was four of us in there.

And it was three comics and one musician.

And the rent was dirt cheap.

It was like 400 bucks a month, maybe 450.

Total or each?

Total.

Wow.

Or no, no, each, each.

Sorry, sorry.

Each.

Still cheap.

Yeah, cheap.

And this was down, and this is Canadian too.

So that's like

300

American.

And this was downtown Toronto.

It was like prime location Toronto, but it was a shithole.

It was owned by this dude.

His name was Armando.

Armando was this like Portuguese dude who was like half deaf, and he owned several properties in the area.

And he didn't give a shit about ever raising the rent.

He just wanted his rent money.

He made wine in his basement, and he just, he was like, just give me your money.

And I want to be left the fuck alone.

He just made some good investments when he was younger and just is living his life.

And so, yeah, I lived there for probably six months, then moved into another comic house, and then just I kind of bounced into different, like I lived in four different places living in Toronto.

I lived in Toronto for about eight and I think eight years, maybe eight and change.

And then

in that, like in the last few years, like when COVID hit, I started doing all the social media content because like I couldn't, you couldn't do stand-up.

Toronto had the strictest lockdowns in like all of North America.

Damn.

Like our lockdown was like a year longer than in the States.

Holy crap.

And you couldn't like

You couldn't like sit in a restaurant and stuff.

Like the summer was a little bit better because of the patios, but the winter's freezing.

And so there was like barely any stand-up going on.

So I was like, the first few months felt very nice because I'm very much of a grinding comic.

The way I grow and my like work system has always been like do as many, get on stage as much as possible, try and write every day

and just be on that consistently.

Not everyone grows like that.

There's just different comics who have different workout patterns.

Some people only write on stage.

Some people, everyone has their own system.

The system that works for me is very like

the ones and twos.

Like I go on stage, I do my jokes.

I look over the stuff I did.

I write my jokes out.

And like, it's very structured.

It works for me.

And so

I had been doing

12 to 20 sets a week for,

I don't know how long was it.

Yes, for the up until that point probably like seven years holy crap and it's like two a day yeah yeah yeah so you would I mean a lot of that was open mics so you would go get your five minutes and then like the when you first go when I first got to the comedy scene it was like go to a show show up like two hours early wait out in the cold then sign up on the list and I just would bounce around to do that every single night over and over and over and over again I would take a night off like once every two weeks that was once every two weeks take a night off and you don't get paid for that right no fuck no no.

That's the grind.

Yeah, I didn't start getting paid in comedy.

Like, I would get like a 20 bucks on a show here or there, but I didn't start like living off of comedy until like year eight or nine.

Holy.

Yeah.

There is a 10-year rule in comedy, I've heard.

It can be.

Some people get really lucky.

Some people blow up way sooner.

Like Gerard Carmichael had his first special at like six years in.

Some people go and pop way earlier.

Most of the people who I idolize in comedy were like into their 40s before they really cemented themselves.

Like they were living off of comedy before, but before they were cemented themselves as who we understand them as now, they were like 20 years into their career.

So it is very much a grind, but same as like if you go to school to be a doctor or something.

I'm not saying it's as valuable, but it is, it's like go, it is going to school.

And so you have to do your time and you're not getting paid before.

But it was, it was a, it was a long road of that.

And because of COVID, I, yeah, it took like two months where I was was just like enjoying the time off I was like it was guilt-free I didn't I was like I can't do comedy and then after a little bit um

there was some cities around Toronto that were having comedy shows um but with like you had to be like behind plexiglass and tables could only have this many people and they all did like all the COVID rules

And there was one place we went to in Kingston, Ontario.

It was me and two of my buddies.

We're doing like a weekend there or two or three shows or something like that.

And my buddy was making TikToks.

And I never, I wasn't on TikTok.

I think I'd only been shitting on TikTok because I knew it came from musically.

And I was like, it's lame and cringy and blah, blah, blah.

And he was making TikToks and he wasn't getting crazy views, but he was getting like 3,000 views.

And I was like, damn, this show, that room that we were in sold out, would be 150 people.

I would have to do 20 sold-out shows for the same amount of people to see me that just saw him on this little TikTok.

And so I was like, all right, well, I should start doing this.

Even if I'm only getting 100 views, it's that's a show every time.

So at this point, I was working for this YouTube channel called Most Amazing Top 10.

And so I was actually working through all of COVID because

we could work off our computers and be a little bit more whatever, what was like separated or sectioned or whatever the term was.

And I had built up a little bit of following from working for this big YouTube channel, about 50k followers on Instagram.

And I was like, okay, I can kind of co-op this little bit of popularity into something else.

And a lot of the people that worked there were younger.

And I was like, tell me about TikTok.

What should I do?

How do I do this?

And one girl there was like, okay, you want to be doing mirror rants, stitches, and duets.

That's what you got to focus on.

That's like, because you just want to focus on your comedy.

And like, your strength is your joke telling.

So just that's your strength.

And so I just started hammering those out.

I would do six a day, six a day, six a day consistently.

And I would, I would probably spend like an hour, an hour and a half making content.

And then I would spend an hour, an hour and a half watching YouTube videos about how to be successful on the platform.

Wow.

And then just started grinding it, grinding it, grinding it, grinding it, grinding it, grinding it.

And then it just started blowing up and blowing up and blowing up.

And then I started really posting consistently in like December of...

2020.

And then by February of 2021, I had a manager reach out being like, I want to represent you.

Holy crap.

And at this point, I was like at about 900K followers.

And then

that my manager, who's incredible, shout out Rachel Helix.

She is absolutely goaded.

She

helped me get my visa, helped me get all the paperwork and everything so I could get my visa to come to the States.

She's a

Titan.

That's a great manager.

Oh, she's so good, dude.

So good.

I've never heard of a manager doing that.

Oh, my manager, my manager's locked in and fucking works her ass off.

Yeah, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now.

And helped me a ton.

And then that opened the door to me moving to the States, which was always the goal.

It was just how do you do it?

And now I finally had like the finances.

I was like making like a little more cash and stuff.

And then my first tour, I made like really nice money.

And then it was like, okay, this is like real now.

And I'm living in the States.

And then the, so it's been about two and a half years.

I've been living in New York and just grinding the New York comedy scene.

And then also shifting.

My presentation on social media as well.

Because when I started posting on social, I didn't have a backlog of stand-up clips.

So I was just making all those duets and mirror rants.

So a lot of people think I'm a TikToker who started doing stand-up, but it's way the other way around.

The only reason I ever started making TikToks was because

I'm doing stand-up.

I knew it would help the career.

So now I'm shifting all of my social to being like podcast, here's my podcast, here are my stand-up clips, and reducing the amount of like stitches and duets and stuff I do.

They're still in the mix,

but I don't want them to be as important.

And even if I have to take a hit on views and take a hit on the algo it'll take time to shift to teach people like this is the primary thing you should be paying attention to i have noticed you take a step back on content yeah yeah for sure yeah did anyone other than dave from mexico believe in you those first few years um

everyone was super supportive like i've never had trouble with people like doubting me my fam like i was i've always been a very like uh lone wolf like i'm gonna kind of do whatever i'm gonna do so my family just supported because I think they knew that if they were like, hey, you shouldn't do this, I would have been like, okay, I don't give a fuck to talk to me.

Like I would have just, I'm gonna go do whatever I want to do.

Like I literally flew to a city I'd never been to before and risked living on the streets to do what I wanted to do.

So I think everyone was very supportive.

Everyone was, which is great.

And I've always had a very positive outlook on life.

Even if stuff gets shitty, there's someone whose life is much shittier than mine.

And I think it's hard to hold on to that, especially as you grow.

Like you've grown a big platform and you know how the baseline changes, which is good.

You want to keep trying to achieve bigger and better, but you also need to sometimes step back and have gratitude for like,

if I look back three years from now and sometimes like if I have a weekend that didn't sell as much as I wanted, I go like, oh, and I go, man, three years ago, I would have fucking killed to sell this many tickets, dude.

Yeah.

Yeah, when I have an episode flop, I'm like, like wait a second three years ago two years ago i would have been like damn 10 000 views you know exactly exactly dude so it's like that stuff i try to be really grateful for and understanding that it's like it's up and down entertainment goes like this constantly yeah yeah sometimes i'm so hard on myself dude it's nice it's it's i think it is a good it's good but you have to have the balance you can't let it consume you to the point where it's negatively impacting you where you feel down on yourself for like days or weeks at a time but you do need that like little bit of doubt to double check everything to dot your i's and cross your t's to make sure that the product is as tight as it is right like i just recorded my uh special

and after the first night we really got incredible footage and i was like yeah you know well i was talking to the crew and i was like okay we're gonna work on this and he and the guy running it was like I thought you'd be more excited.

Like, we just got two really good shows.

The bank recorded four shows.

And so, and I was like, yeah, no, I just want to get it perfect.

And the next night was even better than the first night.

But having that, I wasn't like broken about it.

But the next night I made sure that I double-rehearsed everything.

I did little things like I went to the sauna and went, did cardio to like focus my mind.

I love it.

Yeah.

And

those, like, if you were, if I was too lax, I wouldn't have done those things.

And then maybe there would have been a couple moments that were a little sloppier.

Like, there was a couple tags I made in the weekend that made the special a little tighter and a little nicer.

And I would have missed those if I didn't, if I didn't have that little bit of doubt.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think you really adapted well to social media, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because that really changed the comedy scene.

Yeah, for sure.

Like hugely.

Now comedian podcasts are like the biggest in the world.

Yeah, it is.

Like, that is like a big focus of mine now.

Dark Holes with Shader Rainer.

Check it out.

Yeah.

I've got my podcast now and I'm pushing that because I think it is one of the best.

For one, it is some, it's a product I truly believe in.

Like, I've made a ton of shit.

I've done sketches.

I've been in like commercials and movies and different things.

And you can tell when something is like, this is fine.

And when this is like really good.

And my podcast, I'm like, this is a really good product.

I will put in the time and the love to grow this.

And I know it's a labor of love and it takes a lot of time to build the audience for something like this, but it will be.

Great.

And it already is.

The product's already so good.

But part of the motivation for that is the conversion for

like comedy fan to ticket buyer on a podcast is like one of the highest of any medium you can do as a comic.

Yeah, I see Theo Von selling out every show.

Oh, yeah, dude.

Theo Von, Theovon, I won't say who told me this, but someone who's a big comic told me like he does theaters, and they're like, he could be a stadium guy if he wanted.

He just chooses not to be.

Wow,

that's respect.

At the same time, you're turning down a lot of money, so I don't know how I feel about it.

I mean, some people just like the different level of intimacy with their shows it's stadiums a way different vibe i got to open for a stadium comic and it's very different it's cool as hell dude it's sick but it's it is a very different vibe uh and you really need to be a very certain kind of act to perform in front of a stadium.

It's a different, you're doing a different thing.

That's a good point, though, because perfect example.

Kendrick Lamar yesterday, he's getting a lot of hate for that performance.

I wonder if it's because it was too big of an audience.

I thought it was good.

Oh, you you thought it was good?

I thought I can't.

I watched.

After I watched it, I was like, I think we get so inundated with like the online opinion so quickly.

And so I tried to consume, I was happy I watched it because I tried to consume stuff before you get that outside opinion.

But I thought it was the critiques, I think, are accurate.

Like they're like, oh, it wasn't like, you know, Lady Gaga coming down from the ceiling or like people doing a bunch of crazy stuff.

He kept it simple, but it was like kind of creepy and it reminded me of like a Jordan Peele movie.

Like there was this horror,

like uncomfortableness to it.

And people were like, oh, none of these, he wasn't playing any songs that people know because he's not as like mainstream.

I was like, so many of these songs are like famous TikTok sounds.

And that's how I was recognizing them.

And I was like, oh, I know that.

Maybe I don't know the name, but I know this one.

I'm not a big music guy at all.

I know music's probably the area of media I know the least about.

But I thought the performance was good.

I thought it had its own personality.

I thought it was raw.

I thought, yeah, and I thought it was like creepy in a cool way.

Like I liked how it felt a little unsettling.

And it was supposed to be, because it was taking a shot at someone, it was like a diss.

It was the final pin in the whole diss saga.

Yeah.

I thought the expectations were too high just because it's a Super Bowl halftime show.

Yeah.

And people do some crazy stuff during those.

People do do crazy stuff.

Like last year, 50 Cent came out, like, I don't know if you remember, his feet were on top of the ceiling and he was singing upside down.

Yeah.

People just wilding out.

Yeah.

And there's been way crazier ones.

But if you go back and you watch, I don't like, I'm not saying that Kendrick Lamar is on Prince's level, but if you go back and watch his Prince, now Prince had the hits to get people excited.

Kendrick Lamar doesn't have the same catalog,

but Prince did a very simple performance.

He came out with his guitar and he sung and there was like the his cymbal was like the stage and like it was it was a good it was a good performance without any sort of bells as many bells and whistles on it i do like the bells and whistles for the halftime show, but I thought it was good.

I thought it was good.

I'm going to say I thought it was good.

No, that's a good point, though.

You brought up the crowds.

It must be a little intimidating the larger the crowd is.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a different vibe.

You can't get as personal.

Yeah.

You can't do hecklers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that's kind of your vibe, though, the more intimate crowd, right?

Yeah, for sure.

I'm not on like, like, I've

sold out a couple theaters, but I'm not at the level where I'm doing theaters consistently.

I'm still a club comic doing weekends, which is fucking great.

I'm super happy about that.

But but yeah my shows are way more intimate than that i feel like that's the purest form of comedy shows it a lot of people do think that i think the i think theaters are still really really good if you're doing like a thousand seater which is that's the biggest i've done um

and that still feels incredible and very intimate and very nice um i don't know what it's like to do like 5 000 seats or something i've only done like a thousand seats or 12 000 seats

didn't schultz do MSG?

Yeah, yeah.

That's like, what, 80,000?

I have no clue.

It's something huge.

Him and who else is.

Was it Tony?

Kill Tony?

Kill Tony sold out two shows there, which were incredible.

I saw both Kill Tony shows,

and those were some of the maybe the greatest live shows I've ever seen.

Was that the Trump Biden one?

I saw both.

I saw when they did Trump Biden and I saw when they did, what was the other one?

The other one was Shane Gillis and Joe Rogan was on the panel.

And it was like, the first show was definitely that the Trump Biden was the second night.

The first show I thought was crazier because I didn't know what to expect.

But I felt for the comics that got pulled out of the bucket, dude.

There was, because normally Kill Tony, you have like your Kill Tony regulars, and then you have the panel, which is like famous comics.

It's like you're still stacked up against a lot.

But if you come up, that's your competition is going up against the regulars.

But there's also a bunch of other, like just regular people who've come up before you.

This show, what they did was they would have a Legends bucket, then the regulars bucket, and then just like regular Joe bucket.

So they open the show, they intro Shane Gillis, they intro Joe Rogan, Tony's on stage.

Then they go, okay, we're going to do something we've never done before.

We have this special bucket.

We're going to pull out Legends.

And it's like your first comic.

He's the first guy to ever sell out MSG.

An absolute killer, and influence to me everyone gave it up for andrew dice clay andrew dice clay opens the show then you have a regular come out who i think might have been um

i can't remember who i think it was jared nathan who actually we were in the same comedy scene for a long time yeah jared's canadian guy dude super it was great to see i was so happy for him to see him come out um

So then you have a crowd favorite come out.

And then you have some regular guy nobody knows.

I couldn't imagine a harder situation.

You have to follow a legendary comic, then someone everyone loves, and you're just fucking nobody.

One dude who did fucking kill it was Jason King.

Jason King is a comic from Queens,

and he came out, murdered his set.

And then after on the panel, they're asking him questions.

They're like, hey, so like, what do you do?

And he's like, oh, I'm like, I'm a musician.

I produce music.

They're like, oh, what can you play?

And he's like, I can play anything.

Give me the drums, the guitar.

He's like, you can play guitar?

And they're like, should he play guitar for us?

He goes to the band, takes the guitar, starts like ripping the guitar, and everyone's losing it.

It was literally like if you're watching a movie and they're like, hey, our guitarist isn't here.

Can you play guitar?

Like, it was nuts, dude.

It was like, it was the, I'm like, in front of a sold-out MSG, you're just fucking like, really, weird, weird.

Like, oh, dude, it was, I felt so like, I was like, I never met him before, but I saw that and was like, dude, you couldn't ask for anything better.

And you're like, this is, that's a story you tell for the rest of your life.

Yeah, just legendary.

You only have a minute, right?

On Kill Tony?

Yeah, you only have a minute.

Yeah.

That's hard.

Minutes are a hard amount of time to kill in for anyone.

Even like a very seasoned comic, it's very hard to kill in a minute.

Yeah, because you, you did seven minutes when you were on the come up, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like usually five to seven is like your normal time you're getting on sets.

Doing one minute is like, you need to be like super tight and very focused.

And you really need to think about how you have no time to, you got to get to your punchline so quick and you don't have time to like build into what's going to happen.

Uh, and yeah, like it's a muscle that no one's really ever working except for when you know you're going to do kill tone.

Have you been on there before kill tony?

No, I would be down to do it 100%.

Like, kill Tony is like basically late night right now.

It's like it's the equivalent of doing late night like 20 years ago.

Like doing late night now doesn't really do anything for your career.

But if you did late night in like the 80s, that could be like what?

Yeah.

So I would say Kill Tony is the version of that now.

It's the biggest thing you can do for your career as like a newer comic or even like anything below,

I would say like a theater comic.

Even like if you're a weekend guy, like I like I'm a weekend guy.

It would benefit me hugely.

So my buddy did it.

He's got millions of followers.

He's a great comic.

Andrew Packer, man news, like destroys it.

He did Kill Tony, murdered, and then he got instantly got 10,000 more views on his comedy special.

Like, it's it's it really can help your shit.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's the number one or two comedy podcasts in the world.

Yeah, yeah, it's huge.

Giovanni, yeah, and Schultz is also huge.

Yeah, you're right, though.

I used to watch the talk shows, I don't watch them anymore.

No one does anymore.

It feels inauthentic.

Yeah, and it was, it was a time.

It was like it was, everything has an era, and then things fade out.

People aren't watching cable television like they used to.

So it's just, it's moving on to a new medium, a new platform, a new system.

Yeah, I think podcasts are in right now.

It'll be interesting to see what's next after pods.

There's always something new.

There's always, as technology changes, the like AI will like undoubtedly open some doors for us to

have new platforms and people to experience things in new ways.

It's very hard to predict what these things will be, but who would have thought that like radio would make a comeback after television?

And maybe it will be an older form.

Maybe plays are back in after, who knows?

Plays are completely far away, but they're not as that big.

Hey, don't rely on musicals.

I just watched Hamilton the other day.

Oh, yeah.

Did you like it?

I liked it.

I've seen one musical I saw, Book of Mormon, because it's the South Park guy.

So I was like, I'll go check it out.

And I liked it, but I don't know if I'm...

Musicals aren't really my deal.

Yeah, you're not big on music.

Yeah.

Do you use AI to brainstorm any ideas for your sets?

No, not brainstorm ideas for sets.

I use it for a couple other things.

More like, I guess, logistical work.

But yeah, comedy-wise, it's not funny enough yet.

It's, it's, yeah, I don't think it's funny enough yet it's also restricted like if you go like hey write me 10 jokes about anal it just won't it's like I can't do that yeah so it's too restricted

so you can't you can't explore what you need to my writing style is I

I always start by

looking I have this folder on Instagram called the best and it's all like reels that have made me laugh I'll watch that for maybe five or ten minutes and I get into the point where I'm laughing out loud and I'll be like drinking coffee while I'm doing this.

Wow.

And then I put my phone on airplane mode and then I go and just start writing and I'll literally walk around my apartment and talk out loud and like

do the act outs and get into it.

Like I try to get into it as much as possible.

And so, and once I'm working on a bit and I, and I start making myself laugh from the bit, I go, okay, we're cooking.

We're cooking.

I like this.

I like this.

I love that.

Because part of what I really like about it is that I'm performing it.

Like I and enjoying performing a bit is my favorite part of the bit.

Like I want, sometimes you come up with something and I'm like, oh, I can't wait to say this on stage.

Like there's...

They do this thing on, have you ever heard of Good Ones?

No.

Good Ones is a comedy podcast where he brings on comics or comedy writers and they talk about one joke and they break down how the joke happened.

It's a very interesting comedy podcast.

And one thing he'll do is he's like, if you could have someone else's joke, like it's an alternate universe and you came up with this joke, which joke would it be?

And that for me, it's like it's not the structure of the joke, it's like the chance to perform it would be so good.

Like, there's this one comic in Toronto, his name's Monty Scott, and he has like one of my most favorite jokes ever.

And it's uh, he's like, who invented the two-man luge?

Like, what the fuck is that sport?

Was the top of a mountain on fire?

And they were like, There's one way down, and it's gay as fuck.

And I just, every time I hear that, I go, Oh, I wish I could do that joke.

He's like, It's just a man on a man on a louge.

Oh, but that's like, that is so when I'm riffing in my apartment and just talking, when I'm having performing it to no one, I'm like, oh, this is, we're good, we're good.

Write this down, write this down.

Yeah, that's so cool, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That must be a cool feeling to see it come to life, too.

Yeah.

You could think it's funny and then perform it and it flops.

Oh, 100%.

That's part of the reason why the stage time is so important.

Like, I think, I mean, I've never created music, but I'm pretty sure you get a good idea for if a song is good by yourself.

Right.

A joke, you never really know if it's gonna work until you take it on stage.

You have to take it on stage and you have to work it like again and again.

And sometimes like 30% of it works.

And then you're like, okay, what do I change here?

How do I take this out?

And there's been jokes where...

the whole like beginning and premise doesn't get a hit and then just the punchline hits and it's kind of like a long tail to get there.

And then I've taken the punchline out and put it into a different joke where the beats are better and the joke's funnier and so I've like completely scrapped the premise but I need the punchline and you can and it just all fits together there's all this it's like a puzzle yeah yeah it is very much like figuring out a puzzle and it's uh you're trying to get people to do something involuntary as well trying to get people to laugh right which is uh uh they it needs to be genuine it needs to come out of them which is fun about the that the expression is that it's hard for people to lie like if the crowd's not laughing, you're not doing well.

Like, if you look at a painting, people have their perception of if it's good.

And modern art, it is there's a lot of it that people say is just trash and a cash grab.

Um, but the comedy, it's very hard to fake it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Have you ever had to kick someone out of one of your shows?

They got a little too crazy.

Um, me, I've never like personally been like, get this person out of here, but there's been like the security takes care of it.

I went too much, yeah.

I, I, um, I've always sort of prefaced the security and stuff being like, hey,

you know, like my crowds can be a little bit rowdier.

So

everyone gets a warning.

Everyone gets like a, hey, you know, don't talk or we're going to have to kick you out.

But I've never had to be like, get this person the hell out of here.

And they're usually the security is like ninjas, man.

We were, I think it was

in Chicago.

I usually will do meet and greet before and after the show.

It gets people kind of excited when they see you before the show.

And there was this couple.

I was doing meet and greet.

I'm selling merch.

They just cut to the front of the line and they're loud and already very drunk.

And I was like, oh, they're going to be a problem.

And so the show starts.

They're sitting second row and they're yelling stuff out.

And I'm like, I tell them to shut the fuck up a couple times and then they die down and they pipe up a little bit and then they die down.

And then I just, I don't look at them because I'm like, if you interact with them, that's going to trigger them.

I wait about 10 minutes.

I'm like, oh, I haven't heard from them.

And then I look at their table and they're gone.

And I'm like, wow, the security came in and got them and I didn't even notice dude and they were second row and I'm like that's good they're taking care of business yeah they're probably used to it out that oh yeah yeah that's that's what they're trained to do that to get people in and out without disturbing the show yeah did you see Kanye deactivated his Twitter last night no I didn't see that but that's not surprising I think he's probably like he's building I'm not trying to justify what he's doing right now because I'm really like fuck man like I'm I like I said I don't know music I love Kanye's music I've i've listened some bangers dude he's got in every album so many bangers dude like um even like like people some people didn't like donda and stuff like donda has fucking bangers yeah man um but the stuff he's doing now i think he lives

like i saw that um clip yesterday of when he was uh at tmz and he said slavery was a choice yeah yeah yeah and the guy just like doing the monologue at him and i was like fuck yeah like he's like i live in the real world.

And I think Kanye lives in this other space where he can say the shit and he's like, oh, it's a joke.

It's building up press, whatever.

And who knows?

He's living amongst the ultra-rich and I don't know what's going on over there.

But there's definitely trickle-down effects that reverberate amongst people.

And these things can be dangerous when they're thrown out there.

And I think it's...

It sucks that he's doing that.

Yeah, a lot of people look up to him.

Yeah, and a lot of people might try to justify their bad behavior, bad, evil behavior because of this.

The good thing is, though, I think there was, I don't know if you saw this, it was in Ohio.

People put up like fucking Nazi flags over like a few ways.

It was horrifying.

Like I'm a person of color.

So when I see stuff like this, like I get legitimately worried because I'm like, if

it did, if that did get out of control and there was hate groups that grew immensely, I can't hide i'm in legitimate danger yeah

so one thing that made me feel good was this very small group of people but then everyone driving by sort of rallied together and tore all their shit down and i think if anything this stuff even for how sickening it is it will bring more people together because i do truly believe most people are good most people care about the each other most people just want regular shit most people just want to like be able to afford a house and have kids and

I don't know, live safe and live in a healthy community.

And people get upset and they get cut off in traffic and they say some shit.

But I truly believe very few people are actually bad, evil people.

Agreed.

And so when you see people like tear down something horrible like that, I'm like,

we're still all on the same side.

Yeah, that's a good sign.

That's why comedy is beautiful, though, because it brings people together.

I feel like

all sorts of people at your shows, I'd imagine, you you know?

Yeah, yeah, I do.

I get honestly, because my stuff is I'm intentionally non-political.

For one, I am very uneducated on politics.

So I don't want to be spouting politics because

I don't know what like.

You just came to the States.

Exactly.

Like,

ask me about video games.

I got it, dude.

But politics, I don't know.

And so I don't want people taking advice from me on anything like that.

And also, it's never been what I go to comedy for.

I don't go to comedy to learn about politics and stuff like that.

There are great political comedians and kudos to them, but it's just not my ballpark.

But because I talk about like relationships, sex,

interpersonal things, I'm very observational.

Because of that,

I attract all kinds.

So like there'll be people on my shows that are like the most bro-y backwards hats dudes who like drive a truck.

And then there'll be like

bisexual people with like septum piercings who like peg their boyfriend like it's i get the most wide spectrum like i remember i was in appleton wisconsin I was doing a weekend there and then I was doing a going right after to Madison to do a one-nighter and there was this dude after the show he's like oh where you're headed next I'm like oh I'm going to Madison and he was like oh it's real blue over there and I was like dude I don't care I talk about calm I was like dude cum is universal everyone loves it so I do think it helps like the for as much much as there can be discourse, or we're told that there's this insane amount of discourse, I really think people are much more like than you'd think.

Yeah, for sure.

We'll end it here because you mentioned video games.

What is the greatest video game of all time?

That's such a hard question.

The greatest video game of all time?

What have you spent the most hours on?

What?

Oh, me personally, what have I spent the most hours on?

I've probably spent the most hours on maybe Elden Ring.

I'm a huge fan of the Souls series.

I love the Souls series.

I think Bloodborne, either Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3, whichever came out first.

That was my first intro into them.

And I didn't really get them at first.

I didn't level my character correctly.

I didn't understand the mechanics well enough.

And I didn't enjoy them.

really deeply right away.

It wasn't until Sekiro.

I remember Sekiro was coming out and I had played Dark Souls 3 not too long before that and I was like, I kind of got the bug.

I want to get this game, and I don't know why.

And then

that was the first one I really loved, and the first one I beat.

And I was like, then I went back and played other ones.

And since then,

I've beat one.

I haven't beat two.

Two is so fucking hard, and it's a very different game.

Three, I haven't beat yet.

I'm at the last boss, but I'm trying to get as many of the trophies done before I finish it.

Bloodborne, I've beat a couple times.

I've Platinum Bloodborne.

Sekiro I've beat a few times.

I'm close to Platinum on that.

Elden Ring, I have beat a couple times.

Dark or Demon Souls, I've beat once.

And so I'm trying to get the platinum in as many of them as possible.

That series is where I've dedicated the most time.

But my sleeper hit for what I truly think is one of the greatest video games of all time is Def Jam Fight for New York.

What?

Dude, have you, have you ever played this game?

No, I've never even heard of it.

So Def Jam Fight for New York is basically they took a wrestling engine that is a very exaggerated.

Like one of the finishing moves, you use a guy as a skipping rope.

You like smack him on the ground and then throw them in the air and like tombstone him.

It's that engine, but they took wrestler rappers and every character is a rapper.

So like, and it's from the 2000s.

So like, it's like Sean Paul, Buster Rhymes, Snoop Dogg,

fuck, who else is in it?

Method Man, Red Man.

Eminem.

Eminem's not in it.

No.

But there's just, it's all rappers and they have the craziest finishers.

And so you start as like a street fighter and then like work your way up.

There's multiple different fighting styles.

Your trainer, who you go to the gym, who trains you how to like learn new moves is Henry Rollins.

Dude, the game is so outlandish and it's just at its core, so fun.

It's one where if you did a modern version, it would cost you a fortune because to license all these rappers, unless they were being really generous, it would be impossible but you would be so sick if you had this crazy wrestling game with like Drake and Kendrick and fucking Eminem and like 50 Cent and all these people

it would be so sick if they did a modern one but that is my sleeper hit for one of my personal favorite games of all time what system was that on it was on all the ones of the generation so it was like GameCube

PlayStation 2 and Xbox it was like across the that gen GameCube was one of my favorite systems GameCube ripped like yeah slapped yeah yeah what was your GameCube game?

What was the game?

Either Smash.

I was basic, probably Smash.

Smash is smashed.

Shash melee.

Yeah, yeah.

Smash is sick, dude.

I mean, Kirby.

You're Kirby main.

That's a little dirty.

That's a little scummy, dude.

Fly up, do the brick.

Yeah, you do.

I was cheesy with it, too.

Yeah, dude.

I would wait till two people were fighting and then you do it so you hit both of them.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, those are the days, man.

Yeah.

Well, man, where can people see your next shows?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, so when's this coming out?

Probably three weeks.

Three weeks?

Okay.

So three weeks from now, you can definitely catch me.

I'll be in California.

So you can catch me in San Jose and Brea.

And where am I right after that?

Oh, Salt Lake City.

Okay.

For any other dates, go to chaterena.com.

We're adding dates all the time right now.

I'm really busy on the road.

We've got a huge Canada run coming up that will probably be displayed by now, but I'm going all over Canada.

So you're going to be able to catch me everywhere, a bunch of cities I've never gone to before.

Find my podcast at Dark Holes with Chad Arena on all platforms.

And yeah, for tour dates, go to either chaterena.com or punchup.live/slash chadarena.

Boom.

Check out the links below.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Hey, thanks for having me, man.

See you guys.